Playoffs, Papal Picks & the Power of Spring

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Music.

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Well, hey everybody. I'm Jan Arden, and welcome to the Jan Arden podcast, and I'm here in my home in spring bank, Alberta. Caitlin green is in her home in Toronto. Sarah Burke is in her home in Toronto, and the leafs are still in the playoffs, ladies and gentlemen. So you can see Sarah has her shirt on. They're even selling them at Costco in Calgary. They're selling leafs shirts, and people were buying them anyway. I have a really great story right out of the bag for you, and then I'm gonna check in with you guys see what life is doing. We've got lots of things to talk about today. We don't have a guest. You guys are stuck with us, nice for a change. So I am sitting relaxing. I'm working this morning. I'm in the home stretch of my book. I'm gonna get it handed in come hell or high water, my new novel. And a guy comes into my yard, which is fine. His name is Dwayne. He's here to put up the ice guards on my roof and ice guards are basically, they cut up the snow as it slides down my tin roof, and it keeps them from being 10 foot wide slabs and cuts them into smaller, more manageable chunks so that I don't die from my house killing me. Oh, so he's here. He's in a white truck, kind of a standard Ford thing. It's parked in my driveway, very visible. Two minutes later, Poppy's barking his freaking head off my phone rings. It's my friend, Nathan from the RCMP. He goes, Jan, are you home? I said, Yeah. Is there a white truck in your driveway? Yeah. Do you know who that is? Yeah, it's a guy named Dwayne. Like, he works. Here he goes, okay, okay, I had four police cars in my cul de sac. No, they were chasing a stolen car, a stolen truck, a white stolen truck. So I'm just like he said, Do you want to do something fun? Should we should we come out with guns blaring and just, you know, come through your gate and scare the shit out of him. I said, I don't want to give the man heart attack like, I'm not insured for shit like that. But it was so funny, and Nathan was laughing. It was, well, we'll keep and I can hear him talking to the other officers. It's not him stand down. They were ready to, like, crash through my yard. And if I'd not been home, they would have come through that fucking gate, and Dwayne would have been there going hands on the ground, like, I don't know what would have happened to him. Anyway. That's my excitement for the day. I might as well retire now.

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Is this one of the RCMP guys who came over for dinner from winning the golf course thing? No, okay, no,

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different guys. That was, that was fun, though. That was, that was 1000s and 1000s of dollars that go towards helping young men get off drugs, 1000s and 1000s of dollars we made. So that was a really, really great dinner. I was glad we did it. So you guys tell me everything, what's going on. Have

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you been here? Caitlin, Toronto is so nice today. I

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literally just got home, like 1520 minutes ago. I was out all this morning, and it's so beautiful, I can feel everyone's energy just skyrocketing. And I had therapy this week, and I even said to my therapist that I was feeling so much better from seeing the sun. And she said that pretty well, 100% of her patients were all reporting elevated moods because of the weather. They all directly attributed it to the weather, which is, you know, very accurate. So it's gorgeous outside. It's gorgeous outside. The leafs are making me nervous. They have another game tonight, because we're recording this on Wednesday. So by the time you're listening to this, we could all be real depressed over here.

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There's lots of Canadian teams still in this thing.

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Yeah, what did I see yesterday? That this is the first time since what year? Let's see if I still have that

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up. Tell me how it feels to have this kind of excitement in the city. I mean, obviously you've had the raptors that have done so well. But this is, this is different with the leafs.

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It's terrifying. Okay, can't eat, can't sleep. It's great. It's traumatic, because when you think about how many times we've come so far and been so close and have blown it, and like game seven in the most and we've, we'll have, we'll have, like, I'm never comfortable with a lead in any leafs game, we can have a five point lead. It could be five nothing in the third, and I am still nearly throwing up because I know how this can go, and

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I've nothing in the third No, yeah,

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it's happened,

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because Winnipeg game the other night going into double overtime. Okay, keep going, but no one's

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comfortable, and our goalies out, our goalie is out in this bizarrely, you know, familiar feeling like yucky, gross stuff for the leafs. So him being out is is bad, and we needed him because, like, we're up against a fairly physical team. And he was like, What is he? Like, six, five, like, for a goalie, he's big. There's

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an actual therapy connection here in that, you know, I would liken it to PTSD beliefs. Game seven, Boston, Bruins, Brad Marchand. And now. Here he is playing against us, the Panthers team, and we have to relive this every time we see his little face. Yeah,

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if you guys could see yourselves right

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now, you should see my mother, Jen. This is funny,

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but the frenzy leafs fans are wacko. It

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is a special disorder to love a team this much for this long and still have them absolutely crush your dreams and stomp on your balls.

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I got the history for us. Just to wrap this up, the three Canadian teams make round two for the first time since 2004 it has been 21 years since the Stanley Cup playoffs featured the three teams. It will be up to one of these three teams looking to end our championship drought last time 1993 when the Canadians beat the Kings. Okay, there's the history lesson. 1993

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is the last time a Canadian team won the Stanley Cup. 1993 30 years ago. Yep, over 30 years ago. So the flames won in the 80s. Correct? 89 maybe. Hold on, the Calgary Flames won because that was, I remember our city was, I've never seen the city so red in my life. Looked very liberal, very red. And there was something called the Red mile that's still sort of downtown where, you know, when they won, there was this women showing their breasts and stuff. It's weird when 1989 did, I guess it. I'm almost like a hockey Pro. You're a hockey no stat person. Well, listen, I'm cheering for the leafs. I want you to know that I don't know anything about anything. I'm not cheering for freaking Edmonton. I love you guys Edmonton, but I can't cheer for you just because Danielle Smith is up there too much in Edmonton, and she's just, I just can't do anything that she's remotely any has anything to do with now she wants to start the separatist movement again. We've lived through this about 29 fucking times.

