Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Hello and welcome to the Jan Arden Podcast and show. We are a show and a podcast. I'm Jan Arden and I'm coming to you today from Toronto, Ontario. Are you sure? Yes, I am sure. I am jet lagged. I'm going to tell you, when I was younger, jet lag was not, it really wasn't a thing. I feel like I could just hit the ground running. I could get out of the plane wherever I was and even going to London last week was
It took me like two days. I felt like kind of unwell. And I slept a little bit on the plane. I have an aura ring.
um, O U R A. And I love it. It's a sleep tracker, a fitness tracker, a heart rate. It does a lot of stuff. They keep upgrading this ring and I love mine. I've bought them for gifts for people. I think they're about 340 bucks. I got to look into this. Yeah. But anyway, it gives me a sleep number all the time. It tells me when I should go to bed. You know, your optimum bedtime is between
8.30 and 9.30 or something. Anyway, when I checked my sleep score, I was curious when I landed in London, it was like 54. So my ring was really confused as to what I was doing, you know, getting up at three o'clock in the morning. And then of course, it's linked to my phone. So it realized, okay, she's in a different time zone. But yeah, I felt wonky for a
So I got into Toronto at 10 after 7. I left London at 3 p.m. I can't even, I don't even know how to do the freaking math. But I stayed awake on the plane. I watched some movies, drank some tea, read my book, and had a really hard time getting to sleep when I got here. And I finally feel a little bit better today. Yeah. Planes are also so hard to sleep into because like you find your body in such a crunched position, right? And your posture. Yeah.
Well, they don't really make those seats very ergonomic. And, you know, you're close to people. I mean, I've done my share of back of the plane flights in my life. I am not going to lie. I probably haven't flown economy for a number of years. And, you know, I'm 60 years old and I'm not going to apologize for flying business class. I use a lot of points.
because I fly so much, I use a ton of upgrade tickets. So I'm always wheeling and dealing, you know, and getting deals. But if you can, it is worth it on an overseas flight to save your air miles, save those points, you know, pay that base fare and then upgrade. And a lot of times, make sure you, I sound like the points guy. Sorry, points guy. Sorry, Brian. You know, a lot of times when you're checking in,
And if they haven't filled that business class cabin, you can check, you know, is it possible to upgrade? And sometimes they even offer you an upgrade for really cheap. So keep your eye out for that kind of stuff. And you should follow the points guy on Instagram. Brian Kelly, I think is his name. Chris, is his name Brian Kelly? Points guy. My road manager, Chris Brunton is here behind me. But the points guy on Instagram, and he can give you
so many cool, cool ideas for traveling. And that goes from car rentals to, you know, where to go, hotel rooms, tours. Brian really is hooked up. He's done an amazing job of developing that brand over the years. Brian Kelly just had a baby. He's got a brand new baby.
And that's pretty cool. So now he's traveling with his baby and making it look like the easiest freaking thing in the world. Okay. Lots to learn. I just followed him. I'm going to check him out. What was the question? Nobody asked me a question. I just started going off. We were like, where are you? Well, we're all in Toronto. And it's really unfortunate that we couldn't meet up at the studio to record in person. I actually saw Sarah yesterday, everybody. In real life? Mm-hmm. You're beautiful in real life too, by the way.
You are very beautiful in real life. You have glowing skin. You look like you just came from a jaunt through a meadow in Sweden. And your cheeks were glowing and your long blonde hair. Anyway, we were talking about the podcast and talking about things to do with the podcast and how we want to grow this podcast and do some cool things with it. So Adam, you would have been happy that we saw your old stomping ground.
The last time that we recorded in that building was February of 2020. Crazy. Isn't that wild? So wild. It really is. Seeing people in real life, like it's wild to me, Jan, how many conversations we've had about all sorts of stuff and like seeing you in person, you know, in real life yesterday, I was like, oh my God, it feels like it feels really different. Yeah.
It feels different. It's very tactile, but there was certainly a very familial thing. You know, when I saw you, I'm like, oh, there she is. And, um...
I don't know. You're exactly the way you are. You know, I think you guys represent yourselves. Authentically, I would hope. Yeah, very authentically. And you're very vulnerable. And, you know, like you said, Sarah, we've had lots of really great conversations. I think we've all learned, you know, since the pandemic, how to be on Zoom calls and Riverside calls and whatever the hell else is going out there, FaceTime and Facebook and whatever.
