CANADALAND CANADALAND

I’ve been a frequent listener for years and have subscribed for just under a year now. Their offerings are, consistently, my first preference for podcasts. Jesse’s team contains voices that are important to Canadian journalism, and our culture. We need more skeptics focusing lenses on our leaders, and our media.

Canadland first aired on October 5, 2013 and gained popularity very quickly. By 2015, Canadaland had grown to require full- and part-time staff including producers, editors, and co-hosts. Canadaland is funded partially by advertisements and also by individual sponsors through the crowdfunding platform Patreon. Since its birth as a podcast, Canadaland has blossomed into a news network and has fostered the production of other, more specific podcasts including: Commons, a politics podcast; Imposter, an art podcast; Oppo, a politics podcast; Taste Buds, a food podcast.

Jesse Brown is the founder and principal host of Canadaland. Brown freelanced for Vice in university, wrote a humour column for Saturday Night magazine, worked with CBC Radio on Search Engine, and worked with Macleans.ca on a weekly tech blog before starting his podcast.

Canadaland is interview based. Brown welcomes a guest for each episode. The title of the episode will indicate whether it is one of the specified outlets (Oppo, Commons, SHORTCUTS, etc.) and will focus in on an aspect of Canadian culture or society. The guest on each episode is invited because of their investment and expertise in the subject-at-hand, curated by Brown.

In episode 293, titled “Bruce McCulloch”, Brown interviews McCulloch, a former member of the sketch comedy troupe Kids in the Hall. They discuss McCulloch’s ascension into the international spotlight through the absurdist comedy outlet broadcast on the CBC. The two discuss how the output of Kids in the Hall was original, and authentic to Canada, and had a major influence on sketch comedy throughout North America. The discussion progresses into how comedy, and specifically sketch comedy, has changed for the worse. They explain that many of the jokes and routines that gained Kids in the Hall acclaim, could not be broadcast today.
In “SHORTCUTS #229” Brown and Arshy Mann, host of the Canadaland derivative Commons, discuss the Vancouver Sun’s inexcusably racist article about the influence of immigrants on Canada. They talk about journalists around Canada with some clout that perpetuate ignorant outlooks, and the basic mistakes and faults they have in their reporting. The two move on to address the lack of excitement in the upcoming election, and the marginal differences the parties hold at a federal level.

Jesse Brown is very good at what he does. He claims to be a media critic, and he does exactly that. The podcast is uncensored, and the speakers say what they mean, without having to hold back. That being said, the guests and hosts are established and credible. They give an entertaining and educated perspective to the goings-on in Canada.

Recent episodes of Canadaland are sponsored by entities like The Endy Mattress, a Canadian mattress company that plugs into many podcasts, the Emerging Digital Artists Award, which is presented by EQ Bank, and Audible, an amazon outlet for audiobooks. The advertisements in Canadaland relate to the output of the or are Canadian entities and seem like appropriate sponsors for the podcast. The ads occur at the beginning of the podcast, then about halfway through Brown and his guest take a short moment to mention the sponsor. Some episodes enlist sponsors that have made contributions through Patreon and some donors get a short, recorded segment explaining specifically why they contributed to Canadaland.

Canadaland is informative, engaging and entertaining. The host and guests are smart and funny but not arrogant or elitist. I feel like I have learned something and have enjoyed myself at the end of each episode. And for that, I give Canadaland 4.5/5.

You’re talking about “white people” in a very generalized way. Some might even say that YOU are being racist. Mayonnaise? Butter? It’s offensive to state that these are the only forms of ‘whiteness’ that you could possibly “steal”. White culture and white inventions are adapted (stolen?) by other cultures All The Time. Ugh.