The Heroic Minds Podcast

Three generations of the Israel family, Carl, Jamie and Brett decided to convert their long standing family farm to Organic, but it came at a high cost. After converting to Organic and taking on millions in debt, the market they were promised, vanished. The family didn’t put blame on anyone else. They dug their feet in. They decided to reinvent themselves. They changed the story of what they creat...

Dr. Galati is a traumatic brain injury survivor, and medical doctor. He has the goal of making aerobic training a part of brain injury recovery protocol. He is doing this through the Brain Changes Initiative . In this episode we discuss taking control & ownership over the brain injury recovery process with the 5-Pillars of a brain healthy lifestyle. A vital part of this conversation is envisio...

Ben Switzer is a disruption architect, community accelerator, and technological storyteller. He is an entrepreneur in the health technology and virtual reality space with his present companies EXAR Studios & True Focus . The connection between imagination and behaviour. The cognitive process of reflecting on behaviour and how this can lead to catalytic change in your life. Determining what is...

Lauren Johnson is a Mental Conditioning Coach for the New York Yankees in Major League Baseball. Her goal is to improve the resilience, performance and mental strength of all the athletes in the NY Yankees System.  Lauren does not believe there is a set of tools for in sport and out of sport. You are the same human whether you are at home, on the street, on the mound or on the ice. This episode fu...

Vincent Aiello spent nearly a quarter of a century as a US Navy fighter pilot. He deployed overseas on aircraft carriers numerous times and was selected to attend and instruct at the US Navy Fighter Weapons School, better known as TOPGUN. Retired from the US Navy in 2017, Vincent is now the host of the Fighter Pilot Podcast. In this episode we cover a lot of ground, from landing on an aircraft car...

Victoria Arlen’s life drastically changed in 2006 at the tender age of eleven when she developed two rare conditions known as Transverse Myelitis and Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis. She slipped into a vegetative state in which doctors had written her off as a lost cause. Victoria spent nearly four years “locked” inside her own body completely aware of what was going on just unable to move or...

John Boockvar is the Vice Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery and the Director of the Brain Tumor Center at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. Dr. Boockvar is well known from the incredible Netflix Documentary, Lennox Hill , Where the viewer gets to dive into the lives of four doctors as they navigate the highs and lows of working at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. I encourage you to watc...

Dr. Gale Gazelle is a medical doctor, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, physician coach, mindfulness teacher and author of, Everyday Resilience , released this past august 2020. Growing up, Dr. Gazelle was abused by her father. That is where the episode begins. In this episode we talk trauma, how it hides in our subconscious, how it surfaces and how it can be dealt with. Then we move...

Jesse Thistle is Métis-Cree, from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. He is an Assistant Professor in Métis Studies at York University in Toronto. Honestly, I wanted to name this episode, the toughest man you never met, because when you see this intelligent, well spoken, empathetic, caring, loving person today, it is difficult to image the past he had. Before Jesse landed at York University and became on...

Ryan Straschnitzki was a couple days from his 19th birthday playing for the Humbolt Broncos Hockey Club in 2018 when the bus crashed where 16 people died and left 13 injured. Ryan left him paralyzed from the chest down. In only three months he was getting back onto the ice as a sledge hockey player. His goal is now to represent Canada at the Olympics. This is one of those episodes, similar to many...

Ben Flanagan is an NCAA Champion from the University of Michigan. Ben went into that same race seeded as the 23rd fastest runner out of the 24 who qualified. Ben became the 2018 men’s outdoor 10,000m NCAA Champion with a time of 28:34. Today Ben is a professional Reebok sponsored runner and Olympic hopeful. In this episode we dive into the mind of a long-distance runner and how it all relates to l...

Sam Chase delivers programs in mindfulness, yoga and resilience for organizations and high performers, nationwide. Sam teaches the science of the human mind and the tools that help people lead flourishing lives. Sam is certified to teach by the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, the largest yoga center in the nation, he received his Master's Degree at Harvard University's A.R.T. Insti...

