Unleash Your Voice with Priya Sam

Dr. Chika Stacy Oriuwa is in her second year of residency in psychiatry at the University of Toronto. When she started medical school, she was surprised to learn that she was the only Black student in her class. Not long after, she started sharing her story to help increase the number of Black applicants.  Her work has been incredibly successful and she has become a role model for many but it hasn...

Dr. Alyson Kelvin is a virologist currently working at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO). Her turning point happened in December 2019 when she got an email about a mysterious respiratory illness that left 30 people hospitalized in Wuhan, China.  Not long after, she was packing her bags to move from Halifax to Saskatoon for what she thought would be a few weeks to work at VIDO...

Many of you will know Brandon Gonez from his television career. He worked at stations across the country, including CTV's national morning show where we worked together. Brandon now hosts his own news show, the Brandon Gonez show, on YouTube.  In this episode, we talk about one of his early turning points; pivoting from studying business and finance to pursuing journalism. We take a trip down...

Xenia Chen is the founder of Threads, a direct to consumer tights company. She started the company while she was working in finance and in 2019, she took a leap of faith to pursue entrepreneurship full-time. That turning point led to some pivotal conversations, including explaining her decision to her Mom by comparing it to her parents' decision to immigrate to Canada.  We also discuss pivoti...

When Tareq Hadhad and his family left Syria in 2012, they had no idea where life would take them. Their livelihood was their chocolate factory in Damascus and it was destroyed in a bombing that Tareq’s father narrowly escaped. They went to Lebanon and Tareq describes a time when he lost faith after his family’s refugee application was denied by several countries.  Hope finally arrived after Tareq...

Camille Knowles is the founder of the brand “The Beauty of Eczema” and the idea came from her biggest turning point; ending up in hospital with an infection when she was 21-years-old and covered head-to-toe in eczema.  She describes this as her darkest moment and says what helped her start to heal was seeking mental health treatment and support. She has since written a book about her experience an...

What a thrill to have award-winning Canadian hip-hop artist and producer Classified as a guest on Turning Point! He's been making music for 26 years, releasing his first album called "Time's up, Kid" in 1995 and his most recent called "Time's Up" in 2020. In this episode we talk about those albums and everything in-between including his big turning point; when he...

Jennifer Harper is the founder of Cheekbone Beauty, a cosmetics company committed to sustainability and making a difference in the lives of Indigenous youth. In this episode we also hear about Jenn's experience with addiction, struggling with her identity and losing her brother to suicide.  Jenn shares the hard parts of her life openly and honestly. As she says: “I firmly believe that the mom...

Dr. Naheed Dosani is a palliative care physician and health justice activist. His turning point happened during his residency when one of his patients named Terry died. Terry was experiencing homelessness at the time and Naheed saw how the systems in place failed him.  This experience led Naheed to found an organization called Palliative Education and Care for the Homeless (PEACH). PEACH is a mobi...

Canadian ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir skated together for 22 years and during that time they became the most decorated figure skaters in Olympic history.  In this episode, Tessa reflects on her biggest turning point; deciding to come back to compete in 2016 after a two year break. Tessa and Scott would change coaches, move to Montreal and two years later go on to win the gold medal at t...

Celina Caesar-Chavannes is an entrepreneur, a  former MP for Whitby, a mental health advocate and she’s now added author to her growing list of accolades. Her book Can you hear me now? came out earlier this year. In the book Celina gets personal sharing intimate details of her childhood, her marriage and her mental health. In this episode, we discuss her decision to share her story with the hope o...

In this episode we hear from mental health advocate and one of CAMH’s 150 difference makers, Asante Haughton. Asante speaks for the first time about the stigma he faced from friends and family when he became a father at a young age. We discuss the impact that had on his mental health and the challenges he faced in his relationships. Asante also shares how he overcame those obstacles, finished his...

