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Real people. Real stories.
00:00:01:15 - 00:00:13:06
Speaker 1
Well, within a week, maybe less. All the mandates were gone. They said it had nothing to do with Ottawa, which is hilarious. You know, it's like, give credit where credit's due now. Politicians can't do that.
00:00:13:06 - 00:00:23:21
Speaker 1
Here's what I do know. We're way different than the United States, right? The vote for who is going to be prime minister is decided before ever gets to my province, to west.
00:00:23:23 - 00:00:28:05
Speaker 1
And yet the West is the economic machine that drives our country forward.
00:00:28:11 - 00:00:29:14
Speaker 3
Are they funded by the government.
00:00:29:14 - 00:00:35:03
Speaker 1
yeah.
00:00:35:05 - 00:00:39:09
Speaker 1
Right.
00:00:39:12 - 00:00:40:20
Speaker 2
Good question.
00:00:40:20 - 00:00:45:15
Speaker 1
and there is a homeless man in a place that he should not have been.
00:00:45:17 - 00:01:04:03
Speaker 1
I don't to this day in my city, I've never seen a homeless guy in the middle of the street like this, where he was. I've seen there's tons of homeless, but not not on this street specifically at that time. Whatever. And I drove by him, and he was in rough shape. And, I was like, I'm not picking him up.
00:01:04:05 - 00:01:08:29
Speaker 1
I'm like. I was thinking in my head like, this guy is going to kill me, right? I was living in spirit of fear.
00:01:24:20 - 00:01:26:11
Unknown
In
00:01:39:03 - 00:02:04:09
Speaker 1
Yeah. Thanks for having me on. It's great to, I don't know, be here. I guess.
00:02:04:11 - 00:02:15:03
Speaker 1
Being a toddler. Well, I think it's best. I think it's I personally think it's badass. I just think t toddler doesn't sound badass. Sounds like you're,
00:02:15:05 - 00:02:40:18
Speaker 1
Correct. Yeah. So I'm like, I don't know. I just like to me, Not drinking is, you know, I, put it in in line with, like, having missing teeth, like in hockey World. That's pretty badass. I think what you're doing is pretty badass. But calling yourself a toddler, I'm like, well, I don't I don't know about that.
00:02:40:20 - 00:02:58:15
Speaker 1
And now, if you could tell me t toddler comes from World War two and this is the background, then I would play like we'll lead with that and then say toddler right or go t toddler. And you're thinking, you know, you're probably thinking that sounds kind of weird, but let me tell you a story, right? I don't know, that's that's where my brain goes.
00:02:58:15 - 00:03:19:16
Speaker 1
I go t toddler where there's a t toddler I think of, I think of, of t with the, you know, with the, the pinky finger. I'm a t toddler and it's like, okay, you're kind of, you know, you're you're you're too high for me. That's right. Weighty, hoity toity.
00:03:19:18 - 00:03:25:12
Speaker 1
Man. No, no, I always just assumed it was the everything expression. Hoity toity.
00:03:25:15 - 00:03:40:12
Speaker 2
Ma'am.
00:03:40:15 - 00:04:02:11
Speaker 1
I, I went, I went, played, hockey last night. Right. So last night went and played rec hockey, which is just, you know, grown men and I mean, anyone probably from 18 onwards, right. Can play rec hockey. No hitting. It's pretty relaxed. I mean, there's try hards out there just like everything. And I it's interesting because I came from playing hockey at a decently high level.
00:04:02:14 - 00:04:13:29
Speaker 1
Right. To people who've never played hockey before. I played at a high level to people who played in the NHL. I didn't play that high of a level, right? Like you gotta, you gotta. It depends which angle.
00:04:14:01 - 00:04:30:17
Speaker 1
Well, I played semi-pro, semi-pro. So I got paid to play in Finland and to some that's amazing to people in the hockey world, you know, like it's it's a far cry from the NHL, right? I don't, I don't try and sell myself as a guy who almost made the NHL. I didn't, but I got to play in different parts of the world.
00:04:30:17 - 00:04:54:01
Speaker 1
I got to play very good hockey. I got to play further than a lot of people. Probably in a small percentage of hockey players that continue on after high school. And last night, you know, as you get older, you play rec hockey, there's no hitting and there's nothing like a dressing room beer. I trying I don't know how to explain it to, to other people.
00:04:54:01 - 00:05:10:06
Speaker 1
Because if you've never played hockey, I don't even know. You know, what to compare it to, right? You can play baseball, but I don't know. They drink beer while they're playing. I can't do that. I can't play sports and drink. It's very strange to me. I don't know what you do in basketball. I highly do it.
00:05:10:06 - 00:05:27:24
Speaker 1
You do it in volleyball. I highly don't. You do it in all these different sports. But in hockey, you go in the dressing room after and you have a sociable beer. It's like, you know, it's like one of the greatest beers you'll ever have. And can you do it with a can of Coke? You certainly can I. And maybe a guy should try that.
00:05:27:27 - 00:05:47:20
Speaker 1
I've just been raised on. I went to the rink as a kid, and that's what the old timers used to do. You walk in as a kid, and, they'd all be sitting there and telling stories, and it's very, I don't know, like, it's almost like a a community spot, right? 15. Yeah. And if you're not a hockey player, you know nothing about it.
00:05:47:20 - 00:06:06:20
Speaker 1
And if you're a hockey player, you know all about it and you're like, oh yeah, the dressing room, that's a that's a fun spot to be. And you try on a hockey team as you get older. Kind of like what Vance has done with bringing different people. Around him. Right. And we're talking pattern spotter, pattern spotters.
00:06:06:20 - 00:06:24:05
Speaker 1
Right. It's it's a sacred little Group one hockey team. In a very small sense. That's what it is. If you get a good dressing room, nobody wants to leave it because you got, like, you know, you get some old stories over here and you got somebody over there, and maybe you got the class clown, right? You got a guy who who's a bit of a comedian makes people laugh, and it's pretty jovial at times.
00:06:24:05 - 00:06:43:23
Speaker 1
You can have a little bit of music in there. At times you don't need the music. It's just, it's it's it's a special place. And, it's part of the reason why I hope I play hockey until I'm. I'm 80. My oldest brother plays on a team called the Never Sweats. And, they have guys that are 78 still playing Jack, and they still sit in the room.
00:06:43:26 - 00:07:15:02
Speaker 1
They still share stories, they still have some laughs. They still drink, whatever. You know, it doesn't matter at that point. Probably probably doesn't matter at this point. It's just that sociable. And you sit in this this dressing room you have, you have some fun and, I don't know, it's very healthy. I think, compared to maybe sitting on the couch and drinking four beers by yourself.
00:07:15:02 - 00:07:20:10
Speaker 1
I don't know, a month, two months, I, I, I, I actually don't know.
00:07:20:13 - 00:07:40:00
Speaker 1
I don't mean to say that in the sense that it hasn't happened. It probably for sure has. But one thing with having three young kids, you know, and the stage my friends are at, like, I don't get invited out to bachelor parties, I don't get invited. Nobody invites me to the bar anymore. Right? Like I'm not going to a Friday night at the bar.
00:07:40:00 - 00:08:02:01
Speaker 1
Like that doesn't happen. So it's, when when you are having sociable drinks, it's usually with the kids around running around, and you got a, you got a parent, so you're not trying to get to the bottom of a bottle. You're having a sociable beverage, and then you got to carry on with your night and and you got to wake up the next morning and you got to be a part of it.
00:08:02:01 - 00:08:27:03
Speaker 1
So I don't know, that's I never thought if you'd asked me that ten years ago, I would have been like, oh, just two days ago. Now it's it's it's shifted and it's changed.
00:08:27:05 - 00:08:33:01
Speaker 2
Sure.
00:08:33:03 - 00:08:44:24
Speaker 1
Shout out to all the people that I did not see at this retreat. I miss you all. If they do in turn, in chance. Listen to this.
00:08:44:26 - 00:09:01:01
Speaker 1
Well, I appreciate that.
00:09:05:07 - 00:09:25:11
Speaker 1
That's a tough question. I wish there was, like, an equation, you know, like, being a guy who likes math, I wish I could just tell you. Well, it's 2X2 this, this and this. You just solve the equation and boom, it. Bob's your uncle, you know, and, that's that's not been the case in my life.
00:09:25:13 - 00:09:48:04
Speaker 1
You know, when I came to Saint Louis last year, I told Vance I didn't know if I'd be coming back. And, it was a very abrupt sense of, like, I'm in the wrong place, and I don't mean that on the people. I think all the people Vance has with them are lovely people. And I don't mean this to make this all about Vance and the group, but I wasn't there this year.
00:09:48:06 - 00:10:07:15
Speaker 1
But I had this sense, and I prayed about it, and I was just like, this is really weird. Like, I can feel it in the core of who I am. Like, I'm in the wrong place. And, I talked to Vance about that at when I was leaving, and I just said, I don't know if I'm ever coming back and ever is a long time, you know, so I'm very careful about that.
00:10:07:18 - 00:10:32:26
Speaker 1
But maybe this stage in my life, this season of my life, I don't know if I'm coming back. And the reason is, is three young kids, a wife. I've had my ups and downs over the course of the last four years. And I knew that my time was needed somewhere else and was a very like. I just couldn't get over the fact of the feeling I had.
