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The AIH Transcript for May 4nd, 2022

HELEN MANN: Hello, I'm Helen Mann.

CHRIS HOWDEN: Good evening, I'm Chris Howden. This is As It Happens.

[Music: Theme]

Prologue

CH: Tonight

HM: Bad trip. An abortion provider in Colorado says she's already seeing an uptick in patients travelling to her state from Texas -- and fears things will only get worse if the Supreme Court's draft decision stands.

CH: The un-silent treatment. Canada's first Inuk heart surgeon says Inuit patients are more likely to suffer post-surgery complications in an Ottawa hospital -- and that kind of discrepancy is worth making noise about.

HM: Hot and bothered. As temperatures in India and Pakistan reach new extremes, we'll speak with a climate scientist who's experiencing the barely survivable conditions first-hand.

CH: Fragrant disregard. A researcher tells us about reconstructing the smells of ancient Egypt, including a fancy perfume used by Cleopatra -- and some considerably less appealing aromas.

HM: Left to her own devices. A YouTube inventor moves from making terrible, clumsy robots to making real products -- including a headache-inducing puzzle that's deliberately missing a piece.

CH: And… a plan with a major catch. We'll catch up with the Toronto Blue Jays fan who went viral after snagging a home run ball -- and promptly gifting it to a boy in a Yankees jersey.

HM: As It Happens, the Wednesday edition. Radio that guesses he'll find it easy to field some questions.

[Music: Theme]

Part 1: Colorado Abortions, Indian Climate Researcher, Jays Fan Yankees Baseball

Colorado Abortions

Guest: Dr. Rebecca Cohen

CH: Colorado is already the state of last resort for many women seeking abortions in the southwestern U.S. Since Texas passed its latest restrictive laws, Colorado has seen an influx of women travelling there for abortions. And now that the draft Supreme Court judgment overturning federal abortion rights has been leaked, doctors there are bracing for a lot more visitors. Dr. Rebecca Cohen is the medical director at the Comprehensive Women's Health Center in Colorado. We reached her in Denver.

HM: Dr. Cohen, give us a sense of how many more women are now showing up at your clinic from places like Texas?

DOCTOR REBECCA COHEN: Yeah. So since SB 8 passed in Texas last September, we have seen a rapidly increasing number of people. At this point, about 20 per cent of our patients are either from Texas or are from states where they are no longer able to get care quickly because so many people from Texas are going there.

HM: And we've heard that these are often women in particularly vulnerable situations. How are some of them feeling when they finally get to your door?

DRC: Yeah, people are… they're going through a lot. What we see when they get to us is a mixture of relief that they have been able to get the abortions that they need, but also just incredible levels of stress and sadness and anger because they have had to go through so many unnecessary hurdles. You know, people are driving 18 or 20 hours one way. They're digging into vacation funds or college funds to get an abortion that they need. And they are being turned away from physicians who've cared for them through their entire pregnancies or even their entire lives, who are saying, you know, this is what you need. An abortion is the safest thing for you, and I cannot do it.

HM: So for you, as a doctor whose position, you know, position is to care for these people, what is it like for you to see the lengths they have to go to?

DRC: It's hard. You know, we are absolutely committed to caring for people who need abortions wherever they are coming from, whatever they need. But we have seen that it is progressively more challenging. A year ago, prior to the ban in Texas, the majority of our patients were being seen early in pregnancy, in the first trimester, and we could typically get people in for an appointment within about five days. What we're seeing now is that the average wait time for a visit is about two weeks. We are. Prioritizing people who are later in pregnancy because those appointments are more urgent. And we are seeing people with more, both medical issues and also again social issues of challenges getting the funding that they need, challenges travelling, and… and feeling in general unsupported. So, you know, it's one thing when you can ask a friend or family member to take an afternoon off of work to come help you or to watch your kids. It's another thing when you're asking someone to commit three to five days to either travel to a place where they're unfamiliar or to watch your children to be away from their own work and things for that long.

HM: And these are people who can… can pull together the money to… to get to you. What about those who can't make the trip?

DRC: What we're seeing is… is essentially a reflection of what we expected would happen, that people who are wealthier are able to make the trip, and people for whom unintended pregnancy is already a really big challenge. So, people who are younger, people who don't have money, people who may not be citizens, and so their travel is a lot more restricted are the people that are typically not able to travel out of state.

HM: We've been focusing to some degree here on Texas, but of course, this is the week where the Supreme Court draft has been leaked. How does it feel to be an abortion provider where you are in the United States right now?

DRC: I am someone that is incredibly fortunate to be an abortion provider in a state that has protected access to abortion care. That although we expect we're going to see huge, huge upsurges in the number of patients seeking abortions in our state, a huge upswing in the need of people seeking abortion in our state, just the resources needed, that I'm still able to provide legal abortion care here in Colorado. We're seeing a lot of calls from providers across the country of what is the best way to get our patients to you? And I don't have to wrestle with, you know, what does it mean to provide illegal abortions? And really, just anger. Everybody that I know is deeply, deeply, deeply angry at the unfairness of these bans. Of the cruelty of these bans. Of just the recognition that they are hurting people with the potential truly of killing people. And just recognizing the cruelty of that has been really hard.

HM: What will happen to the women you have to turn away where there is nobody else to… to take them?

DRC: Yeah. And that… I mean, that is a question that breaks my heart every day. We are looking into partnerships with organizations that can help facilitate self-managed abortion. There are groups that do telemedicine abortion, meaning that a person never has to see a provider. That is legal in the state of Colorado, although it is not in many states around us. And there are also organizations that provide safe abortion care outside of the legal setting. And so, there are groups that are working to provide access to abortion for people that can't see a provider. What we know, though, is that there are going to be people that just cannot get in. Again, whether it's because they're later in pregnancy, because they don't have the resources or because we really are just that full. And what we anticipate that we are going to see, unfortunately, is higher rates of maternal mortality. Mothers are going to die. Higher rates of infant mortality. You know, babies are going to die. And really just a huge, huge negative impact on people's families, on people's careers, and just on people. This is not a good thing.

HM: No, it's a very difficult time. Dr. Cohen, thank you for taking time to talk to us.

DRC: Thank you. I really appreciate it.

HM: Okay. Bye-bye.

DRC: All right. Bye-bye.

CH: Dr. Rebecca Cohen is the medical director at the Comprehensive Women's Health Center in Colorado. We reached her in Denver.

[Music: Fuzzy guitar riff]

Indian Climate Researcher

Guest: Chandni Singh

CH: For months now, India and Pakistan have been suffering under a brutal heatwave, with temperatures pushing into unprecedented territory. Last month, New Delhi saw seven consecutive days over 40 degrees Celsius. And in southeastern Pakistan, temperatures hit 47 degrees Celsius this past Friday. The heat has caused widespread health problems and killed dozens of people. It has also closed schools, damaged crops, and caused power shortages. Chandni Singh is a climate change researcher and a lead author of a recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We reached her in Bangalore.

HM: Ms. Singh, you spent a week in Delhi when temperatures were in the mid-40s. What did it feel like to live under that heat?

