AI disclosure statement:
In producing this episode we used Otter.ai for transcription.
This semester’s podcast focuses on municipal politics in the GTA because our next election is coming up on October 26th, 2026.
Today’s big question is: How can a resident influence city politics?
To answer this, we interviewed Saman Tabasinejad, Executive Director at Progress Toronto, and Matt Elliot, a freelance City Hall reporter. The streeters were provided by community members on campus here at TMU. The clip at 5:30 is from Toronto City Council on YouTube, the clip at 6:48 is from Toronto Transit Commission on YouTube and the clip at 8:37 is from the National Post on YouTube.
Credits
Hosts: Jaden Whitelaw & Anish Dhupar
Episode producers: Gabriel Hilty & Mia Di Panfilo
Theme music by Almost Barely.
This podcast is produced by students in the undergraduate and graduate programs at the School of Journalism at TMU.
Anish Dhupar is a fourth-year journalism student and a storyteller for On The Record, winter 2026.
Jaden Whitelaw is a multimedia journalist who specializes in radio and television news broadcasting.
He is an undergraduate journalism student at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University). He has experience in news writing, news and sports reporting for TV and radio as well as technical production including expertise in Adobe Audition and Premiere Pro. He is the audio producer of a documentary style podcast entitled 'The Art of Moises," which can be found on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Jaden has also been tested in a live newsroom after interning at 680 News Radio Toronto in Spring 2025. He was entrusted by experienced journalists to write copy stories, gather breaking news content and produce news stories for on-air. He has also voiced a news story which has made it to air.
Gabriel is a reporter for OTR in Winter 2026.
