Category: Interviews

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Psychopathy, Capitalism, and the Climate Crisis: Dr. Joel Bakan on the Brains & Banter Podcast (1/4)

In this four-part conversation, co-hosts Ana Benham, Kennedy Holick, Naaz Sidhu, & Dr. Shoshannah Bryn Jones Square talk to Dr. Joel Bakan, Author, Filmmaker, Musician, & Professor of Law at the University of British Columbia (CA), about capitalism, individualism, corporations, psychopathy, the climate crisis, the pandemic, inequality, collective action, activism, social change, music, the power of art, and more.

Bio from Joel’s website (linked below):

Joel is an internationally renowned legal scholar and commentator. A former Rhodes Scholar and law clerk to Chief Justice Brian Dickson of the Supreme Court of Canada, Bakan has law degrees from Oxford, Dalhousie, and Harvard. His critically acclaimed book, The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power (2004), electrified readers around the world (it was published in over 20 languages) and became a bestseller in several countries.

Bakan wrote and co-created (with Mark Achbar) a feature documentary film, The Corporation, based on the book’s ideas and directed by Achbar and Jennifer Abbott. The film won numerous awards, including best foreign documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, and was a critical and box office success.

The New Corporation, a sequel to that film, is based on Bakan’s book of the same name and directed by Bakan and Jennifer Abbott.

Bakan’s scholarly work includes Just Words: Constitutional Rights and Social Wrongs (1997) as well as textbooks, edited collections, and numerous articles in leading legal and social science journals. His award-winning book, Childhood Under Siege: How Big Business Targets Children (2012), has been translated into several languages. A recipient of awards for both writing and teaching, Bakan has worked on landmark legal cases and government policy and serves regularly as a public speaker and media commentator. Also a professional jazz guitarist, Bakan lives in Vancouver, Canada with his wife Rebecca Jenkins.

https://joelbakan.com/

https://twitter.com/joelbakan?lang=en

Interview with Russell Brand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLcpr…

Thank you so much again, Joel – you are amazing!

Co-Hosts

Naaz Sidhu, Sociology Student, Punjabi Creator, Spoken Word Poet, and Social Justice Advocate

Ana Benham, Actor (BA, Hons Acting degree, Rose Bruford College, London, UK), Artist, and Activist

Kennedy Holick, Social Work Student, Artist, and Activist

Shoshannah Bryn Jones Square, PhD (Oxford), Author, Activist, Research Affiliate, University of Manitoba Institute for the Humanities, and Indepedent Contractor, Emergence Benefactors

Thank you so much to the amazing Johanna Hauterville for editing this video! We love you!

Thank you to everyone for watching/listening! We love you, too!

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BanterBrains

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebrainsandbanter/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebrainsandbanter

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thebrainsandbanterpodcast

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The Brains and Banter Podcast’s Conversation with Author and Integrator Jeremy Lent

In this episode of The Brains & Banter Podcast, Dr. Shoshannah Bryn Jones Square speaks with author, speaker, and integrator Jeremy Lent about his new book The Web of Meaning and about interconnection, fractals, compassion, social change, Taoism, Buddhism, Indigenous knowledge, systems theory, and more!

Bio from Jeremy’s website: https://www.jeremylent.com/

Jeremy Lent, described by Guardian journalist George Monbiot as ‘one of the greatest thinkers of our age,’ is an author and speaker whose work investigates the underlying causes of our civilization’s existential crisis and explores pathways toward a life-affirming future.

Born in London, England, Lent received a BA in English Literature from Cambridge University, an MBA from the University of Chicago, and was a former internet company CEO.

His award-winning book The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity’s Search for Meaning explores the way humans have made meaning from the cosmos from hunter-gatherer times to the present day.

His new book, The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe, offers a coherent and intellectually solid foundation for a worldview based on connectedness that could lead humanity to a sustainable, flourishing future.

