Tune Up Your Warrior

Jenny Chen
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Society & Culture
  • Biweekly

As a lifelong learner, I believe that understanding different perspectives is key to growth. Tune Up Your Warrior is a space where I invite warriors in their fields to dig into the topics that shape our world, challenge our beliefs, and impact everyday people. No lip service. No performative actions. No fake conversations—just real, honest dialogue with guests who bring unique experiences and perspectives to the table. Each episode, we explore stories that matter—whether it's navigating identity, challenging norms, or confronting the complex realities of our industries and communities.

  1. 4d ago

    Daniel Quan-Watson | What Do You Do With Power? Public Service, Identity & Leadership

    What do you do with power once an institution gives it to you? Daniel Quan-Watson spent nearly 35 years in public service, eventually becoming the first federal Deputy Minister of Chinese-Canadian ancestry. But this conversation isn't really about titles. It's about what happens when the decisions you make inside a very large institution land in the life of a single human being. Daniel tells me about a refugee woman struggling to resolve an issue with her social insurance number. A child's asylum case that required someone to question whether an existing privacy rule was actually serving the person it was meant to protect. And moments of national crisis when decisions made inside government offices had very real consequences for communities across the country. We talk about the difference between following a process and understanding the problem the process was created to solve. And then we get personal. Daniel shares what it meant to become the first federal Deputy Minister of Chinese-Canadian ancestry, how finding his biological family changed his understanding of his own Chinese-Canadian identity, and what happened when he publicly wrote about his experiences with racism in Canada. We also talk about why representation can break down long before someone reaches the executive table, including something as seemingly insignificant as how long a candidate pauses before answering an interview question. Because sometimes the systems we call objective are built around assumptions about what confidence, leadership and potential are supposed to look like. And after a career spent navigating some of Canada's largest institutions, Daniel tells me what gives him hope about the generation coming behind him. His definition of a warrior might be one of my favourites yet. A warrior doesn't fight every battle. They prepare. They understand what they're fighting for. They choose their battles carefully. They find allies. They fight smart. And ultimately, they fight so that one day, the fighting isn't necessary anymore. 🎙️ Daniel Quan-Watson | What Do You Do With Power? Public Service, Identity & Leadership

    Daniel Quan-Watson | What Do You Do With Power? Public Service, Identity & Leadership

  2. Oct 21

    Charlene Theodore | Culture Has Consequences: Power, Performance & Risk

    By the time a workplace problem becomes a legal problem, how long has it actually been a culture problem? Charlene Theodore has spent more than 20 years working at the intersection of law, leadership, workplace culture and institutional change. A lawyer by training, Charlene began her career representing employees and seeing firsthand how deeply work can affect a person's identity, livelihood and sense of self. Over time, she began recognizing a pattern: many of the legal problems landing on her desk had started as culture problems much earlier. Her career would eventually take her from practising workplace law to the C-suite. She served as Chief Inclusion Officer at McCarthy Tétrault, one of Canada's largest law firms, and made history as the first Black lawyer to serve as President of the Ontario Bar Association in its more than 120-year history. Today, through Theodore Advisory Partners, Charlene advises organizations and senior leaders on workplace culture, organizational risk and institutional change. And she has a very different way of thinking about culture. In this episode, Jenny and Charlene explore the gap between the culture leaders think they're leading and the culture employees are actually experiencing. They talk about why legal compliance doesn't automatically create a healthy workplace, how informal power can matter as much as the organizational chart, what retention and demographic data can reveal about who is thriving and who is leaving, and why changing employee expectations require organizations to think differently about everything from compensation and recognition to benefits and belonging. Charlene also challenges a familiar workplace assumption: employees don't speak up. Her experience suggests employees often speak up all the time. They talk to colleagues and people they trust. The more revealing question is why that information doesn't always reach someone with the authority to act on it. And she shares the framework she uses to move organizations beyond reactive interventions: Truth. Architecture. Practice. Understand the culture you actually have. Examine the systems, incentives and structures producing it. Then consistently practise the culture you say you want. Because a workshop can be valuable. But a workshop isn't a workplace culture strategy. And an organization can have great values, strong policies, impressive programs and complete legal compliance while the lived experience inside tells a very different story. Eventually, that gap can become a talent problem. A performance problem. A reputational problem. A governance problem. Or a legal problem. Culture has consequences.

