An Unseen Side of Canada at the Hot Docs Podcast Festival #HotDocs

A fresh batch of secrets from 'The Secret Life of Canada' presented at a wonderful event. 

By Hafsa Hanif 

On October 21, 2023, The Secret Life of Canada took the Hot Docs stage to record a live episode (Hafsa Hanif/CanCulture) 

A masterclass in subversion and storytelling, this beloved podcast promises to whisk you away on a whirlwind journey of laughter and contemplation. 

When it comes to excavating the cryptic chronicles of Canada, few podcasts master the art like The Secret Life of Canada. Known for its delectable blend of comedic repartee and sagacious storytelling, this podcast mines the soul of Canadian history, unveiling the extraordinary, the absurd, and the unforgotten. 

In a rip-roaring romp through the enigmatic expanse of Canadian history The Secret Life of Canada took audience-members on a journey as they recorded an episode live at the Hot Docs Podcast Festival this past October.

Hosted by Falen Johnson and Leah-Simone Bowen, the live recording pledged to excavate the world of historical heists (the Montreal 1980s Train robberies with Billy Miner), the absurdity of audacious thefts, abandoned board games that vanished like spectres (Kroeger Crokinole), and the quirky evolution of the Barbie Doll's made in Canada.

A  'doll-icious' plunge into the ever-evolving universe and a reflective investigation into Canada's colonial past.

Co-stars of the host of Secret Life of Canada discussing Barbie's history in Canada at the Hot Docs Podcast Festival (Hafsa Hanif/CanCulture)

The Secret Life of Canada podcast took listeners on an adventure through Canada’s captivating narrative, skillfully intertwining elements of colonialism and comedy that evoked both laughter and contemplation during the event. The historical exploration devolved into the intriguing stories of iconic figures such as the Tim Hortons Hockey Barbie, RCMP Barbie theme-doll and the venerable Hudson Bay Company.

Audience members were transported back to the annals of Canadian history, revealing moments reminiscent of high school history lessons or accompanying parents on a nostalgic shopping spree at Hudson’s Bay store. The live podcast recording painted a vivid tableau, evoking the sensation of sitting in a shopping cart as a child, offering company to parents while they pursued the aisles for home essentials.

As the narrative unfolded, the audience was treated to a whirlwind of discoveries ranging from the legal repercussions faced by 'Chair Girl,' who was fined $2,000 and placed on a two-year probation with community service, to the intriguing tale of a Royal Mint employee possibly smuggling out gold nuggets. The podcast also unravelled the origins of the Keg ice cream for Billy Miner and shed light on a forgotten Canadian-made game board.

This special episode covered everything from legal dramas to whimsical ice cream adventures and historical games, transforming Canadian history into a hilarious and thought-provoking experience. It was like chatting with a witty friend who knows all the juicy details about Canada's past!

Billy Miner Ice Cream pie that is offered at Keg restaurants (Hafsa Hanif/CanCulture)

Accompanied by jesters Kris Siddiqi and Brandon Hackett, the event delivered on their promise and took us through an exciting ride. One person in the audience even knew the creators of one of the board games mentioned, how fun!

Many avid listeners of the podcast joined the hosts and their guests on the live-recording. Carli Wulff, a newcomer to Canada, regularly listens to the podcast."It's been really important to find voices that tell Canadian history not from a typical western standpoint," she said.

Podcasts are usually recorded in the confines of a studio, or even on a Zoom call. Listeners rarely get to see what is happening as these voices speak into their years. Jeff Maher, appreciated the experience of watching The Secret Life of Canada being recorded live: "It's interesting to see the body language of the folks that run the show; you only get a single dimension with the podcast, but here you can see the expressions and it makes for a richer experience. I imagine when this winds up as a podcast, there will be parts cut out, and it's kinda fun to watch the transitions in real-time."

Annalise Nielson from Pacific Content said, "The visuals were a great addition. Working in podcasting, I always try to attend at least one festival event each year."

The Hot Docs Podcast Festival not only entertained, but had the audience teetering on the edge of their seats, unable to suppress bursts of laughter, an electrifying testament to the festival’s dynamic and immersive allure.

