I'm Relaunching Clearing a New Path Podcast + Newsletter

Uniting rural Canada - October 2025

It’s been over a year since I added any content to this space.

Lots has happened in the world, in my own community and in my own personal life.

I’ll be posing some questions I’ve been thinking about, as it relates to the direction of the podcast and newsletter.

It all seems very urgent, because it is.

We long for connection, particularly those of us who may be feeling isolated, alone and maybe a lack of belonging, right in our own small communities.

We want to do something, but how do we even start?

Lots of things have shifted. Lots of things have exhausted us. Lots of things have tried to break us down and disconnect us.

That’s why coming together, as rural Canadians is more important than ever.

And Clearing a New Path could not be more critical.

If you’re a past guest, and/or have some ideas about what you’d like to see and hear, and who you’d like to hear from, please hit reply. I’m all ears.

If you’ve lost interest in the past year since you were subscribed, here’s how you can unsubscribe.

But if you’re intrigued and excited, please stick with me.

I’m just getting (re)started.

I’ve been writing some very personal stuff on my own Substack, called

Alchemy: Word by Word

. You’ll see here some of the roots of my own healing in the past year, there.

Rural Disruptions

Pride, Business and Witnessing

Clearing a New Path podcast and newsletter inspire and build a more united, feminist, anti-racist rural (so-called) Canada.

There are currently 28 long term drinking water advisories in 26 communities.

There is an engaged, rurally-based audience for the newsletter and podcast.

If you can’t help with a donation, your company can always sponsor them! Please hit reply!

---

In this newsletter:

• Pride

• Survey results

• NEW PODCAST EPISODE: Disrupting Rural Business: Sustainability is Bullshit!

• Philanthropy and the News

• FEATURE: Pod the North

• Rural news roundup

• Recommendations

Pride

I haven’ always been an ally, in fact, I was a homophobe.

When I wrote a column for the London Free Press 10 years ago, I talked about how I was brought up to think any other gender than cisgender (identifying with the gender one was born with) or any other sexual identity than heterosexual (male + female) was ‘wrong’ and ‘unnatural’.

I lived in a small tourist town but luckily for me, it had a world famous theatre and I had the privilege of working a few seasons in the ‘green room’ there, where the actors, stage hands, wardrobe folks and box office personnel came to eat and drink.

I saw the most beautiful, flamboyant, animated, creative people imaginable. So much talent, all there for me to absorb, at work every day. For a small-minded Catholic girl, it was just what I needed. I slowly came to advocacy and to using my voice of privilege for advocacy.

Things have changed, ebbed and flowed, throughout history when it comes to rights, acceptance and society’s interference in the existence of folks from the 2SLGBTQAI+ community. By existence I mean the right for anyone in Canada to live with dignity and acceptance, however one may identify. And by interference I mean folks thinking they have a say in how folks should or shouldn’t live.

Things have reached a boiling point in recent times.

It wasn’t until last summer, following around the Drag Storytime Guardians as they countered loud and aggressive protestors at small Ontario town Pride events, that I saw the true depth of hatred and harassment members of the 2SLGBTQAI+ community face. Not only that, but I got a glimpse into what they face the other 364 days of the year like online bullying, violent threats, physical stalking and assault.

Approaching Pride month in June, things are eerily quiet. I sincerely hope things remain that way, but I know some of us are ready to stand up and support, should the need arise.

Ways you can support in your own community:

• Fly a Progress Pride flag at your home or office (all season long, if possible)

• Put a Rainbow sticker in your business/organization window

• Attend and/or volunteer at a Pride event in your own community

• Donate/support/sponsor Pride events, queer spaces and queer youth programs in your community

• Support queer art

• Use your voice for advocacy

---

SURVEY RESULTS

Out of 800 + of you, 8 of you graciously provided feedback in this 3-question survey.

Here are the results:

Some suggestions for the newsletter (edited):

• Links to emerging stories or actions we can take are always helpful

• A section of links at the end of the newsletter for those who want to go deeper would be a way to streamline the newsletter.

• I do love when you do a bit of a roundup of the podcast in your email.

