About Tales under the cat tree: Conversations on Imagination, Tech & Human Adventure
From the interactive masterpieces of video games to the turning points of history and the thrills of real-world exploration, our individual realities are defined by the stories we tell.
Every two weeks, Tales under the cat tree explores of the power of imagination and the art of storytelling, whether that's video games or propaganda! Dups (Duleepa Wijayawardhana) is a CTO and really a lifelong geek, and we dive into the mechanics of world-building. Whether that building happens in the code of software, on the tabletop of a roleplaying game, in the pages of literary fiction, or in real life history, every guest brings a new perspective.
Join us for conversations with creators, adventurers, and thinkers as we dissect the narratives that shape our culture and our future. Because ultimately, words create the worlds we live in.
Read more and find full transcripts at https://tales.dups.ca
Ep72: Not lost in translation with Anna-Maija Ihander
How do sex scenes written in English translate into Finnish? Let’s talk to Anna-Maija Ihander about translating fiction to Finnish.
A few years ago, I read one of Finland's most celebrated post-war novels: The Unknown Soldier or Unknown Soldiers by Väinö Linna. The copy I read was a modern translation into English by Dr. Liesl Yamaguchi. As a foreigner living in Finland, I have been told that Finns have regional dialects but it's not something I can make out, certainly I don't know the cultural signficance of each of the dialects and how Finns themselves perceive them. The translator's note at the end specifically talked about how she had translated the conversations and for a native western English speaker, the book rang true.
As a foreigner working in Finland and as a native english speaker working with many nationalities, I question how my tone, choice of words, and choice of expressions map and translate into my colleagues' mental models. At work though, the language I am concerned about is what I would call functional English. What about the much more complicated world of fiction translated into Finnish? In Unknown Soldiers, I had read Finnish fiction translated into English. However, the world of English media vastly outnumbers that of Finnish and in most book stores there is a large variety of English to Finnish translations. With that in mind, I invited Anna-Maija Ihander, a translator of fiction and entertainment, to talk about her experiences.
If words create the worlds we live in, how do these words create worlds in different languages?
Let's find out.
Show notes: https://tales.dups.ca/p/ep72-not-lost-in-translation
14 Sept 2026
Ep71: Are we back to the 1920s? A conversation on German politics in 2026
Recently in Germany, the right-wing party Alternative für Deutschland (AFD) won more votes than any other party in the province of Saxony-Anhalt. In many parts of the world headlines rang that Germany was returning to the days of the 1930s. That's not really the case, but at the same time, it is the case that right-wing and other extreme ideologies are on the rise in western democracies from USA, to France, to Sweden, to Finland.
I sat down for a conversation with my friend, former professor, and collaborator, Dr. Erwin Warkentin, who is living in Berlin as Berlin goes for an election that might swing to the complete opposite of the AFD if polling is to be believed. His point was that we weren't quite back to the 1930s, but much more perhaps to the 1920s.
How did we get here and where are we going if we use history as a teacher?
More show notes: https://tales.dups.ca/p/ep71-1920s-and-german-politics-today
8 Sept 2026
Ep70: Reliving student journalism in the 1990s
What happens when you put hundreds of student journalists in a hotel in the middle of winter somewhere in Canada? We explore the Canadian University Press and student journalism in the 90s with Alayne Armstrong.
Back in the early 1990s we didn't have Google. Most of our news came via mainstream media, whether that was television channels, radio, or newsprint. Cable news was starting to take off. However, that didn't mean that you couldn't have alternative voices. Most campuses in North America had a free student press, funded by newspaper advertising and usually run by the student union.
Canada had something unique. Canada has the oldest student organization in North America and longest running student news service in the world with the Canadian University Press or CUP. The organization was setup in 1938 and continues to today.
When I wrote and edited at Memorial's newspaper The Muse, we were members of CUP and the Atlantic region version, ARCUP. Student and alternative voices were and I believe, still are critical in society. We were not afraid to question the status quo, whatever that might be. We forced conversations whether you liked them or not, and we were a safe space for otherwise silent voices and ideas.
But being part of CUP meant also learning from so many students across Canada. So it's my pleasure to welcome Alayne Armstrong, one of the presidents of CUP. She was president during my 1993-94 year otherwise known as CUP 56.
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