Our guest this episode is Dr. Chelsea Larsson, a newly minted PHD in Scottish History, who’s also a Writing Specialist with the U of G Library. Chelsea shares what she’s learned about finding balance between academic and work pursuits and her self-care. Her tips? Work in environments that respect your boundaries, find the things that nourish you, and frame every act of self-care as an anti-capitalist, feminist movement. And of course, also visit Learning Services in the Library.

In our second episode of season 3, Marco and Jordie are joined by Farqd, an upper year UoG Wildlife Biology and Conservation student. Over the course of the episode, Farqd takes us through her journey of navigating life and balancing expectations as a young person, a university student, and a daughter. She explains her transition to campus life, molded together with internal battles encompassing identity conflicts, faith, and family dynamics. In an attempt to provide insight into her personal mental health journey, Farqd takes us through a timeline that began with a hesitant and nervous young person that later evolved into someone with the ability to reflect on their experience while learning how to avoid negative self talk, self-blame, and get professional help. 

Trigger warning: Suicide and self-harm
*If you'd like to skip this section around suicidal ideation, we recommend skipping 36:00 to 49:05 min. There will be 3 beeps at 36:00 to prompt you.

In our first episode of Season 3,  Jordie and our new co-host Marco sat down with Bella Mangiapane, a 3rd year U of G student studying Agricultural Science with a minor in Business. Bella gets the conversation started with a struggle that all university students can relate to (especially now) - making social connections. From there Bella shares her story about her on-going mental health journey, and how an unrelated trip to the ER helped Bella to break down her own mental health stigma and begin to get help for what would later be diagnosed as anxiety and manic depression. Join us to hear how Bella has learned to manage her “black and white thinking” and how she has helped her family to learn more about mental health and break down their stigma. 

Trigger Warning for mention of non-suicidal self-injury