Get ready for a blast from the fucking past! We’re revisiting the first five years of podList episodes and bringing them back to the feed—your chance to re-live the magic of TTH fan covers, back-to-back. We’re talking incredible fucking renditions of classic tracks by The Tragically Hip tracks brought to life by listeners just like you. So there’s that.

Each year, devoted Hip fans from all walks of life have picked up their guitars, banjos, pianos, and yes, even synthasysers to reimagine The Hip’s legendary catalog. It’s a celebration of artistry, community, and the music that unites us. So there’s that.

And don’t forget, podList SIX is just around the corner on May 26th. But first, let’s take a trip down memory lane. Listen, enjoy, and maybe even start practicing—your song could be featured next!

Track Listing:

In View - Shemus Gunn

Morning Moon - Uzbekistani Denzel

Lake Fever - Fandom Power

It Can't Be Nashville Every Night - Tristan Armstrong

Silver Jet - Smug Rooster

The Last Recluse - Beej

It's a Good Life if You Don't Weaken - Mik Perlus

Gus: The Polar Bear from Central Park - Field of Porters

The Darkest One - Gift Shop

If New Orleans is Beat - Rico Borrego

Now For Plan A - Craig Rogers & Yvette Drews

Pretend - Marc Harwood, Tim Clarke & Ben Wallace

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A Forest Of Whispering Speakers - The Idea

A new musical featuring the music of The Tragically Hip is about to open in Hamilton. Episode one is the story of how it got there - from one phone call to a world premiere.

Episode summary

A Forest Of Whispering Speakers is the brand new podcast from The Tragically Hip Podcast Series, charting the world premiere of "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken" at Theatre Aquarius. The musical is built on the music of The Tragically Hip and tells the story of an exiled Iraqi journalist building a new life in Kingston, Ontario. Act I: The Idea is the origin episode - the cold-call, the pitch, the band Zoom, the moment a single CBC story unlocked the whole concept.

Host jD sits down with manager Jake Gold and producer Michael Rubinoff ("Come From Away") to trace how a Tragically Hip musical went from a polite email to a full production. Along the way, three lifelong theatre fans - Jen Towndrow, Armand Baksh-Zarate, and Autumn Tuffin-McDonald - help frame what makes a jukebox musical actually work, and what happens when the source material is a band that means this much to this many people.

This is a spoiler-free, behind-the-scenes podcast. The production is the hero. The musical is the subject. jD is the listener in the room.

Featured voices

• Jake Gold - Manager, The Tragically Hip
• Michael Rubinoff - Producer, "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken" ("Come From Away")
• Jen Townrow - Lifelong musical theatre fan
• Armand - Musical theatre devotee
• Autumn Teffen-McDonald - Theatre fan, seven shows deep into 2026 already

What's covered in Act I

• The original pitch (and the original story - which wasn't Iraq)
• The Zoom call with the band that started it all
• Lindsay Perigoe's viral 2020 CBC piece on Gord Downie, 'Wheat Kings,' and discovering Canada through The Hip
• How the title "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken" landed
• Why The Tragically Hip do not exist inside the world of the show (and where the Easter eggs live)
• The difference between previews and an official opening night

About the show

A Forest Of Whispering Speakers is a six-episode oral history of the Theatre Aquarius world premiere of "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken." New episodes drop weekly on Thursdays.

Resources & references

• Theatre Aquarius - theatreaquarius.org
• Lindsay Perigoe's 2020 CBC piece on The Tragically Hip and discovering Canada
• Hipbase, HipMuseum, This Is Our Life - the standing TTH Podcast Series sources

Listen & follow

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever fine podcasts are found
• Network home: home.tthpods.com
• Community: community.tthpods.com
• Email jD: [email protected]

Also happening - podList 7: the classics

Submissions for podList 7 - a fan cover compilation of Tragically Hip songs from the 1987-1995 catalogue, EP through "Day for Night" - close April 30. Drop date is May 15. Submit at podlist.tthpods.com or email [email protected].

Tip jar

If the work hits, throw a couple bucks at the battery: buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40. Editing is hard. Coffee helps.

Socials

Facebook: community.tthpods.com | Instagram: @tthpods | YouTube: youtube.com/@tthpods

#TheTragicallyHip #TheHip #GordDownie #AForestOfWhisperingSpeakers #ItsAGoodLifeIfYouDontWeaken #TragicallyHip

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Join Greg and Jamie as they celebrate the wonderful world of the Tragically Hip. This episode is fully & completely composed of fan submissions. Listen to your favourite Hip tracks in a whole new way!

