Stay ConnectedCOMMONS is a documentary podcast that proves Canada is anything but boring. Each season, host Arshy Mann guides you through the country’s dark underbelly, bringing you stories about crime, corruption and all manner of misdeeds.
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Copyright: © 2022 CANADALAND
Across Canada, emergency rooms have been shutting down, leaving desperate people in the lurch. And at the heart of this health care crisis, is a labour crisis.
Nurses are leaving their jobs in droves, leaving hospitals understaffed and sometimes unable to carry out their most basic obligations.
In this episode, we'll tell you how nursing went from a profession hailed as heroic to one in an utter state of crisis, all through the eyes of a woman who lived through it all.
Featured in this episode: Nadira Ross
To learn more:
“How Canadian hospitals became dependent on expensive, out-of-town nurses” by Tu Thanh Ha, Kelly Grant and Stephanie Chambers in The Globe and Mail
“How nursing staffing agencies are costing Ontario hospitals untold millions” by Mike Crawley in CBC News
Credits: Arshy Mann (Host and Producer), Jordan Cornish (Producer), Noor Azrieh (Producer), André Proulx (Production Coordinator), Karyn Pugliese (Editor-in-Chief)
Additional music from Audio Network
If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.
You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Labour has undergone a seismic shift over the past decade.
The rise of gig work and temp agencies have made employment more precarious than ever. In the interest of profits, companies are turning more and more towards temporary foreign workers and international students for minimum wage jobs. And even for those with seemingly secure employment, wages and benefits continue to be squeezed.
One thing seems clear: workers are getting screwed.
This season of COMMONS will dig into the fascinating history and ever-changing present of what it means to be a worker in Canada.
Featured in this episode: Jim Stanford
Credits: Arshy Mann (Host and Producer), Jordan Cornish (Producer), Noor Azrieh (Producer), André Proulx (Production Coordinator), Karyn Pugliese (Editor-in-Chief)
Additional music from Audio Network
Sponsors: Rotman, Douglas, AG1
If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.
You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Labour has undergone a seismic shift over the past decade.
The rise of gig work and temp agencies have made employment more precarious than ever. In the interest of profits, companies are turning more and more towards temporary foreign workers and international students for minimum wage jobs. And even for those with seemingly secure employment, wages and benefits continue to be squeezed.
One thing seems clear: workers are getting screwed.
This season of COMMONS will dig into the fascinating history and ever-changing present of what it means to be a worker in Canada.
COMMONS: Work launches on March 20th.
Canadaland Supporters can listen to all episodes one week early! Become a supporter at canadaland.com/join
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In this bonus episode, COMMONS producer Noor Azrieh sits down with Peter Smith to discuss his reporting on right-wing conspiracy groups like Qanon and Romana Didulo.
Featured in this episode: Peter Smith
To learn more:
“Lead in the head”: Self-Declared Canadian Prime Minister and QAnon Adherent Calls for Executions of Officials Who Refuse Her Cease and Desists” by Peter Smith in The Canadian Anti-Hate Network
“Self Declared Queen Of Canada Calling For US Supporters To Invade Canada And Prepare To Execute “Traitors” by Peter Smith in The Canadian Anti-Hate Network
Credits: Arshy Mann (Host and Producer), Jordan Cornish (Producer), Noor Azrieh (Producer), Annette Ejiofor (Managing Editor), Karyn Pugliese (Editor in Cheif)
Sponsors: Douglas, Athletic Greens
If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.
You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This episode was originally published on August 28th, 2023.
Listen to Monopoly 1 - Lost in the Supermarket and Monopoly 17 - Food Fight
In the past several years, Loblaws, Metro and Empire have spent billions on their own stock – And at a time of food price inflation and grocery workers on strike.
Why are they doing it? And why do some economists say stock buybacks should be abolished?
Featured in this episode:
William Lazonick, professor emeritus of economics at University of Massachusetts
Jim Stanford, director of the Centre for Future Work
Further reading:
Host: Jesse Brown
Credits: Cherise Seucharan (Reporter), Jonathan Goldsbie (News Editor), Tristan Capacchione (Audio Editor and Technical Producer), Bruce Thorson (Senior Producer), Annette Ejiofor (Managing Editor), Karyn Pugliese (Editor-in-Chief)
If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.
You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We live in a world of obsessive fandoms. The Stans, Swifties, Potterheads, Beliebers, Trekkies, Bronies, Barbs and their ilk are everywhere to be found.
But at what point does it go from being harmless entertainment and turn into something more sinister?
Featured in this episode: Zoe Alderton, Robert Lawson
To learn more:
“‘Snapewives’ and ‘Snapeism’: A Fiction-Based Religion within the Harry Potter Fandom” by Zoe Alderton in Religions
“Andrew Tate: how the ‘manosphere’ influencer is selling extreme masculinity to young men” by Robert Lawson in The Conversation
Everything I Need I Get from You: How Fangirls Created the Internet as We Know It by Kaitlyn Tiffany
Credits: Arshy Mann (Host and Producer), Jordan Cornish (Producer), Noor Azrieh (Producer), Annette Ejiofor (Managing Editor), Karyn Pugliese (Editor-in-Chief)
Additional music from Audio Network
If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.
