Heavyweight Short: A Canadian Tale

Heavyweight host Jonathan Goldstein. 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:09.160 Producer Khalila Holt. 0:00:09.520 --> 0:00:11.400 Yeah, I have. 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:15.360 What some people are referring to around the water cooler 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:19.119 here at Gimblet Media as possibly the most Canadian story 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:20.240 ever told. 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:23.760 If you're talking to around the water cooler, the office 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:24.520 isn't even open. 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:25.840 It's a metaphor. 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:29.000 Okay, some of these are just imaginary, you know what. 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:30.920 I'm surprised to hear this. I never knew that you 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:34.440 were such a literalist. I'm taking a flight of fancy. 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:35.239 Will you join me? 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:37.199 Sure? Trade tables not. 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:42.240 You know, we receive a lot of emails. Yes, people 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:45.480 reach out and they want help with problems that they have. 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:50.599 And recently we got this email that was so random 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:55.000 and obscure that normally I'd be like, there's nothing I 0:00:55.040 --> 0:01:01.160 could do to help. But just by complete coincidence, I 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:04.800 know the one person who could actually help this guy, 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:08.760 and I am talking about my friend James. So the 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:10.679 first thing that I had to do was call up 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:17.640 James and ask for a favor. Boo hi, and we 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:20.959 will get to that story right after the break. 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:43.120 Psych boom, Hello, oh. 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:46.360 I heard Wait one second, look at that. 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:50.200 I suppose you're wondering why I've invited you to this conversation. 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:53.200 I keep I was wondering if it's going to be 0:01:53.400 --> 0:01:56.680 some sort of intervention. But but I'm I'm assuming not. 0:01:57.320 --> 0:01:57.600 No. 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:02.559 I so I received emails to the show where people 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:05.120 are looking for help. Yes, the thing that I am 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:10.440 looking for from you is a connection that you have. 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:13.560 I hope it's not Drake because I don't know how 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:14.200 to touch with it. 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:15.680 Knew you were going to think it was Drake, and 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:17.720 that was part of my strategy because then when you'd 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:19.480 hear that it wasn't Drake, you'd be ready to give 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:22.520 me anything. All right, since we're bringing Since we're bringing 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:24.360 up Drake, why don't you go ahead and explain your 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:25.240 connection to Drake? 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:25.600 Oh? 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:28.760 Yeah, So I worked on a TV show called Degrassi 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:31.720 The Next Generation where he started out. 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:35.440 He's a child actor, right, Canadian child actor. 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:39.480 Canadian child actor, and he did the first rap that 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:41.680 he did on camera. Anyways, this one that I wrote, 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:43.440 it is very bad. It was just a few lines. 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:44.960 Do you can you spit? 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:46.520 Can you spit some rhymes? 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:47.960 I can, but I won't. 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:51.840 Oh come on, no, how about one line? 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:52.400 One line? 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:53.840 You don't even have to wrap it you could just 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:55.000 speak it like poetry. 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:57.960 Be so embarrassing, one. 0:02:57.800 --> 0:03:01.000 Line which you speak in a non wrapping Hayden's. 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:02.680 So, why did you have to go? 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:06.320 Okay, now, now you've got me looking it up. I 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:08.320 typed in Drake and the first thing I got was 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:13.919 Drake and kadye beef. They do have beef apparently. Here 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:15.600 it is Tracy, Jimmy and Spinner's wrap. 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:19.400 It's on YouTube, Oh very much. 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:24.680 So yes you can hear it. Oh my goodness, this 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:29.520 is so persing. Okay, here we go, Sure, here we go. 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:35.360 Oh this isn't it. Hold on, we're not forgetting it. 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:40.000 Yeah, we have the ammo, my friend, we have the ammo. 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:42.000 The Brooks. 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:48.120 Homie is a player and that is all. So why'd 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:48.640 you have to. 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:52.360 Go and kick his ball? And Chaine ain't that name? 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:55.000 Because you would play at Hayden and that's a shame. 