The Peanut Gallery: Recent Episodes
The Peanut Gallery
Here in The Peanut Gallery we're not just looking to shoot the breeze. We're here to have honest conversations about life. Parenting is not easy, faith is often confusing and there is so much changing in our world. The Peanut Gallery isn’t just a podcast, it is a place to have real and honest conversations.
We had the opportunity to sit down with Miles and Jessica to discuss Planet Youth. If you haven't heard of Planet Youth and the impact the organization is having on reducing and stopping substance use in communities - it is well worth looking into.
Planet Youth is an upstream prevention approach focusing on changing the environment by reducing the known risk factors and strengthening the known protective factors. This upstream prevention approach reduces or stops substance use problems before they arise. Planet Youth focuses on implementing local data-driven solutions that work to improve the health and well-being of youth that goes far beyond simply reducing substance use.
Learn more at: https://www.swpublichealth.ca/en/community-health/community-substance-use-prevention.aspx
We chat with our friend and fellow MAC board member Ingrid VandenBorre about finding a healthy family balance with kids in competitive sports and how sports can impact building a healthy unified community.
Lots of updates coming for the MAC project in the near future! Before that...Patrick and Albert take some time to answer some frequently asked questions about the project.
We spend some time with MAC Board President Linda talking about her life - immigrating to a new country, dealing with bullying and the unique impact that sports had on her life in high school and continues to have today.
We sit down with our resident basketball superstar and board member to talk about sports, life and the impact that coaches can play in our life.
Does it matter if a community can offer kids and adults a space to play year round? Sports have had a big impact in our lives and we believe they matter for a healthy community. This belief is one of the driving forces behind visioning for a year round indoor facility in our region.
One of the things we have come to love about our community as we have done various projects is the amount of incredibly generous and compassionate people we get to meet and work alongside with. Paul is one of those people - a great friend, pioneer and a visionary that has believes in leaving a community better for the next generation. Grateful he moved to Aylmer and is invested in our region!
We are back and we are recording new interviews! If you've forgotten - this podcast is about sharing people's stories and getting to know our community better. Our first series of interviews will be some of the incredible people we have met along the way as we have been working on the Malahide Athletic Project...can't wait to share them with you!
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Today we sat down with Paul Cowley. Paul has been very instrumental in developing the emergency shelter here in Aylmer. The shelter serves throughout the winter to ensure that emergency housing is available in our community if needed. Paul's passion for the community and heart of service is incredible and he truly is a hometown hero!
This week, as we continue with our series about “Hometown Hero’s”, we sat down with our special guest Ali Neville. Ali shared with us her family’s history of community involvement from the beginnings of the Aylmer Food Bank(Corner Cupboard), to Christmas Care for teens. Not only did we learn a lot about some incredible people in our community, but we had a great time doing it!
Today we had the opportunity to sit down with Aylmer Kinsmen member Justin Benner & talk about the importance of volunteering and being involved in your community. If you'd like more info about the Aylmer Kinsmen visit their website at https://www.aylmerkinsmen.ca
We are grateful to again sit down and talk with Karen Vecchio. Karen is a good friend to the gallery and is our current MP here in Elgin-Middlesex-London. We discuss the recent events in politics and her life as a female in leadership. Karen has the opportunity to be an inspiration to the many gifted females in our region and country and she offers great advice to others dreaming of and working towards positions of leadership.
Thanks for your service Karen and keep up the good work!
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We had the opportunity once again to sit down with former liberal party candidate Afeez Ajibowu to discuss his journey from Africa, to England and finally Canada. Now calling London Ontario home, Afeez shared his insights on different cultures, his experience with racism, and how he chooses to live life through a lens of hope.
We had the opportunity to sit down with Jason Dykstra to discuss ways to approach conflict in relationships. The reality is that even when we want to reconcile, we often struggle to know how. Jason has worked in conflict mediation for the past 10 years and offers some great insight and you can find out more information about him at www.jasondyk.com
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For better or worse, through sickness and health, for richer or poorer…till death do us part.
Sometimes the most challenging relationships are the ones in our own homes…the ones we choose. No one gets married expecting the worst…when marriage goes well it is a source of joy and hope but when it doesn’t…the pain is deep and profound. Many of us have experienced or had loved ones go through the pain of divorce and relationship breakdown.
As we talk about taking hate out of the conversation, we had the opportunity to sit down with Dave and Marianne Miller to hear their story of marriage, brokenness and the work they did to reconcile when it looked like their relationship would certainly be over. To those listening...if you are struggling, you aren’t alone! Maybe just give it one more try…and maybe that’ll be the one that gets you to the other side.
