Dr. Angela Kaida is a Simon Fraser University Distinguished Professor and the Scientific Director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute for Gender and Health. Dr. Kaida’s research interests pertain to understanding the impact of expanding access to HIV treatment and prevention services on sexual and reproductive intentions, behaviours, and outcomes of HIV-affected individuals and couples in high HIV prevalence global settings and in Canada. You can read some of her work here. Angela talks about what it meant to practice allyship in contexts of stigma, in all areas of life and specifically throughout the research process. We talk about gender differences in HIV stigma, the challenges getting rid of stigma even while we make biomedical advances,  and steps for us all to take in becoming aware of and working to dismantle stigma and inequity. She  discusses recommendations for advancing sexual and reproductive health among women living with HIV in Canada that centre on creating enabling environments that amplify the voices of women in their diversity and challenge stigma and marginalization. We also learn about Angela's inspiring namesake.Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

Kim Canady is an HIV/AIDS activist, advocate, mother, and wife born with HIV. Throughout her adolescence, Kimberly became a member of many HIV/AIDS awareness organizations. These organizations include Theo, Heat, UNICEF, YWCHAC, co-chair of YACAC, spokesmodel for New York State Department of Health campaign HIVSTOPSWITHME, and Love Heals. As an African American woman born and raised in Brooklyn, Kimberly faced having to combat the ignorance and stigma that surround HIV and AIDS within her community. Kimberly continues to move forward, not only educating others and living in her truth, but working locally and on a national and global level to help those living with and affected by HIV. Kim is a community advisory board member for The Well Project and her work advances pleasure as a human right and aspect of justice.In this podcast we talk about the ways that HIV stigma still arises in day-to-day living, the importance of experiencing pleasure in all aspects of life (including and expanding beyond sexual pleasure), and ways to make the uncomfortable-comfortable (and the incredible superpower from talking about difficult things).Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

Bridgette Picou is a nurse with several years of HIV and infectious disease experience and an avid blogger with The Well Project. She also writes a guest column with Positively Aware Magazine called "Being Bridgette." In addition to her LVN license, Bridgette has been certified as an AIDS Care Nurse (ACLPN) and received the 2022 Patrick Kenny Certified Nurse of the year award. Serving as the President of the Greater Palm Springs Chapter of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (ANAC), it's important to her to not only continue to build relationships between providers and patients but also partner with other members of the HIV medical community for education and advances. She finds that in advocating for others she advocates for herself and affirms her own journey. You can also find her on Twitter.In this podcast we discuss Bridgette's journey and advocacy to thrive with HIV. We talk about the need to better understand the lives of women living with HIV--in particular Black women-- whose voices are often missing from research and media. Bridgette explains the importance of seeing HIV as a LIFE (vs. a disease) process and encourages us all to educate ourselves and learn more about HIV (see The Well Project for up to date info). She  recommends that we all get tested to know our HIV status, and perhaps become humbled to the experiences of stigma in the process. Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

Ciarra “Ci Ci” Covin is a mother, advocate, and lover of all human beings. Diagnosed with HIV at the age of 20, Ci Ci has curated a life of HIV and mental advocacy through both her lived experience and education. Ci Ci is program manager at The Well Project, past Ambassador for the CDC’s Let’s Stop HIV Together Campaign, and Owner of Healing Is Voluntary, LLC. In these roles, Ci Ci has been able to connect with other leaders from around the world to further the mission of destigmatizing HIV and providing a community for women who are living with HIV. Learn more about HIV and the work at The Well Project here and follow them on Twitter.  Check out Ci Ci's A Girl Like Me series.In this podcast we talk about the persistence of HIV stigma in society and how it affects self-stigma and self-acceptance, advances with U=U, breastfeeding and HIV, and how people living with HIV are still human, with the same desires that might just look a little different. Ci Ci shares simple and powerful ways we can all challenge HIV stigma.Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

Chelsea Wald has repeatedly plunged into the topic of toilets since 2013, when editors first approached her to write about the latent potential in our stagnating infrastructure. Since then she has traveled to Italy, South Africa, Indonesia, and Haiti, as well as throughout the Netherlands and the United States, in search of the past and future of toilet systems. With a degree in astronomy from Columbia University and a master’s in journalism from Indiana University, Chelsea has more than fifteen years of experience in writing about science and the environment. She has won several awards and reporting grants, including from the Society of Environmental Journalists, the European Geosciences Union, and the European Journalism Centre.  She lives with her family in the Netherlands, in a region renowned for its water-related innovations. Her book Pipe Dreams is fascinating- and filled with humour.In this podcast episode, we talk about shame and disgust around toilets; the need for choice and valuing socio-cultural understandings, history, and preferences in developing community sanitation solutions; and the future of the toilet. We also discuss how humour can cut through shame around toilets- and the need to make toilets cooler. Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

