Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
This is a very special Breaking News, Jan Arden special podcast. Caitlin Green, Adam Karsh. We have one of the all-time greatest...
newscasters in the whole world. Lisa Laflamme is our special guest today, you guys. I'm so excited. She joined us one of our earliest ever podcasts when the show launched and was just one of my favorite guests, but it just remains to me one of the most impressive and just coolest people in Canadian media. I love her so much. I'm thrilled about this.
She is a very down to earth person. It's so funny because we all think back to when we were in the Bell building in at CTV, downtown Toronto. Yep. And Lisa came into the studio and these were early days. We didn't have a lot of guests. We didn't really know. We were just like new out of the box. And Lisa was the first person to stick her hand in the air and go, I would love to come and do your podcast. Let's do it. And this was before podcasts were podcasts. It was before the pandemic. Yeah.
Yeah. Now everybody's got one, but I digress. Well, now she has to do like, she was doing it in person. So it was like, she would come and then sit in the little booth and, you know, exactly. Like, cause I think she was normally uptown. So yeah, really just such a treat to have her on. And also,
Being that so much has happened, I don't think we've stopped having news. This breakneck pace of darkness and the people frothing at the mouth over the mainstream media, all this stuff has just been going on. And so to be kind of in the eye of that hurricane for the last two years, I can only imagine.
Yeah. And we touched a little bit on, we've recorded our interview with Lisa. So we just, we actually just waved goodbye to her. We didn't want to keep her waiting while we did this segment of the show. But, you know, we touched upon social media and that she has a hard time dealing with it. You know, this is a real person. This is a real woman with feelings. And, you know,
She's been reporting news on the front lines, traveled all over the world reporting on wars, famines, shootings, you name it. Lisa has been there and 35 years of that. And now she said she has people that are quite cruel. I'll retire already. You're 57 years old. And you have no idea the burden that these people, journalists in particular, carry.
to report news and that they sit in front of us night after night when we're just in our fricking pajamas eating cheesies and not wanting to face anything. And they are in hair, in makeup, doing it remotely, setting up stuff in their home to bring us an absolute necessity of life, which is informing us of what's happening, what we should be doing. And so that, I mean, I just felt like when Lisa touched on that in our chat today, I just, I feel like,
going through the computer and jumping into whoever's freaking house that is and just punching them in the side of the neck. Come on, people do better. I don't know. It's probably sticky and smelly in there. Yeah. But I just feel like it's just, we entered this world of like anyone with a Twitter account and an internet connection is like, Oh, I'm doing my own research. I'm a journalist now. I'm like, no, this woman has been doing this for decades on the ground at the
the things that you are talking about from behind a screen. And she's been there interviewing people and seeing things with her own eyes. And, you know, I just to have your integrity questioned by these random crazy people, um, would be so, so exhausting when you're, when you are on the ground in, for example, Poland reporting on what's happening in Ukraine right now, or wherever you may be. Um,
it's just such an unwelcome intrusion into your career that I don't think necessarily applies to every other career, right? This is just to have your integrity questioned by some random psychopath on the internet. It's just, it seems so, it seems new. I'm like, Oh, this is new and gross. I don't like it at all. If you don't like it, guess what? Turn it off. I don't think the news is going to be issuing a refund to you anytime soon. Stop watching it. We can see your envy, your jealousy, your,
From a million miles away, you people that are hurling that kind of vitriol, it's getting tired. It's getting old. You are doing yourselves no favors whatsoever. I understand that you feel invisible and unheard, but do something better with your lives than insulting people on social media, hurting people.
