Avsnitt

  • Sara Gulamali is bright and brilliant, not only as a person but also as an award-winning young artist. For years, she’s created her own works, has hosted creative events through the Tate Exchange Programme and is now part of supporting artists as associate director at Howard495 Gallery, a global art advisory firm and gallery serving new and dedicated collectors in both the private and commercial spaces.

    As a British-Pakistani, she is proud of her Muslim heritage and in 2017 with two close friends, founded Muslim Sisterhood, a collective and creative agency working across campaign production, research, consultancy, and community-focused initiatives with clients such as Nike, Crocs, Disney, the NHS, and more. Their aim is to spotlight, unite and uplift Muslim women across the world, and they’ve been featured in British Vogue, DAZED and Marie Claire Arabia.

    Born and raised in London, she came from a close-knit family and had a wonderful bond with her late grandmother, who taught Sara the basis of the Muslim faith. She was also very close with her mother, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2011-2012 and passed two months later. Creativity was intrinsic to Sara as a young person, and she was always practicing art in various methods. After high school, she attended @KingstonUniversity for a Foundation degree, followed by Central Saint Martins for a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Sara also co-curated the first student show at the Lethaby Gallery, within the university. In 2019, she relocated to Vancouver from London to be with her now-husband and eventually connected with Krista Howard, founder of HOWARD495.

    In this conversation, we go deep into the circumstances of life that forced her to grow up quickly; what faith looks like to Sara; the role art plays in her life; how art university experiences & friendships taught her to question the nature of things; the genesis story of Muslim Sisterhood; navigating the culture shock moving from London to Vancouver; how she chooses to navigate spaces as a Muslim woman; and much more.

    [TIMESTAMPS]

    6:34 - Growing up

    9:21 - Life circumstances, grief & growing up quickly

    11:16 - What faith looks like to her

    14:11 - The role art plays in her life

    19:08 - Her time at art universities and what it taught her

    22:18 - How Muslim Sisterhood came to be

    30:55- Navigating her life transition to Canada

    43:26 - How to build an art collection

    45:06 - Vancouver and its art scene

    51:00 - A reflection on her ancestors

    53:13 - Final question

    54:55 - Where to find her


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  • Adam Lewis is precisely the kind of person you want in your life: a supportive friend, conscious being, creator/entrepreneur & community builder. He’s driven and fired up, while also being open and vulnerable—an admirable balance. He was founder of flash chilled coffee brand Miura, before launching hot & cold therapy circuit The Portal Project.

    Now, as head of partnerships for Othership, Adam has a big hand in growing the popular Toronto-based social bathhouse—focused on wellness through sauna, ice bath & breathwork experiences—and helping cultivate its dedicated community.

    Born in Toronto, he spent his childhood growing up just outside of the city. He comes from two lineages: Jewish on his father’s side, Japanese on his mother’s. His father grew up in South Africa, during the intensity of the apartheid. His mother’s grandparents immigrated to Canada from Japan to plant roots abroad. A wild & free kid, Adam found solace in nature (still does). As a teen, he was captain of the track & field team, representing Canada at high level competitions. Entrepreneurship was his main focus at Dalhousie University, and Miura was his first solo business. As Miura wound down, Adam went through a life shake-up and found healing in cold plunging in lakes & building a portable sauna with his own hands. This became the Portal Project, and served as a bridge to connecting with Othership, where he is today.

    In this conversation, we go in many heartful directions: his family lineages & the cultural impact of his Jewish & Japanese roots; how being a top athlete encouraged him to push his body & mind limits; the transition unwinding Miura into discovering hot & cold therapy; understanding masculine & feminine energies within; what he’s learned being on the Othership team; being loving witnesses to each other’s life journey; and more.

    [TIMESTAMPS]

    5:36 - Growing up

    7:21 - His parents as people

    8:47 - Reflecting on his Jewish and Japanese lineages

    22:42 - What being a competitive athlete taught him

    28:55 - Pivoting from his business to the Portal Project

    31:48 - How he found hot & cold therapy

    37:24 - The Portal Project

    40:17 - Balancing masculine and feminine energies

    46:53 - How he found his way to Othership

    59:12 - Profound revelations that have come up for him recently

    01:05:22 - Honouring his lineage moving forward

    01:06:53 - How he wants to honour himself

    01:07:47 - Final question


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  • There’s a built-in optimism and passion to Sung Lee that’s contagious—and he is well-loved by many because of it. He was employee number one at Herschel Supply, first as a graphic designer and, over the course of a decade, became the brand’s creative director. Now, Sung leads creative at premium, contemporary dinnerware brand Fable.

    He was born in Korea and spent his childhood there. An architect, his father was the definition of a stoic, emotionally closed Asian father. His mother, an art teacher, continuously nurtured his creative side, encouraging him to draw, paint, and go to art school. Their upper middle class life ended when the IMF economic crisis hit Korea and, one day, Sung was suddenly told they had to live with an aunt. It turned out his father had borrowed money to keep his business afloat, and the Korean equivalent of the yakuza had come around to settle and his father wanted to keep the family safe.

    Eventually, the family moved to Canada, with Sung applying to an ESL school—he struggled until his mother enrolled him in a Korean art school, where he made some friends. This brought him to Emily Carr, where he learned to present his work in English phonetically. On a trip back to Korea, his father expressed he was sick—his parents returned to Canada, leaving 23-year-old Sung to sell their house in Korea. As he drove home from the airport, his mother told him his father had cancer and, two weeks later, Sung’s father passed. To move through grief, Sung took on a physical warehouse job. After a few months, his creative spirit came back. He started by launching a fashion show and landed a job at a small design agency that had an office beside Vans, where Lyndon Cormack worked prior to launching Herschel Supply with his brother Jamie. It was an instant meeting of like design minds, leading to a deep bond with the Cormacks and launching his long career as a creative director.