Evil Tom Hanks - Montreal

Fifty Mission - When the Weight Comes Down

Craig Rogers & Yvette Drews - Now For Plan A

Totally Hip - The Luxury

Roadside Attraction - Ouch

Shamus Gunn - Get Back Again

Field of Porters - Gus: The Polar Bear from Central Park

Mark & Norah - Flamenco

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Join Greg and Jamie as they celebrate the wonderful world of the Tragically Hip. This episode is fully & completely composed of fan submissions. Listen to your favourite Hip tracks in a whole new way!

Grace, Too - Tim Porterfield 

In View - Shemus Gunn

Looking for a Place to Happen - 50 Mission

Lake Fever - Rico Borrego

Ahead By A Century - Broadtree

Scared - Cory Smith/Steve Cameron

Poeti - Luca Taddia

It Can’t Be Nashville Every Night - Tristan Armstrong

Fully Completely - Craig Dougan

Bobcaygeon - Kevin Foster

Apartment Song - Jordan Venn

Daredevil - Craig Rogers

Chagrin Falls - The Strictly Hip

Fiddler’s Green - The Tristones

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All the best of the season from Greg & Jamie! Enjoy the work of Hip tribute bands and fans alike.

Thugs - Myles Erickson

Something On - Rico Borrego

Every Time You Go - The Tragically Hits

Little Bones - Simply Hip

Poets - Shamus Gunn

Wheat Kings - Adam Ruzzo

The Stanger - Maria King

Emperor Penguin - Jamie Dew & Jason Kirby

Scared - Craig & Mark Rogers

Trick Rider - Darrin Cappe

Ahead by a Century - Pineo Loeb

Thompson Girl - Roadside Attraction

Grace, Too - Fifty Mission

Fiddler's Green - Dean Hutchings

The Depression Suite - The Strictly Hip

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The Tragically Hip On Shuffle - Live Stream: An Inch an Hour

What does a song about slow-moving things sound like at 150 BPMs? Apparently, it sounds like this. jD and the panel dig deep into 'An Inch an Hour' — track 11 from "Day for Night," one of the most layered records The Tragically Hip ever made, and one that keeps revealing new angles the harder you look.

This week's panel is three returning panelists who somehow decided it was okay to come back: Ian from Maple Ridge, Duxoop from Toledo, and Tom from New York. Together they pull apart the glacier metaphor hidden inside a riff that rips, chase down the Springside Park reference (the water there is the colour of tea, and yes, that matters), debate whether the f-bomb in verse two is the reason this song never cracked radio, and reckon with what it means to let a record this good gather dust at the back of the shelf.

Duxoop brought the research. Tom did the math — and the math checks out. Ian brought the imagery of Gord on a tour bus, watching the world fly past at highway speed, throwing a finished book over his shoulder. There's a Trudeau reference in there, a possible Mr. Dressup callback, and a punk rock moment in the second line that you'll never unhear once it's pointed out.

This one also opened with a shoutout to everyone who showed up — virtually, physically, spiritually — for An Evening for Sara J. The $5,000 goal was set. By all accounts, it was cleared. The abacus is back from the shop. More on that as the numbers land.

Also: Ian's tribute band, Gift Shop, has four shows coming up in BC this spring and summer — including an August 20th night in Vancouver marking ten years since the final show. Worth your time. Worth the ticket.

Panelists

Ian from Maple Ridge, BC — Frontman of Gift Shop, a Tragically Hip tribute band based in British Columbia. Catch them at Club 240 in Crescent Beach (April 18), the Roxy in Vancouver (May 1), Shaw Deep Cove Theatre in North Van (June 27), and the Hollywood Theatre in Vancouver (August 20). Tickets and info at giftshophipband.ca.

Duxoop from Toledo, OH — A founding member of this community who found the TTH Podcast Series by typing 'Tragically Hip' into a podcast app and stumbling onto Fully & Completely. He rebuilt his YouTube playlist from scratch — over 500 songs, every solo project, every side door into the catalogue. Find it at Chronologically Hip.

Tom from New York — Two for two on "Day for Night" episodes, and deeply committed to sitting with a record properly before showing up. He owns the half-speed remaster and he'll tell you why that matters.

Song Details

• An Inch an Hour — Track 11, "Day for Night" (1994)
• Produced by Mark Howard, Mark Regan, and The Tragically Hip
• Released September 19, 1994
• Live debut: Molson Park, July 1, 1994 (jD was there)
• Last played: January 20, 2013
• Ended at #57 on the TTHTop40 Countdown
• Played approximately 43 times total over the band's career — tied for 98th with 'Pretend'
• Tonight's version came from the "We Are the Same" tour acoustic set

Source: setlist data and catalogue info drawn from Hipbase and HipMuseum. Hat tip to both.

