What Makes You Happy?
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Well, hello there, everyone. It's Jan Arden. You're listening to the Jan Arden Podcast and Show. I'm here with my sidekick, more than a sidekick. She is a Juno red carpet interviewer. I thought you were the star. Sarah Burke is here. Hi, Sarah. How is it, Junos?

Now I'm blushing. Stop. It was great. You looked hot. Thanks, girl. Appreciate it. Like H-A-W-W-W-T. Hot. You know what I noticed as I was like trying to cram everything into a carry-on so I didn't have to check baggage, didn't want to lose anything? Sequins, which I wore every night. They fall off everywhere. And they're heavy. They're heavy to travel with.

Yes. But I'm going through a phase. Yeah. Sequins, they can pack a punch. You know, a lot of times you see those dresses that are beaded from head to toe, whether it's the Met Gala or, you know, fancy schmancy. Yeah. Those dresses weigh a ton. Yes. So an amazing weekend, to be honest. I was sad you weren't there because it was in Alberta, right? I had just got back from Edmonton and I was like, oh, it's just a hop, skip and a jump for Jan. Oh.

Oh, yeah. I was coming back from Palm Springs. My friend Marianne turned 91. Oh, my goodness. And we wanted to get together last year, but it was too COVID-y. And we were going to go to Vegas because she likes to gamble. But yeah, 91, she's very vital. She's purposeful. She's kind. She's spiritual. She loves to plan things ahead. She loves to have stuff in her calendar.

Love that. She talks about not being here. She talks about getting rid of her stuff and making sure that her affair is in order. She talks about it, not with a lot of fear in her heart or trepidation, but yeah, that's what I was doing. I would be remiss if I didn't say a little bit about Marianne because I'm so inspired by her. Well, I want to talk a little bit more about my friend Marianne and turning 91 and what that must mean to her.

And I don't want to stray too far away from the Juno. So I think that's the cutest because now for once it's not me. Oh, now it is. Welcome to doing podcasts in the new world. So who are you babysitting dogs for? So you're hearing Marner and Ruby, my cousin, the holistic nutritionist that we talked about it there on March break. So I came right from the airport and I'm house and dog sitting for them this week.

Oh, fun. Listen, getting back to the Junos, because I don't want to leave these. There's so many moments that I want to talk about. One in particular was right pretty much off the top of the show, the streaker. I mean, I'm older than you, so...

We saw a lot of streakers in the 70s. It was big. It was big to see topless women running across a football field or a tennis court or through like a meeting of Congress. Like they were everywhere. They were in New York intersections. So Avril Lavigne kind of had her hands full with this woman who was there to bring attention to climate change. And I would say, in my opinion, that it worked. Sarah, how about you?

Honestly, I kind of agree. Like, of course, let's just put the message of like, don't run on stage at an award show and safety first ahead of it. But I kind of loved it. And it's something, it reminded me of what we talked about with Greta on the show last week. In order to fight for messages that are not always heard to be heard, this is the kind of stuff you got to do. So I kind of loved it, to be honest. Well, the disappointing thing for me is when I saw the clip

that you sent me. Thank you very much. Casey Hatherley, who goes by the first name ever. I just want to call her what she calls herself. Right. When they asked her, she talked about the green belt, about preserving a green belt. And I'm assuming it's the green belt around Edmonton. She never, ever got to what a green belt is. And basically a green belt is where I

A city can only get to a certain point and then the development stops. And it is a belt around the city that preserves wildlife,

It's probably water management, the use of trees, you know, making sure that they aren't annihilated, natural grasses, fields that aren't agriculturally used. So it's not animals grazing. So that's what a green belt is.

And it seems like every city across this country has absolutely gone past what they deemed a green belt. I know here in Calgary, it is a joke. The green belt is a joke. There's so much development and it's very hard to look at, but everybody wants a piece of the pie. Everybody wants...

convenience to get downtown, but they want a rural life when they're not around people. And if you've got money, I think a lot of people feel like they can supersede any sort of regulations that exist. In that clip, she actually references the Ford government. So I think she's also talking about Ontario's green belt there. The interviewer was asking her, explain the green belt to me. She never got to that.

So all I'm going to say to people that protest and ever, I appreciate your efforts here.

please know what you're talking about. I don't always know what I'm talking about, but I didn't streak across the stage to create a platform for myself. And I'll tell you whatever, had I streaked across the stage, I would have been damn well prepared for questions that came my way because that's what you want. You want mainstream media. You want people to ask you, why did you do this? What's the purpose of this?

So for any young people that want to get out there and do their thing, and I could say this to the convoy truckers too, make sure you have the answers to the questions. Don't be, well, you know, with freedom. We want freedom. Okay. Next, please.

