Windsor Plywood French Creek: The Pulse Community Podcast is brought to you in part by Windsor Plywood in French Creek, specializing in hard to source interior and exterior home finishing products, including flooring, doors and moldings, and exterior project materials such as yellow cedar. Windsor Plywood French Creek carries high quality, responsibly sourced products and are committed to providing outstanding value and personalized, one on one service to all of our customers, homeowners, do it yourselfers, renovators. Builders, designers, craftsmen, and contractors. Regardless of the type or size of your project, Windsor can help you bring your vision to life, from start to finish. Let Windsor Plywood and French Creek help you with your renovation, new build, or building project. Visit them online or call 752 3122.

Rockin Rhonda & The Blues Band: Here comes Peter. Here comes Dave. Oh listen. Bringing stories, making waves. No missing. Spinning tales in the podcast cave. So much laughs and insights everywhere. Peter and Dave, they're on the mics. Alright, join the ride. It's gonna feel just right.

Dave Graham: It's time again for another look at life on Vancouver Island with an emphasis on the center of the island. Not too far north, not too far south, but just right. Goldilocks references aside. Yes, we are right in the middle of Paradise, with me is a man who is not too tall, nor too loud, but just right. It's Peter McCully. 

Peter McCully: Great. Now I have an urge for a big bowl of piping, hot porridge. Yes, we might be in the middle, but that doesn't make us average. This is beautiful BC and we're coming to you from the Pulse Community Podcast World Headquarters. Not too big, not too small, but just write for myself and your cohost, Dave Graham.

Dave Graham: And happy spring. You know, this is one of my favorite times of the year, along with summer, fall, and winter. It's always a joy to see blossoms in the trees and the daffodils and the other spring flowers. And then there's this sound of the birds. You know, one of my favorite sounds of all time is the Robins call. I'm instantly transported back to my childhood. When I hear that sound and it has me thinking, what sounds do other people find evocative? We'll get to that later. For now, let's tee up the show. Peter. 

Peter McCully: On this episode, science journalist Bob McDonald, best known as host of the Science Program, Quirks and Quirks. He rose from a modest beginning to become a national figure. It makes for quite a story and happily Bob has written it. His memoir is called Just Say Yes and He'll be along for a chat. 

Bob MacDonald: I'm not afraid of ai. I'm not worried about a machine becoming so smart that it's gonna take over the world and try to, you know, terminate her style, wipe out humanity. I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about the people that use AI and what they might do with it. But as far as the tool, it's incredibly powerful. There's also a joke. They ask the computer, is there a God? And the computer said There is now. But I'm not worried about that. 

Dave Graham: Additionally, Duane Round is going to be joining us.Duane is one of those people. By that I mean he is an exceptional community asset. Having been involved in a list of community groups and causes too numerous to list here. Communities count on people like Dwayne in order to get things done and make things better. Dwayne is currently serving as president of the Parksville Community Center. We're gonna drop into the center to talk about that and we'll talk about the pop-up recycling events. 

Duane Round: At first, we have no experience with this. It was pandemonium and people have been saving material for two, three years. It was pretty busy, and in fact, I think we were delaying some traffic getting outta parks full for a wall. Since then, we've learned a lot and we've improved the system. People come, they line up, they come in one gate park and drop their material off at the different sorting areas, and then they leave by a separate gate. 

Peter McCully: If you have a story to tell or a cause to promote, then maybe it's time for you to be on The Pulse Community Podcast for a chat. Contacting us is easy. The links are all available through our home website. The Pulse community.ca. 

Dave Graham: Another important bit of contact info is our contest email, which is contest@thepulsecommunity.ca. You might wanna send us a quick note to get your name in for a draw for tickets to see jak. They are crisscrossing the country on their farewell tour actually, instead of crisscrossing.

It's, it's more like zigzagging, I feel, for these guys rather than sweep from coast to coast. They are back and forth Alberta to bc, to Ontario, to Alberta, to BC putting on the miles on their last time out. They'll find their way to Parksville Magnificent Outdoor Theater Saturday, July 12th. Send us an email with your name, phone number, where you live, and tell us your favorite Chilliwack song. We'll make the draw May 30th. Here's the address again, contest@thepulsecommunity.ca. 

Peter McCully: You can hear a conversation with Chillowak lead, singer and songwriter Bill Henderson on episode 16 of the Pulse podcast. It was a great chat with Bill as he took us through the years and songwriting, which is his passion. Listen in to what he has to say about possible future gigs with his daughter's Camille, who is a member of the West End Girls and Saffron, who is also a singer and voice actress. 