Chloe Rose, an audience member, said: "It's always gratifying to see live podcasts, it’s fun to see the recorded medium doing something live on stage and connect with the audience. I feel like a lot of podcasters are introverts, so seeing some willing to go up on stage was interesting.”

Tofu Prep, Sourdough Discard and Where to Stand When You’re Hosting a Dinner Party #HotDocs

Chris Morocco hosts a live recording of Bon Appetit’s Dinner SOS to solve Toronto’s most pressing kitchen dilemmas.

By: Mariana Schuetze and Mia Johnson 

Bon Appetit food director and host of Dinner SOS Chris Morocco discussed grated tofu and knife skills at the Hot Docs Podcast Festival on Oct. 21, 2023. (Courtesy of Hot Docs/Gabriel Li)

It’s a Monday night and you’ve already got the garlic and shallots diced up for the rose sauce. The rigatoni is on the stove; it’s already boiling. But there’s no tomato paste in the pantry. What a fucking disaster. You're considering biking down to the grocery store to pick something up, but the desire has completely escaped you. You have lost all energy to deal with the fluorescent lights and overstimulating produce section at Loblaws. Dinner SOS may very well be your only solution. 

Hot Docs Podcast festival curator Wilson Obiang deems Dinner SOS an “essential public service,” uniting all foodies. A podcast that works in tandem with home cooks and professional chefs alike, acting as a safety net in the midst of chaos. 

Bon Appetit and Epicurious food director Chris Morocco brought a delicious conversation to the Hot Docs stage on Oct. 21. Morocco was joined by Bon Appetit food editor Shilpa Uskokovic to co-host a live edition of their cooking-helpline podcast, Dinner SOS. The pair teamed up with Toronto's very own foodie Suresh Doss and cookbook author Eden Grinshpan, host of Top Chef Canada, to solve the kitchen crises on Toronto’s mind. 

This topical crew dive into the best place to stand when hosting a dinner party and how to get your guests to leave you alone when you’re still busy basting the chicken. Uskokovic suggests a collaborative idea like tacos while Morocco doesn’t trust anybody shucking his oysters.

Dinner SOS is Bon Appetit's most recent podcast venture. It premiered in November 2022 and has Morocco as the main host, who offers some well-needed cooking advice. In a usual episode of Dinner SOS, Morocco will treat each call like a therapy session for food, bringing in reinforcements from the Bon Appetit team. The recipes are then introduced and the caller will choose one or two recipes and cook them. The unique thing about this podcast is that it doesn't only offer a call-in service, the podcast hosts will follow their guests over the course of a couple of weeks to ensure their advice holds true. 

This conversation-style podcast breaks down common kitchen emergencies. They discuss cooking for picky eaters, how to incorporate more fish into their diets and treating vegetables as meat. Morocco provides not only the caller but the listeners, with simple tips from specialists that eases the daily stress of food preparation, encouraging healthy and satisfying food habits. It’s thorough and an absolute delight. 

At the Hot Docs Podcast Festival, Morocco switched things up. The two Bon Appetit hosts were joined by Toronto food specialists to have a casual conversation about food, Toronto and everything in-between. The audience had the opportunity to email questions to the panel before the event and they spent about one hour answering the questions and chatting. 

Toronto-based food writer Suresh Doss spoke on how the Toronto food scene is changing with Facebook marketplace family-run pop-ups and the dying art of traditional food media. (Courtesy of Hot Docs/Gabriel Li)

Morocco and Uskokovic interviewed Doss, a Toronto foodie, to discuss the city's bustling food scene. He brought a refreshing perspective to the conversation with the two North American food editors. Doss charmed them on one of his famous food tours, "breaking their stomachs," and wasted no time moving from one place to another – Uskokovic dubs Doss an “excellent wrangler.” 

He shows the audience that smaller communities in the GTA, like Scarborough, are instrumental to Toronto food’s community, although often overlooked. With places like New Kalyani on Kennedy Road that serve up Sri Lankan dishes like kothu, roti and egg partha; he highlights some spots closest to his heart. “This is where my mom goes when she doesn’t want to cook,” said Doss. 

The food media scene has changed drastically in the last few years. Doss, who has over 15 years of experience as a food and drink writer, commented on how rare his job is nowadays. 

