Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Canadian Podcast Awards Peeps: Toronto Mike'd #1425

Episode Date: February 7, 2024

In this 1425th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with John Leschinski and Jennifer Lanktree from the Canadian Podcast Awards about what they are, what it all means and why we should care. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Advantaged Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada and Electronic Products Recycling Association. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 1425 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. RecycleMyElectronics.ca Committing to our planet's future means properly

recycling our electronics of the past. The Advantage'd Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada. Valuable perspective for Canadian investors who want to remain knowledgeable, informed, and focused on long-term success. And Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, to answer my many questions about the Canadian Podcast Awards

is John Leshinsky and Jennifer Lanktree. How did I do with those last names? Terrific. Okay. I was not too worried about Lanktree. I don't know how to butcher that even if I tried, but Leshinsky. I'm like, is that a hard chuh? Do I go with the with the cha but it's Leshinsky yep you got it all right nice to meet you too yeah you as well almost 1,500 episodes that's quite a feat you should have held out for number 1,500 it's gonna be a big milestone so you're fit but if you got a kind of a round number 1425 yeah mm-hmm so Jen if you want like another tattoo you could get 1425 somewhere and that could commemorate your Toronto mic debut.

Sounds good. All right, I want to know who you are. Like this is maybe the least I've ever known about anybody in the basement here. Let me start with you, John. Again, we're going to talk about the Canadian podcast awards because on this program I've asked many questions aloud. Al Gregor has been on, he's won these awards and we chatted about what are they, what do they mean, and then of course PodCamp, 20th and Louis, you're reading your shirt, PodCamp Toronto is coming up and I want to find out what that's about and I want to find out, have a little podcast discussion. But John, who the heck are you? Just give us a little bio. Well, I'm a graphic designer and web developer here in Toronto. I'm originally

from the Fort Francis, which is up near Thunder Bay. I made the move down here quite a few years ago and I've been involved in the podcasting community since pretty much the get-go. So I've been involved in PodCamp London, I've attended PodCamp Michigan, and then I joined the PodCamp Toronto board and eventually I was the one left over to run it and from there we started the Canadian Podcast Awards. Okay, so you've gotten early on the podcast game. What do you call early? I'm just curious, if you had to spit a calendar year at me, what year are you sort of diving

into the world of podcasting? Well, it would have been before I moved to Toronto. So that would be, it was probably like the first or second year of podcasting. That was like a thing. Okay. So I, cause I always think, so I remember producing the humble and Fred podcast in December 2006 and fairly not too long before that podcasts were added to iTunes. So like this was the big moment. And I remember I would listen to like a Ricky Gervais podcast and some of these

early birds So are you in on it like around that time? Well, I don't know if this helps the listeners figure it out, but The podcast that I first got interested in was like Keith and the girl which is a very early podcast in the podcast ecosystem And you know, there was two what was the podcast ranking list what was it that everyone was fighting over back then oh we always need something to fight over yeah I forget what it was called and you would vote yeah you would have your listeners vote on which is the top podcast and every every month it would podcast alley right okay so you're an OG here okay now

Jennifer who the heck are you what's going on I love the I love your hair I told you you got like purple green hair are you? What's going on? I love your hair. I told you, you got like purple green hair. Is that natural? What's going on there? Well, I'm part mermaid, but no, I just did it a couple of years ago. It was something fun for the pandemic and it's kind of stayed since then. Part of your brand now. Yeah.

And okay. And Lanktree. Like, what is the root of Lanktree? Is that like, is that some old British term or something? Like, is that a British name? Do you know? I believe it's Scottish, but it's actually my ex-husband's last name. And I just never bothered, you know, once you have everything in your name, it's kind of a pain. And once you're a Lank tree, you're forever a Lank tree. Like why would you change that?

Like that is the greatest last name I've ever heard. I mean, Leshinsky and me, we're like, we wish we were Lank Tree. Okay, so ex-husband. So, okay. So you're not, you weren't born a Lank Tree. No, my maiden name is Down and that's from me. That's not bad. So it's okay, but it led to some tea things. You could have kept a hyphen like Down Lank Tree. Like that's kind of cool. Yeah. So Jennifer, who the heck are you when you get into the podcasting world? Cool. Okay, so Jennifer, who the heck are you

when you get into the podcasting world? So I am also an early adopter of podcasts and the podcasting community. Not a podcaster myself, but I've always been involved in meetups and I was in at around 2006 as well, listening to Keith and the Girl and the Harry Potter podcasts.

I'm missing out on Keith and the Girl. What was Keith and the Girl about? It was a daily podcast where they would just kind of talk about their lives as party clowns. Like they would do children's entertainment. It was a couple cast. It was one of like the first couple caps like Donna Drew style. Where was it out of like New York City? Okay it's funny New York. Okay so you've seen that documentary, you might have seen the documentary Capturing the Freedmen's.

Okay, so this is one of the great documentaries, okay? We're going back a little bit here. I don't know how far back am I going? I can't tell you my 20 years at least, but Capturing the Freedmen's started out as a documentary about like children's entertainers in, I think in New York, and they had this one guy who was like the leading clown or whatever. And then it turned out he was a Freedman. I can't remember his first name right now,

but it turned out like there's a whole like family dysfunction going on. They discovered and that became the documentary instead. So I sort of revisit this once in a while, this documentary. So I feel like I know the top, you know, birthday clown in New York. That's my connection here.

Okay. So Keith and the girl, are they still recording? They are actually. Yeah. They did five days a week for a long time. They were one of the first podcast episode of the episode of 12,000. They're in the two thousands. What? Maybe around, I think probably more than that. No, but they go on and off of doing it from weekly to up to five days a week. So the pandemic, they sort of, uh, cut their episode count down, but see, I here, so I'm, we're going to have a great, a week. Since the pandemic, they sort of cut their episode count down. But see, I here as well, we're going to have a great like anything's on the board here, podcasting wise.

But I personally would prefer that Keith and the girl be Toronto people. Like my my my craving for those kind of like I like it when they oh, yeah, you know, we got stuck on the 401 and you know, it's like I really dig local references I can relate to like I have it my one of my pet peeves is all these big podcasts people are into they're so American. Like I'm not anti American but I'm very pro Canadian I really do like a homegrown podcast so maybe Keith and the girl need to relocate. They've come to Canada to do a show actually over at TMU.

They set up a little show over there at the Imperial Pub and stuff. So they've been to Canada. They'll do road trips. Yeah. Okay. So Jennifer, you said you don't actually podcast yourself. You're just very involved in the space.