    In this conversation, we examine the effects on not sharing emotions with his family members; how Sung found skateboarding as a teen and its influence on him; his chapter at art school; navigating his father’s passing, surviving in Canada and processing his grief; the story of how he landed the job as employee number one at Herschel Supply, where he spent a decade; the roles of a graphic designer versus creative director at a company; his current interest in AI and its impact on design; Korea’s cultural dominance; the love for “han” or sorrow amongst Koreans; and much more.

    [TIMESTAMPS]

    6:41 - Growing up and family history

    16:36 - His transition to Canada

    25:16 - Reflection on processing his father’s death

    39:48 - Skills he learned from being a graphic designer to being a creative director

    41:56 - His creative process

    45:32 - What's fascinating him right now

    47:20 - His transition from Herschel to Fable

    53:10 - What a good feeling feels like for him

    54:16 - One thing that can change someone’s perspective

    56:20 - Missing Korea

    57:32 - How he met his wife

    01:06:41 - Korean cultural dominance

    01:14:53 - Expressing his emotions now

    01:15:36 - Looking back at his life's journey

    01:20:01 - What he would say to his dad right now

    01:21:08 - The kind of life he hopes for his daughter

    01:23:32 - What 'han' means to Koreans

    01:26:27 - Final question

    01:28:29 - Where to find him


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  • Dean Morris is a very good man. It’s a feeling you get immediately—he feels like the human version of an all-encompassing, welcoming hug. A longtime educator, he found his way to being a pastor, an athlete and lululemon ambassador and now co-host of the podcast A Little More Good & A More Good Media cofounder.

    He grew up in Richmond, on an acre property in the middle of the city. It was a quintessential childhood, running free and exploring the outdoors—he was always curious about how things worked and wanted to understand the world around him. In high school, his class was tasked to research their heroes, leading him to find leaders like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., both of whom looked up to Jesus as a guiding light. Religion was not a foundation of his household, but Dean had friends who were part of a church and, in his curiosity and despite some skepticism, met with a pastor to ask about Jesus. He started to go to church, with some wise words from his father: keep your brain turned on.

    When his parents divorced after his high school graduation, Dean went through a huge transformation within and began to truly understand the spiritual nature of who he was. He began working at church, where he did some music and teaching and eventually went to seminary and got his masters in ministry leadership and culture.

    In this conversation, we explore topics from ownership versus belonging; his desire for social justice; reconciling with his ability to carry the weight and hold space for many others; the tools he uses to regulate his nervous system and triggers; religious doctrine & Christianity and how it's moved away from the original values of pure love and acceptance; the advent of ‘new religions’; how his relationship with running and his physical body has changed recently; and more.

    [TIMESTAMPS]

    5:46 - His childhood

    19:29 - The thing in his life that changed his perspective

    26:52 - How he deals with dis-regulation in the body

    31:59 - His spiritual path

    1:05:36 - What religion means to people nowadays

    1:17:05 - His university path

    1:19:59 - What is he unlearning

    1:29:29 - What holding space means to him

    1:31:31 - Final question

    1:35:17 - Where to find him


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  • Donnel Garcia walks with a vibe of confidence, but it’s one that’s chill and observant. For many years, he was a careworker drawn to behavioural development programs, helping figuring out what people were good at and helping them create routines to integrate them back into society. Photography was a side hobby that became a career, working with clients like lululemon, Half Moon, Livestock, Vans Vault, and more. His work has also been widely shown in print and digital publications like Street Dreams Magazine.


    Sharing A Living Taste studio with a few other creatives and makers, he also launched an incredible community library of art, fashion, photography, and design books and magazines called Book Section, where they can be signed out for two weeks (returns are by an honour system).

    He was born in the Philippines, immigrating with his parents to Canada when he was five. An only child, Donnel was often left to his own devices, catching the train downtown to explore solo and also playing sports, mainly basketball. After observing a careworker friend of his parents, he started to look into nursing programs and worked as a nurse for more than five years. It was meeting twin brothers, who quickly became his friends, that opened his world to photography, art, fashion, and music. When they eventually founded an agency, Donnel became their photographer, marking his transition into a new career and purpose.

    In this conversation, we wander through a wide range of topics: what people want from those who are caretaking for them; how his work as a nurse has translated into his career as an artist & photographer; observing patterns in the world, conversation & your interactions; Donnel’s approach to mentoring emerging photographers; why he’s taken a break from photography at the moment and recalibrating his vision; the honesty in his artistic point of view; and much more.


    [TIMESTAMPS]

    6:02 - Growing up

    7:29 - How his parents navigated their transition to Canada

    21:58 - Life after high school

    27:40 - What people want from those taking care of them

    33:20 - Patterns in culture that he is paying attention to in today’s world

    47:11 - His process of mentorship

    01:05:52- Being an artist versus a photographer

    01:11:23 - Defining his point of view

    01:21:31 - How his friends the Garcia twins contributed to his life’s journey

    01:26:42 - What he wanted to say in the world with his last project

    01:36:44 - Final wuestion

    01:38:54 - Where to find him and Book Section

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  • Reanna Evoy has a playful spirit and imagination that just can’t be replicated or replaced. Her life and work are beautiful reflections of being born creative and free—she cofounded Butter Magazine with friend Kris Blizzard, was art director of Enroute Magazine, creative director of Aldo Shoes and Kit and Ace, and is now cofounder of creative studio Super Bonjour.

