Around ten years ago, Julia Gruson-Wood put out a research call and spoke with a number of people about applied behavior analysis (ABA), which is the basis of a common intervention used with autistic children, despite drawing criticism from autistic self advocates. Gruson-Wood says many of the conversations were cagey at first, with people trying […]

A new documentary is sharing people’s experiences of self injury, as well as the stories of their recovery. Self Injury: Stories of Recovery and Hope emerged as part of a research project of Stephen Lewis, a professor in the psychology department at the University of Guelph. “We used a research approach called participatory video. And […]

Opioid agonist treatment (OAT) is a treatment for opioid use disorder. It involves the use of medications such as methadone, buprenorphine, and slow release oral morphine. People First Radio spoke with Nanaimo addictions medicine specialist Dr. Jess Wilder, and BC Centre for Substance Use Co-Medical Director Dr. Paxton Bach about the treatment, which Bach called […]

Stephen Monteiro, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Concordia University, says that conversations around smartphone use tend to focus on content, rather than on the place the devices themselves have come to hold in our lives. “Social media is a big one. Gaming is another big one. More and more the use of AI is […]

 No Fixed Address: The White Cart Memorial is a documentary filmed in Kelowna exploring grief and homelessness. Co-producers and directors Joshua Black and Stephanie Laing spoke with People First Radio. Its title refers to a memorial designed by unhoused community members in Kelowna. A shopping cart was painted white and people added tags and other […]

Renata Roma says people are becoming increasingly aware of the mental health of their pets. “ The emotional place of animals in people’s lives is very different to if we compare to how animals were perceived years ago,” she said. The researcher at the PAWsitive Connections lab with the University of Saskatchewan pointed to recent survey […]

From the works of deaf architect Adolf Loos to the psychiatric record of U.S. civil war veteran, Stefanie Hunt-Kennedy and Jenifer Barclay have been coordinating a team of authors exploring a wide range of topics in disability history. The pair are editors of Cripping The Archive, Disability, History, and Power. The spoke with People First […]

Downtown Eastside service provider First United released a law reform platform earlier this fall, calling for changes to the Residential Tenancy Act in B.C. Staff lawyer Vinson Shih spoke with People First Radio about the platform, which called for an end to pet bans in rentals, and the right for tenants to install cooling devices […]

When Shannon Donohoe-Simpson was diagnosed with a rare form of breast cancer in her thirties, she says it was a surprise. “ I was that person that was very healthy,” she said. “I was really into personal training and I thought I ate really healthy. So when I was diagnosed with cancer, I know not just […]

In her debut novel, Meg Todd explores difficult subject matter, covering themes like fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, inter-generational abuse, and sexual assault. Most Grievous Fault explores the story of Crystal, who is in her late 20s and mother of Becky, 14. The two live together in a small apartment in the city. Todd says she’s […]

Dr Shannon Charlebois is fed up with the prevalence of gambling advertising in professional sports broadcasts. “The situation is ticking me off. It’s ticking off lots of Canadians,” she said. Charlebois is medical editor of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. She co-authored an editorial about gambling advertising and risks to youth. She referred to a […]

University of Guelph PhD candidate Olivia Peters has been studying Canadian women’s experiences of intimate partner stalking. Peters spoke with People First Radio to share insights from her research, which involved in depth interviews with 20 women who identified as having experienced stalking. Peters said some women had to feign fear to be taken seriously. […]

Speaking August 31 at an event in Parksville marking International Overdose Awareness Day, Greg Hemminger shared his story of opioid addiction and recovery. In the mid 2000s, Hemminger was working as a filmmaker. He says his first feature premiered at the New York International Film Festival when he was 22 years old. “Directing my second […]

Data from almost 40,000 youth in B.C. was used to create From Loot Boxes to Lottery Tickets, a report from the McCreary Centre Society exploring youth gaming and gambling in B.C. The report found 34% of youth surveyed had taken part in at least one of eight gambling or gaming activities for money. McCreary Centre […]

Sleep Country Canada and Listen Up Canada co-founder Gordon Lownds spoke with People First Radio about his experiences with cocaine addiction, which he’s documented in a new memoir called Cracking Up. According to his memoir, while he was in the work associated with the startup phase of Sleep Country, Lownds ended up in a relationship […]

Nicole Letourneau says that when things get difficult, instead of wishing she had a drink, she now thinks “ thank god I’m not drinking right now.” The lawyer who works with the Ministry of the Attorney General in Ontario spoke with People First Radio about her experience recovering from alcohol addiction. Letourneau says she had been […]

Francis Baptiste is using music to share his experiences with addiction. “ I think addiction is something that thrives in secrecy and in stigma,” he said. “If you don’t talk about it, and if you don’t open up about it, then we all end up just kind of suffering in silence.” The Vancouver musician is getting […]

Trevor Botkin is drawing from his experiences in recovery to bring peer support to the world of construction. Botkin works with the Construction Foundation of British Columbia (CFBC) is involved in a project called The Forge, which is in the midst of transforming an old biker clubhouse in Langford into a support space for people […]

Cindy Blancher is a lawyer with the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee in Ontario, and before entering that career path, she was a registered nurse in a psychiatric hospital. She’s also an advocate around issues related to mental illness, although it’s a term she isn’t a fan of. “ I have a relative who […]

Mary Vaccaro is a faculty member in the school of social work at McMaster University in Hamilton. She’s also been working in the women’s shelter system since 2012. She spoke with People First Radio about her observations from those years of work. “ I think we need to know that many of the women that we […]