Reframeables

Bec first heard Derek Sivers on the Tim Ferriss podcast, and was immediately interested in this countercultural person who sold a multimillion dollar company and then moved to New Zealand to do something completely different. He’s interested in learning and iterating, and he did say he would answer every email — so we decided to test him. He answered right away. Derek has been a musician, a circus performer, an entrepreneur, and a speaker. He’s a slow thinker, an explorer, a xenophile, and loves a different point of view. In New Zealand, he lives in a house that he designed himself, based off the notion that houses should grow from how people actually live, not from a master plan — so he waits to add walls until he figures out what he needs. That’s just one of his more radical ways of thinking. We were pleased and he was pleased that we asked him questions that he had never been asked before about how to live, about spirituality, parenting, and architecture. This conversation is full of surprises, and we hope you enjoy it. Links: Useful Not True How to Live For more from Derek, check out his website or follow him on Instagram and Twitter We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials. If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

Reframeables’ first ever live recording! Writer Junot Diaz said: “When the world is burning, spending a little time with one’s people — in our case: book lovers — is no small gift, precisely because the world is burning.” So that’s what we did with our live podcast recording a few weeks ago. We spent time with our people: fellow book lovers and the extraordinary Emma Donoghue, reframing risk and reinvention. Irish-Canadian Emma Donoghue is the author of sixteen novels and numerous plays, a fixture on the New York Times bestseller list, and the mind behind Room — long-listed for the Booker Prize, adapted by Emma into an Academy Award-nominated screenplay. She’s done it all, and we couldn’t wait to ask her everything. Her latest, The Paris Express, is the book we couldn’t put down. Links: The Paris Express For more from Emma, take a look at her website We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials. If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

Having spent a week at the Cannes Film Festival, we are now in withdrawal. Nat’s watching Marvel shows with her guys — and though she loves a good action TV show, she's missing the nuance. Bec is filling the hole with The Pitt — with a beefier Noah Wyle. Which brings us to our guest: Michel Ghanem, better known as TV Scholar. He's French, he's smart, and he does some serious research on the TV that’s out there and worth watching. We talk about how he left academia for television and his column for The Cut, “Appointment Viewing.” When he comes back to Toronto for TIFF we're going to hang out and figure out a follow-up conversation with our new friend — because he’s just that kind of TV expert that we need to talk to again. Links: Appointment ViewingThe TV Scholar newsletterInstagramTwitter We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials. If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

We love reading books that express things we actually may have always known in our hearts, but previously didn't have the language for. Dr. Serene Khader’s book Faux Feminism: Why We Fall for White Feminism and How We Can Stop was one such book for Nat, and so we brought Serene on Reframeables to talk more about her work and break down the book for an absent Rebecca. We talked about feminism’s changing landscape in North America and beyond, and then we added “sex therapist” to Serene’s résumé as we talked about the orgasm gap and how an understanding of intersectional feminism will make for better sex. We even got into how Serene was inspired by Reframeables and now wants to start a podcast with her sister! Serene Khader is a writer, political philosopher, and feminist theorist based in Brooklyn, New York. She is the author of Faux Feminism: Why We Fall for White Feminism and How We Can Stop (2024) and Decolonizing Universalism: A Transnational Feminist Ethic (2019), among other works. She is professor of philosophy at the CUNY Graduate Center and holds the Jay Newman Chair in Philosophy of Culture at Brooklyn College. Links: Faux Feminism: Why We Fall for White Feminism and How We Can Stop For more from Serene, check out her website and follow her on Twitter We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials. If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

When we started this podcast three years ago, we never anticipated that we'd be sitting down to talk with a Canadian Paralympian medal winner — but if anyone can reframe resilience, it's Paralympian Allison Lang. We loved so much about this chat — learning about Allison's sport, sitting volleyball, and how that opened the door for her to move forward from some pretty brutal bullying to become a disability advocate in so many different settings. From brand influencing to speaking about her prosthetic leg in schools, Allison has brought forth an inherently hopeful worldview that reframed a lot of our thinking about resilience. Born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta and now residing in Montreal, Allison is a content creator, speaker, model, and athlete for Team Canada's sitting volleyball team. She was born missing her left leg and was severely bullied for having a disability, resulting in her struggle with body-image and self confidence. Now, she shares her story of self-love and body acceptance in hopes to help others who may be on a similar journey. She is a passionate advocate for those with disabilities with a goal to connect with her community online in hopes to dismantle ableism and create a more inclusive and accessible world! Links: The Anti-Ableist Manifesto by Tiffany Yu Faux Feminism by Serene Khader Bel Canto by Ann Patchett For more from Allison, check out her website and follow her on Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials. If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

