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Well hello. It’s been a while. We are back, but only to say goodbye, then take you with us. After almost three years of being independent podcasters with the Sound Off Network, we are moving over to Substack. Substack is primarily a writers’ platform, but you can host podcasts there too, so we are taking the existing episodes of Women of Ill Repute (all 95 of them!) and putting them up there. You can still listen to us on Apple and Spotify and all the places you already get your pods, but on Substack they will be completely ad free. You’ll also have access to our newsletter, and whatever other content we dream up, like recipes, dark family secrets, and dark family secret recipes. Furthermore, it won’t cost you anything, unless you want to support us (for as little as $6 a month). We get into the why’s and wherefore’s in this episode, and if we sound a little wistful, well, we are. Have a listen, then come find us at https://womenofillrepute.substack.com/
We’ll see you over there!
Xxxx
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Our Summer Throwback series continues. Is an ambivert a pervert? No, it’s most of us! Maybe we are all just less funny versions of Colin Mochrie, who reveals he is, of course, an ambivert, someone who feels comfortable in social situations but also really enjoys time alone. You may know Colin as an extrovert, but he’s often really introverted. He says he’s afraid his neighbours might think he’s a dick, when he’s really just shy. Colin is a famous improv guy, he was on the U.K. and U.S. versions of “Whose Line is it Anyway” for decades. He is now doing big shows in L.A. with a hypnotist. He tells us why “Hyprov” is a perfect mix for improv. He also performs “Scared Scriptless” with comedian Brad Sherwood. His wife, Deb McGrath, who he met at Toronto’s Second City, is also an improv pro. She is an extrovert! He says they just hide away in different corners of the house when the laughs run out.
You can watch this episode on YouTube.
We have a new sponsor! Embark is owned by a not-for-profit foundation, and they only do education planning and savings. They are passionate about helping students reach their full potential. The Embark Student Plan is a registered education savings plan (RESP) that supports your child’s journey to and through post-secondary education. Start an account using the promo code REPUTE100 and we’ll contribute $100.
A transcription of this episode is available here.
We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter.
If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected]
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Our Summer Throwback series continues. Even when playing old ladies, she’s beautiful. Sheila McCarthy is one of those people you feel like you’ve known forever. And maybe we have. She’s been in everything, and now stars in Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking”, the Oscar-winning movie based on a true story by Miriam Toews about Mennonite women and girls drugged and then raped by men they know in their Bolivian colony. It’s all about violence and women talking!!!! It’s important, and it works. Sheila talks about learning to say sorry to someone who’s been abused, getting the role, and having her feet washed by the Queen! (Aka Claire Foy, who yes, is also in the movie)Sheila’s an actor, dancer, and singer.
She’s been at it since she was 5. She first broke through in “I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing”, then in “Emily of New Moon”, “Little Mosque on the Prairie”, and in many Anne of Green Gables shows. She has won gobs of Genies, Geminis, ACTRA’s. WM
You can watch this episode on our YouTube channel.
A transcription of this episode is available here.
We have a new sponsor! Embark is owned by a not-for-profit foundation, and they only do education planning and savings. They are passionate about helping students reach their full potential. The Embark Student Plan is a registered education savings plan (RESP) that supports your child’s journey to and through post-secondary education. Start an account using the promo code REPUTE100 and we’ll contribute $100.
We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter.
If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected]
We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute
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This week we go back to Episode 20 and the First Man. Rick Mercer was the first male to appear on our show. We decided to open up the floodgates and talk to anyone fearless and/or funny enough to want to talk to US, and no one fits that bill better than Rick. He’s been called a national treasure, Canada’s beloved comic genius, the scourge of Parliament Hill, and … the nicest man you’d ever want to meet. We love Rick for a million reasons, but especially because he works at the intersection of comedy and journalism. Whether he’s talking to Americans about Prime Minister Jean Poutine, or trying to convince Stockwell Day to change his name to Doris, Rick makes us think and laugh, then think again. We talk about Newfoundland, Meech Lake, anger, friendship, being funny, paying it forward, and Rick’s love of his partner of 30 years.
