Jann is Handy AF

Jann Arden  0:07  
A gracious Good afternoon. It's jann Arden. Here. You're listening to the jann Arden podcast. I am still in Iceland for a second week of the show. Caitlin green and Sarah Burke are in Snowmageddon, and let me tell you what, when these things make the news in Iceland, you know, there's some stuff going on. And for some reason, people make the assumption that Iceland is got tons of snow. There's like, dog sleds running around everywhere, and igloos. And it's not, not that at all. But yeah, how are you guys doing? I've just been watching this and laughing. Adrienne Arsenault has posted some great stuff of the snow at her place. There's a lot of fucking snow.

Caitlin Green  0:47  
It's crazy. And for Toronto, too, especially, I mean, we really got, I think, the most snow per centimeter of anyone because of our lake effect snow. So I think that even for Ontario, we got hit inordinately hard. So yeah, we're under 60 centimeters. It's a lot, it's a lot of snow, and there's a lot of wind too. So the blowing snow creates snow banks. And I was saying this morning to Kyle that it creates the feeling that it's always snowing, because anytime that there's wind, it blows all the snow around. So you look outside and you go, Oh, it's snowing again. And you're like, No, it's just blowing around the like, 10 feet of snow we're living under. So this is the worst I've experienced since I lived in Halifax.

Jann Arden  1:24  
So what are people doing? Like, where? How are they driving? They're obviously plowing major routes. But anyone knows that living in like these little suburbs, they don't plow there. They concentrate on the main thoroughfares. They're going down Richmond and Queen and Bathurst, and they are clearing the 401, and they're doing the airport and all that stuff. But there's got to be people that have lost their cars. Oh, for sure,

Sarah Burke  1:50  
Dude, Where's My Car? I don't know if you found this in your neighborhood, Caitlin, but last year, when we got a big dump of snow, kind of around this time, maybe February, it took them three or four days to get to the sidewalks in my neighborhood, and this time, on the day of Snowmageddon, later in the day they were there, I feel like they learned from last winter.

Caitlin Green  2:09  
Yeah, and I think they're still trying to get a handle on the government contracts they have, because the City of Toronto has been roasted justifiably, for having some of the worst snow removal possible. And we get snow every year. I mean, that this was record since 2023 but in 2023 we had a really crazy year for snow. So yeah, we're not very good at it. In my neighborhood, they have not been very good at doing the sidewalks. It's pretty much been up to the homeowners. It's been up to business owners. It's been up to, like the condo corpse, to sort of take care of all that, and even, I will say, the actual roads that weren't the main street, like our street that we're on. You can see from our windows over to like a very Main Street in the east end of the city that got plowed right away, but then the second any car tried to make a left and turn onto our street, Kyle and I and will sat at our window watching the nicest people in the world try to help each other with their cars getting stuck in snow drifts. We saw a Beck taxi driver. I tried to get his license plate to call beck to compliment him. He dropped off a resident of our building who I know. This man, he has some mobility issues, and he tried to get him as close to the building as he could, like he was reversing his car and then driving as hard as he could into the snow drifts to get him closer. And finally he gave up, and he walked him all the way into the building through the heaviest snow part of the snowstorm. So it was like, it was cute, and it's so cute seeing dog walkers, like all the dog owners and the dog walkers just trying to fight to get their little dogs out for a pee. It was hysterical to

Sarah Burke  3:35  
watch. Oh my god, Stevie,

Unknown Speaker  3:38  
I can't even underneath the snow, and she's white,

Sarah Burke  3:41  
like, if she wasn't wearing her little dog hoodie or her dog jacket, she would be gone, and

Caitlin Green  3:46  
poppy would be in so much trouble if you guys were here. I feel

Sarah Burke  3:49  
like the one thing that's really funny to watch, like, through the lens of my dog's eyes, is she's normally very quick. Knows her spots where she wants to pee and poo in the neighborhood, or, like, right when we get outside, and she, like, stops when she gets out, looks around, looks back at me, like, not sure about this. And then it takes us so much longer to find a spot. And she's, you know, effectively finding a spot in the snow, going around in circles in it, until she can, like, pat it down and then peeing on it.

Jann Arden  4:19  
There's something that does invoke a lot of childhood memories. And I mean, I just remember the school obviously shutting down snow days are not so much a thing now, because they do have much better ways of, sort of mitigating snowfall, I guess better plows and everything. But if there was six inches of snow, eight inches of snow at Spring bank, Alberta, they wouldn't run the busses. Oh yeah, they just had, you know, you're picking up rural kids, you're going down long, skinny ass little gravel farm trails to pick kids up and and we just didn't do it. But I remember building snow forts in the ditch. And of course, it had to be sort of the right consistency, like that hard snow that you. Really could cut a circle with a knife. We took mums like butcher knives outside to cut through the snow, like we would cut snow blocks. So I think you had to deal with a certain amount of warm temperature to kind of compact it a bit, and then you just had these. It was almost like cutting Styrofoam. But that must invoke memories. For you guys, I just have so many fond memories of those big snowflakes still falling down, making snow forts that we would drag rugs into and and plastic glasses and we would, we would play in them until they literally melted out beneath us.

