Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Emily Weedon: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1748

Episode Date: August 20, 2025

In this 1748th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with award-winning screenwriter Emily Weedon about her music, Chateau Laurier, her novels Autokrator and Hemo Sapiens and being the "Girl at One-Stop" in Bride of Chucky. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball, the Waterfront BIA, Blue Sky Agency and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail].

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And Ridley Funeral Home. Pillars of the community since 1921. Today, making her Toronto Mike debut. It's award-winning screenwriter, Emily Whedon. Welcome, Emily. Mike, thank you. 748. 1,000, 748.

Well, you should have delayed it one week. I've had a rash of, not a rash, like, on my skin, but like a rash of like postponements and cancellations the last couple of weeks. It's kind of annoying. A couple related to this Air Canada fiasco. But if you would delayed a little bit, you could have been 1750. A nice round number for you.

I'll come back in two days if you like. Okay, that is, and that you can make your return. Nice to meet you. I joked with you. Well, I wasn't even joking. Like, you're kind of a renaissance woman because you do a lot of things very well. You're a very interesting person from what I gather. Well, so the ruse is keeping up, I guess.

Well, yeah, you're right. Maybe I should get back to you an hour about how interesting you are. That's right. It would be so funny if I was just like, Snorfest for this whole thing. Oh, I can't imagine. Somebody with your credential. So in this intro, I said, an award-winning screenwriter.

Can you please tell us, because I would like to build myself as an award-winning podcaster, but I think I need to win an award first. You've won an award for screenwriting? It's true. Chateau Laurier, the web series, was a, it was a, 2023. It was a banner year for the web series. I co-created it with Kent Steins and James Stewart. and James...

Jimmy Stewart from My It's a Wonderful Life. Jimmy, Jimmy, James, you know, took us all over the world. We were actually the most awarded web series on planet Earth for 2023, which is kind of bonkers. Okay, well, I knew about Chateau Laurier. I'm going to play the trailer, and then we're going to talk about it off the top. Really cool. And then we're going to be all over the place here. But this is the trailer for the award-winning web series.

Chateau Laurier. See, the bride has been found. Have I not done well, father? There's nothing that can be done. You are the head of this family now. Not so hasty. There are other heirs. The last will.

Oh, dear. I was foolish to think it could be something else. I love you. I wish I could think you believe that. Low manner. lower morals. The chateau is half mine. You must be active.

He's been waiting for you. We can't do this. You're a married woman. I have nothing. You need to control your wife. You'll have your knives up. A woman of poor breeding would slap you across the face.

Oh, I'm surprised you don't. This ends now, Sabot. I am no Mrs. Much more. The hour is coming. And they that have done. uneval unto the resurrection of damnation. But what of the man who killed the killer? What has become of this world?

Okay, questions for you, Emily. Please remind me, what did you wrote this? What was your involvement in Chateau Lurier? That's right. I co-wrote it with Kent Staines, and that's what the shocker surprise CSA was for. We actually went down there, and we put on some nice clothes and stuff,

and we were so certain that somebody else was going to win that when they set our names, we just kind of looked at each other and we're like, so we're here for the award, but why is it our name? It took a while. Where was this award ceremony? It was down at the what was formerly,

the venue formerly known as the Hummingbird or the O'Keefe Center. Oh, this is the Meridian. Meridian now? You know, it's had five or six names because it was called the Hummingbird Center for one. That's right, yeah. Sony had its name on it. I think it's the Meridian Center now.

O'Keefe, it started out as I think. Yeah, a million years ago when dinosaurs roamed. That's how we knew it in the 80s, right? The O'Keefe Center. So, yeah, we were down there. Shocker, but wonderful, and it capped off that year of crazy award ceremonies and whatnot. I hope people still get a chance to see it.

We're kind of surprised. It never found its way to CBC gem, because it is a gem. It is Canadian. And what a Canadian name, Chateau Laurier. That's right. And, you know, James managed to get us the actual real chateau to shoot in right after COVID, which was crazy. I had a dinner there once.

I was way underdressed, I think, for Chatea Lurier, but that goes about saying. These days, it's a little better than it was in the Edwardian era. They won't actually physically give you the Bums rush if you're not, if you're wearing jeans or something, but... They thought about it. Yeah. Okay, so congratulations. Thank you. And boo to CBC Gem for not recognizing a great Canadian web series they could throw on Jim.

I feel like that's their mandate is to showcase art like this. Yeah. So boo, you can say boo. All right. Benu. I don't want to burn any bridges here. What is wrong with our CBC that they took a pass when the whole world recognized it as the greatest web series of 2023? Well, I'm just going to say, CBC, whenever you're ready for us, we're ready for you.

We're here. Our arms are open. We love you, CBC. Bring us in. You know, we're all part of the fold. I get it. Okay, you're the good cop. I'm the bad cop here.

Can I beat the bad cop later? As long as it doesn't cost you future distribution deals. Indeed. You're just rocking and rolling here. Okay. So we're starting. I just wanted to talk about that Chateau Laurier off the top because when I say award-winning screenwriter, I ain't bullshitting, okay?

There's a reason I haven't yet build myself as an award-winning podcaster, Toronto Mike. But one day. Outstanding in your field. Outstanding. I will be outstanding in the field. And shout out to Jeremy Hopkins, because before we press record, we were chatting about Leaside, and I was educating you that before the, well, now we know it as Pearson, but it was called Malton Airport, I believe, the Y, Y, YZ basically. Before that, when you flew to Toronto, you flew to Leaside.

So cool. I wish I could have flown today. With the C&E on, it would have been faster. Well, you know what, I mean, I'd say get a bike, but that would still be a good hour or so to get here but it's good biking weather out there but great to meet you we're going to cover a lot of ground but when i was looking at the renaissance resume of emily weeden so many things jump out but one thing is uh you called yourself when you met me moments ago you said you were a recovery musician yes so i'm going to play some music oh my god you're pulling on all the hits and then i want

to talk about before we get to you know i know you got a book uh yeah you got a copy there i saw you get Hemosapians. That's the one. It's funny, because tomorrow I have an appointment with a hematologist. Oh my God, can I just stay?

That's so cool. I love that. Once a year I see this hematologist, so she can just, I don't know, I don't know, she just tells me to

keep doing what I'm doing because I have this blood clotting disorder, which sounds scary, but it just means I take blood thinners basically twice a day. And I guess, you know, I get a prescription for a year. There's a lot of info,

but I get a prescription for a year, and then every August, this hematologist needs to, like, I need to do blood work and see this hematologist. And then she's like, okay, we're doing another year. And it just like kind of keeps going year, year, year. But tomorrow is my appointment, my yearly hematology appointment. So it's appropriate enough that the author of Hemosapians is here.

You can bring the book and show her the opening and see if my research was done well. You know what I will? Shout out to Dr. Kim at St. Joe's. Okay, so I'm going to play some music. And then I want to talk about this music. And why are you a recovery musician? Why not? Because, again, I do tend.

to like, like things when I meet the person and you seem lovely. But I was listening to this and digging it. Like, just legitimately digging it and not because you were going to be hanging in my basement for an hour. I thought it was great. I want to talk about it, what the hell it is, who's involved. I understand maybe FOTM-O-Berg is involved somewhere along the line. It is true.

It is true. As soon as I know what the hell is going on, I'll let you know. But I got a shout out Mo, who is really a Murray and a great, great Edmontonian, great friend of the show and great human love bumping into moberg when you're out in the wild okay so let's listen and this is you right okay just double checking It's all done by the coping now and we're lost and out of the sea. It's all out in the oven now that I can find the breeze. Lie if it makes you lover.

