Canada Pt II with Liz Plank

hello david hey rosabelle how are you i'm good how are you i'm good i'm i'm calling for some advice about alan not about alan not about the dog he's the least of my problems right now oh my goodness i'm just wondering if you've ever done something wrong and people are kind of calling for your blood on the streets you don't know if you need to apologize but maybe you do need to apologize i feel anxious just thinking about this i think i live a lot of my life trying to avoid this exact situation and yes that has happened to me and it is always hard to know because i think you're initially quite defensive before being able to listen i think i'm in the defensive have you are you being cancelled yeah i'm being cancelled by canada at the moment oh because what did you do this time i did an episode about canada but i only went to toronto and i got confused and thought i was in vancouver and then most of the episode ended up being about therapy clowns what do you mean you thought you were in vancouver because we record the episode quite a long time after i record the doc i sometimes details get a bit blurry and i thought i'd gone to vancouver that's really good yeah but yeah like what's the deal is it best just to take it and apologize or should i get really defensive and stick to my guns well it's good to think about why people are hurt and offended and if you think it's a fair reason then maybe it is worth apologizing do you think ed sheeran should apologize yeah i think ed sheeran should apologize yes i think he's got i mean he's putting me in the same camp as ed sheeran in this situation because things are really escalating i'm starting to panic now you know he probably thinks he's doing the right thing yeah i mean what we need to do we need to me and ed we need to swallow our pride don't we exactly and do the right thing you've hurt an equal amount of people it's the same level of offense yeah i'm look i'm gonna swallow my pride what i'm gonna do i'm gonna get a little bit of my anger and perspective out there and then i'm going to swallow my pride and listen why are you angry i'm angry that people are angry at me i get very defensive because i i did do a badness and i know why people are coming out to me but i also still feel like people shouldn't be mad at me because i'm innocent i'm just an innocent man you know but you know your intention doesn't matter it's the impact the outcome now that roosevelt you don't often do this but that is a bit of wisdom you've just dropped some people might disagree but i think that's where that defensiveness comes in because often people are just doing their best and people and then other people like that's actually not good enough and and both things are true people are always doing their best and sometimes that isn't good enough it's hard i'm david farrier and new zealand are accidentally marooned in america not canada america and i want to figure out what makes this country tick now if i could summarize the feedback to last week's episode titled canada it would be that of extreme anger michaela summed it up by saying david i'm a canadian and you're going to have to do a redo on the episode canada is a huge and diverse country with amazing landscapes people food culture outdoor activities and you didn't even scratch the surface sadly i love this podcast but this was a miss p.s i've never seen a bag of milk in my life to which i say michaela balls balls balls i think you've mistaken flightless bird for the wikipedia page on canada also you've never seen a milk bag i think that probably makes me more of a canadian than you are michaela on the other hand i understand why people are mad people wanted to learn about the nuances of canada and all you ended up with was a therapy clown and me prattling on about american canadian hybrid babies plus i thought i'd visited vancouver instead of toronto unforgivable and punishable by death string me up by my feet hang me upside down out of a window and slice my guts open so my bowels splatter all the streets below while fightless bird listeners cheer and celebrate so dramatic to remedy my sins from last week we're doing a canada part two episode where we focus on canada so don't say i ever listen to you listeners because this is the canada part two episode hi rob hey i sometimes don't know how to handle these situations with you yeah no tread carefully i'm a loaded i'm a loaded gun because i mean last week i had a similar feeling yeah i was looking at you while you're listening to the documentary about therapy clowns and i could see what your face was doing yeah which was are we doing the episode about canada or about therapy clowns right which which i will say um a lot of effort goes into the doc every week i like how you're treading into this a lot of effort i know a lot of time thank you rob a lot of energy thank you and you do a very good job with them keep these compliments raining down when you miss the mark that badly it's hard to call you out on it yeah because sometimes yeah sometimes you can laugh about it yes and other times you get grumpy i get no this is true and you act like what's the point of docs and going down water slides yeah no flightless bird listeners you need to know i might come across like a chilled out whimsical guy uh but occasionally um i take things very personally and i defend i get very defensive right uh and um rob as the not only a co-host of the show but as a producer of the show is in an awkward position of managing my emotions and canada really came to the forefront i was doing a mental exercise and thinking if we called the episode therapy clowns yeah we wouldn't be in this position right which which i also will say one of the strengths of what you do with these docs is you take weird left turns yes i will say i think knowing that we have so many canadian listeners we do i know now and broadly uh claiming this was a canada episode while taking a hard pivot so quickly yes um maybe it was a bigger swing than we should have taken with it yeah it was too big a swing yeah it was a big swing it missed the ball but but to your defense and also there's no doc that would cover all of canada's in one episode no we're not even if it was a 40 minute doc which normally 20 30 minutes yeah you're not covering no all of canada and what everyone would have liked here i think you would have angered less people had you yeah focused a little more on canada but it's almost like the idea of doing episode 210 or whatever it was canada is kind of like the idea of the entirety of flightless bird being one episode about america right and i come in and like just i don't know visit a taco stand you know and this is america this is it yes it would have been quite a good topic actually a taco stand for that thing but i can understand looking back i can understand people's revulsion um and also to be clear i'm i'm tongue-in-cheek i like to be dramatic uh the feedback to it was quite polite and but it was also very okay so the feedback that comes in about the show we get emails to flightless bird chat at gmail.com spotify comments youtube comments patreon always very kind um to us which i'm so appreciative not so much this episode one of my blood um and it's been brutal i've had to reassess i will also say that i think the would we get extreme feedback on the show yeah everyone is polite enough that it makes it funny yeah i agree that i i agree you're the misstep is almost worth it because now we have this um i agree and i think this this is canada part two but i think we should also set expectations i think we need to do like seven canada episodes not all in a row i agree um we're gonna tackle some of canada right now yeah but not all of it we're not gonna and i think that is a big thing not all of canada and canada part two yeah maybe we need to maybe people can reach out and let us know um like naming structure maybe for these because it yeah probably won't be great if it's just canada part 11 part three part four um how should we divide and conquer but yeah i think we're starting canada part two with let's hear from some