• Episode 324 - Mo Duffy
    May 15 2026

    Since 2003, Mo has worked as writer, teacher and editor. In her early career Mo taught Business Communications and English as an Additional Language. Her years spent working with international students, travelling and exploring the world inspired her to write, and in 2015 she received her Masters in Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her own memoir, Unpacked: from PEI to Palawan (Pottersfield Press) tackles a family journey under extraordinary circumstances, and was published in 2017.



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    25 min
  • Episode 323 - Sarah Louise Butler
    May 4 2026

    In her second novel Rufous and Calliope (Douglas & McIntyre), a cartographer with a novel form of dementia attempts to cross a perilous mountain pass, seeking the treehouse hideaway where he spent one memorable childhood summer on the run with his three older siblings and his twin sister, Calliope. Released fall 2025, and recently shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Fiction prize. The French edition Ciel Noir, Coeurs Battants was released in February 2026.

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    25 min
  • Episode 322 - Betty Baxter
    Apr 24 2026

    When Betty Baxter was hired to coach the Canadian women's volleyball team in 1980, she was met with a media frenzy as the first woman in the position. Then her career was cut short—Baxter was fired in January 1982 and tossed from volleyball at age twenty-nine because of rumours about her sexual orientation.

    This personal memoir chronicles Baxter's journey from a small-town prairie girl discovering her passion for sports, through the years of international success, including harsh coaches, excruciating training regimes and the inequities in the sports system, especially for a closeted gay athlete. After her abrupt dismissal, Baxter turned to activism, seeking equality for women, initiating a new coaching school and working for a healthy, visible LGBTQ+ community through the internationally recognized Gay Games.

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    35 min
  • Episode 321 - Joanne and Shirley
    Apr 17 2026

    Shirley is only five years old when she is taken away by the Indian agent to live at a residential school.

    She loves learning, but she is not there by choice. From the first day walking up the long, lonely stone steps of the school building, life is hard and full of rules. Separated from her brothers and sisters, she is truly on her own.

    Shirley is very brave, but there is no one she loves to hold her at night when she is afraid. No one to tuck her in and comfort her. Shirley keeps going despite the sadness. She makes friends and has adventures. And most of all, she looks ahead to summertime, when she will be able to return to her family and the happiness of home.

    A true story.

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    19 min
  • Episode 320 - Robert Hough
    Apr 10 2026

    In this compelling novel, acclaimed author Robert Hough recreates the political violence and revolutionary idealism that flowed through New York City during the Gilded Age of the 1890s. At its centre are real-life revolutionists Emma Goldman and Alexander "Sasha" Berkman, whose passionate love affair fuels their commitment to creating a better world.

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    29 min
  • Episode 319 - Crystal Shawanda
    Apr 3 2026

    Crystal Shawanda is an Ojibwe Potawatomi blues and country music artist from Canada. CMT documented her rise to fame in the six-part series Crystal: Living the Dream, which was broadcast in February 2008.

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    21 min
  • Episode 318 - Ben Ladouceur
    Mar 27 2026

    The first novel from award-winning poet Ben Ladouceur, I Remember Lights depicts a time when the world promised everything to everyone, however irresponsibly.

    In summer 1967, love is all you need…but some forms of love are criminal. As the spectacular Expo 67 celebrations take shape, a young man new to Montreal learns about gay life from cruising partners, one-night stands, live-in lovers, and friends.

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    26 min
  • Episode 317 - Russel Thornton
    Mar 20 2026

    His book House Built of Rain (2003) was a shortlisted nominee for the 2004 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and the 2004 ReLit Award.

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    23 min