00:10:33:01 - 00:10:58:05
Speaker 1
And, so to me, that's that's God knocking on the door, being like, you can pay attention if you want. Right? And, that's one way I, I don't know, like, I talk about I had this experience probably last winter, so about a year ago now, Jack, where I was, we have a, a group, a men's group that gets together really early on Thursday mornings, 5 a.m..
00:10:58:08 - 00:11:22:15
Speaker 1
And so, you know, out by 430. And, I've been reading the Bible and I've been really annoyed with it, to be honest, because I was. Yeah, I gone through the Gospels, right. Like, I gotten through Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Jesus is alive. If you read his parables, they're like thought provoking. Every time you do it. And then he dies and I know he rises, but like, then he dies, and it's just like a sadness.
00:11:22:15 - 00:11:52:14
Speaker 1
It's it happens, you know, you, you know, you go to something pop culture. You watch The Avengers and Robert Downey Junior's character Iron Man dies. Spoiler alert. And you're like, man, I've grown a relationship with you. I don't want you today, you know? And so there's just a sadness. So anyways, this this morning, I'm driving and, I've been kind of like having an argument in my head about the Bible, and I was annoyed with it because I'm like, I don't I don't want to continue reading your dad even though you've risen.
00:11:52:14 - 00:12:20:14
Speaker 1
It's, you know, you can imagine I'm having this conversation. And at times I'm talking to myself, and at times I'm just, you know, I'm I'm just, having inner dialog. Anyways, so I'm driving, and, when I'm having moments like this, I pray, you know? And so I started praying, and it's -40. It is a cold morning, and there is a homeless man in a place that he should not have been.
00:12:20:16 - 00:12:39:02
Speaker 1
I don't to this day in my city, I've never seen a homeless guy in the middle of the street like this, where he was. I've seen there's tons of homeless, but not not on this street specifically at that time. Whatever. And I drove by him, and he was in rough shape. And, I was like, I'm not picking him up.
00:12:39:04 - 00:12:55:11
Speaker 1
I'm like. I was thinking in my head like, this guy is going to kill me, right? I was living in spirit of fear. And, I've heard very clearly, Sean, you should probably pick him up. And I'm like, no, I'm not picking him up. But my foot had already come off the pedal, and I'm sitting there, man. I'm picking him up.
00:12:55:13 - 00:13:15:05
Speaker 1
He's going back and forth, you know, and so I turned around him and went and picked him up. And I basically told him, I'm like, listen, man, don't kill me. You can imagine this guy is like high on something. It's -40. He is on his death throes. And I end up driving to the hospital and he said, you know, I, I say this every time I tell a story.
00:13:15:05 - 00:13:31:11
Speaker 1
I wish I had written it down, but, you know, it doesn't need to be right now. I have no idea what he said to me, but it had me in tears by the end because I told him I was having a conversation with God about him, and we started having a conversation. I'm having a conversation with God with the homeless guy who cannot open his eyes like, I mean, his eyes are closed.
00:13:31:17 - 00:13:48:04
Speaker 1
He's sitting there. He's he's in rough shape. And I dropped him off at the hospital and, I looked at him as he's getting out and I said, I think this is more for me than you. And he said, and then. And then he opened his eyes and looked at me, and he's like, quite possibly. And then he walked away.
00:13:48:05 - 00:14:05:03
Speaker 1
I'm like, what the heck was that? And, you know, like. To me, that's the beauty of God. I can't, I, you know, every time I try and quantify it like it's two plus two and you do this and you, you stand on your right foot and all of a sudden you get that isn't the way it works. At least in my life.
00:14:05:06 - 00:14:30:15
Speaker 1
I'm no, rocket scientist. And to all your listeners, please don't take, my, words as the gospel or wisdom or anything. Just that for some reason, it's how it acts in my life. And when it happens, it's so evident. You can't miss it. And so you, you know, I mean, you can chalk it up to like, oh, that was weird and carry on with life, but weird.
00:14:30:18 - 00:14:50:26
Speaker 1
There's more to weird. Just like when a woman tells you it's fine, there's more to it than that. And you just got to do a little bit of digging. And so, that's one of the ones that stuck out to me in the last year. And, and, and let me be very clear, that doesn't happen every day. It does not, but every once in a while, things happen and you're like, holy mackinaw.
00:14:50:27 - 00:15:05:22
Speaker 1
That's something.
00:15:05:24 - 00:15:32:21
Speaker 1
Oh, probably. I mean, that's, that's changing the entire equation, right? I mean, that's a that's a giant hypothetical. I mean, you get in a car accident and you don't have your seatbelt on, or you have your seatbelt on and you survive. You can play that. Well, what if I didn't have my car, my seatbelt on? But you did.
00:15:32:24 - 00:15:55:17
Speaker 1
I mean, at that time and that morning, my kids weren't with me. And we might have just piled a man and and carried on. We might have. I don't like if I left him, Jack. He was dead. I firmly believe that it was cold. Like -40 is nothing to be trifled with. And this guy was.
00:15:55:19 - 00:16:13:26
Speaker 1
He he, Yeah. Yeah, I, I couldn't believe it. When I came around the corner, I was sitting there. It was straight out of, like, a horror movie, you know, almost like a, you know, like you just like it's. It's 430 in the morning. Well, it's sort of five in the morning. -40. Guy in the middle of the road.
00:16:13:28 - 00:16:23:10
Speaker 1
Man, that that'll stick with me the rest of my life. I'm sure.
00:16:23:13 - 00:16:29:22
Speaker 1
Yeah.
00:16:29:25 - 00:16:56:07
Speaker 1
No, no, I'm man, I once again, I don't even know the answer here. What I would say is where I live, homelessness increases. Probably through the summer months. Right. You see more homeless. I mean, you know, we get up to plus 40, right? At nights, it's probably plus ten plus 12. So survivable is what I'm getting at when you get to this time of year.
00:16:56:12 - 00:17:17:08
Speaker 1
So right now it's probably minus five. I don't know what that equates to. It's probably what my, What would that be? 20 something Fahrenheit, roughly is my guess. But as you inch nearer to Christmas and certainly into January. February. Like living here, if you don't have a place to tuck into at night, I don't know how you survive the nights.
00:17:17:10 - 00:17:48:16
Speaker 1
So, we don't. I mean, the cold just takes care of, of homelessness. That sounds very like, ruthless, but it's just the truth. Like, if you don't have a place to tuck in at night, I don't know how you survive where I live because it is that cold. So what I would say is usually people go west, they go to Vancouver, where it's it's more mild, they head south, they head to different places other than Lloydminster, like Mr. is not set up to have a thousand homeless.
00:17:48:16 - 00:18:08:24
Speaker 1
I mean Lloydminster I think we had 200. The last number I saw was 200 and some homeless. And we're probably set up to house. I don't know, I'm probably off a little bit on my numbers, but, you know, anywhere between 35 to 60 would be my guess. So, like, you can just see at some point you get to the second cold night.
00:18:08:24 - 00:18:26:03
Speaker 1
I can just imagine you got to keep moving even if you're on drugs. At some point you're like, I just gotta I gotta steal something and get thrown in the slammer or I gotta start heading to the West Coast would be my guess.
00:18:26:06 - 00:18:36:27
Speaker 1
That's a good question. They certainly have forced I. I've never called it a rain forest.
00:18:37:00 - 00:18:46:17
Speaker 1
Did you Google that? Who told you that?
00:18:46:19 - 00:19:00:07
Speaker 1
I don't know, they. The Rocky Mountains have beautiful forest. There's some beautiful spots in there. Like BC is a beautiful province.
00:19:00:10 - 00:19:07:04
Speaker 1
Google would never lie to you.
00:19:07:07 - 00:19:14:25
Speaker 1
No kidding.
00:19:14:27 - 00:19:36:12
Speaker 1
Here's a Canadian who's never called it rain forest before. I think of rainforest like the Amazon, you know, like, I think it's just like, ooh, that sounds nice. I don't know, I've never heard it called rain Forest.
00:19:36:14 - 00:19:49:29
Speaker 1
That. That's from Ottawa. That is,
00:19:50:01 - 00:20:15:03
Speaker 1
Okay, so you guys have January 6th, right? Like, I mean, people probably look at January 6th, and they it probably triggers 1 or 2 emotions, right? Like insurrection or, freedom. People getting screwed. I just assume that's just me coming from a different country. No worries. I'm just a Canadian staring at it. And I have real no say that right there was our, what they labeled January 6th.
00:20:15:03 - 00:20:51:17
Speaker 1
What they tried to label is this insurrection. That was the Freedom Convoy. That was during, Covid. All the mandates, the lockdowns. You know, I assume I'm talking to mostly Americans right now. You know, take your worst state and times it by something, probably 2 or 3, and you get Canada. Canada sucked during Covid. And, it got to the point where, you know, you had snitch lines, you had, vax passes, so you couldn't get into certain buildings without having, a negative test or showing that you've been vaccinated.
00:20:51:20 - 00:21:24:15
Speaker 1
And it just, it you if correct. Yes. It got to insane levels. And, the freedom convoy left and went to Ottawa. Drove? Yeah. If you if you're listening to this, you should just pause it and you should go look up a map of Canada and everything I just told you about homelessness. Right. And why, you know, when it hits the dark months, you don't, live outside when it hits the dark months, folks, minus truckers.
