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The AIH Transcript for Jun 23, 2022

TOM HARRIGNTON: Hi there. I'm Tom Harrington.

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

[Theme]

Prologue

TH: Breaking out in a cold sweat. Germany declares a crisis as Russia cuts supplies of natural gas. A lawmaker tells us what that might mean for people trying to heat their homes next winter.

CH: Good on paper. At last, Afghans waiting to get into Canada have one less piece of red tape to cut through, as the government introduces new temporary travel documents.

TH: A heatwave name desired. In a global first, a Spanish city will be naming its heatwaves, like we do with hurricanes. Our guest hopes it will increase awareness about climate change -- and maybe even save lives.

CH: Its scales tipped the scales. We'll talk to a biologist who hauled in a record-breaking, five-and-a-half-metre Burmese python in Florida -- and I'll warn you: it's a loooong story.

TH: The ghost in the machine. Amazon is excited about new technology that will allow Alexa to "speak" in the voice of a dead loved one -- but the rest of us have grave misgivings.

CH: And… deal or no meal. Paying full price for groceries? In this economy? Our guest isn't cut out for that -- but as one of Canada's most extreme couponers, she is cut out for cutting out, and seriously cutting costs.

CH: As It Happens, the Thursday Edition. Radio that suggests you check out how she checks out.

Part 1: Germany Gas Crisis, Pakistan To Canada, Extreme Couponer

Germany Gas Crisis

Guest: Franziska Brantner

CH: Today, the German government had a grim warning for citizens: prepare for an energy crisis. Germany is struggling to contend with Russian cuts to natural gas deliveries to Europe. Industry is being asked to reduce the amount of gas it uses, and it appears that reserves for next winter are at risk. It's so bad that Germany is considering going back to burning coal -- which could threaten the country's ambitious climate change goals. Franziska Brantner is a German Green MP, and the Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. We reached her in Berlin.

TH: Ms. Brantner, what might this energy crisis mean for the average German who's hoping to heat their home come fall and winter?

FRANZISKA BRANTER: At this point, we have not had a crisis of our energy security and supply, but we want to prepare and get ready in the case that Putin escalates the economic war he's waging against Germany when it comes to gas. So we have been getting less gas. And we need to fill our storages for the winter. And that's why we take extraordinary measures that, you know, help us to fill our gas storages and gas reserves. And citizens, normal citizens, have a priority when it comes to getting, you know, their heating in the winter. So it's not a question of what will be the impact on industry?

TH: The energy minister, though, has called it a gas crisis, even though you're not quite there yet. So, in what way is it a crisis now in his mind?

FB: It is a crisis in terms of, you know, you don't want to say war necessarily, but Putin is certainly using gas as a weapon against Germany these days. He's reducing the amount he's sending over. He's not respecting the agreements, the treaties that exist. You know, so in a way, that's a crisis because somebody is not respecting the deliveries and that's a problem for us.

TH: Well, Russia has said these cuts are due in part to a missing turbine that was sent to Canada for repairs, and its return have been delayed because of Ottawa's sanctions on Russia. What do you make of that?

FB: It's just wrong. I'm like, ugh, that's one utter lie by Putin.

TH: Why do you say that?

FB: Because we… you know, it's a German company. We have means to check with them. [chuckle] So, it's not so difficult. It is just a lie that has been put out there like so many other lies that Putin is putting out every day.

TH: What do you think of the possibilities that Russia could just turn off the tap at some point, depending on how things are going in Ukraine?

FB: You know, we were always thinking that that could be one way that Putin is taking. Like, he has been cutting off Finland and, you know, Bulgaria and other countries off the gas supply already. So it was clear that he is using gas really as a means of war. And the question was always, if he will, and if yes when Germany? And obviously, he has decided to attack Germany. He's not yet full-fledged. So, we will see how it continues. But we are preparing for the worst.

TH: The Germans have taken a hard line with sanctions and military supplies being delivered to Ukraine to fight Russia. What about that strategy now that it's led to this? Regrets from the German people or the German government?

FB: No, no. I'm like, we have to help Ukraine in its U.N.-accepted legal right of self-defence. It's an unwarranted war on Ukraine. There is no reason for Putin to attack Ukraine. And Ukraine has a right to self-defence. And we're helping in that right.

TH: Your country has announced it's going to compensate by increasing the burning of coal, even though the announcement has already been made that Germany wants to phase out coal by 2030. And you're a Green MP and a state secretary for climate action. How do you feel about that decision to increase the burning of coal in Germany?

FB: Of course, you can imagine it's not my most pleasant decision or our most pleasant decision, but it's a necessary one because we will only have LNG gas probably beginning of next year. So we have to get through the next couple of months in autumn and winter, where we still need coal to replace the gas that Russia does not deliver. And then, starting early next year, we will have LNG gas supplies from other countries, we will have terminals. So we will not need coal then. But for those couple of months, we, unfortunately, have to use coal. It's just… it's a pain. I can't say otherwise. But, you know, to believe that there is a war next door in Ukraine and it will not have any impact on Germany. It's a wrong belief. So, yes, that's painful. For a couple of months, we have to go through and then we will be in a much better position.

TH: And this is also happening while your party, the Greens, have pressured the government to phase out nuclear power. The plants are set to be offline this year. And now, you're in this energy crisis. Why not reconsider reusing or reopening nuclear facilities?

FB: Because they don't fix the problem. You know, we need gas for heating and industry. None of this is on electricity. So, nuclear power plants give you electricity. We don't… you know of that, we do have. So there's a small portion of gas that goes into electricity. That's what we are replacing by coal. And continuing the nuclear power plants would be extremely expensive because they have been not had the necessary security check for three years. It's just economically not wise. And also, we don't get the necessary sticks that you need, and we would probably need to get it from Russia, the uranium. So, you know, why would we ever exchange Russian gas for Russian uranium? So, there are so many points that speak against that. And we see the dire situation of France with a nuclear situation where half of the nuclear power plants are out of order. So we're actually right now exporting wind energy to France, despite us being in such a difficult situation. Now, if I put in taxpayers' money, I need new and high and best technology, and that's in the renewable sector.

TH: Germany is Europe's biggest economy. How confident are you that it can withstand what will happen if Russia continues to cut gas supplies or eliminates it altogether?

FB: You know, it would be wrong to say that we will get out there without feeling it or without hurting us. I hope that we will be able to manoeuvre it in a way that it does not destabilize our country and our economy. We're doing our best to reduce our consumption, to create alternative sources, be it renewable. We've really sped up the process of the rollout now. We have ten laws in Parliament this week to speed up the rollout of renewables. We have new LNG gas terminals coming up early next year. So we're doing everything to minimize the impact. But it would be wrong to say there is none.

TH: I appreciate your taking the time to talk to us tonight. Thank you.

FB: Thank you. Bye-bye.

CH: Franziska Brantner is a German Green MP, and the parliamentary state secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. We reached her in Berlin.

[80’s cop movie music]

Pakistan To Canada

Guest: Brian Macdonald

CH: For months now, advocates for Afghans trying to escape to Canada have been begging Ottawa to take special measures to allow them to get out of their country. Many of those Afghans fear for their lives because of their connections to the Canadian government or military. Well, finally, the federal government has acted. It is now issuing single-journey travel documents to Afghans who have been approved for resettlement here. And with those documents, they can enter Pakistan -- where they can undergo the screenings required to travel to Canada. Brian Macdonald is the head of Aman Lara, a group of Canadian veterans working to rescue Afghans still trapped inside the country. We reached him in Ottawa.

