The Hidden Island Podcast
Welcome to the hidden island! a podcast dedicated to exploring our past in new and unexpected ways. Discover the hidden history of Prince Edward Island - and find out why that history is still relevant today. Listen in on candid conversations with community members about the parts of our heritage that often go unmentioned in history books.
Season Six is coming this October!
The season six "Sneak Peek" is live now; full episodes begin releasing this October!
Welcome back to the hidden island! Join host Rafe Wright for an all-new season exploring the people, places, and stories that shape Prince Edward Island. With help from our wonderful suite of guests, let's journey through stories and legends together!
This season, we'll...
- travel back to the 1700's when the Island's shores echoed with bagpipes and Gaelic songs;
- step inside PEI's most iconic lighthouses and the families, mysteries, and legends that keep them alight;
- recount some of the most chilling local ghost stories, where history and folklore blur;
- celebrate one of the Island's most remarkable artists and the legacy she left behind;
- move beyond our shores to the waters of the Pacific during World War II;
- and more!
Whether you're a lifelong Island resident, a history buff, or simply someone who likes a good story, we've got you covered.
Visit us on Podbean!
Season Six Sponsors:
Season six of the hidden island podcast is kindly brought to you by our sponsors: Munn Architecture Inc., Confederation Centre of the Arts, Provincial Credit Union, PEI Mutual Insurance Company, Liam Gauthier with RBC Wealth Management, and The Gray Group.
Thank you!
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Meet Our Host
Rafe Wright is a Podcast Producer with the PEI Museum and Heritage Foundation. A seasoned multimedia specialist, he combines his background in journalism and communications with a lifelong passion for history and storytelling. Born in Charlottetown, Rafe lived in Quebec for several years before deciding to move home to pursue a career in storytelling. Rafe is a graduate of the Holland College Journalism Program, where he was the recipient of the Hartwell Daly award. His career has included daily news reporting with The Guardian (PEI) and the former greater SaltWire Network. Rafe has also worked as an environmental reporter through the Canadian government’s Local Journalism Initiative, where he covered climate change and its impact across PEI. He’s worked in communications and marketing roles with the City of Charlottetown and the Workers Compensation Board of PEI. Outside of his professional work, he has created several independent passion projects focused on showcasing PEI’s history. Rafe lives in Charlottetown with his wonderful partner and is the proud father of (soon to be) two beautiful girls.
Meet Our Guests
Featured this Season:
Rob MacDonald taught at Colonel Gray for 30+ years. Among his favorite subjects to teach are PEI History and Scottish Gaelic. Rob organized trips to Scotland for several of his Gaelic classes, and hosted an exchange with a group of Gaelic-speaking high schoolers from the Isle of Lewis. Rob has an unofficial PhD in rambling on about the Island, and loves to tell stories about history.A seventh-generation Islander, Rob lives in Clyde River with his wife of 32 years. They have four adult children and two precocious grandchildren. Rob is enjoying retirement from teaching and he now works part-time at the Christian Reformed Church in Charlottetown.
Valerie MacPherson is president of the Cape Bear Lighthouse Board of Directors in eastern Prince Edward Island. Since 2013, she has been a strong advocate for preserving and bringing greater attention to the site’s unique maritime history, including its connection to the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic, when Cape Bear’s wireless Marconi operator received the ship’s distress call. Under MacPherson’s leadership, the board has expanded and improved the site, including creating an accessible, year-round exhibit known as Marconi Hall. Her work combines heritage preservation, community development and efforts to make Cape Bear’s important history more accessible and engaging for visitors.
Jackie Brown is the operations manager and president of the Panmure Island Lighthouse Society, at the far tip of eastern King’s County, PEI. She is also a founding member of the PEI Lighthouse Society, a non-profit group made up of community volunteers. For over 10 years, she has worked tirelessly to preserve and maintain the 123-year-old lighthouse on Panmure Island, the oldest wooden lighthouse in the province. Thanks to her efforts, the lighthouse has been featured on a 2016 Royal Canadian Mint commemorative coin, has been visited by thousands of people from across the globe and has kept the lighthouse open to the public throughout the summer months.
Heather Laiskonis is a passionate conservation professional with a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Conservation and a Master’s Degree in Fisheries Resource Management from Memorial University of Newfoundland’s Fisheries and Marine Institute. Since 2022, she has served as Executive Director of the PEI Watershed Alliance, building on years of hands-on experience as a wildlife technician on Prince Edward Island’s south shore and leadership experience in the service industry sector in New York City and the greater Detroit area. Driven by a deep commitment to protecting wildlife and their habitats, Heather is an active member of environmental committees and dedicates much of her time to volunteering for conservation initiatives. Outside of her professional work, she enjoys exploring PEI’s outdoors by bike, kayak and on foot.