That's right. Yeah, I'm a community builder. I like bringing people together and planning events around it. It's true. We've never crossed paths. That's because no community wants me. I'm the outsider. But John, do you podcast yourself? I forgot to ask you.

No, I'm just, I'm also a community builder. I got involved in the space because of my web development and design background. I saw a need for, you know, better websites, better design around these events. So I landed my hand in there and sort just fell into the space in there. And you're now technically you're you're a community builder yourself. Yep. So you and Jennifer, so were you two fast friends? You just realized you were both, you had a lot in common. What's your relationship like? Well we met through the Keith and the Girl podcast. Yeah so we originally met at a meet up. This is a Keith and the Girl episode. I'm going to rename it. This is all about Keith and the Girl. That's how we met.

We both attended a Keith and the Girl meetup and we met there and then eventually a couple years later she got divorced and I was there to scoop her up. So this is what I was kind of hinting at, but I can't come right out. I was wondering, is there a romantic involvement between John and Jennifer? Yes. We've been together for 13 years. See, I didn't know that. And OK, now, now, now I realize you she became a free agent and you signed her up and look at you.

OK, so I'm trying to think. OK, so, you know, link, you know, sorry, Lanktree, right? I was called you link tree. I think we could change a little bit here. But I know once that came out, it was a little bit jarring when I would see it every time. Like what? Oh, it doesn't say my say my name okay John and Jen are a couple okay this is answering a lot of my questions here now so let us dive into I mentioned that the Canadian podcast awards comes up on this show but they didn't really start coming up every time Al Grego comes on he's come on like professionally because he produces shows for Meneris and Meneris would sponsor this program but he'd also come on as Al Gregor because he's a great FOTM, which means

friend of Toronto Mike. John and Jennifer, you're now FOTM. Excellent. So there's an, in fact, there's another, you mentioned TMU because we're going to talk later about a pod camp, but you're involved now in another TMU, the Toronto Mike universe. So a couple of TMU is for you here. So Al would come on and he'd be like, yeah, I want an award. Also, I produced a show for Larry Fedorik that would want an award. And it's like, all these people are winning these awards. And then I'm like, I was never, I don't think I was nominated. And then I was like, well,

what does this mean? Like, uh, anyone can just one day wake up and say, I'm starting the Bonanza podcast awards and this is a big deal. And then what does it mean if you don't understand what it's all about? And then I got nominated. I got nominated for two Canadian podcast awards, outstanding personal series and outstanding news and current event. I'm sorry, current affairs series. So now I'm nominated. So now I'm like, oh, like I'm going to just make a bunch of noise about being nominated, even though I don't know what these things are, like who's behind them, what it means. I got people like FOTM like Gene Vallaitis telling me some guy in his North York basements

just pulling this out his ass. And I'm like, well, we don't know that gene, let me see if I can get answers to these questions. So now, John, Jennifer, please tell me about the Canadian podcast awards. Who wants to go first? Well, I'll just first say it's not from our basement. We live in a second story. You're in a basement right now. Like to me, that's not an insult to say this comes out of a basement. A basement in Toronto means you're a multimillionaire.

What's going on there? OK, go on, John. No, I think in a few years ago, so this will be our sixth year that we just wrapped up, we saw a need for, you know, some sort of recognition system for Canadian content creators, especially with, you know, how big the American scene is, a lot of us can get drowned out. So along with PodCamp Toronto, we decided to put together an award system that's

industry focused. So you have to be a Canadian and a podcast creator or involved in the podcast creating industry in Canada to participate, to hopefully uplift Canadian content so that it gets more recognition outside of Canada and within Canada, and to hopefully bring together Canadian podcasters. Okay, so far I like what I hear because you're a hundred percent right

that it is tough to cut through the noise coming from south of the border. I mean, we hear, we're inundated with smart list signed this deal and Joe Rogan signed that deal and we're just completely inundated with these high budgeted big league podcasts coming out from the United States. It's very difficult to cut through the noise, right Jennifer? Yes. So that's why we put this together. We want to be able to help people network together, understand that it does take a community to raise up everyone. It's been really hard bringing people together at first,

but the last couple of years we've really noticed an uptick in people wanting to get involved, letting other people know about the awards. And, you know, that's our main thing. We just want to bring people together. Okay, so your your motivation here is to raise awareness that there are good podcasts being produced in our very own country. Yes, 100%. And there's a lot of great podcasts that we recognize every year. I wouldn't say there's any winners that we wouldn't stand behind as being great podcasting Canada.

So if you want to check out a new Canadian podcast, you know, head over to our website at Campod Awards dot C.A. to find someone that's Canadian that you can listen to that maybe is in your backyard. OK, let's get specific here.

OK, so how are the nominees determined? Like go in the weeds with me here. Can anybody just go to your website and then say, you know, I'm going to nominate Humble and Fred for best comedy podcasts? Like, how exactly does it work? No, so you have to be to sign up. You have to be Canadian and work in the industry. So that's the first barrier.

So the industry being podcasting. Yeah. Yeah. OK. So, of course, you. Well, the industry being podcasting, right? Yep. Okay. So of course you wouldn't sign up for, you wouldn't want to be nominated if you didn't have a podcast. Yep. Okay. So then you would nominate yourself and other podcasts that you know and work with in the various categories. And then the podcasts with the most nominations make it into the next

cut. Okay. So, you know, you can nominate any Canadian podcaster, but you have to be a podcaster to nominate? You can't just be a listener. Yes, they're industry awards. So you too can't nominate anybody, because you don't have a podcast?

You have to work in the Canadian podcasting industry. So when you sign up to be a member, you select which category you belong to, and all the information like that. Production or stuff like that. So you sign up, and now you have a login. What's the URL again for this website? Can pod awards dot ca.

Okay can pods can pod awards dot ca. You've now got a login and you can then you can nominate for all the categories you can nominate podcasts that you think are worthy of nomination. Yep. Yeah, whatever podcast categories that they fit in, their tags, like according to your iTunes tags and things like that. Yeah. So that's how we determine what categories they fit in is your self identified categories.

OK, so now I'm here. Now I realize I've been hurting myself because I never like tell people to nominate me for a Canadian Podcast Award. Like, so I feel like, you know, popular shows are gonna, I know Al does this, they're gonna be like, not stuff the ballot box, but encouraging anyone who can get a login to nominate your show so that you can make that noise.

