The Pulse

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On this episode of Nonpartisan Hacks, Parksville City Councillors Joel Grenz and Sean Wood sit down with John Jack, known in his own language as Sayaač̓atḥ, who holds two elected roles at once: Chief Councillor of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations, a modern treaty nation on the west coast of Vancouver Island, and elected Chair of the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District.

Jack walks the hosts through wha...

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Dr. Taryn Marie Stejskal is widely regarded as the world's leading expert on resilience. Founder of the Resilience Leadership Institute, she draws on more than fifteen years of original research to reveal what separates people who bounce back from those who break down - and speaks candidly about her own experience living with dyslexia and post-traumatic stress disorder.

 Dr. Stejskal's empiri...

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Why You Should Listen to This Episode: Corner Gas creator and award-winning comedian Brent Butt opens up about his small-town Saskatchewan roots, seventeen years on the road, and his brand new comedy album, while Nanaimo sommelier Veronica Szick previews the fifth annual Parksville Wine Walk.

This Episode Features:

(22:28) Award-winning comedian Brent Butt grew up the youngest of seven kids in Tisd...

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What happens when you get four real golfers in a room to break down Hollywood’s most famous golf swing? You get one of the liveliest, most opinionated episodes of Too Old or Movie Gold yet.

Host Olen Vanderleeden of the Comox Valley was joined by fellow Gen Xer David Purcell, filling in while regular co-host Matthew Stockton was away at "sports conversion camp," to tackle the 1996 golf rom-c...

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Joe Bakhmoutski is a father, husband, author and testicular cancer survivor from Melbourne, Australia. After years of living with debilitating anxiety, Joe faced a cancer diagnosis that carried him through the lowest depths of misery and pain before forging a closer bond with his family and a new sense of purpose.

Author of Simplify Cancer and Finding Hope in Times of Uncertainty, Joe has made it ...

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Why You Should Listen to This Episode: This week we hit the road for our 'You Said It' segment at a Mid-Island car show, catching up with Vancouver Islanders on what makes this place home. Then Master Gardener Debora Gurrad of Vancouver Island Master Gardens returns to bust some of the most stubborn garden myths out there, from bone meal to burlapped trees, so you can stop wasting time and money ...

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On this episode of Nonpartisan Hacks, Parksville City Councillors Joel Grenz and Sean Wood take the show “on the rail”, recording aboard a high-rail vehicle rolling along the old E&N corridor from Parksville to Coombs. They are joined by Thomas Bevan, Executive Director and CEO of the Island Corridor Foundation, the non-profit charity that owns the historic rail corridor running f...

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In Nairobi, Kenya, Rephar Salamba is mother to her 16-year-old son. After leaving an abusive marriage, she rebuilt her life through determination and quiet strength, discovering a passion for handmade jewelry and becoming a community advocate and mentor to women working toward independence in Nairobi's Korogocho slums.

In this episode, Cindy Thompson sits down with Rephar Salamba, who candidly sha...

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Why You Should Listen to This Episode: Actor Greyston Holt - the werewolf from Bitten, the vampire from Supernatural, and this fall's Detective Hudson Riley on Prime Video's Neagley - is our guest co-host for a BC Day long weekend special. Greyston shares his own musician roots, a lifetime of connections, and talks about his new role as Hudson Riley in “Neagley” - while we spin tracks...

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A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away - or more precisely, in 1980 - a sequel arrived that would change cinema forever. In this special May the Fourth episode of Too Old or Movie Gold, host Olen Vanderleeden of the Comox Valley brings together his Gen X co-host Matthew Stockton and millennial comedians Josh Fleming (host of the Absolutely Obscure podcast) and Will Corry to revisit The Empire ...

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Lisa Strogal is a Master Certified Coach, CEO and founding principal of Shadow Light Consulting Inc. With a long list of accomplishments, certifications and corporate experience behind her, Lisa has developed programs for leadership development and coaching curriculums leveraged in community, organizational, team and individual transformations.

In this episode, Lisa joins Cindy Thompson on A Resil...

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Why You Should Listen to This Episode: Roy Henry Vickers spent his 80th birthday thinking about the schoolhouse he was born in, and this year he's released a fifty-year retrospective built from more than 400 works of his art. Meanwhile, Kyle Gilson has spent nine fire seasons leading a BC Wildfire Service crew right here on Vancouver Island, and he takes us inside the first hour after the call co...

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On this episode of Nonpartisan Hacks, Parksville City Councillors Sean Wood and Joel Grenz sit down with Shayla Day, founder and CEO of DayHomes Society, a nonprofit serving the Oceanside region with outreach, food support, housing navigation, and community coordination. Shayla also chairs the Oceanside Homeless Task Force and co-chairs the Oceanside Community Action Team.

Shayla brings a perspect...

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Kim Wilkinson is a mother and Grief Recovery Specialist who lost her 22-year-old son, Tristan, to a drug overdose in November 2019. Through that loss, Kim discovered healing, recovery and transformation, and now works with others facing mental health challenges, PTSD, addiction and trauma as they move from suffering to empowerment.

In this conversation with Cindy Thompson, Kim shares how Tristan's...

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Why You Should Listen to This Episode: Harry Manx opens up about a life that took him from the Isle of Man to busking in Europe and Japan, and into the studio for his new album Falling Upwards, out this August as he tours Vancouver Island. Jen Bate of the McMillan Arts Centre shares what's coming to Parksville this summer, from the Wine Walk to a new gallery exhibit built around a real train car....

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It has been 31 years since Roland Emmerich’s Stargate first sent Kurt Russell and James Spader through an ancient portal to a desert planet ruled by a false god - and the Too Old or Movie Gold crew just stepped back through to find out if it still holds up. Host Olen Vanderleeden of the Comox Valley is joined by Gen X co-host Matthew Stockton, millennial wormhole expert Shawn, and Gen Z&rsq...

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Karen Alcantara joins Cindy Thompson on A Resilience Project to share her journey from self-proclaimed "Ghetto Girl" to emotional support worker. Drawing on her teenage experience with gang life, Karen speaks candidly about the seduction of belonging, the search for community, and what was missing for her growing up.

One of twelve siblings and the daughter of an immigrant mother from the Dominican...

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Why You Should Listen to This Episode: Major Sergii Kachanov has watched need at the Mount Arrowsmith Food Bank climb toward last year's total in just five months, and he explains exactly what's driving it and how the community can help. Then novelist C.C. Humphreys, fresh off two brand-new books, talks about trading Salt Spring Island for the English countryside, writing a career's worth of thri...

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Every spring, property tax season brings the same wave of confusion, and Parksville City Councillors Joel Grenz and Sean Wood are digging into it head-on in this episode of Non-Partisan Hacks. Using the City of Parksville as a case study, they break down why a single property tax bill is actually a bundle of separate charges from multiple levels of government - the city, the regional district, th...