TH: Brian, how significant is this breakthrough for the Afghans you're trying to help?

BRIAN MACDONALD: This is an incredible opportunity. I mean, this is the moment we've been waiting for. We have a narrow window to move as many Afghans as we can who lack the proper documentation. And so, we are just full-on mobilized to move as many people as we can in this window.

TH: How narrow is the window?

BM: Yeah, it's about 50 days now to get people out of Afghanistan. So, as you can imagine, that really focuses the mind. We have really good lists of people. We've identified people that we could potentially move, but we're waiting to hear back from them that they're ready to move.

TH: And how much danger are some of these Afghans right now?

BM: Well, all of these Afghans are people who supported the Canadian mission, you know, through our 10 years in Afghanistan. And so, these are all people who are identified as supporting Canada and helped our war effort there. And they're also people that obviously identified that they weren't pro-Taliban. And so, now that the Taliban is running the country, they're in grave danger. And that's because of their support of Canada, which is why we want to do everything we can to move them here to Canada.

TH: And we've heard as many as 200 are actually being hunted by the Taliban as… as spies. So how much help will this update, if you will, with resettlement, provide for them?

BM: Well, this is an opportunity for us to move, you know, thousands of people that are under pressure from the Taliban or could be… could be hunted or certainly are in grave danger right now. So, you know, the timing is urgent. We've been trying to get them out for a while, but this clears the sort of bureaucratic obstacles. And we could now, I think, move a large number of people.

TH: How many people have you heard from, at least so far, who've received these letters?

BM: Well, we just started hearing from them yesterday. And yesterday was 50, and there'll be even more today. And we could see the numbers are building pretty quickly.

TH: What are people saying about finally getting this chance to get out of the country?

BM: I think they're a little overwhelmed by the opportunity. It's like all of us. This is the moment we've been waiting for. I can only imagine how they feel. You know, they've been hunted. They've… they've been persecuted. They're often in hiding. And so, this is the opportunity for them to get out. And I'm sure it's overwhelming to them.

TH: A lot of these Afghans were already approved to come here. So what was the roadblock? What was preventing them from getting here?

BM: Yeah. Every one of these applicants has been approved by the Government of Canada for onward travel. But the challenge has been, in order to get into Pakistan, for example, they need to have a Pakistani visa, which means they need to have an Afghan passport. And so, getting an Afghan passport, as you can imagine, is very difficult. They've got to go to an office that's controlled by the Taliban. They have to give their name and address and fingerprints and... and then all the information of their family [chuckle] and basically tell the Taliban, hey, we want to leave. And there's only really one reason people want to leave Afghanistan, and that's because they're fleeing the Taliban. So it does raise a red flag and puts them in grave danger. And, of course, you know, that's also bureaucratic. It takes time and money. And, you know, the additional step of getting an exit visa to leave the country and to get into Pakistan is a challenge, so.

TH: How do we know the Taliban will, you know, grant them that opportunity?

BM: Well, we do our operations pretty low-key. There's no doubt there is a risk. And so far, we have been able to avoid scrutiny from the Taliban, and we're hoping we can continue to do that.

TH: Your group and others have been asking for this change for a while. Why do you think it took so long, and why is it happening now?

BM: Well, I understand the government of Pakistan has changed, so I understand they have a different policy. And we are really happy that they have adopted this policy. [chuckle] Like I say, it's a narrow window. We'd like to see them extend the window. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of sway with the government of Pakistan. We don't interact with them. So I give full credit to the Pakistani government for doing this, and I'm pretty sure that that's also due to the pressure of the Canadian government. So I thank them for their efforts.

TH: Who else are you trying to get out of Afghanistan who won't necessarily be helped by this scheme?

BM: Well, we help Afghans who have helped Canada. We also help Afghans who are at risk for other reasons. So, for example, the LGBTQSI+ community, we have been trying to help them. We've been trying to help journalists. We've been trying to help lawyers that work for the Government of Canada, people that were in NGOs that were funded by the Government of Canada or businesses that the Government of Canada provided funding to support. All of those groups, we're trying to help. Like I say, everyone we move is approved by the Government of Canada. So part of our job is to push people into these Government of Canada programs to try and get them approved and also to encourage the government to to approve these different cases.

TH: What's the possibility, Brian, that this is happening too late for some Afghans who have been hunted by the Taliban, that the delay may have cost them their lives?

BM: Yeah, you know, I certainly have heard reports that people have, you know, paid the ultimate sacrifice for their support of Canada, that they have been killed or… or worse by the Taliban. We've heard those… those anecdotes. We don't track that information. We are focused on getting people out. But we've certainly heard that some people have fallen victim to the Taliban. And we're focused on getting as many people out as quickly as possible - whatever the method.

TH: What are you going to be doing in the coming days and weeks to make sure that those who have these special travel documents now make it to Pakistan safely?

BM: Well, I'm actually right here visiting with our team. We have a team of Afghan former interpreters that are really the horsepower of Aman Lara. And, you know, they communicate actively with the Afghans in their native languages. That's why we could do what we do. Is because we have these Afghans who have come to Canada that were former interpreters that are rolling up their sleeves and working day and night to make sure that these… these lists are built. We call the manifests, and that's the groups that we move across the border. So that… that activity is happening right now. [chuckling] And I'm in the location right now, and it's kind of feverish. These guys work all day and night. And, you know, like I say, once they get the approval, we get them going. We don't keep them in Afghanistan one moment longer than they… they need to be. We get them out of there as quickly as possible.

TH: You said the window is 50 days. How many people do you think you can get out of the country in that time?

BM: Our target is 3,000 in the next 60 days, 50 to 60 days. And we're pretty confident we can do that. The challenge is really making sure that people are ready to move. So, you know, they will receive an email from the government of Canada. [laughing] If they're listening, they should take that email and call us immediately. Contact us immediately, and we will get them on the list. There's no time to waste.

TH: Brian, good to talk to you. Thank you.

BM: Thank you so much. You take care.

CH: Brian Macdonald is the director of Aman Lara, a group of Canadian military veterans helping people escape Afghanistan. He was in Ottawa. And you can find more on that story on our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Ambient]

Extreme Couponer

Guest: Leanne Matthewson

CH: Statistics Canada has crunched the numbers -- and you will not be surprised to hear the numbers are crunching us. Inflation has risen to 7.7 per cent over the past year, which is the highest rate in 40 years. And over that same year, grocery prices have gone up 9.7 per cent. So, it's no wonder people are listening to Leanne Matthewson when she tells them how she saves thousands a year at the supermarket. Ms. Matthewson has mastered the art of couponing. And now, as a member of the Canadian Super Savers Facebook group, she's teaching others her expert ways. She says it's not as hard as it sounds -- but be prepared for some groans when the cashier sees you coming. We reached Leanne Matthewson in Windsor, Ontario.

TH: So, Leanne, I'm in a grocery store. You walk in, you go to the cashier's line with your cart full. What would I see?

LEANNE MATTHEWSON: You would see me holding up my phone a whole lot and handing coupons over as I’m price-matching and she’s ringing in items.

