Emilie Richardson-Dupuis (she/her)
Content Writer / Journalist
About Me
Hi there!
I’m a Content Writer and Journalist. I’m adaptable, self-motivated, proactive, passionate, and have an insatiable curiosity.
- You can see some of my work here. I also have experience editing and writing copy, and working with multimedia elements such as audio, video, and creating data visualizations.
- Here’s some of my work.
Canada’s Psychedelic Renaissance
Feature
Alison Crosthwait was a highly successful financial executive. She seemed to fit in perfectly at her trading job at Goldman Sachs in the heart of Toronto’s financial district, working alongside other high-functioning professionals with enviable salaries. She was ambitious, sharp, and she knew how to play the game. But there was just one problem with the perfect picture of her life: she was extremely unhappy. Her unhappiness was affecting her relationships, her self-confidence, and her connection to herself.
She found solace in talk therapy at first, and even left her lucrative corporate job in 2012 to become a psychotherapist, using talk therapy to try to help others who felt the way she did...
After decades of stigmatization, scientists are taking another look at psychedelics, and Canadians are paying attention.
Image created using DALL-E 2.
Foraging is on the rise as food prices climb. Here's how to do it safely in Ontario
Feature
Walking through a park in or around Toronto, you can find a bountiful array of edible plants. Even as it gets colder, herbaceous cedar can be found on trees for tea or cocktail infusions, certain types of mushrooms like bright orange enoki mushrooms fruit all winter, and if you're lucky, you may still be able to find the crimson berries of a Hawthorn tree, preserved in ice.
Toronto, dubbed the “city within a park,” is full of wild edible plants, catching the intrigue of the city’s chefs, foodies, and nature-lovers alike, and rising food costs over the last few years may be causing an even bigger spike in interest...
Continue reading in the Toronto Star.
Eating wild plants is more than just a foodie trend but coinciding with its popularity are increased hospital visits and environmental concerns.
“We traded our semi on
Danforth for 50 acres of
enchanted forest. Now we
have to move back”
In 2010, my husband, Lonny, and I bought a four-
bedroom semi on the Danforth after living in Leslieville
for two years. We had been Torontonians for decades
and liked our life in the city: comfortable and familiar.
But we started dreaming of the countryside. Lonny
grew up in Huron County and, as a landscape painter
and designer, always felt more at home among trees.
Plus, he was getting increasingly frustrated driving
from gig to gig in Toronto’s insane traffic.
As for me, I loved my career in philanthropy and
corporate social responsibility—highlighting pressing
issues and helping to make a difference. But the real
push came in the summer of 2015, when I got into a car
accident and ended up with a concussion...
Continue reading in Toronto Life.
Real Estate Ghost-Written Memoir
Little Dragon Put Themselves First on 'Slugs of Love'
Album Review
In a statement released along with the album announcement back in May, Little Dragon called Slugs of Love their "masterpiece."
While masterpiece is a strong word, Slugs of Love certainly proves that Little Dragon have a lot left to give. Since forming in 1996, Little Dragon have earned their stripes as a band with a truly unique sound thanks to Yukimi Nagano's raspy vocals and their prominent funk influence combined with a propensity for electropop. However, with the exception of 2009's Machine Dreams, they haven't truly tapped into their full potential as a band. Slugs of Love seemingly marks a turning of the tides...
Tough times ahead for musicians and small venues despite reopening
Music
With Ontario lifting capacity restrictions for indoor public spaces on March 14th, people are experiencing live music again, but musicians and venues continue to feel the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown.
According to a survey conducted in Spring 2020 by the Canadian Live Music Association, 96 per cent of the 177 music venues in Canada that participated said that they were at risk of business failure.
“Emotionally, it’s been a roller coaster, paying the bills and retaining staff and trying to find new ways to attract customers, the constant change, and just constant restructuring,” Andrew Kaiser, co-owner and manager of The Emmet Ray Jazz Bar in Toronto said in a phone interview...
Live music has returned to Toronto after the COVID-19 pandemic forced a long hiatus
Photo by Dmitri.photo via Unsplash.
Go Deep Within at a Wellness
Retreat
Health & Wellness
The holiday season is full of joy for some, but, for
others, it’s plagued by depression and anxiety. In
recent years, more people have been turning to
alternative plant medicines and psychedelics, and some
even taking a true hiatus and going on a wellness
retreat to help them cope with mental health difficulties
around the holidays and beyond.
Wellness retreats are vacations focused on your
holistic well-being. They provide a space conducive to
relaxation that also offers healthy food, fitness,
educational programs, or treatments meant to
contribute to personal growth...
Dedicate your next vacation to personal growth
and transformation
Photo by Pixabay via Pexels.
