rabble radio

Content Warning: This interview includes descriptions of animal harm and death. Please listen with care and sensitivity. In 2022, the long-tailed macaque was classed as an endangered species by IUCN.  This week on rabble radio, editor Nick Seebruch speaks with Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel about the plight of the long-tailed macaque—how this intelligent species landed on the endangered list, and why the continued use of primates in animal testing is not only outdated, but ethically indefensible. They also discuss what you can do to help end the importation of endangered monkeys from Cambodia.  About our guest  Primate scientist Lisa Jones-Engel, Ph.D., is a Fulbright scholar who has studied the human-primate interface for 35 years. Her scientific career has spanned the field, the research laboratory, and the undergraduate classroom. Dr. Jones-Engel serves as senior science adviser on primate experimentation with PETA’s Laboratory Investigations Department. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca.

This week on rabble radio, rabble editor Nick Seebruch sits down with Martha Hradowy, newly elected president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF). As the head of one of the largest education unions in Canada, Hradowy steps into leadership at a pivotal moment for Ontario's public education system. The two discuss Hradowy’s vision and goals for the federation, and the urgent challenges facing students and education workers under Premier Doug Ford's government. From overcrowded classrooms to disappearing supports and the growing pressure on frontline staff, what has Ford’s education agenda really meant for Ontario? About Martha Hradowy and OSSTF Martha Hradowy is an education worker, union activist, and the first-ever education support staff member elected as president of OSSTF/FEESO in the Federation’s 106-year history. Hradowy began her career in the Greater Essex County District School Board, working as both an educational assistant and a developmental service worker.  Her union leadership began at the grassroots, serving as president of the educational support staff bargaining unit in District 9 for over a decade. She was elected to the OSSTF/FEESO provincial executive in 2017, re-elected in 2019, and twice elected as vice-president in 2021 and 2023. She helped create the Women’s Advocate Program, worked to advance equity initiatives, and led efforts to defend public education against privatization and underfunding. She is an active member of the Windsor and District Labour Council and has served on the executive board of the Ontario Federation of Labour. She continues to build strong relationships across the labour movement to ensure OSSTF/FEESO is a force for social and economic justice in Ontario. OSSTF/FEESO is a strong, independent, socially active union that promotes and advances the cause of public education and the rights of students, educators and educational workers.  While establishing working conditions for its members, OSSTF/FEESO also works to build strong public services, preserve academic freedom, prevent the privatization and commercialization of our educational institutions, ensure that students receive an education free of bias and discrimination and provide an equitable opportunity for all students to succeed in a strong, well-funded public education system. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca. 

This week, rabble.ca editor Nick Seebruch sits down with publisher Sarah Sahagian to talk about what’s coming up this fall at rabble. They discuss exciting new fellowship opportunities, upcoming events and the site’s editorial priorities for the season—including a focus on the upcoming NDP leadership race.  If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca.   

In this episode, rabble editor Nick Seebruch sits down with Jason Toney, director of media advocacy at Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME), to discuss Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent comments on recognizing Palestine as a state—and the conditions he attached. The two break down what those conditions mean and also talk about  CJPME’s work to ensure fair and accurate media coverage of Palestine in Canada. About our guest and CJPME Jason Toney is the director of media advocacy at Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME), where he leads the Media Accountability Project, monitoring Canadian media coverage of Palestine.  He has been active in Palestine solidarity for over a decade, including cultural exchanges and organizing debate conferences in the region. He previously worked in independent publishing with Black Rose Books and Daraja Press. He is the editor of Take the City (Black Rose Books, 2022) and co-editor of When Genocide Wasn’t News (Breach Books, 2025). He has published essays on media, Palestine, municipalism, Hannah Arendt, and Murray Bookchin. He lives in Montréal. CJPME’s mission is to enable Canadians of all backgrounds to promote justice, development and peace in the Middle East, and here at home in Canada. To learn more about Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, please visit: https://www.cjpme.org/ If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has a track record of taking from the public to give to private interests. No where is this more evident than his government’s approach to environmental conservation. Time and again, Doug Ford has removed public land to give to private developers, all in the name of supposedly strengthening the provincial economy and building houses. In recent years, parks and other greenspaces have been sold off for the creation of spas, highways, and some housing all while destroying valuable habitats and ecosystems. Today on rabble radio, I speak with Tim Gray, the Executive Director of Environmental Defence about the recent announcement that 60 per cent of the provincially owned Wasaga Beach will be handed over to private developers. About our guests  Tim Gray is the Executive Director of Environmental Defence, a leading environmental advocacy organization in Canada. He is responsible for leading the organization’s initiatives to safeguard Canada’s freshwater, build livable cities, get toxic chemicals out of the products we use, clean up plastic pollution and transition Canada from fossil fuels to modern, clean energy.    Tim was a founding Board member of Global Forest Watch Canada and Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, and in addition to leading Environmental Defence, he is also the Board of Directors of Evidence for Democracy. In 2025, Tim was a recipient of a King Charles III’s Coronation Medal for his environmental work.   Tim obtained an H.BSc.  in Biology from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario in 1987 and a M.Sc. in Botany/Environmental Studies from the University of Toronto in 1992. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca.