Anyway, getting back to that, lots of surprises at the Junos, lots of not surprises. I thought it was nice to see Nickelback being inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. Just so everybody knows, there's a waiting list of hundreds of people waiting to be inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. And I know this because I am a member of that very wonderful club. You know, there's people that have passed away that...

need to be inducted because they really deserve to be there. So what they're doing is one person or one band goes on to the telecast and then there's four or five or six other people that are inducted each year that are not on the telecast, which I find to be very unfortunate. I wish they'd changed that format a little bit. I wish they would

have a moment where there was five or six people inducted on the telecast, but that's just me. Yeah, it was a nice moment. They also announced Terry Clark was going in. The only reason I'm privy to that is because they had asked me to be the person inducting Terry. Oh, fun. Okay. I would love to do it. We're still figuring out scheduling because of when it lands, it lands on a corporate job for me and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And, but yeah, she's so deserving. This is a woman that hails from Medicine Hat. So she's a proud Alberta girl. She's lived in Nashville for years. I think she has a cottage in Ontario still. She does. Big fisher woman. She went down to Nashville with her mom, Linda, who I met. She's, Linda has since passed away. They went and played and just wrote songs in Nashville. She was a teenager.

And she played in Tootsies, which is where Hank Williams gained so much notoriety. There were so many singer-songwriters that played in Tootsies. They'd walk across the alley from the Grand Ole Opry, and they'd go in there and they'd have a shot of whiskey or a beer or something cold, and they'd play songs for people in Tootsies. Tootsies is a Nashville institution. It's a must-see place.

If you travel South, you haven't seen Nashville unless you walk into Tootsie's. It looks like it hasn't been vacuumed or hasn't had a wall wiped down in about, you know, a hundred years. But Terry, she was a sensation down there.

She could play any song anybody knew. And underage. She was underage, indeed. Her mom was getting her into the clubs. Terry, if you're listening, I love you. And it's so amazing that you are being inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and so, so much deserved. We'll have to maybe try and talk to her when it's getting closer to... Oh, we'd love to talk to Terry, for sure. I'm a nice bunch of girls. I say we because it's us. Yeah.

Highlights for you. Did you have any interesting meals? Did you get a chance to walk around Edmonton? What did you do? Yeah. So funny enough, my spot on the red carpet was sponsored by like an Edmonton tourist association. Explore Edmonton was like written on the back of the board. And I didn't go outside of like music venues too much, to be honest. It was also like so cold. My skin, I feel like is flaking off now that I'm back in Ontario. It was so dry. Oh, so cold.

So dry, so cold. But highlights. Okay, so this may or may not surprise you, but my interview highlight was not a musical guest. It was Conor McDavid, because you know I love my hockey. I have no idea who that is. I'm going to tell you right now. No idea who that is. I don't follow sports. You're saying this to me like Conor McDavid. I'm like...

Who is that? Of the Edmonton Oilers, a player I wish in my wildest dreams would play for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Anyway, he was inducting Nickelback into the Hall of Fame. So he had the task of basically calling them up. So it's kind of fun to say like,

What Nickelback songs are the guys blasting in the, you know, in the dressing room before the game? And he's like, oh yeah, burn it to the ground. Like Brothers Landreth, amazing songwriters. I lost to Michael Buble. You lost to Michael Buble. And funny enough, I kind of thought during the streaker moment, Jan told me to go up there and grab the award, whether Michael Buble wins or not. Like it was like a joke. Imagine I was the person making headlines right now, but obviously the climate activist took the cake there. He just stole your thunder. Yeah.

Yeah. Jessie Reyes. Honestly, she's stepped into a new power over the last few years. You can really see what's going on there is special. Yeah, experience. Time and experience. You come from somebody, you know, singing in their parents' basement and doing little clubs and, you know, having those first studio experiences to actually getting up in front of people and...

finding your seat. She's everywhere. Yeah, absolutely. And Cardi, I mean, it was the 50th anniversary of hip hop at this show in particular and Mishy Mee and Cardi, like it was a whole scene and they were so proud walking the red carpet. Maestro Fresh West. Drunk people? How many drunk people? Tell me who was drunk. Who was hooking up? Who slept with who? Oh, you want the tea. You want the tea. Who was drunk? I know that I was a little silly myself at the end of the night. I

I think everyone was pretty well behaved, to be honest. I didn't see anything crazy. Sorry. No, you don't have to be sorry. You're listening to the Jan Arden podcast and show. I'm here with Sarah Brooke. We've got lots to talk about today. In particular, I want to know how you make yourself happy.