You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Romana Didulo, the self-proclaimed Queen of Canada, is unlike almost any other cult leader Canada has ever seen. In an incredibly short amount of time, she’s been able to gain a mass following, despite her absurd claims and alarming rhetoric.
At various points, she’s claimed to be a political leader, a monarch, an interdimensional being communing with aliens, and so much more. She’s urged her followers to take up arms and execute migrants on sight.
And now, she’s taken up residence in a small Saskatchewan town that doesn’t know what to do.
Featured in this episode: Mack Lamoureux (VICE News), Peter Smith (Canadian Anti-Hate Network), Hugh Everding
To learn more:
“A QAnon Cult Set Up a Compound in a Small Town. The Locals Are Fighting Back” by Mack Lamoureux in VICE News
“Self Declared Queen Of Canada Calling For US Supporters To Invade Canada And Prepare To Execute “Traitors”” by Peter Smith in Canadian Anti-Hate Network
The Storm is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everythingby Mike Rothschild
Credits: Arshy Mann (Host and Producer), Jordan Cornish (Producer), Noor Azrieh (Producer), Annette Ejiofor (Managing Editor), Karyn Pugliese (Editor-in-Chief)
Additional music from Audio Network
Sponsors: oxio, Athletic Greens
If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.
You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Multi-level marketing isn’t based on rational business logic. It’s not even built on irrational business logic. It’s ideology. It’s faith.
MLMs have become such a ubiquitous part of North American life that their tenets are rarely ever questioned. The sector holds enormous political sway. Millions of people join, leave and rejoin every year, almost all of them ending up poorer for the experience.
And to call it a cult is not just a cute turn of phrase. The cultishness of MLMs is essential to their success.
Featured in this episode: Robert L. Fitzpatrick, Julie Anderson
To learn more:
Ponzinomics: The Untold Story of Multi-Level Marketing by Robert L. Fitzpatrick
“How lobbying dollars prop up pyramid schemes” by Matt Stroud in The Verge
YouTube: @JulieAndersonvideos
Amway: The Cult of Free Enterprise by Stephen Butterfield
Credits: Arshy Mann (Host and Producer), Jordan Cornish (Producer), Noor Azrieh (Producer), Aviva Lessard (Additional Production) Annette Ejiofor (Managing Editor), Karyn Pugliese (Editor-in-Chief)
Additional music from Audio Network
Sponsors: Douglas, Oxio, Athletic Greens
If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.
You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Nearly 1.4 million Canadians and almost 50 million Americans are involved in multi-level marketing. And that sheer volume of people makes it a near certainty that you’ve encountered MLMs in your life somehow.
The promise of financial freedom can be an intoxicating lure. But MLMs, like so many other cultish enterprises, are about more than just money. They’re about transcendence.
And in their wake, they often leave behind ruined livelihoods and broken lives.
Featured in this episode: Julie Anderson, Amanda Montell, Robert L. Fitzpatrick, Marco Moukhaiber
To learn more:
Ponzinomics: The Untold Story of Multi-Level Marketing by Robert L. Fitzpatrick
“'They have you in a cultish grip': the women losing thousands to online beauty schemes” by Amelia Tate in The Guardian
YouTube: @JulieAndersonvideos
YouTube: @AlwaysMarco
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticismby Amanda Montell
Credits: Arshy Mann (Host and Producer), Jordan Cornish (Producer), Noor Azrieh (Producer), Aviva Lessard (Additional Production) Annette Ejiofor (Managing Editor), Karyn Pugliese (Editor-in-Chief)
Additional music from Audio Network
Sponsors: Oxio, Athletic Greens
If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.
You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mary-Jayne Blackmore is one of the oldest children of Winston Blackmore, the most famous polygamist in Canada.
For decades, her family has been the subject of intense media and legal scrutiny because of her father’s 27 wives and 150 children. Their lives have been dissected in documentaries and in court testimony.
The name Blackmore has become synonymous with either faith-based persecution by the state or with cult-like religious fundamentalism that victimizes girls and women.
But for Mary-Jayne, these kinds of black-and-white portrayals miss so much about what it’s been like being a Blackmore.
To learn more:
Balancing Bountiful: What I Learned About Feminism From My Polygamist Grandmothersby Mary Jayne Blackmore
The Bishop of Bountiful B.C.by the CBC’s Fifth Estate
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer
Credits: Arshy Mann (Host and Producer), Jordan Cornish (Producer), Noor Azrieh (Producer), Annette Ejiofor (Managing Editor), Karyn Pugliese (Editor-in-Chief)
Additional music from Audio Network
Sponsors: Canva, Athletic Greens
If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.
You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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