    She was born in Ontario, but the family moved shortly after to Vancouver—her young, fun parents were fans of The Beachcombers and wanted to go west as a result. Reanna flew back to Ontario to spend summers with her Ukrainian grandparents on an organic farm outside of a small town, wearing babushkas and clogs to churn butter, farm, bee keep, build sheds, climb trees, be with animals & break bread with neighbours.

    As a shy and quiet teen, art was her expression—she painted fruits purple, drew complete fashion collections, and was obsessed with print magazines. Despite artistic leanings, she went into science at university and floundered. She made a switch after a conversation with her mother, who asked Reanna what brought her joy, pointing out that she was an artist at heart. She then went into art history, with a minor in fine art—her goal, at the time, was to become a curator. It was discovering Starbucks that ignited her interest in design—and she soon fell in love with branding.

    In this conversation, we explore her culturally rich childhood; what she loves about curation and world-building; the things she learned creating a print magazine; her chapter as Aldo's creative director and working with top photographers like Cass Blackbird and Tim Barber; how major shoots for brands are orchestrated; the way spirituality, meditation & breathwork helps Reanna channel creativity; how Super Bonjour finds what makes clients shine through ‘brand therapy’; living joyously as connected humans in a capitalist world; and much more.

    [TIMESTAMPS]

    6:56 - Growing up

    15:58 - Her parents

    17:03 - Where she thinks she got her artistic side from

    27:03 - How she got into design

    30:30 - Butter Magazine

    33:14 - Her chapter in Montreal

    37:14 - Her time in Australia and what happened after

    39:20 - How professional shoots operate

    46:46 - What made her grow the most during her career

    49:19 - Genesis of Super Bonjour

    51:39 - Brand therapy

    56:58 - How has her passion for spirituality made her a better person in her own life

    57:13 - How do we live more joyfully in today’s society

    01:03:17 - Does she feel like an artist

    01:03:37 - What in culture is fascinating her right now

    01:05:41 - What does a rejuvenating space look like to her

    01:14:41 - Does her work ethic come from her grandfather paying for school

    01:16:46 - What does it feel like when she is aligned with her truest form

    01:19:55 - Final question

    01:19:55 - Where to find her and Super Bonjour


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  • Maddalen Pasini is a force. Her passion for her passions is infectious, transfixing when she’s talking about the things she’s bringing into the world. A long-time publicist, she began at Joe Fresh as an intern, then went to Toronto-based boutique agency Faulhaber Communications. Over the years, her clientele grew beyond fashion into design, hospitality, art & cannabis with Tokyo Smoke. Just before the pandemic in 2020, she and best friend Sam Brophy launched their psychedelic wellness movement brand Yawn.

    She grew up just outside of Toronto, the only child of hardworking, loving parents. Her father was in the police force for over 30 years and Staff Sergeant of Homicide for a decade. Her mother, an immigrant from Hungary, was in the dental industry. Hungarian was Maddalen’s first language, something she learned young from spending time with her grandparents. Growing up was sticky, with her navigating bullying. As a teen, she took the train to the city and began going to metal shows, where she found her community. Her network began to grow through pockets of the underground music scene.

    She graduated from university with a double major in cultural studies & film—and she began questioning what she really wanted to do. The answer lay in her network, and she began a PR career. Transitioning into psychedelics was organic & something that had been brewing for a while—today, the brand donates a portion of profits to organizations conducting research & trials and offering support, such as the Heffter Institute & the @firesideproject, North America’s first psychedelic peer support hotline.

    In this conversation, we dive deep into the importance of finding her metal community in her teens; how ‘outsiders’ often become culture makers; the way psychedelics helped changed her over the last 15 years; why education around harm reduction and psychedelics is essential; current psilocybin regulations; equity in the space; and much more.


    [TIMESTAMPS]

    6:02 - Growing up

    9:14 - High school and life after

    16:27 - When she got into psychedelics and her first experience

    18:49 - The transition from PR to Yawn

    21:38 - Yawn and the ‘psychedelic wellness movement’

    25:39 - Why harm reduction is essential

    29:52 - Regulations and setbacks in the industry

    33:54 - Hero dose vs. microdose

    43:15 - How Yawn began

    45:47 - Equity and what she wants to see change in this industry

    49:48 - Change our view on these medicines and avoiding exploitation of them

    53:03 - Major shifts in herself as a human

    55:47 - Yawn x Secular Sabbath collaboration

    01:01:01 - Upcoming projects

    01:04:15 - Tips for microdosing

    01:05:46 - What psilocybin has brought to her life

    01:07:10 - What she loves most about herself and humanity

    01:09:30 - Final question

    01:10:18 - Where to find Yawn


    [Today's Sponsors]

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  • Emma Devin is, quite simply, magical. Welcoming and funny, they have a gift for transmuting your energy into a more peaceful state the moment they give you a hug. The cofounder of Brood, Western Canada’s largest doula agency, Emma is trailblazing in the care industry and helping redefine familial structures and what family can mean.

    They were born in Paris, France, to parents that—as they say—have “itchy feet”. Before high school, they had transferred to 10 different schools and lived in France, the UK, and the east coast of North America. Eventually, they went to high school in Vancouver but a week before graduation, their parents moved onto a boat with a plan of sailing the world. Emma took a gap year with them, sailing down the coast of Mexico, to Hawaii and more, before coming back to be in Victoria and go to university. It didn’t agree with them, however, and they ended up going to Pacific Rim College instead, becoming a certified doula and caregiver. This time of life wove together all the innate parts of themself: a deep love and care for—and creating and welcoming—new families.