Um, you know, I think, I think we did adjust. I think there was a lot of awkward moments when people first were at the cameras, they were looking at themselves. So I never even look at myself anymore. It's just like,
Okay, I look really terrible and we'll just get past that and here we go. But I think we dropped all that stuff. I think people first started getting themselves ready in the morning and putting on a nice shirt and getting all ready. And then as it wore on, because we all thought this would be over in three, four weeks, we did. Right. We did it. We thought it would blow over like the plague in the Bible and that we would come out in
of our houses after a month and the sun would be shining and it would be over. But we did learn how to be on TV. Let's just say we learned how to be on TV. I want, I want to come back around to that for a second, but I feel like we need to fill Adam in on your, um,
I'm going to say welcomed interruption on a live-to-tape eTalk set yesterday. What did I miss? She just waltzed right in and sat down on the chair like she was part of the broadcast, and the broadcast team was taping, and they were like, oh, hello, Jan Arden is here. Oh.
I didn't know they were taping. So we were in the Bell building and E-Talk and, you know, Tyron and Tracy Melchior were sitting there doing their piece, but I didn't know they were filming. So I just plunked myself down on the couch. And the best part to the podcast listeners is we have a little video of this, which I will post this weekend. So look for that on the Jan Arden podcast page if you'd like a good laugh. Amazing. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, needless to say, they had to cut and start again. And the floor director did not look happy with me. She was just like, we got shut to do here, Jan. Who let her in here?
So good. Who let her in? Anyway, yeah, we're all in Toronto and there has been, this is not going to air until Saturday, of course, but right now it is Thursday afternoon and I don't know what you guys are seeing, but I'm seeing nothing. There's a thick blanket of fog. Oh yeah. Over this city. And, and my visibility is probably, I'm going to say 200 yards. Yeah.
That's it? Yeah. Right now I can't see the lake and I'm right beside the lake, right? Like on the west end of town, I cannot see the lake right now. It's just white. So what is going on here? Is that anything to do with the water?
Like, I'm no meteorologist, but, you know, this would have been really great for the kids at Halloween. How spooky would this have weathered been for that? Well, it was here all week, so don't worry. They had it. Oh, okay, good. Yeah. I think it's the drastic temperature changes, because yesterday it was 20 degrees, and then it was 5 degrees this morning. And it's going back to 18 tomorrow. So there's, like, a bunch of different things. But it says it's all about the temperature swings. But, yeah, they're, like...
They're giving fog advisory warnings for like drivers. It's like on the big signs on the Gardner, on the highway. It's all over. I just want to do a little plug here. I'm not sponsored by these people, but this afternoon, Chris and I went to Odd Burger on College Street in Toronto. Odd Burger is a vegan fast food restaurant. They are popping up all over the place.
There's one coming in Calgary that I'm so excited about. For all you people in Calgary, it's going to be, I think, 17th Avenue and 14th Street, a really cool area. But here it's on College just off of Bathurst.
And Chris had chicken fingers and onion rings. I ordered just their bacon and cheeseburger. This is all vegan. So I'm just fries and a mac and cheese that we got to our sound guy because he had flown in from a show to do the show that I'm doing today here. I have a corporate job. But we ordered so much food. We ordered the Oreo kind of
blizzardy type things. Am I allowed to say that without infringing on somebody's rights or, or trademarks? But I'm telling you, if you have a chance to go to odd burger, it's all, you just go onto your big screen and punch in and it's all, you can just tap your credit card. Super easy to order. Excellent people. I really believe in, you know, making a difference in the footprint that we are leaving with how we eat on this planet. And we're going to talk more about that when we come back.
I think...
Listen, if you get a chance to be able to talk on behalf of animal welfare, people are so scared to step out into that light, and I don't want them to be. I don't mind talking about veganism. It really is something that people, they kind of turn the other cheek to sometimes. People seem to get PO'd about every little thing these days when you talk about not eating animals. But I'm telling you, any kind of cruelty towards a living thing is indefensible.