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I thought it was interesting, because there were I saw a letter, and I didn't go through it closely enough to know, but it was signed by a group of indigenous elders. And I thought this was so perfect, because they were basically saying, we have treaties. This is our land, and what? Who the hell do you think you are trying to say that you're going to secede? You're a settler, like you're a settler. So you can take people, if you people want to all leave and go to the US, like, have, how about it? Crown land. I was like, can you imagine that? I mean, we talked about this in our book club this week, which we had the recording for last night, where the book Jan, book bag members meet and we talk about our book selection. And this month's selection was from a two spirited indigenous elder here in Ontario. And so this is sort of like forefront in our minds right now, and I saw that letter and just thought, good for you, because you know how outrageous this would be if you were an indigenous person, like, Oh yeah, well, we're gonna take our land. They're like, whose land are you talking about? I

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have this letter that was written to Danielle Smith. You want me to read a bit of it? Yeah, yeah, your recent political maneuvering dismisses the foundational legal and moral agreements that make Alberta's existence possible. These treaties do not expire with shifting political winds. A nation's right to self determination cannot and will not be erased by provincial policies or political agendas. It is a direct violation of the treaty relationship that exists between our nations and the crown. Our treaties are internationally binding, solemn covenants, and cannot be broken by any province or political party. One other little thing, folks,

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they're called National Parks.

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I saw that too. Banff National

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Park, Jasper National Park, yeah, there's a whole bunch of national parks here that have nothing to do. They're not there. Really aren't Alberta's land. They are owned and operated by the people of Canada. They are Canadian anyway. Danielle Smith, you are an absolute disgrace. You're an idiot. The white people sitting in the your shitty lawn chairs in front of you know the parliament buildings for your big rally. You guys are an embarrassment to yourselves. You guys are just an absolute listen. I wish I was making this

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shit up. You know, it's a pretty it's a pretty depressing site for a variety of reasons, but it just Yeah, it is. It is not going to go many places. And it is just these people who are so committed to rage farming all the time, and it has aged farming. It's become really common, obviously, with certain opinion calmness and figureheads in media. But now to see it kind of in the provincial leaders, is it's just embarrassing. I'm like, You're embarrassing yourself. You're you're really embarrassing yourself.

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It is laughable, and I don't want to dwell on that. I want to say for someone like me who's lived here all my life, I'm proud to be a Canadian. I'm proud to be an Albertan, sort of, it's getting harder and harder to do all the time. But, you know, she forgets about the millions of people that want nothing to do with this. I'm just over it. So. Let's talk about something else. Let's, I'm not going to give her any more air time, or the separatist ding dongs.

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Did you guys see anything to do with the Met Gala this year?

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You know what? I want to hear about that because I actually, for the first time, was in bed flipping through the Met Gala outfits. Now, I didn't see anything that super, super catch my eye. Like there was no Kanye with Kim Kardashian in like black socks that you couldn't see them, and they needed eight people to guide them down the stairs and all that shit. Tell us what the Met Gala does and where the money goes, or if this is a fundraiser, explain Met Gala to those of us who don't know what the hell it is.

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Okay. So it's it's held on the first Monday of May, and there's always a theme. And this year's theme was black dandyism. And so it was a nod to African Americans contribution to style and the culture of, like, black dandyism. So like, lots of suits and wide lapels and and I just, I thought this was a really amazing theme. And they usually have presenting like Anna Wintour from Vogue will always sort of be the one of the presenting chairs. And usually there's like a celebrity co chair or two, and I know one of them this year was Coleman Domingo. And I just, I love him, and I loved his outfit, and his outfit was an homage, sort of to Andre Leon Talley, who, if you're a fashion file like I enjoyed him over the years, me too. And so I really liked seeing the inspiration and very talented stylists who are really doing like, whether or not you buy into the glitz and the glamor and the Hollywood fame of it all, what they're wearing and what they choose to dress these stars in, like it is art, like you're wearing art. And there's There's historical context. And so I really enjoyed seeing all the different fashion houses kind of come along with this theme. Diana Ross, this is her

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Okay, go on YouTube if you want to see the clip that Caitlin's showing. She's walking the

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carpet. She has this massive train. Look at this train going up the stairs. Feathery

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wedding dress, like with a like an angel,

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like a beautiful hat. It's almost like a huge, wide brimmed hat. And I just can't believe that she's 81 years old. Like, how is Diana Ross 81 she looked absolutely fantastic. So yeah. So the Met Gala raises money for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And I think tickets vary in price. There will be like, entire tables purchased by different organizations or fashion, that is, you can expect to pay between 75 grand us a ticket, or up to, like, 350,000 US for a table. And it's a it's a huge, I mean, it's a huge night. It raises a lot of money. And I don't know why, just like, I don't always like it, but this year, I did really like some of the outfits I really kind of like, enjoyed watching it. Wow. Oh. Rihanna is pregnant with her third child that was revealed on the carpet for the Met Gala as well. And she's

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kind of not been in the music business for a while. I mean, we saw her with the lovely Super Bowl performance that's quite a few years ago now. But yeah, that was a big deal then. And now we're going into another baby,

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yep, baby number three,

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so is she just gonna be a mom now, like, she's got, she's got no new records coming at her business ventures,

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though, like, yeah,

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yeah. She's got, like, her Fenty beauty line and lingerie, and then she does a partnership with Puma. And so I think between all of those different business ventures, I think that is really what pushed her to billionaire status. So I don't know, I don't know that she's going to be rushing back into music. I mean, you got three kids, and I feel as though her and her, you know, partner ASAP, Rocky, just sort of have a good thing going, and feel like they're pretty domestic.

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Yeah, that must be nice not to worry about stuff. Did you see the Lady Gaga concert in in Rio. No, I didn't like a million and a half people on that beach. It was a free concert. It went as far as the I could see, and I believe it was free for for the people attending. She did this concert. I have, I have never seen that many people at a concert in my life. So they must have had dozens and dozens of time delay speakers. Because, as you know, sound is kind of this tangible wave of actual like it's tactile, it's vibrations, right? And so if she's singing on the stage, that voice going way, way, way back, there would be seconds away, because it doesn't move at the speed of light. It moves at the speed of sound. It's a lot slower. So anyhow, I was so happy for her in the moment. A post that was up this morning had a lot of stuff that people had said about her in high school. They're like Stephanie, blah, blah, blah, you're never going to be famous, you idiot. She's a loser, like all these people that low key bullied her all through school because she was artistic. She was creative, she was unique. She kept making herself big and kept being who she was. And man, oh man, did she ever monetize on that. If you guys have a chance to go, click on some pictures of the Lady Gaga Brazilian Rio de Janeiro concert just to see the drone, shots of the drone going over that audience is breathtaking, our little

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monster. I can't recommend enough. There's a podcast that's part of the New York. Times podcast called the interview. It's like part of the daily and her conversation in the interview is fantastic and very in depth, and really gives a lot of insight into who she is as an artist and how she kind of came to be in her struggles. And then, for funsies, she's also on last call charistas, another one of my favorite pods, and that's like a much more fun kind of, like interesting, kind of upbeat Convo, but they're both great. So if you're a little monster, check those out.

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And that's what she calls you fans, little

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monsters, the little monsters, I was just gonna say, do you remember, like, the first concert that you played where you looked out into the crowd and could not believe how many people had come to see you like that, that moment where you're just like,

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I mean, I've certainly had moments like that during SARS, back in the day when SARS was a thing. It was the precursor to COVID. Certainly it was. It was, it was a scary freaking time. Sorry, they did a huge concert, The Rolling Stones. You guys remember that? Oh, yeah. And there was, I think they had expected, was it a quarter of a million people? And to me, that was, I couldn't even picture that. And I remember being on the safety briefing, because, long story short, my friend Ed said, Would you sing the national anthem? And I did. It was so scary. Like, don't sing national anthems if you can avoid it. It's you'll just get you'll get massacred, no matter how well you do. Or anyway, I did it. But looking out at that crowd and at the safety briefing, they said there will be a heart attack and a death today, just statistically, with 250,000 people in one area, statistically, there will be a cardiovascular death today because of the sheer amount of

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people. This is not where I was trying to go. I'm

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no but I'm at the safety briefing, but think about I'm just saying there's the concert, and then there's all the behind the scenes stuff. When you've got people telling you, listen, there's no way out of here, and you might have to stay in place. You can't just get out of a crowd of 250,000 people. They're not going to lift you up by helicopter anyway, it was freaky, and I don't think I ever want to be in a crowd that big again. Okay, okay, and that's our show.

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So right now you're home. The mixtape tour starts in a couple weeks. How's that? How's that all feeling?

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Well, I'm going today to finish up my clothes shopping. The band is all going to be in white, so they're in different white outfits, and they conceivably become little mini screens for the lighting. So that's kind of cool. That's the only thing I'll give away, because Chris will kill me. And of course, it's all 90s,

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so Katy Perry pops out in the robot suit,

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and then I fight somebody with a dryer hose that has detached from the back. Oh, we can't go there. I was listening to last week's podcast, and I just thought, Oh, God, I still feel sorry for I know she's terrible, but she's still feel sorry. But

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did you guys happen to look up the real estate thing? I didn't know there's you. You were saying that, like, you're like, Oh, I feel like people are being mean to her, and which I, like, agree people are objectively being mean to her, but that I get sort of vibes that she's not necessarily the nicest person. And I think it's because I've heard these stories about how she intimidates people to gain real estate. And there's actually a law in California called Katie Perry. Like, it's like, Katy Perry's law, and it's to it's to protect the elderly from having their their properties taken out from under them, or from like it's, it's crazy, because of how much of this she's been involved in. So anyways, that's

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not a law that you want to have named after yourself, the Jan Arden law to protect the elderly from having their wallet stolen while in diners in law, okay,

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speaking of you, and your record label is going to tell you this, I'm doing an event at Universal tomorrow. It's like an open house during departures conferences in Toronto right now. And our guy that we normally deal with for the studio for when we're doing our live shows, he's telling me that he got a hot dog truck, and I'm sitting there and I'm like, at the home of Jen Arnon, you got a hot dog truck? Oh,

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my God, they got I hope they have veggie dogs. I'm telling you, if they don't, you'll be hearing from me. I want to rewrite my contract. So I thought you meant that the guy that worked at Universal has, yeah, gone out on his own and gotten himself a hot dog cart. Business is dwindling. We are struggling to make ends meet. A hot dog

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vendor once subletted a room in the house I lived in in university. Did you get free dogs? I'm not joking, no, I left. I because when he came in, I was like, goodbye, because my roommate had subletted her room for the summer, which was, like, hard to do you it's hard to, like, get your have someone else pay your rent for the summer. Usually you're just stuck paying it yourself. And so she would take anyone she could get, I guess. And I was staying there for a week to pack up my stuff, and I thought, I'm gonna have this fun week to myself in Halifax. And she says, Oh, no, my sub letters coming early. And I. Like, Oh, shoot. Well, whatever. It's not a big deal.

