Speaker 1: Heavyweight host Jonathan Goldstein.
Speaker 2: Producer Khalila Holt.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have.
Speaker 2: What some people are referring to around the water cooler
Speaker 2: here at Gimblet Media as possibly the most Canadian story
Speaker 2: ever told.
Speaker 1: If you're talking to around the water cooler, the office
Speaker 1: isn't even open.
Speaker 2: It's a metaphor.
Speaker 1: Okay, some of these are just imaginary, you know what.
Speaker 2: I'm surprised to hear this. I never knew that you
Speaker 2: were such a literalist. I'm taking a flight of fancy.
Speaker 3: Will you join me?
Speaker 1: Sure? Trade tables not.
Speaker 2: You know, we receive a lot of emails. Yes, people
Speaker 2: reach out and they want help with problems that they have.
Speaker 2: And recently we got this email that was so random
Speaker 2: and obscure that normally I'd be like, there's nothing I
Speaker 2: could do to help. But just by complete coincidence, I
Speaker 2: know the one person who could actually help this guy,
Speaker 2: and I am talking about my friend James. So the
Speaker 2: first thing that I had to do was call up
Speaker 2: James and ask for a favor. Boo hi, and we
Speaker 2: will get to that story right after the break.
Speaker 4: Psych boom, Hello, oh.
Speaker 3: I heard Wait one second, look at that.
Speaker 2: I suppose you're wondering why I've invited you to this conversation.
Speaker 5: I keep I was wondering if it's going to be
Speaker 5: some sort of intervention. But but I'm I'm assuming not.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 2: I so I received emails to the show where people
Speaker 2: are looking for help. Yes, the thing that I am
Speaker 2: looking for from you is a connection that you have.
Speaker 3: I hope it's not Drake because I don't know how
Speaker 3: to touch with it.
Speaker 2: Knew you were going to think it was Drake, and
Speaker 2: that was part of my strategy because then when you'd
Speaker 2: hear that it wasn't Drake, you'd be ready to give
Speaker 2: me anything. All right, since we're bringing Since we're bringing
Speaker 2: up Drake, why don't you go ahead and explain your
Speaker 2: connection to Drake?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 5: Yeah, So I worked on a TV show called Degrassi
Speaker 5: The Next Generation where he started out.
Speaker 2: He's a child actor, right, Canadian child actor.
Speaker 5: Canadian child actor, and he did the first rap that
Speaker 5: he did on camera. Anyways, this one that I wrote,
Speaker 5: it is very bad. It was just a few lines.
Speaker 4: Do you can you spit?
Speaker 2: Can you spit some rhymes?
Speaker 3: I can, but I won't.
Speaker 2: Oh come on, no, how about one line?
Speaker 4: One line?
Speaker 2: You don't even have to wrap it you could just
Speaker 2: speak it like poetry.
Speaker 3: Be so embarrassing, one.
Speaker 2: Line which you speak in a non wrapping Hayden's.
Speaker 3: So, why did you have to go?
Speaker 5: Okay, now, now you've got me looking it up. I
Speaker 5: typed in Drake and the first thing I got was
Speaker 5: Drake and kadye beef. They do have beef apparently. Here
Speaker 5: it is Tracy, Jimmy and Spinner's wrap.
Speaker 2: It's on YouTube, Oh very much.
Speaker 3: So yes you can hear it. Oh my goodness, this
Speaker 3: is so persing. Okay, here we go, Sure, here we go.
Speaker 3: Oh this isn't it. Hold on, we're not forgetting it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we have the ammo, my friend, we have the ammo.
Speaker 3: The Brooks.
Speaker 6: Homie is a player and that is all. So why'd
Speaker 6: you have to.
Speaker 3: Go and kick his ball? And Chaine ain't that name?
Speaker 6: Because you would play at Hayden and that's a shame.
Speaker 3: Yeah, why did you make me do that?
Speaker 6: Gat?
Speaker 2: So, No, I'm not asking.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't ask you to reach out to Drake.
Speaker 3: It probably wouldn't work.
Speaker 2: But I was going to say it's a smaller ask,
Speaker 2: but in a way, he might be bigger than Drake
Speaker 2: at one time, let's say he was bigger than Drake.
Speaker 2: Is this Kevin Smith, because they won't even get into
Speaker 2: the Kevin Smith. Though this is someone who knows your name.
Speaker 3: I have no idea who this could be.
Speaker 2: All right, why don't I read you the email that
Speaker 2: I received? And as I read it it might dawn
Speaker 2: on you.
Speaker 3: Okay, So it's.
Speaker 2: From a guy named Adam en Wright. I've had a
Speaker 2: problem for many years, and it's the fact that people
Speaker 2: don't believe I met Fidel Castro. And then and then
Speaker 2: he goes on to say that Castro was in Montreal
Speaker 2: for Pierre Elliott Trudeau's funeral and he saw him in
Speaker 2: Old Montreal with former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.
Speaker 3: I think I know where this is going.