Lezlie Lowe began her freelance radio, newspaper, and magazine career in 1996. She has penned and produced pieces on urban rats, roadkill cemeteries and, prominently, public toilets. Lowe has been a finalist and multiple winner at the Radio Television Digital News Association Awards, the Atlantic Journalism Awards, and the Canadian Association of Journalists Awards, and has taught journalism at the University of King's College since 2003. Her first book, No Place To Go: How Public Toilets Fail Our Private Needs  was nominated for two Atlantic Book Awards. Lowe, a failed urban planner, has an abiding interest in equity in public spaces.In this podcast episode, we talk about how stigma shapes the ways in which public toilets are designed (note: usually poorly or not at all), how sanitation needs are universal yet most impact marginalized communities, period poverty, and why there are always lines for women's toilets.Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

Dr. Caetano Dorea is a Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, at the University of Victoria. His interests and expertise are at the crossroads of environmental and public health engineering. You can learn more about his Public Health & Environmental Engineering (PH2E) Lab research here, his publications here, and follow him on Twitter here. We talk about the stigma around sanitation-and in particular 'shit'-and the 'flush and forget' culture. Caetano discusses the stigma experienced by sanitation workers, how sanitation services and water treatment are being reframed to show their value,  gendered sanitation needs and experiences, and how sanitation systems must address the needs of the most marginalized (and the relevance of Paul Farmer's teachings), and how we need to transform (and learn more about!) these sanitation systems we use every day. And the importance of toilet humour!Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

Professor David J. Brennan is the Associate Dean, Research at Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto. He is the founder and director of the CRUISElab, an interdisciplinary, community-based social work research lab dedicated to addressing the sexual, mental, physical, and emotional health of gay, bisexual, two-spirit, cis- and trans-gender men who have sex with other men (GB2M). Dr. Brennan has been directly involved in the HIV epidemic since 1983 in many social work roles, including case manager, clinical supervisor, psychotherapist, program manager, and researcher. Learn more about his research here and follow him on Twitter here.In this podcast we talk about the history of HIV stigma as well as stigma towards GB2M. We talk about what this stigma looks like in a day-to-day experience of getting dressed and walking down the street, as well as how it can be embedded in policies and practices. Using current examples of the recent changes in eligibility of GB2M in donating blood in Canada, and discourse around Monkeypox, David reminds us of how we can all engage in challenging stigma.Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

Dr. Steffanie Strathdee is Associate Dean of Global Health Sciences and Harold Simon Distinguished Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine. She co-directs UCSD’s new center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics (IPATH), Global Health Institute and the International Core of UCSD’s Center for AIDS Research. An infectious disease epidemiologist, she has spent the last two decades focusing on HIV prevention in marginalized populations and has published over 600 peer-reviewed publications. She has recently begun working to move bacteriophage therapy into clinical trials at IPATH. She has co-authored her memoir, The Perfect Predator: A Scientist's Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug. In this podcast we talk about Dr. Strathdee's experiences learning about bacteriophage (phage) therapy treatment through a personal experience where her husband became extremely ill from antimicrobial resistant bacteria. She learned that stigma in part was how phage therapy had become forgotten in North America--stigma toward scientists with different beliefs and training than the mainstream, stigma toward viruses that maybe perceived "at the borderline of life", and stigma toward research based on geopolitics (including the "Russian taint"). Steffanie inspires listeners with her discussion of the power of global collaboration, advocacy in healthcare, and the importance of making (rather than waiting for) miracles to happen. Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

