Podcasts about North Vancouver

Kid chats with Karen Woodfield, owner of Pink Elephant Hypnotherapy in North Vancouver, for a conversation about anxiety, subconscious patterns, spiritual hypnotherapy, Emotion Code, past life regression, and hypnobirthing.Karen shares how hypnotherapy works by communicating with the subconscious mind, why anxiety is often an output rather than the root issue, and how old memories, emotions, and belief systems can shape the body and nervous system. Connect with Karen WoodfieldWebsite: https://www.pinkelephanthypnotherapy.ca/Email: karen@pinkelephanthypnotherapy.caPhone: (778) 877-2410Be featured on The Kid Carson ShowStep into a premium interview experience and create content for your business with Kid Carson.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠kidcarson.com/promo⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠SPONSORSMindfulMeds The mental health booster. The most premium mushrooms you can buy. Discover 2025's number one seller, Social Spark. The perfect mental glow up for social situations, co-developed by Kid Carson.Also check out Brainbow, a blend being used instead of antidepressants.Use promo code KIDCARSON to save 15% off anything in the shop.Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠mindfulmeds.io⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@mindfulmeds_ca⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Turn your RRSP into Gold and SilverHow Kid buys, holds, and liquidates physical gold and silver instantly.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠kidcarson.com/GOLD⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Authority by Dawne Russell In a world full of noise and profit-driven advice, The Authority is a curated ecosystem built on discernment, integrity, and lived experience. Every practitioner and offering is personally vetted and endorsed based on results, ethics, and intention. It is where modern medicine, holistic care, and ancient wisdom can coexist responsibly. No second guessing. No misinformation. If it's here, it's here for a reason.Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠theauthority.ca⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Nicole Gilmore Realtor Looking for an amazing real estate agent. Meet Nicole Gilmore.Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠gilmorerealestate.ca⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@nicolegilmorerealestate⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lee's Oil Is the cure for cancer here? Listen to Episode 171 to find out more about Lee's Oil.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠kidcarson.com/leesoil⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Conscious Lab A community space for entrepreneurs in downtown Vancouver.Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@consciouslab⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Connect with Kid CarsonInstagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@kidcarsonofficial⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Kid Carson Show is recorded at Conscious Lab in downtown Vancouver, Canada.Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@consciouslab⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Kid Carson Show is a Canadian podcast based in Vancouver featuring long form interviews on personal development, psychology, spirituality, entrepreneurship, health trends, biohacking, relationships, culture, and current events. New episodes weekly with bold conversations and leading experts.

What if manifestation has nothing to do with trying to “get” something… and everything to do with who you become in the process?In this episode, Kate is joined by Farhad Khan for a powerful conversation about the deeper truth behind manifestation - beyond vision boards, affirmations, and trying to force life to go according to plan.Together, they explore how real manifestation happens through identity shifts, embodiment, self-trust, and becoming the version of yourself who is aligned with the life you desire.This conversation challenges the fantasy-based approach to manifestation and invites a more grounded, expansive way of creating your life.In this episode, Kate and Farhad discuss:Why manifestation is really about becomingThe difference between fantasy and true alignmentHow desperation, attachment, and “trying to manifest” can block what you wantThe identity shifts required to create a new realityWhy your external world can only meet the depth of your internal expansionLetting go of timelines and trusting the unfolding of lifeHow self-worth, embodiment, and nervous system safety change what you attractThis episode is for anyone who feels exhausted trying to “make” their dreams happen - and is ready to step into a more aligned, authentic, and expansive way of living.Because manifestation isn't about convincing the universe or trying to control your path - it's about becoming open to the life that is meant for your soul.Journey To Japan - A Sacred Retreat Guided by Farhad Khan · Kate Harlow · Akiko Shirai Experience the beauty, culture, and wellness traditions of Japan while connecting with an incredible community. Learn more and reserve your spot at https://www.studio11wellness.com/japan2027Join our complimentary Journey to Japan Information Session - Sunday June 14 • 9:00am PST Register HEREAbout The Guest:With a deep passion for sound healing, Farhad Khan brings a truly devotional and expansive healing quality to his work and performance. Using sound healing as a wellness therapy tool, Farhad's intuitive way of weaving all that he has learned on his path is memorable and leaves your mind elevated and your heart full of joy.Farhad's journey with yoga began in 2001. The profound impact of yoga on his well-being led him to fully embrace its principles and philosophies, making it his life's purpose. Having studied with various teachers from around the world, Farhad teaches from his heart and welcomes everyone to bask in the many gifts this practice offers. He has over 10,000 hours of Yoga Alliance certifications, skilled in a variety of styles including Hatha, Vinyasa, Restorative, Yin, Somatic, Nidra, and Kundalini. His extensive training includes time spent in ashrams in India, where he deepened his understanding of yoga and meditation.Farhad founded a Yoga & Wellness Studio in North Vancouver in 2007, where his dedication to the essence of yoga and sound healing flourished. After 15 successful years, he sold the studio to focus on meditation and sound healing, inspired by their profound effects on the brain and nervous system. Since then, he has facilitated workshops, sound baths, and teacher training sessions across Vancouver and abroad, integrating Eastern wellness practices into modern life.Farhad is also a certified yoga life coach, meditation teacher, and sound healing practitioner. He has worked with various sound healers over the years and continues to offer his transformative services to elevate spirits and support healing. Having personally battled anxiety and depression, Farhad shares tools and practices from his own journey, aiming to offer peace, empowerment, and joy to all those who attend his teachings. His mission is to elevate the spirit through sound and experiential journeys.Additionally, I've created the Farhad Khan Wellness line, a collection of therapeutic, all-natural, cruelty-free products crafted without synthetics and infused with the healing vibrations of crystal sound frequencies. Each product is thoughtfully made in small batches in Vancouver, BC, designed to bring nourishing, transformative energy of sound healing into your daily wellness rituals. Through this line, I aim to help you experience the calming and restorative benefits of sound therapy as part of your everyday self-care.Upcoming Retreat Schedule: https://www.farhadkhansound.com/retreatsFarhad Khan Wellness: https://www.farhadkhansound.com/farhadkhanwellnessSound Healing Course: https://www.farhadkhansound.com/sound-healing-courseWhispers for the Heart And Soul - Card Deck: https://www.farhadkhansound.com/farhadkhanwellness/p/whispers-for-the-heart-and-soulInstagram: @farhadkhan @farhadkhanwellness @farhadkhansoundExpanded Love Masterclass - June 19-21st, 8-10am Pacific Dailyhttps://www.theunscriptdwoman.com/expanded-love-masterclass-3-dayThe 3 Day Expanded Love Masterclass is a fully immersive week long experience that will help you understand your patterns and more importantly, how to transform them.Your desire for love is actually your desire to meet the deepest and truest parts of yourself that get activated 'through' love.Let me show you a new way to create healthy love, thriving relationships in your life and a life that lights up your soul.About the Host:Kate Harlow is the founder of The Unscriptd Woman, the creator of The Expanded Love Coaching Method, and host of The New Truth podcast - ranked in the top 1.5% globally. With over 15 years of experience teaching, coaching and facilitating transformational retreats worldwide, Kate has helped hundreds of thousands of women break free from outdated relational patterns, old patriarchal ways of thinking and unspoken rules to live by.Her infallible methods guide women to release the deeply ingrained scripts that keep them stuck- empowering women to step into their highest, most magnetic, and fully expressed selves. Through her coaching, retreats, podcast and upcoming book The Unscriptd Woman, Kate is redefining what it means to be an empowered woman in today's world, showing women how to stop waiting for permission and start creating a life and love that aligns with their deepest truth.Known for her rare ability to see exactly where women are out of alignment with themselves, Kate offers a path back to unwavering self- trust, meaningful joy and true fulfillment. Her work is a revolution - one that liberates women from societal expectations and invites them into a life of radical authenticity, thriving relationships and unshakable self-worth.Website: https://www.theunscriptdwoman.com/Thanks for listening! It means so much to us that you listened to our podcast! If you would like to continue the conversation with us, head on over to our Facebook group, the New Truth Movement at https://www.facebook.com/groups/209821843509179/With this podcast, we are building an international community of The New Truth Movement.If you know someone who would benefit from this message or could be an awesome addition to our community, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode?Leave a note in the comment section below!Follow the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast app on your mobile device.Leave us a reviewWe appreciate every bit of feedback to make this a value-adding part of your day. Ratings and reviews from our listeners not only help us improve, but also help others find us in their podcast app. If you have a minute, an honest review on Apple Podcasts goes a long way! Thank You!Podcast Artwork Photo Credit: Photo by Tarja Ruuska https://www.instagram.com/tarjaruuska.photographyRoyalty Free Music: Bensound.com Artist/: Benjamin Tissot License code: 2S4NM4X7FZVPZP1E

Pujita Verma pops by the virtual studio to discuss her debut poetry collection, precedence. Andrew talks form and tough topics. It's a fluid convo!--Pre-order Andrew's new chapbook, Fists You've Called Home!--Pujita Verma is a poet and illustrator currently living in London, Ontario. Her work has appeared across the Toronto Transit Commission Network and CBC's The National. She won awards from the League of Canadian Poets, the Toronto Arts & Letters Club Foundation, and the Eden Mills Writer's Festival, and was runner-up for the Janice Colbert Poetry Award. Pujita was Mississauga's Youth Poet Laureate from 2018-2020, and she studied Political Science at Western University. As an active member of London's literary scene, Pujita is currently serving on the committee for Antler River Poetry.--Andrew French (they/them) is a queer poet from North Vancouver, British Columbia. They have published four chapbooks, most recently Fists You've Called Home (Pinhole Poetry, 2026). Andrew holds a BA in English from Huron University College at Western University and an MA in English from UBC. They have hosted this podcast since 2019.

Hello my friends! I'm thrilled to be bringing you this episode of The Becoming Podcast with my lovely friend Megan Sheldon.  Megan and I have been connected for years through our mutual love of ritual and honouring the threshold moments of our lives.  She's been a previous guest on this podcast, I've been a guest on her podcast, and we've collaborated many times.  This time, I'm so excited to be sharing this conversation as Megan prepares to launch her book into the world.  I was honoured to be an early reader of this book, and Megan even invited me to write the foreword!  I can't wait until you can read it, too! First, let me tell you a bit more about Megan: Megan Sheldon is a humanist celebrant, end-of-life doula, ritual designer, and founder of Be Ceremonial. For over a decade she has guided individuals, families, and communities through the moments that matter most, from births and weddings to grief, loss, and the invisible thresholds in between. Her book Ritual Without Religion: A Humanist Guide to Creating Secular Ceremonies offers a path back to one of the most ancient of human practices for anyone who has felt the ceremony-shaped hole. She lives and works on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples in North Vancouver, BC. Here's some of what Megan and I talk about in our conversation: ✔️ The backstory of Megan's book, Ritual Without Religion, and how for so long she felt she couldn't access the ritual and ceremony that she longed for because she wasn't raised with a religious background. ✔️ How important it is bring ritual and ceremony into our lives in the small moments, not just the big ones. ✔️ An overview of Ritual Without Religion, including its' sections on the nature of ritual, the science of ritual, the art of ritual and the practice of ritual.  Megan covers topics like the effect of ritual on our bodies, how to hold space for ritual, rituals that "colour outside the lines," as well as tangible tools to help readers bring more ritual and ceremony into their lives. ✔️ The fact that our culture seems to be undergoing a paradigm shift whereby more and more people are craving, talking about and engaging in ritual. ✔️ The idea of ceremony-as-survival – that doing ritual isn't just a "nice thing to do," but that it was actually central to our ancestors' survival, and core to our modern wellbeing as well. ✔️ How ritual is a muscle that we need to learn to flex before we really need it in a moment of crisis or desperation. ✔️ How we can do ceremony with people who aren't super into it, becoming more confident ritual and ceremony leaders and facilitators. Show Notes Hear my first interview with Megan here   Pre-order Ritual Without Religion!   The Be Ceremonial Website   Megan's Instagram   Megan's 1:1 Ceremony Coaching   Megan's Ceremony Training   Also, while you're at it, if you enjoy The Becoming Podcast, I would be so grateful if you would rate, review and even subscribe to it wherever you get your podcasts.  That goes a long way toward helping more and more people find and benefit from hearing these interviews.  Thank you so much!