CHANDNI SINGH: Yes, as you can imagine, the temperatures of 45 and 46 degrees are really absolutely excruciating. I ended up having to be out in the hot sun from around 12 noon to 3 p.m. For me personally, it's after the heat, so once you… when it's cooled down in the evening, there's just immense fatigue. And it actually took me two days to come back to normal. And this was when it was just four hours of exposure and a lot of water along the way. I was drinking water. I had my head covered to avoid direct sun. But, of course, I… I always think of people who don't have the ability to cool their homes or go back out of the sun really because of the livelihoods they are in. So, I at least had the respite of a cool home and plenty of water. Well, many people don't have that.

HM: Um-hmm. Obviously, the health impacts are pretty alarming, but there's also other effects as well as this heat spills over into various sectors. It's affecting crops, the demand on power, as in addition to the health problems. And what are you seeing in terms of how public officials are trying to deal with this?

CS: Yes. So, as you rightly say, I mean, one is the direct impact on how you feel and a person's health. But then these cascading effects like agricultural crops have been affected quite badly. So wheat, which is harvested around March and April in India. Several fruit crops like mango, lychees, lemons. We've had prices just shoot up. And all of this, of course, has direct impacts on farm incomes, which is… which is really unfortunate. This was peak harvest season in North India, at least. Coming to the health side of things, that preparedness is there. But anecdotally, what I've seen being reported is that there is a higher incidence of heat stress and heat strokes. We don't have any data on mortality yet, but we do know that there have been increasing heat stress reported across the country.

HM: What about these power outages? Because they would, of course, make it impossible to use air conditioning even for those people who had it. How extensive are those outages?

CS: Yeah, so it differs across different states in India, but there have been more power outages than you expect at this time of the year. In some places, at least in western UP [Uttar Pradesh], for example, where my ancestral village is, I've heard of outages of up to eight hours a day, with 45 degrees temperature, 46 degrees. And then people, of course, fall back on age-old practices of having, you know, handheld fans to keep cool. But when… when you've got these very hot days, as well as hot nights, it really… it's… it's very debilitating and difficult for the body to cool down and just feel rested. It's also the kinds of houses that different people inhabit. So a lot of low-income settlements actually have tin roofs, which trap a lot of heat and cool down fast in the nights. So, most people are actually using just electric fans, people who are extremely poor. Or just a lot of people actually sleep outdoors in the night or on rooftops because it's cooler to be outside the house rather than inside.

HM: As you know, Canada's one of the world's biggest CO2 emitters. What would you want Canadians to know? What would you like to see countries like ours do?

CS: Yes, this is a really important question and something that I feel very deeply about. We know that countries like India and Pakistan, of course, that are witnessing and experiencing this heatwave are going to see increasing temperatures in the future. We also know that there are limits to adapt to this kind of extreme heat. And that is why we really need to look back at what is causing this and really start mitigating… more deeply mitigating our CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions. This is where many people say that what is India doing about its mitigation strategy? And I have always argued that while India has a role to play, it is really the big historical emitters that also have a very significant role to play around just moving towards a greener and a more sustainable trajectory. So, countries like the U.S.A., China, the U.K., Canada as well have to also be part of the solution of mitigation so that countries that are really at the frontline of climate change, like India and Pakistan, don't continue to see this kind of debilitating heat.

HM: You have said that this heatwave is testing the limits of human survivability. In India, what does the future look like if temperatures remain where they are now?

CS: Unfortunately, the future of India, if you look at the IPCC reports where I was a lead author, if you look at the projections for the Indian subcontinent, they're actually quite dreadful. We've got not only dry heat like the kind we are seeing now, but by 2050, we've got extreme humid heat, which is even worse than dry heat because you don't sweat and cool down. It's going to become really bad by 2050. And in many places, cross the limits of survivability by 2100, end of the century. So, the argument is clear that we really need to mitigate now and mitigate faster rather than wait for this future that is… that is really going to lead to a lot of deaths and loss of labour and productivity and all of that.

HM: Your country often sees some relief from… from these hot temperatures when the monsoons move in. How long until monsoon season?

CS: Usually, some time in June is when the monsoon will hit Kerala, and then it slowly makes its way up to North India. Fortunately, I just heard from a few friends today morning that Delhi has seen some respite, and there have been light showers. Usually, we do have small rains, you know, during the spring so that the temperatures come down, and we saw some scattered rainfall today in Delhi. So, that's just some respite. The monsoon, of course, will take longer. June, July end is when the monsoon will come to Delhi.

HM: Chandni Singh, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it.

CS: Thank you so much.

HM: Okay, bye-bye.

CH: That was Chandni Singh -- a climate change researcher and co-author of a recent IPCC report. She's in Bangalore, India. And you can find more on that story on our webpage at: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Ambient]

Jays Fan Yankees Baseball

Guest: Mike Lanzillotta

CH: The moment that made hearts swell at last night's Toronto Blue Jays home game had nothing to do with the score, which was nine-to-one for the New York Yankees. It was during the sixth inning. Aaron Judge was up to bat for New York. And he cracked a home run to left field, up into the 200-level. Mike Lanzillotta snagged the ball, which is an exciting thing for any baseball fan. But what happened next surprised everyone watching. We reached Mr. Lanzillotta in Newmarket.

HM: Mike, this ball comes towards you. You pick it up. What did you decide to do?

MIKE LANZILLOTTA: Well, you know, I was talking to a kid and his father pretty much the whole game. And I promised him I'd get him a ball one way or another. And I mean, the first thing that came to my mind was to hand it over to the little Yankees fan.

HM: So you'd already made a connection with him before the ball was even hit?

ML: Oh, yeah, yeah. Right from the beginning of the game. You know, I saw him there with his dad, and we were trying to get balls from the bullpen and trying to get guys to throw us a ball when they're warming up before innings and to no avail. And I just said, don't worry, when one way or another we're giving you a ball. And it just so happened that [chuckling] it happened in epic fashion.

HM: And it wasn't just a ball from any player. It was from Aaron Judge. Why was that so meaningful?

ML: Oh, the kid was wearing a Judge… a Judge shirt. You know, this is one of his favourite players. And it's just crazy sometimes how the universe works like that, you know, especially from not only one of the premier players in the game but his absolute idol, you know? So.

HM: Yeah. Did he tell you why he likes Aaron Judge so much?

ML: I think his dad grew up a Yankees fan, and he actually named him after Derek Jeter. So, I think, you know, he's like Valddy for us, right? He's… he's… he's our all-star. He's our MVP. He means everything to kids in this city. And Judge is a phenom in New York, so yeah.

HM: Hmmm. Tell me about young Derek's reaction when you handed him the ball.

ML: Oh, unexpected, for sure. He was completely overwhelmed with emotion. As soon as his hand touched that ball, you know, it became reality. And I think he was… he was… he was overcome and broke down, threw his arms around me. Thank you so much. You know, I love you. And, you know, I looked at him and said, hey, there's no crying in baseball, kid.[both laugh]

HM: One of my favourite lines, too. [laughing]

ML: Yeah. Yeah.

HM: Oh, my gosh, what did he say beyond that? Like, did he tell you what he's going to do with the ball?

ML: He was speechless, and he would not let it go. But I think after he came to terms with it, you know, he said thank you. And I said, you know, when you're older, when you're my age, and you're going to have a chance to do this for some kid as well. So you promise me that. He said I promise. I promise.

HM: That's so nice. Now, you say there's no crying in baseball, [ML chuckles] but how close did you come?

