July 17, 2025
SHARE
CANADALAND
BONUS: Zumba and Yelling at God: The Reality of Reporting Trauma
Do journalists forget their humanity on the job? How do they handle victims and survivors of trauma? How do they handle that trauma themselves?
Sam Konnert
Producer/Host
Tristan Capacchione
Senior Production Supervisor
max collins
Director of Audio
Tony Wang

Over the course of a year, reporter Molly Thomas worked on a story. It was supposed to be for CTV, but then she got laid off, and so Canadaland picked it up.

She wanted to tell the stories of young Afghan girls and women who had their lives and their education ripped away from them by the Taliban, following their takeover of the country in August 2021. She travelled halfway around the world to bring us the mini series Dear Taliban.

But what was that process like for her? What was it like for the girls and women she spoke with? How do you go back to your hotel at the end of the day, knowing you’re safe, but they aren’t? How do you leave them behind in a country that is actively hostile to them?

Molly Thomas joins Sam to talk about all of this and more, including an important update to the story.

 

Host: Sam Konnert

Credits: Tristan Capacchione (Producer), Tony Wang (Executive Producer), max collins (Director of Audio), Jesse Brown (Publisher)

Guests: Molly Thomas

Additional music by Audio Network

 

Further Reading:

 

This show is available exclusively to Canadaland supporters. To become one, go to https://canadaland.com/join/. You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch at our store, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.

More from this series
“Public dollars require public accountability, and every publisher in this country should want that.” -David Skok
October 12, 2026
“What’s my crime? Journalism? … I get that I piss off a lot of people with my articles.” -David Pugliese
October 5, 2026
 ”These are a group of white men coming to our area saying, "We bring you the gift of nuclear waste.” - Dennis
October 1, 2026
You can't really call Regina a news desert. They still have a newspaper. But if you actually look under the hood you’ll discover that they stopped printing the newspaper in Regina. They stopped editing it in Regina. The editor lives somewhere else. And as far the CBC goes, well, that acronym is now synonymous with layoffs. 
September 28, 2026
1438
I f you don't like what you're hearing, it's because it doesn't agree with your worldview, but you're interviewing an expert, and I'm giving you my expert analysis. -Dr. Peter McCullough
September 21, 2026
 We can surveil you. We can also perhaps even influence you, change the way that the game interacts with you in a way that might kind of subconsciously impact your understanding of the world. - Dr. Vinita Singh, associate professor of law, University of Minnesota
September 14, 2026
“ If they wanna draw Garfield and expose his  genitals,  you know, that's up to the fans.” -Nathen Mazri
September 7, 2026
“Everything changed when I treated it like a 9-5.”
September 3, 2026
all podcasts arrow All Podcasts
CANADALAND