And Sometimes Why? with Rob Szabo

01/12/2021

TODAY on ASWpod Ep #64: Mako Funasaka!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: https://bit.ly/asw_64
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Mako Funasaka is passionate about interviewing musicians. He hosts the Talkin' Blues Podcast & hosted the TV show and has been documenting music since 2001. He explains his goal of reaching 300 episodes with Talkin’ Blues and extols the virtues of self imposed deadlines. We talk about his reticence to include himself as part of his video interviews and he describes the experience of initially hearing himself speaking on his podcast as “torturous”. He shares the “life-changing” experience of his first time interviewing a musician and explains how connecting with people through long form podcast conversations is what drives him.

17/11/2021

TODAY on ASWpod Ep #63: Bob Barlen!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: https://bit.ly/asw_63
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Bob Barlen is the writer of PAW Patrol: The Movie, Bigfoot Family and Escape From Planet Earth among many others. We dig into his life writing movies and talk about the huge success of PAW Patrol. We also talk about his time working on the George Stroumboulopoulos show and his love of magic. He shares insights about the benefits of having a writing partner and the importance of working without ego.

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03/11/2021

TODAY on ASW Ep #62: Christine Bird!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: https://bit.ly/asw_62
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Christine Bird is the Community Engagement Coordinator at the University Of Waterloo School Of Pharmacy. She describes her role helping students think about better serving vulnerable populations and shares challenges working from home over the lock-downs. She talks about how she became known as “the bully lady” when she was speaking to grade-school kids in her work for John Howard Society and we touch on her work with people who’d been convicted of DUI and strategies around alcohol. She shares the challenge of her experience of being a college professor with a 2 year old at home and how her roles have organically evolved from working to improve kid’s lives directly to more of a systems level. She reminisces about playing music with the late Matt Osborne and talks about losing her husband and how having a young son at home at that time was an incredible gift.

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20/10/2021

TODAY on ASW Ep #61: Timothy Abraham!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: https://bit.ly/asw_61
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Timothy Abraham is a Juno winning producer, engineer, mixer and composer. We dig into his creative process and the meditation-like alpha wave brain state he gets into when working on a mix. He stresses the importance of setting up plugin chain templates and workflows that allow him to work fast and stay in this purely creative zone and how, as a mixer, one of your most valuable tools is the mute button. We talk about the confidence it takes to stay open to other people’s ideas, listening to your inner voice and the importance of communication between artist and mixer. He details how the process of having to rebuild his studio 3 times within a five year span has been resilience building and he also shares insights he’s gained through self reflection in the past few years.

(Secret Door Recording Company)

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06/10/2021

TODAY on ASW Ep #60: Caroline Marie Brooks!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: https://bit.ly/asw_60
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Caroline Marie Brooks is a singer songwriter and 1/3 of the Juno-winning band Good Lovelies. We dig into her life in music and her fantastic new solo album Everything At The Same Time. She describes how she’s been wanting to make a record of very personal music for a long time and that making this album was in a way an act of self-care. We talk about her life with Good Lovelies and how she sees her doing a solo album as being “lifted by”, as opposed to “stepping out from”. She also looks back on her experience touring as a new mother and describes how touring with a young baby can be extremely taxing but also gratifying. We nerd out about guitar playing and alternate tunings which she explains was her father’s influence. She reflects on insights she’s gained in her 40th year and how they've informed her new album.

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15/09/2021

TODAY on ASW Ep #59: Mike T. Kerr!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: https://bit.ly/asw_59
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Mike T. Kerr is a world-class guitar player going through a creative renaissance. We track the evolution of his creative spike from early lock-down inability to finish any project, to releasing an album per month in 2021. He shares some ups and downs as a gigging musician, the “aha moment” he had around being able to optimize creative input and output simultaneously and he schools us on some of the history of guitar playing as he plays on his newly beloved tenor guitar. We nerd out about how we both thrive on relationships that are hyper-focused on specific areas of life but ultimately illuminate what matters most, the importance of the book “The War of Art” and the idea of overcoming artistic resistance. Mike also explains the inevitability of the path he’s currently following.

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01/09/2021

TODAY on ASW Ep #58: Alicia Comer!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: https://bit.ly/asw_58
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Alicia Comer is an executive assistant supporting C-suite executives, and has been for over 10 years. We dig into her work life as an EA and she emphasizes the importance of multitasking and staying flexible amidst the constant changes and interruptions. She shares tips on getting things done, dealing with difficult personalities, and explains the importance of building morale and keeping teams happy. We also dig into the evolution of her work life: from working 40 hr weeks at 2 jobs while still in high-school, to leaving her tiny hometown of Westville, NS at 19 years old to forge out on her own in Edmonton and later Toronto. She also talks about her thinking around college or university diplomas not being the be all and end all.

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18/08/2021

TODAY on ASW Ep #57: Christa Couture!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: https://bit.ly/asw_57
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Christa Couture is an award-winning performing and recording artist, non-fiction writer, and broadcaster. We dig into her new book "How To Lose Everything"(Douglas & McIntyre) a self-described "grief bio" which she describes in point-form as "cancer, amputation, death, death, divorce and more cancer". She shares her life’s losses from having her leg amputated as a cure for her cancer as a teen to losing 2 sons as babies to her divorce to her 2nd episode of cancer. We discuss the need for our culture to normalize differences among people in terms of disability & neurodivergence. We also talk about coming to terms with the idea that sometimes finding meaning in suffering and loss can be elusive and she explains her thinking around shaping her life experience into a book that could be shared.

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04/08/2021

TODAY on ASW Ep #56: Andrew Katz!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: https://bit.ly/asw_56
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Andrew Katz is an English and creative writing teacher at Dawson College and the author of several children's books including: How To Catch A Bear Who Loves To Read, I Just Want To Be Super! and the upcoming A Starlit Trip to the Library. He shares the joy he experiences in the process of finding just the right word and muses about humans' metaphorical minds. We discuss how his experience of remote teaching during COVID lifted a curtain for him on the inequality among his students and explains how he tweaked his teaching approach to take into account his students' needs.

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07/07/2021

TODAY on ASW Ep #54: SATE!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: https://bit.ly/asw_54
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SATE is an internationally acclaimed recording artist and songwriter. We dig into her musical history and bond over our shared love of Black Sabbath, Fishbone & Living Colour. We re-live our first meeting and the song that came out of it and she talks about her role in the COVID-postponed Scott Joplin opera Treemonisha featuring a predominantly black female team and ensemble. We also dig into her family roots: both her parents made enormous contributions to black culture in Toronto. She shares her need to balance her intense pride and loyalty to her parents accomplishments with the need to assert herself as an individual. We talk about the journey to make her new album “The Fool”, feeling and making music through her body, and coming to a place of self-acceptance.

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16/06/2021

TODAY on ASW Ep #53: Brad Freiheit!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: http://bit.ly/asw_53
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Brad Freiheit is a luthier who builds the most exquisite stringed instruments. We talk about how his humble beginnings ripping apart his first Kent guitar in grade nine led to the genesis of Freiheit guitars and he explains how the skills he refined working as a pattern maker in a foundry brought his guitar building to a new level. We dig into his musical history and he tells stories from playing the circuit in Southern Ontario and he shares how his fanatical devotion to perfection in his guitar building is an extension of his take on life.

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02/06/2021

TODAY on ASW Ep #52: Stacey Cooper!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: http://bit.ly/asw_52
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Stacey Cooper is the Town Clerk and Deputy CAO for the Town of Penetanguishene. We dig into her role in local government and her commitment to roots level democracy. She shares her excitement for the first Climate Solutions Park in Canada, to be built in the Ecology Garden in Penetanguishene and she details the Community Well Being Committee initiative which brings together representatives from previously siloed councils. She also emphasizes the importance of relationship building, listening, and making people feel heard and authentically represented.

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19/05/2021

TODAY on ASW Ep #51: Pat Lackenbauer!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: http://bit.ly/asw_51
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Pat Lackenbauer is a man of many passions: podcast host, visual artist, lifelong salesman, zine publisher & indie music label head. We talk about his “Movin’ Air” podcast and Rob fesses up to freaking out and bailing as a guest. We dig into his life as a salesman, positivity & confidence, and hash out our differing views on the law of attraction. We also chat about sharing inspiration through our friendship, his visual art, his zine “The Wandering Artoholic” and his “Breeding Ground” compilation that played a pivotal role in nurturing the early 90s KW music scene.