Like that PR move I did when I wrote a blog entry and I said several times, I said, Toronto Mike is nominated for Canadian podcast awards and I got so many congratulations. I said I'm nominated for outstanding personal series and outstanding news and current affairs series and I got so many congratulations. People don't really care what it means, they just like really are happy for you that you've been recognized by any organization as having a decent podcast. Yeah.

And it's a great way to promote yourself as well. Like you can say I was nominated for an award and that might hold some weight with, you know, sponsors or other podcasters that you want to have come on your show or celebrities. Yeah, it really helps. And this year we've seen a lot of our winners, you know winners break into the top 100 of iTunes charts because of the awards. So you've noticed a bump. Oh yeah.

A post award bump. It's like after the Grammys when you find out, oh, Joni Mitchell's streams went up, you know, 1,600%. Yeah, 100%. Okay, look at that. Okay, so six years in, you said for the Canadian Podcast Awards? Yep. Okay, why the hell haven't I won yet? Is it because I'm not getting the listenership to stuff the ballot box?

I guess kind of, yeah. It is very participation-based, so you need to have people come vote for you who are in the industry. And we see, you know, usually people that win are the people who have like the most connections with it in their circles. So like, and podcasts with like a lot of people that work on them as well have a good chance. That's a good point, too, because these unwashed normies are no good to me, right? It's like, no, I think that's why I can't. Oh, Al, you have a you have a vote and Al does vote because Al does legitimately love Toronto Mike. And have you guys met Al Greggo? Yeah, we have. Yeah. A few times. Jennifer doesn't remember him. He's a cuddly one, Jennifer. So if you saw a cuddly looking dude, not that he's little, but if you see a cuddly dude, that's Al Greggo.

John, when did you encounter FOTM Al Greggo? Probably would have been through a pod camp, one of the pod camps. I think we've met him through pod camp. He walks the walk, right? Like he's trying to help build the podcast. I think we've met him through the walk, right? Like, yeah, he's a, he's trying to help build the community and I'm all focused on the FOTM. So I feel like, um, I need to be more involved in these things. So we are going to, at some point very soon, we are going to talk about pod camp Toronto. Is that a free con? I know you call it an unconference, but that's so, you know, cheese ball, but it's free, right? Yes. Okay. It's a pay what you can. Uh, you can certainly pay nothing for it, but it's a, you know, cheese ball, but it's free, right? Yes. Okay. It's a pay what you can. Uh, you can certainly pay nothing for it,

but it's a Homer symptom. Do you remember the substitute teacher episode of the Simpsons? One of my favorite episodes and they went to the museum and it's like, pay what you can and Homer was so excited. It was free. Yeah. And Mr. Bergstrom of course coughs up a, I don't know what $20 bill or something like that, but it says, pay what you can. And that, that equals free to Homer Simpson, right? Yeah, it was free to a lot of people

Okay, so how long you two been dating 13 years? Okay, so it was love at first podcast essentially here pretty much Okay, I like to hear these love stories that come out of the podcasting industry that that's it That's what you guys could have a podcast just on that premise alone I think but okay Then you could see like how it is from the other side, right? Like, cause you can't learn more about an industry by actually being one of them, right? It's have you considered the podcast? It's a lot of work.

Uh, I'm sure as you know, uh, and you know, you're following Kathleen Wynn. Okay. I was want you to know the 25th premiere of this fine province was sitting right in the John seat there Last episode. Yeah, I'm not a runner. So I don't have that kind of energy You should have given her 1425. You know what she got she was happy to get 1424 You let the chips fall where they may okay So just get a few like 101 nuts and bolts about pod camp and then we'll go into it in more detail later

But when is it? February 24th and 25th, and it is a pay what you can slash free event. It's completely donor and sponsor funded. We wanna make it accessible for everyone, students up to retirees attend each year, and we have people from all across the industry, hobbyists to professionals. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. It'll be at George Brown College this year at the School of Media and Performing Arts. Is that by a chorus key? Is that the one near Sugar Beach? It's 230 Richmond. Okay, because they're all over the place. Yeah, they have that complex there by the lake. Yeah, it's not it's not the lake one.

It's the one downtown St. James campus. Okay. So people need to register for this Yep, the registration will be open this weekend And the schedule will be out this weekend as well Okay You want to spit out the URL that people can go to this weekend to register for pod camp? Toronto a free two-day event known as an unconference

Yep, it is pod camp Toronto calm Okay, nice and easy pod camp Toronto calm. Yep, it is podcamptoronto.com. Okay, nice and easy. Podcamptoronto.com. Okay. So, uh, I'm now naturally curious in exploring a little further the difference between podcasting here in Canada and in the United States. I talked about that, you know, wall of noise we have to cut through. Now, I will say I focus on GTA stuff.

So I think that's maybe a result. Like, so I'm not trying to, you know, you know, I know, many podcasters here in Canada, of course, want, you know, a heavy presence in Texas or California and stuff, because that's where all the people are, but I chose a different route. But like, maybe start a few, John, but like, what, like, why do we hear about all this money flying around in the United States for podcasting when I don't quite see Even you know a 10% because we're 10% of the populace. I don't quite see the equivalent here. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places What do you say about the difference between podcasting in the United States and here in Canada? Yeah, I don't know

Really what the difference is obviously the markets bigger there. So they have a lot more Companies they're willing to invest in the eco space but here it's it seems like it's really difficult to get even sponsors for shows. I mean you have a lot of sponsors and it's it's kind of crazy. I've it's a lot and for even like our events that we run like it's it's really pulling teeth to try and get sponsors to support our events and It's it's not like there's no value in these events You know you're connecting directly with the industry and with people who are you know potential consumers of your product? So, you know this year we have great sponsors like sure and pod stars coming on board to help us pod stars They that's not the logo on the bottom of the website.

Yeah, they connect you with guests that you might want to have on your show, like celebrities like Tim Russ from Star Trek Voyager or... And professionals across different... Do you pay for that? Because I've never, ever done this. They do have some... You can access them for free, but then they do have other community programs that you pay monthly to access different guests.