Dave Graham: Well, Peter, I can no longer say you never take me out anywhere. The Natalie McMaster concert in Qualicum Beach was outstanding.

Peter McCully: Was that your first Ceilidh Dave? 

Dave Graham: It was the first one like that. 

Peter McCully: Well, they're all like that. And we get to chat with Gene Daniel, who we haven't seen for some time. It a long and storied radio career, which included being part owner of the Beach and Lounge Radio in Parksville, Qualicum Beach. 

Dave Graham: Oh yeah. I was a treat to see Gene again. We go back over 25 years to when I was among the starting lineup of announcers for when the Eagle and Coney signed on the air for the first time. Gene has been facilitating entertainment events for more than 30 years on the island as GeeDan Productions. Thanks Gene. Amazing show. 

Peter McCully: Hey, here's the next clue for the Tickle Trunk contest. Normally in this virtual contest, we pick a spot and supply the clues, but this time it's a thing, a flying thing. These creatures stop off in the mid Island area each year while on their way to breeding grounds in the far north. For another clue, look to our Skookum Kids Story series, the Mellow Submarine. Correct answers. Go into a draw for a $25 Thrifty Food Smile card and please include your name and where you live and send it to contest@thepulsecommunity.ca. 

Ian Lindsay & Associates: Ian Lindsay of Lindsay and Associates has played an active role in the local community since 1979. He has been with RE/MAX Vancouver Island's most advanced real estate business network since 1996, marketing and selling residential, rural strata recreational investment, and project development real estate. Ian has received several awards recognizing his exceptional community commitment locally. As well as awards for outstanding performance and achievement from both RE/MAX International and the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board. You'll find true realestate professionals@ianlindsay.ca. 

Peter McCully: Dave, I'd like to talk about the United States of Canada. Now, folks, don't send me emails about the United States of Canada. I said. The United State of Canada because everywhere that Dave and I go, we hear lots about Donald Trump and how he's dialed up patriotism in this country to what would appear to be an all time high. And last week on the Pulse podcast, we listened to the local group, the Apollos, and the updated take on, oh, Canada.

If you have a tune of your own or would just like to direct us to one, please contact us. But I thought you'd like to take in Alan Frew of Glass Tigers just released Tune. That's all about us here in the Great White North. If you haven't heard it, enjoy it free to be strong and free 

Dave Graham: Alan Frew wishing us peace and harmony and celebrating Canada with his new song Free to be Strong and Free. So what do you think of that? I'm thinking first off, he looks pretty amazing for 69 years of age and I. Certainly appreciate the message in this song. Feel free to share your thoughts. Now. Earlier I was talking about the appeal for me of the sound of Robins in the spring, and perhaps you have a favorite sound you'd like to mention. Well, comments, questions, constructive criticism. We welcome it all. Find the contact links@thepulsecommunity.ca. 

Peter McCully: Future guests include Cheryl Dill, the Parksville Beach Festival, commonly known as BeachFest returns to the community park in July and August. Cheryl's been president of the Beach Fest Society for years. We also hear from Vancouver Island Blues musician, David Gogo. He's got a new album called Yeah. In another future episode, we'll feature Mike Hann, the Man Behind LakeFest and SunFest here on the island. 

Dave Graham: Our requests for a visit with Ryan Reynolds continue to be ignored. That's okay. We'll keep trying. We have a guest ready right now. Marilyn, tell us who's in the green room. 

Marilyn: In the green room is Dwayne Round, who is the chairman of the Parksville Community Center Society. The society is working with Recycle BC for popup recycling events this spring. Dwayne will also update what's happening at the Parksville Community Center. 

Dave Graham: Thanks for being on the podcast Duane. Nice to see you again. 

Duane Round: Hey, nice to see you Dave. And congrats on you and, Peter's collaboration on podcast. 

Dave Graham: Thank You. What motivated the decision to extend the partnership with Recycle BC until June of this year for these recycling events? 

Duane Round: We've been doing this since May of 2023, and we want to continue doing it. All the volunteers that work at the pop up. It is all volunteer operated. They're pretty passionate about the environment and doing our little part of keeping the material in the landfills, and especially keeping it out of the environment. Especially microplastics is a huge problem today. It's in our air, it's in our water, it's in our bodies, and [00:13:00] so any little bit we can do to help us a little bit closer to getting that out of the system.

Dave Graham: I have yet to attend one of these events. I keep planning it. My laundry room is full of items that my local collector won't take, so one of these days I'm gonna make it. But in the meantime, can you describe what the popup event is like? Walk us through it. 