00:21:24:18 - 00:21:53:17
Speaker 1
You don't drive across Canada. The reason why is we got one major highway. We're like second, third largest country in the world. We got one major highway. It is anywhere on this drive out to Ottawa between -25 and -40. This is not fun. And you're talking ice. You're talking blizzard, you're talking snow. You're talking just terrible conditions. And, yet it was the end of January.
00:21:53:19 - 00:22:28:00
Speaker 1
We were in a dark winter of mandates and just it was not good. And, so a group of people got together, drove to Ottawa. I chased them down in Ontario and followed the man I got to ride in the convoy, etc., etc.. I landed in Ottawa and in Ottawa. I imagine the most jubilant party you've ever been to, where you've been told for the last two years you have to wear a mask if you're around anyone, and all sudden nobody's wearing masks and you've been told you're not allowed to shake hands or hug anyone.
00:22:28:00 - 00:23:07:03
Speaker 1
Or, you know, I. I'm being a little bit hyperbolic, but not that much. And now everybody's crying and hugging and it's just emotions. And, you know, there's kids and families and they're calling us everything under the sun. Nazis, insurrectionist, everything. But there's still. Well, because you're challenging the government, Jack. Why why did they why did they say that about January 6th?
00:23:07:05 - 00:23:18:15
Speaker 1
What is right wing these days?
00:23:18:17 - 00:23:29:11
Speaker 1
Family values.
00:23:29:14 - 00:23:53:15
Speaker 1
Sure. But, I mean. But Muslims have family values, right? Different faiths have family values. What? Well, the reason I don't like right wing is I'm like, I don't like to me, I've been called a lot of things over my time. And you go, why Nazis? Because there was one Nazi flag that was planted there. Literally planted there.
00:23:53:15 - 00:24:19:18
Speaker 1
Then a camera guy took photos of it and he was planted there. And then they went, oh, they're all white. They're here to overthrow Justin Trudeau, our fearless leader. They they are all anti-vax. Wait. The guy who was leading the convoy was vaccinated, right? Like, it's just it's it's a complete ineptitude of journalism to an nth degree that I can't even begin to understand.
00:24:19:20 - 00:24:24:26
Speaker 1
It's just like it's.
00:24:24:29 - 00:24:47:29
Speaker 1
Yeah. And then they talked about how we how we, defecated on the war monument and how we, defaced. Terry Fox and, War Monument, you'll probably get Terry Fox was is one of our beloved Canadian heroes who ran across half the country on one leg, battling cancer and then died, years ago. There's a huge monument to him in Ottawa.
00:24:47:29 - 00:25:07:23
Speaker 1
There's a huge one in Thunder Bay. And so they just they just talked about how these people were just, like, inconsiderate. And they were getting together. And we're in the middle of a pandemic. And, you know, you just just play this narrative out. Meanwhile, you're sitting on the street. None of that is happening. So Terry Fox, this Terry Fox thing story gets blown up.
00:25:07:26 - 00:25:23:29
Speaker 1
Then people sat by the Terry Fox statue all night, every night. It was there to protect it. I talked to the cops there because the first day I was like, what do you think of this? And they're like, yeah, you know, and ever and they're kind of him and and on and and I was kind of caught off guard by that because I thought they'd be like, oh, this is pretty cool.
00:25:24:02 - 00:25:41:00
Speaker 1
But it was the first, first full day. And in fairness, there was lots of horns and everything else. It was loud. There was there was people from all over the place and we were being told we can't get together. Meanwhile, in the protest in the middle of Covid, they all got together for Black Lives Matter. So like you do the math on how Covid doesn't affect those people.
00:25:41:02 - 00:26:01:09
Speaker 1
And anyways, I'm getting side tangent here. As the cop, we're in there talking back and forth and goes, you know, I'll give you this. This is the only protest. And we have protests in Ottawa. Ottawa's the capital city of Canada. Every week he goes this is the only protest where I've seen people come and clean up their mess.
00:26:01:09 - 00:26:10:22
Speaker 1
And I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, last night, one and 1 a.m., a group of people came out and just started with bags, started cleaning the street. You know, they picked everything up and I'm like, really?
00:26:10:25 - 00:26:13:14
Speaker 2
Oh, that's I'm.
00:26:13:17 - 00:26:24:24
Speaker 1
I'm like, wow, that's pretty cool. Well, I tell you what, it it got better. It was it was like day two, we had snow fall and there was a person in a wheelchair couldn't get along the sidewalk. So then all of a sudden it was like.
00:26:24:26 - 00:26:25:22
Speaker 2
I don't know.
00:26:25:25 - 00:26:40:22
Speaker 1
Ten shovels got, but I don't even know where they came from. And also you saw the trucker shovel on the sidewalk. Then it became then it became like kind of the cool thing to do. You had to shovel at least part of the street. So all of a sudden the streets were getting shovel. You had garbage bags. They didn't.
00:26:40:22 - 00:27:01:18
Speaker 1
They didn't deliver, porta potties. They wouldn't give the protesters any porta potties. Okay. Big F.U. To to the group. They wouldn't take away the trash. So people started showing up, taking the trash away and putting out new garbage bags. It was like this little encampment built around there that did the complete opposite of what the media was talking about.
00:27:01:24 - 00:27:25:09
Speaker 1
It was insane. You could you literally could have been from the CBC, our, our, big broadcaster of Canada. You kind of just sat there all week and just told the stories and then turned around and wrote a book about it and probably been a national bestseller. Instead they they did the complete opposite. So when I bring up January 6th, do I think there was some nefarious actors in there?
00:27:25:11 - 00:27:42:26
Speaker 1
Yeah, there probably was. Do I think that, there do I also believe there was some government nefarious actors in there? Oh, certainly. I mean, we had them in in Ottawa, too. I think you're naive to think that they weren't there. It's like. But how deep have you dug into the story? And how many people have you talked to about why they're there and what happened there?
00:27:43:03 - 00:28:19:15
Speaker 1
There's a story to be told in, in, the United States as there is in Canada now, you asked about that picture, and it's well, it depends. How deep do you want to go into that picture? That picture is me praying to the Peace Tower, which is basically Parliament in Canada. It's during about day 4 or 5 of the protest and it was captured by, now pretty, I don't know, I hate to say famous, photographer, but I would see a pretty well known, I don't know what to say about Luciano, but, you know, luckily he followed me around and and ended up taking that picture.
00:28:19:15 - 00:28:31:21
Speaker 1
So there, that's that's a long meander.
00:28:31:23 - 00:28:51:08
Speaker 1
I was crazy, I mean, the to to, if, you know, once again, I don't know your listeners, so they don't know me. So if you believe in God like you truly believe in God, then you're going to go, well, that means that there's good and evil. And I don't know what that looks like for you.
00:28:51:11 - 00:29:20:14
Speaker 1
And I experienced for certain. I don't know. I would call it demonic forces. It wasn't very fun. I was also paranoid at the time. I was also, you know, heightened sense of everything because of what was going on. And, I'd met this, photographer, Lucky Luciano, as I called him. I got told day one that he was, Antifa, and I was you know, when I first got there, I'd never seen Antifa before.
00:29:20:16 - 00:29:39:26
Speaker 1
And you can imagine there was this guy with, you know, a balaclava on. Sorry. And I just walked up to him and started talking to him, and he pulled it down, and he goes, Antifa. No, I'm just cold. It's -30, whatever. And I'm I started laughing. Right? So we we just grew a little friendship, and, he ran into me when I was pretty close to my lowest.
00:29:39:26 - 00:30:00:03
Speaker 1
I was there, and I didn't realize he'd taken the picture. I actually, to be honest, I didn't realize that picture was real. Because at that point in time, I thought I was kind of like, in a dream state. I don't know how to explain it better than that, but, just imagine the most vivid dream of your life.
00:30:00:03 - 00:30:20:14
Speaker 1
And, you know, one day you wake up kind of thing. And it was two weeks after I got home from, Ottawa that he sent it to me and said, hey, that day was was something. And I just wanted to say, I took this picture. Nobody will ever see it. I just thought you should see it. And I was like, you know, I kind of compartmentalize that day as, like, it didn't happen.
00:30:20:16 - 00:30:52:05
Speaker 1
And, it's taken, you know, I just put it up probably. I know in the last six months, it took a long time for me to have the, maybe the courage or the I. Maybe courage isn't the right word just to feel comfortable with having it shown to people because it it is very, intimate moment in my life.
00:30:52:08 - 00:30:53:06
Speaker 2
Well.
00:30:53:08 - 00:31:14:13
Speaker 1
There's there's some pretty good pictures taken there. This one means the most to me. I mean, you have to understand, folks, before I went to Ottawa, I wasn't praying. I wasn't going to.
00:31:14:15 - 00:31:25:06
Speaker 1
Still have a family.
00:31:25:09 - 00:31:29:25
Speaker 1
Well, like I say, you know.
00:31:29:27 - 00:31:39:18
Speaker 1
Back then.
00:31:39:21 - 00:32:03:04
Speaker 1
It was like being in a nightmare and not seeing a way out. Okay, if you haven't picked up by now, folks, that I'm unvaccinated, right? Which I hate even bringing up because I think we have to find a way to mend these fences. But when we don't talk about it, or we only talk in certain circles about it.