    After this, they worked at a local doula agency providing birth and postpartum care, before buying the business in 2019 and rebranding it to Brood Care Inc. with co-founders Gillian Damborg and Lizzy Karp, who had formerly been two of their clients. In 2021, first year out of the gates, Emma doubled the team size and the company was profitable. Inspired by LGBTQIA2S+ families in their community, Brood has emerged at the forefront of family caregiving, a tech-enabled learning platform and in-person care service for pregnancy, birth, postpartum care and new parenthood with a focus on millennial/Gen-Z families.

    In this conversation, we explore their nomadic childhood; the difference between a doula and midwife; what the concept of family means to them and how the different systems can look like; how they built their own incredible chosen family; the effects on the pandemic on birth & postpartum care; what emotions they feel when witnessing a baby’s arrival into the world; how a “yes” decision feels in their body; reconciling with their life journey through this work; and much more.


    [TIMESTAMPS]

    6:39 - Growing up

    10:04 - Having a nomadic childhood

    12:12 - Where their interest in family structure originated

    13:22 - What living on a ship taught them

    15:33 - Why they chose to be a doula

    18:25 - The difference between a doula and a midwife

    20:49 - What being a doula taught them about themselves and others

    26:02 - The genesis of Brood

    35:21 - Care of expecting & postpartum mothers and what needs improvement in the healthcare system

    43:19 - What family means

    50:14 - The most important first question to ask clients starting a family

    52:53 - What brings them joy

    55:09 - How they feel when a baby is born

    57:16 - What a ‘yes’ feel like in their body

    1:00:18 - A reconciliation journey through being a doula

    1:01:19 - What they want their chosen family to know

    1:02:40 - Final question

    1:03:46 - Where to find them


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  • Some people bring a serene energy when they come into a room—Amanda Giannakos is one of them. The cofounder of Movement by NM and head of marketing & in-house counsel for Omnifilm Entertainment began her career working in film before finding her truest calling in helping others cultivate an intrinsic joy and love for movement.

    A Vancouverite all her life, she was raised an only child—her father worked in government, and her mother is a longtime television producer. Like her swimmer parents, she was athletic, doing gymnastics and eventually found her stride playing competitive tennis. She also wanted to be seen as an adult from a young age and spent time with her mother at the office, absorbing the ins and outs of the film industry.

    After high school, she worked as a distribution assistant at Omnifilm, answering fan mail for wellness shows. It was at this time that her own interest in yoga, movement, and strength training began to really grow—and she knew she could lead in this space. From this, Movement by NM was born, bringing to the market a more cinemagraphic, storytelling lens to digital fitness in a wide range of disciplines.

    In this conversation, we explore growing up as an only child; the right way to breathe from the diaphragm; the grace and flow of sports; her mother being a trailblazer in bringing health & wellness to television and her influence on Amanda; vulnerability in creating for others; training new mothers to feel at home with their bodies again; current & emerging fitness trends fitness; how to be a steward for your body; and much more.


    [TIMESTAMPS]

    6:16 - The proper way to diaphragmatically breathe
    7:33 - Growing up
    16:10 - What her mom did in film & how it shaped her
    25:09 - Her feelings about the artistic side of movement
    29:41 - How Movement by NM started
    32:40 - Her experience recovering from pregnancy
    37:27 - Current landscape of digital fitness
    39:46 - What people want for their bodies right now
    41:55 - Body flexibility
    46:51 - What wellbeing and being fit means to her
    49:34 - Final question
    51:20 - Where to find her and Movement by NM

    [Today's Sponsors]

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  • Powerhouse is one way to describe Andrea Mestrovic, who has had a long and accomplished career across various disciplines: sales & marketing, brand, public relations, consumer packaged goods, and journalism. She's held top positions at companies and brands like Shared Vision Magazine, International Cellars, the Kanke Group, Oak Bay Marine Group, Olivia Palermo, Kit and Ace, and the Mark Anthony Group, before striking out with business partners to launch Very Polite Agency.

    To date, the agency has worked on Hootsuite’s rebrand and with clients Amazon Canada, Mackage, La Mer, Bosa Properties, Fairmont Pacific Rim, Canada Goods. They recently launched two of their own brands, a carbonated sake drink called Billion Trillion and Maater Cosmetics. For many years, she has also closely worked with @lululemon founder Chip Wilson, running his personal public relations.

    Andrea was born in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and also spent time living in Bosnia, Serbia, and Macedonia—her father had been a soccer coach and a well known one back then. She spent much of her childhood in Sarajevo, but because of the Bosnian war, became a child of war and fled with her family to Canada—eventually settling in Vancouver. Becoming a dentist was an idea drilled into her, but she found herself drawn to liberal arts, too, ending up with biochem & communications degrees.

    After university, she landed her first job at a conscious consumer magazine group, kickstarting an admirable career in multiple industries.

    In this conversation, we explore being a child of war and how it shaped her perspective & her approach to opportunities; her experience integrating into life in Canada as a pre-teen; why sales is the basis of good marketing; her first crack at starting a PR agency in her mid-twenties; what she learned about successful negotiation while at the Kanke Group; what her agency partners have brought to her life; things things she learned from Chip Wilson on being a better leader & human; what she wants her daughters to know about her; and much more.

    [TIMESTAMPS]

    5:46 - Her childhood

    8:16 - Her parents

    9:57 - What she was like as a child/teen

    19:51 - What life skills her parents have taught her

    21:21 - Her early career

    28:11 - PR side hustle

    34:15 - What she's learned about successful negotiation

    40:18 - Her side hustle in fashion journalism

    44:32 - Her experience at Kit & Ace

    51:35 - What has Chip Wilson taught her about being a better business person, leader, and human

    56:01 - The perfect amount of transparency as a public figure/brand

    59:56 - What Very Polite Agency stands for

    01:07:47- What have her business partners brought to her life

    01:09:54 - Their two new brands

    01:17:00 - What she misses most about the cultures lived in as a child

    01:21:48 - Having a courageous spirit

    01:23:22 - What would she like people to truly know about her

    01:26:17 - What she wants her daughters to know about her

    01:28:33 - Final question

    [Today's Sponsors]

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  • Instead of a full episode this week, we put together our second compilation of answers to the show's final question. As regular listeners of The Craft know, I ask the same question of my guests at the end of each episode: with what you do, what it is that you want to leave behind in the world?

