Heavyweight Short: A Canadian Tale

Heavyweight host Jonathan Goldstein.

Producer Khalila Holt.

Yeah, I have.

What some people are referring to around the water cooler here at Gimblet Media as possibly the most Canadian story ever told.

If you're talking to around the water cooler, the office isn't even open.

It's a metaphor.

Okay, some of these are just imaginary, you know what.

I'm surprised to hear this. I never knew that you were such a literalist. I'm taking a flight of fancy.

Will you join me?

Sure? Trade tables not.

You know, we receive a lot of emails. Yes, people reach out and they want help with problems that they have. And recently we got this email that was so random and obscure that normally I'd be like, there's nothing I could do to help. But just by complete coincidence, I know the one person who could actually help this guy, and I am talking about my friend James. So the first thing that I had to do was call up James and ask for a favor. Boo hi, and we will get to that story right after the break.

Psych boom, Hello, oh.

I heard Wait one second, look at that.

I suppose you're wondering why I've invited you to this conversation.

I keep I was wondering if it's going to be some sort of intervention. But but I'm I'm assuming not.

No.

I so I received emails to the show where people are looking for help. Yes, the thing that I am looking for from you is a connection that you have.

I hope it's not Drake because I don't know how to touch with it.

Knew you were going to think it was Drake, and that was part of my strategy because then when you'd hear that it wasn't Drake, you'd be ready to give me anything. All right, since we're bringing Since we're bringing up Drake, why don't you go ahead and explain your connection to Drake?

Oh?

Yeah, So I worked on a TV show called Degrassi The Next Generation where he started out.

He's a child actor, right, Canadian child actor.

Canadian child actor, and he did the first rap that he did on camera. Anyways, this one that I wrote, it is very bad. It was just a few lines.

Do you can you spit?

Can you spit some rhymes?

I can, but I won't.

Oh come on, no, how about one line?

One line?

You don't even have to wrap it you could just speak it like poetry.

Be so embarrassing, one.

Line which you speak in a non wrapping Hayden's.

So, why did you have to go?

Okay, now, now you've got me looking it up. I typed in Drake and the first thing I got was Drake and kadye beef. They do have beef apparently. Here it is Tracy, Jimmy and Spinner's wrap.

It's on YouTube, Oh very much.

So yes you can hear it. Oh my goodness, this is so persing. Okay, here we go, Sure, here we go. Oh this isn't it. Hold on, we're not forgetting it.

Yeah, we have the ammo, my friend, we have the ammo.

The Brooks.

Homie is a player and that is all. So why'd you have to.

Go and kick his ball? And Chaine ain't that name?

Because you would play at Hayden and that's a shame.

Yeah, why did you make me do that?

Gat?

So, No, I'm not asking.

I wouldn't.

I wouldn't ask you to reach out to Drake.

It probably wouldn't work.

But I was going to say it's a smaller ask, but in a way, he might be bigger than Drake at one time, let's say he was bigger than Drake. Is this Kevin Smith, because they won't even get into the Kevin Smith. Though this is someone who knows your name.

I have no idea who this could be.

All right, why don't I read you the email that I received? And as I read it it might dawn on you.

Okay, So it's.

From a guy named Adam en Wright. I've had a problem for many years, and it's the fact that people don't believe I met Fidel Castro. And then and then he goes on to say that Castro was in Montreal for Pierre Elliott Trudeau's funeral and he saw him in Old Montreal with former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.

I think I know where this is going.

Okay, well let me get there. Here we go, let's see if you're right. So at a certain point, Paul Martin exited a restaurant, and a few minutes later, so did Castro, who got into a limousine with no bodyguards. And it all happened too quickly for Adam to snap a picture with a camera or to you know, try to shake his hand, so he just he ended up just saying shouting out Viva la revolution one. But he describes this stunning moment where he felt just frozen in time.

I know him very tangentially. No, he would just know me as one of his son's friends.

Your friend, Jamie, you are friends, actual friends with the son of a prime minister.

Yeah.

For our American listeners say prime minister is like the is like the Canadian president.

He is indeed.

Yes, So if I could get to Paul Martin and ask if he had dinner with Fidel Castro on the day of Trudeau's funeral, that would basically come about as close as anything else to proving that Adam had indeed seen Castro that day, right, I think?

So, I can't get much better than that. You could, you could basically place him there.

So how would you feel about calling up Jamie and asking if he could ask his dad.

Oh, absolutely absolutely, let's do it. So here we go.

All right, you all set, Here we go. I'm we're gonna call it. We're gonna burn this bridge.

Hey de man, Hi buddy, how's it going?

Dough boy? Are you going to be a sea? If seeing with us tomorrow.

I proved that Fidel Castro had dinner with your father, then that would go away to legitimize this guy's claim of having run into him.

The man is now eighty three years old.

But I can ask my dad and I can see what he remembers.

You're you're not You're not bubbling together right now for COVID are you You're not You're not all staying in the same residence or anything.

No, we are exactly Actually he's just downstairs.

Oh we are.