ML: I was super close! Oh, my goodness. I'm a pretty emotional guy, too. So, I'm surprised I didn't get the waterworks going. My heartstrings were tugged on for sure. But I think the adrenaline was just kind of kicking in and [chuckle] prevented me from breaking down, too.

HM: Right. So let's take a listen to what Aaron Judge had to say when he heard what happened.

[sc]

REPORTER: Aaron, there's a clip that's going viral. A little boy got the homerun ball. He was crying in the stands. What's… what's it like to have that kind of impact on young fans?

AARON JUDGE: Really? That's… that's passion right there. That's Yankee fans right there. You know, Yankee fans all around the world. They're passionate about this game. And to have a little one like that man there, he's starting out the right way. Yes, he's starting out the right way.

REPORTER #2: I'm going to give credit to a Canadian fan who actually caught the ball and gave it back… gave it to the kid. So, it was the Toronto fan who had the ball, an adult and gives it to a child.

REPORTER: In a Judge shirt.

REPORTER #2: Wearing your jersey.

AJ: No way. That's… man, that's what's special about this game. Man, it doesn't matter, you know, what jersey you wear. You know, they're everybody's fans. Everybody appreciates this game, and that's pretty cool. I gotta check out the video. That's special.

[/sc]

HM: What do you make of that?

ML: Oh, that's… when I heard that the first time, and the 10th time, you know, he says it perfectly. It's all for the love of the game. That's what it's all about. Doesn't matter what colour your jersey is. That's why we grew up loving the sport. And it's pretty humbling to have, you know, a professional athlete talk… talk about you indirectly. But yeah, it's definitely a moment I'm going to cherish.

HM: Why do you think people are so moved by this story?

ML: Oh, I mean, just reading some of the comments on social media, it's like people that weren't even there or don't even know me, this has impacted their life so much. Like, you know, I'm proud to be Canadian, and you know, we need more kindness in the world. And I think just coming off the last couple of years of these lockdowns and COVID, and it's just all negativity. And I just… I don't know. I just think this is a real feel-good story, and it's going to… you know, I think it already has brought a lot of people together that don't even know each other.

HM: I understand a number of teams have offered to… to show you their appreciation for this act of kindness, including the Jays. What do you… [chuckle] what are they offering?

ML: Well, so far, only the Jays, teamwise. So, they… they actually gave us some tickets for tonight's game, which I am extremely grateful for. But I've received an outpouring of support from fans offering me tickets. There's this one gentleman who sent his colleague up to our section saying, you know, my dad's at home watching this game. He saw what you did. He wants me to get your info so he can give you some tickets. He's a 30-year season ticket holder member. So, I actually chatted with him last night after the game, and he said in his 30 years as a… as a season ticket holder, he's never seen anything quite spectacular as that. So he would like to meet me and, you know, maybe develop some form of friendship, which is awesome. And… and… and that just goes to show you, you know, it affects people. And people call me, saying they're crying, they're watching it on TV. And I had absolutely no idea it would blow up this big, and yeah. [chuckle]

HM: Nice. So you're going to be in the stands tonight using those Jays tickets?

ML: That's correct! I will be.

HM: All right. Well, I wouldn't be surprised if we see you on the Jumbotron.

ML You know what would be better? If we got a win.

HM: That's true. Okay, listen, Mike, this is such a lovely story. I'm so happy you're able to talk to us about it. Thanks so much.

ML: Right on. Thank you.

HM: Okay. Go Jays.

ML: Yeah. Go Jays go.

HM: Bye.

ML: Take care. Bye.

CH: That was Toronto Blue Jays fan Mike Lanzillotta. We caught up with him before he headed to tonight's game. And you can find more on that story on our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: poppy beat]

Bad Robots

CH: Have you ever woken up with a brilliant idea for an invention? And immediately scrawled it down on one of the take-out menus next to the bed? And then, hours later, been disappointed to discover that you scrawled some random numbers, and the words "SOUP ROBOT" next to them? We've all done that, and forgotten about it. But that's what makes Simone Giertz a genius. She has ideas like that all the time -- and she makes them real.

[sc]

SIMONE GIERTZ: I really dislike soup, and especially pumpkin soup. But you know what? It's Halloween, which is all about facing your fears.

[Music: poppy beat becomes spoopy beat]

SG: So, today, I'm going to make pumpkin soup and have a robot serve it to me.

[Music: Hip-hop beat]

[Sound: A slurp and SG laughing]

[/sc]

CH: That was the sound of a robot lowering a spoon into a bowl of soup, lifting it, turning toward Ms. Giertz, and throwing the soup all over her. Now, if that were her only contribution to the world of engineering, it would be enough. But she's made dozens of things like that.

[sc]

[Music: Poppy beat]

SG: So, I was thinking, why not make an alarm clock that makes your bed a little bit less comfortable… because it slaps you in the face?

[Sound: A bell rings and something terrible chugs along]

[/sc]

CH: That was Simone Giertz being repeatedly slapped by a rubber hand attached to an alarm clock.

[sc]

SG: Step one, plug it in. Step two, grab toothbrush. Step three, open the shampoo bottle. Step four, profit.

[Music: Rock music]

[Sound: A wheezy squeeze sound of shampoo coming from a bottle]

[/sc]

CH: And that was her hair-washing robot, which dribbles shampoo over her head before -- again -- a rubber hand slaps at her. She's been building these things for her YouTube channel for years. She describes herself as "the queen of bad robots". But she's also invented all kinds of legitimate things. And now she wants to market them -- she's actually formed a team to develop some of her ideas into products. And so far, those products are pretty straightforward and tasteful: some nice jewelry, and a neat plug-in calendar. Not a rubber hand in sight. But she is offering one item that's typically perverse.

[sc]

SG: I might have designed the world's worst jigsaw puzzle. It's solid white, and it comes with one piece missing. So, it's also the world's first officially incomplete puzzle. And I'm just going to put it together and see how long it takes me.

[/sc]

CH: It took her 19 hours.

[Music: Tango]

Part 2: North Healthcare Study, Egypt Smells Study

North Healthcare Study

Guest: Dr. Donna May Kimmaliardjuk

CH: Surgery is stressful for everyone. But for Inuit patients in Nunavut, it's often significantly more so. In Nunavut, access to health care is limited. So patients often have to travel for treatment, which is costly and creates additional strain. And now, new research suggests that Inuit patients don't fare as well after surgery. The study compared Inuit patients from Nunavut who received surgery at The Ottawa Hospital with non-Inuit patients from all over -- and found the Inuit patients experienced a higher rate of complications. Dr. Donna May Kimmaliardjuk is one of the authors of the study published in the journal CMAJ Open. She's Canada's first Inuk heart surgeon. We reached her in St. John's, Newfoundland.

HM: Dr. Kimmaliardjuk, what has your study found about how much worse postoperative outcomes have been for Nunavut Inuit patients at the Ottawa Hospital?