Duane Round: At first, we have no experience with this. It was pandemonium and people have been saving material for two, three years. It was pretty busy, and in fact, I think we were delaying some traffic getting outta parks full for a wall. Since then, we've learned a lot and we've improved the system. People come, they line up, they come in one gate park and drop their material off at the different sorting areas, and then they leave by a separate gate.

Dave Graham: Now this is at 1080 Industrial way in Parksville. For those who haven't participated before, any specific things they need to do in advance to be prepared for dropping their stuff off.

Duane Round: The more they could have their material sorted, speeds it up so that we can move people through quicker and in a better fashion.So the cardboard has to be cut into sizes smaller than four by four to fit in our super sacks. The jars need to be fairly clean and we like to have the lids off of them if you sort it into different bags. You can bring a shredded paper, but it's gotta be in a either cardboard box or a paper bag so that it can go in and not contaminate the other paper stuff. But otherwise, the volunteers have really done a great job and they have a really good system there. And I'm hearing all the time from people that are dropping off that how great our system is working. 

Dave Graham: Glad to hear it. You mentioned cardboard, shredded paper, glass. What other items will you accept?

Duane Round: We accept styrofoam, glass paper, and cardboard and plastic packaging. The packaging is paid for by the industry that produces it. So we can't collect products, so we can't take a glass vase, we can take a glass jar. It has to be packaging. 'cause every time. A manufacturer produces packaging. He pays so [00:15:00] much sense on that package. It goes to recycle BC and they use that money to collect this stuff out in the community, and we're looking to expand into other products and hopefully we can offer more services. 

Dave Graham: You talk about plastic packaging, and I can think of, I know two or three different kinds of plastic go into packaging that must crop up as an issue.

Duane Round: When we first started in 2023, you used to have to keep your flexible plastic and crinkly plastic separate. So that was a real nightmare trying to sort that. When people showed up with it, then they developed a system where they can mix those products together and create the plastic pellets for recycling out of it. So we were really glad that they already had that set up by the time we started. So all the plastic can go together in the same sack. 

Dave Graham: Have you been able to measure the kind of impact, that your efforts here during these pop-up events have on the environment and saving stuff from landfills? Do you have any numbers?

Duane Round: Yeah. We get a report at the end of every year from Recycle BC on the volume. They do the volume by weight. We average about 70 super sacks per event. Super sack is four by four by four. So we average, uh, about 70 of those plus plastic liner bags of styrofoam, which we usually average about 10 or 12 of those.

The volumes for 2023, which was a shorter year, only from May to December, we collected 47,354 kilograms of material, which is 104,000 pounds or 47.3 tons. Wow. In 2024, which we had a full year of collection, we collected 83,326 kilograms. Which is 183,500 pounds or 91.7 tons of material kept out of the landfills.

Dave Graham: How many people do you engage to make this happen? 

Duane Round: With our contract, with Recycle BC we're responsible to have a minimum of six people. We never know how [00:17:00] busy it's gonna be. Sometimes it's really busy, sometimes it's not as busy. We generally have about 12 people. We take turns, we have a morning shift. In an afternoon shift, we have people directing traffic. We have people at each station directing people and making sure that there's no contamination, and then, uh, putting the product into storage. Is there much training in falls? Could I just walk in off the street one day and say, I don't want to help out? You could walk in there and we would have you trained in about three minutes flat, Dave, and we'd be more than glad to have you. We even have the girl guides help us for collections down there. So we have young girls, 12, 13, 14, and they're able to catch on pretty good and we leave them in charge of some of the stations. 

Dave Graham: Any plans that you can speak of in terms of enhancing the services currently being offered? 

Duane Round: The reason we only have a six month contract for 2025 is because us and Recycle BC want to move towards a more traditional depot. So that would mean being open more days, expanding the hours. That would also give us the opportunity to add other collectible items. We could start collecting metal. We could get a contract with the product care BC for collecting light bulbs and paint and even maybe collecting pop bottles. We're working on that right now. We have to June to submit a proposal to recycle bc. We're working on putting that proposal together. I. 

Dave Graham: Just prior to our sitting down in this conversation, you graciously gave me a tour of the Parksville Community Center, magnificent place to see, and so much community engagement involved. How busy would you say you are right now?

Duane Round: We're getting very busy day. We got so many. Different groups meeting here now on a regular basis, like the Rotary Weight Watchers, grandmothers to grandmothers, the PQ flyers. We've got different groups like the RDN Island Health meets here regularly. We have a church meeting here. A lot of different groups like MS. CNIB have their meetings here. We have lots of different organizations holding their AGM’s here. Last year we were the provincial election office for BC. We had quite a bit of space billable for them for three months. We're now gonna be hosting Elections Canada when the election is called for them, and we're gonna be providing space for them. So we've got one large meeting room, three medium sized, medium rooms. We've got small offices. We've ran out, we got a board room. We got a kitchen that's been certified by VIHA, so we can prepare and serve food to the public. We've got a lot to offer here, and we offer it by the hour, daily, weekly, or monthly.