you know it's it's emotional terrorism and it's it's not a good look yeah just keep keep it moving and like keep scrolling i don't get it keep it moving but yeah lisa is is is so fantastic and just watching her for years uh we were chris chris brunton my road manager and i were lucky enough to go do the megan harry wedding years ago and lisa really rallied for me she's like
how do you feel about doing color commentary for the royal wedding? I said, who's getting married? That was my first question. Meghan Harry. I'm like, oh my God, well, I don't follow that stuff, but what's color commentary? She's like, oh my God, you have to do this. Just the fact that you don't know. So, you know, I got to get an outfit and a fascinator, which is one of those fancy little hats and was with the CTV gang. It was back in the day where they sent big crews and had sets built on top of buildings. And that was,
That was one of the most exciting days, watching that carriage go down this line of people, you know, pre-COVID. Boy, if we only knew. I mean, there was something like 350,000 people lining the streets at Windsor Palace. And I just kept pinching myself. And I'm sitting next to Lisa. She's doing these newscasts. We were on the air for six hours. It was six hours of live television. Oh, my God. And I was like, when can I pee? Like, this was my biggest...
Are we in commercial? And she goes, I just, I've got a power bar or something. I'm like dying. I'm starving. And I really got a glimpse of, but it was, it was a happy day. So I'm glad that I was able to see Lisa on a really happy day for the planet. And of course the naysayers will get in there and do what they will and go, what a waste of taxpayers money. I'm like, that was so much joy that brought so much happiness to people. I felt it. It was palpable.
Yeah. And I mean, you know, like different times where, you know, that would have felt a little... Like if you look at it now, someone was like, oh, someone did that today. It might feel a little bit tone deaf. But yeah, it was a bit different. I mean, I feel like...
Maybe I'm in a weird bubble where like the royal family doesn't really register that much with me. So I was like, I really didn't know. Yeah. I remember that was happening and it was like a big thing. And people were like, I was, I was kind of like, I was like, okay, she, I, I had seen her walking around Toronto a bit. Actually, I think she did a Pilates class with one of my friends who's an instructor. Oh my God. And that's kind of like the most I had known of the whole thing. But you know, I'm not going to take a distraction away from anyone. This is why I watch below deck. Yeah.
Darn it. You pick your distraction, whether that's sports or it's food or it's whatever. But you know, if it's a people want to feel good by watching, you know, two young famous people fall in love, then I don't know. There's no hierarchy of, of distractions. Well,
Well, if you're watching below deck, then I'm the type of person that would be watching above deck. Because I like to know what the other rich people are doing. Is there an above deck? Well, so below deck really is kind of that dynamic. It's the upstairs, downstairs dynamic.
dynamic of the people, the wealthy people who charter these yachts and then the crew that work them. And they're the main characters, the crew. So it follows them dealing with this rotating door, revolving door of guests, and then the dynamics of all the people on the crew. And it's so good. Should we ask Captain Sandy to be on our podcast? Because she follows me. Captain Lee. Captain Lee. Is there a Captain Sandy? There is a Captain Sandy. Captain Sandy Yawn.
Okay. Captain Sandy's the one that follows me. That's the only connection I have to these people, Caitlin. You've got to be more encouraging. Okay, fine. Then Captain Sandy will do, but I'm a Captain Lee girl. Okay. Well, I could say Captain Sandy. How do we get ahold of Captain Lee? Imagine. Hi.
huge fans of the show, but do you know the other- Just pop it into your DMs just to see how we can get ahold of the other person that we like way better. This is like, this is if I, you know, if I had to like, if I came back in some other form, I think I would try to be like Andy Cohen or something, an executive producer of these shows, because it just looks like the most fun you could ever have. And again, it is yes, distraction central, but sometimes that's what you want. That's also why I love Ina Garten. So I'm not going to hate.
I'll never forget her and Seth Meyers doing day drinking. Wasn't the best. Ina Garten and Seth Meyers. It was a segment for his late night talk show when it was on. Is it still on, Seth? Yeah. Oh, it is. Okay. Sorry, Seth. Sorry. He's great. I'm in bed by 730, so forgive me. But they were hammered in this little bar.
