The Tragically Hip Podcast Series

A few weeks before his night on the panel, Dave from Montreal texted jD one request: 'Sharks.' Then the wheel picked it on its own.

He had his reasons. On December 29th, 1999, Dave heard about a last-minute show on the radio and drove straight to the Horseshoe Tavern, two days before the New Year's shows, and by setlist.fm's count that was the first night The Tragically Hip ever played 'Sharks' live. It's track nine on "Music @ Work," and it showed up in a set sixteen times in all, the last one in Chicago in October 2004. So the stream skipped the studio cut and played the Horseshoe recording Dave sent over. It changed a mind or two.

The TTHTop40 Countdown had it 123rd of 169. The poll in the Facebook group was kinder: 55% love it, another 20% like it. Kirk from Chino has a theory about why a low ranking is no insult. Dave isn't nearly as forgiving of the ranking (and says so).

Then Tracey from LA, Dave, and Kirk get into a song Kirk says is three chords and a jam: Gord Sinclair's bass line, Rob Baker handed a blank canvas, a firmament, the Marianas Trench, and a shark with opinions. Somebody ends up doing two hours of homework. Somebody else has a crackpot theory.

WHAT ELSE IS IN HERE

• The icebreaker: a song by The Hip that sounds like autumn. Tracey goes gloomy, Dave bookends a record, and Kirk slips over to Gord Downie's solo catalogue.
• The Hip Handbook's On This Day turns up Music Without Borders, a 2001 benefit at the Air Canada Centre. Dave was there, for a night he says has been lost to history.
• Kirk on the House of Blues and Anaheim, and why "Music @ Work" is the record where The Hip became his band in real time.
• Studio or stage: Dave's case that 'Sharks' is a studio recording that comes across live, and Tracey's case that the live cut made it a different song. Plus the Rolling Stones she hears in the jam.
• Two crackpot theories about who's doing the talking in this song. One of them involves a polar bear.
• Gord Sinclair shining brightest on this one, according to Dave.
• A challenge for the Facebook group: somebody has to invent the 'Sharks' dance.
• GEDfest Toronto, looking back, and the soundcheck that told jD Johnny Fay was really coming. It comes back Saturday, October 16, 2027, details to come.

"From the second that I heard this song at the Horseshoe Tavern in December of 1999, I was like, there's something special here." - Dave from Montreal

"And I'm like, whose point of view is that? The shark?" - Tracey from LA

THE PANEL

• Tracey from LA. Used to skip 'Sharks,' and doesn't anymore. Tried playing it the morning of the stream, and on the live cut heard the band out front in a way the studio version never gave her.
• Dave from Montreal. Back on the panel, and the one who asked for 'Sharks' before the wheel did. Was in the room at the Horseshoe in December 1999, and puts this one in his top fifty songs by The Hip, knowing full well he's on an island.
• Kirk from Chino. Back after a short break to pinch-hit, and one of the Discovering Downie panel. Saw The Hip in Hollywood, San Francisco, and Anaheim when "Music @ Work" was new. His plugs this time: GEDfest in every city, Discovering Downie, Gord's "Secret Path" ten years on, and It's A Good Life.

Big thanks to Tracey, Dave, and Kirk, and to a chat that stayed loud the whole hour. Kirk came in liking 'Sharks' and left loving it. Go find the Horseshoe show and hear it for yourself.

THE TRAGICALLY HIP ALBUM COUNTDOWN

A new show for 2027, and you set the order. Rate all fifteen records by The Hip before November 30, and the countdown starts Monday, January 4, at 8pm ET on YouTube. Ballot: forms.gle/KdMfMuApxGb4Nf5w7

IT'S A GOOD LIFE

Kirk's last plug: five episodes on the making of "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken," the musical built on the music of The Hip, told by the people who made it. Start at the start: https://www.redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/2cb8095f-d6b5-42e2-a555-4f0319735ea9

The musical runs at the Kingston Grand Theatre until November 8: kingstongrand.ca/events/TIP2026

THE HIP HANDBOOK

The free archive of the discography, the lyrics, and the live performances, where every tale of the tape starts: thehiphandbook.tthpods.com

YER LETTER

Once a month, one email with the whole network in it: what went out across all eight shows, what's coming, and the odd thing that never makes it to a microphone. Free: subscribe.tthpods.com

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KEEP LISTENING

Discovering Downie: "Secret Path": https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/e086ade9-373f-4bd3-9d84-513b2097cac5

'Gus: The Polar Bear From Central Park': https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/68d2991b-9074-43ef-bd71-aa832c59a787

'The Bastard': https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/11be433d-56cf-4213-8726-9fc7cec327f2

Live play count, first and last plays, and the date of the 2001 Music Without Borders benefit via setlist.fm. Track number, the countdown rank, and the poll as cited on the stream. Dave's memories of the Horseshoe and the Air Canada Centre are his own, from the stream.

#TheTragicallyHip #MusicAtWork #TTHOnShuffle #GordSinclair #RobbyBaker #HipFans

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One question, asked of every person who built the show. On the last day, the answer goes to the people in the seats.