Speaker 2: Okay, well let me get there. Here we go, let's
Speaker 2: see if you're right. So at a certain point, Paul
Speaker 2: Martin exited a restaurant, and a few minutes later, so
Speaker 2: did Castro, who got into a limousine with no bodyguards.
Speaker 2: And it all happened too quickly for Adam to snap
Speaker 2: a picture with a camera or to you know, try
Speaker 2: to shake his hand, so he just he ended up
Speaker 2: just saying shouting out Viva la revolution one. But he
Speaker 2: describes this stunning moment where he felt just frozen in time.
Speaker 2: But then in the days and years afterwards, nobody he
Speaker 2: tells the story to believes it. So Adam is turning
Speaker 2: to me to somehow prove that he met Fidel Castro.
Speaker 2: So now you know WHYPI So now you know why
Speaker 2: I am getting in touch with you. Yeah, you know
Speaker 2: former prime minister, former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.
Speaker 5: I know him very tangentially. No, he would just know
Speaker 5: me as one of his son's friends.
Speaker 2: Your friend, Jamie, you are friends, actual friends with the
Speaker 2: son of a prime minister.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: For our American listeners say prime minister is like the
Speaker 2: is like the Canadian president.
Speaker 3: He is indeed.
Speaker 2: Yes, So if I could get to Paul Martin and
Speaker 2: ask if he had dinner with Fidel Castro on the
Speaker 2: day of Trudeau's funeral, that would basically come about as
Speaker 2: close as anything else to proving that Adam had indeed
Speaker 2: seen Castro that day, right, I think?
Speaker 5: So, I can't get much better than that. You could,
Speaker 5: you could basically place him there.
Speaker 2: So how would you feel about calling up Jamie and
Speaker 2: asking if he could ask his dad.
Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely absolutely, let's do it. So here we go.
Speaker 2: All right, you all set, Here we go. I'm we're
Speaker 2: gonna call it. We're gonna burn this bridge.
Speaker 3: Hey de man, Hi buddy, how's it going?
Speaker 6: Dough boy? Are you going to be a sea? If
Speaker 6: seeing with us tomorrow.
Speaker 2: I proved that Fidel Castro had dinner with your father,
Speaker 2: then that would go away to legitimize this guy's claim
Speaker 2: of having run into him.
Speaker 6: The man is now eighty three years old.
Speaker 7: But I can ask my dad and I can see
Speaker 7: what he remembers.
Speaker 2: You're you're not You're not bubbling together right now for
Speaker 2: COVID are you You're not You're not all staying in
Speaker 2: the same residence or anything.
Speaker 6: No, we are exactly Actually he's just downstairs.
Speaker 3: Oh we are.
Speaker 6: We are doing exactly that. We are bubbling together. We
Speaker 6: have been for two months.
Speaker 4: So you could you could I can.
Speaker 6: Ask him in in twenty seconds.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like you could theoretically just walk downstairs with me
Speaker 2: on the phone and say, hey, Dad, does this spring
Speaker 2: a bell?
Speaker 6: Let me you know one, let me try to do it.
Speaker 6: I'm going downstairs.
Speaker 2: I'm going downstairs, all right, great.
Speaker 6: Let's see.
Speaker 7: Okay, Oh, hey Dad, do you remember after the funeral
Speaker 7: of Pierre Elliott Trudeau meeting up with Fidel Castro?
Speaker 6: Okay, more specific.
Speaker 2: Jonathan, they would have had dinner at a restaurant in
Speaker 2: Old Montreal.
Speaker 8: Do you remember having dinner in Old Montreal and Fidel
Speaker 8: Castro was there?
Speaker 6: The only thing I remember.
Speaker 8: This is a friend of mine who's doing a podcast.
Speaker 8: This is not some kind of gotcha anything like this.
Speaker 8: Would you be willing to answer his questions about twenty
Speaker 8: five years ago?
Speaker 6: You can talk to the man himself.
Speaker 2: Sure, here it is, hello, mister Martin.
Speaker 3: Hi, Hi are you?
Speaker 4: I'm good?
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for talking to me. This is
Speaker 2: such a strange request. I don't know if Jamie explained
Speaker 2: to you the podcast that I do. Okay, I do
Speaker 2: this podcast where people write into me with some you know,
Speaker 2: question or curiosity. Do you have any memory of having
Speaker 2: had dinner with with Fidel Castro.
Speaker 9: The only thing I can remember about about the Trudeau
Speaker 9: funeral was I remember justin speaking over the coffin in
Speaker 9: the church. Yeah, that's the only thing I can remember.
Speaker 9: I can't remember really what I did before, and I
Speaker 9: have no idea where I ate or what I did.
Speaker 9: Now Here's the probably Jamie will tell you this. There
Speaker 9: are a lot of things that I might have done
Speaker 9: twenty five years ago that I I just don't remember
Speaker 9: that I might have done.
Speaker 2: Do you think that it's just that you know, you've
Speaker 2: you've met so many important people over your life that
Speaker 2: Fidel Castro doesn't stand out.
