Dynamic Unos, Duos and Trios: Hosting Teams That Will Blow You Away with Lori Beckstead

You’ve got your podcast concept figured out, now what about your hosts? Will you go solo, or find some talented friends and/or colleagues to join you? Arguably the most important part of a podcast is having a great presenter. They’re responsible for putting your concept into action, guiding the listener through each episode and establishing a parasocial relationship with your audience. This episode we feature three podcasts with excellent host teams. Throughout the episode, we’ll break down what makes these hosts so effective, the strengths each sized team brings to their series,  and how to improve your own hosting skills.

Produced by the RTA School of Media at X University

To read the complete show notes click here
Visit our website to view the transcription or access hyperlinks in this description: https://bounced.buzzsprout.com/

Timestamps
1:04 - 5:46  What makes a great host?
5:47  - 25:45  I’ll Have the Chicken Tenders
25:46 - 29:09  Host authenticity
29:10 - 39:21  Pressbox Chatter
39:22 - 41:43  Smart writing and understanding your market
41:44 -  1:14:02  TV Toybox
1:14:03 - 1:19:34  Giving context and having a balanced team

Featured Projects:
I’ll Have the Chicken Tenders - Megan Pierotti (RTA 996 W2021)
Not yet graduated off the kids menu? Join Megan Pierotti, an adult picky eater who’s taken it upon herself to finally get her diploma and move on up in life…to taller chairs at the adult table. Each episode Megan will try a new food and have a guest on to discover what it is that people love about it. Tune in weekly for a taste of adventurous food endeavours, laughs and stories of picky eating.

Pressbox Chatter - Samuel Bird and Ryan Castelino (Spiritlive 2020-2021)
In 10 minutes or less, longtime friends and aspiring zamboni drivers Ryan Castelino and Sam Bird deliver a lighthearted take on the week that was in the NHL. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and you won’t have to go to the bathroom halfway through because we keep it short to accommodate Gen-Z’s attention span.

TV Toybox - Ethan Geoffrey Lee, Brian Arnold and Hayley Cheng (RTA 996 W2021)
Ethan, Brian, and Hayley watched a lot of TV growing up. In fact, they shamelessly still watch kids shows from the late 90s and 2000s. Covering a new show every other Saturday, TV Toybox documents their journey to re-experience childhood joy, interviewing experts to learn more about their favourite kids shows than their lil’ brains could have ever imagined. Or can imagine. As adults.

Credits
Podcast Producer and Host: Sam McNulty
Project Supervisor and Guest Host: Lori Beckstead
Artwork: Yvette Sin
Sound Design (Trailer, Opening and Sweepers): Anita Pogorzelska
Opening and Closing Music: PHAS3.EXE  by Drake Sanderson
Show Notes and Transcription: Yixin (Cherry) Yang

Transcript

Anita Pogorzelska (Opening)  0:14  
You're listening to Bounced. An RTA school media student showcase podcast.

Samantha McNulty  0:27  
So you've got your podcast concept figured out and that's awesome. But what about your hosts? Will you go solo or find some talented friends and colleagues to join you? Probably one of the most important parts of a podcast is having a great presenter. They're responsible for putting your concept into action, guiding the listener through each episode and establishing the not-so-fabled parasocial relationship with your audience. More on that later. I'm Sam McNulty. And this episode, we're featuring three podcasts with excellent host teams. And to do that I've got my own fabulous team to host this episode with me. Joining us today is Lori Beckstead, the director of the Allen Slade radio Institute and associate professor and the RTA School of Media over at x University. How's it going, Lori?

Lori Beckstead  1:15  
Oh, it's going really well. Thanks for having me today.

Samantha McNulty  1:18  
So you've actually got a background in hosting yourself? Did you want to go into that? 

Lori Beckstead  1:22  
Sure. I mean, it's not extensive or anything. But I've always loved radio and audio media. And I worked for 10 years in campus and community radio at various hosting and producing jobs. And I guess my most recent hosting gig would have been on a podcast that I co hosted and co produced for a few years. It was all about sewing, because that's my alter ego is as a person who loves to sew clothes. So it was a fun little sort of hobby niche podcast, and I had a lot of fun interviewing people and talking to other people who love to sew. Yeah.

Samantha McNulty  1:58  
That's awesome. So, you know, a little bit about hosting, or you know, a lot about hosting, what can a good host look like?

Lori Beckstead  2:07  
Ah, well, you know, the nice thing about audio media is they don't have to look like anything, but it's how they sound right. So yeah, so I think a great host is someone who is themselves. So, you know, many years ago, in commercial radio, we had this sort of the jockeys that were sort of "hey, it's commercial radio, and here I am. And I'm going to be" this sort of weird over the top kind of personality. And I think what we have evolved to appreciate now is when people just are their true authentic selves. And hopefully, they're allowing their own personality to shine, which allows the listener to engage with them to sort of be able to relate to them. I think in audio media, and podcasting, and radio, you want a host that is the kind of person that you feel like you could invite to a dinner party, or that you could sit down and have a coffee with. That's kind of the feeling that you hope someone gets when they listen to your show, I think. So. If you can just kind of make the listener feel comfortable, make them feel like they're part of the conversation, even though the conversation is really only going one way, that listener still feels like they've been part of something. I think that if a host can can pull that off, then they're going to be just fine.

Samantha McNulty  3:18  
So I mentioned in my intro what a parasocial relationship is, and you kind of gone into it. Can you give us a little bit more details on what that entails? 

Lori Beckstead  3:28  
Yeah, so this is a concept of a one way relationship parasocial meaning. So if you, you know, perhaps you have a favorite YouTube star, or you watch a television show over and over again. You develop a sort of emotional relationship with the people who are hosting or the characters on that show. And even though it's just one way, in other words, the person on the other end doesn't particularly have a relationship with you specifically. You do feel some kind of connection to them. And that's really rampant in in audio media. And I think that's mainly because, you know, with audio media, It's often said, it's a very intimate medium. Like right now, for example, I am speaking into a microphone that's about four inches from my mouth. And if you think about real life, well, and especially during COVID, of course. But even in the before times, it's very rare to actually be four inches away from someone's ear. And really, that's what's happening right now. And people who may be listening might be listening in their car, which is kind of their personal bubble, or they might be listening with headphones, which makes the experience even more sort of intimate and personal. It's sort of a four inch relationship between you and the host. And so that intimacy that audio media allows, it also takes away the kind of the visual aspects so we're not seeing someone and kind of judging them immediately. Even even if we like to think that we don't judge people and we don't have bias. We do. The minute we see someone we have all kinds of assumptions in our brain about who they are. But I think there's something really pure about the human voice and an ability to connect with a human voice alone. That just allows us to go a little deeper into someone's psyche, into their personality into their, you know, their personal philosophies. That kind of just leaves all of the other, how do you want to call it like icing aside, you know, we're not worried about what kind of clothes they're wearing, or whether their makeup is nice, or what their hair looks like, or the color of their skin, that sort of thing. So I think it allows us to drop a lot of those things and make a more direct connection.

Samantha McNulty  5:39  
Well, I'm glad you brought up that factor of authenticity because I think our first feature student is a great example of that. Not yet graduated off the kid's menu. Join your first host and adult picky eater who's taking it upon herself to finally get her diploma and move on up in life to taller chairs at the adult table. Each episode she'll be trying a new food and have a guest on to discover what it is that people love about it. Tune in for a taste of adventurous food endeavors laughs and stories of picky eating. This is Megan Pierotti's I'll Have the Chicken Tenders. 

Megan  6:20  
I'll have the chicken tenders. Join me, Megan Pierotti. A lifelong picky eater as I delve into the culinary world by stepping out of my comfort zone to try new foods. 

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the first ever episode of The I'll Have The Chicken Tenders Podcast. I am your host Megan Pierotti, and yes, it is true. I am a picky eater, I have been a picky eater my entire life. I am in my 20s and I don't eat much better than I did as a kid. I'm definitely lacking in the vegetables department. I'll tell you that. And I relatively stay to my go-tos, which is always a grilled cheese sandwich and peanut butter sandwich, probably should not be having at the quantity in which I am having it. But I mean, it's just so good, right? Well, I have tried more foods over the years and I'm not as bad bad as I was like 10 years old, I'm honestly not that that much better. I have a long way to go. And I'd like to kind of speed that up a bit. And the older I get the more you know, my body starts not liking me as much and I just want to be better at taking care of myself. And that means eating better. I don't think I'll ever not be a picky eater, it would be nice to be able to go to a restaurant and have a few more options that I feel comfortable eating. I think if you're a picky eater, going to new places can always be very daunting. The experience is kind of ruined when you're struggling to find something to eat on the menu. But in the meantime, I will be trying a new food. So today on the menu, I will be trying an olive for the very first time. I have never tried an olive before. And I won't be able to say that after today. But first let's figure out what do I think of when I think of an olive. Let's listen to some of my thoughts. 