And that I will say, it's indefensible. We have to figure out a better way to treat the things that we are using for food. And I really hope that in my lifetime, if I live another 20 years, that we really see the amount of animals that we are eating diminishing a lot. This is not sustainable, what they do to farmed animals. But back to my point of Oddburger, completely 100% vegan. And it's not even about cruelty. It's about
that but it's about the planet it's about everything I just love them and I'm here to bang their drum and to cheer for them you're listening to the Jan Arden podcast I'm here with Sarah Burke Adam Karsh I should have mentioned that right off the top of the show but we're here we've got a great show for you we're going to be talking about teachers we're going to be talking about Dragon's Den we're going to be talking about anxiety and mental health all of that when we come back right after this
Welcome back to the Jan Arden Podcast. I'm here with Sarah Burke and Adam Karsh. We're on a foggy, foggy, foggy day in Toronto. I don't want to hear any complaining from you people here in Ontario because you've had an amazing fall, as we did in Calgary. But yeah, winter's coming and this is...
This is like a harbinger of, it looks like a harbinger, very foreboding day out there. Like literally walking around, I felt like I was in London looking for Jack the Ripper to jump out from the alleyway.
That's fair. Yeah, it's hard to see around here, that's for sure. Even when I was driving to come see you at the iHeart building, Jan, I couldn't see more than like three cars in front of me. Well, what's happened in Calgary is that everyone put off getting their winter tires unless they're driving on, I guess, all-season radials, which a lot of people are doing these days. So summer, winter, it's the same damn thing, which I do because I can't be bothered. I'm like, what do you mean you got to change your tires? Why? Why?
But I guess there was such an onslaught of people waiting to get, they were just literally spinning out on the, on the, on the slightest of inclines. But there's a foot of snow there now. I keep checking my cameras at my house and kind of looking out and I'm like, Oh my God, I want snow. Well, I like the snow. I like a good reason to have a fire and sit in the house and read books and feel like I can slow down.
Although that doesn't really happen. I'm touring again January and February. So I'm really looking forward to having a little bit of time over the holidays. I think my last job is December the 18th. When do you guys kind of pack it in to go into that? Can't even believe we're talking about Christmas, but... Freelance? It's kind of no packing, to be honest. Yeah.
It just goes and goes, doesn't it? It just goes and goes. But yeah, there's lots of, I end up usually around the holidays filling in for a lot of announcers at the other radio stations. So yeah, there's usually some extra shifts to pick up and that kind of thing. And Hanukkah is literally how I got my start in radio, to be honest. How's that? Because they were like, listen, you're Jewish. If you're not celebrating Christmas, do you want to do your first shift? And I was like, yep. Yeah.
Adam's pointing at his chest. I guess so. So for all the people that, you know, are celebrating Christmas and want to be at home on the 24th, 25th, they're like, hey, Adam and Sarah are Jews. Let's have them come in. The Jew crew. And play Christmas music for the people. And I did. I worked every overnight into when I was at the station starting out in my early days of shift work. Oh, I worked Christmas morning every day. Happy to. My pleasure. Mm-hmm.
Well, back in those days, were you guys at all like spinning records or doing CDs? Was it all programmed in when you started? Was it just the computer button or were you actually loading discs and spinning songs?
Mostly computers. It was mostly automated, but there was still a bunch of analog components. I mean, I wasn't playing records or anything, but yeah, there were some things off CD or carts. It looked like eight tracks. Remember those? But no, it was pretty automated. But even when I started in radio, we were feeding tape like on a reel to reel machine, cutting tape.
I was doing that. I may go to the next generation of digital with this comment, but yeah, everything's pre-programmed. Most people don't know that like
Radio announcers don't usually pick their own music unless they're doing a specialty show. So luckily over the years, over holidays, like I would pick a holiday theme and then throw my Adam Sandler in there. And you know, if there's like a special. Yeah. There, there was a time where DJs really made their mark in, in the world by, uh,
Having a block of time, be it three, four, five hours where they played their music. And so people might remember Wolfman Jack. Yeah, yeah.
and spin it and play it. And they made up their own playlists. And now most stations that we're hearing folks, even where you're listening to me right now on whatever radio station you've got tuned into,
These stations are all pre-programmed, so if you hear a block of music, there's a whole bunch of stations that are playing exactly that same block of music. So it's kind of a drag, but if you're an artist that can get a spot on radio, which is very difficult to do when you think about, oh, 2,500 singles being released in a week,
And most stations have two or three, maybe four spots available to spin these songs if you're lucky. But if you get on there and you're being played once every 90 minutes, you are really on your way to having some success. I got to ask you, tell me about your first time hearing yourself on the radio.
Well, it was a song called Will You Remember Me? And off of my first record. And I was driving in my crappy old car in Calgary and it came on and I just pulled my car over. I didn't know what to do. I don't know if I was going to get out and stop traffic or like wave my arms. But I pulled my car over and I just sat. I think I was on Glenmore Trail of all places. It wasn't quite as busy 30 years ago as it is now.
