Way back in Episode 95, Member of BC’s Legislative Assembly (MLA) for North Vancouver – Lower Lonsdale Bowinn Ma made her first appearance here on the podcast via Zoom. Here in Episode 140, she returns for a live in-person visit to the Shed. We spent a great hour or so discussing major transit projects with BC’s Minister of State for Infrastructure, as well as talking about the future of electric vehicles in BC, the relationships between housing and traffic, and the concept of attempting to futu...
Aug 19, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 140
Hayley and Ron of Montreal return to experience first-hand the swirling, murky mental landscapes of a session in the Shed featuring KJ’s Short Snappers. We are very fortunately grounded by excellent listener mail, but our connection to Earth gets a little tenuous here…again. Strap in and turn on! Links : Shed Dogs ; gruesome video of flesh being cut by a circular saw , as promised by Ron; Susinn of Vancouver’s Camino posts (Facebook). Theme music by Voodoo Jazz ....
Jun 26, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 139
Special guests Hayley (formerly of North Vancouver but now of Montreal) and her partner Ron (grew up in Montreal) step into the Shed to…well, really just to compare notes, pros and cons, of the two cities. Food and weather, culture and history, and of course the big one: language. PJ’s hope for a black or white, right or wrong opinion on which is the better place is once again dashed, but along the way are a few surprising insights from our guests. For instance, who would you think loves the out...
Jun 12, 2022•51 min•Ep. 138
RJ returns from Las Vegas bearing at least one gift nobody wanted, but still we get a great look at the world of competitive foosball (and a qualified endorsement of discount operation Flair Airlines). PJ is so excited he tries to volunteer to go play in France for Canada’s World Cup foosball team, in spite of an almost total lack of expertise. KJ shares with us some of the fruits of his steadfast attention to US politics, which leads us seamlessly into reflecting on the definitions of the words...
May 22, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 137
It’s that special, lovely time—the time when we hear about how this year’s Oscars program went down. We build up to it with some talk about a couple of Beatles and Steely Dan specials as well as hearing the latest from KJ on the run up to the Emmys, and on the technical marvel that is the Murphy bed he is building. Finally, RJ and PJ exchange notes on their adventures in language and travel, both today and 30 years ago. There are a lot of twists and turns here, so make sure to be safe while you ...
May 04, 2022•51 min•Ep. 136
“In the spring an old man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of table saws and robotic waiters and new tech deployed in old games like curling”. That’s roughly what the famous poem says, and the proof is right here in this episode as we talk about those very things, as well as about RJ’s date with destiny in Las Vegas and whether 1980 was the best possible year to have been born in. We also have a lot of very fun email from faithful listeners, which goes a long way towards offsetting a bit of PJ’...
Apr 18, 2022•58 min•Ep. 135
Sure, this could be an opus, but really the title refers to RJ’s thorough and affectionate review of the old TV series Magnum, P.I. If you’re less than of a certain age you may wish to look it up. RJ is becoming his parents and this review is one of the many fruits of that growth. We also get to hear of a terrible misunderstanding about how to prepare a turkey, talk about the amazing new refreshment Liquid Death, and provide some helpful—if a little unwelcome—news on changes to recycling rules. ...
Apr 01, 2022•37 min•Ep. 134
Links : The Fraser Canyon War ; Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer , and review of the same; Nlaka'pamux First Nation ; the Delgamuukw Case ; Nemiah: The Unconquered Country ; Hobson’s choice ; Thomas Hobbes ; Leviathan by Hobbes ; Calvin and Hobbes ; John Calvin ; out of the rabbit hole and onto the lawn: the Squirrel and the Bird Feeder (thanks Sandra); contraband cigarettes ; TCM Podcast: The Plot Thickens (Lucille Ball is season three, thanks Leigh); Terminator Dark Fate: wikipedia , trailer ...
Mar 08, 2022•46 min•Ep. 133
When you were young you played Snakes and Ladders, right? Well, this episode isn’t that. Here we get gritty insights from KJ and RJ on solving rat problems, and have to recover with the palate-cleansing pleasure of reading Listener Mail. Maybe it was all that talk about nasty smelly rodents that led us to it, but we end up talking about the movie “Terminator: Dark Fate” (spoiler alert: just say no) and what makes actors do bad movies. There are no real shockers here, but a lot of good mostly cle...
Feb 11, 2022•40 min•Ep. 132
Here we find reflective, philosophical Shed Dogs pondering the path to great art and good parking spots through visualization at the same time as they provide solid, practical information on important day-to-day challenges, like how to pronounce that fast moving COVID-19 strain name. From these dizzying mental heights we return to mere mortal levels and talk about what’s good on the streaming services these days. You’ll certainly feel embiggened after this 39-minute visit, ready to plunge whole-...
