Why do podcast conferences want to hear from Canadians lately?

Vol. 67 - Upcoming summer picnics, a couple reviews, and a conversation with Chris Oke at CBC Podcasts.

Apr 15, 2025

Hihi!! Happy Pod the North Tuesday!

In this issue:

Pod the North’s upcoming summer picnics!
Chris Oke (CBC Podcasts) says there’s a renewed interest in Canadian content from podcast audiences around the world.
Canadian Indie: The Pulse
True North Podcast Feature: All My Relations [REVIEW]
Loving Your Country in the 21st Century: CBC’s Ideas [REVIEW]
Someone give Rachel Gilmore a damn breakk!

BTW:

As of March 11, 2025, there are currently 35 long-term drinking water advisories in effect in 33 First Nations communities across Canada.

Mark your calendars for Pod the North’s Summer Picnics!

Pod the North is organizing a series of summer picnics to bring together the Canadian podcasting community in a relaxed and summer-time-chill environment! Bring a picnic blanket, your favourite snack and drinks, or even your dinner, and join the hang for some socializing and community bonding with peers from across the industry. PLUS, each picnic is set to include a special guest for a quick tree-side chat!

Here’s what’s coming up:

Sunday, May 18 (3-9PM) — Bickford Park, Toronto, Ontario

Chris Berube (99% Invisible) joins Kattie Laur for a conversation on making podcasts for American ears vs. Canadian ears.

Sunday, Jun 22 (3-9PM) — Centennial Park, Hamilton, Ontario

Jessica Hart and Dawn Marie Walton (Opinionated Lushes) join Kattie Laur for a conversation on how indie podcasters can thrive in Canada.

Sunday, July 27 (3-9PM) — Spencer Smith Park, Burlington, Ontario

Special guest to be announced!

Sunday, Sep 7 (3-9PM) — Kew Gardens, Toronto, Ontario

Special guest to be announced!

More to come across the country, but I need your help!

I’m looking to partner with folks across the country to host picnics outside the Greater Toronto Area! Hosting a Pod the North picnic would be low lift, and I’d make sure you’ve got everything you need. If you’re curious about hosting a picnic in your city, please get in touch!

Think about supporting Pod the North!

Many thanks to Pod the North’s 15 paid subscribers - you help fund marketing, events, speaking engagements, and the many intiatives Pod the North is looking to take on to help put Canadian podcasts on the map!

Becoming a paid Pod the North subscriber is $8 a month or $80 a year, plus you get bonus content like full audio interviews and early releases!

Don’t want to commit long term? Buy me a latte ($5) or the exclusive ad spot ($150) at the top of this newsletter!

Thoughts from the ecosystem:

Chris Oke says there’s a renewed interest in Canadian content from podcast audiences around the world.

Earlier this month, we saw five incredible players in Canadian podcasting — Sarah Burke (Women in Media Network), Bob Kane (Libsyn Canada), Heather Gordon (Acast Canada), Karyn Pugliese, and Paul Riismandel (Signal Hill) — hit the stage at Podcast Movement Evolutions in Chicago to talk about one thing:

Canadian podcasting.

Captured from Left of Dial Media Instagram stories.

But that’s not the only Canadian-focused panel going on this spring. In late May, CBC Podcasts Executive Producer, Chris Oke, and myself(!) will be hitting the stage at The Podcast Show in London (UK) to have a similar conversation.

Personally, I couldn’t be readier for it.

If you read the incredible piece from Annalise Nielson a few issues ago, you’ll already know that Canadians have actually been a significant part of the global podcasting ecosystem for a long time — whether the world has realized it or not. Many of us have found ourselves as the backbones of productions and have been creating relationships around the globe for years, even making names for ourselves. So why all the sudden acknowledgement now,and how much is this all “thanks” to the threats from our Southern neighbours?

I caught up to Chris Oke to discuss the surge of global interest in Canadian podcasting, the perception of our representation on stage, and what it is that makes Canadian podcasters a cut above the rest.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Paid subscribers can listen to the whole thing as a podcast!

Kattie Laur: What is your sense of how the Canadian podcasting ecosystem is perceived globally?

