Powerful with Jeff Couillard

019 - Bob McInnis and The Power of Community

In today's episode Jeff interviews business and community leader and liaison, Bob McInnis, on the power of community.

Listeners will hear stories about how our sense of community is being threatened, what the essential ingredients of building community are and some practical strategies for how to go about connecting within your own community.

They discuss Bob’s journey to deconstruct his world view, and how he continues to reconstruct it as he asks difficult and awkward questions and continues to grow.

Give this fascinating conversation on the "power of community" a listen and share!

018 - The Pale Blue Dot

In today's short episode, Jeff reflects on one of his favourite speeches by Carl Sagan...the famous "Pale Blue Dot" speech prompted by a photograph taken by the Voyager spacecraft.

Jeff also discusses the idea of "ownership", specifically the importance of owning our values, behaviours and feelings and how they're connected to living our best lives.

017 - Dr. Cathryn van Kessel (aka. Dr. Evil)

Today on Powerful Jeff sits down with Dr. Cathryn Van Kessel and together they conceptualize good and evil and societal ideas surrounding death and the impacts on one's life. Cathryn is a professor at the University of Alberta where she teaches and researches all things evil. In this episode Cathryn discusses how as humans we have a natural biological response to death and that we want to feel stable and permanent and don’t want to die. Cathryn introduces listeners to the fascinating concepts that make up Terror Management Theory and how it illustrates how a direct reminder of death makes humans do weird and quirky things. Give this episode a listen and click on the resources if you want to find out more about this week's topic.

Resources

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrEvilAcademic

Cathryn Van Kessel profile at U of A: https://www.ualberta.ca/education/about-us/professor-profiles/cathryn-van-kessel

The Grim Educator Website: https://pressbooks.library.ualberta.ca/grimeducator/

The Worm at the Core by Sheldon Solomon: https://www.amazon.ca/Worm-Core-Role-Death-Life/dp/1400067472/ref=sr_1_1?gclid=CjwKCAiAyeTxBRBvEiwAuM8dnW60T7qRWs_aHT9CSRfKvxrUoNzsabE1IGphNxrqAYjt2_Sj2Us8ixoCAboQAvD_BwE&hvadid=208264203762&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9001343&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=8482690808591347758&hvtargid=aud-854586742982%3Akwd-300604677728&hydadcr=22430_9261609&keywords=worm+at+the+core&qid=1580874806&sr=8-1

Wecroak App Cathryn talked about in Episode: https://www.wecroak.com/

016 - Dr. Muna Saleh & The Danger of a Single Story

Show notes:

In this episode of Powerful, Jeff invites professor and activist Dr. Muna Saleh onto the show to discuss racism, the danger of a single story, her experience as a hijab wearing professor and some stories of hope moving forward. Dr. Saleh is a Canadian woman, professor, researcher, author, and mother. Her doctoral research captures the experiences of Canadian Muslim girls and their mothers and her advocacy work is centred around helping refugees across Canada gain support and resources to thrive.

Resources & Links:

 

Dr. Muna Saleh - https://concordia.ab.ca/education/faculty/dr-muna-saleh/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrMunaSaleh?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Dr. Saleh’s book: http://demeterpress.org/books/stories-we-live-and-grow-by-retelling-our-experiences-as-muslim-mothers-and-daughters/

Chimananda Ngozi Adichie: the Danger of a Single Story https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en

Dr. Tim Loreman - Concordia University https://concordia.ab.ca/education/faculty/dr-tim-loreman/

Podcast with Paul Gorski: https://www.jeffcouillard.com/2019/11/26/006-dr-paul-gorski-and-equity-literacy/

Thomas King: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/the-2003-cbc-massey-lectures-the-truth-about-stories-a-native-narrative-1.2946870

015 - Colleen Henderson and The Power of Story

You won’t want to miss this episode of Powerful! Jeff invites guest Colleen Henderson onto the show to discuss the power of story and how it relates to everything from business, marketing and politics to video games and freedom of expression. Colleen Henderson talks about her own experience with becoming a storyteller and how it changed her career direction and led to her becoming President and Creative Director of the Calgary based company Perfect Pitch Consulting Group.

Listen to this episode to discover what Jeff and Colleen feel the biggest problem in business is today, and how we need to move towards understanding the problem first (having empathy), before offering up solutions.

Listeners will not be disappointed in how this episode captures the true essence of how powerful a good story can be, while giving practical strategies to becoming a captivating story teller yourself.

And don't forget to grab a copy of the Ultimate Guide to Gratitude and kickstart your gratitude practice today!

014 - The Power of Gratitude

Gratitude is one of the most important mindsets & practices that we can cultivate in our lives. People who regularly practice gratitude have been shown to enjoy;

• More positive emotions
• Better physical and psychological health
• Feeling more alive and present in the moment.
• Improved self-esteem
• Building new relationships and deepened existing relationships
• Better sleep
• Stronger immune systems
• Increased mental strength

Grab a copy of the Ultimate Guide to Gratitude and kickstart your gratitude practice today!

013 - Shelly Qualtieri & The Power of Tools

Today Jeff sits down and chats with registered social worker/counselor Shelly Qualtieri. Shelly has 30 years of experience working in government, and not for profit in North America, and Australia. Her work spans the spectrum of helping services from mental health, to Suicide Prevention Awareness and intervention and private practice.

Jeff and Shelly talk about the power of relationship and how to know when you are aligned within a therapeutic alliance. Listeners will enjoy really tangible, practical advice for things like anxiety, depression and what to do if you or someone you know are having thoughts of suicide. Jeff and Shelley discuss how in the right use power framework that self-care isn't optional, it's ethical.

012 - The Most Important Conversation

Are some conversations more important than others? Jeff thinks so.

In this short episode, he'll introduce you to the Most Important Conversation you'll ever have...the one we often shy away from and don't realize we haven't had. The one we ignore to our peril, until it becomes unavoidable.

011 - How to Suffer More in 2020

In this short tongue-in-cheek episode, Jeff gives you three practical strategies for suffering more in the coming year. Obviously, you could just do the opposite and suffer less...but the choice is yours.

010 - Garth Mullins and the Crackdown

The opioid crisis has killed 13,000 people in Canada in the last 3 years. In 2018, someone died of an overdose every two hours, every day, for 365 days. That’s just shy of 4,600 deaths. 

And the reality is that we’re lagging our feet, at the system level through our healthcare, education and governance institutions, and as a society in the continued stigma and the rather arbitrary criminalization of drug users in this country.

Which brings us to today’s guest, who’s been at ground zero of the drug war in this country, living and working in the downtown eastside of Vancouver...Canada’s hotspot for the heroin overdose epidemic of the mid 1990’s, and the fentanyl crisis of today.

He’s an award winning documentarian, longtime community organizer, writer, activisit and musician. He’s the host and executive producer of Crackdown, a new monthly podcast about drugs, drug policy and the drug war led by drug user activists and supported by research. Each episode of Crackdown tells the story of a community fighting for their lives. It’s also about solutions, justice for those who’ve been lost, and is ultimately about saving lives.