Okay. So we're going to bounce around and we will come back because I'm still exploring this then they do have other community programs that you pay monthly to access different guests. Okay. Okay. So we're going to bounce around and we will come back because I want, I'm still exploring this Canada versus us thing, but, and the sponsorship I want to speak to too, but, um, it seems like, and I, I mean, this is obvious, but until COVID I had a rule, like you had to be in the basement or I didn't want to do it. Like this was simply like to make sure I was like, satisfied. Like I just, for my own personal pleasure, because it's all about me over here. But I did put my name in the title of the show, so I feel like it's okay. That's all about me. But then cove it hit and a bunch of episodes were done remotely. And then

I started like I had a list of people who just geographically were never here, like from Kish to brother Bill. Like I had this list and then I'm like oh, I can knock off this list now because I'm going to do some remotes. And then to now I do kind of a mixture. Like I'd say the majority of episodes are in the basement, but I still will. Like I just had Pamela Wallen on and we did a zoom and I will still do like a remote conversation. I'm going to do one with Alfie Zappa Costa because the man composed the pizza

Nova jingle. You know, that's a big deal. I know you two are excited. I can tell you it's like, it's like, where am I? OK, we're going to talk about tears are not enough, which was recorded probably before your birth. But but that I think probably are these programs where they're like, hey, if you want to zoom with whom I got to pick on here, if you want to zoom with David Lee Roth or whatever, you know, we can like broker that where David Lee Roth will jump on a, I don't know, a 30 minute zoom with you. But it just seems like that's nice and all because you'll get a big bump from having

David Lee Roth. But it just seems, I don't know why it feels like it taints the whole, like the whole experience. It's like, this is just like, oh, they're handing you David Lee Roth on a platter to have a 30 minute zoom. I don't know. Am I, am I overthinking it? Is it all about the, the name recognition? Like this is just like, oh, they're handing you David Lee Roth on a platter to have a 30 minute zoom. I don't know. Am I, am I overthinking it? Is it all about the, the name recognition?

Is that the only way to move the needle here? I think that that is obviously going to help bring in people initially, but even if you are able yourself to get a guest, if you don't make the interview what it could be, it's going to fall flat anyway. So maybe you just need help sourcing the people, but you have those deep down questions you've always wanted to ask. Oh, sure. Diamond Dave. Now I don't know why I randomly just thought like, well, who's a U.S. celebrity who might be available? And I was thinking of David Lee Roth. Isn't it just like

you just randomly pull a name, but now I want to talk to David Lee Roth. Well, maybe hit up Podstars and they can help you out. I got to talk to Podstars here. Hook me up. I do know a lot of with remote. That's where I was going with remotes. It opened it up for this possibility. Like I think, you know, if you had to have people in your basement, then you're never probably going to get David Lee Roth on your

podcast, but if you are open to these remote conversations, there's a whole world of people who like will probably maybe jump on a zoom with you for 30 minutes instead of, you know, making the trek to your basement for 90. Yeah, 100%. And you know, these, with the economy, the way it is, these people need to be paid for appearances as well. So, okay, so, so are there people who will come on your podcast for a fee? Like, I don't want to sound naive, but I literally have never been asked

for a penny. 100% people will be paid to come on shows Usually celebrities, you know, they'll have an appearance fee for Even showing up to open a pizza joint or something. Yeah, they'll have an ad I get a podcast Okay, so jennifer like what kind of dollars like I mean if I want to share on my podcast What kind of dollars is it? I know you don't have an answer. Yeah, it's a rhetorical question I suppose but I guess this guess this is another discussion. Like, I don't know why I sound like I'm a naive child here

as I listen to myself in the headphones, but that seems to taint the whole thing too. It's like, oh, you got a great guest, but you cut him a check. I don't know why I'm so like dismayed. It's like finding out something about Santa Claus or something, like I'm all dismayed. Yeah, and not to like, I don't know, sound like combative or something, but do you not? No, but like, but you're accepting like sponsor money.

So is that tainting it? You're not doing it purely just for yourself. You're right. No, I sold out. So like these people, it's their career and you're asking for their knowledge perhaps or something. And certainly the same people. We work with some people who definitely accept appearance fees, but when they work with us, we're able to offer them something else and they don't take an appearance fee, you know? So,

even as a podcaster, like maybe you do pay for that initial contact with someone, but then you develop a rapport or they see, oh, actually this person is advertising my stuff. Like they enjoyed it or something. Yeah you know and everything is reciprocal nowadays so if you're not getting something out of it maybe you need to be given monetary compensation. See this you know you open my eyes okay so now let's face it there are Canadian podcasters who will have a big name guest they don't need to disclose it obviously there's no law that says you must disclose this, I'm assuming, but they paid for the appearance. This is happening in our country. Yeah. And I think it's been happening. I know. I just want to spell it out here. It's been happening for a long time. How much do I owe you guys? Oh, I just realized I will compensate

you. Okay. Because now I'm staring at the swag in front of you. So let me just tell you that there's no cash coming your way. I'm very sorry, but maybe you could sell your Palma pasta lasagna. Do you guys like Italian food? We love Italian food, especially from Palma pasta. Okay, look, you're good at this. Now, are you two cohabitating? Is that a personal question? Yes, we are for almost 13 years. Okay, okay. So that just tells me that you guys share the same freezer. Yeah, you only have to give us one lasagna.

Are either of you two vegan? I should have asked that before. Not vegan, no. I am vegetarian. Oh, so what's... Tell me... I used to know the answer, but is the difference like eggs and things like that? Kind of. And I'm very light vegetarian. I just don't eat actual meat because it kind of like sketches me out a bit. So it's not really any like moral thing or anything like that so I'll eat like gravy or like random things it's okay strict so here's this here's the problem and I know you came a long way to be here but in my freezer upstairs I actually only have right now a beef a meat lasagna from palma pasta and I can get you a vegetarian absolutely

can get you a vegetarian maybe I meet you you a vegetarian. Maybe I meet you and like I meet you, I bike over to TMU or I bike over to pod camp. Like sometime when you're kind of closer to the West End, I bike you a vegetarian lasagna. So you have an option here. You can leave this is like Monte Hall. Let's make a deal. You can leave my place today with a meat lasagna from Poma Pasta, which will be delicious for John but it'll take him several meals to take that down. Or I promise you, I can bike to you a vegetarian lasagna at a later date. These are your options and you don't even have to answer it to the end.

We would love to accept a meat one. Are you sure? I feel terrible that I didn't confirm with you. No, not at all. Okay. Anything from Palmas is great. All right. Does anyone on this episode drink beer? It's okay if you don't look. That's okay. That's the thing. Like I don't want to break Lake's brewery too though. Yeah. When they came up with that news beer. Yeah, I was at that launch party. Yeah. So were we? Yeah, I was there. Oh yeah. You were already in the corner. Yeah. Right. That's why we didn't talk to you because you were recording. So you were there. Okay, so I was trying to think how we never crossed paths, but we actually did why didn't you come up in?

