The Todd Donald Show

Kitchener singer/songwriter, teacher and spell-binding performer Mary-Catherine Pazzano made her first appearance on my prior podcast, Todd’s Café, and will make her return (and first appearance on this podcast) in the next episode! In this appearance though, we dug into recording her debut album ‘You’re Gonna Hear From Me’ last year, jazz as a genre, music quality, discipline, vacationing and more!

Wendy Huenul and Kate Schlitt are co-hosts of an extremely important and funny Waterloo Region-based podcast called FemWaves. I found out about their show via Community Edition and was fascinated to get to know them, as well as their podcast. By the time it came around I couldn’t help - given how personable they are, to chat with them about growing up and the awkward, embarassing moments in adolescence. This is part 2 of 2, the prior being episode 24. Wendy Heunul. Having not met Kate before the day-of, I was delighted at how warm and up for this she was. Totally willing to open-up about the silliness of growing up, through high school and adolescence, we also shared stories of living in KW and working. Please enjoy both parts of this wonderful day and conversation!

Why Waterloo (Waterloo Region (obviously, lol) based) podcast hosts Alex Kinsella and Beisan Zubi are two people I never quite apologized to properly. I had them on my prior podcast Todd’s Café to shoot the breeze, a fan of their ‘about-town’ Kitchener/Waterloo culture and events podcast.. I just wanted to get them to talk about life and the world’s nuances and see what happens. On the day for some reason, I was a lacklustre host and making an ass of myself.. as busy as they both are with all they do, they still enthusiastically agreed to be on and did the show... haven’t heard from them since. So I’m inclined to believe it was my doing, BUT I enjoyed hearing them talk, allot. I Also happened recently to listen to this again, here it is, again, for you!

Deanna Wells is front-woman of Hamilton area-based band Ophelia Syndrome, and a longtime friend of mine since we were in the music program at Mohawk College. There’s a three-part chat in which we talk about going to Mohawk, the new EP that Ophelia Syndrome is releasing and what’s going into that, followed by a chat about embarrassing moments, in the vein of the last few episodes. If you haven’t yet listened back to episode 2. Ophelia Syndrome*, please enjoy more of Deanna, as well as cellist, Trina Nadeau; for some vintage/vault interviews as well as live performances by Ophelia Syndrome!

Wendy Huenul and Kate Schlitt are co-hosts of an extremely important and funny Waterloo Region-based podcast called FemWaves. I found out about their show via Community Edition and was fascinated to get to know them, as well as their podcast. By the time it came around I couldn’t help - given how personable they are, to chat with them about growing up and the awkward, embarassing moments in adolescence. Speaking for Wendy specifically, she was interested in going over what this cross-over would entail and it was a blast getting a chance to chat and laugh with one of them prior to meeting in person. I’m always happy when that happens and goes well, typically because I still feel awkward approaching strangers. Enjoy the stories, and stay tuned for the continuation, featuring Kate Schlitt!

Matt Lees is a Wales, U.K.-based singer/songwriter and podcaster (we might be related) whom I met at a house party, 16 years ago. Clearly we were fast friends because of our shared love of pop culture and creative outlets and we were fans of each other creatively and as people, enough to be heavily involved in each others’ musical goings-on. The side effect of our being so similar and tightly wound definitely pulled us away from each other, but time + distance + evolution = a nice chat between two old friends that love each other. Hosting the Legend In My Spare Time podcast at he and his wife Rachel’s home across the pond; Matt’s launched a second podcast where he interviews artists & performers about their creativity. Enjoy this beefy chat!

Matt White and partner Carin Lowerison are the heads of Kitchener/Waterloo’s socially-aware theatre company Green Light Arts. Just based on seeing what they do online alone, I was compelled to reach out to them to see if Matt would come by to tell me his story, talk about theatre, and tell me more about what Green Light is, and is up to! From acting to writing to directing, Matt’s trained and worked in every aspect of the theatre. Lots to get excited about here.

Meet Fearless Heart Yoga practitioners in Waterlo, Ontario, Carolynne and Lindsay! For something a little bit different again, I’m chatting with some peeps I met for the first time on this day. They invited me up to the studio itself to discuss yoga, and what they do, from their point of view. What do you think Yoga is? How do you approach it? What would make your experience different, if you took it to C + L and the rest of the staff there? They were extremely kind, most of my guests are, but I never expect it from strangers. Carolynne showed me inside Seven Shores (below them in the same building in Uptown), so we could start off with coffee! Also, I really needed this chat, allot of why humans perform yoga has allot to do with what’s inside, and this helped!

Jesse Parent is a warm and seasoned pro singer/songwriter from Kitchener. We go back together over a decade, and this will have been our third time getting a conversation of ours recorded for online purposes. He’s always writing, performing and gigging, following the path, dedicated A F. Jesse’s also someone I’m glad to call a dear friend. Jesse has a live performance coming up at Kitchener’s Rich Uncle Tavern, featuring Twas Now, a little different from the usual, in which he’ll be professionally recording the show for a live album, with Steve Wood on steel and back-up singers including Twas Now and Emily Barkley. Hear Jesse and I talk about his entire career, outlooks, song stories and more, in this wonderful coffee meeting and podcast record!

There Was A Sale returns this year with it’s second season, a wonderful podcast sharing a discussion between partners Matt & Kayla of a piece of pop culture (from Matt’s collection), over a thematically similar beverage. They discuss the beverage, and in various segments, talk in-dephtly about the item.. Last year’s item was films, this year’s item is books! I figured that was a good enough reason to rustle up a second appearance. As if I didn’t have enough fun being way too intense infront of them when they were on Todd’s Café (see episode 14 for the re-play), but it was a wonderful time chatting with them again, and going deeper into the weeds about There Was A Sale, it’s new season, and meta podcasting ensues. For those of you who only look at the instagram posts, Matt’s beard is thicker and Kayla’s hair is longer.