"Because nobody can really afford to do what I'm doing if they don't have the car, right? I'm getting food, at this point, about 18 times a week. And who can afford to do that? And who will pay you [to do it]."

TikToks and Instagram reels are a big part of food media today, said Doss. The short 60-second videos are usually quick lists of the best places to go and Doss said he misses the human side of it – and a bit more context. "There's no story behind the owner, the story of like, why this place exists in this part of the city?"

With this in mind, he dives into the versatility and character that is missing from videos like this. Facebook Marketplace may be the best way to get a unique experience. Facebook pop-ups see new cuisines depending on the suburb. In places like Parkale where the food scene is rich in Indian cuisine or in Mississauga where we see an upsurge of Palestinian food. 

“You get this really interesting, unfiltered, adulterated regional cuisine that you will never see in a restaurant,” Doss said. "I travel quite a bit and I'm convinced that we have the most insane, dense marketplace for home-cooked meals.” 

Halfway through the event, the trio was joined by Grinshpan, who swiftly matched the group's charismatic and witty dynamic. 

Grinshpan, a mom of two young kids, said the best way to have kids engaged is to have them become part of the process. She frequently sends her three-year-old out to the herb garden to collect basil or dill or thyme to get her more involved, contributing in these small ways.

Taking pride in the food we prepare and having the opportunity to share that with others can get kids excited about experimenting with new flavours. There’s originality and care put into the food we create. 

Doss added that exposure is key. “It helps [his kid to] sort of build a relationship with what he’s eating.” 

At the end of the night, we left with a mind full of ideas and a salivating mouth hungry for more of that conversation; and a fresh oyster; or a sourdough waffle. 

Turmoil, Chaos, and The Return of the Past: Margaret Atwood on Mavis Gallant’s Varieties of Exile #HotDocs

Margaret Atwood sat down with Deborah Treisman for a short story reading in the first ever live edition of the New Yorker podcast. 

By Grace Henkel

The New Yorker’s Deborah Treisman, left, and Margaret Atwood read and discuss the short story “Varieties of Exile” (Courtesy of Gabriel Li/Hot Docs)

“I don’t welcome the return of this kind of uproar and chaos, but it looks like we’re there again.”

Canadian literary icon Margaret Atwood spoke powerfully as she sat down to record the New Yorker’s first-ever live podcast from the Hot Docs Cinema. The renowned author joined host Deborah Treisman to read and discuss Mavis Gallant’s short story Varieties of Exile, first published in 1976.

Atwood said the story “felt very timely,” a sentiment likely shared by readers and witnesses to current international crises.

“Every time a dominant power loses its grip, there seems to be turmoil and chaos,” said Atwood as she introduced the story. Though she specified no particular conflict, it is undeniable that humanitarian consequences introduced by the actions of “dominant powers” have been far-reaching and deeply felt across the world in the last years and recent weeks.

Atwood also noted that such stories and experiences from the past, whether memories or renderings in literature, become magnified in their significance as time progresses.

“At first, they seem to be very far away when you first live through them,” she said. However, she acknowledged, such events often return with profound relevance in future contexts.

Varieties of Exile is set during the second World War, told from the perspective of Linnet Muir, a nineteen-year-old Canadian woman. While being closely drawn to the refugees pouring into Montreal, she becomes disillusioned to the brutal cross-continental conflict, the divisive patterns of European-Canadian family units, and her own isolation.

As Muir develops a deep and idealistic fascination for the refugees with whom she feels “entirely at home,” she also observes the pattern of “remittance men.” They are the sons of English families, sent abroad in the wake of scandal.

Muir recalls how her childhood world and its truths were shaped significantly by narratives in literature. As Atwood reads, these narratives are stripped back to uncover stark realities. The refugees become “boring” to Muir the moment she witnesses one of them eating cornflakes, no longer a novelty–and the remittance men, as ties to their former identity weaken, are confronted with the reality of their very permanent exile.

Despite the heavy subject matter, Atwood’s sharp wit and quick humor cut through to the audience. During their discussion, as Treisman asked for Atwood’s insights on a particular moment in the story, the literary legend simply replied that she didn’t know, she didn’t write it.

You can read Varieties of Exile here.