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05/05/2021

TODAY on ASW Ep #50: booleep!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: http://bit.ly/asw_50
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Nicole Palmquist (a.k.a. booleep) is a visual artist who works in many mediums: she does murals, she draws on paper, she paints people’s bodies and she is the studio manager at JSA Studios. She shares the roots of her fascination with anatomy (working with the REAL body parts of cadavers!) and describes the process of using other people’s bodies as a canvas in her body painting work. She also shares the magic of living in L.A., taking part in the art scene, getting to work with pioneers in comic art and TV and film including attending halloween parties with a crowd of film SFX people. She shares insights about her “fear of words” and perfectionist tendencies that slowed her down at points and emphasizes the importance of staying open to opportunities.

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21/04/2021

TODAY on ASW Ep #49: Brad Marshall!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: http://bit.ly/asw_49
APPLE PODCASTS: http://bit.ly/ASW_49AP

Brad Marshall is a true iconoclast. He’s a mainstay behind the scenes in the KW music scene and he is a tech pioneer and newly minted ice-road trucker. We dig into his history in music including time with reggae band Crucial Vibes and our time together in KW music in the early 90s. Brad shares regrets over being very early to the streaming game but not capitalizing on opportunities and also shares his recent victories in his weight loss journey: losing over 100 lbs in the past year. I praise Brad for being one of the only true rebels I’ve ever met as he breaks the 4th wall with the audience and marvels that anyone would listen to our private conversation for entertainment. He details his experience driving 18 wheelers on ice roads delivering supplies to the Northwest Territories’ Gahcho Kue Mine and articulates why he continually chooses to live his life outside of his comfort zone.

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07/04/2021

TODAY on ASW Ep #47: Jen Ochej!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: http://bit.ly/asw_48
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Jen Ochej is a tour manager for touring music artists including Lights, Jessie Reyez and Good Lovelies. She gives us a behind the scenes peek at her tour experience from van tours in clubs to festivals & amphitheaters. We talk about how she got her start tour managing, the power of persistence and how she deals with unforeseens by planning meticulously knowing that nothing will go according to plan. She tells tales of waking up on a broken down tour bus stranded in the Rocky Mountains half an hour before soundcheck hours away, finding fill-in musicians with less than 24 hrs notice and flagging down the headlining act's tour bus to escape a California wildfire on a day off. She also shares tour hacks like day-off lone Target trips and the importance of green room snacks.

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17/03/2021

TODAY on ASW Ep #47: Jeff Bryant!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: http://bit.ly/asw_47
APPLE PODCASTS: http://bit.ly/ASW_47AP

Jeff Bryant is a musician, actor and standup comic. He is formerly one half of the folk-pop duo the Human Statues and is now forging out on his own as a solo singer-songwriter. We chat about gaining wisdom around achievement as we get older and letting go of externally imposed ideas of success. He shares experiences of heartbreak and a health crisis that added up to a “now or never” moment in his life. We also dig into ideas around letting go of certainty of outcomes and how that plays into stage fright and how some musicians look down their nose at playing covers. (Jeff reminds us The Beatles started as a cover band.) He also gives us a behind-the-shades view of his experience being an actual human statue and shares his daily journaling practice that focuses on hope.

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03/03/2021

TODAY on ASW Ep #46: Samantha Martin!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: http://bit.ly/asw_46
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Samantha Martin is a Juno-nominated songwriter and singer with a voice of unmistakable texture and power. We talk about her new album with her band Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar "The Reckless One" and the trials and tribulations that informed the songs including a grueling few years of touring that put an immense amount of stress on her and caused her to “almost mentally breakdown”. She gives advice on making tours work financially, the upsides of European touring including trying local cuisine like Swedish horse sausage and how chasing the live music high is like an addiction.

"It’s not the other 23 hours in the day, it’s that one hour on stage. It’s powerful, it’s moving, it fills my soul. Connecting with an audience is magical. Live music is magical. I think it’s also an addiction if I’m gonna be completely honest. Because it’s a high. You just chase it ’til you either get that high again or you surpass it. The first time I played a festival we were the ‘tweener. It was so exciting and my Dad’s right down in front of me and he’s crying tears of proud joy. He’s like “Sam, you did it, you made it”. Because of that then I pushed myself ‘I need to do that again’, but instead of being a ‘tweener, I want to be the band. So then I get that. So the next thing I wanna do is I want to tour. Then you do the tour. It just keeps sn*******ng. I’ve done a lot in the last 15 years but you know what I haven’t done? I haven’t played on a stadium stage. I’d like to do that one day. I’ve never played Letterman or SNL or whatever. I’d love to do that. I’ve never done the Super Bowl … “

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17/02/2021

TODAY on ASW Ep #45: David McPherson!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: http://bit.ly/asw-45
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David McPherson is an author & freelance writer. His writing has appeared in countless publications including: the Globe & Mail, No Depression & Paste. His 2017 book is The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern: A Complete History and the follow-up, scheduled for 2021 release, is Massey Hall: An Enduring Legacy. We talk about high points in his life as a music fan and writer, the magic of the legendary dive bar The 'Shoe, and why he quit drinking 5 years ago. He also explains why he's grateful to have writing as a creative outlet.

“For me writing is something I need for my own mental health. It’s very therapeutic for me. But it is precarious in terms of a career. It’s not something that’s stable, especially these days as a journalist. More and more publications are going under. There’s not as many opportunities or places where you can get your writing out there. But it is a labour of love, that’s why I’m writing another book. I’m very lucky that I have a supportive wife who has always been there and supported my career as a writer. It’s what I know, what I’m good at and … at this point you just have to have faith and keep writing. Things will kinda fall into place. At least that’s what I’ve found. And that’s something this pandemic had shown us. The cliche I live by is “One Day At A Time” ‘cause, especially now, we don’t know what tomorrow’s gonna bring. So I might as well spend my time writing and doing something I’m passionate about. I spent enough years in corporate jobs where I was unhappy and it took its toll on my mental health so, I’m in a good place right now. I don’t know what else I’d do if I wasn’t a writer.”

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03/02/2021

TODAY on ASW Ep #44: Cara Luft!!!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: http://bit.ly/ASW_EP44
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Cara Luft is a folk warrior who’s been living and breathing music for over 25 years. She’s a solo artist, founding member of the Wailin’ Jennys and one-half of The Small Glories. We reminisce about meeting 20+ years ago, nerd out about guitar playing and discuss why Winnipeg is such an arts hub. I gush about how much I love The Small Glories and badger Cara about their version of her song “No Friend Of Mine”. We talk about her various musical incarnations, how she was burning out as a solo touring artist - essentially living on the road for the last 8 years, and how she has found a renewed sense of artistic purpose, presence and connection with The Small Glories. (Oh yeah … and we also talk about her mystical purple tiny home on wheels.)

“We have a job that really isn’t about us. It’s about the moment in time that we have with people. How do you create something that’s gonna last and that’s also going to offer some solace, some respite, some hope, all the things that we as humans need, but particularly now. This moment with them is really what it’s all about. It’s about something that goes deeper than ourselves, whether you are a spiritual person or not. But there’s something that’s divine about it, something that’s sacred, something that hits the deepest core of our beings when we forget about ourselves on stage and we’re just in this with these other people.”

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20/01/2021

TODAY on ASW Ep #43: Mike Miller a.k.a Endless Mike!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: https://bit.ly/ASW_EP43
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Mike Miller is the songwriter and leader of Endless Mike and the Beagle Club. He’s a social worker, husband & father of 2 boys. We discuss his outlook on American politics at this pivotal time in history. Mike explains how he doesn’t see his music as activism(even though Rob kinda does) and he laments the increased political polarization in America. Mike & Rob also deconstruct Rob’s song “The Johnstown Kids” 15 years after the fact and Mike fondly remember the heyday of the Johnstown, PA D.I.Y. music scene of the early 2000s.

“The Johnstown scene was just kids man. There were no grown ups … at all. We didn’t play at bars. We just rented out fire-halls and community buildings. And we’d rent one until, y’know, a couple times in a row somebody kicking holes in the wall or breaking the sink in the bathroom or whatever. We’d get kicked out or they would up the price. ‘Cause like 300-400 kids would come to these shows. It was so awesome. So it was like “Ok, alright, it’s just money.” The promoters never kept money. They never pocketed the money, ever … a penny of it. And if you found out that they were, you’d never go to one of their shows again. They’d get dragged for it man. ‘Cause it was just like militantly ethics when it came to that D.I.Y. punk rock thing. There weren’t that many straight down the middle punk rock bands. All the bands sounded a little different. But there was like a feel and a sound that everybody kinda sounded like, or at least the same kinda feeling and all the bands were like best friends and knew the words to all of each other’s songs.”

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06/01/2021

TODAY on ASW Ep #42: Deanna Knight Music!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: http://bit.ly/ASW_EP42
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Deanna Knight is a singer, songwriter and fronts The Hot Club Of Mars. We chat about her evolution from her roots in choir and musical theatre through Grateful Dead influenced jam band the Fat Cats into Django styled hot jazz. We talk about her experience doing singing telegrams & the serendipitous events that moved her life from her native Ontario to running a B & B on BC’s Sunshine Coast.

“If you have gifts as a young person, it’s important to listen to that. And as hard as it is to be in an industry where you’re a product. It’s not like a painter right? Oh I’m gonna paint something and it’s gonna go away to somebody’s house. I’m gonna be something for people. And I’m gonna get onstage and I’m gonna be that over and over for them. And I’ve really struggled with that. Now I’ve come to a place where I feel safe. I feel safe and I feel settled.”

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16/12/2020

TODAY on ASW Ep #41: Holiday Episode (Steve Strongman / Emma Julien)!!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: https://bit.ly/ASW_EP41
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This 2020 Holiday Show features 2 guests(!):

Steve Strongman is a Juno-winning blues guitar wizard and my 30-year musical brother. We chat about his life over the past year now that touring is off the table. We also give the low down on our upcoming VIRTUAL ACOUSTIC Holiday Show.

Emma Julien is the #1 most-listened to guest thus far on ASW. We talk about how that is a recognition of Emma and her magnetism and charisma as a person and conversationalist and also for the original concept of ASW which was having meaningful conversations with "regular" people. Emma & Rob also pay tribute to their mutual friend and inspiration Donna Delorme

‎Show And Sometimes ... Why? with Rob Szabo, Ep #41: 2020 Holiday Episode (Steve Strongman/Emma Julien) - Dec 16, 2020

02/12/2020

TODAY on ASW Ep #40: Sabina Singwell!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: https://and-sometimes-why-with-rob-szabo.simplecast.com/episodes/40-sabina-singwell
APPLE PODCASTS: https://bit.ly/ASW_40AP

Sabina Singwell is a writer, social scientist and creatrix of the School Of Bitchcraft. She helps her clients “who are trapped in weight loss hell” achieve a healthy relationship with their bodies & food. We talk about the word “bitch”, Feminism & The Patriarchy. She describes her disillusionment with academia after getting her PHD in Political Science and shares insights on disordered eating, meaning-making & choosing new narratives for one’s body. She also relates how she took her husband’s surname 14 years after getting married despite what her twenty-something self may have thought.

“I could not conceive of any logic for why a woman would change her name when she got married. Fourteen years later … (I took my husband’s last name). For me, what it was about ultimately: I had an extremely chaotic childhood. When I quit trying to manipulate my body and I was able to learn how to deeply trust my body, I found this deep well of self-trust. And when I connected so deeply with that self trust, I realized all the s**t that I went through in my childhood didn’t leave me a broken person. I am a deeply whole (and deeply flawed) person, but there is nothing wrong with me. And when I realized that, and I absolutely never would have gotten there if I hadn’t also given up chronic dieting, I wanted a symbol of how much I had divested myself from beliefs I had about myself as a result of my childhood. And because of the loving family that I had made with my husband and my daughter, the love that we have really also contributed to my transformation, that’s when I decided that I was also gonna take the same last name as my husband and my daughter because I got so much more love from the family unit that we created than I had ever experienced in my birth family.”

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‎Show And Sometimes ... Why? with Rob Szabo, Ep #40: Sabina Singwell - Dec 2, 2020

18/11/2020

TODAY on ASW Ep #39: Bidini!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: http://bit.ly/ASW_EP39
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Dave Bidini is a founding member of The Rheostatics, an author of 12 books, and Editor in Chief of Toronto’s community newspaper The West End Phoenix. He is the only person to have been nominated for a Gemini, Genie and Juno as well CBC's Canada Reads. We talk about his brainchild The West End Phoenix and he highlights the importance of having an analogue hard copy paper that has a local focus in the 21st-century. We discuss documenting Toronto as a changing city and how people are leaving the city as priorities change & prices rise. We also dig into his music and songwriting with The Rheostatics and touch on how the notion of “selling out” has all but evaporated in the modern artistic landscape.

“Anytime you give anybody a voice, whether you’re making records, or whether you’re publishing books, or whether you’re staging a play, if your voice is being amplified, that’s a political act. ‘Cause I think we live in a time now where, if people had their druthers, they’d want those voices suppressed. And as Canadians too, we’re not always that comfortable raising our voices to be heard, but it’s getting a lot better and The (West End) Phoenix is an expression of that I think.”

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04/11/2020

TODAY on ASW Ep #38: Roger Travassos!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: http://bit.ly/ASW_EP38
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Roger Travassos (Roger Travassos Real Estate) is a real estate agent who started his career after over 20 years as a session drummer. We talk about his experience as a drummer for hire with international touring acts and how he overcame adversity and imposter syndrome on the “Chitlin’ Circuit” with Motown artist Remy Shand. He describes how his life changed when he adopted his daughter, his early days in real estate and how he learned that “you get what you bring to the door” while knocking on over 100 doors/day. He also shares personal growth work that allowed him to see the suffering of the person who killed his mother when he was 18 and gave him the willingness to forgive.

“One of the things in my past most listeners wouldn’t know is: when I was 18 years old I lost my mother to some really unfortunate circumstances. Someone walked into her workplace and took 3 lives, one of them being my mother’s. My experience of life after that was always that I was irritated. I had a chip on my shoulder. Really in a lot of ways I was kind of playing a victim. One thing that really changed my life is I did the Landmark Forum and I learned how to make my mother present in my life again. And I also started to understand that it’s possible for me to have a willingness to forgive someone for something that they did. And I found that people don’t do things in life just because they want to be mean. That’s how life occurs to them in the moment. I had a feeling like someone was out to really intentionally hurt me or my mother. But I actually started to see that someone was actually suffering. That’s why they did what they did. And that in itself has like a tragedy that allowed me to have a willingness to forgive.”

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21/10/2020

TODAY on ASW Ep #37: Alysha Brilla!

LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE HERE: http://bit.ly/ASW_EP37
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Alysha Brilla is a 3X Juno Award nominated artist & music producer who’s been singing since she was 3 years old. She describes how music has been therapy & comfort for her throughout her life, her experience as a young teen with the sometimes predatory & exploitative nature of the music business, and how she cares less whether people “get her” as she gets older. She also shares her profound conviction that music does have the capacity to change the world and explains how she encourages students at her workshops to notice the interconnectedness of seemingly disparate things in our world.

“Even though we give courses certain titles and we segment fields of study … everything truly is connected. If they’re studying audio engineering, it’s gonna relate back to childhood. Things DO connect. You can find highways between them. The way my brain works and when I was a kid and when I’m learning something … let’s say I’m learning something about audio engineering, I’ll think, ‘Oh, that’s just like an ocean wave.’ And as a kid, y’know, kids always say that all the time: ‘Is that like this?’ I love when people acknowledge and affirm the connections that their brains are making between things. So it’s not just me teaching the software or the techniques that I am able to share information on, it’s [that] I want to encourage them to just keep learning, be curious, and enjoy the process of learning.”

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