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It's the hot dog guy.

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When I tell you, this man rolled up in a convertible LeBaron with a hot dog stand rattling behind him, sounding like an old prospectors wagon, and then proceeded to get out of this car and unload a comedic amount of hot dog condiments, including sauerkraut and pre cut onions, and load them all into the fridges of our house. And then invited two of his friends to come stay at the house with him while I'm there, who I've never met. And it was a couple, and they got to the house and decided they were going to have a shower, and began loudly having shower sex. This is why Jen never had roommates. Literally, this was the last time I've ever lived with anyone, and I already didn't enjoy the experience. But I'm not when I tell you this, I literally got my stuff left the house. I'd already mostly packed. I went to go stay at my friend's place, and I changed my flight and came home early because I was like, I'll blame you. Flight. Okay. I was like, I will be hot diggity damned. If I'm gonna live with this hot dog vendor. There is no way in wiener water soaked hilarious.

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Today we are high. We are at the height of high larity today, folks, diggity, damned. Let's get T shirts.

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Okay, back to your tour. For a second. I just, oh, god,

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she's, she's gonna, she's gonna wrangle us today, wrangling. We got

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things on the go here. Okay, your record label has graciously donated a prize pack that we're gonna be giving away closer to your record, which includes closer to the tour, yep, which includes your, what is it mixtape, final as well as some back catalog stuff. So, oh, make sure your phone catalog stuff. Our Patreon people will know about all of this first. So that's a good place to keep up to

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date. Yeah, my dad uncovered a photo during recent moving, packing up of my parents house in the beach. And he uncovered a photo because he used to work in music distribution back in like the 90s. Of him with you, Jan, oh shit. You came through one of the you came through one of the distributing offices. When you were, it was your album that came after living under June, and you were going through, yeah, exactly. It was happy. And so you were, you were going through for that. And so there's a, he has it somewhere. There's a photo of you with him.

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That's bonkers. It really is. I used to go to go to the distribution centers all the time. So imagine the labels. They operated with tactile product like you literally. You had to have product. You had to go in and buy records you didn't download even before even this is predating Napster, which was the smack daddy wrecking ball of this whole shit and caboodle, because you'd go to encourage the distributing guys, and you'd say hi, and you'd sign stuff, and oh, my God, I used to come out of those centers. They'd always give me like a canvas bag that was like, kiss, or the Tijuana Brass or, you know, somebody the carpenters or and you would just fill it with CDs or discs. And back in the day, there used to be a wall that was probably 20 feet high and 15 feet wide that was just rolled up posters of the coolest posters of artists. And they don't do that really anymore. I mean, there's so few actual record stores where they're putting up posters that they're probably special orders. When

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I tell you that I had the Hangout house because Jan, if you can imagine my dad working there. So two full closets. And again, this is pre just being able to listen to anything on your phone, you had to have physical copies of anything to watch a movie or to listen to a CD, so, and they were expensive, and I had an endless supply of movies, music and video games and so, I mean, we probably had all of your albums. Was a Canadian artist especially, and our garage sales were like a big deal back in the day, because those posters and stuff like, my dad came home with, like a full car every week, and then

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it just sort of dwindled, like it started in the 90s. It just started to near the end of the 90s. Napster was there, and I'm guilty, I remember sitting on my dial up home computer where I was living, and yes, and then clicking on a file that I could not believe that I could wait for 15 minutes to download any song I could imagine, and I probably had, I don't know, 70 or 80 songs in my little thing eventually, that I would listen to, but I could burn them onto discs. Yeah,

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oh yeah. That's why it was Uncle Gary's house, yeah, where we burned the CDs?

24:23  
Oh, really, yeah, okay, yeah, because I think I probably took out at least two of my family computers with viruses from downloading so many I had, like 2000 songs. I probably like a terabyte of music. And I, well,

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you brought down the music business. It wasn't me. I did, and I worked, at

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one point, I worked at a music store too, but still, even with discounts and free CDs and stuff, I was like, there's never enough. There has been

24:47  
so many changes, and I feel like we're just starting to get caught up and figuring out how to monetize streaming, I mean, and we've talked about this before many times, is you gotta stream all. Lot, a lot, a lot of songs, like, millions and millions and millions to see any kind of substantial sort of payback. Like, if you're, if you're thinking you're going to get a check for $200,000 I don't know, I'm going to find out the math one of these days, but I bet you it's 70 million spins. Like, it's just nuts. It's so much. Okay, now I'm really, I have no idea what I'm saying right now. I want you guys to know that I'm going to retract that statement, because I really don't know what it is, okay, but I'd be curious to know, what does Taylor Swift make from all the streaming like, does she get a check every quarter for a million bucks? Like, I don't know how it works.

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Yeah, I truly don't know how it works.