    Here are some nuggets of life and legacy wisdom from artists, musicians, restauranteurs, designers, photographers, entrepreneurs, arbiters of culture & thought leaders in their field: Zoë Pawlak, Justin Tisdall, Beth Richards, Zach Berman & Ryan Slater, Courtney Chew, Payton Nyquvest, Brit Gill, Mauvey, Steve Rio, Pennylane Shen, and Jeff Hamada

    Enjoy this short and sweet round up—link in bio to listen on @spotify @applepodcasts @google @amazon.

    We'll be back next week with a conversation with the indomitable @andreamestrovic of @verypoliteagency.


    Much love,
    May

  • Commercial & documentary filmmaker Marko Roth has the soul of a storyteller—there’s a depth of heart he brings to every conversation, and that depth shows itself in his canon of work. His short film Masque-19, a devastating story reflecting the increase in domestic abuse cases during the pandemic, was shortlisted at YDA Cannes Lions and won for Best International Short at the Sedona International Film Festival. He is also one-third of experimental audio visual group Touring, which will be doing its first installation at a major museum in Munich this coming summer.

    Born and raised in the suburbs of Frankfurt (where he still is today), Marko was a quiet and shy child who had many passions: all the sports, diving, and James Bond movies. His father was an engineer who frequently traveled, and his mother was a pharmacist—they met at 15-years-old and are still married to this day. Preparing him and his brother for the world was something his father took seriously, and instilling an entrepreneurial sense in them was what his mother taught them young. He first discovered filmmaking at 16-years-old, while on a high school exchange in Montreal. Buying his first camera once back in Germany, he began freelancing for a local radio station and the nightlife scene, before taking on an internship at a commercial film company in Hamburg where he learned the technical, while working on projects with Google, NGOs, and more.

    Freelance, though, called him back. In his early 20s, he was hired by a German travel agency to document his adventures around the world, from South Africa and Nepal to Greece and Morocco. Marko is now in the next phase of his creative path, with both his filmmaking and his foray into music with Touring.

    In this conversation, we explore growing up with career-driven parents; the different expressions of love in a family; how to stay humane in the commercial filmmaking industry grind; his creative process and blending the commercial & documentary worlds in his film style; the three years he spent traveling the world and what he learned for himself; how his new project Touring blends music and storytelling; advice for budding film directors; what he’s most proud of about his own journey; and much more.

    [TIMESTAMPS]

    6:10 - Growing up

    9:43 - What his parents are like

    19:42 - Observing the world as a child

    24:25 - His chapter in Canada

    27:09 - Creating his own directing style

    37:18 - What traveling and filming abroad taught him

    39:47 - His creative process for commercial vs. scripted work

    40:21 - How he forms stories
    43:43 - His advice for those wanting to become a film director

    51:08 - How he started Touring with his friends

    52:22 - The filmmaker's flow

    58:05 - What is exciting him in the film industry right now

    01:00:19 - What is he most proud of about his own evolution

    01:02:04 - Final question

    [TODAY'S SPONSORS]

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  • Martin MacPhail is a special one. His ability to immediately connect with people is a rare talent—one of many that he possesses. He's been a lifelong musician and after starting indie rock band Theset with his friends & touring cities, they landed a record deal and moved to Toronto. A record release and band changes later, the group morphed into Juno award-winning Blitz Berlin with Martin, Dean Rode & Tristan Tarr. Together, they now compose music for film, television shows, and trailers, including Top Gun Maverick, House of the Dragon, Bird Box, The Girl on the Train, Blade Runner 2036, and more.

    He was born and raised in Victoria, a place that instilled a profound love for nature in him. His mother worked at the Institute of Ocean Sciences, before becoming a stay-at-home mom—she was also instrumental in Martin’s love for sound, enrolling him in a ‘Music for Wee Folk’ program as a toddler. His father has a passion for astronomy & paleontology, often taking the family on fossil bed trips. Martin and his brother also grew up practicing a martial art called aikido (which, wonderfully, is how his parents once met). After high school, he studied physics & astronomy, before leaving it behind to dedicate himself to music.

    A lucky break led Martin, Dean and Tristan to scoring their first film as Blitz Berlin. The trio moved to Los Angeles in 2018 to be closer to the film & TV industry, finding a clever way to connect with the right people. Martin now splits his time between Vancouver & LA.

    In this conversation, we explore aikido philosophy & how it helped develop his moral structure; nature informing his perspective & his preference for mystery; the process of creating a score; how the industry works these days & finding success as a musician; the connection between his love for astronomy & his work as a composer; his love letter to music; and much more.

    [TIMESTAMPS]

    8:21 - Growing up

    24:02 - How music got into his life

    40:52 - What makes it hard for artists to get a major break in music

    47:39 - What his thoughts are on experimental music

    50:59 - Their method of landing meetings with big industry names in LA

    58:14 - Their creative process to film scoring

    1:03:29 - Scoring films vs. Scoring trailers

    1:06:00- The experience of winning a Juno

    01:09:22 - Is there a connection between being a composer and the way he feels about astronomy

    01:12:00 - What would he tell Dean and Tristan about the way he has seen them evolve throughout the years

    01:14:35 - What the greatest thing that music has taught him/his love letter to music

    01:16:44 - Final question

    01:18:21 - Where to find him

    [Today's Sponsors]

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  • When Ariel Swan is in the room, you feel her presence. Her laugh is big and infectious, her speech cadence is quick and lively. A long-time professional dancer, she started her career at 18-years-old, traveling the world performing on cruise ships and doing commercial gigs. Eventually, she became a pilates & Lagree instructor and cofounded popular long weekend R&B dance party Slow Jam Sundays. Then, in June 2019, Ariel opened Jaybird, an infrared yoga & pilates studio, with her business partner Barbie Bent.

