Patrick Stewart brought so many fandoms together, and the BioWare shut down

In 2002, Ryan Wedding was an Olympic snowboarder at the top of his game. "Ryan's style is really gunneted and gold." And in less than a minute, it slipped away, but he continued to chase the high. "Ryan James Wedding, he controls one of the most violent drug trafficking organizations in this world." I'm Michelle Shepard and from CBC Podcasts and the Toronto Star, the most wanted Olympian. "Available now on Amazon Music." This is a CBC Podcast. Maybe you've seen the outpouring of love for Patrick Stewart. He died last Wednesday at the age of 8-6, and what's been so lovely is all the different fandoms that he brought together. Theater people, TV people, cinephiles, Marvel people, Trekkies, though I've heard some people say Trekkers, and I don't know what that's all about. Patrick Stewart was admired across the board. Today, we're going to take a look at his life and his legacy. I'm Aluminum Ahmed and this is commotion. Jonathan Church is here, Angelica J. Bastien is here. Hello to both of you. Hello, hello. Nice to meet you guys. Nice to see you. Jonathan, I'm going to start with you. You work with Patrick Stewart on three plays in the UK as a producer. I'm sorry for your loss, man. What was Patrick like to work with? He was incredibly good to work with, I mean, the word just come up a lot in conversations. Other people is dignity. He was a man who worked very hard, demanded other people to work very hard, but was generous collaborative, and as one worked with him for longer, very funny. That's the man I knew. The word dignity is a very lovely word because there's something about the way that everyone kind of smiles as they talk about working with Patrick Stewart. I feel like that has been kind of a unified experience, I want to say, you know, that's a very lovely thing. Yeah. Yeah. And it's very true. He was very respectful of everyone he worked with and one of the things, all three of the projects he worked with us at Chichester Festival Theatre on were young directors and he was always as interested in their vision and their point of view as he was his, despite being a senior and having the experience, and it led to, you know, all three were radical interpretations of shows, and he would go with that because he wanted to support another artist's vision. I would say that the role that probably most people, so see with him, is this one. You have extended your life with the expense of another. Graves, give data back. Give him back. Data is dead. No. It must not be lost. He's not simply an android. He's a life form entirely unique. Data is not human. He is. He is different. Yes. That does not make him expendable or any less significant. No being is so important that he can use the rights of another. That is Patrick Stewart has Captain John Luke Picard and Star Trek the next generation. Until I got you, you were shaking your head when I said Trekers, which is fair, you know? I appreciate you doing that. You're also your big guy, next generation fan. What was it about Patrick Stewart as Picard that really resonated with you? For me, getting to fall in love with his performance as Picard as a young girl, the thing that struck me most was his curiosity. I think getting to watch him as Picard was where my love of acting really bloomed, and I thank him for that because he put so much care and dignity towards a world that it would be easy for a performer of his stature to kind of condescend to Star Trek. But instead, he brought an open-heartedness that really continues to strike me as an adult too. I want to hold on that for a moment, Angelica, because you are a film critic for a living. The thing that you do is observe actors. Observe actors as closely as possible. Maybe the idea that Patrick Stewart introduced you or made you notice acting and make that love bloom, that's a really significant thing. When you look at Patrick Stewart as Picard, what's the thing that you're reacting to? I think one of the things that makes a great actor is to be a great listener, and that's something that always really captured me about his performance was you could witness him full-bodied listening to the other performers and granting them space so everyone has a striking moment. He didn't seem like a selfish actor, but one who was curious about what everyone else was doing in their processes, and that is just really beautiful to watch. I don't know if that I want to play a clip of Patrick Stewart performing McBeth. I thought I heard a voice cry, "Sleep no more, McBeth does murder, sleep." The innocent sleep, sleep that knits up the ruffled sleep of care, the death of each day's life, saw Labour's bath, barmed of hurt minds, great nature's second cause. What do you mean? "Sleep no more, sleep no more, sleep no more to all the house." That's from a 2010 televised adaptation of McBeth. It's based on the stage play that you produced a couple years earlier than that. Patrick Stewart has been called a generational talent, Jonathan. What do you think made him so good to watch? Not only Patrick, but it was a group of actors along with his good friend, Ian McKellen. They developed their craft working in British theatre companies, and Patrick was a member of the RSC for years and years and years, and the number of texts, the number of directors, the number of other actors, the sense of company that that engendered in him led to everything about how he worked, thought and performed, and it, you know, there's a kind of reservoir of understanding, of technique, and of relaxation. I always feel there's