He is founder of the nonprofit Liology Institute, dedicated to fostering an integrated worldview that could enable humanity to thrive sustainably on the Earth: http://www.liology.org/

He lives with his partner in Berkeley, California.

Lent writes topical articles exploring the deeper patterns of political and cultural developments at Patterns of Meaning: https://patternsofmeaning.com/

You can follow Jeremy on his Twitter page: https://twitter.com/JeremyRLent

Jeremy will be holding two very exciting courses in the coming weeks as well, which you can sign up for on his website:

1. ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION | 4-WEEK COURSE Hosted and sponsored by the Siena Retreat Center

Tue October 5 Ecological Civilization in Historical Context

Tue October 12 Ecological Civilization: Worldview and Values

Tue October 19 An Ecological Civilization in Practice

Tue October 26 Pathways to an Ecological Civilization 10:00am Pacific 11:00am Mountain noon Central 1:00pm Eastern

2. THE WEB OF MEANING: A GUIDED EXPLORATION | 6-WEEK COURSE Hosted and sponsored by Programs in Earth Literacies

A 6-week online interactive course hosted by Programs in Earth Literacies and taught by Jeremy Lent, covering the themes from his recently published book The Web of Meaning:

Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe.

Tue November 2 Class 1: Who Am I?

Tue November 9 Class 2: Where Am I?

Tue November 16 Class 3: What Am I?

Tue November 23 Class 4: How Should I Live?

Tue November 30 Class 5: Why Am I?

Tue December 7 Class 6: Where Are We Going?

Every Tuesday at 10:00–11:30 am PST/1:00–2:30 pm EST

Each class is 90 minutes

Cost: $75 for the series (scholarships available upon request)

​It is expected participants willl attend all classes

Thank you so much to Johanna Hauterville for your amazing work editing this video – you are awesome!

Thank you also to all of you for listening/watching – it means a lot! Much love and gratitude!

Please do follow us if you’re interested!

https://www.facebook.com/thebrainsandbanter

https://www.instagram.com/thebrainsandbanter/

https://www.patreon.com/thebrainsandbanterpodcast

Co-hosts: Naaz Sidhu; Kennedy Holick; Lyric Hajer; Ana Benham; Shoshannah Bryn Jones Square

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Imagining the Change with Felix N. Kongyuy, Green Party Candidate, Surrey Centre (Surrey, BC, CA)

In this episode, Naaz Sidhu and Dr. Shoshannah Bryn Jones Square speak to the very engaging and inspiring Felix N. Kongyuy (he/him), MA, Green Party Candidate for Surrey Centre (Surrey, BC, CA).

Felix has been active in the corporate and social services sectors for decades. He is a consultant to non-profits and a skilled arbitrator with extensive experience in small business. He is the director of MoveOn Consulting and Arbitration.

Felix is the founder and chief executive officer of Baobab Inclusive Empowerment Society, a community organization that serves vulnerable children, at-risk youth, women, families, persons with disabilities, French and English-speaking Canadians, and newcomers to Canada. In the Lower Mainland, he has served on several advisory boards addressing social justice, racism, community safety, children and at-risk youth programming gaps, skill shortages for newcomers, small business needs, immigrant challenges, the housing shortage, capacity and community building, and issues impacting seniors’ health.

Felix has also served as a board member, advisory member and member at large on several national organizations and co-founded organizations like Global Peace Alliance and businesses like First Call Health and Home Care Services. He led and designed programs for Indigenous, Christian, and spiritual groups in B.C.

Felix and his family live in Surrey, where he is deeply engaged in community building and looks forward to being an agent of change for Surrey Centre.

Vote for Felix Kongyuy for Surrey Centre and join the “Imagine the Change” campaign!

On the ballot:

– The climate crisis and the environment

– Affordable daycare for families

– Support for small businesses and families

– Support for community programs

– Support for seniors, youth, and persons with disabilities – Ending government waste

https://www.greenparty.ca/en/riding/2013-59032

https://www.instagram.com/felixkongyuyformp/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/felixformp

Thank you so much to the amazing Johanna Hauterville for editing this video! We love you!