    Ariel was born & raised in North Vancouver, a fearless and adventurous child in perpetual motion. She was a rhythmic gymnast, until an injury sidelined her. She found her way back to movement through dance and began to pursue a career, landing her first professional gig as a BC Lions cheerleader and creating a modern burlesque dance movement with friends. Another injury ended her dance path, a challenging identity crisis for her. But she, again, found her way back to movement through pilates and teaching at Lagree West. A call from her sister, an actor, prompted Ariel to move to LA to dog sit; there, she went to a few infrared movement classes. She and Barbie began to talk about bringing the concept to Vancouver, but Ariel hesitated—then pushed through her fear to make it happen. Jaybird now has studios in Vancouver and Toronto (with a second one coming) and plans to expand into the US.

    In this conversation, we talk about the responsibility she took on at a young age; where her love for dance comes from; how picking up choreography is a matter of letting go & trusting; what she learned about herself traveling the world as a cruise ship dancer; her relationship with her body as someone who practices embodiment as a career; the story of Jaybird; her love from Peru and the retreats she’s hosted there; how her relationship to fear has evolved over time; and much more.

    I loved talking life with this free spirited, hard-working, and kinetic human.

    Much love,
    May


    [TIMESTAMPS]

    5:53 - What she was like as a child and teen

    9:39 - Where her love of dance came from

    14:39 - Her professional dance career was like

    21:44 - What a successful transition out of professional dance look like

    30:36 - How would she describe her relationship with her body

    40:03 - The genesis story of Jaybird

    45:43 - How has her relationship with fear evolved over time

    48:51 - What she appreciates most about Barbie and their dynamic as friends & cofounders

    51:35 - Why Peru has a special place in her heart

    01:07:20 - Life expansion

    01:11:13 - The biggest ways she feels she has evolved in her life

    01:13:15 - Final question

    [Today's Sponsors]

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  • Sara Harowitz is one smart and witty woman. She’s also a wordsmith at heart, a long-time editor of publications such as the Huffington Post, SAD Mag, and MONTECRISTO Magazine. By day, she’s the director of content at vitruvi, where she led the creation of their in-house print & digital publication Our Natural Habitat. By night, she’s a literary agent at Westwood Creative Artists—it’s a recent side gig she landed, specializing in narrative nonfiction authors and helping bring their ideas to life.

    She grew up in the suburbs of Richmond, a quiet and bookish young girl with two older brothers. Her father is an intellectual and a businessman, her mother a primary school teacher. During her teens, in addition to her love for books, dance was her main extra curricular: ballet, contemporary, jazz, and hip hop. Sara applied to Toronto Metropolitan University for their journalism program, where she found her groove in magazines and editing. After Toronto, she returned to home as a freelancer until landing her first job at the Huffington Post, officially launching her career as an editor. In 2022, Sara spent some of the summer in London, taking her certificate in Publishing through Columbia at Oxford University.

    In this conversation, we talk about the natural way she found herself in journalism; what viral content was like when she first started as an editor and how she’s seen it evolve over the years; the HuffPo being at the frontline for how news was produced for a younger audience; what makes a good journalist; the process of creating Our Natural Habitat and vitruvi’s refreshed branding; the state of publishing right now and #booktok; what a literary agent does; traditional publishing vs. self-publishing; and much more.

    Please enjoy this exploration of life, journalism and many other things with the incredible Sara Harowitz.

    Much love,
    May

    TIMESTAMPS

    5:45 - Growing up

    13:45 - Her as a teen and her passions then

    15:40 - Knowing she wanted to be a writer

    20:33 - Viral content when she started and how she’s seen it change over the years

    24:20 - What makes a good journalist and her core values

    28:46 - Her heroes in journalism

    31:35 - Creative process for making a magazine

    36:34 - Vitruvi rebrand

    38:28 - Surprising facts about the publishing industry she hadn’t known before

    40:53 - What a literary agent is and does

    41:59 - Self publishing vs. traditional publishing

    45:14 - How advances work and what it means for the author & publishers

    47:22 - A book that she often gifts to others

    48:47 - Is there a literary character that she most identifies with?

    48:47 - How she feels about the written word and what it has brought to her life

    54:35 - Final question

    Today's Sponsors

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  • Payton Nyquvest has a way of being that makes others feel truly seen and heard. As the founder & CEO of Numinus, his company aims to empower people to heal through the development and delivery of innovative mental health care and access to safe, evidence-based psychedelic-assisted therapies. And there is no doubt that Payton is genuine in his calling to help others find healing and wellbeing in their lives.

    His parents made their way from Manitoba to the west and settled in Deep Cove in North Vancouver. Growing up there was culturally formative for him—living on the border of a First Nations reservation, he was exposed to indigenous culture at a young age. Severe chronic gut pain, however, was a constant companion from the day he was born, and his mother suffered from substance use disorder, eventually becoming sober when Payton was 12.

    His father was in finance, and Payton found himself in the industry right out of high school. At 30-years-old, he was managing the Vancouver office of one of the biggest independent brokerage firms in the country—yet, he kept on getting more ill, in and out of the hospital several times a week. Feeling exhausted of options, Payton decided to do something different: he booked a flight to Costa Rica and did his first ayahuasca ceremony. After that, he never had a chronic pain symptom again.

