A Canadian, an American and a Brit walk into a bar… for a light-hearted discussion about alcohol. Our experiences of it and our social obsession with it. Are you into it, or over it? Host Linda McLachlan and friends, Vijay Chavda and Ryan Geismar chat about how alcohol has played a role in their lives - from childhood to parenthood. How have things around us changed, how have we changed? Is sobriety (or some level of abstinence) easier or harder now? And what are the options? So… are you...

Cindy Villanova is a daughter, sister, mother, and grandmother. She’s an author, consultant, entrepreneur and public speaker. She’s also a seventh degree black belt, master instructor and the owner of a martial arts studio in Austin, Texas. Cindy’s parents were a mixed race couple in the early 1960s in southern California. They faced prejudice but stressed to Cindy and her brother the importance of an education, and growing up to be ‘good’. Cindy worked hard and was an ‘A’ student. She had...

Jean-Sébastien Cournoyer aka ‘JS’. He’s a son, brother, husband and father of 5 children. JS is a venture capitalist and entrepreneur. He’s the co-founder of Real Ventures and Montreal Startups. Both are early-stage venture capital firms that backs entrepreneurs and build the ecosystems in which they thrive. JS has primarily worked with entrepreneurs who are using AI, blockchain technologies, AR/VR and synthetic biology to improve happiness, human creativity, and communication — and...

Anne Bokma is a daughter, sister and mother. Anne’s also an award-winning journalist, writing coach, workshop leader and author. Anne is also the founder of Hamilton’s popular 6-Minute Memoir live storytelling event which has also become a podcast, also called the 6-Minute Memoir. Growing up in a fundamentalist sect, the Canadian Reform Church, her world view was extremely narrow. There were lots of taboos. Dancing, and Canadian boys were off the table. When Anne went off to journalism...

Amy Conway-Hatcher is a mother, daughter, wife, sister and middle child, attorney and a former Federal prosecutor. After 6 years as a prosecutor, Amy moved to private practice eventually becoming an equity partner in one of several firms that make up what is known as ‘Big Law’. These large legal entities with sometimes thousands of lawyers and offices in countries all over the world. She was often one of the ‘only’, or certainly very few women who had attained her level of compensation and...

J. Paul Nadeau is a brother and father. He’s the son of a violently abusive, alcoholic father. At 7 years old he decided he wanted to be a police officer so he could arrest his own father. Life in school was not much better as Paul was conditioned to believe he was worthless and incapable of amounting to much. At 16, his father killed himself with the same rifle he had claimed to have killed Santa Claus when Paul was 8. This treatment could have set him on a pretty grim path. Instead, at...

Niti Nadarajah is a sister, daughter, and Senior Counsel at Philip Morris in Australia. She worked as a lawyer in private practice in Australia and the UK before moving in-house to Philip Morris. She is the mother of four babies. She has a 7-year old daughter and a 2-year old son.  Between their births she experienced the anticipatory joy of pregnancy and the very private devastation of miscarrying two babies. She had a thriving career, and she and her husband wanted to start a family. They...

Mr. Gohl passed away peacefully on January 13, 2022. He was 100 years young. He is reunited with his beloved Marjorie and missed by his loving children, grandchildren, former students and friends. Rest in peace, sir. Season 1, Episode 10: 99 Years Young Ron Gohl was 99 years young as of August 4, 2020. He was a son, father, grandfather and WWII veteran. He wanted to join the Air Force to become a pilot but because of his poor eyesight, he become radar mechanic and later a radar operator....

Stefan de Villiers is a son, brother, husband and fur daddy to two dogs, Lola and Lucy. He has a masters degree in clinical social work and he’s a podcaster. He was born in Canada to Afrikaans parents. Growing up, his family moved back and forth between Canada and South Africa four times which caused a first layer of tension around his identity. He related to being Canadian more than South African. His parents were proudly South African and expected him to embrace that identity. His time in...

Lohifa Pogoson-Acker is a mother, sister, daughter, entrepreneur, social activist and in Linda’s mind, the unofficial Mayor of Hamilton, Canada. Born in Nigeria, Lohifa came to Canada at 16, via the UK. Her parents were professionals and she’d had some opportunities to travel but she was excited about this new adventure, embracing a new country, different cultures and the opportunity to get to know people. A great joy in her life. Her mother was a lawyer and her father a food sciences...

Martin Parnell is a father, husband, grandfather, son, and brother. In 2001, Martin lost his wife Wendy to cancer.  Almost a year later, his brothers challenged him to run a marathon. As a highly competitive trio they decided to take it on. He strapped on his running shoes and quickly discovered how hard a challenge like this might be.  He was 47 years old. Little did he know that after he completed that first marathon in Calgary, he would go on to compete in countless other marathons,...

