Shows
Love Sweet LoveEp 35 Returning to the Universal Power of Food and Story with Karl Schatz and Margaret Hathaway of Community PlateI am excited for you to meet my two guests today, Karl Schatz and Margaret Hathaway. They are a married couple who are co-founders of a non-profit called Community Plate, in Maine. They also have a goat farm, are authors, have a busy family and a real love of bringing people together and building community.You’ll find out how a cookbook, celebrating Maine’s bi-centennial, was kind of a spark for their non-profit, and how these recipes led to another cookbook and then those led to the vision of these dinners. Karl and Margaret always believed in the...2025-07-0153 minLove Sweet LoveEp 34 Making a Fuss About Community, Culture & Women with leader & founder, Mithila Karnik AdarkarSome people just radiate love and community and positive energy. I am so glad you are choosing this episode today, as this is one of my all-time favourite interviews. Sometimes, my guest and I welled up with tears because of the beauty we felt in what we were speaking about. My guest on this episode really understands community and love and culture and celebration.She has only been a few years here in Canada, and she is making all kinds of impact in her city of Port Coquitlam. Her name is Mithila Karnik Adarkar. She is a professional...2025-06-141h 16Love Sweet LoveEp 33: A Surprisingly Effective Cure for Loneliness & Divisiveness (Its Not What You Think!) with Vanessa Elias of Block Party USAMy guest today is creating community and wellness on quite a massive scale! My guest is Vanessa Elias and she is a mental health activist, a certified parent coach (she has her own company called, Thrive with a Guide), and writes and speaks about child and family wellbeing. Vanessa is also the founder of Block party USA. She is a firm believer that block parties are a cure for most of what ails us today. They are simple, actionable, free, joyful ways to allow for face to face connections, free play for kids, and many other benefits to us and...2025-05-2850 minLove Sweet LoveEp 32: “The Dangers in Letting Our Titles Define Us” - A solocast with host Gayle BeavilWhat happens when we are consumed by our work, or the titles and roles we have? And when I say consumed, I mean that almost literally – like swallowed up, or as if we melded into one like some kind of chemical reaction that happens when two substances merge.If there is no boundary between work self and non-work self, no off switch, like when you come home from work, or when you finish with the last client as you work from home, how does the transition to relax happen? The transition into the “you” without work? IS THERE a you...2025-05-1555 minLove Sweet LoveEp 31 “Celebrating Identity & Understanding” Global LGBTQIA & Civil Rights Speaker & Educator, Greg R. BairdI am looking forward to sharing this inspiring and informative conversation with you. I speak to Greg R. Baird, who has been dedicating his life to inspire, empower, and educate folks about the fact that each of us has something to offer, and we all matter. Especially now, as we see the long fought-for DEI policies in the States under attack, these kinds of conversations matter.Greg and I talk about his childhood in a small town and affected him, how and why he went into teaching and then moved into speaking around the globe, why he feels...2025-04-2854 minLove Sweet LoveEp 30 “It’s for the Kids” - 32 Years (So Far) of a Fundraiser with Friends with Guest Bob LeBlevecThis is a fun episode for me, as today I am talking with a friend I have known for 47 years! I asked him to be on the podcast because I have been marveling at him and his wife and what they have done for 32 years now.They have created a fundraiser for children’s charities where they invite over 100 friends, and friends of friends, to an annual Bonspiel. They have a dinner and an auction and other various ways to make money, and I can tell you first hand, it is a lot of fun.At th...2025-04-1056 minLove Sweet LoveEp 29 Creating Change & Hope TOGETHER - Green Teams of Canada with founder Lyda SalatianWelcome to today’s episode. I am so pleased to have Lyda Salatian on the show with me. It was honestly one of my favourite interviews I have ever done. Her passion and dedication just burst through in every moment of our conversation.Lyda founded the nonprofit, Green Teams of Canada, in 2011. She has won some very prestigious awards for her passions and commitment, such as: British Columbia Achievement Foundation Community Award and the YWCA Women of Distinction Award - Environmental Sustainability.Lyda believes inviting people into nature and engaging them in meaningful, fun hands-on action, wi...2025-03-2541 minLove Sweet LoveEp 28 Living With Intention & Sharing Wisdom -The “Aging to Sage- ing” Program with guests Janey Talbot & Wendy ScottWelcome to another episode of Love Sweet Love.I am so glad you are here. Today you are going to find out about a revolutionary program that will turn your thinking around aging upside down. This program is called From Aging to Sage-ing and it was created by Rabbi Zalmon Schachter-Shalomi. It supports participants to consciously move through the challenges and transitions of life by engaging in the older years more joyfully, compassionately and deliberately.One of my guests today is Janey Talbot. Janey is a Sage-ing program facilitator, a hospice volunteer, a mom of 5 and...2025-03-0854 minLove Sweet LoveEp 27 What Makes Us Happier - TIME DOES! Why Time Matters, and 9 Ways to Get It In Your Busy LifeAnyone who has been a busy mom (I had three kids in 6 years) and worked part time as a teacher. It was so busy and stressful at times. I was exhausted. I had no time for myself. Sound familiar?Studies show that what is most correlated with our happiness, is the sense that we have more TIME to enjoy our lives. Time actually matters more to your happiness than money, or anything else, according to Yale’s Dr. Laurie Santos, who studies and teaches about the Science of Happiness. She calls this “time affluence”.I know one of...2025-02-2042 minLove Sweet LoveEp 26 Raising Hundreds of Thousands, Sharing Good & Making Good Happen - The Hope Rises Network with guest Kate GlaserMy guest today calls herself a story-telling enthusiast. She is a professional journalist and after 8 years of television news reporting, she decided to move into the nonprofit world and charity work. My guest is the inspiring Kate Glaser.Kate heads the Hope Rises Network which tells and shares good news stories of love and hope from around the world, and Hope Rises also, importantly, takes action in Kate’s local community of Buffalo, New York.They raise money, often partnering with other brands and companies and give back to local families and causes. Besides all of th...2025-02-1037 minLove Sweet LoveEp 25 “The Other “Vitamin C” – It Saves Lives, So Why Don’t We Take It”?Hi there. Thank you for being here with me on the Love Sweet Love Podcast. This episode is about something life changing and life-saving and that we can add into our lives.Life-changing and life-saving.It is free. It is accessible.My hope with this episode is that it will have you pause and think about how you can get more of this in your life, and into the lives of your kids, your grandkids and all of your loved ones.It is not just a good idea. It is imperative.2025-01-3038 minLove Sweet LoveEp 24 Serving Meals, Supports and DIGNITY Together - The Storehouse, Cloverdale Community Kitchen with Marty JonesA local community kitchen. A shelter. A mobile meals program. These sound like very helpful services for our community, but maybe you are thinking that helpful doesn’t exactly make for an exciting and entertaining podcast, necessarily…. Well, don’t be fooled. This episode will inspire you, make you laugh, astound you with its vision and leadership and dedication of volunteers. Hundreds of volunteers.Honestly, this is one of my all-time favourite episodes I have ever recorded. I went down to the ward-winning Cloverdale Community Kitchen (or The Storehouse, as it is often called) , and met with the ex...2025-01-141h 21Love Sweet LoveEp 23: Getting Your Spark -- and Joy -- Back with guest Rachel Marie MartinMy guest today is Rachel Marie Martin! Yes, I mean the author, Rachel Marie Martin, who has supported and inspired so many of us, especially those of us who are moms and parents, to remember we are enough, we are not alone, we can get through hard times, and that we all have strengths and gifts that we are meant to embrace and even bring to the world.Rachel has been blogging for decades, has over 1.1 million followers on Facebook, and her website, findingjoy.net has millions of visitors each month. Her first two books are: “The Brave Ar...2024-12-1849 minLove Sweet LoveEpisode 22: 100 Guys That Care A LOT - Who are they & why they do it with guests Mike Pajic and Frank EllestadOn this episode I am highlighting a local group called "100 Guys That Care, South Surrey". They are basically a bunch of friends who got together to support local causes, groups and even families, who need a hand up. They are a bunch of regular guys who get together 4 times a year and donate $10,000 each time they meet, to a deserving group or cause. Who does this??? I wanted to know all about it, so they agreed to meet with me. I meet with them in their extensive man cave, which is a converted barn, owned by one of my guests...2024-12-0639 minLove Sweet LoveEpisode 21 Youth Making a Difference: Their Motivation and Impact with guests Emily Eng and Megan MoyI’m glad you are here to take a breath, pause and focus on some of the good that is happening all around us. It’s there, we just don’t get to see it sometimes. I am talking to my favourite demographic on this episode – young people. It is so inspiring and the wisdom and insight shared here today will give you hope for the future.I became interested in my guests today when I saw a post on Linkedin, from BC’s Simon Fraser University’s Community-engaged Research Initiative.It described a research project done by yout...2024-11-2155 minLove Sweet LoveEpisode 20 Kind Cotton: Kindness and Justice in Action with guest Kaitlin JohnstoneThis guest today is innovative and fierce and visionary and caring and compassionate and she is exactly the kind of person I want to highlight on this podcast. When I came across this person and saw how she is choosing to live her life and the mission she has, it was so inspiring to me. When I dreamt up this podcast, this is just the stuff I was hoping I could bring to as many people as I could. Folks who are choosing to spread love, spread kindness, fight for justice and equity and inclusion… and, she uses her platform fo...2024-11-0242 minLove Sweet LoveEpisode 19 Butter and Belonging: Goodness and Inclusion at Gabi and Jules' Handmade PiesYou will love this episode! The company I am featuring today is remarkable and I think, quite revolutionary.It is a local bakery, here in the lower mainland of BC, called Gabi and Jules. . It is known for having the most delicious, handmade baking and they use full-butter in all their goods, and NO machines. Everything is handmade.That is spreading love enough, of course, but… there is so much more to this place than just what they sell. I had heard about their inclusive hiring practices and I wanted to find out more about that, too...2024-10-1848 minLove Sweet LoveEpisode 18 Fostering Empathy, Changing the World - The Roots of Empathy Program & the Babies that Teach It with guest Julie LundbergIt is a huge honour to have my guest with me today. When I dreamt up this podcast, the Roots of Empathy program was one of the first examples of a program or organization that is fostering and spreading love, and highlighting this program was on the top of my dream guest list.Here is a tiny excerpt from founder Mary Gordon’s best-selling book called “Roots of Empathy: Changing the World Child by Child”:"Imagine a generation of children across the world entering into adulthood and parenthood armed with self-esteem, a reciprocity of understanding of emotio...2024-09-2743 minLove Sweet LoveEpisode 17 Sitting Alongside to Create Sacred Spaces with guest Christine Vaughan Davies“Creating Sacred Spaces for Transformation” with guest Christine Vaughan Davies I first found my guest today on Substack. I was drawn to her post called “Sacred tears” for many reasons – one being that anyone who knows me knows that I cry easily – well not easily, but “readily”, maybe. In her post, she wrote about what it could be like if vulnerability could be seen as a superpower. Here’s a little piece from that article:“To sit with our own or others’ tears can be healing and holy. Crying can be cathartic. I cannot count the number of intense hospital shift...2024-09-0637 minLove Sweet LoveEpisode 16 Workin (well... Volunteerin) on the Railroad - Preserving History & Building Community with JOYI am so excited to share this episode with you. It is the first time I have taken microphones and recorded my interviews on site! I did this because I was stunned by this place! I wanted to go back there and try to capture the magic that we witnessed when we went there this summer.My husband, Paul, and I, were looking for places to take his 89-year-old mum while here on her month-long, annual visit from England. She has been to BC’s lower mainland many times in the past, and we have done most of th...2024-08-2457 minLove Sweet LoveEpisode 15 Kids These Days:The Teen Stereotype is All Wrong with guests: Liz Byrne, EJ Launio, Faith Duong, and Lori KullahianToday I am going to focus on teens and young adults who are choosing to give of themselves in order to support others in the community. I hear, and I bet you do, too, the disparaging phrase “these young people today” and how they are adrift, or idle or selfish, or unmotivated.This is not what I see. This is not what you will hear about today. I am regularly so inspired by the young people I get the privilege of working with. I am astounded at how articulate they are, at how intelligent and insightful they are, how...2024-07-121h 02Love Sweet LoveEpisode 14 “The Loving in Dying: Hospice Work and Why it Matters” with guests Angela Elemans & Donna PorterWho are the people who choose to comfort those as they die? Who are those who choose to be around that sadness, the tears, the grief? Who are those who could watch the loved ones of the dying, in their grief? These questions have crossed my mind many times – I could barely utter the words “death” and “dying”, let alone imagine myself trying to comfort someone during this time. I think those who do this kind of work are so admirable. This work is so needed and thank goodness there are people who can do this work. This is the work of lo...2024-06-1754 minLove Sweet LoveEp 13 Flourishing - Research-based Ways to Add Joy and Meaning to Our Work and Life with Guest Dr. Sabre CherkowskiI am so excited about this episode. We have such an expert with us today! My guest today is a leading researcher in the study of flourishing and wellbeing. I have had the pleasure of knowing her for a few years now, as I was in some sessions with her in a series in my district and I immediately felt connected to her and what she has to say. She is incredibly knowledgeable, insightful, warm, funny, and relatable, among other things.She will unpack for us what it means to flourish in work and life. I am going...2024-05-151h 04Love Sweet LoveEpisode 12 Forgiveness - Why We Need It and How To Do It with guest Katharine GiovanniThere are so many thoughts on forgiveness. I think of forgive and forget, or even that sometimes we say or feel we can forgive, but we won’t forget…. Which is right? Is there are a right approach to forgiveness?I think recently we have heard that forgiveness is good for us, as holding that burden of a grudge or hatred or something else negative, is only hurting us, … but then what if something is so heinous, it seems unforgiveable? Much has been written about forgiveness, of course. Gandhi said: “The weak can never fo...2024-04-2141 minLove Sweet LoveEp 11: We Can Build a Resilient Lifestyle with Michelle E. DickinsonBurnout is one of the most uttered words of the past few years.I know in my work in schools, I often hear from colleagues that it seems harder and harder to find the stamina to do the job. Many of us have wondered, “Why does everyone seem so tired all the time?”. These feelings of exhaustion seem to be increasing, don’t they? I wonder, is if because of COVID? If so, why? Or is it something else, and are there other factors that are making us feel this perpetual tiredness and even, compassion fatigue? Is it that o...2024-04-0445 minLove Sweet LoveEp 10 Why Community is Medicine with guest Dr. Elizabeth MarkleToday I am highlighting an organization which fosters connection and care and harnesses the power of community to improve the wellness and lives of its participants.My guest today is Dr. Elizabeth Markle. She is an Associate Professor at Community Mental Health at California Institute of Integral Studies and is also a licensed psychologist, speaker (her TEDx talk is excellent), writer, and researcher. Dr. Markle’s research is steeped in the power of community and combines her clinical expertise with social entrepreneurship, in order to create strong cultures of health and wellness. She has done this at Open Sou...2024-03-2043 minLove Sweet LoveEp 9 The Village Initiative with Guest Cindy AndrewToday, I am highlighting a really cool project, or initiative, as they call it, which is happening on BC’s Vancouver Island. I first noticed this group on Twitter, as I found they liked and reposted the same kinds of things that I did, and their focus seemed to be on focussing on the greater good of the community. Their name caught my eye, too, as it was about the “village”, a power which I truly believe in and know from much research and reading and Experience, is, or should be, an impactful, positive force in our lives that we all ne...2024-03-0653 minLove Sweet LoveEp 8 The Gifts of a Life of Giving with Guests Lindy and Jim McQueenThis is a very special episode in that it celebrates two people who are, and have been, fostering love for decades. These two people happen to be married, and have been married for many years. These two people are so dedicated to giving their hearts and time to the community, it seems like they treat it like their job. When you see them in their various ways of serving, they are so comfortable, so humble – like it is just what they do and who they are. Because it is. The truth is most people do not give of themselves like th...2024-02-0843 minLove Sweet LoveEp7 Love: It Literally Builds Brains with Dr.Jean ClintonOn this episode we talk about what it means to be an “upstreamist”; teens and what is most important; social conditions and their impact; how colonialism got it all wrong and the brilliance of indigenous ways of knowing and learning; a gardener versus a carpenter approach to parenting; and so much more.My guest today is a Clinical