Looking Back at 2022 – Part Three
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Well, hello, everyone. This is Jan Arden. You're listening to the Jan Arden Podcast and Show. Sarah Burke, Adam Karsh, drumroll, da-da-da-da-da. Caitlin Green. Last show of the year. Last show of 2022. Holy mother-effing wonders of...

Wildness this year has blown by. Caitlin had a baby who is now getting ready for college. Caitlin, what happened to this year? Give me your theory. Are we in an alternate universe? What is going on? Yeah, we're living in the wrong timeline right now. There is actually a theory about that. But anyways...

Yeah, I don't know. This is crazy because I don't understand the passage of time. It feels like I was pregnant 10 years ago and yesterday. Like, I feel like I've had a baby forever, but he's only been here for four months. It's just, I can't wrap my head around it. The summer feels like it was a year ago, but also I just feel like it just happened. I don't know. I don't understand how time passes anymore. COVID somehow forced us to count time.

Because I think we all thought that this thing would be over in 2020 in three or four weeks. Yeah. It seemed surreal. But ever since then, there's been this massive kind of rethinking and reimagining of how we make our way through the world. And I think once again, 2022 proved to be a very odd year, a very divisive year.

I think more this year than even 2021, we were on two different sides of the fence. It feels like there was definitely a split in how people perceived COVID and how people perceived the government, all of that stuff. I find it so stressful, you guys. I really did. Being on social media, and I felt like I was in a constant fight all this year. I felt like I was fighting COVID.

Well, on a happier note, though, what was your highlight of 2022? My highlight is having Caitlin on the show today. That is my highlight of 2022. You know, my highlight, health, my friends, going back on the road touring. I love being back out there. We were very mindful, but we were out playing music for people. So doing what I feel like I can actually do.

participate in as far as doing something good for the world is I can do what I do. I'm not a doctor. I'm not a frontline worker. I'm a musician and a writer. And I felt pretty helpless for a little while there as to how I could participate in this new world. So yeah, just getting back to work again. And Caitlin, you can relate to that because you haven't been working this last six months, but you've been...

in a very joy filled place with your baby and spending time with your husband, which I think is probably pretty cool. Yeah. That, that would be, you know, having a baby kind of the highlight for sure. Yeah. I would say that. I mean, I really enjoyed your show at Massey Hall, Jen, not to undermine how great that night was, but I think having, having the baby takes the cake. He's been great. It's, it's such a, such an exciting reframe of every single part of your life. It's really, really cool. Yeah.

And we're just sort of hunkering down at home now trying to avoid the myriad of childhood illnesses that are going around. So yeah, you're right. Spending a lot of time with my husband. I'll say that for sure, Jan. So we're going to do some favorites of 2022, including some of your favorite moments from the show. You asked Kate.

Because I want to know what hers is. Well, we're going to start with pop culture because we know our Caitlin loves pop culture. You've been, you know, still on Twitter and doing your thing, even with Will. Yeah. What's your favorite internet moment of 2022? Viral moment, a meme, anything.

Has to be the Adam Levine DMs going public and then being turned into memes. The you're so effing hot meme. Like I saw that just repurposed to every single celebrity imaginable. I saw someone saying that about a shirtless David Suzuki. I saw people saying that about like Louis Anderson. Like it was just, it was so funny. And obviously...

Obviously, the actual story itself is kind of a downer because it's him being unfaithful to his wife. But I will say that the Internet came guns a blazing with the jokes around that story. So, yeah, Adam Levine memes were were up there for me. I really like that. Oh, my God. People are so like, don't you think you're going to get caught sending texts at this point? Haven't we learned anything about the the permanence of the Internet?

The list of people canceled in 2022. It's a scroll. Yeah, it's crazy. You're like, dude, how do you not have vanish mode on your DMs? Like what is happening here? I don't know. It's bizarre. Vanish mode. It's so sad. We can make having your affair easy. Try new vanish mode. Yeah, it's for celebrities who want to mess around.

Are you tired of getting caught with your pants down? New vanish mode. Your recipient won't even see it. Wait, should I have this turned on on my phone? What is, I don't know about vanish mode. No, it's a thing. Sarah Burke, when

When is the last time you had an affair? What is wrong with you? Come on, man. What platform are we talking about? On Instagram. Okay. So you can set up vanish mode so that people can't, like you don't keep a running chat history. You could still take a screenshot in a hot minute. I wonder if you, I don't know that you can. You don't think your phone will take a screenshot on vanish mode? I beg to differ and it's not because I've done it a few times. Yeah, you tell us.