And he couldn't keep up to her. He could not do it. Oh, no. She's like, she has a spare leg or something. Because do you remember when the pandemic started and she had that viral moment where she made the giant picture of like Cosmos? Yes. And it was, I think she posted it at like 9 a.m. or something. And it was just so relatable. And...
And I had always loved Ina Garten. I'd watched her when I was growing up on TV. But then I think people rediscovered her during the pandemic when we wanted that cozy comfort of food, of her. I want to just be in her kitchen. Don't you think she's the modern Julia Child? 1000%. Yeah. 1000%. I just, I adore her so much. So yeah. Oh my gosh. And she could drink stuff under the table. He was plump.
plastered. Absolutely plastered. And she was just like patting him on the shoulder. Seth, you better just calm down. So yeah, anyway, we got, we do Lisa Laflamme is here and I'll tell you what the, um,
Just her professionalism, her ability to be open. The conversation that you're about to hear is really a great one. I hope you'll stick around and listen to it. You know, we had to talk about Lisa's gorgeous hair last week. Rick Mercer mentioned it, but we see Lisa every night and she looks like a lioness. And this mane of, she's got a beautiful gray hair. It's like a gray deep with silver threads, like,
woven through it when Lisa, when you listen to this, Lisa, forgive me, but I'm, yes, I am gushing over you. And anyway, it's, it's a real pleasure to have watched her have the career that she's had. You know, we're very used to seeing men in, in positions of nighttime news anchors and this country in particular has done quite well. I remember Wendy Mesley and Donna at global and,
um is does amazing so we've got a lot of women that have done very well in the news business yeah adam is telling me to shut up no i was actually going to say before we go to break i went through our podcast page and the last time that lisa laflamme was on our show was december 7th 2019 episode 3 entitled okay boomer so if you want to go back and like listen to the first time she was on our show
Episode three, season one. Episode three. That's crazy. That is. That is. She's so great. I love her. And she looks, you're right. You know, she, she looks very distinguished and I'm so happy. Beautiful. She looks beautiful. She looks better every freaking week. I'm going to punch her. She's very cool. Like she's a very cool woman. Totally cool. I don't know. It's, it's a real treat.
to steal her time and also to hear from her because she was recently, obviously, over in Europe and Poland reporting on the situation in Ukraine, an invasion that has only become worse and more traumatic and more disheartening and more infuriating for so much of Canada. So her touching on that, I just, I think it's so special to hear her take on this as a human being. Like, she's a journalist, but we're talking to her as a human, so it's great. Don't go away. Lisa Laflamme is up next. ♪
Well, hello there. As promised, I'm here with Lisa Laflamme, the one and only. I know she doesn't require an introduction, but I'm going to do it anyway and just remind you, those of the millions of us that watch Lisa on our televisions night after night, a trusted, wonderful journalist. Not only that, currently the chief anchor and senior editor of
of CTV National News, which is a huge, huge undertaking. I don't know how you even have time to sit and do this podcast with us today, Lisa, but thank you so, so much. Welcome to the show. Thank you. It's great to be here. I love talking to you. It's been a long time since I've been on this podcast and it's great to be back. Well, Adam was saying last time you were with us, we were in the studio at the Bell Building, Caitlin and Adam, we were all there and
It's amazing how this last couple of years has flown by. I don't know how it feels for you because of the reporting that you're doing every night. A lot of us chose, are we going to watch the news every day? Are we just going to tune out? Some of us were like, I can't take it. I can't take the COVID counts. I'm just going to not do it. But for you,
working on the front lines of journalism and informing millions of people every day what to do, how to do it, what's happening in the world. How have you felt about all this? Yeah, it's been a very bizarre over two years now. And in the beginning, I think none of us had any clue where this was going. We were doing morning specials and night specials. And for two months, we were on the air
Pretty much it felt like all day, just bringing press conferences and, and the latest information and people were just glomming on to whatever info we were given. Yeah.
