Unsettling Trends

In this episode, host Danielle Deveau interviews Dr. John Milloy, Director of the Centre for Public Ethics at Wilfrid Laurier University. They discuss growing polarization and the state of public and political discourse in Canada. We also feature some research from Kem Laurin-Lubin, a PhD student at the University of Waterloo and a User-Experience Design practitioner.

In this episode, host Danielle Deveau interviews Melissa Bowman, a community advocate and founder of the Citified Substack. They discuss the trends in our communities, as well as some of the ways that everyday citizens can engage to make our communities better. We also feature an excerpt from Melissa Bowman's segment "Stories from Land Back Camp" featuring Amy Smoke. In the second half of this episode, we feature an interview with Dr. Kirsty Robertson, and Associate Professor and the Direct of Museum and Curatorial Studies at Western University. We discuss some of the ways that our cultural institutions such as museums are working to unsettling representation, access, and narratives about art and artifacts.

In this episode, host Danielle Deveau interviews Devon Moriarty, a rhetorician completing her PhD at the University of Waterloo. They discuss the politics of science and how rhetorical moves can sometimes shut down scientific debate and learning. We also dig into the archives and re-broadcast an interview by Dr. Heather Love (Assistant Professor, Dept. of English Language and Literature, University of Waterloo) featuring Dr. Ashley Mehlenbacher (Associate Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, University of Waterloo), currently a Canada Research Chair in Science, Health, and Technology Communication. They discuss Dr. Mehlenbacher's book Science Communication Online: Engaging Experts and Publics on the Internet.

In this episode, host Danielle Deveau interviews Dr. Anindya Sen, a Professor of Economics at the University of Waterloo about statistical trends: how we use them, how we recognize them, and what kind of rhetorical power do they exercise. The we hear from 4 undergraduates at the University of Waterloo about their note-taking habits, in order to understand more about how they think about knowledge in a world where information is instantly available and seemingly limitless.