Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Hello, everybody. Good morning. And it's probably a warm morning for a lot of you people listening. This is the Jan Arden podcast. And we are firmly and well into summer. We're seeing record temperatures all over the globe. How are you guys feeling in Toronto? Hot. Hot AF.
So hot. It's really sweaty. Humidity is like the most oppressive form of heat because it prevents sweat from evaporating off of your body. And that's what actually would normally cool you down. So I don't like this level of heat. And I have a lot of friends who work actually for real estate developers. So like condo corporations and the companies responsible for putting up all the glass towers you see and complain about in Toronto. And
And they've done a lot of environmental consulting because they obviously have to build stuff that's supposed to now last for the next however many years. And a lot of these environmental consultants are warning that Toronto specifically will see 50 degree summer days by 2040. Whoa. Well, I'll be dead. So I'm not going to be too concerned about that. I'll be dead in 2040. Well, listen, how old am I?
I'm 31 years old. Listen, there's so many problems with everything that's going on globally. I think climate change is...
Finally kind of getting into the minds of the naysayers. I know that President Biden just announced a $2.3 billion, a huge chunk of money allotted to fight climate change. I haven't had a chance to read exactly what he's using that money for. It's not that great. Yeah.
It's not that great? No. And everyone has to like, everyone's like, oh yeah, let's just keep this centrist approach to maybe saving our own lives. And no, it's like, it's time. It's like radical time because we're all going to burn and our grandkids will be performing sexual favors for freshwater access at this rate. So it's the truth and people don't want to hear it. They want you to sugarcoat it and tell you like, oh, just make it sound nice. Put it to put a puppy on it. I'm like, no, I'm not going to, not for this.
Climate change is the biggest deal. It's pretty unbelievable. My colleague that I've talked about a lot, Nigel, lives in just outside of London, maybe an hour and a half outside of London. And every day he snaps a picture of his thermostat. And I'm gobsmacked. It was
uh, 40 point something. It looked just over 40 today and he was traveling on the train to Scotland. He's in publishing and he said, I have to travel today. But he said, literally, uh, there's lots of delays. I, he got hung up in Glasgow or something because the, um,
Just the train lines are unpredictable. And somebody, I read somewhere that the lines are actually buckling from the heat. Yes. And moving from the heat. But Europe, if anyone's ever traveled there, you would remember that they don't have air conditioning over there. It's not...
Mind you, you know, when their summers are six weeks long and their top temperature was 28 degrees, they really didn't feel the need to put in these massive AC systems. Anyway, it is hot globally and there's been so many fires breaking out. Portugal, Spain, you know, an unprecedented, you know, amount of wildfires are going on over there. Things that they haven't seen. I mean, think back to Australia, Caitlin, like Australia.
A few years ago, there was something like three, was it three billion animals that were lost? I'm not kidding you. Oh, yeah. No, definitely. Yeah. I think the most recent heat wave in Spain right now, they have over 500 people have died. They're expecting it to increase. And I believe Spain was one of the countries that made the move recently. They're saying they in future want to start naming heat waves the way they name hurricanes in an effort to get people to take it more seriously. Personalize it.
because that way they're like, oh yeah, there's an association here with something that could really kill you because it could. And like you said, they don't have air conditioning. They haven't needed air conditioning. Will their power grids support the switch to air conditioning for a lot of these homes and people in order to survive? I'm not sure. I think we're going to be dealing with a massive power grid issue in the coming decades. I certainly know that we've
it's been a discussion point here in Canada already. I can't speak to everything in Europe, but I would imagine it would be. Absolutely. I read a really interesting op-ed piece, this gentleman from Sri Lanka. He said how interesting it was that, you know, these predominantly first world countries, um,
whether it's the UK, the United States, Europe, that they're reporting these 40 degree temperatures. But he said, these 40 degree temperatures have been happening in India. They've been happening in parts of Africa. They've been happening in parts of the world where really people still don't seem to care about. And this was a point that he was making. He said, now suddenly there's alarms going off. But he said, we have been experiencing these kinds of
unbelievably hot temperatures for a decade and nothing happened. So, but now Europe, Canada, the United States, uh,
And, you know, whatever the case may be, maybe South America, now suddenly it's an important issue. And I really took that to heart because I do remember seeing things about India years ago with, you know, families gathered on rooftops and sleeping outside. And, you know, and electricity is a problem for them there. It's not like they can plug in a fan in the family room.
