Dr. Angela Kaida is a Simon Fraser University Distinguished Professor and the Scientific Director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute for Gender and Health. Dr. Kaida’s research interests pertain to understanding the impact of expanding access to HIV treatment and prevention services on sexual and reproductive intentions, behaviours, and outcomes of HIV-affected individuals and couples in high HIV prevalence global settings and in Canada. You can read some of her work here.

Angela talks about what it meant to practice allyship in contexts of stigma, in all areas of life and specifically throughout the research process. We talk about gender differences in HIV stigma, the challenges getting rid of stigma even while we make biomedical advances,  and steps for us all to take in becoming aware of and working to dismantle stigma and inequity. She  discusses recommendations for advancing sexual and reproductive health among women living with HIV in Canada that centre on creating enabling environments that amplify the voices of women in their diversity and challenge stigma and marginalization. We also learn about Angela's inspiring namesake.

Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

Kim Canady is an HIV/AIDS activist, advocate, mother, and wife born with HIV. Throughout her adolescence, Kimberly became a member of many HIV/AIDS awareness organizations. These organizations include Theo, Heat, UNICEF, YWCHAC, co-chair of YACAC, spokesmodel for New York State Department of Health campaign HIVSTOPSWITHME, and Love Heals. As an African American woman born and raised in Brooklyn, Kimberly faced having to combat the ignorance and stigma that surround HIV and AIDS within her community. Kimberly continues to move forward, not only educating others and living in her truth, but working locally and on a national and global level to help those living with and affected by HIV. Kim is a community advisory board member for The Well Project and her work advances pleasure as a human right and aspect of justice.

In this podcast we talk about the ways that HIV stigma still arises in day-to-day living, the importance of experiencing pleasure in all aspects of life (including and expanding beyond sexual pleasure), and ways to make the uncomfortable-comfortable (and the incredible superpower from talking about difficult things).

Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

Bridgette Picou is a nurse with several years of HIV and infectious disease experience and an avid blogger with The Well Project. She also writes a guest column with Positively Aware Magazine called "Being Bridgette." In addition to her LVN license, Bridgette has been certified as an AIDS Care Nurse (ACLPN) and received the 2022 Patrick Kenny Certified Nurse of the year award. Serving as the President of the Greater Palm Springs Chapter of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (ANAC), it's important to her to not only continue to build relationships between providers and patients but also partner with other members of the HIV medical community for education and advances. She finds that in advocating for others she advocates for herself and affirms her own journey. You can also find her on Twitter.

In this podcast we discuss Bridgette's journey and advocacy to thrive with HIV. We talk about the need to better understand the lives of women living with HIV--in particular Black women-- whose voices are often missing from research and media. Bridgette explains the importance of seeing HIV as a LIFE (vs. a disease) process and encourages us all to educate ourselves and learn more about HIV (see The Well Project for up to date info). She  recommends that we all get tested to know our HIV status, and perhaps become humbled to the experiences of stigma in the process.

Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

Ciarra “Ci Ci” Covin is a mother, advocate, and lover of all human beings. Diagnosed with HIV at the age of 20, Ci Ci has curated a life of HIV and mental advocacy through both her lived experience and education. Ci Ci is program manager at The Well Project, past Ambassador for the CDC’s Let’s Stop HIV Together Campaign, and Owner of Healing Is Voluntary, LLC. In these roles, Ci Ci has been able to connect with other leaders from around the world to further the mission of destigmatizing HIV and providing a community for women who are living with HIV. Learn more about HIV and the work at The Well Project here and follow them on Twitter.  Check out Ci Ci's A Girl Like Me series.

In this podcast we talk about the persistence of HIV stigma in society and how it affects self-stigma and self-acceptance, advances with U=U, breastfeeding and HIV, and how people living with HIV are still human, with the same desires that might just look a little different. Ci Ci shares simple and powerful ways we can all challenge HIV stigma.

Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

Chelsea Wald has repeatedly plunged into the topic of toilets since 2013, when editors first approached her to write about the latent potential in our stagnating infrastructure. Since then she has traveled to Italy, South Africa, Indonesia, and Haiti, as well as throughout the Netherlands and the United States, in search of the past and future of toilet systems. With a degree in astronomy from Columbia University and a master’s in journalism from Indiana University, Chelsea has more than fifteen years of experience in writing about science and the environment. She has won several awards and reporting grants, including from the Society of Environmental Journalists, the European Geosciences Union, and the European Journalism Centre.  She lives with her family in the Netherlands, in a region renowned for its water-related innovations. Her book Pipe Dreams is fascinating- and filled with humour.

In this podcast episode, we talk about shame and disgust around toilets; the need for choice and valuing socio-cultural understandings, history, and preferences in developing community sanitation solutions; and the future of the toilet. We also discuss how humour can cut through shame around toilets- and the need to make toilets cooler.

Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

Lezlie Lowe began her freelance radio, newspaper, and magazine career in 1996. She has penned and produced pieces on urban rats, roadkill cemeteries and, prominently, public toilets. Lowe has been a finalist and multiple winner at the Radio Television Digital News Association Awards, the Atlantic Journalism Awards, and the Canadian Association of Journalists Awards, and has taught journalism at the University of King's College since 2003. Her first book, No Place To Go: How Public Toilets Fail Our Private Needs  was nominated for two Atlantic Book Awards. Lowe, a failed urban planner, has an abiding interest in equity in public spaces.

In this podcast episode, we talk about how stigma shapes the ways in which public toilets are designed (note: usually poorly or not at all), how sanitation needs are universal yet most impact marginalized communities, period poverty, and why there are always lines for women's toilets.

Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

Dr. Caetano Dorea is a Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, at the University of Victoria. His interests and expertise are at the crossroads of environmental and public health engineering. You can learn more about his Public Health & Environmental Engineering (PH2E) Lab research here, his publications here, and follow him on Twitter here.

We talk about the stigma around sanitation-and in particular 'shit'-and the 'flush and forget' culture. Caetano discusses the stigma experienced by sanitation workers, how sanitation services and water treatment are being reframed to show their value,  gendered sanitation needs and experiences, and how sanitation systems must address the needs of the most marginalized (and the relevance of Paul Farmer's teachings), and how we need to transform (and learn more about!) these sanitation systems we use every day. And the importance of toilet humour!

Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.

Professor David J. Brennan is the Associate Dean, Research at Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto. He is the founder and director of the CRUISElab, an interdisciplinary, community-based social work research lab dedicated to addressing the sexual, mental, physical, and emotional health of gay, bisexual, two-spirit, cis- and trans-gender men who have sex with other men (GB2M). Dr. Brennan has been directly involved in the HIV epidemic since 1983 in many social work roles, including case manager, clinical supervisor, psychotherapist, program manager, and researcher. Learn more about his research here and follow him on Twitter here.

In this podcast we talk about the history of HIV stigma as well as stigma towards GB2M. We talk about what this stigma looks like in a day-to-day experience of getting dressed and walking down the street, as well as how it can be embedded in policies and practices. Using current examples of the recent changes in eligibility of GB2M in donating blood in Canada, and discourse around Monkeypox, David reminds us of how we can all engage in challenging stigma.

Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.