canadians that we know personally which is a good place to start speaking to canadians which i mean to be fair to david barrier that's me you did talk to a canadian i did a lovely lovely pair but maybe focus on a topic that wasn't specifically canadian yeah i mean the bagged milk thing thing i think was a fun oh my god it was uh ankle i mean and again you know uh outrageous bagged milk i stand by that yeah uh but it's been a journey it's been a very entertaining journey um okay so then to start i've got a a good friend that lives up in toronto okay that's in canada that is in canada it's not vancouver and i asked her she's she works a lot in the states has lived in the states okay and i asked her to to let me know her five top ways five favorite things um about canada that is different from america oh i like this and this is what she said okay things we have in canada that you don't have in the states there's the obvious ones like guns it's so weird that everybody has a gun in the u.s but um and health care all that but there's one that recently i'm like it's just so annoying that you guys don't have that we have e-transfers which is like if i want to send money from my bank to your bank i just e-transfer it like i send it to your email and it's so easy like you we have venmo and stuff like that but i mean like from bank to bank um and because i find like zelle and a ch or whatever so annoying just like easy um also we have real bagels um in the u.s like even new york thinks they have bagels and but it's just like bread in a circle um so in montreal this might be specific to montreal though i'm from montreal which is very different than the rest of canada because again real bagels um so yeah they're just different they're like boiled and basically have the texture of a bagel as opposed to bread um what else are chocolates chocolate's better um yeah because it's like cadbury's which is kind of like the uk um oh our money that looks kind of like monopoly money because it's all different colors but it smells like maple like it really does they you know i think they infused it with a maple smell which i don't know that that was a great idea but um i think you can wash it too like our money is like plasticky you can wash it um maybe i'm making all this up uh it's my ideal utopia canadian um what else i think that's about it i think i think that's it i can think i'll probably think of more all day and i'll just send you little videos holy shit yeah so maybe we maybe should have started with emily she's emily i'm i'm in glee because everything she was talking about i was resonating with in a massive way can we go through it yeah let's go through it firstly the money yeah this is something i feel like four years ago or fucking a decade ago when we started this podcast i was thinking about the money yeah i don't fully get yeah it's that different than because she mentioned it venmo and zelle no so this is still being i'm still trying to wrap my head around this in new zealand you log into your online banking yeah and you just you put the bank account number in of your friend and the money is there and i still don't understand in america you've got the system where you log into your bank and then like they've got this third party situation zelle which is plugged in or all these other apps outside of your online banking like venmo that you're sending shit around to your friends in and it's so essentially in new zealand and clearly canada apparently yeah you log into your bank you type in roosevelt's bank account number and the money is straight into their bank account okay and the convenient it's so good yeah and it took me so long to figure out what the deal was here and i'm still confused which i mean it's not that far off from venmo once you set up venmo yeah no but but you're then having to transfer out of your venmo account and it's this hook your bank account up i so i mean i think it is people trying to get their grubby little fingers and completely it's america it's like every external company trying to like make bank on it and completely different transactions the other thing she mentioned about your actual physical money which is something that blows my mind that in america the money is kind of dirty paper yeah there's all the same color and when you're rifling through like i shove my like my wallet in and i'm like oh my god i don't know what to do with this it's a mess but a one dollar bill and a twenty dollar bill they have the same texture and color right and you're so in new zealand every note it's color-coded it's color-coded okay i know a five dollar note is is is red a ten dollar note is blue a twenty dollar note is green a fifty dollar note is a darker red i don't know if you've ever seen a hundred dollar bill but it's another color it's also plastic yeah it's clean as fuck yeah yeah i've had canadian money i that shit is beautiful different yeah what i didn't know is that it smells like maple i we need some people to corroborate that was i gasped when i was listening to her speaking because if that's true that's so sick that's yeah that's that's amazing um what would the american scent be cocaine no it would be like no because people rolling up your horrific money like snorting cocaine up their nostrils in this horrible country if america's were to inject a scent a scent into our currency yeah what would the national scent be it would be gunpowder gunpowder yeah it would be gunpowder which speaks to its history and its current obsession what would we want it to be i want it to be hot dogs yeah it would be sort of a meaty fresh dog i was gonna say i was gonna be some sort of like like a sugary cereal but that's almost too much like the maple yeah too much like maple i feel like hot dog i feel like hot dogs i feel like a dog is kind of it like a wet slurpy hot dog can you imagine if that's what your wallet smelled like i can get behind maple syrup smell oh that's good bagels i will i can't enter into this convo because new zealand doesn't have a big bagel culture i can the only hole i will i don't fire you into the fucking sun the only hole hang you out of a building and slit your fucking belly open uh is courage bagels in la does do montreal style bagels and they're fucking delicious and they're good um which which i will agree with her that that's yep once you have that going to other bagels it's not gonna work kind of insane i wonder if that is to do with canada being close to new york because i associate like new york as being like bagel central well but she's even saying new york's bagels are trash she's courage is here fuck so bold move to like shit on new york man is true east to west yeah yeah yeah true enough the other thing she mentioned was the chocolate which i responded to um she mentioned cadbury which in new zealand was the shit until um i feel like five or six seven years ago we kind of swapped to whittaker's because our cadbury milk recipe swapped out we use like a different dairy product and it kind of went to shit i think in the uk cadbury might still be good anyway i'm rambling now but my point is canadian chocolate is better than american chocolate i can guess i don't not not big on chocolate so i that's not a chocolate man die on i loved all those points fucking remarkable love her thank you all right so then to continue our canadian we're opening up the dialogue between flightless bird and canada and we uh we've had a beautiful video message coming care of you we now have an incredibly special guest um friend of the show friend of ours uh but none of that matters the fact is she's from montreal she's from fucking montreal do you know that's not toronto and that's not vancouver it's not vancouver where is it montreal yeah it's yeah there's three different places and this is where she's from yeah where in where in canada can you tell me location top east northeast yes you got it and they have cobbled streets yeah and they speak french yes okay so i'm just gonna say in between magically cutting to this we have been arguing for about 10 minutes about canada i'm finally being vindicated liz yes welcome thank