00:32:03:06 - 00:32:23:21
Speaker 1
It it persists. So if you go back to then you have to understand, I had on military guys and they told me how Bosnia happened and Bosnia was a civil war. They had hosted the Olympics. I want to say two years, maybe less, before they had their Civil War where, you know, basically neighbors killed each other and I.
00:32:23:21 - 00:32:39:09
Speaker 1
So how did that happen? And nobody can just say, this is how it happened. At least not that I've found. But what what stuck with me is they said, oh, it always starts with the small divide. It doesn't matter how small the divide is, if there's a small divide, it can grow and it'll get exposed. And you'll do.
00:32:39:13 - 00:33:01:01
Speaker 1
People will do horrific things. So I get told that and you already had a divide. Vaccinated, unvaccinated. It was it was two camps and they were starting to say things like the unvaccinated are piling up the hospitals and people can't get in there. Selfish. These people, I mean, go back and look at what you know. You can have your thoughts on World War two.
00:33:01:01 - 00:33:21:02
Speaker 1
You can have your thoughts on Hitler. There's a there's a ton of stuff out there. But go look at the words they started using towards the Jews when they started to exterminate them. And in Canada, you were starting to see people talk about people who are being selfish, and maybe we should treat them differently. Maybe they should be in camps.
00:33:21:04 - 00:33:32:06
Speaker 1
I mean, the Toronto Star had, man, what was the headline is I don't want to here. I'm going to look it up because I want to make sure I get this right.
00:33:32:10 - 00:33:59:29
Speaker 1
So Toronto is one of the largest cities in Canada. And it had. I have no empathy left for the willfully unvaccinated. Let them die, Toronto Star. It's in the Toronto Star paper front headline. Now, this is the simmering. This is. This was right. You you're talking about papers literally saying let them die. So when you go why did you go to Ottawa?
00:34:00:00 - 00:34:22:24
Speaker 1
You have to understand this was destroying the fabric of our society. Like, I wasn't allowed to leave the country. I wasn't allowed to get on a plane. I wasn't allowed to get on any federal transportation wasn't allowed to, and they were starting to make it. So you couldn't go across provinces in your own country. You go, what drove you to Ottawa?
00:34:22:27 - 00:34:39:25
Speaker 1
I'll tell you what. Fucking drove me in Ottawa. I wanted to drag Justin Trudeau out by his neck, hang him high in the sky for the world to see and say never again. Now, along the road there I went. Oh, I don't need that. I would just like to have the mandates off and be allowed to live life again.
00:34:39:28 - 00:34:55:24
Speaker 1
That has turned me into a right wing conspiracy theorist. On and on and on and on and on. What drove me there was everybody knew it vaccinated, unvaccinated. Take those terms, throw them in the garbage. They were tired with a tyrannical government.
00:34:55:27 - 00:34:56:28
Speaker 2
Who.
00:34:57:01 - 00:35:15:01
Speaker 1
Wouldn't listen to the people. And it showed when when the people got there, he got Covid again and he disappeared. And then he called us things and he kept saying things and he spurred it on. And then coots happens and then they take on, they put on, not the War Measures Act. Why can't I spit it out this morning, folks?
00:35:15:01 - 00:35:38:15
Speaker 1
Jack has me all riled up. You know, they put on the Emergencies Act. They they lock up people's bank accounts who donated anywhere between, like, 20 bucks to some other, some to the convoy. Right. You just like we live in a fucking crazy world. Pardon for the swears. That's what drove me to talk. I didn't want to go.
00:35:38:17 - 00:35:53:20
Speaker 1
When I first interviewed Chris Barber, I said, I that won't work. And it was like three days later I'm like, Holy crap, this might work. And it was a day after that. I was in a vehicle chasing them down because I'm like, I got to see this for myself because I almost lost hope during that time. It's like, this is going to be my life.
00:35:53:20 - 00:36:09:15
Speaker 1
I don't know how to to operate in it, you know, to go to to go to a hockey game, my kid's hockey game. I got to be vaccinated or I got to have a negative test for the rest of my life. I go to an Edmonton Oilers game. I'm wearing the fucking mask and it slips down. Okay, it's on your nose.
00:36:09:15 - 00:36:28:29
Speaker 1
So it's down to there. It's still over my mouth. Two security guards come up and say, sir, you do that again, you're out the building. I'm like, and we're going to be okay with this. This is how society is going to be. Have we all lost our bloody minds? That's what drove us to Ottawa.
00:36:29:01 - 00:37:01:14
Speaker 1
Well, within a week, maybe less. All the mandates were gone. They said it had nothing to do with Ottawa, which is hilarious. You know, it's like, give credit where credit's due now. Politicians can't do that. Yeah. It was very successful. And along the way, some very good people have been paying the ultimate price for going there. And it's really taught me that lesson is, you know, if you're going to stand up to the government, which is a giant machine, folks, you really have to come to terms with, what are you willing to lose for that?
00:37:01:17 - 00:37:34:28
Speaker 1
Right. It's, you know, like you can't be naive about it. I was naive about going to Ottawa. I had no idea what I was doing. I thought I was a citizen journalist and going to go have a little bit of fun. You're you're standing up to the world. And if you are any, you know, if you if you do any reading on the WEF and the world at the World Economic Forum's Oregon and some of the treaties there, and what they're trying to do and how our government is involved in that, you realize you weren't just fighting the Canadian government, you were fighting possibly the one world government.
00:37:35:00 - 00:38:10:22
Speaker 1
Which sounds insane to say, but the truth of the matter is just look at the ties. Look at look at what is going on in our country right now. I mean, it's pretty evident that, foreign influence wants something different from can't from Canada than what Canadians want.
00:38:10:25 - 00:38:36:05
Speaker 1
To this day, there are certain people who will not look me in the eye. And to this day, there will be people I've never met in my life. Walk right across the room and you can tell they want to come. Shake your hand and they shake your hand. And then they have a lovely chat and, I don't give much time in my life to the people who won't talk to me because, you know, usually they're people I see once every three years.
00:38:36:07 - 00:38:56:00
Speaker 1
So, I mean, why let those things bother you? We have issues in our country, and I don't don't let me by getting all wound up today, act like I have all the answers. I don't, I really don't, it's just been interviewing and staring at different people from across Canada, trying to figure out what the heck is going on in society.
00:38:56:07 - 00:39:23:06
Speaker 1
Like, why? Why are we doing what we're doing? And to me, at times if you don't listen to me right, you don't listen to the interviews, you get labeled, right wing, you get labeled, misogynist, a Nazi, all these different things, lately a Christian, which I guess is, is, a pretty tough label, too, right?
00:39:23:06 - 00:39:48:08
Speaker 1
Oh, you're one of those. Sure. I guess. And, I just I just carry on with life, you know, there's no point in getting tied up into that world. Except for when the government is that world. That's what Covid was. That's why everybody went to Ottawa. That's why Ottawa was crazy successful. Is. Yeah, I don't know. It should go down in the history books is the most peaceful protest in modern day history.
00:39:48:08 - 00:39:58:03
Speaker 1
Like it was insane.
00:39:58:05 - 00:40:04:02
Speaker 1
I.
00:40:04:04 - 00:40:20:27
Speaker 1
The catalyst. Yeah.
00:40:20:29 - 00:40:24:06
Speaker 1
I.
00:40:24:08 - 00:40:30:25
Speaker 1
Probably. Probably. Probably somewhat. Yeah.
00:40:30:28 - 00:40:38:08
Speaker 1
The the the yeast. Right. Like,
00:40:38:10 - 00:41:06:02
Speaker 1
Okay. Yeah. If you want to be a conservative government. Right. Smaller government, you're going to cut some programs, etc., etc.. Okay. Well, if you work in those programs, you're a firefighter. Do you want to, elect a government who could possibly take away your job? The answer is no. So you go. People are. I hate the word, but, it I think it gets across what I mean.
00:41:06:02 - 00:41:23:19
Speaker 1
Or selfish, right? If all of a sudden I could vote for the CBC to just disappear tomorrow, being in this media landscape and understanding what they do, I probably would vote for that. Yeah, sure. So you go like the East.
00:41:23:21 - 00:41:42:15
Speaker 1
I'm working on this. So I want, you know, like I'm working on getting better at understanding the the political structures in Canada and how they all work. Here's what I do know. We're way different than the United States, right? The vote for who is going to be prime minister is decided before ever gets to my province, to west.
00:41:42:17 - 00:42:07:11
Speaker 1
And yet the West is the economic machine that drives our country forward. We have oil, we have mining, we have agriculture. We have all the resources. We are sitting on some of the largest resources on the planet. What do you have out East? You have bureaucracy. You have old established elites. They've been there, you know, like if you go back in the history of Canada, where did they establish they had upper Lower Canada?
00:42:07:11 - 00:42:25:07
Speaker 1
That's all out east. They've been there for forever. And the cartoons say it best. They, you know, you take a big straw and just put it in to draw it across the country and put it into Alberta, Saskatchewan. And they're sucking it out that way. Right. Like, I mean, would you vote against how the government's doing things right now?
00:42:25:10 - 00:42:51:23
Speaker 1
I guess if you have, if you're staring at some of the things going on morally, you probably will. But if you, you know, are in government or if you are, you know, like you like some of the social aspects of what he's doing, free dental care, free child care. Right. All these free things and, it's not free like we all pay for it.
