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Episode 32: Doug and the Slugs
View on Zencastr Mark and Joe are joined by documentary film maker Teresa Alfeld. She’s made two docs (as well as short films), The Rankin File: Legacy of a Radical and Doug and the Slugs and Me. Both of the co-hosts listened to (and loved) Doug and the Slugs when the Canadian band was popular…
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Episode 31: Paris in the 20s
View on Zencastr Joe and Mark are joined by beloved and bestselling Canadian author, Terry Fallis. Terry’s fiction has won the Leacock Medal for Humour twice, and his debut novel, Best Laid Plans, won Canada Reads in 2011. The annual CBC competition had a huge impact on his sales figures for that novel: more than…
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Episode 30: The Plays of Edward de Vere
View on Zencastr Mark and Joe are joined by the Canadian actor, director, producer and playwright, Saul Rubinek. They have a wide-ranging and educational conversation that they launch with the question: “Who was your favorite playwright.” Saul answers Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, whom he believes (along with many others) wrote all…
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Episode 29: Machines of Loving Grace
View on Zencastr In 1969, an undergraduate astronomy student at Caltech had the chance to hear the iconic American poet Richard Brautigan read “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace.” [see poem below] That student was David Brin, and the utopian poem foretold a future in which artificial intelligence (AI) was a boon to…
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Episode 28: The Eye of Horus
View on Zencastr Joe and Mark are joined by Karina Bates, a potter from Omemee, Ontario. Karina takes the lads through a quick tour of what it’s like the throw pots and other ceramics on the wheel. Her work tends to be functional and purposeful. “It’s a nice feeling to have people hold up a…
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Episode 27: The Time Machine
View on Zencastr Mark and Joe jump around in time with Nebula- and Hugo-Award winning author, Robert Charles Wilson. Robert brings H. G. Wells to the podcast, with a discussion of how fascinating it would be to see what happens in the future – an idea that had some impact on how he became a…
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Episode 26: The Camouflaged Piano
View on Zencastr Joe and Mark are joined by the visual artist, Gerard Pas, to discuss the work of Greg Curnoe. Gerard was born in The Netherlands and immigrated to Canada with his parents when he was a boy. He first met Curnoe when he was an art student at H.B. Beal. Then he moved…
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Episode 25: Poets in Collaboration
View on Zencastr Penn Kemp, the former poet laureate of London, Ontario, joins Joe and Mark to discuss collaboration and poetry. They start with Penn’s roots in visual arts – her father was the well-regarded London painter Jim Kemp – and how it became poetry, not painting, that sparked her muse. Though it’s often seen…
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Episode 24: Akira
View on Zencastr Mark and Joe chat with author Benoit Chartier about the anime film Akira. They begin with one of Mark’s questions: what piece of technology frightens you? Benoit admits he isn’t frightened by it, but he’s annoyed by ChatGPT and other AI techs, because it may flood the market with crap books. As…
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Episode 23: Sonata Pathétique
View on Zencastr Joe and Mark are joined by author, amateur musician and a pioneer in computer graphics research, Brian Wyvill. (And Joe’s brother-in-law.) The trio have a fascinating conversation, beginning with Brian’s love of mountaineering, rock climbing and diving, before moving on to talk about one of Brian’s favourite pieces of music, Beethoven’s Piano…