And I just had one of those very surreal moments that, okay, here we go. So awesome. Yeah, it was, I'll never forget that. And now I, if I hear myself on the radio, I usually will, you know, listen a little bit. I'm always happy to hear it. I hear myself a lot in Vegas. I hear myself, you know, in the weirdest spots. I had a friend of mine send it. She was in somewhere in China and,
And she's videotaping this weird wall in this restaurant. And she's like, I know the wall's uninteresting, but just listen. And it was insensitive. Really? Oh, my God. And they were somewhere in Shanghai, and insensitive was on the Muzak in this restaurant. So it's pretty cool. Music –
It travels a long way. It's borderless. It's like a white flag waving in the air. It's been a magical part of my life, but thank you for asking. Sarah, you brought a story in to talk about this week, and I think it's really interesting. Tell me about Dan Mangan and his partner and what they're doing together.
They have an appearance coming up. I believe it's the 4th of November on Dragon's Den. Yeah. And it's about music. And if you've ever wanted to hear an artist playing in your living room, which who wouldn't want that? So talk to us a little bit about what you know about.
Yeah, I was interested to get your opinion on this because it's just like a little less traditional than what we've grown accustomed to. But here, I'll read you from the Side Door website. Okay. They're a dedicated team of artists and technologists committed to building a more efficient, fair, and decentralized global ecosystem for the performing arts. We believe anybody should be able to perform, curate, and present shows for their communities. And so the idea is Dan Mangan, Juno Award-winning artist, and his partner, Laura Simpson, are
Their company is called Side Door, and it basically brings hosts and performers into a community platform. Some of the biggest bands in Canada played, for example, Broken Social Scene, big indie band here in Canada. They played a weird little farm off the 401 between gigs through this Side Door platform. The idea is more of those fees that you see, like the big Ticketmaster grabs going to the
And the idea to have a show in a really unconventional space, whether it be like a farm, someone's cool basement living room, everything on the platform, they do all the checks and
and you know making sure that everyone's safe and everything you know all those things like the well security and and making sure that there's safety things involved and that the stage is built properly and all that all that stuff but it gives you like a totally different um experience too like if you're in the audience right like imagine seeing would you ever perform in someone's living room if you knew that security and all those things were checked by the company
Well, I have done it to a certain degree. I've done a lot of different corporate jobs over the last 30 years from, you know, we did a wedding thing a couple of times. This guy, I played on his 40th, I played on his 50th and I played on a 60th, like so obviously over a 20 year span. And I think it was one time was in his house or his friend's house and
And we had the whole band in there with speakers and there was just everyone kind of poured out the living room and the kitchen. But they paid my rate and we had a little set of lights, like a tiny little set of lights. But I've done a couple of weddings privately where, you know, we were out on a lawn on Muskoka somewhere on a stage, like a stage built up. But just in front of a couple hundred people that were at this wedding and did a 45-minute set.
Yeah.
make a couple thousand bucks in a night and everybody's happy. You know, we all need to make a living. It can't always be about big stadium shows. And, you know, bigger is not necessarily better. What's been really cool too, because I've worked really closely with a lot of emerging musicians over the last few years as they've been building up this company, including Dan Mangan, who's one of the founders. The idea of like having new material and feeling really like in
about it, maybe you want to like test some stuff out before you go to town or between gigs, if you haven't had rehearsal time, let's say your band lives all over and then finally you're in the same province and you're on the road together, but you haven't had a practice yet. Well, before the stadium gig, maybe you go make a little money while having a practice that's a hell of a lot of fun in a less traditional space. And the idea there is that any space can be a venue. So by the time you're listening to us having this conversation, you can probably go look it up online.
on Dragon's Den because at the time of recording, the episode airs tonight. So yeah, you can go see if they got a deal or not. Yeah. I went online just to look up, you know, the clip that they had, but I wish them luck, Dan, you guys, I I'll be cheering for you and I'll definitely be checking back.
to see what happens. But, um, yeah, it's a great idea. And, and I think it's a, it's an idea whose time has come. You're listening to the Jan Arden podcast. I'm here with Sarah Burke and Adam Karsh. We will be right back.
