A weekly radio program about people, the society in which we live, and issues related to health and wellness. Broadcast live on Thursdays at noon, and rebroadcast Mondays at noon, on CHLY 101.7 FM. Also streaming online at chly.ca.
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People First Radio is an initiative of Columbian Centre Society in partnership with Radio Malaspina Society. The opinions expressed on-air are not necessarily those of these organizations. The contents of website links provided below are for information only and should not be considered as recommendations or endorsements.
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Listen to PFR segments from April, May, and June, 2010.
Listen to People First Radio segments from January, February, and March, 2010.
A closer look at addiction...
Addiction's Hungry Ghosts: Dr. Gabor Mate on the dynamics of addiction and society's response
August 26, 2010
Physician, author, and advocate Gabor Mate visited Nanaimo in late 2008 to speak about his book, "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction." His work in Vancouver includes the Insite supervised injection site.
We spoke with Dr. Gabor Mate about 12-step programs, ecological perspectives, society's responsibility and other topics, in an interview first broadcast December 4, 2008.
LISTEN PART ONE (12:41) PART TWO (11:30)
True nature of addiction: It's a chronic, treatable disease, but stigma remains
August 26, 2010
During the spring of 2009 the British Columbia Medical Association released a policy paper calling for a full continuum of care for addictions in the province. The paper also recommended that addiction be officially recognized by the provincial government as a chronic and treatable disease. We spoke with Dr. Shao-Hua Lu, the paper's lead author and chair of BCMA's Council on Health Promotion, in an interview first broadcast on April 2, 2009.
LISTEN (15:39)
Lawrence Scanlan spent a year exploring big questions about doing good
August 5, 2010
Can one person make a difference? When we write a cheque to a charity or volunteer at a food bank we're part of the solution--aren't we? Author Lawrence Scanlan went looking for answers to those questions. He selected twelve different charitable organizations and spent a month in each. What he discovered during his year-long odyssey was the new face of philanthropy, its players, its politics, its undeniable satisfactions and its fundamental perils. We spoke with Lawrence Scanlan about his book, "A Year of Living Generously."
LISTEN (17:27)
Tulani Ackerman's cross-B.C. trek nears a destination point, but will Victoria listen?
August 5, 2010
On July 1, 2010, a group called "StEps for Students" hit the road to walk and bike throughout British Columbia in an effort to gather stories and ideas about challenges faced by the provincial education system. The goal is to promote communication between students, parents, teachers, administrators, community members, and the provincial government. We first spoke with Prince Rupert teacher Tulani Ackerman, who founded "StEps for Students" on July 1, the day she began her cross-B.C. travel. We caught up with Tulani in Chilliwack, B.C., to discover what she's learned from students and communities along the way.
LISTEN (11:07)
RELATED Listen to our July 1, 2010 interview with Tulani (11:32)
Jacqueline Windh's year-long project to let First Nations kids speak about their lives
July 29, 2010
A series of articles called "Native Youth Speak Out" is being presented online at The Tyee.ca. A year in the making, the series was written by writer/photographer/broadcaster Jacqueline Windh of Tofino, on Vancouver Island. Jacqueline spoke with 14 First Nations teenagers from various corners of British Columbia, providing an opportunity for them to share their views on school, alcohol and drugs, family, culture and language. We spoke with Jacqueline Windh about the series.
LISTEN (14:36)
Nanaimo Community Gardens moves forward with new projects despite some gleaning challenges
July 29, 2010
Nanaimo has an abundance of fruits and vegetables growing in backyards and fields throughout the region. Often gardeners and farmers grow more than they can use or share and the surplus goes to waste. Nanaimo Community Gardens works to help respond to hunger and poverty in the community by coordinating gleaning efforts to share food that would otherwise go unused. Gleaning has faced challenges this year, for a number of reasons, but new projects have also been added to community gardening efforts in the Nanaimo region. We were joined in the studio by Lee Sanmiya, who is the gleaning program coordinator at Nanaimo Community Gardens, and by Stein Johnson, a CHLY radio volunteer who initiated a chili pepper plant awareness project in downtown Nanaimo.
LISTEN (13:50)
Terry Richardson was formerly Corrections Canada's top prison chaplain, but he's now a pastor at Nanaimo's Hope Lutheran Church
July 29, 2010
Rev. Terry Richardson was installed as the new pastor at Nanaimo's Hope Lutheran Church earlier this year. Before taking up his position, he was director-general for chaplaincy and restorative justice with Corrections Canada, where he oversaw the activities of 120 prison chaplains across Canada. After relocating to Nanaimo, Rev. Richardson told The Nanaimo Daily News that he wouldn't soon forget the troubled men he had helped and who, at times, had helped him in return. We spoke with Terry Richardson about his prison ministry, the attitudes and beliefs held by society about criminals and prisons, and about his new ministry in Nanaimo, in an interview first broadcast on People First Radio March 25, 2010.