You're recording. That's true, but I did it like three hours that day or something. Okay so I was yeah, I was invited by chorus to record at GLB brew pub and That was great except they pretty much like like the poor Amanda Capito and everything that was behind that got let go and they went in a Whole different direction since then even though it was Probably less than a year ago. We did that. I can't remember now Everyone's being laid off now, so it's not a great time and that's more podcasters, right? I guess yeah Have you noticed that like I know we we mentioned gene the latest earlier but a lot of the and I do produce a show for humble and Fred but a lot of the

Broadcasters we used to listen to on the radio have pivoted to podcasting because they don't need a terrestrial radio signal to podcast. Yeah. Yeah. It's an open medium. You know, anyone can do it. If they have the time and the resources to do it, it doesn't take much. You just have to be able to produce compelling content if you want to keep it going and make

a living doing it. But you need a good voice, John. Yeah, not my voice. Okay, you say that now I'm sad because I, I think you and I have similar equivalent voices. Jennifer, John and I, we can podcast even though we don't sound like Jesse and Jean, right? Well, I would say that you definitely

have a voice for podcasting. But John, I don't know if as much. My voice is garbage, she's saying. It's trash. Well, you can add a little compression maybe. And then so. OK, that's interesting that Jen would put you under the bus like that.

OK, so I think John's got a fine voice for podcasting and his content is king, right? Well, yeah, and that actually really is true. Like he said, you do have to have a bit of a voice. But I think if you at least the production and everything else is good as well, you know, it's not really about the voice itself necessarily. It's what the voice is saying. Well, I'm very happy to hear that. And maybe, maybe one day I'm going to win one of these Canadian podcast awards. Come on, listenership. We got to stuff that ballot box and make it

happen. Oh yeah. so to finish that thread, and then I'm going to come back to the gifts I have for you, because I have more. But after the nominations are down to like five, as I recall, you come down to the final five, then anyone with a login can vote for their favorite of the five in all the categories that you have. Yep, 100%.

They can go log in and vote for each one in each category and the ones that get the most votes first past the post. So it is. Yeah. Most votes wins. Have you ever had a tie? No, I don't think so. Has it been close?

Like if you had one of those like, oh, yeah, there's one by two votes. Yeah, there are like quite often like one vote separates them. What do you do in the event of a tie? I guess one of us would decide the winning vote. Or we would wait for it. Yeah, I guess. Oh my goodness. Yeah, I don't know.

It's never really come up. It's, I don't know. It's obviously probable, but it just really hasn't come up. Oh, and just another thing. So you, you unveil it all. Like it's a live stream, right? On YouTube, I suppose. And in advance, all nominees are asked to like submit like a acceptance speech.

So you've got you've got hundreds of acceptance speeches. And then you just drop in the so yeah, so just so if you want to know how the sausage is made, when people are saying, thank you for this award, what an honor it was to receive this from my peers. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. They're like saying that before they know they won. Yeah. I have a folder full of lies. Yeah. You've got a recording of me in there somewhere like thanking the Academy for my awards. I never won. Maybe I should edit that out in post. We'll get rid of that. Of course. Let people guess if I won or not. Okay. I have also for you to I have a measuring tape from Ridley funeral home to measure our coffins or yeah

You know be creative. I feel like you'll go first Jen. Make sure we get make sure we take care of John at Ridley funeral home Okay, definitely by the way, speaking of podcasts Brad Jones at Ridley funeral home has his own podcast and it's charming AF It's called life's undertaking and people can find it wherever you find podcasts. And I love Brad Jones' podcast. Yeah. And I think we're seeing a lot of that starting up again. So in the early days of podcasting,

we saw people using podcasts as a way to promote something else they were doing with Keith and the girl was, you know, she was a singer and he was a stand up comedian and they did clowning as a side gig. And now we're seeing more things happening where, you know, she was a singer and he was a stand-up comedian and they did clowning as a side gig. And now we're seeing more things happening where, you know, people like Ridley's Funeral Home is doing a podcast to promote their business. It's sort of a marketing channel we're seeing people using to promote something else that they're doing that actually will make them a living.

Preach into the choir here. And just before we get back to the difference of podcasting Canada and the United States, I would also recommend everybody listening subscribe to the Advantage Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada. Whether you manage your own investment plans or already work with a trusted financial advisor, the Advantage Investor provides the engaging wealth management information you value as you pursue your most important goals. So now you've shouted out a couple of podcasts beyond Toronto mic'd. I'm going to revisit the Canada versus US.

You talked about how difficult it is to get sponsors. Why do you think in this country, because I feel like there are sponsors here who would happily like sponsor a big American production, but here in Canada, we're producing good content and it's homegrown and much of it is independent. Why are sponsors so hesitant to support it financially? Yeah, I don't know, because it's, I guess it'd be for me, the same question as you know, why aren't there more startups here? Why aren't, why isn't there, you know, a bigger tech hub here like Silicon Valley in the states? It's just I don't know if there's that sense of innovation or like industry here around

this sort of stuff. Yeah. And do you think there's a bit of a brain drain like, you know, we often talk about what is they cancel the Avro and all these like really bright minds went to like Houston and worked on putting a man on the moon, essentially. Like they work for NASA. And I always think, okay, yeah, the big the big tech, you know, we have a Waterloo hub and everything and there's a bit of Silicon Valley North, but primarily the you go to

California like Led Zeppelin said, right? Yeah. Primarily the you go to California like Led Zeppelin said, right? Yeah, and I that is probably part of it as well because And I think we have very similar Geography, you know in Europe they have their own stuff and Other parts of the world they have their own stuff, but we're so close to the states our population is you know? So close to the border It's hard to watch in the same shit, like we have the same cultural touch points.

Yeah. And the only thing, you know, really separating us in the media is to CRTC and Cancon regulations. Okay, with none of which applies to podcasting. No, not yet. Okay, now I'm going to ask my next big question, which is why is there no and I know you might not have answers here, but we're just chatting. Why is it that I cannot play Led Zeppelin's going to California without risking, you know, being deplatformed because I, you know, there's no, there's no way to license music for a podcast like there is for radio.