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Welcome back. Jan Arden here. Sir Burke, Adam Karsh. We're going to just swap, as we do on the show. We just swap out topics. I really do want, before we go, I want to talk a little bit about the teachers. But before we get to that, and this is a really great sort of caveat into speaking about teachers, is mental health. Oh, yeah. And Selena Gomez...
is doing something really cool she's got a new single coming out and it has to deal with a documentary that she has done and i'm sure it took an incredible amount of brave me bravery and work and mental fortitude to put yourself out there to millions and millions and millions of people in a way that might not always be so bright and shiny and hollywoody and celebrity perfection it's uh a warts and all as they say but um
How important do you think it is, Sarah, for young people to, especially young people with a reach like that, to talk about mental health and how it can go sideways? I think it's really brave. Like we've seen a lot of even cancellations of tours in regards to mental health where, you know, someone like Shawn Mendes or Bieber, right? Bieber, there's also some other health things, but, you know,
to be brave enough to say, Hey, my body is telling me no right now. So I got to make this call for myself. Yeah. Um, that's what I love about this Selena Gomez story. Like people post one photo of her and like Justin Bieber's wife and like the rumors and the,
the comment section just swirls out of control, right? So her documentary, by the way, if you're looking for that, it's called Selena Gomez, My Mind and Me, same title as the single, premieres on Apple TV this week. So you can probably find it by the time you're listening to this conversation. But she's putting mental health front and center because life in the spotlight is a little crazy. And I wanted to ask you this on this story. How easy has it been for you to talk about mental health in your music?
I've been really lucky in my life. I haven't had a lot of mental health issues. I've certainly had anxiety in my life where there was a period of time I found it very difficult to kind of get out on stage. I got really nervous. I had trouble catching my breath and I didn't know why, but you don't always get to the heart of anxiety or why or what. But as far as, you know, making my way through the world, I do not have a disposition for depression.
I don't have a disposition. I'm eternally optimistic. I've always been very lucky to have a very supportive family when my folks were alive. And it's not that I have been without obstacles. I had hard stuff from the time I was a kid. My brother was in jail for 30 years. My dad was an alcoholic. I've certainly navigated lots of stuff in my life, but it is my disposition, my mind's chemical makeup that
to somehow cope. I've not struggled in that realm at all. And I have very little to do with fame. You know, I've been doing this professionally for 40 years and I have no interest in it. I've been a known person longer than I have been an unknown person in my life. And I just don't cater to it. I don't, it has nothing to do with my life. I don't
I don't really even know many famous people. I think the way you express yourself almost, it's almost the idea, and with Selena in this song too, it's like mental health fitness, right? Like just the way that you need to maybe incorporate like physical fitness into your life. If you keep your mind, you know, mentally fitness, mentally fit, then... I like mentally fitness. I want a t-shirt.
But you know what I mean? Like the way that you express yourself, whether it's on Twitter, whether it's, you know, through lyrics of a song, I think that being so open and honest is the way that you are mentally fit.
Yeah, I think so. I mean, I'm not the greatest person for asking for help. I don't know if you guys are good with asking for help. When my mom got Alzheimer's and my parents were getting older and I was sort of the last man standing to look after them, plus they lived 100 yards from me, I did have to tap into my friends. And it was so hard for me to say, can you help me look after my mom or can you stay with them? Can you help them get lunch? So the first time in my life, you know, I'm like –
50 some odd years old and I'd never really had in hand gone to my friends, my colleagues and said, can you help me do this? I was able to take my mom on a cruise just before shit really hit the fan.
with her memory loss. But Chris, who's behind me here, Brenton, he and I worked together for 18 and a half years. I could never have done that cruise without him helping me with my mom.
And I'm like, that's probably the last thing that he wants to do. But Chris and I still laugh about that fucking trip of, you know, my mom drinking beer and the things she said and her, she could outwalk everybody on that. You know, she was walking up hills in Switzerland, going to castles and blowing past people who were so hungover from the night before on these boats and
But anyway, it's asking for help and being able to accept help. That's been a big part of my mental fitness. But yeah, it's hard. I think it's very hard for young people to kind of somehow maneuver their way through the barrage of information coming at them. And I know this sounds like an old person saying this, but we did not have the internet back then.
I didn't grow up with that. You know, my mom kicked us out the back door and I was, you know, busy shooting a gun and driving skidoos. And I just, we didn't have that. Do you remember that? Adam, you would remember this.