Rick Mercer has more awards (25 Geminis), honorary degrees (9), and causes (UNICEF, Casey House, climate change, anti-bullying, gay youth) than anyone ever. He’s an officer of the Order of Canada, an honorary RCAF colonel, and the recipient of the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour. Not bad for a kid from St. John’s who never finished Grade 12. He’s written several books, including his latest, “Talking to Canadians: a Memoir”, and is thinking of starting a podcast.
We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter.
If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected]
We now have a YouTube Channel! Please hit the Subscribe button when you get there. And because you asked for it - Future episodes will be in video form. https://www.youtube.com/@WomenofIllRepute
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It's August and we are into some Summer Throwbacks! We go back to earlier this year and Measha Brueggergosman-Lee, a diva in the true sense of the word: a famous female opera star, with all the fierce discipline and flair for drama that that entails. But Measha is also a mother, a wife, a memoirist, a 7th generation Canadian descended from Black loyalists, on her way to finishing a Masters degree in practical theology. She does everything wholeheartedly, which is all the more inspiring when you know her experience with cardiovascular disease, undergoing open-heart surgery not once but twice. Who better to be our guest as we release this in February, as February is not only Black History Month, but Heart Month as well?
Measha was born in New Brunswick, and now makes her home in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia. Currently Artist in Residence with Opera Atelier, Measha has just released an album called Zombie Blizzard, featuring concert arias by Aaron Davis and Margaret Atwood. We talk about love, faith, honesty, race, health, and showing your scars .Measha Brueggergosman-Lee: both her heart and her names go on and on.
You Can watch the recording of the show on YouTube.
You can find a transcription of the show on our episode page.
We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter.
If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected]
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Sometimes singers sing about singing, writers write about writing, and podcasters podcast about … yes, podcasting. This episode is actually a live off the floor recording of an interview we did with Sarah Burke, the founder of the Women in Media podcast and network. It takes place in Toronto at the Soundwave Summit, a conference and showcase for independent podcasters.
Sarah tells us about why and how she started her pod, and then her network, and we all have a good chat about the ups and downs of this strange, still nascent little industry. Podcasting is an opportunity for everyone to have a voice. The question is … should they? And if so, how to do it successfully? To be honest, we are still figuring that out ourselves.
A video and transcription of the show are available on the episode page.
We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign up for our Substack Newsletter.
If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected]
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So Wendy never reads sports, but always reads Cathal Kelly, the sports writer at the Globe and Mail. He’s funny and fearless and clever, Cathal just happens to have chosen sports as the best vehicle. We pretended we were going to talk about the upcoming Paris Olympics, and we did! (Cathal loves the Olympics, aka 23-year-olds doing crazy, exceptional things, sometimes involving the River Seine)
We also talk about his book, a memoir Cathal wrote a couple of years ago, called “Boy Wonders”. The book says intimacy makes him nervous, but it’s so revealing. He tells of loving Morrissey of The Smiths and George Orwell, who both argue your dreams usually don’t come true. Just try to be happy, says Cathal, but then why has he not lowered his expectations for his writing? We talk about that, how his mother is still terrifying, and how the perfect way to style your hair is with French Formula hairspray.
A video and transcription of the show are available on the episode page.
We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign up for our Substack Newsletter.
If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected]
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We both feel like we know her, Martha Chaves is after all the funniest Nicaraguan Canadian LGBTQ+ Stand Up Comedian in the World! We know her best from radio shows like “The Debaters”, and “Because News”. She also teaches comedy at Humber and Metropolitan Toronto University, showing the ropes to people just starting out.