Every conversation in this series ended the same way. Same question, same words, read off a cheat sheet so jD wouldn't botch it: if this production does what you hope it does, what do the people in the seats walk out of the theatre feeling? He asked the producer. He asked the director, both writers, and the cast. And somewhere along the way it became clear that the people who made It's A Good Life If You Don't Weaken can't really answer it (not from up on the stage). They can hope. Then the lights go down, and it's out of their hands and into yours.

So Day 5 of 5 hands the mic over. The company tells you what they were hoping for. Fans of The Tragically Hip tell you what they walked in with - excitement, nerves, a healthy suspicion of anybody who messes with an arrangement, and, in one case, two packs of tissues. Then opening night from the other side of the curtain, where it turns out everybody was sweating. Then the walk out. Then the whole thing heads home to Kingston.

On Monday, jD promised to stay Uncool and Underqualified to the bitter end. This is the bitter end.

WHAT ELSE IS IN HERE

• Talia Schlanger didn't answer the question. She brought a numbered list.
• A co-writer who got through every preview just fine, then came apart on opening night - and what a friend told him at intermission.
• The one rule Karim Butt gave himself fifteen minutes before curtain, guitar in hand.
• Why 700 people can't all lie to you at once.
• A joke both writers hate that the crowd can't stop laughing at.
• A self-described live guy, wary of anybody messing with a song by The Hip, on what they did to 'Bobcaygeon'.
• A fan who walked in with the whole show figured out, and how that went.
• Brett Christopher of the Thousand Islands Playhouse on the moment Kingston is going to feel like nowhere else.
• The last word goes to the person this whole thing started with.

THE COMPANY

• Michael Rubinoff, producer
• Mary Francis Moore, director
• Ahmed Moneka and Jesse LaVercombe, co-writers
• Talia Schlanger (Kate), Ali Momen (Waleed), Karim Butt (Sam), Tahirih Vejdani (Didi), and Rebecca Auerbach (Abigail)
• Brett Christopher, Managing Artistic Director, Thousand Islands Playhouse
• And the fans in the lobby, Jeff from Belleville, Leslie from Toronto, and Sarah from Buffalo among them

"It's a seed that we could hopefully plant inside of people, and they will have the choice to water it and to make it a tree." - Ahmed Moneka, co-writer

Big thanks to the cast, the writers, and the creative team, to Theatre Aquarius and the Thousand Islands Playhouse, and to every fan who let a guy with a microphone ask how they felt (most of them weren't strangers by the end). The people on the stage can only hope. A full house in the dark tells them whether it worked, all at once. That closes the run of It's A Good Life on The Tragically Hip Podcast Series. Kingston, it's yer turn.

KINGSTON - OCTOBER 22 TO NOVEMBER 8

The Thousand Islands Playhouse brings It's A Good Life If You Don't Weaken to the Kingston Grand Theatre. Opening night is sold out. The cast recording is out now, if you want the songs stuck in your head on the drive home.

Tickets: kingstongrand.ca/events/TIP2026

THE TRAGICALLY HIP ALBUM COUNTDOWN

You rank the records. The show starts January 4, 8pm, on YouTube. Ballots close November 30.

Ballot: forms.gle/KdMfMuApxGb4Nf5w7

THE TIP JAR

Five episodes in five days. Editing is hard. Buy jD a coffee.

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MORE IT'S A GOOD LIFE

Setting the Scene, The Players, The Craft, and The Music

All episodes: redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474

#ItsAGoodLife #TheTragicallyHip #TheHip #HipFans #TTHPods #CanadianMusic

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A percussionist who couldn't swing, a chart that changes time signature every bar, and basic tracks cut at the Bathouse in Bath, Ontario.

You know what these songs are supposed to feel like. jD has been carrying 'Courage' around since the fall of 1992, and he walked into this one bracing for jazz hands, a key change nobody asked for, and somebody belting 'Bobcaygeon' from the lip of the stage with their arms out like they were hailing a cab.

Day four of It's A Good Life is the one every fan of The Tragically Hip walked in nervous about. The music. Trust was yesterday. Courage and hope come back today, and all three have to hold. So jD went and found the people who held the songs in their hands: the music supervisor, the musical director, the man who wrote the Middle Eastern music, and the producer who made two records with The Hip and then made the original cast recording. One of them saw the band in Calgary in the eighties, back when he was playing bars there himself. None of them came at this lightly.

Gord Downie's phrasing is hard to write down. Steve Berlin says there's no such thing as swing in Arabic music. And 'Gift Shop' just goes - no verse, chorus, bridge to hang on to. This is how a theatre band learned to play them anyway.

WHAT ELSE IS IN HERE

• Bob Foster (orchestrations and music supervision) on the only way to treat this catalogue, and the nights he went down to the basement with a guitar and came back up with something.

• Richard Evans (music director) on notating Gord's melodies by ear, and why a singer who doesn't sound like anybody else is so hard to put on paper.

• Levon Ichkhanian (music coordinator and composer of the Middle Eastern music) on horizontal versus vertical, and why nobody can explain Middle Eastern music in five minutes.

• Steve Berlin on cutting the basic tracks at the Bathouse, finishing the vocals and the Arabic parts in Toronto, and the counting trick that got a percussionist swinging.

• A chart for 'As I Wind Down the Pines' that Steve says he couldn't read at all, and his story of how that song came together in the first place.

