This episode of FolkU features an exploration of sovereignty by CIA student Tristan. What it is to be sovereign in relation to our fellow humans, and in relation to the land? How can we teach ourselves and others how to self-govern? Featuring two interviews, this podcast challenges us to think about our society a little differently, even if it’s just for an hour.
Continue reading Sovereignty – from Folk U/ Cortes Island Academy
The Cortes Island Academy offers an accredited 20 week experimental, project-based education to local students in grades 10 through 12. They just wrapped up their fourth year and, on February 9, are about to start taking applications for 2026-2027. In this morning’s interview Executive Director Manda Aufochs Gillespie talks about the school and their recent annual showcase in Mansons hall.
She explained, “It was an incredible display, not just by the students of the Academy, but by the community who came out in droves to be the most supportive, engaged, and encouraging audience I have ever experienced. It was truly heartwarming to see the relational aspects of what was happening there.”
Continue reading Cortes Island Academy embraces the Laurels from Four Years past and begins a new season
Tune in on January 30, 2026, for this week’s episode of Desolation Sounds, where student journalists of the Cortes Island Academy tackle some big topics: where is the line on climate change? What’s the deal with UAPs? Is Queerness inherently a radical act? Journey with Dean, Dylan, Devin, and Lin as they interview experts on these topics, and report on their findings.
This show is the second instalment in the culmination of the 2025/26 podcasting course at the Cortes Island Academy, an intense deep dive into the techniques and art of podcasting in which each student picks a topic, then researches & produces a full feature-length show on it from start to finish, including interviews, scripting, recording, and editing their show. To learn more about the Cortes Island Academy, visit www.cortesislandacademy.ca
Continue reading Desolation Sound on Climate Change, UAPs & QueernessTune in on January 23, 2026, to hear student journalists Minton, Jasmine, and Willow, of the Cortes Island Academy, explore the topics of storytelling and play, and why they are vital and important parts of healthy culture, both in the past, and today. Journey with them as they interview experts on these topics, report on their findings, weave in their own stories, and bring us a new and playful understanding of these timeless concepts and why they remain as important today as they did hundreds of years ago.
Continue reading Folk U: Cortes Island Academy journalists explore storytelling and play
It has been nine months since Katia Sol took over the helm as Hollyhock’s CEO. She has also had more than two decades of experience working with nonprofits, starting as a volunteer in a Bolivian Indigenous community and going on to co-direct the Ecology of Leadership at the Regenerative Design Institute, founding her own coaching and leadership development business, and teaching at Stanford University. In today’s interview she talks about this past year at Hollyhock and what lies ahead in 2026.
Continue reading Looking back on Hollyhock in 2025 and what lies ahead in 2026
