The Kook Jester Show

Brent Disbrow, Game Director at BKOM Studios, joined us today. I absolutely loved our chat. He is freaking funny and I learned a ton. He opens by breaking down the Justice League movie, talks changing careers and everything video game related, and finishes with a counter take on the buzz surrounding NFTs and blockchain technology. Awesomely entertaining. Thanks Brent! 

Sunday Gold Trailer  

Calling Bullshit by Karl T Bergstrom and Jevin D West 

Flow: the Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 

Massive Attack Playlist 

Twitter - @Smash_McGavin

Director of the Centre of European Studies at the University of British Columbia, Dr. Bowers packs a ton of learning into this interview. Among other topics, we touch on why Russia’s printing culture was slow to develop, what is meant by the Petersburg Text, and the paradoxical nature of many Russian writers. A word of warning - your reading list will have expand considerably after listening. I also want to personally thank Katherine for being, first and foremost,  a teacher. I got caught up in the ‘what of things’, and she very kindly refocused me on the ‘why’ of things. Basically, today's episode is about learning and growing. It's fantastic.

Websites

Dr. Katherine Bowers 

Digital Dostoevsky 

The Data Sitters Club

Here’s the book list:

Nikolay Karamzin - Poor Liza, Island of Bornholm, Letters of a Russian Traveller

Mikhail Lermontov - A Hero of Our Time

Alexander Pushkin - The Bronze Horseman, Eugene Onegin

Nikolai Gogol - Nevsky Propsect, The Overcoat

Mary Wollstonecraft - A Vindication of the Rights of Women

Bram Stoker - Dracula

Evgenia Tur - Antonina

Fyodor Dostoevsky - Crime and Punishement, The Double, The Brothers Karamazov, Notes from Underground

Oksana Zabuzhko - The Museum of Abandoned Secrets

Andrey Kurkov - Grey Bees

Serhiy Zhadan - The Orphanage

Alexander Beliaev - Professor Dowell’s Head, Amphibian Man

Mikhail Bulgakov - The Master and Margarita

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - The Gulag Archipeligo

Sasha Sokolov - Between Dog and Wolf, In The House of the Hanged, A School for Fools

If you know the waters around Vancouver, BC, you will undoubtably have come across the purple swim-caps worn by the students of today's guest, Stewart Scott. Everyone calls him Coach Stewart. We chat about his early days in northern Scotland, the common mistakes self-trained athletes make, tricking the water, and his strong desire to swim alongside the Orcas. Thank-you Stewart. This was awesome. 

Coach Stewart Swimming Lessons

Swim Smart

YouTube Channel - Swim Smart (A Fantastic Resource)

Instagram - Coach Stewart 

Today’s guest is actor, John Emmet Tracy. You will know him as Ellis Steele from Yellowstone, the modern western epic on the Paramount Network and Amazon Prime. We chat about his character’s adaptive qualities, artistic moments versus story momentum, and playing villains—aka the misunderstood. He kicks off our interview by sharing a story that his dad told him. The opening: glove and bat in hand, a young man stands outside a baseball stadium…             A very big thank-you to Sam Aitken from the Childrens’ Heart Network for making this interview happen.  

John Emmet Tracy (website)  

Filmography 

Yellowstone (Amazon Prime and Paramount Network)

My guest is Maïa Tarasoff. Aiming to make architecture more accessible to kids, she founded Petit Architect in 2017. Through her classes and workshops she encourages kids to ask big questions about how they live, in the hope of inspiring them to create truly beautiful spaces and buildings. We talk about the importance of art and how starting Petit Architect allowed her to spend more time with her family. 

Woodward‘s Building 

Audain Gallery  

The Polygon  

Maïa’s Music Suggestions  

Piano Covers 

Cocoon 

Minnie Riperton  

Angus and Julia Stone

I was happy to return to the Children’s Heart Centre for my interview with Dr. Shubhayan Sanatani, Division Head of Cardiology at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, Canada. Over the years, he and the entire heart team, took wonderful care of our family. I have long been curious about why he chose to pursue cardiology, and today, I got the chance to ask. 

Dr. Sanatani kicks off our chat with a story about the grade 12 teacher who sparked his early interest in biology, ultimately leading to his work in paediatric cardiology and electrophysiology. We also touch on why he loves working with kids, the excitement of new discoveries, and the opportunities where medicine can grow and change.

(A small correction from our discussion. Mark Cuban was on the tv show Shark Tank not Dragon’s Den)

Emtelligent - Medical NLP

BC Children’s Heart Centre

The Pulse: Cardiology with Dr. Sanatani

Atrial Septostamy

Supraventricular Tachycardia

Article - Sudden Cardiac Arrest in the Paediatric Population (2022)

Moulin Rouge Soundtrack

Our guest today is Annika McDade whose soul purpose in life is to create amazing relationships between people and their dogs. Her in-person dog training company is called Canine Connection Training and is based in Vancouver, Canada. However, you can access her expertise and video library wherever you happen to be via her online portal - SniffDog. During our chat, she talks about all the information dogs gather through their noses, how to build a good human/dog relationship, and even shares her experience training wolves in Mongolia.

Canine Connection Training 

SniffDog Online Training Portal

YouTube - SniffDog Channel 

Instagram - Canine Connection

Bob Marley - The Best of the Best Playlist 

Saba Marzara co-founded FedFedFed, which delivers dietician curated meals right to your door. Endlessly fascinated by the food we eat, Saba looks to impact our health and nutrition on a larger scale. We look at the ever-growing problem of diet related diseases along with what first piqued her interest in the field, and how the name FedFedFed came about.

I became a customer of FedFedFed. The company creates an exceptional user experience.  Account setup and ordering is super easy. Delivery? Prompt. And the meals taste amazingly delicious. Thank you for listening.

FedFedFed - website 

FedFedFed - Contact email: [email protected]  phone: 604-655-3677

Instagram

Twitter - @fed_hq

Facebook

(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life - Bill Medley, Jennifer Warnes (Dirty Dancing Soundtrack)

Our guest today is surf photographer Marcus Paladino. His book is called Cold Comfort, and his work captures the raw and wild essence of Vancouver Island’s west coast. He kicks off the interview by sharing the best piece of career advice he received - get paid for what you love to do. Living those words, he has carved out a niche documenting cold water surf. Some highlights from our chat include: what he actually used his first camera for, the need to focus on one thing at a time, and blacking out from the cold and still getting the shot. Here’s the link to that image. It’s a stunning shot of a surfer charging—dead center—through the barrel of a wave. Amazing.  

MarcusPaladino.com

Marcus Paladino Prints 

Cold Comfort - Rocky Mountain Books

Looped by Kiasmos (Great track recommended by Marcus)

Tiffany DaSilva, founder of flowjo, is our guest today. Irritated by peoples’ relationship with their phones, she decided to something about it. Creating card decks full of bucket list activities for couples, dads, and self-care, Flowjo’s mission is to help people build long-lasting and meaningful memories with the life they have right now. Our interview was fun. Tiffany hits on everything from the importance of looking for the easier way to her time spent in startups. One highlight for me was her story about developing an online ‘lemonade stand’ during the internet’s early days.   

Thanks from listening.

Flowjo - Bucket List Card Game

Flowjo Instagram

Ugly Dolls Soundtrack