TH: And how long does that process take?

LM: It varies each time. A standard checkout nowadays, it takes anywhere between 35 to 45 minutes.

TH: Wow! So, people behind you in line, around you, how are they reacting?

LM: Usually, if I catch people early enough before I start my… my transaction, I say, you know, I'm going to be a little while. You might want to go to another line. I try to warn them. If somebody does come up behind me as I'm price matching and stuff, you can… some people get upset. You know, they're like, come on, like, what are you doing? Hurry up. You're wasting my time. I’ve heard everything. [TH chuckles] People have yelled at me. And then, two weekends ago, I was at the till doing my thing. And there was a [clears throat] family that had just emigrated. They were watching what I was doing and they were very interested. And they asked me, you know… they asked me what I was doing. So I explained I'm, you know, trying to save some money here with price-matching. And they said, can you show us how? So after I was done, my transaction, after they were done, I, you know, quickly just showed them how to find the Flipp app, how to enter their grocery list into the Flipp app and bring up flyers from the area so that they could price-match their items. And I said, that's the beginning. You know, carry on. This is the bare basics. If you want to learn more, I gave them the Canadian Savings group Facebook page and I said, you can join and you can learn a lot from this group.

TH: How often does that happen that people take that kind of interest and you can share your knowledge like that in the store?

LM: I would say a couple times a month. Again, just a couple of weeks ago, a few weeks ago, a lady was standing in front of me with four club packs of ground beef. And she was… you know, she was explaining, I'm going to be having my family over; first time since the pandemic started. And, you know, we're going to make sauce and work together as a family. And I said there's a… there's a price-match on the ground beef right now, and you could save yourself some money. And she was… she was really interested, but she was hesitant about leaving her spot. And I said it would really be worth your while to… to do this. So, I quickly explained again how Flipp app works. She went in there and she found the price-match. She went back to the meat counter and price-matched. And they came back to me while I was doing my… my checkout. And she says, I just saved myself $35. I thank you so much. And I said, not a problem.

TH: [chuckle] How did that make you feel?

LM: It's good. The… the whole point of the Canadian Savings group is to help people. And they've taught me so much. So, I'm so… you know, I want to pass on that knowledge.

TH: I'm curious what the store staff reaction is when you come in? [both chuckling]

LM: The one lady definitely knows me. We've become friends over the last couple of years, so she knows. And she jokes about it. She's like, Oh, here she comes again. You know, how many coupons do you have this time? How long is this going to take? And she's quite happy. You know, I wait till she's empty, till people have moved on, and then she… you know, she's turned the light off for me and we process our stuff and off I go.

TH: How much time does it take? How much work do you have to do to collect and research and plan before you even get to the store?

LM: After six years of doing it, I'm still learning new sites and new ways of doing things, but it takes me anywhere between an hour and two each week. I focus on what my family needs. So my family needs, [clears throat] you know, fresh fruits and vegetables. And the large majority of my family is… will eat meat. So whatever meat I can price match. And what am I going to get this week?

TH: Let's talk about how much you save, week-to-week or even month-to-month on average? Have you… you got a dollar figure?

LM: I'm not… I've not broken it down usually per month. I go… kind of my spreadsheet is over a year and what I save. Any… any given month, I can save anywhere between $1,000, I would say, to $1,500, with a grand total… like, the best savings I had so far was over $10,000 last year.

TH: Wow! That's a lot of money saved.

LM: Yeah, in groceries. Yeah, that's… you know, that's a car for some people.

TH: How did you get started into couponing and saving like this?

LM: When we moved back from Alberta to Ontario, it was a necessity. We needed to figure out where we could save. And I knew that groceries was one way. So I stumbled upon the Canadian Savings group in somebody else's feed. And I said, oh, you know, I’m going to go and check it out. So I went and looked. And I spent hours absorbed in all the files. And you have to start small. So take, you know, five coupons to the grocery store and price-match and use your coupons and then just work up your courage after that. [laughing]

TH: Yeah, I can see… I can see how you need a little bit of courage to go to the store and do what you do. So if you didn't do this, how might it change the way you shop?

LM: It would easily add, I would think, $100 a week. So my $200 budget would easily go to $300.

TH: I'm wondering what people are thinking as they listen. And, you know, it's a… it's a time investment. You sort of maybe irritate some customers. You might have a cashier who says, oh gosh, here she comes. [LM chuckles] What… what makes it worth the effort?

LM: The savings. There's always that thrill to say, I got this free.

TM: I assume your family thinks this is great because you're saving lots of money at the grocery store. But what do your friends think of this way of going about shopping at the grocery store?

LM: Most of my friends have actually been supportive. They've asked questions. They're interested. A lot of them say, you know, I just don't have the time to do that. But you make time for the things that are important to you. So it's the same thing as making time for your friends. You're going to make time to do the shopping, right? And saving. So you have the potential to save, you know, maybe you're only saving $0.50. Maybe you're saving three dollars. It makes a difference in the end.

TM: Leanne, good to talk to you. Thanks so much.

LM: Thank you.

CH: Leanne Mathewson is a member of the Canadian Super Savers Facebook group. We reached her in Windsor, Ontario.

[Percussive jazz]

Alexa's Voice

CH: "I can't tell you a story tonight," you tell your daughter. "But I know someone who can: Grandpa!" "But… Grandpa's dead," she says. "Or is he?" you… you say. Then you turn off her light and say, "Alexa, tell Grandpa to read to Emily!"

[A creepy lullaby]

CH: [Aged voice] "Hello, Emily. It's your late Grandpa! Don't worry: I live inside Alexa now -- forever! Now here's a bedtime story for you: Tom Clancy's Patriot Games. Chapter 1: Jack Ryan was eating a hot dog on Air Force One, when suddenly..."

CH: Now, at this point, I'm pretty sure your daughter will be hitting Alexa with a stuffed animal, screaming "Make it stop!" But Amazon believes this new technology will make us weep with gratitude and love, rather than sheer terror. Yesterday, Rohit Prasad -- Amazon's Senior VP and Head Scientist for Alexa AI -- demonstrated a new project involving the smart speaker.

[sc]

ROHIT PRASAD: Let's take a look on one of the new capabilities we are working on, which enables lasting personal relationships.

BOY: Alexa, can Grandma finish reading me The Wizard of Oz?

ALEXA: [Robot voice] Okay. [Grandma voice] “But how about my courage?” Asked the lion, anxiously. “You have plenty of courage, I am sure.” Answered Oz.

[/sc]

CH: Now, technically, it's an amazing breakthrough: apparently, you can play Alexa less than a minute of audio of a loved one's voice -- and Alexa will then be able to "speak" in that voice. Mr. Prasad explicitly presented it as a way to hear dead loved ones talk to us again. Which, as you heard him say, "enables lasting personal relationships." Except, you know, to state the obvious, it's not personal, and it's not a relationship. It's artificial intelligence mindlessly replicating some information you gave it. And, look, I loved all my grandparents, but I don't want to hear them telling me the weather report from beyond the grave. They have passed on -- so I'll pass on that.