0:03:56.000 --> 0:04:01.880 Yeah, why did you make me do that? 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:03.640 Gat? 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:05.400 So, No, I'm not asking. 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:06.520 I wouldn't. 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:08.640 I wouldn't ask you to reach out to Drake. 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:10.119 It probably wouldn't work. 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:12.960 But I was going to say it's a smaller ask, 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:16.799 but in a way, he might be bigger than Drake 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:19.000 at one time, let's say he was bigger than Drake. 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:24.840 Is this Kevin Smith, because they won't even get into 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:26.960 the Kevin Smith. Though this is someone who knows your name. 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:28.720 I have no idea who this could be. 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:31.240 All right, why don't I read you the email that 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:33.560 I received? And as I read it it might dawn 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:33.840 on you. 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:35.520 Okay, So it's. 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:40.080 From a guy named Adam en Wright. I've had a 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:42.880 problem for many years, and it's the fact that people 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:47.160 don't believe I met Fidel Castro. And then and then 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:49.880 he goes on to say that Castro was in Montreal 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:53.719 for Pierre Elliott Trudeau's funeral and he saw him in 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:59.960 Old Montreal with former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:01.320 I think I know where this is going. 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:03.440 Okay, well let me get there. Here we go, let's 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:06.719 see if you're right. So at a certain point, Paul 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:10.599 Martin exited a restaurant, and a few minutes later, so 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:17.080 did Castro, who got into a limousine with no bodyguards. 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:21.279 And it all happened too quickly for Adam to snap 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:23.840 a picture with a camera or to you know, try 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:27.080 to shake his hand, so he just he ended up 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:32.760 just saying shouting out Viva la revolution one. But he 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:38.400 describes this stunning moment where he felt just frozen in time. 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:43.479 But then in the days and years afterwards, nobody he 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:48.280 tells the story to believes it. So Adam is turning 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:53.040 to me to somehow prove that he met Fidel Castro. 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:56.680 So now you know WHYPI So now you know why 0:05:56.640 --> 0:05:58.919 I am getting in touch with you. Yeah, you know 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:03.880 former prime minister, former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:08.880 I know him very tangentially. No, he would just know 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:10.760 me as one of his son's friends. 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:15.640 Your friend, Jamie, you are friends, actual friends with the 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:16.719 son of a prime minister. 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:17.240 Yeah. 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:20.400 For our American listeners say prime minister is like the 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:23.000 is like the Canadian president. 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:24.279 He is indeed. 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:29.120 Yes, So if I could get to Paul Martin and 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:32.279 ask if he had dinner with Fidel Castro on the 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:36.360 day of Trudeau's funeral, that would basically come about as 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:41.120 close as anything else to proving that Adam had indeed 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:44.240 seen Castro that day, right, I think? 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:46.720 So, I can't get much better than that. You could, 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:48.320 you could basically place him there. 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:51.359 So how would you feel about calling up Jamie and 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:53.520 asking if he could ask his dad. 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:59.760 Oh, absolutely absolutely, let's do it. So here we go. 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:03.279 All right, you all set, Here we go. I'm we're 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:12.840 gonna call it. We're gonna burn this bridge. 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:17.440 Hey de man, Hi buddy, how's it going? 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:20.080 Dough boy? Are you going to be a sea? If 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:21.720 seeing with us tomorrow. 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:34.920 I proved that Fidel Castro had dinner with your father, 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:39.239 then that would go away to legitimize this guy's claim 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:40.840 of having run into him. 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:43.200 The man is now eighty three years old. 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:48.840 But I can ask my dad and I can see 0:07:49.120 --> 0:07:50.760 what he remembers. 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:55.040 You're you're not You're not bubbling together right now for 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:58.560 COVID are you You're not You're not all staying in 0:07:58.600 --> 0:07:59.960 the same residence or anything. 