Chatter that Matters

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.

Canada Day is more than flags and fireworks. It is a reminder that this country was not inevitable. It was imagined into being by people who chose union over drift and compromise over collapse.  My guest is JDM Stewart, author of The Prime Ministers: Canada's Leaders and the Nation They Shaped. James brings history to life by showing us Canada's prime ministers not as saints or villains, but as flawed, ambitious, and consequential leaders who shaped the country we inherited. We talk about Macdonald, Laurier, Borden, Mackenzie King, Pearson, Louis St. Laurent, the two Trudeaus, Quebec, Western alienation, sovereignty, and why too many young Canadians know more about American presidents than the leaders who built, bruised, defended, and reimagined Canada. This is not a history lesson. It is a Canada Day wake-up call.  If we don't know how Canada was made, how can we understand what is at risk?   I close the show with my thoughts on what Canada and Canadians must do for us to remain strong and free.     To purchase J.D.M. Stewart's book:  https://a.co/d/09mFoxzX  

My guest today is Tim Moore, a serial entrepreneur with immense character. Tim's upbringing included failing a few grades, studying to become a priest, then becoming a teacher and eventually a truck driver. His life changed when he bought a secondhand pickup truck, covered it with a tarp, placed a newspaper ad, and started a moving business charging seven dollars an hour. From there, he built AMJ Campbell into Canada's largest moving company, then Premier Executive Suites and many more ventures across real estate, storage, mortgages, hospitality, and more. But that is his resume. This conversation is about something deeper. Tim talks about fear as a warrior emotion, humility as a superpower, manners as a business strategy, and why the way you treat people is the true measure of success. He understood early that a move is never just boxes and furniture. It is people trusting you with their memories, their stress, their hopes, and their next chapter. Later in the show, Kim Mason, Executive Vice President and Head of Private Banking at RBC, joins me to talk about Tim and what it means to stand beside entrepreneurs not only when things are going well but also when everything is on the line. Tim is a fantastic storyteller with many career and life lessons.     To buy Tim's book: How I Made It: Secrets of a Self-Made Multi-Millionaire  https://www.indigo.ca/products/how-i-made-it-secrets-of-a-self-made-multi-millionaire?variant=46831238414546        

Happy Father's Day. Did your father ever try to bottle liquid manure, only to watch it explode in the sunlight while sitting in a store window display? Did he ever bet the family's fortune on a machine he believed could extract gold from sand? Did he buy horses before figuring out where to keep them, then decide the house would do? Did he lose the rent, the car, the business, and occasionally the plot, but somehow never lose his love for his children? Welcome to the unforgettable world of Dacker. In my Father's Day special, I sit down with Lori Thicke, author of Dreamer's Daughter: Surviving My Childhood and Raising My Father. Lori was only ten when her mother left. From that moment on, she and her younger brother Brad were raised by their father, a war veteran, salesman, dreamer, schemer, serial entrepreneur, and eternal optimist. Dacker's ideas were often outrageous. His timing was questionable. His plans were usually missing a few important pieces. But his love for his children was never in doubt. Lori's story takes us from Kirkland Lake to Paris, from childhood chaos to a life of purpose, including her role in helping create Translators Without Borders. Along the way, she searches for understanding of her father, her mother, her childhood, and ultimately herself. This is a Father's Day episode with houses burning down, a car taking out three brand-new yachts, the Count and Countess of Albania staging a coup from Dacker's kitchen, plenty of humour, and a whole lot of heart. Because sometimes the most imperfect fathers leave behind the most unforgettable stories and the most unquestionable love. And at the end of the episode, I offer a personal tribute to my own dad, and to all fathers, the ones who are here, the ones we miss, and the ones who did their best with what they had.   To buy Dreamer's Daughter:  https://www.indigo.ca/products/dreamers-daughter-surviving-my-childhood-and-raising-my-father  

Not long ago in Canada, who you loved could cost you everything.  Betty Baxter knows this because it happened to her. Betty was an elite athlete, an Olympic captain, a pioneering coach, and one of the rare women leading at the highest levels of international sport. Her athletes trusted her. Her program was working. Her future was bright. Then, on a cold November night in 1981, Betty was told to drive to a roadside motel between Ottawa and Montreal. Inside, three of the most powerful men in Canadian volleyball were waiting. They did not ask about her athletes, her results, or her vision. They asked one question. "There are rumours that you are gay. Do you deny that?" Betty's answer was stunning in its courage. "I am the same person I have always been." Soon after, Betty was pushed out of the sport she loved. But this is not only a story about prejudice, power, and what was taken from her. It is also a story about what Betty did next. She became an activist, a human rights advocate, a builder of community, and a champion for women in coaching, fairness in sport, and every person who has ever been told they do not belong. Betty's story reminds us that Pride began as courage. As risk. As people standing up when standing out could cost them everything.  This is Betty Baxter's story - and it matters. And stick around as I then chat with Eric Turner and Isadore Chung about Pride, belonging, representation, and why respect must be more than words on a page.   To buy Outspoken - Betty Baxter's book:  https://five.libsyn.com/show/episodes/new    