Lie if it makes you lover. Lie if it makes you lover. If that's how you need to be. All out in the open now, Emily, tell me what you can about what we're listening to. And then I want to just understand everything about this music part of your career. And why are you a recovering musician? It's so great to hear that song.

It's that literal Proustian rush. I can feel the air of the Cameron House where we used to play. that used to get up on a stair, on a chair, sometimes on the bar to, and walked around in the audience to sing this song. It was our showstopper. That's the incredible gourd light on mandolin and guitar and Jesse Capon on the drums. And we were, we were a badass trio for several years and played that front room in the Cameron House for two years on Wednesday nights. That was my, so it's a Wednesday now. Isn't that cool? Well, I mean, that's why I pop show on a Wednesday. I said, were you called Delta? Like,

What is the name of this, too? Yeah, it was Emily Whedon and Delta. It started at Just Delta, and then the other guys were like, well, but, you know, this is your band and we'd show up and you'd tell us what to play. So I was like, all right, I'm going to slap Emily Whedon on it. There are a few other... That's like being like the Sam Roberts move, okay? This is the Sam Roberts band. Yes, exactly.

There were a few other deltas out there, too. It's, you know, so it helped differentiate. But, yeah, I was lucky to record with Stuart Cameron first time, and it was very funny. he walked into one of our early sessions getting ready for recording to announce that his dad had been knighted and I was like, oh wow, does that mean your rate went up, Stuart? And then this one was with Mo Berg and Moe was just amazing to work with. We had so much fun doing this. Although the phrase I heard most often from Moe was, can I get one more? He must have said that like a thousand times. So here's a wild coincidence as I look at my, the corner of my screen has

the date. Okay, Wednesday, August 20. It's 2.13, by the way, if you want to know the facts of the matter. I know, because my wife's birthday is today. Oh, happy birthday to your wife. And happy birthday to your wife. And we're going out for dinner tonight. And that actually meant I couldn't go to the C&E because trans-Canada highwaymen are playing tonight. Great.

I mean, I'm sorry. No, it's, you know, it's life, whatever. You can't be two places at once. I'm learning this. On Friday, I'm supposed to be in two places at once. I'm going to tell you what I'll be doing Friday night in a minute. But Moberg, of course, with Chris Murphy and Craig Northie and Stephen Page. Yep.

At the C&E tonight. It's going to be a great show. Okay. Well, we're not going to be there. Are you going to be there? No. Does Moe, you got to go see Mo? So Mo produces this song I list to, which, again, I thought that was a great song.

I enjoyed listening to it. I've heard it multiple times now. I like your voice. It sounds like this is a cool happening, Emily Whedon and Delta. But, you know, you're defunct now, right? You're done? We are. I hung up my guitar and my spurs and, you know, all the accoutrement that you need when you're a musician right around when I had my daughter, who's 16 now.

Kids ruin everything. They do. And it's interesting. I had been out, like, working my little show, trying to get people to come to concerts and, you know, notice us, basically, because it's tough to make an impact as an artist in this country. Hence, all of the different things I do, right? all side hustles all the time. And, you know, I had just done a handsome Ned tribute at the horseshoe. And you know what?

The skies open. The heavens shone down on me. I heard angels singing, oh, Tim Perlick said, Emily Whedon, this is a voice to look out for in print and now magazine. And I was like, but I'm finished. I had just announced I was going to, you know, hang it up and do other stuff. But you did put out three CDs. Yes, we did.

We did. There's a few demos floating around out there as well. Kevin Drew, I ran it to him once at the horseshoe, and he was like, hey, remember that time? We jammed. And I was like, no. Oh, that's funny. Totally forgot that thing. They had this little tiny band called Broken Social Scene.

I was going to say, you could have slipped in. Like, there's a hundred of them or something. Like, you could have slipped in. They wouldn't even notice that Emily Whedon is just a member of a broken social scene. It's just a lot of people trying to gloss. blob on to that movement, right? They're just falling under the BSS umbrella. It's terrible, though, when you pass the hat

because the split gets very small. Yeah. That's right. Now, okay, Brendan Canning has been here. I'm trying to think who else have I had from the big members, but Kevin Drew have never actually had on Toronto Mike, so we've got to get him over here. You must, he's lovely.

I would love to. Brendan Canning did make his debut recently. You know, he could be heard on Steal My Sunshine by Len. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, like the album version, because there's a radio edit where you don't hear him, but he's talking at the beginning. Like in the 90s,

all these alt-rock jams had a little talking at the beginning. This was like a thing. Also, he was DJing at this time, and he claims he introduced that sample, which is, more, more, more. How do you like me? How do you like me?

That sample, he claims he introduced the people from Len, which I guess is Marka Stanza, to that sample. So he played a big role in a big hit for a Toronto band, Len. That's so cool. There you go. That's my Brennan Canyon story. Okay, I'm as a PR guide now. So, 10 years of effort, three CDs, some, you know, some success. You've got some big wigs talking about you in Now magazine, etc. But you decided to hang it up because you had a child or because you realized the game is rigged. Which one comes first? It was a little of each. And the guy was dating at the time was like, when are you going to get a grown-up job? And, you know, I'd taken a hiatus. I'd done almost 10 years in the film. industry before I took a real run at music and then I went I was back to the film industry and you

you can't in my experience you can't work full time in the film industry and also be a parent and also be a musician you can't be in two places at one time as we've already covered right but one day maybe we could be in two places at once one day one day it'll be a game changer you know weirdly I am almost in two places on one day in September I had booked a gig for myself to do a reading in Belleville, which I love. And then I got a gig to do something in Brooklyn. But the event in Belleville is still going on. So I'm going to be in Brooklyn.

And then I'm also going to be sort of kind of in Belleville. And Brooklyn's like, is that Oscewa? No, Brooklyn. In that other country down there. Oh, my God. We're feeling a little weird about right now. I won't mention it by name. You know what?

It's big. I just assumed somebody I respect as much as I respect you would refuse to cross that border. But this is Brooklyn, New York. Yes. Okay, because there's a Brooklyn, like in, I don't know, in the Durham region somewhere, there's a Brooklyn. Hey, listen, if they want me to do a reading, I'll go. I was going to say, at least you're on the east side of Toronto, but, so you're going to be able to do both of these events? Yeah, I mean, I booked, it's part of the series that I started over a year ago called Drunk Fiction.

And I bring out a slew of fiction authors for each one of those. And I decided when HEMO came out, Hemosapians, I was going to tour Drunk Fiction along with. it and you know throw as much light on as many other Canadian authors at the same time as I possibly can because we don't give enough love to our Canadian authors. No, and I feel I'm part of the problem because I don't read enough that I don't have enough authors on my show. Well, but you're here right now. Well, thank you. Okay. I'm here to represent and I'll give you lots of names, lots of fun people to interview. Okay, so, so okay, there's like a decade where you're an aspiring musician. We heard some there.

It sounded great, but sadly, didn't work out. There's many a story like that, I suppose. But did you ever get any radio play? Like, did you ever get played on... Oh, sure. I've been downloaded tens and tens and tens of thousands of times in Norway, apparently. Well, you're big in Norway. Yeah, which Indycan told me adds up to approximately $20.

So, you know, it's a long game. It's a very, very long game. Well, that's some coffees for you and a couple of buds. I played for an actual honest to God chic on a beach near Charmel Shake in Egypt. Wow. That was a neat thing. It was actually fairly impromptu, but he was like, oh, you have a guitar. Give us a song.