Caitlin Green  5:36  
Oh my gosh, yeah. And watching, I think it's sort of you have a renewed sense of that when you have a child and you're around children in a big snowstorm, and so will just loves it. I mean, where everyone else is doing whatever they can to avoid the big snow banks, to avoid walking through the snow with their shoes, he is heading for it if he is at a park. We've took him to the park yesterday. He because he had a snow day. It was a full snow day here, and the daycares tend to fall whatever the TDSB is doing. So he was home from daycare, and he was just running through piles of snow. He wants to climb everything. He loves the crunchy feel on his feet. He loves throwing snowballs. And one of our friends got him a little magnifying glass. It's not like magnifying glass, it's like more than that. It's like a digital one that you would use almost if you were, like, pretending to be a little scientist. And we took it out with us and put the snowflakes and so will you could actually see the shape of a tiny, teeny, tiny little snowflake and how perfectly shaped they are up close, like with the magnifying glass. And he was just so excited about it, so excited to take that out, to, like, look at ice on the trees. And it's actually quite a great little gift. So I mean, winter is cool, if you can hibernate inside, and you don't have to trudge through the snow if you're a nurse or, like, an ICU doctor, but those are the people who I feel really bad for when there's, like, logistical issues in a big city like Toronto, that

Sarah Burke  6:50  
kind of stinks. Yeah, if you can embrace it the snow pants and, you know, just get dressed up and get out there.

Jann Arden  6:55  
Yeah, it's gorgeous. No, it really is gorgeous. Let me ask you this, because I know there's science to this, but it's hauntingly quiet when it snows and when there's this much snow, and I just happen to have this in front of me, people obviously tend to stay home, so there's less traffic, there's less people walking around, so the whole vibe is multiplied just by the snow itself and then the lack of people out there. But there's some science behind the silence. And I just sort of pulled this up. Basically, snow absorbs sound and so when a fresh blanket of snow covers like everything, it absorbs sound waves, and it just seems quieter outside. So sound absorption is rated on a scale of zero to one, apparently, according to AccuWeather reports, and something with a sound absorption rate of point five absorbs 50% of the sound, which is a drastic drop. That's one of my favorite things about snowfall. Is the quiet. Where I live is quiet. You guys know that when it snows, it is so eerie that you know, you kind of strain to hear a bird singing or anything. I love it. I absolutely love it.

Sarah Burke  8:08  
It's great for podcasting. You could podcast outside with all this extra insulation. It's good,

Caitlin Green  8:13  
oh my gosh, that if someone had the equipment to do it and to, like, record like a video of you doing an outdoor podcast in the snow, that would be so fun. I would watch the heck out of that on YouTube. It is great because Toronto's loud. And, you know, even a park in Toronto, if you're in a residential area, can frequently still be kind of loud. So we definitely notice it. It's like everything gets a nice little blanket over it, and in the interim, because it's still free. So it's freezing cold here, it will be freezing cold here for a lot longer, so there is no real melt happening. And what that also means is that you don't get the brown slushy mess. The snow isn't heavy yet. It's still very fluffy. It is still very blankety, and it's still quite pretty. So like the view from our place down on all the roofs, and you can see all of the steam coming out. I mean, it does look it does look nice. I still am, though, actively searching for a beach vacation, because I know they come next week I'm going to be over this.

Jann Arden  9:06  
Oh, I know. I mean, February, March, people are ready to go get some sun on their faces. Look, we would be, you know, remiss not to address what has been going on with our southern neighbors. I think we've all been just riveted to all the news channels watching what is unfolding. It's happening across America to a huge extent, but Minneapolis in particular is where all of our attention has been focused these last three weeks. The death of Renee good and now Alex pretty, 37 year old ICU nurse that was literally shot in the back. I've seen the video from all the video tapes that are available and the people that were filming that particular incident. I've seen them all, countless times slow motion. And he's clearly, you know, holding a phone, protecting a woman from being pepper sprayed, literally just protecting her. And he just gets shot in. In the back 10 times. And I think we're just all in a state of shock. Thoughts, girls, I mean, it seems to be they're trying to back up a little bit, like watching the news today, saying that they're going to pull some of the ice operatives out of, you know, Minnesota. But I'm just, I'm so disappointed in the United States of America right now.

Caitlin Green  10:21  
It's the first time that I've said I won't be going to the US. Yeah, it's the like, it's the first time I've genuinely felt that way. There are certainly parts of the US that I wouldn't have gone to. But in October, we went to New York City, and I still felt like New York, you know, they've got mom, Donnie, now, like I felt there was something more familiar to the circumstances there now, when you have the situation that you do in in Minnesota, but also, like you've pointed out, jann in Maine, in Chicago and all these other places, it's really scary. It's genuinely quite terrifying to think about even being in a space where you, if you yourself weren't caught up in some sort of a violent altercation, that you would witness it, that you would be forced to witness it and to see it. And I also think when you see the rhetoric that's happening between their White House administration and Canada, this is the first time where I'm like, No, until something shifts. It's the first time I've been very, very freaked out about the direction, because I feel like authoritarianism is here. There's a lot of conversations about that for the US, is it here yet? Is it here yet? What's it look like? It has arrived. It's just being unevenly distributed. That's how I feel.

Sarah Burke  11:32  
You know what I was saying? I kind of been retreating from social media and all of that. I've been back in with all my eyeballs on everything over the last week. And I mean, it's certainly taken a toll mental health wise, but it does feel like the vast majority of people are in agreement about what's going on, being wrong, which is nice, like a collective feeling about that that's the only upside I can think of to the terrible things that our eyes are seeing right now, and that is brewing some really good activism and advocating for, you know, these people like Alex Pretti and Renee good that are losing their lives. I mean, another thing we should mention, Greg bevino lost his job the head of the border patrol in the last 24 hours of us recording this podcast. But you know, the things that do warm my heart about this are hearing about Alex as a person and the type of nurse that he was. We actually have a little clip here. Should we throw to this clip? Yes, yes. So this is from CNN reporter Caitlin Collins, and a story that she was doing

Speaker 1  12:40  
maybe never forget and always remember our brothers and sisters who have served so that we may enjoy the gift of freedom

