The Women Of Ill Repute

John Moore is the thinking person’s thinking person. As the affable yet acerbic host of Moore in the Morning on radio station Newstalk 1010, he gets up at an ungodly hour to keep Toronto informed and entertained. John is also a dear and longtime friend to Wendy and Mo, so we put the host in the guest chair to talk about all things to do with friendship: how to make them, how to lose them, what matters in a friend, what doesn’t, friends on social media, and of course friends with benefits. John Sanford Moore (yup, that’s his middle name) was born and raised in Montreal. His career speaks for itself, but he is also an actor, an improv performer, a skilled cook and an avid cyclist and kayaker. He suffers endless abuse about his golf game. John can ride a horse, and puts up with an ornery terrier named Rory. He met his partner in 1995 on a disastrous date, but so far things are working out. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Transcription of this episode can be found here. You can also watch the show on YouTube Here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Not a lot of chuckles when you are kidnapped by the Taliban and thrown in a hole. And then you write a book about the girls stolen and raped by Boko Haram. But we laughed anyway. Mellissa Fung talks about her life, her new book, women’s fears, and ultimately finding joy. No one wants to be defined by their worst experience, we talk about learning to be a survivor and not just a victim. Mellissa Fung is a journalist and thinks that matters. While reporting in Afghanistan in 2008, she was kidnapped by the Taliban and kept in a hole in the ground for 5 weeks. She wanted to keep reporting on the world’s problems, but the CBC refused to let her go back. She has written 2 books about what happened to her, 'Under an Afghan Sky’ and now ‘Between Good and Evil, the Stolen Girls of Boko Haram’. She lives in London with CTV journalist Paul Workman. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Transcription of this episode can be found here. You can also watch the show on YouTube Here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeanne Beker has done it all, most of it on TV. Rock ‘n roll, fashion, and now, breast cancer. Unfortunately, Mo and Wendy know too much about the latter. Jeanne offers lessons on how to be super upbeat. We share tales until we realize we could do a whole show about hair! Mostly we talk about Jeanne’s many closets and her treasured pieces. She also spills about that time in the bathtub with a famous rock star. Jeanne Beker is a journalist, media personality, and fashion entrepreneur. She was a star on The NewMusic, and hosted the internationally syndicated Fashion Television for 27 years. She has won every award imaginable and was recently named Style Editor of the Shopping Channel. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Transcription of this episode can be found here. You can also watch the show on YouTube Here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The great outdoors is overrated, says Ivy Le, a comedian and podcaster from Austin, Texas. Ivy, a self-admitted indoorswoman, took on camping, and then hunting, as a sort of exercise in reverse colonialism. Ivy is Asian, you see, as well as a bisexual Buddhist mom with allergies, and she couldn’t see herself, or anyone like her, in a tent in the woods with a gun, ready to butcher and eat whatever she catches. So she set out to see what she was missing, and the result is FOGO - Fear of Going Outside, a hilarious and eye-opening look at nature by someone who finds it unnatural. Ivy Le is Vietnamese American comedian from Austin, Texas. She’s a first generation college grad who speaks Spanish, German, Vietnamese and English. She’s also a reporter, a poet, and a bi mom of two kids who is on a mission to queer up comedy and decolonize everything. She has performed at the Laugh After Dark Comedy Fest, Tower City Comedy Fest, Lysistrata Comedy Festival and more! Her podcast FOGO - Fear of Going Outside is available here. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] A Transcription of the show can be found here. We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephen Marche: SmartypantsIs the world gonna end? Are computers gonna take over? Stephen Marche says he’s written lots of cataclysmic novels and columns about everything from the end of the monarchy to a new Civil War in the U.S. But he’s in love with Artificial Intelligence, thinks it’s like Hip-Hop; the next era of creativity. Marche admits optimism is kinda weird for him, but he thinks humans will remain in control. Wendy is not so sure. But then she and Mo are control freaks.Stephen Marche has written “The Next Civil War”, “The Unmade Bed: the Messy Truth About Men and Women” and now “The Next Election” with Andrew Yang. You can watch the episode on YouTube. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] A Transcription of the show can be found here. We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Everyone loves a drag queen, right? Well they did, thanks to the emergence of Pride, artists like RuPaul, and the success of shows like Canada’s Drag Race, dragging drag out of the back room and into the limelight where the queens love to shine. But lately there’s been a shift in support, with anti-gay protestors storming libraries to decry Drag Queen Story Hour, a program intended to gently and humorously teach children about inclusivity. It coincides with a rise in violence against trans and queer people, and Scarlett Bobo, for one, is not having it. Scarlett, a hugely popular drag performer, joins us to talk about their march, or “sashay”, to Queen’s Park to support a bill prohibiting violence and intimidation near drag venues. We also talk drag mothers, make-up and tucking. Scarlett Bobo is the creation of Ottawa born Matthew Cameron. A fusion of Hollywood golden era icons and modern pop vixen, Scarlett has wowed audiences worldwide, and was in the top 3 of the first season of Canada’s Drag Race. Now living in Los Angeles, they continue to fight the surge in hate crimes there and at home. As they say, “We’re not going back in the closet. We’re just going to get more queer. We’re going