And thank you to the extraordinarily talented Kristen Frier for creating the background image! We love you!

https://www.facebook.com/thebrainsandbanter

https://www.instagram.com/thebrainsandbanter/

https://www.patreon.com/thebrainsandbanterpodcast

Much love and gratitude to everyone!

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Imagining the Change with Felix N. Kongyuy, Green Party Candidate, Surrey Centre (Surrey, BC, CA)

Here is Part One of The Brains & Banter Podcast‘s three-part interview with Felix N. Kongyuy, Green Party Candidate for Surrey Centre (Surrey, BC, CA)!

On the ballot:

The climate crisis and the environment

Affordable daycare for families

Support for small businesses and families

Support for community programs

Support for seniors, youth, and persons with disabilities

Ending government waste

Felix has been active in the corporate and social services sectors for decades. He is a consultant to non-profits and a skilled arbitrator with extensive experience in small business. He is the director of MoveOn Consulting and Arbitration.

Felix is the founder and chief executive officer of Baobab Inclusive Empowerment Society, a community organization that serves vulnerable children, at-risk youth, women, families, persons with disabilities, French and English-speaking Canadians, and newcomers to Canada.

In the Lower Mainland, he has served on several advisory boards addressing social justice, racism, community safety, children and at-risk youth programming gaps, skill shortages for newcomers, small business needs, immigrant challenges, the housing shortage, capacity and community building, and issues impacting seniors’ health.

Felix has also served as a board member, advisory member and member at large on several national organizations and co-founded organizations like Global Peace Alliance and businesses like First Call Health and Home Care Services. He led and designed programs for Indigenous, Christian, and spiritual groups in B.C.

Felix and his family live in Surrey, where he is deeply engaged in community building and looks forward to being an agent of change for Surrey Centre.

The Brains and Banter Podcast in Conversation with Professor Kehinde Andrews

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Here is The Brains & Banter Podcast‘s full conversation with the very brilliant Kehinde Andrews!! Thank you again and again, Kehinde – we love you!!

Kehinde is a Professor of Black Studies at Birmingham City School of Social Sciences, UK. He is also an activist and author whose books include:

The New Age of Empire: How Racism & Colonialism Still Rule the World (2021), which we discuss in this episode

Back to Black: Retelling Black Radicalism for the 21st Century (2018)

Resisting Racism: Race, Inequality and the Black Supplementary School Movement (2013)

Kehinde led the development of the Black Studies degree and is director of the Centre for Critical Social Research, founder of the Harambee Organisation of Black Unity, and co-chair of the Black Studies Association. He does it all! It was such a pleasure to speak with him!

We’ve included links to Kehinde’s awesome conversations with the very awesome Russell Brand below the video on YouTube! If you’re interested, please do like and subscribe! Lots of love and gratitude!! 💜

Co-Hosts:

Naaz Sidhu is a Punjabi creator, social justice advocate, podcast host, and content creator and is in the third year of her Sociology degree at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU). She is a spoken word poet and has been featured in South Asian poetry events held at KPU. Naaz has been writing poetry for seven years and connects her work and art with her personal experiences.

Ana Benham recently completed her BA (Hons) Acting degree at Rose Bruford College, London (UK) and is passionate about what she calls ‘the Artist’s Responsibility’ and how all forms of art and storytelling have the power to pave the way for positive action. Ana is excited to contribute to a greater discussion about the future of the creative industries and the role they can play in our global community.

Kennedy Holick is going into her third year of university at Douglas College and is pursuing her Social Work degree. She enjoys reading, writing, music, travel, creating art, taking photographs, and spending time with her dog Pearl. She is extremely passionate about mental health and hopes to help end the stigma around it.