Vagabon Announces New Album 'Sorry I Haven't Called,' Plots Tour
Music
Vagabon has announced a new album Sorry I Haven't Called, out September 15 via Nonesuch Records.
Sorry I Haven't Called is the follow-up to Vagabon's 2019 self-titled album. It was born out of a place of mourning after the sudden death of her best friend in 2021. To process the tragic event, she decided to move to a small lakeside village in Germany where her phone didn't work, and there were no shops close by. In her isolation, she wrote and recorded most of the album, consisting of a surprisingly playful collection of songs.
Listen to new single "Can I Talk My Shit?"
‘Like a Whistler ski chalet’ in Lorne Park: Inside this $12M Mississauga home
Real Estate
The home, sitting on an impressive four-and-a-half acres of forested land, boasts an abundance of luxury features and amenities.
Down a private tree-lined road in the heart of Mississauga’s Lorne Park, 1300 Oak Lane exudes “luxurious warmth and charm,” says the listing.
The flooring and wood finishes are made from reclaimed barnwood, and exposed brick and stone walls throughout give the home its warm and cosy “rustic industrial vibe,” said Peter Philip Papousek, the property’s real estate agent. “It’s like a Whistler ski chalet has been dropped into Lorne Park.”
The home sits on an impressive four-and-a-half acres of forested land. For comparison, the median lot size of a single family detached home in Toronto is about one-fifth of an acre, according to the National Association of Home Builders...
Continue reading in the Toronto Star.
Photo by Helicopix Inc.
Beating Winter Blues
Health & Wellness
Strategies for getting out of our heads and
thriving all winter long.
The beginning of a new year brings rejuvenation, goal
creation, soul searching, and hope. New year, new you
… right? Unfortunately, it’s not always that simple—the
bleak winter months can make it hard to realize
everything we set our minds to.
About 15 percent of Canadians report having seasonal
depression―and that doesn’t take into account all the
anxiety brought on by the holidays, which present
many of us with a mixed bag of emotions. While
hosting and attending family gatherings during this
time can bring joy, it can also lead to burnout, stress,
and even trauma.
Continue reading in alive Magazine.
Photo by Alissa Nabiullina
Toronto’s COVID Exodus
Multimedia Feature
Willa McCaffrey-Noviss had just earned her Master of Education in Counselling Psychology from the University of Toronto and was finally fulfilling her dream of beginning her own therapy practice. With a one-way ticket to Amsterdam, she used her $50 paycheck from her first ever therapy session as an independent psychotherapist to buy herself a beer at the airport, excited to turn a new leaf and start her adventure of moving to Amsterdam after nearly two years of lockdown in Toronto.
McCaffrey-Noviss had spent the lockdown as a student therapist living in her parents’ basement giving therapy sessions to people where the major theme was COVID, and how it tore families apart, something she was also experiencing in her household...
Catching up with those who left.
Photo by Redcharlie via Unsplash.
Surreal Estate: $2.2 million
for a net-zero Quonset hut in
Grey County with a cold-
plunge tub
Real Estate
What piece of prefabricated military
architecture would be complete without an
organic vegetable garden, a barrel sauna and
an equally curvy 1,300-square-foot
workshop?
A three-bedroom, two-bathroom net-zero Quonset hut
sitting on five acres of certified wildlife habitat in Grey
County. The home comes equipped with a barrel
sauna, a steel firepit and a huge workshop garage.
Motorists are 10 minutes from Devil’s Glen Country
Club, 20 minutes from downtown Collingwood and two
hours from Toronto.
The home was built in 2018 for an industrial designer
and herbalist who wanted it to be in harmony with
nature. It was designed by award-winning architect
Andy Thomson and styled after farming infrastructure
to pay homage to the region’s history...
Photo by Elevated Photos Canada
Behind Every Great DJ, There’s a VJ
Feature
It was Saturday night past 2 a.m. and the Brooklyn nightclub was filled to the brim. Progressive house music was emanating from the DJ booth, but everyone was turned towards the screen, fully immersed in the visuals being projected above a sculpture of a crescent moon suspended from the ceiling. Fancy typography fielded questions like “what’s your secret desire? What’s your fantasy? Tell us how you love her?” among surreal videos of faces, huge eyes, and hands holding a sun.
The artist behind the visuals was Ksenia Salion, a digital artist based in Brooklyn. This was her first time creating live visuals to accompany a DJ set, otherwise known as VJing. She recalled the adrenaline rush she got from having control over the crowd and dictating the atmosphere through her visuals...
How visual artists are taking electronic music by storm
Photo by Inga Seliverstova via Pexels.
Radio Work
Met Radio 1280 AM
November 29th, 2023
(interview with band at 31 minutes)
Photo by Redcharlie via Unsplash.
April 20, 2023 Met 30 Episode
September 21, 2023 Met 30 Episode
July 27, 2023 Met Radio Episode