Aubrey Dorey-Havens, 2026 National Champion Carleton Raven and Final 8 MVP, pulls up on Canada Hoops ! Aubrey sits down with us to share his basketball story thus far. ADH talks about his off season; having shoulder surgery as he looks ahead to his 4th year at Carleton. Aubrey talks about winning Nationals and being named MVP as he dropped 35 PTS vs Bishops. ADH tells us about growing up in North Vancouver, BC and loving basketball. Aubrey shares how his passion for basketball took off and how he loved to train and get better. ADH talks about taking his game to Carleton and what it's like to be a Raven; understanding the pressure and privilege that comes with playing for one of the top basketball programs in Canada. Aubrey shares his goals to being a pro one day and how he is working towards a pro career. ADH talks about wanting to represent Canada Basketball in the future and gives us a great Top 5 for Canada ! Much love to Aubrey Dorey-Havens for pulling up on Canada Hoops !Hit us up on Twitter: @canadahoopspod @TheMattyIrelandHit us up on Instagram: @canadahoopspodcastEmail: canadahoopspodcast@gmail.comhttps://canadahoopspodcast.buzzsprout.com/https://www.youtube.com/@canadahoopspodcast

BCBC statement on B.C.'s Look West update (0:41) Laura Jones, President and C.E.O of the Business Council of British Columbia District of North Vancouver rejects provincial housing mandate (10:12) Mike Little, Mayor of the district of North Vancouver Whitecaps moving out of Vancouver? (20:36) Ken Sim, Mayor of Vancouver Elon Musk vs Sam Altman (34:40) Jill R. Horwitz, Founding Faculty Director, Lowell Milken Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofits at the UCLA School of Law Cost of living pushes some consumers to Vegetarianism (47:12) Sylvain Charlebois, Director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, co-host of The Food Professor Podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recorded live at SocialPacific 2025 in North Vancouver, Nihal Mandanna, Director of Growth at Cyber Impact, joins guest host Rachel Thexton to explore what it really means to build trust through email marketing.Cyber Impact is a Canadian email marketing platform built around data sovereignty, security, and compliance — storing all client data on Canadian soil and helping organizations stay compliant, deliverable, and genuinely connected to their audiences.Nihal unpacks why the best email strategies focus on relationship-building over reach, how hyper-personalization is reshaping lifecycle marketing across industries, and why choosing a Canadian platform is about more than convenience — it's about who holds the keys to your data.Because whether you're a scrappy startup or a government agency, email is still one of the last permission-based channels where trust is earned, not assumed.Produced by TAKT.

Recorded live at SocialPacific 2025 in North Vancouver, Tom Elson, Employer Success Manager at Riipen, joins guest host Rachel Thexton to explore how work-based learning is closing the gap between graduation and meaningful employment. Riipen connects students, educators, and employers through real-world project work, giving students hands-on experience while giving organizations access to fresh talent and ideas, often with government-funded subsidies covering up to 50% of student stipends.Tom breaks down how Riipen works, what employers are actually looking for in junior talent, and why their new Future Path program might be the most flexible student engagement tool available to Canadian organizations right now.Because the talent gap is real — and the solution might already be in a classroom near you.

Karen Kobel is the founder of Kahlena Movement Studio in North Vancouver, a space built around Pilates, dance, yoga, sound healing, movement, breath, and community.They chat about what it really took to keep a movement studio alive through lockdowns, mandates, public pressure, and personal health challenges. She shares her experience as a vaccine injured business owner, the emotional weight of being separated from normal community life, and why she continued creating spaces for people to move, breathe, connect, and heal.Connect with Karen Kobel and Kahlena Movement Studio:Website: https://kahlena.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kahlena_movement/Be featured on The Kid Carson ShowStep into a premium interview experience and create content for your business with Kid Carson.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠kidcarson.com/promo⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠SPONSORSMindfulMeds The mental health booster. The most premium mushrooms you can buy. Discover 2025's number one seller, Social Spark. The perfect mental glow up for social situations, co-developed by Kid Carson.Also check out Brainbow, a blend being used instead of antidepressants.Use promo code KIDCARSON to save 15% off anything in the shop.Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠mindfulmeds.io⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@mindfulmeds_ca⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Turn your RRSP into Gold and SilverHow Kid buys, holds, and liquidates physical gold and silver instantly.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠kidcarson.com/GOLD⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bureau Soundproof Office Pods The soundproof booth Kid Carson uses for his studio. Perfect for offices and at-home workspaces.Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠withbureau.com/ca⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Authority by Dawne Russell In a world full of noise and profit-driven advice, The Authority is a curated ecosystem built on discernment, integrity, and lived experience. Every practitioner and offering is personally vetted and endorsed based on results, ethics, and intention. It is where modern medicine, holistic care, and ancient wisdom can coexist responsibly. No second guessing. No misinformation. If it's here, it's here for a reason.Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠theauthority.ca⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Nicole Gilmore Realtor Looking for an amazing real estate agent. Meet Nicole Gilmore.Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠gilmorerealestate.ca⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@nicolegilmorerealestate⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lee's Oil Is the cure for cancer here? Listen to Episode 171 to find out more about Lee's Oil.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠kidcarson.com/leesoil⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Conscious Lab A community space for entrepreneurs in downtown Vancouver.Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@consciouslab⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Connect with Kid CarsonInstagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@kidcarsonofficial⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Kid Carson Show is recorded at Conscious Lab in downtown Vancouver, Canada.Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@consciouslab⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Kid Carson Show is a Canadian podcast based in Vancouver featuring long form interviews on personal development, psychology, spirituality, entrepreneurship, health trends, biohacking, relationships, culture, and current events. New episodes weekly with bold conversations and leading experts.

Physiotherapist Erika Mayall answers three questions teachers ask all the time: why dancers struggle with square hip splits, what a well-designed mobility program actually needs to include, and how the nervous system can quietly limit range of motion even when muscle length isn't the problem. Science-based, practical, and worth sharing with your whole team. About ErikaErika Mayall Physiotherapist MPT, HBSc(Kin), CAFCI, FCAMPT Erika is a registered physiotherapist and the owner of Allegro Performance + Wellness, a boutique physiotherapy clinic in North Vancouver that specializes in treating dancers and other artistic athletes. As a former elite dancer, Erika's passion lies not just in treating injuries, but also in injury prevention and maximizing performance potential. Erika has a passion for education within the dance community, and is the host of The Dance Physio Podcast where she aims to bridge the gap between dance science and the studio. Erika has completed specialized training in the field of dance medicine in Australia, Canada and the United States. She is a frequent invited guest speaker on the topic of dance medicine and science locally, nationally and internationally and teaches workshops on the same topics to dancers and dance educators.If you're interested in learning more about the nervous system's involvement in flexibility training, visit https://www.allegroperformance.com/flexibility-foundations for more information. A full transcription of the podcast is here: https://www.acrobaticarts.com/blog/ep-133-spotlight-series-square-splits-mobility-and-the-nervous-system-with-erika-mayall If you'd like more amazing content more tips and ideas check out our Acrobatic Arts Channel on YouTube. Subscribe Now! Connect with Acrobatic Arts on your favourite social media platform: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/acrobaticarts/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Acroarts Twitter: https://twitter.com/acrobatic_arts/ Learn more and register for our programs at AcrobaticArts.com

The Grouse Grind reopened for the season this week, thanks to some great weather we've gotten in our region. We're joined by Julia Lipscome, senior production on the Early Edition. She is an avid runner and just ran the mini Vancouver Sun Run on Sunday with her son. She's also training for a marathon this summer.

Mallory Tater joins Page Fright to talk about her new poetry collection, Lockers are for Bearcats Only. Andrew's stoked about National Poetry Month. It's a great conversation!--Mallory Tater is the author of four books, two collections of poetry and two novels: This Will Be Good, Lockers are for Bearcats Only, The Birth Yard, & Soft Tissue (forthcoming, 2028). She was the publisher of Rahila's Ghost Press, a now-retired chapbook press. Mallory currently lives in Vancouver, where she teaches at the University of British Columbia's School of Creative Writing. --Andrew French (They/Them) is a queer poet from North Vancouver, British Columbia. They have published four chapbooks, most recently Buoyhood (Alfred Gustav Press, 2025) and Fists You've Called Home (Pinhole Poetry, forthcoming 2026). Andrew holds a BA in English from Huron University College at Western University and an MA in English from UBC. They have hosted this podcast since 2019.

Vancouver’s centre-left has reached a unity deal that ensures they can still split the vote. Elections BC releases the parties annual reports, giving us a glimpse into everyone’s financial situation. Candidates are lining up to be mayor in New West, Surrey and West Van. Vancouver council agrees to play nice, while Ken Sim wants to fund community centres and Major League Baseball without raising your taxes. The BC Government wants councils to be nicer to one another and give councillors parental leave. North Van says no to chlorine production and we look at Vancouver’s drink history. Links Progressive agreement Trio of progressive parties agree to cap candidates in upcoming Vancouver election | CBC News Colleen Hardwick picked by TEAM for mayor 2025 Annual Financial Reports Available | Elections BC After 4 years of council fights, New Westminster has a clear mayoral race in October | CBC News Kirk LaPointe Announces Candidacy for Mayor of West Vancouver Vancouver council approves respectful discourse pledge as mayor faces defamation suit Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim’s response to defamation lawsuit states Sean Orr ‘supported drug use’ | CBC News  Upcoming motion to propose $400M investment into aging Vancouver community centres | CBC News ‘There’s a lot of excitement’: Vancouver mayor Ken Sim explains desire for MLB expansion bid – Sportsnet.ca  Improving conduct standards for local governments Post by @jmcelroy.bsky.social Introducing parental leave for local elected officials District of North Vancouver rejects Chemtrade chlorine proposal Background Campaign against B.C. chlorine plant was secretly funded by rival | CBC News Who invented the London Fog? – Vancouver Is Awesome We've Been Making the ‘Vancouver Cocktail' Wrong for 15 Years… – Scout Magazine  

