Whiskey and Cream: Episode XXIII

Posted 6 months ago Tagged

Whiskey & Cream for August 9th, 2021

Host: Ari Shapiro

0:40-16:48: “An ounce of perception is worth a pound of obscure”

To the average human being living under the relentless scourge of a variant-multiplying pandemic, understanding and absorbing what mRNA, spike proteins and lipid nanoparticles are can be a most daunting and bewildering experience. From the outset, this modern day global health emergency that’s affected every country on the planet has been handled dubiously by politicians acting as soothsayers, poseurs and hypocrites who want to assure us that they know what’s best for us, even while abandoning the most fundamental principles and medical facts provided by established science and health authorities. Naturally, this has created a harrowing disconnect and some would say existential schism that’s significantly undermined humanity’s collective efforts to move into a bold and brave new future.

Rob Swanda (@ScientistSwanda) is an mRNA Biochemist and doctoral candidate who’s completing his PhD at Cornell University. Back in December of 2020, he decided to post a YouTube video that provided a brief but succinct overview of how vaccines work and why taking them is a personal choice based on a decision that – ideally under normal circumstances – should be rooted in a profound understanding of science. In doing so, he’s unlocked a powerful covenant with those of us interested in knowing truth before ideology, facts ahead fiction, and real coronavirus science in place of anti-vaccination superstition.

Music: “Into The Woods” by Tycho (Christopher Willits Remix)

17:01-32:11: “Baseball is ruled by 12 billionaires and plenty of nostalgia”

120 years ago, the Cleveland Indians baseball club was born and along with it a procession of legendary players who remain synonymous with the team to this day. Cy Young, Bob Feller, Lou Boudreau, Al Rosen, and Frank Robinson are just some of the legendary and towering baseball figures that have come to define the memories for generations of fans of both the team and the sport. Throughout their entire fabled history (one that’s almost completely bereft of any winning flavour considering their last championship victory came in 1948), the Indians were instantly recognizable with their branding that always seemed to define how they were remembered; namely, the Chief Wahoo logo that was used from 1950 up until 2018. A potent and controversial symbol that also alienated and disrespected indigenous people all over the country.

Nick Francona (@NickFrancona) is a baseball journalist and Marine veteran who fought in Afghanistan. His intrepid skills of research and investigation has produced a commitment to finding the truth in a game that’s become filled with chronic deceptions and daily lies when it comes to confronting the racism, sexism and domestic abuse realities that are nonchalantly swept under the rug and quickly rationalized by unscrupulous owners worried more about profit than any measure of social justice. Amidst all the hypocrisy and failure of moral leadership, Nick remains optimistic that the more fans and admirers of MLB appreciate the state of the game today, the more likely they are to understand why rebranding is absolutely necessary in order to set a true example for future generations, and that much more work needs to be done after simply painting over a legacy that should have been confronted a long time ago.

Music: “Journal” by Polar Inc.

32:22-41:45: “General Zod would have enjoyed ruling Canada”

Although Canada managed to get a grip on the most recent pandemic wave, it’s left many in the province wondering what kind of political crucible is likely to remain when the dust settles. Most recently, a triumvirate of conservative-led provinces from Doug Ford in Ontario to Jason Kenney in Alberta and Brian Pallister in Manitoba have all tried the combined patience and humility of their coronavirus-riddled constituents who’ve become fed up with the powder keg of anti-vaccination movements brought forth by their rudderless leadership methods. In short, the fact that mandatory mask and vaccination efforts for front-line and essential emergency workers remains an opportunity cost in their neck of the woods is a sad reminder that ideology still trumps common sense in many parts of the country.

Neil Waytowich (@WaytowichNeil), also know as Neil Before Zod, is a Canadian political blogger and podcaster. He takes little solace in knowing that for a country where a majority of Canadians identify as conservative, their message has been tainted and corrupted by party leaders lacking a stable game plan or any legitimate promises for the future. And although the prospect of a better brand of compassionate and humble successor to the status quo seems like a reason to be positive about the future, Neil remains highly circumspect and abundantly skeptical that the worst may be yet to come and might possibly require a visit from Kal-El himself.

