Unlonely with Dr. Jody Carrington - She Built an Empire, But This Is What Actually Matters - Arlene Dickinson

Episode Date: May 14, 2026

In this episode of The Unlonely Podcast, Dr. Jody Carrington sits down with business powerhouse Arlene Dickinson for a deeply honest conversation about leadership, emotional strength, and navigating a chaotic world. From her journey as an immigrant to becoming one of Canada’s top business leaders, Arlene shares hard-earned insights on resilience, the evolution of leadership, and why emotional regulation, not emotional suppression, is the real power skill of our time. The episode explores gender, perception, and what it truly means to lead with both strength and humanity.Follow Arlene Here:https://arlenedickinson.com/https://instagram.com/arlenedickinsonhttps://www.youtube.com/@arleneisalonehttps://tiktok.com/@arlenedickinson Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back. Welcome into another episode of the Unloaning podcast. And today, my friends, buckle up because I don't even know how this happened, but you are going to hang out for the next 40 minutes with the unbelievable powerhouse that is Arlene Dickinson. When the camera, like, you know, open to her face today, I was like, ha ha. You know, they say sometimes like never meet your heroes, but this did not. That did not run true today. I'm going to tell you a little bit about her if you don't know. She is a nationally recognized human, one of the top business leaders in Canada. Arlene is the founder and general partner of District Ventures Capital. She has had the wonderful experience of being a dragon on the award-winning show, Dragon's Den, for 15 seasons, making her the longest-running female dragon in the show's history.

She's also a three-time bestselling author and a seasoned public speaker, frequently traveling to the country to speak and inspire teams, students, and leaders. She immigrated to Canada with her family at age three, arriving with few belongings, but full of hope and excitement at the prospect of a new life, deeply, deeply influenced by the curiosity and gratitude that her father, a teacher, displayed towards their adopted country, Arlene set out to make the most of the opportunity. While working at a TV station, Arlene was introduced to the world of marketing and quickly fell in love. While raising four kids, she climbed up the ladder, eventually owning and running

her own business. Arlene now sits on many public and private boards and is highly active in community organizations with an enduring passion, passion for health, food, and beverage, and women in business. She's deeply involved in various charities and foundations and has made a priority for giving back to the communities in the country that afforded her the opportunity to have such incredible life and career. You will hear in this episode a conversation I really wanted to know from her about what the world needs the most right now. And I love our conversation around emotional regulation and that there is women and men still display maybe equal amounts of emotion. Arlene really articulated to me that she, the emotion that she portrays,

often is now measured. And talking about we had this sort of like a little conversation about soft, being soft as a woman. And I can't wait to hear what you think. We also dive in deep into the tyranny of leadership. We use Donald Trump as an example. And whether or not, I mean, politics aside, and I think we tried to have that conversation here, it's the way in which we lead these days that I think is going to be very important in the future. How do we make a difference in this world that is so chaotic and overwhelming? She just has so many profound thoughts and directions. And I hope that you have a little bit of hope in listening to this human, this successful woman. And I hope you enjoyed as much as I did. Dive in. Okay, listen, I have waited for this moment for a very

long time. So I'm going to just jump right in. As a psychologist, as a female entrepreneur, as somebody who like tries to figure out how to make sense of humans, I want to know how you've mastered this so well. I want to know, I have 100,000 questions, but I guess what is the world need right now? If you've survived everything, what is the world need right now? Those are big questions, Rudy. I think, I think the world needs each. other more now than it ever has. I think it needs understanding and acceptance and community more than it ever has. And so I think, you know, we are, I just like your sign says, we are all just walking each other

home. I think right now we're all just walking past each other. And we need to walk with each other and to spend more time together and understand that we all have the same, you know, the same needs and wants and dreams and goals and aspirations and challenges and, you know, I mean, different degrees, of course, of all of those things because, you know, depending on, you know, where you are in your life, but I think just walking with each other is actually what's necessary right now. Listen, why is it so frigging hard?