Dr. Cowan is a Board-certified Naturopathic Doctor and leading authority/practitioner of high performance medicine who is most recognized for his work with professional athletes. Dr. Callum clearly explains how food can be something that holds you back or powers you to enhance how you feel, work and recover. We can be performing well below our maximum and not even know it purely due to what we are...

Matt Nichol received his Bachelor of Education degree (Kinesiology/History) from McGill University and his Masters of Kinesiology & Masters in Coaching Theory from York University. He is the Creator of Biosteel Sports Drink and is a strength coach for some of the best athletes in the world. In this episode Matt defines strength, he debunks myths about what is strong and what is not. In a socia...

This episode has two outstanding guests. Dr. Kim Dawson, professor of sport & exercise psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University and the infamous Joey Hishon past Ontario Hockey League All-Star, and NHL All-Star hopeful until injury pivoted his career path in a new and exciting direction.   Kim’s extensive education and research in psychomotor behaviour and exercise science gives her a deep und...

Noah is a behavioural ecologist and published author. He is the founder of The Best Bees Company , a top to bottom bee keeping service. The company also functions as a means to raise funding for scientific research to improve honey bee health. Did you know that investing into the health of honey bees we can enhance our environment, secure sources of food and improve our economy? Before we get to t...

During the 2008 recession Kevin found himself 1 million dollars in debt. Not only did he venture through and learn from the recession, he came back stronger and prepared for this 2020 Pandemic. Kevin is an innovative developer. He creates revolutionary, rule-bending buildings that double as social experiments and subsidized housing to help fight the homeless issue. Kevin is the Owner of Guerrilla...

Dada is a yogic monk. He has taught meditation all over the world for 20+ years. He teaches the lifestyle and philosophy of the system of life known as yoga or tantra, the core practice of which is meditation. Dada delivers in such an eloquent way the issues of our world and why they exist. He then explains how we can fix those issues by peeling back the layers that are blurring our intentions. Wh...

Alanna holds an MPH in international health from Boston University and brings twenty years of program design, management, and assessment experience spanning the humanitarian relief and development sectors including writing for UN Dispatch and TED as well as providing social media support to NGOs. First Half: We break down the (hopefully temporary) present issue of COVID-19. Second Half: We move in...

Phil received the highest civilian medal for bravery in Canada. This Niagara Regional Police officer nearly lost his life trying to rescue a woman trapped in a murder-suicide with her son. He entered the house to find a man and his mother doused in gasoline… There was a pivotal point in Phils challenge with PTSD where he felt he was in danger and was looking for his gun for protection… it was very...

Before he jumped, Joshua believed he could never have positive feelings ever again, not mentally or physically. In quoting Josh himself, “The impulse to survive that I had overcome above the bridge now takes control. With broken bones, I begin to swim. At the age of 22, Joshua Beharry attempted suicide. After surviving the nine story drop Josh willingly turned his life around. So much so that he b...

Kevin Briggs spent 18 years stopping 200+ Golden Gate Bridge suicides. Kevin has story after story, tactic after tactic, lesson after lesson. In this episode we cover A LOT. Kevin shares what he learnt in his years both saving and sometimes losing lives on the bridge. What is the first thing Kevin would say? It is probably not what you expect. What about the things you should avoid saying, well, K...

Kathryn Bouskill is a social scientist at the RAND Corporation and associate director of the RAND Center for Global Risk and Security. She is also professor of core coursework at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. She has a Ph. D. in anthropology and an M.P.H. in epidemiology from Emory University.  An anthropologist by training, Bouskill draws on qualitative and quantitative methods to study a rang...

Dr. David Williams; ER doctor, astronaut, aquanaut, hospital CEO and author dreamt of going to space as a young boy. He fulfilled this dream twice, both times along not only a bumpy flight but a bumpy road   From failing his first attempt at Med school and finding himself on the side of the road hitch-hiking to beating cancer, Dr. Williams overcame a lot to be the space dreaming, retired astronaut...

Dr. Judith Andersen is a health psychologist at the University of Toronto whose research focuses on the biopsychosocial mechanisms by which stress impacts health and occupational performance. Dr. Andersen has conducted field research on the psychophysiological responses in people who experience trauma and severe stress. Through her findings Dr. Andersen has been able to conduct/test resilience tra...