• Why 'Grace, Too' runs long on the record, and a session somebody was in and out of in about ten minutes.

• 'Fireworks', and a little nugget lifted from the way Gord used to close it out live.

• Jesse LaVercombe (co-writer) on the song he'd put up against any end-of-Act-One number in contemporary musical theatre.

• Jake Gold, manager of The Tragically Hip, on what the crowd almost did at 'Ahead by a Century', and Rebecca Auerbach (Abigail) on a standing ovation nobody saw coming.

• Levon at a CD table after an outdoor festival in Waterloo, and a couple who heard something through their balcony doors.

• Opening night, and the producer who went back the next night knowing exactly what was coming.

Also in the room: producer Michael Rubinoff, Ali Momen (Waleed), Talia Schlanger (Kate), and Sameer Cash (Fadi).

IN THEIR WORDS

"If you don't respect The Hip's music and want to do it for that reason, then just don't do it." - Bob Foster

"Everything through the lens of gratitude." - Levon Ichkhanian

Thanks to Bob, Richard, Levon, and Steve for handing over the songs and every story that came attached to them. jD came in braced for the worst and owns up, at the end, to exactly what he had wrong. Tomorrow: Curtain Up, in Kingston, in front of the people who know these songs best.

IT'S A GOOD LIFE IF YOU DON'T WEAKEN - KINGSTON

The Thousand Islands Playhouse production, with songs by The Hip, runs at the Kingston Grand Theatre from October 22 to November 8, 2026. Opening night is sold out.

Tickets: kingstongrand.ca/events/TIP2026

THE ORIGINAL CAST RECORDING

Produced by Steve Berlin, out the same day the curtain goes up in Kingston.

THE TIP JAR

Four days of this in one week. Editing is hard. Buy jD a coffee and help keep the battery charged.

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MORE IT'S A GOOD LIFE

Setting the Scene: LINK NEEDED

The Players: LINK NEEDED

The Craft: LINK NEEDED

It's A Good Life is part of The Tragically Hip Podcast Series.

Facebook group: community.tthpods.com | Instagram: @tthpods | YouTube: youtube.com/@tthpods | Email: [email protected]

#ItsAGoodLife #TheTragicallyHip #GordDownie #TTHPods #CanadianRock #HipHeads

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May 3rd, Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton. Mary Francis Moore walks jD right up to the wings and stops, because of a rule he didn't know about.

Mary Francis directs "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken," and the tour so far has been the design studio, the stage management office, and the green room where the cast can watch the stage between scenes. Then the wings. That's as far as jD goes. (Nobody wants to be the guy who breaks the magic.)

That's day three of It's A Good Life, five episodes, one a day, all week, from The Tragically Hip Podcast Series. Yesterday was the cast. The Craft is everybody you don't see - the director, the choreographer, the guy who built the world on the stage, and the guy who lights it. jD went in braced for gear talk, cues, rigging, and words he'd have to look up later (he still couldn't tell you what a fly gallery does, and Mary Francis showed him one). There's a little of that. Mostly there's one word, from almost everyone he talked to. Trust.

Scott Penner had to hand in his set drawings with half a script and no ending, working from a brief for "something specifically ambiguous." Then one photograph turned up in a pile of 90s street art and photo collages, and it got two words from across the table. Jason Hand spends the first third of rehearsals not thinking about lighting at all, then goes looking for the colour of a sandstorm. Marc Kimelman films himself dancing to every song, works from one idea of Gord Downie's, and once got himself to the front row of a music video shoot for The Hip and kept thinking up questions until they called cut. Jesse LaVercombe calls himself a fountain of bad ideas, and he has the receipts: a script of about 75 pages, and a document of cuts that runs to 546.

Then the room itself. A final song swapped out days before the first preview, and how the new one was ready by Sunday. A rehearsal that was one show at ten o'clock and a different show by lunch. A producer who will tell you exactly how he is during tech (not at his best, his words). And for every fan who gets nervous about The Tragically Hip in a musical at all, somebody on the team who walked in on day one feeling the same way, and what he'd say to you now.

WHAT ELSE IS IN HERE

• Mary Francis Moore on more than a decade of shorthand with Bob Foster, and meeting Marc for the first time.

• Michael Rubinoff and Mary Francis on saying no to each other, and why the best idea wins.

• The song Marc calls his hardest to choreograph, and why it's a fever dream.

• Ahmed Moneka on checking in with Ali Momen along the way, and Ali on carrying every song that came before into the one he's singing.

• What's hiding in the paint once the first reveal settles, some of it in Arabic.

"You'll never see in this show where my work begins or ends." - Marc Kimelman, choreographer

WHO YOU HEAR

• Mary Francis Moore, director, and artistic director of Theatre Aquarius.

• Michael Rubinoff, producer.

• Scott Penner, set designer.

• Jason Hand, lighting designer.

• Marc Kimelman, choreographer.

• Ahmed Moneka and Jesse LaVercombe, who wrote the book.

• Plus Ali Momen and Talia Schlanger from the cast.

