WizeWorld Volume 106

Welcome to the 106th volume of WizeWorld: a collection of stories and sounds to round out your week, pique your curiosity, and widen your wizdom. 

This week’s theme is taking stock: are artificial sweeteners the answer to a society’s sugar overload? How could cutting down on plane travel change the world? Tackling the big questions from personal to global health, one small step at a time.

We’ll be looking at:

• What artificial sweeteners do to your gut health
• An interview with Canada Summer Games champion Chanell Botsis
• The global community of Black Women Photographers
• Funkin’ Brunch People from B-Side Radio
• The travel editor who quit flying

Learn

On the 40th Anniversary of the Diet Coke, Scientific American takes a close look at the damage artificial sweeteners could be doing to our health. A recent study on four different sweeteners showed that all four changed the gut microbiome, and two spiked blood sugar. When looking to cut down on your sugar consumption, we recommend sweetening with small doses of the real stuff, rather than heaps of fake alternatives.

Connect

Enjoy this interview with 2022 Canada Summer Games record setter Chanell Botsis. On day one, Chanell broke the Games’ current hammer throw records with a distance of 61.44m. We sat down with her to find out what motivates her and how she fuels her performance. With an eye on the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, she doesn’t have time for sugary drinks which is why she loves to grab a Wize as an alternative to water when she needs an extra boost. 

See

Explore this collection of images from Black Women Photographers—a group that began with just 100 members in 2020 and a mission to help Black women gain greater recognition, commissions and space for their work. Just two years later, BWP boasts a membership of over 1200 people from 50 different countries, and they’ve created a $50,000 grant fund in partnership with Nikon. You can see and support more of their work on Instagram. 

Listen

Enjoy this mix care-of Daddy Reed and Telecoma from B-Side Radio. Funkin’ Brunch People and Market n Mimosas features upbeat dance beats to help you reach the finish line this Friday. B-Side Radio is an online community radio station that operates out of The Beaumont Studios Artist Society in Vancouver BC. Read more about them here.

Get inspired

Helen Coffey used to be a frequent flyer—which made sense, given her job as travel journalist and editor for the UK’s The Independent newspaper. But, as of 2022, she hasn’t taken a flight in over two and a half years. Helen woke up one day to realize she’d taken a staggering 24 flights in the first six months of 2019 and realized something had to change. She began championing slower, more eco-friendly options like train travel to be a positive influence on her readers and to lessen her impact on the planet. Cheers to that.

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