    Charlene Theodore | Culture Has Consequences: Power, Performance & Risk

  3. Oct 14

    Onome Ako | Hunger, Humanity & Leadership: A Problem No One Can Solve Alone

    How much of fighting hunger is actually about food? For Part Two with Onome Ako, CEO of Action Against Hunger Canada, we’re going much deeper into that question. Because hunger is rarely caused by one thing. It is connected to conflict, climate, poverty, health, access to clean water and sanitation, agriculture, gender, displacement, economics and politics. And when a problem crosses that many systems, no single organization, government or country can solve it alone. In recognition of World Food Day, Onome and I talk about what it actually takes to fight global hunger and malnutrition, and why the work has to happen both in the emergency happening today and in the systems that determine what happens tomorrow. We talk about the difference between feeding someone in a crisis and creating the conditions that make future crises less likely. Onome explains how Action Against Hunger combines life-saving interventions with health services, clean water and sanitation, livelihood support and climate-smart agriculture. We also talk about who gets to design those solutions. With approximately 97% of Action Against Hunger's staff working locally in the countries they serve, Onome challenges the idea that humanitarian organizations should arrive in communities with all the answers. Sustainable change requires local knowledge, local leadership and the voices of the people who will live with the decisions long after an international organization leaves. We explore how climate change is already affecting food security, including what happens when drought makes traditional crops impossible to grow and communities have to adapt not only to survive, but to maintain adequate nutrition. And then there's the question of money. Why are we often better at funding an emergency than preventing one? Prevention can be difficult to see. Sometimes its greatest success is the crisis that never happened. Onome also shares what she has learned about the ripple effect of investing in women and young people, why humanitarian leadership must remain non-partisan, and why governments, philanthropy, academia, local organizations and communities have to find ways to collaborate across political and institutional differences. And finally, we ask the biggest question: Can we actually end world hunger? Onome believes we can. But it will take more than food. It will take political will, investment, local leadership, collaboration and systems that address not only hunger itself, but the conditions that continue to create it. Because when the mission is bigger than any one organization, leadership sometimes means knowing when to lead, when to partner, when to listen and when to get out of the way. 🎙️ Onome Ako | Hunger, Humanity & Leadership: A Problem No One Can Solve Alone Tune Up Your Warrior Learn more:Action Against Hunger CanadaWorld Food Day 2026

    Onome Ako | Hunger, Humanity & Leadership: A Problem No One Can Solve Alone

  4. Oct 7

    Caitlin Morrison | More Than the Hardest Chapter: A Conversation on Substance Use, Recovery & Humanity

    What exactly are we asking someone to recover into? We often talk about recovery as though treatment is the finish line. But what happens afterward? Where does someone live? Who is waiting for them? What relationships remain? Can they find work? Community? Purpose? Mental health support? A place where they are seen as a whole human being rather than the hardest chapter of their life? In this episode of Tune Up Your Warrior, Jenny sits down with Caitlin Morrison, Executive Director of Matthew Perry House, for a deeply human conversation about substance use health, recovery, stigma, family and what it actually takes to build a life beyond treatment. Caitlin is also Matthew Perry’s sister. But this conversation isn't about celebrity. It's about what Caitlin and her family learned through loving someone experiencing substance use challenges, and what they believe needs to change for other people and families navigating them. Jenny and Caitlin explore why language matters, including why Matthew Perry House uses “substance use” and “substance use health” rather than language that can reduce a person to a diagnosis or struggle. They talk about stigma, dignity and the limits of trying to save someone you love. They explore the enormous gap that can exist between receiving treatment and having the housing, relationships, community, employment, mental health support and sense of purpose needed to sustain recovery. And underneath it all is a bigger question: What if we stopped defining people by their hardest chapter? Because people experiencing substance use challenges are still parents, siblings, children, friends, colleagues, neighbours and human beings deserving of dignity. And recovery requires more than asking someone to survive. It requires creating something worth recovering into. Released October 7, ahead of World Mental Health Day on October 10, this is a conversation about substance use health, humanity and what it means to see the whole person. 🎙️ More Than the Hardest Chapter: Caitlin Morrison on Substance Use, Recovery & Humanity

    Caitlin Morrison | More Than the Hardest Chapter: A Conversation on Substance Use, Recovery & Humanity

  5. Sep 30

    Niigaan Sinclair | Who Gets to Tell Canada’s Story? A Conversation About History, Identity & Belonging