Shoshannah Bryn Jones Square received her PhD in English literature from Oxford (UK) in 2017 and has taught interdisciplinary and English courses since. She loves teaching, collaborating, and connecting and is currently co-authoring a chapter on the climate crisis, eco-grief, and the media for the Routledge Handbook of Health and Media (2021) with Dr. Carol-Ann Farkas and co-editing and contributing to a collection, Sex and Medicine: Intersex and the Health and Medical Humanities, with Dr. Katelyn Dykstra, which will be published by Bloomsbury in 2022. She is also a writer, researcher, and content creator for the Emergent Phenomenology Research Consortium, which brings together clinical, scientific, and spiritual paradigms to improve clinical outcomes, and a Research Affiliate with the University of Manitoba Institute for the Humanities (UMIH).

Thank you to the amazing and amazingly talented Johanna Hauterville for editing this video – we love you!

The Brains and Banter Podcast in Conversation with Annamie Paul, Leader of the Green Party of Canada

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Here is a teaser for Season One of The Brains & Banter podcast! We will start releasing our 16 episodes later in August! Thanks to everyone for all of your support and to all of our amazing guests for being amazing! In this interview, Naaz Sidhu – artist, activist, and Sociology student at Kwantlen Polytechnic University – and Dr. Shoshannah Bryn Jones Square – author, activist, and academic – speak with the amazing Annamie Paul, lawyer, activist, and Leader of the Green Party of Canada.

We discuss the devastating discovery of the unmarked graves of 215 Indigenous children buried on the grounds of the Kamloops Residential School (BC, CA) – which has been followed by discoveries in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and just off Vancouver Island, where 160 unmarked graves were found on July 12, 2021 – and how the Green Party will accelerate the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action and achieve reconciliation. We also discuss the Green Party’s plan for the education system, its plans to address the climate emergency and the related mental health crisis, and the vital role of young people and creatives play in the movement towards real change.

Annamie is the daughter of immigrants who arrived in Canada from the Caribbean in the 1960s and completed a Masters of Public Affairs at Princeton University, a Bachelor of Laws at the University of Ottawa, and is called to the Bar in Ontario. Over the years, she has been selected as an inaugural Action Canada Fellow, an Echoing Green Fellow – as a member of the Recruitment of Policy Leaders Program – member of the University of Ottawa Common Law Honour Society, and as a recipient of the Harry Jerome Award. A large part of her professional life has been focused on international affairs.

Annamie has worked abroad as a Director for a leading conflict prevention NGO in Brussels, as an Advisor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, and as a Political Officer in Canada’s Mission to the European Union. She co-founded and co-directed BIPP HUB in Barcelona: an innovation hub for international NGOs working on global challenges. She also served on the Board and advised a number of international NGOs, including the Climate Infrastructure Partnership (CLIP), Higher Education Alliance for Refugees (HEAR), and Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT). Promoting diversity in Canadian politics is a long-standing commitment of Annamie’s, and she has always found ways to advocate. After graduate school, she founded and directed the Canadian Centre for Political Leadership (CCPL) from 2001-2005: a non-partisan charity that trained women and under-represented minorities to run for elected office. She is proud that CCPL trainees are now serving their communities in elected roles. She has also volunteered with Operation Black Vote Canada (OBVC) and served on the Steering Committee for Equal Voice Canada, two non-partisan organisations working to diversify political representation. Annamie has also published articles and policy papers on social inclusion and representation in Canadian politics.

In the 2019 federal election, Annamie represented the Green Party of Canada as its candidate in Toronto Centre. She ran against the sitting Minister of Finance, Bill Morneau, and challenged the Liberal record of building pipelines while neglecting our local communities. The Green Party had the second-best Green result in the Greater Toronto Area, nearly tripling the Green vote in the riding. Annamie was really proud of the ways in which her campaign team was also able to support other Green candidates and ridings throughout the city.