The grocery store experience is ruined by the olives. Those big plastic jugs and metal trays full of olives are there smell is just out in the open. I don't know why they have to do that. I cannot get past how bad they smell. My body knows I need to get out of the situation. So I'm like an Olympic athlete when it comes to avoiding that section. The speed in which I travel to just to get to the other side where I don't have this smell it put me against Usain Bolt. Okay, any other day he can take me. You know, I'm humble. I understand that. I'm aware. I am not trained. I am not skilled in that department. But you put olives out there there with the secretion and those fumes. I'll beat him okay? No questions asked. Here's a little message the grocery stores Huh? What do you try to do to me? You know, I'm just here trying to get some food trying to survive and then you're gonna put this big obstacle in my way. No thank you. I do not appreciate that. There's a reason why there's no olive-smelling candle. You know, it's not a top seller because it is not a good scent. I have never once thought something smells bad. Oh, I should I should eat it. You know? No, thank you. Delicious cake, oh, you know, nice oven roasted chicken, a turkey. You know, smells your body is like, this is comfort. I feel like this situation is me on fear factor. They have people with spiders crawling on their head, scorpions they have to eat, jumping out of airplanes. Yes. All very scary. I would probably not enjoy any of those. But also put an olive into the mix? Having to try and all of with the smell? I am so terrified of trying an olive. And I know it's so small in the grand scheme of things like I am a giant to this olive. I'm a giant. But I feel like you can take me down and let's talk about the look now who do olives think they are? Come on. Nothing exciting about the olive. You don't see the olive and say "ooh, beautiful." Well at least I don't. It's not very exciting to me. It's just kind of like an evil grape. You know, am I wrong? It's an evil grape. Grapes are like soft. They've got a nice light green or light red burgundy. They're juicy. And they're sweet. You know, happy refreshing olives? Yeah, let's do the opposite of that.

Clearly, I haven't built the best relationship with olives, as you can tell from peeking into my mind a bit. But I think getting a new perspective on the food might help me out. So let's take it away to my interview with our special guest. I am so excited to introduce the first ever guests on the I'll Have The Chicken Tenders Podcast, Alex Fishman. She's a huge fan of olives and has been for a very long time. And as our resident olive-expert, she is here to express her love for them today. So welcome to the show. 

Alex  11:32  
Thank you so much. I'm so so so excited to be here. 

Megan  11:36  
I'm happy to have you. So I just want to know, what was your first experience with olives?

Alex  11:42  
Honestly, I couldn't even tell you when the first time was I'm still convinced but like, my mom probably like kind of like surrender, like fed it to us as newborns. To get us like used to the olives. You know, it's like very, very embedded in my culture in my family. So I don't remember a time in my life that I didn't eat olives. 

Megan  12:01  
So there are so many different types of olives. I don't even know where to start. Can you tell us a bit about the different ones there are?

Alex  12:08  
So first of all, you have like the black regular olives. I feel like those are the most common even for people who don't love olives they're like I can do black olives, you know, like in salads or on pizza because they're kind of bland. They don't have like a lot of taste. Okay, so then you have the green ones, you have all different kinds of green ones. Some of them are sour, some are bitter, some are spicy, it really depends like what you marinate them in, right? Then you have Greek olives, like the Kalamata, you know, like the purple ones. Then you have ones that are stuffed with things you can have like with peppers, you can have stuff with garlic with almonds, which I love.

Megan  12:44  
Is it more of a snackable thing? Or is it best in a certain type of dish? Or what's your favorite? 

Alex  12:51  
Oh, that's a good question. So I love olives like just like that like as a snack. But that being said, I find that they also make everything better. So I love olives on pizza. I love olives on salads, I like them in sandwiches. There's this, I'm pretty sure it's Moroccan, and my mom makes this lemon Olive chicken. I know that sounds kind of weird. But it is delicious. It's like the sauce is like a lemon and olive sauce. And then like those chunks of olives left in there to eat like with the chicken. And it's so good. I don't know what I would say my favorite is but all of those are, like are really up there or like an olive spread. That's really good.

Megan  13:32  
I am trying this for the first time. So I would like you to guide me as to what I should do for the best chances to success. So tell me as an expert, how I should go about this. 

Alex  13:45  
Okay, so there are different ways I think you could go about this. One, I think this is like the safest way is that I would get a pizza like a regular cheese pizza or whatever pizza you like. And I would just ask for black olives on it or like on half, you know, just in case like you really end up hating it. Because like that, it's like it's really not strong. You're still mainly tasting your pizza, but you're getting a hint of like, what the olive tastes like and then you can also kind of like pick it off the pizza. And just like try, you know, but they're not they're really not strong especially after being cooked on the pizza. I mean like black olives not like those like fancy pizzas that have like strong like Kalamata olives. That's one thing that I think might maybe might work for you.

Megan  14:30  
So take it with something I already like to kind of help push the flavors, right?

Alex  14:36  
Yes, exactly. Try with something you already like. You'll have more of a chance of success than rather than just like just go cold turkey on some strong-ass olives right away. Another thing is like, if you do like a charcuterie board next time you make a charcuterie board, maybe just get a recommended I can send you like you know my favorites that are on the mild side on like, the easier aside. 

Megan  15:00  
What are those?

Alex  15:01  
So I don't know. Okay, well I love almond stuff all like love those you they're really not that strong for me though the perfect olives, honestly. Those are really, really good. And just like regular green jar of like green olives or black olives. 

Megan  15:16  
Okay, so the game plan is this little recap here, we're gonna have pizza and we're gonna have black olives on the pizza. 

Alex  15:23  
Yes. 

Megan  15:24  
Now if I'm going to go a little crazy here today, I'm going to go for just a jar and just try it as a snack, right?

Alex  15:31  
Yes, a regular green pit or with pit that's like it does make a big difference of the green too. And I really think you need because it's so there's so different. So I think you really need to try both.

Megan  15:42  
So this is a double feature now. 

Alex  15:44  
Yeah, you have to do it. 

Megan  15:46  
Well, I'm gonna have to pit them against each other. One olive was a lot now I'm gonna be doing two olives. This is crazy.

Alex  15:56  
You got this, you got this. There's so different. It's like having two completely different foods, man, I'm telling you. It's not the same thing. It's so different.

Megan  16:04  
If the expert says I need to try two different types is what I shall do.

Alex  16:08  
Yeah. Because you know why? Like, if I say the green, and then you try the green, you're like, Oh my god, she's crazy. This is terrible. And then you'll be so scared of olives again, to try the black, you might think the same thing. So if you have both like, you know, try one than the other. It might be possible that you kind of enjoy one of them. And then you'll start exploring ones that are similar to that one, you know?

Megan  16:28  
Yeah, well, I'm a little scared of olives in general. But we shall we're going to work through this. And there's no guarantees I will like it. But I will promise you, I will try it. I thank you so much for coming on to my podcast. It's been so much fun talking to you. 

Alex  16:45  
Thank you so much for having me. 

Megan  16:48  
Now that I know what I need to get, it's time to go to the store. Okay, I have landed in the olive section. I need to make my decision. I have never stood in this section of the store this long before. Okay, I'm some of these are so big, and then they got smaller ones. Oh, okay. I'm thinking I'm gonna go with the garlic stuffed olives. Because I like garlic. So maybe that'll help me through it. You know, we got to use more garlic. What do you think? I'm talking to myself, but I think that's the way I'm going to go with it. Okay, let's secure the olives. 

Okay, sitting next to me, I have a jar of green olives. They are stuffed with garlic. And per Alex's, our resident expert on the olive department, she also told me I should try black olives on a cheese pizza. So I have everything next to me to the side. Okay. So I think I'm going to tackle the pizza first, just open the little container. And they're very dark, hence the name black olives. I guess that would make sense. They don't smell very good as I knew they wouldn't, but hopefully the cheese will subside that. They feel kind of hard. Try and get all those senses involved. I can't hear anything. So that's a good sign. Can you tell I'm putting it off? I can't I gotta do this. I got to do this. Right? This is what we're here for. I am going to do this. You have myself up, you know? Okay, so I'm picking up the pizza. The pizza, on the other hand smells divine. But I think that's a given. Okay, um, I'm going in for the but 123 come on.