And put that in. So this has been going on for a while, but now there's other parts of the world kind of above the equator that are far more north than we're used to seeing that are...
you know, going through this kind of really horrendous, these horrendous heat waves and people are dying. Yeah. And they're going to continue to die in greater and greater numbers. That's the truth. Like I had a friend, a sister of a very good friend who worked for kind of like the UN's water advisory segment.
And she was in Bangladesh and she was talking about the increase to seawater levels rising and how it's the parts of the world, specifically she was working on Bangladesh, but that are going to be unlivable in the near future because of sea level rising. And it's very significant. This is not small. Like people are not talking about small things anymore. We're talking about the amount of, you know, climate change.
change migrants who are going to have to flee their homes and where are they going to go? And then every time you have an influx of a quote unquote outside population coming to a new country, then that causes social issues. So I just feel like everyone has to kind of wrap their head around the fact that this is going to, like the chickens are coming home to roost and the biggest polluters are,
mostly to be held responsible for this. It's the US, it's India and it's China. And they have to figure out how to reduce their carbon emissions. Got to stop eating meat. We've got to stop eating large animals. We've got to stop industrial animal farming. The methane from cattle, sheep, you know, what is normal to you about
putting a load of horses on a 747 from Canada and flying them to Japan for people to eat. It's so elitist.
What is normal to you about putting 40,000 sheep and lambs, so mothers and little lambs, on a ship that sails for two weeks from New Zealand to the Middle East, Australia from the Middle East? I think New Zealand has actually stopped live animal exports. I'll have to check on that. But I know they were very close to passing that legislation. What is normal about slaughtering...
something like 25 million chickens a day that are in factory farms of thousands and thousands at a time on top of each other. I'm telling you, industrial farming, yes, we can look at China. China's the biggest pork producer in the world. They have farms that are very clandestine in barns that are kilometers long. These animals never see the light of day. It's disgusting. They're filthy.
And that it's just something's got to give with how we are eating. We're eating ourselves to death. You know, even cutting down meat at this point, I don't think is going to quite cut it. Although I do encourage people to even cut down their meat consumption because it if you don't think it's a problem, you've got your head cut.
in the sand. It is a huge problem for climate change. We are giving water to animals that is so precious. Do you know how much water you need to give to one cow to make it live long enough to provide a certain amount of calories for human beings? The math is so insane. It
Maybe the water will finally be the straw that breaks the cow's back of how we go about eating. Sorry, I'm ranting, but it's so frustrating to see governments that are ramping up. We want to make cheap meat for people, make meat more accessible. And that's Biden as well. He was introducing programs of...
trying to get meat on the table of hardworking Americans and that is cheap and affordable. Well, you know what that means? Yet more horror for the animals and more water that should be used for people to be drinking. It's so nutty. And people are complaining about watering their lawns. You know, we pay taxes. We pay more than that guy. We should be able to water our lawns more. Okay, you're not getting it.
I feel like ultimately what's been happening so much is passing the responsibility on to individuals when like what's really needed is large scale systemic change of how we approach, you know, corporations, like massive oil companies, factory farming companies, all those things you're talking about. It's just, we, it's not going to change. They've convinced everyone that if you have a plastic straw, you're going to hell. And like, that's not really what it's about. And I'm not saying there's no point in making the right individual choices. Of course there is, but it's just, that's not going to save the planet anymore.
And so that is a really, really sneaky little marketing thing that's happened in the last little while where they're like, oh, if we just all use cardboard straws, no, that's not going to do anything. We're really going to have to change big things. Well, it's deflection, right? Absolutely. Absolutely.
And so that's the part that I think most people resent now is like seeing that passed off onto the individual when we already have a pretty dang tough and we've had it really tough for the last two years. I think what people want to start seeing is the big changes from government, the big promises from government and holding them accountable because it's just not, it's nothing is changing. And then it just gets hotter and hotter. I'm like, if I have to read about one more heat wave and then at the same time, you know, half measures when it comes to climate change.
