In Episode 5 of One Feather Two Pens we speak with the award winning actor, director, producer, writer, and storyteller, maija-tailfeathers.com/">Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers. Member of the Kinai First Nation as well as Sámi from Norway, Elle-Máijá joins us to discuss her Rogers Audience Award winning documentary, Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy. The powerful film is an intimate and reflexive portrait of her community and the impact of substance abuse and opioid epidemic. Elle-Máijá is a remarkable wisdom and self-awareness facilitates a truly insightful conversation about representation, authenticity, and narrative sovereignty in Indigenous media. Join us as we explore what it means to truth, history, paternal politics, unlearning bias, and of the challenges and opportunities that emerge when navigating voice, privilege, and power. Elle-Máijá also raises important questions for Canadians seeking to assist and collaborate with First Nations peoples, such as: Who is the right person to tell a story? What does it mean to represent Indigenous life? And what happens when non-Indigenous narrators take up space without being aware of doing so?

Gila’kasla!

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A very special thanks to Compulsion Soundlabs for sharing their musical talent, which you are hearing as the intro and outro music in this series!

Subscribe for updates Email: wtncast@gmail.com Follow us on Apple Music and Spotify   Tommy and Al respectfully acknowledge that this show is recorded and produced on the traditional, unceded territories of the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Chonnonton, and Lūnaapéewak peoples. London, Ontario, Canada is situated on their lands, a beautiful place that Tommy and Al are privileged to call home. Through this series, Tommy and Al aim to share their platform to create progressive, safe, and inclusive space to share the wisdoms, lessons, and experiences of Indigenous peoples from sea, to sea, to sea - in hopes of finding meaningful avenues to co-exist and function together online, in the spirit of love, courage, kindness, and reconciliation.

In our latest episode on One Feather, Two Pens we have the privilege and honor to chat with Mary Teegee and Matt Smiley, the Directors of For Love on Netflix. As an Indigenous woman and non-Indigenous man, Mary and Matt have worked closely together since before their powerful piece Highway of Tears. The two reflect on their journeys, learnings, and discoveries together, which leads to a fascinating and important set of realizations and offerings about the promise of Indigenous media. 

Gila’kasla!

Follow us on Twitter: Wtncast

Follow your co-hosts: Tommy | Al | Lawrence

A very special thanks to Compulsion Soundlabs for sharing their musical talent, which you are hearing as the intro and outro music in this series!

Subscribe for updates Email: wtncast@gmail.com Follow us on Apple Music and Spotify   Tommy and Al respectfully acknowledge that this show is recorded and produced on the traditional, unceded territories of the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Chonnonton, and Lūnaapéewak peoples. London, Ontario, Canada is situated on their lands, a beautiful place that Tommy and Al are privileged to call home. Through this series, Tommy and Al aim to share their platform to create progressive, safe, and inclusive space to share the wisdoms, lessons, and experiences of Indigenous peoples from sea, to sea, to sea - in hopes of finding meaningful avenues to co-exist and function together online, in the spirit of love, courage, kindness, and reconciliation.

We are very excited to have Josh Nilson, Co-Founder of East Side Games, recent winner of the BC Tech Association's Person of the Year Award (and a Producer of one of Tommy's all time favourite games, Company of Heroes!), to talk about the value and importance of reconciliation through the inclusion of Indigenous peoples in the tech sector. 

Josh shares his fascinating professional journey, beginning in the world of culinary arts and then successfully transitioning into video game development where he produced some of the most popular Apps around, including The Office, Star Trek Upper Decks, Ru Paul's Drag Race, Trailer Park Boys and more. Josh reflects on the importance of learning, and especially on what's at stake for Canadian businesses to start thinking seriously about what Indigeneity does and does not mean and include.

Gila’kasla!

Follow us on Twitter: Wtncast

Follow your co-hosts: Tommy | Al | Lawrence

A very special thanks to Compulsion Soundlabs for sharing their musical talent, which you are hearing as the intro and outro music in this series!

Subscribe for updates Email: wtncast@gmail.com Follow us on Apple Music and Spotify   Tommy and Al respectfully acknowledge that this show is recorded and produced on the traditional, unceded territories of the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Chonnonton, and Lūnaapéewak peoples. London, Ontario, Canada is situated on their lands, a beautiful place that Tommy and Al are privileged to call home. Through this series, Tommy and Al aim to share their platform to create progressive, safe, and inclusive space to share the wisdoms, lessons, and experiences of Indigenous peoples from sea, to sea, to sea - in hopes of finding meaningful avenues to co-exist and function together online, in the spirit of love, courage, kindness, and reconciliation.