[Ambient]

Part 2: Heat Wave Names, Florida Python

Heat Wave Names

Guest: Kathy Baughman McLeod

CH: If you've ever travelled to Seville, Spain, in the middle of the summer, you'll know how extremely hot it can get. And with climate change and more extreme heat in the forecast, the Spanish city says it's doing something to tackle the threat. It has launched a pilot project to name heat waves -- like we do with hurricanes. Kathy Baughman McLeod is the director of the Atlantic Council's Adrienne Arsht Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, which is working with the city of Seville on the initiative. Ms. Baughman McLeod has just returned from Spain, where she helped launch the project. We reached her in Washington DC.

TH: Kathy, how hot was it in Seville, Spain?

KATHY BAUGHMAN MCLEOD: Well, last week, temperatures were soaring into the lower 100s. And this week, there was a little bit of a reprieve. But it was a record-breaking heat last week and had everybody paying really close attention to… to these rising temperatures.

TH: You know, for years, the weather forecasters go on the TV and say it's going to be really hot, folks. We've been doing that for a long time. So, why isn't that enough?

KBM: The idea that summer is just hot, and that's how it is. And if it's hot, let's go to the beach. That has to be… we have to be done with that. Because our bodies are not prepared for how hot it is. And climate change is driving those temperatures up. In Los Angeles, you had a family and their dog go out for a hike, and they never came back because they were not aware of how hot it was and weren't prepared. And, of course, that tragic death in British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. last summer, same kind of thing. Not fully aware, not ready. And the result is… is devastating.

TH: What's the point, though, of naming a heat wave or even categorizing heat waves?

KBM: Well, when you think about hurricanes, I lived and worked in Florida for 25-plus years. I know what a Category 3 means. And when a hurricane has a name, it gets a brand. It gets a hashtag. It gets an identity. And with heat, heat is silent and invisible. It's not dramatic visually, like you find hurricanes and floods and tornadoes. And so, it needs branding. It needs a PR firm. [both chuckle] And we can see that naming and categorizing has created a culture of preparation and prevention around hurricanes and fires. And because this is the most deadly climate hazard, we need to give this one a brand, and we need to give it a name.

TH: Let's talk about what's happening in Seville. How does this pilot project work there?

KBM: We, with our science panel, over the last 18 months laid out a three-category system that fits in any community. So, it's adaptable, depending… you know, people in Seville can handle heat differently than people in Saskatchewan. And so, you have the system that nests within the existing warning systems of the met services of communities and is tailored to the health. And this is the most important part, linked to the health of that community. And so, you… we make predictions about these temperatures and the negative health outcomes on the community. And so, Category 3 is the worst. And the Category 3 gets a name.

TH: And what kind of names are we talking about?

KBM: You know, when you think about how to… how to build these methodologies, the… the… the Categorization was climatology and health data and meteorology. But the naming part is a behavioural health and behavioural science. And so, we did focus groups in Seville to understand what kinds of names people would respond to. And so, the names are going to ascend from Z to A in the Spanish alphabet. We predict no more than five severe heat waves. And so, five names were selected.

TH: What is the name of the first heat wave going to be?

KBM: The first heat wave name is Zoe. And they alternate female to male names up to A. The system is now in operation. When it triggers a Category 3, that heat event will be registered with a name. That name will be Zoe. And the health agencies, the emergency responders, the media all get word. And there have been graphics created. And then very specific guidance goes with each category. And you will be told… you're usually asked to drink six glasses of water. This is so hot you need to drink 10. And so, there'll be very specific things. Don't have playdates for your kids outside at all. Your pets should come inside all day. So very specific things that will help protect people's health and save lives.

TH: You mentioned the… the deaths in British Columbia last year, more than 600 during that big heat dome. And, as you know, and then, many of the people who died were vulnerable, did not have the means or the ability to protect themselves from the heat. So how does a system like this help people like that?

KBM: Well, the system is targeted toward the most vulnerable in the community. And a lot of the communities with which we're working have conducted or will be conducting mapping exercises to identify where the most vulnerable people are. And oftentimes, they already have that. And so, you find the best way to communicate with that community. And sometimes that's using radio or that may be going door-to-door and that… or that may be a trusted messenger. And so, those people who have the least means to get ready and protect themselves are at the top of the list for notification and outreach when this happens.

TH: What other cities in the world are doing things like this?

KBM: Well, Los Angeles and Miami, Kansas City and Athens, Greece and Milwaukee are all currently using the categorization system. The California state legislature has a bill moving through that has the same system in it for categorization. Seville is the first to name heat waves and will begin immediately collecting data to see how effective the system is and tweaking it. You know, it's a pilot. And we have created with our partners something called the Heat Action Platform. And it's a one-stop resource for all the activities and interventions, and policies that leaders in communities can take to protect themselves from heat. And so, lots of actions go with this warning system.

TH: Kathy, good to talk to you. Thanks so much.

KBM: You're welcome. Thank you.

CH: Kathy Baughman McLeod is the director of the Adrienne Arsht Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center. She was in Washington, D.C.

[Sad piano]

American Swimmer Rescued

CH: Things did not go as planned for Anita Alvarez at the World Aquatics Championships in Budapest. The American artistic swimmer had just finished her solo free final yesterday when she fainted -- and sank to the bottom of the pool. That's when her coach, Andrea Fuentes -- a former Spanish Olympian -- sprang into action. She jumped into the water, fully clothed, to rescue Ms. Alvarez. Here is Ms. Fuentes telling the BBC what happened.

[sc]

ANDREA FUENTES: So she went down, and I was like, no, no, no, it's not normal. And then, I was like, okay, I'm going. Because in my head, it was… I know how it feels in this competition. Your heartbeat is at least 200 beats per minute or almost. And I know you really want to breathe in that moment. So, I just went as fast as I could to grab her and pull her up to the surface. And once I woke her up, so I was just… my goal was only to make her breathe. I wanted to have this solved before anyone else. Because I knew if somebody was going to be faster, it was me. So, why not? [chuckling] It was… it was important. It was more important than ever. Like, I think I swam faster than any of my Olympics. [laugh]

[/sc]

CH: Swimming coach Andrea Fuentes speaking to the BBC earlier today about rescuing artistic swimmer Anita Alvarez. We reached out to the Alvarez family today, and they sent back a note to say that Anita is recovering nicely, and that they will be forever grateful to Coach Fuentes for pulling her from the pool.

[Horns!!!]

Florida Python

Guest: Ian Bartoszek

CH: A typical two-car driveway. Four foosball tables placed end-to-end. A standard shipping container -- almost. All of the above are five-and-a-half metres long -- which is 18 feet, which is long. And in the case of a record-breaking Burmese python recently discovered in Florida, arguably too long. It's the largest snake ever found in the state. Ian Bartoszek is a wildlife biologist with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida. We reached him in Naples, Florida.

TH: Ian, I've seen an image of you and a couple of other fellows carrying this snake across your shoulders, the three of you. What does it feel like to be in that position with that monstrous thing on your shoulders?

IAN BARTOSZEK: So, we used to think pythons were big when they hit 100 pounds. I remember in 2014, when we got our first 100-pound python, we were, wow, this is a big snake. But this python that we're talking about clocked in at 215 pounds, 97 or more kilos. And the hard part usually is getting them out of the woods because we're away from roads and levees. And a 215-pound python, that's a… that's a large animal to move through the woods. So, it's… that logistical component sometimes is more challenging, actually, than the capture.

TH: How dangerous is it to sort of grapple with it and carry it?

IB: Well, Tom, I've got to be honest with you. I mean, this is an apex predator, but it never ceases to amaze us how big of a snake that you can wrangle bare hands with your friends and get in a bag in a box and live to tell about it.

TH: [chuckling] Wow!

IB: And quite honestly, down here in southwest Florida, I'm more afraid of driving through seasonal traffic than I am jumping on a big snake any day. [TH laughs] And that's the honest truth.

TH: Listen, I understand the size wasn't the only record-breaking aspect about the snake. She was also very pregnant. How pregnant was she?

IB: Correct. When we had the National Geographic crew here in our lab for a necropsy, and we opened up the snake, there were 122 developing eggs. And why is that value important? Because down here, we don't really have a good sense of the population density of these animals. So if we're trying to develop these control strategies, we have to have a number in the background to work with. And that's where that research, that follow the science approach, is really going to come in important. Because we have to know what we're dealing with so we can set targets to develop these management strategies.

TH: So you were describing, you know, the woods, the wooded area where these pythons live or this particular one lives. So, how do you actually find a snake like that?

IB: Well, I have an army of pythons that work for me. We have 40 male pythons referred to as scout snakes. They all have unique names because, to be honest, we've been following some of these animals for about seven or eight years, and it's kind of gotten personal. So, this season, the MVP of the season, the most valuable python, by far, was Dion --- short for Dionysius, Dion. And he led us to this record-sized female out in the Picayune Strand State Forest here in Collier County, Florida. So late December, he started lurking around this area in the forest. And we know how to read our snake behaviour pretty well. And checking him weekly, the next check, walking up to him, rustling the grass, and he was nearby this large female. So my team sprang into action. Ian Easterling, another biologist here and our intern this season, Kayle Finlay, jumped on her. And Ian grabbed her by the neck. Normally, it's a bit anticlimactic with some of these large captures, but this girl wanted to throw her weight around a bit. And it was a bit of a rodeo. So this is approaching 18 feet in length, right? And it's a big fire hose of sorts. And this girl kind of balled up her tail like a fist and took a swipe at Kyle, who dodged her like out of the movie. And Ian Easterling, unfortunately, was on the receiving end of this punch to the face. So that was kind of funny. [TH laughs] The snake kind of… kind of gave him an uppercut. And a little more wrestling, maybe 20 minutes or so, and the team subdued her. And like I mentioned, the hard part was getting this 215-pound snake, you know, a quarter, half-mile through the woods back to where our field truck was.

TH: I understand, the Burmese python is considered an invasive species in… in this part of Florida. How did it get there?

IB: Correct. So we have now one of the largest snake species on the planet here from Southeast Asia that is firmly established in south Florida, the Burmese python. And if you were asking how they got here and it was a multiple-choice question, and A was: escaped pet. B was: intentionally released. And the letter C was: meteorological event that knocked over a reptile breeding facility. I would definitely circle D: all the above. And so, there's a learning lesson here. This snake is very much out of the bag, and we're dealing with the ecological consequences ever since. And to that point, that is very much the why that we're on this assignment here. This is why we're tracking Burmese pythons, trying to learn about them. Our research colleagues at the University of Florida here have identified 24 species of mammal, 47 species of bird, and two reptile species and counting found from the bellies of Burmese pythons all throughout their invaded range here in Florida.

TH: Wow. So they're eating everything. Is this why it's a problem?

IB: Yes, they're all through the food web, and it very much feels like a CSI crime scene episode every time we get one of these snakes on a lab table. And it could be one time we're opening them up, and they… were feeling something sharp in the belly, in the digestive tract, and it turns out to be a handful of bobcat claws that spill out.

TH: What does it tell you that this one was so big? Does it indicate any kind of change? What's happening with the Python population?

IB: Well, with the snake with that much mass, it indicates to me that the prey base is still here that they're picking up on. So, you know, that's a snake that's been eating well for a decade or two. They are extremely successful predators. And they're patient. And we… we have a lot of respect for this animal. Keep in mind they're… they're here from no fault of their own. They're that product of the pet trade that we talked about. And as researchers, we're kind of torn because this is a fascinating animal, and we know what's at stake in the environment, but we have to remove and humanely euthanize them. You can't send these back to their native land in Southeast Asia, which is important to mention that they're… these animals are considered vulnerable. It's quite plausible that we may have more Burmese pythons here in South Florida than they do in southeastern Asia. So as biologists, we're kind of on the control side of the coin with the conservation on the other side, and that's really important to keep in mind.

TH: Ian, really good to talk to you. Thanks so much.

IB: You're very welcome. Good luck.

CH: Ian Bartoszek is a wildlife biologist at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida. We reached him in Naples, Florida.

[Ambient]

NS Better Golfing App

CH: When Matt Fitzpatrick won the U.S. Open last weekend, the English golfer didn't just credit his perfect swing. He shouted out the Nova Scotia scientist who helped him perfect it. Sasho MacKenzie is a biomechanist at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish. He has spent years developing a system to improve golfers' drives. It involves training with a weighted club and an accompanying app -- to add more power. And according to Mr. Fitzpatrick, it was a game-changer. Here is Sasho MacKenzie speaking to CBC reporter Paul Palmeter.

[sc]

SASHO MACKENZIE: Thrilling to see an exciting U.S. Open and even more thrilling to see a player that I've helped for the last two years finally… finally pull through.

PAUL PALMETER: So tell me about your relationship with Matt Fitzpatrick. I mean, he's…, so he's a golfer out of the U.K. You know, you're a… you're a professor in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. So how did… how did you two connect?

SM: Yeah, I've been quietly plugging away in the golf industry for… for about 20 years. People kind of think that, okay, maybe this guy knows a little bit about… about speed. So, Matt Fitzpatrick was… was a player who was well-rounded in every aspect of his game. But when you get the big courses, he really couldn't compete. And his next step was to win a major. And most of the major layouts are quite long. So his coach, Mike Walker, reached out to me in the spring of 2020, and… and I kind of kicked things off.

PP: Tell me about the product? First of all, what it's… what's the name of it? And obviously, Matt Fitzpatrick has been using it and using it to bring even more success to his game.

SM: So, the product's called the Stack System, and it's a weighted training club that allows you to do overload and overspeed training. It's very popular in other sports, like track and field. And it's paired with an app. The app provides a workout for you customized to your… your needs as a golfer. We collect data in a baseline session to figure out whether you should be swinging things that are slightly heavier than your driver, things are slightly lighter than your driver. It guides your rest, tells you when to work out, and the programs change as you improve. So, it kind of comes from my track and field background. Golfers are hitting a lot of shots at 90 or 95 per cent. But in order to, you know, improve your speed, you need to have some swings that are at max effort. If you were a sprinter, and all you did was sprint at 90 or 95 per cent, you would never get any faster. So we did a little bit of mechanics work early on, but there was a lot of gains to be had from using the Stack System. We partnered with Marty Jertson at Ping. So being an engineer, Marty was able to design it. And we… we found an app guy to develop the app. And Matt was one of the first… the first individual to use it, even though I've been doing this kind of training for a while. Yeah, he's had a lot of success with it and was… was kind enough to credit a lot of his… a lot of his an improved to… to using the Stack.