those actors who spent their lives, particularly on stage, and it's hundreds and hundreds of hours, and when they then, as an older actor, step on to the stage, there's a relaxation and comfort, it's their home. And it's one of the things that I think has changed in the industry, that many actors go straight into film. There doesn't mean they're not great film actors, and some of them, of course, have an inbuilt talent that translates to the stage, but that generation, and Patrick was a part of it, really, I don't think we'll see there like again, because nobody will have the volume of training, the range of spaces they work, when all the commitment, I mean, what was amazing is he left Star Trek, and over the following two decades, did dozens of plays alongside all of his amazing telefilm cartoon voice over work, you know, was kind of an avid performer and kept pushing at the boundaries of his craft. I'm glad that you brought that up because, you know, my introduction to him, Angelica, was his role as Professor Charles Xavier, I'm an expert, like that sort of how I first became aware of Patrick Stewart, and he is doing something different than everybody else on screen when you watch, you know, X-Men now, like the idea, like when you watch him as Professor Xavier, there's something in, he's on another planet, you know, just in terms of performance, it's that idea, that stage, that sort of command of the screen, the thing that you develop, you know, through hundreds of hours on the stage, and then you take with you to film, I think that's the thing that you see when you watch X-Men, but also he's spent decades on the screen as well, you know, we talked about Picard, he's been in movies like Jeffrey, what stands up for you and you sort of think back through some of his best performances in Angelica. Oh, I have to highlight his performance in Green Room because it's night and day from who he was as a person, and performer, what we're used to is a very compassionate intelligence from Patrick Stewart, in Green Room, he plays a cruel neo-nazi, and it's so exciting, and like, you feel electrified looking at him perform, you can tell, you know, everyone wants to lean in a little bit when they're watching him perform because he brings such depth and gravitas to such a wide variety of roles, and Green Room is night and day from John Luke Picard. I also like appreciate the idea that, you know, you watch him in Green Room and you feel that sort of edge of terror, that idea of being electrified when you lean in, but also Jonathan, he was so incredibly funny. I mean, like, to go from all of these very serious roles, you know, he's voiced characters on The Simpsons, on Family Guy, shows like that. Did you see his comedic side on stage as well? Is that something that kind of came out? Yeah, I mean, we were lucky alongside that with Beth, you showed a clip of the same company and did 12th night in one of Shakespeare's greatest comedies, and the character he played Malvolio, he was so clever because, you know, Malvolio's sort of uptight, rigid, runs the household. He used all of that stuff he'd expect, but then he woven a whole bunch of physical comedy that I hadn't expected, including a really brilliant section where it was a thrust stage, like Stratford Festival. There's a scene where he's wearing yellow cross-gartering and everybody's, you know, laughing at him. to somehow and I still don't know how he technically did it. Get his two legs tied together. So he had to then hop off the stage, which if you think of a thrust stage, it wasn't a short exit. He had to hop down two flights of stairs. By the time he reached the bottom, you know, the audience bits of laughter often, you know, the claws, standing ovation, because they just didn't expect, you know, John Luke Picard to be bouncing off with yellow legs like a bunny rabbit. I'm not sure how you could recover to go on to the next scene after that, you know, just from the idea of like watching that happen. And talking to you, interview him about his memoir in 2023 for Vulture. I just want to play a clip from that interview. This is where Patrick Stewart described his first acting role like 12 years old and how that changes life. I felt safe because I never had before that. I came from an unfortunate domestic life when my father came out of the army. And he had served for about 15 years. He was a very unhappy and frustrated man. So life was difficult in my home. And it could be frightening at times. But here on this stage, where I was not expected to be Patrick Stewart, that hopcroft minor. I was safe. He said acting on stage was the first time they ever felt safe in his life. That's first of all, incredibly powerful memory for Patrick Stewart to be sharing. Tell me about how that conversation sort of adds to your understanding of the actor that he was. One of the first things that we sort of spoke about behind the scenes before coming out on stage was just the craft of acting and the craft of being an artist. And for me, even though what I do as a writer is very different, getting to speak with him and just see him light up talking about acting reminded me the importance of not just taking your craft seriously, but having a sense of play in the work we do as artists. And he just felt so alive and plugged in. And the respect he gave me as this childhood hero of mine is something I'm going to carry with me for the rest of my life. The respect he gave me really struck me and made me feel both inspired. And like, yeah, this is what I am meant to do, because I get to speak to people like this who love art and