Luke is a dear friend who has come into my life to be a confidante and guide. In this episode he guides me through his excruciating experience of losing his first daughter and then losing what had been his only construct of God. His life fell apart, piece by piece, to the point that his loved ones worried that he might not make it through. But in the darkest hour, Luke managed to find the willpower and spirit to gather and rebuild. Through a position of radical responsibility, he took control of his life and found new love and commitment for his wife.

Occasionally a person enters my life who I know almost instantly is going to have a profound impact on my personal journey. My guest in this episode, Luke Gifford, is one of those people. From our ‘non-chance’ encounter almost 2 years ago at a personal growth event, we immediately began a relationship of mutual support and challenge in which we settle for nothing but the best that each of us has to give. I firmly believe that every man would benefit by having a Luke-type friend to nudge, or bludgeon, him back on the track of integrity when circumstances derail him.

My guest in this episode, Pacific Rim College faculty member and herbalist Peter Conway, is freakishly intelligent and deeply committed to his purpose. He has lived in a van and a teepee, has fought for the preservation and dissemination of herbal medicine knowledge, and generally follows in life a punk rocker ethos. Listening to him talk about plant-spirit medicine is like listening to a living mystic – I actually think Peter is a living mystic – and his knowledge extends vastly beyond the bounds of herbal medicine. We touch base with myriad topics including chaos theory, inner reflection during Covid, punk rock, spirituality, and nature.

In this episode, Cory and I peel back the layers of his knowledge of martial arts: from Karate and Jujitsu to Muay Thai and Japanese archery. We talk about his persistent drive to perfect his craft, and how that drive led him to give up a lucrative job in pursuit of his heart’s yearning. Cory also shares many of the life lessons that he has gleaned from his teachers and martial arts and how he carries forward in his dojo the legacy of the respectful, holistic martial artists.

If you take only one thing from this episode, hopefully it is powerful enough to keep you moving forward, even when it feels like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. My guest in this episode, Zat Baraka, has carried that weight, even through the most painful times when he had considered giving up. It was through that pain that he discovered his own inner strength and greatness. He also discovered that, as people, we never really put down the weight. We just grow stronger and better equipped mentally, emotionally, and spiritually to turn the burden into opportunity. Our greatest gifts, says Zat, come from our deepest wounds.

Fritzi Horstman is a rare, beautiful individual with a selfless passion to transform lives. As a Grammy-award winning producer for her work on the “The Defiant Ones”, Fritzi is not resting on her laurels. Nor is she coasting through Hollywood, lapping up the limelight. Instead, she is focusing on spending as much time as possible in prison, supporting incarcerated men and women. Fritzi believes wholeheartedly in an urgency to bring humanity and compassion to prisoners to transform their lives and ultimately society.

Janne is a 21st-century feminist beat poet, a personal development coach, a surfer, a beacon of inspiration, and so much more. With her raw, unabashed style, Janne takes us on a journey of her pursuit of personal truth. This journey weaves through recalcitrant body shame, the lightness and heaviness of impacting legions of women, and her passion for empowering others.

Have you ever been overwhelmed by seemingly insurmountable hardship? My guest on this episode could have been the poster child for falling in the face of adversity. He could have checked out figuratively and literally countless times. The odds were certainly stacked against him. But he didn’t stay down or give up. Instead, he rose and continues to rise – not despite each challenge, but because of each challenge – and he has become a role model for anyone fortunate enough to hear his story or to be in his presence.

Have you ever met someone who earned your respect and devotion within seconds? For me, Paul Underhill is one of these people. I have actually known Paul for about a decade, but this interview is only the second time I have had a conversation with him – the first time having also been in an interview.

For this inaugural episode of Salish Wolf, I sat down with internationally renowned paddleboarder and activist Norm Hann. As Norm shares in this episode, he is always looking to grow as an individual and to impact others. His activism, expeditions, and films in the Great Bear Rainforest demonstrate this so beautifully. Even at 50, Norm continues to win paddleboarding races and to lead global excursions. He is a man with a clear purpose that he follows with the utmost integrity.

In this podcast I share with you incredible stories of extraordinary endeavors that capture the magic of the human spirit.

The inspiration for this podcast is a wolf named Takaya who gained global fame for living alone for nearly a decade on a tiny archipelago in the Salish Sea, showing us even the most unlikely is possible.