you my god it's good to have you here first time on flightless bird yes and i have a bone to pick about that no please pick the bone i have requested the both of you on my podcast and only one of you seems interested in talking about me right so we shot one of them yeah i'm anytime i'm there multiple times desperate for attention no it's because i catch you on your walks yes because we live very close to each other so i can't avoid it you also have a lot to say rob you have a lot to say i don't i know i don't think there's a lot going on i love you a little bit you have a lot to say you don't shut the fuck up well you guys i'll have the golden retriever black cat duo friendship duo energy And it's correct. It's most friendships at work have it. Do you think we could all fit? Because your podcast is on a bed. We could all fit on there? Three of us? Yes, 100% guys. It's a big bed. I'm willing to three. Okay. Okay, so you're coming. Coming up. This isn't about your podcast. Don't get this up. Love your podcast. You're wonderful. I love your podcast. Thank you for coming in. Thank you for having me. So if I texted you in panic maybe five days ago because we put out this Canadian episode, people have really turned on me. You've listened to the episode. I have. What did you make of it? And I want you to be honest because you are a born and bred Canadian. Yes. Did he cover everything Canada has to offer? Yeah. Did you feel represented? I mean, no. Well, because I'm French Canadian and by law, I have to talk about it all the time. And you don't cover a lot of Quebec. Zero. You're covering exactly zero. Is Quebec not a clown? Are you a therapist in bagged milk? There's definitely bagged milk. I mean, you have bagged milk. I drink bagged milk. Actually. You grew up with it? I grew up with it so much that we had mini bags of milk. Have you guys heard about the mini bags? No. You get three bags in a big plastic bag and then you put it in the salt. That's at the grocery store. Okay. Okay. So when you're in elementary school and it's the 90s, they're trying to push milk. Right? And so every by law, like the government. Also wants kids to be fed, which is, I know, very different for you, Rob. To America. We had milk at school also. You did? Yeah. Little cartons of milk. Not bagged though. That's insane. Okay. We had mini bags. Okay. They were like a Capri Sun, but it was milk in it. I'm not kidding. And then you would, you know, pass them out and give them to every kid. And there was one particular kid in my class. You had a straw, like a Capri Sun, you had to put the straw, but he would just make a tiny straw. Tiny little slice at the corner and then drink it. And then like go as far away as possible, like a peeing contest, but like a milking contest. Heroes. Yeah. It's a lot of fun. Is no one lactose intolerant? There are people who are, there's lactose in free milk. When you were a child? No. No. I was vegetarian. There was not, people didn't even, people thought that was like, no, we, no. You were forced fed bagged milk. I guess. Even though you were a vegetarian. Now that I look back, no, I was okay with milk because I was veg, not vegan. But yeah, like maybe I, yeah. No, I don't think you were forced. Maybe your parents could like write a letter. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, because milk was mandatory, I think, too. You would line up and you got to pick 2% or chocolate. You could pick chocolate and some people would pick not chocolate. That's America, right? I didn't get some sugar milk. I did not pick chocolate. I only did 10%. That's the most Rob thing I've ever heard. That's so cute. You were like, this is the better. Like, you're so like, you're so on the right side of history. You know what I mean? Like, Rob just is like, even when you're a kid, when like, you have the choice, like you, you're like, I want the sugary one. You were like, this is better for me. Right? Like, what was it? Do you remember what was your mindset? Yeah. I don't want chocolate for my drink. What? It's dessert. I don't. I'm going to try drinking your nourishment. They are wild. Wow. It's a wild personality trait. What would you have done, Dan? Chocolate all the way. All the way. Yeah. I'm still guzzling chocolate milk. I love chocolate milk. To this day, I've always got chocolate milk in the fridge. I'm not big on chocolate, though. I'm not big on chocolate. You're not a sweet guy. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What? Okay. Well, have you tried Max and Helen's chocolate milk? No. Guys, it's so good. Okay. Anyway. It's like a brownie. Okay. Are you talking about the shake? No. I'm talking about the hot chocolate s'mores situation. Yeah. It's like a, basically a blended brownie. Yes. It's American? Yes. It's a diner. It's due. It's Phil Rosenthal, who's, you know, it's like a Jewish diner. Okay. It's really good. It's so good, David. It sounds like my alley completely. We got to go. Okay. We got to go. Back to Canada. Yeah, sorry. I suppose in this episode, I want to get more of a perspective on what Canada is and what makes Canada Canada. Can you tell me about like where you were sort of birthed into Canada and like what that means to you? Because I feel like we have a lot in common. We're sort of outsiders to America. Yeah. I know that Canada and New Zealand spiritually feel a little bit similar. But in saying that, I know fuck all about Canada. Maybe this applied to you moving to a new country is you only, you know, it's like a fish can't tell they're in water until they're like popped out. I don't think I would have been able to tell you much about Canada until I left and that there were things that were very strange to me. You know, I think like you mentioned in the episode that were very nice. In the great episode. Are people in Montreal? Are people in Montreal very nice? People are nice, but it's not even, I guess we don't see ourselves that way. And I would have never really viewed myself as particularly nice. Is that the French part of Canada? The French part of Canada is even more, you know what, it's not that we're necessarily nicer, but I think we're more familiar. There's like a, there's a thing in definitely in America, particularly where like there's a hierarchy everywhere. And I think that it's obviously very visible with race and class and like, you know, gender and all those things. But it's, it's also in the way that I think people, yeah, in Quebec are sort of all on the same like playing field. Like no one, it's sort of a little bit like Scandinavia in that way where you're not really supposed to think you're better than everyone, than anyone else. And it's kind of built into the culture there. It is. It totally is built in. Like, like we in Denmark, whatever. I spend a little bit of time in Denmark and they, the people there were like, oh, we have no prom queen or prom king. And in fact, it would be like embarrassing if you were to be prom king or prom queen, because it would mean that you think you're better than everyone else. Yeah. David's crown is behind you. Were you prom king? I went to prom. I went to. No, I went to a high school. Oh, recently. I went to a, I went to a football. What do you call it? Homecoming. Homecoming. I went to homecoming. You did. And what was that like? Yeah. I mean, with permission from the school. I didn't just, I didn't just turn up just to be clear. That's incredibly creepy. No, it was, it was like being in a, it was like I was in an American sitcom. Yeah. And like you say, prom king and queen, that would never happen in New Zealand because it would be so against our soul. Yes. But part of it, I went there and it's sort of joyous and I liked the, I kind of liked it. Yeah. It wasn't as sort of awful as I thought it would be. And all the kids were encouraging to each other and it felt like, maybe it's changed over the years, but it felt very like inclusive and fun. You also went to a California high school. True. Which probably contributes to that. Very like left-leaning kind of open-minded school. Got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stay tuned for