DOCTOR DONNA MAY KIMMALIARDJUK: So, we did a retrospective cohort study. So, we looked at all patients who underwent surgery between 2011-2018 at The Ottawa Hospital, which actually, we excluded heart surgery, which is what I do. But that's okay. [laughing] And we found that Inuit patients from Nunavut since that kind of… that… we were the referral centre for patients from the Baffin Island region who needed, you know, quaternary level care or very specialized surgery. We found that they were more likely to endure or encounter postoperative complications after surgery. And the number that we found is they were 25 per cent more likely to have a serious complication after surgery. Now, I want to clarify, though, that that doesn't mean that, you know, let's say 25 per cent of non-married patients had a complication, 50 per cent of Inuit patients did. But that's not what we're seeing here if you look at the actual hard numbers from the study, in terms of deaths or a serious complication within the first 30 days after surgery that occurred in 16.1 per cent of non-Inuit patients and 17.2 percent in Nunavut Inuit patients.

HM: So, your study says when you adjust for things like age, sex and type of surgery, you end up with this 25 per cent increase in risk. Why do you believe there are these differences in postoperative outcomes?

DDMK: So, I think the big thing when I look at this as a surgeon, if I wasn't involved on this in this study, but also, as an Inuik who has all my family up in Nunavut still, who has to fly down to large centres with, you know, large specialized hospitals if they need specialized care, is really I think it's driven by barriers in accessing timely and also culturally-appropriate health care. You know, I know from family up north, but also treating patients in Ottawa who came for surgeries is they cannot as easily get seen by a health care provider. You know, a lot of communities only have a physician come maybe once a month for a few days. Or you cannot as easily get access to tests to help make the diagnosis. And so, when you then have that delay in access to care, that means that your illness or your disease is continuing to be present and is becoming more advanced. Well, that makes the surgery a bit harder, and it increases your risk of complications during surgery and also in recovery.

HM: What would improve outcomes for Nunavut Inuit patients travelling so far? What kind of changes would you want to see, I guess, both at home and in the hospital?

DDMK: So, if we improve our access to health care and improve also the quality of care, you know… and it's no longer controversial or a surprise to say that racism exists in health care, unfortunately. Joyce Echaquan, we're just over a year now from her trial, and we all know the outcomes from that. And so, I think there also needs to be an acknowledgement of that and facilities and hospitals and governments to actively work to be actively anti-racist in treating their patients so that patients are receiving the best quality, same equitable care that any other Canadian would receive here in Canada.

HM: You know, in identifying these issues, how important is it to have Indigenous health care workers or scientists or researchers do the kind of academic research into Indigenous health outcomes that… that you've done?

DDMK: Well, I think it's… you know, it's really important. One thing that I'm kind of excited about or we're kind of optimistic about as co-authors on this paper is there's really no papers in Canada or no studies, I should say, that look at surgical outcomes specific to Inuit. We're always kind of clumped in in pan-Indigenous outcomes, which includes First Nations, Inuit, and Metis. And so, we didn't we didn't have the actual numbers on paper to show. Look, these are what our outcomes are. This is how they're different. To actually help implement change and help direct and guide policies and funding decisions and say, look, these are where the gaps are, or the differences are. This is where we should really direct our funds or our resources or our energy to improve outcomes. So, I think it's immensely important because we just… we didn't have this data. And it's kind of exciting to now know that we have some data, and it can help guide decision making.

HM: You are this country's first Inuk heart surgeon. How much does an underrepresentation of Inuit and other Indigenous doctors contribute to this problem?

DDMK: I… [sigh] I think it does contribute a bit, right? Because if you're not seeing yourself or these people in your world, which is, you know, in your health care world, then it's easy to not think of them. It's easy to, you know, be forgotten. And so, I think it's so important to have representation of, you know, Inuit. But, of course, all, you know, Indigenous people in these, you know, positions of leadership, whether it be in health care or in policymaking or in government, where we can advocate on behalf of our communities, on behalf of our families, on behalf of our, you know, neighbours, friends, other Indigenous people, who would benefit the most from these changes in how we deliver health care or having access to better… or better access to health care.

HM: Do you feel that patients coming from Nunavut should still feel safe getting health care in Ottawa?

DDMK: Yes, absolutely. When you read this paper, I don't want someone to think, oh, it's not safe for me to have surgery. Or, oh, I shouldn't go to Ottawa for surgery. I mean, I was there for six years. It's an amazing hospital, amazing people, amazing facilities. You know, when I was there… and I saw other health care providers absolutely provided still the best care that they can, regardless of who the patient was, where they came from. So, it's absolutely still safe. If surgery is needed for whatever your illness is, I still recommend that you go get the treatment that you need. But really, this paper, you know, just now identifies the gaps where we can improve to ensure that, you know, everybody's having the same equitable outcome.

HM: Dr. Kimmaliardjuk, thank you for explaining your study to us.

DDMK: Oh, you're most welcome. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me.

CH: Dr. Donna May Kimmaliardjuk is a cardiac surgeon with Eastern Health. We reached her in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.

[Music: Bright piano]

MB Farmer Flooding

CH: Last summer, Manitoba's problem was not enough water. Now, it's way too much. Twenty-five Manitoba municipalities have declared flood emergencies. And the flooding is hitting farmers especially hard. They're struggling to move their animals -- and dealing with waterlogged feed. Michael Duguid's farm is located between Gimli and Arborg.

[sc]

MICHAEL DUGUID: Hard on the cattle because there's not a dry spot for them to sit down on. They… our hay is sitting in a foot and a half of water at times. It's… the water's gone down a little bit. But the next problem is where are we going to take these cattle to put them on a dry field? The roads are… some roads have been cut. There's water sitting on our driveways. And even if we get them out, we have to get the hay to them a couple of miles away. And there's a problem there. So, we've been moving a few the last few days and next couple of days, same thing.

SAM SAMSON: Where do you put them?

MD: We'll put them on pastures, and they're going to run the pastures. Their feet will chew it all up. Nothing we can do about that. It's… it's healthier out there than it is standing here.

SS: Tell me how far the water has gotten up on your property?

MD: Well, it was right into the pens. The cattle were standing in it. And we're trying to keep the ones dry to dry… dry. But it's pretty hard. Like, we're standing on probably a foot of ice and snow underneath this melting, and then the rain didn't help.

SS: Your property isn't really near a waterway, right? It's mostly overland flooding and the weather that's been putting this water.

MD: It's all overland and the bad weather.

SS: Yeah.

MD: We had lots of snow, and then we had two storms weekend apart and then the rain the next weekend. So, the three things all added up.

SS: How many head of cattle do you have?

MD: There's over 200 cows and calves, and we're finished calving, oh, about a month ago. So, it's hard on these big calves. They're getting scours and pneumonia.

SS: Um, what are your concerns going forward? Like, what would help? And what would not help?

MD: That's a real tough question. I think one of the things is the ask of the government might be a compensation for the losses with according to our board, we're over 3,000 animals have passed from the floods, and... and the storms. Good example is we picked up some animals the other day on the far side of the province, and there's no water and very little snow in the tree lines. We still have a lot of snow in the tree lines here. And we're going to have water running for a while yet.

SS: Right.

MD: And, of course, we're by this big lake, and it's cold. I guess another thing we're worried about is short of feed again. The feed we do have is sitting in water. And I'm not the only guy. There's lots of guys that are… that were tight to start with. And this is going to put the pastures back even further.

[/sc]

CH: That was Manitoba farmer Michael Duguid talking to the CBC's Sam Samson.

