Fookn Conversation - Talking About “Academicky” Stuff

About Fookn Conversation - Talking About “Academicky” Stuff

How are we talking about the “academicky” stuff that informs our lived experiences? In response to such questions, Dr. Nicholas Ng-A-Fook invites you to delve deeper into the lives and thinking of different public intellectuals, writers, artists, community activists, politicians, school administrators, and teachers.

Publisher

Nicholas Ng-A-Fook

Category

education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

28 Mar 2020

Latest episode

11 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

74 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   11 Oct 2026

   Dr. Marc Spooner

   In Episode 75, Dr. Nicholas Ng-A-Fook hosts Dr. Marc Spooner (https://www.uregina.ca/education/directory/faculty/spooner-marc.html), Professor in the Faculty of Education (https://www.uregina.ca/education/) at the University of Regina (https://www.uregina.ca/). His research examines audit culture (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1525/irqr.2015.8.2.212), academic freedom, the neoliberalization and corporatization of higher education (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marc-Spooner/publication/339971722_Critical_Pedagogy_Imperiled_as_Neoliberalism_Marketization_and_Audit_Culture_Become_the_Academy/links/5e70330b92851c1a689a6dbb/Critical-Pedagogy-Imperiled-as-Neoliberalism-Marketization-and-Audit-Culture-Become-the-Academy.pdf), social justice, activism, and participatory democracy. Dr. Spooner (https://www.uregina.ca/education/directory/faculty/spooner-marc.html) has published extensively across academic and public forums. He is co-editor, with James McNinch (https://uofrpress.ca/Contributors/M/McNinch-James), of the award-winning Dissident Knowledge in Higher Education (https://uofrpress.ca/Books/D/Dissident-Knowledge-in-Higher-Education) (2018) and the recently published Knowledge Under Siege: Charting a Future for Universities (https://uofrpress.ca/Books/K/Knowledge-Under-Siege) (2026), both published by University of Regina Press (https://uofrpress.ca/). Our conversation begins with Dr. Spooner (https://www.uregina.ca/education/directory/faculty/spooner-marc.html)’s formative experiences in teacher education, graduate studies, student governance, and political activism at the University of Ottawa (https://www.uottawa.ca/en), where he learned to connect critical theory with collective action. We discuss the role of universities in sustaining democratic societies, the importance of academic freedom, tenure, union advocacy, and community-engaged scholarship, and the growing pressures of chronic underfunding, performance-based funding, political intervention, and corporate managerialism. Drawing on Knowledge Under Siege (https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/audio/9.7162060), we consider how universities have historically reproduced colonialism, exclusion, and institutional inequalities while also providing spaces for resistance, intellectual freedom, and social transformation. Dr. Spooner also reflects on the expanding influence of private consultants in reshaping higher education and the importance of Indigenous and decolonial knowledges, public engagement, and collective advocacy in imagining more equitable futures for universities. Throughout our conversation, we return to a central question: What are universities for, and how might we reimagine their responsibilities toward democracy, social justice, and the public good? Listeners can access the free, open-access PDF of Knowledge Under Siege: Charting a Future for Universities (https://uofrpress.ca/Books/K/Knowledge-Under-Siege) through University of Regina Press and CBC Ideas podcast episode (https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/audio/9.7162060).

2. 

   3 Sept 2026

   Dr. Lucy Delgado

   In Episode 74, Dr. Nicholas Ng-A-Fook (https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/members/653) hosts Dr. Lucy Delgado (https://umanitoba.ca/education/lucy-delgado) (she/they), Canada Research Chair in Michif and Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer Education as Wellness  (https://ldelgado.com/)and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education (https://umanitoba.ca/education/) at the University of Manitoba (https://umanitoba.ca/). Dr. Delgado  (https://metisthinkers.com/about/lucy-delgado/)is a Two-Spirit Métis woman, born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and a citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation. Her family includes Sinclairs, Cummings, and Prudens, some of whom took scrip in St Andrews and St Johns, as well as family and ancestors from Red River, Oxford House, and Norway House, adopted family from Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, and settler family from Ireland and the Orkney Islands. Dr. Delgado is also a community organizer involved in local and national initiatives and is actively involved with the Two-Spirit Michif Local of the Manitoba Métis Federation. In this conversation, we discussed the importance of self-location in research, nation-specific Métis scholarship (https://cjis.uwinnipeg.ca/index.php/CJIS/article/view/3), Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer inclusion (https://ices.library.ubc.ca/index.php/criticaled/article/view/186756), community connection, genealogy, racialization, curriculum policy (https://pawaatamihk.uwinnipeg.ca/index.php/Pawaatamihk/article/view/134), and treaty relationships. Dr. Delgado also reflects on the creation of Pawaatamihk: Journal of Métis Thinkers (https://pawaatamihk.uwinnipeg.ca/index.php/Pawaatamihk), an open-access journal dedicated to uplifting the voices of Métis auntie scholars, artists, and community members, as well as Mawachihitotaak (https://www.mawachihitotaak.com/) and the development of Métis-specific (https://cje-rce.ca/index.php/cje-rce/article/view/7485) scholarly networks (https://metisthinkers.com/) that create spaces (https://esj.usask.ca/index.php/esj/article/view/70878) for mentorship, relationship building, and knowledge mobilization.

3. 

   20 May 2026

   Dr. Matthew Keynes and Dr. James Miles

   In Episode 72, Dr. Nicholas Ng-A-Fook (https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/members/653) hosts Dr. James Miles (https://apps.ualberta.ca/directory/person/jamiles#Overview) and Dr. Matthew Keynes (https://matthewrkeynes.com/about/) to discuss their new co-authored book, Education and Historical Justice: Redress, Reparations, and Reconciliation in the Classroom (https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/education-and-historical-justice-9781350470231/). Drawing on comparative case studies from Canada, Australia, Northern Ireland, and South Africa, their scholarship examines how education systems, teachers, and students are increasingly being called upon to respond to histories of harm, violence, colonialism, and injustice within what they describe as an emerging “age of apology.” Our conversation explores difficult histories, truth and reconciliation, historical consciousness, collective responsibility, and the tensions surrounding historical justice education in liberal democratic settler states. Dr. Miles (https://apps.ualberta.ca/directory/person/jamiles#Overview) and Dr. Keynes (https://matthewrkeynes.com/about/) reflect on their respective journeys through history education research in Canada and Australia, their collaborative writing process during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the challenges of thinking beyond simplified narratives of guilt, empathy, and reconciliation. We also discuss contemporary struggles over curriculum politics, residential school denialism, public memory, redress, reparations, transitional justice, and the possibilities and limitations of history education in confronting misinformation, settler colonial violence, and democratic uncertainty.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

5 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 26 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

39

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

32