So you have a podcast now called Alone. I have a podcast called Unlonely. I thought the two could get married because I think, I think that, you know, you're, I'm so interested in your journey, you know, recently, more recently about really what does it mean to be alone? What does that look like? And there's a big difference, I think, between being alone and being lonely. And you speak about that quite often.

Can you tell me a little bit more about that as you just survived so much incredibleness? Yeah. Yeah. You know, I've been single now for quite some time. And it took me a few years to feel like that didn't mean that there was something wrong with me and that I wasn't broken simply because I was alone. And it took me maybe more time than I wish it had of to. understand that I, the goal I have in life is to live my life fully and to, you know, try and be

as good a person as I can be. Doesn't mean I haven't hurt people. Doesn't mean I don't make mistakes. Doesn't mean that I, you know, don't inadvertently, you know, do things that are not always the best things to do. Like, of course, of course I'm human. We're all going to fuck it up. Like I think that's the point, right? If you're successful, doesn't mean you're great. Right. It doesn't mean you're flawless. It means that you're trying to do things and you're going to make mistakes. But I, I, for me, being single has really, I have a good friend who said to me once that she wanted to make, as she got older, her goal was to make her world bigger, not smaller. And that really stuck with me. I thought, what a great way to think about it, because it's so easy

as you get older, and especially if you're alone, to kind of cave in on yourself and to have everything kind of feel like, you know, your world is only this big. And, you know, it's a lot. And It's what you're familiar with because we don't like putting ourselves in situations that are unfamiliar to us that are a little bit that challenge our sense of what we, you know, know, know and feel comfortable with. And so I liked that and that's really stuck with me. And so my goal has been to make my life bigger. And that means, you know, I go on trips by myself to Asia. I do things and I meet with people that I'm not, you know, I feel very insignificant to the presence of. And I do things that are outside my comfort level because to me, that's making my world bigger.

And the bigger I make my world, the more I recognize and understand how much we all really just need each other. Oh, God. I mean, I talk about this all the time. Like, you know, Ram Dass's quote, where all just walk in each other home was a single most, I think, powerful string of words that ever came across my practice, me as a mom, a wife, whatever the deal is. Yeah. And I think about the loneliness epidemic as one of the greatest contributing factors to... a mental health crisis all the time, right? If I think about anybody who's struggling, it really is that sense of loneliness. And I, I mean, I guess my question is, you know,

we've always been taught it's lonely at the top. And it is there, do you think power is inherently lonely? When you look, you know, you have, you were at the, at the pinnacle of so many things. Talk to me about, I mean, and we hear so many stories, right? You're divorced. You're, not you in particular, but if I look at all of the men who typically sit up there with you, right? Like burn so many bridges. Now how do we do this? Like is, is there an inherent loneliness in power? I think there's an inherent loneliness and power if the power is not to serve, not to be in service of the people you're in power over. And so it can be very lonely because you are making decisions that impact other people's lives often. You're making choices that you don't

always have all the right answers to. But the more you, again, the more you isolate yourself from who you're making these decisions for, the less likely you are to make decisions that are not the best decisions. So I think it can be, it can be lonely always, but it can be even more lonely when you're isolating yourself from the people you're in power over. And I think that's what we're seeing happen in the U.S. right now, the divide between rich, you know, ultra wealthy people and and the rest of the masses of people and this this notion that, you know, these very powerful, rich people are going to somehow save the rest of the world. It's just a fallacy because they're not in touch with the rest of the world.

They don't understand the rest of the world. They don't live with them, breathe with them, understand what they're going through. It's all lip service. And so this is where power becomes very dangerous. Oh, God. Tyrants Fall is the, you know, saying that I just hope resonates in the world. but I'm interested in that, right? Because we're playing by a set of rules, I think,

that was established for a world that no longer exists. And I think women in particular understand. We come equipped with an emotional language. So I have two sons and a daughter. And this is not about penises or vaginas. It really is about trying to understand what the world needs right now, which is an emotional language, connection, an ability to say, okay, come back to the table.

