Let's Talk With Coach Che Marville

What does it take to lead with love, not just a title?

Che Marville sits down with Simone Jennifer Smith, chief correspondent of the Toronto Caribbean Newspaper, who holds a master’s in psychology, for a warm conversation about self-awareness, emotional intelligence and the patterns we inherit from family and community.

Simone shares the story of watching her grandmother live with mental illness, the strict upbringing she rebelled against, and why therapy is where self-understanding begins. Together they talk about the stigma around mental health in Black and Caribbean communities, the myth of strength, and why accountability and knowing your weaknesses make you a better leader.

“You have to learn how to master yourself.”

00:00 Welcome Simone Jennifer Smith
01:58 Self-regulation and leadership
03:46 Trauma across generations
05:52 Culture and processing pain
07:53 Titles versus true leadership
09:56 Emotional intelligence and therapy
12:07 The myth of strength
14:03 Confrontation, feedback and EQ
15:48 Her grandmother’s story
18:01 Mental health in families and communities
20:07 Rebelling against a strict upbringing
21:50 Accountability and knowing your weaknesses
23:55 Leadership now
26:01 Self-care and lifelong learning
26:58 Closing thoughts

If this conversation spoke to you, subscribe to Let’s Talk with Che Marville so you never miss a new episode. New conversations every Wednesday.

Visit Che Marville at letstalkwithchemarville.ca

Listen deeply. Begin again.

What makes someone decide to step into public life?

In this episode of Let’s Talk, Che Marville sits down with longtime friend and Oakville Ward 4 council candidate Kashif “Kash” Chaudry for a candid conversation about leadership, community, identity and what it means to serve.

Kashif shares a side of his story many people may not know. Raised in Hamilton by a single mother alongside his brother and sister, his family relied on the social assistance system while his mother worked to give her children opportunities she believed education could provide.

Today, Kashif is a senior leader in banking, a husband, father of two young children and an active member of the Oakville community. So why politics—and why now?

The conversation moves well beyond campaign talking points.

Che and Kashif explore:

• Why service, not status became central to his definition of success
• Growing up in a working-class immigrant family in Hamilton
• What his mother taught him about responsibility, education and doing the right thing
• Whether universities still matter in a changing economy
• What residents are telling him at the doors in Oakville
• Safety, transportation and responsible infrastructure
• Why development should follow infrastructure—not the other way around
• Transparency and accountability in municipal government
• His belief that leaders don't need to have every answer
• Race, identity and the growing divisions Canadians encounter online
• The difference between social-media conflict and real-life community
• Protecting Oakville's green spaces while allowing the town to grow
• Why listening may be one of the most important skills a political leader can have

After speaking with nearly 1,000 residents through conversations and surveys, Kashif says three themes repeatedly emerged: safety and mobility, responsible infrastructure, and transparent accountability.

But underneath the politics is a larger question:

What kind of community are we building—and who gets to help shape it?

This is a conversation about municipal politics, but even more, it is about citizenship, belonging and the responsibility we have to one another.

Let’s Talk.

🎙️ Host: Che Marville
🎧 Podcast: Let’s Talk
📍 Recorded in Oakville, Ontario

Follow Let’s Talk on Spotify and wherever you listen to podcasts.

If this conversation made you think, share it with someone who cares about leadership, community and the future of the places we call home.

Julia Hanna has called Oakville home for more than 40 years. She opened her first restaurant at 26 with $880 in the bank, built a life in this town one table at a time, and is now running for Mayor of Oakville in the October 26, 2026 municipal election. This is a conversation about what it will take to build Oakville's future together.

Julia sees her community from the front line. As an entrepreneur, she has watched how people are feeling through good years and hard ones, and she brings that view to everything from downtown's beautiful streets and quiet winters to the working families and seniors standing in line at Kerr Street Mission. She talks about accountability and urgency in local government, why she believes transparency is leadership, and why municipal politics should be public service rather than a career.

Along the way, Che and Julia talk about Canada as a mosaic, food as the greatest connector, the grandmother who never trusted anyone who didn't like to eat, and the 88 year old mother who still rolls the gnocchi every Friday morning. It is a conversation about belonging, courage, and leading with heart and great thinking at the same time.

