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Gracious, good weekend. You're probably listening to us right now. It's probably maybe late Friday after midnight or Saturday morning or Saturday afternoon. This is the Jan Arden Podcast. I am Jan and I am with Sarah Burke, who is...

Here with us for the unforeseeable future, which is fantastic, while Caitlin learns how to be a mom. She can't stay away from her phone, eh? Well, you know, I've been watching her social media, Sarah. Yeah. And there's some pretty damn cute pictures of Will. And she seems to be, she's getting back into it. Yeah, I think she misses us. Adam Karsh is here as well from his...

basement apartment. Where are you, Sarah? I'm in Toronto. I'm right on the lake. My condo's at like Humber Bay Shores. So it's West End of Toronto. I was going to say you're near a large body of water. Yeah. I got to be near the water. It's so nice when you need to just go out for a little walk. I know you're a big fan of going on the walks. Yeah. No, for sure. The thing about Toronto, I was just there yesterday. I was there for

a few days filming Working Moms, a little spot on Working Moms, which is not, it's season seven and it's not out till next year, but it was a lot of fun. It's always grueling television, but I was reminded of how

If you move five minutes in any direction in Toronto, you step into a new world. And I'm really, I'm not exaggerating. If you're on any street anywhere and walk five minutes and Adam, you and Sarah can both attest to this. You are in a whole different vibe, a whole different ethnicity. Culturally, it feels different. It's, it's, it really is an amazing, if you don't like where you are, walk for 50 feet and,

It's so true. When I post photos sometimes, and you can only see the lake, some people ask me, do you live in a resort? And it's like, no, that's the grossest body of water ever. It's Lake Ontario. But yeah, if you want to live downtown, it's all great. My condo is quite downtown. I'm like a 10-minute walk

to see TV, to the Bell Building or to CBC. If I was a sports person, which I kind of am, if it's the finals, I like the finals of anything, even if I don't really understand what's actually happening. But I could walk to the big dome thing. The sky's the limit. Anyway, we're going to get right down to it. We have a lot to talk about. We have a lot to learn about Sarah Burke today.

um, because we haven't really spoken to her. Uh, Aaron Davis was with us last week and thank you so much for the beautiful, beautiful comments that we got from everybody about our conversation with Aaron. She is funny. Um, like I just, I can't fathom what she's been through both professionally and personally. And she talked about how important a sense of humor was, but she was great. So thanks for those comments. Um,

Patrick Carney Earn, and I bring this up because if you were with us when we were talking about ashes, talking about what people do with ashes, everybody's different. Some people don't want them. They just want to get rid of them. I have both my parents and my dogs sitting in my library that I need to deal with. But Sarah, you brought up a concert that you went to a couple weeks ago, and Patrick Carney had an urn.

On stage in front of his drum kit. So the black eyed peas, black eyed peas. Black keys, the black keys. Black keys, black keys. Sorry. I really know my music. The black keys, Jesus.

For context, Patrick Carney is the drummer of the Black Keys. And I had noticed on stage there was an urn and a bouquet of flowers right in front of his drum kit. So I got talking to a photographer that was shooting the show this week. After a week of asking everyone I knew, who's in the urn?

Who else is touring with the Black Keys? And it turns out it said in little letters, Meemaw on it, which is his grandmother. So it's his grandmother that he's... Is on tour with him. Yeah. Isn't that a nice little memory to bring around with you, I guess? She's rocking. She'd be very proud. I bet you she went to all their shows or most what she could go to. I also wonder what she...

I wonder what she might be thinking about all this Michelle Branch stuff. But I got to say, again, if you're not familiar with this story, there's, you know, there was, I guess they had like a bit of a domestic and then they were going to get a divorce. Michelle Branch just did an amazing interview with Pitchfork and she was talking about how they're, you know, owning what's going on. They're in therapy and they're going to try and work it out. I didn't know she was going out with one of the,

people in the band. Patrick, I would imagine, right? Yeah. And I don't know, the reason I think about this, we all always talk about what women go through in the spotlight, Jan, and she's got a record dropping tomorrow. So at the time of this recording, this weekend, she's got a new record out. Well, it's good for her. This is publicity's good. Any kind, good or bad. He's a producer on it too. Well, there you go. Somebody certainly wasn't me. They said, if you're not appearing, you're disappearing.

Mm-hmm. So, you know, and there's always those conversations about bad press. Any kind of press is good press. And you will see a lot of times, whether it's Kanye West or the Kardashians, you know, I shouldn't even say them in the same sentence these days, but people that are very high profile in politics, in music, in films, sometimes they do badass things just to be in the news. And it helps them sell whatever they're selling. It helps them do whatever they're doing.

And it just gives him that bump in the profile. You know, you look at somebody like Donald Trump and every time something terrible happened with his administration and people were getting close to uncovering something or, or, you know, having an expose on some weird thing he was doing, he would do something else to completely deflect what was going on. So I have a feeling we have a new politician named Pierre that is going to be using very similar tactics in his stuff. And maybe Trudeau does that as well.

I think it's a well-used tool. I'm certainly not going to sit here and pick sides and say one's better than the other because I don't know enough about politics to really make an experienced or to express an opinion, especially at this stage of the game. I don't know anything about Pierre. I know I don't like him. Am I allowed to say that? I just don't like it. I don't like his personality. I just, I don't, I don't like his personality and I don't just, just watching him, you know, doing stuff with the press and,

In the last few days, how he speaks to people, I'm like, you know, you have to remember that people in the press are voters too, Pierre. They're voters too. Like you're not just everyone, anyone that sort of vilifies the press right out of the gate and says that they're making up lies and telling a bunch of crap and don't listen to them and the press are your enemy. That's a very dangerous part of democracy as far as I'm concerned.

