Conversations That Matter

It’s Time to Separate: Professor Barry Cooper

Ep 374 - It’s time to Separate

Guest: Professor Barry Cooper

 

Forget alienation, says University of Calgary Professor Barry Cooper – “Call a referendum on separation.” Cooper maintains it’s time for a new relationship with Ottawa, that it’s time to reset the agreement in Confederation, one that was established to ensure Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the Northwest Territories would never have the power base needed to dictate the direction of their own territory, let alone the country.

 

Stuart McNish invited Professor Barry Cooper to join him for a Conversation That Matters about Alberta’s mistreatment by Ottawa from the moment it was created to now.

 

Please become a Patreon subscriber and support the production of this program, with a $1 pledge https://goo.gl/ypXyDs 

Sacred and Strong: Dr Shannon McDonald

Ep 373 - Sacred and Strong

Guest: Dr Shannon McDonald

 

We want the right to choose and control our health; it is our right in British Columbia. Not so if you are a First Nations person and even less so if you are First Nations female. “Sacred and Strong”  is a recently published report from the First Nations Health Authority focused on the health and wellness of First Nations women and girls living in BC.

 

The purpose of the report is to “reclaim First Nations teachings and protocols around birth, pregnancy and mothering, empowering women as life givers is restored.” The report contains data from a wide range of sources; it encourages and embraces a holistic health approach highlighting the many ways that First Nations women and girls can and are thriving.

 

The report also lays bare systemic barriers that have created health inequities, along with steps to move beyond a hostile history in Canada. While acknowledging the pain and suffering of treatment within the health care system in Canada, the report also shows the way forward. “Sacred and Strong” is about First Nations women and girls as the hearts of their communities and Nations. 

 

The FNHA says these “women and girls are the current and future matriarchs of our communities; they are the life givers, the grandmothers, mothers, aunties, sisters and daughters who are vitally important caretakers of First Nations culture – they keep it alive and communities strong. They are, and have always been, both sacred and strong.”

 

We invited Dr Shannon McDonald the acting Chief Health Officer of the First Nations Health Authority to join Stu for a Conversation That Matters about developing supportive systems that are the roots of wellness that ensure healthy bodies, minds and spirits of First Nations women and girls.

Please become a Patreon subscriber and support the production of this program, with a $1 pledge https://goo.gl/ypXyDs

A Survival Guide in Rogue Times: Jonathan Brill

Ep 372 - A Survival Guide in Rogue Times

Guest: Jonathan Brill

 

When COVID-19 hit, the world went into shock. Virtually no one was prepared for the dramatic shift in every aspect of their lives that was cascading down on us. Well, not everyone. In 2015 at a TED Talk, Bill Gates warned a “Spanish flu”-like pandemic was coming. He observed the response to West Africa’s 2014 ebola outbreak and the poor response from the rest of the world. Gates rightly predicted a future pandemic was going to hit us.

 

It was as if the world was hit by a “Rogue Wave,” says global futurist Jonathan Brill, the author of a book by that name, in which he points out rogue waves are far more likely to happen than previously understood – that in fact, they are not rogue waves. Rogue quantum harmonic oscillations or modulation instabilities are present in a wide range of media and environments. The key, according to Brill, is to spot the harmonic changes on the horizon that foreshadow their arrival.

 

Spotting the telltale signs is, however, only step 1 in the development of appropriate responses that ensure you can successfully navigate the choppy waters ahead. Brill encourages readers to adopt a “Sherlock Holmes” approach to observing, assessing or deducing and then eliminating the impossible, which means that whatever remains, no matter how mad it seems, it must be the truth.

 

The challenge with this approach is that it is antithetical to the processes most of us individually and as companies employ – those processes were built for less volatile times. Brill says those processes “presume that you can deliver compound growth year after year, if you reduce risk, improve efficiencies, and keep your products up to date.”

 

We invited Jonathan Brill, a Global Futurist and the author of “Rogue Waves,” to join us for a Conversation That Matters about how you can future-proof yourself and your business to survive and profit from radical change.

