Conversations That Matter

The Power of Food with Adam Hart

Ep 124

Adam Hart

The Power of Food

This week’s Conversation That Matters features Adam Hart who penned, “The Power of Food” based on his experiences with what he eats. Food that made him sick, food that prevented him from staying focused, food that was killing him, food that ultimately saved him and changed his life.

His plan is antithetical to commonly held beliefs about diet, it includes breathing, positive self-talk and adding rather than taking away.  Hart says, “number one, more than any other food for me has been hemp, hemp seeds. It's the one food that, 15 years ago I discovered talked to me in the way that I wanted a result, mostly stabilized blood sugar. I wanted to feel sustained energy.”

Conversations That Matter is a partner program with the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for these important and engaging Conversations shaping our future.

Please become a subscriber and support the production of the program at www.conversationsthatmatter.tv

Conservative Party Leadership Candidate Michael Chong

Michael Chong

Conservative Leadership Candidate

This week’s Conversation That Matters features Michael Chong a man who wants to lead the Conservative Party and ultimately Canada. He says he is the embodiment of a Canadian, multi-cultural, bilingual, socially liberal and fiscally conservative. Chong says, “Canadians believe in building political parties based on fiscally conservative agendas which are also inclusive.”

On immigration, he says he’s not afraid to invite the people of the world come and join us in the building of our nation, “we've created something very special, a place where millions of people have created a different kind of society where it doesn't matter where you come from, what your background, your race, religion, or creed is, but rather what you aspire to be and a place where we all share a common Canadian citizenship centered around our charter rights and freedoms, our laws, our democracy. So we've built something here pretty special that we need to protect, but also enhance.”

Conversations That Matter is a partner program with the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for these important and engaging Conversations shaping our future.

Please become a subscriber and support the production of the program at www.conversationsthatmatter.tv

Finger up the bum with Micheal Izen

Michael Izen

Finger up the bum

This week’s Conversation That Matters features Michael Izen who wrote “Finger up the Bum” a humorous look at his battle with prostate cancer. He’s only 50 but 51 isn’t looking promising. Why and how did this happen? He’s not suppose to be dying of prostate cancer because, as he was told repeatedly, “guys in their early 40’s don’t get prostate cancer. Nothing to worry about because statistically that’s the way it works.”

Over the past five years he’s had surgery, he’s had one treatment after another. Some work for awhile, others for shorter periods of time but now he’s out of options. So he took a look at what he wanted to do and one thing was to chronicle his relationship with cancer and to focus on the the people he loves.

Conversations That Matter is a partner program with the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for these important and engaging Conversations shaping our future.

Please become a subscriber and support the production of the program at www.conversationsthatmatter.tv

Santa Ono and his vision for UBC

Professor Santa Ono

What’s the plan for UBC?

This week’s Conversation That Matters features Professor Santa Ono, the newly installed President at the University of British Columbia who left a much higher paying job in Cincinnati to take over at the helm on BC’s top university. Within months he was faced with his first PR challenge over the dismissal and reinstatement of John Furlong as a keynote speaker at a University event.

 

That decision has brought both praise and condemnation. Who is this new President of the University and what is his vision for the future? “I see no reason why UBC can’t go from being one of the top 40 universities in the world to one of the top 20.” Key to his ambitious aspirations is the ability to attract research and research talent. He admits his role is to articulate the vision but it will only happen if the entire UBC community agrees, a community he says includes academic and support staff, the Province, the Federal Government and alumni.

Conversations That Matter is a partner program with the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for these important and engaging Conversations shaping our future.

Please become a subscriber and support the production of the program at www.conversationsthatmatter.tv

Workplace Inclusion - SAP's Autism Employment Program with Kirsten Sutton

Ep 120

Kirsten Sutton

Workplace Inclusion

This week’s Conversation That Matters features Kirsten Sutton of SAP Canada a company that has mandated that 1% of its workforce is made up of people with autism, a rate that reflects the percentage of people in the world with autism.

 

Sutton says this is not some feel good program, rather it’s a program that is reshaping the company and is paying dividends, “This is not a philanthropic endeavor. We have open roles that we can't fill. Folks on that spectrum are absolutely suited for these roles, and they're not getting employed. So we're filling roles with people that have amazing talents. We've had folks start 1st day in a, say a software testing role, find a bug in the software that's been there 15 years, nobody else has identified it.”

 

Conversations That Matter is a partner program with the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for these important and engaging Conversations shaping our future.