want to bring it to the masses. The notion of going from, you know, being someone saying, oh, this actor is making me fall in love with the craft of acting to get into sit across from this person and have that conversation. I'm happy for you. I'm just, I'm like, beaming and truly just thrilled for you. Must have been one wild experience. What was it like in Jessica? It made me giddy. You know, typically, I don't feel anything interviewing people like I'm able to be like, this is an actor I'm talking about their craft. But Patrick Stewart was an example of, oh my god, I am in the presence of greatness. This is someone I've like looked up to my entire life. This is someone who inspired me to take pop culture seriously. And also inspires me as an adult to take my craft of writing seriously. And be as open-hearted and compassionate as he was. I mean, honestly, one of the best things that has ever happened in my career. And it just made me just so excited. And he was so sweet and funny just getting to talk with him before and after that. This is a memory I will cherish always and is a reminder that I'm doing what I'm meant to do. And I'm very lucky to get to do it. Speaking of memories, I'm going to cherish always. Jonathan, I heard that when you guys were working together, he volunteered to be a witness at your wedding. But what was the story there? Well, when we were doing Macbeth in New York, my wife and I decided to get married at City Hall. And we needed a couple of witnesses. So we thought I was just mentioned. I didn't realise we needed witnesses. And Patrick just said, well, I'll come. And so I ended up with Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as it doesn't go well for a memory. As my witnesses, but what was so nice was he, you know, he turned up, you know, trying, you know, with his baseball cap on trying to be in disguise, it was back holiday. So the queue was huge. In England, we just queued and he'd waited because we were in New York, somebody spotted him in the queue, pulled us out of the line, took us into a room. And the poor guy reading our marriage vows was incredibly exciting, but shaking like a leaf because he was reading the marriage vows in front of the captain. And I should venture for us. But again, so generous. And then he, you know, he took us, took us for an amazing wedding supper. And we got photos somewhere really, really lovely memory. Oh, wow. What an extraordinary story. Yeah. And to like, I want to wrap here. Avengers Doos Day comes out in December. It's reported to be Patrick's Thursday's final on screen performance. What do you make of him returning to Professor X, sort of bad being like the capstone to his career? Just in terms of like fan service, just in terms of, you know, returning to a role that meant a lot to a lot of people. Yeah, I'm very curious to see how his role plays out in that movie. I mean, obviously, I'm expecting a lot of characters to not exist by the end of it. So I think it will be kind of hard for people to watch this last performance. But I know he will bring the same intelligence and depth that he brings to every role. And so that at least it's very exciting. I want to say thank you to both of you for being here. I really appreciate your time and your reflections. Thanks again for joining us today. Thank you for having us. Yeah, thanks again. Jonathan Church is the artistic director of the Stratford Festival. Angelica J. Bestian is a culture critic at Vulture and New York Magazine. We were remembering the late great Patrick Stewart who died last week at the age of 86. And also, please find the Q podcast. They recently reshared Tom Paris 2020 interview with Patrick Stewart when he looked back at his incredible six decade long career. In a world where the news feels bigger, louder and harder to make sense of, Canadians need more than headlines. Hi, I'm Karen C. Olin, news reporter and host of the big story podcast from world shaping events to the everyday stories that spark debate. My team and I will explain what matters and why it matters to you. We're here to help you make sense of the news and give you the context you need for those kitchen table conversations. Trusted, Canadian focused, curious. Listen to the big story wherever you get your podcasts. Am I allowed to mean Abdul Mahmoud and this is commotion? Okay, recently we got the news that after 30 years, the video game studio Bioware is shutting down. That studio is an Edmonton, it made its name on games like Dragon Age and Baldur's Gate and their big one, their big franchise is Mass Effect. Since then, fans of Mass Effect have been petitioning Bioware's parent company, which is Electronic Arts, to save that game, even Avi Lewis, the federal NDP leader has weighed in on what the closure means for Canada's video game industry. So to talk about all of this, we've got Kavika Griermo here. Hello, Kavika, good to see you. Hi, good to be back. Welcome back to the show. Listen, let's catch people up here real quick. Electronic Arts announced on October 21st that he's going to shut down Bioware. That studio has been in business for over 30 years. Before we get into all of this, you know, and why it happened, talk to me about Bioware and its impact on the video game industry. Bioware was really legendary in gaming and to Canada itself. It's actually the reason I became a game scholar. My first article was about a Mass Effect game. So I know I'm not the only person I know who got into games and game studies for that reason. It was Albert as only a AAA game studio and it's games more famous for combining roleplaying with adventure