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The reporter and bestselling author Mike McCardell discusses his recent book Haunting British Columbia: Ghostly Tales from the Past (Harbour Publishing, 2021), going into cardiac arrest recently, and more, with Joseph Planta.

Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Haunting British Columbia

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Mike McCardell joins me again. The beloved television reporter and bestselling author recently published Haunting British Columbia: Ghostly Tales from the Past. In the book, Mike summons a ghost to tell stories of people and events that shaped British Columbia. These are stories told in Mike’s inimitable style, often thoughtful, sometimes moving, and illustrated with archival photos and doodles that add much to the stories told about people we ought to remember for good, and sometimes bad. This past fall, Mike suffered an episode of ill health. I’ll ask him about what happened to his heart, and how he recovered. Mike McCardell is the author of the bestselling essay collections Unlikely Love Stories, Here’s Mike, Chasing the Story God, Back Alley Reporter, Getting to the Bubble, The Expanded Reilly Method, The Blue Flames That Keep Us Warm, Everything Works, None of This Was Planned, Shoelaces Are Hard, Haunting Vancouver, and Cardboard Ocean, a memoir. He’s been on the podcast for a number of those books; in fact, this is his ninth appearance on the show. This new book, as well as the others is from Harbour Publishing. He appears nightly on the CTV Vancouver’s News at Six broadcast with The Last Word. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Mike McCardell; Mr. McCardell, good morning.

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The artist Marina Szijarto discusses Into the Light, the new immersive exhibition, co-created with Stephanie Wong, at the Gateway Theatre, 18-20 February 2022, with Joseph Planta.

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

One way to mark Lunar New Year is to go see the immersive exhibition at the Gateway Theatre, Into the Light: Friday, 18 February to Sunday, 20 February 2022. It’s for all ages, and it looks at the rituals and customs practiced today, that are said to have originated in the ancient tale of the sea monster Nian. The installation will be full of red, as well as light, and the sound of celebration. Joining me now is Marina Szijarto. She and Stephanie Wong created Into the Light, and I’ll get Marina to preview what to expect and more. The exhibit is on Friday from 5.00pm to 8.00pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 1.00pm to 8.00pm. Visit www.gatewaytheatre.com for tickets and information. It is a contactless experience with timed entry, and all Provincial Health Orders will be adhered to including showing proof of full vaccination and picture ID, not to mention masks. Marina Szijarto is a Richmond-based professional artist with more than twenty five years experience in diverse contemporary arts practices including installation arts and shrines, theatre and festival design, and community-engaged arts. She is an Artist-in-residence at Mountain View Cemetery here in Vancouver. Visit her website at www.marinaszijarto.com for more. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Marina Szijarto; Ms. Szijarto, good morning.

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The actor and writer David Pevsner discusses his new memoir Damn Shame: A Memoir of Desire, Defiance, and Show Tunes (Random House, 2022), with Joseph Planta.

Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Damn Shame

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

David Pevsner bares all, literally in his new book Damn Shame: A Memoir of Desire, Defiance, and Show Tunes. In his over forty-year career in entertainment Mr. Pevsner, who joins me now, has acted on Broadway, off-Broadway, in film and television. He also has worked in the sex trade as a male escort and over the last several years has gained an international fan base through his blog of erotic and nude photography that celebrate his sixty-two-year-old body. It wasn’t always like this for David. As he writes in the book, he was an awkward, slight, shy child, ashamed of his body and sexuality. He chronicles his discovery of sex, and his identity, not to mention his creativity in this book. It’s an often-entertaining read, with humour and frankness. It’s also defiant in how it stresses the message of anti-ageism, anti-shame, and pro-nudity. David Pevsner is an actor based in Los Angeles, who is also a writer and model. His film and television appearances are myriad, including Silicon Valley, NCIS, I’m Dying Up Here, Modern Family, Grey’s Anatomy, and Law and Order LA, among many others. He also starred in the popular web series Old Dogs and New Tricks. His work as a songwriter has been featured in the global hit show Naked Boys Singing!, his album Most Versatile, and one-man shows, including Musical Comedy Whore! His Instagram is @dpevs. This new book is published by Random House. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, David Pevsner; Mr. Pevsner, good morning.

