Special Guests
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Lester McLean — Recording Artist
Lester McLean is a native of Toronto and has been active on the city’s busy music scene since the early 90’s. He studied jazz as a saxophonist while earning a Bachelors Degree in Mass Communications and Sociology at York University. The instrumental funk-fusion band The Colour of Soul was the first outlet for McLean’s songwriting. Under his leadership, the band recorded and released 3 independent records. The next endeavor was The Lester McLean Trio, featuring Lester on lead vocals and Soprano Sax, Juno award winning and nationally recognized Michael Occhipinti on acoustic guitar, and multi-instrumentalist Louis Simao on upright acoustic bass. The trio released a full-length CD entitled Best Foot Forward. Then the band went into John “Beetle” Bailey’s Drive Shed Studio for sessions that resulted in the EP Lester McLean – LMXL Just a Taste. Lester’s versatility with a wide array of musical styles and genres, great melodies, thoughtful lyrics, ear catching grooves, thick harmonies, are all ingredients in the soulful, eclectic sound that defines Lester McLean! -
Jeff Allen — Stand-Up Comedian
Performing comedy for over three decades, Jeff Allen’s work has been seen on every cable comedy show in the U.S. including Comedy Central’s Premium Blend and VH1’s Standup Spotlight. His one-hour special, Happy Wife, Happy Life, aired on the Odyssey Channel and Family Net. He’s featured on the Grand Ole Opry, the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen and
the Montreal Just for Laughs International Comedy Festival. Jeff Allen is regarded as one of the premium clean comedians working today! -
Martin Spinelli — Author Of After The Crash
In September 2006, Martin’s life was transformed when his wife was killed and his son nearly killed by a trucker who fell asleep at the wheel. This is his memoir.
“In the pit of my stomach, as I kissed my four-year-old son Lio and my darling wife Sasha goodbye, I knew something was up. By that evening, the police had told me about the crash. Lio's bright and talented mother was killed that day, and he narrowly escaped the same fate. But instead of it being an ending for us, the crash was a beginning. Lio's miraculous recovery from severe brain damage and a coma defied medical science. As I witnessed his astonishing journey - from intensive care bed to 10 Downing Street - and fought to pull him through horrific injuries and the loss of his mother, I found real purpose and meaning for the first time in my life.”
After the Crash is the heart-rending true story of how one man's love for his son saved both their lives. Much more than a moving personal story, the book is a guide for not just surviving disaster, but mastering it and using it to transform your life for the better. -
Brad Mathias — Author of Road Trip to Redemption: A Disconnected Family, a Cross-Country Adventure, and an Amazing Journey of Healing and Grace
Brad Mathias thought everything in his family was fine. A busy, contented dad, he had vaguely noticed that Bethany, his middle child, had become withdrawn and moody, but he assumed it was part of being a “teen” and didn’t look any deeper. Until the night God spoke clearly to Brad and his wife: Ask her to reveal what she has hidden. They did—and learned the secret Bethany had been carrying, one that rocked their family to the core. In a desperate attempt to reach their daughter and to reconnect as a family, Brad and his wife piled everyone into the car and embarked on a wild, crazy, seven-thousand-mile, what-are-we-thinking trip across the country. As they drove, they realized how far apart they’d drifted, found unexpected blessings along the way—and journeyed together from pain and loss to recovery and redemption. In this book, Brad shares stories from the road about God’s grace, gives practical tips on what he learned about reconnecting as a family, invites you to consider your own epic journey as a mother or father, and calls you to trust wholeheartedly in the amazing love God has for your kids. -
Chantal Desloges — Immigration Lawyer
Everyone’s favourite immigration lawyer is back! Chantal Desloges is not only a specialist in both immigration and refugee law and has helped thousands of people from all over the world to obtain legal status and make Canada their home – but she's also a hero to many! Many who have desperately needed her expertise in escaping horrific persecution in their homeland. Her firm advocates on behalf of international clients located in every corner of the world, as well as local clients who are already inside Canada and seeking to regularize their status. Chantal will share with us details about her latest rescue operations and will also provide expert immigration and refugee advice for those wanting to make Canada their home.
Author of the Month
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Dr. Daniel Taylor — Author of The Skeptical Believer: Telling Stories To Your Inner Atheist
(This book is so good – we've decided to do an entire month of interviews with the author!)
When it comes to God, there are believers and there are skeptics. But there are also Skeptical Believers. Can someone be both skeptical and a believer? In what sense is having faith like living in a story? And what, for heaven’s sake, is an Inner Atheist? These are just a few of the many questions addressed in The Skeptical Believer, a book that is all about questions and answers, and about working out useful responses to questions that have no definitive answers. It steers a middle course between the modernist conviction that faith is agreement with a set of statements about God and the postmodernist assertion that religious faith is just one story among many. Written in dozens of short reflections, laced with stories and sometimes irreverent asides, The Skeptical Believer is by a person who tried for decades to kill his Inner Atheist, but discovered that it was better to acknowledge him and let him have his say—and then go on living in the story of faith. This book doesn’t prove anything, but then little of great value can be proved. Instead it explores the notion that one can live a rich and meaningful life of faith without proof (and despite the weaknesses of the church) by seeing oneself as a character within an ancient story. As believers, skeptical or otherwise, always have.
Talkback, etc.
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The Counsel of Many
This week on the Counsel Of Many: A man wants to know if God will understand if he and his wife get divorced because he no longer wants to have kids, and doesn't want to be the reason for shattering his wife's dream of having a family!
My wife and I have been married for four years now and an issue has come up which I think might actually end our marriage. When we initially got married, we had obviously discussed the issue of children – as in whether or not we wanted any. We both agreed that we wanted a family. However, I have now changed my mind. As I look back, part of me wonders if I ever REALLY wanted children. Maybe I just agreed because having kids was the next thing to do and the “right answer.” Plus, I just didn't want to loose this fantastic woman! However, I'm now at a point where I just have to be honest with myself, as well as my wife, about the fact that I really don't want to have any children. I've been putting this conversation off for way too long. Probably because I know how she'll take it. Trust me when I say that my wife will no longer be my wife once we talk openly about this! Even though we both come from families that don't see divorce as an option, I just know that we will end up divorcing over this. Not JUST because my wife really really wants to have children, but also because I think it's totally unfair of me to expect her not to have any – just because I don't. And she wouldn't want me to be a daddy if I really really didn't want to be a daddy. We love each other and want the best for each other, but this just seems to be too big of an obstacle. So my question is... do you think God will understand our divorce? I know the easy answer is, “if you love your wife you'll give her what she wants” but for the sake of brevity, let's just say that me being a father will not be good for any child! Besides, you can't just decide to want to be a father. At this point, am I not allowed to just not want children?? -
God & Stuff
Join Drew & Tim The Tool as they catch up on current events and the week's happenings in the world of Religion & Faith & Cults – Oh My!
This Week's God & Stuff Guest: Tiffany Stanley - Managing Editor for Religion & Politics