    Coming back home, he wanted to give back to what saved his life and reached out to nonprofits to see what he could do. Soon, he was talking to Health Canada, MAPS and members of Vancouver’s psychedelic community. At the second ayahuasca retreat, he met the renowned Gabor Mate’s daughter and soon after was connected to Gabor, who became a mentor and supporter. All this finally led to starting Numinus, which now has multiple locations in Canada and across the US. It offers traditional mental health services, ketamine-assisted therapy, works with MAPS on their MDMA work, supports a number of psilocybin trials, organizes community experiences such as their recent concert tour with musician East Forest, and more.

    In this conversation, we explore how his mother grew up as a Mennonite and left the religion, but never lost her faith; her instrumental role in supporting Payton’s own spirituality & his healing; society’s unhealthy compartmentalization between our doing and our being; healing our relationship with plant medicine and nature; psychedelics not being a silver bullet; the genesis story of Numinus; psychedelic accessibility and integration; the ways his team inspires him; the huge cultural shift in the psychedelic landscape right now; being in charge of one’s consciousness; how sound creates a safe space during a psychedelic experience; and much more.

    Please enjoy this very open conversation with the kind, wise and humble seeker, culture changer and wayshower, Payton Nyquvest.

    Much love,
    May

    TIMESTAMPS
    6:18 - Growing up

    15:33 - What he was like as a kid

    19:48 - His chapter in finance

    26:51 - His first experience with ayahuasca

    43:39 - Genesis of Numinus

    51:36 - Is it Important to have a psychedelic experience before working at Numinus

    56:58 - What his team at Numinus has taught him

    01:00:13 - What is exciting him in this space

    01:06:08 - Where sound fits in the use of psychedelics

    01:14:04- What would he want to say to his mother about what she means to him

    01:15:28 - What he would tell his younger self about life from his perspective now

    01:16:30 - Final question

    01:17:33 - Where to find him

  • Nick Lo is an entrepreneur to his core, with an introspective nature that that is sometimes atypical of a hard-driving polymath hustler. He’s accomplished, no doubt: a physiotherapist, founder of Physio Room, part of the original Myodetox team (formerly COO and now a senior advisor), cofounder of web3 creative studio Oddfutur3, and cofounder of global running community & platform Run As You Are (RAYA).

    He was born and raised in East Vancouver, the younger of two sons to immigrant Chinese parents. His father and uncles owned and operated a grocery store in the West End, where Nick spent weekends and summers working there. It’s easy to see where his entrepreneurial spirit comes from—his hardworking father never took vacation and spent any time-off taking him to other grocery stores to look at pricing and packaging. Nick did his Bachelor of Science at the University of British Columbia, then completed a Master in Physiotherapy in 2006. Five years later, he founded Physio Room and began blazing his path in the health & well-being space.

    In this conversation, we explore how love was expressed in his family; what the time he spent as a child with his father meant to him; his introverted nature; how entrepreneurship & selling your vision can be a lonely road; one’s personal brand in a performative culture; his human-centred approach to physiotherapy; why he entered web3 and what he’s observing about the space; the things he loves about running and the global community around it; the one things he loves about watching his son develop into a little human; loving words for his father; and much more.

    Please enjoy this very personal conversation with the genuinely kind, forward-thinking, and self-reflective Nick Lo.

    Much love,
    May

    TIMESTAMPS
    4:11 - Growing up

    10:36 - His father's personality

    18:01 - What he was like as a kid

    26:44 - How he translates his vision for others to understand

    33:53 - What is physiotherapy

    57:25 - What brought him to Web3 and the metaverse

    01:07:29 - What is happening in Web3 that he feels excited about and what people should know

    01:15:10 - What is immersive running through tech like

    01:23:11 - Why he picked up running

    01:26:06 - What excites Nick as he watches his son grow into his own being

    01:30:43 - What he wants to say to his father and uncles about what he has observed growing up and what he hopes for the rest of their lives

    01:34:44 - Final question

  • Anna Heyd has an animated energy that, in turn, energizes all those around her. The cofounder of luxury linen bedding company Flax Home has a million creative ideas and personal interests, and she develops deep relationships with others quickly. Prior to launching Flax with two business partners, she was in restaurants & hospitality, running the Hawksworth Group’s Bel Cafe for seven years.

    She was born outside of Toronto in a town called Newmarket, before her parents bought a piece of five-acre land where her civil servant father built their family home with friends over a summer. Her mother homeschooled Anna and her sister, wanting them to have broader experiences through the amount of time spent at the library, going to plays, and doing extra curricular activities. Each year, her mother always asked them if they wanted to go to ‘regular’ school, and when Anna was 12-years-old, she made her choice to go to high school. There, she played field hockey and immersed herself in theatre.

    After high school, she went to the University of Guelph, where she got her Bachelor of Commerce. She was hired by longtime hospitality veteran Chad Clark to manage Bel Cafe—the cafe side of Hawksworth Restaurant—after a role at the Fairmont’s Empress Hotel and a stint in wine sales. He gave her the task of getting to know everyone in the downtown core and treating them as if she was welcoming them into her own home. It was there that she met her friends and future business partners, who were regular customers with whom she often brainstormed ideas. In 2017, they launched direct-to-consumer Flax Sleep, now known as Flax Home, which has quickly grown since coming to market and has a showroom & warehouse in East Vancouver.