00:42:51:25 - 00:43:09:24
Speaker 1
And so who votes for it? People who probably look at it that way and, you know, like, I could be wrong. Maybe there's some other things he's doing out East. I don't know. Oh, West. It's like a swear word. Like. I mean, the guy in one of his national addresses literally forgot to say Alberta said every province. It didn't say Alberta.
00:43:09:24 - 00:43:30:07
Speaker 1
I'm like, that is pretty telling right there. Right. Like, this is this is this is wild to me. Yeah. He touts himself as all these different things, but you're for sure in an echo chamber like you're talking to now. I was born and raised a Saskatchewan kid. Now an Albertan. Alberta is the Texas of the North.
00:43:30:07 - 00:43:49:22
Speaker 1
Or the Florida resemble kind of both of them. And we got a premier who's telling them to shove it right now. And so, you know, if we could, we'd probably have open carry. We'd probably, I don't know, do a ton of things that Florida and or Texas is doing. We'd probably do it all. It's just different here in Canada.
00:43:49:22 - 00:44:17:19
Speaker 1
I'm trying my best to learn, all the the ways it works. It's it's just different because we stare at the States all the time and see how you guys work and go, well, that's a really good system. We should adopt that. But we don't have that. We have a prime Minister who can be elected in forever. And, that's a scary thought.
00:44:17:22 - 00:44:26:19
Speaker 1
Yeah, but not really that because CBC yeah.
00:44:26:21 - 00:44:30:25
Speaker 1
Right.
00:44:30:28 - 00:44:33:13
Speaker 2
Good question.
00:44:33:15 - 00:44:44:02
Speaker 1
You know how you can understand why when the Freedom Convoy went on, they didn't show up to do any, any, any interviews on it.
00:44:44:05 - 00:45:05:08
Speaker 1
They're they're owned by the government. And, you know, like, that sounds like way too simple of an answer. Like, come on, like a obviously they could do some stories. Sure they could. But like, they're literally going out of business if it wasn't for the government giving them billions of dollars to stay running. And even then they've had to do serious cuts.
00:45:05:10 - 00:45:24:04
Speaker 1
They're an arm of the government. It's really sad.
00:45:24:06 - 00:45:50:04
Speaker 1
Do you stand how rare of a country you live in, like the United States is a rare. It's rare. Like this isn't. So you say that and I agree with you. But if you look around the world, what Canada's done isn't a rarity. It isn't like we're the only country with with a government controlled state media that.
00:45:50:07 - 00:46:26:06
Speaker 1
We're not we're not. Well, sure. Okay. In that in that sense, yes. Cultures, norms, etc. similar. Okay. We're socialist like we're, we're we're we're a socialist country. We, we believe in free health care. And for the longest time in my life I believed in that. I think I still a some part of me believes in it, but there are some serious issues that come with it, and we're seeing it play out right now.
00:46:26:08 - 00:46:47:11
Speaker 1
And we I got my father right now. He needs shoulder shoulder surgery. And the wait to get in is like two years, I think, you know, two years. Okay. Right. You you wait all your life, you're healthy human being. You'd never use the health care system. You finally need it. It's two years. So what are you supposed to do, go around with a bum shoulder for two years?
00:46:47:18 - 00:47:19:20
Speaker 1
Whereas, you know. So what do they say? Well, maybe you could fly to the States, right? Well, certain people, because this. Yes, yes. So so like, I don't know, we're socialist country like, people want free health care. Free. Free childcare, like the child care benefit. I'm like, you morons, I want lower taxes. Why? Because then I can go pay for whatever the heck I want to pay for.
00:47:19:22 - 00:47:40:19
Speaker 1
Not taxed me to oblivion. Give all the money to Ottawa, and then they'll disperse back a little bit to us. Like it's a simple equation. To me, that's the simplest math there is. We want autonomy. We want it. We want to be able to govern our lives. Do we want some help along the way? Like, I don't know, road to town and hire and doctors.
00:47:40:19 - 00:48:07:27
Speaker 1
Sure. But, like, get out of my way. Stop. Stop doing what you're doing. But, as I say, all that I know I'm in a small portion of the population, right? Because lots of people free health care is great. You know, free this, free that. It's just the.
00:48:07:29 - 00:48:15:08
Speaker 1
That's a good question.
00:48:15:11 - 00:48:53:06
Speaker 1
I think when times are good, you just you just don't like, you don't engage. I just I just had an uncle pass away, and, I had to officiate his funeral. Well, it was, you know, a weird thing on this side. Jacked. I didn't start podcasting to officiate funerals, you know, like. And now it's my fourth and probably a year and half, and, my, my, one of my uncles said to me, you know, I've, I've lived in the best time in human history, and you guys are inheriting some of us not paying attention.
00:48:53:08 - 00:49:21:01
Speaker 1
You know, because, like, there's there's some pretty, crazy things going on in your country and on in ours. And I can just say from from where I'm at in my community, to go out and make good money is not a hard thing to do. Like, I can hit a good paying job with a flyswatter. It's, you know, we live in oil country, in egg, in mining, if you got a heartbeat and you show up to work, you're going to earn a paycheck.
00:49:21:02 - 00:49:39:01
Speaker 1
You're going to earn a very good paycheck. And if you do that for several years, chances are you're going to move up the ranks in the corporate world. Why? Because because for some reason, people don't want to do that. They want to sit on their I don't know, they want to go to Mexico and do nothing. They want to sit on their phone and do nothing.
00:49:39:04 - 00:50:02:14
Speaker 1
I don't get it. But in fairness, you asked why. I mean, it just seems like times have we've moved away from world wars. We've moved away from, you know, like, in the last hundred years, you used to have to, like, go to, you know, you had to work to survive. Now, survival isn't on anybody's. Nobody's thinking about survival.
00:50:02:14 - 00:50:41:18
Speaker 1
They're they're stopping it. They're hungry. They stop at a McDonald's, they stop in a convenience store, they're cold. They walk into their house anywhere they want, and they're warm. And so I would say that we're at a point in time where, the government will just take care of it. Is is part of the mindset. And we've created this beast that is insane, literally insane.
00:50:41:20 - 00:51:59:13
Speaker 1
No. But I love it already.
00:51:59:16 - 00:52:39:16
Speaker 1
Cain and Abel. Well, I mean, you just. You just. There's something in humans that you're gonna. You know that you want what your neighbor has. So, you know, this is this isn't something new. This is as old as time. But I always look at the United States and what made the United States. I think, great. And something to be fought for, honestly, is it was a place where if you put your head down and got to work and were creative and thought about things and you could make something of yourself, you still can, I think.
00:52:39:18 - 00:52:49:05
Speaker 1
And Canada in a sense, is, is, is a small microcosm because of the United States.
00:52:49:08 - 00:53:19:13
Speaker 1
But you can't just act like that's going to always be there because it's slowly being pulled away from us. And I'm talking Canadians. I can't, I can't listen, I folks, I cannot speak to the I have a hard enough time with the intricacies of Canada to even begin to comment on the United States. I just understand what it stands for, that you could show up to a country and go from being poor to wealthy in a lifetime or shorter is something that should be fought for.
00:53:19:13 - 00:53:45:10
Speaker 1
And Canada is the same way. You can. You can literally come from pretty much nothing in Canada. And if you if you like, a little bit common sense and like just show up to work, we think it would a crazy idea to show up to work, show up to work, do your job, pay attention, activate, find something you enjoy doing.
00:53:45:13 - 00:53:56:18
Speaker 1
All of a sudden you can make something of yourself. There's opportunities there, endless. And both of our countries definitely have that.
00:53:56:20 - 00:54:14:03
Speaker 1
I don't know, you know. Yeah, it could be the 10,000 things that are you know, I don't I don't know against this, you know, like, I, I, I you love the chimpanzee study. I love rat studies. I think rat studies are just fan like fabulous. You know, it's like, how do you I probably told you this ten times, so apologies.
00:54:14:03 - 00:54:20:14
Speaker 1
But like, how do you get a rat to be addicted to cocaine? If I told you this?
00:54:20:17 - 00:54:42:00
Speaker 1
Where you put a you put a group of rats and a tub of cocaine in there and they won't touch it and they won't do anything with it. You isolate a rat, they'll do cocaine. And so you go part of what's happening in society as we go more into technology. And I'm starting to learn more on the blue lights, in our screens.
00:54:42:00 - 00:55:05:21
Speaker 1
And that's effect on the human body and, and, you know, need tack on Covid. You tack on just, you know, how we communicate. It's unhealthy. Like, why do I like the dressing room? Probably because, you know, to go back to our early part of our conversation because it's a lost form of our, of our, of our, of our world, of our country, of sitting around no phones, having some laughs, talking to people.
00:55:05:21 - 00:55:29:22
Speaker 1
What a strange idea. And it's healthy for you. I don't want to be addicted to drugs. I don't want to be addicted to my phone, you know? And we think of drugs probably as, as, as a substance. It could be anything. And, the way you I think the way you get away from that is by having healthy relationships.
00:55:29:22 - 00:55:48:11
Speaker 1
People will want the best for you. People that, you know, you can talk to and not be, you know, used or abused, right? There's tons of relationships. There's tons of things going on in this world that just, you know, honestly break a guy's heart. And all you could do is, you know, like, be a good human being.