Tell me more. I mean, I watched you historically on that lineup of Dragons, Den, humans, really being the voice of reason, being the one that can regulate emotion. I think that is the greatest skill set we teach our children. And I would say the greatest skill set that any leader moving forward will have. What if, like, tell me when you have made some of the most important decisions or maybe influenced people the most. Talk to me about the importance of that, that emotional connection, that ability to have

words that aren't just like, shut up, sit down, listen to me, which we know can be effective in the moment, right? Like, let's, let's not lie. You have a big enough stick you can get anybody to comply. Yeah. The question is, what does it leave you with? You know, I think the biggest myth that we have all bought into, or we had bought into, was that women were too emotional to be in power and that our emotion was actually what was the danger to our ability to govern and regulate and rule. And what I've learned over time is that my emotion is actually much more measured than many men's is. Like I may cry because I think, you know, often a man will express our emotions with anger.

I tend to express my emotions with tears. That doesn't mean that either are right or wrong. It just means that's how we express ourselves. But the notion that that emotion, that having those emotions so close to the surface, to me, I'd rather be having tears than anger. I would rather be showing some sort of empathy that gets me to a place of tears out of frustration or out of fear or whatever, then I would be at a place where I'm immediately unleashing anger at somebody because I'm not getting what I want. So I think I'd like to just say that because I do think this, I bought into it.

You know, I didn't buy into that women couldn't govern, but I did buy into that, oh, maybe we are too emotional. You know, maybe that is, you know, what's wrong. it absolutely is not what the case is. And so what I've learned over time is that authenticity and vulnerability, two things that women are very good at. We're good at admitting when we don't know. We're good at being authentic because we don't try to be something else for somebody else generally. And so using those skill sets that we have inherently, I think, make us better leaders.

And in today's world where authenticity and vulnerability, are in short supply, women can fill that gap and can lead in a meaningful way. It's like a superpower. Yeah. And I say this, you know, so often about just really harnessing that. I think there's a, I'm interested in your thoughts about a time and a place because what I really love and notice, I think about you, some of the most successful female leaders who are mentors of mine, I watch them being very clear about being a step of head.

So there is sometimes, you know, where you can lay down the facts, you understand what happens, your shoulders are big, you know, don't fucking mess with me kind of way of operating. And then also being very clear about when it's time to go soft, when it's time to pull in that emotional regulation of other people. Do you think there's some sense of like understanding that dance that becomes even maybe the greatest of all superpowers? Yeah, I'm not even sure I characterize it as softness as I would a desire to find compromise and a desire to find middle ground. I think in today's world, you know, where the first instinct is war, where the first instinct is violence and aggression and power surge over innocent people, I think most women would try to say,

okay, well, let's find a way through this as opposed to let's just go through this. You know, like, we're going to just go and do whatever we want. And so I don't know if that's something. softness as much as it is human understanding. Okay. That everybody just wants to be heard and understood. That every time we do an act of aggression, we end up getting it back. We end up creating enemies.

We end up having people that want to harm us and hurt us because they don't understand us. And that, again, I'm back to, you know, we're not all that different at the end of the day. But, you know, I've had lots, you know, I've had lots of times in my life where people have ascribed intent to me that couldn't be farther from the truth. But, you know, it gets, it gets circulated and believed and pretty soon it becomes, you know, that's just the way it is. And you also get when you're in power and when you have any sense of or sort of authority, you end up getting called a bitch, you end up getting called ice queen, you get up ending call too aggressive, you're too, you're too, difficult, you're too, you know, all of these, all of these adjectives that are actually

exactly opposite of what you are, which is you're ambitious. Sure, what's wrong with ambition? Nothing wrong with ambition. You are direct. What's wrong with being direct? There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. You are, you know, you have the courage to do and try. What's wrong with that? But we get ascribed a different kind of emotion. But I would hate to think that women get called soft because I don't think that's the right word. Yeah. And I think even there is that misnomer that soft is bad, right? Because we've called it the soft skills forever. And And now the data is irrefutable, right? If you build a company around the so-called soft skills, you're far more successful, right?