Yeah, there's no easy way to do it. I think there are a few avenues to do it. I know James Crinoline has a guide on pod news dot net that talks about licensing music. But again, they might not see enough revenue from it. Like what would you be willing to pay to be able to play that song? Well, there's you know, so so can exist for here's an interesting tie tie in. So Ridley funeral home can play like if your favorite song is Led Zeppelin's going to California, they can play it at a funeral because they pay this so can thing similar to radio. Like the reason radio can play it is because of the, they pay the so fan so can licensing fee. It feels like there should be an, I'll make up numbers right now, but if they said, okay, for $250 a year,

you can like, you can play licensed songs on your podcast. I feel like many people, including me would happily, you know, fork over that as a business expense so that when I have a guest on who talks about how much they love Led Zeppelin's going to California, I can play a little bit of it. Yeah. And that would make sense. But I but I kind of doubt it would be $250. I think that's the problem. Like what would that be? Like, right, so what is the number where it becomes like,

you just, you know, an independent podcaster simply can't cough it up. Yeah, and I would imagine a lot of the charges come like per listen or whatnot. So you'd have to track that and submit that sort of information. The radio doesn't have that. And I know the difference. Obviously there's no on demand listening to the radio and I get the key difference, but I'm just,

I just wish. And I know I've had this chat with Alan cross and Robbie J with the ongoing history and new music where they've decided they can play like 20 seconds and they're going to like cross their fingers, but they're basing it on nothing. Yeah. And we see a lot of people doing that. Like we've... Fair use. Yeah. We've seen podcasters use licensed song as like their intro music for their show. And we've seen them had to go back and edit all of that out because they got a notice saying, you're not supposed to be doing this.

Well, I risk it every episode. Not the opening theme. That was an original by Illvibe, local rapper producer, but the closing theme to this very podcast even though these songwriters and the artists love the fact I play it every episode But I simply the algorithm doesn't know that or care about that and I get I could get knocked for that. I don't have the Legal right to play lowest of the lows rosy and gray on this episode Yeah, and we saw like when people were adding on to Spotify, we saw a lot more takedown notices coming out of that because of their algorithm picking up that these songs were being played. Right. So and that's important to like, just to be clear here that the great risk is that you get deplatformed by Spotify, like Spotify can simply just remove your show from their,

from their app. Yeah, yeah. But luckily, there's other apps out there to listen to podcasts on. Spotify isn't the only one. It's one of the big ones, but. Look, I'm banking on it, okay, John? Listen, there'll be that day where I just go, Toronto mic available everywhere except Spotify. What is your, Jen, what's your, Jen, can I call you Jen? Sure.

What is your podcast app of choice? Like if you, if you for your personal listening, I just listened through the Apple podcast app. I'm not fussy, but I'll complain about it. Every time you're an iPhone user. Yeah. So it came with the phone and it works and you're happy. Yeah. It's just the thing that I had since it started. So I'm not big on change.

There's no, you know, that's a good answer there. A lot of people use podcast, Apple podcasts. What about you, John? Uh, I use Spotify, uh, only because at my previous job, I was commuting between a windows machine at work and I had a Mac at home, so I needed a way to, you know, be able to cross platform my music and podcast listening. So you're a happy spot. If so, you won't be able to hear Toronto Mike when I get deplatformed.

That's disappointing to me here. I'll play it for them. I'll unsubscribe to them. And I know as I saw either of you ever heard an episode of Toronto Mike, be honest. Yeah, I have. Yes. Okay. Do you have a favorite?

Well, it was the last episode that I listened to the only episode you said, what am I? What am I walking into here? I need to hear one episode to get the vibe of this. Yeah, I was like, well, and he's talking to Kathleen Wynn. So let's see how this goes. Okay. How did it go? Yeah, no, it was good. It wasn't Monday. Yeah, no, it was a great interview. I enjoyed it. It's funny. I got a few notes from people who are like, uh, I love your show, man, but I'm not listening to Kathleen Wynn. It was like, I had the devil herself in the basement and I'm like, okay, you don't have to, A, you don't have to listen to every episode and B, you don't have to listen to any episode by the way.

And B, you don't have to tell me when you don't listen. Like this is a thing people like to do when I have somebody like a Kathleen Wynne on. Like they like to let me know they're skipping the episode. And I just think it's such an unnecessary thing to tell me. Just, why don't you just not listen? Well, we got a lot of the same stuff around the awards this year when someone won and their podcast that's fairly popular in Canada. And they saw that we had a rainbow

logo on our Twitter and they took a very high offense that we were supporting that cause. See, again, I know you're open to all Canadian podcasters But I would have a caveat like except for homophobes and racists and assholes It wasn't the podcast it was the listeners of that podcast who chimed in to tell him like, you know These guys are why and Z you guys have gone woke on those. It was it was just like a convoy podcast What was this? No, and it was a general podcast, but quite a popular one and I guess you know, is it from out west? Is it like an Alberta based podcast like I'm not sure actually

Yeah, I don't think I don't I think they're Ontario, but I'm not sure way up north then maybe yeah I mean pick on this podcast and I'm sure it was just a small portion of their listeners But you know how they can be very vocal and they want to be so Do you guys know the Sloan song coax me? Mm-hmm. Okay, you know how he sings? It's not the fan It's not the band. I hate it's their fans Yeah, I think that's a pretty common sentiment on all forms of media Yeah, you always hear about the toxic fan bases of anything that you could like. You know, there's always people that have to be the haters there to rile everything

up. Here's a mind blow for you because I know you didn't listen to this episode because it wasn't the Kathleen Wynn episode, but Chris Murphy was over here fairly recently and he disclosed the inspiration for that line. It's not the band I hate, it's their fans. You'll never guess it, but you can get a guess. You'd be shocked to find out which artist actually inspired that iconic line in Canadian rock and roll history. You want to take a shot at it? You won't get it, but it'd be fun for you to take a guess, both of you. Yeah, I don't know, tragically hip?

That's okay So that's the most popular guess to that question because it sounds like the hip and that is incorrect John any guess you want to take on Jennifer's the music person out of the two of us. So I'm gonna Throw a random one out there and I'll I Don't know Nard war see what don't think he sings actually, but okay. Kate Bush. Oh, okay. So there's a mind blow for you. What kind of music do you listen to, Jennifer?

Mostly, I guess, alternative rock, a lot of drag music. What is drag music? Like drag artists that produce music. So it can be whatever genre. It's just their individual music. Okay. And when you say alternative rock, are we talking, I know you're a much younger person than I am So probably not. Okay, you know, really? Let me take a look again. Okay, I think so

But you can't tell when someone has purple and red hair. It's like is there any white ones hiding in there? Okay, so what? Okay, now I feel better here. Do you want to name check some alt rock bands that you dig, Jennifer? Oh, gosh, now you're putting me on the spot. You know, I'm naturally curious. I think I asked Kathleen Wynn the same question, actually. Yeah, I guess like I was always into Matthew Good Band or like earlier, Marianas Trench, things like that. That guy's been on the show, Josh. Yeah, he's been on the show.