[Music: Instrumental]

Egypt Smells Study

Guest: Dora Goldsmith

CH: Nowadays, strong smells are everywhere, but they don't have much significance. Just for a random example, Axe Body Spray's "Skateboards and Fresh Roses" scent, which I still have in the studio here. It doesn't mean anything, except that if I spray it, I'll hallucinate and lose consciousness. But in ancient Egypt, scents had specific meanings. Some were used for a particular ritual function. Others wafted through rooms to denote the special status of the ruling class. Dora Goldsmith is an Egyptologist at the Free University of Berlin who is completing her PhD thesis on the sense of smell in ancient Egypt. She has recreated "smellscapes" and scents from thousands of years ago -- including a perfume used by Cleopatra herself. We reached Dora Goldsmith in Berlin.

HM: Dora Goldsmith, what did Cleopatra's perfume smell like?

DORA GOLDSMITH: [chuckling] Well, it smells pretty good. You're talking about the Mendesian perfume, I assume. The Mendesian smells very elegant to me. It smells like myrrh and pine and cinnamon. And it's not just the scent but also the texture that is very important in ancient perfumes. Because… well, they're like anointing oils, really. So, it's a completely different experience putting on the Medesian. You're anointing it on your skin.

HM: As an Egyptologist, what does it feel like when you smell that, knowing you're talking about a perfume that's been worn possibly by the most well-known ancient Egyptian?

DG: I feel surprised a little bit every time because the process starts with translating an ancient recipe. And then, when you translate the text, you have a certain idea of what it's going to smell like. And when you actually do it, it's different. So, it's… I would say it's surprising every time.

HM: You mentioned going through documents. How do you actually go about recreating scents that are thousands of years old?

DG: I just scanned documents from the very first dynasty until the end of ancient Egyptian histories. And these texts are in different languages because within ancient Egypt, there are different languages also. This language existed for 4,000 years, so there are different developments of the language. There are also different scripts. There's the hieratic. There is the hieroglyphic scripts. There is demotic. So, all of these different texts I've translated. And the next step would be to reconstruct it because these texts are really quite complicated. And they're telling you something in a text, and then you have to double-check and see if it really is doable. The one that I reconstructed just last week is a medical type of kyphi made for people as opposed to gods and temples. And it says in a recipe that you have to make kind of a little ball of incense out of it. And I tried it out, and it was impossible to do it based on a recipe because they're not mentioning a binder. So, by doing it, you know, is, oh, this is actually missing in our documents. So then, you know, oh, this piece of information was probably something they knew, but they didn't write down. It was oral tradition.

HM: So, we are focusing on individual scents so far, but there's also something called smellscapes, kind of smelly scenes that can be recreated. How does that work?

DG: Oh, yes! Smelly scenes is a lovely way of putting it. Well, it's all the smells in one particular location and one particular time. That's a smellscape.

HM: What a home might smell like. What a boudoir might smell like in ancient Egypt. [chuckle] Something like that?

DG: Yeah, something like that. So to give you an example, the smell of, say, the workshop of a craftsman making sandals. That smells pretty bad. There are also gardens that the ancient Egyptians are describing that had a very specific scent that was extremely pleasant. And that was… that was one of the best scents that you could experience in your life. So the temple would be a very good example because there are a lot of documents from ancient Egyptian temples describing what kind of fragrant offerings were offered to the gods every single day.

HM: Um-hmm.

DG: And they describe the scents there in detail. So, for example, the king, who was the main priest in Egypt, he is saying, that I am offering you bread, and its smell is hot. So, take this hot-smelling bread. It's for you. And if you take all of these documents, then you can reconstruct the smellscape of an ancient Egyptian temple.

HM: How can you be sure that you've got the same actual scents that an ancient Egyptian would have been smelling? Is… is there a way to verify it beyond the documentation?

DG: I always emphasize that these are the smellscapes that they chose to talk about. And, of course, this is a very specific perspective because it is the scribes that wrote the documents and not necessarily the peasants working on a field because they couldn't read and write. And obviously, there were also other scents and smells around. They were there, but the Egyptians don't want to talk about them, at least not in writing. And you can access the scents by looking at the archaeology. So the best scenario would be actually to take both the working sources and then the archaeology and compare them. Maybe the text was followed step-by-step, or it wasn't. Maybe the recipe only represents a certain ideal situation.

HM: Um-hmm.

DG: That the Egyptians wanted to show, that they wanted to document, but maybe they were not doing that in reality.

HM: What does it tell us about ancient Egypt that there was so much invested in these scents?

DG: They attached a lot of value to these scents. A god or a goddess would manifest themselves through their scents. They'd necessarily need to be there through their scents, but they don't necessarily need to be seen. So, if you smell them, that means that they're there. They are manifesting their authority. And queens would have the same title as her. The Queen would be the one who fills the palace with the scent of her perfume. So, an attractive, beautiful woman would not only be visually beautiful, but also she would smell great.

HM: I have to ask you, given how much fascination there is with ancient Egypt, do you think there's a mass market for these scents?

DG: Oh, yeah! Yeah, yeah. People ask me to sell these scents all the time. And I have kits I've put together, but a lot of them can cause allergies, and they're banned in a modern cosmetic industry because even though they're natural, they could cause allergies. For that reason, I only make these perfumes for educational purposes.

HM: Dora, it's absolutely fascinating. Thank you so much for telling us about your work.

DG: Thank you so much.

CH: Dora Goldsmith is a PhD candidate at the Free University of Berlin.

[Music: hip-hop beat]

FOA: Emu Escape

CH: She was not your average fugitive. For one thing, she made herself right at home in a town just 48 kilometres from where she escaped. And for another, she made no effort to disguise her identity -- or her intentions. According to residents of Lenoir, North Carolina, the female emu known as Kevin just walked right up and lay down next to a human father and his three children outside their house on Saturday. She then proceeded to play with the neighbourhood kids and eat pretty much anything pretty much anyone offered to her. And ultimately, it was food that helped police catch Kevin -- who was easily ensnared thanks to some choice offerings, and returned to her owners in nearby Moravian Falls. Now, that's an outcome that's unlikely to surprise anyone from the Outback. Take Chris Gimblett, for instance -- who spoke with us in July, 2020 about a pair of emus named Carol and, weirdly enough, Kevin, which were terrorizing his Yaraka Hotel and Pub.

[sc]

CHRIS GIMBLETT: Well, what happened is that they learned to walk up the three steps from the main street here onto the veranda. From the veranda, they had the choice of going straight into the dining room. So, if we have a full dining room full of people with meals in front of them, you can imagine the disaster that would happen as they started eating all the meals off people's plates. But we've got them totally and completely bluffed at the moment with this plastic chain, which is sort of hanging between the two posts. Probably about half a metre off the ground with a sign hanging from the chain, just saying that they are banned. So it's working pretty effectively at the moment.

SUSAN BONNER: Well, clearly, they can't read the sign, but they obey the barrier, is that it?

