Behind Greatness by Inspire North

Suzanne joins us from Hilton Head, South Carolina. She grew up admiring her older brother's career in the Air Force and dreamed of a military career as well. After becoming a Naval Commanding Officer and travelling around the world, she was invited to serve as the aide to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. For several years she was privy to top secret files, she was meeting kings and presi...

Carol joins us from the Toronto area. We spend some time together discussing what was important for her as she spent decades building a high profile corporate career and being a mother and wife. We learn about her upbringing and frequent moving across the country. She explains how sport and her coaches played a stabilizing role in her youth – and how she parlayed this experience into a foundationa...

Jonathan, a Toronto boy, joins us from his office in Connecticut where he plays out his days as an endovascular surgeon and a Yale professor. Jonathan lives and breathes his passion for surgery – and from that passion we discover a lot of what makes him really tick. We delve immediately into themes like seeking approval, the real definition of confidence and his view on the life of servitude that...

Marysia joins us from southern California. A "green witch", she is a sought after herbalist and healer in the US. Her own roots lie with a rabble-rousing family in Poland who were active in the Nazi resistance during WW2. Growing up in a matriarchal family, she learned the importance of the plant world and the abundance of the earth from her grandmother. With the understanding that plants create t...

Nigel joins us from his abode in the UK. Growing up, he celebrated and channeled the  emotionally charged culture of his Scottish and Irish roots, which helped him make music his lifetime muse. A true citizen of the world, Nigel brings us through his journey in life from a wayward youth to internationally renowned composer to musically-focused healer and humanitarian. We walk through his experienc...

We are joined by Robert in Toronto. He is currently a partner in one of the country's oldest and largest law firms. He has Jesus covid hair. And, he's an Inspire alumn to boot. We immediately dive into the existential, where Rob also feels at home. He shares with us some of his personal experience in childhood where he spent much time in and out of hospitals, leading up to a long, excruciatingly p...

Vera joins us from the sunny Yucatan. Her focus has been bioarcheology and archaeology of pre-Hispanic and pre-colonial Maya. As a child, she grew up in Germany under a very demanding upbringing. Being an artist at heart, she wanted to explore what was calling her. As a teen, she "fled" to the US to study Art History at Tulane. From there she decided to pursue her studies in Medicine in both Germa...

Russell joins us from his home in California. Born during the Great Depression, Russell spent his childhood in Chicago and then NYC. A gifted learner, Russell graduated highschool early and decided to study physics in College, setting the groundwork for his career as a scientist. But his real passion already laid elsewhere…. While becoming a pioneer in the 1950s and 1960s in laser development, Rus...

Joan Koenig has called Paris her home for the last several decades. She grew up playing the piano and falling in love with the flute. Originally from the US, Joan moved often and lived in many states. But one thing that didn't change was her desire to play music. She eventually found herself studying at the prestigious Julliard School in NYC and after graduation embarked upon a journey that brough...

Nicholas joins Behind Greatness from his office at Yale in Connecticut. Nicholas grew up with two parents who had originally came to the US from Greece as young scholars. One of Nicholas' heroes was his mother, who suffered for two decades with a form of fatal cancer. This experience was instrumental in Nicholas' decision to later become a physician. As a physician, he specialized in palliative ca...

Mike joins us from Winnipeg, Manitoba – in Central Canada. He grew up partly in Northern Ontario, Canada in poverty with a single mom. But, at 13 he quit school and started to explore the world. At 21, with 7 years of working experience and survival already under his belt, he founded Manitoba Harvest. Over the course of the subsequent 20 years, he grew his role from start-up entrepreneur to the CE...

Maurizio currently lives in Istanbul where he leads European professional basketball powerhouse Fenerbahce SK as its General Manager. Prior to this he was the first ever non-American VP of an NBA franchise with the Toronto Raptors and one of the most successful GMs ever in Europe. We discuss a journey riddled with serious life-altering, pivotal moments. It all started with a motorcycle dangled in...