Speaker 2  12:47  
that was 37 year old Alex pretty an ICU nurse who treated critically ill patients at the Minneapolis veterans medical center delivering a tribute there to a soldier who had died parties. Friends and neighbors since his death have said that he began protesting ice actions after an agent killed Renee good almost three weeks before his parents described their son in a statement as a lot of false claims and unverified claims from the administration were coming out, and they said this, Alex was a kind hearted soul who cared deeply for his family and his friends and also the American Veterans whom he cared for. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world, and unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact. I want to bring in one of those veterans that pretty cared for in the ICU earlier this month, Navy veteran Marta crown. Heart is here, and thank you so much for being here first. Thank you for your service and what it was like for you to have him as your nurse. Well, how would you describe him

Speaker 3  13:45  
when he walks in your room? He was there for you. He was never preoccupied. He treated me like I was his only patient, and I knew I wasn't. And he treated every vet like they were his only patient.

Jann Arden  14:02  
I mean, this is getting so much attention. Obviously, the loss of life is beyond belief. It's so tragic. Let's keep in mind also that 10s of 1000s, 10s of 1000s, if not hundreds of 1000s of people have been ripped out of their homes, their cars, their schools, their jobs, off the street, from shopping malls, from targets, from stores, flower shops, hospitals. They've been like forced to the ground, fucking handcuffed. No one really knows where they are. You know, I think about the people in particular last week, that little boy,

Caitlin Green  14:36  
Liam, and they're now being detained in that horror show, one of those horror show detention facilities in Texas. What's coming out of those is its own nightmare. So, you know, I think it's like it's really incumbent on, especially the people on the right in the US, to come out and say, enough's enough. And you're seeing a little bit of it. But I just thought there would be more. I thought you'd see former Republican presidents making statements. It's because Clinton and Obama did. But I was like, you know, where are the former Republican leaders? Like, it's really bothering me.

Jann Arden  15:06  
Well, Caitlin, you are the mom of a three plus year old, and the thought of, oh, having someone take him. I mean, a lot of these abductions are unconstitutional. They have no paperwork. People aren't being told what they're arrested for. They're not being told, you know, what exactly they've done. They're showing papers. They're showing that they have temporary green cards or or, you know, you know, there's an array of different documentation that let people come to any country. It might not be for, you know, the rest of their lives. But even in Canada, we I'm sure there's six month visas and two year working passes. I don't know a single person that works in Banff that is not from New Zealand or Australia or the UK or Yeah. So yes, these deaths are shocking and so upsetting.

Caitlin Green  15:56  
It's worth noting that there are actually, you know, people who were longtime ICE officers, you know, prior to this administration taking place. And so they're speaking up, you know, anonymously, but saying, you know, we never, we would never have done what they're doing now during daylight times. What they are doing now is seeking to agitate the public. They're looking for violent altercations. If we had a last resort, having to deport someone from the country who had a family, we would have intentionally gone to their homes at five or six in the morning, and that still would have been upsetting, because, of course, there would be scenarios where family members would wake up and their family member would have been taken, but they purposely did it to reduce the risk to the public and to reduce the damage and chances of sort of these, like breakdowns in public discourse, and so now to see the way they're going about it This, to me, feels like it's the point. The point is the spectacle. The point is to instill fear in people. The point is to make everyone feel exactly like you're feeling listening to these stories and seeing the videos, they're trying to make you feel that way. So I do feel like, you know, Minnesota shares an 880 kilometer border with Canada. I've never, I've never been prouder of our neighbors, because they are really taking their life in their hands. They are putting themselves in increasingly unsafe situations to protect their neighbors and to continue to draw attention to what's going on there.

Sarah Burke  17:13  
Michelle Obama was on call her daddy, the podcast. It's a great listen. After you're done listening to this episode, stay with us. But she, I just feel like she is such a like community inspiration, and she's talking about how to take action in your own circles for a lot of that conversation, which is so important right now, right?

Caitlin Green  17:36  
And I will say on that note of kind of like up uplifting note, yeah, let's uplift. Come on, everyone. Let's uplift. I've been crying already a Republican. There's a Republican candidate for governor in Minnesota, and he has said that he's ending his campaign over the GOP is handling of immigration enforcement in the state. And he said, I cannot support the National Republican stated retribution on the citizens of our state, nor can I count myself as a member of a party that would do so. He basically said, I can't look my kids in the eye and say I'm a Republican anymore. And I was like, Okay, a couple of these.

Jann Arden  18:06  
Like, here's my prediction. Oh, okay, he will not the orange fucking Cheeto head will not make the term he is not going to make the next three years. I think the midterms will have some complicated overtones. Let's put it that way, complicated.

Sarah Burke  18:28  
Oh, we should call it that.

Jann Arden  18:31  
But I, I think the American public is so ready to risk life and limb to get in those lineups and to vote and but, yeah, I think Trump's health is it is spiraling. He's got dementia. He's got so many things going on. The Epstein files are still looming large. We are going to move on from this just in a few minutes, folks. But my prediction is that this year, 2027 he is going to be hauled off in handcuffs. 2026 sorry, I don't know what already done with Sorry, sorry. Iceland is a year ahead. The time difference is a year ahead. Yeah, but yeah, that's just my prediction. I feel good about it. There was some other nutty thing that Thoris was telling me about, and there's this person on Instagram, and maybe you guys know who it is, but she is magnificently very accurate at predicting death dates, yes, with she said February 17, goal, February 17, that Trump will be unalived, just not through anyone hurting him. I'm not saying that, but just your natural cause. This is what she's saying.

Caitlin Green  19:35  
Health issues. She surmised that he may have sepsis. Like she wasn't just sort of being flippant and saying this. She really broke down why she felt this way. And she has predicted with some accuracy when when deaths have happened, and so she felt comfortable putting out this prediction publicly.

Sarah Burke  19:52  
Celeste right? Celeste Brooks, is that who it is? Is it and it will be on the solar eclipse?

Jann Arden  19:57  
Yeah, I don't. I think we're talking about a different person. You know what? We're gonna hop on to her train too. So we're gonna wrap this up. What a great way to leave of death predictions of the orange buffoon. And anyway, there's lots of positive things happening out there, folks. I think the EU is banding together. There was one of the biggest trade deals ever made between India and the European Union in the last couple of days like, it's massive, and it's really taking the pressure off the EU to depend so much on the United States. So there's lots of things that are happening with all the countries that, much like Mark Carney said, yay. Mark Carney on his on his Davos speech, that really united the globe. I think third time in the history of Davos that a gentleman has gotten the standing ovation, and it was Nelson, Mandela, Zielinski and and Carney that's pretty great company, huge.

Speaker 4  20:49  
We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition. Over the past two decades, a series of crises in finance, health, energy and geopolitics have laid bare the risks of extreme global integration. But more recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons. Tariffs is leverage, financial infrastructure is coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited. You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration, when integration becomes the source of your subordination. A country that can't feed itself, fuel itself or defend itself, has few options when the rules no longer protect you, you must protect yourself. But let's be clear eyed about where this leads. A world of fortresses will be poorer, more fragile and less sustainable. Stop invoking rules based international order as though it still functions as advertised. Call it what it is, a system of intensifying great power rivalry, where the most powerful pursue their interests, using economic integration as coercion.

Jann Arden  21:56  
So there's lots of really positive things happening, and none of this is sustainable anyway, that's my prediction. We're going to be right back after this short break, brand new segment with Caitlin called the scroll, and you're not going to want to miss it.

Caitlin Green  22:17  
Okay? So the idea behind the scroll, this is our brand new segment, is something similar to what I used to do every hour when I was on morning radio called what's trending. And so this is going to be me getting to, sort of like rapid fire present some of the biggest stories that are happening on social media in the news, or just kind of like stuff that I think people are talking about, that you guys would find fun. And then we have a chance to, like, go through them, cover them, and then kind of move on. The first thing I wanted to talk about today was something that I felt like at any other point in history would have been massive, trending news and kind of didn't land. This is Alex Honnold. He's like a famous free climber. This is a guy who climbs up the side of deadly rock faces with no ropes and takes his life into his hands. I don't know if you guys have heard of him before. Have you seen the documentary about him? I asked

Sarah Burke  23:02  
someone in the elevator who he was.

Jann Arden  23:04  
I have, I have seen his stuff, and quite frankly, it gives me vertigo.

Caitlin Green  23:09  
So he was featured in a 2018 documentary called free solo. And so Netflix gave him this deal where he was going to scale the side of a 101 story skyscraper and do it without any ropes. It's 1700 feet high, and he did it. It was live streamed. It was on Netflix. Apparently they paid him around $500,000 and he doesn't have life insurance, because, spoiler alert, he's uninsurable. So I felt like 500 grand was kind of low. Not enough.

Jann Arden  23:36  
Would he paid no matter what? Like, if he died, would his family still get the money. Like, okay,

Caitlin Green  23:41  
no, I haven't read that. I don't know, because maybe they didn't want to

Sarah Burke  23:44  
get into the like Outliner to do your will, your will.

Caitlin Green  23:48  
He said I would have done it for free, just to do it because he's a daredevil.

Jann Arden  23:53  
Netflix, dude, they're gonna say, we know you would do this for free.

Caitlin Green  23:56  
Can we get a documentary about his poor wife? Because, oh, my god, imagine being married to this man.

Jann Arden  24:03  
She has to know what she was getting into. Oh, she absolutely has hair, though, remember last week,

Caitlin Green  24:10  
like it couldn't be me. Could you, either of you guys, be married to somebody who did this? I would never sleep

Jann Arden  24:14  
in you love someone. You need to let them pursue their passions no matter what that is. I don't think there's conditions she feels

Sarah Burke  24:23  
when thordas wants to climb that

Jann Arden  24:25  
she ain't gonna be climbing no mountains. Okay,

Caitlin Green  24:29  
another topic that we've been discussing, I can't think increasingly, in the Zeitgeist and in the world, is AI pornography. You know, images, AI images that are being made of public figures, but also regularable, horrible stuff, like without their consent, and because AI has gotten so good, we've really entered the danger zone. So honestly, I'm so impressed that Paris Hilton has become the face and the advocate for this massive AI porn bill. And so last week, she was in Washington, DC, and she advocated for a bill that they're calling defiance the. Science act. It's an acronym disrupt explicit, forged images and non consensual edits. And there she's basically saying, because of my sex tape being released without my consent at 19 years old, I am now aware of 100,000 explicit, deep fake images of her, and not one of them is consensual. And she's saying that now the stats are, one in eight girls are experiencing AI generated deep fake porn, and it is the newest form of victimization. It's bullying. People are trying to use it to blackmail underage people online. And so now they're saying that if this becomes law, it would allow civil action against the production, distribution, receipt or possession of NSFW, not safe for work, deep fake images and videos without someone's permission. So I think it's pretty impressive, and I'm really proud of her for coming out about this. She also has come forward a

Sarah Burke  25:47  
child abuse one in 2024 Yeah, she's a stand up gal. I love Hilton. I really like Paris Hilton,

Caitlin Green  25:53  
and I think it's easy for people to brush her aside, because part of her branding to like, you know, sell a certain image of herself, and to sell products was to kind of affect the baby voice and but if you actually watch anything with her, if you watch her speak like she's an incredibly confident and a very fierce person, because she could have just so easily disappeared under the shame, but she's come out. She's come out for this, and because she's a public figure, people still pay attention to her. This bill, the suggestion of this bill, is getting a lot of attention, so I'm pretty proud of that. Yeah, good for her. And lastly, are you guys both still on Tiktok?

Jann Arden  26:23  
I am on Tiktok. I haven't deleted it, and I still use it for fun, fun things like, I don't do a lot of stuff. What Tell me, what should I get off of there?

Caitlin Green  26:32  
Well, because now there are a lot of people and a lot of creators who are leaving Tiktok, and that's because there has been this new venture between a US company and bytedance, which is that the Chinese owner previously of Tiktok, they finally struck a deal. So it's a new Tiktok entity that they say complies with the US law, to, quote, safeguard and protect national security. So the CEO of this new US company is a former Warner Brothers executive. And so now the algorithm is all changing, in addition to the fact that people are having experiences where if they even write the word Epstein, if they post anything about it, it gets cleaned out because they say it breaks community guidelines. So there's issues right now happening about censorship that they feel would directly benefit the current US administration, but also they're saying that their algorithm is no longer reflective of anything that they would want to see. And a lot of people are pointing out kind of the irony in like they felt that they had more freedom of speech when it was owned by China, and so people are leaving. You're seeing a lot of people with, you know, hundreds of 1000s, millions of Tiktok followers, saying, we're not going to be using this anymore. So that's been a really big trending story this week, too. I'm more of a lurker on Tiktok. I don't really create there yet.

Jann Arden  27:38  
It's not my main thing. I mean, I'm an Instagram person. My office uses Facebook. I don't do X anymore. I haven't deleted my account, but I haven't posted for eight months. It's not on my phone. I've deleted it, yeah, but I need to my office still. I think does the odd announcement for tour dates or something, but I need to have a discussion with them, for sure. I'll be interested

Caitlin Green  27:59  
to see if you notice any difference in your algorithm with the new ownership taking place, it's

Jann Arden  28:03  
never ending. The changes that are happening with social media. And I always wonder, what's the next Tiktok? What's the next Facebook gonna be? What is the next x gonna be? Yeah, so I

Caitlin Green  28:14  
don't know if there's any of these, any of these stories that have been making their way onto your personal scroll, or if you're noticing that your scroll on Tiktok looks different. Or if you want have any sort of feedback on this, then always DM me. I love reading DMS. I get so many from our Jans, our only Jans, especially, and so, yeah, send us an email post on social, and that's the scroll

Sarah Burke  28:36  
we're working with our new music, and we're kind of laughing, but it's awesome. I like the music, good job. It's good and short, I

Jann Arden  28:42  
keep thinking, are the batteries dead in the fire alarm? Like, seriously,

Sarah Burke  28:46  
by the way, our email, if you ever want to email us, like, let's say voice noting is not your thing. jann Arden pot@gmail.com you can email us anytime.

Jann Arden  28:54  
I want to skip to this, because I grew up with a handy father, like, I grew up with a guy that could do anything, plumbing, construction, concrete work, electricity, electrical. He could build furniture. This man could put together a helicopter. My dad and certain guys of that generation, that sort of were born in the 30s and the 40s, could do shit. Most people now can't do a goddamn thing. So we're gonna do a little quiz with the girls, a quiz, this was basically a Reddit poll, and it's just kind of fun, and it's which of these basic tasks can you actually do? For instance, I'll give you a few. Can you get a stain out of your clothes? Can you navigate outside using a compass, like Could you, could you get get a map? And do you know, I think the Boy Scouts used to do that have to find their way out of the bushes. Can you repair your car engine?

Caitlin Green  29:46  
That was low. I will say only 29% of people who were surveyed said that they could repair a car engine. So yeah, walk us through this like that should be lower. Do you not think the number should be lower? I could be wrong,

Sarah Burke  29:57  
and I feel like Jan's answer to all of those is yes. So far Correct?

Jann Arden  30:01  
I couldn't use a compass. Really, I couldn't fix my car.

Sarah Burke  30:05  
No, I caught your dad saw you. How did, like, I know how to change

Jann Arden  30:09  
a tire. Yeah, okay. But have you seen an engine these days? I drive a hybrid. I don't even know where the battery is. Can you jump another car with a hybrid? Like I was the girl with the jumper cables in her car. If I saw somebody that needed a jump, yeah, Caitlin doesn't even drive, I would have like, 15 foot long cables. I could jump your car. No problem. If you're just joining us, I still travel with jumper cables. But what I found out last winter was I don't know where the battery is in my car. I lifted the hood up on my hybrid

Sarah Burke  30:44  
on my left volunteer to jump, and didn't know how to jump it. And I didn't,

Jann Arden  30:47  
didn't know how to jump the guy. We both just stood there, and we're like, I just gave up. No, don't see it well.

Caitlin Green  30:52  
I thought this was good. So 95% of people said they could treat a stain in their clothing. And that's, that's right about where it should be. That's not rocket science.

Sarah Burke  30:59  
That feels good. How I don't know how to do stains. Shout. Also, if it's like grease, you know, a little dawn or dish soap on

Speaker 5  31:07  
it, Okay, nope. Well, soda, yeah, not ringing any bells.

Caitlin Green  31:13  
Okay, so Jan's 5% All right, okay, then 88% said they can calculate a tip at a restaurant in their head. Not me, radio

Jann Arden  31:21  
school, no. If my bill is exactly $100 I know what to do.

Caitlin Green  31:26  
Same, yeah, yeah, if it's an easy number, fine, but no, 88% I use chat GPT now, like even at restaurants. So 83% said they could grow a vegetable garden. Yeah?

Jann Arden  31:37  
That I know what to do, yeah, I grew celery this year, Celery

Caitlin Green  31:41  
is that really hard to do? I bought teeny,

Jann Arden  31:44  
tiny little plants from the greenhouse, which I know is a cheat. No, I did not like germinate the little seeds and have them in my house all winter. I've done that. I bought two inch tall plants, then said celery. And I said to the guy, are these easy to grow? He goes, Yeah, I just plunk them into the ground. Like they should be, like, not full sun. I'm like, okay, plunk them into the ground. These are instructions that I like. I went and I plunk them into the ground. Oh my Jesus. I had celery coming out the ding dong. Oh my gosh. I had, I planted four celery plants. I ate so much celery, my god, I almost had to start drinking again just to make Caesars.

Caitlin Green  32:21  
Seriously, I can't even keep house plants alive. So, like, I don't think this is me either. I think I'm coming in.

Jann Arden  32:28  
It's easy to garden. So easy to have a garden, even on your balcony, like you, you and Kyle and will could grow potatoes. You just get these bags, yeah, and you can just hang them on a chain, and the potatoes grow in the bag. Oh, that's cool. Oh, they're so fun. Anyway, yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna help you. I'm gonna, I want us all to grow a little something this summer. Okay, moving on. Okay, then

Caitlin Green  32:50  
the next 1% garden. 83% could grow vegetable garden. 76% said they could navigate outdoors using a compass.

Unknown Speaker  32:57  
That's laughable.

Sarah Burke  32:58  
Well, is it not as simple? And I don't have a compass, so I don't actually know. But would it not be as simple as waiting until the little hand is facing north if you're going north and heading in that direction?

Speaker 5  33:09  
No, but how do you know where you're going? North? Could be over a

Sarah Burke  33:14  
cliff, but it shows you,

Jann Arden  33:17  
judged by where the sun is in the sky, you're going

Sarah Burke  33:21  
Google Maps and a compass at the same time.

Caitlin Green  33:23  
If I'm allowed to have even, like, a paper map, maybe I could do it, but it just the compass alone. I mean, like, Sure, I could tell you if I was walking north, south, east or west, generally speaking. But am I going to make it out of the woods to a road feels unlikely.

Sarah Burke  33:39  
I don't even think I would know if I was heading north without a compass or any sense of direction.

Jann Arden  33:46  
I'm sorry, 78% of people say they could. I was 76 those 76 I'd like to put those people in the trees go, get us out of here. Psych, no, you don't even know where we are. You don't even know where to go. I think that's false.

Caitlin Green  34:01  
My mom told me back in the day she was really good at something called orienteering, and it was basically what this is, yeah, it's running like a foot race through the woods with just a compass, like ripping through the woods, through a trail, and finding your way out so not only being fast, but like knowing your way around with a compass. And I feel like that's actually a useful skill, or like, a category of exercise that they need to bring back into public schools, because that's cool. That's cooler than just running around a track. Yeah, I feel like, anyways, bring back orienteering. Okay, 69% said they could weatherproof doors and windows. What? Who are these people

Jann Arden  34:37  
I would know to go get weather stripping to like, put at the bottom of doors. I did see My Father doing that. What else do you do? I know my dad's

Sarah Burke  34:48  
a window guy, and I have no idea my dad's business, his family business, okay, so that's how we call your friend. That's, yeah, okay, Lauren, we're coming for you.

Caitlin Green  35:00  
And then this was then the 29% said they could repair a car engine, okay, which even still, to me, seems high, like that's a very complex piece of machinery, in my opinion,

Jann Arden  35:08  
back in the day, back in the day, you could fix it, though, like you engines were like, kind of straightforward. You had your alternator and your battery, and you filled the radiator up with water, and you had your, you know your spark plugs. And, you know, I remember being out at parties and taking spark plugs out, and people would like wipe them off and dry them up and put them back in and put some water in the radiator and fiddle around with the back like people did, get cars going. But now cars are complicated. Engines are

Sarah Burke  35:40  
dumber because of the computer systems like it. They go so easily, but

Jann Arden  35:45  
I don't even know how to work my rear view mirror. I'm like, What the fuck are the settings on this thing?

Sarah Burke  35:50  
The other day, Dan asked me if I wanted him to refill my windshield food. And I was like, I know how to do that. Thank you. But it is a nice offer. It's a nice offer, but I do know how to do that,

Unknown Speaker  36:01  
but is that what he meant? Is that what he meant? Yes, that's

Sarah Burke  36:04  
what he meant. I just refilled it for the first time in two years.

Caitlin Green  36:09  
So the only time I ever filled a gap like used a gas pump, my dad let me do it as a child, and it it exploded everywhere, and I was soaked in gasoline, and had to come home soaked in gasoline. Call it a success. And my mom was like, I'm gonna kill you to my dad, because you're like, six year old child comes home soaked, head to toe in gasoline, so I'm just gonna stay away from cars.

Sarah Burke  36:31  
There you go. That's a fun Reddit thread. Yeah, like that. Thanks, Reddit.

Jann Arden  36:35  
But I mean, household I can fix stuff like generally, I can tighten screws and fix door handles. And I can, I can do, I know I can do handy things, like, if I look at them and take them apart, I can put them back together again.

Sarah Burke  36:50  
Give us a vote in the voice notes or in your emails. Out of the three of us, I think Jen is the clear winner at being the handiest. Yeah, I think so too, just because her years of wisdom and experience. Yeah, she is, no doubt, handy as fuck. Don't vote for me,

Jann Arden  37:06  
but I live in the sticks like I am kind of handy, and I may not do it the right way, but I'll get it done.

Caitlin Green  37:11  
I'm an excellent nurse, so like, if there was any category here for, like, fixing something with the body, I think I could sooner set a broken limb than I could fix anything to do with a car.

Sarah Burke  37:21  
Honestly, I don't know. God, what would my contribution be? Tech support. There you go. Tech support.

Jann Arden  37:27  
Tech support would be great. You know what? This is a hell of a team right here. Amazing Race needs to be our new sponsor.

Sarah Burke  37:33  
That would be great television. The three of us, we'd be such idiots

Jann Arden  37:37  
who could eat, who could eat the horrible things like eat this Scorpion, swallow this horse shit ball. When we were kids, I have tasted horse shit. And you guys can send your letters to the podcast if you want to, but I didn't do it on purpose. But we used to have fights with shit. We would throw horses if you've never seen a horse poop, if you're city folks that you've never seen one, they poop out like a pile of stuff, and they come out in round. They're like nuggets. They're like big balls. They call them cow patties for a reason. A cow poos out a flat patty. I've seen clocks, a laminated cow shit that people have made into clocks. Yes, this is the kind of community that I grew up in. You know, you could go to a craft sale and people were making clocks out of couch cow shit, and we threw them at each other all the time. And you know, eventually you do get hit in the mouth with the horse shit, and they're very benign. There's no taste. But anyways, welcome to the podcast. Voice notes. You guys just you guys are speechless.

Jann Arden  38:49  
This is question for couples, what is the funniest, strangest house rule? If you have one, you and your partner made as a joke, but now, like, you guys don't really enforce it. So they were talking about, like, during covid, you wear an orange hat if you're not to be disturbed, like, I

Caitlin Green  39:06  
guess conference calls if you're working. Yes, okay, okay, that's what the responses were. Okay, yeah. So basically, it's things that started out as a joke, and now you've actually stuck to them, and it's become like an inside joke in your relationship. Do you have I like that one? Well, Sarah, it's early days for you and Dan, it's early days. I'm trying to think, I know we would, we should have them. I mean, we used to have, like, little rituals, but they weren't, sort of like they didn't start out as a joke, per se. But I we do. If we're making each other a cake, we usually will write something not serious on it. And another redditor here in the thread said that they once ordered a birthday cake for their wife and asked for Happy birthday mom to be written on it. And then they picked it up, never looked at it, and upon revealing it to the family, it said, Happy Birthday Bob. And so they said, 15 years later, no other inscription is ever allowed for her birthday cake on our. It's cute. I love that Bob. Every year, every year. I think that's adorable.

Sarah Burke  40:04  
I really love that. I just thought of one with my ex, like we had a rule because we both had limited space. It was like, if you get a new mug, you have to get rid of one. Oh, that's good, yeah, jeez. And I, I actually got rid of a few mugs the other day, I was like, oh, since breaking up, I've let this out of control,

Caitlin Green  40:24  
like a one in, one out club policy for mugs, yeah, yeah. Oh, I really like that, yeah.

Jann Arden  40:29  
This woman says, I always go to bed a couple of hours before my husband a couple hours earlier to make sure we end the day, my day, she says, together, he always tucks me in, gives me a good night kiss, and we end with something happy. It started as a joke, but we both realized it was such a good way to end the day well and stay in sync. He has done this every single day for over five years. So she's going to bed early. He comes in, tucks her in, kiss, kiss, kiss, and then probably goes and does his Game Boy or something. I don't know that's so cute. I think that's amazing. And I think things like that, those little rituals, are important. Yeah, I need to figure those out. I need to figure something out.

Caitlin Green  41:10  
They kind of develop on their own over time. Like, I don't think we have one in this sense, that started out, like, as a joke, per se, but we definitely, like, we would not ever go to bed angry. Like, that's not a thing. Yeah, no, neither my rule. Yeah, it is. And like, we would always say I love you at the end of a phone call. We'd always say I love you when you're leaving the house, like I do that with Will everyone gets a kiss goodbye in and I love you like, no matter what, I like this one. And maybe you guys, this speaks to me, for both of you as dog owners, this user said, if the dog has chosen you and sits on your lap, you are released of all responsibilities, and the other partner must get you whatever you want or need while the dog is on your lap, so

Unknown Speaker  41:47  
you don't have to disrupt it. Yes, and

Caitlin Green  41:49  
they say it's like cutest. It's like King for the day, except that usually only lasts for 30 minutes, but it has only been broken once in 15 years in our household, and so that's cute.

Jann Arden  41:59  
Actually, Thornes and I do one thing, and this is her rule. Her at her house, we do take turns cooking, and I always clean at my house, if I cook, I'm just a cleaner. I don't want anyone else cleaning my kitchen, because they don't do it good enough. Sorry. Send your letters to Sarah. So here, the person that cooks does not clean up, and that is the rule, and she gets like, feisty about it, so she cooked a couple nights last week, and I cleaned up, no problem. But I like cleaning up after myself. And it's a no go. It's a no fly zone. I like that. It's cute. Yeah. She's like, Go, sit down. Go have a cup of tea. You're not cleaning this. So I'm gonna really start cleaning as I go, like, really make sure there's

Sarah Burke  42:43  
nothing there. Again, an ADHD hack just saying, if you're like, Okay, this is on the stove for four minutes. In four minutes, I can do these dishes, and then by the time you're eating dinner, there's, like, just your plates. Like, I know,

Jann Arden  42:53  
yeah, it's great. I'm gonna get better at it. Okay. Do we have any voice notes?

Speaker 6  42:57  
Hi, my name is Marilyn. I'm calling from St Louis, Missouri. I'm originally from Moncton, New Brunswick, been living in the US for 15 years. Moved from Toronto down here in 2010 most of my family still live in Canada, so I'm home a lot and but I do want to say that I'm lucky enough in this Midwest City to be a part of a group of women all Canadian. We have a Canadian book club where you have to be Canadian to join. We only read Canadian authors. And over the last few years, certainly, in addition to discussing the book, we certainly reminisce and talk about about home. So I just want you to know there's a number of us who listen to your show, and although we can't do by Canada at the stores, grocery stores and so forth, we do support Canadian authors. We do support Canadian musicians like jann Arden, and certainly we listen to Canadian podcasts. So thank you for doing what you're doing. I can tell you, there's something incredibly special about living outside your country and finding people that share the same values and principles that so many of us Canadians do, and I probably would not have found my way to some of these women had I continued to live in Toronto for a number of factors. We hail from Vancouver to St John's Newfoundland. However, what I can tell you is these finding Canadians outside of my country has been a joy and just gives me that constant connection to home. Thank you for everything you're doing over the airways. Keep it up and we'll continue to listen. Take care.

Unknown Speaker  44:52  
Thank you so much. Nice. We love you.

Caitlin Green  44:53  
Marilyn, thanks for keeping it

Sarah Burke  44:55  
all Canadian down there, too. Amazing. Okay. Okay, next up here we have Pauline.

Speaker 7  45:04  
Oh, holy hell, I just had a thought. So now that Jan, you're engaged, does that mean you're going to have the fucking RV engagement party? Oh, my God, you said you would. So we are all expecting a video of that, you know, what? If you need a driver, I will fucking drive you guys all around. And speaking of fuck, I am so glad that we can finally hear Caitlin swearing. It sounds beautiful, because, you know, the swearers were like more intelligent. We get shit done for just the best. Any who RV engagement party do it.

Jann Arden  45:51  
Yes, you're not wrong. And I think it was the Value Village. We each pick out an outfit for each a three thrift and outfit for each other. Technically, it was a Bachelorette.

Sarah Burke  46:00  
Yeah, yeah, it was a Bachelorette, yeah. And if you need us to come a few days early, you just let us know, and we will make it fucking happen. We'll get you. CRV, okay, the

Caitlin Green  46:09  
Value Village, choosing each other's outfits to wear that night to dinner is really something that I think so much idea.

Sarah Burke  46:16  
Do you like pick a name out of a hat? You got this person? Yeah? We could do that.

Caitlin Green  46:21  
Yeah. They did it on Real Housewives of Salt Lake City once everyone had to dress the other person. And it was quite funny, I bet you. They didn't thrift the outfits they did. They went to like a crazy thrift store. Oh, wow. Okay. I mean, jann obviously doesn't watch the show. You don't share my Bravo disorder, but I it's, it's a great idea.

Sarah Burke  46:36  
You guys want one more? Yep.

Speaker 8  46:39  
Hi Jen kicking and Sarah. It's Stephanie from Guelph. I wanted to say hello finally, and to wish you all a happy new year. I really enjoyed the recap shows of 2025 since I haven't had a chance to listen to as many shows as in the past, it's been so much fun to follow your love story journey, Jan, you deserve all the love in the world. I wanted to tell you that I'm a proud hospice Wellington volunteer, and your CD has been in our solarium, your Christmas CD, and I got to see your show back on December 14, and you were absolutely stunning. I send you a little ask about hospice. Wellington, if you could check out your Instagram. I wish you all an amazing, fun feel and incredible year. I look forward to listening to more of your shows and yes, love, love is the answer to everything. Thank you so much for doing what you do, and for spreading so much love, joy and laughter, you are the best. Take care. Bye, bye. Love you.

Jann Arden  47:46  
I'm following you right now. Hostas Wellington, those

Sarah Burke  47:50  
are some nice messages. Thanks, guys. Yeah, they really nice. And keep in mind we're looking for Ask jann questions,

Caitlin Green  47:56  
voice notes, emails, whatever your method of reaching out is, we want you to ask your queries for jann and and she can help carry your pigeon. Carrier pigeon, whatever it is, however that

Jann Arden  48:07  
looks, yeah, whatever that is. Well, I loved, I loved the your section this week. Scroll the scroll, so the scroll is gonna be awesome. I'm loving the music. And stick around for Patreon

Sarah Burke  48:18  
and where and talk about you've been getting some comments about stepmoming. Over there

Jann Arden  48:23  
comments about stepmoming, and I know it's a little early. Yes, you know, I'm not married yet. I'm gonna be married soon. Have we announced anything yet? No, we haven't. We haven't said when. Okay, I better not do that. But we did pick a date. No, I told the two of you.

Caitlin Green  48:38  
Yeah, you did. I know what you're saved the day. I'm just not gonna say it. Also, I have some interesting real estate news and some, oh, not related to me, but engagement news that I think will really warm everyone's hearts over on Patreon. So that's for our only Jan,

Sarah Burke  48:52  
I need some help picking glasses, and you guys are gonna do it. Okay, great. Only Jan, come on over to Patreon.

Speaker 5  48:58  
I thought, I thought I sent you like a response. You both were

Sarah Burke  49:02  
like, You look good in everything, and so they're not helpful. I need the only chance. Okay.

Jann Arden  49:06  
jann Arden podcast, thanks for listening. Caitlin green, Sarah Burke, we will see you next time. Totally Do you.