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:03.680 No, we are exactly Actually he's just downstairs. 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:04.200 Oh we are. 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:07.840 We are doing exactly that. We are bubbling together. We 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:09.280 have been for two months. 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:11.000 So you could you could I can. 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:13.120 Ask him in in twenty seconds. 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:16.960 Yeah, like you could theoretically just walk downstairs with me 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:21.000 on the phone and say, hey, Dad, does this spring 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:21.440 a bell? 0:08:22.520 --> 0:08:24.440 Let me you know one, let me try to do it. 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:25.760 I'm going downstairs. 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:27.640 I'm going downstairs, all right, great. 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:29.880 Let's see. 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:41.599 Okay, Oh, hey Dad, do you remember after the funeral 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:47.200 of Pierre Elliott Trudeau meeting up with Fidel Castro? 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:50.959 Okay, more specific. 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:54.400 Jonathan, they would have had dinner at a restaurant in 0:08:54.480 --> 0:08:55.280 Old Montreal. 0:08:56.160 --> 0:09:00.800 Do you remember having dinner in Old Montreal and Fidel 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:03.160 Castro was there? 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:05.920 The only thing I remember. 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:12.360 This is a friend of mine who's doing a podcast. 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:15.079 This is not some kind of gotcha anything like this. 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:21.720 Would you be willing to answer his questions about twenty 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:22.480 five years ago? 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:24.800 You can talk to the man himself. 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:29.160 Sure, here it is, hello, mister Martin. 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:30.520 Hi, Hi are you? 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:31.160 I'm good? 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:33.200 Thank you so much for talking to me. This is 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:36.920 such a strange request. I don't know if Jamie explained 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:39.960 to you the podcast that I do. Okay, I do 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:44.960 this podcast where people write into me with some you know, 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:58.520 question or curiosity. Do you have any memory of having 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:01.439 had dinner with with Fidel Castro. 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:08.199 The only thing I can remember about about the Trudeau 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:18.800 funeral was I remember justin speaking over the coffin in 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:22.560 the church. Yeah, that's the only thing I can remember. 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:25.959 I can't remember really what I did before, and I 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:29.120 have no idea where I ate or what I did. 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:35.520 Now Here's the probably Jamie will tell you this. There 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:39.680 are a lot of things that I might have done 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:44.640 twenty five years ago that I I just don't remember 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:46.120 that I might have done. 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:50.360 Do you think that it's just that you know, you've 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:53.680 you've met so many important people over your life that 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:56.000 Fidel Castro doesn't stand out. 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:59.400 Or it's conceivable that if I had met Fidel Castro 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:02.920 that I would not remember it, because you meet a 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:07.480 lot of people. If, on the other hand, if I 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:14.840 had said supper with Fidel Castro, then there's a at least. 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:16.800 A fifty to fifty chance I would remember it. 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:22.679 I wonder if you don't remember because you just it 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:25.560 didn't happen, or you don't remember just because you'd you know, 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:27.440 you just don't remember a lot of this stuff that 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:28.439 happened so long ago. 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:33.720 Well, I think I suspect I suspect it I don't 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:36.160 remember because it didn't happen, Huh. 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:37.040 I think if I. 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:39.400 Would have had a one on one with Castro, I 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:42.080 would remember that. I think if if I'd been at 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:46.200 a dinner where Castro was listen, I've been I hate 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:47.520 to say it this way, but I've been at so 0:11:47.559 --> 0:11:51.360 many of those dinners where so many people renown are 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:53.600 that they don't stick. 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:54.480 Huh. 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:59.040 Do the meetings with people of you know, renown, like 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:02.520 famous politics and such, do they have a longer shelf 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:05.280 life than the memories than the intimate memories, you know, 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:08.640 memories of like your your your kids and stuff like that. 