Speaker 9: Or it's conceivable that if I had met Fidel Castro
Speaker 9: that I would not remember it, because you meet a
Speaker 9: lot of people. If, on the other hand, if I
Speaker 9: had said supper with Fidel Castro, then there's a at least.
Speaker 6: A fifty to fifty chance I would remember it.
Speaker 2: I wonder if you don't remember because you just it
Speaker 2: didn't happen, or you don't remember just because you'd you know,
Speaker 2: you just don't remember a lot of this stuff that
Speaker 2: happened so long ago.
Speaker 9: Well, I think I suspect I suspect it I don't
Speaker 9: remember because it didn't happen, Huh.
Speaker 3: I think if I.
Speaker 9: Would have had a one on one with Castro, I
Speaker 9: would remember that. I think if if I'd been at
Speaker 9: a dinner where Castro was listen, I've been I hate
Speaker 9: to say it this way, but I've been at so
Speaker 9: many of those dinners where so many people renown are
Speaker 9: that they don't stick.
Speaker 3: Huh.
Speaker 2: Do the meetings with people of you know, renown, like
Speaker 2: famous politics and such, do they have a longer shelf
Speaker 2: life than the memories than the intimate memories, you know,
Speaker 2: memories of like your your your kids and stuff like that.
Speaker 9: No, no, no, not at all. And I suspect that
Speaker 9: if you reflect on this conversation and twenty five years
Speaker 9: from now, what you remember is the event, not in
Speaker 9: the significance of the event in terms of a historic thing, but.
Speaker 6: As opposed to the people.
Speaker 9: So that you know, if.
Speaker 6: I met.
Speaker 9: If I met somebody at a rocket launch, it's conceivable
Speaker 9: I would remember the rocket launch and I would not
Speaker 9: remember the people that were there. Be quite honest, I
Speaker 9: do not remember meeting Vane Lchestra.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's that's uh, that's that is good enough. I
Speaker 2: feel like I've traveled quite a ways to answer this
Speaker 2: guy's question. I made it all the way. You and
Speaker 2: uh and I and I promise you in twenty five
Speaker 2: years I will remember our conversation.
Speaker 9: Yeah, well, I promise you in twenty five years I
Speaker 9: won't be here to confirm it.
Speaker 2: But are you hold Adam?
Speaker 4: And right?
Speaker 10: Yes, this is Jonathan.
Speaker 2: This is Jonathan Goldsteen speaking. That's incredible he recognized my voice.
Speaker 2: Of course, I'm so touched.
Speaker 10: That's incredible. Holdly man, I think you're gonna call.
Speaker 2: You're not crying, are you?
Speaker 3: I'm just about yeah.
Speaker 2: Oh that's very sweet of you. H After after receiving
Speaker 2: your email, I kind of I set to work on it. Okay,
Speaker 2: So on my end, Okay, so what caught my eye
Speaker 2: in your email? Was you mentioned Prime Minister Paul Martin.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I have.
Speaker 2: A friend who has a connection to Paul Martin's. I mean,
Speaker 2: this is a long way to go to tell you
Speaker 2: that I come bearing bad news. I wasn't able to
Speaker 2: verify it from Paul Martley.
Speaker 10: Yeah, it's fully understandable. Yeah, yeah, you know, maybe it
Speaker 10: was a guy that looked a lot like Astro. Who
Speaker 10: knows that I haven't even told anyone for years about
Speaker 10: it actually, because you know, you just get that sort
Speaker 10: of irol, you know, like because it's just you know,
Speaker 10: it just you know, it just doesn't come off right.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you something else. Actually, when when I spoke
Speaker 2: to Paul art and one of the things that he
Speaker 2: said is that his memory of his kids. That is
Speaker 2: more vivid to him and more easily accessible than you know,
Speaker 2: his memory of statesman and famous people.
Speaker 3: Right, that makes sense. You know.
Speaker 10: I did web design for a few years and now
Speaker 10: I've gone back to working with seniors and people will remember,
Speaker 10: you know, things that don't reflect in the history books.
Speaker 10: You know, people remember their husbands or wives and kids.
Speaker 10: And do you have kids. I've got a little son, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Have you ever told him this story about meeting Castro?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: But you think your son, right, like, your son would
Speaker 2: believe you, right, You think that's what kids are for.
Speaker 2: They're so naive, they're so believing.
Speaker 10: Yeah, well, you know I won't tell him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well you have to explain to him who Castro
Speaker 2: is first.
Speaker 10: Yes, I would.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Hey, listen, you know I will say that. You know,
Speaker 2: I believe you.
Speaker 10: Thank you, yoke.
Speaker 2: Do you think that you're going to remember this conversation
Speaker 2: that we're having now twenty five years from now. This
Speaker 2: episode was produced by Stevie Lane, Khalila Holt, and me
Speaker 2: Jonathan Goldstein. It was mixed by Catherine Anderson, with music
Speaker 2: by Trebon's Blue Dot Sessions and Bobby Lord. Heavyweight returns
Speaker 2: with a full new season on September thirtieth.
Speaker 3: We'll see you soon.