 

 

Please become a Patreon subscriber and support the production of this program, with a $1 pledge https://goo.gl/ypXyDs

Saving Private Bookstores - Marc Côté

Saving Private Bookstores

Guest: Marc Côté

 

 

“Bookstores are important, because they sell the cultural objects that feed and shape our souls – books and the stories they contain make us more human. They improve our ability to empathize, and empathy is the glue that holds societies together,” says Marc Côté, the publisher of Cormorant Books.

 

Ask yourself this: when was the last time you bought a book in a bookstore in Canada written by a Canadian? Not from Amazon, but in a bookstore with a person to talk to who knows about books. The number of bankrupt bookstores suggests not many of us have purchased a book in a book store in Canada, let alone a book written by a Canadian.

 

The “More Canada” report proves it: “Canadian book-sells lost 50 percent of their market share from 1995 to 2015.” Côté says, “With shrinking market presence comes shrinking book sales and revenues — money that makes possible the discovery and nurturing of literary talents known throughout our country and abroad.”

 

If you are reading this and feeling badly that you didn’t go into the local bookstore before it closed, you’re not alone. Did you know your local library also orders online from the United States, even when buying Canadian books?

Côté says, “Answering the disappearing Canadian bookstore conundrum won’t be easy. It’s going to take more than just consumers – governments also have to get involved and provide a menu of incentives, tax breaks and subsidies.” 

 

We invited Marc Côté of Cormorant Books to join us for a Conversation That Matters about the important role bookstores play in neighbourhoods and our lives.

 

Please become a Patreon subscriber and support the production of this program, with a $1 pledge https://goo.gl/ypXyDs 

Was Popeye Wrong? - Andrea Betaglio

Ep 370 - Was Popeye Wrong?

Guest: Andrea Bertaglio

 

“I’m strong to the finish ‘cause I eats me spinach” is one of Popeye the Sailor Man’s favourite quotes. Wrong, says Italian environmental journalist Andrea Bertaglio. He says Popeye helped create the perception that all you need are veggies to live a healthy life.

 

“It seems the whole world has suddenly decided not to eat meat,” he says. “But have you ever wondered why?” He did and so he set out to find out the answer. Namely, Bertaglio says, “The editorial world is to blame. When it comes to diet, nutrition and health is more interested in selling papers and garnering ad revenue than in the truth.”

 

In Bertaglio’s book “In Defense of Meat,” he points out spinach is not the best source of iron. Meat is, and it’s not just iron that vegetables don’t deliver in the way meat does. Bertaglio says, “Meat provides the body with significant quantities of essential micronutrients such as iron, zinc, selenium and B vitamins in an easily digestible form.”

 

He claims, “Some vegetables may contain vitamins and minerals in greater quantities than meat but in reality, the human body is capable of assimilating a very low percentage of them. In fact, plant nutrients are ‘trapped’ in an insoluble and indigestible matrix of fibres that make them difficult to absorb and use.” 

 

Vegetables also contain “anti-nutritional factors such as phytic acid, which binds minerals, making them less available to our body. So yes, the nutrients in the vegetables are there but they are not easily usable."   

 

We invited Andrea Bertaglio to join us for a Conversation That Matters about eating a balanced diet that includes meat and vegetables.

 

Please become a Patreon subscriber and support the production of this program, with a $1 pledge https://goo.gl/ypXyDs

The Importance of early detection of Breast Cancer - Dr Paula Gordon

Ep 369 - The importance of early detection of Breast Cancer

Dr Paula Gordon

 

“I had suddenly gone from being the healthiest person I knew to having breast cancer,” said Christine Hazle during an interview for a Breast Cancer Awareness campaign produced for BC Cancer. 

 

She continues to say, “I hadn’t been sick a day in my life, I’m the person who never gets a cold, never gets the flu and that was my perception of myself.” Despite her clean bill of health, she went for her mammogram. Her cancer was aggressive and so was her treatment. And then the onslaught of advice was endless – she was told to “eat only meat; no, eat only veggies; no, try this, try that.” 