more Flightless Bird. We'll be right back after a word from our sponsors. Support for Flightless Bird comes from Cozy Earth. I'm incredibly excited that our podcast has partnered. With Cozy Earth, mainly because I've been wanting to get some really incredible sheets ever since I stayed at a hotel and had sheets that were so much better than what I had before. Now Cozy Earth is here. They've sorted me out. I have beautiful sheets to the point where I feel like I'm staying in a hotel. If you know, you know, it makes my bed feel like a five-star resort. It really does. They're soft, they're smooth, they're lightweight, and also I'm a hot sleeper and I was waking up before. I got my Cozy Earth sheets with, you know, when you just feel a bit there, not with Cozy Earth, they're breathable. You wake up feeling amazing. Also with Cozy Earth that comes with a 100 night sleep trial so you can try these sheets for yourself. Returns are easy, but once you feel them, you won't want to let them go. There's also a 10 year warranty because Cozy Earth stands behind everything they make because true luxury is built to last. Look, they've changed my sleeping experience and I think they're going to change. Yours as well. I should also just say they look really great on your bed. The colors, the texture, everything about them. So head to CozyEarth.com and use my code bird for up to 20% off. That's code bird for up to 20% off. And if you see a post-purchase survey, please be sure to mention that you heard about Cozy Earth right here. You know, I was actually talking to a Canadian, I'm speaking at a Canadian thing in a couple of weeks and so I was having a talk with a person that was going to be on the panel and we were talking about gender dynamics and all that stuff. And he was like, yeah, you know, when I talk to a particularly an American entrepreneur, he's a VC funder. So he funds, you know, different startups. And he says, if it's an American white guy, particularly, I just listen to what he says and then 95% of it, I take it away. That basically like 5% of what he's really saying is like kind of true and 95% of it is like, I'm this, I'm that, you know, sort of. Yeah, fluff and also. Like you're telling a story about yourself, which again, I think is uniquely like entertainment, I think is a really core value here that like in the in Canada, like entertainment. Sure, like we want to be entertained, but it's not going to be like the like an example is when I started going on on, you know, cable news to talk about politics. And they'd be like, you had to come in like an hour before to get your makeup done. And they would literally like airbrush your and then I would go back home and watch Canadian television. I was like. These people look rough, like, oh, no, that's normal. Like, they're not going into here. makeup for an hour to talk about foreign policy you know but so there is an emphasis on entertainment on on obviously looks and and appearance and story like i feel like america americans in america is so good at building a narrative into everything yes and i think that's why making the show in america has been so good because you meet people and it's like inbuilt into every american baby is the capacity to tell their story succinctly and to hit all the emotional beats and to know where to land the story if in new zealand if you're and i'm not i love new zealand i'm a new zealander but it's so much harder to do because new zealanders can't tell a story really they go off on not all new zealanders no we're not this one right here no no but all of us it's it's we go on tangents yeah we really struggle to nail the ending it's just if you watch the you know if you watch new zealand part one you piece of shit if you watch new zealand news or people being interviewed about a disaster we're very bad and getting that shit together yeah that's funny yeah can you tell us the biggest things you miss about canada that we don't have here when you you're living here now okay well ketchup chips are really important and they didn't come up in the episode i do miss cabaret chocolate the chocolate is better than nutella is better i miss there's sort of something calming like it it's sort of something you you might not be able i mean it's like what every city has which is this energy that sort of you know the molecules around all of us and no it's true like that it's it's not tangible right what am i being too woo woo yeah yeah you just you went nuts just then because they said molecules you just started going a bit nuts okay keep going don't let two men judge your vibe okay you know what i kind of get what you meant you know what i miss feminism all right i fucking i miss maternal leave being equal to parental to to men and men taking parental leave we had that in canada part one about the maternity leave yeah it's very and it's a very evolved place yeah i agree and on on like every marker and i know you guys i don't don't go into politics and stuff like that but like we do okay we do like multiculturalism just being a part and again i'm from montreal it's a city so it's going to feel different than other parts of of canada for sure but i mean toronto is that too toronto is that too vancouver it's just normal like yeah there's race and i'm not look i'm gonna get hate if i'm like it's you know i'm not denying that there's stuff but it's just like there's a base level of like decency that is just kind of uh there and i'm not denying that there's stuff but it's just like there's a base level of and and i miss the i think america is very segregated and obviously it's segregated in all these ways that are over and we're done because of the law but it's still i think friendships are like really segregated like like places and neighborhoods and and i guess yeah when i go back to montreal i just feel like it's not as like loaded you know like they these things of course there's still uh so many things that are you know not where they need to be but it doesn't feel as yeah and that's the untangible molecule thing i'm talking about where like you kind of it's like snatch your purse energy in america all the time it's like whoa like what are you gonna you know you can relax a bit yeah and like america is just like a lot in denial compared to canada i think that there's sort of a willingness to discuss things a little bit more that again is not part of the story that you're supposed to tell like like what story you're supposed to tell in the united states is very and there are people who want to tell the whole story and there are people who who sort of don't and who want to keep up this yeah appearance and you know everything's great everything's fine you know and i think yeah canada just feels a little bit more real like you can kind of like relax a little bit more i that's my yeah i like what i would say i miss i'm gonna i feel like i should have like a deep follow-up to that but the things when i think montreal that i genuinely can't quite grasp is the fact that you're speaking french yes it's kind of wild like that's amazing it is like you're all like right now you're like raised bilingual not all but yes a lot of us yeah and then you've got little cobbles there's cobblestones yeah i remember walking and tripping on a cobblestone when i was there you did so what do we what it felt like lord of the rings yeah there's why there's cobbles everywhere or is it just a certain part only the part where tourists go um fuck wow yeah okay basically it's in the old port okay in the old port and and it's a great it's it's a cute space but like it's kind of like the time square of like montreal like you're not gonna see someone we have cobblestone here too if you go to the right places yeah and i'm sure out east there's a lot of cobblestone okay well you guys know about the pothole situation in canada canada and particularly in quebec no it's a whole okay so it involves the mob oh no pray tell it i feel like you should have done an deep dive on quebec or like the french part of canada so potholes exist everywhere obviously but in canada they're particularly treacherous because the climate