NiCole's Notes

Nicole Zeller

NiCole's Notes: The study guide for adulting. Witty, rigorous analysis of everything that matters: politics, love, illness, friendship, technology, aging, and the contradictions we live with. Sarcastic scholarship for the thinking Gen-X mind.   Smart when it matters and Witty always.  A graduate from the University of Calgary, B.A. Political Science '95, B.A.Spanish '08, born with cystic fibrosis, a lung disease that has been trying to kill me since birth. Hanging on to life by the horns with only 26% lung function. I have 20+ years of experience building organizations and understanding how systems actually work.  Founder of the Summit Foundation for Cystic Fibrosis, raising 3.5+ million dollars for local research, Philanthropist of the year for Alberta in 2014, Honoured with the naming of a research lab at the Cumming School of Medicine, Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases, at the University of Calgary in 2013. Featured in a documentary about my journey with CF and being a CrossFit athlete, while owning my own gym in 2018. I have been a part of a 350 million dollar fundraising campaign and had a 50' banner of my mug hanging off the Foothills Hospital for 4 years from 2003-2007.  Currently finishing two programs at the University of Calgary, one in Graphic Design (graduating June 15, 2026) and the other in Integrated Digital Media (graduating May 2027), my friends would consider me the Sassy Smurf out of the group.  I may have been given a cactus, but I don't have to sit on it.

  1. 14h ago

    The Miracle Problem: Living After You Planned to Die

    Send us Fan Mail Hi, I'm Nicki Zeller. Welcome to Nicole's Notes, where I try to find clear thinking about the messiest things. I'm about to tell you a story that spans 50 years. It's a story about being told, at age four, that you probably won't make it to first grade. It's a story about a village that decided you were worth keeping alive anyway. It's a story about learning to hide a disease so well that the world forgot you were sick. It's a story about losing everything — your weight, your identity, your future — and thinking you were done. And then it's a story about getting a miracle drug that was supposed to fix everything. Except it broke me in ways I never expected. This season is the archive. This is the before. This is the 50 years I spent preparing to die, building a life I never thought I'd get to live, and learning what it means to survive when survival is supposed to kill you. I was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis in 1976 when I was four years old. The doctors told my parents not to expect me to make it to first grade. I made it to 54. I made it to a career. I made it to a foundation that raised $340 million. I made it to having a lab named after me. I made it to marriage.  I made it to climbing mountains on 40 percent lung function. I made it to being a public face of hope while privately wondering if I was going to make it to tomorrow. And through all of that, I never knew a future was coming. Not until the drug worked. This is the story of how I learned to hide. How I learned to perform. How I learned to be fierce. How I learned to survive. Starting with a four-year-old angry girl who had no idea that she was about to become the foundation for everything that came after.

    The Miracle Problem: Living After You Planned to Die

  2. Jul 2

    I Graduated. Again. A 4.0, Ten Thousand Dollars, and a Marijuana Dog Poster That Nobody Asked For.

    Send us Fan Mail Two degrees + Two professional certifications. Thirty-five years. A 4.0 GPA. Nicki Zeller on what changes when you pay for your own education — and a partial inventory of the worst art ever produced at the University of Calgary. Nicki Zeller graduated from the University of Calgary's Graphic Design and Integrated Digital Media program with a 4.0 GPA — her third post-secondary credential, and by far her best. In this episode she walks through the full financial and emotional cost of adult learning, the disasters that preceded the 4.0, and why failure hits completely differently at fifty than it did at nineteen. Including: the portrait of her nephew that she cannot take back. The marijuana dog poster that ended up Barney purple. And a still life that her professor described, charitably, as having "interesting use of negative space." This is a victory lap. It's also an honest accounting. Both things are true. --- 🎙️ Nicole's Notes is published every Friday on cokeontherocks.ca ✍️ Read the companion blog post: cokeontherocks.ca  📩 Connect: nicole@cokeontherocks.ca

    I Graduated. Again. A 4.0, Ten Thousand Dollars, and a Marijuana Dog Poster That Nobody Asked For.