LISTEN (14:27)
International AIDS conference calls for a focus on the human rights of people affected by HIV
July 22, 2010
AIDS 2010, the International Conference on AIDS that is underway this week in Vienna, Austria, highlights the critical connection between human rights and HIV--a dialogue begun in earnest during a similar conference in Mexico City in 2008. AIDS 2010 coincides with a major international push for expanded access to HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support. We spoke with Heidi Exner, manager of health promotion and community development at AIDS Vancouver Island, for some local and regional perspective on this. We also heard the presentation "People Who Use Drugs, HIV, and Human Rights", given by Ralf Jurgens, a Canadian AIDS activist and researcher, at the Vienna conference on Tuesday July 20.
LISTEN (20:14)
Related: Dr. Julio Montaner opening remarks [opens to PDF].
Image: Opening press conference at the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna. Julio Montaner (left) is the current president of the International AIDS Society. By IAS/Steve Forrest/Workers' Photos
Filmmaker and activist explore psychiatry's impact on their lives
July 22, 2010
Vancouver filmmaker Cindy Lou Griffith's relationship with psychiatry started even before she was born. Her father had been committed to Riverview mental hospital as a young man and continued to be sent there for the next 30-plus years. But treatments of electroshock therapy and harsh medications didn't do much to help him. Cindy Lou has explored the impact of psychiatry on her father and others who have been part of the psychiatric system in a series of films. One of the people Cindy Lou Griffith documents is author and anti-psychiatry activist Irit Shimrat. Tiffany Chong recently spoke with Cindy Lou Griffith and Irit Shimrat in an interview first broadcast on Stark Raven, a radio program devoted to prison justice issues. We rebroadcast the interview.
LISTEN (31:10) Opens directly to a rabble.ca podcast; this is a large file.
Image of Irit Shimrat from the Thursday Poems and Prose website.
Harewood students take computer animation, job skills training in week-long camps
July 15, 2010
From computer animation skills development for ages 11-15 to week-long job certification training for high school students, Harewood youth have been attending summer camps designed to open doors to skilled jobs and to help in taking steps to address high rates of poverty in the community. The camps are presented by Nanaimo District Secondary Community Schools. We spoke with Jim MacGregor, who is the Nanaimo District Secondary Community School coordinator.
LISTEN (17:41)
Image: Harewood students attend a fire safety training session based on the BullEx Laser/Infra-Red training system.
International declaration calls on governments to base response to illicit drugs on facts
July 15, 2010
The Vienna Declaration is the official declaration of the 18th International AIDS Conference taking place in Vienna, Austria from July 18 to 23. The Declaration describes the known harms and failures of the conventional "war on drugs" approaches and their overwhelmingly negative health and social consequences. The Vienna Declaration calls on governments and international organizations to make a number of changes including the implementation and evaluation of a science-based public health approach to address the harms stemming from illicit drug use. We spoke with Dr. Evan Wood, founder of the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy and clinical associate professor at the University of British Columbia, who led the writing of the Declaration.
LISTEN (13:37)
Image of Dr. Evan Wood by Martin Dee, University of British Columbia
Nicole Culos-Reed's research shows that yoga is helpful to the survivors of breast cancer
July 15, 2010
Recent research has found that the practice of hatha yoga has had a positive impact on the psychological health of women who have survived breast cancer. The 2005 study was conducted by researchers, led by kinesiology professor Dr. Nicole Culos-Reed, associated with the University of Calgary. Since that time an initiative called YogaThrive, a community-based program created specifically for cancer survivors, has become more available across Canada and the U.S. The intent is to translate successful research findings into community programs. We spoke with Nicole Culos-Reed, an associate professor at University of Calgary.
LISTEN (9:34)
Amnesty International report states Canada has not adequately protected Aboriginal rights
July 08, 2010
Amnesty International's recent report on the state of the world's human rights notes that Canada has failed to adequately protect the rights of its Aboriginal peoples. Among several issues, Amnesty points to the prevalence of violence against Aboriginal women in Canada and the lack of a plan to address it. It also says the government is making baseless claims that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples doesn't apply to Canada. Growing support around the world for the U.N. declaration is mentioned as a positive international development in Amnesty's report, but the Canadian government has not yet endorsed the declaration. We spoke with Craig Benjamin of Amnesty International Canada.
LISTEN (18:02)
Image: "Indigenous resistance is growing in Canada." Activstilles, from the Toronto Media Co-Op website.
Anti-psychiatry activists respond to media reports that use of E.C.T. is increasing
July 08, 2010
The Canadian Psychiatric Association recently issued its first position paper since 1992 on electroconvulsive therapy (E.C.T.), saying that it should remain readily available as a treatment option. The position paper was followed by a major article carried by Canwest newspapers, suggesting that electroshock therapy is experiencing a comeback in Canada. Activists and groups, such as Mind Freedom International, are alarmed by the position paper. Canadian anti-psychiatry activist Bonnie Burstow says that, at a minimum, E.C.T. should be phased out due to its documented harms. We spoke with Bonnie Burstow, co-founder of the Coalition Against Psychiatric Assault and with Sue Clark-Wittenberg, an electroshock survivor who was subjected to forced E.C.T. at Ontario's Brockville psychiatric hospital in 1973.