Kate MacQuarrie, MSc., is an award-winning biologist, botanist and author who has dedicated over 30 years to environmental stewardship and native plant education in Prince Edward Island. Born and raised on PEI, she earned her biology degrees from the University of Prince Edward Island before serving as the Executive Director of the Island Nature Trust and spending 20 years as the provincial government's Director of Forests, Fish, and Wildlife. An expert in local ecology, her field research led to the discovery of several new plant species on the island, and she currently operates PEI Untamed, an educational venture hosting workshops on foraging, wildlife tracking and botanical identification. For her extensive contributions to public education and natural history, which include authoring books like Wild Foods of Prince Edward Island and Red Earth, Deep Time, she was honored with a Heritage Recognition Award by the PEI Museum and Heritage Foundation.
Cameron MacDonald is the Confederation Centre of the Arts, (CCOA) Heritage Coordinator. A 10+ year veteran of the Confederation Players, Cam has brought countless characters to life throughout Charlottetown, including his role as the gravedigger and guide of the Ghost Tour, A tour run by the CCOA where he leads visitors through some of the city’s spookiest landmarks and stories. He’s a member of the Confederation Players and a seasoned veteran with the fathers of confederation. He’s also performed as a wide variety of characters in many local projects over the years. When he’s not entertaining audiences with the players,he can be found on stage with Charlottetown’s beloved improv group, the Popolopolots. Whether he’s digging up the city’s darkest tales, bringing history to life or making an audience laugh, Cameron has become a familiar and much-loved presence in Charlottetown’s arts and entertainment community.
Pan Wendt is the Director and former Curator of the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown. Raised in PEI by artist parents, he pursued his academic training in the United States, earning an undergraduate degree from Williams College and completing graduate studies at Yale University. He began a career as an art critic and writer for national journals before returning to PEI in 2010, where he spent 15 years as the gallery's curator, organizing over 100 exhibitions and co-founding Charlottetown’s Art in the Open festival. Appointed Director in December 2025, Wendt oversees the institution's strategic vision and permanent collections, having recently earned a PEI Book Award and the Premier's Award for his acclaimed retrospective project, Erica Rutherford: Her Lives and Works.
Ambika Gail Rutherford is an Australian-born painter, illustrator, author and educator who has been a prominent figure in the Prince Edward Island arts community since moving to Canada in 1975. Born in Sydney, she studied and exhibited internationally across Spain, London and the USA before teaching at Ryerson Technical College and eventually settling in Charlottetown. Known for her vivid landscapes and publications, Rutherford is also widely recognized for her lifelong personal and professional partnership with the late trailblazing transgender PEI artist Erica Rutherford, with whom she had a daughter, Susana. Following Erica's passing in 2008, Gail has dedicated much of her time to preserving her former partner's historic artistic legacy.
Michael Palmer is an author and marketing professional originally from Antigonish, Nova Scotia, with ancestral roots in the St. Peter's and Morell regions of Prince Edward Island. After attending Saint Francis Xavier University in the 1990s, he relocated to Calgary, where he has spent over thirty years working in marketing and audit roles within the oil and gas industry. His lifelong fascination with World War II has spanned more than three decades and served as the catalyst for his writing career after the age of 30. When he is not writing or taking his family back east for a ‘Maritime fix,’ Palmer enjoys running, mountain hiking, playing basketball and staying active with his children.
Sarah Chute is a PhD Candidate in History at the University of Toronto, holding a Master’s degree from the University of Vermont and a Bachelor of Arts in History and French from Western Washington University. Her doctoral dissertation traces the life of Jupiter Wise, exploring slavery and freedom in the Atlantic world alongside the historical connections between the Canadian Maritimes and the Caribbean. She has published research on enslaved individuals in the Loyalist Maritimes and is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the 2024 Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship and the 2026 Jeanne Armour Graduate Scholarship in Canadian History.
Season Five
A whole new set of Island stories, with all-new hosts and guests!
Generously sponsored by the Architects Association of Prince Edward Island, Confederation Center of the Arts, Provincial Credit Union, and The Gray Group. Thank you!
Meet our Hosts
Matthew McRae is a museum professional with a PhD. in Canadian History. For the last five years, he has been working with the PEI Museum and Heritage Foundation, first as a Curator and then as Executive Director. Prior to that, Matthew worked at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in Curation and Communications roles. As far back as he can remember Matthew has been a heritage nerd, and is thrilled to be able to help share and care for the heritage of his Island home.
