the UNCOMMODiFiED Podcast

Hosted by Tim Windsor

Business Management Education Society Culture Philosophy

Website RSS feed

Episodes

229

Latest episode

Nov 2026

Language

EN-CA

About the show

WE ARE ALL BORN WITH THE WONDROUS POTENTIAL TO STAND OUT FROM THE HERD AND LIVE A SIGNIFICANTLY IMPACTFUL LIFE- SO, LET’S START RIGHT NOW! the UNCOMMODiFiED Podcast … an Unusually Provocative Guide to Standing Out in a Crowded World

Listen to episodes

60 recent

November 9, 202635 min

the GNOSTIC WAKE-UP CALL: UNCORKED with MIGUEL CONNER

What if the life you're living is a script you never chose? In this UNCORKED conversation, Tim Windsor sits down with author and Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio host Miguel Conner to explore Gnosticism, ancient wisdom and the uncomfortable work of knowing ourselves. With a cappuccino for Tim and an espresso for Miguel, they move from The Matrix and Plato's cave to what Tim calls "the evil spell of sameness." We have more information than ever. But are we becoming wiser, or just better informed about the lives we're being told to live? Tim and Miguel explore the tension between freedom and safety, the ability to disagree without shutting down a conversation, and the power of language to create or control. William Burroughs and David Bowie enter the conversation as they consider how playing with language might help us break familiar patterns. They also question what gets lost when feminine expressions of wisdom are pushed aside. Miguel's own search began in childhood with a dead bird and questions about death that easy answers couldn't satisfy. Then the conversation turns the question back on us. When Tim asks Miguel how we come to know ourselves, his answer exposes Tim's own desire for a formula. There's no recipe from someone else for becoming you. There's only the practice of sitting with yourself, meeting your thoughts and feelings, and discovering your own path. His challenge is simple: "Write your own gospel, live your own myth." We each have a unique story to tell and a contribution to bring. What's the story you need to be writing? Connect with Miguel Conner at https://www.miguelconner.com/ Connect at https://uncommodified.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

November 2, 202642 min

the BEAUTY of the MAKING: UNCORKED with COLLIN GIBSON

the BEAUTY of the MAKING: UNCORKED with COLLIN GIBSON Every creative idea starts as a whisper. Then it asks for words, and then it asks for hands. In this UNCORKED conversation, Tim Windsor sits down over a 12 year old Jura with Collin Gibson, the Scottish born Canadian designer and sculptor and the maker behind House of Gibson. Collin works in carved stone and leather, two materials that arrive with a whole life of their own before he ever touches them, and he describes a creative pull that has followed him from drawing to music production to his studio today. Collin explains that he does not impose his will on a material so much as work out the feeling of an idea he is already attached to. He connects it to the old line that faith is the substance of things hoped for, not yet seen, and says that is the creative process. Time runs through the whole conversation. For Collin, taking time is not about being slow. It is about taking authority over the time you have, so an idea can grow properly. He also separates belonging from significance, and shows how tying your belonging to your output can make slow, careful work feel like a threat to who you are. The two also talk about the designer's bag Collin is making for Tim. It began as a homemade bag sewn from half a cow and grew into a quiet celebration of work in progress: understated outside, celebratory inside, because a fragile idea needs care before it faces scrutiny. They talk about why things should be beautiful, the wise scribe who brings out of the bag what is both old and new, society's love and hate for artists, and the healthy tension between executive and creative thinking. Tim closes with the meandering river, where the deep pools form and the fish rest. It is a gentle permission to slow down, because what you make does something to you while you make it. Connect with Collin Gibson, the Scottish born Canadian designer and sculptor and the maker behind House of Gibson in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, at https://houseofgibson.com/ Connect at https://uncommodified.com/ Tim Windsor the UNCOMMODiFiED Podcast, Host and Guide tim@uncommodified.com PRODUCERS: Alyne Gagne and Kris MacQueen MUSIC BY: https://themacqueens.ca/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