This week on the show, we’re re-sharing an interview from 2023 featuring Scott Martin and Sean Smukler.  Sean Smukler is an associate professor in applied biology and soil science at University of British Columbia (UBC) and director of the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm. Martin and Smukler discuss the current challenges farmers are facing in Canada due to climate change – and wonder aloud where Canada is headed. To learn more about the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC, visit their website here.  If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca.

In the face of rising anti-immigrant rhetoric, a new partnership between Lush Cosmetics and the Canadian Council for Refugees is taking a stand. Together, they’ve launched Neighbours—a campaign built on the belief that Canada should be a place of welcome, belonging and justice for all. At the center of this campaign is the limited-edition Resilient Bath Bomb. Seventy-five percent of the purchase price (minus the taxes) from the Resilient Bath Bomb go directly to organizations working on the front lines to support refugee and immigrant communities. Today on rabble radio, Gauri Sreenivasan (Canadian Council for Refugees) and Carleen Pickard (Lush Cosmetics, North America) sit down with rabble editor Nick Seebruch to talk about how the partnership came together, the shared values behind it, and how everyday acts of care can connect to broader movements for justice and belonging. About our guests  Gauri Sreenivasan (she/elle) is co-executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees, a leading voice for the rights, protection, sponsorship, settlement, and well-being of refugees and migrants, in Canada and globally. She has over 30 years of experience in policy and advocacy, working in leadership roles across civil society, Parliament Hill, and with academia and researchers to build alliances for change on Turtle Island and around the world. Carleen Pickard works on social, environmental and animal justice campaigns for Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics. As advocacy and activism manager, she supports campaigns and initiatives on issues important to Lush such as reconciliation with Indigenous People, ending fossil fuel extraction and animal protection. Prior to Lush, she held several positions at the human rights group Global Exchange between 1997-2015, including executive director, associate director and Mexico program director. She was also an organizer and political co-director at the Council of Canadians, Canada’s largest advocacy organization. Carleen holds an MA in Anthropology and Development from the University of Sussex, United Kingdom, where she worked with Zapatista communities in Mexico resisting military occupation. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca.

This week on rabble radio, rabble editor Nick Seebruch speaks with Dr. Yipeng Ge, one of over 4,000 people from around the world who joined the Global March to Gaza. The Global March to Gaza attempted to reach the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Palestine, aiming to draw global attention to the blockade of Gaza and call for an end to the siege. You can read Dr. Yipeng Ge’s full reflections on the march in his op-ed for rabble—available now on our website.  About our guest  Dr. Yipeng Ge is a primary care physician and public health practitioner based on the traditional, unceded, and unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg. In his clinical practice, he works in family medicine practice and refugee health at a community health centre. He has worked on and studied the structural and colonial determinants of health in both the settler colonial contexts of so-called Canada and occupied Palestine.  If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca. 

Labour reporter Gabriela Calugay-Casuga sits down with Leo DeVries from Science for the People to discuss Prime Minister Mark Carney’s plan to boost defence spending to five per cent of Canada’s GDP over the next decade. What will this mean for workers? For the economy?  And more broadly, what does it signal about Canada’s priorities—especially when it comes to fighting the climate crisis and honouring Indigenous rights? Can massive military investment coexist with those commitments, or are they fundamentally at odds? About our guest  Leo DeVries is a math graduate student and an organizer with Science for the People: Ottawa.  Science for the People is an organization of scientists, workers, educators, and activists dedicated to building a bottom-up social movement with radical perspectives on science and society.  Through research, writing, protest, and grassroots organizing, Science for the People seeks to demystify scientific knowledge and embolden “the people” to take science and technology into their own hands. The organization's numerous publications play a formative role in the field of science and technology studies, challenging mainstream understandings of science as “neutral” and instead showing it to be inherently political. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca. 

Tara Mandarano is a writer and editor based in Ontario who lives with chronic pain.  Today on rabble radio, she shares her story about living with fibromyalgia and endometriosis as a single mother.  About our guest  Tara Mandarano is a writer, editor, and poet. Her writing has been nominated for the Best-of-the Net award, and has appeared in The Washington Post, HuffPo, Today's Parent, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Motherwell, among numerous other publications. She is also an advocate in the mental health and chronic illness communities. Find her blog here.  If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca.