TELUS Talks with Tamara Taggart

Dr. Ellen Choi felt like she had been moving through her life on autopilot. Through mindfulness and meditation, and removing the burden of perfection, she was able to connect with herself and learn how to live with intention and purpose. She joins us to discuss how everyone can develop their own personal practice.

Minna Dubin realized "mom rage" was an international phenomenon after publishing an opinion piece in the New York Times. Titled The Rage Mothers Don't Talk About, the piece received an outpouring of positive responses from mothers. Minna decided to do more research and found that mom rage was something entirely different from regular anger or frustration. In this week's episode, she shares some of her surprising findings, and how it all culminated in her new book: Mom Rage: The Everyday Crisis of Modern Motherhood.

Thousands of Canadians don't have regular access to a vet for their furry family members. With such a concerning shortage across the country, vets are often overworked, and pet owners are stressed out. Dr. Koharik Arman is the Director of Virtual Vet care at TELUS Health MyPet. She says telemedicine is allowing vets to treat minor issues remotely and is enhancing the ecosystem of pet care.

In a world changed by the COVID-19 pandemic, one question looms: are we ready for something like this to happen again? Dr. Michael Osterholm is an internationally recognized epidemiologist and has witnessed trust in public health crumble and the rapid spread of misinformation, which makes him wonder how we would all handle another pandemic in the future.

Chelsea Conaboy knew things would change when she had kids, but she never anticipated how different she would feel. New parents undergo major structural and functional brain changes, driven by hormones and the flood of stimuli a baby provides. As an award-winning reporter, Chelsea decided to dive into our society's ideas of mothers and what they should be. She discusses her new book, Mother Brain: How Neuroscience Is Rewriting the Story of Parenthood, and the overwhelming nature of becoming a parent.

Throughout her career, Dr. Diane McIntosh has seen the profound impact that gender roles have on both women's and men's mental health. She says the stigma surrounding vulnerability often discourages men from reaching out for help. In a new episode of Your Brain, Diane shares the importance of embracing vulnerability, seeking help and fostering supportive communities for your well-being.

Danny Ramadan wants the world to see him in his power. As a queer refugee from Syria, Danny aims to use his life as inspiration and spread joy through his writing and his advocacy work. He discusses his new book, The Foghorn Echoes, and his fundraising efforts to help other LGBTQ+ people from around the world seek refuge in Canada.

As an award-winning writer and translator, Wayne Grady's fascination with language encouraged him to document the words we all began to use during the pandemic and how they were changing the way we communicate. On this week's episode, Wayne discusses his newest book Pandexicon: How the Language of the Pandemic Defined Our New Cultural Reality, and the new vocabulary that came with the COVID-19 pandemic.

To this day, Phyllis Webstad still gets social media comments claiming residential schools were not real. After 10 years of sharing her experiences at St. Joseph's Mission Residential School and her orange shirt story, she no longer believes it’s her responsibility to convince non-Indigenous people of the truth. In this week’s episode, Phyllis gives listeners the opportunity to listen to her story and reflect on their own role in truth and reconciliation.

Eric Garcia grew tired of seeing narrow-minded portrayals of autism on television and in film, while his own life as an autistic person looked entirely different. His career as a journalist and writer led him to publishing We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation — an investigation into the complex realities of life on the spectrum