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Welcome to the 111st 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 celebration. We’re taking a moment to celebrate our friend and collaborator Chairman Ting who’s been busy creating amazing NFTs, wicked murals and some great-looking cans of iced tea. At the same time, we want to shine a spotlight on Dope Black Dads: a group making a big difference in the lives of Black dads and their kids in the UK. Plus we’re sharing a little wizdom about the real cost of high caffeine.
We’ll be looking at:
- Whether pre-workout drinks really give you an edge
- An interview with artist Chairman Ting
- The larger-than-life Billion Buns mural in Toronto
- Ekali’s mix of mellow beats with some dance hits thrown in
- The impact of Dope Black Dads
Learn
Do you need pre-workout caffeine? Do you need post-workout carbs? Will creatine, BCAAs, Bulletproof coffees, adaptogens or electrolytes help you go further, faster and stronger? The Huffington Post tackles that first question and, as is often the case, the answer is, “yes and no”. Pre-workout caffeine may give you the energy boost you need to lift heavier or run faster in the moment, but the claims about increased fat burning are largely in doubt. But the biggest issue? The increased heart rate from highly caffeinated drinks can put certain people at risk for heart health concerns like abnormal heartbeats or blood clots. In the end, researchers came back to the same tried-and-true advice: stay hydrated, eat real food and exercise often.
Connect
To celebrate the limited-edition collaboration between Wize and Billion Buns, we’re serving up a throwback interview with the artist himself, Chairman Ting. Chairman Ting (real name, Carson Ting) is a Toronto-born muralist and NFT artist currently living in Vancouver, BC. His proudest achievement? He helped raise $150k with the White Caps for the Vancouver Food Bank and now wants to work on other fine art projects like sculpting and painting. You can see more of Ting’s work on his personal website, and you can check out Billion Buns here.
See
Wize co-founders Max and Arnaud went to Toronto to check out Chairman Ting’s latest mural featuring characters from his Billion Buns project. The expansive work of art can be found at 176 Ossington St. and was a labor of love that took at least two months to complete. You can also see it on Ting’s Instagram if you’re not in the Toronto area.
Listen
With the weather turning cool and the skies going grey, sometimes it’s nice to lean into a more chill vibe with a more chill playlist. We like these tracks from Vancouver DJ Ekali for rainy day listening that sets a mellow mood and still helps you get your work done. Enough instrumental to focus with a few upbeat mixes for when you need more motivation to push through the day. Crack a Wize Sparkling Mango iced tea and turn it up.
Get inspired
What started as a WhatsApp group a few years back has now spawned a podcast and a kid’s picture book. The subject? Dope Black Dads. Creator Marvyn Harrison didn’t mean to start a revolution by creating a WhatsApp group. But once he’d amassed around 250,000 fans both on and offline, he realized that there were far too few voices talking openly and publicly about experiences of being Black while parenting and navigating masculinity in the modern world. He’s now launched a picture book for kids filled with affirmations to encourage them to build confidence and self-esteem with affirmations Like “I am powerful”, “I am loving” and “I am kind”. Be sure to check out Harrison’s work above, and read the inspiring interview in full at the source.
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