Those, the freaking, when video games first came out, it was that little round dial hitting a ping pong ball back and forth. Yes. And we were like amazed by it. I remember. The paddle would move up and hit the little electronic ping pong ball. Right? Yeah. Pong. Yeah, pong. We thought that was the end of the world. Like, what is happening? This is the coolest thing. And then after, of course, half an hour, you're like, this is the most boring thing.
mundane thing that ever happened to the world. So yeah, it's, but it just, it's accelerated so quickly now, you know, things that are six months old are antiquated. I know. Talk about this business, but that just speaks to why, like, you know, when a Selena Gomez stands up and puts something out with mental health at the center of it, all those little girls, all those little boys watching, um,
someone that they idolize, be open to share about how things are not always easy. That's a good resource to have if we're talking about the entertainment industry. There's got to be some of that. Oh, absolutely. And you know, everyone, it doesn't matter how old you are, you're always susceptible to be
To get to that point in your job, in your relationship, with your physical health, you do have a breaking point. And I think to be able to recognize that and to be able to tell people around you. And I think workplaces are getting much more ear to the ground with someone coming up to their boss and saying, I need a week off. I don't feel well and I'm crying at my desk.
And now there's no question. They're just like, take the week. I think people have, there's a lot of good things that have come out of COVID, a lot of hideous things. But as far as COVID, people's mental health was put to task this last two years. And we'll see what unravels. I think there's a lot to be learned here in the next three, four, five, six years of exactly what this did to people.
And some people fared better than others, but some of us weren't on the front lines, you know, battling this thing day in, day out. Healthcare workers, the police, the teachers, the teacher's aides, the people really trying to keep the wheels on the bus. Bus drivers. Okay.
No kidding. And I remember before the pandemic going through a breakup with a, you know, a different fellow that I was dating. And I was beside myself because I knew I had to break up with this person. And I went to work the next morning after we yelled and cried all night. My eyes are puffy, right? But now there's that option. And it's a little more normal to say, listen, I'm going to log in from home today. I'm
You know, that option came out of COVID. And back in the day, it was like, nope, just got to get up and go to work.
Hopefully that is going to be the norm going forward that you don't have to sit on your hands. People like Selena Gomez are making all the difference in the world. You know, even, you know, Sean Matt does saying, I can't, I'm just sorry, guys, I can't go around the world right now. I have to look after myself and my wellbeing. And a lot of people used to martyr themselves and just go and go do it.
and be out there and be miserable and get themselves into so much trouble because they felt like they were letting everybody down. So at least that's come out of this. You're listening to the Jan Arden Podcast. I'm here with Sarah Burke, Adam Karsh. We'll be right back. This is going by really fast today. Jan Arden Podcast. I'm Jan. I'm here with Sarah and Adam.
The whole teachers thing going on in Ontario, and we certainly are not here to give you any updates. We will let you get that from your credible news people because those things are changing all the time. And by the time this airs, it could be a whole different story. But what it did prompt us to think about, and Sarah sent me this note this morning, was favorite teachers, memorable teachers, intellectuals.
It's come a long way since I went to school. My God, it was like half a century ago. But I have teachers that will be kicking around inside of my heart till the day I die. And one in particular, her name is Judy Snyder. And then she got married and was Judy Humphreys. And it's so funny. Or was she Judy Humphreys and then got married and was Judy Snyder? So please forgive me, Judy.
uh I don't know where you started but you were a fantastical teacher and I she was my music teacher back when they had music in schools like I was taught music and uh she passed away a few years ago and uh it was very sad she had ALS but I had a chance to go visit with her and her husband she
There's the magic of the internet. I'll say a lot of crappy things about the internet, but because of the magic of the internet, they were able to leave a number at my office and say, Jan may or may not remember me, blah, blah, blah. But I was able to go and have tea and just to walk down memory lane with Judy before she passed away. And it
It just meant the world to me. But holy smokes, she'd bring records in. First time I ever heard Anne Murray was Judy Snyder brought her little record player with the detachable speakers. And we all sat there in this classroom and listened to Anne singing. I had a lot of teachers that, some of them were not the greatest teachers in the world, but there was something about their personalities. I mean, I don't think I learned one single thing in math class. His name was Mr. Milton.
And he putted into a cup, like the whole afternoon we were in class. This would have been 1974, maybe 75. But I'll never forget him, Mr. Milton. I mean, in math class, he let us do a play. Well, do a play if you want. That's all right. Just has to include something to do with math. And my friend Teresa, who I still am dear friends with to this day, she goes, do you remember doing that play in Mr. Milton's math class? And I'm like, what the hell?