CG: That's exactly right. And emus are not a particularly intelligent creature. They're at the lower end of the scale of IQ. And they are just basically eating machines -- that's all they're interested in doing is eating. Every morning they go up to the caravan park, the trailer park, where everybody's having their breakfast and if they are not hand fed, they'll help themselves to toast down the toaster. They will drink from a mug of coffee, mug of tea -- a bit like a vacuum cleaner. They put their beak in and it is just gone. They don't knock the mug over. And if anybody has to be cooking a barbecue, you don't get between the barbecue and the emu and what's on the barbecue plate. And the other thing, too, of course, is that because they're eating all the time, their toileting habits happen fairly frequently. And something that resembles a sort of a sloppy bowl of porridge which is upturned from a height of one metre and lands on the ground and it spreads in sort of the splatter effect. I think you get the general idea of what I'm trying to say.

[/sc]

CH: Eww! [chuckle] Chris Gimblett is the owner of The Yaraka Hotel and Pub in Central West Queensland, Australia. He spoke with guest host Susan Bonner on As It Happens in July, 2020 about a pair of belligerent emus with insatiable appetites.

[Music: Instrumental]

Part 3: Thunder Bay Student Wood Patent, NL/LB Swanskin Mitts

NL/LB Iceberg

CH: During the pandemic, of course, the vast majority of us stayed home. Without tourists, tourist towns were quiet. But it wasn't just people who were staying away in Newfoundland and Labrador -- it was also icebergs. For the past two years, iceberg sightings in the province have been lacking and lackluster. That's not the case these days in Triton, however. The small island community just off the coast of northeastern Newfoundland is playing host to a massive iceberg. And locals, including tour boat operator Mike Roberts, couldn't be happier.

[sc]

MIKE ROBERTS: Yeah, he's… he's a… he's a big visitor. And it took a long time for him to get here. He came from Greenland. And he's about 10,000 years old, I guess. That's what they say.

GAVIN SIMMS: Yeah.

MR: Going on two weeks now, and he's been back and forth like in two weeks. And he hasn't moved a distance of a mile. But right where he's sitting now, he’s grounded on a shoal. And he's been there three days now and hasn't moved an inch, right?

GS: Mike, describe this iceberg to me.

MR: No, this one is one of the bigger ones, right? I've seen thousands over the years, right? And this one, by far, is one of the bigger ones, right? He’s at least 150 feet high, I'd say. The top pinnacle of him, right? And he’s connected by a little bridge. Like, he’s almost like two icebergs into one, eh? Yeah.

GS: Wow! So, he makes for a decent picture?

MR: People are… young families are coming out and getting the kids to sit on a rock and getting the iceberg in the background and getting family pictures on. Everybody's enjoying him. On a nice sunny day in the blue sky, I mean, it's absolutely beautiful, right?

GS: Yeah.

MR: And that's why people are flocking out to see that iceberg. And we haven't had a lot of icebergs over the past couple of years. And it's brought the community right alive, right?

GS: Yeah. So, be honest with me. You… you guys hooked a chain or something to this thing and dragged it in, didn’t ya?

MR: We'll keep that between ourselves. [both laugh]

[/sc]

CH: Mike Roberts runs Badger Bay Boat Tours out of Triton, in Newfoundland and Labrador. He was speaking with Gavin Simms from The St. John's Morning Show.

[Music: Light rock]

Thunder Bay Student Wood Patent

Guest: Cory Hubbard

CHRIS HOWDEN: If you told the average person on the street that a highrise building would be more fireproof if it were made of wood than if it were made with concrete and steel, that person would be confused. First, because that seems patently false. And second, because it's a weird thing to say to a stranger. But two civil engineers in Thunder Bay, Ontario, say they've not only proven that premise to be true -- but the technology has just been patented in Canada and is patent-pending in the United States. Cory Hubbard first pitched the idea back in 2017 while he was a graduate student at Lakehead University, where he is now a civil engineering technologist. We reached him in Thunder Bay.

HM: Cory, if I were to walk by a highrise made of wood a few years from now, what would it look like? Could I tell the difference from, say, a steel structure?

CORY HUBBARD: Well, that depends on the facade. So if you walked on the outside, if the architect wants to show off the wood, you might be able to see it. Or they can just use the same facade as other buildings. It's when you walk inside that's when you can notice the biggest difference.

HM: How does wood make these buildings more fire resistant?

CH: So, wood has this wonderful property where it doesn't conduct heat inside like steel. So steel, you know, it's like a lightning rod… well, it's very conductive. So 400 degrees Celsius and it starts losing its strength properties. Wood, the outside obviously burns, but it just creates a charred layer on the outside, which acts as insulation. Inside the wood, it still has the exact same strength properties. So, as it slowly burns down, mass timber, the outside is burning, but the inside is still holding its strength almost 100 per cent. So that's why we can design accordingly. So, if we need a one-hour, two-hour fire rating, just make your beam a little thicker. And that way… for the gluing, I work with 0.7 millimetres per minute. It's a simple calculation so you can make sure it lasts long enough for everyone to get out of the building.

HM: So basically, these are steel rods encased in wood?

CH: Yes. So my connection, I just at the end of the beam drilled two holes at the end of the beam, one in the top part and one in the bottom part. And about 250mls deep. And where the rod meets inside the beam, I drill a hole in the side big enough to put the nut and washer and plug a piece of wood over that hole, so the rods are fully encased in wood. So, since the steel is not exposed to the air, basically, it's encased in wood. As long as there's enough thickness around the steel rods, the wood will slowly burn, and the wood will keep its strength. And the rod, being the inside centre part, it will hold its strength as well because it's insulated by the wood.

HM: I think, for many people, you know, you can't help but think of what happened on 911 with the World Trade Center. And… and as we came to learn that the heat that melted the metal structure and contributed to the collapse of those buildings, how would wood perhaps have changed that? Or could it have?

CH: So what happened was, yes, the fuel heated up the metal. And, like I said, it's 400 degrees Celsius when buildings will start losing… losing their strength properties. Well, it got up to a 1,000 degrees Celsius. You can basically bend that steel like putty. So, it has absolutely no strength. Where, with wood, as long as you design it, so it has a two-hour fire rating, yes, it'll be burned. It could be a 1,000 degrees burning, but it still chars at… you know, it might char a little faster, but not that much faster. So, the inside cross-section will still be the same strength properties as you've designed the wood with. So, slowly the wood will burn on the outside and also hold up the building for the time that you designed it for.

HM: Where did this idea begin for you?

CH: I was doing my master's in 2017, and Dr. Sam Salem, who was my supervisor at the time, said he had a bunch of leftover wood from a previous student's study, and he said, design something. Use up this scrap wood, whatever you can. And then, this student was making a reinforced concrete beam, and I just, oh! A thing just clicked in my mind, and I designed it very similar to a reinforced concrete beam, which is concrete and rebar on the inside. So, it still works out. You get the best strength properties of both materials that you're utilizing. It's just concrete is a lot heavier than wood. So I just pitched this idea, and Dr. Salem said, All right, well, let's see what happens. And we were quite happy when at the end of everything, we got one-hour fire rating.

HM: It almost seems like it's counterintuitive. I imagine there are a lot of people who are skeptical. What kind of reaction have you had?

CH: I've always… I… because I designed it, I believed in my work. And, you know, I was like, I really hope this'll work. I did the math; it should work. And some people were skeptical because they didn't truly understand how it works. But once… I can go on for an hour explaining how my connection works in detail. But once you start understanding exactly how it works, the steel is protected. The wood is a great insulator. Everything starts to make sense. So, slowly, some of the skeptics were seeing my ideas. And I was showing them results, and it was making sense. And I had the formulas I created. And it made sense. You know, they were changing their minds. And, yeah, I then threw together, let's try and pattern this. People are happy with it, and now I have a pattern.

