Episode 6: Gambling

Revision Quest is the show that looks back on Canada’s native history in order to kick some assumptions about the present. This week on the show: Gambling on gambling. Can legalized gambling pull the Rez out of the cycle of poverty and despair, or will it just replace the old cycle with a new one? As you’ll discover, this isn’t the first time gambling has played an important role in native life, and probably won’t be the last.

Episode 6: Sex

This show is a heart-stopping sampling of teenage thoughts about sex and love, desire and heartache. Host and mother Judith Mackin asks teens how they’re affected by the flood of erotica and soft porn that spills from magazines, billboards, television and the internet. Teens talk about the death of dating and the pressure on girls to “put out.” Teens also talk about why they’re waiting for marriage or that someone they can trust.

The Future of Persuasion

Broadcast Date: July 26, 2008 (Originally Aired June 14, 2007)

Episode 5: The Reserve

If you focus on news reports, it’s easy to get the impression that reserves in this country are all parceled lands of poverty, inequity, and vice, run by incompetent, corrupt Aboriginals. Darrell Dennis knows the truth is a little more complicated than that. After all, he grew up on a reserve in B.C. And this week on ReVision Quest, he teams up with a helpful historian and a successful native businessman to get at the real story of reserves in Canada.

The Wall of Cynicism

Broadcast Date: July 19, 2008 (Originally Aired May 31, 2007)

Episode 5: Teens and Screens

Alien Nation Host Judith Mackin wonders at the high-tech world occupied by her teenage son and his friends. It’s a world where teens appear to lose time, perspective and a sense of responsibility. Judith’s son, Robyn and class mate Drew talk about their cyber bullying experience which has an unpredictable ending. Other students talk about their on-screen lives on Facebook, YouTube and video games. Do real friendships exist on line? Is the world of pixels a genuine and meaningful place to meet and work out real relationships?

Featuring music from:
DAFT PUNK: Technologic
BECK: Loser
3 DOORS DOWN: Here Without You
KANYE WEST: Stronger
BUCK 65: Language Arts
AIR: Alpha Beta Gaga

Diet for a Hungry Planet Podcast

CBC is now podcasting the series Diet for a Hungry Planet. So I will discontinue hosting those files as you can now subscribe to the official podcast

Episode 4: Bering Strait

Revision Quest is the show that looks back on Canada’s native history in order to kick some assumptions about the present. And this week, the show takes a kick at one of the biggies: the idea that native Canadians are just transplanted Russians who hiked across the Bering land bridge. Here are a couple of hints on what you’ll find out: natives know how to sail, and it wasn’t aliens or Europeans that invented their navigational instruments. Chariots of the Gods, this isn’t.

Episode 4: Blends

In this episode of Alien Nation, Host Judith Mackin speaks candidly about her experience as part of a blended family in crisis. She also listens to teens who weigh in on what it’s like to find themselves in a blended family, with parents and siblings they didn’t choose and sometimes don’t like. And then there’s Liz. She’s pregnant and not yet finished high school. Liz has chosen a young couple to adopt her child partly because they’re willing to welcome Liz, not just her baby, as part of the package. The show explores the shift away from traditional families into uncharted and unconventional territory.

By Any Other Name

Broadcast Date: July 12, 2008 (Originally Aired March 8, 2007)