Indre joins us today from San Francisco. Growing up in Toronto she moved to California (for good) as a young adult to figure out her path as an Opera singer, while also on scholarship as a budding neuroscientist. We learn about her evolution as an artist and as a sought-after science communicator … she also hosts two podcasts: "Cadence" since 2017 and the widely acclaimed "Inquiring Minds" since 2...

Anson joins us from London, England. His parents were originally from Jamaica and moved to Canada for a better life. He grew up just outside of Toronto with his sister. He was a natural athlete and in his late teens he found a real passion in sprinting. From there, he took off. Winning most of his competitions in Canada, Anson wanted more. On full scholarship at Washington State in the US, Anson s...

Carl joins us from Boston University. He shares with us how his path changed from pursuing the field of medicine to that of philosophy and the classics. Ever since that pivot in his life, Carl has been dedicating his life to find the truth to our human existence. Over 40 years ago, he pioneered research on the Dionysian mysteries of ancient and classical Greece. He was shunned and ostracized by so...

Antoni is based in Barcelona. He grew up Lleida, Spain partly under Franco's totalitarian regime. The harsh political conditions didn't deter Antoni's parents, who chose to live lives dedicated to artistic endeavour. Antoni also realized at a young age that he wished to pursue his artistic curiosity and once he left his home town he began to explore his sculpting craft along with exploring the wor...

Anna joins us from Athens, Georgia. She was born in the Middle East of Indian parents who made sure that her education formally take place in their country of origin. As a student in India, Anna found her comfort zone in sports, non-academic endeavours and in the general exploration of people. She soon became attracted to the social sciences and developed a keen interest in the academic research o...

Mike joins us from Southern Ontario. He grew up in a small town near Niagara Falls. As a kid he helped his father deliver milk by horse and cart and was paid in dairy. Finding out later that he was lactose intolerant, he knew this might be a sign. Eventually becoming a CPA and partner at a large firm, Mike spent ungodly hours building his career – putting a strain on his family life. Moving on to...

Bruce grew up in the suburbs of NYC, where his upbringing was rooted both in healthy skepticism and in a strong curiosity about the material world. His father, a chemist, always urged young Bruce to blaze a trail. As a green intern in the 1970s, one of Bruce's first patients revealed to him a peculiar experience that puzzled him. He habitually wrote off this type of experience with other patients...

Cheryl was born in a small city near the Rocky Mountains nicknamed "Swan City" and a place originally settled by First Nations tribe the Danezaa. She grew up in a family where everyone pitched in and learned to do everything needed to get things done. With this example – and a little bit of a perennial impatience – Cheryl threw herself into her sports and finished highschool early. With a fierce d...

Originally from Vicenza, Italy, Federico was born during WWII. As a little boy his family moved to a pre-industrial area of his region in order to escape the ravages of war. But there, little Federico soon developed a penchant for creating and building machines. As a young scientist, Federico moved to Silicon Valley where he invented and developed the 1st silicon designed micro-processor that was...

Ken joins us from LA where he lives, works and breathes his life's passion. Having grown up in a conservative immigrant family environment in Chicago, Ken felt that he wanted to explore more and differently than what was expected of him. Being very shy and emotionally-tuned, young Ken also understood that he needed to break out of his environment. But, as he explains, he spiralled downwards for se...

Raine joins us from his studio in LA where he shares with us about growing up in Toronto and how disconnected he felt from artistic purpose – until he wasn't. As a teenager at his boarding school he spent his nights in solitude, devouring music, learning to play guitar and writing songs. When his head-master asked him to cut his hair and quit his band, he knew what he needed to do. Through sheer p...

Mike grew up in an idyllic small-town setting near Niagara Falls, enjoying music, frog-hunting, exploring and sports. He decided to pursue his education through sports scholarship in North Carolina and his world opened up forever thereafter. After his India, Thailand and Scotland adventures, he landed back home with no clear path in sight. He decided to move to Toronto, knowing no one and starting...

Bruno grew up in the hustle and bustle, chaotic urban environment of Rome. He recounts with fondness the life-defining experiences as a young boy in his family visits to the dry, hot lands of southern Italy in Puglia and the green abundance of the mountain sides in Abruzzo. Keeping these memories close as he grew older, he moved to Berlin where he launched his career as a conservationist-wildernes...