Mind Full: The Canadian Psychological Association podcast

Psychologists play an important role in the care of all kinds of medical conditions. Sheila Garland joins the Mind Full podcast to talk about her role in helping people going through cancer treatment. She highlights the importance of having trained mental health professionals in as many healthcare settings as possible.

In the wake of the NBA gambling scandal, and with Canadians watching televised sports more often, now is the time to curtail the ads that normalize gambling - especially for children. Bruce Kidd and Dr. Steve Joordens from the University of Toronto return to the podcast to reiterate their warnings about the harms inherent in advertising gambling. Bruce is a Canadian Olympian and a recipient of the Lou Marsh award as Canada's top athlete. Steve is a psychologist and professor who has written about the "weaponization of psychology" in encouraging addictive gambling behaviour. Ban Ads For Gambling website: https://unbetgamblingads.com/about Senator Marty Deacon's Bill S-211: S-211 https://www.parl.ca/legisinfo/en/bill/45-1/s-211 Get involved: https://unbetgamblingads.com/send-a-letter-you-to-mp-mpp

Forensic psychologist Jeffrey Smalldon spent decades corresponding, conversing, and probing the minds of some of America's most notorious killers, from John Wayne Gacy to the Manson family. Why are we, as a society, so fascinated with history's most violent and depraved acts and events? Are Canadians different from Americans in our fascination with such horror? Jeffrey Smalldon's book, 'That Beast Was Not Me: One Forensic Psychologist, Five Decades of Conversations With Killers': https://www.blacklyonpublishing.com/product-page/that-beast-was-not-me-one-forensic-psychologist-five-decades-of-convers Jeffrey Smalldon's website: https://jeffreysmalldon.com/ An additional note for today's episode. Early on, we discuss the difference between Canada's recollection of historic political assassinations and America's. That Americans (and Canadians, thanks to our proximity and our consumption of American culture) know locales like Ford's Theatre where Lincoln was assassinated, Dealey Plaza in Dallas where JFK was shot, or the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, the site of the killing of Martin Luther King. I suggested that Canadians were less likely to know that kind of detail about similar events, even though political assassinations are much rarer here. I wondered how many Canadians knew about events that had happened in their own city - the biggest political assassination in Canadian history was that of D'Arcy McGee, on of the Fathers of Confederation, on Sparks Street in Ottawa. Another was that of Pierre Laporte, murdered during the FLQ crisis in 1970. And a third was the assassination of Atilla Altıkat, a Turkish diplomat gunned down on Island Park Drive in Ottawa in 1982. Curious after discussing these things, I mentioned them to my boss later in the day after recording this episode. While she was sort of familiar with Laporte, the other two events came as a surprise. Then I went to dinner with my mom and asked her - she was also unfamiliar with D'Arcy McGee. But more surprisingly to me, she had almost no recollection of the murder of Altıkat. I would have been a baby or toddler, and the event took place about eight blocks from where we lived at the time.

Every year at the CPA convention, we sell orange T-shirts designed by Betty Albert to raise money for an Indigenous-led charity. In 2025 the convention was held in St. John's, Newfoundland, and the recipient of the T-shirt proceeds is First Light, an organization that works with urban Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in the city. Stacey Howse is the Executive Director of First Light, and she joins Mind Full to tell us about the organization, their wraparound services, and the unique challenges facing urban Indigenous people in St. John's today. September 30th Rally for Reconciliation in St. John's: https://firstlightnl.ca/community-events/orange-shirt-day/ First Light website: https://firstlightnl.ca/our-organization/ Email: info@firstlightnl.ca Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FirstLightNL/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/firstlightnl/ Mind Full episode with artist Betty Albert: https://soundcloud.com/user-389503679/podcast-betty-albert?si=1dceb9c0cf4a49d4bfb2e8b74aa599f3&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

A lot of the time, awards given out in school reflect academic achievement - marks and grades are quantifiable, and it's easy to determine which students are the top academic performers. But does this create too much pressure on those students who compete for those accolades? And where does it leave the students who excel in other, less quantifiable areas? Today's Mind Full guest, Dr. Linda Iwenofu, suggests a restructuring of our reward systems, from primary school to post-secondary institutions. Schools need to rethink graduation awards, child psychologists say: https://www.ctvnews.ca/lifestyle/article/child-psychologists-say-school-awards-should-recognize-more-than-just-top-marks/ For information about Dr. Iwenofu's research and teaching: www.powerinyouthlab.com and https://discover.research.utoronto.ca/32066-linda-iwenofu Dr. Iwenofu's clinical private practice: www.powerinyouthpsychology.com For further reading on what leading psychologists have to say about re-imagining awards and similar recognition systems : -Kohn, A. (2018). Punished by rewards: Punished By Rewards: Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-36591-000 -Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Ballantine Books. https://adrvantage.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Mindset-The-New-Psychology-of-Success-Dweck.pdf -Robinson, C. D., Gallus, J., Lee, M. G., Rogers, T. (2019). The demotivating effect (and unintended message) of awards. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. doi: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2019.03.006. https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/todd_rogers/files/the_demotivating_effect_and_unintended_message_of_awards_vf.pdf See my dad's Grade 11 chemistry medal from Rivers high school in Manitoba: https://bsky.app/profile/ericbollman.bsky.social/post/3lul6l3jaws2f

On the Mind Full podcast we are always keen on talking about music. Popular music, and the music we heard often in our formative years, can hold memories for us, and hearing a certain tune can unlock memories we might not otherwise access on a regular basis. Today's guest, Dr. Myra Fernandes, recently published a study with Pelin Tanberg and Ryan Yeung at the University of Waterloo that tells us even more about music and memory, and the specific relationship between the two. Open access link to the study: https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13421-025-01717-w Dr. Fernandes' faculty webpage: https://uwaterloo.ca/psychology/profiles/myra-fernandes

In this week's edition of People I Think You Should Meet on the Mind Full podcast, we talk to Hannah Burrows, a Master's psychology student specializing in animal behaviour. Specifically, the relationship between dogs and people. We talk about dogs, research, and the incredible things we have learned about animals over the years - crows, cuttlefish, and of course our own furry companions. Crows and magic tricks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQa9dPGe0J8 Dogs helping endangered species through scat detection (an article by Hannah): https://kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frym.2023.1023547 Brainwave synchronization or "neural coupling" occurs when humans and dogs look at each other, or when a human pets a dog: https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/advs.202402493 Whale dog helping to save orcas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ3BngMNv-g