The Pulse

"Send us a text about this episode!" Why You Should Listen to This Episode: Major Sergii Kachanov has watched need at the Mount Arrowsmith Food Bank climb toward last year's total in just five months, and he explains exactly what's driving it and how the community can help. Then novelist C.C. Humphreys, fresh off two brand-new books, talks about trading Salt Spring Island for t...

"Send us a text about this episode!" Every spring, property tax season brings the same wave of confusion, and Parksville City Councillors Joel Grenz and Sean Wood are digging into it head-on in this episode of Non-Partisan Hacks. Using the City of Parksville as a case study, they break down why a single property tax bill is actually a bundle of separate charges from multiple levels of go...

"Send us a text about this episode!" Shannon Bergstrom joins Cindy Thompson on A Resilience Project to talk about perfectionism, people-pleasing, and the cost of chasing impossible standards. A teacher, wife, and mother, Shannon shares how childhood loss shaped her instinct to keep the peace - and how two experiences of burnout finally taught her to listen to her body. After losing her y...

"Send us a text about this episode!" LISTEN HERE:  Why You Should Listen to This Episode: Doug Pickard has spent more than 13 years proving that boxing gloves and conga drums can push back against a disease with no cure, turning rhythm itself into therapy for people living with Parkinson's. Virginia Worcester is making sure no child in School District 69 goes hungry on the weekend,...

"Send us a text about this episode!" What happens when you gather two Gen Xers who worship a comedy classic, two Millennials seeing it fresh, and one very unimpressed holdout? You get the most hilariously divided episode of Too Old or Movie Gold yet. Hosts Olan VanderLinden and Matthew Stockton of the Comox Valley are joined by comedian Will Corry, Debbie, and Sean to revisit the 1980 co...

"Send us a text about this episode!" Pam Botterill joins Cindy Thompson on A Resilience Project to share what she calls a good-news story of adoption. An Indigenous woman from the Wei Wai Kum First Nation in Campbell River, BC, Pam was adopted at nine months old and raised by a non-Indigenous family in Powell River, BC. In this episode, Pam reflects on the unexpected threads connecting t...

"Send us a text about this episode!" Why You Should Listen to This Episode: Jamie Wollam grew up tapping along to Kiss and AC/DC records in Southern California, never imagining he'd spend sixteen years behind the kit for Tears for Fears - or that he'd find sobriety and a recording studio on Salt Spring Island. And Carly Carey, a Nanaimo realtor who has faced cancer three times,...

"Send us a text about this episode!" What happens when you screen a Hollywood firefighting blockbuster for actual firefighters? You get the most entertaining and most brutally honest episode of Too Old or Movie Gold yet. Hosts Olin VanderLeen and David Purcell of the Comox Valley invited a special all-firefighter panel to weigh in on Ron Howard’s 1991 action classic, Backdraft: volunteer...

"Send us a text about this episode!" Why You Should Listen to This Episode Katie Bergman is a writer and social justice advocate who has devoted a decade to the non-profit sector, specialising in human trafficking interventions. After experiencing trauma and burnout at the frontlines of humanitarian work, she wrote When Justice Just Is to open a conversation about inner wellbeing and soc...

"Send us a text about this episode!" Why You Should Listen to This Episode: Cheryl Dill has spent years helping build one of Vancouver Island's most beloved summer traditions into an internationally recognized event drawing visitors from all over the world. Laura Palmer is nine seasons into a true crime podcast built on patience, rigour, and deep respect for victims and their famili...

"Send us a text about this episode!" What happens when the province can't move fast enough and people in your city need help now? In this episode of Non-Partisan Hacks, hosts Joel Grenz and Sean Wood sit down with Marianne Alto, Mayor of the City of Victoria, recorded live at the AVICC convention. Victoria is BC's capital city - a mid-sized municipality shouldering an outsized...

"Send us a text about this episode!" Why You Should Listen to This Episode If you’ve ever been told you can’t - and refused to accept it - this episode is for you. Kaleb Dahlgren speaks from a place of hard-won strength: as a survivor of the Humboldt Broncos tragedy, a #1 bestselling author, a community builder, and a young man who spent his entire hockey career proving the doubters wron...