Please become a subscriber and support the production of the program at www.conversationsthatmatter.tv

Vancouver's Housing Crisis, some solutions with Micheal Geller

Michael Geller

Housing Crisis Solutions

This week’s Conversation That Matters features Michael Geller who acknowledges Vancouver really does have a housing crisis. While he agrees with the provincial government’s 15% foreign ownership tax he’s not onboard with it’s implementation, “The way they went about it was very unwise and was quite shocking, but it just shows how emotion and political considerations can often dominate common sense.”

Common sense is what Geller is proposing. As far as he’s concerned it’s quite simple, increase the supply. “So the question is how do we do that? People immediately assume that if you're going to increase supply that means high-rises are coming, and I think that's wrong. There's a lot of housing that I call in between housing, something in between the single family house and the high-rise apartment. And it includes duplexes and townhouses along all the arterials. The other thing is looking at opportunities to do more intensive development. Why don't we take these corner lots and divide them into two?”

Conversations That Matter is a partner program with the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for these important and engaging Conversations shaping our future.

Please become a subscriber and support the production of the program at www.conversationsthatmatter.tv

Don't get conned by weight loss promises

Dr Michael Lyon

Healthy Weight Management

This week’s Conversation That Matters features Dr. Michael Lyon one of Canada’s top obesity experts who says we’ve been conned by the weight loss industry into believing there is a magic formula to losing weight and keeping it off. He says, “eat less and move more” is only half true.

He has dedicated himself to understanding how the human body works, why it puts on weight and never wants to lose it. He maintains the key to managing a healthy weight is complex but it can be done. “you get into a long term mindset where you know, this is gonna be something I work at ‘for the rest of my life.’ It's something you work at every day. That doesn't mean necessarily that weight maintenance is harder, it certainly requires daily vigilance, and as time goes on the key is you have to develop a new rhythm of life.”

Conversations That Matter is a partner program with the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for these important and engaging Conversations shaping our future.

Please become a subscriber and support the production of the program at www.conversationsthatmatter.tv

Welcome to the Men's Group

Joseph Culp - Men’s Group

Conversations That Matter features Joseph Culp on being a man. Culp wrote, produced, directed and stars in, “Welcome to the Men’s Group” a social commentary on the state of masculinity in western culture. Culp says, “We were the soldiers, we were breadwinners, we had to be stoic and be strong, and we didn't want to be weak, which means showing your feelings and being vulnerable. Well guess what? Evolution is here. And we're changing, and life is changing, and women changed too. And I think the significance of feminism in the last 40 odd years has put a kind-of demand on men to investigate their own way of relating to each other.”

Welcome to the Men’s group takes viewers deep inside the confusing lives of eight men who lay it all out there. It is a sobering look at “male vulnerability” and also is quite funny, using humor and irreverence to celebrate the zaniness and extremes of men. Through the characters, however, viewers will find pieces of themselves and the men who are a part of their lives.

Conversations That Matter is a partner program with the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for these important and engaging Conversations shaping our future.

Please become a subscriber and support the production of the program at www.conversationsthatmatter.tv

Marriage after 50? Really!

Tracy Theemes - Marriage after 50? Really!

Conversations That Matter features Tracy Theemes a certified financial planner with a keen eye on the complex issues related to marriage later in life. Theemes says there are multiple reasons why after a half century of living it gets harder to get together, “we become more exaggerated versions of ourselves, our problems, our suitcases of net worth, cash flow issues, personal development issues, sexuality issues, family issues like parents and even grandparents, it adds up.”

Despite the challenges, Theemes is optimistic about successful marriages post 50. As she puts it, “there are five reasons to get married, they are, social, spiritual, legal, financial and love”  Theemes goes on to say marriage is a good institution no matter how old you are especially when you go into it with eyes wide open.

Conversations That Matter is a partner program with the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for these important and engaging Conversations shaping our future.

Please become a subscriber and support the production of the program at www.conversationsthatmatter.tv

Emergency Communications Plan - do you have one?

Christine Sommers

Epact - Emergency Communications Plan

 

Conversations That Matter features Christine Sommers of ePACT has developed an emergency communications network that ensures you and your loved ones can always let each other know your whereabouts and your condition. Sommers says, “landlines, mobile and text are iffy at best, email is actually the number one way to communicate because the internet was built to withstand World War III.”

 

Sommers says if everything in life were a straight line that would be good enough, but of course they don’t. The kids are at school or ballet or soccer or or or. How does that organization connect with parents and next contacts? Enter epact, Sommers says we developed a system that allows the school or the day care or the sports team to connect directly with families so that they can share their data, they can actually connect each person’s support network.”

 

Conversations That Matter is a partner program with the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for these important and engaging Conversations shaping our future.

 

Please become a subscriber and support the production of the program at www.conversationsthatmatter.tv