Explore: A Canadian Geographic podcast

Canadian Geographic
  • 4.8 (18)
  • PLACES & TRAVEL
  • UPDATED SEMIMONTHLY
Explore: A Canadian Geographic podcast

Host David McGuffin talks to Canada’s greatest explorers about their adventures and what inspires their spirit of discovery.

  1. NOV 12

    Manitoba's historic Dawson Trail with Pierrette Sherwood and Mimi Lamontagne

    More than military conquest: Manitoba's historic Dawson Trail with Pierrette Sherwood and Mimi Lamontagne We do love history here on the Explore podcast, and one of the reasons is that the more you poke around, the more you dig, and the wider you cast your research net, the richer the story that gets revealed. Our guests today are the perfect example of that. Pierrette Sherwood is the founder, artistic and creative director of Manitoba’s Dawson Trail Commemorative Project (https://dawsontrailtreasures.ca/), and Mimi Lamontagne is the project researcher. If any of you out there have heard of the Dawson Trail, it’s probably best known as the route that British and Canadian troops used in 1870 to get to Manitoba and put down the Red River Resistance led by Louis Riel. It then became the pre-railroad overland route from Eastern Canada into the west. Starting in 2019, the Dawson Trail Commemorative Project aims to illuminate a richer story beyond just conquest and migration. It's a story focused on the First Nations, Métis and French Canadian people who lived along the route for hundreds and thousands of years and what that reveals about our history and who we are as a people, including some remarkable characters. The route is 150 kilometres long, mostly just off of the Trans-Canada Highway. It features historical markers illuminating the extensive research into the history of the trail done by Lamontagne, Sherwood and their team. Along with being the Dawson Trail Project founder Pierrette Sherwood is a proud French Canadian Métis and award-winning arts and cultural professional. She makes her living as the artist-owner of Papillon Creations along the historic Dawson Trail.  Mimi Lamontagne is a career heritage specialist, researcher, and educator in Manitoba. She is a proud Franco-Manitoban and ally to Indigenous Peoples. She has worked with the Manitoba Museum, Parks Canada, the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.To learn more about the Dawson Trail visit dawsontrailtreasures.ca. (http://dawsontrailtreasures.ca./)

    44 min

  2. OCT 29

    Our Green Heart - The Soul and Science of Forests with Diana Beresford-Kroeger

    There are few greater champions of our trees and forests than Diana Beresford-Kroeger.From her base in her forest reserve in Eastern Ontario, the Irish-born Beresford-Kroeger has led a decades-long campaign to save our planet’s forests and trees, while working in the fields of medical biochemistry, botany and medicine. She is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, winner of the RCGS Louie Kamoookak medal and the author of multiple award-winning books including To Speak for the Trees and the documentary Call of the Forest: The Forgotten Wisdom of Trees. Her latest book is another best-seller: Our Green Heart - The Soul and Science of Forests. There is a lot that’s fascinating and hopeful in this conversation: how the North American king nut tree can solve hunger and aging issues, why oak trees may be the superheroes in the battle against climate change, and the critical link between forests and oceans. Beresford-Kroeger also examines simple, accessible tree-planting solutions to the climate crisis and the links she sees between her traditional Irish Druidic education and the traditional Indigenous knowledge in North America.

    36 min

  3. OCT 15

    Storm chasing with Jaclyn Whittal

    It is definitely hurricane season, so what better time than now to sit down for a conversation with one of the world's leading storm chasers, Jaclyn Whittal.You probably know Whittal as the long-time co-host of Storm Chasers, where you’ll regularly find her reporting from Oklahoma's Tornado Alley, at the leading edge of some of the biggest hurricanes on record, or facing down fires in the interior of B.C. As a Fellow of the RCGS, Whittal also spends time working in the Arctic and running across deserts like the Atacama and Death Valley at the hottest times of year. With all that as her platform, she is a leader in educating the public on the climate change science behind the increasingly extreme weather we are experiencing. We get into all of that in this fascinating conversation, as well as how she started out in musical theatre before switching to storm chasing. Did you know Whittal took over from the legendary Canadian pop star Shania Twain in a musical review at a famous Muskoka resort? She's a fascinating person with a great story to tell. Enjoy!

    41 min

  4. SEP 30

    Sugarcane: the documentary of St Joseph's Mission Residential School with Julian Brave NoiseCat

    We're thrilled to welcome Julian Brave Noisecat to Explore to talk about his award winning documentary Sugarcane, the powerful and very personal story of the multi-generational trauma caused to his family and members of the Williams Lake First Nations by the physical and sexual abuse endured for almost a century at St. Joseph's Mission Residential School in British Columbia. The documentary won the Director's Award at the Sundance Film Festival and is showing in cinemas across North America and around the world.Julian will be familiar to many of you for his work as contributing editor at Canadian Geographic and his many smart and thoughtful articles in the magazine around First Nations issues. His award-winning journalism has appeared in dozens of publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post and The New Yorker. His first book, We Survived the Night, will be published by Knopf and Penguin Random House in fall 2025.