Big thanks to Mary Francis, Michael, Scott, Jason, Marc, Jesse, and Ahmed for letting a fan with a microphone stand in the wings and ask questions. What jD found back there wasn't everybody agreeing. It was a room full of people willing to say no in the dark until the right idea showed up, and nobody keeping score of whose it was. He's seen the show at least six times and still can't find the seams. So there's that. Tomorrow on It's A Good Life: The Music, with Bob Foster, and what it takes to make songs by The Tragically Hip that were never written for a stage sing on one.

"IT'S A GOOD LIFE IF YOU DON'T WEAKEN" - KINGSTON

The Thousand Islands Playhouse brings the musical to the Kingston Grand Theatre, in association with Theatre Aquarius. First preview Thursday, October 22, and it runs to November 8. Opening night, Friday, October 23, is already sold out. Tickets: kingstongrand.ca/events/TIP2026

THE TRAGICALLY HIP ALBUM COUNTDOWN

A new show for 2027, and you set the order. Rate all fifteen records by The Hip before November 30, and the countdown starts Monday, January 4, at 8pm ET on YouTube. Ballot: forms.gle/KdMfMuApxGb4Nf5w7

THE TIP JAR

Editing is hard. Help keep the battery charged. Tips, never donations: buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40

FIND US

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MORE FROM THE TRAGICALLY HIP PODCAST SERIES

It's A Good Life - Setting the Scene and The Players: days one and two, right before this one in the feed.

Yer Hipstories - Hamilton: https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/fae76ee3-738f-4007-80c8-7140729bb295

Creative team credits via the Thousand Islands Playhouse and Stage Door. Run dates via the Kingston Grand Theatre and the Thousand Islands Playhouse.

#ItsAGoodLife #TheTragicallyHip #GordDownie #TTHPods #HipHeads #CanadianRock

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May 1st, opening night in Hamilton. On jD's left, a fan of The Hip who doesn't do musicals. On his right, a woman who's never heard of them.

His buddy David is the first one, and he mentions the musicals thing on the drive in (great timing, David). The second is 82, the mother of a Theatre Aquarius subscriber, and she knows nothing about The Tragically Hip. Nothing. Then intermission. Guess which one of them ends up at the merch table. Two people, same row, opposite ends of the room, and when jD told that story to the cast, Brandon McGibbon said it was the whole job in one sentence.

That's day two of It's A Good Life, five episodes, one a day, all week, from The Tragically Hip Podcast Series. Yesterday was where the idea came from. The Players is about the people who have to stand up there and carry it. Seven of them sat down with jD between April and May, and when he asked how they found The Hip, most of them didn't tell him a story about a band. They told him a story about Canada.

Ali Momen came here from Iran when he was three, and The Hip were the backdrop to how he understood "the canvas of Canada." Years before there was a script, he had a very specific note for the producer. Karim Butt came over from Pakistan, heard 'Bobcaygeon' and 'Poets' on the radio and thought they were pretty cool, then got booked for the workshop and went straight to one documentary. You can guess how that went. Tahirih Vejdani's first memory of the band runs through a high school teacher in Regina with a claim to fame. Rebecca Auerbach found out she knew a lot more of the words than she thought. Talia Schlanger calls the whole thing zero burden and pure joy. And Sameer Cash grew up calling Gord Downie Uncle Gord.

Then the harder part. Somebody behind the script asking if they were cool enough, rocky enough, grungy enough to touch these songs. A bar band voice on a musical theatre stage, and an apology to musical theatre for every bad thing ever said about it. The one song by The Hip a cast member could play at 18, learned on a trip to Nepal, and the day she found out where it was going. Why somebody calls The Hip the cast's emotional support animal. And a note from Gord that Sameer hadn't gone back to until now.

Most of them brought their own families into the roles. A mother's convenience store in Regina. A father and a brother-in-law. A country left behind for something better. One of them was in Kingston on August 20, 2016, and carries what Gord said from that stage into this show. And one cast member shares a story about their grandfather, the show, and a lot of gratitude. It's theirs to tell, so it's in the episode.

WHAT ELSE IS IN HERE

• A cast member who met Tom Thomson by way of 'Three Pistols' and kept on reading.

• The workshop audition Mary Francis Moore promised would not get them the job.

• 'Little Bones' cranked in the car on the way to a first audition, and the guitar hook that said this might work.

• Jesse LaVercombe on how fast they found Jonathan, and what Brandon did to the writing.

• Bob Foster's arrangements, Marc Kimelman's choreography, and a song at least one of the cast had never heard before.

"That's the two people that you're thinking about, and you want to do a show that's for both of them." - Brandon McGibbon, Jonathan

WHO YOU HEAR

• Ali Momen as Waleed.

• Talia Schlanger as Kate.

• Brandon McGibbon as Jonathan.

• Karim Butt as Sam, the narrator.

• Rebecca Auerbach as Abigail.

• Tahirih Vejdani as Didi.

• Sameer Cash as Fadi.

• Plus Ahmed Moneka and Jesse LaVercombe, who wrote the book, and producer Michael Rubinoff.

Big thanks to Ali, Talia, Brandon, Karim, Rebecca, Tahirih, and Sameer for giving a fan with a microphone their time this spring in Hamilton. jD went in to ask about a band and came out with seven people talking about what it feels like to find a home. Some found it in Canada, some found it in a song by The Tragically Hip, and most of them found it in both. So there's that. Tomorrow on It's A Good Life: The Craft.