I know a lot of people that work in journalism and they're fantastic and they risk life and limb to tell a great story. So anyway, I

What do you think of that, Sarah? Well, I think, you know, we're such a divided country right now. And there may not be a politician that best represents anyone right now. The pickings may be kind of slim. So I think it's really important to, like, the onus is on the person. You have to do your own research. You have to find out other opinions. And that whole thing about, like,

Facebook even like if you are only following a certain type of individual on Facebook all the opinions presented to you are going to be similar and it's really important to be well-rounded to make those decisions for yourself absolutely yeah people think that that's the worldview when sorry Poppy listen mummy's over here talking smack about politics

I don't think coffee likes Pierre. Oh, I know he doesn't like Pierre. I wonder if Pierre's got pets and dogs. That says a lot about people, cats or birds or something. Anyway, I'm going to do my research and you're right. If your Twitter feed, if you're just going to get and follow things that completely align with your opinion, you're never going to get the other side of the story. I grew up in a, in a family, my mom and dad were avid newspaper people. Even when we moved to the country, um,

My mom would always send my dad, are you going to go into town and get the papers? And it was like a one hour trip into town and back for him, especially on the weekends, especially on Sundays. But they had four or five papers on the go. My mom and dad would splurge on the New York Times once in a while.

It was that four-inch thick Sunday Times that everyone, all of us would pour through, whether it was the funnies or the book reviews or the film reviews or the op-ed pieces. Comics. Yeah, they always read so many different points of view. And my mom and dad were simple people. They weren't academics. My dad was in concrete all his life. My mom had lots of odd jobs. She worked in an egg farm sometimes.

sorting eggs. She worked in a dental office. She sold Mary Kay. She was an Avon lady. My mom always liked to do stuff. So it's not like they were these, you know, university brainiacs. They just, but they just loved seeing it all. And I think that's important too. And because we're not doing newspapers anymore, the Calgary Herald building here in the city where I live sits empty. They use it for film sets now. It was this massive brick building on the hill that

And it's kind of sad to see it sit there. But yeah, thanks for saying that. That's a really important thing. I needed to hear that, Sarah.

You know what, too? I definitely don't agree with a lot of Pierre's opinions, but one of the comments that I saw floating around this week was about how much the tax credit that Trudeau just denounced actually comes down to for a Toronto homeowner. And I was like, yeah, that's not helpful at all. So again, it's just good to see all the perspectives. Yeah, I don't know if anyone ever really comes through on things. I remember years ago, Arlene Dickinson and I were having a conversation about

campaign promises. And she said, I would love to be living in a world where politicians are held to task, where at the end, when they're elected, we look at this long list, long list of promises made. And the horseshit promise is one of those things that I'm going to mention right out of the gate, because

It was mandated to end it, to ban it. And that was over a year ago when they were elected. But getting back to Arlene, she was saying, you know, they should really, there should be a checkmark. This wasn't done. This wasn't done. This wasn't done. This is what needs to be dealt with. I think the percentages are probably really low and really bad of what they actually get to. But when you want votes, I guess you're willing to do anything, say anything, hop on any bandwagon,

to get it done. Let's do a political report card. A report card would be great here. I mean, I know we're going to talk about school coming up here, but what about a report card for the politicians that's an actual score that gets put somewhere? Well, we're going to come back and talk about that because Adam's giving us the rappy fingers. You're listening to the General Podcast. I'm here with Sarah Burke, Adam Karsh. We'll be back.

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Sarah just, she just schooled me good here and do your research. And I'm going to, I am going to find out more about the candidates. I really am. I'm not just going to look at the news and be mad at the guy for sounding nasty and rude. And we all have crappy days. So I'm going to, I'm going to look, I'm going to do my due diligence and not just be emotional about this. Cause I do want

I don't want a divisive country. I don't, I mean, I know there's always going to be a slight divide, but it certainly doesn't have to be the monstrous gap that it is now. COVID didn't help that. And I do want to be able to support who's ever leading us. And I think that has been a major problem is back in the day, mom and dad, well, he didn't, our guy didn't win, but you know, you got to support who's ever in there because what's the point otherwise? Nothing gets done. And she wasn't wrong. Serberk.

This is your life. Where did you go to school? Did you pack a lunch? So I grew up in Richmond Hill, a suburb just north of Toronto. And mom definitely packed me a lunch. You want to know what was in the lunch? You're looking at me like, give me more, give me more. I want to know, did you have a lunch kit? Was there Barbie on it? Was it Star Wars? Tell us, Adam and I want to know everything.

I had a Star Wars lunchbox, but I want to hear what your lunchbox was. My lunchbox was usually whatever was purchased at Costco. My favorite colors growing up were blue and green. I wasn't really the pink sparkly kid, to be honest, still not.

Yeah. Like if I wear something pink, my girlfriends still to this day are texting me being like, are you okay? Like what's going on over there? But yeah, like, you know, it was, it was pretty, it was a rushed childhood, I would say, because I was in so many extracurriculars. So it was just,

trying to always, you know, keep organized knowing that you were going right from school to like dance class or Hebrew school. I was in Hebrew school. Adam and I have talked about this before. So yeah, I definitely ended up being the kid who got kicked out of a class in Hebrew school, but maybe that's a story for another day. What would you get in your lunch kit? Did it have a thermos? Like what, what did your mom pack the same? Was it sandwiches? Did you get a boiled egg? What, what can you remember even?