Next Week

Push shuffle. We're talking Throwing off Glass from "In Violet Light," 2002. A record that is — by all available evidence — having a genuine second life right now. We'll get into it.

podList 7 — The Classics — Submissions Open Now

podList 7 is underway. The theme is the classics — songs from the 1987–1995 era, spanning the debut EP through "Day for Night." Send your submission (your pick, your reason) to [email protected]. Drop date is May 15, 2026. Submission form at podlist.tthpods.com.

Subscribe to Yer Letter

Yer Letter is jD's monthly letter to the community. Not a newsletter. A letter. If you want to know what's happening at the network before it goes anywhere else — episodes, events, fundraising milestones, the stuff that doesn't make it to the feed — this is the place. Sign up at subscribe.tthpods.com.

Support the Cause

An Evening for Sara J raised money for Sara J's fight with breast cancer. The GoFundMe is still live. If you've got it to give, give it. Link at fundraising.tthpods.com.

The TTH Podcast Series has raised almost $40,000 for the Downie Wenjack Fund, The Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research, and CAMH. This community is the reason.

Find Us

Subscribe, share, rate, and review at home.tthpods.com. Join the community at community.tthpods.com. Drop jD a line at [email protected].

#TheTragicallyHip #DayForNight #TTHOnShuffle #GordDownie #TragicallyHip #TheHip

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An Evening For Sara J - The Podcast

Patrick Downie doesn't show up to talk about the band. He shows up to talk about his brother.

That's what made An Evening for Sara J - a community fundraiser held April 11, 2025 at the Firkin on Yonge in Toronto - something a little different. Patrick joined jD on stage in front of a room full of Hip fans, and what followed was one of the most honest, warm, and quietly moving conversations this network has ever put to tape. No press junket. No talking points. Just a brother talking about a brother - and what it means to carry that forward.

They got into the weight of curating Gord's legacy, the Downie Wenjack Fund, what it felt like to go from being taken care of to doing the taking care of. Patrick talked about the Dirty Three, about Gord's deep punk rock heart, about the new Gord Downie and the Sadies and the Conquering Sun record - eight tracks from 2014, Gord at full speed, letting it all go. They talked about 'Are We Family?' and what family actually meant in that house, with that clock on the wall and that pattern on the tape. And they talked about Buffalo. Obviously.

This one is different. You'll know it when you hear it.

About Patrick Downie

Patrick Downie is the younger brother of Gord Downie and a tireless steward of Gord's legacy - through the Downie Wenjack Fund, through the ongoing archival releases, and through showing up to rooms like this one when it matters. He is, as he put it himself, still taking care of his brother.

Resources & Links

• Join the community at community.tthpods.com
• Support the Sara J GoFundMe at fundraising.tthpods.com
• The Downie Wenjack Fund: downiewenjack.ca
• Gord Downie and the Sadies and the Conquering Sun: Live at Six O'Clock - available now
• More from The Tragically Hip Podcast Series at home.tthpods.com

Connect

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

#TheTragicallyHip #GordDownie #InGordWeTrust #TheHip #TragicallyHip #GordFuckingDownie

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It started as a punishment.

In 2016, jD heard Greg LeGros pitch "Now For Plan A" on See You Next Wednesday - not as a bad pick, but as something deeply underappreciated that deserved a real listen. jD listened. Came back. And somehow, without either of them knowing it yet, that was the moment Fully & Completely was born.

Full circle, ten years later. Here we are.

About This Episode

jD and Greg LeGros return to the record that, in a weird and fortuitous way, started everything - The Tragically Hip's 2012 album "Now For Plan A." It's the most overlooked record in the catalogue. It's also, when you know what you're listening to, one of the most emotionally devastating.

The Hip recorded "Now For Plan A" while Gord Downie's wife was fighting cancer. Not every track maps directly to that experience - but enough of them do that, once you know, the whole album reorients. The desperation in the vocals. The urgency in the hooks. The tenderness buried inside songs that, on the surface, just cook.

jD and Greg go track by track through the full record, unpacking every song with the weight of that context - and without it, for the songs that stand on their own terms. They talk about what it means to watch a chemotherapy drip and write a lyric. About Gord's wife being "the look ahead." About a title that works on at least three different levels simultaneously. About why 'Goodnight Attawapiskat' is a precis for the last six years of the band.

They also set the scene for 2012 - the 100th Grey Cup in Toronto, the beginning of streaming, the vinyl comeback, Kendrick Lamar's arrival, and how Bruce Springsteen's "Wrecking Ball" tour changed at least one life in Hamilton that year.

This is a big one.