    In this conversation, we talked about the nature of homeschooling and how it allowed her to love learning; how growing up doing theatre and performance dovetailed nicely into her hospitality career; the way she developed friendships with her Bel Cafe customers; Anna’s natural journey into entrepreneurship; exercising her love for arts and creativity in business; the process of growing quality linen; how her business partners are mirrors for her; the things that bring Anna joy; and much more.

    TIMESTAMPS
    9:26 - Growing up

    16:19 - What her parents are like

    24:13 - Is she the same as she was as a when she was younger

    28:27 - What she learned most about running an establishment

    31:32 - How does one make others feel at home in a hospitality environment

    37:35 - Genesis of Flax Sleep

    40:35 - What makes flax expensive

    44:53 - The dynamic of the business partners

    53:45 - Next project

    56:33 - Flax Home return procedure

    58:56 - What can we expect from Flax Home

    1:02:54 - How have Viv and Oana been mirrors for Anna reflecting things for herself that she hasn’t seen before

    1:06:09- What brings her joy in life

    1:09:46 - Final question

  • Rachel Rivera and Claire Ouchi are as vibrant and joyful in real life as the colourful work they create together as art duo the WKDNRS. After working as applied graphic designers & colour designers at lululemon and Aritzia for a number of years, the two took a leap of faith to start the WKNDRS and also cofounded Holaday together.

    They both grew up in Calgary, Alberta, with two very different origin stories. Claire was born into a creative family with a contemporary artist father and a mother who managed a design group. That environment encouraged the creativity within her, and she spent a lot of time making ceramics. Rachel was born four months pre-mature in Cebu, Philippines, and came to Canada after her mother met her Canadian stepfather there, where they fell in love—a meet-cute romance story for the ages. She, too, was artistic as a child and teen, always drawing nature while hanging out with her snowboard crew.

    Rachel and Claire had their own meet-cute at Alberta University of the Arts, where they both took visual communications and eventually met in their fourth year, quickly becoming life-long best friends and collaborators. During that time in their lives, they hosted art shows together and started a vintage shop, among other things. A job offer from Aritzia brought Rachel to Vancouver, with Claire arriving shortly after also landing a position at the brand. Eventually, it felt like time to follow their own path with the WKNDRS. Since then, they’ve created large-scale murals in urban spaces and collaborated with brands like Spy Optic, Audible, Veuve Clicquot & more.

    In this conversation, we talk about their childhoods; their individual art practices; visual communications when it comes to design; learning concept-to-execution in their corporate chapter and how they apply it to their combined art practice now; why Claire and Rachel love vintage & thrifting; what WKNDRS means to them out in the world; why it’s important to the soul to take leaps of faith and believe in yourself; how they evolve their art while staying true to who they are as artists; advice they’d give to emerging artists about life; and more.

    TIMESTAMPS:

    6:11 - growing up (Claire)

    14:57 - growing up (Rachel)

    28:51 - How they met in AU Arts

    33:26 - Visual communications and what it is

    36:05 - What they did and learned from fashion

    40:06 - What the learned from a corporate structure

    43:44 - Individual art practices

    47:56 - The meaning behind WKNDRS

    49:59 - Their vintage shop

    51:09 - Their takes on thrifting

    53:05 - Going for it and trying

    01:00:55 - How do they keep creating in their style while staying true to their core values

    01:05:13 - Advice to emerging artists about life

    01:07:38 - What they have learned from each other

    01:09:52 - What they want to say to their parents

    01:11:43 - Final question

    01:12:51 - Where to find them

  • Artist Mega McGrath has a beautiful, poetic soul. To be in her presence is to converse about the profound, and her ability to listen creates a natural sense of comfort.

    She grew up in a suburb outside of Vancouver in a traditional, steadfast family. Her mother consistently encouraged her instinctual creativity and musicality, from guitar lessons to drawing and painting. There was no specific structure to how she expressed her artistic inclinations. In high school, art became more prominent—Mega was encouraged and supported by an incredible teacher who allowed her a lot of creative license. Despite being raised Christian, she was drawn to Buddhism at a young age and began to foster her own relationship with spirituality outside what she was taught.

    After high school, she went to Emily Carr for a few years. It was an experience that was necessary, but she truly thrived once she dove headfirst into carving out her professional art career during third year. Since then, Mega's practice has continued to evolve from text art to ornamentation & abstraction—she’s worked with the likes of Nike, Red Bull Music, Hypebeast Inc., Dripped Coffee in New York, The Diamond, Tiffany & Co., Reigning Champ, Ivanhoe Cambridge, Wesgroup, and Lagree West Pilates Studio.

    In this conversation, we explore where her artistic nature came from and if she was acutely aware of her abilities as a child; navigating feelings and emotions through art; her deep passion for astrology, the planets and time; how Mega practices spirituality at this stage in her life and connecting to something greater than yourself; what language and words means to her; loving liminal spaces; her visual process as a seasonal cycle of death & rebirth; what she feels her future self would say to her current self; and much more.

    TIMESTAMPS

    5:23 - Growing up

    6:55 - What her parents were like

    8:27 - How she saw art growing up

    13:38 - Observations about the world

    16:56 - How she goes through spirituality know

    19:18 - What school was like after high school

    21:37 - What language means to her

    24:47 - What quotes are resonating with her right now

    26:58 - How she feels about art in her life right now

    29:46 - How do you say the most with saying the least?

    33:40 - Does she fear death

    35:05 - How she views time

    39:28 - Is it easier to let go because of how she views time

    42:30 - Does she feel connected to all things

    43:45 - What she feels like when she is the most empowered

    46:47 - What colour is she drawn to this year

    50:10 - What her future self would say to present self

    51:40 - Exciting things she is doing

    53:00 - What she would say to her high school art teacher now

    54:55 - Final question

    56:35 - Where to find her