This is VANCOLOUR

Carey Dillen is the President of YYOGA - one of Metro Vancouver's most prominent wellness companies offering yoga-centric fitness across 12 locations. With a community of over 50,000 yogis, she leads YYOGA in their vision of making the world a better place.

David Vertesi is the co-founder of Create Vancouver Society, a non-profit group that promotes art and culture which provides meaningful art and culture experiences with tangible outcomes. One of Create Vancouver Society's most high-profile projects is The Vancouver Mural Festival, which is Vancouver's largest annual free public art celebration. He's also the bassist for the indie-pop band, Hey Ocean! In 2017, VanMag listed him as one of the 50 Most Powerful People in Vancouver.

Juno Award-winning stand-up comedian, writer, and actor, Ivan Decker, chats about his journey, Vancouver's comedy scene, rebooting Becker, being an alien of extraordinary ability, Bumble, and how social media and the Internet has changed the entertainment landscape. You've seen him on Conan, you've heard his comedy album "I Wanted To Be a Dinosaur", you'll be streaming him on Netflix very soon, and now, he's on This is VANCOLOUR for a fun and insightful interview.

Kennedy Stewart may be the most high-profile and experienced mayoral candidate in Vancouver. Scholastically, he completed his Masters in urban politics and policy at Simon Fraser University and his PhD on world cities at the London School of Economics. He has advised governments and the United Nations about cities and housing. In 2011, as part of NDP's monumental Orange Wave, he was elected as a Member of Parliament where he was appointed as official opposition critic for science and technology. A vocal opponent of the Kinder Morgan export-only pipeline while in office, he actively participated in demonstrations against the pipeline in 2018. His signature issues as a Member of Parliament were stopping the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline and advocating for affordable housing in cities. In May 2018, he resigned from office and announced his candidacy to be the Mayor of Vancouver and unite the city's progressives.

Ahmed Danny Ramadan is is a Syrian-Canadian author, public speaker, storyteller and an LGBTQ-refugee activist. Since his arrival to Vancouver in 2014, Danny's community contributions as a storyteller and activist are a testament to the strength of diversity in our community. As an activist, he has been involved in coordinating online and on the ground efforts to support Queer and Trans identifying refugees from Syria to immigrate to Canada. Danny runs the annual fundraiser "An Evening in Damascus" to support those efforts. Since May 2015, he has raised over $100,000 to support a total of eight other LGBTQ-identifying Syrian refugees. He has also participated in efforts to ensure safe passage to 24 Syrian Queer and Trans refugees to Canada. He was appointed Grand Marshal for the Vancouver Pride Parade 2016. Additionally, he was awarded the StandOut Award for his social activism, the RBC’s Top Immigrant in Canada award, and the Bonham Centre Award for Excellency. His critically acclaimed English debut novel, The Clothesline Swing, was named amongst the Best Books of 2017 by the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star. It was also a finalist for a Lambda Award.

Vancouver mayoral candidate, Patrick Condon, wants to be the "Bernie Sanders" of Vancouver as he makes Metro Vancouver's housing crisis the central focus of his election campaign. He breaks down the causes of the housing crisis, what the crisis means for people who live and work in Vancouver, his solutions (including increasing non-marketing housing in Vancouver and implementing Vancouver's very first city plan), the curious case of how fellow mayoral candidate Hector Bremner named his new political party, the other mayoral candidates on "the left", and ultimately, the choice that Vancouver must make to determine its future. Patrick Condon is seeking the mayoral nomination for the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE). He is the founding chair of Urban Design at the UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.

Megan Edwards and Janet Reynolds, collectively known as THE UND8ABLES (@TheUnd8ables), kick off This is VANCOLOUR, with an exploration of the often treacherous dating terrain in Metro Vancouver. We went over time talking about dating rules (or lack thereof), first date etiquette, dick pics, coffee dates, catfishing, and more, unfiltered and unapologetically. Their collection of stories about unsuccessful dating and other fuckery, "Girl, It's Not You (it's definitely him)", is available now!

A preface for "This is VANCOLOUR": a podcast about the creative class in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.