It started with stories. Hard Knox Talks was our first answer, a podcast rooted in lived experience, recovery, and real talk from the front lines. It created space for people to speak openly about addiction, parenting, justice involvement, and healing. But as the conversations deepened, one thing became clear:

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We needed to talk about the systems, too.

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The hard truths we heard on Hard Knox Talks, about housing, healthcare, policing, and poverty, weren’t just personal stories. They were symptoms of bigger structures. The outcomes of decisions made in boardrooms and government offices far removed from the realities on the ground. That’s when The Speakeasy Podcast was born.

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It gave us a space to speak directly to policy. To connect lived experience with decision-making. To ask hard questions, challenge narratives, and make complexity make sense, for everyone.

But even that wasn’t enough.

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During the early planning of the podcast, we realized something deeper: our communities didn’t just need conversations, they needed access. Tools. A place to come back to. So we began building The Speakeasy Network, a living, breathing resource hub where people in Saskatchewan can understand the systems shaping their lives, navigate supports, and stay connected to the people changing them.

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And we called it Speakeasy for a reason.

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In the days of prohibition, speakeasies were hidden rooms behind locked doors. Underground joints where the people gathered when the law said they couldn’t. Places where rules were bent, truth was spoken, and survival meant sticking together.

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That’s what this is.

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A place that wasn’t given to us, we carved it out ourselves. Not sanctioned. Not sanitized. A place for the people who’ve been left out of the room, shut out of the process, and told to stay quiet.

 

The Speakeasy Network isn’t just a platform. It’s an act of ownership.

 

Welcome to the Speakeasy.