North Vancouver rejects Chemtrade chlorine plan Mike Little, Mayor of the District of North Vancouver Ken Sim wants an MLB team in Vancouver Patrick Johnston, Sports columnist for the Vancouver Sun and The Province Brad West wants Chemtrade in Port Coquitlam Brad West, Mayor of Port Coquitlam Floating hotel planned for Coal Harbour Graham Clarke, chairman of the Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre Floating hotel planned for Coal Harbour Graham Clarke, chairman of the Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vancouver footwear designer John Fluevog received a life-saving kidney from a family friend, Patty, in what he now calls an overwhelming act of generosity. A major decision out of the District of North Vancouver this week is raising questions about both local safety and national infrastructure. Ontario is moving ahead with a major shake-up to high school education, proposing changes that could reshape how students are tested, graded, and even how attendance affects their marks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Tonight on APEX Express, join the Powerleegirls Host Miko Lee speaks with children's book authors Lorraine Nam, Uma Krishnaswami and Maggie Tokuda-Hall about Library Joy in honor of National School Library Month! To Learn More Lorrraine Nam, illustrator and  author Michael Threet's book: I'm So Happy You're Here: A Celebration of Library Joy    Uma Krishnaswami Her books: Book Uncle Triology   Maggie Tokuda-Hall Her book: Love in the Library  Every Library Authors Against Book Bans   Show Transcript [00:00:00] Opening: Apex Express Asian Pacific expression. Community and cultural coverage, music and calendar, new visions and voices, coming to you with an Asian Pacific Islander point of view. It's time to get on board the Apex Express.   [00:00:35] Ayame Keane-Lee: Welcome to tonight's episode of Apex Express Celebrating Library Joy. I'm Ayame Keane-Lee the editor of tonight's show, and part of the PowerLeeGirls bringing you the introduction to tonight's show. Did you know that April is National School Library Month and in just 10 days from April 19th to 25th is National Library Week? The theme for this year's National Library Week is Find Your Joy with Honorary Chair Mychal Threets. The first of three interviews you'll hear my mom, Miko Lee have tonight is with Lorraine Nam the illustrator for the newly released children's book written by that very Mychal Threets called, “I'm So Happy You're Here”. You will then hear Miko speak with Uma Krishnaswami about her children's book “Book Uncle and Me,” and lastly with Maggie Tokuda-Hall about her children's book, “Love in the Library,” and the important work of Authors Against Book Bans. As a library kid and current library worker, I have experienced firsthand the transformative power of library access and the importance of inclusive and diverse storytelling. In and out of schools, libraries are vital to nurturing and uplifting the autonomy and sovereignty of children, which always has and continues to be a liberatory practice. We hope tonight's show will inspire you right into your local library to check out some of the great books mentioned here or to put them on hold. Let's listen in.    [00:02:06] Miko Lee: Welcome, Lorraine Nam, illustrator of amazing  children's books. Welcome to Apex Express.    [00:02:13] Lorraine Nam: I'm excited to be here.    [00:02:16] Miko Lee: I wanna start with a question I ask all of my guests, which is, who are your people and what legacy do you carry with you?    [00:02:24] Lorraine Nam: Who are my people? I would say creative people. People who are interested in having an open mind, and looking at the bright side of things, the beautiful things, people who are curious. The type of legacy that I bring I think is just my parents who are creative and then bringing that, to this new generation.    [00:02:57] Miko Lee: Thank you for sharing. I am, I'm looking at your beautiful face, and behind you is this, find your joy and, and it's in lots of colors on this pink banner and in at the top we see opening up of a library door with Mychal Threets, who's the author of this book, “I'm So Happy You're Here: A Celebration of Library Joy.” I'm wondering if you can talk about your collaborative process with Mychal Threets.    [00:03:25] Lorraine Nam: The first impression that you have of writer and illustrator for a picture book is that they work really closely together, and that's actually not the case. We work pretty separately, but I was very excited. Mychal wrote the words to this book and they were looking for an illustrator and my agent called me and she asked me if I was interested. I was very excited about the project. I signed up for it and we worked pretty separately. We connected on Instagram, but he pretty much had no art notes, everything was pretty much whatever I was open to. Then we met for the first time and we got our very first copy of the book and we met in New York.    [00:04:10] Miko Lee: And what was that like?    [00:04:12] Lorraine Nam: Um, amazing. He is exactly who he is in his videos.    [00:04:18] Miko Lee: Can you share for our audience who he is and a little bit more about him, just in case folks don't know.   [00:04:24] Lorraine Nam: The book calls him a librarian ambassador. He describes himself as a reader, a lover of librarians or the number one fan of libraries. This is his first book and he's also the host of Reading Rainbow on PBS. We met at the New York Library, public Library for the first time, and he's just so nice, very kind. Honestly, it felt like we already knew each other just because we had been talking through the publisher about the book.   [00:05:02] Miko Lee: Thank you for sharing. It's so beautifully illustrated and you have a incredibly diverse,, amount of people in the book, both racially but also physically, and I really appreciate how you encapsulated that. I'm just wondering what inspired you to develop this specific imagery for this book?    [00:05:22] Lorraine Nam: Yeah, so one of the only stipulations in the art notes was that he wanted to have a diverse group of people attending the library. People of all ages of all color, all sizes, all disabilities. That seemed like a no brainer to me because I just know the message that he puts into the world. The only difficult part was narrowing down the cast. There's all these different types of people and just trying to figure out who to focus on. I wanted to make sure that you still see the same group of kids over and over. So it felt like you were following the along throughout the day, while still having lots of diversity and lots of different types of people.    [00:06:11] Miko Lee: Had you set what the cover was gonna be at the beginning or did that come after you had already finished the whole book?   [00:06:19] Lorraine Nam: Oh, that came much later. We pretty much had the art for the interior nailed down, and then we were working on concepts for the cover. I knew from Mychal's social media presence that maybe he didn't want to be the poster cover of the book. He wanted to be about the library goers and the people rather than himself. And so I was kind of towing that line of like obviously people wanna see him, it's his first book. They're such huge fans, and so like how much to put Mychal in and how much to showcase him, as well as showcase like all the other people who go to the library.   [00:07:02] Miko Lee: He definitely does have a joyous kind of ebullient vibe to him. I recommend for audience to check out his socials because he has this, you wanna listen to him. He's so inviting and I love the poster behind you because he is saying, like, “welcome, come into the library. This is my world.” And you also made him look so cute. Really looks like a cartoon version of him. So sweet. In your artistic process, I'm wondering what helps you define the style of art you utilize? I'm thinking about the paper cutouts that you did for a tale of two princes. What is it about the work that inspires you to select that type of style?   [00:07:43] Lorraine Nam: I actually had a very winding path to the style that I have today. So the style that I have today is very much layered. It's painted, a lot of it is painted. And then I cut it out and then I glue and collage different elements, and then I scan everything in and enhance certain aspects through Photoshop. But a lot of it started actually in wanting to make a physical book. So it was with book binding and then with book binding, because that's just a technique to produce a product, it was what goes in those pages and that's when I started doing cut paper. So just silhouetted, cut paper. And I was doing that for a long time, just cutting out rice paper to make silhouettes. I wanted to tell more of the story and depict people. So then I started making paper cut [laughs] sets. So I would build —almost like Legos— a whole set of paper buildings and paper people and paper objects that are three dimensional. And then I would photograph them. And then from there, I landed in this more 2D, but playing with still technique and texture and layers.    [00:09:10] Miko Lee: Wow, that's so interesting. Can you share a little bit more about your artistic process? Do you start at a certain time of day? Do you only work at night? Do you have a whole studio set up?   [00:09:20] Lorraine Nam: well, For the book projects because there's such a timeline to 'em and they're very specific. I'll do very loose sketches on Post-it notes. They're readily available and then you can stick two of them next to each other to make a full spread. I use these post-its, and then I would just fold them in half and use that as like very quick pencil drawings. And then if I had something that I liked, I would just go in and pen. But they were still very small. So it was more about looking at silhouettes and composition. And then I would print, it's a very old school technique, but I would print out all the text for the book and cut 'em out. And double sided tape and just stick them on to see where the text should be on the page and where it could fit. I would just do that manually until I had something that I liked a little bit more. Then I would start creating digital, like line drawings.    [00:10:21] Miko Lee: And are you lining this all up on a wall or putting it on the desk?   [00:10:26] Lorraine Nam: Um, so they're in like a notebook.    [00:10:29] Miko Lee: Oh, you put 'em in book format?    [00:10:31] Lorraine Nam: It's all the spread. So it should take about two pages basically. You should be able to look at it and look at it from like an eagle eye perspective of what the entire book will look like and what the flow will be like, and if there's closeups or this is like a far away saying, you get more of the like, setting of the library.   [00:10:52] Miko Lee: And with the font printed out really small so that it's on the bottom of that Post-it note.    [00:10:56] Lorraine Nam: Mm-hmm.    [00:10:57] Miko Lee: Wow, that is so fascinating. And what is it when you're eagle eye-ing, what are you looking for?    [00:11:04] Lorraine Nam: I'm pretending that I'm a kid looking at a book for the first time, with zero context and maybe zero reading level skill and just looking at the pictures and seeing if I can spot the same character and if there is a story that follows along, because this is a library book where it doesn't talk about specific people. I wanted to be able to follow each character in the book and see what their day was like in the library. So when they first came into the library, what they were doing during the day, what friends they made, and then maybe them leaving or, you know, a resolution of some kind, like their parents are checking out symbols at the library.    [00:11:52] Miko Lee: the concept of having the character go throughout the book. Was that in the instruction or was something that you created.   [00:11:59] Lorraine Nam: That was something that I wanted. Because I know looking at picture books, the pictures can also tell a story where, the words, it might not be in the words. So I wanted there to be more of a layered storytelling through image.    [00:12:18] Miko Lee: I appreciate that as a mom. I remember when my girls were little, they would always say, where is that rabbit on the page? Or where is that thing? And so being able to track a character all the way through, is quite delightful. It adds another dimension for the multiple readings. You mentioned before about how you didn't really meet Mychal, the author of the book until the very end, and I guess that's common as an illustrator and you've worked with so many different experts in their fields from, physicist Neil Degrasse Tyson to Skater Nathan Chen. How is their very different fields, how does that impact your art making?    [00:12:57] Lorraine Nam: It's actually the most fun. It's what drew me to illustration in the first place. I love being able to do like a deep dive and a specific subject that I wouldn't necessarily have gravitated towards and do that research. I actually do go to the library. I start the process at the library and I look at all the books about that particular topic, and then see what other people have done. And so working on the book for Neil deGrasse Tyson, it was so much fun looking at different how space is depicted the idea of galaxies and making that tangible and real for kids. And then for Nathan Chen, I was already a fan before I got the project, so it was very easy. But watching the videos, seeing all the different techniques and for his book it was more looking at sports books. Because he's such a unique person in his specific field in figure skating that there weren't very many books on figure skating and most are of a female portrayal. I was looking more at sports and how people show different types of movement, , and show like form. And the more technical aspects that are very, very, very specific and very critical to those things.    [00:14:32] Miko Lee: And how did that manifest into your book?    [00:14:35] Lorraine Nam: Um, a lot of drawings of like, the breakdown of his jumps and trying to figure out can a child do this jump [laughs]? And also doing a lot of research 'cause he's a very private person. His book is not about him, it's not a biography, but it's also loosely based off of him. You know, I have two other siblings. If I had a book based off of me, I want my siblings to be involved and represented in that as well. So I included his family, even though they're not a huge part of the book, his siblings are not like big characters. But they're still represented in there. So he can still be like, oh that's my family. This is based off of my story.   [00:15:32] Miko Lee: So when you're doing these approaches, like including Nathan's family or in the library book, making sure characters go all the way through, is that something you have to check in with the writer about, to see if they're okay? Or is that something that you just do and then you submit and you see if they like it?   [00:15:50] Lorraine Nam: That's something that I do, that I find joy in and see. Usually the first eyes on my sketches are the publisher and the art director. And I actually have no idea what, at what stage they really share the sketches, if it's like at a more finalized stage or if it's an early on one, but I usually just go with my own ideas and see what they think about it.    [00:16:20] Miko Lee: Wow. I didn't know that you could have that much say into it. That's lovely. You talked a little bit about using the library for research. Gosh, I imagine that Neil deGrasse Tyson, there's so much research on it, that must have been a deep dive. I'm wondering what the library meant to you as a child.    [00:16:38] Lorraine Nam: Yeah. I grew up as a big reader. The library for me it was a magical space that I wasn't really sure what it was. My parents, because they grew up in Korea and moved here to the States, there was a big language barrier between us and they're also very not talkative people. They just took us to this place one day and it was our local public library and it was right before closing and we were able to check out as many books as we wanted in whatever type of book that we wanted. I felt like that was magical, that there was no limit to it.    [00:17:19] Miko Lee: My last question is, what are you working on now?    [00:17:22] Lorraine Nam: I'm working on a few books, actually. I'm juggling a few, but they're all very fun and different. I'm doing a book about a boy dreaming of flying, being a pilot. So I think that will be a really fun imaginative book.    [00:17:43] Miko Lee: What is one of your books that you would've liked to read to your younger self?    [00:17:50] Lorraine Nam: Mm, I probably Wei Skates On, the book with Nathan Chen. ‘Cause his story is about overcoming obstacles and being disappointed. And just feeling frustrated and upset. And I feel like that's an important lesson even in adulthood. It's not really resolved through words. It's more of like the, everyone is there for him, his family is there for him, and they all just want him to enjoy what he's doing and to not care about winning or losing.    [00:18:33] Miko Lee: Lorraine Nam, thank you so much for chatting with us about your work and about the library as a magical place, appreciate talking with you.    [00:18:42] Lorraine Nam: Thank you so much. I had so much fun talking with you.   [00:18:45] Miko Lee: Welcome, amazing award-winning children's book author Uma Krishnaswami, I'm so happy to have you here on Apex Express.   [00:18:54] Uma Krishnaswami: Miko, it's my pleasure to be here.    [00:18:57] Miko Lee: I wanted to start with a question I ask all of my guests, which is, who are your people and what legacy do you carry with you?    [00:19:05] Uma Krishnaswami: What a wonderful question. Who are my people? My people are children who are, my ideal readership is the eight to 12-year-old group. I write for children. I'm not particularly thinking about audience when I begin writing. But at some point I want my readership to feel validated, whether they recognize themselves as being in my stories or my stories are offering them a window into a world that they are not immediately familiar with. So I would say those are my people.    [00:19:45] Miko Lee: And what is the legacy that you carry with you?    [00:19:48] Uma Krishnaswami: I grew up in India. The year that I was born India had been independent for all of nine years. So I carry very much that colonial legacy. I also am an immigrant to two countries, early in my adulthood to the United States and about 12 years ago to Canada. So my legacy is one of moving and finding new roots, finding community. Those are the things that I try to carry forward in my stories. When I began writing, I lived in the US and I started writing when my son was born. So there I was with a little brown baby and I went looking for books that would represent him and I didn't find them. And I think that is what made me think in my early thirties that, real life people could write children's books because of course the books I had read as a child were all written by people from England and many of them were dead. I kind of thought you had to be dead and British to be a writer. So yeah, it's complicated, isn't it? All of that works into, what you think of as, as your legacy. Having done this for 30 plus years now.    [00:21:03] Miko Lee: And you've written so many beautiful books. Tell us about a little bit more about that first book.   [00:21:09] Uma Krishnaswami: So the very first book, it was called Stories of the Flood. I realized very quickly that I didn't really know what I was doing. I looked to folk tales and traditional tales as a way to teach me about story. My second book called The Broken Tusk Stories of the Hindu God Ganesha. That is the one that I consider as the book that taught me how to write. I had a wonderful editor [unintelligble] Thorpe at a small press in Connecticut, Linnet Books. She told me to lean into story and to see myself as a storyteller. In a way, every book I've written has taught me how to write.   [00:21:47] Miko Lee: Can you tell us about your favorite book as a kid?    [00:21:52] Uma Krishnaswami: My favorite book as a kid, it would have to be Winnie The Pooh.    [00:21:58] Miko Lee: And what was it about Winnie the Pooh that enamored you?    [00:22:01] Uma Krishnaswami: I came to it very early and aunt had traveled to England and she brought me my copy of winnie the Pooh in the House of Poo Corner. And I read them, sitting in very Indian gardens, sometimes up in trees. I spent lots of time up in trees and I took my own geography and placed it over the geography of the book. , So that for me, the a hundred acre wood had lime trees and banyan trees and possibly mango trees. It didn't occur to me, until much later when I read an Enid Blyton reader. I had my moment of disillusionment with Enid Blyton and that's when it really occurred to me that there was an us and a them in, in some of the storytelling I was consuming.   [00:22:49] Miko Lee: What age was that where you recognized that?    [00:22:51] Uma Krishnaswami: My post-colonial moment?    [00:22:53] Miko Lee: Yes.    [00:22:54] Uma Krishnaswami: I might have been a 11.    [00:22:56] Miko Lee: Oh, wow. And were you still living in India at that time?    [00:22:59] Uma Krishnaswami: Yeah, yeah. 11 was a very formative year for me. My grandfather passed away, so it sort of brought mortality , into the framework for me. Also that was my year of disillusionment with Blyton. 'cause I read The , river of Adventure. And the villain in it had my name. He was called. Uma, Raya or Raya Uma or something like that. And yeah, I was just shocked. Just totally shocked. It was pure coincidence, I'm sure. She probably just, pulled the name out of the air and plunked it in. But. I began to notice that he was described as dark skinned and he was described as cunning. All this language that had slid right past me before began to be apparent. So, yeah,    [00:23:47] Miko Lee: I love that. That is so amazing. This name, like what? That's my name as the villain.    [00:23:53] Uma Krishnaswami: I'm the Bad Guy. No, I'm not.    [00:23:56] Miko Lee: And all of your books are such a wonderful clap back to that because you have a multitude of characters and so many different worlds. Initially reached out to you because I started reading book Uncle this trilogy of books that are so lovely. Can you first share a little bit about what the Book Uncle's Trilogy is about.    [00:24:16] Uma Krishnaswami: Okay, so it didn't start out as a trilogy. It didn't even start out as a book. It started out as a short story and then it didn't quite fit. It wasn't a picture book. It seemed to have more layers than that, so it kind of grew. But what started Book Uncle and Me was I was visiting my parents in India. At the time, and I was on this very busy urban street and there was this kid sitting on this on the, on the sidewalk. Um, it was kind of a broken brick sidewalk, and she was sitting cross-legged right in the middle and she was reading book and she was just oblivious to the crowd going around her and the. Buses on the road and there were, you know, random goats and dogs running around and she just was ignoring everything and she was absorbed in her book. And I remembered that I had been that kind of reader as a child. There was an election going on at the time as well, and I thought, I wonder what would happen if I put those two things together. And that is how Book Uncle came to be.    [00:25:14] Miko Lee: And then there was just, you wanted to live in those characters more, so you ended up writing additional books?    [00:25:20] Uma Krishnaswami: Hmm and that's a very good question. And actually no, I didn't, I thought I was done. I wrote Book Uncle and Me back in, I'm say 2009, 2010, something like that. I probably started it in 2010. Um, it got published originally in India in 2012, I believe. And then it was picked up by Ground Wood in Canada and published in Canada and the US so North American edition in 2016. And I thought, you know, I'm done. I'm writing other things. And then come the pandemic and we're all in lockdown. And like a lot of writers, I was doing, um, many, many, virtual. Presentations and programs. Um, and I did something through the North Vancouver Public Library and, there were kids zooming in from, you know, some from home, some from their bubbles, some from classrooms, whatever. And we were talking about book uncle and one of the kids, I think in third grade maybe, she said, Are you gonna write a sequel? And I am just joshing, right? I am. I said, yeah, should I? And they're all going, yeah, you should. And you should write three because you've got three characters you should give them each a [story]. And I'm like, all right guys i'll think about it. I absolutely will but not really taking it seriously. And then as often happens. the session ended and, you know, there we were all in lockdown going nowhere. And I thought maybe, maybe there's something there. Maybe I could return to that. And in a way I was kind of intrigued because I hadn't, had never thought about a trilogy and I was interested in how that would play out. Um, and it was kind of a writing challenge to myself, but honestly, once I started writing Birds on the Brain, which was book two it just kind of, I hesitate to say wrote itself 'cause I, that just seems, you know, so kind of woo woo. But, um, it did, it did. Uh, the, the kid came in and she took over and then a bird flew onto the rooftop and there I was on my way. So that's the story of, of how that that happened. In retrospect, I'm really sorry I didn't ask that child's name because I would've absolutely loved to have acknowledged her in the book. But thank you child from North Vancouver, whoever you are.    [00:27:40] Miko Lee: That is so amazing. That's by request, by audience request. You fulfilled this goal of a trilogy and and I I love that they even said, not just a sequel, but a trilogy.    [00:27:52] Uma Krishnaswami: Oh, they were. Yeah. They had it. I mean, they had, then they, they figured it out, which was really lovely.    [00:27:58] Miko Lee: And those, that trilogy is really geared, as you were saying to the second and third grade audience and I So many of your books are written around kids that can make a difference. What is it about that age that appeals to you and that motivation to show them how they can change the world?    [00:28:16] Uma Krishnaswami: I think they have this really, strong sense of what's fair. It's the age at which, you know, you start pushing back against what you see as small unfairnesses in your life. Parental restrictions quite often, or older siblings. You're pushing back. You're doing a little bit of finding who you are. And I think that uh, you begin to get a sense of awareness of the big world outside your small circle. And I think also one of the things that drives me, with writing to this age is that, I feel that it is so unfair that grownups, the adult world, has created so much injustice. And we just kind of expect the next generation to step up and step into it and, and do the best they can. and it just, it doesn't seem right not to at least give them the wherewithal to think about that. And they do, they have children have voices and their voices matter. As we found out with, the climate strikes. I mean it really was young people who brought those messages out into the world and forced us to think about them and talk about them. So, I think that we owe children that.    [00:29:34] Miko Lee: So which of your books would you want to read to the second or third grade Uma?   [00:29:43] Uma Krishnaswami: [Laughs] Maybe Book Uncle and Me. Because I think there's a lot of second and third grade Uma in that book. I was a compulsive reader like Yasmin. I would've absolutely read a book every day for the rest of my life if I'd had that many books available to me. I didn't. So I read the ones I had over and over again. I lived in an imaginary world, quite a bit of the time.   [00:30:06] Miko Lee: Speaking of having access to lots of books, I'm wondering what your relationship was like to libraries, both as a child and then now.    [00:30:15] Uma Krishnaswami: I'm a proud and inveterate library goer. I put holds on things. I go browse on shelves. I download eBooks and audio books. I always have a pending list. I'm very, very grateful for libraries and also for librarians whom many of whom I have come to know over my life and am immensely grateful for. I did not have access to libraries much as a child. We didn't have a public library system that was free and available and open to everybody. There were the kind of unofficial lending library types that I feature in Book Uncle and Me. There are sadly fewer of them now, but you still find them on street corners in India. I remember taking a book and giving one and then getting one back in return. That was, that was part of my life in some of the places we lived.   [00:31:07] Miko Lee: Did you know an actual book uncle?   [00:31:10] Uma Krishnaswami: I didn't actually pay much attention, to the people who handed those books out. I was much more, focused on the books I was getting. There are characters who I've seen who have run these things. I once had somebody email me and say, I'm a book uncle. This is what I do. So that was really nice.    [00:31:31] Miko Lee: That's sweet. I wanna roll back and talk a little bit more about your artistic process. I'm wondering if you, as a writer, as illustrator, you can sometimes be in your own world, and I'm wondering what your process is.   [00:31:43] Uma Krishnaswami: My place is right here. This is my office room, and I'm standing at a treadmill desk, and usually what I will do, is when I'm writing, I will turn that on very, very slowly. I usually start out at the idea stage with a notebook and a pen. I have fountain pens with very varied colors of ink, and I use those always to write my initial notes and questions about a new story idea. I don't go to the computer and the keyboard until the idea has started showing up quite a few times. In, perhaps in a few iterations, almost as if I'm actually pushing it away at first, you know, saying, don't scratch up my window until you are developed a little bit more. I'm not going to, indulge, the initial shallowness that usually the first idea is often not what it's gonna end up being. I question that, and sometimes this is gonna sound really crazy, but, if I write those questions many times over in different colored inks, the answers begin to break out in clumps. Once I've begun to think, okay, well maybe I, I know what I could do with this. That's when I open up a file.    [00:32:56] Miko Lee: Ooh share a little bit more about the different colored inks. How does that work?    [00:33:00] Uma Krishnaswami: Um, right over there, there's a whole row of inks, and right over here is a fountain pen, and I have several of them. I change the ink colors, and when I get stuck with something, it really does help to write those questions to myself, in a journal notebook. I have a terrible handwriting, so I used to really worry about when people gave me nice notebooks. Little empty notebooks with beautiful glossy pages. I used to think, God, my writing is so awful. I feel like I'm desecrating this beautiful book. I've gotten over that and it's actually really helpful to physically write that thought for me is very, very useful.   [00:33:39] Miko Lee: And when you see the different colors, is it like words that stand out to you, that you piece together? Yeah.    [00:33:44] Uma Krishnaswami: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or sometimes I'll write something, in a paragraph, and then I'll break it up and write it in a lineated way, maybe in a different color. You just start seeing things differently when you try different ways of thinking about the same thing. It's all a trick to get the kind of managerial editorial mind out of the way. You need her later, but I don't need her when I'm trying to shape something.    [00:34:13] Miko Lee: The, for the creative process. Mm-hmm. The multiple colors just helps    [00:34:16] Uma Krishnaswami: Right.    [00:34:16] Miko Lee: Pull you into that.    [00:34:17] Uma Krishnaswami: Yeah. It just loosens, it loosens my mind up so I don't feel so focused on the objective. I often tell myself, I think Linda Sue Park used to say this. You don't have to write a whole novel. You just write a scene. And so that's what I tell myself, I'm a sceneist. I'm not a novelist. I'm just a sceneist. I write one scene. And that's all I need to write. Then I will write another one and so forth.    [00:34:38] Miko Lee: And do you use sticky notes or something to keep those scenes separately or    [00:34:42] Uma Krishnaswami: just all kinds of things? I use sticky notes. I use little boards on which I draw plot lines, and then I write, notes to myself. I use the journal notebooks. I've started using Scrivener and I actually have found that helpful but not until I've got something, in enough shape to plug things in.   [00:35:01] Miko Lee: Oh, I love hearing about artistic process. That's so fascinating. I appreciate you and you're showing your beautiful pen and everything. It's so great.    [00:35:08] Uma Krishnaswami: It's messy, right? One of the things I've learned is to lean into the messiness and not try to organize things too fast, too early.    [00:35:16] Miko Lee: Mm-hmm. Giving yourself the time for the creative juices to flow.    [00:35:20] Uma Krishnaswami: Yeah. Yeah.    [00:35:21] Miko Lee: So my last question is, what are you working on now?    [00:35:25] Uma Krishnaswami: I've actually just got done with edits on a picture book, which is going to be called Mango Sun. And then I'm working on another picture book. That's just gone to my agent. It's got to do with wildlife rescue and conservation in the Himalayas. It's an Indian setting, but a very different setting from Mango Sun.   [00:35:44] Miko Lee: And most of the ideas from your books are just coming from your imagination or something you read or where are you pulling from to get your inspiration?    [00:35:52] Uma Krishnaswami: Everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. I have a picture book that came out of a trip that we took to Galapagos and will it ever take form? I don't know, it's about the rewilding of an island , and how when you bring one species back, the other one follows. Some of it's from my childhood. I have two picture books that came out of a memory of planting a mango seed and watching it grow.   [00:36:21] Miko Lee: Sounds lovely. Two of my favorite things, mango and Sun [laughs], appreciate you joining us and sharing about your artistic process and your amazing book. And I'll put a link to your website in our show notes. And thank you so much for joining us and talking to us about Book Uncle and your work.    [00:36:37] Uma Krishnaswami: Miko, thank you so much. It's really a delight.    [00:36:41] Miko Lee: Welcome, Maggie Tokuda Hall to Apex Express.   [00:36:45] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Thank you so much for having me.   [00:36:47] Miko Lee: I'm so happy to have you talking about, your wonderful book, love in the Library. But first I wanna, ask you a question I ask my guest, which is, who are your people and what legacy do you carry with you?   [00:37:01] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Oh man. I feel like I have so many tribes that I identify with in different ways. , Gosh, who are my people? I mean, generally speaking, angry queer teenage girls very much my people. Tired Jewish aunties also my people. Exhausted Asian mothers also my people, [laughs] librarians and book people are my people. I, I, I don't know. I feel like I have so many people that I feel an affinity toward and an affection for, and kinship with.    [00:37:38] Miko Lee: I like you naming all of those because we're multifaceted people and there's many different things that make up who we are. Yeah. And what is the legacy that you carry with you from all these tribes you're a part of?   [00:37:50] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: From my mother, I carry a legacy of honoring the truth, like really believing that children are owed the truth and that part of being an adult is being courageous enough to tell it. but I also come from like a vibrant family of Jewish storytellers and I feel like I have that, that I carry with me as well.   [00:38:17] Miko Lee: Thank you. So you've written the book Love in the Library about Tamma, a woman who works at a library in the Minidoka concentration camp during World War ii.    [00:38:28] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Mm-hmm.    [00:38:28] Miko Lee: And she meets George and falls in love. Can you tell me about how you very first heard this true love story of your grandparents?   [00:38:40] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: I can't actually, I don't remember the first time I heard this story. It is a story that I've just always known. like for me it's very much a fabric of how I came to understand the world and my place in it. Like sky is blue, grandma and grandpa met in a prison camp, you know, normal stuff. And so, um,    [00:39:00] Miko Lee: so it's just part of the family lore?   [00:39:03] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Yeah. Like, it's not something my mother was ever shy about telling us. And I truly do not remember the first time she talked to me about it because I remember being very small and already feeling like I knew that story.    [00:39:15] Miko Lee: Okay. Then how did you decide to turn it into a children's book?    [00:39:19] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Yeah, so, in 2017 when President Trump took office for the first time, in his very first executive order was to sign the travel or Muslim ban where he was banning people from Muslim majority countries from coming to the United States. It was clear immediately that he was gonna be using his time and power to enact a white supremacist agenda. I knew I needed to do all the things that we're supposed to do. Like I called my representatives and I wrote my postcards and I marched and I did all those things. But I really did try to audit what I had to offer, particularly children in that moment. That was unique to me. And I realized I had this beautiful story in my own family, not just about the cruelty of those sorts of policies, but also the resilience and power of the people who they target.    [00:40:05] Miko Lee: Ooh. Fired up the, that truth teller part of you just became ready to go.    [00:40:11] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Yeah.    [00:40:11] Miko Lee: Um, speaking of the impact of politics and what's going on and how that relates to books, I know that in April, 2023, Scholastic wanted to include love in the library in a collection around AANHPI folks, but they wanted to edit your amazingly fierce author's note. Can you share with our audience what happened?   [00:40:34] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: I mean, first of all, thank you for calling it amazingly fierce. In my author's note, I talk about how what happened to my grandparents wasn't an isolated moment in American history and that it was racist, which I think is a, a reflection of a very basic understanding of that history. It, it's not, a creative extrapolation and. Scholastic offered to license the book, but my licensing offer came with a caveat, which was that I had to remove that entire paragraph. Um, and I had to remove the word racism from the text altogether. And so I decided to say no and say no publicly. And for about three months, my full-time job was talking about Scholastic, but also about our obligation to tell children, American history, honestly.   [00:41:19] Miko Lee: And they wanted you to get word of the word racist. Did they say why?    [00:41:24] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Yes, they basically said, the language is too strong and we fear that some teachers won't bring it in for fear of this political climate, which is the nice way of saying like, we have to sell into places where book bans are happening and we think that this language is too incendiary for people who would ban books, which to me was always really, Unsatisfactory logic, because books about Japanese American incarceration are banned all the time and they don't use as strident of language as I use in that author's note. baseball saved us, gets banned. They called us, the enemy gets banned. This story is already considered dangerous by the people who would ban books, so they were trying to hold a center that just doesn't exist.   [00:42:04] Miko Lee: And so what did you end up doing?    [00:42:07] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: I said no and said no publicly, just with like, sort of the hope of, sparking some intra community conversation among kid lit creators about what sort of edits are appropriate to offer people. I would, I still posit, that that's a completely inappropriate edit and that's about sanding down people of color's, history and perspective to cater to a white audience. And I was unwilling to do it. and Scholastic initially released like a very, incomplete apology. And then when they received a lot of pushback about that, they offered a much more full apology. They offered to meet with me and my publisher, the CEO of Scholastic and the head of their education divisions, which is the division that made me this offer. And then they also had me work with a restorative justice consultant, for like a year to try to figure out what they could do better. But what I said to them at the end of that time that I told them, I was extremely transparent that I would be talking about this publicly. So I don't feel bad saying exactly what I said to them here is, I think the exact same thing would've happened. It just would've happened more politely.    [00:43:17] Miko Lee: Wow.    [00:43:18] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: I don't think that they actually reexamined what their role is as a publisher of Books for Children under Unconsolidated authoritarianism. They just figured out how to ask people to make racist edits more, more, uh, gently.    [00:43:33] Miko Lee: And you worked with them for one year with an RJ consultant.   [00:43:36] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: I mean, like, not every day, but we had, you know, meetings over the months. And she was a smart lady. Like I don't think that she, you know, did nothing. I think she was trying her best, but I think that, you know, big institutions are very slow to institute cultural change and that that on the one hand has to happen from the top down, but also can't happen from the top down.   [00:43:56] Miko Lee: Mm-hmm.    [00:43:56] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: And so I genuinely believe that there CEO was trying his hardest to, to make a meaningful change, but without them really stopping and examining and questioning what their own role in this moment is in a critical way. I don't think that they are going to be able to have answered what I would've required for them to, for me to then accept their licensing offer. ‘Cause they made it again.    [00:44:25] Miko Lee: So at the end of the one year long, they made the licensing offer to you again?    [00:44:29] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Yeah. I think just to be kind, just as like a gesture of like, listen, we know we messed up. We'd love to license your book and I still said no because I don't think that they made meaningful enough change.   [00:44:40] Miko Lee: Hmm. Wow. I love this. What did you learn from this experience?    [00:44:47] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: That it is very unusual for people to blow the whistle within publishing, even when the examples are egregious.    [00:44:54] Miko Lee: Tell me about your connection with Authors Against Book Bans. Did that come out of this experience with Scholastic, or were you involved actively involved in this prior to that?    [00:45:05] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: No, it absolutely came as a result of my experience with Scholastic. Authors against Book Bans is an organization that I'm currently the president of. We're over 5,000 book creators across the country who are united under a single point of view, which is that the government shouldn't be allowed to tell us what to read. That's what we believe and that's what we fight for. And I got involved in founding the group along with specifically David Levithan, who's a really wonderful young adult and middle grade author, who had put together most of this group before I even came on board. Cause we realized that authors needed a central place to fight. There was no one organizing specifically us. And so Authors Against Book Bans was born out of necessity and, the dearth of a place that existed for us. Everyone would call on us to come speak, but it was extremely ad hoc. We weren't making any kind of unified movement, even though we all so passionately agree that, you know, book bans are anti-American and in violation of our First Amendment rights. And, you know, the freedom to read is a necessary freedom for a free and democratic society. and the reason I'd reached out to David initially was because I was hoping to put together something like Authors Against Book Bans, but just by myself, which is, maybe a testament more to my own personality [laughs] problems than anything else, but I was like, I'll just figure it out. And he was like, you know, I'm actually assembling a group that's trying to do this. Would you like to be a part of it? And that's how I came aboard. But I had gotten interested in it because as a result of the Scholastic fiasco, I was invited to give the keynote speech at the Idaho Library Association in 2023. I gave my little speech that I'd been giving a lot then, um, about how we have an obligation to tell American history honestly. And, people were like, the reaction was so emotional to it and so profound and like, I thought it was a good speech. I'm proud of the speech, but like it, something else was going on and I could feel it. And I started talking to the people who were there and when these librarians started telling me what they had gone through, just for making books like mine available to children, stalking, harassment, death threats. One of them had been followed home, like really frightening, scary things happening to them on like, in some cases a daily basis. I realized like I was gonna be a part of this fight. That was that. I wasn't gonna let them fight alone. And so, you know, in, in my advocacy work now, Idaho still holds like a very precious place in my heart because I think that it's a very forgotten state. When we think about places that need help, when we think about places that have been gerrymandered, when we think about places where there are so many good people who are disenfranchised and unable to affect meaningful change in their state level, governments. That have just been absolutely run roughshod over by Christian nationalists. We should be thinking about Idaho. They have, I think, like the highest neo-Nazi population in the United States. so it's a very direct line between my grandparents being incarcerated to the activism that I do now. And it wouldn't have happened without Scholastic's offensive offer.   [00:48:22] Miko Lee: I did not realize that librarians were personally being assaulted or attacked or followed. For books.    [00:48:29] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: You should watch, the librarian's documentary that's now streaming on PBS. Okay. Um, it's common across the country. Amanda Jones, who's an Authors Against Book Bans member no big deal, is a librarian in Louisiana that can't go grocery shopping in her own hometown anymore for fear for her own safety because she has taken a stand to like refuse to remove lgbtq plus books from her school library shelves. It's really dire. And I think people understand objectively that book bans are a problem in our country. I do not think that they understand how violent that this fight is. It's a really dark and hard time to be a librarian. So if you're a person who supports libraries, you should be thanking your librarians and letting them know one-on-one and in person face-to-face that you appreciate the work that they do, because there are people who are making their lives really difficult.    [00:49:25] Miko Lee: Can you talk about what the library meant to you as a child?   [00:49:30] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: I mean, honestly it was like a part-time babysitter. You're a kid, there's a library. Entertain yourself, you figure it out. I think the first time I really felt like a sense of belonging in the library was in middle school. We moved from LA to Northern California and I had to start a new school in seventh grade. I didn't really know anyone and it was embarrassing to not have people to eat lunch with and things like that. So I would eat lunch in the library. And the librarian was really kind about it. Like she never called attention to it. She never embarrassed me about it. She would let me sneakily eat in there, even though there was a very specific rule that you weren't allowed to eat in the library. she put, the Enchanted Forest Chronicles on an end cap once, and that's how I found them and ended up reading the entire series and that was really when I became a fantasy reader and you know, my debut novel was a fantasy novel. I still feel very much like a fantasy reader kind of at heart, and that started there. I mean, we never know when libraries are going to save a kid's life.    [00:50:39] Miko Lee: Can we go back to how you ended up writing this book about your grandparents' experience? Sure. And what was the first spark for you to say, I wanna turn this into something. It's a family lore, but I want more people to know about it.   [00:50:54] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: I mean, the Trump administration thing,    [00:50:56] Miko Lee: it was truly that. You said it was    [00:50:57] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Yeah. Trump was it    [00:50:58] Miko Lee: Trump got elected. People should know this happened.    [00:51:00] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Yes. What do you have to tell children in this moment If they're Muslim, they're scared, and if they're not, they need a way to understand what it means to feel afraid. Both of those things need to happen at the same time of like, you have to offer comfort to the children of the marginalized. You have to offer perspective to the children who have the privilege not to feel that fear. And so I have this story and what I love about this story is. I know that children are capable of holding the complexity of this story is both very romantic and very sweet, and also the circumstances it happened under were completely unfair. That's the kind of logic children are able to hold, and they should be given the opportunity to hold that kind of complexity because it'll serve them for the rest of their life because most of most situations we confront are complex.   [00:51:57] Miko Lee: And how were you able to eke out more details of that story? Did you do family interviews or was it more from your imagination?    [00:52:05] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: My mother is a journalist and she kept my grandmother's journals from the time she was in Minidoka. So some of it comes from my grandmother's journals. Some of it comes from working with my mother to make sure that it felt accurate, tonally and factually. ‘Cause she was not gonna let me publish a book that was nonsense. I always say it's Truman Capote true. ‘Cause the situation, the sensory details, all that stuff real, but the dialogue is made up. The dialogue is art. The dialogue is a way for children to understand how they might've been feeling. They never had succinct, quick conversations like this about their humanity and how they felt about each other. It was a long courting process, and so, you know. That part is made up for children,    [00:52:49] Miko Lee: but you, but you did include actual quotes from her journal too, right?    [00:52:53] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Yes. The book closes with her words, not mine.    [00:52:57] Miko Lee: Can you give us those final words?    [00:53:00] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: The miracle is in us as long as we believe in beauty, in change, in hope. Which are words she wrote while she was imprisoned in Minidoka.    [00:53:11] Miko Lee: And how does that resonate with you in the time of now?    [00:53:15] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: They are words that I desperately cling to in the hope that I can see them become manifest.    [00:53:23] Miko Lee: And what are you working on now?   [00:53:26] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Making Authors Against Book Bans as operational as possible.    [00:53:31] Miko Lee: And what does that look like?    [00:53:32] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: In late 2025, we became a nonprofit corporation. We have fiscal sponsorship under EveryLibrary, which is a really wonderful advocacy group that's a combination [501](c)3-(c)4, which means you can make tax deductible donations to them, but also they do overtly political work. And so now we can receive tax deductible, donations and continue to do the overtly political work that we do. We are an unapologetically political organization. We are more than happy to help get people elected who fight for the freedom to read, and we are delighted to show the door to people who would stand in our way of that freedom.   [00:54:09] Miko Lee: And how can people get more involved in your work?    [00:54:13] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: They could absolutely go to authorsagainstbookbans.com and make a donation. We need it [laughs]. We are one of the only organizations that receives donations that exists for the sole purpose of fighting book bans. Most every other group in our space have an angle that book bans affect them, and so they fight against them, but that's not their only purview. It is our only purview. So if it is something that you were interested in fighting, then you could make a donation to us. I would suggest signing up to be on the email list from EveryLibrary because they mobilize everybody, not just authors and book creators. And if you are a book creator, self-published, traditionally published, we don't care. Then you should sign up to be a member of Authors Against Book Bans and you'll get calls to action every Friday.   [00:55:07] Miko Lee: Thank you so much for sharing with us about your book and educating us about the work you're doing and appreciate hearing from you. Thank you for joining us.    [00:55:16] Maggie Tokuda-Hall: Thank you for having me.   [00:55:28] Miko Lee: Please check out our website, kpfa.org/program/apexexpress to find out more about our show and our guests tonight. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating, and sharing your visions with the world because your voices are important. Apex Express is produced by Ayame Keane-Lee, Anuj Vaidya, Cheryl Truong, Isabel Li, Jalena Keane-Lee, Miko Lee, Miata Tan, Preti Mangala-Shekar and Swati Rayasam. Tonight's show was produced by me Miko Lee, and edited by Ayame Keane-Lee. Have a great night..    The post APEX Express – 4.9.26 – Library Joy appeared first on KPFA.