But it's such a great memory. And thank God I managed to scrape through high school. So yeah, teachers. And I know, I mean, if you go online, it's so much vitriol. But
90% of people are cheering for educators, for educators' helpers, for the custodians, for people that help in the library, for volunteers, for chaperones that go on these trips. They always say it takes a village, and it does indeed, to get kids interested in learning and to make them feel, and this certainly is part of mental health, making them feel seen and heard and
and accepted and part of the group. And I always felt like part of the group with the teachers that I had. I just, I can name so many of them. And I don't know, I just feel very fortunate. And I was not a good student. Every single report card is Jan talks too much. If Jan concentrated, if Jan did her homework, if Jan wasn't so busy daydreaming, you know, she could really make something of herself.
You know what's the best? So same thing for me, same thing in my report cards. Exactly. And the best was when the high school teachers start coming around to ask you to come speak to their class about your career. And you're like, oh,
oh, what was that? But the reason is like, I remember this one teacher, I will never forget, Mr. Stewart, history class, grade 11. I definitely didn't put that on my priority list. I was busy being a social teenager and skipping school and doing my things. Anyway, I would hand in a paper doing the bare minimum. He'd hand it back to me and go,
Yeah, you'd get like a B on that, but go do it again because it's going to be better. He just wouldn't accept anything. He knew I could do better every time. And teachers like that are the reason that I'm such a perfectionist in my work today. See?
Wow. Yeah. Adam, do you have a teacher that you can remember? Oh, I remember all of them. But specifically, I think one of my I'll say one of my because I had a lot of favorite teachers. But Mrs. Richardson in grade three. I loved her. She was so nice. I wonder where she is. Beverly Richardson. I think I had a crush on her, too. Where are you, Beverly Richardson? She was so nice. Cliffwood Public School. And what did she teach you? What what was nice about her?
I just liked her way. She was very kind and friendly, and she was a good teacher, and she was just nice. Like, it was grade three, so whatever we were learning in grade three, I just remember. But that's what I mean. When you think that kids, oh, they're not going to remember this, or it's not important. So it's not even, there's getting educated, and there's certainly learning skills, writing, reading, you know, whatever, learning things. But then there is that aspect to it, Adam, where there's kindness involved.
You look at kindness in other people and you learn kindness. You're like, that's how you treat people. When a person makes you feel good, there's value in that. And that's all about learning too. I think when kids are going to school, every time I ever went through a breakup in my life, Sarah, getting back to your breakup, the famous 2019 breakup, is that
Why don't they teach us this stuff in school? Why don't they teach us how to cope? Why don't they teach us, you know, why don't they teach us how to fight in relationships without ending it, without there being ultimatums? Well, why don't you leave then? Why don't I leave? Why don't they teach us practical things? My God, people get up in arms when you get taught any kind of sexuality. You need to be taught that so you can protect yourself and make good decisions.
you know, but we're not taught, like maybe there should be a class where you're taught how to do fricking laundry. Like maybe parents aren't doing all that stuff now. I remember in home Mac, I, the teacher in home Mac, I mean, she was an absolute riot, but she's just like,
I should be teaching you how to do laundry and how to darn your socks and how to make yourself a meal because you're going to get out of school and you're not going to know how to do any of that. And I don't know if parents are teaching kids that anymore. And I just looked at her like,
I don't know. I had to do all those things. My mom, I had to cook meals when I was like 12 years old. My mom and dad both worked and they were terrible meals. My dad said, how many cans did you open up to make this thing? And he wasn't wrong. I'd put everything into the crock pot with like a package of meat wrapped up from the freezer downstairs. But yeah, teachers are just, I...
I just don't even know if I would have gone into music. I mean, there was a series of things that happened. But Judy Snyder, just like, I was able to say that to her. Thank you for instilling in me a real love of music and for introducing me to such cool records.
I want to mention like, you know, the peripheries of teachers to the education assistance, all that stuff. I've been thinking about this a lot this week with like this looming strike conversation. So when I was, you know, end of high school, just working summer jobs, I met at day camp where I was a counselor, an autistic girl, and I ended up working one-on-one with her throughout the school year just to make some cash.
And she was wonderful, but like nonverbal. So it was a really interesting thing for a high school girl to learn about. And, um,
You know, a kid like that going to school without the right things in place, like that's what I'm thinking about this week, right? And on top of that, with all these, it's 8,000 education workers in the union, they're risking like, I think I read four, what was it? $4,000 fines. Hold on, where is this? Yeah, fines of up to $4,000 per day to stand up for these things. And it's for the kids. It's like, yes, they're making crappy wages, but it's for the kids that they're doing this.