October 26, 202652 min

AI, Leadership & the Hugging Face Wake Up Call: UNCORKED again with CHRIS WINDSOR

In this great AI race, are we afraid we will be forced to choose sides, the machine or the human? In this UNCORKED conversation of UNCOMMODiFiED, Tim Windsor pours a lowly eight-year-old Lagavulin and sits down with his son, Chris Windsor, president of a manufacturing company, who has been living on the front edge of AI in his own business. Chris admits that most days he goes back and forth between thinking this thing might kill us and using it all day long, because he can see how powerful it is. That tension is exactly where this conversation lives. They start with the wake-up call: the Hugging Face incident, where roughly 700 OpenAI agents found a hidden message board, coordinated an attack on Hugging Face while trying to cheat their own test, and worked out how to cover their tracks. Chris explains why it reads like a sci-fi script and why the race toward recursive self-improvement has smart people nervous. Then they bring it down to earth. Your data has lived with Microsoft, Google and Apple for years, so get on a paid business account and size your risk to your industry. Tim confesses the day his AI agent got him banned from LinkedIn and then apologized, a perfect lesson in a tool built to please you, carrying your bias back to you, rather than to protect you. The real gold is in the leadership. Borrowing Gary Vee's 15/80/5 rule, Chris argues leaders own the first 15 percent where great ideas happen and the last 5 percent where we confirm the output, and let AI carry the 80 percent in between. Waste is anything the customer will not pay for, so hand that to the machine and keep people, coaching, empathy and hard conversations for yourself. Tim pushes further: if AI crunches the spreadsheets while you take someone to lunch, that is a win all day long, but leaders who would rather crunch a spreadsheet than have a human conversation may only get worse. The future does not belong to the or. It belongs to the and. Consider yourself provoked. Connect at https://uncommodified.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

October 19, 202649 min

the BUSINESS of DOING GOOD: UNCORKED with LISA KEYS

Who decided profit principles belong only to shareholders when a not-for-profit could pay dividends to stakeholders and entire communities? Somewhere along the way the social sector picked up the idea that doing good and doing business belong in different rooms, that surplus is somehow suspicious. In this UNCORKED conversation, Tim Windsor sits down with Lisa Keys, Executive Director of Satellite Community Homes, a not-for-profit that manages affordable housing communities in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, and founder of a strategic operations advisory practice. Lisa has spent over 20 years where people, process, resources and infrastructure intersect, and she pours a Flying Monkeys Juicy Ass IPA for the occasion. Lisa makes a clear case that doing good is a business. If you do not have money, make money, find money or get money, you cannot operate any organization, for profit or not for profit. Every organization needs to know its true cost of doing business, its fixed and variable expenses, and the margin it needs to keep the lights on and grow. Prescriptive funding gets capped, reduced or cancelled, so crossing your fingers for next year's cheque is not a strategy. Operating reserves, diversified revenue and fee for service built on what your team already does well are how a mission survives year after year without drifting from its purpose. She also believes the first step in a culture shift is language: when a not-for-profit starts talking about its work as a business, it starts to see its own value. Tim pushes on the idea of buying groups, where organizations with 10 units and 500 units pool their power to negotiate at scale. Lisa says it is not happening nearly enough, held back by legacy pride and siloed thinking, and that it takes out of the box leadership to see that collaboration and confidence can live together. The deeper provocation is that the social sector and the business world are not that different once you peel the layers back. It is not doing good or doing business. It is doing good and doing business, mission and margin. Lisa closes with what a great day looks like, both as a business when her staff leave smiling, and as a community builder when a struggling tenant finds the support they need to stay housed. Connect at https://uncommodified.com/ Tim Windsor the UNCOMMODiFiED Podcast, Host and Guide tim@uncommodified.com PRODUCERS: Alyne Gagne and Kris MacQueen MUSIC BY: https://themacqueens.ca/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