Why This Record Matters

jD puts it plainly near the end: "This is almost like a precis for the last six years of this band." The journey through cancer. The band songs. The Indigenous reckoning with a thousand mile suit and a community named out loud. "Now For Plan A" was released in 2012 with no context - and it quietly contained everything that was coming.

Greg's take is maybe the sharpest thing said in the episode: "How weird is it that he didn't get to release a record about his illness, and yet we've got track after track of him explaining how he feels about this illness."

You've got to love it. We've got to love it. Because they fucking loved it.

Also in This Episode

• The 100th Grey Cup: nine-and-nine Toronto Argonauts, Burton Cummings on the National Anthem, Justin Bieber and Gordon Lightfoot sharing a halftime show
• Why you should follow Burton Cummings on Facebook immediately
• The streaming-meets-vinyl moment of 2012, and why download codes were a genius move
• Greg's Springsteen conversion in Hamilton (it took three hours and he knew 15% of the songs)
• Greg's CanRock playlist on Spotify - four hours, search Greg LeGros
• The return of Time Bandits, Greg's other podcast - starting with 1980's "Battle Beyond the Stars"

Resources & References

• The Hip Compendium - Setlists, song history, full discography: compendium.tthpods.com
• Hipbase - Tragically Hip discography and catalogue data: hipbase.com
• This Is Our Life by Michael Barclay - the definitive Hip biography
• The Tragically Hip Archive - Live recordings and preservation archive
• Greg LeGros on Spotify - CanRock playlist + Time Bandits episodes (search: Greg LeGros)
• Yer Letter - Sign up for the TTH Podcast Series newsletter: subscribe.tthpods.com
• Facebook Community - community.tthpods.com

Listen & Follow

Listen now via home.tthpods.com | Follow on Instagram and Facebook @tthpods | Reach jD at [email protected]

#TheTragicallyHip #FullyCompletely #GordDownie #NowForPlanA #CanadianRock #TragicallyHipPodcast

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The Tragically Hip On Shuffle - Live Stream: 'The Luxury'

'The Luxury' sits in the middle third of "Road Apples" and somehow that's exactly where it belongs.

Track four of twelve. It doesn't announce itself. It doesn't demand anything from you. It just settles in - dark, jazzy, a little snarling - and waits to see if you're paying attention.

Turns out, a lot of people are.

This week on The Tragically Hip On Shuffle, jD is joined by three first-timers - Paul from Columbus, Jamie from LA (by way of Montreal, for the record), and Eric from Toronto, who also happens to shred guitar in Forever Hip.

Three rookies. One song. Zero consensus on where it ranks on "Road Apples." All the consensus in the world on 'The Last Recluse.' So there's that.

The tale of the tape: 

'The Luxury' comes from "Road Apples," released February 18th, 1991, and recorded at Kingsway Studios in New Orleans - Daniel Lanois' personal studio. Produced by Don Smith. Live debut: March 1st, 1991 at the Town Pump in Vancouver. Final performance: August 10th at the Air Canada Centre - the middle show of the Man Machine Poem Tour. It ranked #67 out of 169 songs on the TTHTop40 Countdown.

The conversation goes deep:

Jamie breaks down a single melodic note change Gord made on the chorus - from the studio recording through the Roxy in May '91 all the way to "Live Between Us" in '96 - and how that one shift changed the song's emotional register entirely.

Eric reads the lyrics as a vignette: a man fresh out of prison, hiring company for the night, seeing a colour TV and soft water as genuine luxuries.

Paul connects the song to the fire at his cottage near Tobermory, a Crown Royal in hand, just letting it sit.

They get into the "fleur-de-lis" line, the Playboy reference, the lyric flip on "why are you partial to that Playboy con," and Gord's famous "song about a man walking down the street shaking a banana" intro on "Live Between Us." There's also a live chat shoutout to Duxoop Douglas for the New Orleans connection.

Very good, yeah.

The live shuffle at the end of the episode lands on 'An Inch, An Hour' from "Day for Night." Next week.

Paul from Columbus is a lifelong Hip fan from Columbus, Ohio - and the guy who connected the July 1st, 1992 Molson Park poster to the raffle happening this Saturday at An Evening for Sara J. Bada bing.

Jamie from LA - originally from Montreal, where his love for The Hip was first forged at camp in '89 via a mixtape with 'New Orleans Is Sinking' and '38 Years Old' on it - is heading to Toronto at the end of the month to perform in the cast of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish with English supertitles at the Elgin Theatre. May 25th to June 7th. Go see it.