"IT'S A GOOD LIFE IF YOU DON'T WEAKEN" - KINGSTON

The Thousand Islands Playhouse brings the musical to the Kingston Grand Theatre, in association with Theatre Aquarius, October 22 to November 8. Opening night, Friday, October 23, is already sold out. Tickets: kingstongrand.ca/events/TIP2026

THE TRAGICALLY HIP ALBUM COUNTDOWN

A new show for 2027, and you set the order. Rate all fifteen records by The Hip before November 30, and the countdown starts Monday, January 4, at 8pm ET on YouTube. Ballot: forms.gle/KdMfMuApxGb4Nf5w7

THE TIP JAR

Editing is hard. Help keep the battery charged. Tips, never donations: buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40

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MORE FROM THE TRAGICALLY HIP PODCAST SERIES

Yer Hipstories - Kingston: https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/c37eccb0-036d-45d0-827b-08582d3f8bba

Yer Hipstories - Hamilton: https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/fae76ee3-738f-4007-80c8-7140729bb295

Cast and roles via the Thousand Islands Playhouse. Run dates via the Kingston Grand Theatre and the Thousand Islands Playhouse. Kingston, August 20, 2016 via setlist.fm.

#ItsAGoodLife #TheTragicallyHip #GordDownie #TTHPods #TTHAlbumCountdown #CanadianMusic

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April 19th, around four o'clock, outside Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton. jD is about to sit with the whole creative team, with no idea what's coming.

The first preview is three days out. jD bought a ticket for April 22nd thinking it was the premiere. It wasn't (musicals have previews, it turns out - lesson one of about 400). That's the spirit of It's A Good Life, five episodes, one a day, all week, from The Tragically Hip Podcast Series: one fan, uncool and underqualified, let into the rooms where "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken" got made. It's the first musical built from the songs of The Tragically Hip, and it's moving to Kingston.

Setting the Scene starts at the start. Where the idea came from, who said yes, and how a story about a man who can't go home again ended up in Kingston, of all places. But first, the question nobody wants to ask out loud: what is a musical, anyway? Jen Towndrow, Armand, and Autumn McDonald love them, and they make the case. One fan who walked out of a jukebox show wondering what just happened makes the other one.

Then the people who built it. Michael Rubinoff, the producer, knew exactly where he wanted to be if Y2K took the world down at midnight, and he knew one thing about this show before he had the rights to a single song. Jake Gold, manager of The Hip, had two conditions. A month later came a phone call, a radio story out of Afghanistan, and the song that played once the plane was in the air.

Ahmed Moneka shouted his love for an Ontario town off a bridge, and somebody told him which song to go home and play. Jesse LaVercombe found The Hip somewhere "in the ether" and came aboard late, which meant sprinting. Mary Francis Moore offered up the room at Theatre Aquarius partly so she could watch. And Brett Christopher in Kingston had been dreaming about this for fifteen years before anyone else got the rights. That news landed hard, at first.

Somewhere in all of it the story leaves Toronto for a smaller city with prisons on one side and universities on the other. You'll hear why that move mattered. And on April 23rd, at a talk in the theatre, somebody asks for the whole show in one word.

WHAT ELSE IS IN HERE

• What "the book" of a musical is, for anyone who assumed it was a book.

• The Zoom where Michael asked the band for three minutes before getting down to business. And what he told them first.

• Friends whose fathers came from Iran and Peru, and the band they learned Canada through.

• Lindsay Pereira's CBC story, and why Jake told Michael he had to read it.

• Kensington Market, Kingston, and why a small town makes you earn it.

"If I had one kick at the can with this music and there was one way I could use this music to tell the story, I did always believe that this was the story to tell." - Michael Rubinoff, producer

WHO YOU HEAR

• Michael Rubinoff. Producer of "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken," and the originating producer of "Come From Away." A fan first.

• Jake Gold. Manager of The Tragically Hip.

• Ahmed Moneka and Jesse LaVercombe. Co-writers of the book, ten years making theatre together, "King Gilgamesh and the Man of the Wild" included. Jesse on moving north: "Sometimes I feel like as an American living up here, it's like living in a really low-stakes Twilight Zone."

• Mary Francis Moore. Director, and artistic director at Theatre Aquarius, the National Centre for the Development of New Musicals.

• Brett Christopher. Managing artistic director of the Thousand Islands Playhouse, the show's Kingston co-producer. He lives in Kingston.

• Jen, Armand, and Autumn. The crash course in musicals.

Big thanks to Michael, Jake, Ahmed, Jesse, Mary Francis, and Brett for letting a fan with a microphone into the room three days before the first preview, and to Jen, Armand, and Autumn for explaining it all first. A lot of new Canadians found their way in through The Tragically Hip. This is the story of how that ended up on a stage. Tomorrow on It's A Good Life: The Players.

"IT'S A GOOD LIFE IF YOU DON'T WEAKEN" - KINGSTON

The Thousand Islands Playhouse brings the musical to the Kingston Grand Theatre, in association with Theatre Aquarius, October 22 to November 8. Opening night is Friday, October 23. Tickets: kingstongrand.ca/events/TIP2026

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Yer Letter: subscribe.tthpods.com

MORE FROM THE TRAGICALLY HIP PODCAST SERIES

Yer Hipstories - Hamilton: https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/fae76ee3-738f-4007-80c8-7140729bb295

Yer Hipstories - Kingston: https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/c37eccb0-036d-45d0-827b-08582d3f8bba

Run dates via the Kingston Grand Theatre and the Thousand Islands Playhouse. Lindsay Pereira's story via CBC.

