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Season 2 E21: HEART

The mystery of love is the ultimate pursuit in the learning world. The heart is companion to the soul as is Maria with Fidgal. Together they take us through the body and mind to the spirit where love lives. The heart is home to compassion and courage, to humanity and brotherly love. But it’s a fragile place that gets easily broken. What happens then?

THE NEW NORMAL PODCAST – Maria Iuliano with Fidgal

Maria guides a successful business called Fidgal, named after Maria’s guardian angel. They met when Maria was 5 years old.

Maria is a Peace Therapist, graduated with Honours in Peace and Conflict Studies from Sault College of Applied Arts and Technology. With this knowledge, along with her expertise in the afterlife and her ability to see auras, Maria helps others find and create peace in their lives.

Visit: fidgal.com

“Only love can lead with the heart.”

Date:5 August 2025 .

Steven Paul Lansky is a novelist, musician, poet, radio DJ, and educator. He lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, and since childhood, spends his summers on St. Joseph Island, Ontario. Steven is an author of seven books, two poetry chapbooks, an audio novel, a novella, a collection of vignettes and sketches, a memoir and a novel. His art delves into topics of schizophrenia, alcoholism, sex, drugs and rock’n’roll.

Steve Lansky has a unique perspective, from the doorward gaze, drawn either way, of the neurotypical, or the neurospectacular. Somewhere in between ambition, and accomplishment (something of a bipolarity itself, eh?). He starts a conversation with a version of himself, and flexes outward, as the reader becomes the most colorful of chameleons. Sure, there’s some shapeshifting here, and a relaxation of the serotonin guardrails, that order memory, and experience, to behave in a linear way, but it’s supposed to be fickle.

Lansky’s singular, marvelously absurd, graphic, hybrid novella, Shoes has cutting-edge detailed, prose modeled on recanted reality. It moves like the doorway god Janus, who, upon the threshold, looks both outwards, and to the interior. Two faces, toggle facets of moments, the third eye drawn from both, or either, and between the front and back, the edge. Imaginary and real, fantastic and mundane, possibilities sublimely rendered in comedic instants tucked into the mind as wayposts.

The novella shifts between places, a possible diagnosis, a change of heart, and/or venue, that keeps the reader in a rather delightful attempt to keep up with or abandon meaning in a literal sense. Take the rich detail and let the author’s sure hand move the narrative smartly back and forth through the doorway. Understand that the instrument of illustration is unnecessary for genuine pleasure in getting a little lost in the story and getting a little lost in the author, but the graphic element helps. There is a personal metaphor in all the mileage piled up, in the distance, from place to place recounted, time travel, from footnote to footnote.

Featured Music: Flem Snopes & Gordon Lee Theme Music: MAN FEELINGS

Running Time: 54 minutes

Date:31 July 2025 .

This collection of songs embodies the best of Maja’s intentions—the attempt to maintain an unswerving gaze upon the world, with all its struggles, while simultaneously expressing her deep love of people and life.
Some of these songs were written at an earlier time when the world seemed less strained than it is now. Delving into social and political concerns has always been part of Maja’s creative output – whether in songs, poems or monologues. Now that the state of the planet has tipped even more on its axis, there is an urgency to release WHAT A WORLD ! and Maja hopes this album offers you both comfort and courage.

APPEARING IN CONCERT
Sault Ste. Marie Black Fly Jam > SUNDAY, JULY 20 @ 3pm

Wawa Music Festival > JULY 25- 27

Manitoulin Island > THURSDAY, JULY 31

With Musicians: Rusty McCarthy & Doug Wilde

Writer ~ Singer ~ Poet
Performing Artist
Maja Bannerman is a published Canadian writer, singer, and performing artist based in the Niagara region. She first gained recognition in the 1980s as one of the pioneering artists who transformed the cultural and artistic landscape of Queen Street West in Toronto. Since then, she has toured across Canada, presenting her unique blend of music, spoken word, and theatrical performances, both as a solo artist and in collaboration with others.

Running Time: 85 minutes

Date:30 July 2025 .

Libby & Cal where a Millennial autoharpist meets a Boomer 12-string player at a festival and all sorts of musical magic ensues. Acoustic duo Libby & Cal transcend boundaries and trip across genres while tackling subjects that are rarely voiced in song. A delightfully risqué, painfully honest and musically stimulating experience.

Libby plays her DIY-modified autoharp. Cal plays the 12-string he swapped for a bicycle. Together, Libby & Cal perform eclectic but surprisingly catchy indie-folk music. The Ottawa-based duo have played at various venues in Ontario and Quebec, as well as the 2025 California Autoharp Gathering.

Libby bought her autoharp in 2014 after many back-breaking years of lugging her electric piano to gigs. Under the name Elizabeth Bruce she released two albums of original music, As We Sadden Each Other to Sleep and The Silent I Know. She currently teaches music and runs a monthly women-centered open mic in Ottawa called, “Sad Girl Café”.