I actually called my mom on the way to the gym this morning being like, Jan wants to know what's in my lunch today. And I was like, I don't really remember. And she got talking to my sister and we were both afraid of definitely being the stinky kids. I think kids still go through this now. If you bring the tuna, if you bring the egg salad, right? You know what I mean? If you live in a Middle Eastern family, the spices sometimes. So definitely was always worried about that growing up. So I think there was...

a lot of like easy peasy stuff, PB and J sandwiches. I love tuna salad and egg salad, but I would, you know, not bring them. That's when the layer of butter was a necessity because you had to keep it from getting soggy. I know mom would more than occasionally, like quite often, send us with a tomato sandwich.

And the mayo was never a big enough barrier. Like the, by the time we got to our lunch, which was like 1130, 12, and let's keep in mind, we'd been on the bus since seven. So the little lunch sandwich was rolling around in there.

But yeah, it was always a nightmare to get that. I just wanted bologna and mustard. I honest to God did. We did some cold cuts. Oh, yeah. I mean, I wouldn't do a cold cut with a gun to my head now. Or I do vegan bologna, which is fantastic. Bologna is about the spices. You could literally put bologna spices on a watermelon slice, and I bet it would kind of taste like it. Well, no, that's a bad example. So you had a lunch, and then you got to... I suppose that was...

junior high school and high school, you must've had a cafeteria, right?

Yeah, well, I would say that I was kind of like the nerdy kid who was very comfortable like reading and just being, you know, with my babysitter's club book in the corner in elementary school. And then for high school, a little more rebellion, like would just like sit in the hallway with a friend and like lean against the lockers and eat sitting in a corner with like whoever with the cool group was, you know. I didn't go to the cafeteria a lot. Were you, did you feel like you were popular? Yeah.

I was thinking about this this morning. I think like early on in elementary school, I had a lot of popular kids around me, but I wasn't one of them. I often felt left out. I'll never forget there was like a recess where someone had a sign-up sheet of like who they were going to play with at recess, and I didn't make the cut. Who has a sign-up sheet at eight years old? What?

Come on. Really? Kids are mean. Kids are mean. So there was also a thing with going to sleepover camp. A lot of my girlfriends growing up went to sleepover camp. I didn't. So there was like an automatic left out sort of situation when they were talking about day camp.

You fast forward to high school and I think it was like you find your cliques in high school. I would not say that I was popular at all, but I had a lot of friends in different groups. So I had a lot of different friends, I would say. I mean, I think that's pretty great. I think sort of nice to be a chameleon and not assign yourself to the jocks or the nerds or the

chess club or the beauty queens or any of that stuff. How many kids were in your school? Mine was small. I had like 42 kids in my grade. Oh, wow. Yeah. I think for high school, we were like maybe, I want to say like

700 to 800. That's a lot. So did you know all the kids? Yeah, definitely knew a lot of them, but I had this in grade seven and eight, I actually auditioned to go to an art school where you get to take like vocal, drama, dance, all that stuff. And not that the auditioning process, I don't think that's

a good thing for a kid these days, right? Because if you don't get in, you're crushed. I did get in. But yeah, so I had two years where I wasn't with like the kids I grew up with. And I was suddenly in a different part of the city, like you said, a walk like 10 minutes away, totally different neighborhood. And by the time I came back to high school, you know, I had to like get to know everyone again in my area. So there a lot had gone on in those two years.

Do you make friends easily? Did you then and do you now? Yeah. Yeah. Always the kid talking in class, like, shut up, Sarah. I don't know why that was such a detriment to teachers to mark report cards saying, talks too much. If she listened more, she'd be a much better student. And I got a lot of that too. I was very social. I wasn't a great student. I think I could have been had I applied myself. I don't ever remember doing homework.

And I didn't worry about grades. I see to me, it wasn't the end of the world. And I know so many kids, you know, the, the idea of failing is just not acceptable. Their little minds, it just makes people sick. My little brother, it would make him sick to, to not do really well. Like, I mean, A's pluses. And he was like that in university as well. He was so hard on himself and he was,

Me, I would have been like, oh, well, whatever. Like, I just didn't have it in me to worry or to take it personally. I think it pissed the teachers off too because I had that same attitude. And then like a lot of the time they'd be like, she didn't pay attention in class. She hasn't done homework once this term. And here she is with like a B plus. And one guy kept sending me home with the assignment being like, I know you can do better. And I'd be like, I'm fine with the B. I don't want to do this again. Yeah.

I believe in you, Sarah. Come on, take it home again. Did you ever falsify, like fraudulently make notes that your mother had excused you out of a class to go do something? I remember trying to cop my mom's signature by saying, Jan will not be, Jan couldn't complete her test yesterday because blah, blah, blah. It was the worst. I mean, any teacher could have looked at that and gone, wow, this is not an adult's writing.

I feel like they would leave a voicemail on the house phone, you know, if you didn't show up to class. And I would just erase the message before my mom got home because I would walk to school for high school. So, like, by the time that, you know, I'd come home, make lunch, erase the voicemail, go back to school, no one knows any different. We didn't have voicemail. It didn't exist yet in my day. When did you graduate? Like, 99? 99?

