About Us
Learn more about who we are and what we do.
Community Podcast Initiative
Our goal is to develop, produce and promote podcasting by fostering innovative audio storytelling as a way to amplify underrepresented voices, including Indigenous community members, racialized Canadians, rural residents and multicultural and multi-ethnic groups in urban centres. We aim to collaborate with and provide space for community groups to share their stories as we explore new and more inclusive ways to tell audio stories.
The Podcast Studio
The Podcast Studio is based out of Mount Royal University’s School of Communication Studies. Our spaces include a recording studio, two editing suites, a voicing booth and a lounge and meeting space. The Studio is possible thanks to a grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
Our Team
Dr. Brad Clark, Co-director
Dr. Brad Clark worked as a journalist for 20 years in both print and broadcasting before entering the academy. At the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in the 1990s he was a reporter on an award-winning investigative unit for CBC Radio in Edmonton, and became a national reporter based in Calgary in 2000. His assignments included features on the oil industry under Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, the Winter Paralympics in Salt Lake City, the Summer Olympics in Athens. In 2006, Brad left the CBC to teach in the broadcast diploma program at what was then Mount Royal College. He has a master’s degree in Journalism Studies from the University of Wales (Cardiff) and a doctorate from Charles Sturt University in Bathurst, Australia. His doctoral dissertation examined network television news representations of Indigenous peoples and racialized groups in Canada. His subsequent research has focused on inclusion in news, social media, and eSports, and podcasting as an emerging digital medium.
Meg Wilcox, Co-director
Meg’s journalism career has taken her from Ottawa to Iqaluit to the Rockies — and many places in between! For almost a decade, Meg worked at CBC stations across the country as a producer, newsreader and cross-platform reporter. She was a host on CBC Radio One, 2, and 3, and helped develop CBC Music. She covered federal elections as part of the Parliamentary Press Gallery with iPolitics, and was part of the team that founded Banff Centre Radio. You can still sometimes hear her on CKUA Radio.
Meg’s passion is for long-form narrative storytelling — particularly podcasting. Currently pursuing her PhD at the University of Glasgow, Meg’s research looks at ways where podcasting and new forms of digital storytelling can help underserved communities and individuals tell their stories in ways that reflect their communities, their values, and their lived experience.
In 2020, Meg received a John R. Evans Leaders Fund grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation to help build the school’s new Community Podcast Initiative, where she is a co-director. She was also named one of Avenue Magazine’s 40 under 40. Her first book, The New Journalist’s Guide to Freelancing, is out now through Broadview Press.
Kelsea Arnett, Associate Producer
Kelsea Arnett is a third-year student in Mount Royal University’s Journalism and Digital Media program. Before joining the CPI, she had the opportunity to work for CBC Calgary, assisting with their coverage of the 2023 Alberta provincial election as a fact-checker and web reporter. Through a variety of mediums, Kelsea has reported on topics such as domestic violence prevention in Indigenous communities, young voter apathy and energy transition. With a particular interest in investigative reporting, Kelsea seeks to tell authentic stories while approaching topics from new or unfamiliar angles. This summer, she is starting a two-month internship with the Globe and Mail, both as a reporter and podcaster.
Past associate producers
Sam Jolin, 2022-2023
Gabrielle Pyska, 2021-2022