25:35  
Guys, I'm leaving on my trip soon. I plan two of my destinations on the weekend. Okay, let's hear everything about that. I'm open to any feedback. If you think I did make a terrible mistake on one of these decisions, there's time to change it. Okay, so we are flying through Florence, me and my girlfriend both there and back Italy. Yes, we have a yoga retreat in the middle of it in Tuscany, in a little village in Tuscany. So that is six days where our accommodations are already set, but we have three days on either side. So we wanted, like, a little bit of, like a beach water vibe. And then we also wanted to do, like, a lot of Italian tourist things. So as soon as we get into Florence, and we maybe should have flown through Rome, but the price was right on the Florence flight, we are taking a train immediately to, like the Puglia area, where, like Bari is. We get off at Bari Central, and then we got the cutest, most beautiful Airbnb. We're there for three days. And then on the other side, we found a perfect little Airbnb in Florence that's very close to everything, including, is it called the Domo, the Duomo, Yep, yeah. So you've done all the Oh, yeah, you got married in Italy, didn't you? Caitlin, yeah,

26:47  
yeah. Got married there. Got married in Tuscany. So the closest town to where we, like the villa and stuff, where we got married was called Greve in Chianti. Chianti is

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going to be a day trip that we're going to do when we're staying in Florence. So,

26:59  
yeah, there's tons of beautiful places like all. I mean, Tuscany's stunning, like, from multiple chiano to, like, but Greve and Chianti, if you're in Chianti is, like, kind of the biggest town. I feel like maybe it's in September, because they had it when we were there, but they do a wine festival that is so fun in this really historic town square. Yeah, you're like,

27:18  
everything will be wine while we're there. But this this region near Bari where we are, it's called polenano Amer. So how long

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is it going to take you, though, to get from Florence to Bari? Florence,

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it's going to be six hours on the train, and then over there. And then we

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love the train, though, you can get drinks and snacks. And on the way back to Florence, we

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booked the overnight one so that we don't have time and sleep on the train and don't have accommodations like for the night. I'm actually excited when we were booking that, excited for you in the different, like, tiers of train tickets that you can buy. What did it say? It was like, what was the Agatha Christie

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special you can be, you have, you could possibly be murdered on this journey. It said,

28:02  
like, promiscuous, the word promiscuous. And I was like, I don't know if we want that journey. What does that mean? So we looked up

28:08  
what that means, and we'll come into your suite.

28:11  
I'm so glad I looked it up. I was like, oh, no, this is fine. It just means that, like, you would want privacy with who you're with, okay? So, yeah,

28:21  
no, like, shared spaces, yeah, yeah, okay.

28:24  
So you can have train relations as it were now on this trip, and I'm just gonna put this out there, yes, you guys are both single, correct?

28:32  
She, she's in a relationship, she's in

28:35  
a relationship. So is this something on a trip like this, Sarah, that as a single, grown ass woman, yeah, that you would conceivably consider going on a date on this trip, and you know, or do you think you'll just be pretty streamlined with your pal?

28:49  
I will say that this friend would not care if I wanted to go on a date if, if we arranged it, that it's not taking away from any of our time, and it's like when she's gonna rest or something. This friend would be totally down for me to live my life and do whatever I want. But yeah, because it's only three days, yeah, on either side, like I really, I don't necessarily want to do that to my friend. It's one thing. If you're sitting at a bar and you've already had dinner with the girlfriend, and then you just end up talking to people, meet someone, have a little make out on the way home. That's different. Okay? I like

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that. I like how you put that little

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Italian counter flavor and hot so, I mean, don't rule it out.

29:24  
I know all of my friends are warning me how hot Italian men are. I'm like, oh, it's crazy. The

29:29  
outfits, the everything, every time I've gone, oh, like, I mean, an Italian man just can work linen like no one in North America ever could dream of, and it doesn't wrinkle, it doesn't and, like, if it does, it just looks like good. And there's from sunglasses to, like, slip on shoes, like, they just get it. And I think because it's sort of like, it's like Spain or like Paris, it's like a whole society of men who just, like, appreciate style, and also like, as a society, men and women there seem to value and appreciate pleasure, like, from eating to how you do. Rest to taking vacations. They have three

30:01  
hour nap time every day where everything shuts down. I'm like, this life,

30:06  
no, it's like, it's crazy time, and they eat dinner at 10 o'clock at night. Well,

30:10  
that's because Fiesta time is and then you come out of fiesta. Wait, see me, siesta in Spain. Oh, yes. Siesta not. No, like, what? Uh, no, I think it is called siesta as well in Oh,

30:20  
in, yeah, yeah. Sorry. I thought you were saying fiesta. And I was,

30:24  
I was, I totally was Fiesta, siesta, same, yeah,

30:28  
no. It's very like, it's really, yeah, Italy is really special. We did Florence. So we flew in and out of Florence once when we went to Italy. Other than that, Rome, Rome is obviously great, but that's like you can do, like, Rome is this whole own trip,

30:42  
and it's a jubilee year in the pope situation, because they say, like, it's, it's going to be busy everywhere in these main cities, which we are prepared for. But like, if we can avoid some of that, I'm happy to I

30:52  
just read that there's betting houses taking bets on who's going to be the Pope. You can bet on that. Yes, oh yeah, of course. How was that illegal? I saw a clip

30:59  
from another podcast this morning where they were comparing it to, like, the NFL Draft, the way all the popes are on the sheet. Yeah, I

31:06  
saw that. I'm like, wow, that is just like a draft pick. A number one coming in from Lithuania is Mitchell. I'll send you guys.