In this episode
Building a business from nothing, then and now
Why small businesses are the canary in the coal mine
Downtown, uptown, Bronte, Kerr Street and North Oakville as one town
Accountability, urgency and transparency at town hall
Compassion and kindness as strength
Why the smartest person in the room knows they aren't

Chapters
00:00 Welcome, Julia Hanna
02:17 The barometer of how we feel
04:41 Eight hundred and eighty dollars and a dream
07:05 Downtown Oakville, beautiful and hard
09:19 The library and the cost of waiting
11:39 Uptown, downtown and belonging
14:02 The mosaic and the melting pot
16:26 Wine in September, sauce in the kitchen
18:52 What food means
21:08 Do you like to eat? Grandma's test
23:29 Give the independents a chance
25:51 Standing room only at Kerr Street
28:16 The working poor and the need for opportunity
30:37 Running a town like a business
33:03 Midtown, growth and staying independent
35:17 Compassion and kindness as strength
37:36 What this run means to her
40:02 Never the smartest person in the room
42:24 Closing

"Food is the greatest connector." Julia Hanna

Let's Talk with Che Marville is a distinctly Canadian podcast about the power of conversation. Share this episode with someone who loves Oakville, subscribe, and tell us what you want for your community.

Connect with Che: [email protected] · ellivram.com

Learn more about Julia Hanna: https://www.juliahanna.ca/

Listen deeply. Begin again.

Mark Stoddart says love is spelled T.I.E. Thoughtful. Intentional. Empathy.

It isn't a text. It isn't a like. It's the time you put into the people you care about. The call. The visit. The look on someone's face when you show up.

"When's the last time we called somebody to check in and say, I love you?"

A lot of people are suffering right now. They're lonely, scrolling, and wondering if they're even worthy of reaching out. Mark has spent fourteen years sending a motivational note to his community every Thursday, never with an ask, because he believes people need to be reminded that they matter.

That belief runs through his whole life.

Born in England to Jamaican parents and raised in Scarborough, Mark grew up with a basketball in one hand and a portfolio in the other. OCAD turned him down. The Sheridan College basketball team cut him, then made room for one more player because a guidance counsellor wrote a letter about his character. That year, Mark helped win a national championship. His name is still in the rafters.

Today he's a visual communicator, painter, designer and Sheridan educator whose work preserves the stories of Black athletes, musicians, activists and cultural figures.

Che and Mark go back to the low ceilinged court at Kingston Road and Galloway where you couldn't take a jump shot. To Saturdays at the Third World Bookstore, where Mr. Johnson asked young people what they were thinking about and why they weren't thinking about more. To a 1989 T shirt with Black Panther and the continent of Africa that stopped people in their tracks at Caribana.

They talk about the friend's funeral that made Mark stop playing it safe, the father who kept saying he could always go back to Cadbury, and the day, at almost forty, his dad finally left him alone to paint.

And Mark has a message for every West Indian parent with a child who wants to make art: let them dream. Let them be delusional. The world needs what they're carrying.

In this episode:

• Love as T.I.E.: thoughtful, intentional, empathy
• Loneliness, worth, and why a call still beats a text
• Getting cut, and earning the spot anyway
• Scarborough as the creative template for Toronto
• Knowledge of self at the Third World Bookstore
• Clothing as a canvas for saying something without a word
• Learn, earn, return: Mark's mentor Dr. John Carlos and why he teaches now
• The Windrush story, from the Caribbean to England to Canada, still waiting to be fully told here
• What to do with the art you've been keeping inside: get it out.

Connect with Mark Stoddart
Instagram: @mstoddart68
LIWI68 brand: @l.i.w.i.68
Website: www.liwi68.com

Let's Talk with Che Marville is a distinctly Canadian podcast about the power of conversation. New episodes every Wednesday.

Call someone you love today. Then share this episode with them.

For leadership and strategy work: [email protected] | ellivram.com

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Let's Talk Wednesday

The Wednesday Conversation | Let's Talk with Che Marville

Dr. Robin Barre spent decades as a teacher before a student's suffering after 9/11 changed the course of her life. She became a depth psychotherapist, and today her TikTok conversations about family estrangement and reconciliation, including her own with her son, have reached parents and adult children around the world.

In this conversation, Che and Robin explore:

• Why adolescence is as transformative as the day we are born and the day we die
• Traumatic invalidation: what it is, how subtle it can be, and why loving someone makes a relationship ripe for it
• The difference between good intentions and lived impact
• What real accountability looks like between parents and adult children, without self-condemnation
• Robin's working definition of validation: the embodied experience of feeling seen, heard, accepted, valued, and loved for who you are, as you are

Follow Dr. Robin Barre on TikTok: @shiftlesswanderer

Let's Talk with Che Marville is a distinctly Canadian podcast about the power of conversation. Conversations that riff, wonder, and land somewhere true.