Ugh, it just gives you a headache. Well, there's been flights that have been unable to take off because the tarmac is melting. There was flights that they literally had to stop, um,
Because the, the, the, whatever the asphalt, whatever was on was literally melting. And it was an issue for the planes to go down the runway. And it was an issue for them to land on it. Yeah. And planes are a big issue. Like Kylie Jenner was trending this week because it was revealed that she takes 17 minute private jet flights.
Like stop that. Make that illegal. Like I'm sorry, but just do it. Like of all the things that we nanny state over, just make that one not allowed because it's such a waste. Where is she taking them to? One place in like one city in California to another to avoid traffic because then all these cars are now idling on the road. So she's like, oh, you know how I'll get around that is I'll just use my private plane and then the world gets 10 degrees hotter.
You're listening to the Jan Arden podcast. We've got lots of really unusual and fantastical and very inspiring things to talk about today. We've got a really great story coming up next.
about a woman named Susan Dunn, and I don't want you to miss it. Stay tuned. We are so excited to welcome another new sponsor, our friends at Cove Soda. Have I pestered Cove enough to come and join us here at the Jan Arden Podcast? I love them so much. They are Canadian, first of all. They are a natural, certified organic, zero-sugar soda, which includes, get this, one big
Billion probiotics. I kind of sounded like Dr. Evil there, didn't I? But seriously, you can get 80% of your daily vitamin C in just one can. Cove Soda is on a mission to promote gut health for all, and you still get to have a delicious treat while
while putting a gut-friendly, guilt-free drink in your body. Cove Soda is available in 12 delicious flavors all over North America. So for our American friends, you can find it. They've got this fruity lineup that's fantastic. I drink those all the time. They've got the classic lineup if you like
a cola or a cream soda, root beer, yes indeedy, and they've got their limited edition summer flavor, which will take you right back to the second grade. You got to try the ice pop one. Head to janardenpod.com to find out where the closest place to you is where you can go and buy Cove. Go right now. Welcome back to the Jan Arden podcast. We were talking about
Climate change and things going on that are heartbreaking to watch. And hopefully we can all make better choices. But not to be the bringers of doom. There's lots of great things happening in the world. There's lots of very clever things.
very smart, caring people that really are making a difference each and every day. So, you know, I certainly don't want to sit here and concentrate on all of the things that are going wrong. And I think it causes people a lot of anxiety. And I'm very aware of that. I have a lot of friends that are anxious. Their kids are anxious. Just know that there is lots of hope when there's lots of positive things happening in
And hey, one thing about really high gas prices, gang, guess what? People have been driving something like 27% less.
Um, 27% is a huge number. When you think about cars on the road, they're catching rides with each other. Like this has really happened all over the world because of gas prices. Bermuda, Nigel said gas was $9 a gallon. Oh my gosh. I bet having been to Bermuda that checks right out. Oh man alive. Anyway, he said they were walking. He said he saw people walking everywhere. They used to take their car to the restaurant that was five minutes down the road.
And everybody's walking. Yeah. They're like getting their kids. They're grabbing their purses, throwing them over their shoulders and walking. Anyway, as promised, I have a really fantastical and inspiring story to tell you. There's a woman named Susan Dunn, D-U-N-N, just the way it sounds. She lives in North Bay. She has two kids. You know a life. She's one year younger than me, 59. She's been following me, I'm going to say, for 25 years.
on, certainly it probably even started on MySpace back in the day. But she lived in Texas for a while. She's been to many of my shows. She has really funny Twitter comments. And anyway, 10 days ago, she sent me a direct message. And she said, Hey, I don't know you, but we follow each other on here. And, and I've certainly liked a lot of her posts. She's like I said, she's quite funny. And she said, I just want you to know that I'm doing M A I D, which is
a medically assisted dying. I'm doing it on the 22nd, which was yesterday. And she said, I just want you to know how much you've inspired me, how much you've cheered me on, how much you've made me laugh, how much your music has meant to me over the years. She smoked her whole life. She smoked, you know, two packs a day. And she got pneumonia, unluckily, a few times. And it just
She's really attacked, already weakened lungs, and she's been on oxygen since December. And she just had no quality of life. She couldn't do anything. Anyway, in this letter to me, in this DM, she's just like, oh, I don't want to make this long and drawn out, but I've had a great life. I love my kids.