Fair. That's different. I was a fair point. Yeah. I'm just interested in sort of like that script that you've learned in terms of dealing with that criticism. Does it come with the game? Does it, and I don't even know what that means.

Does it come with success, I guess, you know, the criticism. I think about building this little platform and this little center of the internet where I'm, you know, I'd love to change the world. I'd love to be impactful on at the UN and policy and having conversations around mental health and loneliness and what that means. And I think it's so safe to be out of the light. And I wonder what it looks like, you know, once you become a little bit more successful, how do you, does it come with the territory? The criticism, the ice queen, the look at the bitch, you know, those kind of things. Have you seen anybody do it without it?

Like, is that, are we still in that place where it has to happen? I think unfortunately we are so in that place where it's happening. And sadly, most of those, most of it's happening as much with women against other women as it is men against women. So I don't want to say that, you know, women are, you know, absolve from any blame in this. We, we can be our hardest critics, you know, whether we're judging somebody's physical appearance or, you know, their attire or all the wrong things. We're looking at people and feeling permission. And I used to do it. Like I would, you know, the Academy Awards would come on.

And I'd go on Twitter or whatever. And I'd laughingly say things about what people were wearing and stuff. And I thought it was good humor. It's not. It's not. You know, what we end up doing is we're judging people for what they're wearing. Like, why? You know, why is that what we're talking about versus, you know,

that they're great comedians or great actors or great, you know, Thespians or whatever. Whatever. Yeah. So I think women are very guilty of creating that, you know, in particular, saying that other women are more difficult and icy and bitchy, which I really hate, but I think that's true. I agree. What is, you know, the social media experience? And, you know, and I always think about this, you know, introduction of the smartphone is 2006. Introduction of the forward facing camera 2009. This is very new to us. We're the first generation of leaders of moms with social. social media, this constant state of comparison, what does that do for somebody's confidence? What does that do for somebody's ability to stay in the game? Have you noticed a switch in the last

decade? Yeah, I think social media is at the root of pretty much everything that's from all society right now. And when I say that, I don't mean all social media, but I do think that how we're getting our news and where our news sources come from and how we are, how we're consuming things and AI have been really have created a divisiveness and a racism and a hatred and they've amplified all of these things that are going on in the world that are dangerous and have created a dystopia that's very sad to see and I do think social media needs to be regulated and I know I probably stand alone amongst you know many who would think oh my God you keep government out of it.

No, we need regulations. I remember the days, I don't know if you remember this. Maybe it's still true where you couldn't get an ad on TV unless you went through the public broadcasting CRTC and got approval for the ad to make sure you weren't making any claims that were wrong to make sure there were verification of facts to make sure that you weren't misleading people. You had to actually get a CRTC number to say that it complied

with a set of rules and regulations that were actually very reasonable. social media it's owned by individuals and public companies it is controlled by people who have very extreme views and they have no regulation they can do what they want they can have whatever happen they want and it's all under this guise of you know eff and free speech i know it's it which is not free speech um hate speech is not free speech bots and trolls are not free speech yeah so i don't get me started on this because I think we need to solve this. Well, I think you're right. And I think I look at, you know, Jonathan Heights's work in the anxious generation. So he's been very influential in creating policy change in many countries where people are like, especially for adolescents or

young people. How can we sort of ban cell phones or access? I'm most concerned about the big people because what I think is true is that if the big people aren't okay, the little people don't stand a chance. And if we're in positions of power or leadership or trying to sort of mentor the next generation, we spend a lot of time on our cell phones, you know, we're disconnected from people we're going to do this instead of being the same room. I fear a little bit about what that next generation looks like because you can't tell them, you have to show them. And I look at our kids and I think I have twins who are 13 and our oldest is 15. They question it so much more than us middle ages are. We're all in on many things where we're spending a lot of, you know, time and AI is everything and

