Wicked Complex

In this episode, your hosts, Paige Reeves and Rebecca Rubuliak, sit down with Ben Weinlick, Executive Director of Skills Society and the visionary behind the Action Lab. They chat about the role of humour and absurdity as essential tools, not luxuries, in social change work, especially during times of austerity. Listen in as they discuss insights from leaders and mentors, how humour and play show up in practice, stories to learn from (urinal flies, invention of cathode ray tube TV, sisyphus, the paradox of hope), and so much more! In a world marked by deepening polarization, democratic erosion, and relentless uncertainty, we often believe that solving complex social problems requires grim determination and endless seriousness. But what if we've got it backwards? In this season of Wicked Complex, we explore how imagination, play, creativity, and even absurdity become radical acts of resistance. We speak with systemic designers, human-centered design practitioners, and social innovators who've discovered that playfulness isn't a luxury or distraction—it's essential fuel for meaningful change. Together, we'll ask: How do we maintain hope when the stakes feel impossibly high? What happens when we give ourselves permission to imagine differently, to laugh, to create? And how can communities in Alberta and beyond harness creativity and absurdity not as escapism, but as catalysts for transformation? This season is an invitation to reclaim lightness, joy, and play as legitimate tools for building the world we need—and for sustaining ourselves and our movements while we do.

Season 1: The Future of LabsThis episode is the second in a three part series around the Future of Labs Gathering in May 2024, where social innovation lab practitioners from around Canada came together on Cortes Island in British Columbia to try to figure out what the next 10 years of lab practice might look like. Across these three episodes, we will be talking to folks before, during, and after the Future of Labs Gathering. This episode: Cortes Island.We listen in as sixty-odd folks from social innovation labs, funding organizations, and Social Innovation Canada all gather at the Hollyhock Retreat on the island. They meet under cedar trees to put sticky notes on flipcharts, and they share oysters and beers on the beach together -- to see if they can agree on what labs are best at, and where their work begins and ends.Many participants lent their voices to this episode, including Rose Hanson, Brenda Hanson, Lewis Muirhead, Meghan Durieux, Rhea Kachroo, Roya Damabi, Mark Cabaj, Geraldine Cahill, Miquel de Paladella, Ben Weinlick, Sophia Ikura, Maryam Mohiuddin Ahmed and Annelies Tjebbes, Alex Ryan, Keren Perla, Aleeya Velji, Heather Remacle, Diane Roussin, Cheryl Rose, Darcy Riddell, Brent Wellsch, Rebecca McSheffery, Rebecca Rubuliak, Melanie Thomas, Sarah Lamb and Julia Dalman.The Future of Labs Gathering is convened and sponsored by Social Innovation Canada and Action Lab. Support for this podcast series comes from the Action Lab, the Edmonton Community Foundation, the Hamilton Community Foundation, and the Oakville Community Foundation. A special thank you to Suncor Energy Foundation for supporting the Future of Labs.Music for this episode by Blue Dot Sessions and Weinlick.

What the heck are social innovation labs? Why did systems change leaders think they might help with some of the complex challenges of our time? And where are labs headed next?Coming soon from Action Lab, this is the Wicked Complex podcast, where we'll explore all of those questions.Join us for a three-part series centred around the Future of Labs Gathering in British Columbia coming up in May 2024. We'll talk to experienced folks in this field before, during, and after the gathering to see when they think labs have lived up to their promise, when they haven't, and what they're hoping to decide together about where to go next.Follow now to get the first episode in your feed when it drops.