When we started this podcast three years ago, we never anticipated that we'd be sitting down to talk with a Canadian Paralympian medal winner — but if anyone can reframe resilience, it's Paralympian Allison Lang. We loved so much about this chat — learning about Allison's sport, sitting volleyball, and how that opened the door for her to move forward from some pretty brutal bullying to become a disability advocate in so many different settings. From brand influencing to speaking about her prosthetic leg in schools, Allison has brought forth an inherently hopeful worldview that reframed a lot of our thinking about resilience.

Born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta and now residing in Montreal, Allison is a content creator, speaker, model, and athlete for Team Canada's sitting volleyball team. She was born missing her left leg and was severely bullied for having a disability, resulting in her struggle with body-image and self confidence. Now, she shares her story of self-love and body acceptance in hopes to help others who may be on a similar journey. She is a passionate advocate for those with disabilities with a goal to connect with her community online in hopes to dismantle ableism and create a more inclusive and accessible world!

Links:
The Anti-Ableist Manifesto by Tiffany Yu
Faux Feminism by Serene Khader
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
For more from Allison, check out her website and follow her on Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter

We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials.

If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

Who couldn’t use a mood boost these days? We’re grateful for good people doing good things to counter all this mess — like Julia Stewart, our next guest in our resilience series. She’s the CEO of Alurx, a wellness company with a cool health app (that you should check out, by the way). Julia and Nat almost missed each other because of the fires that were happening in L.A. — the day that we were supposed to record, she was being evacuated! When we finally were able to connect, we delved into the resilience required as a female business leader in male-dominated environments, the value Julia gains in being a mentor, and her very cool story of having started out as a waitress at IHOP and then, years later, buying the whole company.

We encourage you to join us in making a difference for those affected by the L.A. wildfires by contributing to these reputable and trusted organizations Julia has suggested:
California Fire Foundation
Direct Relief
Wildfire Recovery Fund

Link:
Alurx

We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials.

If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

Nat did the morning drive before the age of podcasts, and a voice that kept her sane on the road for all those years was the CBC's very own Gill Deacon — the next guest in our series where we reframe resilience. With Gill, we discuss resilience from a number of angles: her health challenges over the years with breast cancer and long COVID, and how she used writing to help her reframe along the way. We also talk about her new Substack and podcast projects, and the many ways in which she's come to embrace uncertainty.

Gill Deacon is a veteran journalist, television and radio host, bestselling author, and public speaker. She has hosted many radio programs for CBC Radio as well as television shows for CBC Television and Discovery Channel. From 2013 to 2024, Gill was the host of CBC Radio's Here & Now. Gill has written three non-fiction books, all published by Penguin. Her fourth book will be published by House of Anansi Press in 2025. Gill is a former columnist for Chatelaine and has written many articles for news outlets such as the Globe and Mail and CBC. Her podcast Gill Deacon is Getting Old(ish) debuts in 2025.

Links:
A Love Affair with the Unknown
For more from Gill, follow her on Instagram and Twitter, or check out her website

We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials.

If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

We continue reframing resilience with Dr. Poppy Gibson, a lecturer in education whose key interests involve children’s psychological development and mental health, and wellbeing in education. Nat had actually previously met Poppy when writing for a journal that she edits, and after doing some digging found out some really significant similarities! We talk about how both Nat and Poppy almost died, and Poppy’s children’s book about how to talk about death with kids. All kinds of trauma are navigated here, but somehow we ended up laughing a lot — and briefly crying!

Links:
When They Died by Poppy Gibson & Alfred Russo
For more from Poppy, follow her on Instagram and Twitter

We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials.

If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

Many famous people have been through the doors of Laurie May, co-founder and president of Elevation Pictures, one of Toronto Life's most influential Torontonians, and this episode's guest. We talked about our mothers and our own experiences of motherhood, what it means to be resilient in the face of hard business decisions as a woman in leadership, manifesting gratitude, and, of course, some celebrities. We could have kept going, to be honest!

We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials.