Cal (AKA Doug Hendry) has been entertaining crowds with his musical talent since the age of four, singing in a choir in his native Scotland. As a teenager, he made his way playing street corners and folk clubs throughout Britain and Europe. Cal emigrated to Canada in 1991 and has played regularly in various bands, including – Odd One Out, Bruce Enloe & the Burning Sensations, Emmi Winter & the Heroic Mad Peasants, Fiddlehead Soup, Tripoly, the Grenville Troubadours.

2021 Our Lady of Perpetual Hammer

2022 If You’ve Given Up on Love, Then Let’s Call it Something Else

2025 The Hagstrom-Schmidt Affair

“Libby and Cal unswervingly do their own thing and it is great.” – James Stephens

“Their harmonies are as tight as those of The Everly Brothers!” – Suzanne Nuttall

Running time: 73 minutes.

Date:30 July 2025 .

Season 2 E20: TRANSGENDER

Transgender people have a gender identity or gender expression that differs from the sex that they were assigned at birth. There are many people, and governments, that find transgender a difficult concept. Maria, with Fidgal, teach their spiritual understanding of the transgender world.

THE NEW NORMAL PODCAST – Maria Iuliano with Fidgal

Maria guides a successful business called Fidgal, named after Maria’s guardian angel. They met when Maria was 5 years old.

Maria is a Peace Therapist, graduated with Honours in Peace and Conflict Studies from Sault College of Applied Arts and Technology. With this knowledge, along with her expertise in the afterlife and her ability to see auras, Maria helps others find and create peace in their lives.

Visit: fidgal.com

“Reality is the way you do see things, not the way you want them to be seen.”

Date:29 July 2025 .

Norm Douglas was born in Hawk Junction, Ontario, and grew up in Sault Ste. Marie. He earned his BA and LLB degrees from Queen’s University. In 1973, immediately after completing the Bar Admissions, Norm was appointed Assistant Crown Attorney back in his hometown of Sault Ste. Marie, and he became the Crown Attorney in 1980. In 1992, he moved to Toronto to take up the position of Senior Counsel and then Director of Criminal Prosecutions for Ontario, and two years later, after a twenty-one-year career as a Crown Counsel, he was appointed to the Ontario Court of Justice to preside as a criminal court judge in Brampton, Ontario.

On his seventy-fifth birthday in November 2021, after twenty-seven-and-a-half years on the bench, Norm retired from his position. Rewarding as his time as a Crown Attorney and judge were, the best job he has ever had is what he does now – being “Grampa Buck” to his eleven grandchildren.

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You Be The Judge – Have you ever wanted to be a judge? Here’s your chance. Sit on the dais beside criminal court judge and author Norm Douglas as he wrestles with difficult decisions that he had to make. This book presents twelve homicide cases and another twelve riveting true-crime cases where you, the reader, are either the judge or the prosecutor.

You Be the Judge provides an interactive legal exercise where the readers engage with the daily dilemmas and considerations faced inside the courtroom and gain behind-the-scenes access to the Canadian justice system. Based on Norm Douglas’s lifetime contributions to bringing the law into Canadian classrooms, the book is a testament to his career and the complexity of arriving at true justice. Experience a collaborative journey into ethics, morality, and legality as you adjudicate, deliberate, and judge. Perfect for legal enthusiasts, classroom teachers, and aspiring judges.

“Here comes the judge.”

Date:29 July 2025 .

The Speak Easy Podcast evokes the spirit of fearless conversation and honest debate. Like the hidden bars of the Prohibition era, this podcast creates a space for unfiltered political discourse – where ideas flow freely, perspectives clash respectfully, and nothing is off the table. With co-hosts Robert Peace and Josh Vierimaa offering both seasoned insight and fresh perspective, The Speak Easy invites listeners into a conversation that is as bold as it is accessible.

Episode 8 07/25 – Age & Democracy: How Do We Get More People To Care?

Data proves that voters are diminishing. The United Kingdom is grappling with the notion of lowering their voting age to 16. Is it a valid idea to attract more voters? Or is it a short-term vote-getting gimmick with problematic long-term consequences? The Speak Easy examines the political apathy and disinterest existing in the land. And of the folks that do fill the ballot, are they even fully informed?

Robert Peace is a longtime political strategist, media producer, and community advocate based in Sault Ste. Marie. With decades of experience advising leaders, running campaigns, and building grassroots initiatives, he brings sharp insights and a deep understanding of politics at every level.

Josh Vierimaa is an 18-year-old political consultant and rising voice in Canadian conservatism. As a strategist for both provincial and federal Conservative campaigns in Sault Ste. Marie, founder of the Conservative Youth at Algoma University and President of the Students’ Union, Josh brings sharp political instincts, a deep love of history, and a fresh generational perspective to The Speak Easy podcast.

Date:28 July 2025 .

“The Grievous Angels are following in the footsteps of Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Joe Strummer and Billy Bragg.” — Tinnitist.

For the last three decades, the Grievous Angels have been carving out a unique place in the alt-roots landscape. The band conjures the tragic beauty of life in a dark and dystopic time.