Well, you know what? All my messages about my my wordles, I think will be fine. It's going to be fine. That's how I feel, too. I'm OK. I'm not using Vanish Mode. I have no need for it. I'm just shocked when a celebrity that's as big of a name as Adam Levine is just going to leave himself vulnerable to random L.A. swimsuit models airing out his dirty laundry for clicks because that's exactly what happened.

This is a good point. Okay. So we've learned a lesson. I'm turning on vanish mode as soon as we're done recording, but let's flashback to one of your favorite moments of the show. You told me that you loved Rick Mercer coming on. I know he's like one of your pals, Jan. So what was, what was your favorite moment from the Rick Mercer conversation? Well, there's a lot, but anytime he, he seemingly goes into bits that I'm sure have made their way into his comedy act, like talking about his neighbor, for instance, like,

And anyways, I'll let the clip speak for itself. But every bit of Rick's life, whether it's cleaning out his basement, anything in his life, you got to be careful with Rick Mercer because you will end up in his act. It does make me wonder if his neighbors were aware of dealing with Rick in lockdown, if they thought they were going to wind up being part of his act and like on your podcast, because he spent part of it at his place in Newfoundland. And he built up this really hilarious relationship with his next door neighbor's son.

and also was keeping tabs on his neighbors, his older neighbors here in Toronto as well. Yeah, we'll let the clip speak for itself. But if you're a friend of Rick Mercer's, beware, you're going to end up in his book or on his act or on his TV show. Let's hope he does another TV show. Here's Rick Mercer.

You don't want to go away for this. Everyone, I mean, against their will in some cases, really got to know more and more about their neighbours. I'm just wondering, did you spend most of your pandemic in Toronto or Newfoundland? Yeah, well, both. But I did, there's a young family that lives next door with young kids and they're

We share a driveway and they certainly helped our sanity a lot because kids are just so much fun and they're doing stuff and they were suddenly at home. And so we knew everything they were up to and they would give us updates and it got a little silly every time there was a birthday, I would make a sign for our window

I don't know if that's going to come to an end now, please God it will. But, but yeah, they certainly saved, saved me. And I did some projects with them. Like I put them in a, I hosted a virtual reality, a virtual, an award show for my driveway. And I had one of the young girls, it was like seven play Lisa Laflamme and another one played, played like different reporters. And so we had a lot of fun. We had a lot of fun. And, and it,

it was really great. So yeah, we got to know the neighbors. That's the best because imagine, I just feel like having you as a neighbor and then being able to like access this as a form of entertainment and childcare would be the most valuable thing. The little guy, the youngest boy, when he was in kindergarten, he put up his hand and told his teacher, he said, I live next door to a professional clown. Oh my God.

What an amazing description. He's not wrong. He's not wrong. I know. But his teacher reported that I live next door to a professional clown. I was very flattered. I think a lot of people got to know people in their building and like even like people beneath them or above them. And there was some really magical things that happened because we were all

sort of static for a moment in time. Yeah. Oh, for sure. And I met these people around the corner when the pandemic, I'll be very quick, when the pandemic first started, people were even afraid to walk. We would walk around the streets and always the same path every day so the assassins could get us. And there was this elderly couple sitting in a window. And every time I would wave, a big wave, like I was in a parade.

And they would look at me like a little bit confused. And then it was just something I kept doing. And Joe was like, what are you doing waving at those people? Like you were in a parade. And then they started waving back. And then they started pumping their hands in the air. And now we talk.

Every day on the walk, they come out and he's one of those guys. He's Greek and he's lovely. And he talks like he's been here for five minutes. How are you? And I say, I'm great today. Beautiful weather. And we have a chat about the weather. And now we know all about them. We know where they're from in Greece and how many children they have and what they did in Toronto. They know all about Newfoundland.

Yeah, they're like five blocks away from us. So much so that even though we've never sat down and had a cup of tea, but if I'm going away for three weeks, I make a point of riding my bike by their house and saying, just so you know, I'm leaving town for three weeks because I don't want them to worry. Well, that was Rick Mercer in his own words. Very funny guy. Very excellent guy. He is inundated with requests to go into politics.

Every like once a week, someone you should run for the like, what party would I run for? Like, and I don't blame him. What party would you run for?

