the talK podKast

This one’s for you "more info" types (like us). Welcome to you, and welcome to us. We are the talK podKast—authentic and organic talks about coming back from life’s traumas with honesty, humility and humour. 

Thank you for joining us!  Please FOLLOW, RATE & REVIEW our podcast, it really helps us be seen and heard by many others like you. 

Want to talK? Email us at thetalKpodKast@gmail.com. 

Interested in KOZ? Email Cristi...

From host intros to Star Wars, and (neurodivergent) metaphors, we serve up the W5H on the talK: WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY…and HOW. The talK starts…NOW.

Thank you for joining us!  Please FOLLOW, RATE & REVIEW our podcast, it really helps us be seen and heard by many others like you. 

Want to talK? Email us at thetalKpodKast@gmail.com. 

Interested in KOZ? Email Cristina at thetalKwithcristina@gmail.com

This episode was ...

A closer looK at the hosts and their lifelong friendship, and why Joel & Cristina are…Joel & Cristina, two of the main characters in Cristina’s own realish time coming back story.  From family, childhood memories and lifelong friendship, they cover it all. After episode two, you’ll know us better, and we think that’s all the better to listen to our coming back storysharing.  

Thank you for joining us!  Please FOLLOW, RATE...

The first looK at Cristina’s take on the intersection of mental health & entrepreneuring, and what mental health, disability and disorder mean for her and her “coming back” project, KOZ. Listen in as she talks with Joel about how being a Vulnerable AND a multiply neurodivergent entrepreneur expands this intersection into a bustling traffic circle of many challenging realities and considerations. 

Thank you for joining us!  Pl...

KOZ is Cristina's kids' digital media startup that she created when healing her own childhood trauma. An inspiring tale of an underdog rising from the ashes of horrible traumas, Cristina's "coming back story" is incomplete without KOZ, her digital fortress she hopes to build to keep kids safe online.

#entrepreneur #mentalhealth #startup #recovery #underdogrising #comingback #startingover

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Meet Beth in this BONUS episode! Beth is the talK’s faKtifier and one of the original KOZ volunteers as our Knowledge ambassador. Committed to sharing the facts with our listeners, Beth is also the Kurator of the talKipedia, the talK’s library of linKs,  background info, behind-the-scenes sneaK peeKs, and cool closer looKs at things historic to KOZ, the talK, our team and our hosts. We are so grateful for Beth! 

Thank you for joi...

Childhood trauma costs today’s societies trillions of dollars. It impacts adults who have survived it, immeasurably. Join Cristina and Joel as they share the first intimate looK at Cristina’s childhood trauma. Learn how it’s the foundational reason she is building KOZ, her unexpected startup she created while healing her childhood abuse and neglect, to keep kids safe online.

🖤 Content sensitivity note: while there is no trauma dum...

…talk about the safety of kids online. The harms met by today’s kids on the internet have undeniably and terrifyingly changed the landscape of childhood trauma. The first of many conversations on this important topic, Joel and Cristina talk with Terry, a fellow law enforcement officer to Joel, a childhood friend of Cristina’s, and KOZ’s Safety & Security Advisor. Listen in as they talk about the darker sides of the internet for...

Every family has an origin story that affects its unique dynamic. Individual, collective and intergenerational trauma can really run deep and affect every member of it. Listen in for a first looK at Cristina’s only family by blood…her family of origin. Hear the familial traumas that impacted her family, her life, and the complex dynamics of their complicated relationships. Get to know more about Cristina and the remarkable life roo...

Meet sport-tech & health-tech entrepreneur Michael, KOZ’s tech and business Advisor. Listen in as Joel, Cristina and Michael talk (KOZ) shop, mental health and entrepreneuring, starting over, startup stress, coping with shame and guilt, their gratitude for failures, and how KOZ is entirely feasible as a startup concept. When it comes to delivering KOZ’s purpose to keep kids safe online, Cristina has been hypervigilant in every ...

Meet Charlotte. Just shy of 19, Charlotte is KOZ’s resident youth, first ever Core Youth Officer, a Niece-by-Choice (NBC) of Cristina’s, eldest daughter of Joel’s, and one of KOZ’s originals. Join them as they talk about their goals and dreams, travelling, KOZ, growing up around entrepreneuring, coming of age, mental health and more. 

Thank you for joining us!  Please FOLLOW, RATE & REVIEW our podcast, it really helps us be s...

Relational trauma like complex childhood trauma impacts the intimate relationships of adult survivors in wide-reaching, life-changing and deeply impactful ways, and at very alarming rates. With reports citing numbers as high as 80%, Cristina was one of the lucky ones in that she was with loving, caring intimate partners who were mindful of her past. Everything drastically changed when she met her last intimate partner, her abusive ...

Isolation and inadequate support is a stark and unfortunate reality for many trauma survivors, particularly survivors of relational trauma, especially childhood trauma. Cristina is no exception. It took Cristina, and it takes survivors a lot of courage to ASK FOR HELP, and there’s no easy answer or way to learn how to do so. We have to take the leap, and indeed it is very hard. Join Joel and Cristina as they talk about how Joel bec...

This episode gets down to the financial strategies behind Cristina’s vision for KOZ. It is the perfect pod for startup impact investors, anyone interested in being involved in KOZ’s purpose to keep kids safe online, and everyone who enjoys rooting for the underdog, and seeing a good mission come to life. This is the sequel to our fourth episode where KOZ was first introduced to the world. As an instrumental part of Cristina’s comin...

Cristina shares an intimate closer looK at her journey as a vulnerable warrior like so many of her peer survivors of Intimate Partner Violence. In this look into her own coming back journey, Cristina talks with Joel about the hardest parts, the highlights and different lessons from her years of emerging from her IPV trauma. They talk about her personal meaning of “underdog rising” and how it’s a key part of her life story, and the ...

…start the conversation about some of the most heinous harms that happen to kids on the internet: human trafficking. Join Cristina and Joel as they host law enforcers Terry (also KOZ’s Safety & Security Advisor) and Jaclyn as they share some of their experiences supporting and protecting vulnerable kids. Terry and Jaclyn give a peek into the slivers of bigger investigations that they sometimes see and work on, and their thought...

CONTENT SENSITIVITY NOTE: references to aspects of both Carey and Cristina’s childhood trauma, specifically childhood sexual abuse, are made in this episode. Please listen with the appropriate care and caution.

Joined by her childhood friend Carey, Cristina hosts their intimate and personal talk about their lifelong anxiety, childhood memories, their shared love for kids and KOZ, and their childhood sexual abuse trauma in this spe...

Continuing with our focus on childhood friendships and the importance of them, join Joel and Cristina as they host their friend and KOZ Alumni Rodan as they talk about starting over (even later) in life to find our true passion, Rodan’s newish-found love for teaching, their shared passion for keeping kids safe online and the importance of caring for our mental health, their (unexpected) mutual love of tennis, entrepreneuring, the d...

Starting UP is a form of starting over as is the case for long standing career-mates and startup entrepreneurs Michael and Andrew who met over a decade ago over some competitive, finger-breaking foosball. As our KOZ Biz Advisor, Michael joins us for a second talk, this time with his cofounder Andrew, to talk about mental health and startup entrepreneuring. Impressively, mental health has been a part of their startup culture and key...