31:15  
I'll DM us in our in our like, Instagram, pod chat, the breakdown that I most enjoyed of this. And it was the same thing. It treated it like it was fantasy football. And they were like, going through all the different books. And it was so

31:26  
funny. I saw it from our friends Sam and Lisa from the I shake my head podcast. That's where I saw it. Funny.

31:31  
Well, I'm, I'm not going to be making any bets, because I don't know anything about anything. Do you guys do fantasy hockey? That's a thing too,

31:40  
right? No. But like, if I have a gift card to like one of the betting apps, I will bet on, like, a playoff game for sure. Have you ever made money on a betting app? Yeah, enough to buy the next one and lose.

31:50  
Okay?

31:53  
Kyle has made some. I don't it's not for me.

31:56  
It is thrilling, though, when you're like, they just pulled that pit, you know, like, especially in baseball, when they like change pictures, and you're like, Oh, my God, this could happen. Now, it's really exciting.

32:05  
I do enjoy a casino. I like a casino. I will do the slots. I do like the penny slots. I'm nothing. I won't get in there. I won't do a Bucha slot. That's for special times only. That would be way back in the drinking days. That would be with a GT in your hand when you stick 20 bucks in and you have like, four spins for $5 each. Now you play the machines where you have no idea why you win, and you just do a penny at a time, only your bets are like 80 cents. So they got you right, the penny. It's not really a penny. Anyway. If you guys ever want to do anything nice for me, take me to a casino, get me a Diet Coke. Just encourage me.

32:41  
The only time I've ever been to Vegas, I was under age, and it was so weird. What a weird experience. That is weird. Yeah, we were, I think we were 18. We weren't even of age in Canada to drink. What is it?

32:53  
19 down there? 2021 Oh, 21 that's good. I like

32:57  
that. Yeah. One of my girlfriends growing up, her dad had, like, a thing where he always went, and we went with him one time, and we were like, where's the pool? Like, it was just really

33:07  
weird. Yeah, when you're underage, you want to go to Montreal, because that's where drinking age is 18, but they, like, don't really care. You could same here in Alberta, yeah, you could, like, get into a bar in Montreal with braces on. Like, they don't care. I think 18 is too young. Oh, yeah. I like 19. I think 19, fine. I mean, it all felt very arbitrary when I considered how early it was that we started drinking in high school anyways. Like I was like, Okay, I can't go to a bar. Big deal. We're all having, like, we're all having house parties and drinking since we were 16 years old, basically. So, yeah, yeah. Oh,

33:45  
listen, we have very much meandered, but I've enjoyed this very much, because it's always a nice break when you don't have the extra pressure. And it is sometimes for me, for all of us, of having, you know, these cool guests. And you know, whenever I sit down, I'm never like, oh, cool, great. I'm nervous. I'm like, looking at my notes that you guys give me and trying to make sure that I do everything okay. But anyway, I I'm glad that we had a chance just to shoot shit, as it were, and but before we go, we do have a few minutes. And Sarah and I were talking about this just before you popped on Caitlin, and that was about entrepreneurialship, like just, I want to take like, 567, minutes just to speak to that, because there's so many people, especially going into the summer speaking of hot dog carts. Like, talk to me about that, Sarah, and sort of why that was on your mind this morning. So

34:36  
right before we got on to do the podcast, I was just fresh in from a bike ride. I jumped in the shower because I was because I was a little bit sweaty, and I was thinking about this as I was riding into town like I normally do, like a 20k bike ride, 10k in, 10k out. And I was like, I am so lucky that I can set this to be my lunch break that to go to Italy. I'm the person I'm requesting my. I'm off from, like, Dear Boss, you know, sure we, like, worked a little later last night. We had our book big zoom, but I was just appreciating, like, how dynamic I can make my life in whatever way I want it to be. And I thank entrepreneurship for that, because I'm reporting to me and 17 other podcasters. But you know what? I mean, yeah, I was just feeling like, really thankful,

35:23  
but that's pretty cool, but it's, it is a leap of faith. I mean, I remember when we had those early conversations when Caitlin and I left Belle and we were just like, Yeah, let's do this. Let's, let's team up and build something really cool. And how many podcasts did you start with

35:43  
before you came into the fold? There were three, because, you know, that bell thing was not on our bingo card, it just happened. And then at official launch, it was seven. And today there are 17. Now some are not active, or some are on a break, but there's 17 total right now. That's pretty incredible. And don't get me wrong, like, there are days and weeks where it's like, scary for my bank account, and I'm just like, it's gonna be okay. And, you know, I'm betting on things being okay the next week, but I wouldn't give this up for anything.

36:14  
Oh, I mean, there's, there's nothing more gratifying than than working for yourself. It's like owning a home instead of renting one. And I'm not knocking renting, renting is probably the freaking way to go these days. It's so expensive, but I'm just kind of using that as an example of I remember when, when I got my first little condo in Calgary, right downtown, it was $67,500 for a two bedroom in 1993 I sold it for 72 I made like, seven or $8,000 I drive by it all the time. They got their barbecue out there. And I'm wondering, I bet you, I bet you, that thing's $470,000 now, cool, right? And it was very, very small, small, little galley kitchen. And, but, yeah, it just, it makes me laugh. Now, my mom and dad helped me buy it. But yeah, being me, I'm an entrepreneur, like I'm an entrepreneur, and you know, whether it's opening a gift store or whether it's selling socks, custom made socks, or printing T shirts, or, you know, if you're out there sitting on in your living room right now pondering, you know, I want to make a change. Don't think it's not going to be scary, because it will be. It's going to be scary, but there is a way to find that balance, and it's exciting and to meet like minded people. And you you can do it, guys, I

37:27  
was just gonna say, and Caitlin, like, Stop me if you don't want to get into this any further. But you know, Caitlin's been like, seeing what opportunities are around. And like, oh yeah, we had a conversation the other day where, you know, you just sort of mentioned that you really appreciated, like, having the time and space to decide, like, what's right for you right now, and like, go in the direction of things that interest you more than things that you were maybe just considering because, well,

37:49  
it was mostly just like, you know, the internal debate of, like, going back into working for someone else, like larger companies, that kind of thing. And I feel like it's less appealing, probably, than it was when I was younger. Like, it just, it is, I have so much more interest in areas that are pretty hard to turn into one job for someone else. Like, I have so many things that I'm passionate about on, like, individual project basis that I think I'm I'm more and more interested in doing freelance stuff, whether that's like, you know, a set with an article or pitching ideas for like custom content, like custom digital audio content, or like hosting gigs, or whatever those things I'm more interested in doing as they come to me based on, like things I'm interested in, in relationships I've built that just feels a little bit more exciting, even though, yeah, it's definitely less secure. But I, you know, there's something that's there's more to it now than I feel like there was when I was younger. When I was younger, I just was like, oh, okay, I'm gonna always work for someone else. And I don't really feel that way as much.

38:47  
I never, ever thought I'd be an entrepreneur, like, even six, even five, six years ago. Like, I never thought that, ever

38:53  
why, just sort of valued the comfort of getting that paycheck and not having to worry about doing payroll or taking on that responsibility like I did

39:02  
always, like my jobs, but there were things that started it's like that ick factor. Like, once you turn a corner with the ick factor and you're like, This isn't sitting well with me. That slowly starts taking over. You know what before was, maybe a pleasant nine to five, then turns into a, well, I'm spending half the day managing your emotions, and then my emotions,

39:24  
oh, gosh, yeah. Well, and I also think too, I didn't know any entrepreneurs growing up like everyone I knew worked for other companies for the most part, or they worked for like they were teachers or nurses or whatever. And so I think I didn't have that kind of example, and especially in media like that's really changed recently with the Creator economy and the way that social media has impacted, breaking down all these barriers to access eyeballs and to access an audience. So I think that makes it all feel more exciting and more possible than it ever was in this specific field. You

39:56  
know what we actually got? We got a message that's literally on this topic. Like, we have a couple voice notes as well. If we want to end on this, yeah, we do. Oh

40:03  
yeah. I want to say Happy Mother's Day to everybody who's listening. Oh

40:06  
yeah, Happy Mother's Day. I miss my mom's day. I'm jealous of all you guys who have moms out there, and even when they're not perfect and even when they're flawed relationships, I know there's a lot of complicated moms, you know, daughter, son relationships out there. It's a pretty special day to honor these women that have molded us and given us opportunities and guided us and been mad at us and fought with us. But yeah, Happy Mother's Day. Happy

40:32  
Mother's Day to all the like the mom. I want anyone who kind of like plays a mom role in someone's life, or, yeah, I love that. There's lots of that to different versions of it. Well,

40:41  
I'm a mom to have Poppy. That's right, my mom feels sleepy. Where is she? Why are we getting smaller? I

40:49  
don't know. You guys are sure you're shrinking down the sides of your dogs.

40:52  
I'm a mother to the mice in my house.

40:55  
Do you guys have plans for Mother's Day? Caitlin, I don't have any, not that I'm

40:59  
aware of. I mean, I don't, maybe a surprise Kyle. I mean, I Who knows? So we'll, we'll see, um, we'll see. Who knows.

41:07  
You can get a box full of roses, you know, one of those long boxes full of roses, and a gift card for a casino. So you just don't know what's ahead. I pray to God.

41:18  
That's not what I get, because I don't gamble.

41:21  
I'm feeling so emo about my sister's first Mother's Day, like I'm just so proud of her. And, like, gay, you can tell Being a mom is, like, the hardest, but best thing that's ever happened to her, for sure. Yeah, Caitlin. Caitlin was giving some ideas in the group, and we were talking in our group chat about what I should get my sister. I was like, Is it weird? Like, I feel like, if I get this gift, that's something that her husband should get. I don't want to overshadow want to overshadow the husband like so we worked out, and I know she doesn't listen to this podcast, so I can just say it that we're gonna do some self care. We're gonna just love

41:51  
that. Yeah, that's the way to go.

41:52  
I made some suggestion, folks, and I got blown out of the water. What I was suggesting a scented candle. Oh, yeah, I like getting scented candle, sneeze and

42:00  
throw it out the window. Yeah,

42:02  
no, I should get her a facial. Yes,

42:05  
that was great. No, I appreciate it. You guys. You guys are in the know. Listen, all my relatives are dead, so don't feel sorry for me. I'm fine.

42:12  
Happy. Mother's Day to all the moms. Thank you for reminding us to say that Caitlin, we were getting carried away there. So very quickly going back to entrepreneurial spirit. This is from Alyssa that wrote into our website. She says, I'm writing you because of your episode with Max from the arkels. I am here promoting myself because of this conversation. I'm currently working on building something meaningful. In 2016 I opened a small nonprofit nature school called Wild roots. It's an awful in Ottawa, we offer programs for children and forced bathing walks for adults. This year, we're piloting an outdoor book club called Read between the pines.

42:52  
Oh my gosh, so good.