and shooting games and a kind of cinematic atmosphere. But a lot of them were like, no, became more known for this innovative idea of surviving by building coalitions across difference, which was often really reflective of racial and ethnic difference and also for including queer and trans characters as just ordinary parts of the world. And of course, you could also romance or date those characters too because you were queer too. Just the default that they went with was really innovative and they weren't the first to do this, but they were kind of the first to be really unashamed and have no attempt to hide that kind of thing. And so I think for a lot of young gamers, including myself, it was a kind of coming out of the closet for video games as a whole where people suddenly felt like, oh, I can actually be queer in a video game and it's not going to, you know, and I can still also shoot things or do all the other things you want to do as well. Karika, you said a lot of stuff there and I want to sort of get into a bunch of it because I actually think it's really significant and we'll get to the story into some moment. But the idea that a game like Mass Effect makes you say, the thing I want to do with my life is be a video game scholar. I want to sort of turn my attention to video games as a form of art. That's a really big thing, rather than the idea that this is the company that made this. Tell me about what it is like in terms of the emotional relationship that something like a Mass Effect gives you that opens your eyes and why is your aperture? Like, what does that game do that makes you go, "Oh, I want to study this much deeper." Well, I often think of games as poetry or as poetic kind of devices in a way, and in that sense that people come to it and all come away with like really different ideas of what they just did, you know, and what the game meant to them. I was really inspired because when I played a lot of these Mass Effect games, I always played as femshep, which is like female shepherd, so I was always playing as a woman. And the idea was that you had a really different experience than if you were playing as the kind of default male character. And so I would notice that people had completely different ideas of what the game meant to them, and but it was just like endlessly interesting. People just continually talked about it and debated what was happening in these games, but it always came back to like the real world in a way. It came back to the different, you know, this was like during the war on terror, you know, and so there was a lot of ways that those games reflected what was happening either like through the racial politics, through like coded kind of like, you know, critiques of Islamophobia. And again, the ways that it would also allow us to like be queer within these spaces. So it just kind of, and now there's so much nostalgia for, you know, by we're shutting down because so many people grew up with these games and be, and a lot of them like learning to understand themselves through these games and had their most transformative moments of their lives like partially reflected through these games. So it's, it is very powerfully like effective and emotional for a lot of people. So we have a video game company that made a video game series that makes you go, oh, video games are a form of poetry. And then we get the news that that video game company, Bioware, is shutting down. Were you surprised by that news? Not really like, I think people have been seeing it coming ever since like EA first bought out Bioware in 2007. I think some people are surprised it lasted this long. And I think a lot of it has been like political changes as well. Like when Bioware first started, it was really risky to do a lot of the things it was doing. And you know, their response is to like people who didn't like queer content in games was to just kind of ignore it, you know, and just do their own thing. Yeah. And trust in the players. And I think just that reaction was like was they were one of the first big companies, I think, to just kind of hold their guard that way. At the same time, I think, you know, a lot of the culture now for better or worse has turned more, you know, to the right. And a lot of people don't want this kind of content in game or they're like listening to podcasters, for example. We were telling them that like this kind of content just doesn't belong in games anymore. And so it's not as profitable as it once was. And so Bioware, you know, they were always doing risky things, but I think being owned by a multinational company now makes it much more like, you know, risky to do that even more than before. And EA is one of those companies that's, you know, like many game companies, they want to appeal to as many people in the world as possible. And so that often means like erasing any kind of truly like complex content about war, about race, about gender, sexuality, just as a way to say like, oh well, we don't know if all these other countries are going to enjoy it in the same way. So we're just going to erase all of it. And that's a kind of like, you know, risk adverse type of sales. And it's not really true either. I don't find that that's actually going, you know, I think that's just can be an excuse to erase some of this content that people love so much. Well, let me, let me, let me show you down for a moment because you're bringing a lot of scholarship and interpretation into the answer that you're given there. So just some of this history, like Bioware, 30 year company, stars in Edmonton. You mentioned 2007, very crucial point, which is that it's acquired by electronic arts, electronic arts, EA games, one of the biggest names in the world of gaming. The idea that a giant like electronic arts ends up buying something like Bioware makes people go like, oh, I wonder how long we'll keep this running for. Turns out the answer is about 20 years. 