No, I'm a couple of years after that. I think my last year of high school would have been like 2004, 2005. Oh my God. That's the cutest. 2005 you graduated. That would have been it. Now, did you have a graduation? Did you go to grad? Yeah. Yeah. I went to grad. Definitely. You don't seem too thrilled about that. Like it was just, was it no big deal? Did you just want to get the hell out of there?

I was like by that time, I remember I applied for university based on where I could move the farthest from my parents and I love them. But, but I think, you know, at the time it was, it was about getting out of the house. Maybe there's more to that story in a minute here. We'll be right back. You're listening to the Jan Arden podcast. Sarah Burke is going to continue her tale about her youth. We're going to go into the rebellion years coming up next.

Welcome to the Jan Arden Podcast. Sarah Burke is here. Caitlin, we want to say hello to you. You're at home. Adam Karsh is here. Hi, Will. Hi, Kyle. Hi, Caitlin. I can just picture you with your brick wall backdrop and your sweatshirt. We're thinking about you, and hopefully you're listening in, Caitlin. I wish we had a call-in show. Let's take some calls and give away a car. That's not going to happen today.

So, Caitlin, Sarah, you graduated from high school that you seem so excited about your graduation, but you wanted to move as far away from your family as you could. And that's how you applied for your secondary education. Where did you end up? So I think the whole thing was about...

And wanting to like have freedom. And I was the older child of two growing up, but all of my girlfriends had older siblings. So I, you know, would ask like, hey, can I go to the mall with them? And mom would say no. And I think it was like a lot of my mom not being comfortable with things yet that my other friends had already gone through.

So you fast forward to the end of high school. It's like, okay, I want ultimate freedom. Get me out of this house. I definitely fought with my mother a lot during high school. I made her cry all the time. Mom, I'm so sorry. I love you so much. She's sorry. She's sorry. I'm very sorry. I know I made her cry all the time. But that's why, you know, four hours from Toronto. Let's go to Carleton University.

So I applied to the journalism program, got in. I didn't stay very long because I was a little bit bored, if I'm being honest. You can do radio...

You can do radio and TV like later in the program. But in the first year, it was like French Revolution Press in 1700s. And I was just like, I don't know. So I actually dropped out by Thanksgiving. And this is also a lesson to anyone young listening. You don't have to know how your entire life has to look coming out of high school. My dad would say, you're sure that you're sure as hell going to find out what you don't want to do. That was my dad. So he was practical that way, too.

Yeah. So I try, I mean, I was a little bit like embarrassed about it. You know, you, you pack up, you move, move away. But, you know, I worked for a year back, back here, made my money back. Um, I was working at American Eagle actually at the mall and, and,

They gave me a key to the store just to make all the cash. And then I ended up going to Western Infantia, like a joint degree diploma program. And that allowed me to have a little more stimulation in the radio world. And there was a great...

like a co-op situation where, you know, I actually went and worked at a radio station, like here in Ontario, over in Vancouver, Seafox, which is close to you, Jan. Like I just tried to like get as much experience as possible. And that allowed me to decide that I didn't actually want to be in the news. I wanted to be in, in, in music. And yeah, there's been a twist and turvy kind of road until here. So what's happening in music now then? And this is the thing too, like,

careers these days, you know, don't look like they did for our parents or our grandparents. You've got a job, you put your shoulders forward, put your head down. You, you, you work in the, at the buses for 40 years, or you worked in concrete for 40 years, like dad did, you know, his dad worked in a flour mill. Like it's,

It's not like that now. You can swap out at 50 or 60 and you certainly don't have to retire at 70. So point well made once again, that you can do whatever you want when you want. And I'm not saying go quit your job and not have your rent and don't be irresponsible, but- I may have done that a few months ago too, but anyway. Okay, well, go ahead. Finish. Let me shut up now.

No, no, no, no. No, you're right, though. It's not linear. And I encourage people to sort of embrace that because, you know, things are not going to happen in a straight line. And I've had lots and lots of twists and turns to get here. But yeah, like, you know, I do I do a radio show in Toronto. The music is alternative rock. I've worked in Americana. I just got back from the Canadian Country Music Awards. I love music. Yeah, you were in my town.

I was without you. And I was in Toronto. How tragic that we didn't cross. How was the Country Music Awards? Do you have any highlights or stories of hookups that you want to share with us? Did somebody end up with somebody? I

I mean, I'm sure people did. But yeah, it was interesting in that it was my first Canadian Country Music Awards, not having a full-time media job that brought me there. Normally, I was attached to a company, right? I used to work for SiriusXM. So it was really interesting in that everything I was doing was freelance. I ran a panel of women in country music, which was

Super interesting and a conversation that I think you could have definitely chimed in on. Just the stats being completely stacked against women, especially if they are Black or Indigenous. On my panel, I had the only Black country music programmer ever.

in the country and she used you she was working for a hip-hop r&b station that flipped a country what an incredible story she had shout out morgan james but yeah morgan it was a really it was a really really good experience to do it all on my own and not with a company attached to me oh for sure i did you have any good food and i want to know

Yeah, what did you eat? What did I eat in Calgary? I had a great brunch at the King Eddie. Oh, the King Eddie. So you must have seen the National Music Center, correct? Yes, yes. Pretty gorgeous, hey? I love it.