    Can we love a country and still tell the truth about it? For Dr. Niigaanwewidam Sinclair, understanding Canada requires us to hold more than one truth at the same time. The beauty and the harm. The things worth celebrating and the things we were never properly taught. The country Canada says it is and the people whose histories and contributions have too often been left outside that story. Niigaanwewidam Sinclair is an Anishinaabe scholar, writer, educator and Professor of Indigenous Studies at the University of Manitoba. In this episode of Tune Up Your Warrior, Jenny and Niigaan explore history, identity, belonging, reconciliation and ultimately, what kind of country Canada might still become. Niigaan begins by sharing his Anishinaabe identity, the meaning carried through names and greetings, and how his own political consciousness began taking shape as a teenager during a transformative period of Indigenous activism in Canada. Jenny shares how reconnecting with her own Chinese Canadian history led her to recognize how much of Canada's story she had never learned, and how understanding one missing history made her more curious about others. Together, they explore what happens when national history becomes too simple. Niigaan challenges the idea that acknowledging colonial violence, dispossession and the residential school system requires rejecting everything about Canada. Instead, he argues for moving from an “or” mindset to an “and” mindset, where Canadians are capable of holding complexity. He also challenges listeners to reconsider where some of the values Canada celebrates about itself actually came from, sharing his perspective on Indigenous influences on ideas of community, democracy, freedom, multiculturalism and mutual responsibility. And the conversation isn't only about the past. It's about what we do with the truth once we know it. Niigaan shares why he remains hopeful about Canada, what he sees changing in Canadians' willingness to engage with Truth and Reconciliation, and why reconciliation isn't simply an Indigenous responsibility. The episode ends with a beautiful redefinition of a word at the centre of this podcast: warrior. Niigaan explains the Anishinaabe concept of ogichita as he understands it: not someone defined simply by fighting, but someone with a big heart who commits themselves to peace, justice and relationships. Released on September 30, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, this conversation is an invitation to listen, learn and make room for complexity. Because telling the truth about our history doesn't mean giving up on Canada. It might be part of imagining a better one.

    Niigaan Sinclair | Who Gets to Tell Canada’s Story? A Conversation About History, Identity & Belonging

  6. Sep 23

    Roger Greenberg | How We Govern Is How We Grow: Boards, Leadership & Stewardship

    If Roger Greenberg could change one thing about his career, he would have built a board sooner. After decades of leadership, including more than 20 years as CEO of Minto, that might not be the answer you'd expect. But Roger has experienced governance from almost every angle: as a CEO accountable to a board, a family-business leader, a board member and chair, and through organizations spanning private business, nonprofits and professional sport, including the CFL and Ontario Hockey League. And he has learned that the right board can do far more than oversee an organization. It can challenge assumptions. Bring perspectives management doesn't have. Help leaders navigate difficult decisions. Create accountability. And in a family business, it can provide independent perspective when business, family, history and emotion become difficult to separate. In this episode of Tune Up Your Warrior, Jenny welcomes Roger back for Part Two, this time for a conversation about something that may not sound particularly exciting at first: Governance. What is a board actually supposed to do? Where does governance end and management begin? What makes someone a valuable board member beyond an impressive résumé? How should a board challenge management without trying to manage the organization itself? Does the right governance model depend on the organization and its culture? And why doesn't Roger recommend advisory boards? Roger shares what he learned from establishing a functioning board at Minto in 2007, why he wishes he had done it earlier, and how governance can be particularly valuable when navigating the complexity of a multigenerational family business. Jenny and Roger also explore board composition, the value of disagreement and independent thinking, the relationship between governance and organizational impact, and why boards have a responsibility to think beyond today's performance. Because ultimately, governance isn't just about meetings, committees and oversight. It's about stewardship. Who has responsibility for the decisions being made today? Who is willing to challenge them? And are we building organizations that are stronger for the people who will eventually inherit them? 🎙️ How We Govern Is How We Grow: Roger Greenberg on Boards, Leadership & Stewardship

    Roger Greenberg | How We Govern Is How We Grow: Boards, Leadership & Stewardship

  7. Sep 16

    Keith Chang | Making People Feel: Storytelling, Leadership & the Work That Matters