Christina Shah is here to discuss her debut full-length poetry collection, if: prey, then: huntress. Andrew's wondering about how to stop yapping on and on in their poems. It's a fun one!--Christina Shah lives in New Westminster and works in heavy industry, where she drinks from the firehose of knowledge. Her poetry has appeared in numerous Canadian literary journals, including The Fiddlehead, Vallum, Arc, Grain, PRISM international, EVENT, The Malahat Review, The Antigonish Review and elsewhere. Her poem, ‘they canned a good man today', was shortlisted for The Fiddlehead's 2021 Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize. Her poem, ‘interior bar, 1986', was selected for Best Canadian Poetry 2023. She is one-fifth of the Harbour Centre 5 poetry collective, whose chapbook, Brine, was released in 2022. Her first videopoem, ‘rig veda' (in collaboration with videographer Mark Mushet), was translated into Spanish and screened at the 2023 Cinemística festival in Granada, Spain, and the 2023 Versi Di Luce festival in Modica, Sicily. rig veda, her first solo chapbook (Anstruther Press), was released in 2023. if: prey, then: huntress (Nightwood Editions, 2025) is her first full-length collection. She has some strong opinions on soft pretzels.--Andrew French (They/Them) is a queer poet from North Vancouver, British Columbia. They have published four chapbooks, most recently Buoyhood (Alfred Gustav Press, 2025) and Fists You've Called Home (Pinhole Poetry, forthcoming 2026). Andrew holds a BA in English from Huron University College at Western University and an MA in English from UBC. They have hosted this podcast since 2019.

