After Life Marie Sotto

This episode featuring Patrick Salvani, also known as Ms. Nookie Galore. Having been raised to fear everything, Ms. Nookie Galore has an un/comfortable relationship with stories that haunt us. Ms. Galore is a FilipinX, non-binary, hairy Asian, trauma-informed, community-grounded, horror-storytelling, Drag Queen. Ish. We talk about horror movies, real life horror, strategies for survival, community care (aw!) and Scorpiodom--alternate title for this episode "The Scorpio Horror Picture Show."  

This very special episode of After Life Marie talks with Kayla Carter. Kayla Carter is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and healer. She is a Tkaronto-based Black, disabled, chronically ill, femme survivor of Jamaican, Cuban, and Maroon ancestry and believes that her existence is not accidental, but deliberate. With a Masters in Health Studies, her research was on the epigenetics of ancestral trauma. Kayla has been an equity and diversity facilitator and consultant for over 10 years. Her work focuses on ancestral and intergenerational trauma, race, gender, sexuality, disability justice, reproductive justice and what it means to be unabashedly human. Starting her career as an artist at the ripe age of 15, Kayla has performed to sold-out audiences. Through her work as a healer and intuitive reiki practitioner, Kayla works with clients to work through mental health, self-care, self-love, ancestral and intergenerational trauma, sustainable forms of healing, and radical reproductive justice/healing. She is currently working towards becoming a birth doula for underserved communities. Kayla also hosts BIPOC Grief/Death Talks in Tkoronto. In this episode we talk about decolonization, capitalism and the politics of death, why golf courses are ridiculous, ancestral love and building a practice of gratitude. 

This episode of After Life featuring special guest Krissia Valiente. Krissia is a producer, comedian, photographer and entrepreneur. Krissia shares her experiences of loss, trauma and the continuous and unglamorous and really real work of healing and self-love. 

Care warning: Mention of suicide in this episode.

In this episode Marie talks with Veronica Antipolo. Veronica Antipolo is the co-founder of Mosaic Untold Lives - a storytelling platform for Women of Color, a producer, and comedian. She performed to a sold out CBC Glenn Gould Studio, published her first story, and was featured on CBC Radio. Veronica took stand-up comedy and storytelling after getting fired from “a good job” at 45. We talk about embracing uncertainty, art and creativity and being true to yourself. 

In this episode Marie interviews Shohana Sharmin, a Bangladeshi-born emerging writer, comedian and theatre artist. Shohana is the creator and cast member of the critically acclaimed dark sketch comedy revue, “Dead Parents Society.” In this episode we talk about Dead Parents, our favourite places to cry, grief in the workplace and life as both comedy and tragedy.  

In this episode Marie talks with Lisa Feingold, a Comedian, Writer and Therapist-In-Training about humor as a coping mechanism, mourning a loved one during Covid, Jewish funeral traditions, planning ahead and dealing with grief.