Conversations That Matter

Karen Ryan

Treating ADHD with Nutrition

 

This week’s Conversation That Matters features Karen Ryan, a mother of a child that was clinically diagnosed with ADHD who quit her job as a nutritionist to care for her son. What she discovered was that neither stimulant nor nonstimulant drugs were an option for her son.

 

Ryan says, “as a nutritionist I believed there had be other ways of dealing with this. So I researched the crap out of it and learned that it’s a multipronged syndrome so it deserves a multipronged approach.” Ryan points out, “there is no such thing as a magic pill, what works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for someone else. So what you really need to do is educate before you medicate.” She goes on to say, “I would never advocate to a parent do not medicate your child but before you do, talk to me and I will give you a mental tool box that you can exhaust and if that doesn’t work then by all means go the route of medication.”

 

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

 

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

This week’s Conversation That Matters features Maureen McGrath a “Sexpert” who says sex is one of the most contentious issues in relationships. She says, “many couples go months if not years without sex. For some this works because it’s what both partners want but the problem arises when one partner wants sex and the other doesn’t.”

The reasons are many and they range from sex is taboo to the disruptive nature of technology, body image challenges, recreational use of erectile drugs, porn, boredom and that’s just the start of it. McGrath works with people to help them, help they need because as she points out, “sex is still a very much a taboo subject. And people are not comfortable talking about it. They'll sneak about because they were raised with guilt or embarrassment or shame around sex. Or a lack of appropriate education.”

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

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

Ep 1345

Dr. Rick Hodes

Bringing Back Hope

 

This week’s Conversation That Matters features Dr. Rick Hodes of Addis Ababa a man on a mission to save the lives of children with horribly twisted spines. The degree of deformity is mind boggling, how can the spine be so corrupted? They’re terrified but they know Dr. Hodes by reputation as a kind and caring man. “My policy is everybody gets seen on the day they come in. The average age is probably about seven or eight and they range from literally two, three weeks old to up into their 50s.” And treat them he does, he transforms their bodies and saves their lives.

 

Over the past 29 years Dr. Hodes has relied on the generosity of health care practitioners from around the world including Vancouver to bring help and healing to thousands. The work he is doing not only helps those affected but it is also providing insights into what is possible in the human body, “we're discovering new deformities that we never knew existed we have an alpha deformity, we have a gamma deformity. We have a saxophone deformity, it's sort of like spinal deformity on steroids.

 

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

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

Scott Sampson PhD

Science and why we need more that ever

 

This week’s Conversation That Matters features Scott Sampson, PhD of Science World on the role of science in our lives, our economy and the opportunity BC has to be a global leader in research and development. Sampson points out, “we use science everyday for everything, it’s all around us, whether it's understanding the atmosphere or the iPhones in our pockets or the medical care we receive or the cars we drive or whatever it is. It's all based on science, but not many people think about that. They just sort of go through their lives using the things that are around them, not really realizing that there's a series of basic research, which then moves to technology which then moves to the marketplace.”

 

Sampson’s biggest concern is we’ve literally driven children’s sense of wonder away - wonder that is needed if we’re going to cultivate the scientists of the future. Sampson says there are three components of modern life that are inhibiting children from asking how everything works, “there's the fear factor, there's the over scheduling factor, we schedule kids to the nth degree. They don't have time for free play, and there's the tech factor and I think that we rob kids, especially young kids, of their childhood by not letting them have that free unstructured playtime.”

 

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

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

Ep 133

Radha Curpen

Social Licence to Operate

 

This week’s Conversation That Matters features Radha Curpen on the role of Social Licence in the development of projects that affect the environment, our neighbourhoods and our relationships with each other. What is ‘Social Licence’, who grants it, how do you get it, does it affect or influence regulators and does it have legal weight? Curpen says, “the gap between the legal licence and society's expectations is where social licence resides. There is a distrust of the regulatory process. And as a result, people are talking about social licence as something else in addition to the regulatory process of getting a licence.”

 

Complicating the process of acquiring ‘Social Licence’ is the nature of who will grant it. Curpen says it’s challenging, “this social licence discussion is the result, is the outcome of people not being satisfied, of people's expectations being higher, or of having to voice certain issues.”  As a result the overall regulatory process can become unstable and oddly creates a situation where there is reduction of public confidence in the formal regulatory process.

