The Hoser Presents: Short Circuit

Short Circuit is the first podcast from The Hoser, a new independent digital media outlet in the Greater Toronto Area. Short Circuit covers the three major topics: food insecurity, labour, and housing across the GTA. We understand that these issues are inextricably connected: they each affect one another. Short Circuit will have weekly guests speaking from their vantage point and expertise on these issues, both from an organizing and research perspective as well as experiential knowledge.

Ep 6: Your 2023 Toronto Mayoral Candidates Election Roundup

Short Circuit hosts Shannon Carranco, Kevin Taghabon and Eric Wickham do a deep dive on six leading mayoral candidates and their policy on housing, transit, police, and their relationship to popular issues and previous voting history. Candidates include city councillors Josh Matlow, Ana Bailao, former Toronto Sun columnist Anthony Furey, former Toronto Police Services chief Mark Saunders, former MP Olivia Chow and Chloe Brown. This episode was produced by Eric Wickham of Big Shiny Take...

06-23
34:43

EP 5: The Disappearing Act with Jacob Pesaruk

Short Circuit host Shannon Carranco and producer Eric Wickham talk to GTA reporter Jacob Pesaruk about his latest investigative article for The Hoser. Pesaruk's piece focuses on the kidnapping of an unhoused Indigenous man named Jordn Geldert-Hautala by Toronto Police in June. You can read the full article here. This episode was produced by Eric Wickham of Big Shiny Takes and Tech Won't Save Us (Twitter: @ES_Wickham) with theme music from Alex from Haus of Decline (Twitter: @hausofdec...

09-23
34:48

Ep 4: Election Recap, Summer Projects, and Toronto's Fall Vote

On our fourth episode of Short Circuit hosts Shannon Carranco and Kevin Taghabon walk listeners through the projects The Hoser has been working on since our last episode before the provincial election in Ontario. We then recap the Conservative victory, the plummeting voter turnout in the province, and how little excitement was part of this election. Finally, we discuss what's coming up in Toronto this fall. Media workers especially: contact us if you want to help work with us on municipal ele...

07-01
28:26

Ep 3: Labour Struggles and Pushback

On this third episode of Short Circuit hosts Shannon Carranco and Kevin Taghabon take a look at the state of labour in Ontario in the run up to the June 2nd provincial election. We begin with a visit to the University of Toronto where frontline service workers are fighting against the contracting out of secure, unionized public sector jobs. We then head to the Worker's Action Centre in Toronto where executive director Deena Ladd walks us through some of their strategies employed at WAC as we...

04-22
55:22

A Failure of Government: Struggle and Deaths in the Unhoused Community

In early February The Hoser was invited to a vigil in downtown Toronto to commemorate the lives of over 200 unhoused residents who died in the GTA in 2021. Hosts Shannon Carranco and Kevin Taghabon investigate the policy on the federal, provincial and city levels that have allowed for homelessness to grow since the early 90s. They speak to Lorraine Lam, an outreach worker at Sanctuary—a safe place for the unhoused community in downtown Toronto since 1992, and Gru, a member of the unhoused c...

03-16
53:30

Ep 1: The Limits of Food Banks in the GTA

Last year food banks in the Greater Toronto Area saw 1.45 million visits, the highest ever recorded. In Short Circuit's first episode hosts Shannon Carranco and Kevin Taghabon dive into how the COVID-19 pandemic has caused more Toronto residents to use food banks than ever before. Job insecurity, rising rents, and predatory landlord practices have contributed to Toronto's ever-widening wealth gap, forcing people to forgo buying food to pay their rent. Tenants at the West Lodge apartments ...

02-15
44:26

The Hoser Presents: A Short Circuit Preview

Here's a rundown of The Hoser Presents: Short Circuit. Every month journalists Kevin Taghabon and Shannon Carranco will dive into issues relating to housing, labour, and food insecurity in the Greater Toronto Area. Episodes of Short Circuit will include interviews with those who are directly experiencing the topics we're covering, as well as experts like researchers and academics. Short Circuit's first episode drops on February 15th. It's about food banks in the GTA, the people who use them...

02-12
01:33

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