Who couldn’t use a mood boost these days? We’re grateful for good people doing good things to counter all this mess — like Julia Stewart, our next guest in our resilience series. She’s the CEO of Alurx, a wellness company with a cool health app (that you should check out, by the way). Julia and Nat almost missed each other because of the fires that were happening in L.A. — the day that we were supposed to record, she was being evacuated! When we finally were able to connect, we delved into the resilience required as a female business leader in male-dominated environments, the value Julia gains in being a mentor, and her very cool story of having started out as a waitress at IHOP and then, years later, buying the whole company. We encourage you to join us in making a difference for those affected by the L.A. wildfires by contributing to these reputable and trusted organizations Julia has suggested: California Fire Foundation Direct Relief Wildfire Recovery Fund Link: Alurx We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials. If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

Nat did the morning drive before the age of podcasts, and a voice that kept her sane on the road for all those years was the CBC's very own Gill Deacon — the next guest in our series where we reframe resilience. With Gill, we discuss resilience from a number of angles: her health challenges over the years with breast cancer and long COVID, and how she used writing to help her reframe along the way. We also talk about her new Substack and podcast projects, and the many ways in which she's come to embrace uncertainty. Gill Deacon is a veteran journalist, television and radio host, bestselling author, and public speaker. She has hosted many radio programs for CBC Radio as well as television shows for CBC Television and Discovery Channel. From 2013 to 2024, Gill was the host of CBC Radio's Here & Now. Gill has written three non-fiction books, all published by Penguin. Her fourth book will be published by House of Anansi Press in 2025. Gill is a former columnist for Chatelaine and has written many articles for news outlets such as the Globe and Mail and CBC. Her podcast Gill Deacon is Getting Old(ish) debuts in 2025. Links: A Love Affair with the Unknown For more from Gill, follow her on Instagram and Twitter, or check out her website We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials. If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

We continue reframing resilience with Dr. Poppy Gibson, a lecturer in education whose key interests involve children’s psychological development and mental health, and wellbeing in education. Nat had actually previously met Poppy when writing for a journal that she edits, and after doing some digging found out some really significant similarities! We talk about how both Nat and Poppy almost died, and Poppy’s children’s book about how to talk about death with kids. All kinds of trauma are navigated here, but somehow we ended up laughing a lot — and briefly crying! Links: When They Died by Poppy Gibson & Alfred Russo For more from Poppy, follow her on Instagram and Twitter We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials. If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

Many famous people have been through the doors of Laurie May, co-founder and president of Elevation Pictures, one of Toronto Life's most influential Torontonians, and this episode's guest. We talked about our mothers and our own experiences of motherhood, what it means to be resilient in the face of hard business decisions as a woman in leadership, manifesting gratitude, and, of course, some celebrities. We could have kept going, to be honest! We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials. If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

Reframeables returns with a new six-episode series on female-focused resilience! Our first guest is Jenn Harper, the founder and CEO of Cheekbone Beauty — a cosmetics company which aims to help every Indigenous person see and feel their value in the world while developing sustainable colour cosmetics that won’t end up in a landfill. Jenn has been featured as Chatelaine’s Woman of the Year in 2019 and was on Canadian Business’ New Innovators list and Entrepreneur Magazine’s Woman of Influence list in 2022. Link: Cheekbone Beauty We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials. If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

We often have conversations with folks who have written books. In this episode of Reframeables, Nat has a thoughtful conversation with child therapist Niomi Cherney, who’s in the midst of drafting her very own book on how to talk to loved ones with opposing viewpoints — think Trump supporter at one end of the table, and leftist liberal at the other. Essentially, this episode is their attempt to reframe mental health in times of crisis — or what it means to survive and thrive in difficult times. I actually know Niomi from my early mom days, walking to and from school with Niomi, who was at that time a childcare provider for a child who was the same age as Violet. I knew even then how special she was, so caring and creative with her kids. When she reached out to join us on Reframeables, I was excited to pick up where we left off. Nat and Niomi talk about socially conscious self-care, how Niomi finds the strength to show up for her young clients who have lived through traumas at very young ages, and what we can all learn from her self-care strategies as a therapist. They go on to talk about conflicts with loved ones whose values bump with our own, how the term ‘crisis’ has been flattened, and what it might mean to reclaim it. Finally, Niomi shares about her activist work with Independent Jewish Voices to support the ongoing crisis in Palestine. This is a smart and honest reflective conversation that you won’t want to miss — whether you are a parent of a young one navigating their own challenges, or simply someone working to balance their own mental health in these challenging times. Link: Follow Niomi on Instagram We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials. If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

