Alright, Now What?

With Jenna Barnable, disability inclusion advocate and educator

Jenna Barnable is an Atlantic Canadian writer, communicator, disability inclusion advocate and educator who lives with multiple disabilities. She is also a storyteller, community builder and lifelong feminist who raises awareness about women’s, gender-diverse, and Disabled rights through my words, art and education.

Jenna unapologetically centers women’s, gender divers...

With Kimberley Okafor, researcher and advocate for maternal health equity

Kimberley Okafor is a dedicated researcher and advocate for maternal health equity, currently pursuing a Master of Science in Management (MScM) at Toronto Metropolitan University. As Vice-President External for her MScM cohort and an active member of the Black Researchers Initiative to Empower (BRITE), she is committed to addressing systemic challenges in mate...

With Leisha Toory, Winner of the 2025 Feminist Creator Prize

Leisha Toory is a feminist advocate, writer, and the founder of the Period Priority Project, the first and only grassroots initiative in Newfoundland and Labrador dedicated solely to advancing menstrual equity. Through her work, she has successfully lobbied for free menstrual products in public spaces, a policy change recently adopted by the Government of Newfoundland and ...

With Alex Valoroso, Gender Equity Advisor

Alex Valoroso is a Gender Equity Advisor and consultant specializing in equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) strategies, with a particular focus on gender and disaster. She helps organizations build more inclusive workplaces, services, and systems by applying a feminist, trauma-informed, and survivor-centered lens.

Alex holds a Master’s degree in Disaster and Emergency Manag...

With Fallon Farinacci, Winner of the 2025 Feminist Creator Prize

Fallon Farinacci is Red River Métis and a child survivor who testified in the National Inquiry for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, sharing her story of loss and trauma. 

Later Fallon joined The National Family Advisory Circle, where she worked closely with other MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+ family members and the Commissioners for the National Inquiry. &n...

With Suzie Dunn,  Interim Director of the Law and Technology Institute and an assistant professor at Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law.

Suzie Dunn's research centers on the intersections of equality, technology and the law, with a specific focus on technology-facilitated gender-based violence, artificial intelligence, deepfakes, and social media. She is a research partner on a four-year SSHR...

With Monica Bancheri, Winner of the 2025 Feminist Creator Prize

Monica, also known as Gay Italian Nonna, is a queer, masculine-presenting lesbian, talk show host, and community builder dedicated to creating safe spaces for women and the LGBTQ+ community. Through her content and talk show, she helps people find connection, friendship, and belonging. Her Talk Show unMASCed shines a light on trans icons, LGBTQ+ leaders, inspi...

With Marwa Abdou, Senior Research Director, BDL, Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

After over 15 years of multidisciplinary experience abroad, taking on this unique role in June 2022 at the Canadian Chamber has been an opportune and fitting homecoming for Marwa. In her role with the BDL, Marwa leads the Research Center of Excellence and is responsible for developing and implementing an innovative long-term research agenda.

Prior to her r...

With Leslie Woo CRE®, Chief Executive Officer of CivicAction.

Leslie is a respected city leader building sustainable communities and shaping urban development for over two decades in Canada’s fastest-growing urban region,the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. She is a seasoned urban planner, architect, and tireless community activator.

At CivicAction, Leslie has been building leadership programs that are building the next generation...

With Dr. Ruth Green (She/her), Director of the School of Social Work at York University.

Green is an activist turned accidental academic. She identifies as an urban Indigenous person, and is a citizen of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. She is from the Kanien’keha:ka Nation and is a member of the Turtle Clan.

Green likes to think, discuss, and write about Indigenous education. She teaches about the Indigenous resistance to the social ...

With Frances Meyer, Program Coordinator and Team Lead at the Women’s Business Hub (WBH).

Frances immigrated to Saskatoon from the Philippines 17 years ago and has launched and run several succesful businesses since 2008.

Frances organizes and facilitates business programs for immigrant women entrepreneurs with the WBH team. In her free time, she offers business and life coaching. She specializes in trauma-informed mindset and busine...

With MP Jagmeet Singh, lawyer, human rights activist, and Leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party. 

Referenced Link: awarepod.com 

Episode ⁠Transcripts⁠ 

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With Elizabeth Renzetti, journalist and author. Her most recent book is the national bestseller What She Said: Conversations About Equality. In 2020 she won the Landsberg Prize, presented by Canadian Journalism Foundation and Canadian Women’s Foundation, for her reporting on gender equality. She is co-author, with Kate Hilton, of the Quill & Packet series of mystery novels. She lives in Toronto with her family and two very bad ...

With Dr. Chika Stacy Oriuwa, author of her 2024 memoir, Unlike The Rest: A Doctor’s Story. Dr. Oriuwa is a graduate of the University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine, where she was named the valedictorian of her graduating medical class in 2020. She is a physician, professional spoken word poet, international public speaker, writer, and champion of authentic leadership through genuine human connections. Presently, Dr. Oriuwa is com...

With Hillary LeBlanc, a winner of Canadian Women’s Foundation’s inaugural 2024 Feminist Creator Prize. As an Acadian-Senegalese woman, Hillary has spent her career working in the non-profit sector, sharing stories of those in marginalized communities she herself has lived experience in. Hillary founded BlackLantic, a podcast bringing East Coast voices to the world. As a journalist, she has written for Narcity, CBC, ByBlacks, Addict...

With Lindsay Jones, a reporter based in Halifax for The Globe and Mail. Earlier this year, she won the prestigious Landsberg Award, presented by the Canadian Women’s Foundation and the Canadian Journalism Foundation. She won for a body of work that investigated stories of a sexual assault and abuse of power of police officers, sex worker rights, and online bullying and identity theft. She has written for Wired, The Walrus, Chatelai...

With Mitzie Hunter, new President and CEO of the Canadian Women’s Foundation. Mitzie is a dynamic, community-grounded leader. Her 30 years of leadership spans the nonprofit sector, private sector, and government. Mitzie has a trailblazing track record and many successes championing infrastructure and community improvements. She was the first Black woman to serve as Ontario’s Minister of Education. She also served as Ontario’s Minis...

With Liza Vityuk at McKinsey & Company. Discrimination based on gender and other connected factors like our race and ability impacts our health in so many ways. In honour of International Day of Action for Women's Health, we’ve focused on gender and health matters we may know bits and pieces of but probably need to learn more about.

Our guest Liza Vityuk is Partner at McKinsey & Company. She has more than 15 years of ex...

With Carissa Gravelle at Heart and Stroke Foundation. The link between experiences of discrimination and your health and wellness is undeniable. It's all about the “social determinants of health”. Discrimination based on gender and other connected factors like our race and ability impacts our health in so many ways. For example, we get treated differently based on our gender in healthcare settings. Our access to relevant health...