Then it sort of changed a bit, you know, the terrible shooting in Nova Scotia, which, believe it or not, was just the other day was a two year anniversary of that, which shocked me. Yeah. Yeah. It's just feels like it's been a relentless news cycle. And I can't remember in 35 years as a journalist saying,
I can't honestly remember a time that has been so fraught and unsettling for people. Now here we are in this, you know,
a senseless war between, well, Russia invading Ukraine. And just, it seems like it's one thing after another. So I absolutely understand when you say there are people who have said, I need to tune out for a while for everyone's mental health. I've even said that to my, my sisters and my mother, I forgive you. If you don't watch for a while, everybody needs a break from it. You know, we don't get that break. And, um,
that's sometimes difficult and possibly always exhausting, but it is, it's our job. And I just long for some good news. So this is good news to me. No, absolutely. I don't know how you feel about it, but, and we talk about it a lot on this show is, is the, that good things do come out of bad things. And we've seen changes that really have been unprecedented. When you look at,
the climate change movement and how people have really kicked into gear. Maybe we've just had time to really think about our planet and people have been home and looking at their backyards and
you know, wondering what our future is, but just things like mental health, long-term care that people are really starting to focus on because of how COVID ripped through long-term care from coast to coast, all over the planet, really. So all these little vulnerable places, homeless, the plight of the homeless, addiction, I feel like we did make a lot of
Really forward motion there, Lisa. Maybe I'm just trying to find crumb.
I think we did. I feel like there's big conversations happening. There are. The question I have constantly is how sustainable is it? There was a time during the pandemic, the early days of the pandemic, where there did seem to be an incredible national unity and we supported our neighbors and we cared about our neighbors at a distance, of course. And we got used to some of those rules and rules
I worry, though, that we're now seeing the polarization return. And that, to me, is a wasted opportunity, that all the things we did learn in this bizarre two years may not last. And that's the hard work ahead, is to reflect on what we learned and not just throw it out and say, well, that was the pandemic. But this is life. And I really worry about...
I mean, obviously, I've said this before and I've said it to you. The influence of social media has, for all the good it's done, there's been a lot of challenging elements to it that impact young people so dramatically. And especially during the pandemic when that phone was all they had. Oh, yeah. Social media is the bane of my existence many a day.
But I also see where it really has connected people and given people a chance to find like-minded people
you know, other souls. So you were talking about polarization, Lisa, and just seeing this, the trucker convoy stuff happening and borders being closed and, you know, the Ottawa sort of what people were calling the insurrection and hot tubs and all that kind of weird behavior that went on. It must've been difficult to report about that and trying to be, you know, unbiased.
That's the challenge because, of course, it seemed counterproductive at times. I think I always understood that this was just a reaction to two years of being trapped.
under this bizarre cloud of pandemic and people just needed to bust out. And because they sure did, they sure did. There wasn't a lot of logic in the sense because the anti-vaccine or the vaccine mandates and the mask mandates that was actually happening and still is in the United States. So these truckers were,
We're arguing something that was never going to be solved by the Canadian government. It was the American government that still has imposed the requirement to be double vaccinated to cross that border. But it became I mean, we saw moms and dads and their children. And these were not truckers. These were people who were really vulnerable.
felt disenfranchised. It's not the first time we've seen that, obviously, but it did seem like three weeks. That's a long time to occupy the capital city of our country. And through those three weeks, it really did change from...
support to absolute lack of support to now look at we're seeing the leaders still facing pretty serious jail time if convicted. So, you know, it's funny, that almost seems like a million years ago to me now. It does. Just when it ended, you know, Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine. And then it was all hands on deck for covering a war that we had heard before
rumblings of for months and months, obviously, if anyone who was paying attention to Vladimir Putin and his position since Crimea. But I don't think anybody expected these visuals of this scorched earth approach that he's taken against the civilians in Ukraine. So I say that because it sort of plays into what I was saying of the relentless nature of news and
Oh, yeah, the truckers. That's right. That was January. February rolled around and it was Ukraine. And, you know, it's just it's nonstop. And I think keeping trying to just cover this down the middle. I mean, we're human beings first. We live in this world. But it is it's a challenge. We try to get all the voices together.