What party would you run for, Caitlin? The Green Party because of my last name only. Okay. Caitlin Green, the Green Party. I think you'd win just solely on that. We are going to switch gears a little bit. One of my, you know, I want to say favorite, but that sounds really disingenuous somehow. It's not my favorite story, but it was one of the things that really touched me in my life this year that was very unexpected. Anyone that's been listening to the podcast, Susan Dunn.

was a woman who lived in North Bay, a longtime fan. We had had interactions for years on social media. She always made me laugh. She was very funny. Her son, Joey, she would chime in on any time I got into trouble on Twitter. Susan Dunn was there to support me, to defend me, and to make me laugh like, it's not that bad. Fast forward, Susan Dunn has suffered very serious health implications with cancer.

her lungs breathing COPD and had been hit with pneumonia several times. Anyway, at 58 years old, her lungs were completely shot. She chose to get involved with the MAID, the medically assisted medical assistance in death.

and she told me about this. I was very shocked. She sent me a direct message, and I ended up talking to her. It's something that I still think about pretty much every day. I think about Susan Dunn and where she is and just how she affected my life. She was incredibly brave. So we're going to hear the story about Susan Dunn. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the Jan Arden Podcast.

stated a little switch in gears but really one of the highlights for me this past year was meeting Susan Dunn having a really wild experience with what she went through and it was very touching to me so this is Susan Dunn's story on Friday July the 22nd

Susan Dunn was accepted into a program for end of life, 59 year old woman who just really opted out of kind of drowning on dry land. And I have a great deal of respect for people that are able to control their end to be the captain of their fate. And that's what Susan chose to do. But here's the rest of the story. So I spoke to that.

Susan and I texted back and forth quite a bit during the last 10 days of her life. I mentioned that I sent Susan my book. She was the first person to read my yet unpublished book that wasn't even finished yet. Closer to the day, last Friday, Susan on Wednesday had just said, do you mind if I give you a quick call on the day of the procedure? And that's what she called it, the procedure.

She goes, I'm going into the hospital for a procedure. That's how I'm thinking about it. She was very cavalier, very intrepid. I cannot stress that enough. And I said, oh my gosh, of course, please, you know, call me. I said, I'm going to be in the Toronto airport. I have a flight to catch home because I had a corporate job last week in Toronto very quick. So she phoned me at about 20 to 10. I didn't even think about it.

when all this was unfolding and she just she just said how was your podcast and I said we talked all about you and I should preface all this by saying you know we taped the podcast the day before she passed away but of course in the podcast I'm talking like it's Saturday.

So I told her about the podcast. I told her we spoke about it. I said it's going to be so inspiring. And she was like, if I can get anyone interested in the MAID program or anybody interested in organ donation. And a lot of times people didn't make the correlation between end-of-life assistance and being able to donate organs. And I think that was a very important part of the story.

She didn't know either. She's like, I don't think I'm going to qualify. But she did qualify for a great deal. Right now, there's people walking around with Susan Dunn's kidneys that are off dialysis. It really is special. And I loved how she said she was going to be staying on the earth in some way. Yeah.

I think it's very, very special and such an altruistic thing to do because not everyone opts in and not everyone realizes how easy it is to opt in, but that you do need to do that. This isn't, as you said last week, Jan, this isn't a situation where you opt out. You have to opt in. So if this is something you're interested in, make sure to do it for Susan. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, she really taught me so many lessons in a very short period of time. Anyway, so she called me at about 20 to 10. I told her all the stuff that was going on. And she said, tell me about your gig. Tell me, because she was getting the procedure done. I could hear the doctors in the room. Her sister and her nephew were in the room.

And I was kind of getting a little bit nervous. She just said, you know, thank you for everything. And I thought that's what this was going to be, like thanks for arranging the visit with the goats and chatting with me and letting me read your book. Thank you, goodbye. I've got to go now. And she said, can you stay on the phone with me and tell me about your mom? I said, of course, of course I can. They're lining up to board the plane. I just sat there with my mask on and I'm telling her about mom.

talking about you know growing up in gordondale anyways i'm just telling these little snippets of stories about my mom and and then she would ask me to tell her about something else and and i can't actually remember what she asked me she said if you can just keep talking to me and i said of course susan i'm right here thank you thank you i heard the doctor say to her susan dunn i have to ask you verbally and i need a verbal uh response from you

are you ready to proceed with assistance to end your life? She said, 100% yes. And I'm on the phone in a crowded, packed gate. She said, keep talking to me, Jan. Do you mind? Do you mind? I said, no, no, not at all. I said, you would do it for me. I would do it for you. And then the doctor's saying, I'm going to start the procedure now. And I'm on the phone. I'm thinking, what is happening?