Yeah, a lot of the programming was at the Central Library and the NMC. Very cool. Gorgeous, gorgeous spaces. But yeah, I didn't eat anything true Calgarian. I don't know if we have Calgarian food. I mean, I guess we're kind of known for pancake breakfasts that are free during Stampede, but Calgary is a very...

contemporary. The dining scene here is unbelievable. There's more restaurants per capita in Calgary than anywhere else in North America. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is your fun fact for the day. Yeah, I just, I'm glad that you are here for that. Country music has come so far in the time that I've been in music. I've been professionally involved in music, you know, the last 40 years. But, you know, when I started out, the music scene, the country music scene was George Fox's

And then Michelle Wright kind of came along in the 80s. And it was like the first time where you saw this woman on the charts with a country music song that was just racing around and becoming a bona fide hit. And I know she made a couple of appearances at the Country Music Awards this year.

I definitely saw her perform at the Legends Showcase. Legends, sure. Yeah. And you know what? This is so interesting too because there's a whole revival going on right now where they're trying to bring back these older folks. By the way, George Fox just got inducted into the Hall of Fame. So Michelle Wright performed and then they had it set up that they were performing like

songs from other genres. They're trying to make the audience tap into other things. So Lindsay Elle, she performed one of her songs and I was losing my mind, Jan. I was like, all my worlds are colliding right now. Lindsay Elle performed Insensitive. You sent me a little video clip of that. I was very grateful. Yeah, it's such a great song and I think it really goes to show that music is genre-less for the most part. And there's been so much crossover in country music

certainly out of the United States, Nashville in particular, you'd be hard pressed to tell if it was pop or country until you hear the little bit of a twang that the journal, that the, sorry, that the, the singers, that the actual artists kind of, it's, it's inescapable. And I've always kind of tilted my head a bit of that, of, of country music in Canada where they're singing like that and you don't, and they're from Red Deer.

So it's funny how that stuff, and I've always just wondered about why they do that. Like they don't have accents, but they're singing with that going on. It's just part of country music. And you got to get back to the place that you went to. It's like, and they're from Lethbridge.

Did you see the Avril clip circulating this week? No, what happened? She was singing Shania Twain. And it looked like, I'm pretty sure it was in Nashville, but there was some sort of, at the CMA Awards, I think she did a salute to Shania Twain. And by the way, that doc on Netflix is fantastic if you haven't seen it yet. But I heard Avril doing something with her voice that you were just talking about, like adding a little...

something to make it sound country. Yeah. It's a little something there. It's a little something that, that gets added on. It doesn't matter where you're from in the world, country music artists. Um, who's the Australian guy married to Nicole Kidman?

Keith Urban. So Keith Urban, Australian accent, but he sings country music with a Southern twang. Yeah. It's just an interesting thing. You guys can write and tell me what's going on. I think we're needing to go to a break, but when I come back, there's an interesting little poll that I didn't mean to take, but I was talking about being single and,

and being in relationships. And I just put it out there for one of those crazy polls that you do on Twitter of, are you single? Are you a double? What's going on? Um, we're going to talk about the surprising results when we come back. I'm here with Sarah Burke and Adam Karsh. This is the Jan Arden podcast. Welcome back. Jan Arden podcast. Sarah Burke joins us. Adam Karsh. They're both in Toronto. I'm here with

in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and it is definitely fall. We were talking about country music and how far it's come in the last 20 years. Sarah was just in Calgary for the Canadian Country Music Awards. I have to be honest, I don't know a lot of those names. So when I was looking at nominations...

which I thought was a triumph because we were talking about years ago, even in the Canadian music industry, I bet you in the seventies, we could name six people. It was the guess who, and it was Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, Anne Murray. And then there was just this explosion. And it's funny, fast forward now, all these years later, we have, and we are home now,

country to some of the biggest recording acts in the world, whether it's Shawn Mendes, Justin Bieber, Shania, Celine, Sarah McLachlan. For a while there, Alanis Morissette, Sarah McLachlan, Celine Dion, and Shania Twain were outselling the rest of female artists in the world by like millions and millions of records. It was really nutty in the 90s.

So I don't know if it's something in the water here, but country music seems to be doing the same thing. Yeah, it's definitely one of like, I would equate it to the pop music format in popularity for sure right now. And great to see women like Lindsay L, who we talked about actually, you know, standing in her power on stage.

international stages. She was just on a huge tour in the UK and Germany before coming to the Canadian Country Music Awards. She does very well in the US. It's exciting. I'm telling you, it's all about persistence. People that are in music right now and feeling frustrated and keep writing music, it's all about the song at the end of the day. It's all about the song.

Ain't about the singer, it's the song. And we learned that lesson over and over again. And then that singer just needs to have one, two, three, four songs because obviously you need to go out and tour. And it's nice to have more than one song to get out there and tour with. But it's just working live. It's just being persistent and not going away.

It's an exciting time in music because you've got something called the Internet and you can literally release something and have it available if someone wants to hit a button in Finland and download it. So it's a far different world than I entered into in the 80s.

where, you know, people had to search high and low, people like me and Adam to go find a goddamn record. Do you have the new Donna Summer record? Never heard of it. Oh, geez. You know, you're in the co-op. It's the only record store we had with about 100 kilometers of us. So if the co-op didn't have it, we were SOL, as they say. Yeah. Yeah.

