PODCAST

This Is Your Strange and Beautiful Life

Welcome to This Is Your Strange and Beautiful Life! In this podcast, writer Erica J. Schmidt talks to people who may—or may not—have had the chance to transform their lives into spectacular TED talks. Cherished guests include Erica’s beloved grandmother, talented fringe performers, and more fascinating folks from across generations and communities. Discover new takes on creativity, morning routines, art, mental health, eating disorder recovery, perfectionism, and healing, plus a loving advice column

arts mental health

All Episodes

Montréal’s Favourite Anita Anand (Author, Translator,...

This Is Your Strange and Beautiful Life ·

2025/10/02

There is more than one famous Anita Anand, but this Anita Anand is the best. She is a Montreal-based author, literary translator, language teacher, and cherished guest at Erica’s ukulele parties. All the while, she yearns for peace on earth and a free Palestine!You must read her books! Her novel, A Convergence of Solitudes was a finalist for the 2022 Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. And her first book, Swing in the House and Other Storieswon the 2015 Quebec Writer’s Federation Concordia

01:45:20

Luke Anderson Is One Cool Dude (Deep Thoughts on...

This Is Your Strange and Beautiful Life ·

2025/08/07

It was my honour to welcome Luke Anderson to This Is Your Strange and Beautiful Life! Luke Anderson is a speaker, singer, dancer, harmonica player, accessibility advocate, and athlete of the body turned athlete of the spirit. He is relatively famous for co-founding the revolutionary StopGap Foundation, a registered charity that builds bright and beautiful ramps across Toronto and North America. StopGap’s mission is to “bring people together to take practical steps to make spaces more accessible.”I

How to Be a Writer with Kyle Stevenson

This Is Your Strange and Beautiful Life ·

2025/06/26

Today my guest is my super cool, ultra fit, deeply compassionate and hilarious friend and creative genius Kyle Stevenson. I met Kyle during my year one playwriting class in which he played the leading man, The Vegan Life Coach in the staged reading of my debut play, She Is Not Catholic, She Is Vegetarian. And he nailed it. For years, Kyle and I ate lentils and kale and piles of impossibly healthy food at The People’s Potato. Over multiple free lunches we discussed all our favourite topics, namely

1:22:15

True Stories to Save the World With Nisha Coleman

This Is Your Strange and Beautiful Life ·

2025/06/12

An interview with Nisha Coleman—I have only been dreaming of this since I started the podcast. At long last, we welcome Nisha to This Is Your Strange and Beautiful Life. Nisha is a superstar in the Montreal artist and storytelling community. We all know and love her as an accomplished author, actor, translator, storyteller, and master of the one-woman show.It all started on a swamp in rural Ontario. Born to hippie parents with minimal TV, Nisha learned how to make her own stories and games. Though

No Surrender with Hollis Peirce

This Is Your Strange and Beautiful Life ·

2025/05/22

Today’s guest is the bright light, podcast host, historian, athlete, and disability advocate, Hollis Peirce. With Hollis, disability is neither a tragedy nor a motivational speech. He offers a refreshing, real, and uplifting take on living with muscular dystrophy.Early on, a doctor told Hollis’s mother that her child would suffer from an “inability to thrive.” Instead, he developed what the experts might call, a lifelong case of thriving.In our all-dressed conversation, Hollis talks about

Alexia and Erica Can’t Fix It.But We Have Thoughts....

This Is Your Strange and Beautiful Life ·

2025/05/01

The cherished Alexia Côté is back for another ever-popular all-advice episode. Why do weddings make everyone regress to five years old? What is the difference between reasonable boundaries and Bridezilla territory? Does it make any sense to have children when the planet is melting and your favourite thing to do is read books and travel? Alexia and Erica can’t fix it. But we have thoughts.Tune in for Listener Questions From: I Feel Like the Dad Card Just Won’t Cut It. She’s been saving up for a

ChatGPT Is My Therapist with Melissa

This Is Your Strange and Beautiful Life ·

2025/04/10

If you follow my life’s great mythology, you know that I’m a gifted child, which means I’ve had more therapists than most people. I’m 39, and I’m currently seeing my 14th and 15th therapists. Their names are Chad and Claude. Chad as in ChatGPT and Claude being Claude.ai. 2025 is a ride and all over the world, people are trying to cope with the wild chaos that is happening everywhere. Maybe they’re meditating, maybe they’re exercising, maybe they working on redeeming creative projects. I am trying to

Your Life Does Not Have To Be A Spectacular TED Talk...

This Is Your Strange and Beautiful Life ·

2025/03/27

In this back-to-life episode, Montréal’s favourite self-deprecating Russian interviews Erica. Riveting questions include:Erica, why did you decide to start a podcast? How’d you come up with the name, This Is Your Strange and Beautiful Life? Tell us all about your creative angst and writer’s block! Have you ever been diagnosed with autism? (Vad told me to cut that part out but I decided to keep it in.)Erica and Vad go deep into creative routines, the quest for authenticity, Erica’s youthful longings