Beth Riungu is a mother, sister, daughter. She’s been a registered nurse, a chef, administrator and is now developing a business as a soul midwife or death doula. In her twenties she traveled to Africa to learn more about her Kenyan father. As she shared in her blog, her blended Scottish-Kenyan ancestry meant she was “neither a local nor tourist, she was a tribe of one adrift in a nation of many”. It was 1986, and as she traveled through east Africa with others she met along the way, she...

Ernie Louttit’s a son, brother, father and soon, a Moshum or ‘grandfather’. He’s a Missanabie Cree from Northern Ontario. He grew up in a town call Oba, about 1,000 kilometers or a 12 & a half-hour drive north of Toronto, Canada. While now it is a place where he goes to heal his soul, it was a rough start. He dropped out of school and started working on the railroad at age 15. In 1978 at 17, he joined the military where he stayed for 8 years. While he served, he went to Cyprus with the...

Dr. Cynthia Miller is a daughter, sister and mother. She’s a designer, visual artist, whitewater river guide, adventurer, healer, author and PhD in Cellular Transformation & the Psychology of Change. She is the daughter of one of the scientists responsible for creating the bombs, Fat Man and Little Boy dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima respectively. Her childhood is filled with memories of her father’s obsession with the hydrogen bomb. According to records, he personally witnessed at...

John Ruffolo is a father, son, a first generation Canadian, an avid cyclist, and member of Les Domestiques a philanthropic cycling team. He is an entrepreneur’s entrepreneur. In the business world, John joined OMERS Pension fund over a decade ago, and founded OMERS Ventures, a private equity fund established to back promising Canadian companies Notably Hootsuite, Wattpad and Shopify. However, the pension fund rules capped the growth potential of those investments. He decided to leave and...

She’s also the mother of a son who went through 5 cancers:  3 times with childhood leukemia and 2 times with adult tongue cancer. When her son Ryan was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Standard Risk with (CNS) Central Nervous System involvement at age 2, she dug in. She drew from her deep faith, family and friends for what was a fight for his young life. Terri’s book is an inspiring read. It outlines each stage of Ryan’s diagnosis, treatment and recovery in great detail. Terri and...

Dr. Nadine Kelly is a retired physician, yoga instructor, American Council of Exercise certified Health Coach and Senior Exercise Specialist, founder of YOGI M.D. and host of the YOGI M.D. Podcast.

Ken is a father, husband and lover of all things created or derived by humanity. Like his father before him, he joined the Canadian military at 18 and served almost 13 years before leaving due to a career ending injury, both physical and mental. After the military, he transitioned into the technology world through years of education and a mission driven mindset. He was an executive at 2 publicly traded companies before leaving to be part of a small team that created 3 cyber related, security...

Laura Tucker is a daughter, sister and step-mother. She’s a former high school teacher, trainer, sales professional, multi-entrepreneur and now is a photographer, podcaster, writer and professional coach.

By day, Steve Emery is a healthcare IT specialist with over 20 years experience. But by night, he’s a highly skilled and creative visual artist using multiple techniques to tease out a profoundly imaginative world. He set a goal of 100 days of courage in relation to his work as an artist. This is our conversation after he has completed his 100 days. How did it all work out?

Dr. LaNysha Adams is a sister, daughter, mother, academic and entrepreneur. She is a first-generation college student and the very first in her family to obtain a PhD. Through her experience defending her doctoral thesis, she identified a need to help doctoral candidates get through the often cut throat world of academia.

Stephan Dyer (Episode 18), Jesse Lipscombe (Episode 23) and Lyle McLachlan (Episode 1) share their experiences and perspectives on fatherhood, courage, pregnancy tests (aka pee sticks) and their relationships with their own fathers. Surprising, funny and insightful.

Lyle is a son, brother, husband and father. He’s a bass guitar player and blogger. He’s in the process of writing his first book - a memoir about his rocky introduction to fatherhood, the powerful love he has for his family and the incredible challenges he’s faced. Lyle learns that his daughter has cerebral palsy due to the lack of oxygen to her brain when she was born. His life and the life of his family has been thrust into a world of specialists, and an adjusted view of the future.

Gail is a sister, daughter, mother and force to be reckoned with. She’s the author of 19 books. She’s been a regular contributor to the Globe & Mail and Chatelaine magazine, among others. She’s the Gemini award winning host of ‘TIL DEBT DO US PART, as well as PRINCESS and MONEY MORON. She is the creator of the F.U. Fund concept, and co-author with Victoria Ryce of CEO of Everything, about being suddenly single either through death, separation, or divorce. In 2020, at the start of the...