and how we perceive happiness, you know, the simple things in life and all those kind of silly little cliches that are proving themselves to be very true in the times that we live in. Happiness, yeah, I've really been thinking about this a lot just because I was spending the last week with a 91-year-old. Amazing. Vibrant, wonderful, smart, clear woman. You know, she's a teeny little bit forgetful. She's very aware of it. She's like, I know I'm forgetting this. I'm like, Marianne,

I'm 60 and I stand in my closet once a day going, what the F?

what am I looking for? I walk back out to the kitchen and then I do an about face. I'm like, no, I went to get my glasses. And I go back and then I go into the closet and I'm like, I swear to God, I thought I put my glasses on this. And they're on your head the whole time. Well, yeah, sometimes they're on your head. But anyway, she bestows me with so much practical wisdom.

She's very sage. And that comes with time. When you've been on the earth almost a century, you've seen it all. Three kids. She was a businesswoman. She's traveled extensively all over the world. How did you meet? Marianne was a longtime fan of mine. I met her

I think I was doing some charity stuff and she had bought a couple of items. She lives in Saskatoon. And it's funny because she was my age when we met, you know, and then we really got to know each other probably in the last 10 years. That's special that you went away with her. Yeah, she, her daughter and her husband, her daughter's husband, they get a place down in Palm Springs every year. I mean, they spend a couple of months in London. Like their retirement looks very wonderful to me.

They save their money, but they do it really economically. They don't spend a bajillion dollars. They eat all their meals at home. They're not, you know, it's not what you perceive. You know, we're going out all the time and having a bottle of expensive wine. They really, they make it work so that they can enjoy some sunshine.

And they live on Vancouver Island. So they've already got it made in the shade. People go there to retire. So Marianne stays with them. But we just had the best time. And she talked a lot about happiness and what makes you happy. And we're inundated with this kind of messaging. But it's so true because it's true. And that's gratitude. She's made thousands.

Thousands, I'm not exaggerating, thousands of loaves of banana bread and carrot cakes. And even during COVID, her chop and chat, which always makes me laugh, I said, is that the same thing as stitching bitch? She goes, I think so. But of course it got suspended. But during chop and chat, they prepared a lot of meals for unhomed people, people that were marginalized, people in the community that needed meals from every age.

But during COVID, that all went out the window. But she kept baking because she lives on her own. She still drives. The chalk and chat people would come. She's on the third floor of her condo building. She would have a rope with a freaking basket and sort of feed the rope down so that they could pick up these

10 loaves of banana bread and carrot cake, you know, week after week after week, she just baked all the time. And I've probably mentioned this before, but during COVID, she said, it's an inconvenience. I'm inconvenienced, but I'm one of the lucky ones. I'm in my condominium. I'm not in a nursing home. She lost a lot of friends during the pandemic.

But she never lost sight of the inconvenience. I can stay here. I can do this. FaceTime. She said, technology, without it, I would have been sunk. So she said, those are the kinds of things I'm so grateful for. That's a big display of independence at that age. It's incredible. But she also didn't succumb to...

you know, depression, she does have great family. And I know it was a lot of sorrow for people, but yeah, she, she has, you know, kids and grandkids, but she's had a lot of sorrow too. She lost a grandson to drugs. And so she's been through a lot, lost her husband years ago. And you know, she never, she goes, no, that's it for me. Al was my first and only boyfriend. We've known each other since fourth grade. He always wanted to borrow my glue. He always come up to me and asked me for my number seven glue.

And so I asked her a lot of questions when I was there, but getting down to happiness and what happiness means to me. And I know this is true for myself. People often talk about the career, the highs and lows of that and getting awards. I mean, coming off the Junos just now, you know, that, that doesn't make me happy. And I'm not saying that because I've won awards. I'm saying that because at the end of the day, for me, it doesn't mean what people think.

Happiness, true happiness to me is lying an extra 20 minutes in my bed with my dog, pulling the curtains open and watching the sun come up through the trees.

that I am able to live in a place where I am bathing in a forest every day. And they talk about the benefits of walking through forest and being in trees, but she talks about the little things, you know, Mary about the simple things of things that she's collected, but her connections with people. And that really made me think of how lucky I am to have the friends that I have and that that's what makes life great. No matter how long your life is to have friends,

And I think she also has always instilled in me to have a friend. You must be a friend. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah, you have to be there. How about you, Sarah? Like just, you must have people in your life, you know, older people, especially that we can glean so much inspiration from.

Moments before I got on our recording today, my mom's best friend's husband passed away. Oh, I'm so sorry. It's okay. But my mom and my dad were supposed to go to spring training for the Blue Jays in Florida this weekend, and they were beside themselves about the potential for him passing while they would be traveling. And my mom, of course, was concerned about not being able to be there for her best friend.