is so different right so in the winter it goes like to minus 48 celsius and then it'll you know in the summer it'll get lit it can go up to 40 similar to chicago potholes are terrible they're terrible and they're constantly fixing them there's constantly more every winter exactly okay so that's exactly right so it is just more of a thing and um after a while though there was a lot of like construction and potholes everywhere that weren't getting fixed and a lot of like orange cones everywhere and this was like i want to say like in the like the 90s end of the 90s early 2000 and then the government basically decided to do a commission like what's going on with all this construction like people were so mad about it too many cones too many potholes is wrecking my car you know all this stuff and they it turns out you know there were all these back rooms deals and the mafia the maple syrup okay you have to tell people that it's past my bedtime and you guys record this at 9 p.m i'm like half asleep right you're amazing you're doing great the hell's angels were involved in these back room deals literally they discovered there were like tapes of people bringing a briefcase full of money to some of these contract workers so basically the mob infiltrated the construction uh industry and it was a great way to launder money and for things to not get done because they're like oh we paid you but like it wouldn't get done and so essentially the government really had to get you know fixed corruption which is a problem obviously like around the world with all kinds of governments but it really it's an example i think a lot about especially right now when there's like a lot of corruption happening particularly in the united states where i wish there was like a symbol like that that right like if you are on a day-to-day basis you're going to see gas prices you're going to see eggs the price of eggs or price of groceries but also potholes is kind of an amazing it's a great gauge it's a great gauge because like what are all these fucking potholes right even if you don't listen to the news even if you're not super plugged in and it be and so they really had to crack down on corruption really hard after that and it was sort of like a cool example like i think the world should know about i'd never heard about this before right it's sort of niche huh yeah so potholes are a big thing neat pool it means a uh it means a nest of a bird okay flightless bird see we put it back you landed that when you listen to the episode was there anything else that jumped out um at you and like you can be brutal like is anything that you wanted to kind of correct or course correct or any thoughts so i talked about as being nice it felt like you were a little like because nice you can say wow he's so nice and wow he's so nice you know there's and it's i okay maybe it's very new zealand but i think it's american to see sorry no because i being nice is that a bad thing it's a beautiful thing but i think in the united states oh you're a nice guy oh yeah like you know there's a line you did say it like that yeah you kind of said it did i they're naive like they're nice and they kind of let themselves be walked all over but i think it's a really interesting question right now especially with what's i mean even i don't know when this airs but today you know canada got accepted as part of the an associate member of the eu and i don't even really know what that means but yeah they created like a role like they literally invented like a position for canada and the eu as a way to signal to the ways that like trump is like i don't think americans realize how hurt canadians are over the things that he says and obviously he's saying crazy stuff about everything and greenland and like we're gonna but it is been it's like we're siblings you know we really do depend on each other and help each other out and it is we are definitely like if it's like an addict and codependent like we are more we're codependent on america and america can kind of do what it wants but recently our prime minister just really was like no actually we're not just gonna you know do whatever you want and we're not just gonna be nice and bend over and it's kind of we're kind of living through maybe a canadian renaissance of like we're gonna be nice but like we're gonna be nice to ourselves and we're gonna respect ourselves not just be nice to you when your prime minister what's his name mark harney when he said that was canada generally like oh my god finally yes like this feels good proud i think i think a lot of america was like yes good good yeah finally as an outsider here does that lens get put on all of america or is it clear that he is not representative of most of us so my parents are in montreal and vermont is obviously shares a border and there's been these demonstrations of vermonters and montrealers coming together and there was one a couple months ago where they i think vermonters like brought maple syrup and we're like we're sorry and my dad was there it's like i'm finding this so hard to follow well because okay let me okay one fun fact about why this relationship is so important and you're laughing it's not funny no no no i know it's that okay so the border between canada and the united states is the biggest border in the world so between two countries it's very very big and i think like two-thirds of canadians live a hundred uh kilometers away from the border so we really are neighbors like obviously we say all the time our neighbors to the but we really are neighbors and maybe yeah it's very canadian of us to be like you should be nice to your neighbor and and vice versa but um but but it is strange and it is hurtful but but yeah there's these you know things of like coming together across the border like my mom and my dad went to one uh this weekend actually and but there is a boycott um happening across canada if you look at the uh and this is you know there's data around it showing it like the last summer a lot of canadians usually like going to united states to visit and and they're not doing anymore they're not doing anymore and to answer rob's question i think they are especially not going to red states there is a sort of acknowledgement of like well i mean it's important for them to take action how they can yeah and and yeah and they yeah you have like canadians have so little power in that relationship that and i like this is the other thing i do like about canada like or particularly in quebec is like we we have morals and we like really do stand by them like there is a it's the right thing to do like with health care or paying your taxes right even though you have potholes and all that stuff you're like no it's the right thing to do to just contribute and do the you know the right thing for your community which i i think is another thing i guess i like and sometimes i feel like i lose it if i spend too much time here i become a little like i become a bit of an asshole how often do you go back um i go back like once every maybe like three months i used to go back more when i was in new york because it was easier um and then when i had you know issues well you know there were it was felt a little dangerous to go but now completely i don't know no it's weird it's a weird time to yeah it was weird look at this canadian kiwi american yeah we're all getting on aren't we we can learn from this how did you feel about the backlash to your episode about canada anger oh you felt defensive anytime anyone comes at me i get instantly on the defensive right um i understand there were good points people came in thinking they were going to get a big in-depth um deep dive on canada and they learned about a great topic but a different topic pat chadams i like the clown stuff yeah it's funny it's like occasionally i mean you know this boy you make a podcast people enjoy the show and they have strong feelings about it and sometimes that'll happen and certainly with canada people were annoyed that i didn't go deeper which is why we're doing a canada part two okay and oh my god that's symbolic our hangman american