We are doing exactly that. We are bubbling together. We have been for two months.

So you could you could I can.

Ask him in in twenty seconds.

Yeah, like you could theoretically just walk downstairs with me on the phone and say, hey, Dad, does this spring a bell?

Let me you know one, let me try to do it. I'm going downstairs.

I'm going downstairs, all right, great.

Let's see.

Okay, Oh, hey Dad, do you remember after the funeral of Pierre Elliott Trudeau meeting up with Fidel Castro?

Okay, more specific.

Jonathan, they would have had dinner at a restaurant in Old Montreal.

Do you remember having dinner in Old Montreal and Fidel Castro was there?

The only thing I remember.

This is a friend of mine who's doing a podcast. This is not some kind of gotcha anything like this. Would you be willing to answer his questions about twenty five years ago?

You can talk to the man himself.

Sure, here it is, hello, mister Martin.

Hi, Hi are you?

I'm good?

Thank you so much for talking to me. This is such a strange request. I don't know if Jamie explained to you the podcast that I do. Okay, I do this podcast where people write into me with some you know, question or curiosity. Do you have any memory of having had dinner with with Fidel Castro.

The only thing I can remember about about the Trudeau funeral was I remember justin speaking over the coffin in the church. Yeah, that's the only thing I can remember. I can't remember really what I did before, and I have no idea where I ate or what I did. Now Here's the probably Jamie will tell you this. There are a lot of things that I might have done twenty five years ago that I I just don't remember that I might have done.

Do you think that it's just that you know, you've you've met so many important people over your life that Fidel Castro doesn't stand out.

Or it's conceivable that if I had met Fidel Castro that I would not remember it, because you meet a lot of people. If, on the other hand, if I had said supper with Fidel Castro, then there's a at least.

A fifty to fifty chance I would remember it.

I wonder if you don't remember because you just it didn't happen, or you don't remember just because you'd you know, you just don't remember a lot of this stuff that happened so long ago.

Well, I think I suspect I suspect it I don't remember because it didn't happen, Huh.

I think if I.

Would have had a one on one with Castro, I would remember that. I think if if I'd been at a dinner where Castro was listen, I've been I hate to say it this way, but I've been at so many of those dinners where so many people renown are that they don't stick.

Huh.

Do the meetings with people of you know, renown, like famous politics and such, do they have a longer shelf life than the memories than the intimate memories, you know, memories of like your your your kids and stuff like that.

No, no, no, not at all. And I suspect that if you reflect on this conversation and twenty five years from now, what you remember is the event, not in the significance of the event in terms of a historic thing, but.

As opposed to the people.

So that you know, if.

I met.

If I met somebody at a rocket launch, it's conceivable I would remember the rocket launch and I would not remember the people that were there. Be quite honest, I do not remember meeting Vane Lchestra.

Okay, that's that's uh, that's that is good enough. I feel like I've traveled quite a ways to answer this guy's question. I made it all the way. You and uh and I and I promise you in twenty five years I will remember our conversation.

Yeah, well, I promise you in twenty five years I won't be here to confirm it.

But are you hold Adam?

And right?

Yes, this is Jonathan.

This is Jonathan Goldsteen speaking. That's incredible he recognized my voice. Of course, I'm so touched.

That's incredible. Holdly man, I think you're gonna call.

You're not crying, are you?

I'm just about yeah.

Oh that's very sweet of you. H After after receiving your email, I kind of I set to work on it. Okay, So on my end, Okay, so what caught my eye in your email? Was you mentioned Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Yeah, and I have.

A friend who has a connection to Paul Martin's. I mean, this is a long way to go to tell you that I come bearing bad news. I wasn't able to verify it from Paul Martley.

Yeah, it's fully understandable. Yeah, yeah, you know, maybe it was a guy that looked a lot like Astro. Who knows that I haven't even told anyone for years about it actually, because you know, you just get that sort of irol, you know, like because it's just you know, it just you know, it just doesn't come off right.

I'll tell you something else. Actually, when when I spoke to Paul art and one of the things that he said is that his memory of his kids. That is more vivid to him and more easily accessible than you know, his memory of statesman and famous people.

Right, that makes sense. You know.

I did web design for a few years and now I've gone back to working with seniors and people will remember, you know, things that don't reflect in the history books. You know, people remember their husbands or wives and kids. And do you have kids. I've got a little son, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Have you ever told him this story about meeting Castro?

No?

But you think your son, right, like, your son would believe you, right, You think that's what kids are for. They're so naive, they're so believing.

Yeah, well, you know I won't tell him.

Yeah, well you have to explain to him who Castro is first.

Yes, I would.

Yeah, Hey, listen, you know I will say that. You know, I believe you.

Thank you, yoke.

Do you think that you're going to remember this conversation that we're having now twenty five years from now. This episode was produced by Stevie Lane, Khalila Holt, and me Jonathan Goldstein. It was mixed by Catherine Anderson, with music by Trebon's Blue Dot Sessions and Bobby Lord. Heavyweight returns with a full new season on September thirtieth.

We'll see you soon.