In our second episode of this new special series, we are honoured to be joined by Chief Dr. Robert Joseph, OC, OBC. Dr. Joseph is a hereditary Chief of the Gwawaenuk First Nation, is Ambassador for Reconciliation Canada where he has guided the Canadian Federal government through their residential school response. Dr. Joseph is a survivor of St. Michael’s Residential School. 

Dr. Joseph guides Tommy, Al, and Lawrence through the importance of creating safe space to converse and listen deeply in order for reconciliation to move forward. Dr. Joseph believes that technology, and platforms like podcasting, can be vehicles for moving reconciliation forward - specifically by giving opportunities for unheard voices and experiences from Indigenous peoples. This episode is full of practical advice to any listener, particularly for Indigenous and Canadian entrepreneurs who are looking to innovate and collaborate in this digital space.

Gila’kasla!

Follow us on Twitter: Wtncast

Follow your co-hosts: Tommy | Al | Lawrence

A very special thanks to Compulsion Soundlabs for sharing their musical talent, which you are hearing as the intro and outro music in this series!

Subscribe for updates Email: wtncast@gmail.com Follow us on Apple Music and Spotify   Tommy and Al respectfully acknowledge that this show is recorded and produced on the traditional, unceded territories of the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Chonnonton, and Lūnaapéewak peoples. London, Ontario, Canada is situated on their lands, a beautiful place that Tommy and Al are privileged to call home. Through this series, Tommy and Al aim to share their platform to create progressive, safe, and inclusive space to share the wisdoms, lessons, and experiences of Indigenous peoples from sea, to sea, to sea - in hopes of finding meaningful avenues to co-exist and function together online, in the spirit of love, courage, kindness, and reconciliation.

Once upon a time on What's That Noise?! we asked: wouldn't it be wonderful to launch a special series with their new friend and former guest, Lawrence Lewis? That time has arrived! Al, Tommy, and Lawrence are so very pleased to present One Feather Two Pens, a special series that interviews Indigenous thought and technology leaders about functioning and co-existing with Indigenous peoples in this digital space.

We kick off the series in episode 1 by laying the terrain for what this new series is about, what it's goals are, and what it hopes to contribute by means of creating a safe, inclusive dialogue for sharing the stories and lessons of Indigenous people across Canada who are carving out and navigating Indigenous digital sovereignty.

What does it mean for Canadians and Indigenous peoples to work together online? What values and principles should be prioritized? What does reconciliation mean and look like on the Internet? What does success look like here, exactly - and how will we even know that we've been successful? 

Stay tuned for more episodes, releasing on the 15th of every month!

Gila’kasla!

Follow us on Twitter: Wtncast

Follow your co-hosts: Tommy | Al | Lawrence

A very special thanks to Compulsion Soundlabs for sharing their musical talent, which you are hearing as the intro and outro music in this series!

Subscribe for updates Email: wtncast@gmail.com Follow us on Apple Music and Spotify   Tommy and Al respectfully acknowledge that this show is recorded and produced on the traditional, unceded territories of the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Chonnonton, and Lūnaapéewak peoples. London, Ontario, Canada is situated on their lands, a beautiful place that Tommy and Al are privileged to call home. Through this series, Tommy and Al aim to share their platform to create progressive, safe, and inclusive space to share the wisdoms, lessons, and experiences of Indigenous peoples from sea, to sea, to sea - in hopes of finding meaningful avenues to co-exist and function together online, in the spirit of love, courage, kindness, and reconciliation.

Before the pandemic, AI was growing in Canada. Throughout the pandemic, AI has exploded in Canada. Through working from home and online schooling to the abundance of location, health, medical, and interaction data around us at all times, the last half decade truly has witnessed institutions moving rapidly toward AI to make money, increase efficiency, trim fat, and perhaps even assist in finding new cures and vaccines. 

And as you might imagine, there are serious rights, liberties, justice, ethics, and equality issues that pop up along the way. So, how does a country insulate itself from such dangers? Through regulation, but easier said than done... 

