Behind Greatness by Inspire North

Leslie joins us from NYC. She studied ornithology in her graduate studies in Massachusetts, moved to humanitarian work for Burma to radio show production in California to then freelance investigative journalism.   As a journalist she was able to publish her early work relating to UFOs in the Boston Globe in 2001 – and was struck by the deafening silence of response to her piece. But some did take...

Bruce joins us from his home in California. Bruce was a pioneer cell biologist and one of the few scientists in the world working with cloning stem cells back in the late 1960s. And he dared asking questions. During his early research work at Stanford, he started to realize that what scientists were learning and teaching others about genetics and genetic determinism was faulty. He came to understa...

Ramy joins us from his home in Toronto. Ramy has spent a career honing his gifts and capabilities in building a successful career in management consulting and corporate C-level leadership. From the outset of this conversation, Ramy is more than happy to get into what matters to him: investing in others' lives. We discuss his belief in making impact and making a difference with others, a mindset he...

Tim grew up in London (Ontario), a small city between Detroit and Toronto. He had a happy childhood, but needed to live a closeted existence as his environment was hostile. After moving to the big city as a young adult, he quickly began to flourish. He lived a life surrounded by art and the artistic endeavour and lived within the irreverent energy that it exuded. Not considering himself an 'artist...

Jack joins us from his home in Atlanta, Georgia. Jack grew up as Albrecht Dittrich in post-WW2 East Germany in "The Valley of the Clueless". He was a youth leader for the communist party and a promising young academic when he was approached by the KGB and recruited as an espionage agent. Armed with a sharp curiosity, a penchant for learning languages and a strong sense of adventure, Jack's changed...

Jason is a partner at McMillan LLP and joins us from his office in Toronto. He is a recognized top construction lawyer in the country – with soft hands, no less. But, that's not where we go with this conversation. We go instead where Jason lives: in the exploration of his essence. We start with family … Modesta and Eugénio, kitchen-Portuguese, the menu-reading child within and his grandfather's "I...

Kenneth joins us from his home in Toronto. He is an award winning and best selling author of numerous novels for young readers. He is famed for writing  Airborn , the  Silverwing  Trilogy and now his latest novels,  Bloom  and its sequels,  Hatch  and  Thrive . This was a fun conversation. He grew up on Vancouver Island on the Pacific coast and spent a few uncomplicated, happy pre-teen years in Ha...

We have an exciting conversation with Avi Loeb. Avi is a philosopher and farm-boy at his core. He has spent the past several decades as a leading Astrophysicist, including a most recent decade-long stint as a department head at Harvard, having published over 700 papers and written 8 books . Avi became wider known outside of scientific circles for his stance on scientific and space exploration afte...

We have the privilege of sitting down Safiya, who only recently fled from her native Ukraine with her daughter. We are also joined by one of our favourite past guests on the podcast, the marvelous Joan Koenig (ep 79). Joan helps facilitate the conversation. Joan and her friends (Janice Giarracco & Michael Clancey) have been instrumental in helping Safiya find safe haven in France over the last mon...

We speak with Lisa Good in Toronto. Lisa started out in the mail-room of an ad agency in Toronto to eventually become an Ad Exec and Managing Director of a leading and award-winning ad agency in Canada. We chat with Lisa about losing a parent at a young age, mental health and acting out against suppressed grief as a young adult. We discuss workaholic-ism and the importance of finding the ok in qui...

Bayo joins us from his home in Chennai India but grew up in Lagos, Nigeria. Losing his father as a young teen had him start a search for knowledge and meaning – a search that has intensified throughout his life. As a teen he hustled to make a living in the street to help support his family and save for university studies. At university, he was destined to be "The Total Man" until he unfurled his m...

Jill joins us from her home state of Indiana where she grew up. Jill graduated from Harvard and embarked on a career as a neuroanatomist, motivated in part by her desire to understand her brother's schizophrenia. She soon became known throughout the world through her widely viewed and viral TED talk back in 2008, entitled "My Stroke of Insight". And so we giddily sit down together and have fun exp...