Did he pay? No. No, I got tea. I got tea out of it. All right. Oh, good tea. Okay. I played down in Austin off, off, off, off, off, off, off, south by southwest in a really,

the other hole in the wall bar. And all I really remember is that the women's, bathroom had two toilets, but no walls between them. And I was like, well, this is, this is interesting. That's very intimate. You could hold hands. It's like, what? Yeah, that's weird. Okay, they could at least put a curtain up there or something. But that was, that was very fun. That was, I spent a month in Austin and hung out and jammed and had, had some fun. You know, played all over Toronto. I got into a couple of, I think I was in slings and arrows as background in music somewhere, the TV series?

Well, I can tell you that is absolutely true. Not only Slings and Arrows, which a lot of people know, but Diva on a dime. Yeah, oh my God, yes. That was an experience. So your music from, you know, Emily Whedon and Delta would appear in these series?

Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. Well, Sings and Arrows is a big deal. It was a very big deal. And I mean, I knew from being in film at the time that if you get good placement in a TV show, that can be...

your break, you know? Yeah. And sometimes what will happen in film is people would do what was called slugs for music placement. So if you could convince somebody who's an editor to slug in your song to something, maybe it's just something somebody's turning up on the radio or maybe it's in the background. And if the director hears it or a producer hears it, somebody goes, wow, we need this. This is cheap and we can have it. And it's great. Let's keep it. And that's it. Okay. I know that Metrick, for example, had great success when they got their song on...

What's the medical drama that's still going? Gray's Anatomy. Right, yeah. Was that before the iPods? Oh, but did Metrick have an iPod? You're thinking of Feist. I'm thinking of Feist. I have a...

That's kind of sad. He's no longer with us, but I just had Colin Cripps over here, and he's now with Blue Rodeo. But he was with Junk House. And before he was of Junk House, he was in a band called Crows. Vegas, and when he was being recruited for that band by Jocelyn Lenoir in Hamilton,

and this was Greg Keeler and Michelle McAdoury's band, Crash Vegas, he was basically in a band that became Junkhouse of Tom Wilson, and he was best friends with the guitarist, whose name was Dan Aiken. So Dan Aiken was the guitarist for, and Dan Aiken, sadly, died. He was a seemingly healthy, fit 51-year-old, and he was playing hockey, and he had, had a heart attack and died. This is very sad. But his niece is Feist.

Like Dan Ake, the late great Dan Aiken from Junkhouse is the uncle of Leslie Feist. Yeah. So there you go. I just thought I'd throw the fun facts at you, Emily. Tiny, tiny world. It's a small world after all. But Feist did absolutely have great success being in those iPod commercials. But I don't know if metric did.

But I think Monster Hospital. Anyways, the goal is if you can, yeah, that's a great strategy. Because sometimes if you're like the, as you call it, the slug, which is like the temp track or something. That's right, yeah. Sometimes they can't, like this works. I can't imagine another song anymore. This is now sticking.

Yep. And music is, you know, musicians, I think, have been able to organize themselves a little better than some other types of artists. They have pretty good protection. If you, you can't just pop somebody's song

into your film and distributed in some way. You have to pay for that. You have to pay for your, what are called sync, synchronization and mechanical rights. But there are ways that you can get stuff in where you could waive one of those so that you're more affordable

to an indie production, for example, so that they can get their thing made and you can get your thing out there. So there's still clever ways you can get yourself out there. But, you know, the kids, you got on TikTok, that's what I'm told. I don't know how you do it.

I'm not even on TikTok myself. Yeah, same. This is the new modern goal here. So I went, when you were coming over, and I saw the writing of the books, and I saw Chatea Lurier, another series, actually, I'm going to play a trailer

for in a minute. Then I discovered the music and I went down the rabbit hole and then I decided I got to go, you do so many different things behind the scenes and in writing, et cetera, that I said, I got to go to your IMDB page. Okay. Oh, yes. So then I'm on your IMDB page. And of course, there's a bio there. And I think you wrote this bio, but can I just read a bit of the bio and then you can speak to it? It's fascinating. Sure. Okay. Emily Whedon is a Canadian writer, producer and film professional. Though she grew up in a hippie enclave,

logging a few years in a cabin with no running water or electricity, Emily has been working in the film industry using electricity and computers and all the modern modcon since the 1990s. So we're going to pause.

Let's digest this. You grew up in a hippie enclave where there's not even electricity or running water? Yeah, well, our house burnt down in 1978, and my folks found a place that was nearby that had, from my recollection, had been kind of abandoned by whoever had built it. It was one of those really cool square timber log cabins, and it had a loft. Where are we, Toronto? We're in Cohill, Ontario,

down the South Lake Road. And actually, the same album, All Out in the Open is from, there's a song called Rose Island Road that's about that exact community. And yeah, it was, it was, it was deep in the woods, like deep in the woods. Sometimes grass grew down the middle of the road. It was that untravelled. And there was this tight community of people, many of whom are still up there. Some of whom were, in fact, draft dodgers. So it was, you know, there was a mix of people. My parents were English and Finnish. So there's Americans there. There's people from Cohill there as well. And for a couple of years, while my parents figured things out and rebuilt a new house, we lived in this log cabin with no plumbing and no electricity.

So your late 70s, you're talking about here. So I remember the late 70s. Okay, but you're right. We're not very far removed. Of course, you're right. You were there. But we're not very far removed from Vietnam. And a number of cool cats that I know and love today from Bill King and you name it

are here today because they were conscientious objectors to the war in Vietnam. Yeah, that's a better term than draft Dodgers. I actually once called them draft Dodgers and somebody took offense to it. Yeah, I could see that actually. Barry maybe. Okay. Yeah. Who's still with us. Conscientious objector is good, though.

I mean, it was like, you know, don't force me into this war. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, conscientious objectors. Okay, so a lot of great Canadians came here because of conscientious. Okay, some words are tough. That's a tough one. It was where I learned how to love music in a lot of ways because everyone seemed to have a guitar.

Jams seem to break out, you know, with no warning. Boom, road jam. There's a jam happening. It's happening. Maybe not quite that. But you couldn't, I guess you could get a battery-operated radio. Yeah, I mean, a lot of it was, a lot of it was just acoustic jamming. Although, you know, the first time I ever got on a stage was at the, what was called the harvest party.

And people used to come from all over three-day festival in a field, in the middle of nowhere. And I think a couple of girls and I got up and sang some gospel song. So it was like, you know, a brother where art thou kind of vibe. Well, okay. I love that movie. Love the blue grass in that movie. The only album I've ever owned with bluegrass on it, by the way, that was great. I freaking loved it.

But you mentioned, okay, so you said the word harvest. And I'm just going to chime in. We're going to get back to your bio in a moment here. But Harvest, when I hear the word harvest, I think of Neil Young. And I saw Neil Young on the weekend at Budweiser stage. And he looks and sounds. He's 79 years old. He's had some health challenges.

He looks amazing. Sounds amazing. and it's a bit of a religious experience when you're out, I find it different because I've seen him before, but this is my first time seeing him outdoors, but it's kind of a religious, spiritual experience to be outdoors, and Neil Young is performing for you.