It's the longest it's taken me to swallow a bite of cheese pizza. Not as bad as I thought it would be on the piece of pizza. But the texture and just knowing that it was there. I had a really hard time. And just tasting like this slight difference in texture compared to the cheese pizza. It was not the worst thing ever. I don't think I'd ever choose to put it on there. Yeah, and I don't think I could have too much fun. It was better than I thought between what Alex had already mentioned. That would have been the easier out of the two. Also, not to mention that the cheese pizza was their mascot. So, I mean, I kind of I kind of did that. So I'm proud of myself, but I think we'll probably be picking that off. So a slight success right off the gate but I could not tell you that I like it. Just like the I just knew it was there. It messes with your mind, you know, just knowing it. Okay, what I am the most concerned about is this jar that staring me in the face. It is garlic stuffed olives, and they're pretty hunk and big if I do say so myself. There was a lot smaller ones at the store but the fact that it was garlic stuff made me go with it because I like garlic and garlic can tend to be strong. So we're going to try this out. Honestly, they look huge. I don't know if I can eat it all. Luckily, I have the remainder of a slice of cheese pizza to help me. Maybe. But we're gonna think positive. Positives, positive time here. We are going to try our best and, you know, maybe it's gonna be delicious. But first, I must open the jar. I'll be honest here as you can tell by my slight change in tone. I am obviously very nervous about this. If you could only hear it for like heart beating. I just gotta you know I'm frazzle here, I'm frazzled here. Haven't used use that word in quite some time. But we're using it today, 'frazzled'. Okay, I'm trying to open it here. And the reason I told you I was sweaty, is because I think I'm gonna struggle opening this jar. So we'll give it a shot here. Oh. I managed. I already said how I feel like it looks which is big and scary. Who knew a jar could be so threatening to me, but it is. Okay. So, with a smell test. Oh, yeah, it's smell it. Obviously it smells like olives. Okay. Okay. Okay, let's change this thought process. Okay, I'm obviously scared, positive vibes out there. Honestly, I need to take a moment. I think I'm also stalling. But I'd like to take a moment and say how impressed I was that I opened that so quickly. I'm gonna just pat myself on the back for that. And hopefully that will help stimulate something. I'm hesitant that I'd be able to eat it all and I don't want to spit it out right away because that's not the goal here. The goal is to try it, to understand the flavor profile, to not be as scared of it as you can tell I'm very scared. Okay, I have a fork here. Should I try the brine? Is that what it's called? Those are the terms I believe? Well get me so sophisticated. Okay, I'm trying I'm trying it. Very salty. So because of that I'm kind of getting a little nervous by anything. In the pickled form and it being soaked in this. Oh, look. Let's read the ingredient list. Okay, it says per one olive oil. I've never seen nutrition fact states something per one because it's probably because I'm normally eating like cookies in that so. It says 10 calories. That's good, right? People count calories. Calorie's 10 is that a lot for one? Okay, let's move on. Let's move on. Honestly, wow. A lot of zeros. High sodium, okay that makes sense. So the one I am staring at the top. There's three at the top here. And there's a garlic like fully out. It's leaving the olive. Look at all the accomplishments I've done in my life. My parents will be so proud of me. Going for my education, getting my driver's license, but they should be most proud of me try this today. I doubt they thought the day would ever come the day is today. And I'm trying, excavating it for like an archaeologist here. But I don't know what my brain is doing right now. It is clearly trying to divert the attention from what is actually happening today and that is trying the damn thing. Stop stalling. Go for it. Okay I don't know if that helped me but we're going in. Okay, I'm taking a bite. The sodium. So salty. Oh my God shivers.

Okay, good. No, no, I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like it. How can something so tiny is ruining my life so much. Black olives on the pizza. Round of applause here. It was not that bad. The green olives on the other hand, I feel like I'm really disappointing Alex here today and that breaks my heart. Hopefully I'm not breaking all of your hearts here today too. Do not like the green olives really don't think I like pickle things. I think it's just the pickled mess of it. But I do think the garlic helps but I do not like it. And you know, this was not a full loss. I've tried all it as it should black olives and green olives. And I'm pretty proud of myself. I think if the black olives were in a maybe in a certain type of dish and I wasn't too many of them, I could get through it. Which, you know, that's a good thing. That's a good thing. I think I'll be avoiding olive stuff on the menu for the time being. But thank you so much for joining me. It has been a journey. I'd like to thank Alex for helping me through the process. Who knows what's gonna go on next week, I am looking forward to crossing off another food on my list of things that the ever so long list. Anyways, I hope you all have a wonderful day, and I'm gonna go treat myself and the rest of that pizza. Alright, Bye, everyone.

Samantha McNulty  25:46  
That was Megan Pierotti's I'll Have the Chicken Tenders. What I really love about Meghan here is that the first part of that whole show just feel so unscripted and off the cup. We get a really good sense of who Megan is within that first minute. 

Lori Beckstead  25:59  
Yeah, and she's just a she's the every woman, right? We can all relate to something like that. Something that we have, that might not seem like a big deal, but it's kind of embarrassing, and we'd really like to change it. And just the way she tackles that whole issue of not liking a lot of foods and talking about all of us and talking about evil grapes. I mean, she just pulls you in right away, right with her great personality and her and her humor.

Samantha McNulty  26:27  
She does and she does it in a really vulnerable way. She's not afraid to say that, like, I really don't like these things, or this is why I'm doing it. You know, she talks about like, taking care of her body more and wanting to improve herself. But she does it in a way that doesn't make you feel bad. It makes you feel connected to what she's saying. Because we all do want to improve ourselves in some sort of way. And I love that she's very honest about it.

Lori Beckstead  26:51  
Yeah. And in a way she's an inspiration because you think, Okay, well, if she can try an olive, then I could probably do that thing that I've been uncomfortable about trying or whatever, right?

Samantha McNulty  27:00  
Yeah, there's a lot of bravery there. I think another thing that I love about her podcast is particularly towards the end, where she's, or the end of her first segment where she's kind of setting up where she's going to explain, how she feels about olives. Because I was in her class when she had originally premiered this podcast. And she had stopped it right at the minute of "this is what I think about olives". And the whole class was like, we want to listen to the rest. We were all kind of like upset that she stopped it there. So she did something really smart at the beginning where she was like leading us into what we're going to be talking about. And we were all excited to see what does she have to say?

Lori Beckstead  27:39  
Right? She sets up this suspenseful thing, even though it seems like a little thing. "I'm going to try an olive", but it becomes a very suspenseful thing. And you absolutely want to go along with her on that journey. And I remember that moment in class. And, you know, we all knew we had a winner on our hands when, you know, by the nature of the length of podcasts, we can't play everyone's back in their entirety to the class. But everyone's like "Don't stop now we want to hear the rest of it!" So yeah, that was a really good sign. 

Samantha McNulty  28:04  
It was. And then even her whole segment towards the end where she's trying to try the olives, she has the olives in her hand, and she's just like trying to hype herself up. There's a lot of moments in there where she's just about to try it. And then she like pulls back and she just keeps pulling back and forth. And then sometimes when you think it's just like, Oh my gosh, please just try this fricking olive. She says another funny thing that gets you going and she keeps stringing you along in this ride. And she really takes the time to hold your attention. And I love that.

Lori Beckstead  28:35  
it's like watching an exciting sports match or something like that. She's really good. Yeah.

Samantha McNulty  28:40  
Who knew olives could be like trying a sport or watching this for it. She makes it so interesting. She's so talented. I love that.

Lori Beckstead  28:48  
Definitely a talent. I really hope Megan's going to pursue producing this podcast. And if not, you know someone out there listening who has a podcast network, get Megan Pierotti on it. 

Samantha McNulty  29:10  
Speaking of sports next up we got a Spirit Live show from two very talented first year sport media students. In 10 minutes or less, longtime friends and aspiring Zamboni drivers Ryan Castelino and Samuel Bird deliver a lighthearted take on the week that was in the NHL. You'll laugh you'll cry and you won't have to go to the bathroom halfway because they're going to keep it short to accommodate your Gen Z attention span. This is Press Box Chatter.

Rhino  29:42  
Are you sure this is it?

Birdman  29:44  
Yeah, this is the address. I got it from craigslist.com/2021/NHL/playoff/bluesgotswept.com

Rhino  29:53  
Well, if you got it from there, it's got to be it. This is zero wins Avenue. Oh look, the Oilers Team Bus just rolled up.

Birdman  30:01  
This is a pretty sketchy place. Our car already got stolen. And I've already been shanked in the ribs. Make sure you bring your gloves. We might have to drop them.

Rhino  30:17  
He's on the 13th floor. 

Birdman  30:19  
There's no elevator? Let's head up the stairs.

Rhino  30:25  
Alright, here we are room 56. Weird. No doorknob and the welcome mat says: Welcome to Heaven? Oh, I'm starting to think we shouldn't have used Craigslist. 

Hockey God  30:41  
Who dis? 

Birdman  30:42  
It's Rhino and the Birdman from Pressbox Chatter?