Nobody goes into that kind of a career thinking they're going to be millionaires. Let me tell you that right out of the gate. You know, there's a lot of really vile comments on social media about how much money people should be making. I'm like, why don't you shut up?
For one thing, there's very few facts, once again, of what people are making. You know, this guy, they all make 120 grand a year. I'm like, I just blocked this guy because he was vile. He was so vile. But I'm just like, do you know what first-year teachers out of university make or second year or third year? These are people that have been teaching for 25 years. It's like...
it's like flight attendants at Air Canada. You know, they don't get the good routes. They don't make the big bucks. You put your time in like anything else. It's like me playing in the bars. It's like anybody in anybody's career, you do not come out of the gate, maybe unless you're a doctor. I mean, everyone, there's so many doctors and nurses, but even those people in this country, everybody leaves here. And you're starting to think, scratch your head and go, why are they leaving? Well,
they're not paid the way they should be paid. And I will, I will go to my, I'll die on that hill because I did mention something about, you know, having fond memories of teachers online again last week and all hell broke loose. Just like, oh man, I just, and I don't know if it's since Elon took over Twitter that people are testing the limits of what they're
comments can be like how far out can they go before they're reeled in because I don't think anybody's being admonished I don't think anybody's being taken down you you really have to get in there and block just block block block block block don't even don't waste your time don't waste your breath
Um, that I've learned in the last couple of weeks. I think I've blocked something like 2,500 people in the last month. Wow. Not kidding you. Labor intensive blocking right there. No, I don't mind it. But anyway, yeah, I, I think we all have fond memories of people and Adam, I'm so glad you brought that up about your third grade teacher, Mrs. Richardson. Thank you. My dad's mother was a teacher and she was one of those very strict teachers. She,
always told me to remain steadfast. She had the most beautiful cursive I've ever seen in my life. Anytime I see a card from my grandma Richards, my dad's mom, I just, my eyes just light up. Her handwriting was so beautiful. But my dad said she was a very tough educator. She taught for 40 years and
And she taught thousands of children. And my dad would always say, mother always knew their names. He said, whenever I was out with her in Lethbridge, he said, even when she was in her 70s, there'd be kids coming up to us that were 50 years old saying, hello, Mrs. Richards. You know, I'm David from third grade in blah, blah, blah, Lethbridge school. Oh, David, you had, you were a very good blah, blah. My dad was just like, what the hell? Yeah.
And she was tough. Like she wasn't a super likable person.
four of my best girlfriends are teachers of the five of us in the group. I'm the odd, I'm the odd one out. And actually, sorry, there's two of us that are not teachers anyway. So there's a lot of teacher talk in our like best friends group chat. And even watching what these, these women have been through just to even become teachers, like backdoor ways into like getting on the supply list and like just they're fighting to teach, you know? And yeah, it's,
I think about all of the kids who don't have a good support system at home too, where school is the support system. And you make the kids stay at home this week on Friday because of this strike. And who knows what situation those kids are in. I know. It's just...
We're thinking about all the educators, the custodians, the assistants, everyone, the volunteers. We're thinking about all of you. And please, I apologize if I haven't got the language right. We don't want to say teachers at this, at this blanket statement. And I know it's not about that. It's about all of the people in the classrooms and it's probably semantics, but I, you know who you are. We know who you are. And, um,
Just be kind, be grateful. I mean, they're on the front line of sending young people out into the world to do great things. But anyway, that's our podcast this week. We want to thank you for listening. Hit that subscribe button. It'll make it easier for us to pop up. iHeartRadio, you can listen to us there. We need to tease our next guest before we leave too. Oh my gosh, Sarah, you go. Who is it? Our next guest next week is the one, the only,
Tessa Virtue. And we're going to try and get some information out of her. We can't say yet, but we're going to, there's things going on in her mind. She is obviously a fantastic athlete, made us so proud at the Olympics, continues to be a mogul. She is like killing it out there, doing so many brand partnerships. And she's just, she's a lovely, talented, amazing person who is amazing.
Man, she is lighting the world on fire. So she'll be with us next week. Don't go too far away from, you know, your device. You don't want to miss that. Adam Karsh, Sarah Burke. Thanks for listening, everybody. We'll see you next week. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.