Chris Oke: I think we're pretty highly regarded globally. That's evident by us getting invited to speak on a panel about the Canadian ecosystem at the London Podcast Show, and the panel [at Podcast Movement].
When we look at [CBC Podcasts] data, over half of the listeners are in Canada but the other half is around the world. I think CBC podcasts was one of the leaders in original podcasting rather than just repackaging radio broadcasts. We've been around for 10 years now and when you talk to folks from outside of Canada, they seem to know us and they're really excited about our shows, like Sleepover and Escaping NXIVM. Our work is really being appreciated. Malcolm Gladwell's Pushkin, [he’s] Canadian. Jonathan Goldstein's show Heavyweight – he's Canadian. Connie Walker went on to win a Pulitzer and a Peabody for Stolen. Canadians are doing well.
We've got this country that has two official languages, English and French. The CBC also does programming in eight Indigenous languages as well. We are right next door to the US and are constantly having to compete with US media, and often there's many Canadians who are involved in creating US media.
I think the other big strength is the diasporic communities that are in Canada. Canadians often aren't just connected to Canada, we have these connections around the world and have interests around the world. So I think that's part of the reason why we tell such great global stories.

KL: With these Canadian-focused panels happening at podcast conferences right now, I can’t help but wonder if it’s partly because Canada's also getting picked on by the US right now. What do you think?

CO: Yeah, there's a lot going on and you see the increase in patriotism as well.
The CBC is Canada's national broadcaster and our big thing is telling Canadian stories and serving Canadian audiences and I think there's definitely been a renewed interest in Canada – we see that in audience numbers and messages that we've been getting.
We need to look for partnerships and friendships everywhere. I don't wanna get too into politics — we'll see what happens with our friends down south — but building those relationships with folks in the UK and in Europe and Asia, all around the world, I would hope that our international friends would be interested as well.

KL: I've been curious about CBC's international collaborations from the last few years, like with BBC and USG Audio. Tell me more about the intentionality around CBC doing that – I guess I'd call it “Borderless Podcasting”?

CO: Well to start, CBC's mandate is to tell Canadian stories to Canadians and ensure that our storytelling reflects the experiences and perspectives of people across the country. But then one part of our mandate is also to bring Canadians to the world. So those international collaborations are one of the best ways that we do that.
The first such partnership sort of fell into our lap when a Norwegian journalist at Verdens Gang Newspaper reached out to me and said, “I've got this great story. It involves a Canadian. Would you guys be interested in teaming up?” Their reporting from Norway led them to Australia and then led them to Canada and we collaborated on that and that became Hunting Warhead. It was a huge project for us and continues to do really well.
When we started getting a little bit more intentional about this, we put out a joint commission call with the BBC World Service, and that call out resulted in four different series: Love Janessa which became our feed “The Con”, then Six Billion Dollar Gold Scam, Hollywood Exiles, and most recently Kaitlyn's Baby.
I think based on that and people seeing that CBC plays well with others and is doing good work, interesting work, we ended up partnering with NPR on Tested. Outlaw Ocean was a partnership with LA Times, and I was actually just going through some mixes for season two which is sounding phenomenal. Doing all those partnerships really helps us reach larger audiences - reach those global audiences.
It also helps us achieve a premium quality while still having public broadcaster budgets. We're able to spread the expenses around. On shows like Sea of Lies, we had a team based in the UK that was able to cover the UK part of the story while Sam [Mullins] and the team in Canada were able to collect there and work back and forth. Canadians are looking for world class storytelling and these partnerships and collaborations is one of the ways we try to do that.

KL: I end up in a lot of conversations that either say that Canadians need to stop making content for just Canadians and think globally, OR say Canadians should be focusing on Canadian audiences because there's too much out there already trying to be a global phenomenon. What’s your take on this?

CO: You know, sometimes the more specific a story is the more universal it becomes. For example, Broomgate did really well for us. It's a story about curling and a very hyper-Canadian story - maybe absurdly. But that has resonated with folks around the world. So in some ways, the more Canadian you are, the more international the reach.
I tell this story whenever I'm speaking publicly, but we used to get a lot of pitches that were like, ‘it's like This American Life, but it's Canadian’, and we're like, ‘well, Canadians can listen to This American Life’. We want Americans to be saying, ‘we want a show like that Canadian one’.
I think we bring a unique point of view because we aren't a world power. We have to be aware of what's going on outside of our borders and around us. So I think that style of storytelling is something Canadians really appreciate and is maybe unique to people outside of Canada.

Check out this Canadian Indie: The Pulse

Grant Hardy leads a weekly in-depth discussion on issues impacting the disability community across Canada.

True North Podcast Feature: All My Relations

[REVIEW] ICE In Indian Country & The Power Of Kinship

Catching up on All My Relations has got me feeling fired up, especially the show’s late-February episode featuring Directing Attorney of Public Counsel’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, Gina Amato Lough. She joins hosts Matika Wilbur and Temryss Lane for a truly FASCINATING conversation about the ongoing, confusing dangers faced by both immigrants and Native communities. It’s an incredible, raw conversation about eroding democracy, education systems, and how threats of deportation impact Indigenous peoples. Highly recommend the listen!

