The Agenda with Steve Paikin (Audio) - Who is The Agenda's last guest?

Episode Date: June 28, 2025

The Agenda is coming to an end after 19 seasons. We present the show's final guest: Steve's dad.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news. So I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner and I'm back with season three of On Drugs. And this time it's going to get personal. I don't know who Sober Jeff is. I don't even know if I like that guy.

On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. When you've been fortunate enough to host the agenda for 19 years, there's a lot of thought that goes into this question. Who should be the program's last guest ever? Our team here, led by executive producer Stacey Dunceyth, kicked around a lot of possibilities for weeks. Who's the guest who would be more than a subject matter expert, who would bring some additional meaning to the role? Well, we think we've made a pretty good choice,

even though he's never been on this program before. And so we are pleased to introduce the last guest ever on the agenda. His name is Larry Pakin, and he's my dad. Hi dad, there we go. Hello son. I noticed right away off the top that you obviously, your sense of humor is intact. You're on the final show of The Agenda,

and you're wearing some Studio Two swag that I gave you 20 years ago. Yeah, and I'm proud of it. Okay, let's start. We're gonna do, this could be a bit of a different interview and I guess we should say off the top here, I offered you something that I have never offered another guest in the history of this program and that is the right to look at the questions

ahead of time just to make sure that you were copacetic with everything and you said, don't need them. Let's wing it So we're gonna wing it. Okay, wing wing. Here we go. How is life at age 91? So far so good. No complaints. How do you feel? Oh I'm driving And I'm cooking for myself Still living in your own home. Yep. Yep. Going out? A lot.

Yeah? You and your brother take good care of me and my grandchildren. And I do remember you telling me once upon a time that it's getting harder to socialize with your friends because a lot of them are dying. A lot of them are gone. When you're 91, the cupboards bear when you're looking for your old buddies. Gotcha. Are you still working at all?

Yeah. You are. What are you doing? Well, I have, I actually had a small office before COVID out of the apartment about a mile away in which I was selling industrial locomotives and railroad equipment to factories. And then when COVID came, I couldn't go to the office, so I moved everything into the apartment, and I'm on the computer and the telephone four or five hours a day.

No kidding. Still trying to hustle railway cars. Absolutely. Why do you still do it? Do you need another locomotive? Thanks, I'm good. I'm good. Because if you do, give me a toot. I know who to call.

Locomotives.net, right? That's your website. Why do you still work at 91? You know, it must be 50, maybe 60 years ago, when your mother was president of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, we had for a Mother's Day concert the conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, who was at the time probably 75 or 80. Would this have been Arthur Fiedler? Arthur Fiedler.

OK. And it was an afternoon concert. It was before Hamilton Place was built. So the orchestra rented the McMaster Gym, had the great concert in the afternoon. And Dave and Liz Martin, who Dave was vice president. And Marty and I took Arthur Arthur Fedler to Shakespeare's for supper in Hamilton.

Is that a good enough plug for them? And I said to Arthur Fedler, Mr. Fedler, when do you plan to retire? I mean, you're approaching 80. And he said, young man, you die. No, you retire. You expire. And I've never forgotten that.

And I have also read that people who retire early with no specific project to involve them, they tend to die early. And it's wonderful. I'm talking to people all over the North American continent every day. Still engaged. And loving it. Good. And making a little bit of money on the side. Doubly good. Yes. You were born in 1933, which means you have seen a lot during the course of your lifetime. And I wonder if you could tell us what you think is sort of the most amazing or astonishing thing around the world that you have seen in your life. Probably the cell phone.

When I was on the... I took the GO bus from Hamilton to Union Station today to get here. And then the subway. And everybody, everywhere, sitting down on the bus or the subway was on, including me. We were all on our cell phones. You're inseparable from the thing, I have to say. Yeah, I'm on it all the time. Yeah, which I don't mind when you send me Sinatra videos.

That's kind of nice. I like that stuff. What in your lifetime has given you the most joy? Well, I was going to say your brother, but I... But without any doubt, my two boys. Both boys? I'm sorry to tell you, but it's both boys. Both boys, okay.

Sheldon, you want to put that, okay, pick number two up there, please? Because I was really kind of hoping that it would be, you know, me. That's me. Look at the love. Come on. Yeah. Boy, oh boy.

And I was the first born. Yeah. So do I get top billing or what? For the first two years you do. That was it. And then What's His Name came along. I thought as well you might, and go ahead Sheldon, let's bring the next shot up too, you are the scion, S-C-I-O-N, of four generations of pagans right now.

I think you're the oldest pagan alive, actually. And there you are with me on the right and my oldest son, Zach, in the middle, and his actually newest child, that's his baby Moe. And there's four generations right there. Yeah. That's not bad. and his actually newest child, that's his baby Mo, and there's four generations right there. That's not bad. Yeah, that's pretty good.

And your son, who lives in Geneva, Switzerland, FaceTimes me with his kids once a week. Doesn't matter what I'm doing. Three kids, four and younger. Yeah, and my phone rings and it's a picture It doesn't matter what I'm doing. Three kids, four and younger. Yeah. And my phone rings and it's a picture of my great-granddaughters and my great-grandson. Excellent. You, I think it's fair to say, always taught my brother and me to be very supportive and

bullish about Hamilton, the city of our birth. And you were born and raised in Hamilton as well. Born and reared. Excuse me., yes indeed. You've seen a lot of changes in that city over 91 years and I wonder what you think of Hamilton today. The thing that you know Hamilton's got the reputation of having the worst streets in the country in terms of pavement and rideability. But that's not it. It's the homelessness.