  3. Jun 23

    I was a Latchkey Kid: My Real Gen-X Childhood

    Send us Fan Mail Forget the generic Gen-X nostalgia take — this is the real one, first person, with receipts. Ashtrays were a chore. I was babysitting a newborn at twelve for $20 a week. My brother Neil drove a truck at eleven. I was balancing a till at a bingo hall at thirteen in a room so thick with smoke it could cure a ham. And somehow, none of this was considered unusual. In this episode of Nicole's Notes, I'm walking through my actual feral childhood — the games, the jobs, the unsupervised summers, the playground equipment that could legally reach Mach 10 — and making the case that all of it built something specific in us: self-sufficiency, self-regulation, conflict management, and the ability to get things done without calling a meeting about it first. We grew up latchkey and feral. We turned out fine. Mostly.

    I was a Latchkey Kid: My Real Gen-X Childhood

  4. Jun 23

    Intro to the Journal Series

    Send us Fan Mail Nicole Zeller opens her private journal for the first time on the podcast. This is a four-episode Nicole's Notes series about strength, heartbreak, self-respect, and what it really costs to feel everything without running. Starts now. What happens when the thing that kept you alive starts keeping you lonely? Nicole opens the journal. Raw and uncensored.

    Intro to the Journal Series

  5. Jun 20

    Journal Series Ep4/4: I've Got the Perimeter

    Send us Fan Mail Nicole reads the journal entry where she stopped white-knuckling it and named what she actually needed — not rescue, but relief. Not someone stronger, but someone strong enough. The episode where self-respect stops being armour and starts being a standard.

    Journal Series Ep4/4: I've Got the Perimeter

  6. Jun 17

    Journal Series Ep3/4: Broken Hallelujah

    Send us Fan Mail Heartbreak doesn't always diminish you. Sometimes it expands you. Nicole reads the journal entry where she took inventory of who she was in the middle of the pain, and found a rare diamond, a meditation on expansion, self-respect, and the broken hallelujah of loving fully.

    Journal Series Ep3/4: Broken Hallelujah

  7. Jun 13

    Journal Series Ep2/4: She'll Handle It

    Send us Fan Mail She'll handle it. She'll survive it. She'll carry it. She's strong. But nobody asked if she wanted to. Nicole reads the journal entry where she named the loneliness inside the competence, and the isolating shadow of being the one who always handles it.

    Journal Series Ep2/4: She'll Handle It

  8. Jun 10

    Journal Series: Intro

    Send us Fan Mail

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About

NiCole's Notes: The study guide for adulting. Witty, rigorous analysis of everything that matters: politics, love, illness, friendship, technology, aging, and the contradictions we live with. Sarcastic scholarship for the thinking Gen-X mind.   Smart when it matters and Witty always.  A graduate from the University of Calgary, B.A. Political Science '95, B.A.Spanish '08, born with cystic fibrosis, a lung disease that has been trying to kill me since birth. Hanging on to life by the horns with only 26% lung function. I have 20+ years of experience building organizations and understanding how systems actually work.  Founder of the Summit Foundation for Cystic Fibrosis, raising 3.5+ million dollars for local research, Philanthropist of the year for Alberta in 2014, Honoured with the naming of a research lab at the Cumming School of Medicine, Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases, at the University of Calgary in 2013. Featured in a documentary about my journey with CF and being a CrossFit athlete, while owning my own gym in 2018. I have been a part of a 350 million dollar fundraising campaign and had a 50' banner of my mug hanging off the Foothills Hospital for 4 years from 2003-2007.  Currently finishing two programs at the University of Calgary, one in Graphic Design (graduating June 15, 2026) and the other in Integrated Digital Media (graduating May 2027), my friends would consider me the Sassy Smurf out of the group.  I may have been given a cactus, but I don't have to sit on it.

Information

  • Creator
    Nicole Zeller
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    22
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 NiCole's Notes
  • Show Website
    NiCole's Notes