Participedia is Launching a Podcast!

Introducing #JustParticipation, a student-led podcast about democratic participation and innovation around the world.

Produced by a team of student research assistants at McMaster University, the #JustParticipation podcast explores the stories of diverse research and practitioner experiences from within the Participedia community and beyond.

Our first season places a thematic spotlight on the use of social media to advance democracy in the digital age. Student hosts interview participants working from different practitioner and scholarly approaches, curating invited guest speakers to reflect a diversity of knowledges and experience in the field.

Season 1, Episode 1: “Democracy & Technology” is our pilot episode, and introduces the season’s theme.

Student hosts Timothy Thompson and Adeola Egbeyemi interview Cuzz, an Indigenous activist, followed by Jesi Carson and Pan Khantidhara of Participedia’s women-led Design Technology Team, and Participedia Director, Bonny Ibhawoh. The guests talk about concepts ranging from indigenous sovereignty and resistance in North America, the tensions and challenges of designing an inclusive knowledge sharing platform based on feminist co-design principles, and an introduction to the work of Participedia and democratic innovation more broadly.

(Episode 1 launches TODAY on Spotify! Have a listen here!)

Season 1, Episode 2: “Best-interests Decision Making” explores issues around representation in decision making processes.

Student host Zeynep Yilmaz interviews the researchers and practitioners, Melissa Levin, Friedel Marquardt and Lucy Parry. Each guest is working in a different area applicable to best interests decision making: children as told through the case study of South Africa, marginalized peoples in the context of social media in Australia, and lastly, a consideration of animals and the non-human under deliberative democracy paradigms.

Stay tuned for more episodes!

Listen to #JustParticipation on Spotify, SoundCloud and YouTube, and follow @JustPartPodcast on Twitter.

#JustParticipation is recorded on the traditional territories of the Mississauga and Haudenosaunee nations, and within the lands protected by the “Dish with One Spoon” wampum agreement.

Special thanks to the #JustParticipation student team at McMaster University, including Sara Abdella, Zeynep Yilmaz and Nadim Al Nakhl, as well as previous team members Adeola Egbeyemi and Timothy Thompson.