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Kitt Shapiro, the daughter of Eartha Kitt, discusses her new memoir Eartha & Kitt: A Daughter’s Love Story in Black and White (Pegasus Books, 2021), with Joseph Planta.

Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Eartha & Me

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

The life of Eartha Kitt is revisited in a timely and fascinating book, Eartha & Kitt: A Daughter’s Love Story in Black and White. It’s written by her daughter, Kitt Shapiro, who joins me now. Eartha Kitt was born in 1927 to extreme poverty in South Carolina. She was a mix of Black, Cherokee, and white, who didn’t know her father. And when her mother sought to remarry and bring young Eartha along, she was refused, and Eartha was forced to live with an abusive family. It was the source of immense pain that she carried through her life, as Ms. Shapiro writes in her book. She was then taken in by an aunt in New York City, and later became a student with Katharine Dunham. Her training in dance leads her to performing in nightclubs in Europe, and later back in America on Broadway with New Faces of 1952. She stars in films like Anna Lucasta with Sammy Davis Jr., St. Louis Blues with Nat King Cole, as well as Mark of the Hawk with Sidney Poitier. All this before Kitt’s birth in 1961, the product of Kitt’s marriage to the accountant Bill McDonald. Ms. Shapiro writes of her parents, and their marriage with the context of some letters she found after her mother’s death in 2008. From playing Catwoman on the television series Batman, to appearances on the stage as well as in concerts and cabarets, Eartha Kitt’s work in the United States dries up after a 1968 visit to the White House, where at a luncheon hosted by Lady Bird Johnson, she criticises US involvement in Vietnam. She’s soon blacklisted on orders of Lyndon Johnson and smeared by the CIA and FBI. She maintains a following overseas, and only about ten years later does she find employment in the United States, in particular her Tony-nominated turn as the lead in the musical Timbuktu! I’ll ask Ms. Shapiro about her mother, what it was like traveling the world with her mother as a young person, to managing her career later on, and what life was like as the daughter of someone Orson Welles once described as “the most exciting woman in the world.” Kitt Shapiro managed her mother’s performances and recording career for many years, and now manages her estate. She is the founder and owner of Simply Eartha, and WEST, a women’s fashion boutique in Westport, Connecticut, where she joined me from last week. Visit www.simplyeartha.com for more. Her book is published by Pegasus Books. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Kitt Shapiro; Ms. Shapiro, good morning.

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The writer and bestselling author Michael Harris discusses his new book All We Want: Building the Life We Cannot Buy (Doublerday, 2021), with Joseph Planta.

Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: All We Want

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Michael Harris joins me again. He recently published a new book All We Want: Building the Life We Cannot Buy. Like his previous books, it’s an engaging look at life and the society we live in today, and what’s sustainable for the future. In this book, he begins by looking at the endless consumption plaguing our society. Then the book gets back to basics as it were, as Mr. Harris seeks the meaning we need by understanding craft, as well as the outdoors, and beauty. Then the author reflects on life through the understanding of care. He wonders what his later years will be like, as he discusses his husband’s mother’s dementia. It’s often hectic and frustrating, but Michael finds the sublime. The book looks at what’s untenable and unsustainable in society, but it also seeks to find what lasts and what endures in life itself, especially the one we cultivate with ourselves and those closest to us. Michael Harris is the bestselling author of The End of Absence, and Solitude. The former received the Governor General’s Literary Award for Nonfiction, and was longlisted for a slew of book prizes. The latter was also a national bestseller, and was longlisted for the RBC Taylor Prize. He first appeared on the program when that book was published in 2017. He is a faculty member in the Literary Journalism program at the Banff Centre, and the writer of the award-winning podcast Command Line Heroes. The website for more is at www.MichaelJohnHarris.com. This new book is published by Doubleday. We taped this interview nearly a month ago. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Michael Harris; Mr. Harris, good morning.

