GM: A few choice words. In Wisconsin, the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe V. Wade leaves abortion providers unsure where they stand legally -- and deeply concerned about the future.

CH: Struck, and stricken. A cruel wake-up call for residents of Kyiv, who returned to the city believing the fighting had moved on -- only for Russian missiles to hit an apartment complex.

GM: A newt lease on life. Most animals tend to get weaker with each passing year -- but a new study of reptiles and amphibians suggests some cold-blooded creatures aren't affected by aeging at all.

CH: Balancing the books. A new TikTok trend involves returning ebooks for a full refund within the allotted time -- which is proving to be a real horror story for authors.

GM: Canvassing the neighbourhood. After the death of a London artist, his work was consigned to the dumpster -- until a nosy neighbour rescued it. He'll tell us why it deserved to be saved from the trash heap, and from obscurity.

CH: And… who let this particular dog out? A chihuahua mix has been named the World's Ugliest Dog, partly because he cannot keep his tongue in his mouth -- but his owner, at least, takes a tongue-in-cheek approach.

CH: As It Happens, the Monday edition. Radio that warns: in the morning, he looks like a dog's breakfast eating a dog's breakfast.

Part 1: Roe V Wade, Ageless Amphibians And Reptiles, World's Ugliest Dog

Roe V Wade

Guest: Dr. Kristin Lyerly

CH: After Friday's Supreme Court decision overturning Roe Versus Wade, several states acted immediately to ban abortions. Wisconsin was not one of those states. But abortion providers there are in limbo nevertheless. Unlike states like Arkansas and Texas, among others, Wisconsin does not have a so-called "trigger law" that automatically introduced an abortion ban once Roe was set aside. Instead, it's one of several states that have very old laws prohibiting abortion already on the books. In Wisconsin's case, a law dating all the way back to 1849. Dr. Kristin Lyerly is an abortion provider in Wisconsin. We reached her in Madison.

GM: Dr. Lyerly, can you tell us about what this 1849 law says about who can get an abortion in Wisconsin?

DR. KRISTIN LYERLY: The 1849 law, which was written, by the way, a year after Wisconsin became a state and 70 years before American women were given the right to vote. This is an old law. It criminalizes physicians for performing abortions and has no exceptions for incest or rape. The only exception is for the life of the mother. And in that circumstance, two other physicians have to sign off on that situation. I took an oath to take care of my patients, to listen to them, and to help them determine what the best course of action is within the context of their lives. And sometimes, we just don't have a lot of time to bring in other people just because politicians require it. This is… abortion is health care. Abortion is not political.

GM: And it lays out punishments for doctors.

DKL: It is a felony for doctors to perform an abortion.

GM: So, the thing is that it's unclear now whether this law could or will be enforced. That might end up being decided by state courts. What's your sense of the arguments against it being enforced?

DKL: Well, right now, we're taking this very seriously because we have to. If we are unable to take care of our patients in the midst of a physician shortage in a state that has so much need, especially in rural parts of Wisconsin, we won't be able to fulfil the obligation we have to our patients and to our communities. So, we have stopped providing abortions as of Friday, last Friday, when Roe was repealed. Our hope is that the attorney general will have some tricks up his sleeve that will allow us to acknowledge the age of the law, and recognize that it doesn't apply. An 1849 law that was written in the year that the first American woman became a physician is not relevant in 2022. So our fingers are crossed that he is going to be able to give us a little bit of a lifeline so we can continue to provide health care for our patients.

GM: And the governor of Wisconsin, who's a Democrat, says he'll grant clemency to anyone who is charged under this law. Is that enough? Is that reassuring at all?

DKL: It is, but it's not enough. We appreciate Governor Evers. He has been a champion for abortion rights, for reproductive rights. He has vetoed so many of the ugly bills that the legislature has put before him. But clemency is only effective if he remains in office. And he's up for election in November, so there's no guarantee.

GM: Hmm. Now, we've known for some time that this might be coming down the pipe. And you performed your last abortion two weeks ago, knowing you might… you know, it could be the last time you could provide this service in Wisconsin. Can you tell us what that… what that's been like?