Dave Graham: Oh, perfect, and people can go to a website for more information. 

Duane Round: We still have the old Parksville Community Center website, so you can go on there. It's got a map of the facility. You can click on the rooms. It'll open up the size of it and the costs. You can book a room right through the website, just fill out the forms, submit it to our booking coordinator, and she'll set you up with the room. I also wanted to tell you that we also have a 32 space childcare center running on the facility separate from us. We provide the space for. We've got Elder College here now meeting on a regular basis. Those are some of the things that we're doing. I just want to thank you for coming today. Dave and I also wanna give a big shout out to all our great volunteers that make this facility operate is completely operated by volunteers.

I've been told that we're maybe the only facility in British Columbia that that operates a community center with volunteers and gets no local government support. 

Dave Graham: Well done. Thanks again sir. Thank you very much. 

Duane Round: Good to see you, Dave 

Peter McCully: Duane Round. He was Parksville citizen of the year in 2014 and he's currently president of the Parksville Community Center. They facilitate those pop-up recycling events. It's a free service. They'll take your flexible plastic packaging. 

Dave Graham: Glass foam, cardboard, paper, packaging, and recycling, and it's all good stuff, but it's all very adult. Well, as it happens, we also cater to the kids with our Kuku Kid stories. Delightful original stories, including one about a boy named Peter and his pet Eskimo dog Gracie. In an upcoming episode, they head to the Qualicum Beach Vet Clinic for a checkup. Follow along with stories of Peter and Gracie as narrated by Peter McCully. 

Peter McCully: And then there's Captain Dave and his stories of adventure aboard the Mellow Submarine. This week, it's Captain Dave and the Secret of the Nanaimo Bar.

You'll find all of our Skookum kid’s stories on the Pulse community.ca. also@skookumkids.com, apple, Spotify, iHeart, Amazon, and YouTube. If you're interested in joining our growing family of sponsors for the Pulse community and Skookum Kids Stories, podcasts, let us know. Just email me peter@thepulsecommunity.ca. 

Windsor Plywood French Creek: The Pulse Community Podcast is brought to you in part by Windsor Plywood in French Creek, specializing in hard to source interior and exterior home finishing products.  Including flooring, doors and moldings and exterior project materials such as yellow, cedar, Windsor, plywood, French Creek carries high quality, responsibly sourced products and are committed to providing outstanding value and personalized one-on-one service to all of our customers. Homeowners do-it-yourselfers, renovators, builders, designers, craftsmen, and contractors. Regardless of the type or size of your project, Windsor can help you bring your vision to life from start to finish. Let Windsor plywood and French Creek help you with your renovation, new build or building project. Visit them online or call 752-3122. 

Dave Graham: Our thanks to Windsor Plywood for their support of the Pulse Community Podcast. This is the program focused on mid Vancouver Island, but open to interesting stories from all over. That includes our next guest, Marilyn. 

Marilyn: In the green room is Bob McDonald, an author and science journalist and a member of the Order of Canada. He'll talk about his new book, Just Say Yes, which is a memoir, and his time as the host of quirks and quirks.

Peter McCully: Thanks for joining us today, Bob. 

Bob MacDonald: My pleasure Peter. 

Peter McCully: I'm reasonably sure that every one of our listeners knows somebody named Bob McDonald somewhere, but there's only one who's been working as a science journalist and an author for more than 30 years, most notably, as host of quirks and quirks. 

Bob MacDonald: Well, actually it's now more than 50 years. I started communicating science to the public in 1973, so that was my 50th anniversary was 2023. Talk about feeling old. 

Peter McCully: You've recently written a memoir entitled Just Say Yes, which we will dive into, but I wanted to know where the love of science began for Bob McDonald. 

Bob MacDonald: Oh, it began when I was a kid growing up in Aurelia, which is a small town north of Toronto. On the beginning of the Lake District, the local newspaper had a drawing of the earth with a circle around it and a little ball in that circle, and it said Russians put up first artificial moon, and it was Sputnik, the first satellite. I was totally engrossed by that. I watched the entire space program as a kid. I knew the names of all the astronauts, and Yuri Gugerin, of course, the first person space. Watch all the moon landings, not just the first one. It's always excited me ever since I was a kid, and it's been a supreme privilege to be both a live presenter and a journalist talking about science that I've been watching ever since I was young.