As a community organizer, artist, activist, academic and at times a “professional”, Jessica Lynn Whitbread is interested in doing work that creates spaces for dialogue about social justice and social change. She does this through public installations, consciousness raising, workshop development and facilitation, engaging in direct action, policy review, research and any other method that allows a variety of stakeholders to engage in a diversity of ways. She believes that acts of kindness are stronger than acts of fear and that strong, united hearts can overcome the inequalities of this world. Jessica was the youngest and first queer woman to be elected as the Global Chair for the International Community of Women Living with HIV – ICW (2012), the founder of the first International Chapter of Young Women, Adolescents and Girls living with HIV (2010) as well as a long standing Steering Committee member for AIDS ACTION NOW!, and a Board member of the Canadian HIV Legal Network.  Learn more about Jessica here In this podcast we speak with the legendary Jessica Lynn Whitbread, whose projects include Tea Time, Love Positive Women, No Pants No Problem, and PosterVIRUS (AIDS ACTION NOW!). Jessica discusses how we can all engage in action and work for social change to improve the lives of women living with HIV. To learn more about how you can participate in, and contribute to, LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN: Romance Starts at Home! (LPW) visit here and check out this LPW implementation guide by WHAI. Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

Sabby Duthie and John E. Johnson are authors of 'Elder Abuse: You have a role to play'.  This first-of-its-kind book undertakes the uncomfortable conversation that elder abuse is widespread and very real. John E. Johnson, a retired lawyer, and Sabby Duthie, a former retirement-home owner, share real stories from families of different generations and backgrounds.In this podcast, we discuss elder abuse and how stigma toward the elderly can fuel elder abuse and create a lack of awareness surrounding this issue. Sabby and John provide examples of the ways in which people can value the elderly, notice important signs of elder abuse, and be part of creating change.Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

Annie Philpott is a public health professional, pleasure propagandist and ‘guerrilla girl’ of HIV prevention. She founded The Pleasure Project in 2004,  an international education and advocacy organization working to eroticize safer sex. The Pleasure Project builds bridges between the public health world and the pleasure and sex industry, and help to develop the evidence base for a sex-positive and pleasure-based approach to sexual health and rights. You can read more about her work here and follow The Pleasure Project on Twitter here. We talk about The Pleasure Project's important work in entering sexual pleasure as key to sexual rights and sexual health, and the ways that certain sex is more stigmatized than others. Annie talks about the exciting projects that The Pleasure Project is doing to put the sexy into safer sex, the importance of pleasure inclusive sexual health, and the pleasure wave.  Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

Dr. Keosha T. Bond is an Assistant Medical Professor in the Department of Community Health and Social Medicine at the CUNY School of Medicine.  She is a trained behavioral scientist and sexual health educator who has centered her work on the complex intersections of race, sexuality, social justice, and health equity among individuals of marginalized genders. You can learn more about her research here, and follow her on twitter here.We talk about Keosha's work on the intersection of gender and race, and the ways that bias, stereotypes, laws and health practices impact the ability of Black women to live healthy and quality lives. We also discuss the stigma surrounding sex, and how this gets in the way of sexual and reproductive health care and safer sex. Keosha describes the multiple ways people can be part of reducing stigma and bias, including learning about histories and continued legacies of racism and becoming comfortable talking about sex.Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

Associate Professor Steve Bell is a Principal Research Fellow in the UQ Poche Centre for Indigenous Health at the University of Queensland. He is an applied health and social researcher with 20 years’ experience of qualitative, participatory and ethnographic research on sexual, reproductive and maternal health, HIV and other infectious diseases. He is currently working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in remote, regional and urban settings across Australia, and excluded and oppressed communities in Asia and the Pacific (Indonesia and Papua New Guinea), and has undertaken previous work in countries in Africa (Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe) and Asia (India and Nepal). Find his new book here and follow him on Twitter.We talk about the importance of community expertise and leadership in research, youth-centred research, and recognizing the solutions and agency within persons experiencing social exclusion. Steve calls for empathy and action to reduce stigma and inequity.Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

Calvin Hudson Hwang is an award winning Taiwanese Canadian director, producer and founder of SUPRE.  SUPRE aims to empower underpowered voices and present  often unheard points-of-view with insight, vulnerability and authenticity. They find unconventional ways to produce films to make them openly accessible for everyone to watch. Calvin's directorial work includes What Flowers They Bloom (2021), Miracle, Baby (2019), Exiting Hell Bar (2017), My Best Dress (2013), and Vestiaire (2011). You can follow SUPRE on Twitter here. In this podcast we talk about Calvin's new documentary 'What Flowers They Bloom' (2021) on anti-Asian racism and COVID-19. Calvin discusses the importance of addressing both disinformation as well as pre-existing stigma, discrimination and bias toward Asian communities that has been amplified in the pandemic. What Flowers They Bloom explores the trauma created by anti-Asian racism, as well as the importance of solidarity and community in fighting back against this stigma. Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