• I love when you talk to and about local media outside of major Canadian centres.

• Inspiring local groups and orgs who have big impact in their communities

And some suggestions for podcast guests (edited):

• My interests lie in how can we learn to get along with our neighbours, especially when we hold such different views. I would love guests who have experience facilitating this kind of discussion.

• I'd love to see more rural politicians

• Hearing stories from women entrepreneurs in rural areas

• Indigenous stories.

• Organizers and activists for progressive initiatives from areas where progressive initiatives are deeply unpopular

• Indigenous media and journalists.

• People who do weird things in the wild!

I will actively try and implement as many of these suggestions as I can, so I thank you, kindly for your input.

---

NEW PODCAST EPISODE: Disrupting Rural Business: Sustainability is Bullshit

I often feel very alone when I use terms like ‘post-capitalism’ (there’s actually an entire podcast focussed on this topic) and the ‘non-profit industrial complex’ when speaking with or networking with other business owners and/or colleagues.

I have heard the term ‘business coach’ many times but I had never heard the term Regenerative Business Designer, that is, until I attended a workshop called Sustainability is Bullshit, with

Helen Tremethick

through the Canadian Women’s Chamber of Commerce.

In this latest episode, Helen and I talk about Regenerative Business Design, what that is, and how that can play out in rural Canada. You can click below to listen.

Or you can watch the video by clicking on the image below.

---

Philanthropy and the news

I have talked at length, in this newsletter, and in person to whomever will listen, that we are in desperate need of:

• Fresh, sustainable news outlets in rural and remote Canada

• A shift in HOW we tell stories and a shift away from what we used to call journalism, because we’ve always been delivered news from a white lens. (I prefer to call it ‘witnessing’)

• Innovative new approaches to sustainable business models for news outlets in rural and remote Canada

While the last podcast episode, with Prof. April Lindgren from Metropolitan University School of Journalism talked about the loss of local news and a panel at the Ontario Small Urban Municipalities conference discussed “Revitalizing the Media Landscape”, this week, the following was released:

“Journalism organizations that are considering philanthropy as a revenue source need to ask themselves if this is the best way forward. Would the time and effort required be better invested in developing a membership strategy or running a public fundraising campaign?”

*This was a partnership between Inspirit Foundation, the Local News Research Project at Toronto Metropolitan University and the Canadian Association of Journalists.

---

FEATURE: Pod the North

The Clearing a New Path podcast and newsletter were featured in

Pod the North

newsletter with

Kattie Laur

! Thank you Kattie!

Pod the North is a free, biweekly newsletter for the Canadian podcasting community and Kattie Laur, is a Canadian freelance podcast producer who’s desperate to see some change in this industry.

---

Rural news roundup - May 29, 2024

National

Brock-led conference in Yukon seeks to make rural Canada more resilient

British Columbia + Alberta

5 Central Alberta groups get community justice grants from province

First Nation develops ‘Innovation Plan’ for aquaculture in its traditional territory

Saskatchewan + Manitoba

Saskatchewan Polytechnic student research assistant receives $30K Wawanesa Climate Champion Youth Innovation Grant

Ontario + Quebec

Economic Developers Council of Ontario partners with Canadian Centre for Rural Creativity for the “Pathways to Practice” sessions

Atlantic Canada

N.B. commits $2M to launch AI-powered volunteer ride platform

Territories (Northwest, Nunvut, Yukon)

Yukon commission’s pitch to cut rural MLAs met with some criticism

---

Recommendations

Book

Awe the New Science of Every Day Wonder by Dacher Keltner : “From a foremost expert on the science of emotions, a groundbreaking and essential exploration into the history, science, and greater understanding of awe.”

*This book was actually referenced and the author interviewed in a documentary series we watched on being in nature and its affects on PTSD called Operation Arctic Cure with war reporter Bob Woodruff and a team of veterans.

*If you’d like a topic covered, or you’d like to facilitate a conversation utilizing the Clearing a New Path podcast platform, please connect with me by hitting reply or by emailing shauna@radarmedia.co

Your feedback is always welcome.