Professor at McMaster in the Dept of Psychiatry and Behavioural neurosciences. She was appointed the education advisor to the Premier of Ontario and the minister of Education from 2014 – 2018. She has cross-appointments in family medicine and pediatrics, the department of child psychi...2024-01-1059 minLove Sweet LoveEp 6 Having Work - Life Harmony: Be Nourished In All You DoI have known today’s guest for more than a decade, and I have seen with my own eyes, her obvious intelligence, her broad vision of a compassionate world and the role she believes we all play in creating that world. Through coaching, writing, and community work she does, and through her daily interactions (whether at work or not), she has always focussed on a healthy work climate, and her colleagues’ and friends’, wellness.Her passion for wellness always had an underlying thread that highlighted good nutrition and the power of relationships. Now, not surprisingly, she has a busine...2023-12-1448 minLove Sweet LoveEp 5 Love and Books Are Medicine: An Author's Gracious Approach with Monique Gray SmithOur guest today is an esteemed, best-selling author, speaker and consultant who believes love, is medicine. She believes and shares how love heals, brings hope and builds empathy. I have heard our guest today say that when talking about love, we do not necessarily have to sue the word “love” – but, she says, “when we treat somebody with respect, with kindness, when we share with them, when we uphold their dignity – those are all acts of love”. I completely agree, and these are precisely the kinds of actions I am trying to highlight through this podcast, so when I asked our guest to...2023-12-0144 minLove Sweet LoveEp 4 Promoting Possibility and Independence - A Different Kind of Thrift StoreThere is a small but mighty group of people in Burnaby who are doing incredible things with their time, creativity, and vision. These people have found a way to support hundreds and hundreds of people in this lower-mainland BC city, by promoting capacity-building, community engagement, new and exciting opportunities, avenues to equity, leadership and more. We are going to talk to some of the folks involved in a very unusual business. And… another aspect of this non-profit that is rather unusual is that ….most of these folks are retired. Most of these folks are former teachers, community school coordinators and othe...2023-11-1547 minLove Sweet LoveEp 3 Our Youth: Volunteering to Serve, Lead and LoveHere are two young people who are acting and living in loving ways, every day, even as they navigate their packed grade 12 schedules, maintaining their grades and expectations, high involvement in their extra-curricular activities and of course, their relationships with friends and family. I talk to them about how they manage all of this, where they learned this ethic from and WHY they give all of this time to the service and love of others.We talk about their extra-curricular activities and what they learn from them, what skills they will take from these into their adult lives...2023-10-291h 06Love Sweet LoveEp 2 Gather, Belong, Shine and Lead - Neighbourhood HousesToday I have the great pleasure of bringing you the amazing work of Neighbourhood Houses.When I think of Neighbourhood Houses, certain words spring to my mind: The first one is, welcome. Other words that come to mind are: inclusion, gathering, opportunity, capacity, possibility, involvement, assets, equity. The work done in Neighbourhood Houses is definitely fostering and spreading love. These folks truly act in service of others.My guests are CEO, Antonia Beck and Board Member, Sue Montabello. We talk about how they got connected to Neighbourhood Houses; what kinds of services NH’s of...2023-10-1352 minLove Sweet LoveEp 1: Introduction EpisodeEducator, facilitator, speaker Gayle Beavil, introduces “Love Sweet Love” – her appreciative inquiry on love and its power to make us, and society, move toward more happiness, health and harmony. Listen in to hear what kind of conversations you will hear and why, what the word needs now, is indeed, “Love Sweet Love”.2023-09-1222 min
Community Room PodcastS1E1 - IntroductionWelcome to our first introduction episode! We introduce our main hosts: Bal Dhillon and Gayle Beavil - two Community School coordinators in BC. We chat about the road that led us to our positions, share some heartwarming stories about the role community schools play, and introduce some segments.QUOTE: "My contention is: first, that we should want more from our educational efforts than adequate academic achievement and second, that we will not achieve even that meager success unless our children believe that they themselves are cared for and learn to care for others" - Nel Noddings...2021-05-0127 min