Peter McCully: There's some really great stories and lessons in the book I might add. The first lesson would be to travel the world if you get a chance at all. How did that happen for you? 

Bob MacDonald: Oh, I've always been a explorer. Home for me was an outdoor experience. My mother's mantra was, get out of the house, don't bother me.

Get outta the house and go play. And you can do that in a small town. So I was always out playing with friends. And then when I got a bicycle, I just started wandering on my own, just down streets I'd never been before. And then I found it really exciting to go somewhere new. Then I got into motorcycles and started roaming around North America.

I still do that. I, I still drive motorcycles now, and it's a wonderful way to explore. An opportunity came along to see an eclipse of the sun in Africa in 1980. I wanted to see that. I've chased eclipses before and this is a great idea to go to Africa. I'd never been there to the Serengeti and all of that, and I thought kind of dumb to go halfway around the world and come back the same way.

So I asked the guy who was organizing the trip, what would it take to come home the long way? He said, well, you choose the cities you wanna go to and I'll get you a ticket and it'll have all the flights on it, but no dates. I. So you can just go into that airline, whatever city you're in, and give them that ticket and say, I'd like to be on the next flight and they'll put you on it.

I thought, okay, where do I wanna go? I took a globe of the Earth. I was living in Toronto at the time, so I put one finger on Toronto, the other finger on the other side, and I just turned it over, like what's directly underneath and it, it turns out it's the Indian Ocean. So I thought, oh, India, and then just north of that is Nepal.

Oh yeah. I've always wanted to see the Himalayas and I connected the dots. And then I took half a year and I went all the way around the world by myself. It was the greatest thing I've ever done. So I still love to travel. It's the best education you can get. 

Peter McCully: Was half a year enough? 

Bob MacDonald: No. There's more Earth to see than the time you can. I was worried that people would forget me because at the time I was a freelance journalist, so I didn't have a regular job and I thought they'd forget. And the funny thing was when I came back, they said, oh, are you back already? You just left. If I could have taken more, I, I would. 

Peter McCully: With that travel comes some interesting stories. Perhaps you could explain to our listeners how a Frisbee works or might not work. 

Bob MacDonald: A Frisbee is a gyroscopic stabilized, dynamic lifting body. If you wanna know it's true definition, I found that above 10,000 feet, it doesn't work. I carried a Frisbee with me on my journeys around the world as a great icebreaker. 'cause wherever I went, if I just took it out and if there were kids around and I tossed it to them, they knew how to use it and they would toss it back. And it was a great way to meet strangers. But when I was in the Himalayas and took a trek up to the snow line, which is way, way up there, it's above 10,000 feet up there, the Frisbee wouldn't fly and you'd throw it and the air was so thin that it would just drop like a brick.

But I was in this one Nepalese village. Tossing it around with some kids and there were some older folks standing there and they thought it was the funniest thing they'd ever seen. They'd never seen one, and they were just dying laughing every time I threw it. So I tossed it to one of them and, uh, it didn't fly very well.

He picked it up and I said, come on, throw it back. So he just, he didn't know how to spin it, so he just tossed it and it flopped around in the air and fell up my feet, brought the house down. The greatest icebreaker I've ever had, but I was an instant hit with the community. 

Peter McCully: And air travel has changed when it comes to where you're going and what you can carry on board like you learned when you were on a plane in Australia.

Bob MacDonald: I arrived in Australia with a huge machete that I bought from a kid that just appeared outta the woods. He was a traditional Nepalese kid in, in traditional garb, and he had this big machete tucked into his waistband. It's about, uh, half a meter long and it's got a curb blade. I bought it from him and he was happy to sell it to me.

And when I arrived in Australia, I had this thing in my backpack and I didn't wanna hide it. I just showed it to the Australian customs guy, which was this big beefy guy in shorts. And I handed it to him and he took it out of the scabbard and he looked at it and he says, nice, SNO gonna need that, that he handed it back to me. Very different times today. Yes. 

Peter McCully: When I watch TV shows that show historic buildings, especially with Europe. Old Europe, Italy, and Greece in particular. I'm always fascinated at how well the construction has held up and lasted, and you had a chance to tour a very significant home in Florence. 

Bob MacDonald: I was in Galileo's home. That was astounding. It's still there. It's a house with a [00:29:00] brick wall around it, and on the wall it says Galileo. And it was actually occupied by other people after he died, but it's been taken over by the country now and turned into a museum. And when I was there, it hadn't quite opened to the public yet.