What’s going on in Canada’s podcast ecosystem:

New Releases:

Apr 1, 2025 — After a 5-month hiatus, James Avramenko has returned with his podcast Friendless. The show interviews connections from his Facebook network in an attempt to lose every friend he's ever made.

Apr 5, 2025 — Adam Corky, host of Do You Watch Anime?, recently talked to voice actor Jill Harris (Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Black Clover, Hell’s Paradise, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury). The episode joins them for a conversation about talk about how Jill’s local library introduced her to anime, and her deep connection to voicing characters.

Apr 7, 2025 — Canardian, Pod the North’s flagships that joins Canadian podcasters to gossip about their hometowns is BACK for season 2! The first two episodes feature Falen Johnson to discuss Brantford and Six Nations of the Grand River, Ontario and Kyle Moore on St. Stephen New Brunswick.

Apr 8, 2025 — Canadian History Ehx has started releasing an exclusive biography series. The series of episodes celebrating Canadian talent features interviews with the likes of Ryan Reynolds, Elvis Stojko, Mark Critch, Ron Sexsmith, and more!

Apr 11, 2025 — Cooking Up Culture has released a special episode with NDP Leader, Jagmeet Singh. The show explores identity, memory, and community through food, and in the episode Singh reflects on the Punjabi dishes he learned to cook for his younger brother, the Lebanese meals he grew up eating at his best friend’s house, and more.

Apr 25, 2025 — Sorry About the Murder is returning to the nice, fictional town of Beavermount, Ontario, for its second season! After clearing his Québecois name last season, local Zamboni driver Gaëtan 'Frenchie' Arsenault, must face 8 feet of fresh snow... and a fresh murder.

Harbinger Media has announced its 22nd wave expansion with three podcasts joining the network: The Rover: Election 2025, Bubble Pop, and The Indie Broadcast. The full slate of podcasts now sits at 83 shows, with this new wave breaking down the Canadian federal election, Canada’s top headlines, and Newfoundland-based weekly news.

You oughta know…

Congratulations to CBC Podcasts on the networks recent Ambie Award Wins! Broomgate: A Curling Scandal won “Best Sports Podcast” and Tested brought home “Best Documentary Podcast” to both the Canadian and American public broadcasters, CBC and NPR.

[REVIEW] I REALLY enjoyed this episode of CBC’s Ideas, sent to me by producer and Pod the North reader, Tom Howell. I’ve been doing of a lot of thinking about the notions of Nationalism and Patriotism even since starting this newsletter. Of course, understanding what it means to be “proudly Canadian” has been on my mind a ton lately, especially in comparison to our neighbours to the south. So when Tom reached out asking what I thought this April episode, I was hooked, and even listened through moments of it over again. But not only was I hooked by the variety of discussions, I found myself laughing out loud at Tom’s really clever use of music and sound design in the episode, turning the American national anthem inside out and on it’s head until it couldn’t possibly be considered American anymore. Could it? It’s well worth a listen, and I’d love to hear what Pod the North readers think!

Journalist and Bubble Pop host, Rachel Gilmore, had an intense couple of weeks. After the exciting announcement that she would be the coorespondant for a new “Fact Check Friday” segment on CTV, the station was bombarded by Rachel’s long-time right-wing internet trolls and utlimately resulted in her segment being cancelled by the network. But it wasn’t over there! Rachel’s supporters doubled down, speaking up online and emailing CTV directly to express their disappointment in the decision, and calling it a cowardly breakdown in democracy. With overwhelming support, Rachel recently announced that Canada’s National Observer has instead picked up the fact checking segment, but it didn’t stop Canadaland from covering the story in an episode that’s been getting a notable amount of criticism on Reddit, including, from my perspective, very fair critiques on the shows co-hosts calling her an “Influencer” and infantalizing her journalistic integrity. Currently, Rachel is covering every day of the ongoing federal election campaign on her podcast alongside Paris Marx. Let’s hope she finds some well-deserved downtime soon!

r.gilmore

A post shared by @r.gilmore

Events:

Apr 18, 2025 — [LETHBRIDGE, AB] Celebrate the launch of Queer in Alberta’s third season at the Galt Museum & Archives. Join the FREE party for a night of drag, live music, and an insider look at the upcoming season!

May 4, 2025 — [TORONTO, ON] The Soundwave Summit is back with more panels and networking for indie podcasters, plus a live recording of my show, Canardian!