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The producer Phil Geoffrey Bond discusses the first of three volumes of Stephen Sondheim music and lyrics out now, Sondheim Unplugged: The NYC Sessions – Volume One (Yellow Sound Label, 2021), with Joseph Planta.

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

It was three Fridays ago that the news that Stephen Sondheim died hit our computer screens, our phones and other devices. Since then an outpouring of memories, songs, of his letters to admirers and fans have filled those same digital screens, as his genius is rightfully lauded. His music and lyrics are also immortalised in a new release, the first of three volumes. Timely doesn’t begin to describe what’s to be had in the two-disc album that’s out now, available on digital and streaming platforms too. Sondheim Unplugged: The NYC Sessions – Volume One is out now, while volumes two and three will be out in 2022. All told there will be 120 Sondheim songs, featuring 65 singers. There are songs from the Sondheim oeuvre that are fun and familiar, as well as lesser-known ones; gems all. This comes out of the smash New York revue, that in over a decade, has featured Broadway’s most impressive vocalists along with a piano. It’s Sondheim at his purest if you will, the way he wrote these songs. In this new album, the recordings are done in the studio and feature several performers who originated roles in Sondheim musicals like Annie Golden, Danielle Ferland, and Teri Ralston. Others featured in the forty-two tracks of volume one, include the vocal group Marquee Five, Michael Winther, Donna Vivino, Karen Mason, Stearns Matthews, Hunter Ryan Herdlicka, Alice Ripley, Sally Mayes, and Charlie Levy, among many others. These vocalists are accompanied by Music Director Joseph Goodrich on piano. And this monumental collection is produced by Phil Geoffrey Bond, who joins me now. I’ll ask him about what Sondheim has meant to him, the Sondheim Unplugged revue, and now this album. Phil Geoffrey Bond is the host of the revue which finds its regular home at New York’s famed Feinstein’s/54 Below. Visit www.SondheimUnplugged.com for more. The album is from Yellow Sound Label. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Phil Geoffrey Bond; Mr. Bond, good morning.

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The co-founder of Ozery Bakery and Parallel Brothers Alon Ozery discusses his new memoir Even the Sidewalk Could Tell: How I Came Out to My Three Children, and the World (Regent Park, 2021), with Joseph Planta.

Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Even the Sidewalk Could Tell

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Alon Ozery was born in Toronto to an Orthodox Jewish father, and a British mother. He was raised in Israel, going through a mandatory stint in the Israeli army, returning to Canada later for education. He talks about his formative years, and how he and his family founded Ozery Bakery, as well as his marriage and the three children that quickly follow. He’s reflective and revelatory about finding his true self and coming out of the closet to not only his family, but himself in a new memoir: Even the Sidewalk Could Tell: How I Came Out to My Three Children, and the World. He joins me now to talk about the book, about his life and more. Half of the profits of the book will be donated to Friends of Ruby in Toronto, an organisation dedicated to the progressive wellbeing of LGBTQI2S youth. Visit www.alonozery.com for more information. This new book is from Regent Park Publishing. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Alon Ozery; Mr. Ozery, good morning.

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The comedian and podcaster Graham Clark discusses his fundraising comedy marathon, this Friday and Saturday (17-18 December 2021), 24 hours of stand-up comedy for charity at Little Mountain Gallery, with Joseph Planta.