let's chat GBT the shit out of this and write this in this way. So it's that teachable generation that I'm so concerned about because you can't tell anybody how to be kind or inclusive or anti-racist. And when I watch moms and dads, I was 10 years on the lock psychiatric and patient unit at the Children's Hospital. That's where I started my career. And whenever somebody – It must have been hard. Oh, gosh. It was life-changing, like an honor and privilege. And, you know, oftentimes people would say to me, can you see my kid? And I would say all the time, oh my God, yes, but I need to see you first. And they said, do you think I'm the problem? No, no, no, no, no. You're the solution, huh? Because if the big people aren't okay, the little people

don't stand a chance. And I'm so interested in regulation of social media or the access to even phones for teachers, for physicians, for dentists, those of us trying to really stay connected to our employees or our customers or our clients because you know what it's like to get assessed by somebody, your physician, and they get a watch notification. You're there telling them about, you know, the biggest symptom that you're so concerned about, you're probably dying, and they're like, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, and they're distracted, right? I love the conversation around the fact that our great-grandparents, not to romanticize it, looked at their children 72% more of the time than we look at our babies today. What does that mean in the world of leadership? If we want

the next generation to be even more connected, human. We know that's the answer. Okay, this is not hard, right? But why then do we still get into these dictatorial spaces? Why does the leader of the largest, anyway, why does Donnie have the capacity to get in a position where it's the antithesis to everything we know to be true in the research? Any successful leader who has any sort of legacy that we want to mentor ourselves after? We know. Why in this world, where we continue to be disconnected and led by the in that way why are we still enamored by this i think it's a it's a it's a it's a interesting question um you know whether you're a trudeau fan or not i can tell you one of the things that he did during covid that i deeply respected

and and thought was so necessary was that he stood he every day addressed the canadian people and and talked to them and made us feel like we were in the know of what was happening, that we were, that, you know, we, we didn't feel like we didn't understand what was going on. While we were all afraid and concerned, I think that was leadership to me. You know, again, forget anything else about whether you agree with his politics or not. It just doesn't matter. He showed up as a leader by showing up and by talking to people daily. I think in today's world, this, the, you know, when you've got,

what Donald Trump does well is he, he is constantly in the media. He is constantly front and center. He is the voice that people are listening to. He is the person that is saying, this is what's happening and I'm going to do this. And again, you don't have to like his politics, but what you do have is him in your face every day.

And you, and in the absence of a counter voice, in the absence of an opposing voice that is strong, which is what the, if we want to get into American politics from it, which is what the Democrats don't have. Yes. Then his voice starts to become the voice of the nation. And he understands that. He understands the value. It's by design. Absolutely.

He's a communicator that way. He's not, he does know English very well. He's not well. you know, any of those things, but he knows when he stands up that people will listen to him because of his power and his position. Well, and we're desperate for direction. And I think when we get into that place of desperate for direction, I often say these. Like if I were to get, if I were to make somebody the most disregulated, I'd want these three ingredients. Uncertainty, fear, and no end in sight. Those are the three. So if you think about you get, if you've ever heard the word cancer in

your family system, if you're going through a divorce, if any of those things, uncertainty, fear, no end in sight. Those are the three components of a global pandemic. So you're right. we needed was a leader who could say, uh, uh, uh, okay. Yeah, every day. This is where we're at. We need these three things, regardless of policy. You need a place to land. Uncertainty fear, no end in sight is the playbook for the Trump administration by design. And it's working because it's keeping everybody with their shoulders up like this. Yeah. I would add one more thing, chaos. Yeah. It's the one I miss. Okay. Because I think, you know, you know, maybe the chaos causes the uncertainty, but the uncertainty can be seen differently than just chaos creates. You don't know where

to focus. You don't know where to look next. You don't know what's going to happen and where it's going to come from. Do you think there is a plan? Or do you think this really is, I mean, I ask anybody this question all the time, right? Like it looks like, and again, social media is not social, because you only follow who you believe. But the idea that there really isn't a plan, that that uncertainty fear is there some level of expertise, intelligence underneath this all? Do you think? Do you think? Yeah, there is. These things aren't happening by accident. The, you know, the social media posts that are going out there, the videos that are done, the multiple attacks and various corners all happening simultaneously.