board game just fell on the ground uh well to that point we're gonna do more canadian episodes we are if we were to do more what topics should david yeah how do we like what's representative of all of canada but and this is going to be an ongoing series it will be part i'm really that's so cool i love that you're our neighbor okay well you have to do an episode on celine dion you got uh yeah you gotta she's amazing you don't are you really like no she's gonna take it seriously i take everything seriously my dad loves celine dion do you have an in with celine i have one photo with her um um and that's from 10 years ago okay thanks girl where did you meet her i was dating someone who uh needed to keep me around and so he got his tickets for vegas for new year's and um i made us t-shirts this is before everything happened with the election and it was like oprah and celine 2020 i might have been there i have seen celine dion in vegas wait yeah she was amazing i might have been there that year was that out of your own volition yeah i love celine dion wait i did not know this about your dad no just me i went on my own wait this is i love celine dion she's fucking amazing you should have put that in your canada episode i know i'm a mystery man you know who knows what he's gonna like next wait you went alone to celine dion in vegas alone because i love canada wow and i've got all these canadians coming for my blood wow all right what else what else celine dion obviously you have to do an episode on our first lady katie perry um that's gonna be a big one i mean she's gonna be a big one she's fallen off a bit hasn't she up into space yeah you know come on i'm kidding she's not our first lady and i'm that was a joke okay you can't do an episode on katie perry but i don't yeah it's a you know yeah you can get some thoughts um okay i think you should do an episode on sugar shacks la cabana so basically you should go to la cabana so okay i'm not sure what's happening what's happening scott you know what a cabana stick is right can't reference people off camera the test okay so the sugar shack is basically in the spring if you're at school or you do synchronized swimming or you have a sorry you can't just drop that if you do synchronized you should do an episode on synchronized swimming that's canadian well no but you know we do play underwater hockey and i was you move at a thousand miles an hour take notes even imagine if i'd come not past my bedtime i would be on a roll yeah for the record anyone listening liz you know it doesn't usually stay out beyond 8 p.m we're recording about 9 p.m so this is liz at about one-tenth of our typical i don't i won't remember any of this um okay so uh sure okay it's called la cabana sick and you go basically to this house in the woods okay and you that's where they make maple syrup all right it's one house well it's in it with a bunch of trees around the house yeah i know what a forest is and i know what the woods are all the maple syrup comes from one house no many there's many cabana six okay but you go to one and they will show you how they harvest the maple syrup you'll be able to see the little bins out hanging off of the trees this is amazing you can lick it they put it on the snow and then you you make it's called that's it and you eat it off a popsicle stick because it freezes because it's so cold on the snow and then you make it and you eat it off a popsicle stick because it freezes on the snow this is incredible and then you eat um this array the kiss you eat um bacon you eat all this basically like yeah like like food from the old time and from people yeah it's great you should definitely go and i will like i will go with you i would love so you're out in this in a forest with snow and a bit of bacon yeah how far north do you have to go for not that north you go in a in a yellow bus you know you you just and if you're like even yeah you school bus you rent one yeah a yellow bus a yellow bus what do you guys call it a school bus a school bus or you just rent a school bus often no what you did for this or or the school does it or the synchronized swimming coach does it like a field trip it's a field trip yeah it's a field okay but you're not going on a as an adult can we do this you're gonna be a child i mean basically it's you you go if you're in school or is that as a cool field trip if you're in a sports team or something and then you go if you're in school or is that as a cool field trip if you're in a sports team or something david doesn't know about this and then when i was in high school we just decided to go and we rented a little a mini yellow bus and we just went and there's line dancing there's dj uh you know it's a whole it's a dance it's a party it's a party okay and you have to put maple syrup on everything even if it's a salty food can you confirm something that our earlier um guests mentioned that your money is infused with the smell of maple there's one of them that is i think it's the hundred they made a new one it's not all not all one i think it's one of them and i wish i knew no that's okay but it's it's the truth i did read about this it's new though it's new i've found this conversation so disorientating and wonderful and there's so much information floating around in my head and i appreciate that's exactly why we got you in my god thank you wait you should one last thing okay you should do an episode on the grand antonio the grand antonio was a man okay he's an he's an immigrant okay he's a basically you know because we're all very multicultural. I actually took notes. Okay. Basically he was a 500 pounds, six foot four, and he did some weightlifting and stuff like that in his younger years. And then he kind of went broke and grew his hair really long. And he would lift, he was in the Guinness world record for lifting things with his brakes and like lifting, like pulling a truck or something. And he would be strong. He's really strong. Like who? Samson? Yeah. Sure. I don't know. Yeah. You should have how no one gets married in Quebec and we hate religion because we were strong guy. Okay. So then he, he got really broke and he got poor and he was kind of homeless. So he would just sit around and my, this is my neighborhood, like, like a whole small and he, and, and, and every, and he would sell postcards of himself to try and, you know, live off of that. And then he died. So, and then there's a children's book about him and it was sort of like, Oh, like you would just be like, hi, you'd walk by when you were little, you'd be like, hi, like, yeah, it was, you saw him. Yeah. I would see him. Yeah. I've seen him in person. My God. Yeah. And it would be like, I don't know who's like, and he would just, he was just this kind of homeless, beautiful, iconic part of town. Yes. All of, all of Quebec, but he lived, he happened to live. I mean, he's happened to sit on a lot of the park benches near my house and he died in the grocery store. He got a heart attack and it was my home. It was like my childhood grocery store. Fuck. I don't know what to do with that. You should do a whole podcast. He sounds amazing, but he's like, he's like a really like, I'll show you a photo. Unifying, like beautiful figure. Yes. Andre the Giant of Canada. Yes. Very strong. Totally. Yeah. Grand Antonio. Okay. How do you spell that? Um, GR like Grand, like, okay. This was him in his Olympic days. He's kind of scary looking. That was the other thing, you know, you would kind of see him as a kid and you'd be kind of scared, but then your parents be like, Oh no, it's like, this is what he looked like. And he was still 500 pounds, even though he was on the street. Really intense. And look at his braids. They kind of look like giant. He's like a Lord of the Rings. Yeah, he is. He, he totally was. He's like the, um, the one with the ax and Lord of the Rings. Yeah. This is what he looked like. Yeah. He would just be sitting on park benches. Oh my God. He was really, really cool. These are all amazing episodes. We could do a lot. Thank you. You're welcome. Hockey. Can you talk about hockey? We could talk about hockey. Just