Chatter that Matters

A heart-moving episode about the unimaginable courage it takes to live after loss. When Pamela Shainhouse's daughter, Alli, died at 26 after seven years of fighting Hodgkin lymphoma, Pamela felt that the person she had been died with her. In the silence that followed came a life-altering question: Who would she become now?
 
In this deeply personal conversation, Pamela shares how Alli taught her to live fully, to refuse the limits others place on us, and to understand the profound difference between moving on and moving forward.
 
Pamela also speaks candidly about growing up with a disability, enduring bullying, becoming a caregiver, and navigating a grief that reshaped every part of her life. She reflects on the 16-year journey of writing her memoir, Daughter Dies, Mother Lives On—a testament to the daughter she lost and the woman she fought to become.
 
This is a powerful conversation about a mother's enduring love, the struggle to rebuild an identity after unimaginable loss, and the possibility of finding purpose, not beyond grief, but within the love that remains.
 
To learn more about what Pamela does: https://www.theshainhousegroup.com

Every so often, a guest comes along who challenges us to think differently. Not necessarily to agree, but to wonder. What if intuition is more than instinct? What if the coincidences that shape our lives aren't coincidences at all? What if the moments we dismiss are actually messages, gently nudging us toward the life we were meant to live? What if there are Earth Angels? 
Leslie Lee Sanders believes we're all born with an inner knowing, that signs, synchronicities, intuition, and even spiritual guidance are available to us if we're willing to slow down and listen. Whether you embrace those ideas, question them, or reject them entirely, they invite us to think about life from a very different perspective.
She also brings an extraordinary life story to that conversation. Born into poverty as one of eight children, becoming a teenage mother at fifteen, and overcoming extraordinary adversity, she went on to become an award-winning author of more than thirty books. Writing under the names Leslie Lee Sanders, L.L. Sanders, Leslie Lee, and Lee L. Sanders, she has captivated readers with psychological thrillers, horror, romance, and fiction.
Now, for the first time, she's telling her own story. In her memoir, Ready to Listen, Leslie steps out from behind the characters to explore the experiences that shaped her beliefs, her resilience, and her understanding of what it means to trust the voice within.
Whether you're deeply spiritual, deeply skeptical, or simply curious, this conversation isn't about convincing you what to believe. It's about exploring the possibility that the greatest answers may come when we stop talking... and start listening to here and beyond.
 
To purchase her memoir 'Ready to Listen' - 
Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G2GP3Q29

Some conversations stay with you long after they are over. This is one of them.
Kim Mason is someone I deeply admire for her intelligence, her humanity and the way she makes everyone in her presence feel heard and seen. She dreamed of becoming an anthropologist and journalist, but a summer job at RBC changed everything. Almost four decades later, she holds one of Canada's most senior banking positions.
But our conversation isn't really about her career. It's about the paths we walk in life—some we choose and others that seem to choose us.
Kim opens up about saying yes to the unexpected, balancing work and family, and how the people closest to her encouraged her to embrace a career-defining move. We explore why empathy can't be performed, what listening reveals that numbers can't, and how thoughtful advice can change lives.
I close with the advice I give anyone seeking direction in their career: how to find your passion and pursue it. It begins with the four rewards we seek from our work—and why some matter more than others.

When my 90-year-old mother-in-law moved into our home earlier this year, caregiving became deeply personal. Seeing the stairs, stubborn jar lids, fear of falling and loss of independence through her eyes changed how I understood aging, dignity and love—and inspired this conversation.
Millions of people in the middle of their own lives suddenly become caregivers. Most arrive untrained, unprepared and too often unsupported, yet they keep showing up because love asks them to.
Few understand that journey more deeply than Amy Coupal, CEO of the Ontario Caregiver Organization. As a child, Amy helped care for her brother, who lived with cerebral palsy. Years later, she walked beside her mother through cancer and palliative care. Today, she helps her father navigate life in his late eighties, holding their ordinary moments close because she knows their time together is not unlimited.
Amy gives voice to the exhaustion, guilt, anticipatory grief and invisible mental load carried by caregivers. Leanne Kaufman, President and CEO of RBC Royal Trust, then explains how honest conversations and thoughtful planning can answer some of caregiving's hardest questions before a crisis makes them urgent.
This is a deeply personal story—but it is also one that may profoundly affect any of us as our lives, and the lives of those we love, unfold.

Aaron Bethune lives his life. Musician. Writer. Strategist. Mountaineer. Seeker. Philosopher. Promoter and Publisher. His approach is one we can all learn from.
So many words of wisdom to take away: 'I like to get to the corner to see what's next before deciding to go forward or change lanes.'
Or
Success is not always the award, the applause, or even the destination.
Sometimes success is freedom.
Sometimes it is presence, being in the present.
I hope you take away as much as I did from Aaron Bethune.