If Truth Be Told

This episode was originally published on March 29, 2019.

From so-called 'fake news' to reports of gaslighting by survivors of abuse, we're wrestling with the nature of truth on political and cultural levels everyday. This week, Piya speaks with people whose personal truths have been questioned, dismissed, distorted, and even denied, to find out how they fought back and held on to their reality.

Here are the stories from this week's episode...

David Treuer says Indigenous people are not 'perpetual sufferers stuffed into reserves'

David Treuer believes our popular image of Indigenous communities is restricted to victimhood, tragedy, loss, and even extinction. He says he bought into it himself growing up on a reservation, but discovered in adulthood how that image doesn't reflect the strength, resilience and dynamism he also sees in Indigenous identities. David tells Piya how he's spent his career as a writer crafting counter-narratives that make room for both complicated truths.

'I didn't want to be ridiculed': The emotional toll of microaggressions at work

In 2003, Karlyn Percil-Mercieca immigrated to Canada from St. Lucia for a job in Toronto's financial district. She says she began experiencing microaggressions -- subtle or indirect acts that discriminate against people from marginalized groups. Karlyn tells Piya how people doubting her experiences affected her health and eventually compelled her to mentor women in the workplace on navigating such "emotional tax." 

'I didn't change my story because my story was real': On surviving a childhood of gaslighting 

Ariel Leve says her childhood was full of psychological abuse at the hands of her mother, and that when Ariel would confront her about it, her mother would deny anything ever happened. Ariel tells Piya how she later understood she was the victim of gaslighting, how she managed to remain resilient and maintain her truth, and where she sees gaslighting play out in our broader culture today.