Well will you look at that! We made it! Let’s see: two nine-week seasons, so 18 sets of Midweek podcasts since September with three podcasts per set … so that’s … 54 podcasts…!
Loyal listeners (and alums of our team) know that Midweek is usually a 90-minute live radio show on CKCU-FM, starting right after the BBC News at noon on Wednesdays.
Click the pic for a look at what the Midweek newsroom is usually like … without a pandemic, that is.
Our newsroom, production suite, control room and studios buzz with action as our team assembles the show and puts it to air, working shoulder to shoulder … in exactly the way we haven’t been able to work since last spring…
A big part of journalism of any kind (and especially live broadcasting) is meeting whatever comes, adapting to sudden change, and finding go-arounds so the show can go on. That’s what our Midweek teams did in our fall and winter seasons of 2020-21 — and they deserve to be proud.
Our final production day — with our 21 team members each working from home but assembling the podcasts together in virtual newsroom spaces — was April 7, and here’s what we have for you.
Podcast 1: Max Bakony, co-host of this podcast, opens the show with an interview that takes us inside how long-term care residences have struggled through the past year.
Midweek host/reporter Max Bakony in the “newsroom” corner of his home
Max spoke with a woman training to be a personal support worker — a PSW — who says her experience with work placements last summer convinced her the elderly and vulnerable deserve better.
Midweek’s Hana Sabah then introduces us to three women professionals who’ve found wearing a hijab in Canada can mean having to make some hard choices — and never being sure if you’re being judged by your work or the way you dress.
And with Ramadan coming, reporter Erika Ibrahim looks at what local families will miss most as pandemic precautions prevent them gathering in large groups to celebrate the breaking of the fast each evening — and also the ways they’re making up for that. One tip: Somali samosas … highly recommended.
This podcast was produced by Natasha Bulowksi and Meaghan Haldenby.
Extreme hikers Sonya Richmond and Sean Morton
Podcast 2: Midweek’s Raylene Lung connected with man who used a video project for a class to peel back the layers of his anxiety, and with the help of his mom — an occupational therapist — gain a deeper understanding of what’s become a part of him.
The last year has been an anxious time for most of us in our own ways, and reporter Avanthika Anand discusses the way the pandemic derailed the plans of one student heading into her senior year at university and where she finds herself now, one year later.
At least there are some things we can count on: Pandemics or no, the seasons pass, rivers run, the Great Lakes stay filled with water, and we keep pumping pollution into them.
Midweek’s Angelica Zagorski takes a deep look at what Great Lakes specialists say are the major issues facing what remains a critical resource for both Canada and the U.S.
And while some strive to save nature, others are out enjoying it. Midweek’s Emilie Warren tells us about Sonya Richmond and her husband, Sean Morton, who are preparing for the third leg of their hike across Canada, which they say has reconnected them to nature and shown them the beauty and importance of this country’s wilderness.
This podcast was hosted by Raylene and Angelica, and produced by Samantha Campling and Sarah West.
Midweek’s Erika Ibrahim in her home’s newsroom nook
Podcast 3: This podcast was hosted by Eden Suh and Ciaran Morgan, and starts off with reporter Jeff Pelletier telling us about his in-depth conversation with Dr. Raywat Deonandan, an epidemiologist at the University of Ottawa, about the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Then Eden introduces us to Carleton student Jaiden Doyle, who began streaming herself playing online games as a way to cope with pandemic boredom, and found in the process a new passion and community.
And Ciaran sat down with Joan Whelan, a 98-year-old resident of the Niagara region, to talk over her thoughts about receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine after a year of worry.
This podcast was produced by Jennifer Prescott and Kayla Christoffer.
And that, as we say in show business, is a wrap for one more Midweek season! See you in September … one way or another!
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