They were still renovating it, but they let me come inside and wander around here. I was in Galileo's home. I mean, he's one of my science heroes. Because he believed, as Copernicus did ahead of him, that the earth went around the sun. But the Pope at the time who was actually an amateur astronomer, did not believe that, and you don't tell the Pope that he's wrong.

As we all know, Galileo was house arrested for a good part of his life. So there he was in his kitchen, in his bedroom, out on the porch, looking over. He continued to teach by inviting university students to come visit him. And that's how his work continued on. He believed in young people 'cause they're the future.

And I've dedicated a good part of my career to teaching young people because they get it and we have to have a scientifically literate society. So it was quite a privilege to be in his actual home. I don't know if any osmosis came through the walls into me, but it was amazing to be in historic sites like that.

There was another doorway that I was in Ephesus, which is in Turkey on the Mediterranean. They have a library there that was the second largest compared to the Great Library of Alexandria. They have the facade of, it's still standing. This stone facade, the front portico with a doorway that you can step through.

Plato Aristotle went through those doors and I stood in that doorway thinking that, wow, these great minds went through here so many centuries ago, and it's profound. That's one of the things I love about travel is to see the real places where historic figures that you studied actually went. I. One of the things I've learned from my world travelers is that people are generally good.

What we see on the news is a small minority of people who are fighting, but people who lived their everyday lives. I was taken into so many homes at the end of a day when hitchhiking, they say, ah, come on, we'll put you out for the night. And I went through the entire spectrum of society from farms to, I was put up by a four star general one night, and everybody was just great and people are just generally good.

And it, it reinforced my faith in humanity. 

Peter McCully: Bob, tell me where the title of the book came from. Just Say Yes. 

Bob MacDonald: That came out of, constant requests that I'm getting where people say, what's your background? Where did you get your PhD? Or whatever. When I tell them that I'm actually a university dropout, former construction worker and truck driver, they go, what?

How did you get the host quirks? How do you get to be on the national and all that stuff? So that's why I wrote the book. Is to tell my story, but I did find out that when I thought back on it, it's because I said yes to opportunities that were presented to me by friends, by family, by coworkers, mentors who said, Hey, why don't you try this?

You'd be good at that. I. For some reason I said yes to those opportunities. The first one came from my girlfriend who had a job at the Ontario Science Center. She said, Hey, you should try here. You know, you'd be good. And so I drove my truck to the science center and talked the guy's ear off. I said, I'd love to work here.

This is great. I'd love science. I did some theater and school. This is like theater and science together and, and he hired me on the spot, just on enthusiasm. And it happened again, working with the CBC, asked to do documentaries or asked to host kids shows or American producers called me up, said, would you like to do some stuff for us?

And every time I said yes, even though I wasn't actually qualified, I found that there are three points that you need to do. One is to say yes, it'll change your life, which it did mine. Two, after you say yes, you'll get scared because you go, oh my God, I've never done this. What have I done? I can't do this.

And I found the way to beat that is to ask for help. Ask, what's the first thing I need to do? Then just do that. Then once you do that first thing, you'll see the next one, and then just keep stepping your way through it. The third point is to finish it. Finish what you start. Forget about trying to be the best in the world.

There's always someone better than you, but just get it done and the people who are paying you really appreciate you coming in on deadline day. Those have been my philosophies and for some reason it's led me to where I am today. 

Peter McCully: You recently celebrated 30 years as the host of Quirks and Quarks, and I'm sure you have a few standout highlights you'd like to pass along to our listeners.

Bob MacDonald: Oh yeah. That was a remarkable night, and we went back to the Ontario Science Center, which unfortunately no longer exists where I started my whole career. We went back there and it was a wonderful night. I was actually worried that it was gonna be a roast. I thought everybody was gonna, you know, tear me apart and make fun of me all night, but they didn't.

It was a wonderful tribute. We had regular scientists who've been on the show sort of saying, Hey, congratulations, and then asking me questions. One of the highlights was when, uh, Chris Hadfield, our Canadian astronaut, whom I've known since 1995, I went to Russia with him when he was training to go up on his first flight, he and I played [00:34:00] guitar together.

He let me play in his astronaut band one time. I'm not good, but you know, it was fun. He asked me, would you go to Mars? I asked him that. I said, would you go to Mar? He said, yeah, in a heartbeat. So he asked me that same question. I thought about it and I said, you know what? I used to wanna go to Mars. I've already picked all my vacation spots.

There's great skiing at the North Pole. If we could get there and there's a huge canyon that makes the Grand Canyon look like a crack in the sidewalk, I'd love to see all that. But now that I've seen it through the eyes of robots. That have been there and shown us that. Yes, it's neat. It's interesting, but it's cold.

