• "I Feel Like I'm Missing a Big Piece of My Heart:" Remembering Marianne Goulden, with Mia Goulden
    Dec 5 2025

    Content warning: femicide, intimate partner violence

    If you need support during or after listening to this episode, or any time, please reach out to our 24/7 Crisis Line at 1-800-265-7233 or 519-836-5710.

    In this episode, Public Educator Cindy McMann sits down for a conversation with Mia Goulden. Mia is the daughter of Marianne Goulden, who was a G-W WIC client who stayed at the shelter after leaving an abusive relationship, and who then went on to give back to women in the Guelph community as a volunteer and a staff member at the shelter before she was killed by a partner in 1992.

    Mia talks about her incredible mother, about the tragic end of her mother’s life, the impacts of femicide on her family and about the ways her mother’s beautiful spirit shines on.

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    25 mins
  • "We've Done It Before and We'll Do It Again:" Gender, HIV/AIDS and the Fight for Community Care, with Ariel Oleynikov
    Nov 29 2024

    In this episode, public educator Cindy McMann sat down with Ariel Oleynikov (she/her), formerly of WHAI (The Women’s HIV/AIDS Initiative) and ARCH (HIV/AIDS Resources and Community Health), which closed in March after 35 years when their funding was discontinued.

    Ariel and I talked about her activist work around women living with HIV/AIDS in Guelph and Wellington County, the links between gendered oppression and the HIV epidemic, the beauty of collaborative, community-based health care, the impacts of ARCH closing on Guelph and a lot more.

    And then, after the podcast recording, Ariel became G-W WIC's brand new rural public educator! We're so glad you get a chance to meet her!

    Resources:

    CATIE (The Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange)

    WHAI (Women's HIV/AIDS Initiative)

    Your Downtown Guelph Friends: yourdowntownguelphfriends

    The ArQuives

    Marlee Liss on Instagram: marleeliss

    The movie Pride

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    55 mins
  • “The More I Read, the More I Realized that There Were Some Problems:” Philosophy and Sexual Violence, with Amber Spence
    Oct 28 2024

    In this episode, Public Educator Cindy McMann chats with Amber Spence, a doctoral student in philosophy at the University of Guelph who specializes in sexual violence.

    We talk about how philosophy helped Amber in her journey as a survivor, what tools it can offer other survivors, how philosophy misses the mark in academic research on sexual violence and why that matters for the rest of us.

    Content Warning: sexual violence, trauma and sexual harm

    Resources:

    Susan J. Brison, Aftermath: Violence and the Remaking of a Self

    Karyn L. Freedman, One Hour in Paris

    “Rethinking the Wrong of Rape”

    "The Harm of Disempowerment," "The Problem with Consent," Amber Spence, forthcoming

    Linda Martin Alcoff, Rape and Resistance

    Nicole K. Jeffrey, “Is Consent Enough: What the Research on Normative Heterosexuality and Sexual Violence Tells Us”

    Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score

    Nicole Dular, “One Too Many: Hermeneutical Excess as Hermeneutical Injustice”

    Madeleine Kenyon, "Speaking of ‘Violence:’ Figleaf Use in Sexualized Violence Contexts""

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    49 mins
  • "You're Not Mellowing - What You're Becoming Is Strategic:" Activism and Survivor-Led Disruption with Nneka MacGregor and Marsha Hinds Myrie
    Aug 27 2024

    In this conversation, Public Educator Cindy McMann sits down with the University of Guelph’s 2024 Activists in Residence, Nneka MacGregor and Marsha Hinds Myrie. We talk activism, disrupting systems and making survivor voices the centre of efforts to end GBV at the local, national and international level.

    Resources:

    Operation Safe Space

    WomenatthecentrE

    Frantz Fanon (from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

    Joy James

    Marcus Garvey (from the U.S. National Archives)

    Walter Rodney (from the Walter Rodney Foundation)

    Andaiye (from Red Thread)

    C.L.R. James (from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute)

    Rania El Mugammar

    Raja Benjamin

    Patrina Duhaney

    Robyn Maynard

    Ocama Collective

    Rachel Zellars

    Myrna Dawson

    Rhythm & Blues Cambridge

    Chelsea Tobin

    Voices in Exile (interview with Dr. Hinds Myrie)

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    1 hr and 12 mins
  • “I’m Tired. Again:” Survivorship and Queer Communities of Care, with Nealob Kakar
    Jun 17 2024

    Happy Pride Month! This month’s episode of the WIC-Ed podcast features Nealob Kakar, talking to public educator Cindy McMann about queer communities of care, transformational change and why the word resilience makes us suspicious and tired.

    Resources:

    Building Accountable Communities video series, Barnard Center for Research on Women

    Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

    Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next), Dean Spade

    Abolition. Feminism. Now., Angela Y. Davis, Gina Dent, Erica R. Meiners, and Beth E. Richie

    Insurgent Love: Abolition and Domestic Homicide, Ardath Whynacht

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    49 mins
  • “What Does Justice Look Like for You?” Restorative Justice Processes, with Community Justice Initiatives
    May 28 2024

    May is Sexual Violence Prevention Month! This month, Public Educator Cindy McMann sat down with Kate Crozier of Community Justice Initiatives (CJI), along with 2 guests with experience in restorative justice processes.

    Kate and her guests take us through restorative justice alternatives to the criminal legal system, what the process is like for people who have experienced sexual harm and for people who have caused harm, how restorative justice can empower survivors of sexual violence, and what we can do to make this option more widely available to survivors.

    Content Warning: sexual violence, sexual harm to minors, incarceration

    Resources:

    G-W Women in Crisis 24/7 Crisis Line: 519-836-5710 / 1-800-265-7233 (SAFE)

    Community Justice Initiatives

    The Feminist and the Sex Offender: Confronting Sexual Harm, Ending State Violence. Judith Levine and Erica Meiners

    Bernard Center for Women, “What is Accountability?”

    adrienne maree brown

    Mia Mingus

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    1 hr
  • “Get Me in Front of the People – I Have Stuff to Say:” Brain Injuries and Intimate Partner Violence, with Christina Hennelly
    Apr 29 2024

    In this episode, Christina Hennelly from the Brain Injury Association of Waterloo Wellington talks with Public Educator Cindy McMann about Christina's work on the connections between brain injuries and intimate partner violence (IPV).

    We talk about the impacts of brain injuries, how common they are in relationships where there's physical violence, tools people can use if they think they or someone they love might have a brain injury and what service providers can do to better support people.

    Content Warning: physical violence, impacts of physical injuries due to violence

    Resources: The Brain Injury Association of Waterloo Wellington

    HELPS Screening Tool

    Ontario Brain Injury Association

    Traverse Independence

    ABI Toolkit

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    37 mins
  • "Trying to Steer the Titanic with a Plastic Spoon:" Talking to Men and Boys About Violence, with Jacob Pries
    Mar 19 2024

    In this episode, we hear from Jacob Pries, from the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region's Male Allies program. Jacob chats with WiC Educator Cindy McMann about masculinity, talking to men and boys about gender-based violence, and Jacob's work on consent education with Hockey Canada.

    Resources:

    The Male Allies program at the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region

    Brené Brown's whole canon of work, which you can see on her website

    The Man Enough podcast with Justin Baldoni and Liz Plank

    Justin Baldoni's books, Man Enough and Boys Will Be Human

    Liz Plank's book, For the Love of Men

    Everything Starhawk has written, which you can check out on her website

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    1 hr and 6 mins