19 years, 20 years. It was since 2007. The thing that changed, right, is that electronic arts was bought out at the end of August for $55 billion by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, PIF, also investment firms, several big partners and affinity partners, which is run by Jared Kirschner, which is Donald Trump's son-in-law. Bloomberg reported that he was the largest leveraged buyout in history. When that happened, right, when Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund and Jared Kirschner's company and a buying electronic arts, what does that signal to you about a place like where's Bioware going to go in that ecosystem? I think that's what, yeah, I was trying to get at that. It has been somewhat expected by a lot of people, the more that the profit motive kind of comes into play. There's a lot of theories out there about where these investment firms are going in. Jared Kirschner, for example, having invested interest in video games, I think none of that is terribly new. I think a lot of people more on the right these days have been very visibly able to acquire some of these and have a lot of invested interest in video games as they are. Yeah, because they're so immensely influential, and I think they understand that. That's one reason why video games over the last 20, 30 years have become so tied to militarism and war in ways that the Department of Defense in the US is also invested in them. So I think that there's just a lot more awareness of that. I think the thing that you said there, Kavika, is really interesting to me because there is something about what we get as a signal from this buyout, this gigantic buyout, $55 billion, the largest leverage buyout in history. That's a lot of money to put into the world of video games. And the thing that you said is it tells us that these power players are actually quite aware of the power of video games. So when that buyout happened, what does that tell you about where the video game industry is headed? It's an indicator of a lot of different things, I think, with all of entertainment. It's a bit reflective of the Paramount Warner Brothers merger, which also I think it's just more visible politically because they also own like news programs and things like that. So people are like, you know, I think appropriately being reactive to that. I think for video games, it is, you know, it is difficult because there are a lot of companies that were inspired by buy-aware who are going through really rough times right now. A lot of the game developers, I know, are just living to paycheck to paycheck. And they also understand that, you know, games are this hugely influential thing and that there's a lot of different kind of arguments that you can make through games. And the, you know, the average player right now is around 37 years old in the US or about 41 globally. And so this is like a person who has disposable income, who has political ads, you know, directed at them. They vote, right? So these players are not just like kids, right? And I think the people who make games are just stunningly always aware of how much influence that they can have. And I think as more people learn that games are going to become, you know, one of the like leading direct influencers. People are going to bank on nostalgia. They're going to start to bank on like vote the way Pikachu would vote or something like that, you know. And it's all coming and it's kind of scary to be honest because I think we're just not well prepared for it. What it feels to you is I can sort of a cultural turning point of learning how to use games as a as a method of influencing the culture at large and the shut down of Bioware to you is a part of that atmosphere. Absolutely. Yeah. Bioware has been at the very center of a lot of this controversy for, you know, the last 20, 30 years. And I think there's a lot of the mourning of Bioware closing right now is this kind of fear that, you know, this is just the end of like this kind of program, you know, games that allow us to be queer and allow us to think about race and history. But it's really not the case. There's a lot of games out there that have been inspired by a Bioware that I think are going to carry on. A lot of it's, you know, complex story. I think, you know, arguably some games do it better than Bioware games used to. And so I think that there's just a bit more awareness and I think as, you know, Canadians, it would also be nice to like buckle down a bit and try to appreciate the studios that we have. Yeah. Because it is something that we're known for that Canada is very much known for producing this kind of content in games, whether it's like Ubisoft or Bioware or the game that won some of the like most award-winning games. One of them is like a thousand times resist, which is spotlighting like Hong Kong resistance, for example, and it won a Peabody Award a couple years ago, made in Vancouver. And so there's a lot of, you know, games and games studios that could go through a similar thing. And it feels like right now in video games, it's like you either don't do very well. And then you shut down because it takes so much money sometimes. And there's just not enough protections, not enough tax breaks or incentives and things like that in the same way that there is with other media. Or you become really successful and then someone buys you out and then erases your complex queer content. So it's just a really difficult time for games. And I think just, you know, even just allowing games to have a line on a grant application would just do wonders for a lot of game developers. I know who have to rely on like really out there kind of investors in order to operate. I think the thing that I'm hearing you say is that like Bioware operated as both a video game company but also at the same time a symbol, a symbol of the thing that games can do. And so when we sort of look at this moment, right, when EA shut down down by aware. And also like it cancels the production of the fifth game in the Mass Effect franchise. You've got hundreds of thousands of people who are signing these predictions being like EA, would you please continue the development on this thing? Or sell the license to somebody else who can keep making that game? Is there any chance that's going to happen? I really doubt it. I don't know if EA is going to be persuaded at all by a petition. It does have something like 200,000 signatures. I think EA is probably going to just keep the IP and hope that maybe it will be more profitable later. There is a Mass Effect television series in the works. I believe it's still greenlit with like Amazon. So perhaps it could come back, but probably not by the same studio, not by in the same way that people might expect. And EA has, they produce some great games, but they also are very well known for buying up smaller companies and then just kind of keeping the IP and never using it, effectively killing it as a way to not have competition. And so I think, and a lot of game companies do that, you know, sadly become a bit of a norm these days. But I think I don't put a lot of hope in it. Again, I tried to think more about all the other small studios that are out there doing similar work that were inspired by Bioware. And I think we have a lot of them. And I would hope that rather than trying to, you know, resurrect Bioware, we could pay more attention to those studios and put more of our, you know, investment, you know, or even just like thinking about it as cultural heritage. And as a form of art that needs to be protected, that would go a long way. Because Bioware has also changed a lot in the last 20, 30 years. It hasn't been the same studio anyways. And a lot of those folks went on to, you know, make smaller studios that are trying to do similar work. I like the framework that you put on the idea of like, hey, this is the form of art that we make here that we're very good at that we maybe should be thinking about protecting. I think that's an important framework to put on this because if you sort of stack up poetry versus private equity, it's a bit of a tough competition, right? It's a bit of a tough competition in this world. And so to that end, a federal NDP leader, Avi Lewis Wade in on social media, he said in part, quote, quote, this is private equity. This is what it does. Buy a businesses and rip them apart for short term profit. The developers of Bioware should be given the first opportunity and the federal support to buy it and run it themselves. What's your reaction to that statement, Kubiko? I was surprised and a bit impressed by it. For a term, I had lost all hope that like politicians wanted to talk about games as an industry or cared about it at all. Or that only like, you know, they would only do so secretly or they would just do so when, you know, there was a mass shooting in the US. That's the only time you would hear them really consider them. But, you know, yeah, but video games are, you know, make more money. They're more profitable than any other entertainment industry. And Canada is one of the best in the world at producing games. And so it does feel like something that needs to have more attention, more protections. Yeah, and I'm glad that it's on the radar of, of Avi Lewis. I don't feel like that, like that expectation is really feasible or going to happen. Again, because he's right, like this is what private equity does. And, you know, being the largest leverage by out in history also means it's no longer a public company. It's taken private. And so Canada, you know, being one of the largest producer of video games being known for producing games that have content that could like feel threatening or, you know, make other people uncomfortable, you know, I think that's something to really be proud of. Because there's not enough of those games out there. And there's so few protections for game developers and those kind of games that are made in Canada. And, you know, even like Mass Effect 3 has a scene that takes place in Vancouver. So like, even when a game takes place in outer space or something, there's still kind of nods to like where it comes from. And a lot of games have those kind of nods to it. Yeah, so I feel like that's just something that we need to understand better and reinforce as a form of art that deserves the attention and seriousness of any other form of art that we protect. Kavika, I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much for being on the show today. Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here. Of course, Kavika Guillermo, it's a professor. They're also the author of "A Floating Isles" on growing pains and video games. They are based in Vancouver. My name is Aluminum Dublachmout. This show is called "Comotion. We'll be back tomorrow. We'll see you then. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca/podcasts.