See Martha Stewart and Michelle Obama onstage at Elevate

See Martha Stewart and Michelle Obama onstage at Elevate

The former First Lady and the iconic lifestyle maven appear on the Elevate Main Stage on Tuesday

Photograph courtesy of Martha Stewart

If the ancient maxim is to be believed, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. But apparently, an old Dogg (well, Snoop is 47) can teach Martha Stewart something new, then she can teach it to the rest of us. In this case, the new trick is, naturally, cannabis. As the budding industry attracts established musicians and former politicians alike, the OG lifestyle guru—and personal friend of weed aficionado and canna-business owner Snoop Dogg—has announced her partnership with Canopy Growth. She will help the pot giant perfect recipes and products primarily for pets, but will have something to offer owners, too.

For Elevate attendees, Stewart exemplifies how to create and maintain a brand that is established—she’s so ubiquitous that her name is used as an adjective—yet versatile enough to accommodate an entire new product category. She’ll be joined onstage at the festival by Canopy Growth CEO Mark Zekulin and Elevate CEO and co-founder Razor Suleman for a discussion about the cannabis business. If Elevate is all about bringing innovative solutions to everyday people, who better to educate the masses on the benefits of THC and CBD than Stewart? If she can convince us to transform a gourd into a stunning centrepiece, surely she can change a few minds about edibles.

Martha Stewart appears at 2:55 p.m., Sept. 24, on the Elevate Main Stage at Meridian Hall (formerly Sony Centre, 1 Front St. E.). 

Photograph courtesy of Harry Walker Agency

After eight years as first lady of the United States and a blockbuster book tour for her memoir, Becoming, Michelle Obama has redefined what it means to be a public figure—both approachable and awe-inspiring. Many call her their “Forever First Lady” because she is substantive, inspiring and grounded. She’s the truth-teller we can’t get enough of and the advocate we all adore. In Becoming, which sold 725,000 copies in its first day of publication last November and another 10 million since, she writes candidly about issues related to fertility, marriage counseling and how she grew from a girl on the South Side of Chicago to an historic first lady. Above all, Michelle Obama is a real woman whom real women adore. In her return to Toronto for the Elevate festival, the former first lady will sit down with Claudette McGowan, the award-winning Chief Information Officer at BMO, who has spent two decades advocating for inclusivity and innovation in the workplace. Their conversation will aim for both the head and the heart, covering topics such as leadership, mentorship and the next generation of trailblazers. Because if there’s anything Michelle Obama believes in, it’s lighting the torch—then passing it on.

Michelle Obama appear onstage at 7 p.m. on Sept. 24 at Meridian Hall (1 Front St. E.). This is a seperately ticketed event from the Elevate festival itself.