#ItsAGoodLife #TheTragicallyHip #TheHip #TTHPods #CanadianMusic #HipFans

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November 30th, 2012, Minneapolis, cold enough to hurt. Brian from Buffalo was there for 'Take Forever.' The stream tried to play it three times.

It's track nine of eleven on "Now for Plan A," the Gavin Brown record that came out October 2nd, 2012. By the count on the stream, The Tragically Hip played it live eight times, starting months before the record was out, and it didn't crack the 169 songs ranked for the TTHTop40 Countdown. The poll in the Facebook group was kinder: 76% love it or like it, and one brave soul has never heard it. Jeff from Belleville has a theory about why, and it starts with where the song sits on the record.

Then the tale of the tape turns up a chart fact about "Now for Plan A" in the United States that nobody on the panel believes. It checks out.

So Brian from Buffalo, Jeff from Belleville, and Greg from Tacoma (late, and sentenced to sing it) take apart three minutes about a man trying to be a machine, a plane hurtling through the dark, and a promise to be there for as long as it takes. And Calgary. A lot of Calgary.

WHAT ELSE IS IN HERE

• The icebreaker: a song by The Hip that sounds like fall. Brian bends the rules before he gives in, and Jeff lands on the same song jD played in the car on the way home.
• Brian's personal ranking of every song by The Hip, and why loving 'The Lookahead' costs this one a few spots.
• Calgary as the place to do it. Brian found the story behind the line, and Jeff found the newspaper by way of HipMuseum.
• What Gord told the crowd before 'Take Forever' at Kensington Market and in Minneapolis, pulled from The Tragically Hip Archive, and the Ralph Nader primer that follows.
• Jeff's reach of the night: Stampede Wrestling, the Saddledome, and the year 2001. He admits it's a reach. jD isn't so sure.
• Greg from Tacoma, the land of Boeing, and a guess about where this song was written.
• The news: a fan survey from the band, GEDfest crossing the border, and a musical opening in Kingston.
• Next week the wheel lands on 'Sharks,' from "Music @ Work."

"I feel like it ends stronger than it begins." - Brian from Buffalo

THE PANEL

• Brian from Buffalo. A teacher, which is why fall is not his favourite season. Saw the "World Container" tour at the Phoenix in Toronto in October 2006, then in Boston and Rochester in 2007, and keeps his own ranking of every song.
• Jeff from Belleville. Back after a while away, and on a panel with Brian for the first time. Lives among rows of red pine, which explains his icebreaker, and does the homework every time. Nothing to plug, he says.
• Greg from Tacoma. Showed up late, refused to sing, and still found the line nobody else had touched. Scored every record by The Hip for jD and docked the last two a point.

Big thanks to Brian, Jeff, and Greg, and to a chat that kept the room going while the audio didn't. 'Take Forever' is one of the quieter corners of "Now for Plan A," and an hour with three fans who did the reading is a good way to hear The Tragically Hip and Gord Downie fresh. You won't hear it here. Go put it on.

IT'S A GOOD LIFE - MONDAY, OCTOBER 19 TO FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23

Five episodes, one a day. An oral history of the making of "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken," the musical built on the music of The Hip, told by the people who made it. Subscribe: home.tthpods.com

GEDFEST TORONTO - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17

Saturday night at the Horseshoe Tavern, nine years since Gord passed away, Grace, 2 plays for Campfire Circle and the Murphy Family Fund in Precision Medicine in Pancreatic Cancer. It's sold out, so follow along on the night: facebook.com/GEDfestYYZ. GEDfest Buffalo, the first American chapter, is Wednesday, October 21, and more cities celebrate on Saturday, October 24. Every city and every cause: gedfest.ca

How it started: https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/9fc87037-23d5-4de2-8ed4-202f441bf759

THE TRAGICALLY HIP ALBUM COUNTDOWN

A new show for 2027, and you set the order. Rate all fifteen records by The Hip before November 30, and the countdown starts Monday, January 4, at 8pm ET on YouTube. Ballot: forms.gle/KdMfMuApxGb4Nf5w7

THE HIP HANDBOOK

The free archive of the discography, the lyrics, and the live performances, where every tale of the tape starts: thehiphandbook.tthpods.com

YER LETTER

One email a month, the whole network in one place: subscribe.tthpods.com

THE TIP JAR

All three panelists plugged this link instead of themselves, so here it is. Help keep the battery charged: buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40

FIND US

Home: home.tthpods.com

Email: [email protected]

Facebook community: community.tthpods.com

Instagram: @tthpods

YouTube: youtube.com/@tthpods

Yer Letter: subscribe.tthpods.com

MORE THE TRAGICALLY HIP ON SHUFFLE LIVE STREAM

'Poets': https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/339c232a-4700-404b-a533-779a14e1cf45

'Vaccination Scar': https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/5fa3fc7c-f01b-4eae-a3de-5cadc658b9f9

'Tiger The Lion': https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/718fe20e-83d6-4c69-86eb-cc2b4af02834

Live play count and dates from the stream. Gord's live intros via The Tragically Hip Archive, as cited on the stream. The Calgary article via HipMuseum, as cited on the stream. Release and chart details via Wikipedia and Universal Music Canada.