42:54  
I'm all about creating a life that revolves around creativity, storytelling and community. It's not always easy, but your voice and honesty have reminded me to keep going, especially on the days when the momentum feels hard to find. Before I opened my nature school, I worked behind the mic as a radio personality. I officially hung up the microphone, but I'm proud to say I found a new calling as the voice of romance in Ontario's cottage country. My second novel signing off for the summer is set to be released on June 6, but that's fantastic. She just offered a copy of the book and said, I've admired everything you talk about on the podcast, your humor, your kindness. Thank you for encouraging all of us, artists.

43:31  
Oh, thank you. What's her name? Alyssa

43:35  
del Palma. Alyssa

43:37  
del Palma, yeah, looking forward to your books. Congratulations. It is no easy feat putting a novel together and all the stuff you're doing read between the pines. So you might want to go online and look that up to see if you're interested in going to read between the pines. But thank you for that note. Really appreciate it. I have two voice notes that I have not listened to. I just think we should just go blindly into them. Okay, okay, here we go. I'm scared. Hi,

44:00  
ladies, this is Angela, and I'm calling from Edmonton, Alberta. I just wanted to say a heartfelt thank you to you, Caitlin and Sarah, for the podcast that you faithfully do every week. The way you dive into some really tough stuff with so much honesty, warmth and your real voices, it's incredibly powerful, and I really appreciate how you don't shy away from the hard conversations, and yet somehow you still manage to make me and us laugh along the way. So it means a lot truly. Thank you for sharing your voices, your humor and your hearts, please keep doing what you're doing. It really matters to me, and I'm sure it matters to others as

44:47  
well. Thank you very much. That was so

44:50  
nice. Thank you. We love this, not just for our egos, but for hearing what you guys think of the show. Honestly,

44:58  
we didn't pay her. I swear to god

45:02  
that was paid political announcement by

45:05  
if this next one is Jan Arden, I'm hanging

45:06  
out me.

45:10  
Hello, Jan. Sarah and Caitlin. It is Liz in Toronto. Caitlin, you and I have messaged on Twitter. Slash x. Here's my question. I noticed that a lot of my girlfriends who are dating, when they date a guy and tell him that she's really into reality TV. Caitlin, this is kind of aimed at you. Reality TV, Temptation Island, love is blind. The whole gamut. They can get very judgmental, so much so that some of my friends have stopped dating the guy. What is up with that? Why can't these guys watch we just understand we all like trash television. Sometimes. We all like to eat a fast food burger sometimes, or the vegetarian version. Um Caitlin, can you? Can you speak to this? I'd really love to hear your opinion.

46:02  
I mean, I love Liz, hello. Liz, so yeah, I know this is so common I don't know what happens to like straight men, where they just get this binary view of like, oh, good content is only the sopranos or the wire. And like, if it's not these two shows, I don't want to talk about it. So it's the same thing where they like, also really judge astrology, yet engage in make believe being a coach of an NFL team on a seasonal basis. So like, if you're engaging in pretending I'm a coach of an NFL team, but you want to, like, Judge women for watching housewives Get over yourself, like you're not the smartest person in the room. I highly doubt that it's the same type of attitude of like, I think back in the day when we used to rent movies, I rented a documentary, and the guy behind the desk said, Oh, I'm surprised you're renting this. I thought you would rent a rom com, like, just like, a blatantly anti social statement, for no reason, because I was renting a documentary about the financial crisis, but I was interested in it. And so anyways, it's just, it's a it's a certain red flag that some straight men have. And honestly, I think your friends are probably right to stop dating them, because there are very, very intelligent, creative people, especially people who are very engaged with pop culture and Hollywood and movies and everything. Like Mike White, the creator of white lotus, is a die hard reality fan, Seth Rogen is a die hard reality fan. John Oliver is a die hard reality fan, Seth Rogen is a die hard reality fan. I could go on and on with people smarter than whoever your friends are on a date with being into reality TV. So like, actually, just don't date them anymore. Back

47:42  
off. Well, thank you. We do have experts on this panel each week. And Caitlin is, if you have queries, you are, you totally are a reality expert. I'm reality curious is what they call me

47:55  
on Patreon today, I will get your opinion on the latest in my single girl life, okay, okay. But I also feel like we need to back it up a few weeks on Patreon. Jan, you ended up having an update to a story we discussed with our only Jans, I think about a year ago, you met up with someone for a little reunion. Oh, so we have an update my old manager, yeah. So we got an update. Come over to Patreon. Oh my gosh.

48:20  
I hadn't seen him for 25 years. Met with Neil McGonagall. Come hear what that was like. Why are we getting so quiet? I don't know. I just, I just reliving that moment. Listen. You've been listening to Jan Arden podcast. Thanks for hanging out with me and Caitlin and Sarah. Today, we did not have a guest, but we didn't need one, because we are guest enough for this week. Leave us some voice notes. Okay? And thank you to everyone that did leave notes, whether you want to just write it down and a little like handwritten, typed out thing, or if you'd like to be like Angela and leave a note or, I mean, it's always great. It's a great way to end the show. Anyway, look for us subscribe. We are on all your favorite podcast outlets, and if you hit subscribe on any of them, we will find you week after week. You won't have to look for us. It'll be Bong. It'll be a Friday afternoon Bing Bong. The Jan Ratten podcast is in my in my wallet. It's right in my wallet. No, it's not gonna go into your wallet anyway. Look after yourselves. Come and join us on Patreon. We'll see you next time to do you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai