What a year it was. Coming off of the maddening, disappointing and very scary U.S. election, it's too easy to look back and wish that we could have just fast forwarded from December 31, 2015 right to January 1, 2017.
But that's not the whole story. In many ways it was also a really good year. Admittedly, we have to work a little harder to lift our spirits in this holiday season than in other years. But we know that rabble listeners and readers know that these things happen in cycles. Better days are ahead.
Lots of work for us to do in the new year to help restore this planet to health and happiness. But for now, take a break and have a listen to some of our faves.
1.) Ears on the Earth – an excerpt from one of five daily programs we did from the World Social Forum. The excerpt you just heard was our last program, which focused on the Leap Manifesto. Thanks to rabble radio team members David Kattenburg, Sophia Reuss, Campbell McClintock and Greg MacDougall who did a fabulous job running all over Montreal gathering stories to hit some pretty tight deadlines on some of the hottest days of the year. Just one example of the kind of projects we want to do more of in 2017.
We talked about media democracy, explained what the World Social Forum was about, talked about releasing the corporate stranglehold, new types of storytelling and why The LEAP Manifesto is important enough to deserve its own program.
2.) We had a radio drama this year. The Strange Wax Cylinders of Thaddeus Barnes was a six part steampunk adventure involving retro scientific gadgetry, inventor Nicola Tesla and a mystery to be solved. It was produced by Wayne MacPhail for HarrowsmithNow. And Harrowsmith invited us to run the series on the rabble podcast network.
3.) And final excerpt today is to help you start the new year with some quiet contemplation about what matters and what doesn't. Perspective is a wonderful thing, so here is an excerpt from Drolkar McCallum on finding happiness, Buddhism and meditation. She talks to David Peck, host and producer of the podcast Face2Face.
You can see the full list of Victoria's podcast picks here. There are many more great podcasts from the year that was. We wish we could list them all.
Thanks from all of us at rabble.ca to all the podcasters of the rabble podcast network for sharing their hard work and perspectives on social change.
Like this podcast? rabble is reader/listener supported journalism.