#TheTragicallyHip #NowForPlanA #TTHOnShuffle #GordDownie #ItsAGoodLife #GEDfest

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

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The new 5-part podcast begins this coming Monday, the 19th.

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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

11,300 pennies, a frame five feet by nine, about 250 pounds, and all of it Gord. Penny Gord has hung at the National Music Centre, it travels with Trickle Down now, and somewhere along the way it became the closest thing GEDfest has to a mascot.

The first three episodes covered where GEDfest came from, where it stands, and where it's headed. This one is about who. Keith's word for it is the secret sauce: the ambassadors, supporters, volunteers, and tribute players who turned one Calgary night in memory of Gord Downie into twelve chapters across Canada and into the United States. Every one of them got here a different way. A pile of pennies. A cold email. A song sung at a private party. A message from an old friend nobody had heard from in twenty years.

That last one belongs to Dan Murphy. Dan was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in June 2023. Three years on, he and his family have a fund at Princess Margaret, the Murphy Family Fund in Precision Medicine in Pancreatic Cancer, and GEDfest Toronto is raising money for it. When his oncologist told him they'd be talking about quality of life, Dan and his wife made a choice: "We decided to make quality of life about quality of life." A couple hundred people he knows, some of them friends from grade school, are making the drive to the Horseshoe in October.

WHAT ELSE IS IN HERE

• The icebreaker. A song from The Tragically Hip that sounds like the end of summer. One answer arrives on a cassette carried back from Kingston to a university residence floor, and Keith is answering this question for the fourth time without repeating himself.

• Luke Carruthers on how a pile of pennies turned into posters for every city, then merch, then a backlit sign he's building to hang out front of the Calgary show.

• Robbie Milgaard named his band after a song by The Hip. Keith tells the story of the night Robbie first sang it with Trickle Down, and what Robbie said at the mic before he started.

• Alan Cross on why a fanbase ends up doing this kind of thing, and why the answer starts with the band.

• The night BCDC opened for Trickle Down at the Palace in Calgary, and what the five of them said to each other backstage before they had to follow it.

• Brennan Rafferty, on the road to the Kootenays, with a tip on a young Calgary band you'll want to say you saw in a bar once.

• The first email that got a reply, and why Keith credits one of the people on this panel with giving him the nerve to keep sending them.

• Keith's case for what GEDfest gives people who want to do some good and don't know where to start.

THE PANEL

• Dan Murphy, from Toronto. First heard 'Blow at High Dough' the fall he moved into residence. Reconnected with Buddy Harold this winter, and a few months later he's part of GEDfest Toronto.

• Keith Dick, co-founder of GEDfest and the drummer in Trickle Down, from Calgary. Now four for four on the icebreaker.

• Luke Carruthers, the artist behind Penny Gord. Went from lending it out to volunteering at the silent auction, then posters, merch, and the sign.

• Alan Cross, who co-hosts GEDfest Toronto at the Horseshoe with Fearless Fred from Q107. Called in from Victoria, a couple of hours before starting a national speaking tour.

• Robbie Milgaard, from Cochrane, Alberta. Sings in The Wheat Kings, who play GEDfest Cochrane on Saturday, October 24th, and gets called up to sing with Trickle Down often enough that Keith counts him as the sixth member.

• Brennan Rafferty, frontman of BCDC, 27 years in. Lives on the West Coast and already has his tickets for GEDfest Vancouver on October 24th.

GEDFEST 2026

GEDfest is Gord Edgar Downie Fest: twelve chapters, each one raising money for a cause in its own community. Most play Saturday, October 17th. Vancouver, Cochrane, and Regina play October 24th, and Buffalo moved up to October 21st. Find your city at gedfest.ca.

jD co-leads the Toronto chapter: the Horseshoe Tavern, Saturday, October 17th, with Grace, 2, raising money for Campfire Circle and the Murphy Family Fund in Precision Medicine in Pancreatic Cancer. It's sold out, but if a ticket shakes loose, jD will hear about it first. Drop him a line at [email protected]. Updates at facebook.com/GEDfestYYZ.

THE HIP HANDBOOK

The free, non-monetized archive of the discography, the lyrics, and the live performances: thehiphandbook.tthpods.com

YER LETTER

One email a month, the whole network in one place: subscribe.tthpods.com

THE TIP JAR

Editing is hard and the battery needs charging. Tips, never donations: buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40

FIND US

Home: home.tthpods.com

Email: [email protected]

Facebook community: community.tthpods.com

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Yer Letter: subscribe.tthpods.com

MORE GEDFEST PAST, PRESENT, & FUTURE

'Past': https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/9fc87037-23d5-4de2-8ed4-202f441bf759

#TheTragicallyHip #GordDownie #Fundraising #TributeBands #HipFans #TTHPods

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August 20th, 2016, Kingston. 'Poets' is twentieth on the set list, right behind 'Something On,' the song Craig from Langley used to skip to.