Martha tells us she’s heard and seen lots of sexism, racism and homophobia over the years in Stand Up, but she just pushes ahead. On her own at 17, (leaving Nicaragua is quite the story!) she figured out how to be positive and stay that way. One of her jokes is about Preparation H, and let’s just say it stirred a TV confession….
We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign up for our Substack Newsletter.
If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected]
A Transcription of the show is available on the episode page.
You can also watch the show here.
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We love books and authors, we consider a lot of them for our podcast, but Vancouver Island’s Chelsea Wakelyn sent us an intriguing email. So we read her first book and got truly blown away. “What Remains of Elsie Jane” is a quasi-fictional story about losing her beloved partner, father to her kids, to drugs and addiction just as the opioid crisis began sweeping B.C. All while Chelsea was in her 30’s. It sounds like a gut-wrencher. And yes, it’s tragic and raw, but it’s also side-splittingly funny.We talked about being a weirdo, lust, Joan Didion and magical thinking, sneaking cigarettes, and how abstinence is not necessarily a virtue. Chelsea’s long-time day job has been as a toxic drug counsellor. And then, right after we recorded, something happened. Please enjoy the chat, and we’ll update at the end.
We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign up for our Substack Newsletter.
If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected]
A Transcription of the show is available on the episode page.
You can also watch the show here.
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There are many pathways to fame and fortune, but being exceptionally good at doing laundry is an unusual one. Enter Melissa Dilkes Pateras, whose knowledge of housecleaning tips and tricks has turned her into an internet sensation. Well, that, and her sly sense of humour and unblinking acknowledgement of her sexuality. A resident of Uxbridge, Ontario, and mother of three, Melissa started making videos during the Covid-19 lockdown to entertain herself, and went viral on Facebook, then TikTok, and ultimately an appearance on the CBS Morning Show. She also found love when she connected with her now wife Tracy, who moved from Australia to Canada to be together. We talk love, keeping a clean house, trad wives, and the truth about laundry strips (it’s not good).
We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign up for our Substack Newsletter.
If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected]
A Transcription of the show is available on the episode page.
You can also watch the show here.
Melissa is the author of “A Dirty Guide to a Clean Home: Housekeeping Hacks You Can’t Live Without”.
Follow her on Facebook and TikTok.
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There’s no getting away from Ann Pornel, not that you would want to. She’s loud, she’s proud, she’s utterly glamorous and funny as hell. Ann’s a sketch comedian and an actress who is best known as the host of The Great Canadian Baking Show. Born in the Philippines, Ann moved with her family to Canada, then came up through the comedy ranks at the University of Toronto (yes, U of T is a hotbed of comedy). She’s written for Baroness Von Sketch and This Hour has 22 Minutes, and was recently recognized as one of Canada’s Top 25 Immigrants - not bad for a country built by immigrants.
We talk home cooking, recipe boxes, sitting on your front porch, Oprah and Ozempic, owning the word “fat”, and the transformative power of being funny.
We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign up for our Substack Newsletter.
If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected]
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George Stroumboulopoulos is a man for all seasons. He’s everything: a media personality, broadcaster, former VJ, radio, talk and reality show host, social advocate and one time host of Hockey Night in Canada. Everyone knows George, and George know everyone, but what do we really know about him? He’s 51 and lives in L.A. now, where he does a show for Apple Music. He’s a vegan who embraces a straight edge lifestyle, rides a motorcycle and loves heavy metal.
He’s single (we think, but who knows) and has no plans to ever have children. His life is an open book - you can ask him anything, and we do, about his humble beginnings in West Toronto, the many famous people he’s met and befriended, and the fallout from his all too brief stint hosting Hockey Night. Still, Strombo remains a bit of a mystery, which of course makes him all the more interesting.
No video for this episode - technical issues. Sorry.
You can grab a copy of the transcription on the episode page.
We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign up for our Substack Newsletter.