to throw more glitter.” We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Transcription of this episode can be found here. You can also watch the show on YouTube Here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Everyone asks her the same question: what happened? Amanda Marshall was at the top of her game in the late 90’s, selling millions of albums and sold-out concert halls and then … she disappeared. Except she didn’t really. It was a business decision as much as anything, but now she’s back with a new album and a new sense of purpose, but that same powerful, gut-wrenching voice and that truly amazing cape of hair. We talk musical roots, live performance, being an only child, being mixed race, food and, yes, hair care. Amanda Marshall is a Toronto born music phenom who studied music extensively during her childhood. She was discovered while performing on the Queen West bar scene by legendary guitarist Jeff Healey, who was struck by her big, powerful voice, and took her on tour. She has released three top selling studio albums, and is best known (so far) for her 1996 single, Birmingham. After a more than 20 year absence, Amanda released a new album, Heavy Lifting, and is currently on a Canada-wide tour. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. Transcription of this episode can be found here. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do you remain an expert wine taster while watching your intake? A lot of spitting, obviously, although Natalie MacLean’s career is nothing to spit at. Natalie, who was gifted with an uncanny ability to pair wine with food, built her reputation on a hugely popular newsletter, but then came divorce, depression, defamation and yes, drinking too much. She tells us all about it, as well as what wine to pair with artichokes. Natalie MacLean, named the World's Best Drinks Journalist, has also won four James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards. She’s the bestselling author of Red, White and Drunk All Over. Her new memoir, Wine Witch on Fire: Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Defamation, and Drinking Too Much has just become a national bestseller. She hosts the NYT recommended podcast, Unreserved Wine Talk, and offers popular online wine and food pairing classes at www.nataliemaclean.com. Would you like to see the show? Here is the interview with Natalie on YouTube. Would you like to Read the show? We have a transcription. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jody Vance calls herself a Mama Bear. Don’t mess with her. If she wants something, like hosting her own prime-time sportscast, she goes for it. The first woman ever in that role. But when a stalker came after her, then her son, online, she was devastated. Attacking her was one thing, but her kid, no. Mo and I both were told to not engage, it’s the price of doing business. Now Jody has taken the guy to court, he's pled guilty. And she’s still fighting for more tools against the tsunami of online hate, most of it against women who dare to have opinions. Jody Vance began her career in Vancouver, and kept saying she wanted to host a prime-time sports show until she did at Sportsnet! She now co-hosts a weekly talk show with Lynda Steele on CHEK. Did you know you can watch this episode here? You can read the show here. We made a transcription for you. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

He's a middle aged white guy, backed by Disney, who makes dad jokes on the internet ... with an edge. Amidst all the hatred on social media, Brittlestar actually makes people feel better, or at least laugh at the things that don't. We had a lot of fun with Stewart Reynolds, which is what his mom calls him when he's in trouble. Brittlestar’s videos are watched by hundreds of thousands and he made the world's most popular branded video on Facebook. In spite of being “The world's favourite internet dad (unproven)”. He has yet to do a daddy blog. Did you know you can watch this episode too? We are on YouTube. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jen Sookfong Lee makes no apologies: she’s a superfan. That’s the name of her latest book, a deeply personal compilation of essays on how her life has been touched and affected by the likes of Anne of Green Gables, Princess Diana, Amy Tan, sensitive white boys like John Cusack, the Biebers, the Kardashians and, inevitably, Gwyneth. The truth is these icons resonate with all of us, even Wendy, who admits to knowing nothing about pop culture. Jen joins us to talk about all that, being Asian Canadian, a single mother, a more than decent writer, and an admitted weirdo. Jen Sookfong Lee was born and raised in Vancouver’s East Side. Her books include the novels The End of East, The Better Mother and The Conjoined. Jen also works as an editor at ECW Press, and co-hosts the podcast Can’t Lit. Her memoir Superfan: How Pop Culture Broke My Heart is published by McLelland & Stewart Did you know you can watch this episode too? We are on YouTube. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] A Transcription of the episode can be found here. We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Beverley is not retiring. Beverley McLachlin was told in grade 8 that she wasn’t very alert. That she probably wouldn’t amount to much. Ha! She went on to become the chief justice of our Supreme Court, the first woman in that role. All justices are told to step down at 75, so she has now taken up writing thriller novels. Oh, and a bit of lawyering. You should hear what she says about the Notorious RBG , and what might have happened to the “Bev” bra. Beverley McLachlin was born and raised in Pincher Creek, Alberta. She was chief justice of the Supreme Court, and has now written a thriller: “Full Disclosure”, and a memoir: “Truth be Told, My Journey Through Life and the Law”. You can watch this episode on YouTube here. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Suzette Mayr thinks happy endings are important, (not that kind of happy ending). She just won the Giller Prize for The Sleeping Car Porter and tells us why it was so important and so difficult to tell the story of being a Black gay man in Canada 100 years ago. Suzette tells us about what it was like for her the first time in a lesbian bar, what happened to Rockhead’s Jazz Bar in Montreal, and why “Rate my Prof” is worse than Yelp.Suzette Mayr is the author of 6 novels and 2 books of poetry. Her latest novel The Sleeping Car Porter won this year’s Giller prize. She is an English professor at the University of Calgary. Her writing often focuses on issues of race, identity and sex! You can watch this episode on YouTube here. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is normal anyway? We may have spent our childhoods trying to fit in, but now being a “normie” is an insult. When Jonathan Torrens moved to L.A., surrounded by buff guys in v-necks, he realized his future was not as a Brad Pitt stud. He says he’s quirky, we think he’s funny. He’s been a white rapper on ‘Trailer Park Boys’, a Quebecker who “Lévesque’s” his hair on ‘Shoresy’, all deeply offensive. Or is it? He says you gotta love to mock. He also got radio Mo to talk about “Dudes, dicks and does”. Jonathan Torrens is Canadian actor and media personality. You know him from Street Cents, his talk show Jonovision, and for his role as J-Roc in Trailer Park Boys. He also delivers strong beard work as Noah Dyck in the series Letterkenny. Born in PEI, he insists on living in Nova Scotia with his family, where normalcy is tolerated if not practiced. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. You can also watch this episode on our YouTube channel. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lauren Hough is living a remarkable life. Author of a collection of essays called “Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing”, Lauren causes us to consider what IS the hardest thing? Growing up in a doomsday sex cult? Joining the Air Force and almost getting court-martialed? Going to jail? Traveling around the country in a van with her dog? Being a 6 foot lesbian? We caught up with Lauren, all jet-lagged from a trip to Paris, to talk about writing, religion and cheese. Caution: some spectacularly colourful language. Lauren Hough defies categorization so we’re not going to even try. Born in Berlin, raised in 7 countries as part of a cult known as the Children of God that robbed her of an education and any sense of self or family, Lauren eventually found her voice. Her memoir has won numerous literary prizes. She’s also the author of Bad Reads, an Substack journal both random and profound, and utterly addictive. You can watch this episode on YouTube. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Women talk, they say, but do we really? So much of the female - or even the human - experience is caught up in shame: shame about our bodies, our feelings, our, well, our “unmentionables”. Enter Cynthia Loyst and Josie Dye, two (almost) shameless women who dare to tackle the messy, silly and sexy topics you won’t find anywhere else. Cynthia and Josie’s “Unmentionables” podcast has launched to great acclaim, and we decided to find out if there was anything they WOULDN’T talk about. We discuss weight loss, hemorrhoids, hookups and broken penises. Without shame, mostly. Cynthia Loyst is a bestselling author, producer, and television host. You’ll find her on CTV’s daytime talk show The Social. Josie Dye is the host and creator of The Josie Dye Show on Indie 88, one of the very few women to host her own radio morning show. Her robust knowledge of music has put her in front of the the many of the world’s best musicians. Both Cynthia and Josie are working mothers. Josie’s eldest son was diagnosed with the rare Sotos Syndrome, and she lends her voice and profile to raising awareness for the little known disease. You can watch the recording on our YouTube Channel. A transcript of the episode is available here. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bif Naked is so many things: rock star, activist, tattooed lady … survivor. How Beth Torbert, the daughter of missionary parents adopted in India, came to be Bif Naked, the artist we know today, is a story of courage and resilience. Born in secrecy, hidden away in a mental hospital, a victim of abuse, addiction and then breast cancer, Bif found her way, and she tells us her story, or stories, because there are many. We talk about mothers, drugs, kindness, creativity, and, of course, tattoos. Bif Naked is immediately recognizable as one of Canada’s most remarkable artists. Throughout her long and varied career, leading a punk rock band in Vancouver, releasing ten albums, multiple film and TV roles, and a cancer diagnosis at the age of 37, Bif has seen and done it all. It has left her super and beautiful, inside and out. The show is on YouTube! You can watch it here. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

He says he’s written more books than he’s read, but Roz Weston wrote a bestseller. A Little Bit Broken is a deeply personal memoir about growing up in a small town with a loving family, yet still being compelled to make bad decisions. Addiction, self-harm, promiscuity - all followed Roz from Acton to New York to Toronto, where he eventually found a way to make it better. We talk about the best and worst celebrities to interview, why he’ll never write another book, and how he kept the ending a surprise for the person that mattered most. There’s also a great recipe for turkey. Roz Weston is the co-host of The Roz and Mocha Show on Toronto’s Kiss 92.5. He got his break working as an intern with Howard Stern, then eventually moved on to become an entertainment reporter at ET Canada, where he spent 17 years. After publishing his memoirs, Roz became engaged to photographer Katherine Holland, with whom he shares a daughter, Roxy. Please subscribe to the YouTube channel when you get there. As mentioned at the end of the show, there were a few technical glitches that prevented us from having a full YouTube version of the show. But here is the show on YouTube with a static image for those who listen there. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Laugh? I thought I’d cry. Why do comedy and depression go hand in hand? They often do, and Jessica Holmes says that’s not necessarily a bad thing. We talk about supportive husbands, surly teenagers, hosting corporate events from home, punching up (and down), Celine Dion, joining and leaving the Mormon Church, and just what the hell is normal anyway? Jessica Holmes is a Canadian actress, comedian and speaker. Best know for her time on the Royal Canadian Air Farce, Jessica has also performed Just For Laughs and The Second City. Her impersonations are legendary, and include Celine, Liza, Britney, and, for some reason, Belinda Stronach. Like millions of Canadian, Jessica has struggled both with post-partum depression and, as she puts it, “regular, run-of-the-mill, garden-variety depression”. Her inspiring book Depression The Comedy: A Tale of Perseverance delves into her personal journey with validation and warmth. She continues to advocate for mental health and helping people take simple, sustainable steps towards fulfillment and well-being, one laugh at a time. By the way, we had a few requests for us to do video so here you go! You can watch this episode on YouTube. Please subscribe to the YouTube channel when you get there. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cindy Blackstock wants to fix things. She has fought for Indigenous kids to be treated with the same respect as everyone else. Which means better care and much more funding. And then we talk about why “Pretend Indians” are so infuriating. Very serious stuff. But change is happening. She radiates with hope, and is proud to be seen as a Woman of Ill Repute! We talk about destroyed childhoods and residential schools. Also, why her Spirit Bear is white, and why Cindy is a much better name than Wendy.Cindy Blackstock was born in 1964 in British Columbia to a Gitxsan father and a non-indigenous mother. She just won McGill’s highest award, the latest of so many, for her work fighting racism and establishing the Jordan Principle. She has a gazillion degrees, is a professor at McGill, and runs the First Nations Caring Society, which fights for equal funding and care for Indigenous kids. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You think YOU’re busy? Zabrina Douglas is a nurse, a mother of five AND a Juno nominated stand up comic. How does she do it all? With a lot of help from family, but one role informs the others. Not only are kids an endless source of material, but it turns out that humour can be helpful and healing in health care too. Come spend some time with this fun and lovely woman. Topics include crazy Jamaican parents, lying to your kids, and how to roll a bunch of small laughs into a big one. Zabrina Douglas is arguably the busiest woman in show business, because she’s also a nurse and a mother to 5 children. Zabrina has been a regular on Kenny Robinson’s “Nubian Comedy Show” and performed at Just For Laughs, the Toronto Fringe Festival, the CBC and the Comedy Network. Her album “Things Black Girls Say” is available through Howl and Roar Records. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kathleen Wynne got so worked up about the John Tory story (stepping down as Toronto mayor re: affair with staffer 38 years younger) she spilled her guts about an inappropriate affair when she was 21, and he, uh, wasn’t. She just told her kids before it was published. Kathleen tells us why the Tory story matters, and why life in modern politics is so tough on women politicians like Jacinda Ardern and Nicola Sturgeon. She was the first woman to be premier of Ontario, and the first openly gay premier in Canada. Kathleen Wynne was an MPP, served in several cabinet posts, and then became premier for one term. Various controversies ended her second bid. She still believes in politics, and still wants to make a difference. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Badass of Badasses Ann Medina says “The CBC fired me, and now they’re honouring me?”. Yup, as they should. Medina was a foreign correspondent back when it was “revolutionary” for a woman to be in the field. She tells us how talking to people about their lives was what mattered most, how she never worried about it being a man’s job, about why she got dumped, and how to solve all the problems of journalism today! Ann Medina was a TV reporter for NBC and ABC before coming to the CBC in the 70’s, becoming bureau chief in Lebanon, filing for the Journal, anchoring Saturday Report and now being inducted into the CBC News Hall of Fame. She was on the academic path to be a philosophy professor until she started getting mad at how the news was covered. She is still mad, and still an inspiration. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Canada may not have the best health care system on the world, but it’s better than most. That’s largely due to people like Dr. Danielle Martin. Read her bio for all her achievements, but just know that we have a fearless advocate for making things better. Just watch her take down a U.S. Senate Committee. We talk about all the problems: wait times, expensive drugs, and how to find a family doctor (hot tip: July is a good time to find a fresh one). Also, just a reminder to never ask a doctor at a party for free health advice. Danielle Martin is Chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto, the largest academic department of its kind in the world. She has worked and managed clinics in rural and remote communities offering family and maternity care. Dr. Martin has spent years as a senior hospital executive, most recently at Women’s College Hospital. An educator and role model, Dr. Martin schooled a U.S. Senate Committee on health care in a video that went viral, earning 35 million views and counting. The recipient of many awards and accolades, Dr. Martin become the youngest physician to receive the F.N.G. Starr Award, the highest honour in the Canadian Medical Association. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are all geniuses rebels? Steve “Spaz” Williams changed movie history creating the first realistic monsters in James Cameron’s Abyss, Terminator 2, and Jurassic Park. Now the big new doc “Jurassic Punk” reveals how he refused to play the game, got ignored at the Oscars, got pissed in more ways than one, and maybe found contentment. On our podcast we talk about it all as we get a tour of his beautiful house in the Ozarks and pretend we get all the techy bits. Steve “Spaz” Williams grew up inToronto, studied animation at Sheridan College, then moved to California to work for Industrial Light and Magic. He worked with James Cameron and George Lucas creating the world’s first computer generated monsters on the Abyss, Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park. He is now the subject of a huge documentary called Jurassic Punk. He now lives in the Ozarks but is holding onto his Canadian passport. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jessi Hempel was the first in her family to come out. Not long after, her father, sister, brother and mother followed suit, each one coming to terms with their gender, sexuality and secrets from their past. An accomplished writer and podcaster, Jessi decided to tell her family’s story through interviews with them, mixed with her own memories. The result is “The Family Outing: A Memoir”: When people we love go through hard times, we often want to make things better for them. We usually can’t. This is even more true when those people are our parents, our children, our siblings. Often the only thing we can do is love them enough to maintain our own boundaries so that when they emerge, we aren’t so angry at them and broken by them that we cannot be in relationship with them. Jessi Hempel is host of the award-winning podcast Hello Monday, and a senior editor-at-large at LinkedIn. For nearly two decades, she has been writing and editing features and cover stories about work, life and meaning in the digital age. Her book “The Family Outing: A Memoir” is published by Harper Collins. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aisha Brown is the first Black Women Ever … to have a comedy special on Crave TV. That was back in 2020, and a lot has changed since then, but maybe not enough. Aisha fights the same demons that many comedians do, be they female, or people of colour, or both. Am I funny enough? Pretty enough? Can I be smart and truthful and still have people like me? We say yes, and also who cares? Topics covered include getting older, social media and penis size, none of which matter as much as you might think. Aisha Brown is a Toronto based comedian, writer and actress. She has written for Baroness Von Sketch, This Hour has 22 Minutes, the Beaverton and the Canadian Screen Awards. You might have also heard or seen her on all those shows, as well as The Debaters, Because News, Day 6 and Just For Laughs. Witty and self-confident on stage, Aisha shows us a more reflective mood. Comedy, after all, is serious business. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lana Payne is a firecracker. She’ll answer anything. As the new head of UNIFOR Canada’s biggest private sector union, she talks about dealing with Doug Ford, allegations of corruption, making nice with other unions and the threat of a general strike. All with a big smile on her face. She’s proud of being the first woman in that job and super proud of her union roots in Newfoundland. Maureen is a bit obsessed with Norma Rae. Less so with Jimmy Hoffa. Lana Payne’s dad was a union guy in Newfoundland and Labrador who happily paid his dues. His daughter started as a labour reporter , then columnist, and is now the first woman to run UNIFOR, Canada’s largest private sector union. With the threat of the notwithstanding clause to shut down a CUPE strike, Payne’s UNIFOR promised 100,000 dollars to help fight back. It was a big bet and it worked. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well OUR first man anyway. We’ve decided to open up the floodgates and talk to anyone fearless and/or funny enough to want to talk to US, and no one fits that bill better than Rick. He’s been called a national treasure, Canada’s beloved comic genius, the scourge of Parliament Hill, and … the nicest man you’d ever want to meet. We love Rick for a million reasons, but especially because he works at the intersection of comedy and journalism. Whether he’s talking to Americans about Prime Minister Jean Poutine, or trying to convince Stockwell Day to change his name to Doris, Rick makes us think and laugh, then think again. We talk about Newfoundland, Meech Lake, anger, friendship, being funny, paying it forward, and Rick’s love of his partner of 30 years. Rick Mercer has more awards (25 Geminis), honorary degrees (9), and causes (UNICEF, Casey House, climate change, anti-bullying, gay youth) than anyone ever. He’s an officer of the Order of Canada, an honorary RCAF colonel, and the recipient of the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour. Not bad for a kid from St. John’s who never finished Grade 12. He’s written several books, including his latest, “Talking to Canadians: a Memoir”, and is thinking of starting a podcast. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Erin Davis makes us think of Christmas. Not only because she was a long time morning host at CHFI, Canada’s biggest holiday music station. Not just because played the Fairy Godmother in one of Ross Petty’s Christmas pantomimes. Not because she’s an accomplished vocalist, a philanthropist, and a podcaster who reads bedtime stories while visions of sugarplums dance in our heads. These are all good reasons, but Erin embodies the festive season because she celebrates family, joy and resilience in her daily life. Nor is she a goody two-shoes. No, wait. She’s good, and she has two shoes (that Mo once had to fill), but she loves to laugh, so come and join us to hear about Erin’s next chapter. Erin Davis is an award-winning broadcaster, podcaster and best-selling author. She was the longtime host of 98.1 CHFI’s Morning Show until her retirement in 2016. Following the tragic death of her only daughter Lauren at the age of 24, Erin wrote the bestselling auto memoir Mourning Has Broken: Love, Loss and Reclaiming Joy (HarperCollins, 2019). She and her husband Rob now live on Vancouver Island, where they have family. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s easy to get cynical about politics. But Calgary mayor Jyoti Gondek says to heck with that. She’s going all in. And it’s not just the hats. She has 5 cowboy hats and 5 pairs of boots. Calgary is now the 3rd most diverse city in Canada. How does she keep everyone happy? Particularly with some controversial comments from premier Danielle Smith and a horse head dumped in Jyoti’s driveway. We talk about being the first woman and the second POC as Calgary mayor. There may be a focus on her “necklace”. Calgary mayor Jyoti Gondek was born to Punjabi parents who taught her to care for others and stand up for herself. They immigrated to Canada when she was 4. She got her Phd in sociology from the University of Calgary and later became a city councillor in Calgary. In 2021 she became the first woman mayor in the city’s history. We talk to her about being a politician, running a city in transition and the impossibility of being a “super mom”. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Women are not funny, or at least not as funny as men. Men don’t like funny women, they like women who laugh at their jokes, but not their penises. If women are funny, they’re probably lesbians. On and on it goes, despite ample evidence to the contrary. Enter Allison Dore, laughing. Allison is the founder of Howl and Roar Records, a female centric comedy record label that facilitates in the creation and distribution of content, in order to empower artists and help different voices and perspectives be heard. Plus, she’s funny. Allison, Wendy and Mo talk about Christopher Hitchens, atheism, standup, sit down, and trying to be funny in a dangerous time. Allison Dore is the host of the entertainment-focused, daily talk radio show The Breakdown, on SiriusXM channel 167. In 2018 she founded Howl & Roar Records, a female-centric comedy record label with a mandate to focus 70% of their output on women in the industry. In the remaining 30% priority is given to men in marginalized communities. Allison is a highly coveted speaker and host, and shares her story of battling mental illness and addiction in order to bring hope to those who are currently struggling. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why do they do it? It’s easy to have a theory of why war correspondents put their lives on the line. Are they dealing with trauma? Are they addicted to the adrenalin? Maybe. Maybe they just have big hearts. For more than 20 years, photographer Lynsey Addario has been one of very few women covering conflict around the globe. Afghanistan, Libya, Sudan and now Ukraine. For the New York Times, for National Geographic, often at tremendous risk to her own safety. But of course, we can’t resist. We ask her why. Photographer Lynsey Addario has been kidnapped twice. She puts her life on the line to show the world what war and conflict really look like, most recently in Ukraine. Her work is now being celebrated at the School for Visual Arts in NYC. She's won numerous awards, including a Pulitzer, and was even given a MacArthur genius grant. Our first official genius! We talk to her about still having to prove herself as a woman in the field, about love and war and everything in between. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There’s Canadian famous, and then there’s Famous famous. Like author Louise Penny. Luckily, she was Wendy’s best friend in grade 9, so we were able to persuade her to come on the podcast. Maureen, Louise and Wendy talk all about friendship, fame, and facing fear. Too many f’s? Well, that’s her motto: Don’t be Afraid. She’s just published book #18 in her Three Pines Inspector Gamache series. A World of Curiosities. She will be speaking at the Indigo bookstore in Toronto on December 2nd, the same day Prime Video launches the Three Pines series with Alfred Molina as Gamache! 18 books in 18 years! A #1 New York Times Bestseller! Louise Penny’s new book is out, the latest in her Inspector Armand Gamache Three Pines murder mysteries. A World of Curiosities. Often compared to a modern day Agatha Christie, her work is a lot more than cozy, with ill winds blowing in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, the setting for all the murders. We talk about the books, about growing up, and the value of friendship. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

She’s a badass blues woman with the best laugh in this or any other business. Sass Jordan joins us to talk about female rockers (there aren’t that many), great musicians, and how to spot true talent. Not giving a damn about anything except love, family and creativity, and maybe food and drink. What it’s like to be in Dad territory, as in “My dad thinks you’re hot”. Warning: lots of hooting and hollering, giggling and cackling. Born in England, raised in Montreal, Sarah Jordan became Sass because she’s full of it. Named Most Promising Vocalist by the Junos in 1989, Sass has kept that promise. Billboard listed her as the Top Female Rock Artist of the year in 1992, the year she released “Racine”, her landmark album that made everyone a believer. An actress on stage and screen, Sass also sat as a judge on all six seasons of Canadian Idol. Her latest album, Bitches Blues, featuring the song Still Alive and Well is available on Stony Plain Records. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You may have had The Talk with one of your parents. You know, the squirmy, uncomfortable and downright incredulous chat about what happens when a man and a woman truly love each other, etc.etc. But for many of us, the fun part of it all came from Sue. Sue Johansen, the feisty, hilarious, and deeply kind creator of Sex with Sue. For decades, on radio and television,in Canada and the U.S., Sue explained how stuff was done, safely and enjoyably. Now filmmaker Lisa Rideout and Sue’s own daughter Jane join us to tell us the deeper story of Sue Johanson, and why her straight-from-the-hip message is more important than ever. Jane Johanson Jane Johanson is an actor, singer, dancer and choreographer who has been gracing stages for the past 40 years. From the age of 14, Jane worked as a receptionist at the groundbreaking Don Mills Collegiate birth control clinic for her mom Sue Johanson. Growing up with Sue, Jane learned the value of hard work and fearlessness. Not to mention sewing, knitting, baking and carrying on the tradition of working with sourdough. Lisa Rideout Director, Writer, Producer Lisa Rideout is an award-winning director who makes films about topics that make people uncomfortable. Death, sex, identity, race, politics and more are presented from a nuanced perspective that challenges stereotypes with the aim of creating more tolerance. She is unafraid to tackle controversial topics and has done so by showcasing the stories of musicians, sex workers, activists, death doulas, adult entertainers and more. Her latest documentary Sex with Sue, about renowned sex expert Sue Johanson, can be seen on WNetwork and Stack TV. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’ve always been here, writes Ann-Marie MacDonald. And so have the moors. She calls her new book the queerest she’s ever written. But what is queer? Isn’t everybody different? Fayne, published by Penguin Random House Canada, is placed in the late 1800’s and is full of love, diversity, and magyk. There’s also a fascination with pudding! The book is huge! So huge, we feared it might be a chore to read. It definitely was not. Maureen was a bit intimidated to talk to her. After all, Ann-Marie MacDonald is a playwright, author, actress, even a tv host! And now she’s written a new, huge book. If you thought Fall on Your Knees was good, check out Fayne, published by Penguin Random House Canada and on sale now. She calls it her queerest book ever, and it’s full of magyk, love and learning too. Turns out she’s not intimidating at all. Unless brains, opinions, and a sense of humour put you off! We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So glad you asked! What started as a little podcast hosted by two nervous women with love in their hearts and stars in their eyes … is still a little podcast hosted by two nervous women etc etc. But we’re still here, and it’s going pretty well! Join Wendy and Mo for a look back at the first 12 episodes: hear about the fights, the scandals, the guests we didn’t get, the ones we did that scared or shocked us, and the ones we loved the best (spoiler alert: we love them all). Plus: what we’ve learned, who we have coming up, and a special announcement, but only if you listen to the end! We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Broadcasting is a brutal business, especially for women over fifty who may or may not have gray hair. There is one woman, however, who has been at the top of her game, on both radio and television, and she is, of course, Marilyn Denis. Host of the appropriately named The Marilyn Denis Show on CTV, as well as CHUM-FM’s perpetually top rated radio morning show Marilyn Denis and Jamar, Marilyn is everyone’s best friend. She actually is one of Mo’s, and she joins Mo and Wendy for a free wheeling, no holds barred discussion about being a mother, a grandmother AND a newlywed! Not only that, but Marilyn gives us the lowdown on what cosmetic work she’s had done. That’s something you’re not going to hear anywhere else, and we love her all the more for it. Come hear what becomes a legend most. Marilyn Denis is one of the best and most beloved broadcasters in the country, and we would say that even if we didn’t know her. She has hosted CHUM-FM’s top rated morning show since 1986, and the equally popular daytime talk show “The Marilyn Denis Show” on CTV since 2011. Mother to radio host Adam Wylde (Virgin 99.9), and grandmother to adorable Everley, Marilyn married her high school prom date Jim just a few years ago. Marilyn tells us how they found each other again, and talks about the trials and tribulations of being famous, growing older in front of an audience, and why she’s never retiring, because why the hell should she? We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just when you’re convinced the world is a dark place with an uncertain future, along comes Hannah Alper. It’s not that Hannah’s a foolish optimist. She is, as Gloria Steinem calls it, a “hopeaholic”. Hannah has been an activist for social and environmental change since she was 9 years old - and that wasn’t that long ago! She’s a motivational speaker, a blogger, an author and budding journalist. She’s also a second year university student, and yes, she assures us that she’s also hanging out and having fun. Just listening to her puts a smile on our face. Come be inspired. The kids are alright. Hannah Alper was born in Toronto in this century. In July 2012, at the age of 9, Alper launched a blog called Call Me Hannah, speaking out about causes important to her: animal welfare, habitat destruction, and the natural environment. With a social media following in the tens of thousands, Hannah has emerged as an author, a motivational speaker, an ambassador for Free the Children, co-president of the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization in Ontario, a TedX talker, and a budding journalist. In 2018, Bloomberg Businessweek named her one of 18 people to watch, so watch her! She’s also a student at Western University, where she assures us she’s having as much fun as she should. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you are famous and in trouble, she is the one you call. She’s Canada’s pre-eminent criminal defence lawyer. Marie Henein defended Jian Ghomeshi. Was she doing her job or a “traitor to women”? We found her defiant, in love with her job, and surprisingly funny! She dishes on marriage, her favourite tv shows, and the stupidity of trying to find a “work life balance”. Marie Henein is a criminal defence lawyer who’s fought for a lot of infamous Canadians and become famous herself. She’s defended Jian Ghomeshi, and Michael Bryant. Mentored by the recently departed Eddie Greenspan, she now runs her own large firm and dared to bare her arms in a staff photo. Oh my! She has written a memoir about her love of the law, hating being called exotic, and how to identify a Canadian. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why are we so obsessed with the mob? Can women be just as cutthroat? Is Italian culture too macho? We have all the answers (not!) in our chat from Rome with Barbie Latza Nadeau about her new book “The Godmother”. She tells us about admiring and reviling “Pupetta” , who, ya, shot her husband’s killer and became a mafia icon. Barbie got to interview her just before she died. She spills about Mafia women and refusing to be intimidated after the attack on Salman Rushdie. Barbie Latza Nadeau is the Rome correspondent for the Daily Beast. She also wrote about Sex, Murder and the Italian sex trade involving Nigerian women, and “Baby Face: Sex Drugs and the Inside Story of Amanda Knox”, which was turned into a movie. She has just published The Godmother: Murder , Vengeance and the Bloody Struggle of Mafia Women”. (Out September 7) Sex and violence are always a theme. And Pupetta , or Lady Camorra, knew it. Barbie tells how women are taking on more of a role in a mafia culture that never dies. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Going There. She moved to London, but boy, she’s still writing. Leah McLaren talks to us about her new book ”Where You End and I Begin”. About her writer mom, family commitments, being weird (aren’t we all?) and “whatever happened to that fucking guy?” Ya, that one, who may have started it all in a barn when her mom was 12. Maureen cracks a few narcissist jokes. Leah is not sure they apply. Leah McLaren is a writer now based in London. She started off as a columnist for the Globe and Mail, where she was like a Canadian Carrie Bradshaw, writing about sex and other fixations in the big city. She now writes for Macleans, the Toronto Star and a bunch of U.K. papers. After years of trauma, drama, and lots of love she has written a book about her and her mom. Where You End and I Begin. We wonder what mom thinks! Is it true that “commitment sucks the life out of you”? There are also tales about never trusting anyone to tell your story, especially a journalist. Sign up for Leah's Newsletter here. https://leahmclaren.substack.com/p/how-to-write-your-life-without-losing We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jen Agg is the owner and power behind Toronto restaurants The Black Hoof (now Bar Vendetta), Rhum Corner, and Grey Gardens. She is both revered and criticized for outspokenness, her work ethic and her honesty with regards to rampant sexism and discrimination in the restaurant industry. She has no time for Michelin stars, and thinks vodka is stupid. Jen also wrote a bestselling memoir called “I Hear She’s a Real Bitch”. Restaurateur Jen Agg talks to us about the trials and tribulations of running her many venues in the midst of rampant misogyny, personal challenges (her beloved husband had a stroke), and oh, a pandemic. Outspoken as always, Jen talks about writing, traveling, restaurant critics and the value of truth. Apparently the customer isn’t always right. Caution: C word is dropped, and Wendy and Mo get all worried about it. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You can take a girl out of the Maritimes, but she’ll still go home to visit. Jax Irwin, morning co-host on Toronto’s Virgin radio, joins us to talk about life and laughter, coming out, her love of family, and playing with the good guys. Plus: bringing your girlfriend home to mom, and where to get an octopus costume. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You think you know Jann Arden: she’s Canada’s cranky songbird, but still comes across as everyone’s best friend. Writer, singer, songwriter, actress, comedian, animal rights activist - Jann’s all that, but still maintains that failure is an integral part of personal success. We talk about mothers, addiction, and the importance of friends. Oh, and Wendy drops the F-bomb. Again. This highly anticipated convo with Jann may not be what you expect: of course she’s funny and foul-mouthed, but also deeply kind and perceptive. Come sit by Jann’s crackling fire and for a laugh and a couple of dives into all the things that matter. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former Justice minister and Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould is not just angry–not just determined to improve the lives of indigenous people. She’s all that, but we discover she’s also a hoot! She dishes on how hugs from prime minister Justin Trudeau made her skin crawl. And she gets personal about her hubby, her sister, not being able to have kids, and trying to function on 3 hours sleep a night. Jody, aka Puglass, is a member of the We Wai Kai Nation and lives in Vancouver and Cape Mudge where she is about to publish a follow up to “Indian” in the Cabinet. She talks to us about the SNC-Lavalin affair and why it’s sometimes important to be difficult. Oh, and Wendy is accused of paying to get an interview. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If Mary Walsh isn’t the mother of Canadian comedy, she is certainly its sister. Born and raised in St. John’s, Newfoundland, a founding member of the CODCO comedy troupe, Mary went on to co-create the legendary news satire program This Hour has 22 Minutes. There, she created the infamous character Marg Delahunty, a fearless, sword-wielding warrior princess in cat’s eye glasses who became the scourge of Parliament Hill. A writer, director and novelist, Mary still lives in St. John’s, just down the street from her husband. She spoke to us the day after the 2022 Oscars, when the world was reeling from Will Smith’s attack on presenter Chris Rock. This led to an intense discussion about violence, violence against women, against comedians, and against women comedians. We also talk about getting older and getting funnier, sexy politicians and the lack thereof, Mary’s unusual upbringing, unconventional marriage, and love of family, We also learn about Milltowns and rainbow blowjobs. We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter. We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected] We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Howdy! Once upon a time, two lady broadcasters realized they weren’t really ladies, or even broadcasters anymore. So they became podcasters, and part-time cowgirls. Wendy and Mo talk about all the truly strange coincidences in their lives, how they came together, how naive they were thinking a podcast would be easy, and the trials and tribulations of finding, identifying and recruiting other women of ill repute. We also discuss how both our traditional careers came to an untimely end, and ponder the mystery of The Woman with No Pants. It’s all over the place, but so are we. Here’s how it started, and how it’s going. Sign Up for Our Newsletter! https://womenofillrepute.substack.com/p/coming-soon We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices