When lifelong friends gather in their hometown for the funeral of one of their fathers, they get snowed in and a podcast is born that strengthens their bond.
“The way that event came together almost runs like the script for a cheesy B movie,” says former Thompsonite Les Hansen.
In this case, however, it’s true.
Hansen, George Alvarez and Stephen DeGroot were three former Thompsonites who had come back for Alvarez’s father’s funeral in March 2017 and they joined their former Juniper School classmate Bruce Krentz – “the one they left behind” – for what they thought would be one evening as a group again.
“We all got together and had a great visit, a couple drinks, kinda hanging out thinking that that was the one because the funeral was on Monday and then everybody was supposed to scatter after that,” Krentz says.
Then a blizzard hit and by the time the funeral was over, flights out of Thompson were cancelled and the four ended up with a few more days together before the out-of-town trio could finally depart.
“Getting snowed in was a blessing for sure, there’s no doubt about it,” says DeGroot.
As they griped about the schools being closed – “We kept talking about how we had snow, we had cold, it was minus 90, minus a million when we were growing up and we never stayed home from school ever,” says DeGroot – the Snow Day Podcast was born.
Now having reached 17 episodes and a couple of podcast extras – including an interview with the Thompson Citizen and a follow-up with Alvarez who couldn’t take part in that interview because of work commitments – the podcast has lasted longer than some of its creators believed it would.
“I was surprised that we’ve done so many,” said DeGroot.
Although the 2017 blizzard ultimately proved to be the catalyst for the podcast’s creation, the idea of doing one had earlier origins.
“The whole media realm kind of intrigues me and so podcasting had sort of been on my mind,” said Krentz.
“We’ve been talking jokingly about doing a podcast for a couple years,” said DeGroot. “That’s always been in the air.”
The final push came from Krentz’s wife.
“It was Marnie who said – somewhat objectively because she isn’t one of the four of us, although she likes all of us, hopefully me more than the other three of you – this is actually entertaining and engaging and a real conversation, not just like a bunch of fart jokes and stuff,” Krentz recalls.
The chemistry between the foursome dates back to well before podcasts or the internet or cell phones were much more than science fiction.
“We really genuinely like each other,” said DeGroot. “I think sometimes we forget how special our friendship is until we remind each other that this is special.”
“One of the things that we all believe is special about growing up in Thompson is the fact that it is such an isolated place and it is almost unheard of for such a remote northern community to be so multicultural and the fact that everybody comes from somewhere and ends up in Thompson,” Hansen says. “While you’re there, you share a pretty intense experience because you’re completely isolated so everyone’s kind of thrown in together. You have a fairly unique bond. When you run into someone from Thompson it’s like, ‘Whoa-oa-oa. Tell me about your time in Thompson,’ because it’s an exclusive club to be a member of.”
The premise of the podcast is simple, says Krentz – “four guys stuck in a living room just talking about the topic of the day or curmudgeonly old men things that bother us” – and while it isn’t exactly a stream of consciousness, it’s definitely not scripted either.
“We always have a topic so it isn’t just like turn on the mic and hope for the best,” Krentz says. “We kind of chat over email or text or whatever in between pods and kick around some ideas and try to find something that we maybe have some different perspectives on and that we have some thoughts on that we think would be interesting conversations and things that come up in the living room.”
Sometimes, the topics practically suggest themselves.
“When Gord Downie passed away and the Tragically Hip were doing their last concerts, we said if we were sitting in a living room this is what we would be talking about, there’s no doubt that we would miss anything like that,” Kretntz says.
Hansen admits to organizing his thoughts in preparation for recording – “I will spend some time beforehand thinking through my own thoughts on that topic and what I think the sort of interesting discussion points on that topic are that I can bring up” – while DeGroot says he likes to be more spontaneous.
“I like to know what the topic is and just think about it as soon as I’m dialling or coming in because I just like to be almost as if it just came up in the living room,” he says. “ That’s my approach.”
Despite their common origins, the four podcasters bring varied perspectives to the show.
“Sometimes it’s absolutely silly, sometimes it’ll get deep and we’ve had some mic drop moments because we’re all fairly worldly in different ways and have different experiences,” DeGroot says.
Part of that is just a reflection of different realities.
“We spent an hour talking about public transportation,” Hansen recalls. “I live and work in downtown Toronto where 1.2 million people ride the subway to work every day and Bruce gets to flag the Thompson city bus down and get it to stop right in front of his house if he wants to get on. Our worlds are so different in terms of how we interact with public transportation that it makes for an interesting discussion topic.”
There are plenty of interesting topics that they don’t even consider, however.
“We steer away from any topics that would be polarizing in any way,” Hansen says. “We would have to be too careful discussing in a public environment lest we end up in a conversation that could be potentially detrimental to our public personas.”
“As much fun as this is, none of us want to lose any money over it,” says Krentz, though Alvarez thinks a little sizzle wouldn’t hurt.
“I think we could talk about controversial topics in a smart way,” he told Krentz in a podcast extra. “I have this fantasy of reaching out to someone quasi-famous. I think we should try to hit a home run, try to get someone really cool on there. So what if we get 99 ‘Nos?’ One of them will say yes.”
As a member of a basement band, Krentz, who handles the post-production editing and uploading of the episodes, said he didn’t really need any equipment he didn’t have to get started, apart from the skills he has acquired.
“Over time you develop your craft,” he says. “You’re just better at it and it’s more fun to do.”
“It’s Bruce that does all of the heavy lifting,” Hansen says. “The three of us are very grateful to him for doing that.”
While some of the Snow Day Podcast team members admit to watching their download stats, they say that is definitely not the primary reason to keep doing it.
“We decided to stay tight and to try to stay connected and this has been a great medium,” says DeGroot.
“We have always made a little bit of an effort to stay together,” says Alvarez. “This podcast has cemented my desire and my commitment to stay connected. I smile because of what’s come out of it. Although at the moment it was sad, I look back on it and it just makes me smile. No one could have predicted that coming up to Thompson [for his father’s funeral] would have led to this.”
“The fact that we have actually kind of spun that into or come up with a way to continue the bonding that we did over those four days I think is what make it special for me,” says Hansen. “If we had 1,500 listeners or 10,000 listeners I don’t think we would change at all what we’re doing.”
To listen to the Snow Day Podcast, subscribe via iTunes or another pod-catching app or go to snowdaypod.podbean.com.
