Darts and Letters is about ‘arts and letters,’ but for the kind of people who might hack a dart. We cover intellectuals, experts, and academics from a left perspective. Episodes feature leading thinkers discussing a range of topics, including politics, technology, arts, culture, sports, and ideas.
But the show is for everyone. That means sometimes you’ll hear from the usual suspects, like that authoritative old professor; but just as often, you’ll hear from the young iconoclastic scholar, the crass podcaster, the journalist, the activist–even so-called ‘ordinary working people.’ We’re here to discover exciting intellectual life, wherever that might be.
The best way to reach us is to email us directly. You can also keep up to date with us on Twitter and Instagram. We occasionally post videos on Youtube.
SCHEDULE & DISTRIBUTION
We generally post bi-weekly. We post Fridays on our Patreon feed, a bit early. Then, it goes on our podcast feed on Monday. We are currently on break, slated to return in a new format early 2024.
You can find us on all the relevant podcast channels (Apple, Spotify, Google, and so on). If you use something else or you cannot find our feed, you can manually add our RSS feed.
We are also distributed by two large podcast networks. We are a proud to be part of the Harbinger Media Network, Canada’s largest left-wing media network. Additionally, we are excited to have joined the New Books Network as a partner in July 2022. They feature our episodes on a dedicated feed, and crosspost on various academic podcast channels.
TEAM
Gordon Katic is the host, editor, and executive producer. He is an award-winning radio producer and journalist with a background in health, science, and climate reporting. When he’s not making podcasts, he’s working on a PhD at the University of Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education focussing on theorizing a critical theory of science communication. Previously, he earned a Masters in Journalism from the University of British Columbia.
Jay Cockburn is the lead producer. Before he moved to Canada he worked as a director, producer and engineer at the BBC in the UK, where he is from. He’s also worked for 99% Invisible, and Spotify/Gimlet Media. Jay fancies himself a writer and has a book on podcast production out already, but really he just wants to write poorly researched science fiction novels and geek out on urban design.
Marc Apollonio is a producer. He has worked in radio and podcasting for over a decade and a half, producing shows like CBC’s The Current and As It Happens. He plays accordion badly, but with heart.
Ren Bangert is a producer. Bangert holds an MA in journalism from Concordia University, where they studied subjectivity in journalism and audio reporting. They are passionate about trauma-informed storytelling and high-quality sound design.
Our graphic designs and logos are created by Dakota Koop, and our theme music was composed by Mike Barber.
CREDITS & FUNDING
We are produced by Cited Media, a Canadian podcast company that develops podcasts about research, academia, science, and healthcare. You may recognize some podcasts we have made, like Cited Podcast and Crackdown.
This initiative is funded in part by working on academic research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. This supports our production expenses on collaborative journalism projects that are designed to mobilize research ideas and democratize the concept of public intellectualism. These episodes are co-produced with academic advisors, graduate research assistants, and our Cited Media staff. The specific advisors are listed in the audio credits of each episode. They account for about half our episodes.
We work with academics who share our scholarly, political, and editorial values. If you are an academic that listens to the show and enjoys it, perhaps you could be one of our partners. Email us. We are always interesting in forging new collaborations.