And we had a big talk about it yesterday. I mean, he had COVID. He had COVID in the hospital, but he had a ton of other problems over the last few years. He's been through chemo and all the things. So honestly, he's kind of beat the system like he could have been gone three years ago. They got three extra years and I'm very happy for that.

Nothing changes. If my parents would have gone to Florida this weekend, but now they've decided not to go because there's a funeral. There's a Jewish tradition called the Shiva where you go sit and pay your respects, you know, at the home. So all that's coming up this weekend. And,

I know that my mom's friendship with this woman is the strongest, like out of all the people in her life. I'm afraid to even be near my mom, watching my mom be in pain for her best friend. I'm going to feel it, you know? Well, those connections, those connections. And I think, of course, we're always reminded of our own mortality when we lose someone close to us, when we lose those voices, those sage voices in our lives. I will never understand how...

people who are aging, women in particular, you know, even when women hit 40, they're suddenly no longer of value to a society because they don't, they cannot bear children anymore. So what use are you? I wrote about that a lot in my book, you know, If I Knew Them, I wrote about getting older, but why, why is it that we don't

put so much more value into our aging population and what they bring to the table. And you know, they do in every other culture in the world. And I know we've talked about that on the show. They don't go to nursing homes. They are looked after by the family.

But our culture does not lend itself easily to that way of thinking. So everything you miss out from those lessons, whether people have memory loss or whatever they have, you miss out on nurturing and looking after someone and making that sacrifice, having filial piety, which means, you know, looking after your family.

having that reverence for your elders. With your parents being gone now and your friendship with Marianne, for instance, here, it feels like you've chosen people to put around you that you do want to care for, spend time with. Well, maybe subliminally. Yeah. Definitely. But I think of Marianne very much as a parent figure.

But I also think of her as a contemporary and a friend. That's a beautiful part of what your time with her is. Yeah, it's not, you know, I have to remind myself of how old she is. Because, you know, she says the F word. And I always laugh because my daughter says, I swear, I say the F word so much more since I met you. And I'm like, I say it much more since I've met you. Kindred spirits. Yeah.

Yeah. But, you know, she wanted to go gambling. We went gambling. She won 1200 bucks in the first 10 minutes we were in there. But, you know, then you feel like a kid in a candy store because when we walked in there, my friend Leah came down with me. We did a little bit of work when we were there. But when we got into the casino, we're there with her, her daughter, Joanne and

And she gave us each 50 bucks to gamble. She goes, if we were in Canada, I'd give you a hundred, but 50 US is that's going to, that's my limit. And she goes, I'm like, I'm not taking that. She goes, yes, you are. Don't screw up my, don't screw up my mojo. Cause this is how I win. You know, we, we've lost our money in about 15 seconds. I didn't even know what, I never know what I'm hitting in slot machines, but

But it just was a, it just reminded me, you know, getting back to the root of happiness, what makes us happy. For me, it is small things. It's my friendships. It's, you know, where it's, where I live. It's these trees. It's the dog.

You know, my career is what it is and I'm absolutely grateful for it. I've loved my work. I have every intention of working through the next, you know, seven, eight, nine, 10 years, however long that I feel like, yeah, I want to do this. And I still am very interested in recording and writing. And, um, my first novel comes out November the 7th. So exciting for me, but,

I, uh, I don't know. I don't know if it's the same for you, Sarah. Like you and I are a few generations apart, you know, one anyway, I could absolutely be your mom, which is really cool because if I had a kid, I would sure want her to be just like you. I'm always impressed by you.

And it takes a lot of balls to go out on a red carpet and interview people and have that knowledge base. It's not an easy job. It's not an easy job. People think, oh, I could do that. No, you probably couldn't because it takes a lot of prep work. Happiness, what is that to you? What really makes you happy? I want to say that gym makes you happy.

Feeling good. Yeah. And the same things you said, my friends, and I've definitely noticed in the last like five years, I just turned 36 on the weekend. And I can't believe I missed your birthday. Oh my God, stop. We're new friends. I wouldn't. We're going to go for dinner and celebrate our birthdays. Okay. But are you a March baby too? I need to know. 27. What's your day? March 12th. Okay. Marianne's the 11th. So I will never forget that again. My brother's the 20th. Funny. Yeah.

So yeah, turning 36, I couldn't help but notice, like I remember when I was turning 30, I had just got the big job at SiriusXM and I did a whole dinner with like close friends and my parents, right? 36, I didn't even care if anyone knew my birthday around. The things that made me happy on my birthday were the people that called. You get messages and that's beautiful too, but like the people that called, the people who you know you're going to see and go for a dinner with, right? I'm going to do a girl's dinner this weekend because I was away. Right.