 

In an Atlantic Monthly article, Caitlin Flanagan says, “Laugh and the world laughs with you; get cancer and the world can’t shut its trap. Stop eating sugar; keep your weight with milkshakes. Listen to a recent story on NPR; do not read a recent story in Time magazine. Exercise – but not too vigorously; exercise – hard, like Lance Armstrong. Join a support group, make a collage, make a collage in a support group, collage the s**t out of your cancer. Be positive.” 

 

On and on, goes the advice. But that’s after you are diagnosed. According to Dr Paula Gordon, one of Canada’s leading experts in breast cancer detection and diagnosis, “More importantly, do not put off getting a mammogram. In fact, insist on it and do not miss an appointment.” Both Christine and Caitlin went for their mammograms. Both were diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and both survived. The reason they survived was timing – they were diagnosed early enough to increase the chances they would live.

 

We invited Dr Paula Gordon to join us for a Conversation That Matters about everything to do with breast cancer, from prevention to detection.

 

Please become a Patreon subscriber and support the production of this program, with a $1 pledge https://goo.gl/ypXyDs

Your Brain on Fruits and Veggies - Dr Bonnie Kaplan

Ep 368 - Your Brain on Fruits and Veggies

Guest: Dr Bonnie Kaplan

 

Imagine, if you will, a wonder treatment that can help you overcome anxiety, combat depression, reduce ADHD and stress. “What a blessing that would be!” says Dr. Bonnie J. Kaplan, a research psychologist and co-author of “The Better Brain.” Kaplan goes on to say, “There is a paradigm-shifting approach to treating mental disorders with food and nutrients.”

 

For Kaplan, that approach is a broad spectrum one – an approach that was contrary to the magic bullet approach to medicine. She says, “When we learned about nutrition, it was one nutrient, one disorder… That’s not the way the brain works. Your brain needs all 30 micronutrients: a mix of vitamins and minerals.”

 

At the turn of the century, her research was met with skepticism and outright rejection. In fact, she was shut down. “Health Canada shut down my research,” says Kaplan. “The Director General of Health Canada told me to stop my clinical trial and return all the patients to their psychiatrist and get them back on medication.”

 

Naturally, no one would fund her research because, as she was told, “vitamins and minerals are of trivial importance to your mental health.” Then in 2009, she led a team of 12 scientists to determine the relationships between maternal nutrients before, during, and after gestation on maternal mood, birth outcome, and infant neurodevelopment.

In 2013, Dr. Kaplan became a founding member of the International Society of Nutritional Psychiatry Research, an organization that emphasizes the importance of nutrition “above the neck.”

 

In 2019, Dr. Kaplan was awarded $250,000 by the Dr. Rogers Prize for Excellence in Complementary and Alternative Medicine – money that she has added to the more than $750,000 she has committed to fund ongoing research through two donor-advised charitable funds, one in Canada and one in the United States. 

 

We invited Dr Bonnie Kaplan, the co-author of “The Better Brain,” to join us for a Conversation That Matters about the broad spectrum approach to a healthy and better brain.

 

Please become a Patreon subscriber and support the production of this program, with a $1 pledge https://goo.gl/ypXyDs 

Will the 2020’s be a decade of rage? - Alec Ross

Oct 1, 2021

Ep 367 - Will the 2020s be a decade of rage?

Guest: Alec Ross

 

Are we on the cusp of a paradigm shift? “Hopefully,'' says Alec Ross. “If we don’t, the 2020s and beyond may well be known as the decade of rage.” The source of that rage is a symmetrical distribution of wealth to the rich and the rest of us.  In his book, “The Raging 2020s,” Ross points out that “over the past 30 years, the top 1 percent have grown $21 trillion richer while the bottom 50 percent have grown $900 billion poorer, and the middle class has stagnated.”

 

The source of this inequality, says Ross, is rooted in a philosophy espoused by Milton Friedman – that being “shareholder capitalism” versus “stakeholder capitalism.” According to Friedman, any company that was not maximizing profits was poorly managed. That philosophy led to wave after wave of assault on legislators in the US to loosen laws that hampered unrestricted corporate growth. 

 

As Ross points out, “Shareholder primacy melded perfectly with the Reagan and Thatcher eras, providing an intellectual cornerstone for deregulation and trickle down economics” – an economic approach that was crystallized in a line from the movie Wall Street, where the character Gordon Gekko says, “Greed is good.”