"Send us a text about this episode!" Why You Should Listen to This Episode: Ethan Askey has carried a harmonica in his pocket for the better part of 30 years - from campfires on the Alsek River to festival stages in Europe, from Junior Wells' living room in Chicago to the studio in Kimberley where his new album Outside the Lines was born. He is a storyteller who found the blues by d...

"Send us a text about this episode!" Why You Should Listen to This Episode If you or someone you love has ever felt like an outsider in a world that wasn’t built for the way your mind works, Santiago Dominguez speaks directly to that experience. Diagnosed with high-functioning autism, Santiago opens up about the exhausting daily effort of navigating school, building relationships, and se...

"Send us a text about this episode!" Why You Should Listen to This Episode: Matt Sager brings a 1940 Ford five-window coupe and a classroom full of students to turn a rescue car into a raffle that could raise a million dollars for the kids at Cowichan District Hospital. Sam Wiebe has spent a decade building one of the most compelling crime fiction series in Canadian literature, and his s...

"Send us a text about this episode!" Recorded live at the AVICC convention in Victoria, this episode of Non-Partisan Hacks brings a remarkable guest to the mic. Joel Grenz and Sean Wood sit down with Marianne Meed Ward - Mayor of Burlington, Ontario and co-founder of ElectRespect - to talk about the growing crisis of harassment, abuse, and threats facing elected officials at every level...

"Send us a text about this episode!" Why You Should Listen to This Episode If you've ever wondered what it takes to break a cycle - of trauma, of violence, of generational pain, this episode is for you. Henry McKay speaks with a clarity and courage that only comes from having lived through the very things he now works to prevent. In this episode: Henry McKay joins Cindy Thompson on...

"Send us a text about this episode!" Why You Should Listen to This Episode: Kyle McKearney stopped chasing what the industry told him to be, went home, made the record he wanted to make, and had it mixed by the same engineer behind Chris Stapleton and Beyonce. Eva Hilborn decided at 95 that she wasn't done yet - and built a literacy charity from scratch that now puts free books in t...

"Send us a text about this episode!" Why You Should Listen to This Episode What does it take to face the person who shattered your world? Carys Cragg was 11 years old when her father was murdered. Decades later, she chose to correspond with - and ultimately meet - the man responsible. Her story is not about forgiveness on demand. It is about what happens when you decide to walk toward yo...

"Send us a text about this episode!" Why You Should Listen to This Episode: Sean Thomas was 17 years old when he began producing Debbie Gibson's comeback album - the same year he was learning to drive a car. He then took his talents to Las Vegas as her music director, toured with New Kids on the Block and New Edition, and is now releasing his own music entirely on his own terms. Sar...

"Send us a text about this episode!" Recorded on location at the AVICC (Association of Vancouver Island Coastal Communities) Conference, this episode of Non-Partisan Hacks brings a familiar face to the mic. Joel Grenz and Sean Wood welcome Parksville City Councillor Amit Gaur — their colleague at the council table since the 2022 election — for a candid conversation about what local gover...

"Send us a text about this episode!" Why You Should Listen to This Episode If you've ever felt undone by circumstances that seemed, on the surface, ordinary - this episode is for you. Lynnsay Scollon speaks with remarkable honesty about how a series of seemingly small events converged into a perfect storm during her first year at the University of Victoria. Her willingness to name w...

"Send us a text about this episode!" Why You Should Listen to This Episode: Jeff Vircoe walked into a meeting on February 22nd, 1986, and hasn’t had a drink since. Today he’s president of Forward House - the Parksville-based nonprofit marking 25 years of steady, quiet service to people navigating mental health and addiction recovery. Bonnie Bartlett, Forward House’s public relations dire...

"Send us a text about this episode!" Why You Should Listen to This Episode: If you've ever wondered what it looks like to say yes to a calling — even when it means leaving everything familiar behind - this episode is for you. Karen Huebert-Sanchez and Ricky Sanchez bring an energy and warmth to this conversation that is utterly contagious. Their story is one of extraordinary commitm...

"Send us a text about this episode!" Why You Should Listen to This Episode: Ajay Friese grew up on Vancouver Island, spent five years auditioning before landing Lost in Space, sang Bob Marley on screen, moved Laura Linney to tears with his debut single, and just released his first album - all before turning 30. Debora Gurrad gave up the classroom but never stopped teaching: as a certifie...