um it's been great i'm doing this uh it's it's an amazing opportunity i've always believed in organ in organ donation so not only is she doing a medically assisted death or she did a medically assisted death she donated her kidneys so on thursday night two people two families that are waiting here in toronto uh for kidneys um were notified to come into the hospital because their kidneys were coming on a plane from north bay
So she donated everything she could possibly donate. She said, I wanted my kids to have something to bury. So, you know, I didn't do the cadaver route. She's very funny, very matter of fact. She did all that, which I think is heroic, such a tribute. She goes, my kidneys are good. I never drank in my life, but smoking, yeah, I did the smoking. Anyway, she went along and told me about a bucket list that she'd had and
Her and her son had driven to this really great pizza place in Sudbury where there was the greatest pizza in the world and all these things that she did. She goes, the only thing I didn't get to do is pet goats. And so I got on the phone, as you do, and I got on the Internet and I just searched desperately for somebody around North Bay that had goats, a sanctuary, something or other. And I found I found this place. I want to say their name, but I'm not going to because I don't think they're open to the public.
And I don't want to cause them any problems, but they're wonderful people. And they actually messaged me back. I said, I don't know if this is something you would do, but they invited Susan and her son, Joey. It was about 25 minutes away from North Bay. And they went and got to pet goats. So it was just pretty amazing. But I'm telling you, it's been a very emotional, strange journey. I talked to Susan a few times on the phone recently.
And she told me about her life and she really made me laugh. And, you know, someone that I don't know, that I've only known from social media. And it has really affected me in a really positive way. You know, this is a person that really believes in, she does, she really believes in God. She had very, you know, religious grandparents on both sides. But anyway, that's, I just wanted to tell you about Susan Dunn and what, you know,
What a triumph her life is. I mean, she definitely did not want to die. She didn't want to leave. But she knew that she didn't want her kids to watch her really decline. And she was at a place where it just wasn't a quality of life. She said, the goats did me in, man. I couldn't do anything for two days. I could hardly move my legs. And she said it was just so wonderful.
Anyway, she's really, really changed my life. And I've been telling you guys about a book that I've been writing for 15 years. And I actually don't have the ending on paper. I have it on my point notes. And she said, I also regret that I'm never going to be able to read your book. And so I sent her this unfinished book. I said, I'm going to send you it in a word file. There's more spelling mistakes. And...
I said, I don't have the ending, but I said, we'll have a phone call when you're done. She read it in like four days. She just power read it. And then we spent a two hour phone call and I talked her through the rest of the book. What happened? And she goes, Oh, what happened to blue, blue, blue? And I would tell her about this character and that character. And it was a really special moment for me. And I'm actually going to dedicate my book to Susan, um,
I've been thinking about dedications and my parents aren't here anymore and my friends certainly know that I love them, but I think Susan Dunn has taught me about the grace and the importance and I think just the mercy in a happy ending.
So anyway, Susan Dunn. And it's also the, it's the nicest side of social media possible, right? That's the thing. We see lots of the dark stuff, but this is somebody who you connected with on social media. It made you approachable to her. And you're clearly the kind of person who is going to try to connect with her. If you can, you're going to hunt down goats for her. So yeah,
This is the best part about social media. And I also want to say that like I noticed like a lot of times when people talk about obviously like death or sad things, everyone clams up. I'm sure listening right now, people get a little bit like, oh, it's difficult. It's difficult, but we avoid grief so much and it's coming for everybody and it's in its own way, right? Like everyone is going to be touched by it. So there's no sense in avoiding it. And you've just done really the nicest thing possible by like sharing her name, sharing her story. I asked her if I could.
Oh, good. Yeah. I said, Susan, I want to talk about my podcast. And I said, you know, I'm sorry you won't hear it. But it's it's yeah, it's thank you for saying that, Caitlin, because it really is a
It's the elephant in the room all the time. People don't let her talk about it. She said the nice thing, she goes, I've kind of had a living funeral. I've had all these beautiful notes from people. She hasn't told very many people. There was an article that came out yesterday in the North Bay Nugget.