In an ideal situation, families get along without rift or division…but in real life, we can easily be divided by the way we understand things. Sexuality is one of those topics that easily divides us. Whether it’s because of religious beliefs or personal viewpoints, we often struggle to fully agree with each other or see things the same way. When that happens, especially in churches or in families, it can result in deep turmoil and struggle.
The solution may never be that people see everything the same way…but when we take the time to listen and hear each other…maybe then we can begin to move away from hatred and toward love. Maybe our view on sexuality doesn’t need to define how we treat each other…maybe we can respect and care for each other as humans, despite our different viewpoints or beliefs.
The easy thing is to choose hatred…to love and care for people when you disagree with them takes hard work and intentional effort, but it is work that is well worth the effort.
Thanks Harrison for taking the time to share with us your story and the best of luck as you continue pursuing your dreams!
Welcome to season 2 of The Peanut Gallery Podcast!
This year we are focusing on "taking hate out of the conversation"
We've had the opportunity to sitting down and chat with some really cool people with really cool stories. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do!
Website: https://tpgpodcast.com
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-peanut-gallery/id1553350468
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/37SOR1QLF28QXfVtTwaa8h?si=21daaa0006314fa7
On January 22nd, 2015, Rachel Wall’s life would change forever. Her dad, a very loved man in our community, was tragically killed in a vehicle accident. Nothing can prepare us for the death of a loved one and the grief can leave us breathless. We sat down with Rachel to talk about living with the loss, finding resilience and the impact that this had on her faith. Thanks Rachel for your vulnerability and willingness to talk!
This week we headed out to learn more about an exciting new Farmer’s Market that is coming to Aylmer. We toured the Elgin Innovation Center (Former Imperial Tobacco building) to see the progress and learn about the vision for the market. Then we sat down to talk with Terry Dueck and Amy Burkes, who are two of the key members heading up the project about what to expect when it opens in November.
To learn more visit https://oldimperialfarmersmarket.ca/
This week we sat down with Franklin Yeo, the son of a British war bride. Frank shared with us the story of his Father, a Canadian soldier, who won the heart of a young British woman during the height of World War Two.
We were so privileged to have Alex and Lisa come in and share their story of addiction, recovery and finding peace. Their stories of persevering through detox and battling for freedom from addiction are inspiring and give hope that addiction doesn’t need to be a life sentence – there is freedom, there is peace and there is life after addiction. Thanks for sharing your story with us!
Canadian Mental Health Association: https://cmhatv.ca
Alcoholics Anonymous: https://www.aa.org
Narcotics Anonymous: https://www.na.org/meetingsearch/
Holmes House Detox Center: http://www.ngh.on.ca/services/detox.html
Trafalgar Addiction Rehab: https://trafalgarresidence.com
Places to Support:
The Nameless - https://thenamelessoutreach.weebly.com
Grace Cafe - http://www.thegracecafe.ca
INN out of the Cold - https://www.innoutofthecoldelgin.com
Family Central Apartments - https://familycentralapartments.com
This week we sit down with our friend Leah Perez to talk about her families work in Belize. Leah and her husband Alex operate Belize Camping Experience in Belize City and work to engage kids and youth to become tomorrows leaders through positive, fun life changing experiences that develop confidence, competence and Christian character.
For our first road trip we headed to St. Thomas to talk to Jim Collins at Harvest Hands Canada about the amazing work they do in helping end hunger here in our region. What an unbelievable group of volunteers that are doing so much good! We surely left inspired. Hoping you are too as you watch this weeks episode.
We had the opportunity to sit down with Ryan VandenBussche to talk everything from his dislike of Darcy Tucker, his NHL career and the challenges of dealing with the physical and mental toll that his career had on him. After more than 300 fights, at least 20 concussions and 14 surgeries – Ryan left the NHL and has dedicated his life to advocating for healthier living solutions and natural substitutes for pain management. This drove him to launch New Leaf Cannabis and work to further learn and understand the benefits of medicinal use of cannabis. It was an insightful and very enjoyable conversation. Thanks for coming in, Ryan!
For the last of our set of interviews with local leadership we had the opportunity to sit down with the deputy Mayor of Malahide for a conversation about her role and vision for our community.
Today is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. This year, as more unmarked graves were located at former residential school locations, our nation again was forced to face the reality that we did that – not a foreign nation…but us. One of the recommendations the truth and reconciliation commission made was for churches to educate themselves on what happened. While there is much work to be done, for us as a podcast and rural church we decided to begin by asking our friend Joe Elkerton, an Indigenous Torontonian and member of the Chippawas of the Thames First Nation to come by and share his story. Earlier this week we released his life story that he shared with us as a church and today we are releasing a follow up podcast we recorded with him.
