ubu pod

This is a really fun episode with some wonderful nuggets of living your life well from the always wonderful Angela Stever.

Angela Stever was born and raised in Prince Edward County. She moved to Kingston in 2001, where she worked in radio for 20 years. In November 2021, the mother of two left radio and decided to focus full-time on writing and stand-up comedy. She performs on comedy club stages across Ontario and recently published her debut novel, 'Conquering the Divide: The Legend of Barsicon'.

As you'll soon find out, I met Angela on the radio when I was asked to sing a classic Canadian rock song on air. I liked her from minute 1, and now that I know her better, she's a person who lives life to the fullest, and it's a pleasure to watch.

My conversation with voice actor and coach Liz Solar was delightful, as always. (I was a guest on her podcast, as well.)

She's a dynamic and compassionate person who likes to get into it as much as I do, and we cover a lot of ground here. Feminism, politics, authenticity, communication... and a very strange and unexpected connection (check it at the end).

Liz is a voice actor, coach and writer. She helps clients elevate their brand and enhance their image through storytelling. She also helps reluctant speakers discover their voice to present in genuine and compelling ways. Words matter, and Liz believes in a little more conversation. She's the host of the Embark podcast for creators, innovators and change makers, and a curator and contributor for the writers' website Acts of Revision.

She lives in greater Boston with her husband.

This was one of my FAVOURITE ubu pod episodes! Mike Ganino is a public speaking expert, and has had about 5,697 jobs. This episode is full of speaking tips and tricks, insights and stories, as well as a takedown of the latest Dave Chappelle (yeah yeah we know - we're 2 white people) and the ways that disparate bits of your life can intersect to form superpowers.

Mike Ganino is a storytelling + public speaking expert who hosts The Mike Drop Moment podcast. He’s been named a Top 10 Public Speaking Coach by Yahoo Finance, and California’s Best Speaking and Communication Coach by Corporate Vision Magazine. He is an author, former Executive Producer of TEDxCambridge and has been named a Top 30 Speaker by Global Guru. He teaches storytelling, presence, and public speaking to some of the biggest names and brands. He’s a trained actor and coach from the World Famous Second City, Improv Olympics, and Upright Citizen’s Brigade. In addition to his track record as an executive in the hotel, restaurant, retail, and tech industries, Mike’s worked with organizations like the Disney, American Century Investments, American Marketing Association, and UCLA.

Ever wonder about your clothing before it got to your closet? I had a great conversation with Kristi Soomer, the CEO of Encircled. We talked about slow fashion, about how to tell if a brand is actually sustainable or greenwashing, about visibility and vulnerability.

Kristi is the founder and CEO of Encircled. A line of innovative, sustainable and versatile womenswear based in Toronto and retailed exclusively online. A former management consultant who virtually lived in airports, Kristi started Encircled with the dream of helping women do more with less in their wardrobes. Frustrated with the lack of versatile and stylish travel clothing, she started designing it. With no fashion background and little capital, she launched her online store in 2012. Today, Encircled has a beautiful studio in the Junction Triangle area of Toronto, a team of 14, and makes all of its clothing within 60km of their studio.

Encircled has been featured in publications like FASHION magazine, NOW Magazine, The Globe and Mail, and Apartment Therapy. Encircled is also a certified B Corporation, and winner of the StartUp 50 Fastest Growing companies in Canada in 2018. In 2018, Kristi was named to the Clean50, a list honouring the top contributors to clean capitalism and positive environmental impact through business in Canada. Kristi holds a degree in Finance from the University of Western Ontario, and an MBA from Queen’s University. 

I think I pressed "buy" in about 3 seconds flat when I first saw this project. Non-alcoholic cocktails? check. Wes Anderson themed choices? check. Major Arcana tarot deck? check.

A global pandemic and a few supply chain issues later, the deck was in my hands. I reached out to the creators of Temperance: A Major Arcana Deck to chat about how this project came to be and to build a contest around this episode's release! If you entered the contest on Instagram, please tune in where we announce the winner's name!

In June of 2018, a few things happened:

This is me and my best friend talking about her new book (and our life adventures - we've known each other since 1993. Lived together. Worked together. Traveled together.) The quality of my mic sucks and I'm sorry about that! But if you stick it out, I think the chat is worth it.

