Support this podcast For ten days every summer, Calgary's corporate office workers dress up like cowboys and enjoy a western-themed festival of settler colonialism. What work is the Stampede doing when it draws on the myth of the frontier— especially today, when it is largely funded by fossil fuel companies? Kimberley Williams, author of Stampede: Misogyny, White Supremacy and Settler Colonialism, joins Team Advantage to discuss the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth. Find the book in Calgary at Shelf Life Books, and online through the publisher at fernwoodpublishing.ca.

Alberta Advantage Podcast

Stampede: Misogyny, White Supremacy, and Settler Colonialism

Support this podcast Did you know that the Canadian state once funded the National Action Committee on the Status of Women Canada, funding salaries and projects that allowed for shelters, child-care and daycare centres, women's drop-in centres, bookstores, and crisis lines? Writer and activist Nora Loreto joins Team Advantage to discuss her book, Take Back the Fight: Organizing Feminism for the Digital Age. What happened to the feminist movement over the course of the neoliberal turn, and what opportunities and pitfalls does the modern digital landscape offer feminist and social-movement struggles? Follow Nora on twitter @NoLore, visit her website at noraloreto.ca, and purchase her book at fernwoodpublishing.ca. Check out the Sandy and Nora podcast at sandyandnora.com.

Nora Loreto: Take Back the Fight

Guest host and seasoned newsletter-writer Clinton Hallahan sits down with writer, director, filmmaker, prankster, organizer and comedian Sean Devlin. In addition to joining The Yes Men in their exploits and storming the stage to frighten Stephen Harper, Sean Devlin is a seasoned stand-up comic, and his debut comedy album, Airports, Animals, is out July 9, 2021. Check out this interview to explore the burning question on everyone's mind: who is Sean Devlin's favourite racist? Check out Airports, Animals at arts-crafts.ca. Sean's work is also available through seandevlin.website and seandevlin.bandcamp.com.

Jokes?! Sean Devlin and Airports, Animals

Support this podcast The coal-mining town of Blairmore, Alberta elected a slate of Mine Workers' Union nominees to town council in 1933— resulting in Canada's first communist town council. With Mayor Bill Knight at the council's helm, they would proceed to implement a range of substantive measures. They gathered fame for abolishing Remembrance Day and replacing it with October Revolution Day, naming the park after Karl Marx, and renaming main street "Tim Buck Boulevard" (after the Communist Party's leader). On the centenary year of the Communist Party of Canada, Team Advantage explores this rare instance of "red municipalism" in Canada.

Blairmore, Alberta: Canada's First Communist Town Council

Support this podcast What can be gleaned from a lifetime on the Canadian left? Economist, policy advisor an author Andrew Jackson joins guest-host Aaron Giovannone to discuss Andrew's new book, The Fire and the Ashes: Rekindling Democratic Socialism. What fires might be taken from the altars of the past? How has the NDP changed since the 1960s? What was it like to face the neoliberal turn in British Columbia? What role did policy research historically play within the NDP? What should the role of the labour movement be today? Check out Andrew Jackson's book directly from the publisher, Between the Lines. Check out Aaron Giovannone's podcast, Sweater Weather, at sweaterweatherpod.com. 

The Fire and the Ashes with Andrew Jackson

Support this podcast The COVID-19 pandemic has resurfaced a long-forgotten feature of economic planning: industrial policy. What should our economy look like? What infrastructures should we build? What technologies should we develop? And who should benefit from it all? Journalist and author Leigh Phillips joins Team Advantage to discuss why industrial policy is the sexiest topic on the left today, examining important aspects of technological advancement, Canadian regionalism and economic development.

Industrial Policy for the People

Support this podcast The Alberta Federation of Labour held its 52nd Constitutional Convention over May 13-15 2021. In a somewhat rare development, two candidates vied for the Presidency of the AFL: challenger Susan Cake, and incumbent Gil McGowan. Cole Rockarts, union organizer and writer for rankandfile.ca, joins Team Advantage to discuss what happened at convention, and how Alberta's labour movement is organizing in response to Jason Kenney's UCP government. Follow Cole on Twitter @colerockarts.