 

To obtain ‘Social Licence’, Curpen says, “you need to identify the stakeholders, engage them early, collaborate, get their input and continue to do so after your approval is obtained and continue to do so during the life of the project, that's what I call corporate social responsibility, the outcome of that is what we call the social licence to operate.”

 

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

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

Shari Graydon

Women in Media - It’s still a Man’s world

This week’s Conversation That Matters features Shari Graydon of Informed Opinions which strives to amplify women’s voices to ensure women’s perspectives and priorities play an equal role in Canadian Society. Graydon regrets that in 2017 women remain under-represented as experts in the media, while men provide the lion’s share of commentary and analysis. She says, “that it is a profound loss that we are not actively engaging, accessing, utilizing, permitting women to contribute their talents, insights, energies and intelligence to everything we're doing.”

Graydon points to the US election as proof that women are still treated differently, “it's very, very clear that the degree of sexism that operated in terms of the coverage and attitudes generally, reinforced by media about Hillary Clinton's candidacy are still alive and thriving”. She notes that the more women experts and politicians we see, the easier it will be for all of them to be perceived as competent and treated more responsibly.

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

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

Shari Graydon

Women in Media - It’s still a Man’s world

This week’s Conversation That Matters features Shari Graydon of Informed Opinions which strives to amplify women’s voices to ensure women’s perspectives and priorities play an equal role in Canadian Society. Graydon regrets that in 2017 women remain under-represented as experts in the media, while men provide the lion’s share of commentary and analysis. She says, “that it is a profound loss that we are not actively engaging, accessing, utilizing, permitting women to contribute their talents, insights, energies and intelligence to everything we're doing.”

Graydon points to the US election as proof that women are still treated differently, “it's very, very clear that the degree of sexism that operated in terms of the coverage and attitudes generally, reinforced by media about Hillary Clinton's candidacy are still alive and thriving”. She notes that the more women experts and politicians we see, the easier it will be for all of them to be perceived as competent and treated more responsibly.

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

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

This week’s Conversation That Matters features Diana MacKay the Executive Director of Carleton University’s Global Academy on Canada’s valuable education resource. MacKay says we have a lot to offer to students and educators around the world. In recent years, there have been about 245,000 international students studying in Canada at any given point in time and the goal is to increase the number to 450,000 by 2020. While it’s important to continue to attract international students, MacKay asks, “what happens if we expand our offering, if we were to package up the expertise of our universities and colleges and start selling it to audiences around the world in the business sector for one?”

 

According to MacKay the benefits of expanding the education menu are far reaching. Pathways to a Canadian education include “Online, satellite campuses and programs that have them live here to name a few. They’ll contribute to our economy by being part of the Canadian system, they’ll get a professional program or a chance to practice their skills, apply their skills using their deep knowledge and conducting their business in English. There's untold demand around the world for people to come and gain their fluency in English through an experience here.” Canada has an education system that is extremely marketable through a wide range of venues and MacKay says we can do so much more than we’re currently offering.

 

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

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

Greg Power

The Power of story

 

This week’s Conversation That Matters features Greg Power of Weber Shandwick, a public relations expert who says the days of just the facts are over. Power says, “audiences need to connect to the person sharing the information and simply stating the facts isn’t good enough in a post truth world.” Power says, “stories connect us, they resonate and storytelling is an important part of our evolutionary DNA. It's how we've always organized the world and how we need to organize the world to participate in it.”

 

Power believes great storytelling includes, “people, it involves conflict, it has human drama and it has a solution.” As Power points out, this was the magic of Steve Jobs, “he understood how to use drama. During the launch of the iPhone he created conflict by stating smartphones are not so smart and then positions the keyboard on the smartphones, as the enemy because of the screen space it robs from you the user He goes on to state screen space is your freedom. He turned it into a drama and let me tell you why. Let me tell you who the villain is and now let me show you is the hero and the hero was the iPhone.”

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

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

Ep 129

Brad McCammell

Are your City, Office and Home Accessible?

 

This week’s Conversation That Matters features Brad McCannell of the Rick Hansen Foundation says, “we are all on a long slippery slope towards mobility challenges” He says the time to pay attention to accessibility in your home, your office and your city is now and he points out, “we’re not doing such a great job.”

 

McCannell says an effective accessibility strategy is consistency. “ Imagine having to plan your trip not knowing from one intersection to the next if you get from one side to the other. Will there be a ramp? Will it be an appropriate ramp?’ McCannell says we’ve had a hogpog policy that includes a little of this and a little of that and it comes up short of an effective accessibility plan.

 

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

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