EXCLUSIVE: Canadaland launches “CanadaLabs.”

CanadaLabs wants podcasters and journalists to feel like they're part of a community that is not dying.

Feb 14, 2024

Feb 14, 2024

In a press release that came out this morning, Canadaland has announced the launch of CanadaLabs, “a hub for the next generation of audio journalists, open calls for short audio stories from across Canada, and applications to become Canadaland’s first Audio Journalism Fellows.”

“I hope it's going to be an exciting thing for Canadian podcasters,” Canadalands’s COO, Alan Black, told me. “We were like, ‘wouldn't it be cool if there were just a bunch of people hanging around here doing cool work?’ … A place where people can come and hang out, and work, and learn, and use the studio, and come do workshops in that big boardroom we have.”

The launch of CanadaLabs is the product of Canadaland’s eye on the gaps and grievances in the podcast and audio industry, inspired by Alan Black’s experience running the Hot Docs Podcast Festival, the move to Canadaland’s new office and studio, and the minds of industry folk including the incomparable Julie Shapiro, and apparently, Pod the North as well!

AB: I work with a bunch of journalists who see the world of media and journalism crumbling around them. [Pod the North] had an interview with Chris Oke from CBC and he was talking about the submissions process. We were like, ‘oh man, there's an awful lot of people with things sitting on their desks, and if they don't go to the CBC, who do they go to now?’
I started the [Hot Docs] Podcast Festival with the hope of creating a community and infrastructure. [Canadalabs], for me, is picking up on that work. Thinking about our 10th anniversary and [how] we're so lucky; there are very few people with a platform and an infrastructure like this [...] Maybe we should actually be part of the safeguarding of independent journalism in this country.
Amazon, Acast, and the Perspective Fund have all come on board to give us a little bit of support. So it's underwritten to some extent. We're hoping our supporters will also see the value in the project and chip in. But, the idea is to create something that is accessible for all.

In its inaugural year, CanadaLabs is focused on three distinct initiatives: a “Local Correspondent” Audio Contest, an Audio Journalism Fellowship Program in partnership with Journalists for Human Rights, and an ongoing series of workshops and events.

Alan says that the Local Correspondent Audio Contest is set to be a “calling card” for Canadaland, which will give audio producers a chance to be seen by Canadaland’s sizable audience.

AB: What do most podcasts get in terms of listenership? A thousand [downloads] if they're lucky. Putting [a winning submission] on our main feed and having it be a real piece that is listened to, is heard by tens of thousands of people and a lot of journalists and people that are industry leaders, that's our opportunity to use the platform.
There is no fee to apply. We developed [the contest] with Julie [Shapiro] – you say her name to anybody and they're like ‘she's the best’ and she truly cares more about audio than any person in the world, and has an ear like you wouldn't imagine. Similar to what she developed at Third Coast, which is a three minute piece, no longer, no shorter, [and] very specific rules: we don't want someone ranting for three minutes.
It's like a short film competition: give it your best shot to create something unique and interesting and make it three minutes. We'll license it and [...] we'll put [winners] at the end of proper Canadaland episodes, and it'll be before the post roll, so it's not like [listeners] have to do extra work to listen to them.

The CanadaLabs Audio Journalism Fellowship Program is focused on building up young, up-and-coming journalists, and will take place over the summer from May through August.

AB: It's going to be like a job; get paid a reasonable wage.
The goal of a fellowship is to really give people an opportunity to come and work here and make something. Given that Bell is laying off everybody, and everyone's laying off everyone, there aren't a whole lot of opportunities for people in Journalism School to have someone give them an opportunity.
We're looking for third or fourth year students based on how they would be a fit with our newsroom, but also they're going to come with their own piece that they'd like to report. It won't be like, ‘just do research on one of our existing shows’. It'll be, ‘you have four months to create your own thing’.
Our Editor, Karyn [Pugliese] and our team will be advising, and helping, and tutoring along as you create your own piece.
It's an ecosystem that needs building and advocacy. That's part of what we were doing at Hot Docs too; Daniel Rohrer was a Hot Docs lab fellow who won the Oscar last year. So these things work, the podcast world needs things like that. ”

The move to a new, larger office at 401 Richmond St. West has inspired the Canadaland team to open it up to more podcasters and host workshops and events. The new office includes a sizable recording booth, whisper room, and plenty of space.

AB:The events and workshops will be free [...] probably 40 or 50 people. We really do want people to feel like they're part of a community that is not dying.
We're designing, with some partners in mind, monthly or bi monthly events where people can come do a workshop and then hang out. We have that big new booth as well – we only use it 10 hours a week. How do we make it a public good?
We have a space and we want people to gather there. And from my Hot Docs experience, beyond the sessions you meet contemporaries and people that form your network.
We want [workshops and events] to be mostly about making the thing, but we do want to make sure too that one of the things that Canadaland does well is actually make sure people listen to things. So we're going to work with Acast and with Amazon on more specific business-focused workshop days.
Our floor now in 401 too – the whole building is a real cultural hotbed. But we imagine that our space can really be a physical manifestation of CanadaLabs, and it can really be a hub.”

I asked about how CanadaLabs will work with folks across the country, and assure that everyone is as deeply connected as the folks in Toronto.

AB: It is a good question. The audio contest is explicitly designed to be a local course – we want stories from across the country.
For fellowships, we're open to people from across the country and have a little bit of a relocation stipend.
Workshops we haven't figured out yet whether or not we live stream or just capture all the workshops and put them on YouTube, or one of our channels. There really is no substitute for being in the room full of people. So we're trying to negotiate, how do you make sure that someone in Saskatchewan or someone in Alberta can access the learnings without, saying ‘you don't need to come here’.

Canadaland is hoping that the launch of CanadaLabs will play a big part in elevating Canadian podcasting and journalism, and help the ecosystem find the recognition it deserves on a global scale.

AB: Podcasting has such a potential to be global. We can make Canadian things and we can make things that aren't Canadian with Canadians. And we can make things that are in the spirit of what Canadaland is – tell[ing] stories that very much have that kind of ethos, which is [to] look under the sheets and do things in a way that is both probing and highly disturbing but also fun.
I think Canadaland and others in Canada should not just be renowned in the Canadian context, but the work should be renowned by anyone who loves audio. We want to make things that will resonate with Canadians, but also will resonate with people that are not Canadian.
It would be nice, not just to be Canada's leading independent podcast network. I want to take away the ‘Canadian’ and just be like, ‘we're one of the leading independent podcast networks’. And then by virtue, people are like, ‘I do like stuff that's Canadian’, or, ‘it doesn't matter to me’.

Pod the North

EXCLUSIVE: Canadaland launches “CanadaLabs.”

CanadaLabs wants podcasters and journalists to feel like they're part of a community that is not dying.

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