• News
    • Business
    • Canada
    • Health
    • International
    • Israel
  • Perspectives
    • Advice
    • Big Ideas
    • CJN Podcast Network
    • Features
    • Opinions
  • Food
  • Culture
    • Arts & Entertainment
    • Books & Authors
    • Russian
    • Sports
    • Travel
  • Events
    • Contests
    • Montreal – About Town
    • Toronto – What’s New
  • Supplements
    • Spotlights
  • En Français
  • Podcasts
  • Subscribe
  • Member Centre
  • Log Out
Search
  • Subscribe
  • Member Centre (eCJN)
  • Log Out
  • Newsletter
  • FaceBook
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
  • Instagram
CJN - Canada’s largest Jewish newspaper
January 27, 2021 - 14 Shvat 5781
CJN - Canada’s largest Jewish newspaper
  • News
    • The race to be the leader of the Conservative Party

      Q & A with Ari Greenwald: Responding to a pandemic

      Israel declares complete coronavirus lockdown on eve of Passover

      Gantz says forming a unity government may take more time

      Students learn computer programming RHA FACEBOOK PHOTO

      Online classes up and running in Vancouver

      AllBusinessCanadaHealthInternationalIsrael
  • Perspectives
    • To our readers: Everything has its season. It is time

      Listen: The CJN Podcast Network, Signing Off

      Healthy Aging: Your next doctor appointment will likely be virtual

      Shinewald: Making this awful moment more tolerable

      Marmur: Israel’s Arab citizens lose out in political shift

      AllAdviceBig IdeasCJN Podcast NetworkFeaturesOpinions
  • Food
    • Delicious desserts for Passover

      Festive food for small seders

      Passover meals for the whole day

      Passover taco Tuesday

      Family Seder recipes

  • Culture
    • How philosophy and theology can be in dialogue together

      Socalled is trying to make the best of his downtime

      Veteran singer returns with ‘toxic’ single

      Stories explore relationships between family, friends

      Jewish movies you should stream while self-isolating

      AllArts & EntertainmentBooks & AuthorsRussianSportsTravel
  • Events
    • CJN VIP

      How’d you like to be a VIP? Giveaway

      Giveaway: The Song of Names advance screenings contest (CLOSED)

      CJN-Prize-new-Entry Ad 2019

      The CJN Prize 2019 (Closed)

      Come celebrate the launch of the CJN Podcast Network

      Jewish Music Week Contest (Closed)

      AllContestsMontreal – About TownToronto – What’s New
  • Supplements
    • Passover Greetings

      Focus-on-Ed-2020

      Focus on Education

      Celebrations-MS-20

      Celebrations

      Hanukkah Greetings

      Celebrations

      AllSpotlights
  • En Français
    • À la mémoire d’un ardent ambassadeur de la culture sépharade, Solly Levy Z.’L.’

      “La haine des Juifs n’a jamais eu de limite”

      Le dossier du Dr. Marcus Fraenkel: la réponse de la CIVS

      Israéliens et Palestiniens luttent ensemble contre le coronavirus

      La lutte contre le coronavirus au Centre médical Sheba de Ramat Gan

  • Podcasts
  • Subscribe
  • Member Centre
  • Log Out
Home Culture Arts & Entertainment Relationship expert hosts new TV show
  • Culture
  • Arts & Entertainment

Relationship expert hosts new TV show

By
Cara Stern
-
December 17, 2012
3560
0
Andrea Syrtash is host of the TV show Life Story Project.  [Tim Leyes photo]

Andrea Syrtash is hosting a new program on the Oprah Winfrey Network that shows how everybody can relate to one another through sharing life experiences.

“We’ve all suffered through loss, and we’ve all celebrated triumphs,” she said.

On the show, Life Story Project, which she co-hosts with Toronto-based psychotherapist Dale Curd, she sits on a couch that is placed in busy locations throughout the city, including parks and bustling street corners. They invite strangers walking by to join them on the couch to talk about events that affected their lives.

The first episode, which airs Jan. 2, features stories about falling in love and heartbreak.

From that episode, there’s one story that stood out in Syrtash’s mind. It was about a young mother of two who lost her husband to cancer. However, before he died, not a day went by when they didn’t express their love.

“Her story was incredibly compelling because she really presented it as a love story more than a broken-heart story,” Syrtash said. “She calls her story a fairy tale even though she lost her prince in the end.”

Another person she found unforgettable was a firefighter who made a mistake early in his career, she recalled. He was deeply affected and had a moment when wanted to end his life. He was in a burning building and he took off his oxygen mask, he told her, wanting his daughter to believe he died a hero.