Planning to visit Vancouver for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and wondering where to stay? In this episode of the Winging It Travel Podcast, I share a local's guide to the 8 best areas to base yourself during the tournament.Having lived in Vancouver for nearly seven years, I break down the pros, cons, transport links, and overall vibe of each neighbourhood so you can decide which one suits your travel style.From beach neighbourhoods like Kitsilano and the relaxed waterfront of Olympic Village, to nightlife hubs like Yaletown and historic Gastown, you'll get a clear idea of where to stay depending on what kind of World Cup trip you want.I also cover scenic options across the water like North Vancouver and West Vancouver, perfect if you want mountain views, beaches, and a quieter base while still being able to reach the games at BC Place.Along the way I share local transport tips, accommodation ideas, neighbourhood highlights, and activities you shouldn't miss in each area.Whether you're visiting for the World Cup or planning a future trip, this episode will help you choose the best neighbourhood to stay in Vancouver.Support the PodcastIf you enjoyed this episode:⭐ Leave a 5-star rating or review on your podcast app☕ Support the show at buymeacoffee.com/wingingit

Recorded live at SocialPacific 2025 in North Vancouver, Ben Wise and Darren Chiu, co-founders of Captivate, join guest host Rachel Thexton to explore the art and science of human behavior.Captivate translates academic psychology into practical tools for marketers, sales teams, and leaders, helping them communicate in ways that actually move people.They unpack why most marketing falls flat by being overly rational, how emotional decision-making really works, and why storytelling, including friction, consequences, and vulnerability, remains one of the most powerful tools in business. Because whether you're selling to consumers or corporations, you're always selling to a human.Produced by TAKT.

At SocialPacific 2025 in North Vancouver, Charlie Grinnell, Co-CEO of RightMetric, joins guest host Rachel Thexton to break down the uncomfortable truth about modern marketing.Charlie explains why most brands operate on assumptions, not evidence, and why “looking before you leap” is no longer optional. From ego and institutional bias to blind faith in performance marketing, he challenges marketers to stop guessing and start triangulating the truth using real external data.The conversation explores attention economics, content engineering, and why in a saturated digital world, creativity without context is just expensive guesswork.Thanks to TAKT, the editors and producers of the SocialPacific 2025 series.

At SocialPacific 2025 in North Vancouver, Warren Thompson, Co-Founder and Director at Olo Metrics, sits down with guest host Rachel Thexton to demystify marketing data.Warren explains why most teams don't have a data problem, they have a clarity problem. Instead of obsessing over every metric in the funnel, he shares how focusing on a few “North Star” KPIs can simplify decision-making and drive real growth.From performance marketing and SEO to AI's impact on emerging marketers, this conversation explores how technical skill, strategic thinking, and creative craft must now work together, not in silos.Clearer metrics. Smarter decisions. Stronger teams.Recorded live at SocialPacific 2025 in North Vancouver. Produced by TAKT.