factual voices because disinformation became a massive part of the trucker and this war. And I guess now every single story, there is this underbelly of misinformation that we have to cut through. And sometimes I say, boy, I feel like we're spending half the newscast correcting information that's just rocketed out into the world. So
Well, I mean, a lot of us go to bed and we're thinking, what are we going to wake up to in eight hours? But for you, we got 60 seconds before we go into the break. But for you, you wake up and you're like, maybe you get woken up at three o'clock in the morning when these stories break. I can't imagine that you actually have had an eight hour sleeping period because I want to talk to you about going over to Europe and reporting
from basically the front lines of a war. And you've been doing this for 35 years. You've done so much international reporting. So, we're just going to take a break and we'll come back as Adam signaling me. We're with the incredible Lisa Laflamme, who I feel like you're my leader half the time, Lisa. I'm your sister. Yeah, my sister Lita. We're going to be right back. It's a Jan Arden podcast. Don't go away.
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You're listening to the Jan Arden podcast. We're back with the incredible Lisa Laflamme. Lisa, we were watching the news and all of a sudden you were across the pond and you were reporting over there. What kind of trepidation is there going into, you know, there's a war going on. The missiles, the bombings have been absolutely devastating for so many parts of Ukraine today.
And here you are getting on a plane, taking a small crew, I would imagine, and still with COVID going on and going over to report the national news. And now, interestingly, that was the first time since the pandemic that I traveled, and it was with the smallest crew we've ever traveled with. There were three of us who did, we did the show every night for two full weeks. And when we got there, there were only a few thousand people
Ukrainians crossing the border into Poland. And today there's five million. It's staggering. In eight weeks, five million people have been forced from their homes. So for us, it's just a everywhere you look is is a is.
It's heartbreaking. It's a news story. It's a geopolitical story. This has been a really important and fascinating one because it drags Canada in as a NATO member. There are so many issues going on here. Should NATO go in? Should there be a no-fly zone? These were all the things we were learning and exploring while we're literally on the ground covering it. And my colleagues who are now in Kyiv
and had been in Lviv before that are really watching the exodus. And we were at the border of Poland, Ukraine, seeing it come our way. And I remember one day I was standing in a, I was walking through a sort of a pedestrian type park
in the beautiful city of Warsaw. We'd just interviewed Prime Minister Trudeau, who was there meeting with the president of Poland. And I looked around this beautiful park and all I saw, imagine this, imagine your favorite park in the middle of your big, beautiful city.
And all you see are what to me looked like grandmothers and little children lugging, you know, suitcases on the wheels, just walking around through this park, not knowing. And it was still very chilly. The train stations from the border to Krakow to Warsaw were just crazy.
Honestly, if you turn the color off, I thought I was looking at archival footage of the Second World War. And I still get chills today when I see these visuals. I see these buildings just completely bombed. Not military installations, but bombings.
residential condos and schools and maternity hospitals. And there is just nothing makes sense about this. Well, the way, the way Putin has gone after the infrastructure and it always amazes me in war. When you see these dictators go in with their sleeves rolled up and I, this is what I want more. This is what I want. But the fact that they want the country to,
but they destroy everything that makes the country attractive for them to have. Like Mariupol, this beautiful port city,
It's annihilated. Everything has been flattened. I'm going to ask you this because I feel like this is what every Canadian says. Why can't the rest of the world go in and bomb him and take out his houses in Sochi and bomb Russia and just have it done? Why can't we do that? And I guess that's the question. But like you said, NATO is a complicated, it's a complicated thing. It's also, you know, mutual agreed benefits.