I want to switch topics just quickly here in the last few minutes because it is the Queen's funeral on Monday. And so this podcast is going to air slightly before that. And I wanted to get your thoughts, Sarah, on how you feel about monarchy. I mean, you and I are a few generations apart, one at least. And I know it's probably different for me than what it is for you of what the Queen meant, King Charles III. Maybe you'd have more

Yeah. I'm pretty divided on this subject. I'm not going to lie. And I say that because the monarchy to me is associated with a lot of terrible history in this country. So I have trouble celebrating history.

you know, the queen the way that most people would, although there is no doubt that she had, you know, certain accomplishments and leaps and bounds in generations from before her that, you know, deserve a nod for sure. And I think about Meghan Markle a lot during this, like, you know, she, they, they went back to pay their respects. They're involved in the state funeral and all of that, but yeah,

Knowing what's happened with Meghan Markle's child being a mixed race child and the intricacies of racism with Indigenous people over the years, those are the things that I have trouble with. So I'm certainly not someone who when there's been anything to do with the Queen is like sitting here watching my TV for hours. I kind of do an eye roll and move along. Well, much like Ontario, Alberta is not declaring it a national holiday, like a...

So it's not, you can do whatever you want with Monday, but it's not an official day off for businesses. You're right, it does, it hits a lot of difficult notes. But I think for people that are much older than you and I, you guys, people that went through the Second World War, people that,

grew up in a time that's much different than the one that we're in now. There was a lot of blinders on, you know, you even look at the horrors of residential schools and the, and what happened to indigenous people here and in a lot of places in the world that went completely, it was this clandestine middle of the night kind of thing. Those scoops were children. It makes me so sad that,

And I've tried to just shut up and listen to indigenous people that I know, indigenous artists and not. I've just been trying to learn. But, yeah, it is. It's such a conflict to celebrate a 70-year reign, which is absolutely, I think, the end of the monarchy as we know it. I don't think King Charles III is going to have near the reach in history

the British Commonwealth. I think it's going to break up personally. But for those people that are in their 70s, 80s, 90s in the UK, parts of India, I would imagine, Australia, certainly here in Canada, they are mourning a piece of time that no longer exists. And I think it's probably kind of sad for a lot of people that lament what used to be

Mm hmm. Yeah. The ease in which they made their way through the world. And now people are waking up to racism, to colonialism, to all of the horrors that come along when you don't elect someone that they just take over from a bloodline. That that that ideology, I think, is a tired, ineffective. It's just it's I think it's over.

I don't know if we're writing letters anymore or like how to even get this out, but I think it's an opportunity. It's an opportunity for Canada to take stock of what's not working, right? And the problem is all these red, there's so much red tape. It would take years to make changes in the way that our government works. But I just think that this is the best excuse to like really dig into that and look at it.

The beginning of it, for sure. And not to take anything away from the queen. Like I said, you know, as a woman and as a public figure, there are lots of things to celebrate. She always made me feel better during COVID-19.

When she addressed people and did her Christmas messages and talked about, you will get back to your friends. We will have good times again. I thought she was very dignified considering all the imbeciles that she had, the problems that her children gave her. And Andrew comes to mind in particular with all the stuff he's been involved with.

this last few years, that it all gets stuffed under the rug. I think she had a lot to contend with and she dealt with it with dignity and grace. And it wasn't solely her that made decisions that affected the whole world. It's never one person. And I'm sure there was a lot of stuff that went on that she didn't even know about. I don't know.

Call me crazy, but you know, there's, there's stuff going on. Listen, the poll very, very quickly that I did asking people about being single or in relationships. And it was very surprising that what came back was 61% of people were

said that they were single and very happy and 39% were in relationships, but a lot of really great comments. If you want to go onto that thread on Twitter about, you know, divorces and things they've learned. And my third marriage has been the best one I've ever had. It took me three times, but I got it right. And he's wonderful or that she's wonderful. And,

So I was surprised about that. Anyway, a lot happened in the show today, but I think we got to know Sarah Burke a little bit better. We're going to keep chipping away at her. We're going to try and uncover all her little secrets that I know she has. You've been listening to the Jan Arden Podcast. Thanks, Sarah, once again. Thanks, Adam. And we'll see you next week. God only knows what we're going to talk about. Go on to the Jan Arden Pod on Twitter and give us some ideas. ♪

We're back. Okay. Listen, if you're, if you're listening right now, you're probably are subscribing to the Jan Arden podcast. And all you have to do is hit that little button and then you're going to be reminded every week, it's going to show up on your phone. You won't even have to look for us anymore. And guess what? You're going to get all this extra content from Sarah Burke, myself and Adam. And, um, I asked a question. This was my comment on Twitter.

In the United States, and I don't think we're that far removed from the United States. I think we're kind of samesies in a lot of stuff. 45% of the people over 18 years of age are single. This includes divorcees and the widowed. And my question was, are you happier being single? I know I am. So almost 2000 votes, 61% single, 39% non-single. Wow. And, uh,

We had so many comments. It was crazy. I am very from stormy. I'm very happy being single. I just don't think I could do the couple thing anymore. Russ Richards, who's one of our longtime listeners. Hi, Russ. Hey, Russ. Russ just followed me. Thank you, Russ. Friendship is the luxury liner of ships. I saw that. He is our biggest fan. He's our biggest listener. And Russ got a T-shirt. You remember how people always threaten and you're going to get the T-shirt too. He did get a T-shirt.

Brenda is getting ready to be single. Good luck with that, Brenda. I hope you get the dog and the house and the cars and the kids. We hope you get everything. Darlene G., longtime listener, I was happy married. I am happy single. And you know what? On the subject of getting ready to be single, I will say it took me two years to end my last relationship before this guy-

Yeah. Sometimes it's the hardest thing you will ever do, but it's a journey, right? Yeah. I knew year four, year five. I was very unhappy and I just thought things would change. It was a long distance relationship, so I had enough time on my own and I was working. I mean, I travel a lot with my job, but yeah. What's that saying? And my dad used to tell us kids, you know, the worst marriages don't end in divorce. They don't end.