I am very happy to share my latest podcast with Ali Finn of Cream Pony in North Vancouver and soon to be open Main st. We chat all things about opening a foodservice place in Vancouver, the good and bad, the highs and lows. We chat about working with family and how doughnuts started on a bit of a whim from Alis' Mom, Erin Smith. The doughnuts and the fried chicken are delicious and you should seek them out when you are on Lonsdale or sometime in March or April when they are open on Main st. I hope you enjoy our chat. Send us your feedback

The Canadian real estate landscape in early 2026 has officially entered a period of historic structural decoupling. As we analyze the data from the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) to Vancouver, the "demise of the pre-sale condo" is no longer a hyperbolic headline—it is a statistical reality. In the GTA, new condo sales have plummeted a staggering 95% from their 2021 peak, reaching a quarterly volume not seen since the third quarter of 1990. This 35-year low has triggered a wave of "capital flight" from traditional development; a record 28 active projects were cancelled in 2025 alone, representing over 7,200 units that will never hit the skyline.This inventory vacuum creates a "supply cliff" that market participants must brace for. While current completions remain high due to the lag in construction cycles—nearly matching the 2024 record—starts have cratered by 88% over the last three years. By 2029, the industry is projecting a "zero-delivery" year for new condos. However, as the pre-sale model falters, a new titan is emerging: purpose-built rentals. Driven by federal tax incentives and a desperate need for stable housing stock, rental starts hit a multi-decade high in 2025. Yet, there is a paradox in the West; Vancouver is simultaneously grappling with a 30-year high vacancy rate of 3.7%, proving that even in a supply-starved nation, price and demand have a ceiling.The macro-economic backdrop further complicates the recovery. Canada's GDP shrank by 0.3% in late 2025, the sharpest non-pandemic decline in nearly a decade. While headline inflation has seen a "ghost" uptick to 2.4%—largely due to year-over-year tax distortions—core inflation is actually cooling. This puts the Bank of Canada in a delicate holding pattern. As they head into the January 28th meeting, the consensus is a rate hold at 2.25%. For investors, the era of "easy gains" through pre-sale appreciation is over; the new game is "gentle density."North Vancouver's recent adoption of Zoning Amendment Bylaw 9137 is the "first-mover" opportunity of 2026. By legalizing multiplexes across nearly 4,900 lots, the city has fired the starting gun for small-scale developers to convert single-family lots into three-to-six unit "AAA" assets.  _________________________________ Contact Us To Book Your Private Consultation:

Since Diane started the Dynamic Women community 13 years ago and the podcast 6 years ago, so it's time to redefine what it means to be a dynamic woman because it's beyond doing it all.Our host, Diane Rolston, shares her journey of evolution and invites you into the next stage. Listen as Diane reveals why the outdated image of a strong woman hustling and filling her calendar needs to change and what the new dynamic woman chooses instead.Listen to learn these key takeaways:Why "dynamic" was chosen at 2 am when other words like "confident" felt too limiting, and the surprising polar opposites women shared that defined itWhat being dynamic is NOTThe three stages women go throughWhy different seasons of your life require different versions of you, and you have permission to evolve without explanationThe identities Diane let go ofWhat replaces hustle for the new dynamic womanThe powerful shift from "I have to prove my worth" to "I choose what matters" and why choosing yourself is wisdom, not weaknessHow Diane's own transformation through postpartum depression, grief, overwhelm, and health issues reshaped her understanding of what it means to be dynamicSPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: January 29th live event in North Vancouver (two sessions)Claim your FREE gifted ticket to the redefined Dynamic Woman event on January 29th in North Vancouver! https://keap.app/contact-us/8700536908034306This is Diane's thank you for helping the podcast win 5 awards and reach the top 2.5% of all podcasts. Two sessions available. Claim your FREE gifted ticket to the redefined Dynamic Woman event on January 29th in North Vancouver! https://keap.app/contact-us/8964039388713353Want to be invited to join Diane's NEW high-level, like-minded group of women? Email her at diane@dianerolston.com.Do you prefer reading blogs or watching videos?Read Diane's blogs here: https://www.dianerolston.com/blogWatch Diane's videos here: https://www.youtube.com/@CoachDianeRolstonThis show's host, Diane Rolston, is called THE Expert on Being Dynamic and living a Dynamic Life. She specializes in coaching high-achieving women who want to be successful AND satisfied. She is a Certified Professional Coach, International Speaker, 11-time Author, and host of the five-time award-winning Dynamic Women Podcast,...

Work-life balance is all about getting your psychological needs met, not just about time management. Professor, researcher, and expert in employee well-being, Lieke ten Brummelhuis shares why "doing it all" is a myth, how to recover from workaholism as a parent, and the three needs that actually determine your happiness. Plus: research-backed insights on why women help more at work and home, and how to prevent resentment from building up with your partner.In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Intro(03:15) How Lieke accidentally became a work-life balance researcher(07:42) What her early research revealed about parents with young children(10:28) Recovering from workaholism: Lieke's personal aha moment with her daughter(14:50) Why you need different domains where you feel competent (not just work)(17:35) The power of completing tiny projects—like baking banana bread(20:45) Why it's actually healthy to need control over something manageable(24:18) Gender differences in helping behavior at work and home(28:30) Why you can't have it all (and why that's actually okay)(33:20) The real question: Are you happy? Not, are you balanced?(36:10) The 3 psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and belonging(40:25) How to audit where your needs are being met across life domains(45:50) Communication with your partner without letting resentment pile up(50:15) Thoughts on remote work and the balance between control and connection(55:40) What Lieke is still figuring outKEY TAKEAWAYStop chasing work-life balance and start asking: What makes me happy? You don't need to "do it all" what you need is to feel in control, competent, and connected. Those three needs can be met strategically across different areas of your life, not just through work. When you shift from time management to needs fulfillment, you stop burning out and start actually living.About Lieke ten BrummelhuisLieke ten Brummelhuis is a Professor in Management at Simon Fraser University, researching employee well-being. She is the author of the book "Work-Life Strategy," in which she explains how to find happiness when juggling multiple roles. She is also a contributor to Forbes, sharing insights on how to work healthily with leaders and employees worldwide. Her work has been featured in the Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, and Globe & Mail. Ten Brummelhuis lives with her family in North Vancouver, British Columbia.Connect with Lieke ten BrummelhuisWebsite | https://www.rerailyourlife.com/ Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/rerail.your.life | Linkedin | https://www.linkedin.com/in/lieke-ten-brummelhuis-3159051/ Book | https://amzn.to/4bwuNzM  About Andrea Barr, host of All Figured Out:Andrea is a certified career and life coach for parents. Through her coaching, she supports parents in finding better work-life rhythms so they can continue to grow personally and professionally without sacrificing family time.Connect with AndreaWebsite | ⁠https://www.andreabarr.com/⁠  Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/allfiguredoutandrea | https://www.instagram.com/allfiguredout.podcast

What if 2026 isn't about trying harder - but about aligning deeper?What if it wasn't about resolutions - but an opportunity to reclaim your joy and the magic of who you are.In this very special New Year's Eve episode of The New Truth, I'm joined by one of my oldest and dearest friends - we've walked beside each other through every new beginning since I was 19 years old.Farhad Khan is a world-class yogi, sound bowl healer, entrepreneur extraordinaire and overall magical human - and in this conversation, we drop into something far more powerful than New Year's resolutions.You will learn:Why 2026 is a potent energetic reset — not just another yearHow to consciously close cycles instead of dragging them forwardThe difference between forcing goals and allowing magicNervous system regulation, embodiment, and why your body must feel safe to receive moreThe spiritual AND practical foundations of creating a truly aligned lifeWhat it actually means to live in devotion to your truthThis episode is grounding, expansive, deeply loving and so real- and the perfect way to cross the threshold into a new year with intention, clarity, and an open heart.If you're ready to stop surviving and start receiving…If you're calling in more ease, pleasure, love, purpose, and magic…This conversation is your invitation.About The Guest:With a deep passion for sound healing, Farhad Khan brings a truly devotional and expansive healing quality to his work and performance. Using sound healing as a wellness therapy tool, Farhad's intuitive way of weaving all that he has learned on his path is memorable and leaves your mind elevated and your heart full of joy.Farhad's journey with yoga began in 2001. The profound impact of yoga on his well-being led him to fully embrace its principles and philosophies, making it his life's purpose. Having studied with various teachers from around the world, Farhad teaches from his heart and welcomes everyone to bask in the many gifts this practice offers. He has over 10,000 hours of Yoga Alliance certifications, skilled in a variety of styles including Hatha, Vinyasa, Restorative, Yin, Somatic, Nidra, and Kundalini. His extensive training includes time spent in ashrams in India, where he deepened his understanding of yoga and meditation.Farhad founded a Yoga & Wellness Studio in North Vancouver in 2007, where his dedication to the essence of yoga and sound healing flourished. After 15 successful years, he sold the studio to focus on meditation and sound healing, inspired by their profound effects on the brain and nervous system. Since then, he has facilitated workshops, sound baths, and teacher training sessions across Vancouver and abroad, integrating Eastern wellness practices into modern life.Farhad is also a certified yoga life coach, meditation teacher, and sound healing practitioner. He has worked with various sound healers over the years and continues to offer his transformative services to elevate spirits and support healing. Having personally battled anxiety and depression, Farhad shares tools and practices from his own journey, aiming to offer peace, empowerment, and joy to all those who attend his teachings. His mission is to elevate the spirit through sound and experiential journeys.Additionally, I've created the Farhad Khan Wellness line,...

Have you ever thought that there might be a future version of you wishing you had made different decisions at this time? Then you'll want to listen to this episode, where Diane discusses what your future self is urging you to do before the year ends. Our host, Diane Rolston, guides you through a powerful reflection exercise and reveals the invitation your future self urgently wants you to say yes to.Listen to learn these key takeaways:The three critical questions to ask your future selfWhat your future self doesn't want more of (hint: it's not just hustle and burnout) and what they're actually craving insteadThe four things your future self is asking for right now and why support isn't weaknessWhy early January sets the tone for the entire year and how choosing support early creates ease laterThe invitation your future self wants you to say yes to How starting the year with clarity, confidence, and connection prevents second-guessing and wasted time throughout the yearWhy choosing alignment before habits lock in is the secret to a completely different yearThe powerful lesson of choosing yourself early, and why other people will always try to take your time and agenda firstWhy you don't need a perfect plan, anything figured out, or even a business to attend this event belowJoin the Women's Business Success Seminar on January 8th in North Vancouver (morning and afternoon sessions available - only 10 spots each!). https://business-success-seminar.dynamicwomen.biz/Can't make it in person? Join the waitlist for the online version: https://keap.app/contact-us/8964039388713353Plus, don't miss the FREE 5-Day Reset (December 28 - January 2). Upgrade by donation to support women's shelters and join live Zoom coaching sessions. https://keap.page/mw315/5-day-reset-2025-2026.htmlWant to be invited to join Diane's NEW high-level, like-minded group of women? Email her at diane@dianerolston.com.Do you prefer reading blogs or watching videos?Read Diane's blogs here: https://www.dianerolston.com/blogWatch Diane's videos here: https://www.youtube.com/@CoachDianeRolston

If you've been listening to the Dynamic Women Podcast and you're building a business, you're going to want to pay attention to this episode because our host, Diane Rolston, has a very special Christmas gift for you. She reveals what she's bringing back in 2026, following her recent experience at the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers convention, which reminded her of the irreplaceable power of in-person connection.Listen to learn these key takeaways:Why December is the perfect natural pause point for reflecting on what you've built and imagining what's coming nextThe three essential elements that create real momentum (and why they start with the letter C)The honest truth about being successful - you can still crave connection, be confident and still want a stronger circleWhy being in the right room expands your thinking and creates energy that consuming information alone never canThe difference between surface-level networking and intentional spaces that combine heart with kick-butt informationWhat Diane is bringing back to her roots after years of online-only events, and why she's craving intimate gatheringsReady to step into 2026 with clarity, confidence, and connection? Grab your ticket to the Women's Business Success Seminar on January 8th 2026 in North Vancouver. Only 10 spots per session available! Use this code WBSFREE to grab your free access: https://business-success-seminar.dynamicwomen.biz/Can't make it in person? Join the waitlist for the online version coming later: https://keap.app/contact-us/8964039388713353Want to be invited to join Diane's NEW high-level, like-minded group of women? Email her at diane@dianerolston.com.Do you prefer reading blogs or watching videos?Read Diane's blogs here: https://www.dianerolston.com/blogWatch Diane's videos here: https://www.youtube.com/@CoachDianeRolstonThis show's host, Diane Rolston, is called THE Expert on Being Dynamic and living a Dynamic Life. She specializes in coaching high-achieving women who want to be successful AND satisfied. She is a Certified Professional Coach, International Speaker, 11-time Author, and host of the five-time award-winning Dynamic Women Podcast, ranked in the top 2.5% of podcasts.Diane has been recognized with multiple awards for her professional accomplishments and for the powerful impact she has on the women she inspires and empowers. Chicken Soup for the Soul co-creator Jack Canfield describes her as “an amazing woman” doing “incredible work helping women develop holistic lives of balance.”Through her program, VA Made Easy, she helps entrepreneurs go from task overwhelm to business ease by hiring and training Virtual Assistants for them while also providing proven systems, processes, and strategies for success.Outside of her work, Diane is a mother of two, a soccer player, and a stand-up comedy rookie,...

