Gemini Award Winning Director & Producer David Tucker chatting on The Aesthetics of Media and Fake News, below. Photo: Jeff Cottrill

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The Episodes

Ivy Reiss in conversation with Hugh Reilly at ThatChannel studios

Finding an Answer in the Middle East. Author and Middle East expert Ian Thomas Shaw has spent 25 years in the Middle East, including the Gaza Strip, Israel, Jerusalem, and Lebanon at key moments in history. Ian explores solutions to the layered issues and talks about his brand new historical fiction novel: Quill of the Dove (Guernica Editions), which will be a mini-series on HBO and other outlets.

Ivy Reiss talks with ThatChannel’s Hugh Reilly on the origins on The Artis and the current state of publishing.

Best-selling American-Canadian poet of Tender in the Age of Fury (Mosaic) and three-time Fringe Festival playwright, Brandon Pitts talks about poetry as more than a "frivolous art-form," his inspiration from Simon Armitage, Trump and America’s political state—candidly addressed ahead of its time in his 2015 collection, In the Company of Crows (Mosaic).

Brandon also talks about his choice to make Canada his permanent home, and the secrets to his renowned performance style.

Find out more about Brandon at BrandonPitts.com

Autism: The difference between Awareness and Acceptance

Canadian SLAM team champion Michelle Hillyard, autism and mental health advocate, and poetry editor of the new literature magazine: Alt-Minds.

Michelle talks about the urgent need for change in our approach to mental health, AutismSpeaks, vaccines, and more.

Black history IS the forerunner of spoken word today.

Author and Spoken Word renegade Andrea Thompson takes us through the history of Black Culture to show us how spoken word today is informed by the African American’s in slavery.

As a spoken-word fore-runner, Andrea was the first person to pitch and create spoken word courses to Ontario universities in 2008, (7 years ahead of Harvard and Stanford). Her wildly successful courses have taught some of the biggest names on the scene today.

Andrea is the author of the prose-drama Over our Heads (Inanna Publications).

Visit AndreaThompson.ca

Is Nuance Dead in the Age of Outrage? Writer, journalist, and spoken-word artist Jeff Cottrill and I look at the state of moral policing in the arts and explore the facts. We ask can bad people make good art? Think Roman Polanski, Woody Allen. #Rudolph #HuffPost

Watch this episode and find out how to get a signed copy of his CD: This Album is NIT FENNY!

Contact Jeff Cottrill.com for bookings.

Armenian genocide survivor, author of 25 books, and an upcoming piece on Broadway, Keith Garebian talks about his groundbreaking memoir Pain: Journeys Around My Parents, the effects of intergenerational PTSD, his two upcoming books, and Broadway debut.

Watch this episode and learn more about Keith Garebian

Brenda Clews, eclectic performer, visual artist, poet, and videographer. Brenda is the host and coordinator of the new Minstrels and Bards reading series at the Tranzac Club.

Today’s show features a discussion about following your muse in her collection Tidal Fury, and her first novel, Fugue in Green, which reflects on abusive family relationships.

Pat Connors, GTA poet and host of the world-wide event: 100,000 Poets for Change on art and global affairs:

Pat and I discuss his Canadian connection to the American founders of 100,000 Poets for Change, his upcoming 7th annual event with some of the biggest names in the GTA reading live on Sept 22 2018, his endless drive to raise money for the Attawapiskat Youth Advocate Shannen Koostachin; his 2017 launch for Bottom of the Wine Jar in Holguín Province in Cuba, and why Cuba is close to his art and heart.

Find out more about Shannen’s Dream at First Nations Caring.

Canadian legend, singer, songwriter, and poet Max Layton opens up about his upcoming works, his unconventional childhood, how Leonard Cohen taught him guitar, and the story behind his mother’s (Boschka/Betty Sutherland ) groundbreaking art.

Boschka/Betty Sutherland, is honoured as one of Canada’s most important artists at Carleton Uni on November 01, 2018.

Buy a copy of Max Layton’s latest CD here or Watch this episode and find out how to how you can get a signed copy of Max’s latest CD

Visit MaxLayton.com

The Cultural Appropriation of Art with 905 Poetry & Prose host, visual artist, and poet ‎Sheila Tucker.

Sheila’s world travels and post-grad studies gives us a unique insight into this most relevant topic of our times.

Sheila fills us in on her popular Poetry & Prose reading series in Oakville, and her upcoming works.

Author Joyce Wayne on novelizing the Gouzenko affair in her newest and critically acclaimed historical-fiction book: Last Night of the World—a Canadian first—about real-life Soviet spy Freda Linton on Canadian soil and Canada’s instrumental role in discovering the Cold War, changing the world’s relations with the Soviet Union forever.

Visit www.JoyceWayne.com for more on the author

Sci-Fi and Fantasy Change Legislation. Author, “Unapologetic Jew,” and Professor Allan Weiss looks at how sci-fi and fantasy ask the hard questions, the state of dystopian and utopian fiction, and the graphic Jewish lens on western, Christian Lit. We also chat on his brand new book Telescope (Guernica) and his fantasy collection, Making the Rounds (Edge Press).

Is Social Media Making Us Narcissistic? Carolyn Bennett a comedian, television screen-writer, and just-launched her first, dark satire novel, Please Stand By (NON Publishing Press), springing to #4 on the Edmonton best-seller list on Sept 29th.

What do Writing Groups do? Mary Ellen Koroscil, head of MEK Speciality Services and Coordinator of The Courtney Park Writers, the GTA’s longest standing writing group, shares the success of members such as P.K. Page, Brandon Pitts, Kim Cayer, and so many others, and illustrates how anyone can become a successful writer through the support of community writing groups. We also touch on how the Ford government cuts to libraries have affected the literary arts.

One size does not fit all: Cultural Pluralism in the Arts. Charles C. Smith, Executive Director of non-profit Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario (CPAMO), celebrates ten years and talks candidly about the importance of understanding and recognizing multi-faceted art forms in dance, performance arts, music, and spoken-word.

American immigration advocate and poet Jeannine Pitas talks spirituality, Catholicism, poverty, women in US politics, and launching her new book, Things Seen and Unseen (Mosaic), here in Toronto (her “spiritual home”) on July 06, 2019.

Visit JeannineMariePitas.com for more.

Author and Poet Laureate of Emery Laurence Hutchman on the impact of our histories and finding the past with The House of Shifting Time (Black Moss Press), and his non-fiction poetry collection: Two Maps of Emery (Black Moss Press), currently in its second edition.

Published in over 50 publications, including Toronto Star, Washington Post, BBC, NOW, Canadian Jewish News, Quill & Quire, to name a few. Journalist and Toronto Poetry Slam founder David Silverberg has always had his button on the pulse.

David gives us a special sneak-peak of his new collection As Close to the Edge Without Going Over (ChiZine), the upcoming May 08th 2019 Launch, sci-fi poetry and the spec genre, his 2018 one-man show "Jewnique," (now booking its second run), and more!

Reach Dave at DavidSilverberg.ca

Are Canadians REALLY as diverse as we think? Why are Canada’s successful artists hemorrhaging into the United States? Tom and I explore how we can monetize Canada’s art-based culture.

Author, musician, and actor, Dr. Tom Gannon Hamilton earns his living solely from his art—which is the exception, but should really be the rule for all Canadian artists.

His works are Featured in a permanent exhibit in the New York Holocaust Museum; his acting accolades include Murdoch Mysteries, the Netflix American God series, and the 2018 Oscar sweeper, Shape of Water.

Tom’s latest poetry collection, Panoptic (Aeolis Press) launched Fall 2018.

Watch this episode and find out how to contact Tom to book him for your event.

Gemini-award winning film-maker David Tucker delves into the aesthetics of media and fake news and how what we find beautiful effects every aspect of our lives.

David fills us in on his award-winning book of real-inspired short-stories, One Way Ticket and his upcoming work in an anthology, launching January 27th 2019.

Professor, artist, and host, Georgia Wilder sheds light on how the science and humanities fields are changing with the Rise of the Authentic Voice in Academia and the Arts.

Georgia Wilder is the host and coordinator of the wildly successful Wild Writers Reading Series at the Poetry Jazz Cafe in Kensington Market. She was most recently named one of the Best New Poets in Canada 2018 (Quattro) in the anthology of the same name.

ABI survivor Frank Veri discusses his journey after surviving a bilateral brain injury.

After 30 years of recovery Frank made his way from being labeled “clinically retarded” to working as a software quality assurance analyst, and most recently into the arts world as an author, op-ed writer, and keynote speaker.

Frank discovered that rewiring the brain is possible a decade before the psychiatric community.

Read Frank’s book “How to Easily Start your Internet Business: The One of a Kind Guide that will Change your Life" under the pseudonym Franco Casver.

Follow Frank’s Facebook Opinion page @FrankVeriOpinion

89.5 CIUT FM Howl’s Radio Host & GTA Spoken Word veteran Valentino Assenza, gives us his unique vantage point on the art scene: from his two cultures, over twenty years, and the dynamics of hosting Toronto’s most important radio station.

Val gives us a first-ever sneak-peak from his upcoming collection, Through Painted Eyes (Piquant Press), launching February 2019.

Professional entertainer and sultry author Kim Cayer, shares the secrets of reading live.

Kim lets us in on the serious side of her sassy and hilarious novels, which deal with homelessness, battered women, elder abuse, and the over-sexualization of women in the media industry.

Pick-up your copy of No Fire Escape in Hell (Roundfire Books); Lights, Camera, Dissatisfaction (Roundfire), Dirty Numbers (Kindle Edition)

The Pros & Cons of Publishing in the Digital Era with award-winning visual artist, internationally published poet, and publisher of Star Buzz weekly, Meena Chopra.

Meena gives us the details for newest upcoming book and exhibit: SHE! The Restless Streak, launching in September 2018.