Cid Brunet is a former stripper and emerging writer who spent a decade working in clubs across Canada under the name Michelle.  This Is My Real Name: A Stripper's Memoir is a candid, searing memoir of working 10 years in the sex trade, a personal guide of the strip club circuit by someone who knows it well.  Brunet’s crisp dialogue puts you in the dressing room, the VIP lounge, on the pole, or in the middle of a mental collapse.  It describes a subculture of humanity, at once a gladiators’ pit, a hypnotic and intimate sexual emporium, the set of the movie Norma Rae, or an episode of Cheers.  We spoke to Brunet from their home in Montreal. 

Talking UP is an interview show dedicated to writers, journalists and authors working on issues of social justice the nonprofit sector.

Shakil Choudhury, is an award-winning educator and consultant with more than 20 years of international experience in the field of diversity, equity, and inclusion. He’s worked with thousands of organizational leaders across sectors in Canada and the United States to, as he says, “help them improve their equity outcomes.” 

 His new book, Deep Diversity: A compassionate scientific approach to achieving racial justice has been called “a highly significant contribution to the struggle against racism in our society” and “a moving, powerful look at how to address issues of both ‘head’ and ‘heart’ in engaging in diversity conversations that promise real and lasting change.”

 We spoke to him from his home in Toronto.  

 Talking UP is an interview show dedicated to writers, journalists and authors working on issues of social justice the nonprofit sector.

A contemporary multi-media storyteller, Drew Hayden Taylor has written more than 30 books and screen plays, and scores of columns and essays. He’s a theatre performer and director, actively expanding the boundaries of Indigenous literature.  

His most recent novel Chasing Painted Horses was published in 2019 and named one of the year’s best books of fiction.  This year he has written the forward What Comes from the Spirit: Selected Work from Richard Wagamese and written the forward and an essay in the 4th in his edited collections of the Me series called Me Tomorrow.  And he's got  more up his sleeve.

Taylor’s writing is—as is the man himself—engaging, funny, and resonant. And he joins us today from his vacation in Cabo. 

Talking UP is an interview show dedicated to writers, journalists and authors working on issues of social justice the nonprofit sector. 

An anthology of stories written by Black fundraisers working in the United States and Canada  has laid bare the underlying racism in the philanthropic sector.  The editors and contributors of Collecting Courage: Joy Pain Freedom Love have been on the virtual book tour circuit talking about racism, community, and best the way forward. And today we’re stepping back from talking about the contents of the book to talk to the editors and contributors to about how the writing of the book has affected them personally.  Today we welcome:

• Birgit Smith Burton from Atlanta, Georgia
• Niambi Martin-John from Mississauga, Ontario
• Marva Wisdom from Guelph, Ontario
• Kishshana Palmer from Queens, New York
• Naimah Bilal from Cincinnati, Ohio
• Christal M. Cherry from Union City, Atlanta
• Nneka Allen from Abbottsford, BC
• Camila Pereira from Toronto, Ontario
• Nicole Salmon from Brampton, Ontario

Talking UP is an interview show dedicated to writers, journalists and authors working on issues of social justice, equity, and the nonprofit sector. Guests talk about their reporting and research, what drives their work, and what’s important to them. Listeners will have the opportunity to widen their lens, develop their understanding and figure out where we might go from here. 

The countdown to Christmas has begun and, for many Christians, so has the annual debate about the true meaning of the holiday. The legacy of Indian Residential Schools coupled with  weaponization of the words of Christ by the evangelical right wing leaves Christianity in a crisis.  The words of its founder, born in Bethlehem two centuries ago, are used are more often used nowadays to justify the very ideals He preached against . Our guest today, The Reverend Michael Coren, is a columnist, broadcaster, and ordained cleric in the Anglican Church of Canada.  His 18th book The Rebel Christ has just been released. In the book, Coren makes the argument for Christ as a rebel, a radical, and a revolutionary. We talk to him today about the rebel Jesus, and how the Christian world has strayed. 

Talking UP is an interview show dedicated to writers, journalists and authors working on issues of social justice, equity, and the nonprofit sector. Guests talk about their reporting and research, what drives their work, and what’s important to them. Listeners will have the opportunity to widen their lens, develop their understanding and figure out where we might go from here. 

Cindy Wagman began her nonprofit career as a fundraising manager in a women’s shelter.  Since that time, she’s been Development Director for the Canadian Women’s Foundation, The Kensington Foundation, Rotman School of Management, and Campaign Director for the Hot Docs Film Festival. For the past six and a half years, she’s headed up her own consultancy, The Good Partnership, which focuses on developing the fundraising potential of small nonprofits.  She hosts The Small Nonprofit, Canada’s #1 podcast for charities and now she’s consolidated her ideas in a new book, Raise It! The Reluctant Fundraiser’s Guide to Raising Money without Selling your Soul. Cindy joins us today from her home in Toronto.   

 Talking UP is an interview show dedicated to writers, journalists and authors working on issues of social justice, equity, and the nonprofit sector. Guests talk about their reporting and research, what drives their work, and what’s important to them. Listeners will have the opportunity to widen their lens, develop their understanding and figure out where we might go from here. 

Madeleine Shaw is a multiple award-winning social entrepreneur with more than twenty-five years of experience launching ventures with a social change agenda. At age 25, she founded Aisle, a privately held business whose sustainable menstrual care products are now sold in more than 40 countries worldwide. She’s established the charity United Girls of the World Society, and G Day, a national rite of passage celebration series for adolescent girls. In 2017 she launched Nestworks, a family-friendly co-working. Whether you're a nonprofit start-up, charity start-up, or something in between, Madeleine Shaw is all about incorporating the ideas of social and environmental benefit into your operating principles.

 Now she’s written a book, The Greater Good: Social Entrepreneurship for Everyday People Who Want to Change the World, and Madeleine Shaw joins us today from her home near Vancouver.

 Talking UP is an interview show dedicated to writers, journalists and authors working on issues of social justice, equity, and the nonprofit sector. Guests talk about their reporting and research, what drives their work, and what’s important to them. Listeners will have the opportunity to widen their lens, develop their understanding and figure out where we might go from here. 

Dr. Sara Florence Davidson is an educator, author, and assistant professor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University.

Her brand-new children’s book, Jigging for Halibut with Tsinii on which she collaborated with her father, is a simple story of a young man who goes fishing with his grandfather and returns in the evening, but one that illustrates the Haida-based teaching approach she gleaned from listening to her father’s many stories. She dove into that approach—called sk’ad’a in Haida—in a 2018 book, Potlach as Pedagogy, upon which she also collaborated with her father. In it she describes the principles of teaching and learning, through the framework of Haida knowledge.  She has written widely and uniquely on decolonizing education and integrating Indigenous knowledge into education. She joins us from her home in British Columbia.

 Talking UP is an interview show dedicated to writers, journalists and authors working on issues of social justice, equity, and the nonprofit sector. Guests talk about their reporting and research, what drives their work, and what’s important to them. Listeners will have the opportunity to widen their lens, develop their understanding and figure out where we might go from here.