    43 min

  5. SEP 17

    Canoeing across the Arctic with Dave Greene

    “This might be why people go down rivers!”We're back in the Arctic for the last of our 2024 Summer Canoe Series. This time, it's with Dave Greene, who, along with paddling partner Chris Giard, led an RCGS-flagged Akilineq Canoe Expedition from Yellowknife, N.W.T., to Baker Lake, NU, in 2023. During this time, they covered 1400 kilometres, including Canada's newest national park, Thaidene Nëné. A good chunk of their trip also involved paddling upstream (see episode title). Greene has some incredible stories to share from this trip, including close calls with wildlife and a lot of great wisdom on how to plan, carry out and fund remote expeditions of this scale.This is Greene’s third RCGS-flagged expedition. In all, he has led nine expeditions, most of them by canoe and lasting 30 days or more. Greene is a teacher in Halifax, N.S., and education is at the core of his travels, bringing Canada's natural world to young people. Greene hosts the storytelling platform Night of Adventure (https://www.nightofadventure.com/), which is focused on travel and adventuring and includes a podcast and a film festival.

    1h 4m

  6. SEP 3

    Autumn paddling and northern lakes with musician Sam Polley

    Musician Sam Polley’s first canoe trip was with his dad, Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy, his mom and siblings. He doesn’t remember much about it, but he clearly got hooked. All these years later, he’s still an avid canoe tripper with a love of the lakes and rivers in northern Ontario. Sam is best known for his rockabilly band Sam Polley and The Old Tomorrows (https://www.theoldtomorrows.com/) and playing with The Jim Cuddy Band, fronted by his father. When Sam isn’t touring or in the studio or writing songs, he likes to feed his muse by taking off on canoe trips into the wilds north of Toronto. We’re into September now. Summer is drifting away, there’s mist on the water in the morning and a nip in the air, even when the sun is out. One of the things we get into in this conversation is Sam’s love of autumn canoe tripping. The lakes and rivers are largely empty of people and along with all that space and peace — and your pick of campsites — there’s also no bugs. And while Sam is a self-confessed Toronto boy through and through, he is proof that even if you live in the most densely populated city in Canada, amazing canoe tripping adventures are still accessible. We get into his trips in Algonquin Park, Killarney and Temagami. It’s a fun romp spiced with his own music.

    51 min

  7. AUG 20

    Paddling the Peel Watershed with Bobbi Rose Koe

    "In my mind, when I want to relax, I take myself back to the Wind River."Tetlit Gwich'in means people of the headwaters, and Bobbi Rose Koe is on a mission to live up to her people's name. Born and raised in the Tetlit Gwich'in community of Fort McPherson, on the Peel River north of the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories, Koe was lucky to spend her childhood with her grandparents, who regularly took her hunting and fishing out on the land. When she reached her mid-20s, she translated those skills into guiding adventure canoe trips on rivers in the Canadian Arctic. But just a decade ago, she was shocked to discover that she was one of the few First Nations people in the industry, let alone Indigenous women. The resistance she felt coming into river guiding led her to be the change that was needed.  She set up Diinji Zhuh (https://www.dinjiizhuh.com/), an Indigenous-run canoe-tripping outfitter based in Whitehorse, YT. She is also setting up the first school to train Indigenous river guides. Koe and her teams lead trips across the Arctic. Still, her favourite rivers are in the traditional lands of her people, the Peel Watershed, a system of stunningly beautiful whitewater rivers. I paddled some of those rivers with my son Graham and cousin Terry in 2018 for Canadian Geographic (https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/return-to-the-peel/). Koe and I bonded over talk about her favourite rivers in the Peel watershed, her role in the successful fight to protect the watershed from mineral development, mapping by storytelling, her mission to get Indigenous people back out into their ancestral lands, and the warm feeling of excitement she gets paddling through lands that her family have travelled and known for generations. Also, in 2021, Koe was presented with the Canadian River Heritage Award (https://chrs.ca/en/news/2021-canadian-river-heritage-award-recipient-bobbi-rose-koe).  Enjoy!

    51 min

  8. AUG 6

    A solo canoe journey across Canada with Mike Ranta

    Canadian Geographic’s Explore Podcast Canoe series is back for its third year, and we’re thrilled to start with Canadian canoeing legend Mike Ranta.Ranta was not only the first person to canoe solo across Canada in a single paddling season but he's also done it twice! His adventure began with his dog Spitzi and a portage over the Rocky Mountains. In this fun and engaging episode, Ranta takes us on a journey from his earliest paddling experiences as a child in and around Ontario’s Quetico Provincial Park, one of the world’s premiere canoe-tripping destinations, to his many canoe adventures across Canada. This includes his little pandemic getaway from Lake Huron to James Bay and back. He discusses his love for the poet Robert Service, some of his favourite camping hacks, gear and canoes, his Métis heritage and the welcome he's received in the many First Nations communities he's paddled through. Ranta spoke to us from his home base of Killarney, Ont., on Lake Huron, where he leads canoe expeditions and makes paddles, including the world's largest paddle, The Big Dipper. At 32 metres, Ranta carved it to appreciate Canada's veterans, one of his favourite causes. Stay tuned for more canoe episodes coming in August and September!

    1h 2m
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4.8
out of 5
18 Ratings

About

Host David McGuffin talks to Canada’s greatest explorers about their adventures and what inspires their spirit of discovery.

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