Bonn Park Podcast

17. PETE GRAY

Peter is a Vice President and Senior Hydrogeologist for MTE, a leading provider of engineering consulting services in Waterloo Region. He has more than 30 years of experience in various types of projects ranging from international to domestic hydrogeologic assignments, including soil and contaminant investigations, to the exploration/development and protection of communal groundwater and surface water supplies. A recipient of numerous awards, Gray is one of the founding directors and served as t...

16. TRISHA ABE

Influenced by female portraiture, Waterloo Region-based painter, illustrator, and muralist, Trisha Abe’s work celebrates the human form through bold, strong lines and themes of sisterhood and feminine energy. What makes her body of large-scale work so refreshing is the indefinable and opaque quality of the surface reduced to clear linear minimalism using either a black-and-white palette or simple, vibrant colour fields. With an ensuing search for new possibilities of experimentation and presenta...

15. VANESSA STANKIEWICZ

With its roots in Madrid, La Lola Catering brings a taste of Spain to Waterloo Region with their minimalist approach to traditional Spanish cuisine, wine, and culture. On this episode of Bonn Park with Sara Geidlinger and Marshall Ward, certified oenologist in Spanish wines and spirits, Vanessa Stankiewicz chats about her family-owned business, her husband, Miguel, a Spanish trained chef, and the wonderfully inspiring foods of Spain. With an emphasis on fresh, high-quality ingredients, everythin...

14. JOE MARTZ

A graphic designer and photographer in Waterloo Region, Joe Martz’s main focus is architecture, balancing solid colours, grid patterns, and designs with negative space. On Bonn Park with Sara Geidlinger and Marshall Ward, Martz talks about symmetry, strong lines, image cropping, abstract perspectives, and his multi-faceted approach to presenting alternate views of the urban spaces around us. His work has been featured in the Waterloo Region Record, Grand Magazine, and Vintage Road Car, and he ha...

13. KATHLEEN BARSOUM

Have you ever wondered what happens to your Blue Box recyclables after it leaves your curb? On this episode of Bonn Park, coordinator Kathleen Barsoum takes Sara Geidlinger and Marshall Ward on an eye-opening behind-the-scenes tour of the landfill and sorting centre at the Region of Waterloo Waste Management plant. “The secret is in the sorting and good recycling practices start at home,” says Barsoum. “There are good success stories out there that are not being reported on and we are one of the...

12. STEPHANIE BOUTARI

Waterloo Region-based Canadian/Egyptian artist and designer, Stephanie Boutari’s bright, bold, and colourful murals and installations celebrate the beauty of balance and simplicity. Born and raised in Bahrain, Boutari came to Canada 15 years ago for her post-secondary education, studying architecture and completing her Master’s degree at the University of Waterloo. A cooperative partner at BOKO, a design-build studio and workshop in New Hamburg founded by her husband Adam Schwartzentruber, whom ...

11. WILBER CORTEZ

On this episode of Bonn Park, Wilber Cortez the Great Magician performed magic so mind-blowing it left our podcast hosts Sara Geidlinger and Marshall Ward laughing out loud and gasping in disbelief. A professional magician in Waterloo Region for the past 20 years, Cortez dazzled us with close-up magic and sleight of hand tricks like Card in a Box, Exchange of Views, and Invisible Deck. With his magical powers, friendly style and family-oriented humour, Cortez entertains and transports audiences ...

10. COLIN HUNTER

Colin Hunter is Director of Communications & Media at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo. He previously worked in communications at the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo, and for eight years prior to that he was a reporter at the Waterloo Region Record, and winner of a National Newspaper Award. Hunter is also the creator and writer of Kayfabe News, a humour website that, since 2012, has had over 30 million page views and recently spawned a You...

9. MARK WALTON

Originally hailing from Winnipeg, Mark Walton is the founder of Foto:RE and a founding director of FLASH|Contemporary Photography HERE, a festival of photography in Waterloo Region. He is also the curator of a large (50,000+) collection of photography by Stan Rosenthall, an urban and commercial photographer who worked in the heyday of the 1960's New York City ad scene. On Bonn Park with Sara Geidlinger and Marshall Ward, Walton talked about creating the newly minted magazine, foto:RE|VIEW, as a ...

8. LISA O'CONNELL

A fierce advocate for regional theatre artists and winner of numerous awards and honours, Lisa O’Connell is the founding artistic director of Pat the Dog Theatre Creation, a catalyst for new works of theatre and PlaySmelter, Northern Ontario’s New Work Theatre Festival. During a wide-ranging conversation on Bonn Park with Sara Geidlinger and Marshall Ward, O’Connell talked about Pat the Dog, Canadian theatre, and the upcoming Femme Folks Fest, a new month-long festival dedicated to and in celebr...

7. SARA FLEISZIG

Sara Fleiszig is an experimental fine art photographer and “The Girl Who Soaks Her Prints.” In her recent body of work Soaked, Fleiszig’s organic process involves interacting with the subject, colour, and form and exploring the relationship between femininity and liquidity. A graduate of Sheridan’s Bachelor of Photography program, she is an artist who follows her own intuition, constantly exploring and experimenting with different liquids and soaking methods using female bodily fluids like blood...

6. MIKE FARWELL

Mike Farwell is a grateful, dedicated community leader and recipient of the Waterloo Region Record’s 2019 Barnraiser Award, honouring individuals and organizations in the community who, through their actions, make our community a better place to live. In an hour-long conversation with Sara Geidlinger and Marshall Ward, Farwell delves deep into the life he has carved out as a popular broadcaster on 570 News, newspaper columnist, MC and advocate, and Kitchener Rangers play-by-play host. On Bonn Pa...

5. CHRISTA WISE

Christa Wise, a science student at the University of Guelph, majoring in zoology, is one of thousands of Canadians living with Lyme disease, an infection transmitted to humans through the bite of infected ticks. Marshall Ward and Sara Geidlinger chatted at length with her about her past five years living with Lyme disease, and the many symptoms and challenges that can accompany it. "My main symptoms were debilitating headaches, chronic fatigue, and an inability to think clearly which is known as...

4. SeeJayAre

Video game guru and Youtube sensation, SeeJayAre may just have the largest number of video games in Canada, with nearly 6,000 games and over 100 systems in his collection. Scrounging garage sales with his young sons, flea markets, thrift stores, Craigslist, and Kijiji for the past 10 years, practically 95 percent of his collection was found in the wild. “I buy big bundles of video games, keep what I need, flip the rest and put that money back in the collection,” SeeJayAre said in his Game Room T...

3. PAIGE WARNER

Paige Warner is a Waterloo region-based singer-songwriter with a powerhouse voice and an artistry beyond her years. Marshall Ward and Sara Geidlinger sit down with her for an in-depth conversation about writing, recording, and her catchy new single, I Don’t Need Boys, with its fun and sassy message of empowerment, and nearly 15,000 streams on Spotify. “I wanted this song to be very easy to digest because it does tackle quite a serious and relatable topic,” said the 22-year-old musician from Heid...

2. HOW WE MET

Your hosts Marshall and Sara reminisce on how they met at Bonn Park in Waterloo.

1. WELCOME TO BONN PARK