Hockey God  30:46  
Rhino and the Birdman? Oh, I love you guys. Come on in. Welcome to my haven. I'm the official hockey god of the NHL. Make yourselves at home. Give me a second. Let's put on some music.

Announcer  31:16  
This is your weekly reminder that this show is produced on Tuesday during the day. Therefore if Montreal wins seven nothing in overtime or you see Cerros makes another 60 saves. It won't be enough in episode.

Hockey God  31:34  
And finally, this is my operating room and barber shop for NHL superstars. I replaced Nikita kucherov hip Sheldon sandersons legs and Eric Carlson's Achilles in here also recently gave Mitch marner a filthy mullet.

Rhino  31:47  
Thanks for the tour of your luxury penthouse hockey God. This sure is a weird place to live though.

Hockey God  31:52  
I must remain off grid young ones. I have a lot of work to do during the season. So I understand you to wanna ask me some questions for your little show. Ask away I know the answers to literally everything hockey.

Birdman  32:05  
We have to start by asking you about the biggest story of the week. Nazem Kadri suspension. What was going through his head when he hit Justin Faulk It's the third straight year he gets a playoff suspension.

Hockey God  32:17  
Oh nasm you know he's a good honest man really is. But how do I explain this to you? Here follow me into this cutaway

Fake Announcer  32:33  
gets the puck in front of the net and here comes Nazem Kadri 

Fake Nazem Kadri  32:37  
 Aw man, nothing like playoff hockey. Let's hope it's a good year for me. No more suspensions Oh look! Justin Faulk's temple.

Rhino  32:50  
I've got to ask you about the Washington and Boston series. real turning point was a miscommunication between capitals defenseman Justin Schulte and goalie Ilya Samsonov in game three, it led to a Craig Smith game winning goal and ultimately a four one series win for Boston. Did you have any influence on that overtime goal?

Hockey God  33:10  
In all honesty, old Lucy bet me $100 of the caps would 

Rhino  33:14  
Lucy?

Hockey God  33:15  
Satan, the devil, big red, you know, all right. You had $100 on Washington that night, so I took over the mind of Justin Schultz and made him think he had time.

Fake Justin Schultz  33:35  
Craig Smith is on the better move at quick. 

Hockey God  33:38  
We're in the clear Justin. Plenty of time. Don't worry. 

Fake Justin Schultz  33:42  
Oh, f**king right thanks God. Thanks, baby. 

Birdman  33:52  
I really liked these cutaway skits. Let's do another one. Tell us what was going through Pittsburgh's Tristan Jarry's head when he basically passed the puck to Islanders Josh Bailey in double overtime. 

Hockey God  34:03  
Follow me.

Fake Tristan Jarry  34:13  
Alright, here comes the puck from the Islanders zone. Nobody forechecking got all the time in the world. Gonna make a perfect tape to tape pass to my defense man. Nobody on him either. Wait a second. But I do have those eight leftover sushi pieces at home and that chocolate fondue cake. And my whole family is watching the game. They must be hungry. Hell, I'm hungry. Okay, better in this game quick so I can get home and stuff my face. Okay, here we go. Josh Bailey and the game. 

Announcer  34:47  
Two hours later. 

Fake Tristan Jarry  34:53  
The sushi hits the spot. 

Hockey God  34:55  
And that's the story of Tristan Jerry's Monday night.

Birdman  34:59  
What role they You play in the Oilers for one collapse in game three? I mean, how do they go from favorites to getting swept?

Hockey God  35:09  
Actually, I don't have an answer for that. I know nothing. I have no idea what happened.

Rhino  35:16  
Oh, the guy who knows everything about hockey has no idea what happened to the Oilers. Give me a break.

Hockey God  35:22  
Okay, fine. Just let my family go asleep on the toilet when they were up for one. McDavid got so mad at me. He hasn't answered any of my texts. 

Rhino  35:32  
Okay, so I think it's about time we head out Hockey God's got a lot of work to do is probably scheduled another double overtime game for Carolina and zero goals for the Habs tonight.

Hockey God  35:42  
Hey,hey, oh, wait one second. Why don't you say a bit I you know I don't get much company these days with this whole COVID stay for dinner. Let's break bread together. Enjoy some red wine. Play a game play game.

Birdman  35:57  
Oh, we like games. Let's stay a bit Rye, after all our car was stolen. Let's play two truths. One lie. We all agreed on it. I'll kick us off. 

Rhino  36:11  
Wait, this isn't fair. 

Birdman  36:13  
Shut up. The Carolina and Nashville series is heating up. Guess the lie. Nashville is Jusse Saros made 110 saves on 117 shots in games three and four. The Nashville Predators won two straight games in double overtime. Game five was canceled because a swarm of killer Hornets hijacked the Hurricanes plane and brought the team to their nest.

Rhino  36:35  
Well those first two are just ridiculous. The last one obviously, I'd never let that happen to my children. Hey, where do you get a buzzer and how come I have to go up against the Hockey God? 

Hockey God  36:48  
Rhino I can have whatever I want instantaneously. I am a god.

Rhino  36:52  
I asked the next one. Good luck, Sam. It's literally impossible to beat them. The battle Thor I just got a whole lot space here. Panthers rookie goalie Spencer Knight made 36 straight save after letting in a goal in the opening minute to keep Florida's playoff hopes alive. Guest the lie. At the age of 20 Spencer Knight became the youngest goalie to ever start a game facing elimination. At the age of 20. Spencer Knight is the fifth youngest goalie to win an NHL playoff game. At the age of 20. Spencer Knights celebrated the win with a night out at every Florida bar along the beach line what you can only do at 21

Birdman  37:32  
easy number three you really thought that one through, didn't you? 

Rhino  37:35  
Hey, God, come on. Why did you let him have it? And where do you get that f**king buzzer? 

Birdman  37:40  
I always walk around with the buzzer on me boy. You never know when a game show my breakout. I've been on Family Feud twice and I started in the audience. 

Hockey God  37:47  
Hey,let me do one. The Minnesota Wild faced elimination last night against the Vegas Golden Knights and finally figured out how to solve the riddle that was Marc-Andre Fleury. Thanks to me. Guess the lie. Zach Parise was a healthy scratch for the first three games of the series. But scored in game five Cam Talbot made 38 saves on 40 shots. The Wild will play game six at home in front of 300 billion cans of mini sodas. 

Rhino and Birdman overlap  38:16  
Well, it's definitely not Oh, I know. Okay, number number number. Why I outta

Birdman  38:23  
thank you so much for having us Hockey God even though we showed up completely unannounced and found your address on Craigslist. You might want to do something about that.

Hockey God  38:34  
Yes, of course. I'll address that. Do you gentlemen have a way home I noticed a group of chimpanzees took off with your car. I guess they're probably filming another planet of the apes movie around here.

Rhino  38:45  
Oh, good. We got our skates and we need the workout. 

Hockey God  38:48  
Why don't I at least upgrade those for you? 

Birdman  38:52  
Oh my god mini turbo skate rocket ships with the heely wheels add on designed by SpaceX. I've been eyeing these bad boys for months. Yeah, thanks, hockey god. 

Oh, it's Press Box Chatter in Ten Minutes or less.

Samantha McNulty  39:22  
That was Press Box Chatter by Samuel Bird and Ryan Castelino. I really really love Ryan and Sam's unique voices. Like they're just kind of comical in a way and I mean, it really goes with their treatment of this podcast that it's like, this isn't just your regular sports news. This is a whole show and a whole skit surrounding it. And I think that's so unique and I love it.

Lori Beckstead  39:43  
Yeah, I mean, aren't they fantastic? And these two so they have just finished their first year in the RTA Sport Media program. And to be pumping out something like this at this level is quite impressive. They actually have 28 episodes of Press Box Chatter out there as a podcast. And they have got nothing but five star ratings. well deserved. I mean, this is a lot of work goes into this some very clever writing, lots of production. And just such a pleasure to listen to you, you know, I just had a smile on my face the whole time. I don't normally listen to a lot of sports podcasts. But this is one that I would for sure listened to on the regs because it was just so much fun.

Samantha McNulty  40:25  
It was and you don't even have to know too much about the NHL to get what's going on, you know, this whole idea of a hockey God. That exists in a lot of other sports as well. It's like, Whatever God may be that lets miracles happen on ice or on the field, whatever it is. I love that they kind of brought him in as a guest. And I thought that was just kind of unconventional, but it's like this mix of a radio drama, comedy skit, and also traditional sports news reporting. And they seamlessly flow through each of those genres without you even thinking about it. Yeah, it's awesome. 