And I'm talking to her. I'm telling her about mom. I'm telling her about the gig. I'm telling her about what my plans are for the summer. I'm telling her about, saw it. I don't know. I was just talking. And then she started, she goes, she started talking to me. He said, I'm starting the procedure now. I could hear her sister crying and her nephew saying something. And she's like, keep talking. And I just, she started getting woozy. She said, I'm getting woozy.

She said, I love you. She was saying, I love you to her sister. I love you to her nephew. I love you guys. Tell the kids I love them. It's just nothing but love. No fear. There was no regret. No, what have I done? It was so peaceful. She said, I love you, Jan. I've never met you, but I love you. I wish we could be friends. I said, we are friends, Susan. And then the last thing she said, I just wish I could have met Nigel.

And Nigel, as some of you guys know, is my longtime dear heart friend from England. And when I phoned him and told him this story, he laughed, cried. He burst into tears and he started laughing. He goes, what the bloody hell would she bloody mention me for? I said, Nigel, she's followed you and I for 25 years. She's followed us. That was the last thing she said.

I heard the machine line go like it does on TV, the flat line sound. I stayed on the phone. They were boarding the plane. I would have gladly missed my plane. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to hang up. And then her sister picked up the phone and just thanked me profusely. She said, Susan has had the best 10 days. And I just thought, what an extraordinary thing to connect with someone you don't know. It kind of makes the internet...

I'll forgive the internet for every hideous, horrible thing it does to each other. And I will forever be grateful to the thin golden thread that attached from my heart to North Bay, Ontario, to Susan Dunn's keyboard that allowed me to share in a piece of her life that will change me forever. So that's part two of the Susan Dunn story. And she passed away recently.

And then they took her to take her kidneys and her eyes and her muscle tissue. And she was so proud of that, you guys. I want you to know Susan Dunn died a hero. She left her kids with something to be so proud of. And she will certainly never be forgotten by me and thousands of you listening, I'm sure.

That's the great thing about sharing her story, right? And of continuing to talk about loved ones who've passed away and saying their name and telling, like that's how you keep them kind of alive in your heart. So it's really been special, I think for all of us to be able to share her tale and her connection with you, such an unexpected connection through social media now with everyone who listens to the podcast. It's just, it's kind of magical when usually Twitter is an absolute dumpster. Well,

it's as impactful listening to that now as it was at the time. I still can't believe any of it happened, but, um, yeah, someone I didn't know, never met to share that kind of, uh, I mean, an intimate experience to be there at that moment is, uh, I will, I will never forget it my entire life.

I'll never forget talking to you about it. So I can only imagine how you feel because we spoke after this happened on the phone and your retelling of being in the airport and that sort of frozen in time moment that you just found yourself in is so powerful and so memorable. So I really, it's so great that you got to share Susan's story with all of our listeners because I just think it,

It makes it feel like her memory kind of lives on and she's touched all of us now. And certainly a testament to the maid program, you know, for people that, and she was so cavalier, like I said, you know,

she just was like, I'm ready to go. I'm not worried about it. I can't wait to see my family. My, you know, she just was very cavalier. There was not an ounce of, of being trepidatious. And that was inspiring to me. And it's really changed how I think about how I'm going to go out of this world. So anyway, Susan Dunn, wherever the heck you are, I know you're, I know you're okay. And, and, and that, and, and thanks for trusting me.

Thanks for trusting me and believing that I was capable of being there for you. Someone she did. She only knows me from TV and music, but she trusted in my character. And that meant a lot to me. But I wouldn't let her down. Can you imagine someone saying, can you stay on the phone? You don't. No, it's not possible. You told me you were like, I was going to miss that flight. They were going to leave without me. I would have sat in.

in the airport and figured it out. I would never have let her down. I think that's why she trusted you with it the way she did. Cause she knew you were that type of person. So it's pretty, I want to, I'm like, yeah, this is one of the most memorable moments of the year, but it's probably one of the most memorable moments of your life. Yeah, for sure. I, uh, I, I, I just heard from her son all three weeks ago and he's like, Hey, it's Joey.

Thinking of you. And I just said, how are you, Joey? And I promised Susan, I said, I will make sure your kids have my phone number and they can text me anytime. So nice. Yeah, it was pretty cool. Okay, well, the whole theme of this show today is changing gears. And we're going to do it again. Yes. Hang on. It's like being on a roller coaster. Caitlin Greene loves weddings so much. Yeah.