Jennifer Fawcett grew up in rural Eastern Ontario and spent many years in Canada making theatre before moving to the United States. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop. Her work has been produced in theaters across the country and published in Third Coast Magazine, Reunion: The Dallas Review, Storybrink, and in the anthology Long Story Short from Playwrights Canada Press. Her debut novel, Beneath the Stairs comes out with Atria Books (Simon & Schuster) on February 22, 2022. She teaches writing at Skidmore College and lives in upstate New York with her husband and son.

Attention menstruating folks! This episode is chalk full of science and research based information about how you can tune in to your cycle, and the earth's cycle, and blend the 2 into a fabulous, copacetic relationship!

Check out Mira's latest: My Business, My Flow Toolkit

Liz Worth is a Toronto-based based tarot reader. She is the author of seven books including The Power of Tarot and Going Beyond the Little White Book: A Contemporary Guide to Tarot. Her writing has appeared in FLARE Magazine, Refinery29, Chatelaine, the Globe and Mail, and more. She runs an online tarot school that welcomes students from around the world. 

Welcome to Season 2! 

We're kicking off a new season of fresh perspectives, brave and resilient guests and excellent conversations.

Samantha and I recorded this episode back in August when I wasn't sure which date we'd launch. Our conversation veered strongly towards a direction of Indigenous people (in Canada, in Australia) and so it seemed completely fitting to release this episode so close to Canada's inaugural National Day of Truth and Reconciliation (Sept 30) and the National Day of Mourning for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Two Spirited People (Oct 4).

I'm excited to share all of the incredible guests that we've got lined up for S2. Please make sure you're subscribed to the podcast, and if you love what you hear, I always appreciate the comments and stars (plus it helps get more reach!)

Samantha Nolan-Smith is the founder and CEO of The School of Visibility.
The School supports women to:
- recognise their own worth and feel confident in sharing their unique perspective with the world, and
- promote their work and establish themselves as leaders in their industry.

Chantal Rousseau is a wandering artist. She loves nature, especially birds and amphibians, and making watercolours and animated GIFs that feature them. She recently spent the winter in a motel in the Gaspésie and fell in love with the ocean and big storms. She is a fan of artist generated projects and artist collectives, and organized EXPO-MOTEL, an exhibition at the motel she was staying in, working with two local artists and with support from the region's artist-run centre Vaste-et-Vague. Chantal is currently the first artist-in-residence at 4elements living arts new mobile studio, parked on a community garden on Manitoulin Island.

Chantal recorded this ep with me while she was in her parked car, using internet from a local library, so sometimes the sound ducks in and out, but the fascinating conversation about art, about living your life, about slow living, all make up for it.

Maria Minnis is an ancestrally guided writer, designer, and tarot reader with Southern roots. Her motto is “a word is a spell,” and she uses it to guide her work in her donation-based offerings, such as her tarot poems and her blog series, Anti-Racism with the Tarot. Every week, she uses the Major Arcana as an analog to discuss various facets of anti-racism work. The series is a collection of exercises, readings, journaling prompts, and direct action activities to encourage people to create everyday change within themselves and their communities.

I was so excited when she agreed to come and speak to me on ubu pod. I've loved her Anti-Racism with the Tarot series, and I know you will, too.

If you've followed me for a while, you'll know that my signature training involves 4 elements: standing, breathing, speaking and reading. If you haven't listened to the first episode about Standing, you have to do that first. It's episode 13, season 1. You have to carry your body in a supportive way so that your breathwork is effective! In this episode I talk about controlled breathing as well as deep breathing and why they're both imperative for speaking skills. I also lead you through a controlled breathing exercise and lead you to resources I've made that you can grab.

Should you see a therapist?

The answer is always yes because therapy is awesome, but to get a big more serious, sometimes it's hard to tell, right? Part of the reason I wanted to have a real, life therapist on the show was because when I am doing Shadow Work workshops (or when I share my free Me and My Shadow workbook), I always say that sometimes you need more than shadow work to help you with problems.