This was a conversation that we almost cancelled — but luckily didn't! This week, we're talking with fellow podcaster Tony Berardo of Humanity and Hashtags. It was a cool exercise in doing the opposite of cancelling, turning out to be a real pushing through of trying something new. In our conversation with Tony, we talk about gender and podcasting, the learning that comes from conversation with others who we don't necessarily agree with, and what it means to parent in the digital age. We butt heads about Trump and Huberman, but find common ground again in raising kids. This episode is our experience in reframing with a self-proclaimed devil's advocate, and in the end it's our take on what it means to curate a compassionate world. We realized that we need to really listen to our guest and his stories to find ourselves in them! Links: Humanity and Hashtags For more from Tony, follow him on Instagram We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials. If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

For this episode of Reframeables, we had the opportunity to speak with award-winning poet and novelist Canisia Lubrin about her new book Code Noir. After the interview, she sent the Reframeables duo an email, calling us both badass and tender, which is probably the best compliment we’ve ever been given — so there’s that. For context about her book, in 1685 France’s King Louis XIV passed a decree consisting of 59 articles meant to govern not only chattel slavery but Black subjecthood throughout France and its colonies. The document was called “le code noir.” Lubrin’s novel is written around and against these articles. In our interview, we talked about so many things: identity, and why Canisia isn’t interested in it; green underwear, and why this writer’s words make us hot (literally); poetry as something that originates in the body, not the mind. Our reframing takeaway? The art of the interview isn’t achieved in a straight line — or maybe we reframed the art of conversation as a whole. Either way, we had a blast. Canisia Lubrin is a writer, critic, professor, poet, and editor. Originally from St. Lucia, she now lives in Whitby, Ontario. Her books include Voodoo Hypothesis, The Dyzgraphxst, and Code Noir. Canisia is currently poetry editor at McClelland & Stewart, and has taught at Humber College, University of Toronto, and University of Guelph. Links: Code Noir A Conversation with Canisia Lubrin by Rosie Long Decter for Vallum Mag Follow Canisia on Instagram We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials. If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

We are reframing the productivity narrative with Instagram and Substack-famous sketch artist Nishant Jain — otherwise known as the Sneaky Artist. Nishant trained as an engineer, almost got his PhD, and then switched tracks to make art in public — sneakily. Now his full-time gig is sketching with a recognizable yellow fountain pen so that he can’t erase anything — he’s very committed to the line. And if you’re ever in Vancouver, you might just happen upon one of his drawings left behind in a café or a public library. With Nishant, we talked about how he believes that everyone can be an artist and the inspiration he got from living in Chicago, where he watched a lot of bad stand-up comedy. We also unpacked productivity culture, art for art’s sake, and whether we can even have human experiences anymore without making content about them. And we heard about his new baby — who he’s now sketching too. Nishant Jain is a writer, artist and podcaster in Vancouver. As a Sneaky Artist, he draws the people around him in the spaces he inhabits, finding moments of accidental beauty in ordinary places on ordinary days. He shares his work and ideas with thousands of readers on Substack and Instagram. Links: At the Existentialist Café by Sarah Bakewell For more from the Sneaky Artist, follow him on Instagram and Substack or check out his website We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials. If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

On this episode of Reframeables, we are reframing rage with author Kathryn Mockler. She spoke with us about the despair of writing and editing climate justice work, and how she’s moved forward from rage and exchanged hurt for the earth for human connection. She calls it ‘post-hope,’ though instead of ‘hope,’ her preferred word is ‘possibility’ — a possibility for shared concerns in community, be it in her writing or in her teaching. Kathryn Mockler is a writer, screenwriter, experimental filmmaker, editor, and publisher and the author of the story collection Anecdotes (Book*hug Press, 2023). She co-edited the print anthology Watch Your Head: Writers and Artists Respond to the Climate Crisis (Coach House Books, 2020) and is the publisher of the Watch Your Head website. Her films have screened at TIFF, EMFA, the Palm Springs Film Festival and most recently at the Arizona Underground Film Festival and REELPoetry/HoustonTX. She runs the literary newsletter Send My Love to Anyone. Links: Anecdotes For more from Kathryn, check out her website We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials. If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