LISTEN (13:42)
Image: The Elmwood Players, in Christchurch, New Zealand, stage One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Used with permission.
Robert Whitaker updates "Mad in America", the revealing history of psychiatric treatment
July 08, 2010
In Robert Whitaker's book "Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill", the award-winning author "bears moral witness to the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people abused, tortured and damaged by the psychiatric establishment". The book is a history of the treatment of the severely mentally ill in the United States from colonial times to today. It may surprise readers who assume that the modern psychopharmacology era has "revolutionized" the care of the severely mentally ill. The second edition of "Mad in America" has just been published. We spoke with author Robert Whitaker.
LISTEN (20:13)
Tulani Ackerman increases discussion about the needs of children, youth, and education
July 01, 2010
On July 1st, 2010, StEps for Students hit the road to walk and bike throughout British Columbia in an effort to gather stories and ideas about challenges faced by the provincial education system. The goal is to promote communication between students, parents, teachers, administrators, community members, and the provincial government. We spoke with Prince Rupert teacher Tulani Ackerman, the founder of StEps for Students, who began her cross-B.C. travel July 1st.
LISTEN (11:32)
Simon Walls continues his cross-Canada pilgrimage of self-discovery and sharing
July 01, 2010
Singer-songwriter Simon Walls' travels began shortly after the loss of a close friend to suicide. Simon spent seven months volunteering with Canada's Katimavik program and then walked across Spain, accompanied by the book "The Pilgrimage" by Paulo Coehlo. In April 2010 Simon left Victoria, B.C., on what is a cross-Canada walk to share his music and experiences. We spoke with Simon Walls as he approached Regina, Saskatchewan, and asked him about the experiences his trek is bringing him.
LISTEN (17:03) includes the single, "Things I will Give Up"
LISTEN (16:28) We spoke with Simon on April 22, 2010, as he passed through Nanaimo after leaving Victoria, B.C. Includes an acoustic set.
Marika Swan on the Redwire Native Youth Media Collective
July 01, 2010
Redwire Native Youth Media has provided a space for Aboriginal youth to discuss challenging and controversial issues that other publications avoid. Marika Swan, a member of the Tla-o-qui-aht Nation on Vancouver Island's west coast, and editor of Redwire, spoke recently about building hope in hopeless times, Redwire Magazine, and alternative media. Marika's talk was part of a panel held in celebration of Vancouver Co-Op Radio's 35th Anniversary on April 23, 2010. We shared Marika Swan's talk on our July 1, 2010 broadcast of People First Radio.
LISTEN (11:06)
Listen to PFR segments from April, May, and June, 2010.
Listen to People First Radio segments from January, February, and March, 2010.
Please note that Listen Again files are updated each week and generally offer opportunities to access live interviews from the previous several months.
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WEEKLY E-NEWSLETTER
Each week (usually on Wednesday morning) we send out an email newsletter with news and information for our listeners and other interested individuals and organizations. The e-newlsetter includes a rich blend of information and news links to stories related to mental health, addiction, and homelessness issues. It also describes what we’re planning for each week’s live broadcast.
If you enjoy using the web for information and would like to receive our weekly People First e-newsletter, contact us
LIVE BROADCAST
People First Radio is a weekly live radio program broadcast on FM radio in
Listen Thursday at noon (Pacific Time) for our live one hour program focusing on people, the society in which we live, and issues related to health and wellness, including mental illness, addiction, and homelessness. The program is rebroadcast on Mondays at noon. It will be podcast soon.
ABOUT
In November of 2007 Columbian Centre Society of Nanaimo, B.C. launched a new public education initiative designed to educate the public and raise awareness of the issues associated with mental illness, addiction, and homelessness. People First Radio went on the air November 22nd with its first weekly broadcast on
The program has since provided weekly one-hour live broadcasts including in-studio and telephone guests and re-broadcasts of interviews and news clips from nonprofit, community, and public broadcasting around the world. Over time, a weekly email enewsletter has been included, announcing the Thursday live broadcast content and also providing an extensive list of newspaper and online news headline hyperlinks and local event information. The People First Radio broadcast, in a general sense, can be described as "a program about people, the society in which we live, and issues related to health and wellness."
“We wanted to offer public education in a unique way to the community...and radio has provided a doorway for us into both broadcast and webcast worlds,” said Tom Grauman, Columbian Centre executive director. Jan Coleman, a former CCS staff member and board member, co-hosts the program and promotes it by word of mouth in the community. “I have been approached again and again by individuals in the community who have heard the program and have not only praise for what is being accomplished in the broadcast, but also feedback for what is most interesting, most appreciated, and most striking.”
In November 2009, after two years of continuous weekly broadcasts, People First Radio was given an award for "Innovative Community Capacity Building" by the British Columbia Healthy Living Alliance. People First Radio was one of twelve non-profit projects across Vancouver Island that were selected based on their ability to inspire communities to take action to identify and meet their own unique needs.
People First Radio was inspired by a handful of similar community radio initiatives around the world, including Radio La Colifata (“Crazy Radio” in
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