This site explores the myriad connections between empathy, narrative, consciousness, and selfhood through the lenses of literature, neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and more.
Hi, everyone! The Brains & Banter Podcast is excited to announce that we will be in conversation with the amazing filmmakers Anne Macksoud and John Ankele of Old Dog Documentaries!
Anne and John have been producing and directing “documentary films about the subtleties of individual human experience and the complexities of our collective challenges” since 1985. They believe that “[c]hange must start with ordinary people who understand the interrelatedness of our global community” and offer their films “as tools for education and activism in the name of social justice and climate change.”
Anne and John “make films to create awareness about climate change, education, religion, spirituality, and politics for a global community that wants to protect this world we share.”
We will be discussing the recently released 20-minute video of Eco-Philosopher Joanna Macy, “Climate Crisis as Spiritual Path,” which was derived from their previously unused outtakes for the film The Wisdom to Survive: Climate Change, Capitalism & Community, released in 2014.
As Anne and John explain, “Upon review of the original interview, we found certain statements even more relevant now, in answer to the most important and painful questions of our time: How can we live our lives fully, with inner peace and courage (and even joy) as we confront a world that is rapidly destroying itself?”
Video with Joanna Macy, “Climate Crisis as Spiritual Path”:
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.
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!
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
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!
Thank you also to the uber talented Kristen Frier for creating this AWESOME POSTER!! WE LOVE YOU!
This is a KPU-only event, but if people would like to join us for something similar, we will be hosting a TED Circles event that everyone can join on April 30, 2021! More information to follow in the coming weeks!
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)!!
In this six-part interview, I speak with my former Kwantlen Polytechnic University students Jasmeen Deol (Psychology, KPU) and Ravneet Sahota (Criminology, KPU) about their experiences attending university during a pandemic. They have so much knowledge to share, and they are absolutely amazing!!
Jasmeen and Ravneet are the Co-Directors of an initiative tracking media coverage of COVID-19 in BC prisons and jails and are also co-organizers for an international forum, “Redesigning Our World,” which will be held virtually in 2022 (this video was recorded before we decided to change the date from September 2021 to Spring 2022). Annamie Paul, lawyer, activist, and Leader of the Green Party of Canada, will be our opening keynote!
In this six-part interview, I speak with my former Kwantlen Polytechnic University students Jasmeen Deol (Psychology, KPU) and Ravneet Sahota (Criminology, KPU) about their experiences attending university during a pandemic. They have so much knowledge to share, and they are absolutely amazing!!
In Part Two, we discuss synchronous and asynchronous learning, Zoom fatigue, and the possibility of instituting a Pass/Fail system at university and of making higher education free! Yes, please!
Jasmeen and Ravneet are the Co-Directors of an initiative tracking media coverage of COVID-19 in BC prisons and jails and are also co-organizers for an international forum, “Redesigning Our World,” which will be held virtually in 2022 (this video was recorded before we decided to change the date from September 2021 to Spring 2022). Annamie Paul, lawyer, activist, and Leader of the Green Party of Canada, will be our opening keynote!
Thank you so much to the ridiculously talented Johanna Hauterville for your always amazing work editing these videos—I would be lost without you!
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 as well as mental health, chronic pain, the power of community, 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!
Books, Brains, and Benevolence 