Right. He's been over. He co-wrote Call Me Maybe. Call Me Maybe maybe yeah, Carly Rae Jepsen. That's more John's wheelhouse. He's a pop girly. Yeah That's that's a big jam right there. Okay, so Matthew good band I can't remember if we canceled him or not and not that I cancel anybody but yeah, he was like semi canceled But it was kind of like celebrity canceled like, you know Oh, he was sleeping with women that he didn't love. And that's sort of like so I don't know if that's cancelable or not, but he's touring again. So, OK, yeah, I don't think he's still I think he's still off his label, but pulling a like an arcade fire or something like that.

Still still selling out on the road here. Oh, really? Are they? I feel like they're still going. Oh, I thought it kind of died out. No, I feel like feel like, well you know there was a lot of news when Feist left the tour in Europe or something just so she wasn't on the bill anymore because she was opening and then I think they still perform live and they still have legions of fans that come out and see Arcade Fire. Interesting yeah I saw the one tour people were like didn't know and they showed up and they were like, why is it empty here? What is going on? And then they found out Okay, so Matthew good band. I was a big Matthew good fan, too. I

Saw them open I guess it was like 98 and I was watching Pearl Jam at Molson Park in Barry and they had a side stage And Hayden was on the side stage who by by the way, FOTM Hayden nominated for a junior award. So congratulations to Hayden Desser. But on the side stage was Matthew Good. Anyway, very good. That's cool. Pausing for effect there. Okay. All right. So is there anything else, someone like me, who is a prolific and passionate podcaster, anything else I should know about

podcasting in Canada? Like any tips or tricks? Any advice? Yeah, I think it's just about getting out there with the community. Come to the podcast in February, meet other podcasters and you can definitely do a lot of great connections with other people in the industry do cross promotions get them to be able to vote for your Podcasts and the awards when they come up again That would be my my tip. I don't know if Jennifer has a different one

Yeah, that's basically what I was gonna say You can certainly also contact the Canadian podcast awards to find out how you can get more involved We do a lot of opportunities for free and low-cost advertising for your podcast opportunities for free and low cost advertising for your podcast will help you connect with other podcasters that might fit within your same genre for cross promotion or guest appearances, things like that. So we're always open to be a resource for Canadian podcasters. So you don't need to do it alone, right? Like you don't have to be a silo. What is it? Simon and Garfunkel's and No Man is an Island, I think. So it's, well, they didn't say it originally, but I am a rock, I am an island and a rock. Yeah, I won't sing for you, but is there,

there's obviously many advantages just simply to like chatting with like-minded content creators, right? Like just even if it's technical tips and tricks or, Yeah, it definitely is something that you don't need to be isolated to do. You know, there's a lot of people in this country and in Toronto specifically that work in this industry, whether it be as professionals or hobbyists that definitely there is knowledge to be had and shared between each other.

I, we hooked up John because Al Gregor started a, what is the platform we're on? What is it called twitch discord okay it's the only thing I do in discord that's how much I love Al Grego but there is this community and you know you hear like you'll get podcasters from different parts of this country well I saw one the other day she was saying that she lost a video I guess so she was upset because they they recorded a video and then it they lost it yeah that was Dane from the are we allowed to sir on this yeah you can say from the fuck buddies podcast they had a guest on that was a pretty

big deal for them and they didn't get the video file that they wanted from the recording so like the end oh there's a chance to like vent and then you could you could Institute you know I don't know a checklist like a pilot has you know a pilot's not just taken off from you could you could institute, you know, I don't know, a checklist like a pilot has, you know, a pilot is not just taken off from, you know, Buddenville is closed. Do you know this? I always think where's a local small place that it says and it's going to take off from? Buddenville is closed. But you know, you don't just take off. You have a checklist, you know, is there gas in the tank? Is this thing working? And all these things.

And you just you can have your checklist of am I am I recording to the right channel? Am I recording the video and all these things? Yeah, you know You only make the mistake like that once but you guys don't podcast you've never made that mistake Well, we do a lot of video stuff for the awards and audio production stuff for the awards So yeah, it's definitely something that we've encountered before that we've had to rerecord stuff. So All right. Do you guys have in your your home do you have a I don't know a junk drawer full of old cables or maybe you have like phones you haven't touched in ten years? We have two entire boxes that are eating away at me right now we've been cleaning things out and those boxes are the bane of my existence right now.

She's really at me to go through them. Okay Jennifer, I have great news for you. You sitting down? Oh, I hope there's somewhere I can recycle them. You're good at this. You want to co-host Toronto Miked with me? Maybe. We'll see.

We'll see how this goes. Well, you get lots of beer and I'll get you vegetarian lasagna from Palma Pasta. But yes, you go to recycle my electronics dot C. A. You just put in your your postal code and it'll be like, Jen, John, there's a depot like a five minute walk from you, which is an EPRA accredited place that will properly recycle your electronics. So the chemicals do not end up in our landfill. And yeah, you can you can go to recycle my electronics dot C.A. right now and find out where you can drop that junk off.

Cool. Yeah, I'm sure she'll be honest as soon as we get home. OK, so here in the last couple of minutes here, unless you have I mean, I could I could talk. Do you want to talk about sponsorship? Because I was thinking when you said that, how difficult it is to get sponsors. And I have five, five pain sponsors right now, uh, working on a sixth cause there's a spot for a sixth, but so reach out to me if you want to be a part of this. But then I was thinking of the five, as you were talking there, John, and I was thinking, Oh, I think at this point with the five we have

right now, I think all five started as passionate listeners of the podcast. Like I think they all, if I go down them one by one, I know Great Lakes started that way because Troy is a passionate listener. And then I'm thinking Anthony from Palm Apostas, he started, and those two go back many, many years. I know Brad at Ridley Funeral Home, passionate fan of Toronto Mike. So those three have been around a very long time. And I know that that's my relationship with Raymond James started because Chris Cooksey

is a passionate fan of Toronto Mike, who will listen to every episode except the Kathleen Wynn episode, because he texted me to say the best part of the episode was when he deleted it off his device. So shout out to Chris Cooksey. And I do believe Cliff Hacking is a massive fan of Toronto Mike and he is why EPRA and recycle my electronics dot CA are a big fan of this podcast. And I mentioned Meneris earlier, which does three months on three months off, three months on three months off. I could keep going maybe for a couple more three months on three months off. But Al Grego, who has only missed one Toronto Mike listener experience. We have the 15th on June 27 from six to nine PM and you two should come to this. This is my, my little event. It's going to be at Great