And, you know, we're going to talk about some of those wonderful moments. Does kegger wedding mean anything to you at all, Caitlin? It does. This is one of my favorite moments from the show in the last year, and it is around a kegger at a wedding. Don't go away. We'll be right back.

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Welcome back to the Jan Arden Podcast. We are here with Sarah Adam. Caitlin Green has joined us. Very exciting. And Caitlin has chosen a very interesting look back at her best of for 2022. I won't say too much about it, but I think it's very much because Caitlin is missing wedding season because it's snowing and cold. I'll try to get married this upcoming year so she can go to a wedding. You better.

Because I'm going to sing for you at your wedding. Oh, God. Wow. Most people would be really excited. I wasn't even going to charge you. Okay. Caitlin Green is up with the Kegger Wedding. Don't go away. We're back. The Janard Podcast. I'm here with Caitlin and Adam. We're talking about summertime weddings. And it is exciting. I'm glad that we are...

Coming into places of joy and excitement and kind of redos and having the party from the boring Justice of the Peace ceremony that you had

In 2020, where you stood there scared with your carnation in your hand going, I do, but I don't really want to because I'm scared. So now you can have a big party. You can have a kegger, right? Like back in my day, you guys, like a lot of people, like in the 80s, some of my pals that were getting married, like right out of high school, they did keggers.

Now, I don't know if that'd be part or considered cottagecore kind of. Like it's another trend with weddings, enchanted forests and whatnot, woodland creatures and whatnot, flower crowns. But there was a lot of keggers. And literally, you'd write your name on a cup.

And it wasn't Sharpie. It was a huge jiffy marker that people wanted to smell as they passed it around. Cool. And you just pump the kegger all night and listen to somebody's truck doors open with a really bad distorted music. That was the wedding party. Yeah. I mean, I think our parents' generations had backyard weddings. My parents' reception was at my grandparents' house.

It was pretty chill. And I've been to cottage weddings where the couple got married at a family cottage. It's amazing. I love them. I do love the variety of weddings that I've been to, all the different styles, like whether it's a downtown wedding or another destination wedding. And you really see a lot of your friends in the wedding as well, like just what their personalities are like and what they care about and what they don't care about.

And you always have favorites, like for whatever reason that you have your favorites. The only thing I can't stand is the length of time some people have. And I think it's their wedding planner who forces this actually between the ceremony and then the reception starting. Oh God, why? Like five hours from now, meet us at the community hall. We'll do the wedding at 1130. We'll see you guys at five. What? It's ridiculous. It is. It was the number one thing I told our wedding planner that,

she was like okay so we'll have to schedule the time for your photos and I was like okay so we're doing all the photos together before the wedding and she was like oh but it's bad luck for the groom to see you before the wedding that's like the superstition and I was like yeah no I don't care about that so I want my guests to be able to see us right after so we're going to move directly from the ceremony directly to the cocktail hour directly to the reception were you a little bit of a bridezilla

No, I was like a chillzilla. I was like, I don't want to be inconsiderate to my guests. They're here on vacation and I just want this to be an easy day for them. And I don't want to lose the momentum, which I think happens because of this weird old adage that like, oh, you can't see each other before. Yes, you can. Do the photos before the wedding. Move on. So the average cost for a wedding in 2021, and I don't know how or who sort of qualifies this number, was $22,500. Wow.

So that doesn't seem that bad to me. I mean, I certainly...

have seen stuff on Instagram where it looks easily like a 50, 60, $75,000 day. Like I'm looking at the stuff they have. I'm looking at the tablescapes. Yes. I just use the word tablescape because we, yeah, thank you. And it just, I'm just like, wow, you want to spend that much money? There's so many other things that I would want to do. I would rather stick to that 20, 25 grand and have this 50,000 that,

down payment on a house. I know a lot of young people aren't really wanting to do houses now. They're just like, F that. I'm not buying a house. We're not getting tangled up in that thing at 28 years old. Not happening.

Yeah. I mean, that's rich person stuff. And I've been to some rich person weddings. I've been to weddings where I'm like, I'm pretty sure this was $100,000 or more. Holy crap. I've been to like three-day affairs where every single event was like a wedding before the wedding. And then there was another one and then there was the wedding. And I'm like, this whole thing cost someone a fortune. But these are like super rich people that I know.