Thinking about how, you know, how much I've gone through in the last year and just being proud that I walked away from something that wasn't a good fit for work. Right. All those things were what I was happy about this weekend. But when you think of it in the big scheme of things, are those the things when you were a teenager or in your early 20s? I think your perception of happiness was probably a lot different than it is now.

Because I think happiness, especially for young people today, like you probably wouldn't want to be 20 again. Look at what those people are trying to get through, those young people. It's so difficult to look at how they're curating their Instagrams of what happiness is to them. And you're like, it's big things. It's a yacht. It's having champagne on the top of a building. It's this and that. And those things are all great. But the happiness of a human being, and we're seeing this massive, massive

blanket of sorrow covering a generation. And it's because of expectations that have nothing to do with living a human life. One of my happiest moments this weekend was watching an artist that no one knew a year ago who was signed to my friend's female-owned indigenous label, Ishkode Records. I've talked about them on the show before. Yeah.

Get his number one at radio, his first number one, which is unheard of with indigenous artists. I think I follow him. Ace and Abby. He was on the broadcast. He performed with the fire on the broadcast. Ace and Abby. Yeah. And number one freaking song. Number one freaking song. He got to perform on the Juno Awards. And one of the happiest moments was interviewing his label mates, Digging Roots. Shoshona from Digging Roots owns the label with Amanda Rayum, okay? These two female artists. Yep.

Shoshona, when I was asking her how she felt on the mic, she said, I wanted Ace and Abby to win. I mean, this is amazing, but like, look at what we're celebrating right now. The love that they had for each other. It didn't matter about the win at all. It was like the success of the group as a year. No.

Right. And me getting to watch like these little steps that led to this big moment in the spotlight. Oh, you can't do it all at one time. You can't. It is the journey. And these are the cliches that I was talking about. These are the, the, the stereotypical, you know, sayings you see on a poster begin at the beginning. You can't remove obstacles and experience is what's going to set you apart. You mentioned Ms. Reyes.

experience, getting to do your craft, learning how to speak to an audience, learning how your body works, learning how to hold your mic, all of it. Hear this, Hugh Grant? I saw the Ashley Graham interview with Hugh Grant, and if people don't know what I'm talking about, like I said, Sarah's interviewing stuff that she did on the Junos is very difficult. You have to be prepared. Hugh Grant walked the red carpet at the Oscars. He's a very, very A-list actor.

Hollywood star, you know, about a boy. He's been in so many, four weddings and a funeral, huge romantic comedy star. So Ashley Graham looking fantastic, asking him questions. He shut her down. He shut her down knowing that a billion people were watching him.

It was misogynistic. He was a prick. He was rude. He was ungrateful. I don't care if you want to do things or not. Find a way. If he approached with a modicum of gratitude and kindness towards young Ashley, who stood there nervous, happy to meet him, and she held her shoulders high.

She held her head up and she would have made her mama proud. She never lost her cool. She went into everything that he was throwing at her, which was bullshit with kindness, generosity, forgiveness, tolerance. Ashley Graham, I salute you. You grant, you can kiss my ass and you should be ashamed of yourself because guess who made you what you are? Yeah. You worked hard. Yeah. You got some lucky breaks. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

People, fans that came to see your shows, fans that bought a ticket, fans that have supported you. Don't be a prick. You're listening to the Jan Arden podcast and show. I'm here with Sarah Burke. Don't go away. We're going to be right back.

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Hey, welcome back everybody. Jan Arden podcast. I'm here with Sarah Burke. She is fresh off the heels of a very successful Juneau weekend. Lots of great moments, lots of people being recognized, lots of people starting their careers, lots of people in the middle of their careers, lots of people, you know, getting rewarded for,

their big 20, 30-year careers. So it's a pretty interesting night. And speaking of big careers, we are working on having Chad Kroger from Nickelback on the show. Oh, Chad Kroger. This is my Nickelback moment. Chad and I believe it was the bass player came up to me years ago, like 18, 17 years ago. Okay. They were really...

They were a huge band, but they were just like two or three years into it. Okay. And they came up to me, I believe it was at a Junos, and Chad asked. He was with his girlfriend at the time, and he had the curly hair, and he asked if he could get a picture with me that his girlfriend loved me. I think it's his brother, Mike, who's the bassist. Okay. Mike, forgive me, Mike.