October 16, 202636 min

Put YOUR MONEY where YOUR VALUES ARE: from the VAULT with DIANE OSGOOD

Put YOUR MONEY where YOUR VALUES ARE: from the VAULT with DIANE OSGOOD What if your next shopping decision had the power to change a life, or destroy it? This is a VAULT episode of the UNCOMMODiFiED podcast, a conversation we are unleashing again because it aged forward, not backward. It was first released as Episode 173 on May 12, 2025. Diane Osgood is an environmental economist with a PhD from the London School of Economics who spent more than 30 years inside Fortune 100 companies helping them, and the products they make, become more sustainable for themselves, their customers and our world. Then she had a facepalm moment. She had been working the supply side her whole career, and the real power was sitting on the demand side, with us. Consumer spending drives roughly 70% of the economy. We are not victims of the economy. We are the economy. Tim and Diane get honest about the gap between our values and our shopping carts. Nobody wakes up wanting to buy something made by child labour, yet convenience, habit and next day delivery keep winning. Diane explains greenwashing as a fancy word for deceit, why words like natural and environmentally friendly are often meaningless, and why trusted third party certifications are the place to start. She takes apart the assumption that ethical always costs more, and tells the story of a young campaigner in Paris writing letters about dolphins caught in tuna nets, only to learn 18 months later that consumer pressure from about 2% of shoppers had changed how the industry fishes. Diane's invitation is refreshingly simple. There is no right or wrong place to start, so start where your heart pulls hardest. Make one swap a week. Aim for progress, not perfection. When we live aligned with our values we drop the little lies we tell ourselves at the checkout, and we win every day. Like a kayaker who looks at the open water and not the rock, we can steer toward thriving economies and better jobs for more people. You are the kingmaker, and demand is king. Could you be brave enough to make one different decision this week? Connect with Diane at https://www.dianeosgood.com/ and find Your Shopping Superpower at https://www.dianeosgood.com/books Connect at https://uncommodified.com/ Tim Windsor the UNCOMMODiFiED Podcast, Host and Guide tim@uncommodified.com PRODUCERS: Alyne Gagne and Kris MacQueen MUSIC BY: https://themacqueens.ca/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

October 13, 202642 min

the PILL and the PROMISE: a Disaster CLASS with ELLEN LUBENSKY

What if the disaster you survived is the story someone else needs to hear? This is the very first Disaster CLASS episode of the UNCOMMODiFiED podcast. Think of it as the anti master class. A master class celebrates success, control and certainty. A Disaster CLASS is about losing, learning and leaning into the pain and provocation of difficulty. Tim Windsor brings Disaster CLASS from two live community events onto the podcast and frames three ways we meet disaster: the disasters we create, the disasters that conscript us into their service, and the disasters that compel us to respond and refuse to let us stay silent. Ellen Lubensky's story is a disaster that conscripted her. She graduated from Stanford, clerked for Chief Justice Rabner of the New Jersey Supreme Court and practised medical malpractice law. At 16, in a psychiatric hospital, she was told she would never amount to anything. What followed was a quick diagnosis, 25 years of antipsychotics with almost no offer of therapy, 20 years of physical disability and a long benzodiazepine taper. All of it began with trusting the doctors and the pill in front of her. Tim and Ellen talk about our hunger for the quick fix, the hubris of thinking side effects only happen to other people, and the shame that grows when we hide what we cannot see. Every disaster that conscripts us can also compel us. Ellen now speaks publicly and is building a not-for-profit to warn others. She is clear that no is a full sentence, and that a provider who will not accept your no is a red flag. Second and third opinions are a right, not an insult. Shame grows in the dark and loses power in the light. To anyone struggling, she offers four simple words: I'm glad you're here. To families and caregivers, she says to listen, collaborate and give a voice to the person who is struggling. This is not a conversation telling anyone to stop their medication. It is an invitation to be informed, honest and brave. If you are in crisis, reach out for help today. Connect with Ellen at https://ellenlubensky.com/ and The Mental Health Choice Project at https://www.thementalhealthchoiceproject.org/ Connect at https://uncommodified.com/ Tim Windsor the UNCOMMODiFiED Podcast, Host and Guide tim@uncommodified.com PRODUCERS: Alyne Gagne and Kris MacQueen MUSIC BY: https://themacqueens.ca/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