So I'm like, and that's not me. Well, it's people with super rich parents. That's what I'm saying. Yes, exactly. 100%. So bank of mom and dad have no problem. They're excited. They want all their friends there. And you know, it's like so relative to, I guess, how much money they have. It didn't become crazy. But like, yeah. I mean, when those things, when those weddings happen, oh, you go. You go. They are.

Someone else's paying is great. You do have to get a considerable gift because you're trying to compensate for how much money you're probably costing them to attend. But I mean, they've been fun. I've been to some blowouts and I've been to some weddings. I went to a city hall wedding that then was in a backyard. The most fun. So like on either end of the spectrum. So city hall ceremony, correct? Small. Yeah. Blankety blank. I do. I do. Hop in your car and go to somebody's backyard. Yeah.

Yeah, and you know who that was? That was Marilyn. Oh, wow. Can we just say Marilyn Dennis, who got married to her high school sweetheart, Jim,

after many years. Let's just say many years. Many years. And just, he's so lovely. And that's also what it is. You're like, you're so excited for your friends. So who cares where it even happens? And it was just this beautiful, classy, like downtown thing. And then you just have a quiet backyard celebration after. It was so effing great. It was amazing. I mean, I actually do really love all the weddings I've been to. So I kind of like them the more I think about it.

I had one wedding happen here at my house. It was one of my favorite days of my life. My dear friend's daughter, Maya, got married to her husband, Mike. There was like 120 people. There was chairs set up in my backyard.

It was a perfect, perfect day. The weather held out. People parked all the way down Jan's Road. Have you ever seen pictures on Instagram? There was cars parked as far as you could see. And the only thing, you know, that I just didn't want people coming in and using the bathroom.

So I rented a really beautiful porta potty, the kind where the trailer backs in, there's stairs going up to two doors. It's like a construction trailer. There's like a little water thing where you can rinse your hands. Do you know that?

One person used the facility. Nobody in a, it was three hour. We did appetizers, champagne. The ceremony was here. It was about 90 minutes all in. And then everyone went straight from here to bright Creek, which is 20 minutes away to an already decorated, beautiful hall, like a wooden lodge. But I'm thinking it was the most expensive port-a-potty in the world.

For one. For one. I'm like, somebody should have gone in there and done a few steamers just to make it worthwhile. Like, I just, nobody used it. They were all going in the woods? What the heck was happening? Nobody went to the bathroom. I'm not kidding you. Oh, they did, but where'd they go? Well, here's the thing.

Anyway, sorry. Sorry for everyone listening. That was inappropriate. I did not mean to. I should have said lay some cable or pinch one off. Drop some kids off at the pool.

That's terrible. That's terrible. Caitlin, I'm so happy that you could join us for this end of the year glance back. And I'm looking forward to 2023. Happy New Year, Caitlin. Happy New Year. Let us know as soon as you're ready to like, you know, strap yourself back into the driver's seat because you're very missed.

I've had enough of this woman. Goodbye. I'm kidding. You're not going anywhere. You think you're escaping, but you're not. Yeah, we're going to keep you. Yeah, our claws are deeply into your...

We've got a hold of your menorah. No, that doesn't sound right. Tis the season, sort of. Well, yeah, no, this has been so nice. Talking to three adults is like, this doesn't happen very often for me, but I do hear my son screaming at me in the background. I'll be back this year. I'll strap a baby Bjorn on and record and we'll make it work. And I miss...

Miss you guys and miss all our listeners so much. And I will be back very soon. Okay. Well, happy new year to Kyle and to Will and to everybody. We'll see you soon. So everybody say goodbye to Caitlin. Bye, Caitlin. So nice to hang out. I'm so flattered that you think I'm an adult. Thank you.

Welcome back to the last segment of 2022. It's going to be so... Listen, I didn't have a lot of time to work on the song. I just woke up, thought I got to do a little theme song. Yeah, yeah.

Here we are, guys. Last segment. And it's not the last of season two. Season two carries over into the new year. Totally. So don't be thinking, oh, season three. No. We have another 127 episodes to do. At least. Of season two, which is hilarious. So how does it feel? How has your year been? Like, was this a good year, a bad year? From one to ten. It was a great year. Great year? Great year. Okay. Fantastic.

I would say that it was tumultuous for me. We talked about this actually, you know, earlier in the season, but like I did something really scary and I quit a nine to five job. I know you did. And yeah, I'm like, there's been a lot of reflection. We'll call it a lot of reflection this year. But you know what? When you...

Create space in your day, in your week for things that you feel passionate about. Like I love, you know, executive production and that kind of stuff too. And you're great at it. Well, thank you. But yeah, it's been like pretty fulfilling to know that you can do things like not attached to a company. So hell yeah, 2022.