00:55:48:14 - 00:56:12:18
Speaker 1
I watched a movie with the kids the other day. Claws. It's a cartoon book. Santa Claus. It's about a postman who gets sent to this this, like, village where they've had a family feud for, no history. And this postman is kind of an entitled kid, and he gets sent to the edge of the world because his dad's frustrated with them.
00:56:12:18 - 00:56:32:24
Speaker 1
And so he goes there, and Santa Claus or Claus lives there, and he's this older big man who builds toys. And I mean, it's it's a wonderful movie. But what he says is one act of kindness will spur on another act of kindness. Like it's it's like a and I'm like, man, that's that's a beautiful, beautiful thought, right?
00:56:32:27 - 00:56:53:17
Speaker 1
If you just try and be good, you just try and like, hold the door open for somebody. Just a simple thing. You can change their entire day, and then maybe they go change somebody's entire day and all of a sudden it just starts to, you know, like, snowball can do that every day. See what I do? I'm not sitting here saying, like, all sudden the world is going to change.
00:56:53:17 - 00:57:12:03
Speaker 1
But like on the flip side, what's the alternative? You become this brooding person who doesn't talk to anybody. He doesn't smile, doesn't go anywhere, is online all the time. You know what I want to do? I want to get to the point, Jack, where you're like, I want to do an interview. And I'm like, I just fly up here, I got a private jet.
00:57:12:03 - 00:57:36:26
Speaker 1
You just come here and we can do it in person. That's what I want to get to. Because doing this online, although be at fun in person, there's nothing that even remotely touches it. You cannot begin to fathom. But, you know, like I think today I record, you know, this better is at 749 I have tomorrow, I think it's 749, 749 episodes.
00:57:36:29 - 00:57:42:04
Speaker 1
And if you tack on everything else I've done, it's close to a thousand.
00:57:42:06 - 00:58:37:03
Speaker 1
I give away all of them just to be able to do it in person. If I could have my guest list, the problem is I'm not there yet. But you know, once again, you got me rambling and I. I don't know that to me, it's a culmination of a ton of little things of where we are today in this world.
00:58:37:05 - 00:59:11:11
Speaker 1
I.
00:59:11:13 - 00:59:36:16
Speaker 1
Yeah. I was reminded of a story. Sorry to happen because you said two things, right? So don't forget the second thing. Okay. I was so before I ever got into the, talking to doctors, lawyers, politicians, on and on. I had this lovely story told about me. Now, what's funny about it is now some of the people who, would have called me this person no longer talk to me.
00:59:36:16 - 00:59:55:16
Speaker 1
So it's kind of funny, if not in a morbid way, or maybe in a morbid way, but it was the story of a guy coming to Lloydminster moving from a different community, and, an old man asked him, oh, well, where did you live before? And he said, oh, a town over here. And he goes, oh, what was your town like?
00:59:55:19 - 01:00:14:05
Speaker 1
It wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't very good. You know, like, you know, people were kind of unfriendly or whatever. And he goes, what's what's Lloydminster like? He says, you probably find more of the same. And then the next day, another new guy comes into town. No man meets him. He goes, yeah. How are you doing again?
01:00:14:06 - 01:00:31:21
Speaker 1
Where are you coming from? All this town. Oh, how was it so. Oh, miss it. People were friendly. There was a great community. What's Lloydminster like? And he's like, you'll probably find more of the same. And I got told I was the second guy. And then I started talking openly about Covid and I've never been able. Nobody can remember that story.
01:00:31:21 - 01:00:58:09
Speaker 1
I think it got written in the paper, if memory serves me correct. Right. And what you're talking about or with the kindness thing is it's it's like, that's it. You can you can choose to be what you want to be every single day. One of one of the great things God has taught me, I think, is you don't need to go to Thailand to have an adventure.
01:00:58:11 - 01:01:22:20
Speaker 1
You walk out the door every day and you pay attention. You will have an adventure of your life. You can run into somebody who completely can change your life. I just, I just literally had it happen. I don't know if I've told you this. I've wanted to build a studio out on the farm for, I don't know, probably two years.
01:01:22:27 - 01:01:42:08
Speaker 1
I've been trying to, like, find a way to muster it through. It just doesn't happen. I kind of gave up on it. I just kind of like, that's not going to happen. And then I had Jamie Sinclair in here. You're a fan of Jamie Sinclair, and he goes, you want to go for a beer at OJ's? And I go, Original Joe's is, I don't know, kind of like a pub, I guess, and I.
01:01:42:08 - 01:02:04:05
Speaker 1
Yeah, sure. Whatever. So we go, and we sitting there, it's in the middle of the afternoon. There's nobody in this place. And, in walks Jonas. Jonas and I grew up together. He was our next door neighbor as a farming community. And now he's a pig farmer. And I go, oh, hey, Jonas, how's it going? And you sit there chatting with them all this Jamie Sinclair and and I just pops.
01:02:04:09 - 01:02:19:19
Speaker 1
I know I don't want to intrude. No, John has just come sit and have a beer with us. There's nobody else in the bloody place. So he sits down and we start talking, and Jamie doesn't know what he's doing. Jamie goes, whatever happened to your idea of building a podcast studio on the farm? Like, I don't know, it's a whole thing.
01:02:19:19 - 01:02:33:09
Speaker 1
I'm not interested in. And awesome. And look over Jonas and me and him kind of meet eyes. And then we start talking, and pretty soon he's got a spot and I'm like, oh, this is this is about as serendipitous as it gets. I'm like.
01:02:33:09 - 01:02:35:03
Speaker 2
That. What?
01:02:35:06 - 01:03:04:12
Speaker 1
And now what was just out there yesterday? I have an A-frame house. A-frame cabin is pretty small, but we're going to renovate it. And then there's a there's a second building. I'm going to turn into a new studio. So when Jack comes next, folks, there's going to be a place, you know, it's going to take some time, but there's going to be a place to stay and there's going to be a studio that when it's done, is going to rival the Tucker Carlson, the Joe Rogan of the world sitting in, as Vance Crowe and others would say, on the edge of the world.
01:03:04:12 - 01:03:32:28
Speaker 1
That is the true it is going to be the outpost. It is going to be in the middle of God's country and things like that. If you just pay attention and don't force it. I wasn't forcing anything. I it's like you can have an adventure every day. Like every single day I step into this place, I walk out my front door and I truly believe, like if you just open your eyes in my world, you know, a little positivity, kindness, a little selflessness, you just you just try and do better for other people.
01:03:33:01 - 01:03:50:03
Speaker 1
You might be surprised by what happens.
01:03:50:06 - 01:04:07:25
Speaker 1
I would agree.
01:04:07:27 - 01:04:25:16
Speaker 1
No, 100%. Jack. The next time, if you're like, we got to do four hours. Even if we don't, we just schedule it for hours. I always schedule two in my head because I'm like, oh, two is two is going to be the standard. Jack's going to get annoyed with me at some point. His audience is going to turn me off, and that's fine.
01:04:25:19 - 01:04:42:14
Speaker 1
Because I as you know, I can talk for a very long time.
01:04:42:16 - 01:05:07:19
Speaker 1
Well, that's a I don't think that's rude to your audience. I used to say that lots. If the audience doesn't like it, they'll turn it off. I'm not being rude to the audience. If I'm enjoying it, there's going to be a whole bunch of people that are enjoying it. And you just carry on. And if there's a natural break, but chances are what'll happen is you cut it out and it doesn't matter how long I go with any person, any person I could do.
01:05:07:19 - 01:05:25:09
Speaker 1
I bet you Joe Rogan doing his. No, it was, it was Friedman who did an eight hour podcast. Right. And I guarantee there's somebody out there going, I wish it would have went 20 minutes longer, I guarantee it. And then there's there's a whole group of us go on eight hours. How the heck am I going to get two hours in?
01:05:25:11 - 01:05:47:04
Speaker 1
You're talking about eight. Like I just listened to. I just had doctor Jack cruise on, and he did, close to four hours with Danny Jones. I'm like, how am I going to get four hours in? It was wild. Four hours. And for me, we went an hour and a half. Right. It's almost like child's play. So once again, I guess my comment on on you not worrying about the audience.
01:05:47:04 - 01:06:01:06
Speaker 1
You're worrying about the audience. Because if the conversation sucked, maybe I'm pat myself on the back here, folks. You could just shut it down and.
01:06:01:09 - 01:06:14:00
Speaker 1
Well, we'll see how many people I've irritated on your side, and, we'll see how that goes.
01:06:14:02 - 01:06:30:23
Speaker 1
Well, no, you can't do it now. I got 29 minute in my brain. Yeah. You know, he's like, oh, my technology failed me. It's not going to look great. I goodness, folks. Oh, no. Now, you know what working with Jack is like, hey, he's like, hey, could you adjust your camera just to that way? To this way?
01:06:30:23 - 01:06:35:02
Speaker 1
You didn't plug it in.
01:06:35:04 - 01:06:58:20
Speaker 1
Welcome to the wild world of podcasting, folks, where Jack starts to feel some of Shawn's pain. Because this has happened to me many a time.
01:06:58:22 - 01:07:06:07
Speaker 2
Oh.
01:07:06:09 - 01:07:08:27
Speaker 1
I'm going to surprise myself here a little bit.
01:07:09:14 - 01:07:24:22
Speaker 1
I think don't take. At times you got to take things very seriously, and then other times don't take things too seriously. I don't know if that makes sense.