Until recently, Annamie served as International Affairs Critic in the Green Party of Canada’s Shadow Cabinet, providing advice to our Interim Leader on international issues and helping to guide the development of our foreign policy positions. Annamie speaks English, French, Catalan, and Spanish. In sum, Annamie Paul is a superhero, and WE LOVE HER! Thank you again and again for having this important conversation with us!

Thank you also to Johanna Hauterville for editing this video – you are brilliant, and we appreciate you so very much!

https://www.greenparty.ca/en

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Metamorphosis: My Path to Transformation – An Interview with Yves Réal Côté (1/7)

In this seven-part interview, previously posted as a whole in August 2020, I talk to one of my favourite people, Yves Réal Côté, about his experiences in prison and about his remarkable path to change. We discuss solitary confinement, overincarceration, the need for prison reform and better access to education, mental health, early adverse childhood experiences, trauma, violence, inequality, family, empathy, hope, and transformation, and we also talk about Yves’ recently published book, co-authored with Professor Alana Abramson (Criminology, Kwantlen Polytechnic University), Metamorphosis: My Path to Transformation (the title changed since we did the interview last summer), which you can now purchase via the link below! Wooo!

Thank you for listening – Yves has so much knowledge to share, and he is such a beautiful human being.

Thank you as always to the incredibly talented Johanna Hauterville for editing these videos and for being the best video editor EVER! I am so grateful!

You can purchase Yves’ book via this link:

https://books.friesenpress.com/store/title/119734000169581492?fbclid=IwAR0QImSJTsjt-rkE1n8NFkxfA0HZZPkFajV1i3OQFwh1k40XBjKklaIZNdw

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Coping with Chronic Pain: Friendship, Poetry, Compassion, and Healing – An Interview with Alisha Chauhan (6/9)

Alisha Chauhan is a Public Speaker and Chronic Illness/Mental Health Advocate, an Educator, and an overall amazing human being! In this 9-part interview, we discuss her experience coping with Multiple Sclerosis and talk about mental health, chronic pain, art (particularly poetry) as therapy, the power of community and friendship, baking, and more!

Alisha: “I have 8 years of a demonstrated background in higher education, psychology, counselling and mental health, and I have been able to combine this with my life experiences in order to inspire others through my journey. I have been giving lectures specifically about my illness since I got diagnosed in 2016.”

Thank you to the wildly talented Johanna Hauterville, one of the best video editors out there! I would be lost without you!

Please free to contact Alisha for more information at lemmiehelpyou@gmail.com. Love you, Alisha!!

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Addressing the Climate Emergency: The Anthropocene and Our Shared Responsibility (Part 4)

In this video, part 4 of 4 (it turns out there was one more that I had forgotten about!), Dr. Todd Dufresne, Dr. Carol-Ann Farkas, and Dr. Shoshannah Bryn Jones Square discuss the role of scholarship in addressing the climate emergency and COVID-19 and about the importance of youth activism.

Todd is a Professor of Philosophy at Lakehead University (CA) and, most recently, author of The Democracy of Suffering: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe, Philosophy in the Anthropocene (2019).

Carol-Ann is a Professor of English and the Director of Writing Programs in the School of Arts and Sciences at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS). She is the the editor of Reading the Psychosomatic in Medical and Popular Culture: Something, Nothing, Everything (Routledge 2017), and her current research focuses on the ways in which we turn to popular media to learn about, and cope with, eco-anxiety. She is currently co-authoring a chapter for The Routledge Handbook of Health and Media (2021)—“Climate Health is Human Health: Working Through Eco-Anxiety With the Written Word in Print and Digital Media”—with Bryn.

I am an interdisciplinary instructor and activist and am currently co-authoring a chapter for the Routledge Handbook of Health and Media, as you know from above, and co-editing a collected volume, Intersex and the Health and Medical Humanities (2021), with Dr. Katelyn Dykstra.

Thank you so much to the very talented Johanna Hauterville for editing this video (which would have taken me my entire life)!!