Athena is originally from Johannesburg, South Africa. Athena was a highly intuitive child and learned not to demonstrate this with most, believing that there was little acceptance of these abilities in her circles. As a young adult she was trying to understand her place in the world when she had a dream that had a profound impact on her life's direction. We move on to discuss the importance of the...

Sharon joins us from her home in Virginia. Sharon grew up in a Christian-centric upbringing and was home-schooled at her request. After having gone away for post-secondary to NYC, she found that her new secular environment was not the fit that she expected. However, after having experienced grad school in Paris, the secular view on life became more attractive to her … until it didn't. She brings u...

We are joined by Jade Johnson at her home in London. A native of London, her (large) family moved temporarily to Liverpool when she was 7. She grew up in a mixed race family and never took notice of this - until she and her sister were singled out after her move to her new neighbourhood. She relays a story that obliterated her childhood and changed her life forever. She spent the rest of her youth...

Natalie joins us from her native Minnesota for our talk. After having finished a Masters in Art, Natalie worked as an archaeologist in US deserts to help support her desire to continue her vocation as an artist. We learn that Natalie also had a selfless bent to her, which brought her to explore different parts of her country to help others in need. And through these experiences, she learned of oth...

We have a delightful conversation with Elisabetta, who joins us from her abode in the Apennine mountains in Abruzzo in central Italy. Elisabetta is the foremost expert on the Marsican Bear in Italy. Originally from Rome, Elisabetta has spent over 20 years living in the mountains observing, researching, writing about, and storytelling on the famous Marsican bear. Elisabetta was an aspiring actress...

Today we are joined by Cat Criger in Toronto. Cat has had a life so far filled with experiences in following his curiosities. He is an Elder of the Cayuga Nation, Turtle Clan and has German and English ancestry. His father was a "disenfranchised" Indigenous man, which meant that his children were protected from the "scoop" of government authorities that took children away to residential schools. H...

We are joined this week by Julie Church on her rear porch. Our backdrop is the night sky over her backyard in Nairobi, Kenya. Julie brings us through a magically-weaved story about growing up in Kenya, with secondary and post-secondary schooling in Europe and South Africa and a life-long commitment to the magic and mystery of the sea. While working with the WWF she created an eco-friendly project...

George joins us from his abode in LA where he hosts his own Music Radio Show on Apple that is broadcast to over 120 countries. Originally from Toronto, George grew up with a no-nonsense single mom who taught him the importance of being of service to others. As a young boy, his backdrop was a life filled with daily library visits, a senior's home, rough neighbourhood streets, cinema and a growing a...

Amy Jo is originally from Cape Cod and spent many years as an actor in Hollywood before packing up her bags and leaving for Montreal. After several years, she left for Toronto where she lives currently – devoting herself to film directing, writing and creating music. For 12 years, she, her siblings and her mom lived in a religious cult, with her only outlet for self-expression being gymnastics and...

Today we are joined by Edoardo Ghignone, who lives in The Hague, Netherlands. He is the founder of a consultancy named LTx that works with C-Suite leadership teams of large corporate organizations across Europe. Originally from Milan, Edoardo was brought up in a family that ran a manufacturing business in the city for 75 years. He describes his parental influences: an artisan father and a mother t...

We connect with Rune, who lives in Copenhagen. Rune is a leading expert in pre-Christian Nordic Religions & Animism. Born and bred in rural Denmark, Rune explains how hints of Nordic pre-Christian tradition was woven into songs that his grandmother used to sing. This spurred a life-long quest: his need for unearthing and attaining long-lost knowledge of Nordic Indigenous culture. He started with t...

Marie joins us from Toronto. Marie is inarguably one of the country's most public and most sought after criminal defence lawyers. She was born of Middle Eastern parents and grew up in Toronto within a tight knit family. Being a serious and studious girl from the get-go, she decided early in life that fighting for the underdog was what she wanted to do. Her deep affection for her uncle brought her...

Antonia joins us from Vancouver, Canada. Antonia brings us through her experience in an idyllic US Midwest setting as a little girl, as a curious PhD student at Harvard and as a mother of four moving to Northern British Columbia and living with her adoptive Indigenous family. In the 1980s, Antonia met Dr. Ian Stevenson, an American psychiatrist from the University of Virginia. She became intereste...