01:07:24:24 - 01:07:47:26
Speaker 1
Well, okay, so one of the things I'm paying attention to right now is World War three. Okay. I mean, Biden just allowed long range missiles to be used on the Russia. Okay. And if you're not following that, folks, careful because you're going to need a family Guy episode or something to make you laugh after, family Guy used to be my go to in college.
01:07:47:28 - 01:08:14:00
Speaker 1
I don't know what people watch now to make him laugh, but regardless, You can get wrapped up in. We're going to all get nuked tomorrow. And if you get wrapped up in that world, you can go literally crazy. I've seen people lose their mind off of chasing rabbit holes and everything else. So I think it would be wise to read the news.
01:08:14:02 - 01:08:45:26
Speaker 1
Pay attention to world events and see what's happening. You might also notice that Bitcoin is like all time highs. Gold, all time highs. While other things money printing and everything else all time highs. Right. So like there's things to pay attention to. But at times, you know, depending on your age, sometimes just enjoy life too, you know, like,
01:08:45:28 - 01:09:06:28
Speaker 1
I don't know, there's seasons in life, Jack. I don't wife and I are watching a show. It's about college. And she asked me if I'd ever go back to college, and I laughed and I said no, like, no. And I said, well, why would you? And she said, well, no. So and then we got talking about like I got told high school would be the funnest time of my life.
01:09:07:01 - 01:09:23:26
Speaker 1
So I lived it like it was gonna be the funnest, because I thought after that it was all done. And then I went played junior hockey. And I can tell your listeners is there are few experiences like junior hockey. It is, man. It's a lot of fun. But then came college, and college is where I met my wife.
01:09:24:02 - 01:09:46:07
Speaker 1
College is a lot of fun. And now I have a wife, three kids, and I've, found a lot of the meaning of life. I'm not saying I got it all down pat by any stretch, but, like, I wouldn't change any of this for anyone. I don't, you know, I have to fight every day for my kids, my wife.
01:09:46:07 - 01:10:07:07
Speaker 1
I have to be the I have to constantly be better than the guy I was yesterday. Because the challenges of having kids and dealing with their schedules, their issues, their lives is something I could never plan for and I wouldn't change it. This has been, you know, like the in the last year, we did 24 days on the road together.
01:10:07:07 - 01:10:31:14
Speaker 1
We took a road trip through Idaho. Everybody thought we were insane. It was a crazy time of life. I didn't need anybody else. Didn't need all the fans, didn't need, fans, friends. I meant, didn't need 12 nights boozing out at the bar. We like, you know, it was just family and being around my kids and my wife and, like, you find that.
01:10:31:16 - 01:11:18:05
Speaker 1
I don't know if that answers your question.
01:11:18:07 - 01:11:37:29
Speaker 1
Can I tell you something? It didn't happen accidentally. No. I mean that very spiritually. But I also mean that, like, in day to day life, my mom, my wife, Mel, is not a PDA person. When we first met, she did not like kissing in public. And I told her, if you're going to be with me, we're going to kiss in public.
01:11:38:01 - 01:12:01:14
Speaker 1
I had to get through some uncomfortable conversations, where I'm at with my wife and kids today did not happen accidentally. I've had moments. I bet if you talk to any happily married man, take the person you think is the happiest person. Marriage, life, kids and you talk to them. I guaran freakin tee you they've had days, if not weeks.
01:12:01:17 - 01:12:16:02
Speaker 1
Now I'm going to say days, not weeks. I'm going to say days. Where they weren't sure they were going to make it, where they're like, why the hell is this so hard?
01:12:16:04 - 01:12:28:19
Speaker 1
Where they probably contemplated a lot of dark things that they never thought they would ever. Marriage, relationships take work.
01:12:28:21 - 01:12:55:11
Speaker 1
Yeah, it isn't by accident. I appreciate all the kind words, I really do. But you have to understand that picture right there. One of the lowest points in my life. And I went on a, you know, when I went to going right back to the start of this conversation, when I said I didn't go to, when I stepped into, Saint Louis last year and I just knew I was in the wrong place, I came within a hair of divorce that may shock people.
01:12:55:13 - 01:13:13:14
Speaker 1
Now, it might have just been a fleeting idea, but for for a moment in time, while I was in Ottawa, that was a thought in our marriage. And when we went to a couples retreat, because, you know, I got to give Vance a ton of credit. If it wasn't for the conversations that weekend, I would have never taken my wife to a couples retreat.
01:13:13:16 - 01:13:31:21
Speaker 1
I went to a couples retreat with her. We had to talk about a lot, and that was, uncomfortable at times. But we both agreed the hardest part of our marriage had been Ottawa, right? It pushed us to the brink. One of the men I admire, I don't remember everything, comes out of his mouth because at times he's a media personality.
01:13:31:21 - 01:13:47:11
Speaker 1
But Jordan Peterson is a man. If you go listen to him, I've got to witness it on stage. And it was so cool on stage. Him dance with his wife. He talks about date nights and Tammy. We'll talk about it too. How much effort they put into dancing.
01:13:47:14 - 01:14:07:29
Speaker 1
And then through Covid they come within like I if I was, my hair probably looks like a strong rope to where they came within. Right. Him in a coma in Russia. Her on stage was at 4 or 3 folks of cancer. Like, basically they lost touch with each other, didn't think, you know, and when they got back, they didn't know each other.
01:14:07:29 - 01:14:28:18
Speaker 1
That's basically how they talk about it. And what brought them back together. Dancing, because they. And all of a sudden now they're starting to, oh, this is who this is. And on and on. And marriages is a lot of work. So I once again, I, I really appreciate the compliments. I just know the work isn't done. Like I look into the future I have.
01:14:28:18 - 01:14:50:19
Speaker 1
The cornerstone forum comes up in May and, it's it's this idea that I put together over doing a bunch of shows. That looks him in the future, not too far in the future. Because, you know, I don't want to get into spacecraft and aliens and flying off to Mars, but it looks into the near future and it tries to pinpoint some problems.
01:14:50:19 - 01:15:10:16
Speaker 1
You're going to see. And every time I think about my marriage, I'm like, even if everything goes smooth, we're both going to lose our parents at some point. If that's the first thing that happens. And then on my side, I'm the youngest of five siblings or four. I got four older siblings. If everything just works out the way it is, I'm going to lose four siblings.
01:15:10:19 - 01:15:39:06
Speaker 1
She's going to lose a brother. Those are not going to be easy thing. That's all going to take work. And so marriage, being a father, all these things are going to push you to the brink. And I literally just called Vance like two days ago. Why the hell does it have to be so hard? Because one of my kids had just pushed me to the absolute edge of my ability to think through problems and that's probably the stuff people don't see, right?
01:15:39:06 - 01:16:04:15
Speaker 1
You see the you see how things when they're smooth and you don't understand all great marriages, all great human beings have moments in time where they get knocked down to the absolute brink of who they are.
01:16:27:05 - 01:16:34:01
Speaker 1
They're around. Oh, yeah.
01:16:34:03 - 01:16:42:23
Speaker 1
Yes.
01:16:42:25 - 01:17:07:16
Speaker 1
This is a. Once again. I've never been great with analogies, folks, so forgive me, but me and pizza don't do well together. Things happen in my body that I will not explain. Okay, cut out the pizza. The problem goes away. You guys are brilliant. Generation. Get out of your heads. Go to work. Start. Start doing some things.
01:17:07:16 - 01:17:30:02
Speaker 1
And I don't mean to say that you're not. It's like some of this is you're going to run into somebody and they're going to light you up, and then you're going to realize they're not perfect, that you got to work through the quirks. The quirks is actually what makes it enjoyable. It's it's insane that, you know, yes, it is absolutely there.
01:17:30:02 - 01:17:51:14
Speaker 1
It is absolutely there. And if you can't find it in Saint Louis, stop, stop. Like I don't mean stop looking for it. I just mean give yourself a little bit of grace to just go explore and and and maybe something will find you, right? Like, I didn't go to, I didn't go to Wisconsin to look for my wife.
01:17:51:14 - 01:18:05:10
Speaker 1
That is not how that happened. And I met her the first day. She was the first girl I met on campus. And I gave her the cold shoulder because I was too school. Too cool for school. She will tell you about that. She'll probably also tell you that she thought I was into her roommate, not her. Right.
01:18:05:17 - 01:18:37:01
Speaker 1
And, you know, you watch how the story plays out, or at least in my mind as I replay it. Right. It's just, you know, it's right there from the start. I just didn't didn't see it. I didn't notice it. And, you know, I was thinking the other day like a lot of men, the one thing that I don't know how this happened is a lot of men, will get married, have kids, and I think, fantasize about, I don't know, Pamela Anderson or I don't know who your generation is.
01:18:37:03 - 01:18:51:20
Speaker 1
That sounds terrible. Who's the who's the who's the good looking girl right now? I, I don't know who. Who is it? Who's the girl that's like, oh, this is the one right now.
01:18:51:23 - 01:18:58:15
Speaker 1
Margot Robbie is the one.
01:18:58:18 - 01:19:15:07
Speaker 1
I'm, like, ridiculously attracted to my wife. It's like, it's probably unhealthy. I don't know, but, I mean, in the best possible way. I don't know, it probably is an unhealthy. I'm. I thought about that the other day because I used to be attracted to all women. I mean, like, in, in some sense, I still am. I'm not this perfect human creation, right?
