In The Environmentalist’s Dilemma, award-winning journalist Arno Kopecky zeroes in on the core predicament of our times: the planet may be dying, but humanity’s doing better than ever. To acknowledge both sides of this paradox is to enter a realm of difficult decisions: Should we take down the government, or try to change it from the … Continue reading Arno Kopecky: “Environmental issues are the story of our times” →

The Peabody and International Emmy Award-winning host of Hip-Hop Evolution, Canadian rapper Shad is something of a hip-hop polymath. Born in Kenya to Rwandan parents and raised in London, Ontario, he holds a master’s degree in liberal studies from Simon Fraser University, is the former host of CBC Radio’s Q, and once beat Drake for … Continue reading Shad: “We really need each other” →

The founder and CEO of the Contentment Foundation, a global organization devoted to “bring[ing] indestructible wellbeing practices into every school around the world,” Daniel Cordaro has spent the last decade of his career studying what it means to “live a flourishing life.” A former faculty member at Yale University and the Director of Wellbeing at … Continue reading Daniel Cordaro: “The knowledge of enough” →

More people have walked on the moon than explored some of the places Jill Heinerth has been underwater. One of the world’s most accomplished cave divers, Heinerth has escaped from exploding icebergs off the coast of Antarctica, probed the deep and winding cenotes of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, and been inducted into the International SCUBA Diving … Continue reading Jill Heinerth: “Water connects us all” →

Raised “in the lush rainforest of southern Trinidad,” Antonio Michael Downing’s life was interrupted at age 11 when his caretaker grandmother passed. Uprooted and sent to live in Canada, Downing arrived in northern Ontario in a tiny, frostbitten community with no other Black people besides his Auntie Joan. In Saga Boy: My Life of Blackness … Continue reading Antonio Michael Downing: “The mask is how we unleash [our stories]” →

Cheri DiNovo is no stranger to revolution. At twenty, openly queer, DiNovo was the only woman to sign Canada’s first gay rights manifesto, “We Demand,” in 1971. Thirty years later, as a minister with the United Church of Canada, she would perform Canada’s first legalized same-sex marriage — risking her license in the process. As … Continue reading Cheri DiNovo: “Every revolution seemed impossible until it happened” →

In 2016, freshly laid off from his job, photographer Noah Asanias had a camera, a single lens, and $3,000 in his bank account. Just a few short years earlier, he’d arrived from the Philippines on a student visa and traded his work for studio time. Today, the acclaimed Vancouver-based portrait and fashion photographer has worked … Continue reading Noah Asanias: “Survive the first two years” →

An award-winning photographer based in Houston, TX, Todd Spoth has photographed U.S. presidents, Olympic athletes, and recording artists alike. Known as “Uncle Todd” to more than a few hip-hop artists’ families, Spoth has played golf with rapper Scarface and been doused in slime with NBA All-Star Chris Paul. Todd currently serves on the board of … Continue reading Todd Spoth: “[Photography is] the only class I’ve ever failed in my existence” →

From the day her daughter was born, science journalist Marta Zaraska (Washington Post, The Atlantic) fretted about her family’s health. She fasted, considered adopting the keto diet, and ran a half-marathon. She bought goji berries and chia seeds and ate organic food. But then her research brought her to a new way of understanding, one that … Continue reading Marta Zaraska: “Optimism, kindness, and friendship” →

Raised in Iqaluit, adventurer-filmmaker Sarah McNair-Landry learned to ski and drive sled dogs from her polar guide parents. At nineteen, she became the youngest person to reach both the North and South Poles. She has traversed the Gobi Desert by kite-buggy, traveled Greenland by kayak, survived brushes with hungry polar bears, and now teaches newcomers … Continue reading Sarah McNair-Landry: “The Arctic Ocean is an amazing and terrifying place” →

A former travel and culture editor for CNN International, Frances Cha grew up between the United States, Hong Kong, and South Korea. She has written for The Atlantic, The Believer, and the Yonhap News Agency, among others. Her debut novel, If I Had Your Face, follows four young women in Seoul’s underclass, “making their way in a world … Continue reading Frances Cha: “Books were something that consumed my life” →

Across Latin America, from the plains of Mexico to the jungle of Paraguay, live a cloistered Germanic people. In Menno Moto, a memoir of an eight-month, 45,000 kilometre motorcycle journey across the Americas, Mennonite writer Cameron Dueck searches for common ground within his cultural diaspora. From issues of drug smuggling and water rights in Mexico, to … Continue reading Cameron Dueck: “Mennonite has a lot of definitions” →

In 2015, writer and Outside magazine correspondent Eva Holland was forced to confront the question: what happens when the thing you fear the most comes true? The daughter of a mother who lost her own parents young, Holland long feared the same would happen to her. Then, on a camping trip in northwestern British Columbia, she got … Continue reading Eva Holland: “Fear is essential” →

A co-founder of UATÊ // STORIED LEARNING, a vehicle for community-led knowledge mobilization through film and storytelling, Erynne Gilpin is a Victoria-based educator, birth doula, bead worker, and activist. The creator of Indigenous Womxn Climb, she is interested in Indigenous resurgence through “embodied governance, insurgent healing, and land/water-based wellness.” “Knowledge is really interconnected with everything … Continue reading Dr. Erynne Gilpin: “Knowledge is relational” →

Eternity Martis found that as a Black student at a mostly-white university, she learned more about “what someone like me brought out in other people than who I was.” From blackface to racial slurs, she chronicled it all in her debut memoir, They Said This Would Be Fun. A blend of personal stories and in-depth reporting, … Continue reading Eternity Martis: “I had to survive” →

What if, when you wanted something, you just asked? Rebecca Rockefeller and Liesl Clark are the co-creators of the Buy Nothing Project, a global network of hyper-local gift economies aimed at building community and consuming less. What started as a small Facebook group in Bainbridge Island, Washington in 2013 — the first gift was a dozen … Continue reading Buy Nothing Project: “Build the world you want to live in” →

David Roskelley has a penchant for difficult things. The first American to climb the Seven Summits and Volcanic Seven Summits, the highest mountains and volcanoes on each continent, Roskelley has survived on yak meat while summiting Mount Everest, and traveled as far afield as Papua New Guinea and Antarctica in search of peaks to climb. … Continue reading David Roskelley: “Enjoy the grind” →

Meik Wiking has made a life out of studying happiness. The Copenhagen-based researcher and international bestselling author (The Little Book of Hygge, The Little Book of Lykke) has worked with countries around the world to explore what brings meaning and satisfaction to our lives. The Happiness Research Institute founder and CEO’s latest book, The Art of Making … Continue reading Meik Wiking: “The happiness of pursuit” →

Maria Paz ‘Pachi’ Ibarra may well be one of the most experienced alpinists in all of Antarctica. The Santiago, Chile-raised climber has over ten first ascents in the Ellsworth Mountains, more than anyone else. A guide for more than 15 years, she first arrived on the continent to survey peaks in the Sentinel Range. She … Continue reading Pachi Ibarra: “You have to be prepared for everything [in Antarctica]” →

A Toronto-based freelance writer and bestselling co-author of We The Champs: The Toronto Raptors’ Historic Run to the 2019 NBA Title, Alex Wong is among the most preeminent personalities in the NBA’s digital sphere. A former accountant, his path to journalism was an unconventional one, sparked by an early-career layoff. Now, Wong — whose work has … Continue reading Alex Wong: “You’ve got to check your ego at the door” →