Blue box that reads "Courage My Friends 4: At the George Brown Labour Fair 2023"
Courage My Friends is back for a fourth season! Credit: Breanne Doyle / Canva Credit: Breanne Doyle / Canva

The Courage My Friends podcast returns next week under the triple theme of Covid! Capitalism! Climate! 

Though ‘Conflict’ is quickly gaining ground as a strong contender. Perhaps for season five… hopefully not.

Founded by the Tommy Douglas Institute (at George Brown College) and co-produced with long-time media partner rabble.ca, and with the support of the Douglas Coldwell Layton Foundation, the Courage My Friends podcast is pleased to continue its regular run under rabble’s podcast Needs No Introduction.

Over our last three series we have engaged with poets and politicians, storytellers and scientists, educators and ethicists, union leaders, researchers, medical practitioners and more on a seemingly endless list of endlessly interesting (and often worrying) topics. 

Last season, on Courage My Friends…

Last season we explored themes of healthcare privatization, migrant workers and food insecurity. We dove into the intersections of climate and housing, housing and human rights and capitalism and mental health. Last season, we focused on the day’s headlines. From striking education workers, to a looming biodiversity and extinction crisis that threatens us all. 

We also engaged with the better possibilities that exist within labour organizing, Indigenous-led conservation, community empowerment. Last season, we were also joined by storytellers who expanded our understanding of the past and present and burnished our hopes for the future.

What’s in store this season?

The Courage My Friends podcast will begin its fourth series on familiar turf – George Brown College, the home of the Tommy Douglas Institute, and the annual Labour Fair.

A unique event within the college system, for over three decades the George Brown College Labour Fair has brought students, faculty and staff together with the labour movement and connected fields of activism and organizing.

Under the theme The Other P3s: Pandemic, Privatization, Precarity… and Planet! the event will feature panels and speakers from a host of organizations. These organizations include:

  • Workers’ Action Centre
  • Blue Green Canada
  • Gig Workers United
  • Naujawan Support Centre
  • Justicia for Migrant Workers
  • and of course CLiFF, the Canadian Labour International Film Festival. 

We are doubly pleased to bring the Labour Fair to a broader audience with the launch of this season’s podcast, Labour Education: Film, Fair and Organizing. 

In our first episode, we are joined by guests Kathryn Payne, Lorene Oikawa and Derek Blackadder. We discuss the importance of labour education through post-secondary education and the film arts as we focus on the Labour Fair.

This spring, the Courage My Friends podcast and rabbleTV will air recordings of panel and speaker discussions from the George Brown College Labour Fair. 

A keynote address by Senator Hassan Yussuff, past president of the Canadian Labour Congress, will be featured on rabbleTV.

Please join us for the launch of our Spring series on Monday March 27th on rabble.ca and Needs No Introduction.

In the words of the great Tommy Douglas: Courage my friends; ‘tis not too late to build a better world.

Resh Budhu

Resh Budhu, coordinator of the Tommy Douglas Institute and co-producer of the Courage My Friends podcast, has worked in social justice issues of gender equality, anti-racism, education and the arts. Resh...