Amanda Hammond talks to us about what to look for and some of the signs that suggest it might be a good idea to seek outside help. She's also really cool and down to earth, and if I didn't know her personally and was in need of a therapist, I would 100% go to her, and I figured my listeners would, too.

I also tell you the MOST BANANAS story I have about my first ever therapist (spoiler alert: she ended up yelling at me and begging me not to leave when I felt it was time to go). 

Amanda Hammond is a Registered Psychotherapist with over 18 years of experience. She is a female entrepreneur in Kingston and works specifically with women and couples. Amanda is a recovering people-pleaser and perfectionist; who prides herself on her authenticity and realness. She channels her inner badass in order to help women uncover theirs, and loves bearing witness to women becoming the best version of themselves.

Amanda takes the approach of being the therapist she would want to see - and understands that she is not for everyone. Nor should she be!

Her priority is her clients and ensuring it is a good fit for them, that both parties will feel successful at the end of the work together.

Amanda owns the private practice with her husband, Darrell, also a Registered Psychotherapist and while they have different approaches and modalities, their values are the same.

If you've followed me for a while, you'll know that my signature training involves 4 elements: standing, breathing, speaking and reading. We start with standing because it informs how we manage the rest of the elements - it supports presence, it supports breathing and it supports speaking. In this episode I'm going to teach you a little bit about Alexander Technique and use the principles of that training to learn how to stand, and also to sit (super helpful in Zoom times, right?)

First episode where I don't swear! So profesh.

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Erika Tebbens is a badass business coach with some progressive ideas and smart ways that she navigates business. She incorporates community, giving and serving the underrepresented right into her framework. I've loved following her on Instagram for a while, and a couple of weeks ago she posted some pretty frustrating facts about women and money.

Which is also a topic I've been putting some effort into recently. More on that soon.

So I asked her if she wanted to be a guest on ubu pod to talk about the very complicated topic of women and money.

Erika Tebbens is a Business Strategist and Coach for established entrepreneurs who want to increase their impact and income without complex systems, sleazy sales tactics, or battling burnout.

With 15+ years experience running successful businesses, from solo operations to multimillion dollar retail teams, she knows there's no one "perfect" way to operate – only one that’s perfectly aligned with your strengths, values, and vision.

Her mission is to equip & empower women and gender expansive entrepreneurs with ethical & effective sales and marketing strategies so they can run thriving businesses they love. You can learn from her each week on her podcast: Sell it, Sister!.

Ever heard of Positive Psychology? That was my introduction to Lisa Sansom. She has a Masters of Applied Positive Psychology - and about 29 other degrees (which we get into), is a coach of several things and is generally an awesome person and great thinker.

How does a nomad survive Covid?

Meagan O'Shea is a an award-winning contemporary dance + artist. She is queer and from the Canadaland. For the last 6 years she has chosen to live as a nomadic artist, following pathways to projects and activity throughout North America, Europe and North Africa. In 2007 Meagan founded Stand Up Dance as a platform that amplifies her vision, supporting the work of other artists and communities, as well as her own. Straddling the line between artist led company, art organization and social enterprise, Stand Up Dance orchestrates international collaborations, on-the-street improvised dance and interactive, interdisciplinary solo shows, Dance for Young Audience, toddler dance parties, flash mobs and dance-film. Meagan also teaches creative process and improvisation in art, education, community and social change contexts internationally.

Full disclosure: Meagan and I have been friends for 26 years. We've worked together on art projects. For a short while, I was her company's administrator.

Our conversation is fascinating, and I know you're going to find some tremendous nuggets in there. How does a person who chooses not to have a home, who is creative and social and who has literally the contents of a carry-on as their worldly possessions, navigate a global pandemic?

We can all learn a lot from Meagan.

You know what you need to do before the Holidays? Listen to this episode.

Jillian Murphy helps diverse, smart, health-conscious, people (who are DONE WITH DIETING) get out of their heads and reconnect with their bodies. She uses up-to-date eating psychology, clinical insight & guidance around diet culture, health, and weight to teach individuals WHY they stay stuck in negative patterns with food and feel constant body dissatisfaction and HOW they can make the shift to food peace and body joy.