HM: How sustainable is something like this? Is there enough wood out there for these projects that can allow them to be widely used?

CH: Yes. So, in Canada, we have the resources. We have the best practices to make sure that we are as sustainable as possible. And there is more than enough wood for us. And the thing is when we think mass timber, people think big trees. No, no, no. We are not cutting down these massive trees. We're using engineered products. So glue-lam, glue-laminated timber, is just small little sections. Where I got my wood, Nordic structures, they're using very small black spruce that grows almost in the tundra. And they just get enough work to make a one-inch by two inch board and then glue them all together. And it's much stronger than what you get out of a big tree that's solid palm timbers. So, it's all still very sustainable.

HM: Are there any other advantages to using wood as opposed to steel?

CH: Wood is the only renewable resource. Steel, we have a finite amount of steel. Yes, you can melt steel down and recycle it, so on. But no matter what, we're still building more buildings. So, you still need to dig out more ore to get steel. And that still uses a lot of carbon. Wood is renewable. We can plant it and cut it and plant double and cut it. And as long as we manage our forests like we are, it is fully sustainable, and even you can get to carbon negative.

HM: How is this all being received by the building industry? Will we soon start seeing more mass use of this technology?

CH: Long as we keep this positive seed loop going, and people keep, you know, investing in us so we can invest in them. Yeah, this is a great strategy forward for us.

HM: Cory, it's really interesting. Thanks so much for talking to us.

CH: Yeah. Thank you kindly.

HM: Okay, bye.

CH: Bye-now.

CHRIS HOWDEN: Cory Hubbard is a civil engineering technologist at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, which is where we reached him.

[Music: Dancehall]

100-Year-Old Twins

CH: When you have an older sibling, they can sometimes give you some guidance on how to age gracefully. But Mabel Dawe doesn't have much to teach her younger sister Alice Clark, in that regard. Because she's only two minutes older. But the identical twins both have a lot to teach the rest of us, now that they've turned 100 years old. The Newfoundland twins recently celebrated their cen-twin-nial with their family and friends. And shared some of their wisdom with the CBC

[sc]

MABEL DAWE: Born powerless. Right here.

MEG ROBERTS: You were born in the house, not in… not in the hospital.

MD: Old Mrs.Drover, she brought the two of us into this world, kicking and screaming. And she… I kicked her out trying to get in. [ all laughing] I said, enough is enough! Get out! We never had a lot of fun. You had to work in the house and in the fields. So we never had no time growing up, really. We went to school in a little one-room school in Paradise.

ALICE CLARK: We played a lot of hopscotch.

MD: We played a lot of hopscotch, yeah.

AC: A lot of Jacks

MD: Yeah, a lot of Jacks. Secrets for being 100?

MR: Yeah.

MD: Well, lots of hard work.

AC: hard times.

MD: We didn't have it nice and easy when we were growing up. Because of the poor old times. And we had to do with what we had. And we had to make our own bread, cook our own meals, grow our own vegetables. We gotta buy our own firewood. Today, people got it too good today. That's what the trouble is. They got too much. If they only had half of what they got now, what we had, they'd be a lot better off.

MAN: It’s a different world altogether.

MD: Me had worked hard. We’d don a lot of moose hunting, yeah. And every year, we’d go in the woods, get our moose. That was our meat.

MR: How does it feel being the last two children left in the family? How does it feel.

MD: It seems lonely. I do. Because I miss all of our family and everyone else. You had nobody to talk to from your own family, but we managed somehow, you know? because there’s only us twos left.

AC: As long as you don’t tell a lie on me.

MD: I’d like to be a little bit closer to each other, you know? So we could fight with each other, if nothing else.

[/sc]

CH: Alice Clark and Mabel Dawe, twin sisters who just turned 100, speaking with CBC Newfoundland's Meg Roberts.

[Music: Jazz]

Wildfire Smoke Melting

CH: When most of us see smoke, we look for a fire. When Caroline Aubry-Wake sees smoke, she looks at glaciers. And she does not like what she's seeing. Ms. Aubry-Wake is a PhD candidate at the University of Saskatchewan. In a new study, she and her colleagues found that exposure to wildfire smoke is making the Athabasca Glacier in Jasper National Park melt faster. She explained why she decided to study this subject in the first place -- and what needs to be done to stop the melting.

[sc]

CAROLINE AUBRY-WAKE: So, for my PhD, I study how glacier melts, are reacting to climate change, and how it's impacting our water resources. And I live in Canmore in Alberta, right in the mountains. And in 2017-2018, just when I was starting my PhD, we had really bad wildfire smoke drifting over the town. And ash was falling on the cars. And being unable to go really play outside and spend time in the mountains. And me being immersed in my studies, my first thought was, well, I wonder how that affects the glacier I'm studying on Athabasca in Jasper National Park? And so, we set up an experiment to really monitor how forest fires and the smoke that drifts over the Columbia Icefield and the Athabasca Glacier impacts the melt? We learned that when the snowdrifts over the Athabasca Glacier, those particulates in the air deposit on the surface of the glacier. And they turn the beautiful bright, gray or white surface of the glacier into this darker brown with the dark particulates of the soot dropping on the ice. And because it becomes darker, it ends up absorbing more sunlight and melting more. But what's really interesting is that even in years when there's no more fires and years after a wildfire occurred, the surface of the glacier stays dark. So those dark particulates, they actually really encrust themselves in the surface of the ice, and they can accelerate the melt for years, once the… onces the fires are not occurring anymore.

LEISHA GREBINSKI: And how much faster is the melt? How significant is this?

CAW: It can be up to 10 per cent in the years where the surface is quite dark from previous fire activity. To stop the melt from increasing, we would have to stop wildfire activity. And that is all linked to climate change and the consequences of climate change. So, obviously, it's a bigger societal decision that we have to make on that because the mountains of the Canadian Rockies are the headwaters of some of the largest rivers in the country. And in the summer, once the snow is gone, it really is the glacier melt that can provide some important water to our… to our rivers. So, understanding what's going on far away is quite important for downstream.

[/sc]

CH: University of Saskatchewan PhD candidate Caroline Aubry-Wake speaking with Leisha Grebinski, host of Saskatoon Morning, about a study she co-authored which found that wildfire smoke is causing glaciers to melt faster.

[Music: Folk]

NL/LB Swanskin Mitts

Guest: Peter Porter

CH: If you check the label on a piece of clothing, it will tell you what material the item is made of. But even if you check your entire wardrobe thoroughly, chances are you're not going to find any label that says "swanskin". A few hundred years ago in Newfoundland and Labrador, though, people used swanskin to make lots of garments. I’m not sure why they stopped, but then, I'm not sure why they started? Regardless, today, almost none of those clothes remain. And I say almost, because of a new discovery about an old exhibit in a museum. Which, it turns out, is home to one of the last remaining swanskin garments in the world. Peter Porter is the owner of The Olde Shoppe Museum in Change Islands, Newfoundland, which is where we reached him.

HM: Peter, could you have ever imagined how rare these swans skin mitts of yours are?