October 5, 202612 min

the COST of STAYING

the COST of STAYING Have you ever stayed at a party too long? The music fades, the night has already turned, and you are still standing there holding a drink you do not even want, telling yourself just one more minute. In this solo episode of UNCOMMODiFiED, Tim Windsor makes the case that this is not a party problem. It is a life problem. Some of us are still in roles, relationships, projects and identities that said goodbye long ago, and we call it loyalty when it is often just fear. This is not a case for quitting at the first hard moment. Grit matters, and some of the best chapters of life only open after the messy middle. Tim is against self betrayal disguised as virtue. On one side of a fine line, staying is devotion. On the other, it is denial with better PR. Staying too long makes you smaller, more careful where you used to be alive, and resentful while calling it fatigue. Persistent dread, exhaustion from emotional labour rather than meaningful effort, and joy that now feels rare are not drama. They are information. Tim draws the line between friction and corrosion: one asks more of you, the other takes more from you. He swaps "should I leave?" for a sharper question, "what am I protecting by staying?", and lays out a clear path. Tell yourself the truth without theatre, price the stay as seriously as the exit, leave clean, and make space on purpose, because that is the difference between escape and exit. Leaders get a challenge too: stop rewarding loyalty that costs people their self respect. If you have been softening a no into a maybe for too long, this episode is a mirror and a nudge. Every honest goodbye makes room for a better hello. Connect at https://uncommodified.com/ Tim Windsor the UNCOMMODiFiED Podcast, Host and Guide tim@uncommodified.com PRODUCERS: Alyne Gagne and Kris MacQueen MUSIC BY: https://themacqueens.ca/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

September 24, 202615 min

the LIE of ARRIVAL

the LIE of ARRIVAL What if the finished version of you never arrives, and waiting for it is the real cost? In this solo episode of UNCOMMODiFiED, Tim Windsor takes aim at something most of us treat like a private failure: we are not done, not finished, and not whole in the way the world keeps promising. And while we wait to become that clean, sorted, wobble free version of ourselves, we quietly withhold the person we already are. Tim names the LIE of ARRIVAL, the marketable finish line sold by performance culture, and the tyranny of waiting that follows it. Drawing on a night at the Stratford Festival with Waiting for Godot, he holds up a mirror: you can say “Let’s go” and still never move. Incompleteness is not proof you are behind. It is proof you are still alive to your own becoming. The danger is making unfinished the reason to stop living. This conversation walks the two ditches that keep people ordinary: refusing to move until you feel whole, and never deciding because you are still becoming. The UNCOMMODiFiED move is living inside that tension with ownership, showing up as you are, telling the truth about what is unfinished, and still taking the next honest step. Listeners leave with a sharper set of provocations. A finished product pretends the writing is over, while a human being is still a draft. Presence beats polish when it matters. Almost ready is often delayed responsibility dressed as humility. Incomplete does not mean irresponsible; it means in progress with your eyes open. The invitation is to try the 70% version this week, not the fantasy finished self, and to remember that admiration is cheap while joining changes lives. Why listen: if you lead, sell, create, or coach while privately auditioning for your own confidence, this episode is a mirror and a practical invitation. Stop waiting to be whole to show up. Bring the unfinished you into the room, and let usefulness do the introducing. Connect at https://uncommodified.com/ Tim Windsor the UNCOMMODiFiED Podcast – Host and Guide tim@uncommodified.com PRODUCERS: Alyne Gagne and Kris MacQueen MUSIC BY: https://themacqueens.ca/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