destruction. So every day I talk to General David Fraser, who was, by the way, when I was covering the war in Afghanistan, he was the brigadier general on the ground there. And now here we are all these years later. And I talk to him every single day for exactly questions like that, Jan, to get some better perspective on the, first of all, the military strategy, but also how
How is history going to view NATO's action? Because I'm not going to call it inaction. They are affording Ukraine heavy weapons and the things that they need, and not the least of which is the exodus and refugee status. But everybody asks, you know, you can take out Saddam Hussein, you can take out Muammar Gaddafi, a long list of people. This...
this is not happening in this case. And I think that the Ukrainian military has really proven themselves and maybe that's why they, they, at this point, I don't know, let's put it this way. May the 9th is a pivotal day, uh, in Russia. And it's, so they say the day Putin wants this over, that is their sort of a labor day. And, um, so we've got a few weeks to go. I'm not sure, uh,
where this is going to go. But at this moment, it's just looking, you just mentioned Mario Polo and it's devastating to see that. And a lot of people in the world are going, what does he want? What does he want? Is it square footage? You know, when you annihilate an entire population and I'm not saying killing them all, certainly there's like you said, millions of people escaping and becoming refugees and,
Every day I imagine walking away from my home with my little dog under my arm and, I don't know, my phone. I don't even know what the hell I'd take. But, you know, the end game is, are the Russian people going to go in there and rebuild everything and suddenly make this...
With what? With what? These sanctions are basically rendering Russia, you know, a pariah state for certain. But also financially, you know, now these sanctions are just hitting on every single level. I don't know what's going to be left. And I don't know if the theory is true that he wants to recreate, you know, his mythic USSR. It's hard to say, but it's disastrous. It really is. For you personally,
you know, this is your job. How do you find the time to make sure that you do have joy, that you're not always constantly living in a state of guilt because of the things that you do have? I mean, you're able to get on a plane from Poland with your crew, fly back to Canada, to your home, to your life. And for me, I always feel bad about having a good job and being able to travel. I mean, I'm going to Switzerland on Sunday and I've got jobs there. And I always try and find that point of balance of
how do I accept joy into my life while there's so much suffering? And I'm wondering what
if there's anything that you do to kind of find the heart of that. Well, I've always, I've always been brutal at finding balance, first of all, that's the problem, but I do have two beautiful Labrador retrievers. So let me just say that they do, you know, it forces me out every single day when I'm here walking the dogs, just the simplicity of magical it is. But I always am thinking about what,
You know, when you get on a plane to leave a disaster zone, there is a sense of abandonment. And I feel it every single time. We most recently were in Rome covering the Indigenous leaders meeting with the Pope. And that was, there was joy there.
that week, ultimately, but it was another example of we travel to Italy to speak to these incredible elders to hear their stories of a long time pain that happened on Canadian soil. And they're there looking for an apology, which they ultimately got from the Pope. But there were moments of
joy in that. I mean, you find them where you can. And I do look for music is another one, your music. And by the way, now that I'm hearing, I'm here with you. I want to thank you again because I,
On International Women's Day, we were at the border of Ukraine and Poland, and I sent an email out to you. I had all these incredible pictures of not just Ukrainian women and their children, but Afghan women. And I'm going to get emotional thinking about this, but it was all about keep going, steady on. And I asked you for, you know, could we use your music as an underlay? I was honored. I was absolutely honored. That just...
That gives me strength. That song, other beautiful pieces of art, things that lift you out of what is your daily grind or disaster, whatever it is. So it's something you have to work toward for sure. And I think the empathy of...
The world has been really awe-inspiring for me in every corner of the world. I even, I did see some, you were speaking about Afghanistan women in Iraq and there was, I don't, I can't remember the journalist's name, but she was interviewing people and talking to them about this war in Ukraine.
And they were just so, they had experienced so much grief in their own lives. And they were just like, we're praying for them. We're praying that the people move away from, they give them their land back and their homes. And there was so much of an outpouring. There was no apathy. There was no like, oh, it's not our problem. No.
Move on. Yeah. Yeah. Get in line. The whole world is in trouble here, sweetheart. This was, there's so much empathy in the world and it really, there's millions and billions of people laying down in bed at night. And I think the power of thought and goodness, he's not going to win ultimately. He's done whatever, whatever life, whatever, whatever life he has lost. And I don't know what he expected, but I think it's,
it's absolutely the opposite of what he thought would happen. So anyway, we have one more few minutes with you, Lisa, and I'm going to milk it for everything I can. We'll be right back with the wonderful Lisa Laflamme. Thank you for your time and don't go away. We've got more of Lisa coming up. Welcome back to the Jan Arden podcast. I'm here with Caitlin Green, Adam Karsh. And of course, Lisa Laflamme has been our guest today. And what, what, what an honor it is to talk to you, Lisa. I think, um,
Watching you over these past years, all of us feel like we have a real trusted voice in Canadian journalism. That's how I feel. I'm always so proud of you. I don't know you well, but just watching from a distance, the way that you get through difficult stories and are able to convey emotions. I would be crying all the time. And I talk to friends all the time. They're like, I couldn't do the FN News.
I'd be bawling my head off. I think there's that switch, you know, there's something in your head because I am a very emotional person. And my executive producer, Rosa Wang, who you may remember. Rosa, I love Rosa. But I mean, she and I always like we'll be sitting wherever we are writing the show and just
You know, you just, you've got a line that conveys what you've just witnessed. And, and I think we, I let it out in the process, just not on air. Yeah.
I guess that's the key. Yeah, but I mean, I know we all get uncomfortable when we do see journalists kind of breaking down. I'll have to just go over to Anderson Cooper's world. You know, sometimes I've seen him reporting on things that are horrific. The Sandy Hook shooting comes to mind, you know, many years ago when he just was in absolute utter disbelief. This is now beyond any shooting stuff possible.
I don't even know how to speak to this. And I'm bawling my head off, but he kept apologizing because I'm sorry. I just need a moment here. So I've often wondered that. I think the viewer really does understand
understand when it's just too much, you know, because as I said, we're human beings first and then journalists. So there are moments you can't hold it in and you have to find a way still to communicate. And it's, I don't know. I don't know. I just wish that we would see a correction on a lot of levels in this world. And we maybe thought the pandemic could offer that it hasn't yet. Yeah.
In fact, if anything, if you believe the theory, it was the isolation that actually is causing a lot of the issues we're experiencing. It was that sort of, we've talked so much about mental health. It is not for nothing. And the world needs to really step up and see it in their friends and colleagues and families and try to help because it is a pandemic, I would argue.
Do you think we've found out who our friends are through this past couple of years? Wow, what a great question. I think that we, you know, you said earlier that it's like these two years flew by, they didn't happen. There's an element of that. You know, when you see a friend you haven't seen since high school and it's like nothing ever changed and you fall right back.
On some level, everyone sort of was insulated for the pandemic. Now, you know, I'll get a text from a friend, I haven't, "Hey, Elise, do you want to go do a dog walk?"
Yes. Great. I haven't seen you in two years. I'd love to. And I think everyone is just finding their moment to walk out into the sun and, and just feel connected again for everything is a first being on an airplane was a first being in a restaurant was a first. I was in my market the other day and I saw the woman I see almost every day. And I said to her yesterday, Oh God,
It is so beautiful to see your face because she wasn't wearing a mask. And, you know, the eyes do tell a lot. But man, seeing a smile or just...
a grimace that happens too. I don't know. I think that it'll be a bright... I know we're dealing with a sixth wave right now and it's certainly not over, but we're coming somewhere. Oh, we are coming somewhere. Human beings were built for change. We were built to adapt. Well...
Well, you of all people see change every day. It might be incremental. I wanted to ask you about food. You mentioned going overseas, reporting on the ground for two weeks and seeing the refugees pour into Poland. Now you guys have to eat at some point. Do you ever have a nice meal? Do you take, let's have an hour, let's sit down, let's have someone pour us a cup of tea or have a glass of wine and have a decent meal? Does that ever happen?
Well, we do the show in the middle of the night because of the time difference. So by the time we finish and I say, good night, we'll see you tomorrow, it is already four in the morning and there's nothing open. And if there is something open, trust me, it'll be a sticky floor and you do not want to be in there. Yeah. No, we don't. That's the life of a musician, Lisa. I know it is. You're describing... I thought you'd relate to that.
Yeah, you're describing 20 years of my life of like, how sticky is this floor and can I make it up to the cash register? I don't know.
But we don't do, I mean, we have basically, it's a really weird life. You get up early in the morning, like, well, to me, early 9.30, we're out the door of whatever, wherever we're sleeping to gather the story for that day. So there's this weird lull around 5 p.m.,
Europe in Europe, which is, you know, middle of the afternoon in Toronto, there's a little bit of a break. And then you boom, full on to the end of the show. So I sleep every time I'm flying back to this country. I am boom. I'm just out like a light. I could sleep on the, you know, the head of a pin. I'm so exhausted by the time. Are you a good sleeper? Like could, could, could you sleep the two weeks you were there? Were you at a hotel somewhere in Poland? You don't really sleep.
I leave the TV on the whole time if I'm on a big story because I need to hear. I'll hear the breaking news music of BBC or CNN. I will hear it and I will wake up and I will see what's happening. It's just the way I've always worked. And it is getting harder. I'll be honest. As I age, I'm 57 now. I'll be 58 in July. You look freaking amazing. Everyone's talking about your damn hair. Oh, my God. Yeah.
Lisa, I'm telling you, you and Rick Mercer have led the charge with letting your hair go gray in this country. We have a lot in common and the man makes me laugh uproariously. And I love that we both decided to. He talked about you last week. Get out of that. Oh, you, you, you, you look amazing. And I, and I know it's a lot. I know it's probably down your list somewhere to be like, oh, how great do I look on TV? But my, my,
God, I see what everyone... Come on, Jan. I'm a self-loather. You know that. But I'll tell you one thing. The hair has been incredibly liberating. Wow. Because I had to dye it every three weeks because it was... That's just... I've been gray for so long. So the pandemic did force me when the salons closed. I was like, okay, well, everybody's going to see my roots, but everyone else has roots. And now it's done. So...
That's been liberating. And I still get really, you know, we were talking about social media and I wish I was someone who responded the way you do, but I do not respond. You know, the whole concept, you're old, retire already, that kind of stuff. And I just have to laugh and say, well, it's, that's usually, um,
I never, I try never to look at the responses because it's always bad news, but thank you for saying so. I appreciate it. And a lot of women do come up to me and say, Hey, I went. You're inspiring. And the fact that you're walking into cronedom, I am, I just turned 60 Lisa and I've been, you know, I've been, thank you. It was March the 27th and it was, I, I'm not a huge birthday person, but I,
I've never felt better. I live my life now with the absence of doubt. And Caitlin and Adam know this. I have no doubt. So I know I'm good at what I do. You're very good at what you do. It's not being boastful. I'm not trying to do anything but make myself happy and do things that bring me joy. And it's just all in the work. But people...
cruel because they hate themselves so much. It's so typical. Like Caitlin and Adam, all of us have dealt with so much social media stuff. Well, you are absolutely extraordinary. Oh, Jen, you're so generous and kind. Canada's lucky to have you.
have you we're lucky to have your music has gotten me through a lot of this um since way way back and i love the new album and it's an honor to be on your podcast it truly is to see well we're gonna hit you up whenever we possibly can you're a favorite on our show and look after yourself continue to continue to uh to charge on steady on lisa steady and yeah
One of these days, Jen, we are doing a duet. Well, that's it. Hopefully, so turn 29. Okay. Thanks. Thanks for listening, guys. Jen Arden podcast. Subscribe. We'll see you next time. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at women in media dot network.