Evelyn R. Bradley (she/her) is an educator and diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant in Epekwitk (P.E.I.), where she and her wife moved at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Evelyn is known through her consulting company, Bradley Consulting, where she provides specialized training in judgement-free environments to aid in establishing an inclusive community and promote a sustainable relationship with inclusion and diversity awareness. As an educator, she works with universities, non-profits, and businesses to develop materials centred around culturally competent programming with a focus on fostering inclusive spaces.
In her limited spare time, Evelyn can also be found volunteering as a board member for the PEI Writers’ Guild, working on her poetry collection, and hosting a variety of events and shows.”
Samantha Kelly is the Curator with the PEI Museum & Heritage Foundation. She first joined the organization in 2019 as cover for a maternity leave and then, she wouldn't leave. With more than 15 years of experience working in the heritage sector, Samantha has been lucky enough to share her days with narwhal tusks and polar bear pants, glitter bombs and a lump of buttered aluminum, a basket casket, and most recently, a turkey named Chuck. No one need ever think that history is boring!
Lesley Caseley is a self-proclaimed history nerd, living her best life as the Collection Manager for the PEI Museum and Heritage Foundation. She has a background in preventative conservation, is a certified RE-ORG coach and a Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places enthusiasts. When she isn’t doing something heritage-related related she can be found raising two tiny humans with her husband.
Meet our Guests
Featured this season:
Dr. Joshua MacFadyen is Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Geospatial Humanities at the University of Prince Edward Island in Canada. His research focuses on energy transitions and traditional energy carriers in Canada, and he teaches Digital Humanities in the Applied Communication, Leadership, and Culture (ACLC) program in UPEI’s Faculty of Arts. His most recent monograph is titled Flax Americana: A History of the Fibre and Oil that Covered a Continent. He also published an edited collection in the same series titled Time and a Place: An Environmental History of Prince Edward Island (McGill-Queens and Island Studies Press, 2016).
Josh has held postdoctoral positions at the Historical GIS Lab at the University of Saskatchewan and at NiCHE: Network in Canadian History & Environment at the University of Western Ontario. Most recently he was also an Assistant Professor and remains a Sustainability Scholar at Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability.
Heather Harris is an old house and heritage enthusiast who runs the Instagram and Facebook account “Old Island Homes”. Heather uses her account to share all things about historic houses and buildings on PEI, and she hopes to make information about these historic buildings accessible, interesting, and entertaining for her audience.
John Boylan has been working in Island heritage since the 1980s. After stints with the PEI Museum, Provincial Heritage Office, and the City of Charlottetown he was hired as the Public Services Archivist at the Public Archives and Records Office of Prince Edward Island in 2006. John has a diploma in museum studies from Algonquin College and a master’s degree in archival studies from the University of British Columbia.
Laura MacNeil is a geologist born and raised in Alexandra, P.E.I. and founder of Prehistoric Island Tours, our province's first venue that provides guided shoreline tours on our rich 290-million-year-old geological heritage. Her professional experience is in Earth science communication, having worked as an educator at World-renowned museums such as Joggins Fossil Cliffs UNESCO World Heritage Site in Joggins, N.S., and the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, AB. Laura completed her M.Sc. in geology at Acadia University, Nova Scotia, and B.Sc. in geology at Queen's University, Ontario.
In 2016 Laura discovered the first fossil evidence of Dimetrodon borealis trackways on P.E.I., a sail-backed apex predator that roamed our province's prehistoric landscapes 290 million years ago
Jason Woodside is a two-time Canadian oyster shucking champion (2004, 2006) with over 26 years of experience as a professional oyster shucker. Infamous for his knowledge and skill, Jason possesses a deep understanding of Canada’s oyster industry, particularly Prince Edward Island’s wild and cultured oyster fisheries.
Passionate about education and advocacy, Jason shares his expertise through private tours, seminars, and appearances at select events, where he elevates public awareness of the joys and complexities of oyster appreciation. Jason is the creator of the Banjo Oyster Knife, which helps make shucking safer and easier for beginners. Additionally, Jason crafts traditional-style oyster knives, from PEI wood, which are tailored to professional shuckers seeking a competitive edge.
Originating from Mill River, Prince Edward Island, Shawn Hogan has produced and starred in hundreds of sold out comedy shows across the country. Over the last 10 years he has performed and lived in Toronto, where he created, produced, and hosted the Hangover Cure Comedy Show, one of Toronto’s most unique and successful independent comedy shows which recently made its debut at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival.
Shawn has made consecutive national television appearances as part of the Halifax Comedy Festival, has been a featured comedian on CBC Radio's "Laugh Out Loud" and on Sirius XM's "JFL Originals", and most recently was hand picked to open for Gerry Dee in front of a sold out crowd at the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown, PEI.