DKL: It's terrible. Imagine sitting in an exam room with your doctor, and you are explaining a very personal problem that is affecting every aspect of your life. And your doctor looks you in the eye and says, I know how to help you, but I can't because the politicians in our state won't let me.

GM: What's the reaction been from women who have been able to access abortion in the last couple of weeks before this came down?

DKL: Some were not aware that this was happening. Some were just really fearful, recognizing that although they were receiving an abortion now, they would be at risk for an unplanned pregnancy in the future. We saw a lot of people who were seeking more effective contraception, IUDs and implants. We saw a lot of people who are seeking sterilization. People are worried, and they're trying to cover all their bases. But frankly, it's not enough. Abortion will never go away because it isn't a contraceptive failure that causes every abortion. It is a myriad of complicated medical issues that only a patient and a doctor can discuss and make decisions about in the context of the patient's own.

GM: Right. Can you just expand on that a little bit? You talk about abortion as a health issue, as a medical decision. Can you talk about some of those medical reasons that people come to see you?

DKL: Oh, for sure. Abortion is health care. Pregnancy, although we think of it in greater society as this really joyful time. And for many, it is. But for some, it's not. Medical complications, maternal medical complications, like pre-eclampsia, a common condition that can cause the mother to die. The mother could have a stroke, or she could die related to the pregnancy. And this can even occur before we're able to save the baby. Ectopic pregnancies that are implanted in areas outside of the uterus. These pregnancies are often viable. They have cardiac activity, but they can not survive in the places where they are implanted. And they are the number one reason why women die in early pregnancy. Previable rupture of membranes is common. When the bags of water around the baby breaks early in the pregnancy before the pregnancy can survive outside of the mother. And we have to make a decision about whether to maintain this pregnancy that is unlikely to survive and put the mother at risk of developing sepsis and putting her life at risk or maintaining the pregnancy in a very complicated, stressful scenario. These are decisions that only patients can make for themselves with the counsel of a trained, thoughtful, compassionate provider. And it doesn't end with solving the pregnancy problem because when these aren't desired pregnancies, this is traumatic. These people need mental health assistance. They need, again, compassionate care. They need to walk through these scenarios with a provider who truly has their best interests in mind if they are to come out the other end of it whole.

GM: So you are now in this legal limbo where you're not performing abortions right now because of the potential consequences. But are you hopeful that you'll be able to provide this service to women again in the near future?

DKL: I am. Many of my colleagues are helping out in the border states. So Illinois to our south and Minnesota to our west are still able to provide abortion services. So many of us are going to those states to pitch in a day or so a week. I personally am going to be helping out with telemedicine abortions in the state of Minnesota and pitching in in the clinic as able. So we'll be keeping our skills up. We'll be probably helping a lot of Wisconsin women who are seeking help in other states. And we're going to keep up the fight here in Wisconsin because there is too much at stake, not just when it comes to reproductive rights but when it comes to women's rights in general.

GM: Dr. Lyerly, thanks for your time today.

DKL: Thank you so much.

CH: That was Dr. Kristin Lyerly. We reached her in Madison, Wisconsin.

[Ambient synth]

Ageless Amphibians And Reptiles

Guest: David Miller

CH: When humans age, things start to go wrong. We develop back problems, eye problems, we're more susceptible to illness… I beg your pardon? Sorry, my director's just… I didn't catch that, Susan. Our what? Oh yeah, our hearing goes. But according to a new study, not everything experiences that slow decline. Some cold-blooded animals seem to be basically immune to the effects of age. David Miller is an associate professor of wildlife population ecology at Penn State University. He's the senior author of the study. And we reached him in University Park, Pennsylvania.

GM: Professor Miller, what exactly does it mean for an animal to be ageless?

DAVID MILLER: The way we define ageing is actually that their mortality or chance of dying in any year increases as they get older. And that's what's typical for… for almost all animals. As they get older, each year, they're more… more and more likely to die during that year. And so, to be ageless in the demographic senses is to have the same mortality probability no matter what the age is of that animal.