September 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. This year, as more unmarked graves were located at former residential school locations, our nation again was forced to face the reality that we did that – not a foreign nation…but us. One of the recommendations the truth and reconciliation commission made was for churches to educate themselves on what happened. While there is much work to be done, for us as a podcast and rural church we decided to begin by asking our friend Joe Elkerton, an Indigenous Torontonian and member of the Chippawas of the Thames First Nation to come by and share his story. Today we are releasing his life story that he shared with us as a church and Thursday we will be releasing a follow up podcast we recorded with him.
With vaccine passports going live tomorrow here in Ontario, we thought it was important to share our perspective on what the best way is to move forward with these regulations going in to place. We talk about what we belive to be a healthy way to respond regardless of where you stand on vaccinations.
Recently we were able to sit down with Malahide Mayor Dave Mennill. Dave has a long history for serving this community and we are so grateful for all that he and his wife have done and continue to do.
This coming Federal election may be one of the most important in recent history and knowing we can trust the person we send to Ottawa matters. We here at the Peanut Gallery Podcast are working to get one on one interviews with all the local candidates to get to know them, their hopes and why they believe we should give them our vote.
In today’s podcast we talk to the Liberal Party of Canada nominee Afeez Ajibowu about his election campaign.
To learn more, you can visit his page at:
https://afeezajibowu.liberal.ca/
This coming Federal election may be one of the most important in recent history and knowing we can trust the person we send to Ottawa matters. We here at the Peanut Gallery Podcast are working to get one on one interviews with all the local candidates to get to know them, their hopes and why they believe we should give them our vote. In today’s podcast we talk to the People’s Party of Canada nominee Chelsea Hillier about her election campaign.
To learn more, you can visit her page at: https://www.chelseahillierppc.ca/
This coming Federal election may be one of the most important in recent history and knowing we can trust the person we send to Ottawa matters. We here at the Peanut Gallery Podcast are working to get one on one interviews with all the local candidates to get to know them, their hopes and why they believe we should give them our vote.
In today’s podcast we talk to the Green Party nominee Amanda Stark about her election campaign.
To learn more, you can visit her page at: https://www.greenparty.ca/en/riding/2013-35025
This coming Federal Election may be one of the most important in recent history and knowing we can trust the person we send to Ottawa matters. We here at the Peanut Gallery Podcast are working to get one on one interviews with all the local candidates to get to know them, their hopes and why they believe we should give them our vote.
In today’s podcast we talk to the New Democratic Party nominee Katelyn Cody about her election campaign.
To learn more you can visit her page at: https://elginmiddlesexlondon.ndp.ca/ or her social media page at
https://www.facebook.com/Katelyn-Cody-NDP-Candidate-for-Elgin-Middlesex-London-183871133714643
This coming Federal Election may be one of the most important in recent history and knowing we can trust the person we send to Ottawa matters. We here at the Peanut Gallery Podcast are working to get one on one interviews with all the local candidates to get to know them, their hopes and why they believe we should give them our vote.
In today’s podcast we begin by talking to the Conservative Party nominee Karen Vecchio about her re-election campaign.
To learn more you can visit her page at:
https://www.karenvecchiomp.ca/
This week we sit down with Yesi Centeno to talk about the many challenges that immigrants face. For those of us born here in Canada, we take our citizenship for granted and forget how privileged we are to be able to have the opportunities that we have.
This week we sat down with Joe Pratt for a wide ranging discussion about his family's journey with diabetes and eventually his own. From initial diagnosis, endless finger pricks, transplants, and massive technological improvements, Joe takes us through what life was like, and what it can be like, living with Diabetes.
This week Pat and Albert sit down to talk about some of the highlights of the podcast since its beginning. They also took some time to share some thoughts as to why we started this podcast.
This week we sat down with Bill Friesen for an incredible conversation about grief and learning to live with loss. Bill has incredible insight because he works in the funeral home business but has also suffered an immense loss through the death of his son Kurtis. We talk about his grief journey, things he wished he had done better and what he does now to continue to live well within his loss.
In this interview we sit down to talk about the work of fighting to ensure people in our community are able to meet their basic needs and feel valued and appreciated. We talk about it through the lens of Franz’ role as a pastor and Karolyn in heading up the Family Central Apartments Community Food Program.
In this episode Albert sits down with James Coolidge, the director of London Youth for Christ. They talk about what it looks like to serve and care for the community of London through a pandemic.
Today Albert sits down with Dave Miller. Dave was greatly impacted by Josh's testimony in our last episode so we decided to have him on so he could share his story. They discuss the importance of fatherly figures and what It was like being an only child with a single mom in a conservative community.
Today Albert sits down with Josh Wiebe. They discuss the impact of child abuse and the importance of fatherly figures to those that don't have a father.
In this episode we talk with our friend and Elgin County Paramedic about the world of a paramedicine and understanding the Opioid crisis and how Narcan works.
In this episode we sit down with Brent and Suzanna to talk about what makes a great marriage, learning to love again after divorce and how they are together facing Suzanna’s battle with cancer.
Please also join us in praying for them as Suzanna fights cancer. Pray for the doctors and that she will be able to beat it fully!
In this episode we talk with Jim and Carroll Wiebe about the challenges of having a spouse work in the ER Department during a pandemic, adjusting to doing schooling with 4 young kids at home and their experiences with fostering and adoption.
Why aren’t all churches open and fighting for ‘freedom’?
During this podcast Albert and Patrick respond to some of the harsh criticism that has been levelled against ‘noodleback’ pastors like themselves who have chosen to submit to the orders of our government during this pandemic. They give some thoughts about why they believe this is still the best approach for the Church in Ontario.
In this episode Albert sits down with the current Director of Fire and Emergency Services for Malahide Township to talk about everything from the evolution of the rural fire departments, to dealing with traumatic events and the importance of the mental health of first responders.
This week Patrick sits down with Scott Lewis, a local businessman and member of the Malahide council. Join us for some rich conversation!
Today Trevor sits down with Josh, the lead singer of Moore Ave Underground as they talk about what it's been like navigating an industry that has been shut down for over a year and how he's gotten though it.
In this episode Albert interviews Helen Brennemen, one of the co-owners of Johnny’s restaurant in Aylmer. They talk about the challenges and rewards of running a business in a small town and the additional stress of operating during COVID.
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In this episode Patrick and Albert discuss how our faith, and not the pandemic, govern the way we respond to our government orders.
“If you are a parent, I’m living your worst nightmare”. The sudden and tragic loss of their 3-year-old daughter on September 19, 1996 left George and Sara Dyck’s family devastated. 24 years after this tragedy, we talk to Sara about living with loss, surviving grief and how they worked as a family to support each other in the days, months, and years since that day.
Grief is something none of us ever want to think about, but it is a normal response to loss and there are great resources like ‘Grief Share’ to help work through that loss and grief so don’t struggle alone!!
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In the second part of our Easter series, the guys get a bit more personal. They share why they have personally accepted the story of Easter as being an event that actually happened.
This week we are discussing Easter. In the first part we discuss what Easter actually means in the Christian worldview. For most people the story of Christmas is fairly well known, but Easter seems to have a lot more confusion surrounding it so we dive in and share some of our understanding.
This week Albert siting down with Anita Dyck. She is a part of the team and The Family Central and is a professional life coach. In part 2 we continue to discuss the challenges of changing unhealthy habits and how to get through to the other side.
This week Albert siting down with Anita Dyck. She is a part of the team and The Family Central and is a professional life coach. Today in part 1 we will be discussing the challenges of changing unhealthy habits and how to get through to the other side.
In this episode Albert interviews Sean Doyle about how he ends up back in Aylmer and his work with Family Central and the impact it’s having and the hope for the less fortunate in our community.
In part 2 of Faithful in Small Things we continue our talk with Kevin Wiebe about his new book Faithful in Small Things. A topic like poverty already has so much literature written about it, Kevin’s life experience allows him to share a unique perspective on the topic of poverty reduction.
In part 1 of Faithful in Small Things we talk with Kevin Wiebe about a new book on poverty that comes out today. A topic like poverty already has so much literature written about it, Kevin’s life experience allows him to share a unique perspective on the topic of poverty reduction.
Pat and Albert believe there are a lot of unhappy people with how governments have handled the past year. Will what you have seen from Local, Provincial and Federal politics during this past year are you going to be more or less involved and engaged in the next set of elections?
During this podcast we talk politics and some of our observations and part of the hope is that we can convince people to at least get more engaged and involved in our local municipal politics.
This week we sat down for the first of hopefully many conversations with Jeremy Best about youth culture. In this first episode we talk about the impact of our online culture and how to help our youth navigate through it safely.
Jeremy has 19 years of experience working with youth through his works as a pastor of student ministries at Faith St. Thomas, coaching high school football and rugby…he is a foster parent and all around great guy. His insight into youth culture is incredibly valuable.
Today in The Peanut Gallery Patrick and Albert discuss parenting in the pandemic and what it’s been like over the past year.
Albert sits down with his wife Josie as they talk about life, love, and all of the experiences in between.
Here in The Peanut Gallery we're not just looking to shoot the breeze. We're here to have honest conversations about life. Parenting is not easy, faith is often confusing and there is so much changing in our world. The Peanut Gallery isn’t just a podcast, it is a place to have real and honest conversations.