If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected]
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We had to ask about the red hair, does one get ridiculed or admired? Loreena McKennitt has a mass of beautiful red curls but is mostly admired for her music. When Mo thinks of her, she sees mists and magic and fairy tales. Loreena’s sold more than 14 million albums and toured the world with her harp and her beloved band of fellow musicians. She’s a singer, songwriter and composer with a new album full of early Celtic tunes called “The Road Back Home”, and is going on tour where she hopes the audience will sing along with her!
Loreena’s never had a manager and organizes the tours herself. She says the insurance during Covid was half a million dollars! We talk to her about the joys of touring and about being a privacy activist. Ok, that was our word, Loreena says she’s not an activist, but she sure sounds like one, as she speaks about trying to make the world a better place. She was born in Morden, Manitoba and now lives in Stratford Ontario.
You can watch the show on our YouTube page.
You can grab a copy of the transcription on the episode page.
We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign up for our Substack Newsletter.
If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected]
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“Going to the coconut tree”. You hear it all the time on “Survivor”. What does that mean? Erica Casupanan spills the beans. She is the first Canadian to win “Survivor”, and the first Filipino. Tiny and Asian, she was tired of always being underestimated, so she used it on “Survivor 41”. Erika voted out her rivals, won over everyone else, and surprise, she won! More than a million bucks. A bit more than her previous salary as a communications manager, where she saw power dynamics at play. People are treating her very seriously now.
Mo tried to get Wendy to try out for Amazing Race Canada, but Wendy couldn’t imagine life without her special pillow. Then Erika said she was only allowed to wear underwear for the whole show. That had absolutely nothing to do with Wendy’s decision. Really. Erika now does a podcast, called “Happy to See Me”, where she is not so secretly trying to make the world a better place. And to hell with the trolls, winning “Survivor” taught her she can do anything. As for the million bucks, Erica’s only bought one pair of fancy shoes.
You can watch this episode on YouTube.
A Transcription of this episode is located on our episode page.
We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign up for our Substack Newsletter.
If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected]
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Michael Smith is a Celebrity Chef who decided he had a problem with the Celebrity part. He’s kind of a big deal, has published several cookbooks, hosted TV shows on the Canadian Food Network, and wore the chef’s hat at some big-name restaurants around the world. Now, tired of Michelin-priced restaurants, he moved to Prince Edward Island and runs the 5-star “Inn at Bay Fortune”, where the farm is as sumptuous as the food. And there are oysters. Some nights he helps shuck 700 of them.
Chef Michael got married, had kids, and embraced his inner tree hugger. He’s a nutritional activist, who says he went through a preachy period, but now he’s just trying to be “real”. We talk to him about tipping (he’s not for it), the show “The Bear” (he loves it), and living on the Island. We didn’t ask him for any potato recipes. Although He’s 6.5 –that would be a lot of potatoes.
You can watch this episode on YouTube.
A Transcription of this episode is located on our episode page.
We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign up for our Substack Newsletter.
If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected]
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Ron James says comedy should never be mean, but he sure has a lot of opinions! You should hear what he says about Quebec comedians. Is there a geographic link to comedy, a humour gene unique to Eastern Canada? Ron says he learned the power of laughter at his father’s knee in Glace Bay and then Halifax. That’s why he loves to tour, he says laughs are truly the bottom line.Like so many comedians, Ron got his start at Second City in Toronto. Then he moved to
Los Angeles, and hosted a TV show. Alas, the show was short-lived, so Ron moved back and wrote a book called “Up and Down in Shaky Town: One Man’s Journey Through the California Dream”. It got turned into a CTV special, then he wrote and hosted “Blackfly” on Global, and “The Ron James Show” on CBC. And he tours! Ron has been selling out theatres across Canada for years.
Book or go see Ron James here.
You can watch this episode on YouTube.
A Transcription of this episode is located on our episode page.
We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign up for our Substack Newsletter.