Yeah, maybe he should run for president. Well, I guess he can't. He was born here, okay, thankfully, he was born here, so I think he's ineligible, but yeah, geez, maybe he can run for prime minister. But Neil Young was great, and I'm going to just let the listenership know that I have an interesting FOTN,

Neil Young story that will be told on FOTM cast when that time is every quarter, but when that comes around with Cam Gordon and Tyler Campbell. So stay tuned for the Neil Young concert story on FOTM cast. Okay. So I'm going to pick up your bio here. Okay. There's a lot here. Like, there's a lot here. And we're going to get to the books and everything, but you write. Did you write this bio? I did. And I, you know, there's 1,700 iterations of bios out there, right? I've started to Emily's a writer who lives in Toronto, done. Well, this IMDB bio is something else. It says, in addition to writing for over a decade,

penning features, scripts, plays, newspaper articles, and novels in progress. Emily has lived several other interesting lives. She spent a decade pursuing music, during which time she put out three CDs of notable producers, Stuart Cameron and Moberg. Her music was placed in the series Slings and Arrows and Diva on a dime, That's how I knew. I did my homework.

I paid attention. During her years with the Directors Guild of Canada, Emily has worked on many features and TV series, normally creating graphics. In earlier incarnations, Emily worked at the Ontario legislature, helping a friend run for City Hall, managed things for a rock band touring Germany,

ran the office for a script agent, and for a blues society, worked on set as a props master, a painter, and a piano teacher, toured Ontario as a puppeteer and at one point not very long mixed concrete by hand overall she'd prefer to write in story edit most recently and this is a little outdated we'll talk about that in a minute but emily finished work on the bravo fact short chateau laureate together with co-writer and co-producer kent steins and director james stewart so we do have to update that but

i'm going to pause i there's a lot there okay but do you want to just like for example uh you managed a rock band's tour of Germany? Did you do it in Germany or did you do it from here? From here. Surrender Dorothy. Do we know this band? Surrender Dorothy. Yeah. And they, they, it wasn't a lot for me to do.

I mean, I was their, I was their point person here at home. Although I did get to travel to Germany and for the last like week of the tour. And it's cool. It was in like Munich and Bremen and Hamburg and Haburg. And I slept in an outbuilding on the estate of the Red Baron. How cool is that? Shout out to Snoopy, big red-bearing fan. I was snuggled up with Woodstock.

Okay, yeah, the yellow bird, of course. Yeah, and they went back every single year for many years. Regina, who was the front person of that band, she, you know what? She was a real inspiration. She kind of was one of the early people who taught me the sheer amount of hustle you have to do when you're an artist of any stripe in Toronto and in Canada. Amazing. And this friend you helped run for City Hall, was it.

Toronto City Hall? Yeah, yeah, he ran for a counselor, Simon Wookiee. Okay, should I know this name? Did he win? No, but he made, you know, it's very difficult to unseat an incumbent. And the incumbent was Adam Jambrooney, who, you know, met the end of his career in a different way. Different way. But Simon mounted, you know, he had buttons that said let the Wookie win.

I mean, that's great. he made a really, really great showing against the incumbent he, like much more than you normally get. It is tough to, absolutely, because yesterday was the anniversary of Amber Morley's first visit to this basement. And when she dropped by, she was taking on an incumbent who had won several elections in a row. And she ended up winning, I'm taking full credit for it, okay? I'm taking full credit. But it is, Mark Grimes was the counselor, and he'd been here a long time. It is very difficult in municipal politics to unseat an incumbent.

That's right. And, you know... You did a great job, is what I'm telling you. It was really fascinating. Really, really fascinating. I think in a lot of ways, you know, I've dabbled in politics here and there. And I think it is true that the most real politics that there is is municipal politics, because it's where the rubber meets the road. You know, it's where issues get really real.

Right. And you have to, you have to hustle for your constituents if you are a counselor. You can't, you can't phone it in. And now we're down to 25 counselors. So it's... Wow. even harder now because Doug Ford reduced the size of council. That's a lot of people.

So it's a lot going on. These guys are working hard, absolutely here. Now, one more thing, I want a couple more things, but you worked as a puppeteer. That's right. Can you be more specific? I certainly can. The Recycling Council of Ontario, when before, there was a time before there were green bins in Toronto. It's hard to...

Wait, green or blue? Green. Okay, yeah. Yeah. That's like the food waste and the organic waste. The next phase in the 3Rs, reduce, reuse, recycle, the next phase that the recycling cancel helped bring in and make happen in Toronto and Ontario was composting. And when it first came out, it was this like, gross, ew, you want me to what?

And they had already built this script and this idea for a touring kid show with a vermic culture, worm named Verme and he lives in a, well, he lived in a recycling box, which was maybe a little confusing, but kids could open a lunchbox and take out a tea bag or a pop can. And the thing was, okay, Verme would say, I'm hungry. And he would demand to be fed. And if they picked up the pop can and gave it to him, he would, to great applause and comedic laughter, you know, spit it out. And I think, I like this. Oscar the Grouch was an early, an early reference. An inspiration. Yeah, but one of the things I did because of my background in, you know, theater and, you know, prop making and storytelling and everything, they were using a real tea bag, which is wonderful and honest and it's reuse and that's great, but it's gross. So I went into a vintage store and I got some, you know, a shirt that was white and a different shirt that was brown and I made a giant prop tea bag that the kids could handle and that you could actually stick in the puppet's mouth.

and then he would pretend to swallow it. But were you the worm? I was the worm. Okay, you know, where's the worm today? Did you get to keep the worm? No. Is it in a museum somewhere? Yeah, I hope he's in a museum.

He's still with the recycling council. I got to tell you the hardest audience ever. I once did the show at Phoebe Street Public School and the kids in grade four, I won't say the word that they said to me, but they part way through the show, you know, Vroomie and I are acting our hearts out and they said, F you! We know it's a puppet! And I'm not ashamed to tell you that I cried a little bit at lunch that day.

It was a tough, tough audience. Kids are getting tougher. You know why? It's because of, you know, when you see the president is using terrible language, the kids think they think it's okay now. Yeah, it's true. That's what's going on here. It's as we've just lowered our decorum here. Okay.

All right. One more, so much meat on the bones. And we have so much to cover here. Did I say an hour? I meant four hours. Okay, but I do, I do want to ask about the blues society. Like, so you ran an office for a blues society? Well, I didn't, I mean, I was in the office.

I was doing. Okay, because I ran the office for a script agent and for a blue society. Did you, did you mislead us in this bio? It says you ran this office. Well, I guess I was in the office by myself and I was answering the phone. Oh, you're running that place. Yeah. That's license.

I would let you. Doing some bookings, helping them get. What blue society? The Toronto Blue Society. Yeah, every year they do a big awards festival and they are, you know, holding up the pillars of blues appreciation in Canada, practically. That's amazing. They're amazing people. The blues are not required.

Okay, so I'm going to finish the bio and then I've got more sounds and I want to ask you about this book, of course. But in addition to her on-set experience, Emily created several creative screenwriting courses for colleagues at the Directors Guild and provides help to writers as a story editor and coach. While she grew up in a small town, Co-Hill, Ontario, Emily has lived in Budapest, Budapest. Budapest.

Right, I got to remember that. Hungary and Hamilton, Ontario. Yes. She resides in Toronto with a small. child and a large cat. Okay. Please, just a little bit on you living in Hungary. When in your life did you have time to live in another country?

Well, my child's dad is a film producer, so he was working on a show. It was the Ken Follett, to the end of the earth, I think it was called. Pillars of the Earth, it was one of those Ken Follett things. It was a big, you know. So it was a year. of living there. And I got to see the Hellboy set, which was still

standing there in the outskirts and had some wild experiences. You know, they had the show that my ex was working on was medieval, basically, and they would bust in these Hungarian day player, you know,

seen on camera types. And it was hilarious. You'd see them all wearing their medieval peasant gear, but they all had cell phones when the camera wasn't rolling. so it was a little cognitive dissonance happening. They built a huge set out there with cobblestones and everything. It was a big to do. Okay, very cool.