[/sc]

CH: That was Nova Scotia biomechanist Sasho MacKenzie talking to CBC reporter Paul Palmeter about his work with U.S. Open-winning pro golfer Matt Fitzpatrick.

[Hip-hop beat]

Teen Mom Valedictorian

CH: It's been an incredibly challenging school year for Edmonton's Kiwi Marois. Like all Grade 12 students, there was the hurdle of exams, the struggle to piece together post-secondary plans, and the usual teenage stress and angst. But add to that parenting an infant, and you'll see why her achievement is all the more amazing. Ms. Marois is graduating at the top of her class this year. She's also class valedictorian. And the people in the auditorium for her address understood what she was going through better than most: Kiwi Marois attends the Braemar School in Edmonton -- which serves pregnant and parenting teenagers.

[sc]

KIWI MAROIS: Well, for me, it was an amazing feeling because when I was 38 weeks pregnant with my daughter, my living situation changed drastically, and I lost my entire support system and family. They all kind of walked out on me last minute. And it was really nice because, like, during that time, I felt really lost. I didn't feel like I was going to be able to accomplish what I wanted in life. And when I came to Braemar, like, that feeling of lost just kind of lifted off my shoulders, and I was able to find happiness here. And when I found out I was valedictorian, it just blew my mind because I did try really hard in school, but I didn't really think that I'd be valedictorian because of how much I went through during that time. So it was amazing to know that I accomplished it, and I was able to make my own route for myself and not follow the route that everyone else went down. So my daughter was diagnosed with a rare chromosome disability, and that was really, really tough for me because I carried her full-term. And as I say all the time, and I said in my speech there, that one of the hardest things as a new parent is being told that your child has something that you can't control or you can do nothing about. And for me, it was really hard. But I know that, you know, like, that you get given kids that are unique like that to the strongest parents. And I knew that I'd be able to be the best mom for her and the best cheerleader for her. All teen parents have to be resilient to get where they want to go in life. And Braemar is an amazing school because we're not just a school. We're also a family as one. And to me, like, whenever something happened in my life, I realized that at Braemar, like… it's not like regular high schools where you kind of go through that alone and have to try to hide it. Like, I told people about what was going on and when they knew that I was at my lowest, they built me up, and they helped me get up the staircase and helped me get up those steps one step at a time. So I didn't give up.

[/sc]

CH: That was Kiwi Marois, speaking to our colleague Rod Kurtz in Edmonton.

[Indie pop]

Part 3: FOA: Air India, Rat Pollinators

Rat Pollinators

Guest: Joao Custodio Fernandes Cardoso

CH: Yes, they are gross. Yes, they love garbage. And yes, some of them… some of us tend to climb on a chair when we even hear them mentioned. But one researcher discovered a rat doing something amazing, and genuinely helpful, right underneath his bedroom. And now, he and a co-author are publishing a paper on that discovery in the journal Ecology. Joao Custodio Fernandes Cardoso is that researcher. We reached him in Alfenas, Brazil.

TH: Joao, you and your co-author, Carlos, have been studying these rats in Colombia and the relationship to the feijoa plant. What exactly are these rats doing?

JOAO CUSTODIO FERNANDES CARDOSO: So, Tom, we think they are pollinating these plants. And it's very weird for rats pollinating plants. There are some cases of rat pollination, especially in the old world. But this is new. Because, apparently, rats, they change their behaviour to explore the resource. So this plant is very interesting because the petals are the resource, but they are not the resource that evolved to… to feed the rats. But the pollinators are the birds. So the birds come and then they eat the petals and they detach their heads and they remove the pollen. And then when they go to another flower, they pollinate these… these plants. But what we saw is that in the cities of… of Colombia, in the city of Colombia, that Carlos especially studied, these birds, actually, they are not very abundant. So, the rats are apparently doing their job. So they go for a bite in these petals. And then, when they feed on the petals, they apparently touch their foreheads and then they remove the pollen.

TH: Your co-author, Carlos, I guess, began this research. What was he seeing or hearing from friends and family about these rats and what they were doing?

JCFC: Yeah. So… so Carlos grew in Duitama, it’s a city in Colombia. And then, when he was a teenager, he heard from his family, like his father, his brother and an old lady that was a neighbour that they saw these rats walking the canopy of trees. And then, one day, he was a pollination biologist. He started to wonder, what are these rats doing over there? And maybe can they be pollinating these plants? So this is how everything started. It's like citizen science.

TH: So how did he go about researching what they were doing and discovering what they were up to?

JCFC: I am Carlos’s supervisor here in Brazil. He's… he's conducting a masters here now. But Carlos, was… he… he came in Brazil during his college period. And then, he stayed with us like six months. And then, he came back to Colombia and we kept in touch. And then, he said, look, Joao, I think these rats may be pollinating. And then, we started… we created a methodology that he could observe these plants. So he was sitting usually in the balcony of his house. This is very cool because he can… he could see the feijoa, the plant population from his own house, from the balcony and from his bedroom, eventually. So he had a set of binoculars and camera. And then, he started to observe these plants and which were the flower visitors. So he saw that only a few of visits of birds occurred that are the primary pollinators. And most of the visitors are rats. So, he observed that these rats were not damaging the plant, only grabbing the petals.

TH: We hear about birds and bees. So how common is it that a mammal does this? Is a rat the only one?

JCFC So mammal pollination is actually common. So the most famous are bats. And they pollinates lots of plants and they go in the flowers looking for nectar. So what is new we are finding is the petal rewarding thing. The rats, they feed on these petals. So the petals, I was had had the chance to taste them and they are actually sweet. So they do not go in the flower buds and they don't destroy them. They only go in the fully open flowers that have these really sugary petals. And that's the new thing. When you go in, The family of the feijoa plant is called mutation. It is a plant that usually offers pollen as a reward to bees. So the bees, they come, they grab the pollen and then they transfer the pollen from… from flowers to another flower and pollinate. And there are only two species that have this. And they are. They are both here in South America. So the cool thing is that it is pollinated by birds. But then rats discovered and it occurred actually in a city. And rats usually seen as disgusting.

TH: Yeah, I was going to say a lot of people consider rats to be kind of gross, dirty, you know, disgusting, a nuisance at best. And now that we're finding out that they are pollinators with these… these plants, how might that change people's opinion of rats?

JCFC: So, with this study, we do not argue that rats don't have any problem in cities, but we hope to change people's views with… with this another look that they may be good as well. So in the city, there are not so many birds. And then, if the rats are really pollinating these plants, and especially in a very important plant that people over there, they consume their fruits raw and they do some drinks and some candies with… with this feijoa plant. So, we hope to change and to demonstrate how interactions in nature they can be context-dependent. So they can change. And they can be positive as well.

TH: Joao, fascinating stuff. Good to talk to you. Thank you so much.

JCFC: Thank you so much. Good to talk to you, Tom.

CH: Joao Custodio Fernandes Cardoso is the co-author of a new study in Ecology about the potential for rat pollinators. He worked with Carlos Andres Mattelana Puerto. We reached Mr. Cardoso in Alfenas, Brazil.

[Sombre instrumental]

Montreal Drink Tampering

CH: Last Thursday night, a Montreal woman drank three ciders at a bar with her friends. And the next morning, she woke up in her bed scared and confused: she had no recollection of the rest of the evening. She is confident that she was drugged. But taking the test to prove that proved to be difficult. Lea is one of two woman who spoke with CBC Montreal about what happened to them in the hopes it leads to change. Lea is not her real name. The CBC is protecting her identity because she fears reprisals for speaking publicly.

[sc]

LEA: So, last Thursday night, I came to a bar with two of my close girlfriends. We were just coming for a Cinq à sept, having a couple of drinks. And my last significant memory of that night is receiving my third drink. I woke up Friday morning completely confused, not sure how I got back home. I was distraught. I was angry. And I wanted answers.

KATE MCKENNA: Okay, so what did you do?

L: So immediately, I called the two friends that I'd been out with the night before and asked them, you know, how I got home? What happened that night? And they told me that I hadn't been acting any way that was… that would be considered out of the ordinary. So that made me a little bit even more confused because I had complete… complete memory loss. So, no memory of that night at all. So I called up my friends. And after that, I went to seek answers. So the first thing I did was I went to the emergency room of a hospital. I realized that the wait would be too long. I wanted to get tested for some sort of… for GHB or some sort of date rape drug. And I know that they exit your system fairly quickly. So, I knew that staying at the E.R. would take way too long. I went… I then went to an urgent care clinic, and I was turned away. I was told to make an appointment for, you know, the following week or a month. So, obviously, that wasn't an option. And then, I was informed by a friend who's a doctor that I could go to the CLSC Metro to get help because they have a sexual assault centre there. So I spoke to a lovely receptionist, and she provided me with a counsellor to speak with right away. And the counsellor informed me that, unfortunately, there is no testing in Quebec for any date rape drug unless you suspect that you've been sexually assaulted. And I knew that I hadn't been. Being able to get a tox screen is the first… only the first step in this process. After that, that provides the important piece of evidence that someone would need to actually prove that this has happened to them and potentially elevate this to a higher level. And only at that point would a perpetrator even be able to be held accountable. And right now, nobody is being held accountable for committing these crimes.

[/sc]

CH: That was a woman whom the CBC is calling Lea, speaking with CBC Montreal reporter Kate McKenna. In a statement, Quebec's Health Ministry said not all hospitals are equipped to test for drink-spiking drugs because it can only be detected for up to 12 hours. It also said the government is working on a plan to ensure widespread testing becomes available.

[Sad piano and violin]

FOA: Air India

CH: For the families of those killed in the Air India bombing, not a day goes by that they don't mark their loss. And today is no different. It was 37 years ago today that terrorists blew Air India Flight 182 out of the sky. All 329 people on board died. Many of their bodies were never recovered, scattered in the ocean off the coast of Ireland. It was a Canadian tragedy -- the largest mass killing in our history. Lata Pada's husband, Vishnu, and her daughters, Brinda and Arti, were among the dead. And, in 2002, Ms. Pada created and performed a dance piece about her loss, called "Revealed By Fire." As It Happens interviewed Ms. Pada and went backstage during one of her rehearsals. Tonight, to mark the anniversary, we bring you that feature again.

[sc]

LATA PADA: It was an ordinary day. I was rehearsing. The phone rang. The phone rang on an ordinary day when I was rehearsing. On an ordinary day, the phone rang. I was rehearsing. I was rehearsing when the phone rang. It was an ordinary day.

[A phone rings]

LP: I was in Bombay waiting for the family to arrive. I’d actually left about two weeks earlier to rehearse and prepare for a performance that would be coming up. And just a routine check to the airport to find out about the estimated time of arrival was met with… with a really cryptic message about we… we have some disturbing news about Air India, but we're not sure what's happened. About an hour or two later, Air India called us back with the information that they believed that the flight had gone down just off the coast of Ireland. And they believed at that point that there would be no survivors. They did know that it was a major explosion that had brought the plane down, but they weren't willing to speculate that it might have been as a result of a bomb. The next few weeks were… were… I mean, I can almost say that I went around in a completely zombified state. And fortunately, and thankfully, I had family around me who left with me immediately the very next day after we heard the news to Cork in Ireland. We were there for about five to six days, and had to go through the most painful process of identifying our loved ones. And they had only recovered, I believe, about 132 victims. So, I mean, you… you had this grieving mass of relatives having to deal not only with the loss, but with the knowledge that they would never be able to see their loved ones. In our case, we were able to recover both my daughters, but Vishnu was not recovered. And then, soon after that, we… we decided to cremate our two daughters.

[Indian music]

LP: I had, you know, absolutely no reason to believe that I'd have to stop my dancing. I went back into it… back into it quite, quite spontaneously and immediately.

[Indian music now with singing]

LP: It was almost instinctive and it turned out to be at that point, I had no idea that dance would give me the kind of solace and comfort that it has in the last six years. I went back to it purely just to engage myself in something so physical that I would have no time to think about anything else. And because Indian classical dance is also so deeply rooted in the devotional and the spiritual, I think it, along with the physicality of the form and working through it, it also started bringing some kind of understanding, some kind of acceptance and finally, some level of mental peace.

REPORTER: Local time this morning, 6 minutes later…

MAN: Forty-five minutes later.

REPORTER: Several dozen bodies were returned.

LP: This new production -- “Revealed by Fire” -- is the culmination of a journey. As I said, being thrown into the fire of 1985 was really an unravelling and a search for my true identity.

ANNOUNCER: Flight 182 of June 22nd, 1985. From Toronto and Montreal to Delhi and Bombay, via London, was reportedly lost at sea off the coast of Ireland in the early hours of the morning. The latest information available is that the wreckage has been sighted, and several bodies have been --

LP: Sitting back and thinking about this work, I've wondered, often, how I've had the strength to actually incorporate the sounds of not only just planes taking off, but actual news broadcasts of the event where there's strong reference to the Air India flight going down.

[A woman talks as a helicopter flies overhead]

LP: Having the strength to be able to use photographs of my family in the visual design. We've actually even incorporated a small excerpt of a message that my older daughter left on an answering machine from my friend in Los Angeles, who heard about the Air… the tragedy, and she saved it on a tape and sent it to me. And for 15 years, that lay in a corner on a desk in my office. Never had the strength to even be able to listen to it.

[Indian music and a message machine beep]

BRINDA: Hi, Auntie Vissy? This is Brinda. My grandparents are just in Bangalore, care of Commander BN. Casablanca -- 86912. Maine Road. Third block. Bangalore. 34 five. Have a nice summer.

[A phone hangs up]

LP: There were moments that I began to… to question the sense in carrying on or the futility of… of being… of continuing a life without, you know, somebody… three members of your family that were so incredibly close to you.

[A flute]

LP: There are stories about Brinda's freshly washed hair. All I can think about is fire. There are stories about Vishnu telling jokes and ruining the punch line. All I can think about is fire. There are stories about Arti’s pranks. There are stories about dressing up in my best saris. All I can think about is fire. There are stories about that --

[Fades down]

LP: At some point, you've got to accept the fact that there is a randomness to these acts. Or if you… if you believe in the Hindu faith, then you have a whole sense of karma. And karma is… is the whole cycle of cause and effect. And the something that you take with you through many of your past lives. But I think for me, the most… the most evocative and the most convincing message was something that I… I heard from my spiritual guru in which he said that you must look at life as a journey and you travel with several cool passengers. But each of these people have a destination to get to, and it isn't necessarily your destination. So after the time that you've spent in each other's company, their destination has arrived and it's time for them to leave, and it's time for you to continue your journey.