PETER PORTER: You know, it really shocked me. But I know, you know, from days gone by, my dad had ‘em, you know? But I still never thought they were rare because he was using them as, well, every day, like pretty well sealing and duck hunting and, you know?

HM: uh-huh.

PP: And so, at that time, I didn't, you know, have a clue about it.

HM: Describe them for us, will you? What did they look like?

PP: Well, they go up to… almost to the elbow. And they're big, you know? They're made big. They’re… for to get them off your hands fast when you're shooting birds. Because you can't have that on your hands when you’re shooting birds. So you got to drop them and then shoot your birds and get then get them back on before, you know… because in those days, it was cold. And you freeze you hands if you’ve never done that, hey?

HM: Right. And they are mittens, so they have a thumb spot on them?

PP: Yeah, they got a thumb. And the seam is on the outside. And the mitten is the same thing.

HM: Why is that?

PP: Because if you're rowing the rowboat, you would chap your hands, see?

HM: Oh, yes! Because the pressure of the seam on your skin would be --

PP: Yes, that’s right!

HM: Uncomfortable.

PP: Yeah. So they were cute enough… that's what you used to do.

HM: Okay. Can we clarify that this is not made of actual skin of swans?

PP: No, no. I don't know if it did start out at, you know, when it began the first of it. Perhaps, it might have been something to do with a swan.

HM: So what are they made of?

PP: Well, I got it wrote down here somewhere. Let me see now. Swans skin is a close woven twill. Twill weave.

HM: Hmm.

PP: Flannel cloth, yeah, is what it is.

HM: Okay.

PP: And it's watertight. It’s waterproof, right?

HM: So that's why it was so useful for folks living in Newfoundland?

PP: Yes, that's right. Because you'se was on the water and you'se was fishing and whatever you're doing, you know? You'se was in the water pretty well. And you had to have them dry, you know? Something like duffle, you know?

HM: So, a pretty tight weave?

PP: Yeah, it was. Yeah.

HM: Now, you mentioned your dad had a pair. The ones that you've got, though, they're… they're not his, right?

PP: No. This pair here was a friend of mine here on the island. He got them from an old skipper, old fellow that died, just before he died. And he gave them to his mates, right? And so, he had em for years. And anyway, I say it’s 15, 16 years ago. I was talking to him. This young fellow. You know, a friend of mine. And he said, would you like a pair of swanskin mitts for the museum? And I said, well, [chuckle] I don't have a pair. I’d love to have them. So, anyway, I give him 20 bucks for them, [chuckle] just… just to say I bought them, you know?

HM: And how much would they have cost, say, a century ago?

PP: Well, when they were… when that material was sold, they sold it by the yard. And it was $0.45 a yard. Yeah, I got the ledger here at W.J. Hodge. That was a merchant that used to sell this stuff from Dorset, right?

HM: Mm-hmm.

PP: And I got the ledger here, and that's what’s showing here -- $0.45 a yard.

HM: So, what are these mittens valued at now?

PP: I don't know, but I got a feeling this is a pretty rare item, right? And I even talked to England and stuff over there because the project goes between England, the school over there, you know, Newton. And 2018, that was the project they were at, right?

HM: So, let's just be clear. This came about because of a history project in England that connected students there with kids in Twillingate?

PP: Yes, that's right. Yeah. Between J.M. Olds school in Twillingate and Sturminster Newton in Dorset, England. And they were doing this ‘cause in Dorset, England. And that's what our mills do. That's where they used to make it. And I was talking to the lady there because they were fascinated with this stuff, you know? And they said, you used to make it there. And now, the mills are probably 200 or 300 years old.

HM: Uh-huh.

PP: Very old. And a few years back, they were going to have a museum there, start a museum, you know?

HM: Uh-huh.

PP: So, they tried to get some swanskin, you know, to go into it. And they couldn't find a hintch. They never got a hintch to go into it.

HM: So, what did they think when they found out about your pair of mitts?

PP: [chuckling] Their minds was blown away. [laughing] Yeah. And so, anyway, we’ve been in touch ever since then.

HM: Have you tried these mitts on?

PP: Oh yes, I’ve put them on. Fitts good. But they're double. And half way down, about the palm of the hand down to the fingertips, is doubled-up, right, inside there.

HM: Oh, nice and warm!

PP: And there’s like, a little softer stuff…. softer stuff, right? But still swanskin. And it keeps your hands warm, nice and warm, I guess, hey?

HM: Oh, that's lovely. Now, are these kids going to come and see the mitts?

PP: Yeah, there’s a group, the school group, is coming down, I think, probably next week or so, they're going to come down now and have a look at that stuff.

HM: Will you let them try them on?

PP: Oh, yeah, well, sure. And the way it was, it was so funny, my daughter was happened to see a writeup there on Facebook. She was looking there, and she seen this writeup. If anyone out there had any swanskin mittens or anything, you know, just contact the teachers there in J.M. Old in Twillingate, right? So, she was looking at it, and then she thought for a minute, and she said, well, my dad’s got a pair of mitts down there in the museum. So she phoned home and told her that I had the mitts. And that's when it all started right there.

HM: Wow! [PP laughs] Now that you know how rare they are, any plans for the museum to sell these mitts to kind of, you know, get them off your hands, so to speak?

PP: Well, I haven't even thought of that, to tell you the truth. Because I was so excited with this kind of stuff. I just love this stuff, you know, old stuff and artifacts. I'm right into it big time. but I… you know, I do anything to help anybody out, you know what I mean?

HM: Yeah.

PP: I’d hate to see them destroyed or nothing like that, for sure.

HM: No, for sure. Oh, it's a… it's really interesting. I knew nothing about them. And you've explained it all very well. Thank you so much.

PP: Okay, thank you.

HM: Nice to talk to you.

PP: Yeah, nice talking to you, too.

HM: Bye.

PP: Bye-bye.

CH: Peter Porter is the owner of The Olde Shoppe Museum in Change Islands, Newfoundland.

[Music: Folk]

Garth Brooks Show Earthquake

CH: Louisiana is no stranger to extreme weather and natural disasters. One alarming list of possibilities, courtesy of the preparedness company "Crisis Equipped," cites every conceivable disaster as possible, if not likely. Floods. Hurricanes. Tornados. Drought. Wildfires. Icestorms. Landslides. You name it! Unless you named earthquakes, which are conspicuously absent from the dire catalogue of catastrophes. But music fans in Louisiana recently proved the state not safe from seismic activity either. At least not when Garth Brooks is in town. At one of his performances in Baton Rouge this past weekend, the crowd was so fired up that, when he played a country music staple named for the city, the earth moved. Literally. According to a seismograph at Louisiana State University, the crowd inside LSU's Tiger Stadium stomped, clapped, and hollered with vigour not seen or heard since the school's football team beat Auburn University with two minutes to go in a 1988 game. Now, fortunately, no one was hurt in what was dubbed the "Garthquake," but multiple concert-goers' smart watches did reportedly warn them of a risk of hearing loss. And as far as Garth Brooks is concerned, it's about time "Callin' Baton Rouge" got its due. In the liner notes for his album In Pieces, Mr. Brooks wrote that an earlier cover of the tune by Kentucky quartet New Grass Revival "did not get a fair shot." Or maybe more fittingly, a fair shake.

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May 4, 2022 Episode Transcript

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