In The Environmentalist’s Dilemma, award-winning journalist Arno Kopecky zeroes in on the core predicament of our times: the planet may be dying, but humanity’s doing better than ever. To acknowledge both sides of this paradox is to enter a realm of difficult decisions: Should we take down the government, or try to change it from the … Continue reading Arno Kopecky: “Environmental issues are the story of our times” →

The Peabody and International Emmy Award-winning host of Hip-Hop Evolution, Canadian rapper Shad is something of a hip-hop polymath. Born in Kenya to Rwandan parents and raised in London, Ontario, he holds a master’s degree in liberal studies from Simon Fraser University, is the former host of CBC Radio’s Q, and once beat Drake for … Continue reading Shad: “We really need each other” →

The founder and CEO of the Contentment Foundation, a global organization devoted to “bring[ing] indestructible wellbeing practices into every school around the world,” Daniel Cordaro has spent the last decade of his career studying what it means to “live a flourishing life.” A former faculty member at Yale University and the Director of Wellbeing at … Continue reading Daniel Cordaro: “The knowledge of enough” →

More people have walked on the moon than explored some of the places Jill Heinerth has been underwater. One of the world’s most accomplished cave divers, Heinerth has escaped from exploding icebergs off the coast of Antarctica, probed the deep and winding cenotes of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, and been inducted into the International SCUBA Diving … Continue reading Jill Heinerth: “Water connects us all” →

Raised “in the lush rainforest of southern Trinidad,” Antonio Michael Downing’s life was interrupted at age 11 when his caretaker grandmother passed. Uprooted and sent to live in Canada, Downing arrived in northern Ontario in a tiny, frostbitten community with no other Black people besides his Auntie Joan. In Saga Boy: My Life of Blackness … Continue reading Antonio Michael Downing: “The mask is how we unleash [our stories]” →

Cheri DiNovo is no stranger to revolution. At twenty, openly queer, DiNovo was the only woman to sign Canada’s first gay rights manifesto, “We Demand,” in 1971. Thirty years later, as a minister with the United Church of Canada, she would perform Canada’s first legalized same-sex marriage — risking her license in the process. As … Continue reading Cheri DiNovo: “Every revolution seemed impossible until it happened” →

In 2016, freshly laid off from his job, photographer Noah Asanias had a camera, a single lens, and $3,000 in his bank account. Just a few short years earlier, he’d arrived from the Philippines on a student visa and traded his work for studio time. Today, the acclaimed Vancouver-based portrait and fashion photographer has worked … Continue reading Noah Asanias: “Survive the first two years” →

An award-winning photographer based in Houston, TX, Todd Spoth has photographed U.S. presidents, Olympic athletes, and recording artists alike. Known as “Uncle Todd” to more than a few hip-hop artists’ families, Spoth has played golf with rapper Scarface and been doused in slime with NBA All-Star Chris Paul. Todd currently serves on the board of … Continue reading Todd Spoth: “[Photography is] the only class I’ve ever failed in my existence” →

From the day her daughter was born, science journalist Marta Zaraska (Washington Post, The Atlantic) fretted about her family’s health. She fasted, considered adopting the keto diet, and ran a half-marathon. She bought goji berries and chia seeds and ate organic food. But then her research brought her to a new way of understanding, one that … Continue reading Marta Zaraska: “Optimism, kindness, and friendship” →

Raised in Iqaluit, adventurer-filmmaker Sarah McNair-Landry learned to ski and drive sled dogs from her polar guide parents. At nineteen, she became the youngest person to reach both the North and South Poles. She has traversed the Gobi Desert by kite-buggy, traveled Greenland by kayak, survived brushes with hungry polar bears, and now teaches newcomers … Continue reading Sarah McNair-Landry: “The Arctic Ocean is an amazing and terrifying place” →