Five years into planting The Way Church in Vancouver and five years into The Pastorate, Jason steps into the guest chair to reflect on what he's seeing in the Canadian church and what gives him real hope for pastors today. In this role-reversal episode, Jordan interviews Jason about his life as a local pastor, the story behind The Pastorate, and why he still wants to serve pastors as a practitioner, not a commentator.Jordan and Jason talk about:How Jason's pastoral curiosity shapes the way he hosts the podcast and listens to guests,Planting The Way Church during the pandemic and how that journey has run alongside The Pastorate's first five years,A concrete story of church revitalization through The Way's “marriage” with Sutherland Church in North Vancouver, and what it meant for legacy, humility, and hope,The current pastoral landscape in Canada: a shortage of pastors, but a deep hunger, especially among younger leaders, for character, depth, and a real life with God,The power of small pastoral cohorts and friendships: sharing burdens, praying together, rejoicing and mourning with one another, as a key to staying in ministry for the long haul,What's next for The Pastorate: retreats, cohorts, city meetups, and the dream of a national gathering that centres on Jesus and the renewal of the church in Canada.The episode ends with Jason speaking directly to pastors, a reminder that God's kingdom is at hand, that shepherding a local church is costly and precious work, and that one day in the new creation, the unseen faithfulness of ordinary pastors and congregations will matter more than we can even begin to imagine.Show NotesAlex and Caleb's Story | a film by The PastorateAaron's Story | a film by The PastorateThe Way ChurchThe Way CollegeGive to The Pastorate's Year End CampaignEmerging Leaders Lab ApplicationPartnersWe couldn't do the work we do at The Pastorate without your generous support. We invite you to pray, share, and ⁠give⁠ towards seeding a hope-filled future for the Canadian church.Special thanks to the Canadian Bible Society for making this episode possible. We invite you to explore their ⁠Bible Course⁠ to help your church grow in Scripture engagement.

It has been just 18 months since British Columbia launched Bill 44—the Small-Scale Multi-Unit Housing (SSMUH) initiative—and already the landscape of urban development in the province has shifted in ways few could have predicted. Hundreds of multiplex permit applications have been submitted across B.C., the first wave of completed projects is beginning to emerge, and municipalities that once resisted density are now formally adopting the provincial framework. Just this week, the City of North Vancouver officially passed its zoning amendments, opening the door to multiplex development across one of the most land-constrained communities in the region.On paper, this all signals momentum. But in practice, the path to delivering “Missing Middle” housing has proven far more complex.Nowhere is that tension clearer than in Burnaby—one of the earliest and most enthusiastic adopters of Bill 44, and now one of the loudest voices pushing back. Residents have raised concerns about scale, height, setbacks, and parking. And in response, the city has revised its bylaws, reducing allowable height, shrinking lot coverage, expanding setbacks, and increasing parking requirements. These changes may soothe neighbourhood discomfort, but they also directly affect the number of new homes that can realistically be built. We also get into a new, one of a kind single family project launch in Burnaby that is uniquely suited for downsizers and/or growing families.To help us understand what all of this means—not just for Burnaby, but for housing supply across the entire Lower Mainland—we're joined by someone at the forefront of multiplex development: Bill Laidler. Bill is a leader in the Missing Middle space, with more than 400 homes in development. He is a developer, educator, and one of the most articulate advocates for creating generational housing—helping grandparents live near their grandkids, while unlocking attainable ownership for young families. His previous two appearances on this channel are among our most viewed ever.Today, Bill walks us through the real impacts of Bill 44 so far: what's working, what isn't, and how recent municipal pushback could reshape the next decade of housing supply. We discuss the political friction between provincial goals and municipal authority, examine the Burnaby bylaw changes in detail, and explore whether multiplexes can meaningfully improve affordability—or risk becoming another high-priced, low-yield form of stratified ownership.We also dive into the biggest challenges affecting feasibility today: high construction costs, stricter parking requirements, and the difficulty builders face securing financing for small-scale multi-unit projects. Bill offers candid insight into which barriers matter most—and what practical solutions could unlock real progress.Finally, Bill shares a behind-the-scenes look at some of Laidler's upcoming multiplex communities and how they aim to set a new standard for livability, design, and family-oriented density.If you're wondering where the future of multi-family real estate investment is going and you want to understand where Missing Middle housing is truly headed—this is a conversation you won't want to miss. _________________________________ Contact Us To Book Your Private Consultation:

Have you ever wondered, "Can I go away and make money on my property?" Well, you definitely can, and you're going to want to listen to this episode as we talk about how you can make money while you're away during the FIFA World Cup 2026. Our host, Diane Rolston, sits down with Christa Rutherford of Sea to Sky Vacation Rental to explore this timely opportunity for homeowners in North Vancouver, West Vancouver, and the immediate surrounding areas.Listen to learn these key takeaways:Why FIFA 2026 is creating a massive 70,000-bed shortage in Vancouver and what this means for homeownersThe surprising price difference between hotels (charging $1,000-$3,000 per night) and what homeowners can earn from their propertiesReal success stories: from funding a cross-Canada retirement road trip to putting kids through universityChrista's tried-and-true three-point plan for keeping neighbours happy and protecting your propertyThe biggest myths homeowners believe about short-term rentals and why professional hosting makes all the differenceHow Christa's done-for-you service handles everything from licensing and insurance to photography, vetting guests, and emergency maintenanceThe concierge-level extras that make properties stand out and keep guests coming back year after yearWhy waiting to list your property could cost you top dollar and why this opportunity extends far beyond FIFA weeksIf you're in North Vancouver, West Vancouver, or the immediate surrounding areas, visit Sea to Sky Vacation Rental to fill out the contact form and book your complimentary consultation with Christa. Don't miss this chance to capitalize on the world's largest sporting event coming to your backyard!Christa's Bio: Sea to Sky Vacation Rental was created by Christa Rutherford, a North Vancouver local with a passion for helping homeowners make the most of their properties without the stress of managing guests, maintenance, or marketing.Christa was working a typical 9–5 job, trying to balance the rising cost of living with raising her two young children. With her pay grade capped and expenses climbing, she needed a way to increase her income while still being present for her family. A friend suggested she try short-term renting the suite in her home. At first, Christa hesitated—she worried about privacy, the kinds of guests who might stay, and whether issues would arise. But after taking the leap, everything changed. The suite quickly became a huge success, consistently booking out and reaching a remarkable 95% occupancy rate. What started as a small idea turned into a life-changing opportunity—one that gave Christa both financial freedom and more time with her children.Seeing how this opportunity transformed her own life, Christa began to wonder how many other people would love to do this but don't have the time? I knew first hand what it felt like to be stretched then - wanting more time with family, wanting the financial ability to take a vacation, plan special events, tackle renovations and check off those ‘one day' wish list items, but not knowing how to get there.What started as a personal solution quickly grew into a passion: helping homeowners unlock extra income and finding solutions without adding more to their already busy schedules.After seeing friends struggle with unreliable property management and inconsistent results, Christa saw an opportunity to create something better — a boutique, relationship-based hosting service designed specifically for homeowners in North Vancouver and West Vancouver who want to rent their homes while they're away.Christa's Social Media links: Instagram: @seatoskyvacationrentalFacebook: Sea to Sky Vacation RentalWebsite:

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Bob Muckle, whose book, "Once Upon This Land: Archaeology in British Columbia and the Stories it Tells" was recently published by UBC Press in Vancouver, British Columbia. Robert J. "Bob" Muckle has been an archaeologist and educator in British Columbia for decades. His new book provides a comprehensive look at key archaeological sites in the province that illuminate thousands of years of history, and he takes time to define important terms and explain the evolution of archaeology in recent years, including working more closely with Indigenous peoples and BC's many First Nations. In our conversation, we go deep on a few particular stories, including ancient footprints along the BC coast, and very recent studies of "artifacts" left behind on the streets of Vancouver, BC during the COVID-19 pandemic. For more information about "Once Upon This Land: Archaeology in British Columbia and the Stories it Tells" from Robert A. Muckle and UBC Press: https://www.ubcpress.ca/once-upon-this-land Book Launch Event for "Once Upon This Land" on November 20, 2025 at the Museum of North Vancouver: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/book-launch-once-upon-this-land-tickets-1924927753729?aff=oddtdtcreator&utm_source=UBC+Press+email+confirmation&utm_campaign=ca348f98da-Newsletter_Fall2025&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-d645ba7c0e-87058429 CASCADE OF HISTORY is broadcast LIVE most Sunday nights at 8pm Pacific Time via SPACE 101.1 FM in Seattle and gallantly streams everywhere via www.space101fm.org. The radio station broadcasts from studios at historic Magnuson Park – located in the former Master-at-Arms' quarters in the old Sand Point Naval Air Station - on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle. Subscribe to the CASCADE OF HISTORY podcast via most podcast platforms and never miss regular weekly episodes of Sunday night broadcasts as well as frequent bonus episodes.

This week on The Songwriter Connection, we welcome The Heels — three amazing, talented, and beautiful ladies whose songs, stories, and harmonies are lighting up Nashville!

Cory Brewer is the visionary entrepreneur and founder of Beyond Landscaping Ltd., a company renowned for its exceptional landscape maintenance, innovative design, construction services, and snow removal & Ice Management. Founded in 2016, Beyond Landscaping began as Cory's ambitious venture, transforming from a modest neighborhood lawn service into a multi-million-dollar enterprise. Now, the company is home to a dedicated team of over 40 full-time professionals and consistently exhibits remarkable year-over-year growth. Recently Cory joined forces with his cousin Brittany Demers and Market Hill, an agency that specializes in recruiting, placing, and ongoing training for skilled remote Executive Assistants for overworked small business owners. He brings with him not only his extensive network, but also his several years' experience with Virtual Staff and Executive Assistants. Cory's business acumen is backed by a robust academic background, including a Bachelor of Business Administration and an Advanced Certificate in Strategic HR Management. His entrepreneurial spirit is not just confined to landscaping; he extends his expertise as the President of Friendship Toastmasters in North Vancouver and as an EO Accelerator Coach, mentoring emerging companies. Cory's Website: www.beyondltd.ca