    What makes a story unforgettable? For Keith Chang, it isn't the biggest production, the fanciest technology or the most recognizable person in the room. It's whether you made someone feel something. Keith has spent more than 30 years doing exactly that. Today, he is President, Canada at SenovvA, but his entrepreneurial story began when he founded Silverpoint Media at just 26 years old. Over the decades since, he has built a career across film, live events and experiential storytelling, learning that some of the most compelling stories inside an organization are rarely found only in the executive suite. Sometimes they're found in the salesperson who used to be a ballet dancer. Or the marketer who trained as a chef. Or the employee whose life outside their job completely changes the way you understand what they bring to it. In this episode of Tune Up Your Warrior, Jenny and Keith explore what happens when we stop telling corporate stories about organizations and start telling stories about the people who make those organizations what they are. Keith shares how his approach to storytelling evolved, why his team searches for the human stories hiding underneath a company's brand, and how trust, relationships and attention to detail shape everything from a commercial shoot to a major live production. But the conversation quickly becomes about much more than creative work. Keith reflects on becoming an entrepreneur in his twenties, navigating an industry where he rarely saw Asian Canadians in leadership, managing the pressure of high-profile productions, and why empathy and knowing the people on his team have become central to the way he leads. He also talks candidly about one of the harder lessons of entrepreneurship: realizing that building something you love can still cost you moments you can never get back. After years of working relentlessly and missing important family moments, Keith began redefining what success meant, making deliberate choices to be present for his children and the people he loves. That leads to one of the most personal parts of the conversation: his daughter Anna's decision to pursue music at NYU, Keith's evolution as a parent, and what it means to support your children in pursuing a life that may look nothing like the one previous generations imagined for them. Jenny and Keith also explore Asian representation, breaking generational patterns, entrepreneurship, creativity, resilience, the future of human connection in an increasingly technological world, and why Keith remains optimistic about the goodness of people. Recorded on Keith's birthday and released just after Jenny's, this conversation ultimately asks a question bigger than storytelling: What makes the work, and the life we're building around it, actually matter?

    Keith Chang | Making People Feel: Storytelling, Leadership & the Work That Matters

  8. Sep 11

    Brian Wong | The First Fan in the Family: Sport, Culture & Belonging

    When Brian Wong arrived in Calgary from Hong Kong at 17, he thought his English was pretty good. Canada quickly taught him otherwise. Suddenly, Brian was navigating culture shock, language barriers and the complicated experience of trying to find your place in a country that is now supposed to be home. Sport became one of the places where those barriers began to disappear. First through soccer, where Brian found community and the comfort of speaking Cantonese with people who understood him. Then through hockey, a sport he had first encountered through NHL video games before becoming a Calgary Flames fan sitting in $5 seats in the nosebleeds. Inside the arena, something shifted. Thousands of people from different backgrounds could cheer, celebrate and belong to the same thing. Years later, Brian would go from being a first-generation hockey fan to becoming the host of Flames TV Chinese, using culturally relevant storytelling to help make hockey more accessible to Chinese-speaking communities. In this episode of Tune Up Your Warrior, Jenny and Brian explore what happens when we stop thinking about sport as simply entertainment and start recognizing its power as a vehicle for belonging, representation and community. They talk about Brian’s immigration story, language and identity, soccer and hockey as cultural equalizers, the evolution of Flames TV Chinese, why translation and cultural relevance are not the same thing, and why representation in sport has to extend beyond the athletes we see on the field or ice. They also dig into the gaps that remain in marketing, leadership and decision-making across Canadian sport, why a heritage night is not the same thing as a long-term relationship with a community, and what sports organizations could gain by treating multicultural engagement as a strategy rather than a campaign. Because for many newcomer families, fandom isn’t inherited. Someone has to become the first fan in the family. Brian was one. And today, he’s helping more people see that Canada’s game can belong to them too.

    Brian Wong | The First Fan in the Family: Sport, Culture & Belonging
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About

As a lifelong learner, I believe that understanding different perspectives is key to growth. Tune Up Your Warrior is a space where I invite warriors in their fields to dig into the topics that shape our world, challenge our beliefs, and impact everyday people. No lip service. No performative actions. No fake conversations—just real, honest dialogue with guests who bring unique experiences and perspectives to the table. Each episode, we explore stories that matter—whether it's navigating identity, challenging norms, or confronting the complex realities of our industries and communities.

Information

  • Creator
    Jenny Chen
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    82
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Jenny Chen
  • Show Website
    Tune Up Your Warrior