Lakes Brewery in Southern Etobicoke. And you get your first beer on the house. Thanks to GLB and Palma pasta will feed you and I'll make sure there's vegetarian options for you, Jennifer, and we'll have a great time You should come to that. Yeah, we were gonna come out to the last one you had but there was another event that day that we had To attend so okay. Okay. I think I read that in the discord server Together now, it's okay. What was this event? Was it better than mine? What was going on? I don't know. It was a podcasting meetup. Yeah, I don't you missed it Stephen Brun talking about I don't know. It was a podcasting meetup. Yeah, I don't think you missed it. Stephen Brun talking about, uh, she, she, she, show a Ohtani and, uh, the, the plane, uh, trip

that never was. It was quite the, uh, quite the day at, uh, Palmer's kitchen. Quite the day. Okay. So I'm going to play this jingle. You ready? Yep. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, Toronto area so right they don't get it up in not Thunder Bay where you from for Francis it's about four hours west of Thunder Bay it's a bike short bike ride you know you know the end of Yonge Street where they used to say it ended in Rainy River it's there okay okay how far is that from blind river oh that's a different river shout out to Neil Young okay so this jingle Neil Young. Okay, so this jingle is the composition, the creation of a gentleman who was on Tears Are Not Enough, known as Zappa Costa. His name is Alfie Zappa Costa. This unicorn gem of a man not only created that jingle we just heard, and not only has a line with Del Bello on Tears Are Not Enough by the Northern Lights, but he also has a song on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack.

Like this gem of a man, Zappa Costa, is coming on Toronto Mic'd. That was a long way to say Alfie Zappa Costa, future guest of Toronto Mic'd, and he's the man behind that jingle. So I'm going to do 90 minutes on the 439 Pizza Nova jingle. That's exciting. Hopefully he can give you the Socan license to play that again. Oh, I don't need one for that.

I think that's free advertising. All right, Jennifer, you excited about Alfie Zappa Costa coming on Toronto Mic'd? I am, that's interesting trivia to know that he was on Dirty Dancing and everything. He's on the Dirty Dancing. He has a song called, here, you want to hear a little bit of it? Yeah, sure.

Okay. It's a bit. This overload Okay. This song is on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. We're gonna find out how much money did he make having a song in this very popular soundtrack. Which produced... I mean, this is not one of the big hits off it, but a lot of big hits came from that Dirty Dancing soundtrack. We're gonna get all the answers. I can tell you're excited. I'm excited,

too. I'm excited, too. All right, here's the lowest of the low song I promised that will get me deplatformed, and I'll be available everywhere but Spotify at some point. But I'm glad you guys shed some light. What do you think of these... What does Gene Velitas have against you, John? Like, he just doesn't like these awards because they're not nominated? Yeah, I think so. I think it's a little bit of entitlement from being someone who was someone and is now... Was? Look, these are fighting words, Jen. You hear this? Well, don't come for me. Yeah, you want to come on the internet and send your fans after us? We've got screen grabs of all the things he's said to us So, you know worse than these are just just some some bum in his basement. Like did it get worse than that?

Well, he doxxed us as well online. Oh, so there's there's been other things. So, you know Okay, cuz yeah, okay. Well and And yeah, it's an industry award. So maybe if you're not being recognized within an industry, maybe that's telling you something. See, I feel like we got to the real talk as I started the closing theme here. Now we're there. Okay, this is why you record for an hour

because this is where it ends up here. So you're telling Gene Vilaitis, instead of crapping on YouTube passionate podcast boosters, maybe create better content that'll get you nominated. Or maybe try to make some friends instead of enemies. That's how you're going to get votes. You want to be part of a community and not like exiling yourself. Right.

Yeah. And it's a self-nomination process as well. So if you got zero nominations, it means you weren't that interested to begin with. Because you didn't even vote for yourself. Yeah. Honestly, it's funny because somebody in the live chat just pointed out that, okay, I did an episode of Andy the Barber. Andy the Barber, independent barbershop owner in the city.

And it's going, you think it's one way. We did like about the same time, about an hour. And then all of a sudden it took this turn into a different episode. And then it got really interesting. And somebody and somebody's having Andy, the barber flashbacks were at the hour mark and then suddenly it's like, let's go. So, yeah, I mean, I, we're not going to dwell on it too much, but we responded and like we said before, you know, there's always people that want to put their opinion out there and just have something bad to say to people who are just trying to live their lives and, you know, help other people.

So if that's how you want to live your life, then, you know, maybe you're going to reap what you sow. And that brings us to the end of our 1425th show. You can follow me on Twitter and Blue Sky. I'm at Toronto Mike. So drop the two websites again. There's one for the Canadian Podcast Awards. Which one is that? So there's podcamptoronto.com and canadianpodcastawards.ca, which can be reached at CanPodAwards.ca. Yeah, it's CanPodAwards.ca. CanPodAwards.ca. Much love to all who made this possible.

That's Great Lakes Brewery. That's Palma Pasta. That's Recycle My Electronics. That's Raymond James Canada. And of course, Ridley Funeral Home. See you very soon. I'll be back with Sean Kelly in the basement. Sean Kelly is a rock and roll guitarist in this country who has played with everyone, including FOTM Lee Aaron. We're going to have a great chat about his life and music.

See you all then. I'm going to go ahead and turn this off. I'm going to turn this off. I'm going to turn this off. I'm going to turn this off. I'm going to turn this off. I'm going to turn this off. I'm going to turn this off. I'm going to turn this off. I'm going to turn this off. I'm going to turn this off.

I'm going to turn this off. I'm going to turn this off. I'm going to turn this off. I'm going to turn this off. I'm going to turn this off. I'm going to turn this off. I'm going to turn this off. I'm going to turn this off.

I'm going to turn this off. I'm going to turn this off. I'm going to turn this off. I'm going to turn this off. I'm going to turn this off. I'm going to turn this off. I'm going to turn this off. I'm going to turn this off. I'm going to turn this off. I've kissed you in France and I've kissed you in Spain And I've kissed you in places I better not name And I've seen the sun go down on Chacla Cours But I like it much better going down on you, yeah, you know that's true

Because everything is coming up rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold but the smell of snow warms us today And your smile is fine and and everything is rosy and gray You