what hockey means to you as a Canadian. It's really big. It's big for the boys and for the girls. Um, I played underwater hockey, as you know, um, it's from New Zealand. No, you guys invented it. I think this is this conversation. I don't remember this at all, but maybe you weren't there. Underwater hockey. Yeah. Yeah. I'll take your word for it. There's all kinds of different, it's just like, we take hockey very seriously. There's also a really cool history about why there's so much, so many balconies in, I know it's true in Montreal, because basically there was an influx of immigrants. There was a like early 20th century. And so they needed to house a lot of people. And so they would stack them in these houses called like triplex and do like their duplexes are a thing, but like, they're really a thing in Montreal and even a triplex. And so, because they were trying to save, have as much room as possible for the people, they put all the staircases on the outside. And so if you go to Montreal, you just see all these balconies. Everyone has a balcony, even though, half of the time there's snow on it. You can't go out on it. It's really impractical, but they're there and they, they, they twist too. So it's, it's a total, yeah. In the snow and in the ice, you'll, you'll kill yourself, you know, but it's, it's there. And it's a huge part of the, yeah. History too. Like the architecture is really interesting. Is the nature there something that you enjoy? A lot of people writing in said, fuck you, David, you didn't get out, you know, you weren't out in nature. To your point, everyone's so close to the border. There's so much wilderness. Canada has a lot of nature. It does. You should go to Banff or, or Pointe du Gamouc. It's really fun. I, when I went, we went in high school and we did a little field trip. And a yellow school bus. And then we went, we made a big hole in the lake. It was minus 40 Celsius, which I know you don't know what that means, but it's literally your nose hairs will freeze. And we made a hole in the lake and we, we went and, uh, we made a big hole in the lake. And we went in and we did like a cold plunge in an ice lake. And then, you're saying you're not swimming under the ice. No, don't swim under the ice. And that's kind of another thing. Like, like we know a lot about how to, how to, if you know what to do, if you, if you, if you're under ice, if you fall under. No, please tell me. Okay. So first of all, so basically if, if it cracks and you fall, what you have to do is hopefully you have mittens on. Cause it's that cold that you're on a fucking lake. If you don't have mittens, I don't, I can't help you. Okay. So, so Lisa, my worries, if I'm under the ice, if I've got mittens on or not, I'll be dead in about five seconds. Don't go on lakes without mittens. Cause the mittens will save you. Okay. So you fall. And you're like, ah, oh my God, oh my God. Take, chill, chill. Take your mittens, put them on the surface that you can touch. Okay. The, because it's cold and your mittens will be wet. It will create actually like, it'll start sticking. And so you'll be able to actually pull yourself out because of that molecule. I see. Situations. Yeah. Oh my God. And so that's really important. If you don't have mittens, I don't know. It's just, so just hold on to the ledge. Hold on to the ledge. And then there's another one about like, if you're under, maybe we could Google it. Cause now I feel bad if someone dies and they're listening to this and I don't have good advice, but there's another one of like, if you're under, you're supposed to like, don't, don't actually don't. Please go Google how to get out of a lake. But no, that's a big one of the mints. Like they, they say like, don't cause, cause you people are just kind of trying to like, like grab the ice. It's all breaking and slipping. You're just breaking it. Yeah. Have you ever, have you, have you ever had like a near death encounter in Canada? Has anything, a moose or a raccoon or the ice ever got you? My dad did come across a, well, so the, a bear, but the worst thing you can come across is a baby bear. Cause that means the mom is close by. And so he had that happen at a, and, and that was pretty scary. And then, um, he's okay. He's okay. He's great. Um, but my dad goes on marathons, like cross country skiing. Like he's so Canadian. I mean, he's just, incredible. Um, no, but I've never come across a moose. That's kind of sad. How much are you encountering, uh, wildlife? It happens not like in Montreal, right? But I kind of, I'm kind of shocked. You've never seen a raccoon. That was alarming. Yeah. No, it was the first time I saw one. It was incredible. I've never seen one in LA. Wow. No, I've seen them, but I feel like that's pretty standard. No, I feel like I encounter a lot more wildlife in LA, like coyotes. Like I, I don't, I I've never seen that. Um, but no, I've seen deer. I've seen a lot of cows. I've seen, um, yeah. Yeah. Can you say something in your, in, in French sort of to sort of tell people to stop bullying me and just sort of say, Dave's okay. He's loves Canada. He's going to do more about Canada. Okay. And stop sending mean emails about, and you know, I went to Canada. I, I tried to do an episode that people turned on me and I thought Canadians were a mellow, they're mean. Interesting. I don't think the way back to Canadians hearts is to call them mean. But it disproves that they have no backbone, right? Like they do. And they, they're passionate. They are passionate. David, you got mad that they came at you. Yeah. They're mad that you came at them. Yes. And now you can, now you're coming back at them again. No, I shouldn't do that. Yeah. Yeah. I want to, I want forgiveness and I forgive Canada. Okay. Great. For their sins against me. You are kind of an honorary Canadian. Thank you. That's what I want you to say. Okay. Thank you. From the mouth of a Canadian. Yeah. It means I, I, I speak for only myself, but I, I do think, no, I've told you this before. I feel like I talked about it when you came on the show. Like I was like, you're kind of, you feel Canadian to me. And, and I do think we do have this very shared experience of being. I am at one with Canada. Yes. You could say you're what you're at. I'm, I'm, I'm at one with Canada, Canada and David. I mean, the same. I, we need more cut to the camera that fade Liz out. And that's how out go to, go to, if you go to just shake shack and you eat design the case and you, and you really commit then. Yes. I think shake shack. No, the sugar shack. Did I say shake shack? No, no, no. I take it back. No, I'm tired guys. Okay. No, we've, we've got it. We're, we've got it. Okay. We need, we're going to end on me doing this. Okay. Fading you out. You're amazing. I love you. Stay tuned for more. The flightless bird. liz canadian legend endorses me um which is great that's all i was after it was an endorsement from a canadian no wild topics to explore legitimately um maple forest situation yeah that the not shake shack the sugar shack the sugar shack um this sort of strong man long head samson-esque character that she met fucking mad uh it's almost like it would have been beneficial talk to a few canadians a few more than the one yeah before uh our all-encompassing canada episode for the record we love canada yes um big fan of canada um and we listen we hear you and i would like to formally apologize for doing a very once-over-lightly version of canada yeah but before we do that i want to thank you so much for joining us today and thank you so much for i think our uh our plan always was let's do a bunch of canada episodes fuck yeah so canada it's a big place we love it we're going back we i think we got a little bit better focus though on what pieces and parts of canada we're zeroing in you should do yeah and also not just say here's everything you need to know about canada in one episode something i just recalled as we talked about in one episode was with a canadian also okay feedback from prior episodes there were a lot clearly of canadians that wrote in with various opinions thank you i will say i got a