 

Fast forward to today and the power and influence of multinational corporations goes beyond the power of the state to control them. Ross says that “the social contract has been broken” and that greed is not good – in fact, it has taken us to the brink of rage.

 

We invited Alec Ross to join us for a Conversation That Matters about rewriting the social contract between business, governments and we, the people.

Please become a Patreon subscriber and support the production of this program, with a $1 pledge https://goo.gl/ypXyDs

Every Child Matters: Michael Downie

Ep 366 - Every Child Matters -  The Lonely Death of Chanie Wenjack

Guest: Michael Downie

 

On January 19, 2022, Chanie Wenjack would have turned 67 years of age. He died in 1967 at the age of 12 after running away from a residential school in northern Ontario. He tried to walk close to 400 miles in the cold weather to get back home. 

 

Chanie was a member of the Ojibway and he was attending the Cecilia Jeffrey Residential School in Kenora, Ontario. He became lonely and ran away. He died trying to get home to see his father. His story is heartbreaking. It is one that Gord Downie of Tragically Hip shares in “Secret Path,” the beloved singer's last solo musical and video release.

 

Downie said, “I never knew Chanie, but I will always love him. He haunts me. His story is Canada’s story. We are not the country we thought we were.” In his last on-stage performance, he called out to Prime Minister Trudeau to fix the problems in northern Canada, saying, “It’s maybe worse than it’s ever been, so it’s not on the improve.”

 

According to the “United Nations Index on Human Development - Quality of Life,” people who live on band or reservation lands in Canada have a standard of living that is ranked 63rd in the world. The rest of Canada is ranked 6th. According to former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Perry Bellegarde, “6th versus 63 is an enormous gap in the standard of living. It’s a gap that represents a disproportionate number of First Nations people in prisons; it represents the high youth suicide rate, which is four to five times the national average; it represents 40,000 indiginous children in foster care and it represents a cap on education funding that is close to half of provincial averages.”

 

Micheal Downie, the Tragically Hip singer’s older brother and the filmmaker who produced “Secret Path,” carries on the work of the foundation the two set up, the “Downie Wenjack Fund.” The fund calls on Canadians to build a better country and to see the people we’ve been trained to ignore.

 

Stuart McNish invited Michael Downie to join him for a Conversation That Matters about the need to build awareness, advance education, and enhance connections between all peoples in Canada.

 

Please become a Patreon subscriber and support the production of this program, with a $1 pledge https://goo.gl/ypXyDs 

Corporate Farmers: Who Are They?: Adrienne Ivey

Ep 365 - Corporate Farmers - Who Are They?

Guest: Adrienne Ivey

 

Adrienne Ivey asks you to close your eyes and form an image of a corporate farmer – a corporate farmer with a board of directors who has shares and receives dividends, a corporate farmer that owns a large 10,000-acre ranch with  1,000 head of cattle, a corporate farmer that runs the business based on the numbers, and who sells products into a food production network, not at farmer's markets. 

 

She then asks you to open your eyes and look at her, a mother in her 30s who, along with her husband and in-laws, run their corporate ranch. The shareholders are her family – a business that has a succession plan, a succession plan  to pass on ownership to her children.

 

Ivey says, “We're not alone. We’re not outliers in agriculture.” More than 95% of farms of consequence in Canada are family-owned and -operated businesses. Ivey is a strong and proud rancher who says, “We’re worried that Canadians are being told to fear me. I’m not to be trusted, I’m to be feared, that I don't care for the land or the animals that I raise, that I’m only in it for the money.”  

 

She says, "Look at me. Is that what you see?" Adrienne Ivey says the images that others are using to promote their products at the expense of people like her and her family are wrong. So she decided to stand up, and in the words of Paul Harvey, "Tell the rest of the story."  

 

Stuart McNish invited blogger, speaker, and one of the voices of ranching in Saskatchewan, Adrienne Ivey, to join him for a frank Conversation That Matters - Food for Thought episode about cattle ranching. 

 

Please become a Patreon subscriber and support the production of this program, with a $1 pledge https://goo.gl/ypXyDs