What's Going on with Alberta's Labour Movement?

Support this podcast This last year of the pandemic has been awful— and our governments made things worse. Team Advantage convenes to list the ways in which workers have been taken for a ride. Featuring hits you know and love, like "essential workers," "hero pay," "government communications," COVID-ZERO, public trust, corporate subsidies, "sick days," and thinking about strategies we can take to change our world for the better.

Get Mad about This Awful Pandemic Response

Support this podcast Have you ever considered using nuclear explosions for fun and profit? Team Advantage explores a strange collision of two worlds: the children's movie Bigfoot Family, which recently roused the ire of Jason Kenney's War Room, and a 1950's plot to use nuclear explosions to mine Alberta's oil sands. Project Cauldron, later renamed Project Oilsand was a real, genuine plan to nuke Alberta's oilsands that almost happened.

Nuking the Oilsands: Project Cauldron (featuring Bigfoot)

What went into starting the CCF— the precursor to today's NDP? What was the working-class and socialist response to the deep depression and government inaction of the 1930s? How did prior struggles and experiences contribute to the formation of this new party, and how did they envision changing the world? Nashwa Khan of Habibti Please joins Team Advantage to discuss this fascinating historical moment. Follow Nashwa and HP @habibtiblease.

Starting a Party? The Origins of the CCF

Support this podcast We live in a sexist, patriarchal, and capitalist society— but is the solution to these problems simply to diversify the administration of sexist, patriarchal capitalism? Will more women in corporate leadership help abolish gendered oppression? Team Advantage convenes to discuss the growth of corporate feminism, explore its weaknesses, and consider how socialist feminism might present a more tenable solution. Visit albertaadvantagepod.com for suggested readings!

Against Corporate Feminism: Less Lean In, More Lenin

Support this podcast The global rat population features a strange Alberta-shaped rat-free zone. What's behind Alberta's rat-free jurisdiction? What economic and political forces shaped this policy, and how does Alberta's rat-free status contribute to its self-image as uniquely different from other regions of Canada? What are the consequences of this kind of ecosystem management, and who stands to benefit from it?  

Alberta's War on Rats

Support this podcast As oil and gas producers practically beg, plead, and bribe the Canadian government into building and planning pipelines and developing a national energy strategy, Team Advantage asks: whatever happened to the National Energy Program? Yes, that NEP: conceived of by Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the bane of Alberta's oil industry, that endless source of western alienation, the biggest power grab in history— what was it really about? Journalist Taylor C. Noakes joins Team Advantage to discuss the genesis and legacy of the NEP, while pondering the state of the fossil fuel industry today. Could it be that some sort of economic planning could have resolved the problems we encounter today? Follow Taylor @TaylorNoakes and read his CBC piece, It's time to reconsider the NEP.

Canada's National Energy Program, 1980-1985

 Support this podcast Team Advantage convenes to discuss Universal Basic Income. Why is it, and why has it gained such popularity over the last few years? What's so appealing about the proposal, and how does this appeal relate to left-wing politics and strategy more generally? What might be the benefits and drawbacks of such a program? What kind of social and political forces would be needed to mobilize for a program of this kind? Further reading: Dan Darrah in Canadian Dimension Paris Marx in Tribune Daniel Zamora in Jacobin The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and Postwork Imaginaries by Kathi Weeks Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work by Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams 

Universal Basic Income: Utopian, or Not Bold Enough?

Kate was recently on Victor's Children, a podcast hosted by David Camfield, to discuss class struggle in the past, present and future. Kate was joined on the panel by John Clarke, a writer and retired organizer for the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP). Subscribe to Victor's Children here: https://pod.link/1556511995

BONUS: Victor's Children

Fresh from the birthplace of the CCF! Commentary and analysis on local and provincial politics from a left perspective.

hubhopper

Alberta Advantage Podcast

hubhopper