The market doing what's doing, that's all, that's absolutely part of a strategy. And we can say he's not smart, but his people around him and the playbook they've got, which is their 2026, I think 2020, I can't remember the 26 playbook. The strategy is actually very clear, and they're following it. It's actually very well understood what they are attending to do, which is to consolidate the Western Hemisphere. which is to, you know, like to the immigration, everything that they're doing is all in that playbook. And the problem is everybody's throwing that playbook. Nobody's paying attention to the playbub because they're seeing the chaos and they don't understand that this is all part of the

strategy. So yeah, I don't think they're stupid at all. I think they understand human nature and I think they're taking advantage of the situation and I think they are sticking to their playbook, very much so. If this is the desire, however, saying that, I don't think he had a plan on Iran. Okay, that was my big question. He had a plan in terms of attacking Iran. And I think he understood what it was going to do to the oil market. And I think he understood what it was going to do.

But I think he underestimated, you know, the 85 million people, Iranians, and the depth of that regime and the hatred they have from decades of many other challenges. And, you know, that's a whole other story. But I think he underestimated. them and he thought he thought his precision attacks would would be would be what stops them and would be enough that that that wasn't obviously it's not yeah yeah okay so then my question becomes you know as an as we look for the generation the next generation of leaders if this is still something that we some of us then desire somebody take control in a very authoritative

of dictatorial way. How do we continue to influence the world in a way that suggests we need to come back home to the best parts of us? That that is where longevity and health and all of those things live for our children and our grandchildren. How do we influence that as women, Arlene? How do we as like, give me a fucking plan and I will execute because I'm like anything but this. I'm actually working on something that I hope is going to help in this regard. And as soon as I'm in a better place to talk to you about it, I will. But I think that one of the things that we can do is remember that the younger generation, your kids, my grandkids, don't know any else, don't know anything else.

They've never witnessed the world that we remember. They don't know what that looks like. They don't understand what it's like to have a, you know, the president. to the United States be Obama or whoever, Biden, they didn't live through that. Okay. Or they weren't old enough to remember it. And so what they are seeing is what they understand to be the way it is.

Okay. And so somebody, the world, you know, we talk about the world needing a hero. What the world needs is people who are prepared to lead the people who are disenfranchised. And right now there just isn't anybody with. the courage or the followership to be able to do that. And we all are waiting for that to happen. You know, we can talk all we want about. You know, you've got Trump derangement syndrome.

You're focused too much on the U.S. But the problem is that what happens in the U.S. does impact, not just Canada, but Greenland, Norway, France, UK, you know, Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Israel, go around the world. So somewhere along the line we need to get people more together. One of the things I think needs to happen in the U.S. is sustained protest. There needs to be backing of protesters so that they can actually go off the job, not just for a day, not just for a few days, but for months.

They need to be able to be supported by unions and churches and the Democratic Party and, you know, billionaires that are good like McKenzie Scott or Melinda Gates, who are prepared to support the effort of the everyday American who is protesting against so that they can stay out of work longer. And so I think because mass protests is a sustained mass protest work. History has proven that. And unfortunately, it's very difficult for Americans. as you can imagine, it's easier for me to say, you should go out and protest.

But A, many of them need their livelihood. At what cost? Yeah. At what cost. And they also have physical fear because they don't know what ice will do. They don't know, you know, is there going to be a Tiananmen Square? Is there going to be, you know, aggression to the point where their lives are in danger, just like the two people who lost their lives, who were protesting peacefully.

So it's a, but if we don't do it, if we don't stand up, up around the world to him, then not just shame on the American people, but shame on the rest of the world. It is on us. It's incumbent on us to protest as well. I often think about them. What does that mean for us today? You know, when we're driving in our car and, you know, Didsbury, Alberta, listening to, you know, what do we do? And I have to talk about, I mean, it's up the road. I mean, I'm just saying, you know. No, that's good. It's great. So fold out a, hold out a, A throwback. A throwback, Arlene, you know what I mean? But I think about like next best right kind thing. I think about the magnitude of that. The U.S., for many Canadians feel so far away.

