The hockey world, especially at the NHL level, has been extremely quiet on racial justice issues for too many years - until now. The Black-led uprising for Black Lives Matter following the police murder of George Floyd in May 2020 finally prompted an outpouring of statements from the NHL and several high profile players. We have never seen anything…

Happy new year! This is our first episode of 2020, and it's nice to have you with us for a new decade of hockey and resistance :) Our esteemed guest on the show today is Matt Hern. Matt lives in Vancouver, where he’s an activist, scholar, and writer. While he writes on a variety of fascinating topics ranging from free schools to global warming to p…

We are at a watershed moment in hockey history right now. Many of us know that hockey has had a racism problem for a long time, but now the conversations are coming to the surface in ways that they never have before. And Courtney Szto is one of the most important people driving those conversations. She's our guest on this episode of Changing on the…

It's official. Don Cherry, the long time host of Hockey Night in Canada, has been fired. FINALLY. It comes after his most recent racist tirade (far from his first) on live TV against immigrants in Canada. We break down Don Cherry and his penchant for biggotry with Kristi Allain. Kristi teaches in the department of sociology at St-Thomas University …

Wilton Littlechild is a Cree chief from Maskwacis, Alberta. He is a lawyer, a former hockey player, a residential school survivor, and more recently he was one of the commissioners of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He joins us as a special guest on this episode of Changing On The Fly to talk about his own life story, how we can use h…

Welcome back to Season 2 of Changing on the Fly! Our guest on this episode is Erica Ayala. Erica is an NWHL analyst, broadcaster, and an expert on women’s hockey. We talk here about the women’s hockey strike in Sweden, the Dream Gap tour in women’s hockey in North America, and so much more. Follow Erica on Twitter @elindsay08 If you like this podca…

This is our last episode of Changing On The Fly for season 1! We'll be back with season 2 in the fall. So as we head out for the summer, we leave you with this very special episode. Fred Sasakamoose is a Cree elder from the Ahtahkakoop Cree reservation in central Saskatchewan. He famously became one of the first Indigenous people to ever play in th…

On today’s episode, we’re finally bringing you part 2 of a 2 part series called Pucks, Punks, and Politics - conversations with punk rockers on hockey, radical politics, and the art of getting loud. Our first part of this series was with Chris 2 from Anti-Flag, and if you missed that you can go back and listen to Episode 10. Today’s episode is with…

On episode 11 of Changing On The Fly, we tackle the devastating news that the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) is shutting down its operations after 12 seasons. The announcement from the league came just one week after the Clarkson Cup championship match, and the day before many players from the league were set to fly overseas to Finland for t…

Chris Barker (aka Chris #2) from the long-standing Pittsburgh punk band Anti-Flag joins us on this episode to talk hockey, punk, and politics! Chris is a busy guy, and is often found playing bass and singing for Anti-Flag, recording album after album, and touring the world playing to hundreds of thousands of fans. But while he's not on stage, he lo…

A History of Le Smashy-Smash There have been at least 8 recorded hockey riots in Canadian history. While often dismissed as simply drunken hooliganism, these events actually reveal important social & class tensions, and we can learn a lot from them. On today's episode of Changing on the Fly, we walk you through a brief history of hockey riots, star…

Today on the podcast, we go to Alberta. The Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers are sworn enemies on the ice, their rivalry known as the 'Battle of Alberta'. And off the ice, the way these cities approach their hockey infrastructure couldn't be any more different. Calgary residents recently voted in a referendum to refuse the city's bid to host the …

On this episode of the podcast, we bring you an exclusive and candid conversation with Jessica Platt of the Toronto Furies! On January 10, 2018, Jessica made history when she came out as the first trans pro hockey player in Canada. And she did so in a beautiful message posted to Instagram, encouraging other young trans athletes to be their true sel…

On this episode of Changing On The Fly, we kick it with Tomas Jirousek, an Indigenous student athlete at McGill University in Montreal. He's a rower & former hockey player hailing from the Kainai First Nation in Alberta, and he's been leading the charge to get McGill to change their racist varsity team name - The Redmen. The McGill admin is poised …

On this episode of Changing on the Fly, we take on the double-headed beast of toxic masculinity and homophobia in hockey. We start by looking at the greatest and oldest fountain of toxic masculinity in hockey broadcasting, Don Cherry of Coach's Corner. But then, to look at something uplifting and inspiring, we'll hear about one of the most widespre…

Changing On The Fly is going live!On this episode, we'll hear a round-table discussion called "Power Play: How Women Can Change Sports Journalism and Hockey". The event was recorded in the Feminist Media Studio of Concordia University on January 31st, 2018.The guests are:-Meg Hewings, General Manager of Les Canadiennes-Robyn Flynn, sports reporter …

How did Gritty, the new mascot for the Philadelphia Flyers, become the new mascot for the American anti-fascist movement? Gritty is a huge, ugly, scary orange monster, who comes to us at a time when there is an equally huge, ugly, scary orange monster in the White House.We're joined on this episode by Mark Bray, history professor & the author of "A…

If you look at the face of hockey, it's about as white as the ice the game is played on. But if you start to scratch the surface, you start to notice that not only is the game much more diverse than you think, but also that people of color have a long and celebrated history in the sport. Yet still, racism and racial discrimination run rampant throu…

Welcome to the very first episode of Changing on the Fly, a podcast about hockey and social justice!On this episode, we lace up the skates and hit the ice to talk about colonialism in hockey, and the Indigenous hockey experience. What does it mean to call hockey "Canada's game" while Canada is a country built on stolen Native land? We're gonna take…

The new podcast series Changing On The Fly hits the ice October 3, 2018! Here's just a small taste of what you'll hear :)**Want to support this podcast and get some great perks in return? We've got a Patreon page:https://www.patreon.com/changingonthefly**Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or follow us here on Soundcloud!Featuring the voices…