Alison ​got her start in journalism at Australian Associated Press in the 80s. But an encounter on a kibbutz in Israel prompted a move to Canada in 1990, where she has been ever since. Based in Montreal​, ​Alison produced​ ​C'est la vie​ for many years, honing her storytelling and mentoring skills. She has since produced award-winning documentaries for Ideas and The Doc Project. ​​

IN HER OWN WORDS
I try to make docs that... surprise and move​, and have a strong narrative arc​. ​I am drawn to personal stories.
My home program, The Doc Project, tells stories that... you can't stop thinking about. In our docs we meet people, go places, learn and feel things. We explore the big picture through the people living it.
Doc pick: Rima Hamadi's doc, The Cook Off, made through the Mentorship Program. Another recent favourite: Andrew Nguyen's The Skyluck Journals.

Award-winning journalist Duncan McCue is the host of CBC Radio One's Cross Country Checkup. McCue was a reporter for CBC News in Vancouver for over 15 years. Now based in Toronto, his news and current affairs pieces continue to be featured on CBC's flagship news show, The National.

McCue teaches journalism at the UBC Graduate School of Journalism and Ryerson University, and was recognized by the Canadian Ethnic Media Association with an Innovation Award for developing curriculum on Indigenous issues.

He was awarded a Knight Fellowship at Stanford University in 2011, where he created an online guide for journalists called Reporting in Indigenous Communities (riic.ca).

McCue is Anishinaabe, a member of the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation in southern Ontario, and proud father of two children. He is currently away from Cross Country Checkup, to produce and host a podcast on residential schools for CBC Podcasts.

As network producer for Manitoba and Saskatchewan Suzanne pitches and produces stories for The Current, As It Happens, and Ideas, to name a few. Past lives include helping launch CBC Television's all-news network, managing Winnipeg's radio current affairs area for a time, and creating new programs for local radio and TV.

IN HER OWN WORDS
I try to make docs... with authentic characters and conflicts, that illustrate shades of grey, and broaden our understanding of the world and our humanity.
My home program, The Current, tells stories that... add depth and discovery to the stories of the day.
Doc pick: Being Jacqueline (2015), a multi-award winning documentary I produced with Joan Webber at The Current. I picked this documentary for what it reveals about loving yourself and each other.

Jeff is a radio producer and host with twenty-five years of experience.
Currently, he works with White Coat Black Art, an award-winning nationally broadcast medical program on CBC Radio One. The show examines stories such as living with dementia, physician-assisted death, and PTSD among first responders. Jeff is also the voice of CBC Radio Overnight. His Tapestry documentary on the bombing of Peterborough's mosque received a Wilbur Award. His work with White Coat Black Art has received a Gabriel Award, Gracie Award and an Ontario Association of Midwives Media Award.

IN HIS OWN WORDS:
I make radio docs that... bring isolated voices to the airwaves.
My home program, White Coat Black Art, tells stories that... reveal the culture of medicine and the healthcare system from the point of view of patients and healthcare providers. We tell stories with a refreshing and unprecedented level of honesty.
Doc pick: Endometriosis: My painful search for answers is a powerful first-person doc that was produced for White Coat, Black Art through the Mentorship Program last season. It's a great personal story that deals with an important health-care issue. We also created this cool digital animation to promote the doc online - it went crazy on Facebook

Jim's a lifer at Quirks & Quarks, where he's worked, with a couple of short interruptions, since 1993. He's been the senior producer on the show for the last couple of years. He's seen space shuttle launches at Cape Canaveral, dug up extinct bison bones in the Yukon and explored the Beaufort sea on an icebreaker. He was a Massey Journalism fellow in 2016, which was a blast. Jim's a native Newfoundlander but was asked to leave because he wasn't funny enough, can't carry a tune, and hates fish.

I try to make docs that ... give a different sound to the science on our show - with more sense of place, more sense of the personality of the people working on and around science and maybe less of a "just the facts" presentation than you'll sometimes hear in a one-on-one interview.

My home program, Quirks & Quarks, tells stories that... fascinate, entertain, educate and intrigue. We're after surprises and moments of awe, wonder and bleeding cool. We want to make you say "wow" and tell people about that thing you just heard.

Doc pick: Last year we had the opportunity to do several docs looking at how local communities in Canada were dealing with the unique challenges of climate change. We did one on prairie agriculture, one on the northward migration of animal-borne Lyme disease in Quebec, and Moira Donovan in Halifax did a great one about sea level rise in Nova Scotia. It really brought us to the edge of the water.

Naheed Mustafa, Ideas (for CBC staff only)

Image | Naheed Mustafa

(submitted by Naheed Mustafa)

Load Image

Naheed is an award-winning producer based at Ideas. She started her career as a writer working for a variety of newspapers and magazines but after nearly a decade, made the shift to broadcasting. Her first radio documentary was for a then-fledgling program on CBC Radio called The Current in which she followed a family as they moved through the refugee process in Canada after 9/11. Since then, Naheed has worked on a variety of programs at CBC Radio including As It Happens, Dispatches, and The Current. She spent the years between 2008 and 2013 covering the war in Afghanistan as a freelance writer and documentary producer. She began working for Ideas as a documentary contributor in 2014 and joined the program full time in 2016.

IN HER OWN WORDS:
I try to make radio docs that... make people think about how they are connected to each other and to the world.
My home program, Ideas, tells stories that... take a deep dive into contemporary thought and intellectual history.
Doc pick: A recent doc I was honoured to mentor was The Gift of Maryam Mirzakhani, about a gifted mathematician who was the first woman to win the Fields Medal. It was made by Doc Project mentee Samira Mohyeddin.

Get in touch with Naheed to discuss your pitch: naheed.mustafa@cbc.ca

Andrew is a founding producer on CBC Radio's Now or Never. He also created the programs New Fire and Head to Toe, cut his teeth on the long-running personal storytelling program DNTO, and occasionally contributes to The Doc Project. In 2016, he produced the documentary 'The Story She Carries' with journalist Angela Sterritt, and was awarded the imagiNATIVE award for best audio work. When he's not making audio, Andrew can be found hiking, cuddling with his tiny dog Richie, and drinking far too much iced coffee.

IN HIS OWN WORDS:
I try to make radio docs that... center marginalized voices, challenge listeners and have great sound design.
My home program, Now or Never, tells stories that... jump into the action with Canadians from all walks of life as they're about to do something they've never done before. Our stories are personal, vulnerable, and sometimes messy - and hopefully inspire listeners to do something outside their comfort zone, too.
Doc Pick: Helping my colleague Julian Uzielli tell his story about undergoing ketamine assisted therapy was an incredibly rewarding experience - and resulted in a documentary I'm proud of. Who knew a story about an experimental depression treatment could be so fun to listen to?