33. Jan Alexandra Smith - “There I Am”...Finding Home Again
Release Date: 02/02/2024
53. Dan Riskin - Always Curious
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Whether wearing the hat of scientist, educator, journalist, speaker ... or even entertainer, Dan Riskin has always been committed to bringing science and the natural world to life for others and doing so by bringing his wide-open curiosity to the game. Dan’s desire to help people tap into the fact that science is fun and surprising and hilarious and exciting, has helped him to build a multifaceted career whether as a leading expert on all things related to bats, a host of award-winning science-based television programs including the long running Daily Planet on Discovery and Monsters...
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52. Anne Wheeler - Just Keep Growing
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While acknowledging that part of being in a stage of life where she is both conscious and intentional about sharing her wisdom, Canadian film icon, Anne Wheeler, joyfully continues to learn every day and in every way; the belief that we keep going when we keep growing. Anne’s storytelling palette rich in historical narratives has always been inspired by the lives of everyday people finding their way in life. Reflecting on a career that now reaches back 5 decades, Anne takes well-earned pride in having created strong films, with strong messages and strong points of view. In her early...
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51. Hannah Beach - Play is Where We Discover Ourselves
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In her daily life and professional path, Hannah Beach has always been drawn towards the bubble of play. She is deeply committed to the idea that “play is where we discover ourselves”. Travelling the country, as educator, author, emotional health consultant or keynote speaker, Hannah channels her heart’s wisdom to share the power of relationship and play in children of all ages. Her best-selling book Reclaiming Our Students: Why Children Are More Anxious, Aggressive, and Shut-Down than Ever—and What We Can Do About It, co-authored with Tamara Neufeld Strijack, has been...
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50. Cosette Justo-Valdéz - To Inspire
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Whether from the podium surrounded by the swell of musical notes brought to life by an ensemble of artists in front of her or in the rehearsal hall exploring and honing possibilities fully alongside an ensemble of musicians or kneeling in conversation with a young audience member who sees in her, the possibility of a future as a musician, even a conductor, Cosette Justo-Valdéz inspires. My recent conversation with her was nothing short of joy, because joy is the language Cosette speaks; and perhaps it is through joy that she inspires most powerfully. Born and raised in Cuba, the...
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49. Rachelle Krieger - A Child’s Sense of Wonder
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Joyful, curious and optimistic by nature? Absolutely! New York based artist Rachelle Krieger firmly believes that there is something to learn in all situations and through her bold and vibrant, colour-filled and playful visual art she expresses her ever present wonder with the world unfurling all around us. Her work recently exhibited in a collection described by curator Charles A. Ridley II as “devoted to the theme of making the invisible energy of nature visible”, was in Krieger’s words, a “form of meditation”. Whether capturing singular moments of life in her plein art...
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49. Rachelle Krieger - A Child’s Sense of Wonder
Ellipses Thinking...
Joyful, curious and optimistic by nature? Absolutely! New York based artist Rachelle Krieger firmly believes that there is something to learn in all situations and through her bold and vibrant, colour-filled and playful visual art she expresses her ever present wonder with the world unfurling all around us. Her work recently exhibited in a collection described by curator Charles A. Ridley II as “devoted to the theme of making the invisible energy of nature visible”, was in Krieger’s words, a “form of meditation”. Whether capturing singular moments of life in her plein art...
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48. Anne Lindsay - Instrument as Voice
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Inspiration has a way of coming swiftly and if fortunate to be in the right place and time it may be received by an open and available imagination. Such is the experience of Anne Lindsay, who clearly relishes these moments when the voice that arrives invites her to lift up her violin and translate the language of the muse to the musical voice of her life. For Anne, the violin has found many voices over her musical career, rooted in her ongoing fascination with the many ways the strings can speak. While originally trained in the classical manner, she has always been intrigued by...
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47. Tamar Griggs - A Beautiful Journey
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In the summer of 1968, when Tamar Griggs was studying art and dance in New York City, she accepted an invitation for a short sailing holiday in the Mediterranean. Much to her surprise, that brief respite would lead to a year at sea, complete with a shipwreck on the coast of Spain before hitchhiking across the Atlantic Ocean. Carried by three different boats across thousands of nautical miles, she found herself hurled into trouble, doubt, beauty, laughter and conversations with the dead. As she sailed along, Tamar simultaneously made her way through a parallel inner journey, confronting...
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46. Marty Chan - Putting One Foot in Front of the Other
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Putting one foot in front of another is what Marty Chan learned many years ago, when as a child of hard working immigrant parents, who prioritized chores and help at the store over homework, became anxious that he wasn’t at the same reading level as his peers, leading him to develop imaginative strategies that have come to serve him throughout his successful writing career. His books, stage plays, radio dramas, television scripts and humour articles have taken him around the world from New York to Los Angeles to Galway to Beijing and have received many awards and accolades. In 2016, the...
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45. Dr. Sian Williams - Opening Space for Possibility
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While most of my podcast guests share their identification as artists and creators, I remain committed to including within that ensemble, conversations with people who feel the fire of creativity within themselves and encourage it’s light and warmth to be expressed on a daily basis, personally and professionally. In curating these recorded gatherings, I hope these conversations might resonate just as powerfully for all listeners. Dr. Sian Williams began her professional career in the arts and somewhere along the way, made a choice to set that work down; work that had defined and...
info_outlineWhen a previous guest recently reached out to say that I simply had to speak with Jan Alexandra Smith, who in his words “is one of Canada’s finest actors and directors”, I thought, “what wonderful idea.”
For nearly 35 years, Jan has been stepping onto stages in roles that have entertained, challenged, surprised and thrilled audiences across this country. The work itself has fueled her passion for sharing stories and her love of creative expression. And yet leading up to 2020 and then throughout the pandemic quiet that performing artists were cast in, Jan was becoming aware of what she describes as a dwindling pilot light in her sense of what theatre seemed to be offering to her lifelong passion for it. She began to wonder if the party was over for her and theatre. And then a conversation with a friend and colleague led to her discovery of a highly inventive company whose work felt both exciting and inviting to her imagination, sparking not just a reignition but a bright burst of new flame for her love of movement-based theatre.