The Small Conversations for a Better World podcast brings you interviews with experts, thought-leaders and influencers to explore the question, “what is health?” 

Co-hosts Susannah Steers and Gillian McCormick believe it’s often the quiet and seemingly insignificant conversations we take part in every day that can change the world. We all want to be healthy. Understanding the myriad factors involved in health, and what they mean for individuals, our families, our communities and the planet – can be a daunting task. The Small Conversations for a Better World podcast brings you local and global conversations to help you get the information you need to make important health-related decisions.

Our first four seasons were exclusively interview-based. Over the course of those four seasons, we became aware that that there are issues and challenges in the relationships between settler society in Canada and our indigenous neighbours that need attention to improve health and wellbeing for us all. As we talked to experts in a wide swath of different fields, it became clear that there are imbalances that needed much closer scrutiny if we are to remain true to our podcast’s mission. We recognized that there were significant deficits in our understanding, and wanted to learn more.

In Season 5, we dedicated our entire season to learning about the experience of Indigenous life in Canada. We worked our way through the Indigenous Canada course, developed by the University of Alberta Faculty of Native Studies. (The course is a MOOG available free online via Coursera.org.). Our goal was to begin to understand the history, the culture, the beliefs and the challenges Indigenous people face in this country so that we may begin to take the actions today necessary to heal rifts and move forward together. In learning about the Indigenous experience in Canada, we're also learning about our own roots, and the very nature of the society in which we grew up.  We shared our key learnings, and framed them alongside the things we grew up learning in Canadian schools/society.  We closed out the season with a conversation with Jenny Sawanohk, Red Stone Snake Woman, who helped us to make sense of what we had learned in the current context of Canada. Check it out! 

You can find us on ITunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, IHeart Radio and more of your favourite podcast platforms. Subscribe to have the latest episodes dropped onto your playlist each week. Leave us know what you think - write a review!

More about the co-hosts:
Susannah Steers
Gillian McCormick