Listen deeply. Begin again.

#LetsTalk #CheMarville #Parenting #Estrangement #InnerAdolescent #Validation #DepthPsychology

What happens when we stop avoiding the difficult parts of our lives and begin asking what they are here to teach us? In this episode of Let’s Talk, Che Marville sits down with Colleen Chambers, a conscious living and conflict resolution coach, for an intimate conversation about parenting, family estrangement, reconciliation, grief, forgiveness and the work of repairing relationships. Colleen shares the deeply personal story of reconnecting with her father after nearly 30 years apart—and what that experience taught her about compassion, curiosity and letting go of resentment. Together, Che and Colleen explore the patterns we inherit from our families, why conflict doesn't have to mean the end of a relationship, and why learning to repair may be one of the most important skills we can model for our children. The conversation also turns to grief: how loss changes over time, how children remember experiences adults may assume they have forgotten, and how the people we love can continue to shape us long after they are gone.

They ask:

• What does conscious parenting actually look like?
• Why do some adult children become estranged from their parents?
• Can curiosity replace judgment during conflict?
• What does meaningful repair require?
• Is forgiveness something we do for another person—or for ourselves?
• How do childhood experiences continue to influence our adult relationships?
• Does grief ever really end?
• And when life changes unexpectedly, how do we reclaim the agency to choose what comes next?

This is a conversation about what it means to examine our own thinking, tell the truth about what hurts, and become more intentional about how we live, parent, love and lead. Because sometimes the most important work we do is learning how to come back to ourselves and to one another. Let’s Talk is a podcast about leadership not simply as performance, but as practice where identity, culture, relationships, decisions and consequences intersect.

Subscribe for more conversations that don’t rush toward easy answers, but invite deeper understanding.

#LetsTalk #CheMarville #ConsciousLiving #ConsciousParenting #FamilyRelationships #Estrangement #Grief #Forgiveness #ConflictResolution #RelationshipRepair #PersonalGrowth #Leadership #Healing #Parenting

Che Marville talks with Christina Spirou, chemical engineer and President and CEO of DigitalEd, about curiosity, education technology, and what it really takes for students to learn. Christina traces her path from a co-op placement in automotive engineering to leading a global edtech company, explains why pandemic-era online courses failed students, and shares what Nordic education systems get right. She also introduces her new show, Curio Cabinet, a collection of ideas and paradoxes about how we learn.

In this episode:

• Why the best solutions come from sitting with unanswered questions
• Eliciting questions versus collecting answers, and why it made her career
• What online learning actually means in 2026 (hint: it is not a PDF)
• The science of successful learning and the book Make It Stick
• What Finland and the Nordics teach us about trusting educators
• The readiness gap between high school and university
• Math anxiety, shame, and cognitive load
• Accessibility as fairness, not ease
• "You get what you measure": rethinking what education is for

Chapters:
0:00 Welcome to Let's Talk
1:05 Meet Christina Spirou
3:29 From tinkerer to chemical engineer
5:52 Math, curiosity, and the Curio Cabinet
10:36 Asking questions vs collecting answers
15:19 From engineering into education
24:34 What online learning really means in 2026
26:59 Why pandemic-era courses fell flat
31:33 Make It Stick and the science of learning
36:11 What Finland gets right
43:15 The readiness gap and math anxiety
47:48 Cognitive load and teacher wellbeing
52:20 Accessibility is fairness, not ease
56:41 A different kind of STEM leader
59:04 You get what you measure
1:03:16 Closing

Christina Spirou is President and CEO of DigitalEd and host of Curio Cabinet.

Let's Talk with Che Marville is a distinctly Canadian podcast about the power of conversation, ranked by FeedSpot among the Best Canada Midlife Podcasts: https://podcast.feedspot.com/canada_midlife_podcasts/

Listen deeply. Begin again.

Connect with Che: [email protected] | ellivram.com

Learn more about DigitalEd: https://www.digitaled.comConnect with Christina: https://www.ispirou.comChristina Spirou is President and CEO of DigitalEd and host of Curio Cabinet.

