Uncomfortable.

Christine Wild, author of Just Bad Timing, is a passionate writer, on paper and in life. She’s the host of Running Wild With Christine: Sex, Success and Other Slippery Rabbit Holes, an Anchor podcast. Christine is a world-travelled, fiercely independent woman who doesn’t let much get in her way. She likes to eat, drink wine, and write in strange places. She loves reading Hemingway and prefers summers. Above all, she enjoys meaningful conversations, preferably from a handsome stranger, in the privacy of nights that turn into mornings.   Christine and I chat pretty candidly about her experience attending Sex Parties in Vancouver. We talk about expectations, what to wear, what you might see, and the rules involved. If you’ve never been to a sex party then you are going to learn a lot! If you enjoyed our intimate conversation then feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this page or rate us highly over on iTunes!   Resources Check out Christine’s book “Just Bad Timing” Available for pre-order over on Amazon and iBooks. Feel free to connect with Christine over on her websites and social media profiles. Websites: Podcast: anchor.fm/runningwildwithchristineBook: justbadtiming.com Social Media: Twitter: @christinewild_Instagram: @runningwildwithchristineFacebook: christinewildjbt Sex Parties in Vancouver: Sin City Fetish NightSex Uninterrupted – Vancouver EventsThe Art of LovingFetVancouver.comThe Space2 – Rope Classes Got any resources on sex parties that you’d love to share? Add them to the comments or tweet them to us @uncomfy_podcast and we’ll add them to this page! Thanks!

In this episode I chat with Andrea Loewen. Andrea is a writer, theatre-maker, and choreographer in Vancouver, BC. However our topic today has nothing to do with any of Andrea’s amazing skills. Despite Andrea being an incredibly talented and seemingly happy-go-luck person, she actually suffered, and still occasionally suffers from depression. Andrea is lucky enough to be in a place now where she can talk openly about her experience, in-fact she loves talking about depression and self-loathing even though she knows that it can make others feel incredibly uncomfortable. I love her openness and even fun approach towards what can be a very dark topic! Andrea’s first book, Feeling Better: A Field Guide to Liking Yourself, releases February of 2019 and is available for pre-sale via Amazon and Indigo.  I hope that you enjoy this episode and get a lot from it. You might even, like me, come to a big ah-ha moment! We talk pretty candidly about depression and Andrea does go into the feelings that she experiences so if you are someone who suffers from depression or mental health then do listen with caution and make sure that you are kind to yourself and take care of yourself during and after the episode. If you enjoyed our intimate conversation then feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this page or rate us highly over on iTunes!   Resources Check out Andrea’s book “Feeling Better: A Field Guide to Liking Yourself. Practices, habits and tools to learn how to actually like yourself” Available for pre-order over on Amazon and Indigo! Feel free to connect with Andrea over on her websites and social media profiles. Websites: www.andrealoewen.comwww.feelingbetterbook.com Social Media: Twitter: @ms_andreajoyInstagram: @ms_andreajoy and @feelingbetterguideFacebook: andreatheloewen Got any resources on depression or self-loathing that you’d love to share? Add them to the comments or tweet them to us @uncomfy_podcast and we’ll add them to this page! Thanks!

In this week’s episode, my guest is Spencer Williams, a 27 year old man who has cerebral palsy but he doesn’t let that stop him. Spencer and I talk about his love life, how dating can be tough as someone with a disability; and his decision to use a sex surrogate service. In Spencer’s works “I might be disabled, but that doesn’t mean I don’t get horny!” Spencer is a freelance writer, and  currently contributes to Vice Media, and he is also dabbling in the world of podcasting. Feel free to connect with Spencer over on his Twitter and Instagram @djspencermusic. Resources: Spencers articles for Vice: What my disability means for my sex lifeThe difficulties of dating with a disabilityI give disabled people orgasms for a living – an interview with Joslyn Nerdahl Vice Video: Sexual Healing: Inside the world of medically assisted sex Read more of Spencers Vice articles here. Spencers interview with CBC: Medically assisted sex? How ‘intimacy coaches’ offer sexual therapy for people with disabilities. Other Resources: Sensual Solutions – sex surrogacy service based in Vancouver. Andrew Gurza’s Podcast “Disability after Dark“. Check out his free online documentary “Picture This“. Got any resources on sex and disability that you’d love to share? Add them to the comments or tweet them to us @uncomfy_podcast and we’ll add them to this page! Thanks!

In this week’s episode, we talk about The Male Vulnerability Issue with Connor Aylwin. After running a summer contracting business in university that employed 12 full-time people and did over $600,000 in revenue, Connor became the founding president of eHUB; the University of Alberta's very first student run incubator space. In 2014, he moved across country to Toronto to eventually run a division of Franchise Owners and was responsible for growing that division from 2 to 17 Franchisees. During his time in Toronto, Connor had grown his team to becoming the second largest division in the company, operating over $4,500,000 in revenue before eventually moving back across country. Now, living in Vancouver, Connor is a Business Advisor with Cultivate Advisors, a small business advisory firms that works with and scales growth stage companies all across North America and Europe. Now Connor might sound like a very business driven, successful guy – and he is, but he is one of the most down to earth people I know, and he actually approached me about the topic of Male Vulnerability. I figured that someone who has worked their ass off to be the best in their field but then realized the power of opening up and being vulnerable – is definitely worth chatting too. Connect with Connor on Instagram and LinkedIn.   Resources: David Hatfield’s website and TedTalk “Honouring and working with male vulnerability”. ManTalks.com Got any resources on money & relationships that you’d love to share? Add them to the comments or tweet them to us @uncomfy_podcast and we’ll add them to this page! Thanks!  

In this week’s episode, we talk Money & Relationships with Financial Advisor, Tracy Theemes. Prior to co-founding Sophia Financial Group, Raymond James in 2009, Tracy worked as a financial consultant with Smith Barney, a US brokerage firm and after returning to Canada was an advisor with a large bank owned investment firm. Tracy Theemes has an M.A. in Counselling Psychology. She is a Certified Financial Planner, insurance licensed and a Fellow of the Canadian Securities Institute. Tracy was awarded the International Alliance of Women Global 100 Award for her work in empowering women through education. Her book “The Financially Empowered Woman” won the Bronze prize for the Living Now awards for finance and economics and the Axiom Gold medal in the category of personal finance. She received the UBC Education Alumni 100 award for her community leadership in promoting financial literacy and was recently nominated for the 2017 YWCA Woman of Distinction award for Business and the Professions and the 2018 BIV Influential Women in Business award. The one thing I love about Tracy is her no bullshit, straight up attitude. Tracy says it like it is so I knew that she would be the perfect person to talk us through having that awkward conversation around money with our loved ones. If you enjoyed our intimate conversation then feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this page or rate us highly over on iTunes!   Episode 5 - Show Notes Resources: Tracy's website: www.tracytheemes.com Sophia Financial: www.sophiafinancial.ca. Find out about their upcoming events by clicking here. And make sure to follow Tracy on Instagram and Twitter. Click here to register for the Sophia Financial Wealth Academy on January 26th, 2019. Book Recommendations: The Financially Empowered Woman by Tracy Theemes Got any resources on money & relationships that you'd love to share? Add them to the comments or tweet them to us @uncomfy_podcast and we'll add them to this page! Thanks!

Debbie here, host of our new rebranded podcast: Uncomfortable. Comfortable conversations around uncomfortable topics. This little 5-minute episode that you are listening to right now is just a quick update on the new rebranded podcast and what you can expect! As you know, we were previously DebTalks the Podcast. I had to take a little bit of a break and rebrand because I wasn’t quite feeling that Debtalks reflected exactly what I had in mind. So after about 1-1.5yrs of a break – I’m back with a stronger and more authentic vision! Debtalks was similar. The premise was to have conversations around taboo/uncomfortable topics that most of us tend to avoid having. Things that we can’t even talk to our friends, family or loved ones about. We all have different challenges that we need to overcome but I what I’ve noticed, not only around other people, but I include myself in this – we tend to put on a bit of a persona, a pretence that everything in our lives is perfect. Social media has made this much worse. I look at everyone’s perfectly curated Instagram profiles – and they are beautiful – a work of art – and it looks like they have their shit together. But then when I go and talk to them, it turns out that they are going through some troubling times. Whether it’s a divorce, or PTSD or they just had a miscarriage or they have severe depression – there is something completely different happening at the other side of that Instagram feed. So folks. Let’s talk about it. The premise of this podcast is to talk about our discomforts, our uncomfortable zones, our issues, our dilemmas or even the secrets we have held onto but we need to now let go of. Topics we plan to chat about are: Deciding to change your gender, The Male Vulnerability problem, periods, hormones and dating and how they are related, why women don’t orgasm, how to move forward after a sexual assault, dealing with the stigma of being a recovering addict, having a family member in prison, having kids – is it a joy or a regret? Of course I’d love to hear your topic ideas! We are planning our launch for January 2019 but we need your help to do that! Head over to uncomfortable.blog (our new website) and make sure to contact us with your topic ideas that you would like to hear or if you have a particular taboo or uncomfortable story that you would like to share – then send us some info and we might even have you on the podcast. On our website, we will also have a donate button so that you can help us raise enough funds to keep the podcast running. We don’t need much – just enough to cover the creation of the podcast. Feel free to donate whatever you can. The goal is to have very comfortable and safe conversations around these so-called uncomfortable topics. Feel free to join in the conversation in the comments section below each episode on it’s webpage or over on our social media channels! But remember – please keep it respectful! Thanks so much for sticking around on this journey with me. If you haven’t already, go back and listen to the 4 amazing Debtalks episodes that were recorded a while back. We’ll be keeping those episodes on here because they are so awesome! If you loved them – then you’ll love what’s to come. Just make sure to subscribe to Uncomfortable the podcast over on iTunes and leave us a review. You can also sign up to our mailing list over on uncomfortable.blog, that way you’ll never miss an episode! I’m really excited and honoured to be having these conversations with you. Stay tuned for our official re-launch in January 2019 and remember to check us out over on uncomfortable.blog.

The Reality of Your Mortality Why are we so scared to talk about death? This is one of the questions I asked my guests Michelle Pante and Reena Lazar. Michelle and Reena co-founded WillowEoL about 1.5 years ago and are changing the conversation around death. Michelle as a licensed funeral director and hospice volunteer and Reena in all aspects of community and family-led deathcare - they share a passion for using the conversation around death as a pathway to growth and healing. In this episode, we explore death and dying and in particular advanced planning. We talk about 'the reality of your mortality' - and how thinking and talking about your death can help you lead a more inspired life.  Reena and Michelle also share a heartfelt story of their friend Don Grayston who recently passed away. A very special thanks to Myles Ogilvie of MO Audio & Production for doing an amazing job fixing the sound and making the podcast sound so professional! If you enjoyed our intimate conversation then feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this page or rate us highly over on iTunes!   Episode 4 - Show Notes: Resources: Willow's website: www.willowEoL.com You can find out about Willow's events here: www.willoweol.com/events/ Willow's Blog Post about Donald Grayston:In the End It's All About RelationshipsTo Serve or be ServedOh, How I Love a Good Funeral Don's Obituary: www.korucremation.com/obituaries/donald-edward-grayston/ Green Burial: www.korucremation.com Got any resources on death and end of life planning that you'd love to share? Add them to the comments or tweet them to us @uncomfy_podcast and we'll add them to this page! Thanks!

I'm incredibly excited for this episode, mostly because I had the pleasure of interviewing two very open and opinionated people about a very personal topic. A huge thanks to Christof and Sarah for being open to chatting with me on the subject of a-sexuality. As someone who didn't know much about the topic, I was grateful to them both for speaking honestly, sharing their experiences and getting into their pet peeves! Both had very different realizations when they stumbled across the label that seemed most fitting to them. Sarah felt relieved and empowered but Christof felt quite the opposite. I'm grateful to them both for sharing their personal experiences.This was a huge topic and we only skimmed the surface. I hope that this episode is educational, or perhaps even relatable. I'd love you to share your thoughts in the comments. A very special thanks to Myles Ogilvie of MO Audio & Production for doing an amazing job fixing the sound and making the podcast sound so professional! If you enjoyed our intimate conversation then feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this page or rate us highly over on iTunes!   Episode 3 - Show Notes: Resources: www.asexuality.org - The Asexual Visibility Network & Education Network www.meetup.com/Vancouver-BC-Aces-and-Friends-Meetup www.asexualoutreach.org www.qmunity.ca/calendar/ - hosts some Ace meetups Got any resources on asexuality that you'd love to share? Add them to the comments or tweet them to us @uncomfy_podcast and we'll add them to this page! Thanks!    

 In this episode, I wanted to continue our LOVE theme and explore dating even more. This time with a focus on dating in the more traditional sense (i.e. off-line), and marriage. I spoke with Priya Bangar, Founder of www.vintagematchmaking.com. Priya LOVES love and helps her clients find long term relationships. One thing that stands out about Priya's business is that she helps with 'arranged marriages', at term that can be fairly controversial here in the West. We chat about love, finding the 'one', arranged vs forced marriages, and dealing with traditional elders when it comes to inter-racial relationships. I would love your feedback! I'm still working on making these podcasts sound awesome and it's still very much a work in progress! If you enjoyed our intimate conversation then feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this page or rate us highly over on iTunes! A very special thanks to Myles Ogilvie of MO Audio & Production for doing an amazing job fixing the sound and making the podcast sound so professional!   Episode 2 - Show Notes Connect with Priya Bangar You can find and connect with Priya over on her website at www.vintagematchmaking.com. You'll also find her on Facebook and Instagram. Make sure to check out her recent venture The Dating Dialogue on Facebook. Keep an eye out for Priya's upcoming workshops! Books we mentioned: Calling in "The One": 7 Weeks to Attract the Love of Your Life by Katherine Woodward Thomas The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo Articles we mentioned: Women are no longer looking for "marriage material" guys, which is shocking for people for some reason. Karen Fratti, www.hellogiggles.com  

 *Revision* This episode was originally the first DebTalks podcast episode (prior to our rebrand). We love it so much that we want it to continue to be part of Uncomfortable. A big thanks to Jill Prescott & Andrea Hill for stepping up and being the first podcast guests.    It's been a long time coming but it's finally here. Episode #1 of The DebTalks Podcast is all about Love, Sex, Relationships and Rabbit Killers and you'll understand the rabbit killer reference at the 52:54 mark. (We don't really kill rabbits, we love rabbits! This episode is cruelty free and no real rabbits were harmed during the recording, or ever, promise). I needed two open and honest women who would get deep into this subject and I didn't have to look far. Previous DebTalksTV guests Andrea Hill and Jill Prescott joined me in the studio to chat about our fav topic. In this podcast we delve into dating, loving yourself, moving forward after trauma, communication and boundaries, sex, orgasms, and Rampant Rabbits! #RabbitKiller   Episode 1 - Show Notes Connect with Jill Prescott You can find and connect with Jill over on her website at www.jillprescott.ca. You'll also find her on Facebook and Instagram. Since the recording of this episode, Jill has replaced Monday Oracle card readings with "Tell-it Tuesday's". Find our more here. Make sure to watch Jill's incredibly moving TedxTalk "Being Vulnerable Gave Me Freedom" and make sure to share it with your friends! You can also catch Jill's first DebTalksTV interview "Trust and Surrender" here. Connect with Andrea Hill You can find and connect with Andrea on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Catch Andrea's past DebTalksTV video interviews:Connect with SuccessLead in LoveCheckin' in with Andrea Hill Book List: No More Fucking Secrets: A Conversation For Freedom by Jill PrescottCalling in "The One": 7 Weeks to Attract the Love of Your Life by KatherineAutobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda Shout out to: Brené Brown and all her wise words and awesomeness!Our local Vancouver sex shops - The Art of Loving and Womyns' Ware for providing toys and sex eduction.The Rabbit Vibrator for providing us with so much joy! (Or if you are Andrea, thanks to the Equestrian Community!)