July 10, 2009 – How to make a difference at City Hall

Featured guests:

• Frank Appleyard: employee at the University of Ottawa’s new Global and Community Service Office [Download] [iTunes]
• Sabrina Bowman: coordinator of Ecology Ottawa [Download] [iTunes]
• Shawn Menard: president of the Centretown Citizens’ Community Association [Download] [iTunes]
• Carl Meyer: editor at Daily Publinet and political blogger [Download] [iTunes]
• Carl Meyer and Ted Horton: commentators on social media and its uses in local communities [Download] [iTunes]

As you can tell, we stepped away from the ‘how to make a difference’ discussion at both ends of the show. In the beginning, we spoke with Frank Appleyard about the University of Ottawa’s efforts to send its students on community-service missions around the world. Sabrina Bowman and Shawn Menard both shed some light on what regular citizens can do to get the attention of the power brokers in municipal halls of power.

And then Carl Meyer and Ted Horton came on the show. Carl and I yammered on about federal politics for a few minutes, as we are wont to do. And then Ted joined and we talked about the usefulness of Twitter and other social media at the community level. How can it help people on a day-to-day basis? Listen in.

Oh man, and I almost forgot the most important part. The show lasted for two hours this week. We played a bunch of Sedatives, a local band that just played Bluesfest. And then we threw in some K’naan for good measure.

As usual, thanks to everyone who contributed to the show.

May 1, 2009 – Sustainable transit and the University of Ottawa

We gave Around the Block a test-run of sorts on May 1. It was an opportunity to get used to the mic and everything else that comes along with hosting a radio show.

During the second half of the hour, University of Ottawa sustainability coordinator Jonathan Rausseo joined me in studio. We talked about his job, his priorities, and exactly what he thinks about the prospect of a light-rail tunnel running along the west side of campus.

Also, we played a whole ton of Joel Plaskett’s Three. Well, three songs, anyway. How fitting.