In this episode of Let's Talk with Coach Che Marville, Che speaks with Richard Pinnock, President of Diversity of Thought Strategies, about the future of DEI, belonging, and leadership in Canada. Richard shares the personal experiences that shaped his lifelong commitment to inclusion and explains why diversity of thought may be the next evolution of DEI. Together, Che and Richard explore psychological safety, representation, newcomer talent, demographic change in Canada, and why leaders must create workplaces where people feel trusted, heard, and valued. A timely conversation about courage, belonging, identity, and the future of leadership in Canada.

In This Episode

• Why Richard believes DEI hasn't failed, but is ready for its next iteration
• The Stats Canada projection that by 2051 the majority of Canadians will identify as members of racialized communities and the question every leader should be asking now
• The crucible moments that shaped Richard's path: a childhood in diverse Chomedey, Laval; his father's pride as a CNR sleeping car porter; and the 1983 job interview that changed everything
• Why visible-minority women hold only 6% of leadership roles, and what a 5x correction would require
• Representation, equity, and inclusion: what each one really means, and where organizations check the box without doing the work
• The hidden gap in engagement surveys: who feels safe to speak up, and who stays silent
• Newcomer talent and untapped potential: "too many new Canadians driving Ubers when they should be driving the economy."
• The DOT Index (Diversity of Thought): five core competencies, fifteen behaviours, and the surprising finding that integration and transformation register with only 1.9% of respondents
• Why leadership, not money, is the missing ingredient and the case for trust, dialogue, and psychological safety
• Conflict, pluralism, and legacy: thinking seven generations ahead

• "I'm going to do whatever I can to help other Canadians not experience what I just experienced." The moment a young Richard turned rejection into purpose.
• "Diversity is complexity… and complexity is of great service to who we are as human beings." Che on why difference makes us greater.
• "Our diversity is our greatest strength, but diversity of thought is the key to unlock that strength."
• On thriving: "I thrive in an environment of order, peace, and tranquillity."

• Canadian Caribbean Association of Halton — www.ccah.ca
• Victor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

Connect: Let's Talk with Coach Che Marville is produced by Wisemindly Media. If this episode moved you, please subscribe, share, and leave a review to help us reach more listeners.

Former Canadian Ambassador to the UN Bob Rae joins Che for a wide-ranging conversation on hope, power, and what it means to live well in a moment that feels Orwellian.Three months after stepping down from a five-year posting in New York  and following in the footsteps of his father, Saul Rae, who also served as Canada's UN ambassador Bob reflects on what he witnessed: the United States voting alongside Russia against a resolution on Ukraine, the recognition of Palestine, the rise of imperial attitudes inside international institutions, and the strange experience of defending Canadian sovereignty from the UN podium.But this conversation goes deeper than diplomacy. Bob and Che talk about why hope is an obligation rather than a feeling, what Orwell and Huxley anticipated about the technologies now shaping our minds, the difference between racial grievance and racial reality, why deep listening is incompatible with corporate-clock culture, and how addiction to distraction may be the defining challenge of our era. A thoughtful, generous, and at times urgent conversation with one of Canada's most experienced public figures.

Topics include: life after public office, Orwell and Huxley, generational hopelessness, indigenous reconciliation and economic power dynamics, the manosphere and the myth of merit, Canadian pluralism, compassion as political practice, AI and "lying machines," consciousness vs. conscience, and why kindness across disagreement is a form of strength.

Recorded April 2026.

Coach Che Marville opens this new season not with small talk, but with a bold and honest reckoning: we are living through one of the most overwhelming moments in human history not because the world is more broken than ever, but because we are witnessing all of it, all at once, in real time.

In this season premiere, Che reflects on what it means to stay grounded, hopeful, and whole when technology, polarization, and an endless flood of bad news threatens to drown out your sense of self.

In this episode:

• Why the weight we're carrying isn't just stress , it's the psychological cost of constant, unfiltered information
• The one thing that is actually new about our current world (hint: it's not war, tribalism, or division)
• How human history offers a quiet but powerful case for hope
• The poem that a teacher taught Che as a teenager and why she's bringing it back now
• What resilience actually is (and what it isn't)
• A personal milestone: Let's Talk named one of the Top 25 Midlife Podcasts in Canada by FeedSpot 

This season of Let's Talk is dedicated to hope, growth, love, and leading from who we truly are — through the noise, the grief, and all of it.

"To hope is not naive. Your decision to keep going is your human birthright."

 Hosted by Coach Che Marville  Produced by WiseMindly Inc.  Topics this season: Identity · Relationships · Resilience · Leadership · Perimenopause · Meditation · Hope

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