That's a great name. She did a newspaper interview with a journalist there named Jennifer, who did a really good job. Susan gave me a chance to read the story. She goes, you're going to read it before anybody. She says, for God's sakes, you let me read your book. The least I can do is let you read my news story. But she said, I wanted people to know about MAID, M-A-I-D. And I wanted people to be reminded about organ donation. And she said, I cannot believe...
you know, that I'm going to be, I'm going to still be on the planet and I've, I've changed people's lives. Yeah. Anyway, I just found it. I, on my driver's license, I have signed that I'm donating. I went everything except, you know, the cadaver part. And I know they do need bodies at universities. This sounds very morbid folks, but they really do. There's,
doctors and people that are training that need bodies to work on. I didn't go that far, but I donated everything they could possibly use. That's on your driver's license. I would really like to rally the government very hard at some point.
as I get older and you know I'm raging against the machine why not this an opt out program on a driver's license rather than an opt in so if you don't want to be an organ donor you sign your driver's license that you don't want to right now if you want to donate organs you have to sign your driver's license to donate them and
And I think it should be the other way around. And in, in Norway, there's, there's Scandinavian coverage that is the opt out and they have a much better, uh, supply of organs, people that die in accidents, people that die anyway.
We're going to come back. We'll probably be talking about Taylor Swift. Trust me, this is a roller coaster ride today. You're listening to the Jan Arden podcast. This one's for you, Susan Dunn, wherever you are. I hope you are with all your people. I know you are. And with your beloved dogs, thank you for all your lessons. We'll be right back. ♪
Welcome back to the Jan Arden Podcast. And I am here with Caitlin Green. Our engineer Adam Karsh is here also. I didn't mention that off the top of the show because I had a lot of things on my mind, as you can probably tell. Breakup songs. Best ever breakup anthems. It's funny because a couple days ago on Twitter, I asked people if having a song for couples was still a thing.
Like, do people still have songs? And a lot of people said, no, my husband and I, we think we have a song. But then I realized that we both had different songs. I had my song. He had his song. And I'm like, OK, but breakup songs. I tell you, I'm I got to get behind this because I've sort of made my life out of writing songs about unrequited love, lost love, looking for love, trying to find love.
Yada, yada. Yeah, insensitive would be up there, I think, for a lot of people. I mean, I would imagine. Yeah. Because this tends to circulate on social media every so often. Like you said, it'll be the question of like, do you have a song with your partner? Do you have a favorite breakup song? And people just love going through the list of like other songs that people like. I think we've talked about it.
I think we've talked about it on the morning show on chum a few times and I'm forgetting which ones came out on top for our listeners, but certainly in the list that was just circulating from billboard magazine. Um, I'm wasn't surprised to see that there was like Taylor Swift, you know, Amy Winehouse, Amy Winehouse back to black is actually a very, very good breakup song in my opinion. Yeah. I like it. I mean, I just love Amy Winehouse so much. Um, my goodness. Like,
Like Adele, you think of breakup songs, you think of Taylor Swift, you think of Adele, Olivia Rodrigo's Driver's License. Like people love that song, but I know it was too like sad. My breakup song choices were never even really about breakups. I always just like kind of more, I go the feel good route. I kind of go the opposite.
Like I prefer, if you're going through a bad breakup, I'd rather listen to something that's a little bit badass to like get you back in the right headspace of like, you can do this. You can go out, see your friends, go have fun. Lizzo's Truth Hurts was also on that list. So that would be a little more in my vein. I remember the first time I was really sad about a breakup was in high school. And the song that I listened to over and over again was actually Can't You Hear Me Knockin' by the Rolling Stones. Oh, okay.
Nothing to do with the breakup, obviously. I just liked the feel of it. The second that guitar came on, I was like, who? I don't care about this person anymore. Keith Richards has done more memorable riffs, I think, than any other guitar player in the history of the world. I don't know if you guys have ever heard Michael Bublé's It's a Beautiful Day. Yes. So when you hear it,
It's a beautiful day. It's about someone breaking up with him and doing him a favor. Yeah. And it's you don't if you you know, the first time through, you don't really get it. About the third time I heard that song, I'm like, wait a minute. This is like it's you have done me the greatest favor. It's going to be a beautiful day because you are no longer in my life. Yes. And I thought that was such a neat thing.
