Presented as part of Climate Change and Other Small Talk — a theatrical podcast series created by Sunny Drake and produced in association with Why Not Theatre and 9 companies around the world. With our partners, The Cultch, the entire podcast series is hosted on RePlay Series online.
With a satirical tone, Core Artist Carmen Aguirre’s episode Rolling Hills, Green Pastures, will probe the US Army’s “going green” initiatives. Esperanza Soto welcomes new recruits to a U.S. drone centre. Run entirely on wind energy, the centre is part of the U.S. Army’s Green Military Movement. One of the drone operators is a climate refugee from Vancouver. What choices will they make when climate refugees attempt to cross the border from Mexico?
Carmen and Justin Podur met on May 29, 2023, at the Cultch to speak about a number of topics around Climate and how we can make changes. The video of that talk will be available on our Youtube page soon.
Justin Podur runs the podcast and blog, the Anti-Empire Project, presenting historical and political analysis from an anti-colonial perspective. He is the author of several books and teaches at York University’s Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change.
Justin Podur is the author (with Joe Emersberger) of Extraordinary Threat: The US Empire, the Media, and 20 Years of Coup Attempts in Venezuela (Monthly Review 2021), of America’s Wars on Democracy in Rwanda and DR Congo (Palgrave Macmillan 2020) and Haiti’s New Dictatorship (Pluto Press 2012). He has contributed chapters to Empire’s Ally: Canada and the War in Afghanistan (University of Toronto Press 2013) and Real Utopia (AK Press 2008). He is an Associate Professor at York University’s Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change.
In fiction, Justin is the author of three novels: The Path of the Unarmed (self-published on Wattpad 2020), Siegebreakers (Roseway 2019) and The Demands of the Dead (self-published 2014).
A fellow of the Independent Media Institute’s Globetrotter project, he has previously reported from India (Kashmir, Chhattisgarh), Afghanistan, Pakistan, Haiti, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico (Chiapas), and Israel/Palestine for ZNet, TeleSUR, rabble.ca, Ricochet, and other publications.
The Wilderness Committee is people-powered wilderness preservation for a wild future. Founded in 1980 as a registered non-profit society and federal charity, 60,000 supporters, volunteers, and activists from coast to coast to coast work together to preserve wilderness, protect wildlife, defend parks, safeguard public resources and fight for a stable and healthy climate. Our head office is in Vancouver, with field offices in Victoria, Winnipeg and Toronto.
DogwoodBC – Named after B.C.’s provincial flower, Dogwood is a people-powered organization driven by a shared love of place. We bring together people across the political spectrum to work on the urgent challenges facing our home. Our staff work in places across B.C., anchoring volunteer organizing teams in dozens of key ridings. The goal is to build a grassroots base of engaged citizens ready to take action outside of the existing political party system.
The series, Climate Change and Other Small Talk is:
Created by SUNNY DRAKE
Produced by SUNNY DRAKE PRODUCTIONS in association with WHY NOT THEATRE
Lead Producers: FANNY MARTIN and NAJLA NUBYANLUV
Concept Dramaturg: KEVIN MATTHEW WONG
Impact Producer & Climate Dramaturg: CHAPRECE HENRY
Communications Producer: DANIELA GERSTMANN
Central Audio Producers: HEATHER BROWN and RICHARD FEREN
Series funders: Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council
See the website for full credits – it truly does take a village to raise a podcast
Special thanks to BC Arts Council, City of Vancouver Cultural Services, Canada Council for the Arts, Monarch Studios, and Progress Lab 1422