ton of um oh recommendations for vancouver which i thank everyone incredible no thank you everyone that wrote into rob about suggestions you're leaving tomorrow i'm leaving tomorrow but by the time this releases i will already be back so um no so many on this week and talk about yeah we went what you want to do and i'll see you in the next one bye bye thank you for everyone that emailed in um i also got a couple of great leads for my disgusting foster dog alan thank you for that shannon was an american who wrote in about bagged milk just quickly i grew up in wisconsin i lived the bagged milk life quick trip the beloved gas station i've been to quick trips by the way they're fucking great a question for you really quick yeah are there as many different gas stations as in new zealand as far here because you say quick trip i'm sure i've been to one but there is every town you go to is named something similar no new zealand has the nature of it being small um just over five million people we have not many gas stations it's like six brands yeah that you're dealing with not bp mobile caltex and then a few op brands yeah so you do have the manpa we've got no there's like a couple of i can get slaughtered by new zealanders i feel we've got like big brands in in southland and like i know in the far north there's a few places that are like much smaller but generally it will be like the big ones my experience of america is that there is so much more variety between states and even within the states yes certain states will have different ones and and no and when i was in wisconsin i do remember a quick trip and the quick trips are like everywhere and you're there's a specific like delicious like frozen milkshake that you blend in the store it's so fucking good there are also specific states where i think they have to pump your gas for you get out uh someone can write in and get the specificity of this but that's what they do i i don't think i don't know if you're not allowed to but you pull up to a gas station someone is there to pump it it's funny it's making me think and in new zealand that used to be the legit that happened to most gas stations that someone would come out and do that for you and that won't happen anywhere anymore i don't know if like then the tipping etiquette of it all feels weird especially here i would imagine in some of those places they're just paid a decent wage but here then you have to tip if well someone's pumping your gas in america i think you have to tip right right they're doing this thing for you oh i'll do it fuck flightlessbreadchat at gmail.com if you can clarify that so shannon loved bag milk loved quick trip um every day i'd have cereal for breakfast and was prepared with fresh milk out of a bag how neatly in a plastic open top picture the trick was pouring the milk without fear of the bag potentially slipping out of the picture when the bag was almost empty you needed to pinch the back corner of the bag with my thumb against the edge or handle the picture to keep it from falling out thank you shannon from wisconsin who also had bagged milk jenna wrote in about ranch i loved your ranch episode and wanted to write in about something i've recently discovered to be mexican ranch ranch it all started when i went to a mexican restaurant in virginia with my boyfriend who isn't from here i was surprised to learn that he had never had the white salsa that is served with a typical red salsa and complimentary chips i should just say as i read this i'm struggling trying to understand what's going on i'm too he then continuously referenced the white salsa as ranch and even texted his friend in another state who owns a mexican restaurant to ask if he knew what it was the friend replied bro that's ranch when i had enough of him referring to my delicious white salsa as ranch i decided to google it the internet informed me that the white salsa is typically only provided in virginia and is commonly known as virginia white salsa or mexican ranch jenna i'm just gonna take your word for it and i'm just gonna go with it i can't comment because i don't know what you're talking about orange girl writes in about fijoas i heard on the recent podcast there is a fijoa tree growing near you what the heck i live in new york and occasionally we see them here for five dollars a fruit that's right that fijoa that i do rob that was a five dollar fruit i think you just asked me if any what it was i don't think you offered me it just i think you're right i think you're completely right i warp reality around me um i feel like i know you because i worked with brock for years at oh that's so funny she knows my friend small world i haven't read these emails before i read them um thanks for the show milk in bags in canada also threw me when i was there last year great episode thank you love orange girl um i'll try my best to try bagged milk please in vancouver i don't know if vancouver has a lot of it around but if you can find it please take a photo just um yeah you got to trim both edges apparently so the one you pour it out from there's another edge that's also trimmed so it doesn't like suction in when you're pouring it trim both edges then pour apparently we're on patreon patreon.com slash flightless bird um we're also on um youtube videos on spotify if you have any feedback what's our email uh it's flightless for chat at gmail.com i love hearing from you also we we just put out um a nest session last week if you didn't listen to it with uh medium build i love him so much on sperm donors i mean it felt like uh it could have been a standalone regular episode given the topic i don't know i i kind of assume if you're listening to fight this bird you listen to the nest sessions it's this is something that you dreamed up and i feel like i love these monthly episodes because essentially if you haven't listened you're essentially getting a musician that we love in the studio we talk to them a bit about the music but mainly it's just them talking about something incredibly specifically american yeah we love we curate a topic yeah specifically for an artist yeah to come in and talk to us on on their firsthand so they're not like bleaching on about the intricacies of the music they're talking about something that's like very specifically entertaining they bring in a snack yep that's american from the road that they love and then um rob records them shooting rob records them essentially doing an acoustic set of three or four songs it's like a you know if you know tiny desk it's i know i i feel it's like that it's like beautifully recorded broken down versions of songs and we release it once a month and medium builds just a quality human yeah but but um i think just reiterating you don't have to know the artist the topics are not music based so if if you're not a fan of all of our music episodes yeah a lot of the conversation is centered around uh very niche things yeah yeah nick for medium build uh found out he was a sperm donor later in life we had someone who had a botched vasectomy yes talk about that uh yeah someone who is incredibly um obsessed with underground comics yes someone who collects hundreds of vintage yeah so you you get to kind of fall in love with these people and then actually see them uh do a magic trick by playing this beautiful music afterwards. - But it's also like, It's kind of amazing because I feel like Medium, I mean, I'm learning about Medium Build via the show myself in real time. But he's someone that the last couple of years has been playing. He was at Coachella last year. He's playing every festival. Medium Build is like, he's like building up his like whole, he's exploding at the moment. And he's on our show and that feels fucking cool. Yes. So, yeah, that is on our Spotify feed. It's on YouTube. It's wherever you listen to this podcast. And I think the next sessions are really fucking cool. We'll keep doing them for. For the time being. I think we will. We are flightlessbirdchat at gmail.com if you have feedback. And we will see you over on our Patreon or see you here next week. That's patreon.com slash flightlessbird.