Music: “Borealis” by Nora Van Elken

41:50-54:09: “Toronto: world class and completely unaffordable”

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who lives in and knows about the city of Toronto that the cost of living in this world class wonderland comes at a steep and generally unattainable price. Instead of witnessing three levels of government working in tandem to help city dwellers with investing in their future, many already believe that we’ve ushered in a new and unprecedented level of austerity. With the lowest property taxes found in the most expensive neighbourhoods across the GTA, the question of how to recalibrate the wealth of Torontonians becomes paramount – especially when deluged with visions of homeless folk being evicted from sanctuary parks adjacent to extremely wealthy neighborhoods, profit-mongering real estate developers buying up scores of sub-divisions and converting them into rental homes, and ideologically-bound politicians ignoring the growing plight of the poor and disenfranchised in all corners of social media..

Matt Elliott (@GraphicMatt) is a journalist who writes for the Toronto Star and has his own official newsletter on all things emanating from city hall(@CityHallWatcher). To call him an expert wouldn’t even begin to do justice given the time he’s spent writing about the cosmopolitan juggernaut that is Toronto. But in his calm and dispassionate manner of analyzing the recent trends across the municipalities of the fourth largest city in North America – one that’s world renowned for its finance, business, technology, and entertainment sectors, and also praised for its supposedly dynamic multiculturalism – he’s also unearthed profound reasons to be legitimately concerned about a post-pandemic future around these parts.

Music: “Standing Outside a Broken Phonebooth with Money In My Hand” by Primitive Radio Gods, performed by Pressing Strings

“Whiskey & Cream Theme” written and performed by Chris Henderson.

Whiskey and Cream: Episode XXII

Posted 6 months ago Tagged

Whiskey & Cream for July 25th, 2021

Host: Ari Shapiro

0:38-16:20: “No one loves Marineland”

It’s very possible that at some point during the long history of a profoundly greedy private company whose sole purpose was to showcase extremely rare mammals to the masses for sheer profit, some Canadians actually thought fondly of Marineland. But when a deeper dive of modern technology mixed with whistleblowing tenacity reveals nothing more than an anachronistically ridiculous aquatic zoo that’s shamefully taken advantage of every level of government to deflect the lingering array of cruelty, neglect and abuse taking place insider their hallowed halls- well, at someone you have to ask yourself: “How is Marineland still a thing?”

Phil Demers is a crusader for animal rights and a champion of Walruses. His tireless and indefatigable advocacy for all the suffering animals at Marineland who are nothing more than a means to a profiteering end, is a testament to a man who’s fed up with the hypocrisy used to silence him in the media; primarily by a cabal of lawyers deployed to strategically minimize the public from knowing the truth. Between the presence of dirty, unsanitary water filtration and increasingly poor life support systems, all of Marineland’s inhabitants – the beluga whales, the bottlenose dolphins, the sea lions and penguins, Kiska the last Orca and Smooshi the lovable Walrus; well, they simply won’t stand a chance if something isn’t done and soon.

Music: “Ocean” by John Butler

16:20-26:41: “Ignoring Gandalf is bad for The Shire”

As you probably know by now, Dr. Anthony Stephen Fauci is an American physician and scientist who is also an immunologist that serves as the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and is also the chief medical advisor to the president. Why then is a man with over five decades of established and renowned medical experience in serving his country and fellow man so often vilified and pummelled in the mainstream American media? Why are there so many anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers and anti-science troglodytes strewn across social media all clamoring to remind us why their conspiratorial nonsense is badly damaging the collective efforts of an entire country to emerge from a crippling pandemic?

Aaron Parnas is lawyer, writer and social influencer based out of Florida. Although he identifies strongly with being a Miami-Dade Democrat in a country that’s splintered ideologically, his understanding of the community forces at play when it comes to pursuing a progressive agenda based on empirical learning and historical facts is what bolsters his daily resolve. That, and mobilizing the public to be mindful of the frail and precious reality that is their quickly diminishing participatory democracy, and also to always herald science and logic to help better society one election at a time.

Music: “Here Comes The Sun” by The Beatles

26:41-42:11: “Engineering loyalty, dignity and gratitude”

It’s hard enough to find gainful employment in a field that you may have spent decades trying to perfect. It’s especially difficult when considering the obscene nature of the country’s overpriced real estate market. For most people, the prospect of owning a home has become too daunting to even begin contemplating. It’s hard enough to find security during dark times, now we’re supposed to also find a way to handle a mortgage during a pandemic? What if a business existed that one day realized how genuine employee loyalty and endless gratitude could be leveraged by simply trying to help a family find real dignity in affording a home by helping them purchase it?

Nick Mocan is the President of Cozier: Consulting Engineers and is an unabashedly proud altruist. For him, the concept of rewarding employees by investing in their ability to purchase a home is a natural existential equation that is less about politics and more about humanism; more precisely, a desire to tap into the potential of what people are capable of when they know their employer has their backs.

Music: “Making Plans For Nigel” by XTC

42:12-53:57: “Release the Kraken and Harry Hamlin”

The changing nature of the NHL was on fierce display last week as the Seattle Kraken entered the fray as the league’s latest expansion team. By the time they were finished, recognizable names like Giordano, Larsson, and Eberle has all changed hands, indicating a significant paradigm shift in why certain franchises were willing to part with older, highly paid promising talent in a competitive crucible where one’s salary cap is everything. As a result, local fan favourites like Zach Hyman and Jared McCann are no longer a thing – even if their contributions are seen as vital to the cause.

Luke Armstrong is a writer, podcaster and blogger whose work has been featured with The Sporting News and Sports Illustrated. His recent article on the expansion draft presented a primer that was based on a new drafting philosophy that not only differed in the method to which the Vegas Golden Knights constructed themselves to be competitive so quickly, but also revealed a long-term play for an untraditional hockey market that’s looking for success through players arriving with heart and soul that was previously on display elsewhere.

Music: “Do It Again” by Steely Dan

“Whiskey & Cream Theme” written and performed by Chris Henderson.

Whiskey and Cream: Episode XXI

Posted 7 months ago Tagged

Whiskey & Cream for July 14th, 2021

Host: Ari Shapiro

0:40-10:05: “We have to remember to stop because we have to stop to remember”

There was a time before the days of pandemic entropy and woe where the celebration of a traditional monotheistic reason to gather at the end of the week and drink wine while surrounded by loving friends and family was considered to be as symbolically celestial as it was psychologically necessary. The Sabbath has always stood the test of Judeo-Christian time in that its very existence is a testament to the need for human socialization and cathartic release. But in an increasingly volatile and beleaguered world where eight-second attention spans mixed with crushing rates of anxiety and despair tend to prioritize the work week, it has become more vital than ever for us to consider why the holy day of rest might be the last bastion in taking a precious moment and remembering why our history, values and identity deserve to be honored with a reason to gather and celebrate life – even when the candles have long dimmed and the future remains uncertain.

Judith Shulevitz is an American journalist, editor and culture critic who has written for The New Republic, New York Times Book Review and The New York Times. When she wrote “The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time” over a decade ago and considered the question of what a holy day of rest represents to human culture and our sense of tradition, she unwittingly stumbled upon a powerful narrative that looks at the importance of gathering around the hearth and relishing in the flickering flames of family unity and interpersonal growth that allows us to find solace in a brutally unforgiving world filled with historical revisionism and lonely hearts.

