And Sometimes ... Why? with Rob Szabo

#65: Final

In this final episode, I give some insight into why this is the final episode and thank listeners, supporters, guests and our fearless editor Todd Donald for a great 65 episode, nearly 2 year ride.---AND SOMETIMES ... WHY?:ANDSOMETIMESWHY.COMEMAILIGFBTWEET

#64: Mako Funasaka

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HEREMako Funasaka is passionate about interviewing musicians. He hosts the Talkin’ Blues Podcast & hosted the TV show and has been documenting music since 2001. He explains his goal of reaching 300 episodes with Talkin’ Blues and extolls the virtues of self imposed deadlines. We talk about his reticence to include himself as part of his video interviews and he describes the experience of initially hearing himself speaking on his podcast as “torturous”. He shares the “life-changing” experience of his first time interviewing a musician and explains how connecting with people through long form podcast conversations is what drives him.“This is the thing that I love to do. There's no doubt about it. The fact that I could talk to somebody new every week and get to know them a little bit, the fact that I can do that is amazing. Everybody has a story. I just recently got the chance to talk to a zookeeper. And this was his dream since he was four years old. And you think: ‘how lucky are you to do this?’ That you become who you wanted to be when you were four years old? I just think people like that, if you can tap into that and get their stories and talk about their passion and what makes them happy, it enriches my life.”---SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERE---MAKO FUNASAKAWEBLINKEDIN---AND SOMETIMES ... WHY?:ANDSOMETIMESWHY.COMEMAILIGFBTWEET

#63: Bob Barlen

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HEREBob Barlen is the writer of PAW Patrol: The Movie, Bigfoot Family and Escape From Planet Earth among many others. We dig into his life writing movies and talk about the huge success of PAW Patrol. We also talk about his time working on the George Stroumboulopoulos show and his love of magic. He shares insights about the benefits of having a writing partner and the importance of working without ego. “The best idea wins. It doesn't matter who's suggesting it. It's not like only certain people on the team are allowed to have thoughts on the movie or thoughts on the process. I mean, we really are open to hearing from everybody because I think we are confident enough in our vision that if something makes it better, we're the first to admit, ‘Hey, great. Let's jump on that.’ And it doesn't need to be a radical rewrite, it can be just a small suggestion. Throughout the entire production, every artist on our team is someone who we respect their opinion as an artist. We want to make the best movie possible. When it comes to notes that we disagree with, it's a conversation. A lot of times when someone is making a note, maybe they just didn't understand. If it's like what you'd call a bad note, maybe we weren't clear enough. So it's actually just exposing something that we need to clarify, because I do think that, especially for family films, but I mean, in all storytelling, clarity Is really important. And if you are being unclear, a note that comes in that you think is strange, it might actually expose, ‘Oh, wait a minute, someone is interpreting this differently’, because you haven't done a good enough job of communicating what you wanted to say.”---SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERE---BOB BARLENLINKEDINTWITTER---AND SOMETIMES ... WHY?:ANDSOMETIMESWHY.COMEMAILIGFBTWEET

#62: Christine Bird

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HEREChristine Bird is the Community Engagement Coordinator at the University Of Waterloo School Of Pharmacy. She describes her role helping students think about better serving vulnerable populations and shares  challenges working from home over the lock-downs. She talks about how she became known as “the bully lady” when she was speaking to grade-school kids in her work for John Howard Society and we touch on her work with people who’d been convicted of DUI and strategies around alcohol. She shares the challenge of her experience of being a college professor with a 2 year old at home and how her roles have organically evolved from working to improve kid’s lives directly to more of a systems level. She reminisces about playing music with the late Matt Osborne and talks about losing her husband and how having a young son at home at that time was an incredible gift.“How do you get through losing your husband? You have a five-year-old who needs you to get out of bed, make breakfast, and sort of keeps you going. I don't know how you do that when you don't have a little one kind of pulling you out of it. He pulls you out of your head and back into the stuff that has to get done right now. It doesn't matter how upset or depressed or sad you are, you still gotta make pancakes. It's kind of the 'fake it till you make it'. It's like he pulls you out and makes you live your life and go through the motions of just the stuff you have to do to carry on. And that act alone helps you to carry on. Kids are good that way: They bring you into the moment, whether you want to or not.”---SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERE---CHRISTINE BIRDLINKEDINFACEBOOK---AND SOMETIMES ... WHY?:ANDSOMETIMESWHY.COMEMAILIGFBTWEET

#61:Timothy Abraham

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERETimothy Abraham is a Juno winning producer, engineer, mixer and composer. We dig into his creative process and the meditation-like alpha wave brain state he gets into when working on a mix. He stresses the importance of setting up plugin chain templates and workflows that allow him to work fast and stay in this purely creative zone and how, as a mixer, one of your most valuable tools is the mute button. We talk about the confidence it takes to stay open to other people’s ideas, listening to your inner voice and the importance of communication between artist and mixer. He details how the process of having to rebuild his studio 3 times within a five year span has been resilience building and he also shares insights he’s gained through self reflection in the past few years.“There's a mindfulness and a self-awareness that I think I'm learning in my mid forties that I wished I learned when I was in my mid twenties. Just learning how to be a better man and a better communicator and a better listener. Paying attention to your body, paying attention to your mind, and being able to kind of step back from that and understand that, and also being less judgmental of yourself. And that goes with learning how to step back in a relationship and not be judgmental and drawing boundaries. And to do that, you have to understand what you want and figure out why you feel things and how to have a good conversation with another person or how to fight clean. All of that work turns around to yourself as well. And so your conversations with yourself, you can employ a lot of those same kinds of things.”---THE INTRO MEDLEY FEATURES:Liar (Mike Todd)Make It (30 Frames)Ok Ok (Beth Moore)What I Believe (Steve Strongman)Charity Case (Sean Pinchin)First Of The Last To Know (Peter Katz)---SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERE---TIMOTHY ABRAHAMWEBSITEINSTAGRAMSPOTIFY PLAYLIST OF TRACKS THAT TIM + ROB HAVE WORKED ON---AND SOMETIMES ... WHY?:ANDSOMETIMESWHY.COMEMAILIGFBTWEET