You're like, okay, well you're anyways, my parents were married almost 60 years. Uh, Antoinette, uh,

I was married to an abusive man for 16 years. I've been divorced for 22 years, happily single. I eat what I want without anyone calling me fat, ugly. I watch my TV. I sleep in my double bed, snoring and drooling. My cat loves me. I don't need anyone to control me anymore. Happy single. Sarah, are you single? Are you in a relationship? Are we allowed to ask that? Oh, yeah. You're welcome to. I am in a relationship with...

my, I'm going to say best friend. And it took us a long time to get here. I enjoyed a wonderful single life. I think being single like opens you up to learning about yourself, right? And the people who jump from relationship to relationship, I often feel bad for because they don't know how to be by themselves and they don't know who they are.

So I'm happy that I had, especially during the pandemic, some time to figure myself out between relationships. I've really only had two major long-term relationships. And yeah, I'm very happy. We live very independently. I have to say I've never been as happy as I am now. That's beautiful. I'm into year seven. I'm not a huge hooker-upper or anything like that. It's just not... That's not my thing. I did...

In my twenties, I was very promiscuous and I had so many one night stands and it, and I was drinking a lot. I'm sober now. So that's never going to happen because it's not like you put the rose colored glasses on at one o'clock in the morning. You're like, Ooh, I think I could climb up this one. So I'm just, you know, I just, I, I think it's, it's what you said, Sarah, it's getting to know yourself and finding, having that time to think.

Yeah. And I think the relationship I'm in right now is so good because we can both stand on our own and be completely confident. And when we're together, it's just better. And it's also a long distance relationship. Use the Tylenol is this person's handle. I don't know if it's a man or a woman. I have been single for 13 years. I'm a happy person with a content life. Do I miss a light touch on the small of my back? Ouch.

Doing chores together, silently reading together. I do, but not enough to settle. I'm worth more. I deserve more. Hear, hear. The comments were unbelievable. Jay Couture. I don't know if anyone's real names apply here. It doesn't really matter. Definitely happier single. Was able to find myself, enjoy my hobbies, and just be me. Now I know what I'm looking for.

That's interesting. Wouldn't you say too that like your friendships can bring you the companionship you may be thinking you can only find in a partner? Yeah, I love that. That should be the damn t-shirt. Can we fit that on there?

You know, you have a lot of great girlfriends. I see them in your feed all the time. And I can tell that those people bring you joy and round out. Absolutely. Yeah. I'm very lucky. I've often said, I don't have a million friends. I know a lot of people. I know thousands of people. That's the nature of our jobs.

but I have a very small circle and they're all significant to me. Like, do you have a significant other? And I'm like, I have several significant others. I got seven. We're not having sex, but as I'm getting older, that becomes less important. But you know, I have girlfriends that tell me, oh, just wait in your sixties when you 65, 70, that's when you, that's when women really hit it. And I'm like, oh my God, like, am I going to have to

What's going to happen? You think about it and you just can't even picture it, but there's a biological part of where we're at in our lives too. And I know a lot of marriages that have people that have been together 40, 50, 60 years, 70 years, you know, you, you talk to some of these older people and they talk about, um,

the ebb and flow of the physical part of their relationships. So I don't want people out there to think, oh, you know, we're not doing it three times a day like we used to. Well, for God's sakes, be reasonable. You probably have kids and jobs and things to do. And you know what? If you make an appointment to make out once a month, I think you're doing pretty good. But television and movies, they don't let people...

feel comfortable with what's normal for them. So don't think there's any kind of normal with that folks. And now this makes so much sense. This is why Indigo started selling personal toys. What? Did Indigo did like pocket vibrators and stuff like that? They're not even pocket. They are like full. They are full. I noticed this during the pandemic on their website. I was ordering a book and it was trying to serve me up. You may also like, what were you ordering? Outlander?

I was ordering, like, I read rock and roll autobiographies, and then it's like. Well, that says a lot right there, hubba hubba. You may also like, and I was like, what the heck? You may also like. Jesus Christ, I fucking get gardening tools. Maybe they're not gardening tools. Oh, my God. I'm blushing.

It looks like a hole. And I, oh, I stepped into that one. Not a hole. But listen, I think whatever you need to do, I know that all that stuff went up during the pandemic because a lot of people lived alone. Right. And, you know, it was hard to get zucchini. I don't know. I have no idea. Adam's blushing. Okay.

Are you going to be okay, buddy? I'm okay. What if I told you I added it to the cart? Listen, we'll get that leaf blower. That's not a leaf blower.

What did I order? Okay. Another comment from Barb. There is still a societal stigma against single people. Most of the financial tax consumer deal breaks are for couples or families. Housing and living costs are so expensive on one income, a one income person and politicians care not about singles voices. Uh, there needs to be a singles lobby is what Barb says.

I hear that. I would like to share a benefit or a mortgage or whatever credit they want to give me because I don't live with my boyfriend. And do you, okay, let me ask you this. Do you want to move in with him together sometime? Or do you really like, I want my own space?