Join us as we chat with the distinguished Dr. Teresa Scassa, Canada Research Chair in Information Law and Policy at the University of Ottawa, an award winning author, a recognizable expert across numerous Canadian media outlets - and a fantastic Ad Lib'er to boot. 

As you'll hear, the move toward regulating AI in Canada has been anything but clear... Tune in to hear more!

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Hey friends! Hope your summer is swell! It sure has been for us - perhaps a bit too good? While it's been rather tough to find time to record together, we're really pumped to finish off the summer with two new episodes. Today's chat is with Tommy's dear friend, Fernando Leiva - an analytics developer at the Centre for Advanced Computing at Queen's University. Tommy and Fernando have worked together for the past 3+ years to investigate location data-related privacy issues on smartphones. Today, we ask a simple but complicated question: location data - what do you mean?

What we see in Google Maps is vastly different than what flows behind the scenes. GPS coordinates and mailing addresses represent a mere fraction of what corporations are able to collect from our devices. A big portion of these other, discrete data are in the format of NMEA 0183 - a standard data type that is produced by hardware in our smartphones as they intercept navigation satellite signals. 

What is inside NMEA 0183? Why do companies harvest it, and for what reasons? Many questions, much confusion, and so little time! If you are privacy or data ethics nut, this episode is for you!

Tune in for Al, and more - apparently!

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More than ever people are questioning whether or not their job is the best fit. How many of us have found themselves in this position, particularly during the pandemic? How many of us have wondered what it takes to change ship, how much courage would be required to do so - and whether or not the grass is truly 'greener' on the other side? 

In this episode we hear from our beloved co-host Mr. Al Coombs about his professional journey, one which began with a short stint in insurance, to over a decade as a popular AM daytime radio show host on the Telemedia, Standard, Astral, and Bell media networks - to newly minted public school teacher. Every confusion, every curiousity, and every pain-and-gain that you might imagine are all things that Al reflects on. The biggest? Energy. How much energy does one burn before what makes sense blurs into confusion and ambiguity? 

We also address another confusion: an accusation from another podcaster that we have been targeting and attacking his show and attempting to steal their listeners. Tommy and Al explain the backstory, which begins with another host from the USA who uses our name: What's That Noise?! - verbatim. Our show precedes his, by more than a year - which is why Apple's legal team pulled his show from their content listing. We certainly never meant harm to this other podcaster, but the law is law - is it not?

Tune in for Al, and more - apparently!

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Tommy and Al are excited to bring a fantastic piece filled with both confusion and clarity around a tremendously important subject: Indigenous Digital Identity. What's That Noise?! is honoured to speak with Lawrence Lewis, Founder and CEO of OneFeather: an Indigenous technology company that designs specialized software solutions for Indigenous peoples across Canada.

Lawrence joins us to talk about the messiness that is "Digital Identity" and "digital identity". That's right, there's two. One has capitals in "D" and "I" in it, and the other does not. The latter refers to a concept - digital identity, as in 'who we are' online in terms of how governments and corporations define and represent us. The second, Digital Identity, is a technology. It is the one that we've seen governments around the world develop throughout the pandemic as a digital alternative to, for example, your driver's license... Imagine a passport you keep on your phone.

What makes both versions particularly confusing is that both have tremendous implications for Indigenous peoples, albeit with very different but equally important stakes. Come listen to the solutions and efforts put forth by Lawrence and his company OneFeather to make both versions - digital identity and Digital Identity - meaningful, accessible, proactive and a hopeful avenue for relationship building between Indigenous communities and Canada. Lawrence has opened a door for Canada to commit to reconciliation in the digital space - how will we reciprocate?

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Almost immediately after the #warinukraine began, the Western world told Ukrainians: "our borders are open". When a humanitarian crisis unfolds, such as the largest exodus of a population occurs since the end of world war two, it's logical that a country would open its borders to those in need, no? Not so fast. The world's borders - how they are made, how they are managed, and how they affect the lives and geographies around them - as our returning guest and dear friend Dr. Benjamin Muller tells us, are confusing. Since well before 9/11 but particularly after it, borders and borderlands have been created to try and secure life in the image of those who build them. As you'll hear, securing life through borders and bordering practices is anything but clear, obvious or even helpful to the people that live near them. When we study borders critically, we don't find clarity - only more confusion. 

Tune in for a fantastic chat with a brilliant researcher!

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