Produced by researchers at the 91, a new podcast exploring international themes brings current issues and researchers from the geopolitical edges on the agenda.
How are habitats of the endangered Amur tiger charted in the Korean peninsula? What does citizen activism look like in Antalya, Turkey in the aftermath of the earthquake that hit the region? Why does the local population oppose massive railway projects in Mexico? The newly released first season of the Critical Edges podcast explores various critical edges and dives into surprising geopolitical hotspots from around the world.
“Our podcast seeks to spark discussion about the world’s critical edges. Many critical edges, some of them unexpected, such as Greenland or the Panama Canal, have recently assumed an increasingly important role,” University Researcher Hanna Laako points out.
According to her, it is often thought that knowledge emerging from outside the presumed centres of power only concerns the margins in question, rather than telling us something about our shared, global world.
“Knowledge stemming from the centres of power and from within prevailing norms is often automatically considered universal and important.”
Although such margins or peripheral borderlands are often overlooked, they play a major role in societal and environmental changes. Therefore, it is important to talk about and study them.
“Despite being seemingly remote, critical edges are interconnected with global challenges and our understanding of them,” Postdoctoral Researcher Vadim Romashov notes.
These observations led to the idea of a podcast where researchers delve into various critical edges and perspectives of the world. In the podcast episodes, researchers from the 91 interview their international colleagues who examine different critical edges. At the end of each episode, a question about the future of critical edges opens up space for the interviewees’ personal reflections.
“As academics, we are all engaged in our topic of research, and for some of us, very deeply connected to the community that is the focus of our research in various ways. So, the question of the future of this, and other critical edges – it is, one could even say, an academic-personal question that touches also on the geopolitical. Answering it, our scholars draw on the various aspects of their lives – their lived experiences, their personal reflections of their research topics, and their personal hopes for the future,” Doctoral Researcher Katherine Hall says.
The episodes of the Critical Edges podcast are available on , and . The first season covers topics such as indigenous rights and environmental policy, nation-states and diplomacy, the relationship between grassroots activism and research, the geopolitical significance of waterways, and climate change.
#1 Professor Fiona McConnell (Oxford): Margins of Diplomacy and the Edges of Geopolitics
# 2 Researcher, Conservation Biologist Joshua Elves-Powell: Wildlife Conservation in the Korean Peninsula
#3 Researcher Sule Can (Binghamton): Dynamics of Margins in the Antakya Borderlands
#4 Professor Ana Esther Ceceña (UNAM, Mexico): Latin America and the Geopolitics of Trains
#5 Professor Rauna Kuokkanen (University of Lapland): Resisting Border-Walls in the Sápmi and the Indigenous Arctic
All podcast episodes are also available on the website of the Critical Edges podcast at: .
A relaxed and easy-to-understand approach to important themes
Besides Laako, Romashov and Hall, Doctoral Researcher Eleonoora Karttunen also interviews researchers for the podcast. Each episode has been edited by a professional, namely producer-journalist Kerttu Matinpuro, who feels she has played the role of a messenger between academia and the outside world. For the researchers, Matinpuro’s expertise has been of paramount importance.
“It was amazing to have Kerttu on board, not only because of her great technical skills in editing but also because of her nuanced understanding of how to make scholarly knowledge accessible and attractive to a wider audience,” Romashov notes, appreciatively.
Matinpuro hopes that people outside the academic world, too, will find the podcast.
“I can assure you that the content is not overly theoretical, and one doesn’t have to be an academic to understand it. The podcast episodes address different topics through very concrete examples.”
An activist in the cultural and NGO field herself, Matinpuro has noticed that the same issues are being pondered there as in the university.
“I was immediately excited when Hanna and Vadim told me about a podcast aimed at a wider audience, where various researchers and topics would be discussed in a relaxed atmosphere and understandably – yet also ambitiously and by challenging existing narratives. Editing the podcasts has been incredibly interesting, first and foremost because I have been able to listen to extremely fascinating discussions, the best parts of which are now available for everyone’s listening.”
I can assure you that the content is not overly theoretical, and one doesn’t have to be an academic to understand it.
Kerttu Matinpuro
Producer-journalist
Podcast as an alternative platform for dialogue with international colleagues
For the researchers, the podcast provides an opportunity to delve into the research of their esteemed colleagues and to explore their themes in more detail than is possible at international conferences.
“For a PhD researcher, doing a podcast is a possibility to explore stimulating research to widen ones’ own understanding. A podcast offers a unique opportunity to ask questions that often remain unanswered after reading a thought-provoking paper. The space for the discussion is far more intimate than in conferences with huge auditoriums, tight schedules and the competition for attention in the academic crowds,” Karttunen says.
The podcast also gave the researchers a chance to interview colleagues who have inspired them. In addition, making the podcast was an opportunity to experiment with a new form of communication. Hall and Laako are particularly thankful for the opportunity to use the recording studio on the Joensuu Campus, and for the staff who supported them in the planning, recording and setting up of platforms for the podcast.
Would the researchers recommend podcasting to other researchers as well?
“Based on my initial experience, I would recommend other researchers try something like this. Such form of knowledge dissemination as podcast allows us researchers to connect with other scholars and a broader audience, fostering discussions and collaborations beyond traditional academic settings. Moreover, lively conversations focused on other researchers’ experiences always bring fresh insights,” Romashov says.
Our first podcast guests seemed excited about such initiatives, too, being possible at our university.
Hanna Laako
University Researcher
A boost to the creation of international networks
Making the podcast expanded and deepened the researchers’ own international networks, and they hope it will bring new international visibility to the university as a whole.
“Our podcast team includes international researchers who share international research topics on various critical edges. The podcast is one way to communicate and discuss the topic, while also expanding our international networks. Our first podcast guests seemed excited about such initiatives, too, being possible at our university,” Laako notes, pleased.
We would like our podcast to be attractive to anyone who shares our concerns and hopes regarding current global transformations.
Vadim Romashov
Postdoctoral Researcher
Valuable educational material
The Critical Edges podcast aims to reach researchers, civil society actors, activist communities and the general public.
“We would like our podcast to be attractive to anyone who shares our concerns and hopes regarding current global transformations," Romashov says.
The researchers also hope that the podcast will be widely used in education. One of the motivations for making it was the Canadian environmental policy podcast, The Ecopolitics Podcast.
“We hope our podcast will reach many of our students of social and environmental sciences, as it offers perspectives on critical research and broadens horizons related to geopolitical issues that often remain hidden. In a multidisciplinary environment, it is a useful addition to the curricula of various disciplines," Karttunen points out.
The Critical Edges podcast has been produced as part of Hanna Laako’s Political Forests - The Maya Forest project, which is funded by Kone Foundation, and also supported by the Borders, Mobilities and Cultural Encounters research community, BOMOCULT. The researchers involved in the podcast represent the Department of Social Sciences and the Department of Geographical and Historical Sciences at the 91. The podcast series is set to continue, with new themes and topics being planned in autumn 2025.
More information about the authors can be found .