Right now it's a hard no. Right now it's a hard no. And how does he feel about that? Is he sensitive to like, oh, you don't love me then? No, no. We both like having our own spaces. It's not a like, you know, a couple of years down the road, I'm sure I will feel differently. But right now I'm good. And he's okay with that. And is he good with that too? He is. He's good with it. He likes his place. Are you monogamous? Yes.

Yeah, we are monogamous. And, you know, he's doing a lot. He just moved back into his condo because he just got a new job. So he's back in his newly renovated condo. And you know what? He's like, oh, I'm going to get you this. Like he wants me to feel at home in his space. It's a beautiful thing. But there's no like, like, oh, you don't want to move in. There's none of that. I love the confidence there because I think as 20 something year old women,

It's that all or nothing kind of mentality. It's too fast. Adam, did you move in with your wife before you got married? No, I lived at home until. You lived at home. I just want to hug you. Oh, let's hug. Bless my sister. She's talking about her wedding already, not even engaged, been dating the same amount of time as me and my guy. You have to know that people are different. Yes, yes.

What, what you do, you cannot expect other people to do. I feel like that's when we get into trouble. That's when judgment comes in. That's when people start looking down their nose. Well, I would never have done that. Well, that's fucking not you. It's not the, that's the, think about what you're saying. It's not you. You have to let people make their own mistakes, make their own decisions, unless they ask you for your shitty advice.

Yeah. And Jan, you'll appreciate this. Can we please stop at group gatherings, social events, leading with, are you seeing anybody? Like enough, enough. I am a whole person. Yeah. My friends are stopping. Once in a while, Lisa, if you're listening, Lisa was saying, and she's from South Africa, I know you're going to get mad before I even talk to you about this.

Is anything going on? Is there anything interesting that we need to know about? I said, Lisa, no, I bought a new hoe. I've got a leaf blower now that I really like. Poppy has a new bully stick. That's it. That's the full story. You never know. I am massacring the South African accent. I'm telling you, you never know what's going to happen.

And you don't need to move in with anyone. You can just have something casual. I said, I'm not a casual person. I said, you have something casual. She's been divorced twice. My, my,

I think I've talked about Lisa and Bev on the show before, Adam. Yeah, yeah. My friend Bev got divorced after 20, almost 30 years. And Lisa went through her second divorce. And they couldn't afford a house together. So they bought one. And they were in the middle of the build. So they were able to get two masters with two en suites, which I thought was so cool. And they're just, they are the greatest friends. They just go off to work and

And speaking of lunches, I always laugh because Lisa's like, Bev actually makes my lunch for me. I've never had that. My husband wouldn't have made fucking lunch for me in a million years. But my friend Bev does. She goes, I think I'm going to keep her. Anyway, it's great to hear them talk. Lisa's like, this is great. This is what single looks like. She goes, if any man comes along and she always points at us, her girlfriends, he's going to have to either add to this

And like blow my mind that he's worthy of all of us or it's a no go. And I really love that. That's nice. And like we were saying too, like I don't believe anyone should be in a relationship until they are confident and whole on their own where they know that they don't need to be dependent on another person for happiness.

I'm going to read a couple of final comments, but I would thank you for coming along on this bonus journey. We're going to try and do this every once in a while when, when everyone's got the time to stay together. Gloria Schwartz, my sons are 22 and 24. One is in final year of engineering. Congratulations. One is in final year of medical school. My God, most of their friends are also getting degrees. Marriage is not on their minds at this time, but probably in a few years, I got married at 27 to a 30 year old doctor. We've been together 31 years so far.

And there's something to be said about getting married a little later and having kids a little later and figuring out who you are. I think back in the day, if you wanted to get out of your mother's house, you got married at 17. Totally true, actually, yeah. How old were you, Adam? 30. It kind of blows my mind that at the time when my parents got married, my mother was 29. That was considered late in 1985. That's an old maid. That's an old maid. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, good for her. And I bet she had a better sense of herself too. And look at how level-headed you are. I think even her parenting skills, she had way more experiences to draw on. Like I, I still feel for kids getting pregnant at 15, 16. I, I just, my heart breaks. There's some great stories, but it doesn't make it any less hard.

Of course, yeah. Anyway, that's a whole other day. You guys, thanks for listening. Thanks for coming along. I'm going to go get some bird seed for the deer because they mostly eat it. And you guys don't get mad at me about feeding the birds and feeding the deer. I'm going to keep doing it. Come and arrest me if you want to. Who gets mad? The internet people. Really? Yeah, the internet people. The people that I block.

Listen, if you're going to disagree with me, I will block you. No, I won't the first time. But the second time, I will block you. Put some bologna spice on that seed for the beer. Oh, bologna. Can someone, Trader Joe's, can you make some bologna spice? Or is there a bologna spice out there? This is the question. Go to the Jan Arden pod and tell us. Go see Sarah Burke or go see Adam.

Sarah's got us a really nice Instagram page now, and there's people actually on it, and we're doing video clips, little snippets that we'll probably have for you before this podcast comes out of little stuff that we're talking about. And that's all because Sarah Burke and Adam Karsh seem to know things that I don't.

That's Sarah. I'm just going to, I'm just going to, it's all Sarah. I'm just going to post pictures of my dog and that's all you're going to get. Okay. You guys have a wonderful weekend. Um, and we will see you. We'll see you next Thursday. That doesn't sound right. Somehow. See you next Thursday. We'll see you next week. We'll see each other on Thursday. Everyone else. We see each other, but we'll see you on Friday night, late or Saturday. Okay. We'll see you later. Totally different.

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