Episodes

Stewarding the land, honouring our ecosystems: imagine, intercept, invest, integrate, innovate, infrastructure. Conversation with city planner Thora Cartlidge. Revitalize the East End - the opportunity and economy of investing in historic neighbourho...

Cindy Crowe of Blue Sky Community Healing Centre & Cindy Crowe Consulting with a conversation for those who feel overwhelmed and just want something do-able; protecting and witnessing the wild; the healing power of kindness, of circles, and of focusi...

Imagining the three courses serving plenty of food in the kindness economy: grown, kept and shared. Inspired by The Parachute Club’s Rise Up! Feeding and healing ourselves and our home; many hands make light work; and good work in good company is goo...

Imagining story-telling industries, mechanics and touch stones in the Kindness Economy. With a scientifically-sound genesis story to start, some classic Joni Mitchell, a reboot of marketing, journalism, academia and accountability, plus a new-born tu...

Reaching for what Good Looks Like; the four keys to happiness; envisioning fossil-fuel freedom & local autonomy; System Justification Instincts & how to manage them; towards cosier, homier neighbourhoods; restoring our relationships to the wild; Cost...

Learning from the pros: installing solar power and a heat pump in our home; guests Kevin Bowes of PowerTec Solar, Richard Lazlo of CutYourHomeCarbon.Com & my son Ben. Weighing pragmatic worries with energizing vision. A how-to for home & business own...

Teacher Mother Lake Superior; restoring through community engagement and hands-on work; water clean-up successes since the 1980s; twenty Coastal sites in the City of Thunder Bay ready to restore; the shift from top-down to community-prompted financin...

Loving community revolutions, one bite at a time; the Saul Alinksy vs. Paulo Friere recap; perfect is not on the picklist; Wendy Smith’s paradoxical problem solving; Margaret Mead’s how to change the world; Henk Ovink’s rebuilding by design in Rotter...

The only way to get out of the mess we’re in: Take Back The Community; paxis and the Paulo Freire two-step of action & reflection; Saul Alinsky’s cut the issue then set specific, immediate & realizable actions; turn the Eeyores and Naysayers “on” buttons...

The dark side of Scarborough Fair; tightropes, paradox Venn diagrams & the power of non-binary thinking; how deep runs our bias & how best to undo it; persistence pays; Sleeping Giant and how raptors soar Details (including lyrics & chords to All Bring O...

Thunder Bay hybrid then electric car owner experience; personal carbon budgeting - get to net zero on your own terms; the sad tale of the Memorial Bike Lane proposal; the 4 scientifically proven keys to happiness; getting to our cleaner, kinder, safer fu...

Sam is left speechless; Wealthy yet insecure; compounding punishing insufficiencies; today’s transformations - chosen or imposed; parables of plenty vs. poverty; the real tragedy of the commons; divest from fear - invest in faith By Heather McLeod in Thunder Bay

Featuring Phil McGuire. Mothers are the key to our prosperity; thanks for a warm introduction; less publicity and more listening; dam removal’s winning arguments & growing popularity; gravity batteries; counterspinning natural gas a.k.a methane; new song...

Less Mowing, More Growing. Sami says: don’t think you are smarter than mother nature. Colonial trade, Colonial work, Colonial ruins and my family’s history settling the prairies. An inspiring tale of a Calgary home going all-solar. What Good Looks Like, ...

It’s really about people and the planet; Why go forth with pride, compassion and joy; How to help intergenerational, interdisciplinary, inclusive communities thrive; Celebrating the Thunder Bay trifecta; Slowing down & building our shared legacy; The nor...

Why imagine the change you want to see; How to build on the three pillars of sustainability: reciprocity, interconnection and gratitude; what goes deeper than emissions reduction; why everybody has to get involved; how this is not really a science proble...

Perspectives on how times change; what beauty makes; why reassure people; harking back to a pre-disposable economy;  how to get the creative juices flowing; how to become an expert without training; the more you learn, the more you love to learn; what’s ...

Summer StevensonSustainability Coordinator for the City of Thunder Bay How the city works determines how we work in it; a million ton goal and 36 month count-down; engineering for unpredictable extremes; being Brene Brown about it; turtles live on this p...

Featuring Charla Robinson, Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce (plus Ben & Sam)  How local business is the life blood of a community & has a money-back guarantee; The failed experiment fix that will transform Thunder Bay; Why cooperate with your competitors;...

Featuring Judith Monteith-Farrell; Tracey MacKinnon & Rob Barrett. Referencing Bren Smith & William McDonough. Being the squeak; gather expertise and lift muzzles; there is a deficit of autonomy in our economy; draw down carbon by lifting up people; making our...

Why food is the most important thing; What it takes to achieve food security in Thunder Bay; Why Thunder Bay is a misnomer; why stop complaining and make it happen ourselves; What blows Brendan’s mind in every teaspoon of living soil; How Thunder Bay far...

Featuring Erin Beagle of Roots to Harvest Let’s get to ‘yes’; changing our understanding of success; why driving a bus is better than going it alone; how climate change in Thunder Bay is like the trash compactor in Star Wars; giving people a place they c...

Change is Needed and Change is Being Seeded Ben & Sam remember with Heather the night Ben cried and why. Heather asks them to imagine the Thunder Bay they want that is fossil-fuel-free and prepared to weather the climate emergency. Heather introduces the books that she found in her climate-anxiety sleepless nights that she think about most often, and how much the conversations of this podcast help ease that anxiety.

Something Different This Way Comes, launches Tuesday May 3 with new episodes weekly through June including conversations with Brendan Grant of Sleepy G Farm; Summer Stevenson, Sustainability Coordinator for the City of Thunder Bay, and Erin Beagle of Roo...