Music: “Paranoid” performed by 4Tune Quarter

10:07-21:41: “Vulgo superiorum suffugit”

It’s hard enough to chart a path towards a successful post-secondary educational journey that ends with the promise of a financially sustainable career let alone identifying which area of life one wishes to become a proverbial subject matter expert capable of garnering respect and self-worth. Gone are the halcyon days of considering a college or university that is as affordable as it is established in its tenured professors, course flexibility and prestigious value. Instead, the United States has led the western world in revealing an inherent crisis in the very nature of how we learn, what we’re taught and where we use our acquired skills and tuition experiences to create a prosperous life amidst all this societal disarray. Until we start unpacking the twin beasts of insurmountably crushing debt caused by over-zealous for-profit public institutions and the increasingly diminished scholastic freedom of speech and critical-thinking on campus, the prospect of a bona fide higher learning education that’s worth pursuing will continue to remain precisely what it’s become: a mug’s game in a fool’s paradise.

Dr. Mike Nietzel is president emeritus at Missouri State University and holds a Ph.D. In clinical psychology. He’s authored and published books on higher education and contributes regularly to Forbes magazine while remaining a champion against the perils of an academic system that’s floundering mightily and absolutely trending in the wrong direction. For him, it’s all about looking at the scales of systemic unfairness and balancing them against a generational reckoning that’s changed the way students and parents look at how higher learning is considered from both a political and existential reality.

Music: “School’s Out” performed by Alice Cooper

21:45-29:18: “A Russian, a Canadian, and an American walk into a hockey rink…”

True to form – and really, this is how it should have ended – the NHL’s best team, The Tampa Bay Lightning, captured their second Stanley Cup in a row thus earning the title of being the best pandemic team in the sport of hockey. And although their victory was sublime and came with major accolades from their peers and fans alike, there’s still the bigger issue of why players like Nikita Kucherov and Andrei Vasilevskiy aren’t given their due as not only the best in class, but also the finest talent that the league has to offer considering the decades-long anti-Russian sentiment which permeates to this very day. While fans in Toronto continue to lament a 54-year old tradition of losing and being known as losers, the rest of the league needs to make sure it takes the time, effort and investment of honoring international contributions from athletes whose penchant for winning is reflected in their multicultural roots.

Michael Mazzei is a graduate of the Ryerson journalism program and sportswriter whose work can be found on The Leafs Nation, Maple Leafs Hotstove, CBC and The Fan 590. His passion for the NHL and Canadian hockey has become both a blessing and a curse in a modern culture that rationalizes mediocrity in a manner that’s left him coldly analytical when it comes to the future. Being a Maple Leafs fans for the better part of one’s life will do that, as does accepting the fact that NHL is as flawed a business organization as one can find when it comes to understanding the strange manner in which it often treats their players who aren’t born in North America.

Music: “The Sound of Silence” performed by Charlie Melodia

29:20-35:59: “There’s no punishment for bad journalism in the world”

Before the Rachel Nichols controversy jumped the shark and revealed to everyone that high-octane gonzo journalism has become less about the story and more about who’s framing the narratives, ESPN was already in a heap of serious trouble. The network has steadily destroyed whatever credibility was constructed over years of dominant sports media by wading into a litany of controversies encompassing racism, sexism and nepotism at breathtaking levels of banality; just ask Doug Adler or Bob Costas or Maria Taylor how they feel. And although ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro joined the organization to bring forth less politics and more sports into the equation, it’s abundantly clear that they’ve got a long way to go in addressing a culture where substance is devalued in the face of click-bait shenanigans.

Marshall Auerback is a fellow of Economists on Peace and Security who writes for international publications ranging from Muck Rack to American Compass to Forbes magazine. As a seasoned and literary critic of sports teams and narratives, it should come as no surprise that the contempt he holds for a time-honored leader in sports journalism is born elegantly out of the fact that there’s no accountability for bad writing, horrible stories and incorrect takes in a world where polarized views of so-called industry propriety and morality dominate the underlying need for cold, hard transparency.

Music: “Pigeon Lake” performed by Daniel Steidtmann

“Whiskey & Cream Theme” written and performed by Chris Henderson.

  • Subscribe today to receive the latest podcasts and articles from arishapiro.ca