Hi. I wanted to thank you for staying tuned to Skaana. The last few years have been... let's go with challenging... for pretty much everyone everywhere.
I used to write and perform an annual comedy show at the Arts Club Theatre in Vancouver called The Year in Revue where I’d make fun of the top stories of the year. Here’s one of the holiday tunes from my comedy duo, Local Anxiety.
The past few years have made satire seem redundant like…
When I came up with Skaana's tagline: "for fans of fact-based reality and reality-based facts" I never imagined - not sure my fave sci-fi writers imagined - that facts would be the first casualty of a pandemic. Or that our tagline could ever seem “controversial.”
And now… a bit of a Skaana Year in Review and the scoop on what’s up in 2022 and beyond and how you can help us. And orcas.
2021 HIGHLIGHTS:
The opening of Orcas Our Shared Future at the Royal BC Museum - which celebrates the awesome southern resident orcas. I wrote and guest curated this exhibit and it features some of my fave orcas. It also focuses on names, not numbers. The two orcas above - Slick and Scarlet. I’ve done a lot of very cool gigs over the years… this may be my favourite.
The exhibit is in Victoria ‘til the end of March and then it’s set to tour the world for the next decade or so. I’ve been leading virtual tours of the exhibit since it opened - including one for our Patreon patrons. If we get enough new Patreon patrons to kick off 2022, I’ll do another virtual tour before the exhibit moves on to the next stop.
And thanks to lockdowns and the magic of Zoom… I was able to conduct and share some amazing interviews this year (these are links to the iTunes versions - but they’re also available on Spotify and at Skaana.org :
Carl Safina on Animal Culture, Sperm Whale Society and Cetacean Communication
An Orca's Past and Our Shared Future with Dr. Gavin Hanke at the Royal BC Museum
Meet the Orcas Who Hunt on Land! Guests: Josh McInnes & Justine Buckmaster
Sea Shepherd Captain, Paul Watson, on Seaspiracies and the Smartest Species on Earth
We’ve also been able to share guest posts from Skaana guests like Julia Barnes and Paul Watson and Alexandra Morton on our Skaana Medium page! https://medium.com/skaana
2022 - UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS:
Part 2 of our interview with Sea Shepherd Captain - and one of my inspirations - Paul Watson; Lynda V. Mapes (author of Orca Shared Waters, Shared Home); Frans de Waal (author of Mama’s Last Hug); Joshua Zeman director of The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52, Nadine Pequeneza, director of Last of the Right Whales and Rowena Rae, author of Salmon: Swimming for Survival.
The Killer Whale Who Changed the World - The Documentary. Rayne’s editing now and Skaana interviews are a key part of it. Skaana was created, in part, to give us access to the people we wanted to interview for the doc.
2023 - UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS:
I have two new books about sharks being released by Orca Book Publishers. Here’s my official Orca Books page. I suspect the shark books will be listed here early in the new year.
HOW YOU CAN HELP 1: PATREON
Become a Patreon patron. Our patron base dropped last year because… pandemic… so we could really use your support. We are one of the few Patreon creators who still do a $1 tier because, even a $1 a month helps build momentum for the podcast. Here’s the link: https://www.patreon.com/skaana
What’s the money for? Podcasting is free, right? Sort of.
Doing interviews... big fun. Lining up and prepping for interviews... kind of a time-eating monster. Promoting these interviews… Definitely a time-eating monster.
Gear, storage space, the numerous apps we buy or license to produce a podcast - and an audio engineer cleaning up Zoom glitches and web help to post the episodes and show notes (and to protect us from Russian hackers)... Not so free.
We've had several funding agencies look at backing our work over the years, but haven't been able to land their help - in part because we're not a "non-profit." No, we don't make a profit. All the money you send us is used to cover our costs. But formally becoming a "registered non-profit" requires a mountain of paperwork and accounting. And it's a serious time-eater. It also means that there are potential issues around "advocacy. "
And Skaana started as - and continues to be - one of the ways we're fighting for the future of the southern resident orcas. And that means advocacy...
And next year I'm hoping we'll be able to spend more time raising awareness around issues threatening the oceans - the biggie for me (more on this soon) - the Dr. Strangelove scenario that is "Deep Sea Mining" - which is being led by a company based in Vancouver. ARG! So, yeah, advocacy.
And the more I’ve learned about sharks, the more work I want to do with my friends at the Rob Stewart Sharkwater Foundation to help them too.
And I always forget this… we do have cool perks for our Patreon patrons.
HOW YOU CAN HELP 2: SPREAD THE WORD
If you can spare a moment to kick off 2022... spread the word. Patreon sponsorships are essential - but subscribing on iTunes, Spotify etc. reviewing us on those sites, sharing episodes and spreading the word... Also gold... Facebook and Twitter now throttle links to outside content, so the more people sharing our stuff, the more likely people will find/fund us.
HOW YOU CAN HELP 3: ADVERTISE ON SKAANA (OR SPONSOR US PRIVATELY)
In addition to our Patreon patrons, Skaana is funded by advertisers, organizations and individuals who arrange to help us privately (or advertise with us) so… you know where to find us. And where to tell people and orgs who you think might be a fit with what we’re doing to find us.
HOW YOU CAN HELP 4: BUY MY BOOKS OR AUDIOBOOKS
And feel free to ask me questions about ‘em. You know where to find me.
And, when you can, support your local bookstore!
Also… keep on fighting the good fight.
Thanks again and wishing you all a wonderful 2022.
Mark
PS I wrote the following as part of Orcas: Our Shared Future - it’s one of the closing panels of the exhibit. So, yeah, it’s part of the exhibit. It’s also the mission statement for Skaana and pretty much everything I’m doing now and everything I’ve done over the last few years.