Rebecca Thomas is an author, a poet, an award-winning spoken word artist, and an activist for Indigenous rights. In this episode we talk about her biggest turning point; the first time she read one of her poems on stage. That first poem was about reconnecting with her Mi'kmaq heritage and her relationship with her father who is a residential school survivor. We also talk about her time as Hal...

***Trigger warning: Domestic/Family violence, death*** At 11 years old, sweet Riya Rajkumar dreamed of being a doctor, driving a Lamborghini and living in a mansion. She loved Drake and all things sparkly and girly.  Sadly, her young life was cut short when she was killed by her father on her birthday in 2019. In her first interview, Riya's mother Priya Ramdin shares her story with the hope o...

Did you love the Netflix show Connected as much as I did? Well then you're in luck because today we're getting a look behind the scenes of the groundbreaking show from host Latif Nasser. This is the latest turning point for Latif who is the director of research and co-host of Radiolab.  In this episode, we start with how Connected came to be. We also talk about how Latif traveled around...

Peter Katz is a Juno nominated singer/songwriter with a passion for fitness and the outdoors. Peter fell off a 100-foot cliff in 2017 and, while he miraculously survived, he was seriously injured. At one point there was talk of paralysis and amputation of his foot, but he beat the odds and made some incredible music during his recovery. In this episode we talk about Peter's fall, as well as a...

For 14 years, Beth Beattie hid her mental illness from colleagues. She is Senior Legal Counsel for the Ontario ministry of the Attorney General and she worried about the stigma she might face if her colleagues knew she was living with bipolar disorder. It was two separate conversations with coworkers about mental health that lead to her turning point; deciding to share her story first with her tea...

Taylor Lindsay-Noel was a 14-year-old aspiring gymnast on track to compete at the 2012 Olympics a tragic accident left her paralyzed. Twelve years later, she is running a successful tea company that made Oprah's 2020 list of favourite things. We talk about life as an elite gymnast, the accident that changed everything, the importance of being able to pivot and of course the tea company and th...

Cheers to the first Turning Point episode of 2021 and it's a good one!  T. Thomason is a singer-songwriter who you may recognize from CTV's The Launch. We start with a major turning point for T. when he decided to leave university to pursue music full time. T. released his first album at 14 under his old name and pronouns so he was no stranger to the music industry. But in the following...

Leanne Forker was born and raised in Scotland and  is now  a personal trainer in Oakville, Ontario. Her mother's struggle with addiction and mental health issues meant life wasn't easy when Leanne was a child but a chance encounter and her love of soccer changed the course of her life. In this episode, we also talk about Leanne finding out in college that she was living with dyslexia and...

Police officer Jeff Martin only had his badge for a few days when his cousin was murdered in 2005 during what became known as 'the summer of the gun' in Toronto. He struggled between wanting revenge and wanting to uphold his promise to protect and serve. Ultimately a conversation with a colleague changed everything. Jeff is now a motivational speaker who shares his story with children, y...

Jonathan Torrens has been a staple on Canadian TV screens since he was 15. From his early days on Street Cents and Jonovision, to his characters on Trailer Park Boys and Lettekenny, he's reinvented himself many times. Jonathan is also a family man, a podcast host, an author, and the list goes on. Today, we start from a turning point in 2000 when Jonathan learned an important life lesson after...

Paulina Munroe is a yoga teacher and a mindfulness and meditation coach based in Toronto. In 2018, she was a lawyer on her lunch break when she narrowly escaped the van attack on Yonge Street in Toronto. Paulina joins us to talk about how that tragedy became a major turning point in her life. 

For more than a decade, millions of Canadians woke up with Marci Ien on Canada AM. The latest turning point in her life has led her to federal politics. In this episode, we talk about the phone call from the Prime Minister's Office that changed Marci's life, her career in television that paved the way for journalists of colour, and her beginnings as a child actor.

A taste of what's to come! Each episode of Turning Point with Priya Sam will focus on the turning point of an incredible guest. Some interviews stem from a decision to make a big change or take a leap of faith, while others start from tragedy or overcoming an obstacle. All of them are inspiring.