It's dry. There's no oxygen. You'd have to wear a spacesuit all the time. It's a really hard, hard place to live. I. I've come to really like Planet Earth. I think I'd rather explore this one myself and see the other planets virtually through the eyes of the robots. 

Peter McCully: You mentioned Chris Hatfield. I chatted with Dr.Robert Thirst, who was on the International Space Station for six months or more. And he was telling me about going to live in Moscow to learn Russians so he could go up on the International Space Station. When you mentioned Chris Hatfield, he went to Russia in the Mir Space Station and you followed him there.

Bob MacDonald: Yes, it was wonderful. This was a case where I made an opportunity happen. I heard about Chris doing this, and I've always wanted to see the Russian side of the space program. We'd always see the American side over here in North America. I went to the documentary unit at CBC for the national. I knew the guy who was the head of it, I'd met him before and I just stood in the doorway and I said, Daniel, there's a new Canadian astronaut called Chris Hadfield who's going to fly on an American space shuttle and go up to a Russian space station.

He's training in Russian right now. We need to go and do a documentary and I need to do it for you. And he went, never heard of the guy. I said, look, this is a big story. He said, okay, write up a one pager. I'll send it up to management. So I wrote it up in one page. The next thing I know I'm on a flight to Moscow.

Yes. I followed Chris around and they have, they still do because I was back there just a few years ago. They have a full size mock-up of the Mere Space Station in this big building, just like the Americans have a full-size mock-up of the International Space Station in Houston. Chris took me on a tour of the Mere Space Station.

We went inside all these different modules and he showed me what they're all alike and, and it was really great. And then we came to the end. There's a hatch that went out to outer space and he says, and that's the next thing I wanna do. I wanna go out and do a spacewalk. I. Which is exactly what he did on his next mission to space.

He did a spacewalk. It's been a real pleasure to see Chris as we were walking through Red Square in Moscow, I said, I can't believe I'm talking to a Canadian fighter pilot who's going up to a Russian Space Station. He said, yeah, especially since I had Russian bombers in the gun sites of my F18 when I was a fighter pilot.

Peter McCully: Now the big question, who's the better singer? You or Chris Hatfield? 

Bob MacDonald: Oh, he's way better. He's way better, but we have fun together and we know a lot of the same old songs and we like to play. I also play with his brother Dave, who is an Air Canada pilot, and he is a band as well. So we all get together and jam once in a while. The last time Chris was here, I invited him to my boat and we made noise down below in my cabin so nobody could hear us. 

Peter McCully: Speaking of your boat, I know you're an avid motorcyclist as I am. Was, and a sailor. Your book talks about a few sailing stories. My favorite was your 48 foot sailboat being dwarfed by the Queen Mary two.

Bob MacDonald: That was in 1992 when New York City was hosting a tall ship parade to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Columbus. And they had designated Anchorages along the sides of the Hudson River where visitors could watch this tall ship parade. And tall ships from around the world came and they were parading up the Hudson, and one of the Anchorages was at the Statue of Liberty.

There's a shallow spot beside the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island where all the immigrants came. That's where I anchored. I had the whole Manhattan skyline in front of me sitting on my boat. After this parade was over, we could leave and we could just motor around 'cause all these tall ships went to the jettys on Manhattan, and one of the boats there was the Queen Mary too.

She was leaving just as I came by. It was so big that the top of my mast barely reached. I think the second row of the portals on her hall, I was just looking up at this monster, beautiful black, red, and white ocean liner. The ocean liners are different from the cruise ships. The cruise ships are as tall as possible because they wanna get as many people on them.

But the ocean liners, they're built for speed. They're the greyhounds of the sea, so they're lower down. They have more pointy bows, and they race across the Atlantic Ocean. So they had really, really beautiful lines. When they pulled her out by tug, she seemed to take up the entire Hudson River when she was sitting sideways in it.

And then they had to turn her around and get her pointed down, and I'm watching all this. And at the end when they finally get her into position and all the tugboats pull away, she gave a blast of her horn and it was the deepest low node like this ball like. I am here. Hello. It was just humbly. It was beautiful. There I am in my little boat beside her watching her go by. 

Peter McCully: I was gonna tell you my, story about my 17 foot runabout being dwarfed by Jimmy Pattison’s yacht in Salt Spring, but there's really no comparison with the Queen Mary two. What's it like to sit and chat with four Nobel Prize winners? Bob? 

Bob MacDonald: Well, that was a pinch me moment in my history at quirks and quarks.