It opens "Phantom Power," it was the lead single, and it sits at number 23 on the TTHTop40 Countdown. The count on the stream, pulled from Hipbase and setlist.fm, has The Tragically Hip playing it 611 times, from July 2nd, 1998, twelve days before the record came out, to that last night in Kingston. The poll in the Facebook group drew more votes than any the show has run. And the Discovering Downie panel came back together for it. They do not agree.

Justin from Bridport bought "Phantom Power" as a kid, and this was the first thing out of the speakers. Kirk from Chino calls it his Gus (an inside joke), and he spent a day with live versions until it turned. Craig from Langley plays it in a tribute band about half the time and still hits skip on the record, so he sat down with a guitar to find out why. He found out. You'll want to hear it before you sing along again.

Then the video. A house with a reputation (and a lot of cats), a bass nobody expected Gord to be holding, Johnny Fay playing it lighter than he does on stage, and a question from jD about why the band is lined up backwards.

WHAT ELSE IS IN HERE

• The icebreaker: one song by The Hip that feels like fall, and one answer the panel would happily trade this whole episode for.

• October 7th in The Hip Handbook, from Austin to the Fillmore. Kirk was at the Fillmore, just not that night.

• A Troubadour recording from 2009 with a lot of swimming in it. Kirk was in the room.

• Super Farmer Nano Baby, the darker take on the 25th anniversary box set, and Justin's hunch about which came first.

• Woodstock, Live 8 with Dan Aykroyd on harmonica, and Gord's rants, different every night.

• The backing vocals from Paul Langlois and Gord Sinclair. Nobody on the panel knows the words. Craig has Paul's own answer, more or less.

• At the last show in Kingston, the microphone becomes a flashlight. Kirk says that's when the song finally landed for him.

• Next week the wheel lands on 'Take Forever,' from "Now for Plan A."

"This is a hard question for me to answer because I'm so emotionally tied to this album." - Justin from Bridport

THE PANEL

• Justin from Bridport. A six-timer, by jD's count. "Phantom Power" was the first record by The Hip he ever bought. Announces for the Sprint Cars of New England, with the season finale October 24 in Claremont, New Hampshire, and helps run the Vermont Motorsports Hall of Fame, which just named its class of 2026.

• Craig from Langley. Plays in Gift Shop, a tribute to The Hip on the West Coast. They're at the first GEDfest Vancouver on October 24 and in White Rock on October 17, and the full August 20, 2026 show at the Hollywood Theatre, ten years to the day, is headed for YouTube. His own band, Windows 78, is on Spotify and Apple Music.

• Kirk from Chino. Finishing a solo album, with updates at Kirk Lane Music on Instagram and Facebook. Plays in The Daryls, a cover band around LA, Orange County, the Inland Empire, and San Diego, and hosts Steps To The Stage, a podcast for community theatre.

Big thanks to Justin, Craig, and Kirk, together again after Discovering Downie, and to a chat that was on fire all night. Twenty-eight years on, 'Poets' is still the door a lot of fans walked through to The Tragically Hip and Gord Downie, even the ones who spent it at the bar. The same three are back for the episode closest to Gord's birthday, with a solo song pulled at random.

DISCOVERING DOWNIE

Where this panel met, one Gord Downie solo record at a time. "Secret Path": https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/e086ade9-373f-4bd3-9d84-513b2097cac5

THE TRAGICALLY HIP ALBUM COUNTDOWN

A new show for 2027, and you set the order. Rate all fifteen records by The Hip before November 30, and the countdown starts Monday, January 4, at 8pm ET on YouTube. Ballot: forms.gle/KdMfMuApxGb4Nf5w7

GEDFEST TORONTO - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17

The Horseshoe Tavern, with Grace, 2, raising money for Campfire Circle and the Murphy Family Fund in Precision Medicine in Pancreatic Cancer. It's sold out, but if a ticket shakes loose, jD will hear about it first: [email protected]. Updates at facebook.com/GEDfestYYZ.

THE HIP HANDBOOK

The free archive of the discography, the lyrics, and the live performances, where every tale of the tape starts: thehiphandbook.tthpods.com

YER LETTER

One email a month, the whole network in one place: subscribe.tthpods.com

THE TIP JAR

Justin's plug was this link, so here it is. Tips, never donations: buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40

FIND US

Home: home.tthpods.com

Email: [email protected]

Facebook community: community.tthpods.com

Instagram: @tthpods

YouTube: youtube.com/@tthpods

Yer Letter: subscribe.tthpods.com

MORE THE TRAGICALLY HIP ON SHUFFLE LIVE STREAM

'Radio Show': https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/9cdeecdc-c69a-4e6a-b087-ce6effbb2fa2

'Emperor Penguin': https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/a2f229b2-b5fc-41e4-8d78-632080d31a3b

'Gus: The Polar Bear From Central Park': https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/68d2991b-9074-43ef-bd71-aa832c59a787

Live play count via Hipbase and setlist.fm, as counted on the stream. Kingston set list via setlist.fm. Countdown rank from the show. Release details via Wikipedia.

#TheTragicallyHip #PhantomPower #TTHOnShuffle #GordDownie #DiscoveringDownie #HipHeads

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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy