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Transcript

Heavyweight Short: A Canadian Tale · Heavyweight

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Heavyweight host Jonathan Goldstein.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Producer Khalila Holt.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I have.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: What some people are referring to around the water cooler
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: here at Gimblet Media as possibly the most Canadian story
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: ever told.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: If you're talking to around the water cooler, the office
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: isn't even open.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: It's a metaphor.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Okay, some of these are just imaginary, you know what.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: I'm surprised to hear this. I never knew that you
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: were such a literalist. I'm taking a flight of fancy.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: Will you join me?
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Sure? Trade tables not.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: You know, we receive a lot of emails. Yes, people
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: reach out and they want help with problems that they have.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: And recently we got this email that was so random
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: and obscure that normally I'd be like, there's nothing I
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: could do to help. But just by complete coincidence, I
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: know the one person who could actually help this guy,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: and I am talking about my friend James. So the
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: first thing that I had to do was call up
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: James and ask for a favor. Boo hi, and we
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: will get to that story right after the break.
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: Psych boom, Hello, oh.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: I heard Wait one second, look at that.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: I suppose you're wondering why I've invited you to this conversation.
• 1:50
  Speaker 5: I keep I was wondering if it's going to be
• 1:53
  Speaker 5: some sort of intervention. But but I'm I'm assuming not.
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: No.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: I so I received emails to the show where people
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: are looking for help. Yes, the thing that I am
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: looking for from you is a connection that you have.
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: I hope it's not Drake because I don't know how
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: to touch with it.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Knew you were going to think it was Drake, and
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: that was part of my strategy because then when you'd
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: hear that it wasn't Drake, you'd be ready to give
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: me anything. All right, since we're bringing Since we're bringing
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: up Drake, why don't you go ahead and explain your
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: connection to Drake?
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: Oh?
• 2:25
  Speaker 5: Yeah, So I worked on a TV show called Degrassi
• 2:28
  Speaker 5: The Next Generation where he started out.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: He's a child actor, right, Canadian child actor.
• 2:35
  Speaker 5: Canadian child actor, and he did the first rap that
• 2:39
  Speaker 5: he did on camera. Anyways, this one that I wrote,
• 2:41
  Speaker 5: it is very bad. It was just a few lines.
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: Do you can you spit?
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Can you spit some rhymes?
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: I can, but I won't.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Oh come on, no, how about one line?
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: One line?
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: You don't even have to wrap it you could just
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: speak it like poetry.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Be so embarrassing, one.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Line which you speak in a non wrapping Hayden's.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: So, why did you have to go?
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: Okay, now, now you've got me looking it up. I
• 3:06
  Speaker 5: typed in Drake and the first thing I got was
• 3:08
  Speaker 5: Drake and kadye beef. They do have beef apparently. Here
• 3:13
  Speaker 5: it is Tracy, Jimmy and Spinner's wrap.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: It's on YouTube, Oh very much.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: So yes you can hear it. Oh my goodness, this
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: is so persing. Okay, here we go, Sure, here we go.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: Oh this isn't it. Hold on, we're not forgetting it.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we have the ammo, my friend, we have the ammo.
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: The Brooks.
• 3:45
  Speaker 6: Homie is a player and that is all. So why'd
• 3:48
  Speaker 6: you have to.
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: Go and kick his ball? And Chaine ain't that name?
• 3:52
  Speaker 6: Because you would play at Hayden and that's a shame.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, why did you make me do that?
• 4:03
  Speaker 6: Gat?
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: So, No, I'm not asking.
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: I wouldn't.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't ask you to reach out to Drake.
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: It probably wouldn't work.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: But I was going to say it's a smaller ask,
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: but in a way, he might be bigger than Drake
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: at one time, let's say he was bigger than Drake.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Is this Kevin Smith, because they won't even get into
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: the Kevin Smith. Though this is someone who knows your name.
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: I have no idea who this could be.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: All right, why don't I read you the email that
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: I received? And as I read it it might dawn
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: on you.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: Okay, So it's.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: From a guy named Adam en Wright. I've had a
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: problem for many years, and it's the fact that people
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: don't believe I met Fidel Castro. And then and then
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: he goes on to say that Castro was in Montreal
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: for Pierre Elliott Trudeau's funeral and he saw him in
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Old Montreal with former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: I think I know where this is going.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Okay, well let me get there. Here we go, let's
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: see if you're right. So at a certain point, Paul
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Martin exited a restaurant, and a few minutes later, so
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: did Castro, who got into a limousine with no bodyguards.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: And it all happened too quickly for Adam to snap
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: a picture with a camera or to you know, try
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: to shake his hand, so he just he ended up
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: just saying shouting out Viva la revolution one. But he
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: describes this stunning moment where he felt just frozen in time.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: But then in the days and years afterwards, nobody he
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: tells the story to believes it. So Adam is turning
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: to me to somehow prove that he met Fidel Castro.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: So now you know WHYPI So now you know why
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: I am getting in touch with you. Yeah, you know
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: former prime minister, former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: I know him very tangentially. No, he would just know
• 6:09
  Speaker 5: me as one of his son's friends.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: Your friend, Jamie, you are friends, actual friends with the
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: son of a prime minister.
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: For our American listeners say prime minister is like the
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: is like the Canadian president.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: He is indeed.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Yes, So if I could get to Paul Martin and
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: ask if he had dinner with Fidel Castro on the
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: day of Trudeau's funeral, that would basically come about as
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: close as anything else to proving that Adam had indeed
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: seen Castro that day, right, I think?
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: So, I can't get much better than that. You could,
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: you could basically place him there.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: So how would you feel about calling up Jamie and
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: asking if he could ask his dad.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely absolutely, let's do it. So here we go.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: All right, you all set, Here we go. I'm we're
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: gonna call it. We're gonna burn this bridge.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: Hey de man, Hi buddy, how's it going?
• 7:17
  Speaker 6: Dough boy? Are you going to be a sea? If
• 7:20
  Speaker 6: seeing with us tomorrow.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: I proved that Fidel Castro had dinner with your father,
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: then that would go away to legitimize this guy's claim
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: of having run into him.
• 7:41
  Speaker 6: The man is now eighty three years old.
• 7:43
  Speaker 7: But I can ask my dad and I can see
• 7:49
  Speaker 7: what he remembers.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: You're you're not You're not bubbling together right now for
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: COVID are you You're not You're not all staying in
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: the same residence or anything.
• 8:00
  Speaker 6: No, we are exactly Actually he's just downstairs.
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: Oh we are.
• 8:04
  Speaker 6: We are doing exactly that. We are bubbling together. We
• 8:07
  Speaker 6: have been for two months.
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: So you could you could I can.
• 8:10
  Speaker 6: Ask him in in twenty seconds.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like you could theoretically just walk downstairs with me
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: on the phone and say, hey, Dad, does this spring
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: a bell?
• 8:22
  Speaker 6: Let me you know one, let me try to do it.
• 8:24
  Speaker 6: I'm going downstairs.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: I'm going downstairs, all right, great.
• 8:29
  Speaker 6: Let's see.
• 8:33
  Speaker 7: Okay, Oh, hey Dad, do you remember after the funeral
• 8:42
  Speaker 7: of Pierre Elliott Trudeau meeting up with Fidel Castro?
• 8:48
  Speaker 6: Okay, more specific.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: Jonathan, they would have had dinner at a restaurant in
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Old Montreal.
• 8:56
  Speaker 8: Do you remember having dinner in Old Montreal and Fidel
• 9:01
  Speaker 8: Castro was there?
• 9:03
  Speaker 6: The only thing I remember.
• 9:09
  Speaker 8: This is a friend of mine who's doing a podcast.
• 9:12
  Speaker 8: This is not some kind of gotcha anything like this.
• 9:15
  Speaker 8: Would you be willing to answer his questions about twenty
• 9:21
  Speaker 8: five years ago?
• 9:23
  Speaker 6: You can talk to the man himself.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: Sure, here it is, hello, mister Martin.
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: Hi, Hi are you?
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: I'm good?
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for talking to me. This is
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: such a strange request. I don't know if Jamie explained
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: to you the podcast that I do. Okay, I do
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: this podcast where people write into me with some you know,
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: question or curiosity. Do you have any memory of having
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: had dinner with with Fidel Castro.
• 10:02
  Speaker 9: The only thing I can remember about about the Trudeau
• 10:08
  Speaker 9: funeral was I remember justin speaking over the coffin in
• 10:18
  Speaker 9: the church. Yeah, that's the only thing I can remember.
• 10:22
  Speaker 9: I can't remember really what I did before, and I
• 10:26
  Speaker 9: have no idea where I ate or what I did.
• 10:29
  Speaker 9: Now Here's the probably Jamie will tell you this. There
• 10:35
  Speaker 9: are a lot of things that I might have done
• 10:39
  Speaker 9: twenty five years ago that I I just don't remember
• 10:44
  Speaker 9: that I might have done.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: Do you think that it's just that you know, you've
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: you've met so many important people over your life that
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: Fidel Castro doesn't stand out.
• 10:56
  Speaker 9: Or it's conceivable that if I had met Fidel Castro
• 11:00
  Speaker 9: that I would not remember it, because you meet a
• 11:02
  Speaker 9: lot of people. If, on the other hand, if I
• 11:07
  Speaker 9: had said supper with Fidel Castro, then there's a at least.
• 11:14
  Speaker 6: A fifty to fifty chance I would remember it.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: I wonder if you don't remember because you just it
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: didn't happen, or you don't remember just because you'd you know,
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: you just don't remember a lot of this stuff that
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: happened so long ago.
• 11:29
  Speaker 9: Well, I think I suspect I suspect it I don't
• 11:33
  Speaker 9: remember because it didn't happen, Huh.
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: I think if I.
• 11:37
  Speaker 9: Would have had a one on one with Castro, I
• 11:39
  Speaker 9: would remember that. I think if if I'd been at
• 11:42
  Speaker 9: a dinner where Castro was listen, I've been I hate
• 11:46
  Speaker 9: to say it this way, but I've been at so
• 11:47
  Speaker 9: many of those dinners where so many people renown are
• 11:51
  Speaker 9: that they don't stick.
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: Huh.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: Do the meetings with people of you know, renown, like
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: famous politics and such, do they have a longer shelf
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: life than the memories than the intimate memories, you know,
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: memories of like your your your kids and stuff like that.
• 12:08
  Speaker 9: No, no, no, not at all. And I suspect that
• 12:13
  Speaker 9: if you reflect on this conversation and twenty five years
• 12:18
  Speaker 9: from now, what you remember is the event, not in
• 12:23
  Speaker 9: the significance of the event in terms of a historic thing, but.
• 12:31
  Speaker 6: As opposed to the people.
• 12:32
  Speaker 9: So that you know, if.
• 12:34
  Speaker 6: I met.
• 12:37
  Speaker 9: If I met somebody at a rocket launch, it's conceivable
• 12:41
  Speaker 9: I would remember the rocket launch and I would not
• 12:44
  Speaker 9: remember the people that were there. Be quite honest, I
• 12:49
  Speaker 9: do not remember meeting Vane Lchestra.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: Okay, that's that's uh, that's that is good enough. I
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: feel like I've traveled quite a ways to answer this
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: guy's question. I made it all the way. You and
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: uh and I and I promise you in twenty five
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: years I will remember our conversation.
• 13:08
  Speaker 9: Yeah, well, I promise you in twenty five years I
• 13:10
  Speaker 9: won't be here to confirm it.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: But are you hold Adam?
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: And right?
• 13:29
  Speaker 10: Yes, this is Jonathan.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: This is Jonathan Goldsteen speaking. That's incredible he recognized my voice.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Of course, I'm so touched.
• 13:45
  Speaker 10: That's incredible. Holdly man, I think you're gonna call.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: You're not crying, are you?
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: I'm just about yeah.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: Oh that's very sweet of you. H After after receiving
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: your email, I kind of I set to work on it. Okay,
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: So on my end, Okay, so what caught my eye
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: in your email? Was you mentioned Prime Minister Paul Martin.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I have.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: A friend who has a connection to Paul Martin's. I mean,
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: this is a long way to go to tell you
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: that I come bearing bad news. I wasn't able to
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: verify it from Paul Martley.
• 14:37
  Speaker 10: Yeah, it's fully understandable. Yeah, yeah, you know, maybe it
• 14:42
  Speaker 10: was a guy that looked a lot like Astro. Who
• 14:44
  Speaker 10: knows that I haven't even told anyone for years about
• 14:48
  Speaker 10: it actually, because you know, you just get that sort
• 14:51
  Speaker 10: of irol, you know, like because it's just you know,
• 14:53
  Speaker 10: it just you know, it just doesn't come off right.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: I'll tell you something else. Actually, when when I spoke
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: to Paul art and one of the things that he
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: said is that his memory of his kids. That is
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: more vivid to him and more easily accessible than you know,
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: his memory of statesman and famous people.
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: Right, that makes sense. You know.
• 15:16
  Speaker 10: I did web design for a few years and now
• 15:19
  Speaker 10: I've gone back to working with seniors and people will remember,
• 15:24
  Speaker 10: you know, things that don't reflect in the history books.
• 15:27
  Speaker 10: You know, people remember their husbands or wives and kids.
• 15:31
  Speaker 10: And do you have kids. I've got a little son, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: Have you ever told him this story about meeting Castro?
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: No?
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: But you think your son, right, like, your son would
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: believe you, right, You think that's what kids are for.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: They're so naive, they're so believing.
• 15:54
  Speaker 10: Yeah, well, you know I won't tell him.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well you have to explain to him who Castro
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: is first.
• 16:01
  Speaker 10: Yes, I would.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Hey, listen, you know I will say that. You know,
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: I believe you.
• 16:13
  Speaker 10: Thank you, yoke.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: Do you think that you're going to remember this conversation
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: that we're having now twenty five years from now. This
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: episode was produced by Stevie Lane, Khalila Holt, and me
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: Jonathan Goldstein. It was mixed by Catherine Anderson, with music
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: by Trebon's Blue Dot Sessions and Bobby Lord. Heavyweight returns
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: with a full new season on September thirtieth.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: We'll see you soon.