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Charlie Angus – vocals/guitar
Janet Mercier – vocals
Alexandra Bell – vocals/piano/tambourine
Peter Jellard – vocals, fiddle, accordion, guitar, harmonica, mandolin
Tim Hadley – bass
Ian McKendry – guitar
Nathan Mahaffy – vocals, drums

Date:25 July 2025 .

Jeremy Young is a maker of concrète electronic tape music from Tiohtià:ke/Montréal, Quebec. He is a member of the poetry_sound duo Cloud Circuit, the electroacoustic modern classical trio Sontag Sh**un, and library music waveriders Associated Sine Tone Services. His latest full-length recordings are Cablcar, issued by Halocline Trance, and Masses, issued by We, Here, & Now Recordings.

Making use of a sine and square wave oscillator system, analog 1/4″ tape and open reel loops, filtered radio and EMF signal, and foley-inspired sound treatments from amplified surfaces and objects, Young’s improvisational and compositional techniques are influenced by Cagean reel and unreel tapes, pure and unpure tones. royal edits. “eye” image by the late Paul Clipson.

Young’s long-evolving solo practice makes use of a sine and square wave oscillator system, 1/4″ magnetic tape, filtered radio and EMF signal, and foley-inspired sound treatments from amplified surfaces and objects. Taking cues from his reverberant, cyclical live performances in flow and texture, the works that make up Cablcar each derived from scraps of found reel-to-reel tape material sourced on eBay and sampled by splicing; leaning into Cagean chance processes and adapted collage techniques influenced by the Fluxus expressionism of Joseph Beuys. This elemental tape matter is supplemented with tone clusters, ostinati, and legato melodic phrases sputtered out by very cranky hardware machines.

Because Young’s “Studieau Royale” is outfitted with monophonic oscillators, every note on Cablcar was tuned by hand and employed by attenuation. No keyboards, no synths, no digital plugins or VSTs — all frequency dials, voltage cutoff knobs, tubes and magnets; pure electricity. This tactile praxis combined with a haptics-sensitive deep listening ethos, anchors his McLuhan-esque credo that the tonal content of a musical work is equally as meaningful as the auditory medium on which it was recorded, edited, and played back.

Thus, Cablcar won’t sound like most electronic music served up via the nearest algorithm — this music is lo-fi on every level. Berlin-based engineer (and curator of the Morphine Records label) Rabih Beaini mixed the entire record on an analog board, linearly with hands roaming the faders throughout, while Guillermo Pizarro’s mastering explicitly emphasizes tape hiss and forgotten auditory artefacts in the signal. In this way, the music also perfectly matches the visual artistry of filmmaker Charles-André Coderre, who contributed chemically-deconstructed 16mm celluloid imagery to both the album’s artwork and the video for the primary single, “Judy.”

released April 5, 2025

cablcar CREDITS

JEREMY YOUNG 1/4″ magnetic tape, sine/square wave oscillators, guitar, wurlitzer, piezo amplified objects & surfaces, “the” radio, grief, lightning, self-doubt, & bourbon.
DEANNA RADFORD words on tape on A3.
YLANGYLANG voice on B2.
RABIH BEAINI analog mixing.
GUILLERMO PIZARRO mastering.
CHARLES-ANDRÉ CODERRE 16mm celluloid experiments.
AUDREY LEGEROT portrait photography.
LÉON LO layout & design.
DAVID PSUTKA & ANNA MAYBERRY executive production.
PRECISION RECORD PRESSING vinyl production.
SRD distribution.
Photograph of TITLIS cable car found somewhere, at some time. Most tape reels sourced blindly in bulk via eBay. This record is dedicated to the memory of JUDY YOUNG (1923-2023).

HALOCLINE TRANCE 2025.

Running time: 23 minutes.

Date:23 July 2025 .

“Come down Joe Strummer this is punk rock time,
the future is unwritten gonna make it this time.” – from Litany of the Saints

Charlie Angus is a man for the present times and he and his band, Grievous Angels, are hitting on all cylinders. For the last three decades, the Grievous Angels have been carving out a unique place in the alt-roots landscape. The band conjures the tragic beauty of life in a dark and dystopic time. Singing songs of protest and leading the charge against what Charlie sees as democracy under siege, the Grievous Angels haven’t forgotten their roots or the land they live in.

Formed as a busking punk trio in the late 1980s, the band has evolved into a multi-genre 7-piece group that now has released 9 studio albums (as of this taped interview) with a 10th on the way in late 2025.

Charlie Angus – vocals/guitar
Janet Mercier – vocals
Alexandra Bell – vocals/piano/tambourine
Peter Jellard – vocals, fiddle, accordion, guitar, harmonica, mandolin
Tim Hadley – bass
Ian McKendry – guitar
Nathan Mahaffy – vocals, drums

“Last Call for Cinderella is a wonder. It is like wandering into the perfect kitchen party where the musicians are not only impeccable, but their material flows from one song and genre to the next seamlessly. This is a protest album for a modern world, but it’s also a gift from the hearts of seven incredibly talented musicians.” – Blog Critics

“The Grievous Angels are following in the footsteps of Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Joe Strummer and Billy Bragg.” – Tinnitist

Running time: 55 minutes.

Date:21 July 2025 .