Robin Devine has spent her life knocking on doors, sometimes literally, and finding opportunity on the other side. Raised by her grandmother, Robin learned early that hard work, honesty, courage, and instinct could take you places credentials could not. As a little girl, she sold lilacs and rhubarb door to door. As a young woman, she walked into an advertising agency with no portfolio, no experience, and talked her way into a job. By twenty-three, she was selling Checker automobiles out of a broken-down garage, turning old taxis into reverse status symbols. What follows is a remarkable conversation about grit, reinvention, and seeing value where others see nothing.  Her energy and passion are contagious as she shares her life story from advertising to automobiles, from Expo 86 to Canadian Tire, from Russian generals to Bestselling Books, Food banks, Shelters, and a Canada Watch she proudly markets with proceeds helping those in need. This episode is timeless. It is about agency and refusing to wait for permission.     You can also help support Canada's Food Banks and Shelters, by purchasing a special edition Canadian Watch.  https://www.timeisticking.ca/  

Leslie Bradford-Scott grew up inside a story so spectacular it felt unreal. Her father drove a Rolls-Royce. A promoter, he brought Pink Floyd and Paul Anka to Hamilton, moved through a world of million-dollar diamonds, and lit up every room he entered. Then the story cracked. At twelve, Leslie came home to the police on the lawn. At fifteen, she had a gun pressed against her arm. At sixteen, she lost her brother, the one person who made her feel less alone. Trying to outrun her father's shadow, Leslie joined the Coast Guard to save lives and fight crime, only to find corruption there, too. Later, she married a man who felt familiar in the worst possible way: charming, dangerous, and destructive. But Leslie kept moving. She wrote screenplays on Post-it notes while selling cars, built a business from a farm, and reinvented herself again and again. Years after his death, her father's 175,000-word prison manuscript surfaced, reopening everything she thought she had buried. Was he a villain, a victim, a con man, a hero, or all of the above? This is a gripping conversation about crime, family myth, buried truth, and what happens when the story that shaped you collapses. Leslie's lesson is unforgettable: where you are born, and whom you are born to, may shape you, but they do not get to define you. As she says, "My entire life, I didn't feel I mattered. And now I know that I matter." And then please stick around for an important announcement about Chatter that Matters.     To buy Leslie's book: https://www.amazon.com/Liars-Playbook-Memoir-Family-Crime/dp/1668069393  

Some episodes entertain. Some inspire. And some remind us what it means to be human. This is one of those episodes. Bailey Gee was born with the most severe form of spina bifida. Her life became a cycle of surgeries, pain, bullying, isolation, a wheelchair, and battles with mental health that often left her wondering if life was worth fighting for.  Every day she prayed to be happy. Then one day, happiness found her. A random YouTube search introduced Bailey to Cesar De La Rosa, whose music and stage presence became an unexpected light during one of the darkest periods of her life. What started as fandom became friendship, healing, and hope. In this deeply emotional episode, Bailey shares her journey through disability, loneliness, and resilience. Cesar reflects on the responsibility artists carry when their work touches lives in ways they never imagined. The conversation also features Paralympian Joel Dembe, who challenges us to rethink disability, accessibility, and what it truly means to be seen. And thanks to RBC Avion, Cesar will meet Bailey for the first time. This is a story about pain, music, humanity, and the unexpected angels who help us find the light.

Step inside the recording studio to understand more about one of the greatest voices of our time, Celine Dion. My guest is Vito Luprano, the Sony Music executive and creative force who worked on 21 of Celine's albums and helped shape her rise from a shy francophone teenager into an international superstar. Vito found the songs. Fought for the sound. Pushed for the reinvention. And helped Celine move from French-language success to global domination. He shares some of Celine's iconic moments, from "Where Does My Heart Beat Now" to "I Drove All Night," "Taking Chances," "Alone," and the unforgettable story behind "My Heart Will Go On." This is a rare look behind the curtain at one of the world's greatest stars, her journey to the top, her songs, the tension, and her heartbreak when she lost Rene, the love of her life.    

Nick Ferguson grew up in inner-city Miami in a world that tried to define his future before he had a chance to dream. With no father figure, surrounded by poverty, prejudice, and expectations that narrowed life to "jail or a casket," Nick chose another path. He chose books. He chose belief. He chose football. He chose the hard road. Undrafted, overlooked, cut, injured, and forced to fight his way through the CFL, Germany, and countless closed doors, Nick refused to let circumstance become his identity. He built a remarkable 10-year NFL career, but this conversation is not really about football. It is about taking the pencil back and writing your own story. Nick speaks with raw honesty about anger, isolation, faith, failure, mentorship, and reinvention. His message is simple and powerful: life will test you, people will doubt you, and adversity will find you. The question is whether you retreat or move forward. Today, Nick is a broadcaster, mentor, and motivational speaker, helping others escape the victim mindset and discover their own gift. This is a story of resilience, accountability, and the courage to say, "I am here."

I have had the privilege of knowing Paul Meehan for many years. I am a better person for it. There is no finer handshake or twinkle in the eye. Paul is a serial entrepreneur, a lover of family, life, and is guided by a higher purpose to help others. Did I mention that Paul and his wife, Melissa, created, self-funded, and built one of the world's most quietly brilliant brand stories by refusing to shout, by embodying the expression: Less is More.   In a category crowded with sugar, swagger, and sameness, they created NUTRL Vodka, a brand defined by restraint, simplicity, taste, trust and brilliant creativity.   This episode radiates positivity and possibility. I encourage dreamers and doers, creative thinkers, entrepreneurs, and anyone who wants to celebrate the human in humanity. Paul is a partner, father, strategist, entrepreneur, music lover, mentor and a proud Canadian. What you will learn is that success is not luck. It is listening. Learning. Knocking on doors after they have slammed shut. Finding joy in better. Making music when everyone else is trying to make noise.   I then invite Kim Mason to provide context on what it means to be an entrepreneur and to care.  One of Kim's big takeaways is this: 'It's not about demonstrating empathy, it is about being empathetic.'