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

For twenty-four hours, starting at 8.00pm this Friday, 17 December 2021, Graham Clark will be taking the stage and performing stand up comedy. Yes, for twenty-four consecutive hours, with only a few bathroom breaks, he’ll be embarking on marathon comedy all in aid of a new location for the soon to be demolished Little Mountain Gallery on 26th Avenue just off of Main Street. The money raised will be used to seek a new space, as the storied venue has hosted many DIY comedy shows over the last few years. This all comes at a time when arts venues like the two-full time comedy clubs in town have closed, and another hangout, like The Kino has also shuttered. I’ll ask Graham, who joins me now about what to expect Friday night into Saturday night, the team of comedians who’ll be writing jokes for him to use, as well as how he’ll prepare physically for a test of endurance like this. Tickets are $20, and all health protocols are in place, such as masks, presenting one’s vaccine passport, as well as government-issued photo ID. Visit www.standupfor24hours.com for tickets, and how to stream the event and donate to this cause. Graham Clark is a three-time Canadian Comedy Award winner and beard painter. He is the co-host of Stop Podcasting Yourself, which since 2008 has produced over 700 episodes weekly. He has appeared on CTV, CBC’s The Debaters, Just for Laughs, Funny as Hell, and most recently was the West Coast Correspondent for This Hour Has 22 Minutes. His one-man show Graham Clark Reads the Phone Book toured across the globe. Also visit his own website at www.grahamclark.com. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Graham Clark; Mr. Clark, good morning.

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The author Adam Mardero discusses his new memoir Uncommon Sense: An Autistic Journey (Latitude 46, 2021), with Joseph Planta.

Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Uncommon Sense

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

A recent memoir gives the reader insight into getting diagnosed with autism and the journey that a child would go on through to high school, college and the workforce. The book is called Uncommon Sense: An Autistic Journey, and its author Adam Mardero joins me now. I’ll ask him about life on the Autism Spectrum, and about terms that are antiquated or that have evolved. For example, it’s not a disorder, and there are degrees on the spectrum, and most people are neurodivergent. Mr. Mardero’s book is insightful about the challenges he’s encountered, as well he’s often amusing as he narrates his life story thus far. There’s a lot of hope and a lot of care, as well as a call for more that society could do. Adam Mardero was diagnosed with Asperger’s at the age of nine. This book is published by Latitude 46. Visit Adam’s Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/adammerdy123/ Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Adam Mardero; Mr. Mardero, good morning.

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The writer, activist and podcaster Nora Loreto discusses her new book Spin Doctors: How Media and Politicians Misdiagnosed the COVID-19 Pandemic (Fernwood Publishing, 2021), with Joseph Planta.

Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Spin Doctors

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Nora Loreto joins me now. She has just published a new book Spin Doctors: How Media and Politicians Misdiagnosed the COVID-19 Pandemic. It’s a look at what she sees are the big missteps in the first eighteen months of Canada’s COVID response. She looks critically at why long term care deaths skyrocketed, as well as in work places like food processing plants that affected the most vulnerable workers in the country. Nora also looks at how anti-Asian racism was stoked. Another aspect of the book that is particularly interesting is when she looks at the media’s work. The media in this country had been contracting even before the pandemic, and there were cuts even during the pandemic; media outlets working with far fewer resources. As a result, there’s little necessary scrutiny as to the information and data on the virus, infections, deaths, not to mention the money being spent on various schemes to help people and businesses. There’s a call for accountability and responsibility, so that we might be better equipped to get through this pandemic, not to mention future ones. Nora Loreto is a writer and activist from Quebec City, where she joined me from last week. She is the author of last year’s Take Back the Fight: Organizing Feminism in the Digital Age, and 2013’s From Demonized to Organized: Building the New Union Movement. She is the editor of the Canadian Association of Labour Media, and an opinion columnist who appears in many publications. She is also the co-host of the popular podcast, Sandy and Nora Talk Politics, with Sandy Hudson. @NoLore is the Twitter handle and the website for more is at www.noraloreto.ca. This new book is from Fernwood Publishing. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Nora Loreto; Ms. Loreto, good morning.

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