There are things we simply can’t shrug off. Provoking art, controversial books, compelling films or disarming news. In this monthly series at the intersection of culture and social justice, we scratch away at those things that get under our skin.
About the producer: Viviana is an Italian-Canadian lecturer and artivist based in Berlin.
Colonialism: When The Medium is an Uncomfortable Message
Apocalyptic. Catastrophic. Unconscionable. It’s not a movie. It’s Gaza. Or rather, it’s the headlines about Gaza. We’ve read these words so many times that they don’t mean anything anymore. From the numbing effect of clichés and archetypes in McLuhan’s electric age to T.S. Eliot’s poetry, this episode uncovers the truth behind media bias and colonialism.
25 Oct 2024
No Logo No More: The Lost Generation of Anti-capitalists
What happened to my generation? Where are the purpose-driven Millennials when we need them the most? As the BDS movement (boycott, divest, sanction) keeps expanding, I am left questioning if the no-logo movement captured by Naomi Klein in her homonymous book in1999 has completely lost its plot. In this episode, I revisit some iconic work by William Gibson, Douglas Coupland and Naomi Klein and reflect on our need to re-learn what we’ve forgotten.
15 Sept 2024
Toronto the good, the bad and the unjust
Once upon a time, there was a city I used to love. ”Toronto the good,” as it was nicknamed during the Victorian era, now looks more to me like Toronto the bad. From the poetry and paintings of the Group of Seven’s catalyst, Lawren Harris, we revisit an urbanization process that has been slowly erasing a long history of diversity and equality.
31 May 2024
Novels, Empathy and Escapism: a Quiet Revolution
Ditch your non-fiction books for a while and get lost in a made-up story. From the Theory of Mind to Feminism and hidden revolutions, in this episode we explore how novels hold the key to understanding reality--or escaping it.
17 May 2024
New York, a place in the mind
"Robot Dreams" is a cinematic love letter to a glorious 1980s New York. In this episode, inspired by the film, I explore my nostalgia for a pre 9/11 world, the role of cities in Italo Calvino and the poetics of places of Gaston Bachelard.
6 May 2024
The sound of silence and other myths
Does silence actually exist? Or is it filled with frequencies that are supposed to alert us to the reality around us? In this episode, we look at the role of sound in social contexts, from Nazism to John Kennedy assassination and mindful meditation. Original music by Viviana Laperchia.
25 Apr 2024
Women, social justice and all that jazz
Have you ever wondered if your higher sense of justice is a personality trait or a symptom? Are women more prone to be neurodivergent or just more sensitive? In this episode, we're looking at Emily Dickinson's poetry and Billie Holiday's singing* to find an answer.
*For commentary purposes, this episode contains an audio sample of "Strange Fruit" performed by Billie Holiday in 1939, freely available under Wikipedia
15 Apr 2024
Tell me where you’re from (and I’ll pretend I know what it’s like)
Can we ever really experience migrants' struggle to be able to care for them? Or are we playing with cultural appropriation? A brief journey through migration and colonialism, arts and politics on both sides of the ocean.
8 Apr 2024
The importance of (having a) voice.
If we are what we say, then there's never been better time than now to have a voice. From Edgar Allan Poe's ventriloquism to Noam Chomsky's theory of language acquisition, I comb through my university memories to understand today's silence on Gaza.
27 Feb 2024
What’s this all about?
Big breath, and... Let's get started! Here's a sneak peek of what you can expect from this podcast. A journey to uncover things that need to be talked about. News, films, books, art that get under our skin and keep us up at night.
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