Take on it. But yeah, it's he Michael, speaking of Michael Bublé and speaking of the drive song, he just did a cover of it. If you get a chance to go listen to Michael Bublé's cover of drive and it's interesting coming from a 45 year old guy.
singing about driving by somebody's house in the middle of the night. Oh, he did Driver's License by Olivia Rodrigo. Sorry, Driver's License. Yeah, okay. Yep. Thank you. I'm so up on my pop culture that I don't even know the name of the songs. He did Driver's License. Okay.
And it's really good. It's really sexy. Ooh, okay. And creepy and wonderful. Yeah, I was going to say, sort of unsettling, like a bit of a sunglasses at night vibe. And you had also mentioned, Caitlin, we mentioned Taylor Swift before the break, but the 10-minute version of All Too Well. Yes. And I don't know if everyone knows this, but it's about Jake Gyllenhaal. Yeah. And a scarf that he kept of hers. Yeah.
Yeah, this was the whole big thing. And he started trending for days because all the Swifties, when she released the 10-minute version, were coming for Jake Gyllenhaal on social media. And it was this whole thing. And I kind of...
I don't know why. Poor Jake. That's who I felt bad for. And I mean, I shouldn't... The whole song is supposed to make you feel bad for her, but I felt bad for him, kind of. Because this happened so long ago. Well, yeah. It's very public. It was a long time ago, but, you know, he done her wrong. He done her wrong. Yeah. I mean...
Yes, she was so young and she was, you know, so desirable that she dated all of these very in now looking back kind of Tomcat guys. Right. You know, you've got Harry Styles, Jake Gyllenhaal, John Mayer. Mind you, many of these are rumored, but you're just sitting here thinking to yourself, at least for me, I'm like, yeah, you know. Can you imagine having that's your list of boyfriends? Yes, I fathom. These are the people that I've broken up with. I can't even get my head around that.
Yeah. I mean, it's good for her. I thought she was always maligned unfairly as being this person who, oh, she's got another boyfriend or, oh, she's like in another relationship. If she was a guy, nobody would care about this. They would just think he was, you know, doing his thing, being single. George Clooney did that for the better half of his famous life. And I kind of, I don't know, I like that for her. She was young and she was pretty and she was going after hot guys. Yeah.
Hey, hear, hear. Yeah. Like that's what you're supposed to do when you're young. One of my favorite breakup songs that I had was a kid. This makes no sense. This will tell you a lot about the workings of my 17 year old brain.
To Sir With Love. I would lay on the basement floor and listen to that. I would take the speakers off of the table where the stereo was, set them on the floor and lie between them and just put To Sir With Love on. That's nice. Those schoolgirl days of telling tales and nails are gone. And I just thought this is the saddest song ever.
And I hadn't even graduated from school yet, but I just thought, oh my God, everything's changing. The world is changing. Climate change is coming. It's coming for us to serve with love. Help me. You know Tame Impala, the band Tame Impala? Yeah. So they have a song called Eventually that I think if you listen to the lyrics is one of the great breakup songs of all time. From the perspective of the person who is...
doing the breaking up and sort of struggling with it, knowing that it's going to hurt someone, but that it's ultimately the right thing for both of you. And I really love that one as well. Even like, it's not as, it's not as bad-ass as the Rolling Stones, but. Somebody, someone I used to know, remember that song, the yeah. What's what was his name? Goche. Goche. Goche. Oh my God. I'm just someone that you used to know.
That really hit me hard. I absolutely love music so much. I love music so much. It has been such a huge part of everyone's lives, not just the life of a musician. I don't have any special inside track on listening to music or enjoying music. The entire planet is united together.
and connected through song. To see 30,000 people in a stadium or 80,000 people at Wembley singing along, some of the most powerful events I've ever witnessed, Live Aid comes to mind. In the 80s, the famine in Ethiopia, which is happening again, but that's, I digress. But to have 300,000, 400,000 people standing there
singing and they had all these time delayed speakers going back like a mile. Oh yeah. For people to listen to music that those moments in life, those are political movements that,
Those are powerful, powerful things. But yeah. I feel like we're missing a bit of that. I know we have to wrap this segment up, but I do feel like we're missing a little bit of politics and music and a bit of that feeling of bringing everyone together, kind of those anthemic, unifying force type songs and bands and artists. I just really, really, really feel as if that's missing from music today. You're listening to the Jan Arden Podcast. We're going to be right back. Lots more to talk about. ♪
Welcome back to the Potpourri, which is the Jan Arden podcast today. Climate change, Susan Dunn, the MAID, Death with Dignity program, breakup songs. And now we're talking about, of course, in the break, we got talking about Neil Young, Caitlin in our last segment. You so aptly put this and you really got me thinking. We have not had a major political sort of, a political...