Now, you still have this cat? The cat has been rehomed. Okay. Recycled? Well, yeah, recycled. Is that cat in the green bin with the word? I called up the recycling council. I was, you know, I could have the cat or the boyfriend who I love very much.

and I chose the boyfriend. You know what? That's a big sacrifice, but I'm guessing this boyfriend is allergic to cats. And he's much more charming than the cat. Can you matter what he was the boyfriend? I'm not allergic to cats.

Just doesn't like cats. Okay. Goodbye Garfield. By the way, Garfield's favorite food in the world is... Lasagna. I have in my freezer upstairs a lasagna for you from Palma pasta. Holy cow.

Holy cow. Actually, your lasagna has cow in it. It is a beef lasagna. I can no longer say I'm a starving artist. You know what? That's why you previously starving artists come by. I can feed you, okay? I love it.

Palma pasta. We love palma pasta on this show, palma pasta.com. They're in Oakville and Mississauga, but you can get delivery as well. So you're getting that lasagna and it pairs very nicely with lasagna, Garfield's favorite. Fresh craft beer. There's a local brewery here called Great Lakes Brewery, and they've sent over some cans for you, Emily. Oh, my God.

This is great. And, you know, I'd heard that Garfield was a connoisseur of craft beer. That's Odie, I think. That's why you remember Odie? Well, they sometimes got drunk together. Of course I remember Odie. I loved him. I think John was half in the bag for most of those strips I was watching.

John with no H. If we had that cat, we too would be half in the bag or half in the kitty litter box. They had a charming as heck, a charming A.F. as the kids would say, Christmas special for Garfield that I still watch with my kids like every Christmas. It's really, really good.

Does Nirmal make an appearance? Absolutely. Yeah, the world's cutest kitten. It's really, really well done. Now, you mentioned, again, I'm going to give you some more gifts, but you did mention Hungary. Yes.

That doesn't mean you're hungry because it's hungry, but when I think of Hungary, can I tell you my first thought? Please do. The Gabor sisters. Oh, yeah. Zha-ha.

Well, here's the thing. So I grew up with Jaja seemingly everywhere. I grew up in the 80s, and she was beyond Hollywood squares. Oh, darling, like she'd throw on it. And I never really knew what made Jaja famous. I just knew she was famous. Like, I feel like Jaja was famous for being famous. But I also would watch because, you know, we watched reruns.

And I watched a lot of Green Acres. Oh, yeah. And Eva Gabor is the wife in Green Acres. And that's Jaja's sister. So I always thought it was interesting that Eva was famous for being an actress. And she was in this very popular, very. successful sitcom called Green Acres. And then her sister, Jaja, I still don't know what made her famous.

She was just sort of like a socialite, famous person you'd have on a talk show or, or, you know, the aforementioned Hollywood Squares or something. She was blonde. I think she's probably on like the love boat and stuff like that, too, right? That's where famous for being famous people would go back in the day. They didn't have Instagram. They went on the love boat. Have you rewatched any of those?

No, but I will just quickly share before I find out if you rewatched it. There was a, something came on social media that I watched, a video of all the guest stars, like just one after another, they showed the guest stars. And it is wild to see people who would become much more famous, like getting their start there, or people who were kind of on, just different phases of their career. Like a scene, and this is going to tie into a show.

I'm about to mention to you in a minute that you had something to do with. But it seems like everybody had a guest star appearance on the love boat. Yeah, I'm waiting for mine. Okay, can I ask you about a show then? Okay, so I produce a show for a theater director named Joel Greenberg. He was here this morning to record a couple. We have a third season of episodes we're recording in batches, so he practically lives here right now.

But he has on these actors that he knows from his theater career, and it's very interesting, but all of them, to a T almost, all of them have at least one episode appearance on Murdoch Mysteries. Yeah. Like Murdoch Mysteries and Can't, I believe that I joke with Joel, Like a new, he's, oh, this guy's coming on. I'll go to IMDB. Oh, yep, he did an episode of Murdoch Mysteries.

All of them appear on Murdoch Mysteries at least once. What's your professional involvement with Murdoch Mysteries? I was art director for a little bit. And it was an absolutely brilliant experience. It's such a tight-knit group of folks. And it's this magical studio. Have they moved? I'm not sure.

They were up in like the top, corner of North York, the border of Scarborough. There's this really cool backlot. They used to shoot wind at my back there, and there's a lot of history back there. It's been a main state of Canadian television for a long time. We were, we were, I think I was there for season, I believe it was season 11, and we had the t-shirt that Yannick had was a big push behind this. He wanted the T-shirt to say, this one goes to 11. A little bit of a spinal tap reference. Which apparently a sequel's coming out soon.

That's right, yes. They probably need walkers that their guitars are stuck to. Well, one of them is still voicing on The Simpsons. One of these spinal tap guys. Oh, wow. Oh, yes, of course. Yes, of course, Harry. Yeah, it's an amazing show, and it's been there for a long time.

It was one of the first shows that my ex actually worked in, for decades and decades, and some ancient relative of his kept saying, oh, that, that's Yonic. He's, he's very expressive with his eyes. You know, it was the first time I worked on a show where there were fans waiting for us when we would show up in a location, like in Hamilton or wherever, with lawn chairs, like rabid fans. Murdoch heads.

Murdoch heads, yeah. Okay, so my, actually, I'm loose, so I have four kids, and I can't remember which one now. I think it was number three, Jarvis, who as a child would watch a show called Napkin Man. Have you ever heard of this? Vagely? Okay, well, Napkin Man, and I'll confess to you, I feel like I should give up my passport or something, but I've never seen an episode of Murdoch Mysteries. I just know that Canadians love Murdoch Mysteries.

Like, I just know it. You know, it's like Germans love David Hasselhon. Canadians love Murdoch mysteries. I don't know why. I just missed out on this. But I can tell you, Janik is a Bisson? What's his name? Yes, yes.

Okay, he had a, and I don't know if it's still going, but at the time when Jarvis was watching CBC Kids or something, he would watch every day this show called Napkin Man, and Yannick would, like, draw a picture on a napkin, and that picture would be animated and come alive or something. It was like a kid show. So I know this guy is Napkin Man, not Murdoch Mysteries, but, okay, I realize now that you're very easy to talk to,

and there's a lot of meat on this bone. So I'm going to go a little faster and ask you, what's your professional relationship like with the Baroness Vaughn's Sketch show? Oh, well, that was, I was on that for one season, and I'm really, my professional association is I'm really bummed that it isn't happening anymore because that was some of the funniest comedy happening in. Very good show. So, so good. I think I kind of fan-girled out a little too much when I was on the show, because I remember walking up to one of the baronesses and pretty much just squealing and screaming. You remember which one?

Because I know one. I think it was Jen. I think it was Jen. And I think she just kind of looked at me like, what is your malfunction? Just, you know. Yeah, because I was really like, you guys meet so much to me.

And they do. When I get that every day, I just say, thank you. That's what I say. I say thank you. Yeah. It's tough. I mean,

they are making a space for women, women to be funny, women to be funny about things that are particular to women, things that, you know, you weren't ever allowed to talk about periods at a certain point.

You weren't allowed to talk about the fact that women over a certain age are only allowed to drink Pino Grigio. I mean, they're taking stuff out of the closet and bringing it out and trotting it around and having a great time. I remember having a casual conversation with the prop master who was on the show at that time.