GM: And for some of these animals that you were studying, that percentage of mortality was extremely low, like one per cent?

DM Yeah. So for many of the turtles and other species we studied, the tuatara, the crocodiles there, their mortality is really low. And for many of them, that… that mortality rate in any given year just increases really, really slowly and then at a slower rate than we find in humans.

GM: And so, what do we understand about why that is?

DM: One of the things we found for the amphibians and reptiles we studied were that traits that are protective were associated with being long-lived and also ageing slowly. So things like a turtle's shell or having venom or being toxic were all traits that were associated with longevity in our study.

GM: So all of these things that protect them from predators?

DM: Yeah, essentially. And that protection from predators allows them to live longer. And what that does is… is it creates evolutionary pressure to reduce ageing because if an animal's not going to get eaten, then it's going to live longer. And… and thus, there's more value in the sort of physiological and other adaptations that reduce ageing and reduce that loss of performance with older age.

GM: So theoretically, if no predator were to harm or kill these sort of ageless animals and no, you know, environmental, anything else kills them, would they just live forever?

DM: Well, all animals have intrinsic sources and mortality, but what we find is that external or extrinsic sources, things like predators and disease, interact with their intrinsic sources. So animals that have lower extrinsic mortality. They're less likely to be eaten. They're less likely to die of a disease, tend to involve lower intrinsic mortality. So things like cancer or heart disease. These things in humans that many of us end up dying from, those rates decrease, but no animals immortal.

GM: [chuckling] Oh, too bad! So you looked at 77 different species in this study, and you mentioned some of them already. But can you tell us more about what other kinds of species age this slowly?

DM: So in our study, we focussed on ectotherms, so these are animals we refer to as cold blooded, the amphibians and reptiles. And… and among them, the longest-lived was the tuatara. And this is a species we know from other captive records as it can live a long time, and our results confirm that. Other groups were the turtles, which consistently across all the turtle species we studied, they were all long-lived, and they also exhibited really slow rates of ageing. And then, to a lesser extent, species such as crocodiles. And the salamanders also tended to age slower than things like frogs and toads, snakes and lizards.

GM: And your study sort of aggregated a number of dozens of other studies. Was there anything that was really surprising to you or anything new that you learned that was different from what we understood before?

DM: So, what we knew about this group was not a lot. They're less well-studied than birds and mammals. So, ours is really the first study to systematically look across a large number of species, the patterns of ageing. And to me, probably the one thing that stood out more than anything were the turtles and just how consistently across the board they are for… for exhibiting slow ageing or even negligible ageing. And so… and there is actually a second study that another research group published actually in the same issue of Science as our study. And they… they also studied turtles and captive populations and found the same thing, that across all the captive turtles they were looking at. So it seems like turtles, tortoises are really a unique group.

GM: Hmm. Well, we're talking about amphibians and reptiles. But from the human side, you know, I think everyone wants to live forever. [laughing] And is there anything we can learn from how these animals are able to sort of have these prolonged lives and anything we can extrapolate to humans?

DM: Yeah. I mean, the first thing is we learn a little bit about why maybe humans, why we have relatively slow rates of ageing. We share some of the traits that turtles have. We… we're slow to mature. We have a delayed growth period before we mature and become adults, and we also have really low predation rates. Not many humans are getting eaten by other animals.

GM: Right.

DM: And those are some of the same things we think are why turtles age slow. But the other thing is, if we can identify species that do age slow, we can learn about what are the physiological and cellular and genetic processes that lead to slow ageing. And it appears the turtles probably can give us some insights into what's required to maintain cell function for extended lifespans and sort of what underlies slow ageing. So, that… that can be a model to… to learn from.

GM: Super fascinating stuff. Professor Miller, thanks so much for your time.

DM: Thank you.

CH: That was David Miller, an associate professor of wildlife population ecology at Penn State University. He is the senior author on a recent study on reptile and amphibian ageing, which was published last week in the journal Science.

[ Ambient instrumental]

World's Ugliest Dog

Guest: Jeneda Benally

CH: Remember the '80s horror comedy "Gremlins"? The movie where a bunch of absolutely adorable, fluffy creatures transform into absolutely hideous, scaly monsters that terrorize a small American town? Well, Mr. Happy Face looks kind of like that. Not the cute version. The hideous version. In particular, "Stripe", the especially demonic one with the white mohawk. Mr. Happy Face is a chihuahua mix who has just won this year's World's Ugliest Dog contest. Although, to his owner, he couldn't possibly be more adorable. Her name is Jeneda Benally, and we reached her in New York.

GM: Jeneda, how would you describe Mr. Happy Face to someone who's never seen him?

JENEDA BENALLY: I describe Mr. Happy Face as having the ears of a bat, the tufted hair like Robert Smith from the Cure, a tongue longer than Gene Simmons, quite possibly, a snarl just as cool as Billy Idol's, and he's got eyes that are filled with so much love. He stands a little crookedly, maybe a little bit like a gargoyle. And he's got a tail that's a little crooked. It kinks over because, unfortunately, it was broken and bound. So that way, it would have a curl. So it gets stuck on everything. But he is the sweetest soul that one could ever hope to encounter in their life.

GM: [chuckling] And he definitely has some quirky characteristics. But appearance-wise, do you think… do you think he's ugly? Or, you know, is… are you a mother who could never think her baby isn't cute?

JB: [chuckling] Well, I think Mister Happy Face is a glorious creature. I do. And the funny thing is that when I entered him in the Sonoma-Marin World's Ugliest Dog contest, I totally did not even think that he would win because I thought he was too beautiful. [both chuckle]

GM: So, how does it feel for him to have that title?

JB: I don't know if he knows what this title is, except that walking down the streets of New York City, he has become so popular, and lots of people want to take his photograph, and just want to see him. So he's getting a lot of extra attention, and I think that's pretty fabulous for him. I mean, considering that when I adopted him from the shelter just 10 months ago, he was considered to be probably the most unadoptable dog there.

GM: Oh wow!

JB: And his life before was one that was from a hoarder situation. And so, when I adopted him, he had… he was afraid of human touch. He didn't like human touch. And it took three months until I was allowed to touch Mr. Happy Face's face. And just a couple of months ago, he started kissing my feet. So he's slow to warm up. But considering that he was considered the most unadoptable dog, who didn't feel love, I think now, I mean, I think he must feel that the world loves him. It's not just his mommy anymore.

GM: Oh! Did you just have that bond with him when you… when you saw him? What made you want this unadoptable dog?

JB: Well, when I adopted him, I was told that he would, at max, have about six weeks to live.

GM: Oh wow!

JB: This was going to be kind of a hospice situation for him, and that he has tumours, and that the medications that he was on would be lifelong, which would probably not be very long. So, I thought that he deserved a second chance. That he… he lived such a terrible life beforehand that if I could give him… if I could just give him the love that he was deserved of having, then… then maybe at least he would go… we would… you know, he would leave this world in a really beautiful way. And so far, [chuckling] it's been 10 months.

GM: Wow!

JB: We're six weeks to 10 months. So, that definitely shows what… what love and caring and nurturing can do to someone's to… to someone's life.

GM: So you said he has some health issues. He's… he's also got a funny face. I understand he makes some strange noises, too?

JB: He absolutely makes strange noises. So, Mr. Happy Face, when he's really happy, he's got this grunt that sounds like a diesel truck revving. It's hysterical. He loves to talk in his sleep. He barks a lot in his sleep. And… and when I'm not around, he gets really upset. And he… he cries. He makes his little howl sound. [chuckling]

GM: And to that end, I understand that you're a musician and you're going on… on tour soon. So what's going to happen to Mr. Happy Face?

JB: So we have decided that Mr. Happy Face is going to come on tour with us.

GM: Amazing!

JB: And we will be doing meet and greets after the concert and before the concert with Mr. Happy Face. But we also do want to take time to visit children's hospitals. Because even though I named him Mr. Happy Face because I thought his face was happy, I have seen the joy and the happiness, the smiles, that he brings to other people's faces. So it's really this incredible experience to hold him. And when people come up to him, they just smile. Their… their face lights up, and they're happy to meet him. So I kind of feel like, well, maybe I named him because it's the effect that he has on people. And maybe I just didn't know that yet. I'm from the Indigenous nation of Navajo Nation, and I just want to bring attention to… to rez dogs. And just as a call to action, you know, for people who… who may not have pets but love… love dogs, love pets, that they are an incredible resource for some of these areas that don't have… that don't have accessibility to veterinarians for spay and neuter clinics and vaccinations. And so, I just want to put that call to action out. And I do want to mention that as… as we talk about the World's Ugliest Dog competition or the World's Ugliest Dog contest, that there's so much ugly in the world, and that it's just the small acts of kindness, compassion, smiling at each other that really can make the world a beautiful place. And I think that's what Mr. Happy Face is doing.

GM: Love that. Congrats to Mr. Happy Face and to you, Jeneda. Thanks so much for chatting with us.

JB: Thank you.

CH: This weekend, Jeneda Benally's dog Mr. Happy Face was named the World's Ugliest Dog. She's in New York.

[Horns!!!]

Part 2: Kyiv Missile Strikes, U.K. Pop Art Find

Kyiv Missile Strikes

Guest: Dmytro Dzizinsky

CH: As the fighting rages in Eastern Ukraine, some residents of Kyiv had been lulled into a false sense of security. A lot of residents who left in the early days of the war have returned home. It's been weeks since missiles have struck the capital. But yesterday, that changed abruptly -- when at least four Russian missiles hit a Kyiv neighbourhood. Dmytro Dzizinsky lives in one of the apartment buildings that was hit. We reached him in Kyiv.

GM: So, Dmytro, tell me about that moment the missile hit your building yesterday? What were you doing and what did you see?

DMYTRO DZIZINSKY: It was a terrible morning because at the moment when I opened the window, I just heard some voice like whoosh and just an explosion. And I understood that it was a missile attack by first rocket. And when I heard the first explosion, I understood that they started again bombing us. And I'm just trying to run to the door and trying to be in more safe place.

GM: Then what happened? And what did you see in terms of destruction?

DD: Yeah, I ran to the entrance and so my neighbour, who unfortunately, he's living on the other side. So when the rocket, missile was hitting. And I just started screaming to him what are doing? Because he just after first hit was trying to find his T-shirt and then just say, go here. And then the next hit, it was on our building, and his windows just broken. And lucky for him, he have no bones. And we just trying to, you know, avoid and hide from the explosions. And we saw that our neighbour who’s from… from the upper stages just trying to go down. And we just started also screaming to them that you guys doing not right thing. Just come to here because there's only one place, a safe place at the moment. And also, we received the third and fourth hits. But lucky for us, we were all grouped in a small place where it was a safe place. And after the first hit, we wait three minutes and we just go to the window. And so, there are a lot of flats, all were destroyed.

GM: Was anyone injured?

DD: From this attack, yes. In other buildings, there are some cases when people were very bounded. And also, one person who has, unfortunately, died of this attack.

GM: Dmytro, tell me, because you just returned to Kyiv a couple of weeks ago after leaving for many months at the beginning of the war, you went to stay with family in the western part of the country. And you felt it was safe enough to come back?

DD: No, I expected that it will happen, but I don't think that it will be the same what was the previous time, that they will hit our building.

GM: At the same time, it did seem like things were kind of settling down in Kyiv. Businesses were opening again. Can you tell me a little bit about what the mood was like in the city before this hit?

DD: Yeah, people trying to live their normal lives. But, unfortunately, everyone of us understands that war is going and nothing has finished. And we just understand that, for example, to buy a coffee, it's a normal scene that it always was. It also supports our economies economically. And so, we have to do this because there are no other ways. And for example, if everything will be closed, for example, pizzerias or restaurants and cafes, I just sense that it will be better for us, even for our mental health, I think it will be a disaster.

GM: And there was another attack on a shopping centre in Kremenyuk today in the eastern part of the country, the shopping centre, we see pictures of it in flames. Do you worry that, you know, there is now a focus on civilian targets, that they may become targets more frequently?

DD: Yes, for sure. You know, the most violent thing for our people is now as the people lives. And, you know, when we when… we receive our hits, the most the best scenes that I ever saw that all people there are a lot of people who are trying to avoid the missiles and we trying to go to the bottom places of our parking. It was the most safest place on those moment. And I saw that a lot of people are just trying to save their animals. There are lots of kids. There was a woman with four cats and one dog, and we trying to help each other to take these cats, dogs. You know, if you are trying to ask me about how do we trying to live, to worry about their lives, it's absolutely yes.

GM: You had left Kyiv for many months and come back. Now, this happened in your building. Do you feel safe? Will you stay? What's next for you?

DD: Yes, I feel safe because of our military, our army. I am pretty confident in them. But, unfortunately, I understand that everything can happen. And also, they try and… they’re not trying, they’re attacking us a lot of times for one day, and still attacking and trying to use more rockets. They are like used, for example, for two last days they use 100 rockets and they still will try to hit our building and civil lives. And we understood I think a lot of people understand this, but we have no other way. We need to fight them and that’s the only way.

GM: What's your message to people outside of Ukraine? You know, for the initial first weeks of this war, it was very much in the headlines it was, you know, constant… constantly, people were paying attention to what was happening. I think it's started to… to fall off the headlines a little bit. What's your message to people outside of Ukraine about what's still happening in your home country?

DD: I wanted to ask, please donate and donate directly to Ukrainian army, military. We have a lot of… not a lot, we have few good national phones. And I also understand and know that you are all are exhausted of this. And to be honest, I am extremely exhausted, too. But today, you need to understand that Ukraine is… is a shield for protects the world from the horrible barbarians. And, you know, we will win in any cases. But, unfortunately, we lost a lot of people, Ukrainian, who are dying every day to pay for this win.

GM: Yeah. Dmytro, we wish you well. We're thinking of you. Stay safe. Thanks so much for speaking with us.

DD: Yeah. Thank you, too.

CH: We reached Dmytro Dzizinski in Kyiv. And as we mentioned in that interview, today a Russian missile strike hit a shopping centre in Kremenchuk. Here is an eyewitness to that attack.

[sc]

VADIM: If before we had strikes on the outskirts of the city, this time around, this is the centre of the city. It's really far away from the frontline. And there is no military. It's not a strategic object. So I just… I'm out of words. I did not expect that something like this could happen in my… in my town. I'm fine with the strategic objects being fired at. I can understand that. But if you're choosing just a mall in the centre of Ukraine far, far away from any danger to Russia, on a busy day when… where you know, there's a lot of people and you strike, I am not sure who are we dealing with? What do they have in sight to do such a thing?

[/sc]

CH: That was a man named Vadim speaking to the BBC today about a Russian strike that hit a shopping mall in the city of Kremenchuk, Ukraine.

[Ambient synth]

NS Surgery Delay

CH: Over the last two-and-a-half years, we've heard all kinds of evidence that Canada's health care system is nearing a breaking point -- from nurses, from patients, from the organization representing the country's doctors. But Gay Clarke's story is especially heartbreaking. Her husband died while waiting for heart surgery in Nova Scotia -- an operation that was delayed by the pandemic. Mark Clarke was 666 when he died in February -- one day before he was supposed to finally have his urgent surgery, which was meant to address two blockages. Here is Gay Clarke speaking to CBC Nova Scotia about what her husband went through.

[sc]

GAY CLARKE: Everybody just figured he was going to go in for the dye test, they'd do a stint, and he would be okay. But when he had the dye test, and the doctor came in to see him, he told them, no, we couldn't do the stint because of where the blockages were. It was on the right side that takes the blood away and takes it to the… those were blocked 85 and 75 per cent. And they would have to do open heart surgery, and it would happen, he said, within a two-week period. But it was almost two weeks before we got to see the actual surgeon. And when we saw him, there was an intern, I guess, with him before he came in and asked a bunch of questions. And then the doctor came in. And I said to the intern, I said, oh, please don't tell me this is going to get pushed back. Some worries. Oh, no, no. He said, this is critical. This will get done. So that surgeon told us he would be in within a week. Well, that was in January. And four weeks later, he gets a call that they're going to do surgery on February the third, February the second, hje died. It should not have happened. This is… this is wrong. This… there was many people… I know Mark is not the only one that died because of COVID, but Mark died because of COVID. They needed an intensive care bed for three days so that they could do his surgery, and they couldn't get that. They couldn't get it because COVID patients were taking up all the ICU beds. Is that fair to Mark? No. And then I was angry at Mark for going downstairs. I was angry at Mark for leaving. But I'm more angry at the system. And I think more people need to come forward and talk about what happened during COVID because this sort of thing should never, never have happened. Mark was 66. He should not be gone. He should be here. But… but he's gone. And for that, I'm very angry. The whole system needs to be redone. We all know that. But they say, you know, okay, well, COVID, if you got your vaccinations, there was very… there was a lot less people in ICU that had vaccinations. So, the ones who were not vaccinated were taking the ICU beds. And yet, someone like Mark, who gave so much of himself to everybody, died.

[/sc]

CH: Annapolis Valley resident Gay Clarke, whose husband Mark died of a heart attack in February, speaking to CBC Nova Scotia.

[Steel drum]

TikTok Book Return Challenge

CH: Trevor Wiltzen is happy people are reading his books. He just wishes they'd keep the books when they're done. Mr. Witzen writes mystery books, which he self-publishes on Amazon. And he makes money from the royalties. But lately, the Edmonton author says, his income is down after the rise of a TikTok trend sometimes called the "read and return challenge."

[sc]

TREVOR WILTZEN: The individuals are purchasing books, and they're reading them, and then, within two weeks, returning them. So what happens is they're treating Amazon like a library. Self-publish authors, we have to do it all. We write, edit, market, and get our books out there. And Amazon, you know, I think the individuals doing this, they think Amazon is a big conglomerate. But Amazon got big that way by de-risking themselves and passing that risk on to the artists. So for the artists, they can't… they lose that sale and that revenue. For Amazon, the… the author gets between 35 to 70 per cent of the royalty of any book purchase. But if the purchase gets returned, Amazon's covered, but the author isn't. So the author then loses that sale. You know, we have great things in town called libraries that… you know, where you can borrow books and return it. And it's a great way to support authors and writers. And for Amazon itself, you know, it's a business. And then authors need to make a living out of that. And, you know, it's good for… for us, if they can keep the book, they can promote it, they can tell their friends. You know, that's how self-published authors get the word out. We need that revenue to continue and publish more books. And, you know, I wish they would support their library, get our books from there, encourage libraries to take self-published authors. And that way, they can enjoy the book, and the artists can continue to continue writing and publishing.

[/sc]

CH: That was Edmonton author Trevor Wiltzen, speaking to our colleague Rod Kurtz.

[Slow piano]

U.K. Pop Art Find

Guest: Alan Warburton

CH: Last week, workers arrived, at last, to clear the apartment above Alan Warburton's. Mr. Warburton lives in London, England. He had known his upstairs neighbour -- a man named George Westren, who died last year. He also knew that Mr. Westren had been a painter for many years. So when he heard noise coming from upstairs, something clicked in his mind -- and he ran up to intervene. We reached Alan Warburton in London.

GM: Alan, take us back to last week. A crew was emptying out your neighbour George Westren's old apartment, and you went to investigate. What was going through your mind when you heard them rifling through his things?

ALAN WARBURTON: I thought, given the amount of noise that was being made, that something terrible was happening upstairs. And I hadn't heard anything happening upstairs for a year. So obviously, it kind of woke me up. And so, yeah, I gingerly stepped out of my flat and went up the stairs and poked my head around the corner and saw these big, burly guys working really, really quickly to try and clear the apartment as fast as possible. And I turned straight ‘round and then went back downstairs, and I thought, this is none of my business. And then something popped into my head. I just thought, no, I can't… I can't leave it. I can’t, and I shouldn't. So I went back up. And I knew that George was an artist. I didn't always know that, but I knew… found out in the past kind of six months. And I asked them if… if George's artwork was in the house, and they said that they bagged up a lot of it already and it was gone, but they'd have a look. And then they started bringing some out.

GM: And what made you think I've got to do something with these, even if I don't know what just yet?

AW: Well, you know, I'm an artist. George was an artist. You just get this feeling that, you know, you put so much of your love and your heart into your work. This is the thing that you hope will last forever, even if you don't last forever. And… and I just know that, you know, that that doesn't belong in the trash.

GM: Tell me a little bit about what your relationship was like with your neighbour? As you mentioned, it had been almost a year from his passing to them clearing out his apartment. But before that and before you learnt all this about him, what was your relationship like with him and what did you know about him?

AW: So, up until he died, my relationship with him was just a polite, friendly neighbour relationship. We were on the stairs occasionally, and we occasionally talked about noise in the building and, you know, complained together about various things. We had one conversation just before he died, about a month before he died, and he apologized because he thought that he was… he wanted to check that he wasn't disturbing me. And I just… my heart broke because I thought this, this poor old guy has been tiptoeing around above me because he's so afraid of upsetting me. And I just thought, what a sweetheart. And I remember him smiling. And that was the last time I saw him. But, you know, I didn't know that he was an artist until after he died, when I wanted… I was really sad about it, you know? I wanted to know more about this guy who had gone by the loan.

GM: What did you learn about him since?

AW: Lots of different things. So I learned this information here and there about him being formerly homeless until he got this apartment that he lived in. He suffered from anxiety, social anxiety. He had addiction issues, but found himself through art. That's the kind of big redemption that he found.

GM: So, just tell me, you know, this man was your neighbour for six years. You didn't really know him much other than in passing. That moment when you found out he passed away, what went through your mind?

AW: Shocked. Deeply sad. I think a lot of his past couple of years have lost family members. I luckily hadn't lost anyone in my immediate family. It was sad because I realized that George's death kind of substituted for that.

GM: So, what's your plan with his paintings?

AW: I'm trying to keep them safe, and I've obviously responded to as many of the people online as possible who… who have said, you know, can I own one of George's works? You can't own one of George's works because they're not one to give you. But what I did think was appropriate was to take a few of them, make scans and sell them as prints. And I'm going to use the money to fund an exhibition and hopefully some kind of event to George. And if we get more money than that, then maybe we can do more.

GM: Can you describe them for folks who haven't seen them?

AW: It's geometric and white lines often that require a lot of precision to craft. Drawing must have taken months. And George worked with felt tip pens, just fairly regular art materials. One of my favourite works of hers is called “Star of Hope”. The longer you look at it, the more it seems to sort of pulse. They must have been really hypnotic to make. I think this is part of his recovery was making these… these really intricate, finely-detailed works.

GM: Why do you think his work wasn't seen before? Did he try to get it out there, or was he just shy about sharing his artwork?

AW: I have to, like, let you know that George did have some successes. He wasn't a failure, but he did struggle, you know, because the art world is a tough place to sell work, especially if you're an older artist. His work was collected by a few charity organizations that he worked with. And I'm getting DMs and messages all the time from people who bought one of his works cheaply sometime in the past 20 years. But it seems as though I have the bulk of the work that he made here.

GM: What's your message for people, you know, as you kind of reflect on this person who was in such close proximity to you, and you didn't know that well until after he died?

AW: Well, I identify with him because he was a shy, sensitive person who generally kept himself to himself, but probably had stories to share. And I think he and I would have got on like a house on fire. Maybe, if there is a message, it’s just reach out to those shy people in your communities. Give them a smile.

GM: That's lovely. Alan, thanks so much for speaking with us. And, you know, a lot of people are… will be thinking about this story.

AW: Thank you for letting me tell his story.

CH: Alan Warburton was the downstairs neighbour of the late George Westren, and a fellow artist. We reached him in London.

Back To Top »

Provide Transcript Feedback

CBC would like to acknowledge the support of the Broadcasting Accessibility Fund.

June 27, 2022 Episode Transcript

More Stories Like This