Jan 31, 2022•39 min•Ep. 131
When Kirkland Body Wash is labeled 100% All Natural, think twice. When we tell you we are 100% all natural, take it to the bank. It won’t be worth much to all the newly created billionaires out there, maybe, but to you? Solid gold. In this episode, speaking of the nouveau riche, we discover what the Internet thinks KJ is worth, we hear about a CBC gig he has coming that should increase that yet more, we learn that Cromer of Duncan is very pleased with his new dentures but that KJ is unmoved by b...
Jan 13, 2022•39 min•Ep. 130
Whether this reaches you before, during, or after December 25, and whether you celebrate it or not, the Shed Dogs wish you and yours a very merry Christmas with the promise of a great New Year to come! In this episode RJ pulls back the curtain on the surprisingly opulent lifestyles of certain foosball players, while KJ lets us in on the real highlights of going to a Canucks game. PJ drops some left-handed compliments and we promote some twitter accounts. We even manage to work in some more belov...
Dec 25, 2021•46 min•Ep. 129
Way back in Episode 113 we blundered our way through a non-explanation of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Friend of the show Jesse of Montreal heard the call and sent the best-ever explanation and you get to hear it! Leigh of Courtenay heard us recommending a podcast whose ultimate author may have some credibility problems, and she responds, too. From handling bananas to NFTs to Canadaland to garburators and beyond, our listeners get involved in this episode and it’s great ! We also get a nice helpi...
Dec 19, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 128
Join KJ as he takes a full-glam trip to New York City to join in on a Screen Actors Guild panel for Schmigadoon!, hobnobs with other famous people, sees several Broadway productions, and dazzles his daughter Lucy with the full weight of his fame and personality. He really does go where everybody knows his name, even in der Grosser Apfel! Bonus: dog medical procedures and waterproofing Gore-Tex. Links : Shed Dogs ; Screen Actors Guild ; Come From Away ; Hadestown ; The Lehman Trilogy ; Moulin Rou...
Dec 09, 2021•43 min•Ep. 127
Okay, look, we’ll level with you: sometimes we don’t plan out every minute of our content. Here in Episode 126 we have may actually workshopped some stuff for about a minute. Somehow, we got lost in KJ’s Short Snappers, which ended up covering everything from molecular weight to CB radio codes to strange sport sayings. We did manage to squeeze in useful counsel about credit cards and rewards programs and we ginned up some material on Costco-ing responsibly, but really… there is an abundance, nay...
Nov 23, 2021•56 min•Ep. 126
This episode sees the mighty Shed Dogs preparing to break out onto the global stage at last. RJ reveals his quest to make the Canadian Senior Foosball team and represent Canada at the ITSF World Cup next year, while KJ prepares to jet off to the Big Apple on someone else’s dime to help represent Schmigadoon! at the Screen Actors Guild nomination process. We get another round of fun listener mail, and RJ makes a compelling pitch to one-up those Tesla owners by donating to a charity dedicated to r...
Nov 04, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 125
This week’s episode opens with some more excellent listener mail before taking a look at the charitable and not-so-charitable aspects of “We”, the organization which has given the Trudeau family and the Liberal Party fits. By fun contrast, we also have KJ’s fabulous Snappers, and as a bonus, Al Franken. We (and by that we mean us, not the Great White Saviors) have some sad tales of changing driving habits in our demographic, which are then redeemed by a story of great detailing services, which w...
Oct 24, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 124
Not only do your Dogs spill the beans about “The White Lotus”, but we also have a good look at what happens when mercury is spilled these days—believe us, it’s not like Mr. Fodor’s Chem 11 class any more. We get to hear about RJ’s and Sue of Burnaby’s new Prius Prime, and in case their happy experience there whets your shopping appetite we also touch upon the coming wave of Chinese-made EVs. Warning : if you dislike spoilers and are planning to watch “The White Lotus”, maybe just accept our enth...
Oct 14, 2021•51 min
In the virtual Shed the Dogs anachronistically yet contemporaneously predict the outcome of the 2021 federal election in Canada. What is RJ’s new doctor really trying to say in his introductory letter to his new patients? Spit it out. Now, cough! In an epic ’splainer PJ draws back the curtain on the mighty machinery of the electoral process and shares his new and hard-won insights into why federal elections cost so much. All three Dogs arrive at a hopefully clearer understanding of what is and i...
Oct 03, 2021•43 min•Ep. 122
In our second of two special episodes with Nancy of New Westminster the dogs look at plastic scale models, Christopher Columbus, Constable Tom, phallic rockets, Nancy’s work for Peter Julian, and shopping for EVs. Hey don’t think this episode is not super special. It is, but our regular effusive blurb writer is otherwise engaged. Come for the Chevy Monza, stay for the Austin Mini conversion! Links : Shed Dogs ; plastic models ; Christopher Columbus criticism and defence ; the Jesuit missions amo...
Sep 22, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 121
Hey everybody, here is our special pre-federal election episode, with Shed Dogs resident political correspondent Griffin of Burnaby. Herein we have 35 solid minutes of insightful political analysis about the debates, who the NDP will partner with, poll accuracy, electoral reform, the Greens, and the media, and we then close with projections for BC and Canada as a whole! Afterwards we follow up the interview with the usual inane drivel, including introducing one of Canada’s newest senior citizens...
Sep 19, 2021•41 min•Ep. 124
Weddings and standup and ghosts, oh my! Friend of the show Nancy of New Westminster joins us in the Shed for our 120th episode, and it’s a fun one—including ghosts in the attic; officiating weddings, surprising mutual friends; what our forebears did and didn’t talk about and teach, comedy stylings, and a pile of great listener mail. We have viewing and reading recommendations, and find out that life in the arts isn’t all fun and games: there is such a thing as Emergency Acting and KJ tells us ab...
Sep 08, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 120
After a long and insistent letter writing campaign from our listening audience (there have been none), the Shed Dogs at last wade into the murky and roiling waters of The Great Marmite Debate. For three years now we’ve avoided this subject (it’s never come up) but at this point we felt we had no choice but to bring the full weight of our journalistic experience (we have none) to helping our faithful listening audience come to grips with the defining question - Marmite: Love it or hate it? We the...
Aug 15, 2021•45 min•Ep. 119
The Dogs are in situ, in the real Shed, rising to the challenge of more Short Snappers from KJ at the same time as we get to read a bunch of listener mail. We also discuss a very cool recording of KJ’s and Shauna Sylvester’s fathers on the day they fired up a paving company. Plus our pithy observations on e-bikes, mercury, minstrel shows, JW predictions, and a short celebration of the state of health care in the West Kootenays ensue as we whisk you through a potpourri of palaver! You can hear th...
Aug 02, 2021•49 min•Ep. 118
We’ve been treading a little lightly these last 16 months because we know you’ve been dealing with a lot. But now, we’re flush with vaccines and the gloves are off: it’s time to weigh in on the inflammatory question of what is an ideal banana, how do you go about eating it, and can it really fit in your pocket? We know you can do this. We also have an album review, some questions about whether public indecency has gone up, and an update from the dark recesses of KJ’s sleeping mind. On top of all...
Jul 14, 2021•52 min•Ep. 117
Nancy of New West teams up via Listener Mail with RJ to settle once and for all what a saucepan actually is. That’s just one of several very satisfying emails we get to read here, and the mail leads to an even more satisfying kayaking travelogue shared by Ogre of Nelson. Since all that exercise left us mentally razor sharp, KJ puts the other two Dogs to a stern test and kicks off his new Short Snappers feature. Finally, RJ presents us all with The Best Graphic Explanation of Internal Combustion ...
Jun 29, 2021•45 min•Ep. 116
Normally when we say “greatest idea ever” it’s an ironic setup to a laugh at a silly idea. NOT THIS TIME . KJ has suggested something genuinely exciting, seriously, and here it is: If there’s someone you know whose life story or reminiscences you’d love to capture, we can help. We thought mainly of elderly parents or relatives, but who knows? We’d do a video or audio interview, do a basic edit, and then send it to you. We wouldn’t publish it as an episode unless that was something you (and the s...
May 30, 2021•41 min•Ep. 115
Friend of the show (and Chief Fact Checker) Leigh of Courtenay joins the Dogs this episode as we take a tour through a truly different Oscars show, provide deep coverage on the difference between pots and pans, and revisit The Crown. Fortified by our success with those topics, we move on to looking at just what are Non Fungible Tokens, and then pretend we understand crypto currencies like BitCoin and Dogecoin. Finally, as a palate cleansing delight, we deal with joy, outrage, and comedy as we go...
May 16, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 114
Most widely known for her 2018 run at becoming Mayor of Vancouver, KJ’s family friend Shauna Sylvester is an award-winning thinker and social analyst. She shares with us her inspiring and insightful thoughts on poverty, the housing crisis, what leadership is and is not, which local leaders are making a difference, and much more. If you’ve ever wanted to clarify your thoughts on what kind of leaders you want or the kinds of things we can do to improve our collective lot, this is your episode. Tak...
Apr 28, 2021•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 113
As you listen to our dynamic and energy packed episodes, it’s easy to assume we are always on the go, never sitting down, constantly pursuing information and entertainment. Here in Episode 112, we reveal our more relaxed side, and share what we’re enjoying on Netflix and YouTube, how to locate programs you’ve heard about, theories on what makes a great action movie, and more. We also get to read great listener feedback on recent episodes. So take a load off, maybe get a favourite beverage, and t...
Apr 16, 2021•45 min•Ep. 112