If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

Reframeables returns with a new six-episode series on female-focused resilience! Our first guest is Jenn Harper, the founder and CEO of Cheekbone Beauty — a cosmetics company which aims to help every Indigenous person see and feel their value in the world while developing sustainable colour cosmetics that won’t end up in a landfill. Jenn has been featured as Chatelaine’s Woman of the Year in 2019 and was on Canadian Business’ New Innovators list and Entrepreneur Magazine’s Woman of Influence list in 2022.

Link:
Cheekbone Beauty

We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials.

If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

We often have conversations with folks who have written books. In this episode of Reframeables, Nat has a thoughtful conversation with child therapist Niomi Cherney, who’s in the midst of drafting her very own book on how to talk to loved ones with opposing viewpoints — think Trump supporter at one end of the table, and leftist liberal at the other. Essentially, this episode is their attempt to reframe mental health in times of crisis — or what it means to survive and thrive in difficult times. I actually know Niomi from my early mom days, walking to and from school with Niomi, who was at that time a childcare provider for a child who was the same age as Violet. I knew even then how special she was, so caring and creative with her kids. When she reached out to join us on Reframeables, I was excited to pick up where we left off.

Nat and Niomi talk about socially conscious self-care, how Niomi finds the strength to show up for her young clients who have lived through traumas at very young ages, and what we can all learn from her self-care strategies as a therapist. They go on to talk about conflicts with loved ones whose values bump with our own, how the term ‘crisis’ has been flattened, and what it might mean to reclaim it. Finally, Niomi shares about her activist work with Independent Jewish Voices to support the ongoing crisis in Palestine. This is a smart and honest reflective conversation that you won’t want to miss — whether you are a parent of a young one navigating their own challenges, or simply someone working to balance their own mental health in these challenging times.

Link:
Follow Niomi on Instagram

We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials.

If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

For this episode of Reframeables, we had the opportunity to speak with award-winning poet and novelist Canisia Lubrin about her new book Code Noir. After the interview, she sent the Reframeables duo an email, calling us both badass and tender, which is probably the best compliment we’ve ever been given — so there’s that. For context about her book, in 1685 France’s King Louis XIV passed a decree consisting of 59 articles meant to govern not only chattel slavery but Black subjecthood throughout France and its colonies. The document was called “le code noir.” Lubrin’s novel is written around and against these articles. In our interview, we talked about so many things: identity, and why Canisia isn’t interested in it; green underwear, and why this writer’s words make us hot (literally); poetry as something that originates in the body, not the mind. Our reframing takeaway? The art of the interview isn’t achieved in a straight line — or maybe we reframed the art of conversation as a whole. Either way, we had a blast.

Canisia Lubrin is a writer, critic, professor, poet, and editor. Originally from St. Lucia, she now lives in Whitby, Ontario. Her books include Voodoo Hypothesis, The Dyzgraphxst, and Code Noir. Canisia is currently poetry editor at McClelland & Stewart, and has taught at Humber College, University of Toronto, and University of Guelph.

Links:
Code Noir
A Conversation with Canisia Lubrin by Rosie Long Decter for Vallum Mag
Follow Canisia on Instagram

We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials.

If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

We are reframing the productivity narrative with Instagram and Substack-famous sketch artist Nishant Jain — otherwise known as the Sneaky Artist. Nishant trained as an engineer, almost got his PhD, and then switched tracks to make art in public — sneakily. Now his full-time gig is sketching with a recognizable yellow fountain pen so that he can’t erase anything — he’s very committed to the line. And if you’re ever in Vancouver, you might just happen upon one of his drawings left behind in a café or a public library. With Nishant, we talked about how he believes that everyone can be an artist and the inspiration he got from living in Chicago, where he watched a lot of bad stand-up comedy. We also unpacked productivity culture, art for art’s sake, and whether we can even have human experiences anymore without making content about them. And we heard about his new baby — who he’s now sketching too.

Nishant Jain is a writer, artist and podcaster in Vancouver. As a Sneaky Artist, he draws the people around him in the spaces he inhabits, finding moments of accidental beauty in ordinary places on ordinary days. He shares his work and ideas with thousands of readers on Substack and Instagram.

Links:
At the Existentialist Café by Sarah Bakewell
For more from the Sneaky Artist, follow him on Instagram and Substack or check out his website

We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials.

If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.