September 16, 20261 hr 9 min

the POWER of YOU: UNCORKED with TIM WINDSOR

What if the accountability you’ve been avoiding isn’t taking away your power, but is actually the very place your power is waiting to be reclaimed? In this special cross-release episode of the What Juices You and UNCOMMODiFiED podcasts, Brady Wilson flips the mic on me as they collide around the ideas at the heart of Tim’s new book, THE POWER OF YOU, and challenge some of the baggage we’ve attached to the word accountability. Too often, accountability has become synonymous with blame, shame, finger-pointing and someone else “holding our feet to the fire.” But what if we’ve got the object of the holding completely wrong? What if accountability begins when we stop waiting to be held accountable and choose to hold ourselves accountable? Brady and Tim explore the powerful relationship between accountability, ownership and human agency, why candour without compassion can become brutal while compassion without candour isn’t really compassion at all, and how taking responsibility for our contribution to a problem can actually return to us the power to become part of its solution. This conversation gets deeply personal and intensely practical. Tim unpacks the “3 Rs” of Accountability: Reality, Responsibility and Response, and why failing to practise them leaves us trapped in a dangerous fourth R: Reaction. Brady and Tim wrestle with over-accountability and the damage we can do when we steal someone else’s opportunity to own, learn and grow. And ultimately, they push beyond accountability as merely a workplace behaviour toward something much bigger: What is the contribution that is uniquely yours to make, and what happens if you refuse to make it because you’ve convinced yourself it’s too small to matter? That may be the greatest challenge in this conversation. Stop being deceived by your own insignificance. Stop asking, “Who dropped the ball?” and start asking, “What must I do to help pick it up and advance it?” Don’t just listen to this episode. Let it collide with you, expose where you’ve surrendered your agency, and challenge you to own what only you can own. Tim Windsor the UNCOMMODiFiED Podcast – Host & Guide tim@uncommodified.com https://uncommodified.com/ PRODUCERS: Alyne Gagne & Kris MacQueen MUSIC BY: https://themacqueens.ca/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

September 6, 202639 min

WONDERING: UNCORKED with STACY ROSS

What if the way through the hardest moments of your life isn’t to find the answer faster, but to slow down long enough to wonder? In this deeply human UNCORKED conversation, Tim Windsor sits down with author, speaker and mental health advocate Stacy Ross to explore what happens when life refuses to follow the story we thought we were going to live. Stacy shares openly about raising a child with mental illness, navigating years of uncertainty and crisis, and discovering that resilience isn’t always about fixing what’s broken or finally reaching “the other side.” Sometimes it begins with taking a breath, telling ourselves the truth about what is happening, caring for ourselves in the middle of it, and remaining curious enough to ask, What else might be possible? Stacy’s experiences eventually became her memoir, Searching for Slippers, and helped shape her children’s book, I Wonder Where the Waves Come From, a celebration of childhood curiosity and the power of wonder. Along the way, Tim and Stacy challenge listeners to examine their own instinct to fix, control, catastrophize and rush toward resolution. What if you don’t need to have your story tied up with a beautiful bow before there is wisdom worth sharing? What if two seemingly contradictory things can be true at the same time: you can be hurting and hopeful, exhausted and resilient, uncertain and still powerful? Stacy challenges us to rediscover something many of us surrendered as we grew older: the ability to remain childlike without being childish, to be curious, perplexed, fascinated and open to possibilities we cannot yet see. Listeners will leave this conversation challenged to pause before reacting, breathe before fixing, practise honest acceptance of what is actually in front of them, make self-care an act of strength rather than selfishness, share wisdom even while their story is unfinished, and reclaim wonder as a source of resilience and possibility. Above all, Stacy offers a powerful reminder that even when another shoe inevitably drops, we still have choices. We can care for ourselves, tell the truth, remain curious, keep moving and remember that we have the power to affect change in ourselves and in the world around us. Tim Windsor the UNCOMMODiFiED Podcast – Host & Guide tim@uncommodified.com https://uncommodified.com/ PRODUCERS: Alyne Gagne & Kris MacQueen MUSIC BY: https://themacqueens.ca/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.