Bridging the Social Distance

Ep 292 - Robert Lawson (Long-Term Care, the Village of Riverside Glen)

For this episode my guest is Robert Lawson, a resident in Long Term Care at The Village of Riverside Glen. Bob is one of the younger residents in Long Term Care, navigating a variety of health changes - he aspires to heal enough to get out a bit more, he's been at Riverside Glen for two years and is still getting accustomed. He's not used to staying in one place - Bob was a traveling salesman for over 30 years, for brands like Colgate Palm-Olive, Saputo, and Chef Boyardi (Canadian Home Products). He shares stories from those days, and his career that followed, driving transport trucks across the country. Bob's a big fan of sports, he used to be a hockey goalie, and speaks very fondly of the years he spent watching his son play baseball. It's clear we need to get him out to a game! Thanks for taking the time to share with me, Robert!This interview was originally recorded on March 5, 2026 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgingthesocialdistance.substack.com

Ep 291 - Michael Barber (The Hive)

This was a special live episode of Bridging the Social Distance, where I interviewed Mike Barber of “The Hive”, a Guelph’s Arts Collective located on Cork st in Guelph. We talk about the Hive, Guelph past and present, some of our favourite local businesses here in Guelph, our shared love of hand-made items, our shared appreciation for up-cycling, secondhand, and local markets, our appreciation for the advancement in non-alcoholic drink options, and our shared experience of living with anxiety. This conversation came in anticipation of the One-Armed Bob’s “Marvels and Misfits” show that happened during the Hive’s all-day market, Saturday March 7th, at the Guelph Farmer’s Market. All afternoon starting at 4pm there were amazing vendors from the Hive, joined by favourites like “Three Pieces” and “Disaray Antiques” and at 4pm and 8pm there were ticketed performances by Bob of his variety/freakshow/crowd entertainment (4pm being the family-friendly version, 8pm being 18+). This was recorded live on March 5th, 2026 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgingthesocialdistance.substack.com

Ep 290 - Georgina Bregant part 2 (The Village of Riverside Glen)

For this episode it's time for Georgina Part 2! We pick up where Georgina left off, upon her arrival to Guelph as a pre-teen, we hear a wild story about chickens, and a glimpse into the life of a teenager attending the Loretto Academy, navigating being a new Canadian, not having a lot of money, attending hockey games and dances. Georgina is a lovely person to spend time with, and I'm glad she was up for me visiting again. This interview was originally recorded on Feb 5th, 2026 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgingthesocialdistance.substack.com

International Mother Language Day Special 2026

February 21st was International Mother Language Day!Hosted (briefly, in English) and collected/edited by Jenny, we filled our airwaves with approximately 50 languages from over 70 participants, in celebration of "International Mother Language Day" which is observed every year to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.Thank you to everyone who participated, with a special thanks to the staff and residents at The Village of Riverside Glen and the grade eights at Willow Public School for your extra contributions. We had over ten participants at Willow, and almost 30 at Riverside Glen. And thank you Chrissy Mounir for your help collecting and recording/editing additional languages! The music you will hear during the spoken section of the broadcast are the songs "Jak to Bude, Jak to Půjde Dál" and "Jak Se Daří Muj Milý_ (How Do You Fare, My Dear One_)" by local artist Louisa KratkaThere are seniors who shared that they were pressured to give up their language when they moved to Canada as children, and there are children who are just beginning their journey with English now. There are adults supporting seniors, speaking English to build a comfortable, familiar, somewhat-universal environment for the residents but whom share a world of languages between them outside of those moments, in their breaks and when they're off the clock. There are people who know just a short phrase or song in their ancestral mother language. And our University brings in so many languages too!This is truly a beautiful listen. Not to be missed!There were nearly 50 languages I counted (in addition to English), some languages are similar, some have slightly different names based on the era, and areas in which they're spoken. I did my best to record the language name based on what the participant shared with me, so I apologize for any spelling errors/duplications.The languages you'll hear are Arabic, Assyrian, Bicol, Pampanga, Tagalog/Filipino, česky (czech, czechia), Czech, Chinese, Croatian, German/Deutsche, Swiss-German, Dogri, Dutch, Ekiti, Espanol/Spanish, Farsi, Finnish, French, Gujarati, Hakka, Hindi, Hungarian, Inuktitut, Algonquin Language (Anishinabemowin) dialect from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, Ojibwe, Italian, Jamaican Patois, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Mandarin, Mohawk, Nepali, Norwegian, Nzema, Pashto, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Tamil, Telugu, Tigrinya, Urdu, YiddishThis originally aired on February 21st, 2026 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgingthesocialdistance.substack.com

Ep 289 - Olu Adedokun (PSW in Long Term Care, The Village of Riverside Glen)

For this episode I interview Olu Adedokun, a PSW in Long Term Care at The Village of Riverside Glen. He shares his story of moving here from Nigeria, and the culture shock - of the weather, of course, but other things we may not think of, like the closeness of our houses, not surrounded by walls between the properties. Olu grew up on a university campus in Nigeria, his father a professor of atmospheric physics, and his mom with her Masters in Montessori children’s education, who worked as a principal. There were some similarities between where he grew up and our neighbourhoods here, but his move into Lagos was very different, houses surrounded by walls, generating their own power to protect themselves in a city with higher demand than resources. He had a successful career in Sales and Marketing but it wasn’t always a safe place to be, and Canada meant moving to safety and where he would be surrounded by siblings and extended family. The shift from “Sales” to working as a PSW in Long Term Care in Guelph sounds dramatic, but as you’ll hear from Olu, there are parallels in care, figuring out how to negotiate to care for residents, to understand what they care about and what makes them happy. He really seems to have a gift for connecting, and I super appreciate him taking the time to share his story (and thank you Bryce, the my manager at Riverside Glen, for covering Olu’s lunch shift so he could speak with me!)This interview was originally recorded on Feb 10th, 2026 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgingthesocialdistance.substack.com