01:19:15:09 - 01:19:31:21
Speaker 1
But I'm like, I'm ridiculously attracted to my wife. Like, how the heck did that happen? I actually don't know because I love she does not agree. If she was sitting here, she would argue with me on a bunch of stuff I've said. One of the things that's happened to me since going full time podcasting is I don't have a boss.
01:19:31:23 - 01:19:47:19
Speaker 1
I don't have somebody saying, you can't say that anymore, which is really freeing. And at times I'm like, I'm probably offending a lot of people along the way. I have no idea because they don't talk to me anymore and I don't really care, but my wife does, and my wife will let me have it from time to time, I love it.
01:19:47:21 - 01:20:14:24
Speaker 1
I think she gets annoyed with how much I love it now because I'm like, oh, I love that she doesn't agree with me. I love that there's a little sandpaper there. She's just like this wonderful person that can you find it? I go back to your question. Absolutely. Do not ever think you cannot find it. I've ran into way too many people that,
01:20:14:26 - 01:20:36:08
Speaker 1
Found it in the least likely places, you know, and and then realize, though, once they're there together, just dating Jack, like, it's going to take work, it's going to take you setting aside some of your ideals on what this should be and how it should function. And it could just be as simple as, washing dishes, I don't know, or laundry or whatever.
01:20:36:08 - 01:21:13:28
Speaker 1
I don't know which one of the things it's going to trigger, because there will be things that trigger you, things that trigger me to.
01:21:14:00 - 01:21:28:25
Speaker 1
Say wait wait wait wait. Say that. Say that again. This. Say what you just said. One more time for me.
01:21:28:28 - 01:21:50:28
Speaker 1
So? So, what are your ideals that you think? Why are you struggling with whether or not they're crazy?
01:22:28:11 - 01:22:44:14
Speaker 1
Yeah. I'd say turn off the narrative. I, I don't know why.
01:22:44:17 - 01:23:11:20
Speaker 1
Yeah. You you want you want a, a relationship that's maybe a little more traditional than today. You're not saying you don't want a woman to work. What you're saying is, I want to be. I want my wife to be okay with me being a man. And. And. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that. Now, I don't know, like to to me,
01:23:11:22 - 01:23:32:17
Speaker 1
I'm married to one of the most badass women on the planet. She is fantastic. And, she doesn't want to be told what to do. I mean, in fairness, I don't want to tell her what to do, but, she carries the water lots of days of the week, and then other days, she gets to sit down and I do all the heavy lifting.
01:23:32:19 - 01:23:54:21
Speaker 1
It's a very balanced thing. But as a man, somebody touches her, I'm gonna break them. Somebody tries to mess with her or my kids, I'm gonna break. That's my that's that's my my job. It's very. It's very simple to me. I have no problem hurting people if they're going to try and hurt the ones I love. That's about as black and white as it gets.
01:23:54:23 - 01:24:01:00
Speaker 1
And if you can't find that, you know, like, I mean.
01:24:01:02 - 01:24:07:19
Speaker 1
You're probably just in an area that,
01:24:07:21 - 01:24:17:20
Speaker 1
Doesn't value that, was probably what I would say to me. Like, I could be wrong on that. I just think, like.
01:24:17:23 - 01:24:35:26
Speaker 1
I don't know, right up until I met Mel, I met a lot of women that would love to run over you. I just chose I'm not going to be run over. I don't like that. I don't like being talked over. I don't like those things. And if that bothers them, that's okay with me. I'm. I'm just going to carry on with life.
01:24:35:26 - 01:24:52:26
Speaker 1
This isn't going to bother me. I don't know. I that's a tough one Jack. I, I tough and not tough. I just go like turn off the narrative like it's also it's also, you know, like, I'll come in a tinfoil hat world coming with me, folks. It's also the, the, the safe and effective. If I say it enough times.
01:24:52:26 - 01:25:05:29
Speaker 1
It's true. If I say that a boy can be a girl enough times, it's true. It's not your all in saying it's not safe and effective. Boy cannot be a girl.
01:25:06:02 - 01:25:23:13
Speaker 1
Free drugs, I don't think is probably a good idea. That's probably a that's probably a poor idea.
01:25:23:16 - 01:25:31:21
Speaker 1
Right, sure.
01:25:31:23 - 01:25:51:08
Speaker 1
They don't want to get they don't want to do it. Well, I don't know. Okay. So this is where we started this conversation. Your audience hadn't heard it because I found it hilarious that you're hanging out of, Christian coffee shop. And you recognize that? But you don't believe in God? Essentially. Am I am I am I right?
01:25:51:08 - 01:26:19:28
Speaker 1
You believe in Judeo Christian values, essentially, but you don't believe in the ultimate, that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior and right. I don't I don't want to I want to make sure I'm getting it right.
01:26:20:00 - 01:26:27:14
Speaker 1
Right. Okay.
01:26:27:16 - 01:26:52:10
Speaker 1
So maybe that just isn't the person for you, is what I would say, right? Like, I mean, look at. Okay, you stare at me and I can sit here and say, Jesus is my Lord and Savior. He did walk on water. He did turn bread into, you know, food for thousands. He did all those things. I believe that, and if Sean of your age heard me say that, his mouth would be on the floor going, what are you talking about?
01:26:52:10 - 01:27:12:22
Speaker 1
And I want to tell you this, Jack, because when I started dating Mel, she's Catholic. She wanted me to go to church, and I told her was a deal breaker, just not interested. I'm not interested in going to church. I'm not interested in being indoctrinated in your crazy la la land. Okay, now it's Sean at 38 dragging. And I don't mean that that my wife didn't want to go back to church, folks.
01:27:12:22 - 01:27:34:01
Speaker 1
I just mean, like, you can imagine me pulling as far as I could run the other way to turning around 180 and going, I'm going to church. I'm going to put a picture of me praying on the wall and having to be okay with how uncomfortable that made me feel to even talk like this. It has taken time so.
01:27:34:03 - 01:27:58:02
Speaker 1
You want to marry a woman with values similar to yours, and if they can't get over the fact that right now, you're not okay with saying Jesus is the Lord and Savior, I don't know. To me. No, no no, no, I understand, but but it's like it's like, you know, on a really once again, what did I say about me in analogies, it's like you can't pick up your laundry.
01:27:58:02 - 01:28:22:15
Speaker 1
And that drives them to the point where you just you can't coexist. You're like, oh, it's just you're great. Everywhere we have this one thing, we can't find a way to get around. It's like, I don't know, like there's probably the one thing I can say for certain. At 38 is that I'm pretty certain I'm going to learn things as I grow.
01:28:22:18 - 01:28:47:05
Speaker 1
I'm going to I'm just going to continue to learn, because what I've done over the past five years has been insane to me. And when I watch you, I go. Well, I know that for certain. For you is that as time goes on and you have a woman that you get married to, and assuming you have kids and everything else, you're going to change, you're going to look at problems differently.
01:28:47:08 - 01:29:11:00
Speaker 1
You may not look at God as as Santa Claus. As you told fans, you may see different things. You may not. I don't mean to put anything on you. I don't think one experience, once again, is the formula to this is how things go. What I do think is by having some experiences that are seasons of life, like they change the way you will look at the world, you may start to notice different things.
01:29:11:02 - 01:29:18:03
Speaker 1
So while you're sitting in this coffee shop and while you're meeting these women,
01:29:18:05 - 01:29:47:16
Speaker 1
That believe in God. It's interesting because I married a woman who believed in, and at least Judeo Christian values. She's devout Christian, devout Catholic. And yet I told her I just I'm not interested if if somebody loves you and believes in God. Then they should believe God has a plan for you. And maybe it just isn't your time yet.
01:29:47:18 - 01:30:05:15
Speaker 1
I don't know why that is. I have no idea. I can't see the design of what's going on. And yet here I said, oh come on man, I made a lot of stupid choices. So I'm not saying it's like, I guess what I'm saying is, I don't think it should be a deal breaker that you're saying what you're saying.
01:30:05:15 - 01:30:32:00
Speaker 1
And a woman goes, I can, can't marry you. You don't believe in God. I'm like, well, chances are you dodged a bullet, right? Because where you sit, you're pretty open to listening to people and hearing different ideas and wrestling with things. And as life goes on, I think, you know, I could be wrong on this. You're going to adjust how you see things, and if that's the case, then those women should be all about it, because then they should see you.
01:30:32:00 - 01:31:17:21
Speaker 1
Oh, if I if God truly is, you know, real, he has a plan for us. Maybe, you know, and you can go down this road. I feel like I'm a preacher right now.
01:31:17:24 - 01:31:38:26
Speaker 1
But no thanks for having me on track. Hopefully I didn't ramble too much. People have to forgive me. I sit in the the, the the host chair all the time. So when you ask, I'm finding I'm becoming more opinionated as the day goes by. And I don't know if that's a healthy thing or not, but, regardless, I would love to hear what your audience says.
01:31:38:26 - 01:31:45:01
Speaker 1
They can call me crazy. It's it's quite all right.
01:31:45:04 - 01:31:57:23
Speaker 1
Yeah. Sean Newman podcast Twitter X or sorry ex Facebook. Instagram, YouTube Rumble. Apple Spotify. Yeah. Come find me. Thanks for having me, Jack.