An award winning journalist, Pauline Dakin has been telling compelling stories for three decades. Below is a selection of her audio documentaries.
A Close Shave - This documentary follows 43-year-old Brian Arsenault as he prepares himself and his young family for his impending death from liver cancer. It's a tribute to a man who want to die well and in a way that allows his family to move on without him. It was originally broadcast on CBC Radio One’s The Current in 2007. It was also part of a 10-week summer series on CBC Radio, called Destination Wellville. It won a 2007 silver award from The Atlantic Journalism Awards.
Re-Wiring our Kids: The Empathy Effect - This short documentary is part of a CBC Radio series that examined the impact of children and teens’ use of technology - particularly smartphones - on their cognitive, social, and emotional wellbeing. Recent research is showing that as technology becomes more prevalent, populations report less ability to feel empathy for others. This documentary looks at some Canadian brain research that may explain that. It first aired on The World at Six in 2014.
You can hear Pauline’s fuller reporting on kids and technology in the two-part documentary series “Re-wiring Our Kids”, here:
The Silent Teacher - This documentary weaves together the stories of a woman who donated her body to a medical school’s anatomy program, her adult daughter who was horrified by the thought of medical students dissecting her mother, and one of the medical students struggling with her fears about having to cut into human bodies as part of her training. It was originally broadcast on CBC Radio One’s The Current in 2009. It won the 2009 RNAO Award for Excellence in Health Reporting: Best In-depth Feature Story.
The Face of HIV in Africa: Women - From reporting on the HIV epidemic in South Africa, this story originally aired on The World at Six in 2014. It looks at advances in controlling the disease that will empower women to protect themselves.
The Forgotten Cancer - This documentary goes behind the scenes of a lung cancer study to examine the state of research, medical, and social support for the biggest cancer killer. Lung cancer kills more people than breast, prostate, and colon cancer combined, and yet it receives less funding and fewer fundraising efforts. That’s partly because it’s often linked to smoking and seem as self-imposed. But beyond the stigma, few lung cancer patients live long enough to become advocates calling for more and better research and treatment. This documentary originally aired on The Current in 2009. It and an accompanying national news series was funded by a research grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The Forgotten Cancer won a Media Award for Health Reporting from the Canadian Nurses Association/Canadian Medical Association, and Science and Society Award from the Canadian Science Writers’ Association.
Phoenix Rising - What happens when homeless, neglected, even abused teenagers join a choir and start to sing? The result is transformational. Or as the director of this unusual choral group says, “It’s like sticking your finger in the socket of the soul!” In this documentary, Pauline follows the development of the Phoenix Youth Choir from its first unmelodic practises to two performances, at Bishop’s University in Quebec and in hometown Halifax, where they receive standing ovations and experience success and affirmation. This documentary aired on CBC’s Atlantic Voice and won the 2012 CBC Maritimes Award of Excellence: Overall Excellence in Storytelling.
Phoenix Rising - 2012 Easter network special, re-broadcast on Atlantic Voice.