It was 1999 and we were preparing for the millennium. Just by coincidence, one of the Canadian Nobel Laureates, Dr. Palani from the University of Toronto, invited six other people who had won the Nobel Prize to come to Toronto for a conference. We intercepted them [00:40:00] on the way to a banquet. And they agreed to come into my studio and talk to me about their thoughts on what the new millennium might bring.

So here I am sitting in my studio and I have six gentlemen. Unfortunately, there were no women at that time, but they're all in tuxedos and they're all sitting around the story. And each one of them had won the Nobel Prize in different areas of science, and they're talking to me. And it was one like, how did I get here?

How did, how did this happen? When I really appreciated what I do for a living, that I get to talk to people around the world, and it's always exciting for me. Whenever the Nobel Prizes come out, I get to talk to the winners. It's such a privilege to be hosted quirks and corks and talk to some of the smartest people on the planet. So that was a high point for me in my career. 

Peter McCully: Bob, I did want to ask you about artificial intelligence. It's becoming a part of our everyday lives. I know you've covered stories on it. Could you talk about some of the more positive uses of AI that you've seen? We tend to hear about some of the more negative aspects, but uh, there must be some positive uses you've run across.

Bob MacDonald: Well, science was one of the first areas to embrace artificial intelligence because science deals with large quantities of data and artificial intelligence programs are able to go through that and see things that people don't. They can go through it much more quickly. So do in a matter of hours, what might take days or weeks for people to do and see patterns that people don't recognize.

It's really great as a tool. It's a tool in medicine. It allows physicians to help diagnose conditions. Somebody comes in and says, I have a headache. What are all the possible conditions that might lead to a headache or whatever? So it's been a great tool and it will continue to be a great tool. I. In many different ways in finance and what else?

I think we're gonna keep it as that the, the difficulties are where do we put the boundaries around it so that it's not misused so that people don't try to pretend that there's something they're not. It's an issue in universities right now where students are using AI to [00:42:00] write essays. Thankfully there are counter programs that help professors spot them.

So that they can see that this was not written by the student. It was, uh, done by ai. You know, it's a powerful tool. Anytime a powerful tool comes along, we have to say, how is it gonna be used? It can be used for good or it can be used for evil. We did the same thing with nuclear weapons. You know, they were powerful tools, but we put boundaries around those and said, we're just not gonna use those, and hopefully no one will go outside those boundaries.

So, I'm not afraid of ai. I'm not worried about a machine becoming so smart that it's gonna take over the world and try to, you know, terminate her style, wipe out humanity. I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about the people that use AI and what they might do with it. But as far as the tool, it's incredibly powerful.

There's also a joke. They ask the computer, is there a God? And the computer said There is. Now I. But I'm not worried about that. 

Peter McCully: The book is Just Say Yes, Bob, thanks for your time today. I enjoyed the book and enjoyed our time together. 

Bob MacDonald: Pleasure talking to you, Peter.

Dave Graham: Bob McDonald and a success story in the form of a memoir. We all love a story where the main character must face disadvantage and adversity and they persevere and ultimately succeed and become a nationally recognized science journalist. We love those stories, but seriously, we like stories that inspire and just say Yes, certainly fits that description. 

Peter McCully: The Pulse Community Podcast is at its best when we have two-way communication and we're interested in hearing from you.

Click on the link labeled, speak to us, and you may literally do so. We also accept text and email, and on occasion we actually get out in public and seek your opinions. Be on the lookout for the Peter and Dave Roadshow as we connect with you, the Pulse community at various locations in the weeks to come. 

Dave Graham: Peter, I have a suggestion. 

Peter McCully: Yes, Dave. 

Dave Graham: Do you remember last week when I was talking about how impressed I was by the ability of the French Creek waste treatment facility to keep a lid on the smells? 

Peter McCully: Yes, I do. 

Dave Graham: Construction at the site seems to have caused a change in that status. By that, I mean the lid is completely off and maybe someone dropped it and it broke. I don't know, but it is not good. The area around the treatment site lately is. All of it. I mean, the smell that is, I mean, it's so bad. 

Peter McCully: Oh, really? 

Dave Graham: But I could go on. 

Peter McCully: Okay. Dave Point made. Next time we head out to talk to people, it won't be near the waste treatment facility. How about we head down to the cafeteria and see what Special Mabel has for us?

Dave Graham: Oof. That's a hard pivot from the smell of that to food. But yeah. Okay. I'm game. Let's go. 

Rockin Rhonda & The Blues Band: Here comes Peter, here comes Dave, oh listen. Bringing stories, making waves. No missing. Spinning tales in the podcast cave. So to speak. Laughs and insights everywhere. What a treat. Peer and Dave. They're on the mics all right. Join the ride. It's gonna feel just right.