Neighbours will be an ongoing series and in each season we’ll be taking an issue affecting Peterborough and using the podcast to understand it through the voices of community members who are on the front lines or living through it.
For our first season, Peterborough Currents co-publisher Ayesha Barmania will be taking listeners into the opioid overdose crisis. That means we’ll be talking to folks with lived experiences, as well as those who are working to reduce the harms of this epidemic on the ground and at the organizing level.
Our first episode shares the story and perspective of local musician Patrick Walsh. Walsh lives with severe chronic pain from old workplace injuries, which he manages with his doctor by using prescribed opiates.
In recent decades, the response to the opioid epidemic has scrutinized the over-prescription of opiates and the influence of the pharmaceutical industry over doctors’ recommendations. Walsh says that this scrutiny may have gone too far, and for him it has meant feeling like he’s under the microscope whenever he needs an increase to his dosage.
Hear his story now on our website, or through your podcast app of choice.
And subscribe to hear a new episode each week, bringing you insights about our community by meeting our neighbours. We’re in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.
There’s no one single story that will encapsulate a whole crisis, but by sharing more stories and meeting more of our neighbours we can create some more understanding.
In honour of our one-year anniversary providing in-depth local news to Peterborough, we are asking our readers to become monthly supporters. Together, we can build a sustainable digital news outlet. Learn more: https://peterboroughcurrents.ca/announcements/one-year-anniversary-fundraiser/
