Raven's View

As parents interacting with our teens, or trying to, we may sometimes wonder if in fact they are aliens from another planet. Dealing with her own son prompted Judith Mackin to do this series.

From the CBC radio site :

A journey into the lives of Canadian teenagers through the lens of a mother. Judith Mackin is on a quest to understand contemporary teens because she wants to keep a connection to her own teenage son. Throughout the summer, well meet teens as they deal with all the challenging issues that are part of their daily lives. drugs, sex, home life, friendships, family, technology, spirituality, and the future.
This program is part of CBC Radio One's summer schedule from June 23 to August 31, 2008

I caught episode one of this 10 part series last Monday morning on CBC One at 9:30, it repeats at 7:30 pm Wednesdays. And on podcasts and/or streaming audio once that part of the CBC web site gets going –temporarily down. There were some very open and enlightening discussions –check it out.

The Ottawa Citizen had a good piece on this of this Monday morning, saying in part:

Judith Mackin doesn't oversell her qualifications for hosting a radio series about Canadian teenagers."I'm a mom with no answers," says Mackin, who is the creative force behind Alien Nation, a new 10-part CBC Radio series that begins airing today.

Alien Nation features interviews with dozens of teens, from a wide range of backgrounds, speaking frankly about spirituality, family, technology, friendship, love, sex and drug use.Mackin encouraged them to talk by saying, "No one is going to judge you. Just tell me, 'What is the real deal here?'"

In response, "they opened up like flowers."