Like if we just keep our blinders on, if it just like, what does that mean for us and all the things, which we know. I mean, you can look at gas prices. We understand, you know, like the influence of what that means. But it gets so overwhelming in such a quick way. What does that mean for us as the citizens of today? And I often think about, you know, the next best right kind thing. What are we doing around our and tables? What are the conversations that we're having? And not necessarily to sort of become us versus them, but what do we need as humans? We still all start in exactly the same place. We all end in exactly the same place, including Donald Trump, including, you know, the leader of Iran, the leader of Israel, all of the, you know, exactly the same place. So what are some of the conversations you're

having with, you know, the people you're mentoring in these moments as we step into this next generation? What can we do in the here and now? I'm talking a lot about not being defeatist. Many of the younger generation, you know, 15 to 25 or 30 even are feeling like there's no point. Yes. That there's, they've lost hope and they've lost belief that. And they think they've been handed a shit world. And in many respects, they have been.

But they have lost hope and creativity. and the imagination to figure out how to make it better, and they've kind of given up. And this is why you're seeing so much of the mental health issues. You're seeing they feel isolated, they feel alone, and they feel hopeless. That's not a good place for any of the younger generation to be. And so when I talk to anybody of that generation, I'm talking about what's possible and I'm hoping,

I'm trying to help them see that they can make, you know, change in their life by doing something for themselves, by being in charge of their own destiny and not feeling trapped. It's difficult, but, you know, every generation has its moments. You know, why did, you know, if you think about all the different folk festivals and all the different things that have happened today, what is it? It's Burning Man or Coachella back then. it was um um i can't think of the name of it right now yeah yeah i know what you mean yeah um back then

you know there's there's just so um there's just so many there's there was sit-ins there were protests there were people unhappy with the vietnam war there were people unhappy with you know the cost of everything there were it took that younger generation to protest and to be part of um that movement to create that sense you know whether it was the bohemian movement you know, through what was, what I'm, what can't think of the name. It would not wood, not woodfast. Woodstock. Woodstock, thank you.

Woodstock. I couldn't think of the name. Listen, to my age. Me too. I'm 50 and I cannot find a word. There's a lot of like, you know that, you know, charades. Yeah. Well, I'm still here.

Keep going. Well, Woodstock was what I was trying to think of. And, yeah, you're, you're 50, Jody? Oh, you still there? Okay. I still got the audio. We're good. So, yeah, we can all think back to, you know,

I remember the lovins and the sit-ins and the, you know, the protests at libraries and universities around the country. I remember, you know, the concerts and the desire to protest. But peacefully, I remember John Lennon and, you know, what happened through all that. And you can't, you know, Or Leonard Cohen. You know, think about a Canadian or some of the, you know, the great, you know, the great artists of our time because it generally is artists who are expressing what's going on. We need some more of that right now that feels hopeful and brings community together.

And I think that's the key. It's the creation of the community. And you're right. Music, art, all of those things often give people a place to land. But it is that sense that regardless, we have something together to fight for. And I, when we move that back into sort of like the business idea of, you know, creating the next generation of education or, you know, Fortune 500 companies, it doesn't matter to me.

There is this. How do you get people back in place of face-to-face connection? And I know the beauty of global companies. I know, like, you know, there's so much technological advances. But I still always speak these days about the importance of coming back together, creating the conferences, being, having people. in the workplace, doing everything you can to see your people more because we will never automate relationship. We're going to try so fucking hard. But the neurochemical change. I mean, to do this

in person is remarkably different. Now, this is lovely. But what have, as you know, I mean, I've watched many of your episodes when you're with your people, that's where the magic happens. Yeah. One of the reasons I, when I started the show, I did it to just talk about being single. I now, as I entered second year in our third season, I am now doing it because I am getting so much personally from the conversations I'm having one-on-one with people and realizing again that when we spend time with somebody and we listen to them,

and I mean, that can happen here as well. It does happen. These are meaningful conversations. It's just different when you're in person, as you said. But I think there's ways to do it that are helpful to all of us. and I don't know. The world is changing very, very quickly. And what we knew then is not going to come back. So we have to not, as you said, romanticize it.