Well, I mean, sometimes our hand is sort of forced. You do get to a crossroads and you're like, do I stay here? Which is fine. Like, I think you always have to do what feels right to you. But when you do have that opportunity to take a leap...

It feels pretty damn good when you do jump over that fence and you're like, hi, I did it. Whether it's, you know, no matter what it is, whether it's changing your major in what you're taking in secondary education or relationships, jobs like you just did, Sarah. I know for me, even trying new things, would that fit into that category? Oh, yeah, for sure. For sure. What did you try this year?

What did I try this year? Well, I think the podcast always amazes me just being able to do this kind of interview format. I've been interviewed all my life and Strombo alluded to that as well. You know, he's spent his the last 20 years interviewing the most amazing people on this planet.

And now he's doing humanitarian work. He's doing stuff for Apple. He, you know, doing the NHL stuff that he did. So for me, I think that and I finished my novel finally this year. It'll be out November 7th of next year. And I took me 15 years. I published two books in between that novel. I'm not a novelist.

Um, thank God for spellcheck. Thank God for editors. But I, and I've said this on this show before, you don't have to be a great writer to tell a great story. And so that was my mom. And I just, I had fun doing it. It was precarious and I didn't know if I would ever get it published, but.

And it might be, I don't know how it's going to be received. And that's just not, I'm not even worried about that. It's fiction. I loved it. I love the story. I grew to love the characters so much. And it's true what writers say about that. You, you invest your time and your, your heart into these people that kind of inform you as you go, who they are and what they would do and what they didn't do. So I learned a lot.

I learned a lot and I stumbled a lot and I screwed up a lot. So it's okay to do that. I'm going to remind you too, you're supposed to go to writing camp with our first lady of Iceland in 2023. Remember? I'm telling you, I am going with my two friends, Lisa and Bev. We're going April. We're going for five days and we're just putting our itinerary together now. I did, I sent a DM to the first lady of Iceland, Eliza,

And she doesn't think she's going to be there. And I don't think it's not when the writers camp takes place. But unfortunately, she and I will be ships passing over the volcano in the night. That breaks my heart because I want you two to hang out. You guys got along so well. I know. Well, I'll be persistent. I don't want to pester her too much. But it's not like I have her email. I'm literally doing like everybody else does and sending direct messages on Instagram. Yeah.

So I have so many hundreds of blue dots on Instagram and I apologize. There's no way I will ever get through all of them. I could sit in my bed for hours.

Like a month. And I make, it does make me feel bad and it stresses me out. I try and read a few of them once in a while, but I am telling you, I'm not ignoring you. It is a time restraint of massive proportions. I just don't know how to get through it. Speaking of DMS, I tried, I tried via DM to get you Juliette Lewis. I was not successful, but there's still 2023. There's still 2023. Oh, I'd love to talk to Juliette Lewis. I know. Did anyone respond to you?

No, but she's got the same kind of Instagram as you. There's so many people at her all the time, right? I know. Well, you know what? Maybe I'll try. She does follow me and she follows me on Twitter as well. So maybe I can drop her a dime on Twitter. That's what my nephew says. He says, I'll drop you a dime. I'm like, what? Is that an actual thing?

You can be like Brian Adams has been on. Just drop a couple of nuggets. I will. Yeah, Brian Adams. And Michael Bublé wanted to do it, but then he changed his mind and didn't want to do it.

No, no, no. That's I'm lying right now. I've, I've, I've not, uh, I don't know. I, we got Aunt Mary that one time. That was pretty good. That was unbelievable. That was so much fun. And that was so cool. Yeah. Hey, I'll tell you what, everyone we've spoken to this year has been great. And I'm so filled with gratitude of all our listeners, uh,

We're consistently, you know, in the top of this format of podcast. And that's because of all the people that are tuning in. People have asked, you know, I hope you don't change the time and things like that. So I think right now it's steady as we go and it'll be, you know, posted late Fridays and you'll be able to listen to it Saturdays. And people seem to like that. They're like, I'm too busy.

during the week. And I don't want to wait from on a Wednesday to a Saturday when I can listen to it. So right now it's been working for us. So, uh, but thanks for listening and subscribing and it just, we, we wouldn't be able to do it without you guys. Do you want to tell me about your, I know you're, you're a reader. Like you just said, what was your favorite book you read by another author? Not yourself this year. I read so much. I, um, I'm going to have to say Ken Follett's

He did a trilogy, but the one that I really loved, it's all historical fiction, was The Morning and the Evening. And you don't have to read all three of them. Like his books are massive. They're like 800, 900 pages. I don't know how he does it. I actually listened to an interview with him and he goes, I use a program on the computer. It tracks all my characters. It tells me how old they're going to be from chapter to chapter when I'm doing time jumps. And I'm like, are you kidding me?

He uses a program that, because I'm always wondering, how do they sit there and calculate after 800 pages? How old King whatever is going to be? Like to sit there and do the math seemed unbearably cruel. And he's like, no, I just I have a computer program that informs me of everything. So a lot of those writers do use that.

to tell them, keep their, their timeline straight. I could have used that advice with the book I wrote because I'm jumping all over the place, but I did it old school with my brain. Um, yeah, there was, there was a few really great moments. I always have to, morning is broken by, by our lovely friend, Aaron Davis. If you guys are going through any kind of grief, uh, trouble, she, she lost her daughter very unexpectedly from an aneurysm.

And Erin, and just after she had a baby.

So, but yeah, mourning has broken probably one of the best books I've read in the last couple of years. I was thinking about Aaron this, this week because that drug that she thinks played a role in her daughter's death. They're now talking about the complications of that drug that it, it makes women like it makes it easier, like activate something with breastfeeding. Oh, just a terrible, terrible tragedy. And, um, but boy, does she, is she ever eloquent and she's so damn funny.

One of our favorites on the show, for sure. But, and I'm, yeah, I've got a stack beside my desk that goes on forever. Jenny Lawson, any Jenny Lawson books, just look her up, Jenny Lawson. She's a comedic writer, but she suffers from

debilitating anxiety and depression and she tries all kinds of new age not new age but every possible frontline thing to help with depression to deal with depression whether it's electric impulses in the brain or new drugs or uh all those kind of therapies but she I laugh so hard in my bed I wake the dog up any Jenny Lawson books how about you

I will quickly say that I, um, I really, I guess cause my routine changed so much this year. Atomic Habits, James Clear was a good one for me. Um, especially if you find yourself kind of lost in like, um, maybe creating new routines for yourself. There was some really interesting things in that book. Great. Yeah. And these, these will be all in the show notes too. So if you guys want to look up what we're talking about, you can check it out in the show notes. Um,

Anyway, and live music. The return of live music in 2022 was nothing short of a triumph. Everybody from Lizzo, who inspired thousands and millions and quadrillions of women of all body shapes to just get out there and kick butt. Lizzo was fantastic. She was one of my breakaway most enjoyed new artists of 2022. I just was dazzled by her work.

Just her. Can we get her on the show? Gosh, Lizzo, come on. Come and talk to us about your Spanx line. Not Spanx. So, you know, what are the New Year's plans? Because, like, this is literally New Year's. We're putting this episode out. I'll be home. I'll be home in the house. I'll be home in the house. I'll be looking at my trees. I probably won't take them down until...

you know, the middle of January and I start touring the 25th of January. So I will probably be heading East around the 22nd to get into my condo and get organized and off we go. Okay. You don't watch TV, do the countdown? Oh, I won't be up that late, but bless your heart. I will be in bed probably by eight o'clock. My friend Nigel will be with me. Okay. Okay. Nigel will be with me. He's flying back from London with me on the 29th.

And we'll be feeding birds and he loves to go to Canadian Tire and hit the sails. So it's, yeah, it's going to be really chill. But no, no countdown. I haven't done a countdown probably since 1987. Well, I won't tell you that that's the year that I was born, but that was the year that I was born. Okay. Oh my God. Okay.

So, Adam, any New Year's plans for you? At the moment, nothing specific. Probably chill. We're all chilling. We're all chilling. Look at that. Dancing in the street. I love what my mom and dad do. Their little tradition is they get like crab legs for New Year's. They like, you know, do it up with all the butter. I get crabs. No, no. Good God.

And there's our out. That's where we're going to end it for 2022. Jan loves crabs. I got crabs once, but now I'm vegan, so I don't get them anymore. Thanks for laughing at my stupid jokes. We love you guys.

Season two will continue. We will talk to you next week. We don't take any breaks. So here we are, last episode of this year. But join us next week. We'll be back. We have exciting guests planned for the whole year. And Caitlin will be back. There's going to be, you know, so much to look forward to. That's it. That's all. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Keep kicking butt. We'll see you next year. Totally do.

This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.