Eric from Toronto plays guitar in Forever Hip, who are performing this Saturday at An Evening for Sara J at the Firkin on Yonge. Patrick Downie will be there. Two sets of all your favourites and that song you're thinking of right now. Yes, that one.

Resources & References

• 'The Luxury' - "Road Apples" (1991), Kingsway Studios, New Orleans
• Produced by Don Smith | Released February 18th, 1991
• Live debut: March 1st, 1991 - Town Pump, Vancouver
• Final performance: August 10th - Air Canada Centre (Man Machine Poem Tour)
• TTHTop40 ranking: #67 of 169 (source: TTHTop40 Countdown, 2025)
• "Live Between Us" (1996) - the version that changed the song for Jamie
• Live at the Roxy, May 1991 - early live recording referenced
• Live at Metropole, October 1998 - referenced in conversation
• Setlist data: Hipbase | setlist.fm

An Evening for Sara J - This Saturday, April 11th The Firkin on Yonge, 207 Yonge St, Toronto. Doors 7 PM. Featuring Patrick Downie and Forever Hip. Tickets at tickets.tthpods.com. Every dollar raised goes directly to the cause.

Next episode: 'An Inch, An Hour' from "Day for Night." Live stream, 8 PM. Be there.

Join the community at home.tthpod.com @tthpods | youtube.com/@tthpods | j[email protected]

#TheTragicallyHip #TTHOnShuffle #RoadApples #GordDownie #TheHip #CanadianRockPodcast

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Getting Hip to the Hip - "We Are the Same"

Pete and Tim hear "We Are the Same" for the first time. Bob Rock, big strings, and a campfire album that divides fans right down the middle.

EPISODE SUMMARY

Released in 2009 and produced by Bob Rock, "We Are the Same" was the first record in over 20 years that made Tragically Hip fans wait longer than two years for new material. It debuted at number one. And it is, to put it diplomatically, a record that asks something of you.

Pete Marchica and Tim Lyden sit down with jD for their first full listen, and neither of them is ready for what they get. The conversation covers every track - from the country-laced AM radio chorus of 'Morning Moon' to the sprawling, emotionally devastating nine-plus minutes of 'Depression Suite,' which Pete calls fucking magnificent. There are Pink Floyd comparisons, David Gilmour guitar tributes, a detour into the agricultural meaning of 'Queen of the Furrows,' and a story about how Gord heard a CBC news correspondent's name as "Honey Watson" mid-song and just... went with it.

The residential school system, the weight of Gord's legacy as a voice for people who needed one, and the question of where that voice has gone in music today - those threads run through the episode too. Pete says it plainly. Tim agrees. jD doesn't argue.

Bob Rock takes some heat. The drum mixing takes some heat. The strings - which show up on approximately every song - take some heat. And yet, somehow, this episode ends with three grown men picking their MVPs and meaning every word.

'Depression Suite' is jD's. 'Frozen in My Tracks' is Tim's. Pete's? Listen and find out. Some things you've got to earn.

ABOUT THE HOSTS

jD is the founder and host of The Tragically Hip Podcast Series, a seven-show podcast network built out of love for a band and a community. He has raised over $35,000 for causes including the Downie Wenjack Fund, the Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research, and CAMH.

Pete Marchica is coming to you from Spain. He showed up this week with notes, opinions, and a strip club analogy that somehow makes complete sense in context.

Tim Lyden listened to this album later than he would like to admit, did a deep dive on Honey Watson's true identity the day before recording, and watched a crow destroy something in his backyard mid-episode.

RESOURCES & REFERENCES

• Tragically Hip discography and setlist data: Hipbase
• Live performance history: setlist.fm
• Band biography: This Is Our Life by Michael Barclay
• The Tragically Hip Archive - source for live recordings

IN THIS EPISODE

• Opening: jD on "We Are the Same" and the three-year wait
• The Italian fan translating Hip lyrics into his own melodic structure
• Track-by-track: 'Morning Moon,' 'Honey Please,' 'Wheat Kings,' 'Coffee Girl,' 'Exact Feeling,' 'Queen of the Furrows,' 'Speed River,' 'Depression Suite,' 'Love Is a First,' 'Country Day'
• The Bob Rock debate: production genius or too much Kool-Aid?
• Gord Downie, residential schools, and the question of who speaks for the people now
• MVPs, playlist picks, and a poodle skirt fundraising pledge

CALLS TO ACTION

Listen to Getting Hip to the Hip and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Join the community: community.tthpods.com

CONNECT

📸 Instagram: @tthpods ▶️ YouTube: youtube.com/@tthpods

📧 Email: [email protected]

#TheTragicallyHip #GordDownie #WeAreTheSame #TragicallyHip #GettigHipToTheHip #CanadianRock

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