Across healthcare, education, and advocacy, many assumptions about disability are being challenged and, in some cases, dismantled. Among them are questions related to intimate relationships and sexuality, where stigma can get in the way of safety and rights.

On this month’s episode of the Big Thinking Podcast, Karine Morin is joined by Dr. Alan Martino, Assistant Professor in the Community Rehabilitation and Disability Studies Program at the University of Calgary.

Something remarkable happens when spaces are allowed to feel more human—when they are welcoming, grounded in care, and shaped with intention. When there’s time to sit together, perhaps good food on the table, and an openness that feels closer to being welcomed into someone’s home than arriving at an institution of learning.

Across the country, centres for Black studies are emerging as spaces like these. They are places where Black scholarship is held with care, where history and leadership are approached through joy, and where intellectual life is nurtured rather than extracted.

That spirit of joy comes to the Big Thinking Podcast this month. Andrew B. Campbell joins Karine Morin for a conversation about Black leadership through history, the power of building scholarly spaces that are expansive rather than extractive, and what becomes possible when we show up not just as participants, but as allies and co-conspirators in sustaining this work.

As global conflicts intensify, the federal government is being forced to make hard choices about security, defense spending, and values. These choices raise a pressing question: can the country maintain its commitment to Women, Peace, and Security, also known as WPS, while adapting to a rapidly changing global defense landscape?

In this episode of the Big Thinking Podcast, Karine Morin is joined by Stéfanie Von Hltaky, Canada Research Chair in Gender, Security, and the Armed Forces to unpack how WPS commitments collide, coexist, or transform within our national defense framework.