We are Ancestors, eager to heal and help

Something Different This Way Comes

Food & Money: the Earth & Sky of the Change we ache to see.
Your wealth is so much more than your investment accounts

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How do you align your finances and social capital when you’re longing for systematic change? 

I am Heather McLeod, speaking to you from the traditional territories of the Anishnawbe in the City now called Thunder Bay.

As an Advice-Only Certified Financial Planner and a Locavore, this season I explore two systems I want to help fix -the Earth and Sky of our many-headed crisis: 

our food systems from fields to bellies,

our financial systems from conception to legacy.

Rooted in first-hand experience, nourished with nerdy fact-finding, Something Different This Way Comes explores ways towards values-led food and financial systems, and personal decisions.

What started as quest to help solve our climate crisis, has deepened into a longing for healing of all the systems of life of which we are a part: what a welcome shift. 

I podcast because giving your personal money decisions a fuller context makes navigating unfriendly systems that much easier.

Because your wealth is so much more than your investment accounts.

And because I want to not just be a help in an unhelpful system, but a part of healing that system - sparking conversations helps!

This is a wholly independent podcast - a one woman show. Contributions through GoFundMe are very welcome. I am also open to Sponsorship proposals.

For a free Financial Planning Health Check with me, click here

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July 14, 2026

Trailer: 2026 Season - Money

A new weekly season launches on Tuesday July 28 exploring two themes for people who care & live somewhere: Food & Money. Now that I have my own Advice-Only Firm I am free to tell you what I see as a Certified Financial Planner helping people get right what it should be easy to get right (only it ain't). I dream of fixing our system so my profession goes from essential to optional - starting with these reality checks, context mapping and solution-casting queries.
27
July 7, 2026

Trailer: 2026 season - Food!

July 28 a new weekly season starts exploring two themes: Food & Money. What does Food have to do with being a Good Ancestor? So much!

Recent Blog Posts

July 27, 2026

5.1 Money Trees (restoring our Sustainable Capital)

Posted July 27, 2026 Referencing: The 100-Mile Diet : A Year of Local Eating by Alisa Smith and J. B. MacKinnon published by Vintage Canada (Random House) in 2007 Permaculture  - you can start with Wikipedia Michele Solomon's video introducing t…
Feb. 18, 2024

Northwest Climate Gathering 2023: Hope & Action Artist in Residence

Heather McLeod’s podcast Something Different This Way Comes was launched in the Spring of 2022 with one episode a week for two seasons a year, Spring and Fall. The podcast documents the conversations and learning informing Heather’s hopes for Thunde…
Nov. 22, 2022

2.8 Caterpillar Fears & Lake Superior Love - featuring Rob Stewart

Teacher Mother Lake Superior; restoring through community engagement and simple, hands-on work; the success of water clean-up regulations and community-led initiatives since the 1980s; the opportunity to clean twenty Coastal sites in the City of Thu…

About the Hosts

Heather McLeod Profile Photo
Heather McLeod

Host & Producer

Former CBC journalist and host, recording artist and songwriter, published author and CFP (certified financial planner). I moved to Thunder Bay from Montreal in 2002 and never plan on leaving. I am tenth generation settler heritage, have grown most of what I eat and been a devoted Locavore since 2008. My Advice-Only Financial Planning Firm is Heather McLeod Wealth.

Leea McKay Profile Photo
Leea McKay

Graphic Designer & Publicist

Graphic designer & Illustrator based in Thunder Bay/GTA. Primarily focusing on logos, branding, and web design while also doing marketing. Design work is my passion and I aim to make the world prettier and more sustainable.

Reviews

It takes great courage to find and speak of optimism - over and over and over.

"Immensely encouraging. Giver of hope. Heather helps me to face my fear and encourages me to act. Her message is simple, built on a base of love and a very sophisticated integration of history.. …"

Bill Martin | Oct. 8, 2022

If a system do not deliver what we want, change the system.

"Sam’s reaction to the callous unfairness of our way of doing things is right on. We are stuck on doing everything we can to make the economy great. The economy is only a means to an end. If it does…"

Bill Martin | Oct. 18, 2022

July 6 episode. Achievable

"Encouraging Maybe we can do this too."

Bill Martin | Aug. 3, 2023

Library of Hope

Books:
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Drawdown edited by Paul Hawken
Value(s) by Mark Carney
Humankind by Rutger Bregman
Nature's Best Hope by Doug Tallamy
Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake
The Secret Wisdom of Nature by Peter Wohlleben
Animal, Mineral, Miracle & Small Wonder by Barbara Kingsolver
A Good War by Seth Klein
Saving Us by Katherine Hayhoe
21 Things You May Not Know About The Indian Act by Bob Joseph
Hope Matters by Elin Kelsey
Eat Like A Fish by Bren Smith
The Singing Revolution by Priit Verilind
The 100 Mile Diet by Alisa Smith & J. B. MacKinnon
The Omnivore's Dilemma & In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
Peach Fuzz & Onion Skins by Bonnie Sitter & ShirleyAn English
The Carbon Almanac Foreword by Seth Godin
Italians of Fort William's East End by Roy Piovesana

Podcasts:
The Carbon Almanac
Outrage & Optimism 
Bioneers: revolution from the heart of nature
What on Earth (CBC)
Race Against Climate Change (Canada's National Observer)
Smart Prosperity (University of Ottawa affiliated NGO)
TED climate (US)
Quirks & Quarks (CBC)
The Hidden Brain 
The Blindboy Podcast (Ireland)

Video:
Michele Solomon: treaty history of Fort William First Nation land: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH4og2C7PyQ
Kurzgesagt -in a Nutshell: Good News! We WILL Fix Climate Change!
L'Homme Qui Plantait des Arbres https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HtY6yEr5E4

Documentaries:
A Life on Our Planet by David Attenborough
Abstract Human: The World Within
My Octopus Teacher
This Changes Everything 
Picture a Scientist