The firefighter recovered and now shares his story with young firefighters to make sure they have support when they make a mistake, she said.

“These people were incredible people that we literally found on the street,” Syrtash said. “I think really the point of the show is everybody has a story and every story matters.”

The trick to finding these stories is learning to probe people and earn their trust, she said. Syrtash is both a trained life coach specializing in relationships, and a graduate of Ryerson University’s radio and television arts program, so she may be the perfect host for this type of show.

Syrtash is originally from Toronto, but moved to the United States after graduation, following a man she met at a concert in California. She lived with him in San Francisco for five years, but decided to move to New York City, where she has dreamed of living since she was a child.

She said it’s the energy of New Yorkers that really attracts her, specifically their drive and risk-taking spirit.

“My heart still has a place [in Toronto] but this city just gets under my skin,” she said.

Since 2004, she has been featured on various news and entertainment networks as a relationship expert and advice columnist, and she has written two relationship self-help books. Her latest one, Cheat On Your Husband (With Your Husband), aims to help readers create more exciting and fulfilling relationships with their spouses.

She said all of her work is based on research, which she credits to her training as a journalist. Her ideas come from case studies and interviews, rather than simply through personal experience.

Her journey from life coach to TV host grew organically from her career as a life coach, she said.

“I was passionate and I loved it,” she said. “I wasn’t trying to build a platform.”

Nowadays, it’s much harder to brand yourself, she said, adding that she’s lucky to have built her own brand before Facebook, Tumblr and other social media sites became popular.

“The Internet is not where I created my brand,” she said. “It grew from the Internet, but it started with my books and radio appearances and workshops.”

The Internet has brought changes to the dating world, she said. For example, while online dating has become hugely popular and successful, it also has led to new issues.

“Until the end of time, we will want to be with someone who makes us our best and sees us for who we are and all of that,” she said. “[But] when it comes to today, there are issues today because of technology.”

Specifically, people sometimes have trouble balancing their online and offline dating lives.

“It’s just about going out there, and if online helps you get out there more, great, but you have to balance it with real-world interactions,” she said, adding that singles should form platonic friendships with other singles, since it gives each person a wider network to meet people.

Syrtash said she has always been interested in relationships, and even spent a year studying Middle East relations while on an exchange program at Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel.

She said her father is a Holocaust survivor who taught her the value of taking risks. “He really built something from nothing, so that’s inspiring to me,” she added.

Regarding dating within one’s own religion, she said each person must figure out their own values. One of her books discusses dating outside of your “type,” and in her upcoming book about debunking dating rules, she makes the case to quiet everybody else’s “shoulds” in favour of your own “wants.”

“I don’t want to impose my value system on someone I don’t really know,” she said, explaining that everybody has their own ideas of what makes them happy – some people have open marriages, for example, and some people never want to get married.

Syrtash is critical of the advice many relationship experts offer in the media. She hopes to change the industry through offering positive advice.

As an example of what’s wrong, she said sometimes relationship experts might tell someone they have to be engaged within a year or they should break up. “It leads people to make inauthentic choices in fear and scarcity. I don’t think it’s empowering,” she said.

She hopes to challenge conventional wisdom, such as the idea that you should go for your type. If it’s not working out, try another type, she said.

Ultimately, Syrtash said she hopes her career will continue to grow organically, and she plans to follow wherever it takes her.

“I want to do stuff I haven’t heard of yet,” she said, adding that maybe technology will take her on an interesting career path. “I want to do this on a bigger scale because I’m so passionate about it.”

Life Story Project premières on Jan. 2 at 9 p.m. on the Oprah Winfrey Network for two back-to-back episodes.

Cara Stern

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

A message to our readers with an update:

À la mémoire d’un ardent ambassadeur de la culture sépharade, Solly Levy Z.’L.’

“La haine des Juifs n’a jamais eu de limite”

Subscribe to the CJNSubscribe
RSS FeedView
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Subscribe / Member Centre (eCJN)
  • eCJN Archives
  • Supplements
  • Media Kit
  • Advertising Terms
  • Premiums

75th Anniversary - Liberation of Auschwitz

Ezer Mizion's 2019 Night Shuk

Jeff Golblum conducts O Canada at Fan Expo

  • Canada
  • Israel
  • International
  • Opinions
  • Food
  • Culture
  • En Français
  • CJN Podcast Network
The award-winning Canadian Jewish News (CJN) is Canada’s largest, weekly Jewish newspaper with an audited circulation of nearly 32,000 and read by more than 100,000 people each week.
© 2021 Canadian Jewish News
  • Comments Policy
  • Community Links
  • Contact Us
  • Media Kit
  • Privacy Policy
  • Subscribe
  • Admin