Laura Ferguson is an assistant professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California, the director of the Program on Global Health & Human Rights and the director of research at the USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health. Her research focuses on understanding and addressing health system and societal factors affecting health and the uptake of health services, as well as how attention to human rights can improve health outcomes. She collaborates with a range of United Nations agencies as well as foundations, universities and non-governmental organizations. She is also an associate editor for the journal Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters. Learn more about her research here and follow her on Twitter.We talk about the social and structural forces that cause harm, such as laws and policies that criminalize sex work and same-sex sexual practices, that limit rights and produce barriers to health care access. Laura shares her experience working on changing these social and structural contexts of discrimination, including engaging judges in conversations with persons who are negatively impacted by laws. Laura details actions everyone can take to create a more just world. Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

Elder Valerie Nicholson, of Mi’kmaq, Haida, Gypsy and English descent, is a storyteller and researcher, an advocate and an artivist.  She works at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS as a co-principal investigator and community-based researcher, and brings her knowledge back to her communities. She is an HIV Older for the Weaving Our Wisdom (WOW) study, and actively works with the Canadian Coalition to Reform the Criminalization of HIV and the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network. She is an Elder for Camp Moomba, YouthCo , First Directions and Yuusnewas. In 2018 Elder Valerie received the CAHR Red Ribbon Researchers Award and in 2019 the CANFAR Excellence in Research Award. You can follow her on Twitter.Elder Valerie is a change warrior and stigma slayer. She discusses the importance of language in breaking down stigma and in empowerment, and discusses the stigma experienced by Indigenous peoples, people living with HIV, and people who use drugs (and those at the intersection of these experiences). Elder Valerie invites persons to self-educate and then have conversations with people with lived experience.  She discusses the importance of focusing on positive healthy actions (rather than interventions) and opening up mind, body, heart and spirit. Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

Dr. Ayden Scheim is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health. He is also an Affiliate Scientist in the Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation and Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St. Michael’s Hospital (Toronto) and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Western University. He studies the impacts of social, policy, and healthcare environments on the health of stigmatized populations. In particular, he conducts community-engaged research with transgender populations and people who use drugs, both domestically and globally. You can learn more about his research here and follow him on Twitter.Dr. Scheim discusses the varying ways that stigma and discrimination toward trans persons, persons who use drugs, and racialized persons show up to shape the everyday lives of people in ways that challenge basic humanity and harm health.  We discuss the backlash following progress on human rights. Ayden shares how everybody has a role in reducing stigma, providing practical tips for engaging in personal reflection and growth, community engagement, political activism and shifting our interpersonal interactions.  Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

Dr Nitika Pant Pai is Associate Professor at McGill University’s Department of Medicine, Division of Clinical Epidemiology and a Physician Scientist at the MUHC Research Institute. She has been working in diagnostics for 20 years in the United States, Canada, South Africa, and India, with a focus on point of care diagnostics for HIV, Hepatitis C, Hepatitis B, HPV, and bacterial sexually transmitted infections. She develops and incorporates digital innovations, implementation science, Bayesian diagnostics, and artificial intelligence to generate innovative digital diagnostic solutions to plug health service delivery gaps in diagnostics. In 2015, she founded a social enterprise, Sympact-X, funded by the Government of Canada, to take her innovations to scale, for social impact, both nationally and internationally. Her website is nitikapantpai.com.In this podcast we talk about Nitika's journey to becoming an epidemiologist, Gandhian philosophy, and her experiences as a 'disruptor' entrepreneur. Nitika describes how diagnostics can take people from the unknown to the known, and the ways in which stigma surrounding HIV and tuberculosis can play a role in the forefront or the background. We also discuss patriarchy and the need to dismantle inequitable power systems.Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

Dr. Amrita Daftary is an Assistant Professor of Global Health at York University and a social and behavioural global health researcher. Dr. Daftary examines health care seeking and caregiving practices for tuberculosis (TB) and HIV.  Her projects are based in a number of global settings, particularly South Africa, India, and Canada. Learn more about her research here and you can follow her on Twitter.Dr. Daftary discusses TB and how this preventable and curable illness still affects more than 10 million persons each year and 1-2 million die from it. She talks about the fear and stigma that act as both drivers and consequences of TB. TB can affect anybody, but it most impacts communities facing other social inequities such as poverty, overcrowded living conditions, and persons who are undernourished. Her work applies a social justice lens to raise the voice of people living with TB, aligning with the calls rooted in the disability rights slogan 'nothing about us, without us!'Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.