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:12.840 No, no, no, not at all. And I suspect that 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:18.000 if you reflect on this conversation and twenty five years 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:23.880 from now, what you remember is the event, not in 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:28.240 the significance of the event in terms of a historic thing, but. 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:32.400 As opposed to the people. 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:34.720 So that you know, if. 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:35.400 I met. 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:41.880 If I met somebody at a rocket launch, it's conceivable 0:12:41.920 --> 0:12:44.640 I would remember the rocket launch and I would not 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:49.120 remember the people that were there. Be quite honest, I 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:51.640 do not remember meeting Vane Lchestra. 0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:55.840 Okay, that's that's uh, that's that is good enough. I 0:12:55.840 --> 0:12:58.560 feel like I've traveled quite a ways to answer this 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:00.640 guy's question. I made it all the way. You and 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:04.480 uh and I and I promise you in twenty five 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:06.559 years I will remember our conversation. 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:10.880 Yeah, well, I promise you in twenty five years I 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:12.120 won't be here to confirm it. 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:27.280 But are you hold Adam? 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:27.680 And right? 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:30.760 Yes, this is Jonathan. 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:37.600 This is Jonathan Goldsteen speaking. That's incredible he recognized my voice. 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:41.480 Of course, I'm so touched. 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:48.760 That's incredible. Holdly man, I think you're gonna call. 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:50.320 You're not crying, are you? 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:53.040 I'm just about yeah. 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:58.520 Oh that's very sweet of you. H After after receiving 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:02.240 your email, I kind of I set to work on it. Okay, 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:05.000 So on my end, Okay, so what caught my eye 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:09.120 in your email? Was you mentioned Prime Minister Paul Martin. 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:12.000 Yeah, and I have. 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:25.960 A friend who has a connection to Paul Martin's. I mean, 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:28.240 this is a long way to go to tell you 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:33.520 that I come bearing bad news. I wasn't able to 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:36.800 verify it from Paul Martley. 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:42.200 Yeah, it's fully understandable. Yeah, yeah, you know, maybe it 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:44.120 was a guy that looked a lot like Astro. Who 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:48.680 knows that I haven't even told anyone for years about 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:51.160 it actually, because you know, you just get that sort 0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:53.520 of irol, you know, like because it's just you know, 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:56.240 it just you know, it just doesn't come off right. 0:14:57.000 --> 0:14:59.560 I'll tell you something else. Actually, when when I spoke 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:02.120 to Paul art and one of the things that he 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:05.360 said is that his memory of his kids. That is 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:09.480 more vivid to him and more easily accessible than you know, 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:12.200 his memory of statesman and famous people. 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:15.360 Right, that makes sense. You know. 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:19.000 I did web design for a few years and now 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:23.760 I've gone back to working with seniors and people will remember, 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:27.520 you know, things that don't reflect in the history books. 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:31.240 You know, people remember their husbands or wives and kids. 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:38.080 And do you have kids. I've got a little son, yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:41.320 Have you ever told him this story about meeting Castro? 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:42.920 No? 0:15:43.760 --> 0:15:46.440 But you think your son, right, like, your son would 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:51.400 believe you, right, You think that's what kids are for. 0:15:52.040 --> 0:15:53.880 They're so naive, they're so believing. 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:55.840 Yeah, well, you know I won't tell him. 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:58.440 Yeah, well you have to explain to him who Castro 0:15:58.600 --> 0:15:59.080 is first. 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:02.800 Yes, I would. 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:08.680 Yeah, Hey, listen, you know I will say that. You know, 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:12.600 I believe you. 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:14.680 Thank you, yoke. 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:19.440 Do you think that you're going to remember this conversation 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:43.280 that we're having now twenty five years from now. This 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:46.600 episode was produced by Stevie Lane, Khalila Holt, and me 0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:50.400 Jonathan Goldstein. It was mixed by Catherine Anderson, with music 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:55.080 by Trebon's Blue Dot Sessions and Bobby Lord. Heavyweight returns 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:58.200 with a full new season on September thirtieth. 0:16:58.840 --> 0:16:59.560 We'll see you soon.