He's just like, you have no idea how much we listen to your music in the van. We listen to your happy record a lot. I was like, what is happening? That's so unexpected from Nickelback. Really unexpected and very surprising. But yeah, it's, oh God, when I used to drink back in the day, Sarah, I'd be so hammered, not during the Junos, but certainly afterwards. Just really, really loaded. And I just think back to it now. I'm like, why? I'm so glad that

Social media didn't exist. We had MySpace. So it wasn't too filled with vitriol yet. MySpace was pretty tame, but I can't imagine having people filming me at parties or saying stupid things or

And I say stupid things sober all the time, so there you go. Well, you know what? I hadn't really drank much since the beginning of this year. As you know, it kind of started with the January challenge that we did. I've really only had like, I mean, aside from this weekend, maybe like two drinking nights. And... Wow. I feel like absolute crap right now, speaking of alcohol and all of that. Like, I overdid it for sure this weekend. Well, Sarah, you're on the dark side of 40, for God's sakes. Yeah.

My body can't do it. Turning 36, my body was like, no. But a lot of late nights too. You're just kind of running on adrenaline the entire time. You know how it goes. No, you sure are. And traveling, flying, the stress of that. Did you see that your province is trying to recruit me to move to- Recruit Ontarians? What do you call yourselves? What do you people call yourselves? Ontariates?

In terrible lights? Everyone I've met from out west calls Ontario on terrible, which is funny. That's not true. Some of my dearest, dear heart friends live in Ontario and I love Ontario. It's been very kind to me. It's such a different, it's almost like being in a different country. And I only say that because

Canada is so freaking huge and I have the opportunity to crisscross it on a regular basis. Right. And Ontario goes from this modern skyscraper skyline and then you drive two hours and you're, you feel like you're in the, like the, the far reaches of the North and all these lakes and, and the green belt. Yeah. It's beautiful. The green belt. It really is. But yeah, we're trying to entice the citizens of Ontario to,

to come and work in Alberta. And I would think that would be pretty much in every field. Everywhere you go here, there's a help wanted sign. There's a website that they're advertising. It's called albertaiscalling.ca. And there's a huge list here. They're looking for transport truck drivers, web designers and developers, software engineers, restaurant and food service managers, shippers and receivers. I would have thought that Ontario needs these people too coming out of COVID, but...

The slogan is what really caught my eye. I sent you this article. What did the Albertans say to the Ontarian? You're hired. Ooh, shade. Well, historically...

A lot of people from your province have worked in the oil patch here. It's true. Yes. I don't even know if I'm allowed to call it an oil patch. What am I allowed to call it? Let me give you my opinion on what's happening everywhere across this country. And with the help wanted signs, because I saw just as many help wanted signs in Ontario.

Ontario is trying to get nurses and doctors from New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. And they're trying to get, you know, from Atlantic Canada to have people come and fill the hospitals. So this is happening everywhere.

I think getting back to what I was saying about social media and these curated pages of these lives, these impossibly impossible lives that people are taking 400 shots to get a shot that is perfect. That's what's happening, folks. This isn't just, oh, this is the moment. They're planning for the moment. A lot of them have lighting. So don't lose sight of that. That's why my

Instagram is so boring. It's the dog. It's a deer turd. Anyway, I digress. It's not boring. People do not want to do any kind of labor that is deemed menial. People do not want to work their way up anything. They want to be on top. They want to be there now. And aside from that, and yes, this is a general statement, there's so much entitlement.

I don't know if parents have created it. I don't know if the internet has created it. If the, if media has created it, young people do not think working their way up is the way to go because they deserve more. And that's the messaging all the time. Don't settle for less. Don't do this. I, I think they're in for a very rude awakening because you need to work your way up and

Even when things are handed to you, there's no satisfaction in it. I've never had anything handed to me. And I don't think that it would be all that satisfying when I look around at what I have and where I am every moment of it, every day.

book on the shelf, every picture on the wall has a story and it's earned and it represents a piece of time. And it's so important to the happiness in your life. You know what? I've come across this entitlement piece in some individuals who have been in this business for a long time. And I think it's at the cost of like them not moving with the times. But if you've stopped learning at some point or participating in moving forward-

I think there's a cost there. Oh, for sure. The cost is self-worth. I'll tell you, accomplishment is in and of itself a good feeling in your body. Accomplishment. And it's part of overcoming failure and dealing with failure. And I think a lot of this stuff is fear-based with young people too. But yeah, that doesn't surprise me that we are trying to coerce people from other provinces to come here and work. It's happening all across the country.

And I just can't speak highly enough about immigration in this country and having more people come and being part of our great country and living their lives here and bringing their families here and being part of building the economy, building our identity, building our tolerance, our understanding, our diversity.

I think we can do much better when it comes to immigration and fast tracking people here. There might be people out there saying, oh, but what about, you know, criminals and this and that? And I said, well, there's got to be a way to vet people without doing it at the cost of five, six, seven years that these people are on a waiting list where families are separated, where a husband is here waiting for their families to come. You know, we are the second biggest country on the planet.

in space. Obviously, we go right to the North Pole. A lot of it's inhabitable. We have a very small population. The UK could fit into Alberta, I think, three or four times. And I'm probably exaggerating, but they have 80 million people and they take more immigrants than we do. We have almost 40 million people here now with a landmass that's so

unbelievably we can, we can sustain so much more than we do anyway. That's my rant about that. It makes us better. It makes us stronger and we can never buy into that idea of like us and them, that kind of thing. I find that so discouraging and those voices are,

have a tendency to get louder and they have a tendency to get amplified because they're angry. They don't want anybody else here. They just want, well, I've been here five generations, you know, that kind of thinking. Our identity is completely based on immigration, right? We're all immigrants. My ancestors came from Ukraine. Ukraine.

Sweden, Wales, England, just all over the place. And they came across the ships. Both my grandparents were born in Poland. Yeah, very interesting. Do you want to read through some of the comments that people have been sending us on socials? Yes, I would love to read through. Boy, this is whipped by, but we still have time. We have some moments left to read some comments from you.

And you guys make us happy. We are so grateful for our listeners week after week after week. You guys have been absolutely amazing and so supportive. And we get so many nice comments. I don't read too many crappy comments, Sarah. I don't like, shut up. You guys go away. You guys are the stupidest, stupidest ever. You guys are so stupid. So we don't get a lot of that. But thank God you subscribe to this. It's not like we're forcing ourselves on you. Unless you're listening on terrestrial radio, but then you can just change the channel. Right.

Freedom. It's fine. Comments. Let's read. Let's dig in. You're in charge. So we got a comment from Brenda on Twitter at Murmax1999. She says, love this podcast. You inspire me. You opened my mind to new things. This was after last week's episode. You've allowed me to let go of shame because you've talked about things that aren't talked about. You have made me a better person. Just getting a note like that is very inspiring to me. I think I read a statistic recently.

Right.

a couple of years ago about the people that comment for every person that comments, there's 1500 that don't that think about it, that don't. Right. Okay. Cause it's like looking up something and it's like, is this the right address? And is this the person they think about it? They're touched by it. So that's inspiring for Sarah and I both, I'm sure to read that you're learning things, hearing about things you wouldn't normally hear about. I think talking about the trans community, I'll tell you what, they've been so battered around, um,

This last month or so, my trans friends have just really been so discouraged, but also completely uplifted by the support in their community. They know that the crappy people are outnumbered, so outnumbered, but the good people, us supporters, we have to step forward and make sure that they hear our voices. Like I said before,

Those angered voices get amplified very quickly because of their boldness. So good people step forward, be heard, be loud. And you know what, Brenda, like I think about my mom's generation. My mom, if I tried to have a conversation right now with her about drag queens and the LGBTQ2 plus community, I don't think my mom would know where to start or what to say. And she might feel uncomfortable only because she doesn't know how to talk about it, not because she feels uncomfortable with that.

with that person's choice, that human's choice. Let's also remember that even if you don't know how to talk about these things and participate in these community type of events, like let's say if you're going to a drag show, that's okay. Just even being open to like click on a link and learn a little more from someone or listen to a conversation between Jan and I, all that's great. That means you have an open mind. And I don't always want to listen to things I agree with. Of course, of course. Like I don't want...

I don't want to listen to a show that agrees with everything that I think. I want to be challenged. That's very true. I don't agree with half of the things I think, for God's sakes. Yeah. So we got another comment here from Scott on Instagram. Sarah, great addition to the Jen podcast. Love hearing your views. This might sound weird, but I would love to maybe hear Amanda Marshall on the show. She vanished for 20 years, but looks like she's making a comeback.

with some touring. She's now on TikTok and Instagram. She's an iconic Canadian female. Anyway, thanks to everyone at the podcast. Love listening to you folks every week. I'm a Canadian living in America and love getting a little taste back home every Saturday morning. Yeah, I mean, Amanda's great. Haven't really thought about that much. I haven't thought about Amanda in years. You know, some people are just like, no, I'm taking a break. It's not that constant desire. And I'm speaking out my butthole right now because I don't know what Amanda's thinking. But just that, you know, she didn't feel...

obliged to stay in the race. And in music business, you are not what you did, you are what you will do. So even when you're a legacy performer, that's why I think we see people like Elton John and people like Cher and people like Billy Joel and James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt, these iconic people that keep working because there's something inside of them. A, it's money.