Lori Beckstead  40:57  
It's a really great approach. Because I think one of the things about sports podcasts is we expect sports news to be of the moment and so much of it is very much you know, the highlights of the show, or what was the latest trade and all the fallout from that. And so it's definitely of the moment, but what they're creating here is something that is more evergreen, which a lot of podcasts aspire to. Because it allows, you know, for new listeners, you know, maybe three years from now someone comes along and discovers Pressbox Chatter and now they've got a whole new podcast to listen to. And even though it was touching on the news of the day, it's still it's evergreen enough that that this this can kind of live on forever.

Samantha McNulty  41:42  
I certainly think so. Speaking of "living on forever", we've got a trio hosting team who likes to nerd out on some childhood nostalgia. These hosts watched a lot of TV growing up. In fact, they shamelessly still watch Kids TV shows from the late 90s and 2000s. So covering a new show every episode they document their journey to re experience childhood joy, interviewing experts to learn more about their favorite Kids TV shows than their little brains could have ever imagined or can't imagine as adults. This is TV Toy Box by Ethan Geoffrey Lee, Brian Arnold and Hayley Cheng. 

Dad  42:26  
TV toy box is a show about kids shows but is not a show for kids.

This is your dad go to bed 

Ethan  42:33  
Magic School Bus a hugely pivotal show. I don't think children's TV was ever the same after it aired it's a really really weird ride but if you're willing to tough it out as an adult, I think you're gonna find a lot to love about this show. Thank you Magic School Bus. Did I just thank the show?

Brian  42:57  
We love you Magic School Bus. 

Ethan  42:59  
We love you Magic School Bus. Stay safe. Use protection. 

Brian  43:04  
Yeah. Let me know when you get home. Okay, you get home. You gotta text me. 

Ethan  43:10  
Love you. 

Brian  43:13  
Holy.

Ethan  43:16  
Sorry, Haley, what were you gonna say before we talked to a Magic School Bus as if it were like a fifth grade child

Hayley  43:27  
Probably it? I mean, it is. Were the people who called into the producers like actually kids that called into the producers?

Ethan  43:34  
Let's ask our guest, Kim Wilson, who was the head of TVO kids. Well, Brian's making a face. Brian's making a really excited face. But he I think he's forgetting that the listeners who are listening to a podcast cannot see his face. But regardless, it's gonna be a lot of fun. We're gonna answer some questions with Kim Wilson. Let's go there now. And then I would cut to the thing. The magic of editing.

Hayley  44:06  
How does it go from our mics to our headphones, can you dive into the wires,

Ethan  44:10  
it's magic. I don't know how it works. I put it 

Brian  44:13  
Ethan now you have to put out, now you have to put out a visual version of this. And you have to animate us going through the wires and into the internet 

Ethan  44:22  
No I'll never reveal my secrets. I know my own process and I can't let anyone else know the magic of what this show is. No one else can know, I download it onto my computer, I go into the wires and upload it to the internet for the world to hear. Also, this is Ethan just editing the show back thought I should mention Hayley wasn't able to make the interview but she is going to pop up again later on in the show. With that being said, Here's someone who actually knows what they're talking about about magic school bus. This episode, we're being joined by a veteran in the world of children's television. She's helped a great tons of high quality TV content for kids of all ages. At TV Ontario in the 90s. She helped to grow children's programming from 25 to 75 hours per week, while overseeing hit shows like The Magic School Bus. She's been the creative head of children's and youth programming for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, won more awards than I can even mention here and is a senior fellow at the Center for scholars and storytellers at UCLA. Her name is Kim Wilson. We're very lucky to have her here, Kim, welcome to the show. 

Kim Wilson  45:24  
Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. 

Brian  45:26  
We're excited to have you. Yeah, 

Ethan  45:28  
I gotta be honest, I'm a little bit nervous talking to someone of your caliber working in the industry. But I think it'll be a great kind of entryway for us as people who are interested in kids shows, weirdly enough,

Brian  45:40  
weird adult people that want to relive their childhood. 

Ethan  45:43  
Yeah, something I don't know what's wrong with us

Kim Wilson  45:45  
Best people in the world honestly. No, I am a, I love all things kid culture. So for me, it's being in the kids media industry is about being able to have all of my collections from Lego to wonder woman and look like I'm doing research, which is awesome. So, you know, it's fantastic. 

Brian  46:03  
It's, it's all it's all part of the job. And it's, uh, it's not weird. It's all part of the job. Awesome. 

Ethan  46:09  
I have this overwhelming urge right now to get up and stop this recording and go to my garage and grab all my nerf stuff. And come back down and continue this episode. Kim, you have the best job in the world. 

Kim Wilson  46:21  
It's cool working in this industry. There's just no doubt. 

Ethan  46:24  
So Brian and I are really familiar with each other's favorite shows. We kind of know what kind of kids we were growing up. Because we're a lot like those kids. We haven't really grown up since then. But I was wondering what were some of your 

Brian  46:36  
It's true, it's sadly true. 

Ethan  46:38  
What were some of your favorite television shows growing up? And what kind of kid were you?

Kim Wilson  46:41  
I was, I probably still am kind of a type A kind of kid. I did everything. I played on team sports. I was involved in student council stuff like in public school. I was the valedictorian as somebody who started in this industry. And I certainly was a producer and a director for a period of time. But really majority of my career has been in management. And it's true that kind of that showed up early in my life because I got involved in all sorts of things where I was the head of an organization or really even just the leader of my crew in public school, not that that's a gang, but a group of people, I was always in a leadership role. So it's not surprising that I ended up in management and Kids TV, but my early memories, you know, I'm older than you guys are. So but there'll be shows that you know, because some of them have been brought back. I love the electric company. The Electric Company was the bomb, I just thought it was the coolest thing. I love that integration of taking from Sesame Street, that model of what works in short form content. You know, if you remember that Sesame Street was created, because, you know, the developmental psychologist who created, Joan Ganz Clooney, had seen all these preschoolers and young people watching commercials with way more interest in television shows. So you can imagine, you know how that sparked a lot of creativity in what they could do. So I think that's the show that got me the most interested in doing this for a living. And Electric Company just really sucked me in with this clever integration of music, short form content, which is such a variety on there. And I mean, I did end up working in public broadcasting for 20 some odd years. So I think there's a part of me that loves the education part. I mean, I teach now I teach children's content now. I love to teach, I love to learn about it. So I think there's a part that I've always loved as a type A kid who is an achiever, I always wanted to learn stuff. And there were shows like Electric Company who were there to teach me stuff, and I loved it.

Ethan  48:36  
So it sounds like you kind of married your love of leadership roles that you developed as a kid at school, with children's television, through a specific few shows. Do you remember any significant moments from watching television that really stuck out as moments that made you want to do what you do now?

Kim Wilson  48:52  
I really do think, there's some things that I remember. Those shorts that were in those after school specials, songs that I remember that things that I learned that were put together in such a way to kind of be teachable moments. And I think that's something that I've used both in my career, understanding how developmentally help kids work, and I actually saw it with my own son watching stuff. It's like all those little ditties get in your head. So whether it's that preschooler repetition, or like I'm talking about I am a bill, where it's a more well thought out, song that targets pop kind of music of the day to attract kids. I believe they work then. And I know the work now because now I understand child development. I also do the children's Media Lab at Ryerson University. I'm the co-director and we do research. Recently we released this report on animation in Canada in 2018 and 2019. And looking at race and gender and disabilities representation. I write the components about how do we use this research and why it's important right and the "why" is really about the more you know about kids, and the impact you can have on them. You know, you know how important it is for them to see stuff on the air that is reflective of who they are, so they feel confident and have ultimate, you know, so many choices.

Brian  50:07  
I think just you saying about like the race and gender and disabilities and all that stuff. That's like super important because like I never struggled with it as a white kid. It never even crossed my mind how kids of other races, other ethnicities, other creed's, anything,  would react to some of the programming that I was so enthralled with.

Ethan  50:29  
There's a lot of really, really awesome stuff that I want to circle back to. But I want to talk about all of this in the context of the Magic School Bus. You mentioned a 

Brian  50:38  
Keep it in the bus.

Ethan  50:39  
Yeah, let's keep keep it within the bus. 

Keep it in the toy box. 

Yeah. Within the toy box. Thanks, Brian. You mentioned something that was I thought was really, really awesome before we sat down to record, which is that while you were working at TVO, you've received all these letters from kids who watch the magic school bus and I need to know more about what other kids were thinking about watching this show. Like what was in those those letters, what stuck out to you?

Kim Wilson  51:04  
I want to preface it by saying something about what was happening during that time. There was no Netflix, there was no YouTube, TVO kids was the place and we had a really awesome team. You know, we had Patti and Joe, his host, and Rashad during the weekends. And those hosts become such a part of kids environments. And what those host did around amazing shows, like the Magic School Bus was they created an interactive opportunity. So Joe and Patty come on and say "I love the magic school bus, it was so cool", how you know, "the school dives into Ralphie's tummy and oh my god..." So a lot of what we did was contests, campaigns, and activities to encourage and engage kids to write and stuff. What I saw in terms what kids wrote about the Magic School Bus, I mean, if we ask them to draw pictures of the favorite character, you'd get the pictures of all their favorite characters. And what you'd see, as is often the case is, you would see kids drawing pictures of the character that they identified with. So it might be somebody who's like a tomboy, I was a tomboy growing up, and I'm sure if I watched the magic school bus, I would have been drawing a picture of Wanda, or maybe I'd be drawing a picture of Tim, if I was African American, and watching that show, you know, because, you know, here's a guy who looks like me. It's such an important part. I think one of the great things with Magic School Bus is kids saw themselves because there was about, you know, this diverse group of kids. So we would get those. Of course, you would get tons of Ms. Frizzle drawings, because every child in the world wants to have a cool teacher, like the phrase, and she is you know exactly what you want in a teacher. She's out of this world, she's wacky, she takes chances, she says, "get messy, take chances, make mistakes", you know, whenever she wasn't the voice of reason. She was always the wild one doing something insanely crazy. And you know, ones like Arnold was a bit more nervous for like doing that. So who doesn't want that teacher? And then the buses, the buses, the buses. There are so many buses, and we saw a lot of those buses. I think the biggest event we ever did around the Magic School Bus was this crazy event, the Magic School Bus picnic.

Brian  53:19  
You gotta elaborate about this picnic. 

Kim Wilson  53:21  
Okay, 

Brian  53:21  
I'm getting excited.

Kim Wilson  53:22  
Yes, the Magic School Bus Picnic is maybe one of my favorite outreach activities. I love outreach. And when I was at TVO kids, I was adamant about just doing a lot of it and a lot of places. But we knew this one was going to be a big one. So we did it on Center Island. So the Magic School Bus picnic was basically us going to the big part of Center Island, setting up a stage. And we took our hosts Rebecca and Patti and Joe. And we invited the tour and school bus and the touring Miss Frizzle. And we invited kids to come to the Toronto Islands, take the ferry across, come to the islands. And the only you know cost to get in was to bring make a bus not that there's guys but we encourage kids to make a bus out of a Kleenex box out of two liter water about whatever you have cardboard wherever you want. Make it a school bus and bring it over. And then basically they're coming to see a show that the hosts were putting on we put on this fun show. And then you know, you could walk through the bus and you could meet Miss Frizzle. Now in advance of this, I went and met with the Toronto Island Ferry folks and I said, "Listen, this is going to be an event. I don't know how many we're going to get. But it's going to be in the 1000s. It's going to be big, and you're going to need to maybe triple your ferries". And I think there was a part of them that believed me, maybe, but not enough to really take it seriously and it's not to diss them. I'm sure it's all different people there. I'm not saying I think but I think this was something in those days. I mean, this is the late 90s probably weren't thinking how many. So we got the police guesstimate It was about 15,000 and it probably would have been more. There were many complaints afterwards from parents who waited up to three hours to get on a ferry. So all these kids come over, there's a lineup to the moon and back to get in that bus and meet this Ms. Frizzle. It wasn't Lily Tomlin it was the touring Ms. Frizzle. But the moment that I really remember was getting on that stage to introduce the host to start the event. And just looking out and where you'd normally see, it's a big area of Center Island, where it's all grass, and there's a big space to do these kinds of things. And all I could see was yellow, yellow, yellow, and more yellow. Because kids all have their magic school buses. It was one of my favorite TVO kids days. And definitely, we did a ton of really cool outreach. But that was one of my favorite ones because it really just shows not only kids' passion for their show, and parents passion, I mean to bring them to Center Island. But the you know, just that commitment, how deeply they felt that like to take the time. You know, think about it, if you were going to make a Magic School Bus now out of cardboard, you take an hour or two to do it, you'd find the stuff you think about it, you'd get the paint out or the markers, the glue. One of the most rewarding parts I think of working in children's television is when you see the impact on kids. And that was such a big day.

Ethan  56:10  
Center Island is such a perfect venue for that too, like in case there's a listener out there who isn't from Canada, isn't from Toronto, doesn't know, Center Island is essentially an island where events are held that you have to take a ferry out to but like, I would imagine for those kids taking that ferry out is such a surreal experience. It's like you're moving from one plane of existence to this magical Magic School Bus land. Yeah.

Kim Wilson  56:33  
And I'll never know what those like, what the emotions are like for kids, because we were over there setting up and doing it. But can you imagine coming into the dock, and even as you come into the dock, and seeing all the other kids and stuff. And I also applaud parents because a third of our kids were co viewing as in a parent was within earshot or watching. And there were certain shows during that era, Kratts Creatures is another one. Magic School Bus, Kratts Creatures not ours, there's so much but ones where you're learning stuff. Parents love those shows. And we got I got lots of letters from parents too, saying thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's another part I haven't talked about, the thank you letters that are about whether it's, "I couldn't get my son interested in science before", "I couldn't get my kids to watch any educational programming before, but this is so well created", like those kind of letters always coming from parents. But in events or at tours we did and when kids came up to meet Patty and Joe Harbor, just in our regular outreach, there was always just how much kids loved and learn from the show and how grateful parents were it's just about in both just giving some concepts, but also inspiring and empowering kids to think this is could be something that I could do.

Ethan  57:42  
That is such I think an undervalued aspect of educational kids shows like The Magic School Bus where by exposing kids to like the first episode of Magic School Bus for me blew my mind. Because I didn't know any of that. It literally taught me about the solar system. Each episode kind of gives kids a path if they want to pursue it, they expose them to new ideas and new things that they might do later on in life, it might set them on a path to go and study astronomy or study, you know, biology. And that side, I don't think is valued enough by people who aren't children. Looking back at this stuff now.

Kim Wilson  58:17  
Well, and I think they're, one of the things I love about the Magic School Bus in particular one, you know, yes, kids are learning science. And I want to talk a little bit about the diversity piece, because I think that's a big part of it. But this whole thing that all kids find out any of us could do science, like this is so cool. So it's engaging people and remembering that it happened at a time when, you know, the research was saying people of color and girls weren't interested in science. Going back to what you said earlier about how you never thought of as a kid, because you're watching you didn't notice, you know, gender race, it wasn't a big thing. You know, studies have shown like when white boys watch TV, they feel more confident than not white boys and girls or girls. So there's all these pieces. But getting back to the educational thing, not only the Magic School Bus did this whole thing where they're teaching about science, but there's all these other learning things that people may not have even noticed. One: resiliency. I love resiliency, and it's such an important thing and kids don't learn it enough in school. And definitely we're not doing enough and media and just her whole kind of Ms. Frizzles attitude about take chances, make mistakes, it's okay to mess it up. And you do it again that try and try again message is such an important one. So now you've got the science and you've got this really great social emotional skill, resiliency.

Brian  59:31  
And I think another part of that is like with our generation, it's so implicitly just like there for us, like that idea of kind of like having everybody representative and be like oh well how would I feel if if this and there's like so much. I want to say empathy that comes out of like our generation and wanting to like put that forward for other people that I think like as people our age, maybe get into children's programming or just programming in general. There will be kind of this more like maybe it'll be 70 to 30 the other way, one day, or maybe like most of the children's characters that aren't human, like won't have gender implicitly, right? So it's, I just think like, the whole time, you're saying that I was just thinking, I was like, wow, like, when, when people my age, like, sit down and do this, I'm sure they're gonna look at all this research, and it's gonna go, like leaps and bounds ahead. 

Kim Wilson  1:00:29  
Well, I, you know, I want to mention one thing, and I get to pull it back to the Magic School Bus here. I love to talk about the Peppa effect. And I don't know if you've heard that term, but it's from Peppa Pig. And what's happened is toddlers and preschoolers who are learning, you know, words and learning to speak and developing language skills. In North America, parents are calling it the Peppa effect, because their kids are saying things like, "oh, mummy". And so they're talking to these British accents. And "can you bring me some water?" And so because that's the language that they're developing. So it's this crazy. A couple years ago, they introduced a character called Mandy Mouse, who's in a wheelchair as one of the main crew that hangs out with Peppa. That's what you want to do like it normalizes, and kids develop bias, etc. We all develop bias at such an early age. But you know, I think the Magic School Bus effect, I think there is one, I think the effect is we and we may never know. But the effect I think, is opening up science to a broader diversity. The Magic School Bus had an incredible effect to make people see science not only as an option for them, something they could do, but also as something that was fun. Unofficially, we know that kids have been inspired to go into science who may not have otherwise been, and kids change their opinions about what science could be. Because, gosh, it was pretty darn fun watching it on the magic school.

Ethan  1:01:54  
Yeah, I would love to talk about the experience of watching this show as an adult, because we had quite a discussion early on about how bizarre and experience it was sometimes uncomfortable at times, but ultimately, really, really endearing and exciting. And obviously, the show is still very high quality. There's such a theme of weirdness across this specific era in children's television, especially like French Canadian and Canadian television. Why are kids shows from this era? So so weird?

Kim Wilson  1:02:24  
Well, listen, I don't know if they're all weird, although, I mean, you could--

Ethan  1:02:29  
Maybe I overstated, but just the things that I remember sticking out to me as a kid were absolutely bizarre when I go back and watch them now.

Kim Wilson  1:02:36  
Well, I think it's, there's been an evolution of content. And with so much stuff out there, now, it's different, you really have to have kind of a unique thing. But this was a different era, like Magic School Bus. I mean, it wasn't the first science show, because we had Bill Nye the Science Guy, which was also a super awesome show. But I will say, you know, Bill Nye was great. But when I watch it back, now, some of the stuff feels a little heavy, the educational part feels a little heavy, because that's a live action. And it's different. The great thing about that animation can do is well that you can travel between all the planets in one day, and that you can go into Ralphie's stomach, and I think, keeping in mind that Magic School Bus was created, because the only thing kids ever want to do in school in those days was go on field trips, because school was so boring, that it's like, Okay, so that's already a fun thing. But I think they celebrated weirdness in a cool way that I felt was very kid driven. So you know, you mentioned that episode about going into Ralphie's stomach and the helicopter going down. I mean, that's it to me, when I watched that episode, I thought, that's a very kid thing. You know, hey, what do you want to know about being sick? Oh, I wish I could get inside and see what all my germs are doing. What kid wouldn't say that? That's like a cool, very kid thinking idea. Because kids think differently than adults do. And they don't have we all, you don't know it, but as you age, you become more practical and realistic. And it's not like we're not all creative people still. But kids did still have that magic where they think differently. They don't have the same barriers. And I think one of the things that Magic School Bus did really great was that celebration of the spirit of being a kid, wouldn't it be great if you could just go on a field trip out to space? Wouldn't it be great? If you could go on a field trip underwater? Wouldn't it be great if once you start thinking in that way, gosh, then you can see how they can think of a million ideas about how many great places you could go, that kids would think it is cool, because what kid really wants to talk about, oh, you know, this dude's Ralphie has a cold is not feeling well. Boring, boring, boring, but you add that element of Okay, well, what do we cool to see the germs, it's totally different. So I think they kind of embraced not so much weirdness, although, you know, obviously, there's a quirkiness and eccentricity to Ms. Frizzle. That was just perfectly created a very well rounded, deep character with so many elements. But I think it's celebrated the different way that kids look at things and then executed that because it's one thing to have the idea and those great books that were written, but it's another thing to execute it well

Ethan  1:05:08  
I think that's a great place to leave things off. Kim, thank you so, so much for coming on the show. You've been so generous with your time, I didn't know that I could have such an insightful conversation about magic school bus. And a lot of that is you're doing so thank you so much for being here.

Kim Wilson  1:05:22  
And I hope that both of you go off and make a cardboard or recycled Magic School Bus of some sort. This is an homage. Thanks for having me, I had a really great time.

Brian  1:05:32  
Thank you for coming. 

Ethan  1:05:33  
I was just wondering if, as is customary at the end of the podcast, if you have anything to plug if you have any projects that you're working on that you want to let people know about?

Kim Wilson  1:05:41  
Well, I would say if anyone's interested in the latest research on gender, race and disabilities in terms of animated content in Canada, they can check it out at the Children's Media Lab at Ryerson, you can find us easily online just by googling children's Media Lab or@ryerson.ca friend slash children's Media Lab and I am working on a number of shows but if anyone is working on stuff and needs a consultant, they can look me up at One Fish, Two Fish Consulting. Otherwise, I'm pretty much everywhere I'm teaching I'm here I'm there. I'm everywhere. I'm always around kid culture. So go to a bookstore. Look at the kids books and Lego section. You can definitely find me most days. Check for me there. 

Ethan  1:06:18  
That's the right section. Awesome. Yeah. Thank you so much again, Kim. I'm gonna go run to my garage and make a Magic School Bus out of carton, of carton milk. Awesome. Thanks, guys. I want to move to a final segment that I am going to tentatively call nostalgia corner, where one of us brings something to the table that isn't TV related, but is something that we really enjoyed. Or just remember, as a child, it can be like any item any topic. I figured like, I would just bring something to start off for this episode, which is the ring pop. 

Brian  1:06:54  
Oh my god 

Ethan  1:06:55  
Did you guys like ring pops? 

Brian  1:06:56  
Oh my god. 

Ethan  1:06:58  
You look like you look to me like a ring pop kid 

Brian  1:07:00  
Dude, I was ring pop kid. See, as a kid. This is getting kind of personal. But I was diagnosed with with Type One Diabetes, right? So I was so devastated that I just couldn't absolutely annihilate ring pops anymore. I remember going to Costco with my grandma. And I remember those big jars of them that you could just get and it was just everyday you could have a ring pop in your lunch. And I remember just being like that would be heaven. But yeah, ring puffs were baller. You were also you were a baller. If you had ring pops.

Ethan  1:07:36  
I wouldn't go so far as to say we're a baller. If you had ring pops in the, but like it, I would say if you were a kid who had a big bowl of ring pops in your house like unwrapped ring pops just out in the open. That was about the most baller thing you could do as a kid. I first of all, I didn't think that you were gonna get so 

Brian  1:07:55  
why would you unwrap them? 

Ethan  1:07:57  
I don't know. It's just more baller to unwrap them. Okay, you just get new ring pops. That's baller you are. 

Brian  1:08:05  
I'll just grab another ring pop I don't care care fell on the floor. Grab another one. 

Ethan  1:08:09  
I got a big box in my cold room. Who is this character? Is this baller ring pop kid I just created?

Brian  1:08:15  
Like Donald Trump, but he's like six years old. 

Ethan  1:08:18  
They're too sticky. Ring pops, ring pops are too sticky. I Brian I respect the fact that like you do a quote unquote, in your own words demolished ring pops which I don't know how you would do, given that they're a hard candy. 

Hayley  1:08:32  
You better not have been a biter.

Ethan  1:08:34  
Yeah, you're, Brian, were you a biter?

Brian  1:08:37  
I was definitely a biter. I had a really any kind of hard candy. After a few minutes I just have to chew it. I don't know what it is. It's like so compulsive that I'm just like, I gotta like I have to it's been in my mouth long enough it just have to bite down on it. And then after obviously after you bite it in half, there's no coming back from that. So you just 

Ethan  1:08:58  
oh yeah, you have to commit it's one of the scariest things to do as a kid on just a daily basis of having to bite hard candy instead of sucking it but then again, like with the ring pop.

Hayley  1:09:06  
 That's the worse part. You get a candy as a treat and you bite it and it's gone. That's it. 

Ethan  1:09:11  
Yeah, but you also don't have a whole bunch of blue goop on your hand at Chucky Cheese. We have to go to the nasty washroom to wash this green goop off your hand and throw in like animatronic robots into that whole situation. It's terrifying ordeal. 

Brian  1:09:25  
I feel like this is a really personal story 

Ethan  1:09:27  
Five Nights at Freddy's but goopier.

Hayley  1:09:29  
You just have a really strong opinion on ring pops because you're experienced at Chucky cheese or woodchuck's? 

Ethan  1:09:37  
Yeah, absolutely. We all have biases as a kid. That's what makes us kids.

Brian  1:09:42  
I think another another weird thing to come out of that era, like candy related like hard candy related, was the baby bottle pops where you take the

Ethan  1:09:51  
Oh, no, no, that's, that's a whole other set the whole thing we're talking about. Okay, I'll dive into it right now. That's a whole other episode. Brian next episode. of TV Toy Box you're gonna 

Brian  1:10:01  
bring on on a future nostalgia corner. 

Ethan  1:10:04  
Next nostalgia corner. You're going to talk about baby bottle pops 

Hayley  1:10:07  
on top of fruit gushers. 

Ethan  1:10:09  
Next episode. Okay, well, we have queue now, we have a queue, so it's gonna be Brian talking about baby bottle pops. And then Haley, you're going to talk about gushers. Okay, Is that good? And then I don't have to do any work for two episodes. 

Brian  1:10:20  
Wicked, I like this.

Hayley  1:10:22  
90s, 2000s, ads. So weird. They don't make ads like that anymore. 

Brian  1:10:27  
They can't. They 100%, they can't. 

Hayley  1:10:29  
What do you mean? Like it's dangerous? Like they had to put fine print nowadays, like,

Brian  1:10:32  
Well, not even dangerous. It's just like, why would they keep with that style? When it's just like it's so out of fashion? You know what I mean like it'd be so jarring to like see like an old gushers ad like if they put that on TV now like kids would literally be

Ethan  1:10:45  
Dude that's what I think of the ring pop though. It's so not a great thing. It's so not a great product of that era that it but how is it stuck around our kids still eating ring pops? I'll see bring pops in the wild. Not during COVID times, mind you, but like I saw ring pops out in the wild. I'm like, What the? How are these parents dealing with these kids and their big sticky goofy ring pop messes? 

Hayley  1:11:08  
It's fun. 

Ethan  1:11:09  
It would in theory, it was not fun. How Okay, Hayley, how was it fun? 

Brian  1:11:14  
They just don't do it. There's like, Oh, well, now you're goopy. 

Ethan  1:11:17  
Goopy. 

Hayley  1:11:20  
You can wear your candy.

Ethan  1:11:22  
Yeah, but like you could wear the candy necklaces too, which is another topic. I'll talk about that three episodes from now. We'll talk about candy necklaces. But like there were other wearable candies that wouldn't goop you up so much. 

Hayley  1:11:33  
Ring pops were not my favorite candy. But they were still good. 

Ethan  1:11:37  
Yeah, it's not the worst, right? It's not the worst of the candies, but it's just a lot like its a responsibility. It's like getting a dog. 

Hayley  1:11:45  
You literally can't do anything but eat that. You can't do anything else. Your hands are full literally.

Brian  1:11:51  
Yeah, once you commit to taking the wrapper off. Like once the wrapper is off. That's it. It's over for at least, yeah, it's like, at least a little bit like you. 

Haley  1:12:01  
Unless you're a biter. 

Brian  1:12:01  
Yeah.

Ethan  1:12:02  
Well, but then you just have this big thing in your mouth that you have to like, I guess kind of crunch around. Oh, man, but like as a kid, you have to put that in your kiddie calendar. If you're biting into a ring pop. You have to set aside time. 

Brian  1:12:15  
You gotta be like, I'll pencil you in right after my ring pop appointment.

Ethan  1:12:18  
Yeah, hold up, 

Brian  1:12:18  
4pm Tuesday 

Ethan  1:12:20  
Hold up. I'll hang out with you. I'll go over for a playdate after my ring pop, which is probably going to take me about two hours to fully eat. Honestly, I kind of want to ring pop too, even though I hate them

Hayley  1:12:31  
for the nostalgic factor. 

Ethan  1:12:34  
Exactly. And that's why we do the nostalgia corner. 

Brian  1:12:38  
Next episode, on nostalgia corner.

Ethan  1:12:42  
We're committing to nostalgia corner as our actual podcast now. We're going to delete all the other stuff that we did for TV Toy Box and just do nostalgia corner. 

Hayley  1:12:50  
nostalgia corner could be its own-

Brian  1:12:52  
I'm fine with that 

Hayley  1:12:52  
podcast if you want it to. 

Ethan  1:12:53  
No, it's got it. There's only so much nostalgia that you can dole out at a time though. You got to ladle it out. Keep it keep it you know, nice and tight. 

That's gonna do it for this episode of TV toy box. Hi, it's just Ethan Brian and Haley had to run and I'm just doing this little wrap up in my basement talking to you. If you like this show, which I after what I just said, I don't know how you could but we'd really appreciate it if you could leave us a review on your favorite pod catcher application. Or, if that's a little bit too demanding for you and I get it. I'm a lazy person as well. Word of mouth is great. Just mentioning us to a friend who who might enjoy the show really helps the show to grow. And we'd really appreciate it. That's gonna be it for this episode. I already said that. Good night. Go to sleep. Love you. That was weird. Bye.

Samantha McNulty  1:14:03  
What I really love is this great dynamic happening between the hosts. Ethan is just so good at controlling the pace of the episode. And even though Brian is more of this off the cuff improv type person, Ethan still able to play along with that and still rein in Brian. And then Haley is this really awesome voice kind to the side, who feels more at home with the listeners. Commenting here and there and getting in on the laughs and I absolutely love that.

Lori Beckstead  1:14:30  
Yeah, it's a good dynamic. And I think it's an under appreciated one. I think because there's there's really an art to this when you have multiple co hosts in this case. And so really, what you need to have is someone who is driving the bus, so to speak, and that's Ethan in this case. So whenever the show needs to kind of move forward, it's Ethan that has the steering wheel and it's like, okay, we're going to go in this direction now. And the other two are passengers and they're quite Important in the show as well, but nonetheless, there's one person that's driving the bus. If you don't have that established when you're producing the podcast, it can really just kind of, you know, go off the rails because there's too many people trying to jump in and move things along. And, and so to have that one person doing that, and Ethan is quite good at it. He's very adept at moving the show along and also in the interview. He's quite good at allowing the guests to have her say, he doesn't make it about him. Sometimes that's a bit of a rookie mistake when it comes to interviewing is that the interviewer feels they need to show off how much they know about this topic, or turn it into more of a 50/50 kind of conversation. And I think that's a mistake, because you know, you invite a guest on the show to find out to mine their brain, right, you want their expertise to come through. And I think that this hosting group really does a great job of allowing that to happen.

Samantha McNulty  1:15:58  
I think so too. You could say that Ethan is kind of like the Miss Frizzle of this podcast bus.

Lori Beckstead  1:16:03  
Exactly. I'm sure he would appreciate that reference well done.

Samantha McNulty  1:16:09  
You said the bus in there. So I had to like include it otherwise, I could never live with myself.

Lori Beckstead  1:16:13  
Goes along with their podcast topic, too.

Samantha McNulty  1:16:17  
I think something I also really love about this podcast is just almost how unpolished and effortless it feels. And that's also really hard to do, because it very clearly is very planned out how this is going to go and how Ethan has edited the episode. But it doesn't come off in that way. He does a really great job at making it feel like this is homemade. This is very like down to earth and very consumable for somebody who just wants to listen very casually to a podcast, but it's still so professional, and well done.

Lori Beckstead  1:16:46  
Yeah, and that is a real art too. And I remember behind the scenes when Ethan was working on this in class, his process, and it's different for every producer. But his process was to write out that script virtually word for word, that's just kind of what he needed to feel comfortable to do that. And to be able to take that script then and get it up off the page, so to speak, to make it sound like it's just an effortless conversation is definitely a talent. Other people approach it where they like to just write out, you know, point form notes, sort of what am I going to hit on? What are the topics I'm going to touch on, and then they're really good at just ad libbing around that. But I think a lot of people when they hear an effortless sounding podcast, they figure folks just turned on the microphone and just went for it. And I think that's actually really quite rare. Something that sounds like a free and effortless conversation usually 90% of the time has a lot of preparation going into that to make it sound that way.

Samantha McNulty  1:17:44  
And also another thing that Ethan does that I love is that he knows when to give context to listeners. There's a part in that Kim Wilson interview where they're talking about Center Island, and Ethan takes into account that there may be people listening aren't from Toronto, so they don't even know what Center Island is. So he takes a step back from the interview while still holding everyone's attention and just quickly explains what Center Island is and then its connection to Toronto and where they are recording. So I think that was just really smartly done. Right off the top. 

Lori Beckstead  1:18:13  
Yeah, it's very professional. And it speaks to the idea that I try to convey to students that as a host, you are acting as an advocate for the listeners. So you are sort of, we can put it this way you are their avatar in the podcast world, right? So if they were there at the table having this conversation, what question would they ask? Or when would they say, wait a second, what are you talking about? What is that thing that you just mentioned? So the host needs to know when the listener might be feeling like that and be able to do that. And so he knew right away, oh, our listening audience is much bigger than, you know, the Greater Toronto Area and so others will need to know what this is. And so it's yeah, really professionally done.

Samantha McNulty  1:19:00  
It really, really is. I could talk all day about Ethan's podcast and probably any of the podcasts that we featured, but I think we've got to wrap up this episode. Thank you so much for joining me today, Lori.

Lori Beckstead  1:19:13  
Well, I'm so pleased to be here. And I'm just delighted that we are showcasing all of this amazing work that is coming from our students in the RTA School of Media because it really is, you know, when I get to sit back and listen to it in a context like this, I'm blown away by their talent and creativity. So I'm super proud of them!

Samantha McNulty  1:19:33  
Me too. And just a big thank you to all the students featured in this episode and all those involved in the making of this podcast. If you liked our intro that was done by the amazing Anita Pogorzelska and music by Drake Sanderson. Our artwork is by Yvette Sin and our show notes by Cherry Yang. Thanks for listening in, I'm Sam McNulty and this was Bounced.