We're just chatting about stuff and he's washing a sink full of dildos that are needed for one of the scenes. And I was like, this is my life. I get paid for this. Okay, so that was great that you got that. but so Carolyn Taylor is the Baroness Von Sketch show member that has been over for an episode of Toronto Mike

at some point I got to collect the other three do you have any lowdown on why that show ended it felt I don't know I don't have any info on this people think because I talked to one and I definitely talked to the sister of one I don't have any inside info I'm like 100% speculating I got the vibes I think there was like a breakup in this foursome like I don't I think it's something came between them I don't think that, I think it's like a bare naked ladies thing.

Like where is Stephen Page? Why is Stephen Page at the C&E tonight and not in Bernanke ladies? I think there's something going on. I don't know if you have any inside info. I don't expect you to tell tales out of school. It was, it's a big show. It was a very big show. And, you know, there's only so much money in Canada, you know, to make shows.

And we were doing upwards of five or six set shift. And anyone who's listening who's worked in film and knows what a set shift is. I mean, it's, it's like. pulling up camp and moving the entire works. So that makes for, you don't walk, you run, you know. So it was a big show. There was a lot going on. And I, you know, I think probably CBC could use another couple of billion.

If they could have a couple of extra billion dollars to make just a barreness fun sketch channel, the world would be a better place. Oh, no argument for me here. You know, they could take some of my tax money for that endeavor. Yeah, me too. I've got at least five bucks I can give. But if we all give five bucks, it's past the hat, you know. All right, I have another gift for you. It's not five bucks. It's better than that. It's a book on the history of Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball, because I want to tell you what I'm doing Friday night. So this is your book on the history. So Toronto Maple Leaves Base Base Base Base. Every once in a while somebody like, oh, the Leafs, that's a hockey team, right? Well, there's actually, it predates the hockey team, the baseball team. And they play at Christy Pitts. Yes. So their playoff game, it's game two in the best of five series.

Their playoff game is Friday night at 7.30. I'm 100% going to be there. I'm totally jazzed. No ticket required. It's a great night at the ballpark. High caliber, high stakes baseball. I can tell you, I mentioned earlier to you, that Steal My Sunshine by Len was connected to a member of Broken Social Scene.

But I can also tell you that the number one billboard hot 100 smash by a Toronto artist, Informer, I can tell you 100% because I chatted with him today, Snow will be at Christy Pitts on Friday night for a Maple Leaf playoff games. Amazing. Not just, I think I put that in the intro, but not just Snow. And of course, Damien Cox, who's never seen a Leafs game at Christy Pitts. He came over last week and I told him what he's missing and he says he'll be there on Friday too. So everybody should join me Friday night at Christy Pitts.

That's very cool. I'm really glad you explained what was going on here because if I had seen Toronto Maple Leafs and baseball happening, I would. Look, I'm a card-carrying musician from the past, and I'm a writer. So my sports card, not so full on the sports card. You never know what's happening in your practically in your backyard. That's right. Christy Pitts, Christine Bluer, great night of baseball Friday night.

And I'm just going to shout out another event that is coming up this, is it this coming weekend? Let me get the right days. Yeah, this coming weekend is Taiwan Fest at Harborfront Center. And this year's festival is called A Dialogue with Portugal. and it explores the unique connections between the two cultures, Taiwan and Portugal. And you can learn their shared histories, celebrate the vibrant cultures of both countries.

It's all happening this weekend on the waterfront. Again, another free event that's happening in our backyard. Excellent. That's what makes Toronto Toronto. I was thinking about Toronto because there's so much to do. There's just so much going on, be it a concert, a big venue, small venue, medium venue. You've got the baseball going on.

Of course, there's the dome if you want to buy a ticket, but if you don't want to buy a ticket, you just want to sit on the hill and watch some good baseball. It's happening for free at Chrissy Pits. Waterfront has so many free events happening. You know, the air show is about to be here. There's a lot going on here. Yes.

And that multicultural, too, the Taiwan and Portugal, like that, the intersection of that kind of stuff, that's what makes it a great place. Absolutely. My last guest is marrying this coming weekend. I don't think it's an open event, so don't go to where are they in Schoenberg or something? something I think it's happening, but Tom Brown was over here talking about like life after being

pink slipped by Bell Media. And his fiancee is Portuguese. So it was kind of fun to have that chat on Friday. So lots going on here. I have a fun fact for you. Emily, you were the girl at one stop. I was the girl at one stop. In bride of Chuckie. In the bride of Chuckie. Tell me, not that I haven't seen it a hundred times, but remind me, What does that mean? That's a fun fact. I can tell you my line. There they are. Call the police. Every once in a while,

Don Mancini, who created the Bride of Chucky, he would drop a birthday greeting to the girl at one stop, which, you know, come on, how cool is that, right? It was one of the first films I ever worked on. The first one was Mario Puzzo's The Last On, part two, and Bride of Chucky came after. And I thought my whole life was going to be movies

on the level of Bride of Chucky, which was one of the biggest things to come through town at that time. And my path wound up taking me in different directions, so that was one of the biggest features I ever worked on. Holy cow, what a wonderland, meeting all of the puppeteers, some of whom were the same puppeteers

who worked on the alien movie with the crazy baby alien. Learning about the art department, I was assistant to Ronnie Yu for a spell. I was in the art department for two different spells. And when Don Mancini walked into the production office for the first time I was bustling down the hall

going one way, and Don pointing at me and said, that girl can do the scream or something to that effect. Wow. And months later, I forgot about this. Months later, there was this scene where he was going to let me be the first scream in the movie. As it turns out, I'm not a good screamer. So my scream got cut.

And here's another little piece of every, Everything is interconnected in the universe. Yeah. Michael Johnson, who was playing needle nose in that, it was his fake on-fire torso that fell in front of me that I was supposed to, you know, see fall and then look at the camera and scream. And Michael Johnson is, of course, a musician in Toronto and an actor and the brother of Gordy Johnson, Big Sugar.

Of course. Everything is connected. Honestly, everything is connected. Big Sugar, I remember, it's double-neck guitar. Yeah. Gordy had the double-neck guitar. Oh, my God. And that he had that,

was it Grady? Was that the name of his other band? Yeah, that sounds about right. Slide guitar. He had a slide that he played electric guitar with. This greasy, dirty rock and roll sound. Oh, so cool. I love how everything's connected.

So keep it coming. I love how anything. There's that going to connect you to an FOTM in a second, but I'm going to play another piece of audio. And then we're going to close with novels, okay? Because you're not just doing all this stuff we've talked about. It's all building up to the main show. You're right.

novels. Okay, you didn't, you didn't know we'd have to cover so much ground before we got to the novels. But, uh, it's been Emily Whedon. This is your life. Well, here's a teaser of a show I want to ask you about. He is an FBI, very special agent. The sole purpose of his life is to defend his country. His fearless methods have no limits. Thanks to the pharma industry, he feels no pain nor fear he will stop at nothing to fight evil or whatever he chooses to be the ultimate evil at the time of the Cold War get ready for outrageous collateral damage the world is about to see red red red I'm going to talk to

Lori Elliott, one of the other writers right after we're done. I have an appointment to have a chat with her on the phone. So that's so cool that you brought this up. So tell the ignorant. That means you're not addressing me. I'm not anything but ignorant. But tell people about red ketchup and your role.

I was brought on to red ketchup by head writer Willem Winnikers, who is, he's a showrunner and writer and screenwriter. And Martan Villeneuve, was the director for that. It is based on a French-Canadian cult comic of the same name, Red Ketchup. And he's this, you know, kind of stone-faced, badass FBI agent who's actually Canadian. And he's sort of mixed up in all of these different things.

And, you know, under the radar to those of us in Anglo-Canada. But like, like I say, cult status in Quebec. Martin, it was his dream for many, many, many years to bring it somehow to the world. And it was brought to the world as an animated series. Not enough people have seen it because it's loopy, insane, crazy mayhem. They bill it as an adult animated series. It is not for kids. Don't let your kids.

Does that mean there's swears or? There's some swears and there's a lot of, you know, violence. Is there sex in that violence? No. What I never understood is like when you look at Red, like, you know, he's got it going on. But he was not interested in the ladies. Okay. Screenwriter Emily here from Red Ketchup, the adult animated series.

By the way, I forgot to ask us earlier because now that we're getting to the books here, please tell me where somebody right now can watch Chateau Laurier. I believe you can still watch it on Apple. And, you know, there's iterations out there on YouTube, and you can probably- Yeah, and Facebook, I think, you can still probably get a look at it there. Yeah, it's hard. It's like whack-a-mole a little bit when things get out there in the world, because different distribution deals and stuff.

But we were on Apple to begin with, which was very, very exciting. So I think maybe Crave, I'm not sure. Okay, guys, find it, okay? You know how to find things. Just type in, chat to lorriere, the web series. Yeah, but don't book a room or anything. Like, you want to find the web series, okay? So that's what you want.

I'm going to drop a name, a beloved FOTM, and please tell me if you've ever worked with this gentleman in any capacity. His name is Alan Zweig. Oh, yeah, Alan. Yes. How did you work of Alan's Wig? I haven't worked with him. But I, you know, I met him, I think, at future bakery, which sounds

very like, you know. The one on Bathurst and Bluer? It was at, because there was one in the West end. Brunswick and Bloor, yeah. My high school was upstairs from there, right? I discovered that I could drink coffee all day instead of going to class at my alternative school, and I believe that's when I first met Alan. Okay, this sounds like the 90s.

Yeah. And a good friend of mine, Chris Donaldson, I went to high school with him. He's a big mover, shaker editor guy. He works with David Kronenberg and lots of cool people. He's edited a bunch of stuff with Alan. And Alan, of course, is the lovable cremogen. Icrimogen was one of his famous things. And I was in his documentary, lovable.

That's what I was fishing for. So I guess you didn't work with him. Well, I didn't get paid, so, you know. But I got paid in, you know, a great experience. So what did you do in this lovable? I think I talked about being unlovable. Yeah, because he was interviewing people who had not found love. and it was an interesting documentary.

Well, he makes interesting documentaries. Does he ever? Yeah. Vinyl, for example, is still one of the great documentaries of our time. Yes. Yeah. He collects and collects and collects a lot of stuff. I remember Chris talking me through some of the editing of it,

like just all the stuff that has to get cut down and it's so hard to let go of. I mean, really, vinyl probably could have been a series. And now I think he collects he's collecting podcasts. Alan's why he has got a couple of podcasts on the go now. Yeah, yeah. Well, I expect him to be always doing stuff.

He's always got stuff on the go. Yeah, you know, idle hands are the devil's work things. Or something to that effect here. Alan is an angel. Alan is a sweetheart. Anyone who was at TMLX event at Palmer's Kitchen knows Alan is a sweetheart. Okay, Ridley Funeral Home, they have given you a measuring tape

And you, Emily, may measure whatever you want with that measuring tape. But they are pillars of this community. And Brad Jones at Ridley Funeral Home has a great podcast called Life's Undertaking. Oh, that's cool. So measure anything. I don't need to know what you're measuring. All right. I won't tell.

Don't tell. Don't tell. Okay. Blue Sky Agency is the newest partner of Toronto Mike. And Blue Sky Agency has forged partnerships with established furniture brands. Like I'm talking office furniture here. silent green furniture concept Ruliard

Doug Mills is the man at Blue Sky Agency and Doug who's a great guy is eager to chat with any and all Toronto mic listeners if you're looking for dynamic and creative work

environments everybody's returning to work now I know that after Labor Day my wife's in the office they want her in there four days a week like everybody's getting called back I think Ford made an outfit

so you know you want to dynamic and creative work environments if you're having a return to work with your employees, and that's where Doug comes in. Doug is Doug at blue skyagency.ca.ca.com. So write them, let them know you're an FOTM and engage the man. He's a good guy. And last but not least, I'm going to tell you about recycle my electronics.com. That's where you go, Emily. If you have old electronics, old cables, old devices, you don't throw it in the garbage. Don't throw it in the garbage, Emily. Well, you're the recycling queen from what I've heard. You're like the worm, so...

I was the compost girl. Well, the compost worm. Okay, we don't know. Do worms have gender? Well, no, and Verme did not have gender, but I certainly have the drawer full of wires and old phones and you name it.

Well, you go to Recycle MyElectronics.ca, put in your postal code and find out where you can drop that off to be properly recycled. Okay, I'm going to ask you about two novels, but we're going to spend more time on Hemosapians, because I know that's the the fresh delivery. But your debut novel,

tell me if I'm going to say this right, autocrater? Atocriter. I got it completely wrong. I got corrected. A friend of mine who had studied ancient Greek when I told him the name of the book,

he was like, he corrected me, and I'm like, all right, good to know. What made you write a book? I mean, I'll just share a quote from book list

that called it thought-provoking questions into hate power and misogyny. Oh, it praised it for it's thought-provoking questions into hate, power and misogyny. What made you write a novel? That's your first novel. It was my first novel. This was when I was living in Budapest, and I wasn't working. I was a trailing spouse.

And the big question I was asking myself was, could the patriarchy be even worse? And I was also very alone and lonely. I was living alone in a new culture with a two-year-old who was a terrible conversationalist. She tried, but, you know, I have not. needs and I remember actually trying to strike up a conversation with a with a like bus driver who only spoke Hungarian and that really didn't get me very far I did try to learn some Hungarian I still have a tiny little bit but it was born out of you know frustrations in my relationship in my life and being this you know a stranger in a strange land and and I'm always drawn to big what-ifs Big huge what ifs.

So the what if, you know, could the patriarchy be worse? Sounds like maybe a boar fest of, oh, God, she's a raging feminist. Oh, this is going to be really tough. It's a fun, propulsive, thrilling read. It's kind of Game of Thrones meets The Handmaid's Tale. There is, every chapter ends on a little bit of a cliffhanger. That's my screenwriting background coming in there. You know, you don't, I do not believe in forcing anybody to listen to something and be

bored or tired, I feel like I constantly have to earn the attention of my reader. And it's a treat that you give them with like, oh, a surprise, a change, something else. Oh, what's going to happen? You put your protagonist into danger. You give them a little taste of something and then you snatch it away. So, yeah. And now a second novel is, when's the release date for Hemosapians? Oh, God.

Is it today? No, it's six weeks yesterday. And it's so weird, it took almost four years for a talkruder to come into being once it was signed. And this one, I signed Hemosapians with Dundern Press only two and a half months after a talkrador came out. So, you know, a year ago in June, it didn't exist. And here it is. It's coming in six weeks. And it feels really far away still.

Well, tell us what is Hemosapians about? Hemosapiens asks the question, what if vampires, what if that whole vampire thing was actually women with pregnancy cravings? What if there is a whole different species of women who need blood to have children? What if they've always lived amongst us? What if they predated humans, the way Neanderthals or Denisovans predate humans? What if they still live among us? What if they're more powerful than us, smarter than us, in some ways cooler than us, how would that all play out?

I'm so intrigued here. I'm just worried, though. My blood is very, very watery. Like, it's very thin. You're safe. Okay. I just don't want to disappoint any of these Hemosapians. Okay.