And B, it's like the spotlight. They just want to be there. And I guess I could say that for myself as well. I'm not outside of that way of thinking. I really like being with the band and playing music. I really like doing it. And it's a really wonderful way to make a living. So whatever Amanda's reasons were, I'm...

I'm really glad that she's able to come back and, and, you know, feel the joy and bring a lot of joy to people. Right. I think there'll be a lot of excited Amanda fans, Amanda Marshall fans out there. Well, that's cool. I I'm thanks for bringing that to our attention, Scott, because you know what they say when you're not appearing, you're disappearing. Yeah. So,

That's why all of us just keep out there and we just keep plugging away all the time. It'd be an interesting conversation, right? Yeah. If we could track her down. So let's see what we got. Let's see what we got. Let's see what we got. I wanted to ask you one thing before we wrap, actually, and we should tease our guests for next week because we're very excited about that. But did you see Lisa Laflamme do her first television interview? I did not. It was Adrienne Arsenault on CBC. Well, there's two powerhouses. Right? Yes.

Knowing that you two are buds, I was just wondering. I'm very good friends with Adrian as well. Okay, that's amazing. I was just wondering what you thought because, you know, I know Lisa's been sort of like staying out of the spotlight for a little bit, just doing certain events. And with all this talk that we've had today about,

women in their age in the media. I just think that it was really interesting hearing her talk about what she wants to do next versus focusing on that moment. She's been doing work with journalists for human rights. And yeah. So anyway, you'll have to watch and let me know what you think. And we can talk about it next week. Lisa Laflamme. We love you, Adrian Arsenault. We love you. And here, here you have two, basically they're perceived as competitors, right? Two different networks, CTV and CBC. Yeah.

And here they are, you know, with solidarity as respected journalists. I mean, I just was texting Adrian. She was in Ukraine. She was in war zones. I'm texting her. I'm like, Adrian, please come home. She goes, you're so funny. I'm okay.

And I'm just like, you can't control where a bomb lands on the ground. Ask anybody. There's no armored vehicle in the world that's going to say, I was so worried. I was so glad to see her come home. Lisa talked about Ukraine and she was talking about basically the idea of her body of work being scrubbed from Ukraine.

the network. There's a story out there that she had nominated herself for a Canadian Screen Award because she heard that her work was not being represented by her former network. So she took it upon herself to nominate herself. And she said, these stories are not for me and my accolade. It's because I was in Ukraine. It's because I was covering the Pope's first visits. You know, it's not about me. A small truth turns into a giant untruth sometimes. So

Anyway, I'm so respectful of Lisa and of Adrian, and journalism is profoundly important in these troubled times with all the perceived fake news out there. And, of course, the Internet, when people – if you want to find your side of the story, if you want to find people that will agree with you that the sun is green, not white –

you will find people that will agree with you. And then you'll find a hundred articles telling you, here's the science and here, here's the, who did the study on the sun. And there is little man on the moon and it's science and you'll find it. It's

So be careful what you're looking for. Anyway, it's, uh, there's so many inspiring people out there. Think about what makes you happy. Make sure you, uh, drop us a line. We have a Twitter handle. Sarah, what are those handles? At Jen Arden pod. Um, that's where you can find us. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Tell us what makes you happy.

Just a reminder, subscribe to us. Hit the subscribe button and that way we pop up in your feed without you having to search or go, oh yeah, there's a new podcast. And plus you can go in and you can give us a little star review. I mean, I would give us more than one star. Please. Like four or four and a half.

And you can write a review. Anyway, we'd appreciate that. You can listen to iHeartRadio or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Next week on the show. Next week on the show. Go ahead. You say it. Come on. This is your pal. It is my wonderful friend, Dani Kind, one of the stars of the unbelievably successful Working Moms franchise.

that you can see on Netflix, you can see on Gem, the CBC app, and you can see them on CBC. I think season seven just is about to do its big finale. Season finale next week. So we are celebrating with Dani. And I play Dani's mother. I had the opportunity to do like three episodes of the show and it was an absolute thrill. So thank you, Catherine Raymond for that. Dani Kind is a consummate professional. She'll tell you

all about her kids and, and working on the show and what's it like directing and writing. And the hilarious story of, of you two at the hospital. There's a teaser for next week. Yeah. Okay. Well, this is the Jan Arden podcast. Once again, we thank you so much. Subscribe. We'll see you week after week after week. We're well into season two and we appreciate you guys more than, you know, Sarah Burke, as always. Great to see you. We'll see you next time. Totally do.

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