She also works with parents whose CHILDREN who are struggling to eat properly, whether it’s because they are exceptionally fussy or obsessed with food. She helps parents who are stressed-out by the fact that their kids aren’t growing enough or are gaining weight in a concerning way, via simple, practical, research-validated advice. This work is perfect for parents who want to raise children who are a JOY to feed, who grow well, and have a great relationship with their bodies.

We talk about the pressures that society puts on people to look a certain way, how this pressure plays out, how to deal with it, how to know that how you feel is entirely right - society DOES put pressure on you, but you can also work against that. How being yourself is radical. We cover it all.

I love Danielle McAllister, and you're going to, as well. I know her from around town in Kingston, seeing her talk about hashtags at a social media workshop, working behind the counter at Happy Thoughts, being super political and badass on IG.

Danielle is a YouTuber (20K+ subscribers), content creator, maker and business owner who also happens to be fat. She talks openly online about fatness and what it’s like to live in a body that the world is not made for. Danielle also designs and makes accessories from recycled leather and textiles that are meant to fit fat people.

Check out Danielle below:

Ben McLean is an award-winning author, Dad and morning radio host of 98.3 FLY FM in Kingston, Ontario.

He's also my husband.

We talk about Christmas, early days together, feminism, showing up, our privilege and our favourite Christmas stuff. We admit to problematic faves, we discuss how being a Dad to a girl changes your thinking, and I tell him I'm proud of him. 

It's silly, irreverent and entertaining. I think. I have no way of being objective about this, so let us know in the comments!

Check him out:

Tara Beagan is the recent winner of the 2020 Siminovitch Prize. We had our conversation just a couple of weeks prior, so she didn't know at the time that she would win!

We cover a lot of ground - the early days of theatre in the Distillery District, art during the pandemic, the culture of poverty that theatre can create, what it's like to have a company with your partner, how long it took for her to finally call herself a Writer, and how it feels to be shortlisted for such a high profile award when you're from a marginalized community. Tara spins magic into everything she does, and this interview is no exception. 

Tara Beagan is proud to be Ntlaka’pamux and, through her late father’s side, of Irish ancestry. She is cofounder/director of ARTICLE 11 with Andy Moro. Beagan served as Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts from February 2011 to December 2013. During her time, NEPA continued with traditional values for guidance, had an Elder in Residence, and named and moved into the Aki Studio. Beagan has been in residence at Cahoots Theatre (Toronto), NEPA (Toronto), the National Arts Centre (Ottawa) and Berton House (Dawson City, Yukon). She is now Playwright In Residence at Prairie Theatre Exchange (Winnipeg). Seven of her 28 plays are published. Two plays have received Dora Award nominations (one win). In 2018, Beagan was a finalist in the Alberta Playwrights’ Network competition. In 2020, Honour Beat won the Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama. Recent premieres include Deer Woman in Aotearoa (New Zealand), Honour Beat opening the 2018/19 season at Theatre Calgary, The Ministry of Grace at Belfry Theatre in Victoria, and Super in Plays2Perform@Home with Boca Del Lupo (Vancouver).  

Check out Tara's work with Article 11 below:

With five iTunes hit podcasts under her belt, including Karlosophies and Rock Your Mic Right, Karly Nimmo uses her voice and wisdom to guide us back to the truth of who we are so that we can show up and speak up as our fully expressed, most rad selves.

Karly can help connect to your voice, ‘find your freq’ and teach you to podcast like a pro - check our her website, and her podcast! 

Attention contest entrants: check out this week's episode to see if you won! 

Katie Ross is a modern Business Coach and Strategist that has been working with small business owners and creatives for more than 12 years.

She helps her clients get clear on who they are, where they want to go and how they’re going to get there so that they are more confident to take action in their business, reach clients faster and do more of the work that they love. Katie works with her clients to understand their vision and goals so that together they can create strategic alignment and a purposeful plan that supports their business and lifestyle.

Welcome to ubu pod! I'm your host, Megan Hamilton. I'm a speaking, visibility and confidence coach who loves to have deep and meaningful conversations with extraordinary people. If you're into things like social change, equality, feminism, bravery, fascinating lives - you're going to want to listen in!