This week, we are reframing fiction as truth-telling with novelist, playwright, and clothing line creator Claudia Dey. You’ll hear our conversation filled with so many truths born of fiction, creating constraints to create, and the companionship of language. We talk about Claudia’s newest novel Daughter, and Hamlet, and theatre school memories of Claudia’s play Trout Stanley. We also get into how we can’t waver from value systems in terms of what we put out in the world. For Claudia, that shows up in her books and her clothing brand. For us here, it’s tied to who we bring on the show. Claudia Dey is a bestselling novelist, playwright, and essayist based in Toronto. She has written the novels Stunt, Heartbreaker, and Daughter, as well as the plays Beaver, The Gwendolyn Poems, and Trout Stanley. Other writing of hers has appeared in The Paris Review, The Believer, Toro, and The Globe and Mail. Claudia is also the co-founder of the clothing line Horses Atelier. Links: Daughter Horses Atelier For more from Claudia, follow her on Instagram and take a look at her website We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials. If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

Is reframing burnout even possible? According to Emilie Aries, the founder of Bossed Up, it is — sort of. Emilie is a speaker and author whose company is committed to closing the gender leadership gap. In this episode, you’ll hear our conversation about the systemic nature of burnout culture, particularly for women. We unpack “role overload,” try and take a really realistic look at boundary setting, and learn the difference between active and passive rest. These and other important ideas will sustain us through the holidays and beyond! Emilie Aries is an award-winning speaker, podcaster, writer, and the founder of Bossed Up, a personal and professional training organization that helps women craft sustainable careers. She is the current host of the podcast Bossed Up, and former co-host of Stuff Mom Never Told You. Previously, Emilie served on national political campaigns as an organizer and digital strategist. Links: Bossed Up How to Recalibrate Your Career, a recent episode of Emilie's Bossed Up podcast that continues where our conversation leaves off For more from Emilie, check out her website and follow her on Twitter and Instagram We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials. If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

This week on Reframeables, we spoke with author Lisa Whittington-Hill about her new book Girls, Interrupted: How Pop Culture is Failing Women. With Lisa, we jumped right in with a discussion about female rage, considered the failings of media for middle age women and teenage girls, and shared some nostalgic memories of Courtney Love — who Lisa has defended loudly enough to get her thrown out of parties. We are unhappy with the misogyny that is baked into pop culture and social media, but we are happy to have conversations with someone like Lisa who is doing work to interrupt it. Lisa Whittington-Hill is a writer based in Toronto, Canada. Her work has appeared in Longreads, The Walrus, Hazlitt, Catapult, and more. She is also the publisher of This Magazine, a progressive magazine of politics, ideas, and culture, and teaches in the publishing program at Centennial College. Links: Girls, Interrupted: How Pop Culture is Failing Women For more from Lisa, follow her on Twitter and Instagram We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials. If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

Pop culture is supposed to be light — downright breezy. Or, as we discovered in our conversation with celebrated Canadian author Jen Sookfong Lee, it can be something more: a bridge to navigating the complexities of intergenerational trauma, reckoning with one’s place in the world, and, perhaps most poignantly, facing the self. We hope you are able to take Jen’s pop culture wisdom and use it to help you reframe some of your own self-work — we did! Jen Sookfong Lee describes herself as one who “writes, edits, and sometimes sings badly on a podcast.” She is a familiar voice as a columnist for CBC Radio One on shows like The Next Chapter and is a prolific writer of fiction, children’s literature, poetry, and memoir. For this episode of Reframeables we talked to Jen about her memoir Superfan: How Pop Culture Broke My Heart. Jen was born and raised in East Vancouver. Links: Superfan: How Pop Culture Broke My Heart For more from Jen Sookfong Lee, check out her website and give her a follow on Twitter and Instagram We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials. If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.

This week we are reframing pop culture as self-care (or reframing the inside joke) with author R. Eric Thomas. In a wonderfully meandering conversation we talked about faith, office cake, gardening, hiking up (and then running down) mountains, looking to Oprah as a way to prepare for big feelings, and using Chekhov for life metaphors. Finally, we landed on using pop culture references as bridges to help us connect with others. We really hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did. R. Eric Thomas is a television writer, playwright, and author of Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America. His latest book is Congratulations, The Best Is Over! For four years, Eric was a Senior Staff Writer at Elle.com, where he wrote a column called Eric Reads the News. This past week he gave Reframeables a shout out in his weekly humor newsletter. He lives in Philadelphia, where he is a long-running host of The Moth StorySlams. Links: Eric's newsletter Congratulations, The Best Is Over! Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America For more from Eric, check out his website, and follow him on Twitter and Instagram We love hearing from our listeners! Leave us a voice message, write to the show email, or send us a DM on any of our socials. If our conversations support you in your own reframing practice, please consider a donation on our Patreon, where you can also hear bonus episodes, or tipping us on Ko-fi. Subscribe to the Reframeables Newsletter. Follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube too.