Bare Necessities is a program run by the Nellie Philanthropy Foundation ( https://www.nelliefoundation.ca) , the same organization that spearheaded the CSL Groceries Project during the pandemic. It is designed to provide families on financial assistance who attend one of the five community camps that serve the Montreal Jewish community with some help to pay for camp supplies. David Lisbona is behind this initiative and he joins me with Camp B'nai Brith Montreal Executive Director Josh Pepin.

Richard Deschamps was a reporter and anchor at CJAD News in Montreal for 25 years until the newsroom was the victim of cuts last winter. He's had a stellar career and now awaits his next opportunity in media or elsewhere.

Shtisel is an Israeli television drama series about a fictional Haredi ("ultra-Orthodox" Jewish) family living in Geula, Jerusalem. The first three seasons can be seen on Netflix. Neta Riskin portrays

Giti Weiss, the daughter and sister of main characters Shulem and Akiva. She will give an exclusive interview to Sonia Benezra on Sunday May 23 for the Ben Weider Educational Centre/Chaya Mushka Seminary, which has provided post-secondary education of the highest calibre for hundreds of young Jewish women, coming from the world over. You can register to watch this virtual presentation for free at theseminary.ca /lecture.

The third annual Community Mental Health Awareness Shabbat, spearheaded by Congregation Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem Congregation in Côte Saint-Luc, will take place May 6 to 9. It will be fully virtual, with a Mental Health Symposium on Thursday evening, a Friday workshop for high school students and a Sunday morning Mental Health workshop. This has spread to cities across North America.This program coincides with Canadian Mental Health Week (https://mentalhealthweek.ca). I speak with Dr. Rachel Goodman and Yair Meyers, the program co-chairs, who provide a good preview.

Registration for these events (high school is limited to students) is free and you must log on to www.mentalhealth.tbdj.org. For more details you can email [email protected].

After a remarkable 53 year career in public education, including 47 years working out of 6000 Fielding Avenue for the English Montreal School Board and the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal, Lew Lewis announced his retirement as Director of Student Services over a year ago. But now he has decided to go into private practice with Openspace Clinic, situated at 4115 Sherbrooke St. W., a little east of Greene Avenue in Westmount. Lew is very excited about entering a new phase of his professional life by joining Openspace Clinic which he describes a wonderful and diverse group of talented clinicians and wellness professionals. The primary focus of Lew’s professional practice will be working with older adolescents and adults with challenges related to anxiety, depression, self-esteem, interpersonal relationships, life transitions, workplace issues, and stress management. Having known Lew for over 20 years, I can best describe him as a very warm, caring, and empathetic individual as well as an extremely insightful and supportive professional, widely respected by friends and colleagues alike! Lew can be reached at [email protected] or at 514-833-9886.

There is a new game-changer for peanut butter aficionados everywhere! Manba, which means "Peanut Butter" in Haitian Créole, is a Montreal-based spicy peanut & almond butter brand based on a traditional Haitian recipe & Haitian cooking traditions. Vegan, all-natural, kosher, and gluten-free, Manba is the first Haitian-inspired peanut butter to have been introduced to the Canadian market and has since become the go-to reference in spicy peanut butter, across Canada. Founded in 2015, Manba was developed by Jason Delis and Haïtian-born, Stanley Dumornay, while on a

volunteer trip to Haïti for humanitarian work. I speak to Jason in this podcast. You can also go to https://manba.ca/blog/ .

Brandon Williams and KristopherMancini are behind the growing West-Island based company M. Williams Enterprise. The online marketing firm focuses on driving qualified leads to their clients' businesses. This entails finding where their audience is located, targeting them with greats paid ads on the relevant platforms, leading them to a landing page that we create, or their website which they help optimize so that it compels those visitors to take the desired action, usually request an appointment or consultation, ask for more information, or buy the product. They only work with companies and business owners that they think have something valuable to offer people, and so their job is to get that message out and communicate that value to people. Log on to https://www.mwilliamsenterprise.com to learn more.

I was privileged to have PTSD specialist Dr. Eugene Lipov join me from his office in Chicago to talk about how the Capitol Police and other first responders have been affected by the trauma of the January 6 riot in Washington, DC.

The riot that breached the U.S. Capitol shook the nation, and led to political fallout that climaxed in the conclusion of former president Donald Trump’s second impeachment . One focus of the House impeachment managers was on the immediate and deep trauma on law enforcement officers who responded to the attack.

Two officers have taken their own lives, with acting Capitol Police Chief Robert J. Contee III reporting that at least one of his officers described the experience of January 6 as more harrowing than two hours in an Iraqi conflict zone.

“Several Capitol police officers have reportedly threatened self-harm in the days following the riot,” House Manager David N. Cicilline (D-R.I.) said during the trial. “And in one case, an officer voluntarily turned in her gun because she was afraid of what might happen.”

While PTSD is commonly associated with combat veterans, the effects of the condition on everyday people is clearer than ever in the wake of our collective political trauma and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a board-certified physician in Anaesthesiology and Pain Management and medical director for the Stella Center, Dr. Euguene Lipov is uniquely qualified to speak directly to the causes of and treatments for trauma, including:

• How the inability to escape constantly triggers the ‘fight or flight’ response, and can have physical effects on the nervous system and brain, causing extra nerve growth, and leading to brain shrinkage, as well as PTSI and PTSD;

• How regular people are increasingly the “new veterans” of PTSD, and we identify the unique role trauma is playing in our society, and in specific communities and occupations with higher levels of exposure;

• How the SGB treatment can play a crucial role in allowing trauma patients relief from symptoms, allowing them to reclaim their lives.

See his website at https://www.dreugenelipov.com. He is open to requests to do webinars with organizations in Montreal.

Dr. Laurie Betito is a Clinical Psychologist with a specialty in Sexual Wellness, and has been a practicing Psychotherapist for over 30 years. She is a television regular, having appeared on the weekly show "EROS" (The Life Channel) as the Sex Expert, as well as on MenTV (a digital cable channel) where she hosted the show "LET'S TALK SEX". She has appeared frequently on various television programs and documentaries, both as a commentator, and as a regular "sexpert", and is an accredited member of ACTRA.

For 22 years she was the host of the weeknight CJAD program Passion, which was the victim of recent budget cuts by Bell Media. She should be back on the air soon with her own podcast. I spoke to her about this big change and got her take on some issues related to the sexual landscape during this pandemic.

Bold Capital Enterprises Ltd and Dymedso Inc., a Montréal-based medical technology company, announced recently that 12 healthcare institutions in Quebec are now permitted to provide their patients with the benefits of a new, state-of-the-art device that uses acoustic sound waves for the treatment of lung disorders and respiratory infections, including those related to COVID-19. Dr. Simon Phaneuf, an emergency physician and Chief Scientific Officer at Dymedso and company founder Yvon Robert join me to provide more insight into this interesting development. For more information on how to get one of these machines (they can be used at home), log on to https://www.dymedso.com.