Giant concert. Yes. That was about hunger or do you remember the big SARS one that was in? Yeah, that was great. Rolling Stones. Mm-hmm.
That was 400,000 people. Yeah, I mean, to me, I know that they'll have political fundraising movements that happen and it's like Katy Perry sinks firework to support Hillary Clinton. This does nothing for me. It's not the same. Yeah, but those big, when you have, and maybe COVID set that back the last couple of years, but we were talking even about the convoy trucker movement that attempted a couple of times to have
And we're going to have a concert in the park too. And it was, you know, some guy's sister-in-law on drums and singing covers. Like it never really got anywhere. But kind of shows you how not mainstream that is.
But anyway, yeah, I, and then Caitlin, we were talking about the Neil Young taking his music off the Spotify platform. Yeah. Cause that was positioned by some as being like, Oh, he thinks he can beat Joe Rogan. He's not beating Joe Rogan. Spotify is not going to take Joe Rogan off and then, and then, and then pick Neil Young. I was like,
First of all, Neil Young has already won. He's done what he wanted to do, which was to get everyone talking about this. And if you think that he cares about the former host of Fear Factor, he categorically does not. This is the guy who wrote Ohio, and he's been using his platform and his music to protest things for decades.
So don't tell Neil Young anything. Half a century he's been doing. Exactly. So I was like, do not come for Neil Young on this. He has already won. And he just wanted to make a point that I don't want to share a platform with somebody who I think is contributing to the dumbification of society. And I was like, fine, good for him.
I had people coming after me that within a few days of Neil Young doing that. Yeah. When are you taking your music off Spotify, Jan Arden, like stand up for Neil. I'm like, no, this is his thing. Neil is doing his thing. He has not called to arms any fellow musicians. He did not say, you know, where's my Crosby, Stills, Nash people. He never once asked any musician to do that. This was his thing.
His statement, and I love how people think, oh, you don't care because you're not doing it too. I don't have anywhere near the reach and I have no experience in any kind of political sphere.
political music kind of movement. I've never been a political writer. And I've said that in many interviews. I don't write about politics. Yeah, I really do try and stay clear of it. Although, you know, the whole shut up and thing thing doesn't fly with me either. But I did find that the whole thing was like the you're right part of that then extending to you where people are like, are you pulling your music off and then positioning it as win or lose was just very myopic to me. And I didn't really understand it because that wasn't his point. His point was just
I use my music to protest and I always will always have. And I am now. Well, the sixties were a time of such upheaval. You know, any, any group that was doing the mamas and the papas, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. So almost every band in the sixties, if they were worth their weight in salt, they really were doing protest songs. Woodstock. Holy moly. The entire afternoon was about all those kids out there in the mud.
talking about screw the establishment and the and the politics and free love and all that stuff it was an interesting time if I I'd love to be a fly on the wall one fly in the mud and go back there and I would love to know what the music system was like what the actual PA was like like did everybody hear it was it loud like the that those kind of technologies have come such a long way like loudspeakers and microphones the Beatles often talk about
you know, playing these big stadiums when they came to America or anywhere in Europe for that matter, they stopped touring because they couldn't hear themselves. The screaming was louder than the PA system. Oh my gosh. So, and they didn't have in-ear monitors. They didn't have stuff like that. They probably had one little wedge sitting in front of them and they're playing to 25,000 people and they couldn't hear. It's been a hard day's night. Couldn't hear anything.
Nothing. And I mean, also to like back to kind of the protest stuff as well. I'm like this extended into like soul music. Like if you listen to inner city blues by Marvin Gaye today, it is exactly as poignant now as it was when he wrote it. Yeah. If you listen to Sam Cooke's a change is going to come. It makes sense today, but I'm just like, where is this today? Like, why do we not have this? And it, and it doesn't just have to fall to one genre of music. It can certainly expand. I just, it makes me feel like everyone's asleep. Yeah.