[Music returns]

LP: All I can think about as fire. No one took a photograph at the airport. What were they wearing? I don't even know what they were wearing that day. Don't forget to lock the door. Did you pack everything you're going to need? Who wants the aisle seat? That's why my recent dance production was called “Revealed By Fire”. Because the metaphor of fire as being a very powerful source of both destruction and regeneration was something that came to me with quite amazing clarity in the last 15 years. Where it convinced me that there is a certain sense of having been transformed by that fire. There's something cathartic that happens in that, and it almost opens up a different way of thinking, a different way of looking at life.

[Fire sizzles. Flute swells]

LP: I am happy now. I… I have so much to be grateful for. And I have always acknowledged the fact that the 21 years that I spent with Vishnu, and… and the 18 years that I spent with both my daughters were very pleasurable, very important relationships. I have that to be thankful for. And I have to be thankful that I had my art that would give me the tools with which to cope.

[Flute]

[/sc]

CH: That was Lata Pada speaking to As It Happens in 2002 about her autobiographical dance performance "Revealed By Fire." Today is the 37th anniversary of the Air India bombing.

[Sombre instrumental]

Nathan "Rikishi" Pelly Obit

CH: Those who loved Nathan "Rikishi" Pelly believe he was a gift from the Creator -- and in turn, his gift was the medicine of music. Mr. Pelly was a pow wow singer from the Cote First Nation, close to the Manitoba border. He died on Sunday in Saskatoon, at the age of 34. He'd spent several weeks in hospital, due to liver and kidney failure, as well as a lung infection. Friends and family gathered for his funeral this week, remembering his sense of humour and his musical talents. Dallas Pelly is Nathan Pelly's brother.

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DALLAS PELLY: From when he was a little boy, he gravitated to the drum, you know? From right when he was about two years old, he had a drum in his hand and he loved to sing. And that gift was nurtured by my late grandmother, Pauline Pelly. And Pauline really nurtured that gift in him, you know, for our culture and for our songs. And so, growing up, even in school, he decided that he wanted to be a singer. He achieved that. He did that. He was a world-class pow-wow singer. He was the world champion three times over. He won at the Gathering of Nations. He won at the individual level and at the group level. And so, he truly is a world champion. And we are getting words of condolences and… and people right across Turtle Island who are affected by this guy because he has such a… such an amazing pow-wow community that that was behind him and… and loved him. And so, you know, the pow-wow community is mourning right now, mourning the loss of, I would say, one of the best singers in the world. And that's… that's not just coming from his brother, but other people that are around us are saying, yeah, this truly is a loss for that community. And so, you know, we're mourning with them and people are sending their… their messages and their stories. He was always… like, from… from right from when he was a young man, he was always on the trail. He would… as soon as pow-wow season would ramp up, oh my gosh, he would be in right across North America. He'd be in Florida and California. And he's all over. And, you know, he… that's how he made his living. You know, you'd think, how did somebody do that, make a living pow-wow singing? But you have to be as good as him. And he was… he was excellent. He mentored a lot of young… young singers. We're getting messages from mums and dads from across Turtle Island that say, yeah, he showed my son the way to the drum and, and then brought him to the… to the culture and showed them the way. And so, a lot of these young drummers got their start, you know, because of my brother and our singing because of him.

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CH: Dallas Pelly is the brother of pow-wow singer Nathan "Rikishi" Pelly, who died on Sunday. He was 34.

[International instrumental]

Correction: Powerlifter Record

CH: Earlier this week, we told you about a Saskatoon powerlifter who is hauling in her weight in gold medals. And then you weighed in to let us know we won't be making the podium for our math skills. Jessica Buettner recently broke a few world records, for deadlifting 575 pounds -- or 260 kilos. We said, repeatedly, that was more than half a tonne. Then we received this call.

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[Message machine beep]

BEVERLY SHEPPARD: Oh, dear, you've got a big error! In talking to this woman about her weight lifting, You said 575 pounds was more than half a tonne. No!!! A ton in pounds is 2,000 pounds. 575 kilos would be more than half a tonne. So fix it if you can. I don’t know. Bye.

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CH: That was… [chuckle] we can fix it, Beverly. That was Beverly Sheppard from Hamilton, Ontario correctly pointing out that we made a mistake on Monday. Jessica Buettner lifted 575 pounds -- which is phenomenal, but is not half a metric or Imperial tonne. Thanks to everyone who called and wrote, for not getting too heavy with us.

[French court piano?]

Buddy Fossil

CH: When someone calls you a fossil, it's usually an insult. It means you're old. Out of date. Irrelevant. But Jonathan Adrain insists he was coming from a place of love and respect when he named two ancient trilobites after Buddywasisname and The Other Fellers. For all the non-fossils out there, that's a band. More specifically, a storied trio from Newfoundland and Labrador who have been entertaining audiences with their mix of irreverent comedy and wistful nostalgia since 1983. Mr. Adrain, a paleontologist from the University of Iowa, first happened upon them while doing fieldwork on the island.

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JONATHAN ADRAIN: Well, first of all, I'm actually Canadian. I grew up in Alberta. And I had done work in Newfoundland, in western Newfoundland, on four separate summers. And on the 1996 trip, we stopped at a gas station very early on and bought a cassette of the “Making for the Harbour” album, and I just played it non-stop for the rest of the trip. So every time we’ve been back to Newfoundland since with my students to do fieldwork, Buddywasisname and The Other Fellers has basically been the soundtrack.

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CH: So when Jonathan Adrain discovered two 460-million-year-old trilobites off the coast of Newfoundland, he decided to call them Oenonella wasisnamei and Oenenella otherfellersorum. It was his way of paying tribute to the musicians. And, in fact, he's got a long history of naming fossils after people, places and animals he admires. You could say it's his love language.

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JA: It's sort of my modus operandi. So there’s players for the Edmonton Oilers, the Velvet Underground, The Beatles, The Ramones, I've named things after drag queens… famous drag queens and Soviet… the Soviet space program’s space dogs, things like that. But, you know, they're only names. The only… the only criterion you want is that the be sort of memorable. And so, you know, just have a bit of fun with it. My personal favourite species name was I was… I was at a conference in Salt Lake City at one stage, and on the final day of the conference I gave my talk in the morning and I was exhausted. So I went up to the taxi rank and I just sort of slumped into a cab and said airport race. And the driver was this older, older guy. And he asked me what I did. And I was, oh, fossils… fossils. I love fossils, and he started going on and saying, oh, to have a fossil named after you, that would be something to tell the grandkids. And so I thought for a minute, and I said, Al… you name’s al, right? Turn that taxi metre off and I'll see what I can do. And so, I created a trip… a free trip to the Salt Lake City Airport. So there's now a trilobite species called Alsakarov. Immortality for a trip to the airport.

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CH: Paleontologist Jonathan Adrain talking to host Jamie Fitzpatrick on The St. John's Morning Show. Wayne Chaulk, one of the Other Fellers, told the CBC that he's honoured to officially be classified as a fossil. He said, quote: "You don't get any better than that, b'y!"

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June 23, 2022 Episode Transcript

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