If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected]
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Jen Gerson of “The Line” readily admits to being a mouthy babe, but only when she writes, she insists she is actually shy. Jen says she’s just opinionated, not trying to change anyone’s mind. She argues that’s not a journalist's job, that only activists try to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”. Well, call us afflicted! Her writing makes us think.
Jen has written for The New York Times, The Economist, Macleans, the National Post and The Globe and Mail. Now, she co-hosts “The Line” on Substack with Matt Gurney, and is writing a book about the Satanic Panic! We ask her about the Q-Anon Satanic cult accusations now being slung at the Democrats, and the ongoing attraction of moral panics and conspiracy theories. It seems we eat up all the sex and violence. Amongst all of this, we talk about the changing views on immigration, and how it’s catnip for both Justin Trudeau and Pierre Poilievre.
You should subscribe to The Line's Substack, and their podcast.
You can watch this episode on YouTube.
A Transcription of this episode is located on our episode page.
We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign up for our Substack Newsletter.
If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected]
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You know you know Michaela Watkins, but you may not know why. Then you remember (or are told) that she’s been in over a hundred sitcoms, dramas and comedies, including a 2 year stint on SNL. And then you remember that you love her, and when you see her latest movie, Suze, you’ll remember why. In Suze, Michaela plays a woman who once wanted more for herself and sets about reclaiming it, with the help of her daughter’s abandoned boyfriend (played by up and coming Canadian actor Charlie Gillespie).
Like Suze, Michaela is a woman whose long overdue time has come. We talk about how she so often plays the friend or the sister to the main character (like her real life pal Julia Louis Dreyfus.) How important kindness becomes as you get older. Coping with menopause, oh, and the trails and tribulations of having ADHD, or working with someone who does. Ahem.
Suze is available on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV.
A Transcription of this episode is located on our episode page.
We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign up for our Substack Newsletter.
If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected]
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Ron Sexsmith says “I’m not really shy, I’m just Canadian”. He’s a singer-songwriter who has never had a top 40 hit, is not rich, but is deeply admired by the people he admires most. Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, and Gordon Lightfoot, are all, were all, huge fans. Sexmsith’s songs, like “Secret Heart”, have been performed by everyone from Rod Stewart to Feist to Nick Lowe.We spoke to him as he was about to headline at Toronto’s storybook Massey Hall. When Ron was a kid and couldn’t afford a ticket, he’d hang outside to see his heroes, now he’s on the same stage. There’s no Taylor Swift action, but if you look carefully, he does move his hips!
And Ron is happy. He left the bright lights of Toronto and moved to Stratford where he just recorded his 18th album, “The Vivian Line”. Ron’s wife Colleen had to plug in his computer, but you should see him on Twitter/X. The puns are excruciatingly funny, or maybe just excruciating!
You can listen to his new album HERE on any one of the many ways to get music these days.
You can watch this episode on YouTube.
A Transcription of this episode is located on our episode page.
We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign up for our Substack Newsletter.
If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected]
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Award-winning director and cinematographer Dianne Whelan does not choose easy topics. She’s made docs about Mount Everest, and the Arctic, but this one, about being the first to tackle the whole Trans Canada Trail, takes the cake. Or in this case, the reheated oatmeal. Dianne has called her new documentary “500 Days in the Wild”, because that was the plan, to travel from St. John’s NL. to Victoria B.C., 24 thousand miles in 500 days. Only it took 6 years.
Dianne burnt the original schedule and gave in to a harrowing, grueling, and heart-warming adventure. She began the trek disheartened and disillusioned, her marriage was over, her beloved dog had died, and the world was getting scary. On the trip, she fell in love, learned how people can be extraordinarily kind, and she survived. She came close but was not mauled to death by a bear, her canoe did not get swamped. The doc has stunning shots from across Canada, but what sticks is her confirmation that we are not in charge.
You can watch this episode on YouTube.
A Transcription of this episode is located on our episode page.
We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign up for our Substack Newsletter.
If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at [email protected]
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