We have to start thinking about how we can actually make the future brighter in the context of the technology, the AI and the world as it sits today. With that, what's next for you? What is in the next iteration as you, I mean, still? the loan is going great guns. Yeah, Arlene's alone is my podcast. Arlene is alone, yeah. And yeah, and that's done very, very well. And I'm super excited because we're building community there.

The, you know, I'm raising my third fund. You know, I'm working on, you know, continuing to invest in the food and health and beverage space because what keeps me up at night is food and water. Really? And 100% is what keeps. up at night. Tell me more. Tell me more. Well, we're also focused on investing or worrying about AI and technology and everything else. But we need to worry about our food supply

and, you know, making sure that because as supply chains get disrupted, as things change, as warfare becomes more pointed, you know, desalination plants getting hit, power plants getting hit, the ability, you know, food is a weapon of war. And so, um, I worry a lot about food and water and what's going to happen. And we should all be worried about that. And so that's my focus area is agriculture and making sure that we protect the 20% of the world's water supply, fresh water supply that we have, the agricultural skills and land, arable land and fertile land that we have and the skill sets that we have in farming communities and in producers and manufacturers.

and we elevate that so that we are protecting our health and our well-being, both mentally and physically. That is really my focus, that. And of course, I care deeply about giving back to Canada. So I'm going to continue to speak out. I'm going to continue to, you know, talk about what I love about our country. And I'm thinking of a way to try and help to my earlier point. I've got another project that I'm working on.

I'm not quite ready to talk about, but I will. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that I can. can't wait for. Brilliant. As always, inspiring. I've learned so much from you today. I mean, keep screaming all of this from the rooftops because I think as one of the most powerful humans in our country on this planet, everybody's listening. You know, we talk about needing direction. You're one of the brightest light. So thank you for joining me today. Everybody else,

in the meantime, look after yourself, look after each other. I got lots to say about this. episodes, so stay tuned. But it was an honor. Thanks, Jody. It was a real pleasure to speak with you, too. Thanks for all you're doing. You know, the more we do this, people ask, why do you have to do the acknowledgement and every episode? I got to tell you, I've never been more grateful for being able to raise my babies on the land where so much sacrifice was made. And I think what's really critical in this process is that the ask is just that we don't forget. So the important of saying these words at the beginning of every episode will always be of utmost importance to me and this team. So everything that we created here today for you happened on Treaty 7 land, which is now known as the

center part of the province of Alberta. It is home of the Blackfoot Confederacy, which is made up of the Sikika, the Kainai, the Pekini, the Titina First Nation, the Stony-Nakota First Nation, and the Métis Nation Region 3. Our job, our job is your humans is to simply acknowledge each other. That's how we do better, be better, and stay connected to the good. The Unlonelly podcast is produced by three incredible humans, Brian Siever, Taylor McGilvery, and Jeremy Saunders, all of Snack Lab productions. Our executive producer, my favorite human on this planet, is Marty Pillar. Soundtracks were created by Donovan Morgan, Unlonely, Brand artwork created by Elliot Cuss.

Our big PR shooters are Desvinoe and Barry Cohen. Our digital marketing manager is amazing Shana Haddon. Our 007 secret agent from the Talent Bureau is Jeff Lowness.

And emotional support is provided by Asher Grant, Evan Grant, and Olivia Grant. Go live. I am a registered clinical psychologist in Alberta, Canada. content created and produced in this show is not intended as specific therapeutic advice. The intention of this podcast is to provide information, resources, education, and the one thing I think we all need the most, a safe place to land in this lonely world.

We're all so glad you're here.