A little bit? Marvin Gaye did a song called What's Going On. That was a huge political thing, and that's as poignant today. It's so funny because I originally was thinking sexual healing, which would have worked too, in my defense.
It's a type of protest song. You know, when all the politics go sideways, just make out with somebody. See, there you go. Forget it all. Yeah. Take a stand in the bedroom. Well, music is super. Take a stand in the bedroom. Music is so powerful. And I just, I cannot believe it.
the recall that I get listening to songs. I took my archaic Jeep out last week on a sunny day, just outside of Calgary there. And I thought, I'm going to go get a Slurpee as you do in Canadian summer. And the radio is so crappy in that Jeep, but the top is off because I don't know how to put it back on. So it's permanently off. I pray that it doesn't rain. It's a piece of crap, but it still goes. But the, I put on this station, I'm going to do a shout out to a station in Calgary. I think it's one Oh three and,
and they were playing like the greatest music from the 70s and the 80s, and I just was singing at the top of my lungs, and I never sing in the car with my Slurpee and the drink holder, and it was just, I had memories that were so visceral,
It took me back in time and I can remember standing in a field, drinking a stubby beer with my friends, staring at a bonfire. And I had a hard helmet on. I don't know why, but somebody had a hard helmet in their dad's truck and I wore it the whole night of the party.
Yeah. I love that. Music is so closely tied to like people's emotions and that's why everyone just, you love art, like you love your favorite artists and their fan bases can become very rabid, but you certainly see why it's tied to these amazing memories for everyone. So,
Susan Dunn told me about her playlist. They asked her, what songs do you want to play when you're having your organs taken out? I'm not kidding you. This is how cavalier and straightforward she is. And she goes, well, I'm not going to hear it anyway. It's not like I'm having an epidural or something like that. I'll be pretty much gone at this point. And, you know, she just made me smile, but she was playing Where No One Knows Me.
She goes, I'm going to have them do Where No One Knows Me. I've always loved that song of yours. And I just, I said to her, it's such an honor. It's just such an honor, Susan. The recognition from the medical community that that's how tied to our emotions and our soul and everything music can be for us. What song?
You want to play in the operating room? Yes. Because they don't know. You know, the doctor's like, you may well hear everything that's going on in that suspended state. I'm not writing anything off. She said she really, really likes her doctor. Lovely. I love that. And he calls her a hero as well.
Doctors are, when you meet, you know, the good ones, I'm sure people have had bad experiences too, but when you meet the good ones, you just think, oh my gosh, like I just, from the doctors that we have dealt with too here in Toronto at Mount Sinai, just, I cannot say enough amazing things about Mount Sinai and all the work they do for women and for babies and children. And when you, sometimes you'll have a meeting with them and they'll have to like run off and do something or they'll have to text back. And I'm realizing like,
when they have to do that it's not about you know it's not marketing are you bringing cabbage rolls tonight or yeah instagram somebody's living and dying yeah i'm like your work is so so important but you're still so good with bedside manner and people and it's just this magic touch that makes them feel kind of like otherworldly in some ways well it's uh these are strange times
I know we start out talking about climate change and then we're like, you know what? We might be bumming people out a bit. So we decide we're going to do an about face and talk about breakup and protest songs. It's everything all at once, all the time. Normally that would be the lowest that we go on this show. It's like a breakup song. That would be like our heartfelt moment. But, you know, there's so many things that,
seem more urgent is the wrong word, but there's so many things that seem clear to me about, you know, forgiveness and about really what would I be thinking if I knew that on Friday was going to be my last day. And I have learned so much that it's going to take me
months to unravel things that Susan Dunn has instilled in me and the way she's gone about her life. Anyway, you have been listening to the Jen Arden podcast. I've been here with my friend Caitlin Green at
Adam Karsh, of course, is engineering and putting these programs completely together. And we're very grateful for that. Enjoy the summer, guys. There's lots of good things. The best is yet to come. Kind of. Sort of. I think so. Yeah, I think so, too. Hug your friends. Tell people you love them. We just don't know when and where we're going to go. So really do things that you're passionate about and make a difference in people's lives. That's it. That's all I got to say. Totally do until the next time.
This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.