But so they're like vampires. They're vampires. They're femme fatals as well. They're very, there's a healthy amount of female-driven sexuality. in this book and it kind of ties in a sense of you know women women can it could be argued really drive evolution for humans and we do as humans need uh heem or iron in our blood yes our ever increasing cranial capacity more and more difficult births needing meat in our diets at a certain point uh all of this stuff has driven evolution and i took those ideas plus the idea of like how

bonkers pregnancy cravings are but also the idea that we're you know we're animals right and women are kind of told like oh you're you should be this nurturing mothery well we kind of turn into animals when we are going to have a kid you know and that image of a mother bear who's really protective of course so these are powerful athletic strong perhaps even demanding women they're very dangerous and let it be said as well I mean, they're psychopaths, right? These women, like, kill and eat people. It's funny because some early readers are like,

oh, that Luke, who's the main character, like, I don't really like him, but I love the women. And I'm like, let's just remember that Luke is the good guy who's trying to save humanity. Yes, but as the Sopranos taught us, the anti-hero is so in right now. The anti-hero. The anti-hero.

The anti-hero. And, you know, not many women get the chance to get to be the anti-hero. We are generally the nice girl next door, the nurturing mother, blah, blah, blah, blah. In both books, in Atokritor and in Hemosapians, I've got badass women who know what they want and go after it and revel in their, in their badness and their evil genius. So I produce a show for a gentleman named Avi Federer Green. Oh, I know Avi. You know Avi.

I just checked my calendar. He's going to make his Toronto Mike debut on September 10th. Oh, right. He's got, actually, I have the Kleenex still. I went to see the screening of, it's called Home Free, which is a book, his directorial debut. Yes, congrats, Avi. It's very good.

Avi, as I know from listening to his program, which is called Unleashed, it's very, very interesting, is these genre films are like, they're looking for these, this, what you're describing, this Hemosapians, sounds to my ears like it would be, it should be filmed. Oh, I hope so. And I mean, that was, from the first second,

thunderbolt of the idea hit me while sitting on a on a little stool in my living room I was like pregnancy cravings vampires like my very next thought was oh wow uh the hunger um rosemary's baby Hannibal silence of the lambs seven these are the big cinematic influences maybe a little bit of only lovers left alive uh but it's it's propulsive right uh the film rights are available they're there Okay, you put it into the atmosphere right now. It goes out into the ether. And it's a very interesting week on Toronto, Mike, because typically I record like three or four episodes a week.

But I had two cancellations this week. And I actually, I think you're my only recording this week because I had a guy named Jack Berkovitz coming over tomorrow, but he's stuck in Miami because of this here at Canada thing. And we had to push it to the next Thursday. And it should be very interesting, by the way. He's like this Omni Jewelcrafter guy who was fired from like 10 to, 10, 640, and a saga station, 960, I think it is.

And I think he's got some stories to tell. It should be fascinating. That sounds great. I'm all in, but it won't be till next Thursday. But I'm saying we're going to get some ears on this thing because Ovi and I know he'll be listening, but I really think that this Hemosapians idea is, it's more than a novel. Yeah, and it's, I mean, we're at another, vampires kind of never go away. They're evergreen.

and we're entered into another cycle of real interest in vampires. I don't think it's a mistake that there's a bit of a rise in perhaps narcissistic behavior in our culture, and that might come from us all being stuck behind screens all the time. But this idea... Well, I thought you're going to blame the president in the United States. Well, you know, he's, I think he's partly a product of this time. But there is this sense of a transactional nature with everything, and there's a sense.

Joseph Campbell talked about it. You know, life feeds on life. um vampires are kind of the ultimate image of get out of my way or i'll eat you kind of thing you know um yeah it's uh it's also laced with uh sexuality the idea of sex and death combined is very compelling stuff and i wanted to do an update that wasn't about you know lace and velvet and steaks and comical teeth and all of that i wanted to make something that was sleek and exciting and that makes Toronto look sleek and dangerous and exciting

because we're kind of used to being fuddy-duddy kind of character and we're coming into our own Toronto the Good. Toronto the Good. Hogtown, you know? You couldn't. That's not sexy.

I mean, bacon is sexy if you eat bacon, but yeah. Yeah, bacon could be sexy. Wasn't there a movie? What was that movie with Kim Bassenger? I feel like Mickey Rourke. You remember this movie? Oh, did they have, did they do bacon?

Probably not. It's a little greasy. So if somebody listening wants to get their mitts on Hemosapiens, your second novel, Emily. That's right. Where would you direct somebody to pick up a copy? Your favorite local bookstore, it's going to be at Indigo. It's going to be on that thing that you use your computer to go to, you know. But go to your local independent bookstore.

Go to your local. They're great people. It's good for the soul. They'll order it in for you if you need. Yeah. And you said six, like almost six weeks? Six weeks yesterday. September 30th.

Okay, so, oh, geez. September 30th, but you could probably buy advanced copies or something. You sure can. It's like a video game, okay? Yes, please do. Please do. Okay, because Emily's a great writer, and I know terrible question on our way out here, but have you thought about the next book?

The next book is already in the hopper. It's called Hemophage, and it means blood eater, and it's the follow-up to Hemosapians, and I'm hoping maybe my publisher will pick it up. Well, listen, all this hemo talk has got me excited because I'm seeing my hematologist tomorrow. I only see her once a year. If they have weird teeth, step away slowly. She's got ink.

I can tell you, this is a hematologist who's got some badass tats. Nice. That's the age we live in. Remember when we were growing up and it's like tattoos were for like people in the army or Navy or something? That's right. Or prison. Yes. Or the carnival.

Now, because I bike the waterfront trail every day. it's so rare now to see like a bare legs, bare arms, and not see ink. Yeah. I think it's flipped. Yeah. I think all the cool kids are inkless. Yeah, it's true. Nothing.

I got nothing too. We're the cool kids. Yeah. Woo! Finally! It took 54 years. Now we know your age. I knew it would come out.

Okay. Actually, I'm a thousand. No, because you're a vampire. That's right. My goodness gracious. Okay, so I thought this was a tremendous chat because I think you're interesting and you're talented and i hope this was a good experience for you this was fantastic you're doing great work for all of us this is fantastic thanks so much toronto mike and i love following you uh i mean

we were communicating via dms on blue sky uh it's good to have more blue sky people it's true yeah that's where the cool kids are with the cool kids aren't getting tats and their own blue sky we're going to keep telling ourselves that until something until it's true and that brings us to the end of our 1,748th show. Go to tronelonelmike.com for all your Toronto mic needs, whatever they may be. Much love to all who made this possible. Again, that's Great Lakes Brewery.

Emily's got her beer. Palma Pasta. You've got your lasagna. Toronto's waterfront BIA. There's so many events happening through the rest of the summer, including this coming weekend on the harborfront. Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball. Playoff action Friday night, 7.30.

Christy Pitts. Be there. Be there. Recycle My Electronics.C.A. Blue Sky Agency and Ridley Funeral Home. I'm just, Emily, in real time, I'm going to my calendar because it's a weird week where everybody bailed on me, and I have a lot going on, but I can tell you.

Toast returns Tuesday. That's with Rob Proust and Bob Willett. Rob from Spoons and Honeymoon Suite. Oh, cool. Bob is from Indy 88. That's happening Tuesday. And I'm going to shout out, Lyndon McIntyre, he's got a new book coming out.

He's here Wednesday, and then Jack Berkowitz is going to be here Thursday. And Friday, I'm going to chat with Sophie B. Hawkins. There's a name for you right there. Okay, thanks, everybody. See you all next week. You know,