It's the wretchedly desperate homeless people who are on the street corners. Their life's assets are in a little shopping wagon that they pull. And it's like that everywhere, of course. But to me, in Hamilton, that's the greatest tragedy. It's the most upsetting thing. And nobody knows what to do.

It isn't even a question of, well, give them homes. Some of them don't want homes. Give them a bed, and you find a place for them. And you're involved in a project in Hamilton for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts. And some people don't want to be helped. And that I find the most distressing and I guess the biggest change in Hamilton from when I was a kid. Agreed. Never saw it when I was a kid either.

Yeah. Okay, we are going to get a little more personal here, okay? Because you were married to your wife, my mother, for almost 66 years until she died a year and a half ago at age 87. Sheldon, if you would, the picture of there they are. Marnie and Larry Pakin. Her mother lived to be 99, her grandmother lived to be 94. She had two aunts live into their hundreds, so we all figured she was going to be around for a very long time. Listen, she had an aunt in New York who lived to 108 alone. And when she was much younger, was an extra neighbor of Babe Ruth. And when Marnie went to sea to visit with her parents to her aunt in New York, Babe Ruth put her on his shoulders.

He got down on old fours, I think, and she rode him. And ran around with her like a little horse. Yeah. I wonder how many times you catch yourself during the course of any day saying, damn it, why isn't Marty here to see all this? Oh, every minute, every hour. Yeah. She should be sitting here right now, every hour.

Yeah. In fact, she should be sitting here right now, not me. She had far more things to talk about. I think one thing you and I can agree on is that she's the most impressive person either one of us has ever met. Right on. You know that getting her to marry you when she was only 20 is probably the greatest thing you ever achieved in life.

No kidding. Yes. Now, conversely, let's bring up the next shot here, Sheldon. This is little Larry. That's you as a child with your dad in the tie and just the shirt at the left of the shot and your grandfather at the right of the shot. Your dad died at 51. Your mom died at 74. and here you are at 91.

Do you ever ask yourself how does this make any sense? Well my sister Myra is 86 and she lives in Phoenix and she's vital and strong and healthy. And you two talk every week? Yeah. You do? Yeah. Nice phone call on Sunday every week. But do you ever wonder, how did I make it to 91? And you were a sickly kid too. But you can't wonder those things.

I mean, whatever, you know, Charlie Short, who was Martin Short's father, lived a couple of blocks from us, used to jokingly have this expression, consomme salat, what will be will be. Right on. And you can't try and figure anything out. What do you still want to accomplish in life? I guess the main rationale for wanting to get up in the morning and not see your name in the obits is watching what your kids and your grandkids and your great grandkids are becoming and are progressing. And is everybody okay?

One of the things that I'm truly grateful for is growing up in a household where both parents were sports maniacs. And you and I, actually, my mom too. My mom and I went to Fenway for my 50th birthday. But I remember, we started baseball road trips. I think the first one was to Jerry Park in Montreal, when I was probably 13 years old. And then you asked me, what do you want to do when I graduated high school?

What do we do to celebrate? And I said, Fenway Park, baby. Well, and I said, if you're an Ontario scholar, we'll go. So you got your new grade 13 Ontario scholar, and we went to Fenway. Which just means I got 80% average. Yeah, well, okay. So I've been a Red Sox fan for 50 years. There were no Blue Jays yet, just so people don't go down my throat on this.

And we got, come on Sheldon, bring up the next shot here. Okay, there's us. On our first trip to Fenway Park, we got this button made, you and I both in our Jim Rice and Carl Yastremski t-shirts there. And then, how about a shot in the field? There's the green monster in the background, you in the left, me on the right.

We've got our gloves, we got our red sock shirts, and we recreated that shot two years ago. When we went back to Fenway, I don't know how many times we've been there. We've been there a lot. And there we are, a few years older, with the Green Monster in the background. And I just wonder, and of course, over the years,

we've included some of my kids, my brother, some of his kids, and all of these baseball road trips. And it's been just like a glorious family thing to do I know it's done for me. What's it done for you? I Don't know how I Could find a more enjoyable way of spending time with my family than doing that it It's just the most fun you can have.

And we've had fun doing other stuff, whether it's up north or whether it's in the big cities. But this tops them all. Going to sports events with your kids where you're sharing your cheering is just a lot of fun. There's something about baseball as well because of course there are long stretches where not much is happening. You can talk. You can talk. That's right. What you can't do at the Raptors are Leafs. That's a little tougher to do.

Yeah. Okay. Final question here. Here is a picture of your two sons at our first ever Toronto May Believe hockey game. You on the left, my brother Jeff in the middle, me on the right looking like I've just been in a fight in a hockey game. This is 1966. And Sheldon, let's flip the next picture up as well. There's you in the middle. That's my very baby brother Jeff in your right arm. And my favorite child, Clipper, the golden retriever.

Well, that was going to be my next question, which is, which of your children do you love the most? Well, Clipper gave me the most undivided attention. The most joy, eh? Well, yes, of course. This was kind of fun, at least for me. How'd you find it? Well, if it doesn't work well, if the producer and their bosses say this is a terrible show,

they can't fire you. They're canceling the show, right? The show's wrapping up. Yeah, they've already canceled the show. Yeah, there we go. There we go. So this was a lot of up. Yeah, they just already canceled the show. Yeah, yeah, there we go. There we go. So this was a lot of fun. Good, I'm glad you thought so.

I should say one last thing, which is, you are the finest man I've ever met. And I'm so glad you're my dad. And that's it. Thank you. And I can't tell you how proud I am of you. More than Jeff? Very good.

That's Larry Pakin, my dad. Oh, how? How, how? That didn't hurt a bit.