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Rockin' Rhonda: Peter and Dave, they're on the mics. All right, join the ride. It's gonna feel just right.

Peter McCully: Welcome back to the Pulse Community Podcast. I'm Peter McCully, and we're kicking off the new year here on Mid Vancouver Island. 2026 is underway and it's bringing more inspiring stories here to share with you.

Dave Graham: And I'm Dave Graham. Well, Peter, here we are, a brand new year stretching out before us, like a blank page just waiting to be filled. Well, I say blank page, but my page already has coffee stains on it and I started a grocery list in the margin.

Peter McCully: Off to a productive start, I see.

Dave Graham: I need that grocery list. I ran out of coffee, which is, as you know, a critical condition. Don't want to be starting the year with a crisis. Oh, hey, I'm curious, did you start your year with the Polar Bear swim? Did you go for that New Year's Day dip?

Peter McCully: Well, Dave, no. I did not take the plunge this year. I do admire those who brave the cold water, but I prefer to start this year warm and dry.

Dave Graham: Cheers to that. And I gave the Polar Bear swim some thought, and then I remembered that I actually don't like being cold or wet, not to mention cold and wet.

Peter McCully: Well, good to know. And with that out of the way, we're looking forward to a couple of exceptional guests today. First up, Ladysmith's singer-songwriter Ryan McMahon is here to talk about his two decades of music, which include tours with Burton Cummings and Tom Cochrane. And we'll hear about his new single, There She Is.

Ryan McMahon: I'm a pretty transparent open book these days. I needed to work on some things, and those things are in the song, and the tune itself is really not just about newfound love with a new person, but it's also about recognizing beauty where maybe I hadn't before in the chorus, like about the sunrise over my hometown and it's just the feeling when you first dip your toes into the ocean. For me, the song is a happy, peaceful exhale.

Dave Graham: Happy, peaceful exhale. That was me after finishing off the last of the leftover turkey.

Peter McCully: Our second guest today is Kristen Nickells, a distinguished Toastmaster who has served as the local chapter's president and she champions communications excellence.

Kristen Nickells: Toastmasters has a slogan that says Where Leaders Are Made. I think they've recognized the idea that if you can articulate your thoughts in a speech, if you can craft a speech and deliver it in a way that your audience receives your message and that you're clear and confident, that's a skill that you see in leaders.

Dave Graham: Communication excellence. You know, oh, I should have resolved to use some more of that in my life. Is it too late to change my resolution? Is there some ruling on that? I could use some excellence in my words, my language thing. You know, it could be made better. You know what I mean?

Peter McCully: Future guests to the podcast will include actor, writer, and producer Chelah Horsdal, who returns to the podcast to continue our chat about her remarkable career in film and television.

Dave Graham: We'll also welcome Susanne Cunningham, chair of Mid Island Health Alliance, who will be here to chat about the new medical clinic opening in Qualicum Beach. That is exciting news for our community.

Peter McCully: Maybe you have a topic you'd like to see on the Pulse podcast, or perhaps you have an announcement to make or a comment to share. We'd certainly like to hear from you. Head to our website under the contact page and choose to leave a voice or text message. You'll find us at thepulsecommunity.ca.

Dave Graham: I want to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of a brother in broadcasting. After being admitted to a hospital on New Year's Eve, Evan Hammond, the morning host at the radio station in Port Alberni, passed away on the evening of Friday, January 2nd with his family by his side. He was 45. Evan, also known as Hammer, was cherished by his community and he served it very well. Through his morning show, he became the voice of the Valley, and he was for many, many years, the voice of the Alberni Valley Junior Hockey team, the Bulldogs, and he was very good. The league named him their broadcaster of the year three times. People are now speaking of how he was a skilled broadcaster, a wonderful family man, a friend, a mentor, and a valued member of the community, and that is as good a legacy as one could hope for. Rest in peace, Evan Hammond.

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Dave Graham: This is the Pulse Community Podcast. You can find us on Facebook and Instagram. We're otherwise available on Apple, iHeart, Spotify, TikTok, and YouTube.

Peter McCully: Now for our first guest, a woman who's helped countless people find their voice and speak with confidence. Here's Marilyn.

Marilyn: Kristen Nickells is a distinguished Toastmaster, certified executive coach, and published author who has served as president of Arbutus Toastmasters in Parksville. With over 40 years of business experience, she coaches dentists and their teams while championing communication excellence throughout Vancouver Island's Upper Island community.

Dave Graham: Kristen, welcome to the podcast. It's good to see you again.

Kristen Nickells: It's great to be here.

Dave Graham: I'm excited to talk about our Arbutus Toastmasters. It's been a while since we've been together to do this. You have described our Arbutus Toastmasters as one of Vancouver Island's best kept secrets. Now, for someone who's never heard of Toastmasters, how would you introduce them to what the club does in Parksville Qualicum Beach?

Kristen Nickells: First and foremost, we have fun. We take a scary situation or a scary topic, something that people are really frightened about, and we put them at ease and we make it fun. It's really great to see the change in people.

Dave Graham: I understand the club is really a diverse cross section of Island residents: students and business owners, politicians and seniors. Can you paint a picture of what a typical Monday evening meeting looks like with this kind of a mix of people?

Kristen Nickells: Oh, for sure. We have fun, and yes, we have people who've just turned 18 to a couple of members that are into their eighties, and they're not the first ones. We have engineers, we have teachers, we have retired people, we have business people, so many people from various walks of life. So a typical meeting—there are about a dozen or so different meeting roles that we do, whether you're giving a speech or you're giving an evaluation, or you're counting the ums and ahs, or you are being a timer with timing lights, that kind of thing. And then every week we switch up the roles, so somebody different is taking on those roles, so you get a chance to try everything.

Dave Graham: Toastmasters was founded, it says in front of me here, in 1994. That's the local club by Parksville's David Gooden. I would think like anything, like language itself, it must evolve. How has the club changed through those years?

Kristen Nickells: Toastmasters itself is over a hundred years old. In fact, this year they are 101. Toastmasters itself has evolved quite a bit and continues to evolve with its education program. So in 2018, the education program changed in a huge way to a new program called Pathways, and a lot of it is online. So it's really geared towards not only public speaking, but leadership skills as well. The curriculum part of it is online and tracking your progress, et cetera, is all online with video and text and slides and all kinds of different media. So it's really expanded that way. The thing about it is that every different project in your progress develops a certain skill, but they don't dictate what your topic is. So you get to write your own speeches, and let's say you're doing a speech on vocal variety, using your voice in a way that isn't monotonous, that's what you're focusing on, but the topic of your speech is whatever you want it to be. I would say that's the major way that Toastmasters has evolved, but it is a dynamic kind of a process, so it's always changing and always growing, just as we are.

Dave Graham: Can you share a specific story of someone whose life has been changed by their participation with this club?

Kristen Nickells: There's me. That's the one I'm most familiar with. I'm in my 16th year as a Toastmaster. I would say that when I started, I was not a stranger to public speaking. I had done it in my business life, but I didn't know then what I didn't know. And as soon as I walked into that very first meeting, I knew that I was in the right place. I knew that there were people like me in that room that wanted to be able to hone that skill of public speaking so that I was doing it with grace and learning the tricks of the trade and all of that. I joined that very first night. I see that repeated with many people. They just come as a guest, sit through a meeting, and by the end of the meeting they're writing us a cheque.

Dave Graham: Public speaking consistently ranks as people's number one fear. How does Toastmasters make a safe, encouraging, supportive environment for people to get through that barrier?

Kristen Nickells: We work hard at it. Having fun is one of them. So we had one longtime member who said that if it ain't fun, I ain't doing it. And the grammarian got after her. I'll tell you, we have a mission statement and we actually speak it at the very beginning of every single meeting, and I won't tell you it verbatim, but I will tell you that it is about creating that safe environment, and that means being constructive and yet encouraging to build people up rather than take them down. We don't want to point out every mistake that everybody makes. We want to point out what they did well, why it worked, and what they can chew on to grow on for the next time. Everybody's in the same boat and there are people there who are nervous about just standing up and saying their name. When they do, they get rewarded for it with clapping and cheers. And really, I think that the most common comment that I hear from people is that they felt really welcomed at Arbutus, and it's a very safe environment to stumble.

Dave Graham: How many people show up for an average meeting?

Kristen Nickells: Our club is about 26 strong right now. Between 20 and 30 is a good strong number for a Toastmasters club. And of course, Toastmasters clubs took a real hit all over the world really, with COVID. Most of us went online immediately, our Arbutus being one of them. We actually didn't skip a beat. We missed one meeting and we immediately started meeting on Zoom and we met on Zoom for two years through COVID, so we continued learning and growing just in a different way. I would say that at any given time, we probably have anywhere from 16 to 25 people in the room.

Dave Graham: Meeting on Monday evenings for a couple of hours. Is it all speeches? How does that play out?

Kristen Nickells: Oh, excellent question. So we start the meeting by explaining what our different roles are in the meeting. If we do have guests, they're certainly acknowledged and we help them to understand what it is that's going on in the meeting so that they're not just sitting there silent—they're actually participating. We explain all our different roles. We usually have a thought of the day or a toast. Someone has come prepared with that. And then we have prepared speeches. These are speeches that people are working through their Pathways program. And then each speaker has an evaluator who is learning how to give feedback. So in Toastmasters, we not only learn how to give feedback, we learn how to receive it, and I can tell you as a business coach that giving feedback well and receiving feedback are two skills that are often absent. So then we take a little break after that, and then we move on to a really fun part, which is called table topics. And it's impromptu speaking where you have no preparation whatsoever. You're asked a question and you get a chance to get up and speak for a couple of minutes on something. And then we have all the people that had different roles in the meeting—they give a little report, so we find out how long the speeches were because they were timed. We find out who is the winner of the most ums and ahs. We used to call it the Justin Trudeau Award. Now we call it the Carney Award because they're both equally as bad, and that is to help us to smooth out our speech, to minimize those crutch words, et cetera. See, I just said it. We have a grammarian report. We have an ah-counter report, we have a timer's report, and then we just evaluate generally the whole meeting, how it went. We have one person who's called the general evaluator, and they just give us a synopsis of what they noticed that we did really well in the meeting and how we could improve.

Dave Graham: You have achieved the Distinguished Toastmaster designation, the highest recognition in Toastmasters International. Congratulations. Tell us about that journey.

Kristen Nickells: I've actually received my Distinguished Toastmaster's award twice, and I'm working on number three. A Distinguished Toastmaster's award is the highest educational award that you can achieve in Toastmasters, and it involves probably somewhere in the neighbourhood of 40, 45 speeches all told. It involves taking on some roles within your club, like the club executive role, perhaps a mentor in your club, and then stepping outside the club and working more on a district level as well, and taking on some special projects that benefit Toastmasters in general, then doing something really special, like maybe starting a new club or coaching a club, or doing a Youth Leadership program for people under 18, or what we call Speechcraft, which is like a beginner's six to eight week condensed little speaking workshop session. It's a great way to get people introduced to the Toastmasters program. Once you've done all of those things, then you get your Distinguished Toastmaster's award and then you start again.

Dave Graham: So from that description, it sounds like actually speechmaking is just a small component.

Kristen Nickells: It's a considerable component. It definitely, I would say, is the hub of what we do. Toastmasters has a slogan that says Where Leaders Are Made. I think they've recognized the idea that if you can articulate your thoughts in a speech, if you can craft a speech and deliver it in a way that your audience receives your message and that you're clear and confident, that's a skill that you see in leaders. And taking on all these different roles in Toastmasters makes you a leader. So they really are married, the two: leadership and public speaking. And I think that the recognition of that is really special. So you come out of Toastmasters not only with really, I think, a tangible life skill, but you also come out with a new awareness of yourself and personal growth, and that is definitely part of our mission.

Dave Graham: And when you talk about leaders in their ability to communicate clearly and concisely, you had me thinking about the opposite. When you have a leader who is not so good at clear communication and making clear speeches without a lot of things that you would find an issue at a Toastmasters meeting.

Kristen Nickells: Yes, and there are enough word salads in this world. We don't need any more. I know a few politicians who could benefit from Toastmasters, and indeed we do have some politicians in our club at the municipal level, and we also oftentimes see people who are in election years running for election coming, even if it's just for six months, to join a Toastmasters club to help improve that presence. And it's not just the ability to articulate your thoughts and put them in some sort of a meaningful form, but it's your presence on stage, and do you command the room?

Dave Graham: Molly Hamilton from your club placed in the top eight in the world at the 2022 Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking. This is a competition against 33,000 participants from 143 countries. What was it like watching one of your members compete at that level?

Kristen Nickells: There are no words. We are so proud of Molly. It was really an extraordinary experience to have somebody go that far in the club. Sadly, it was in COVID time, so some of it was online, which I think detracts in a small way. It's more exciting to see people live. However, Molly did really well. I certainly know that we all learned an incredible amount from Molly and were completely inspired by her. I think that Molly got something from us too, and I think it's that we believed she could do it, and we buoyed her along and supported her like nobody's business. And I think that counted for something.

Dave Graham: Molly's journey from your club in Parksville to the World Championship in Nashville is certainly an extraordinary achievement. But what does her success say about the calibre of training and support that is available right here?

Kristen Nickells: Molly was back and forth between Calgary and here, so we can't take full credit for Molly. However, as I said, Molly became a part of our community. We learned from her, she learned from us, and that's what Toastmasters is about. There isn't a hierarchy of teacher and student. We all teach each other and we all learn from each other. So I think that Molly got something from us, and we certainly got something from her. I have to say that having somebody of her calibre in our club was amazing, really amazing, and quite inspiring.

Dave Graham: Beyond your role with Arbutus Toastmasters, you're also president of the Mid Island Advanced Toastmasters, and you're a certified executive coach working with dentists and their teams. How has your Toastmasters training influenced your professional coaching work?

Kristen Nickells: I'm the past president of Arbutus, but this year I'm doing the PR work, which is why I am here today. I joined Toastmasters at a point in my career where I wanted to do professional speaking, and Toastmasters became my professional development. I'm retired from it now, but I had a good decade-long career of speaking internationally at dental conventions. While it's not a question of so much Toastmasters advancing my career, I use some of the skills that I've developed within Toastmasters, particularly evaluation skills. I developed a system that was based on the principles of executive coaching, and I have taken that into my workplaces and taught my clients how to give performance reviews, to give disciplinary feedback to their staff, et cetera, based on some of these skills that I developed for evaluating in Toastmasters. So there really is a good crossover.

Dave Graham: Toastmasters helps people with everything from job interviews to business presentations. Can you give us specific examples of how members have used their skills from Toastmasters in real-world situations?

Kristen Nickells: The one that comes to mind is a young man that joined us. I probably shouldn't say his name in the podcast here. However, he was in teacher training at the time. Being a young man, he was not used to being up in front of a room, let alone a classroom. And so he joined Toastmasters to learn that skill, and knowing specifically that's what he was looking for, he was able to design his Pathways program, choose one that really helped him to hone his skill. And then there are a lot of different electives within each program, so everybody is going through this Pathways journey in a slightly different way, and we helped him to tailor his educational program to meet the needs of what he needed to learn. His presentations and his evaluations were done with the idea in mind that he would be speaking to students and in front of a classroom. I'm happy to say that he graduated his program. He's now working as a substitute teacher at the high school in Qualicum. He has grown in an amazing way to see his stage presence and his ability to get through to his audience. I think that there's a world of students that are going to benefit from his experience at Toastmasters. That's the one that really comes to mind.

Dave Graham: What strikes me from this conversation, I think among other things, is the ripple effect, the multi-level approach that is involved here and how it's so much more than just overcoming nerves in front of talking to people.

Kristen Nickells: Yes, absolutely. These are tangible skills that you take into your life, and it doesn't matter whether you are a retiree who's volunteering, sitting on your strata board or curling club board or golf club board, whatever. If you are taking on any kind of executive roles, any level of leadership roles, or you just want to be able to have a conversation in a room full of people, cocktail party style, or meet new people and not be afraid to go up to them and shake their hand and introduce yourself and tell them your name. If you just want those kinds of social skills in your life, Toastmasters is absolutely the place to get it, and it's not expensive.

Dave Graham: For anyone listening to this and interested, what is their first step?

Kristen Nickells: Their first step is to find us because we will help you. We will welcome you as a guest, and then you can try it out without any charge. See if you feel like it might be a good fit for you. From there, if you want to join, it's as easy as filling out an application. Toastmasters costs you about 20 bucks a month. It's one of the least expensive things that you could possibly do. I pay so much more than that just to curl for part of the year. The cost is negligible. The website is arbutustoastmastersclub.org. You can also just Google Arbutus Toastmasters and we'll come up, or you can email us at arbutustoastmasters@gmail.com. We meet at Inclusion Parksville. It's adjacent to the McMillan Arts Centre in Parksville. We meet Monday nights at seven to nine. We start our meetings sharp at seven. Come as a guest. We won't charge you. That's the way to start. If you need to come again as a guest, you're welcome to do that. We will ask you to join after that though, if you want to continue to come. So come and try it out. That's the easiest way to do it.

Peter McCully: Thanks to Kristen Nickells for being on the Pulse podcast. The power of effective communication cannot be overstated. Whether you're leading a team, building relationships, or simply trying to express your ideas more clearly, these skills can make all the difference.

Dave Graham: Absolutely, and I appreciate the care Toastmasters takes to provide a supportive environment for people to practice and grow. Public speaking, of course, terrifies a lot of people. They say it's one of the top fears right up there with spiders and running out of coffee.

Peter McCully: I don't think running out of coffee is on that list, Dave.

Dave Graham: I thought I saw it on the list, right between fear of clowns and fear of dentists. It's a legitimate concern. Anyway, but seriously, what Kristen does, helping people overcome fear and find confidence, that is indeed meaningful work.

Peter McCully: If you'd like to learn more about Toastmasters, you can find information in our show notes.

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Dave Graham: Our next guest is a veteran of the music scene with nearly two decades of creating authentic folk rock. He has toured with some of Canada's biggest names in music, and his new single captures that feeling of recognizing beauty in unexpected places. Here's Marilyn.

Marilyn: Ladysmith singer-songwriter Ryan McMahon has spent nearly two decades crafting authentic folk rock across seven solo albums and tours with Burton Cummings and Tom Cochrane. His powerful new single, There She Is, was produced at Bryan Adams' Warehouse Studio in Vancouver.

Ryan McMahon: Thanks for being with us today, Ryan. It's 9:05 and that's a reasonable hour. I've been up since six. I had a workout at six and now I'm ready for you, Peter.

Peter McCully: Well, I beat you. I was at the gym at 4:30.

Ryan McMahon: We're off to a great start.

Peter McCully: You grew up in Ladysmith.

Ryan McMahon: Yes, I did. I was in Ladysmith until about 2002, and then I went across the Georgia Strait to live in Vancouver for about seven years.

Peter McCully: Growing up in Ladysmith, were you surrounded by music in your household or did you just find it on your own?

Ryan McMahon: It was my grandparents, my grandma in particular. They grew up on the prairies and there was a piano and a banjo and a guitar and all that kind of hubbub going on in their house all of the time, apparently. However, I will say that between my mother and father, there's 11 years separating those guys and they had such a cross section of amazing records between them. He had the real kind of more fifties stuff like the Buddy Holly and the Fats Domino and Little Richard, and my mom had CCR and Janis records and the Doors and stuff like that that she passed down to me. So I had like fifties, sixties, and seventies pretty pounded into me by that point.

Peter McCully: Was there a specific moment or a song that made you think, "Hey, this is what I could be doing with the rest of my life"?

Ryan McMahon: I enjoyed eliciting reactions from people, whether that was making them laugh or—I think inherently being a little bit of a dramatic person growing up, I liked entertaining people. I was an only child, and then trying to find an identity as you round grade nine and into grade 10 and 11 and you're in those really challenging, awkward years and you're trying to find yourself, I started writing. It was very kind of cheesy teenage poetry stuff for a little bit, but ultimately I started chasing down songs and learning the craft and listening to writers like Elvis Costello and Warren Zevon and things like how to really be anecdotal in songs and pack as much into a chorus and a bridge and all that stuff, and how they all intertwined. And that's such a slow moving process. And I just don't know that there was ever like one singular moment. I found that I was most confident in social situations, maybe when I was discussing or being around music or musicians.

Peter McCully: Who were some of those earliest musical heroes or influences? Was there some particular artist or album that might have shaped the kind of singer-songwriter that you wanted to become?

Ryan McMahon: Being my age, there was the whole Seattle sound that was massive with Soundgarden and Pearl Jam and Nirvana, and that was all very important to me because it was all over Much Music and MTV and on the radio, but also Vancouver bands that would come over to Nanaimo. I remember getting to know the guys in the Odds and their records were incredible. You take Craig Northey, who's an elite singer-songwriter from the Odds. The Odds went on tour with Warren Zevon, who ended up being one of my heroes, and really that's how you'd get introduced to some of these now a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer as of a couple of weeks ago because Zevon influenced Northey and then Northey influenced me. And then he would tell me like, "Hey, you should listen to Warren Zevon or Elvis Costello or this and that." The Vancouver scene was huge for me when I was a real rookie, like 19 years old, just starting to play bars. There was Tina Caldwell, but her name's Tina Roots now, and she was really my first manager. We didn't sign a contract or anything, but she was managing things and getting me shows, and she introduced me to a guy by the name of Frank Veer in Vancouver, and he managed Matthew Good and Xavier Rudd and the Smalls. I would just get advice from industry folks at a pretty early age. I just tried to sponge and eat up as much as I could, and all of a sudden, two and a half decades go by.

Peter McCully: You mentioned playing those early club stages, aged 19. What were some of those memorable gigs from the early years? Any disasters or triumphs or lessons learned that you'd like to tell us about?

Ryan McMahon: I'm just old enough where you could still smoke in bars. I was really cutting my teeth at the Queens in Nanaimo. Being that I grew up in Ladysmith, the Queens was where I played, and I got to know the four or five owners/operators of that place and they were all wild fellas. But they were like, "You've got something kid, so we'll let you play." But then as soon as you play, you've got to get out of here because you're barely of age. And I remember we weren't very good, but something would happen to me where I would be most confident on stage, and I felt like there was like some invisible barrier that protected me from the rest of the world. And so if I would get heckled, I would give it right back to these drunk people. But some of these guys really played for keeps, right? And you've got to watch what you say back. But some guy's companion that night was heckling me, kept asking me to play like Aerosmith, and it just wasn't my jam at all. So I said something back, which we'll just leave out, but I got an ashtray thrown at my head and I just ducked in time where it hit my drummer's cymbals. He almost got nailed by it too, but I mean, those days were formative in how to deal with an audience and how to deal with someone who's been overserved or whatever, but there's a litany of weird and rough and late night and boozy nights where I suppose I was learning, but I took the long way to the lesson, I think, but that was one.

Peter McCully: I read somewhere that your sound can be described as Canadian Americana, and I have to admit, that's the first time I've ever heard that description for anyone. How do you describe your music?

Ryan McMahon: That's the first time I've heard that. I've heard Canadiana, and I've got to be honest, the older I get, the less I care about what it is. I will say, and I always do say that I'm influenced by a lot of different things. My next record's going to be a little bit all over the map and it's driving my new manager crazy because there are really tender quiet songs on it that are very acoustic based, but then there are probably some of the heaviest rock and roll songs that I've recorded since I was like 27, 29 years old. I'm influenced by guys like Jason Isbell. That guy is one of the best writers going today. Father John Misty, one of the great lyricists of this time. Whether you know him or not, he's out there making great work and selling out the Queen Elizabeth Theatre when he comes to towns, but their albums are albums that I strive to make, and they're all over the map. Given the nature of the fact that people aren't listening to full albums because their attention spans are so all over the map and there's so many things grabbing for people's attention, I think that it's okay to have an album that's all over the map because I think it reflects the way that our society is and how our society consumes everything, not just music. I don't know what it is anymore. I play country festivals, I play folk festivals, and just come to the show, man. I don't know what it is. You come and tell me, you know?

Peter McCully: I don't know. I've never been one to peg anybody. I just enjoy the music. The group that you formed, Lion Bear Fox, with Christopher Arruda and Cory Woodward were together a long time. Creative music collaboratively versus your own solo work—how did those two creative experiences differ for you, and what did one give you that the other one didn't?

Ryan McMahon: Being in Lion Bear Fox was very intense. Three very big musical personalities in the kitchen. Sometimes that created fantastic music, and then other times we would just butt up against each other and nothing would happen. I remember being in songwriting sessions where literally not one line worth anything would come out. And the best thing I can say about Lion Bear Fox is that my time in that band made me a better band mate, a better band leader, a better friend. I learned some lessons where I was falling short. Creating with people can be a really exciting thing. I remember when I was juggling both acts at the same time, I would come off a tour with the guys and then I would immediately be ready to like maybe spend a couple weeks at home, but then go out on my own and I'd feel like I can kind of breathe again and just really just be that only child calling all his shots again. But then by the time my solo tour was over, I would miss Cory and Chris again. We were playing some pretty amazing venues in this country and out of this country. I wouldn't have necessarily had the opportunity to do some of those things if it weren't for the guys. Really thankful for my time with the band, and I always say this too, and I'm probably the only one of the three of us saying this, but if the opportunity arose and we could do like a handful of shows, four shows, or five shows or something like that, just on the Island or on the lower mainland or something fairly easy, I would relish the opportunity to play some of those songs again because the material is something I really care about. Some of it I still play on my own.

Peter McCully: Now, musically, you've been everywhere. You've been solo, you've been in a band, and your songs have been featured in some shows like Californication and Chesapeake Shores. How does it feel when your music finds new life, a new level in new media, different contexts beyond the concert stage or the streaming world?

Ryan McMahon: Because I'm a practical sort, the first thing that I think of is, "Ooh, found money." I just found some like between the cushions, because once the songs are made and created, the only time you're really generating is if they're licensed or something like that, or on the radio. In the case of Californication, it's just neat to see them juxtaposed with whatever art that they're sharing the space with. In the case of Californication, I mean having the whole final scene of that episode, and then as the credits roll, it was like, "Ah, that was like a box that I could check off." And it felt pretty great because it was such a well-written show too. Like it was a quality piece that I think ran for years. I don't give it an awful lot of thought, but when something makes sense and that can get paired, I'm all for it. It feels pretty good.

Peter McCully: After all this time of writing songs, what still excites you about the process? What keeps you coming back to the blank page or the empty guitar track?

Ryan McMahon: The last couple years for me personally have been rife with lessons. I've been through a lot, a lot of life changes. In order for me to process that, I'm an old school sort. I haven't been to therapy or things like that. Where I get that is letting that loose through music and kind of processing it through my songs, and it always makes me feel a little bit more connected to maybe an audience member or a listener that's gone through or is going through the same thing. That always seems to work, and that's the best part of it. Like I said earlier, I'm still chasing that perfect chorus. It sounds like something that the Hollies would've written or the Animals or one of my heroes growing up. There's the part of it where I'm processing my feelings, but then there's also the machinery of how a song gets put together that I still am chasing all of the time. I can't imagine it ever getting old, and I always say when I go on tour and folks are paying me to fly and drive and travel and be away from my family, that's what you're paying me for. The music I'll happily do for free. I just still love it.

Peter McCully: Ryan, tell us about your new tune, There She Is. Is this about anybody in particular?

Ryan McMahon: It is. I do have a new person in my life, absolutely. But it's not that simple. It's not just about "there she is." It's also about recognizing that my cup actually has been half full or more so for years. I don't know that I was super adept at recognizing that, not just with a former partner, but just in a former life, a former mindset. In my thirties, in my twenties, I was very careerist first. That led me to mistakes, and I'm pretty honest about that. I'll talk about it in interviews, with friends, with strangers. I'm a pretty transparent open book these days. I needed to work on some things. The tune itself is really not just about newfound love with a new person, but it's also about recognizing beauty where maybe I hadn't before in the chorus, like about the sunrise over my hometown and it's just the feeling when you first dip your toes into the ocean. For me, the song is a happy, peaceful exhale.

Peter McCully: Ryan McMahon, There She Is, his new tune. Ryan, you've shared stages with Burton Cummings, Tom Cochrane, Lisa Loeb, to name a few. What have you learned from touring with more established artists at the time that's influenced your own approach to performance and connection with audiences?

Ryan McMahon: Great question. I've been really fortunate. For years I was doing these one-offs. Lion Bear Fox got a call to play the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver two days before Kim Mitchell needed an opener. It was all these one-offs and you wouldn't necessarily get time to get to know an artist. And I mean, I've opened for most of your CanCon artists of the nineties and into the two thousands. I've been really fortunate, but you just don't get to know them. A few years ago when I established a relationship with Burton and his crew and his team, he was like, "Hey, let's take Ryan out for"—I can't remember how many dates it was, 15 or something like that. And every day is a little bit like a musical Groundhog Day. The set lists are to be really dialed, but I enjoy changing my set list every day, so I'm not beholden to the same day every day, right? There's like a balance that you can strike that's also huge. Doing a bunch of dates with Tom Cochrane and his buddy—those guys are eating really well and it's really hard to eat on the road. That's one. I remember there was like sushi every day doing the Burton tour and the Tom Cochrane tour. Like I was treated so well, and there's been times when I've been opening for folks that you didn't get treated so well and you'd make a little note of that. Everybody is involved, whether it's the lighting guy or the ticket taker, or the opening act. Everybody is involved in making this night great. For this meeting of the audience and the performer, it's a meeting. Oftentimes I was playing like a big theatre with Burton, or in the case in Lethbridge, an arena, and it's just me and my acoustic guitar. So I had to come out and say one thing. The one thing that I would always go to would be something to loosen them up and to actually loosen me up too, and that would be, "Good evening everyone. My name is Ryan McMahon, and I'm standing between you and the reason that you're here." It would break the barrier that like, "Okay, we're going to put up with this opening act. Let's see what he's got." Then I would relax because I would get a laugh from 1,800 people or whatever it was. Just learning all those tiny little tricks that kind of put me at ease and put them at ease. Watching those guys go about their business every night is invaluable, and so I would never miss the opportunity even though the show might be the same. Burton might have a different story that he would tell, or as well as Tom, and just be nice. Just be nice. And they were, they treated me great.

Peter McCully: You're from Vancouver Island, Ladysmith in particular, and that's where you're living now. How has the Island shaped you as an artist, and what does it mean to you to represent the Island when you're out on a national stage or even an international stage?

Ryan McMahon: I've never been more proud to be from here. As I get older, I think I understand it more, what it means, what it offers me. Like when I come home from anywhere else in the world, not just Canada, I just feel really fortunate. There's something about the mountains and the water here, both of which are six minutes from my front door. I used to party quite a bit when I was younger and get distracted. When I come home now from a tour, it's like the first thing I want to do is I want to go into the woods and unpack all that. It's a little woo, I realize, but there's something about being in the forest that feels pretty darn good these days, and other areas of our country, it's not the same. I've got the best friends around me that I've also ever had in my life that don't let my head get too carried away. I remember being in my thirties, you'd meet someone who was maybe a decade older in service time, and they would say something like, "I'm really enjoying my forties," and I'd be like, "Ew, I don't want any part of that." I get it now. I absolutely get it. It's a peaceful time.

Dave Graham: Ryan McMahon, what a journey from touring with Canada's rock royalty to creating music that is deeply personal and speaks to finding beauty and peace. There's an artist who knows what he's about.

Peter McCully: You'll find lots of podcasts for all tastes at thepulsecommunity.ca. Erin and Jonathan Frazier from up Island in the Comox Valley host the F3 Podcast. They talk NFL and offer a bonus downloadable recipe, tailgate style from Chef Jonathan.

Dave Graham: Parksville councillors Joel Grenz and Sean Wood explore the behind the scenes work that's involved in municipal politics. Their podcast is called Non-Partisan Hacks.

Peter McCully: Our Skookum Kid Stories feature Captain Dave and the crew of the Mellow Submarine, plus Peter and Gracie, the Eskimo dog. Our kid stories now come with colouring pages to go along with each new episode.

Dave Graham: And our Radio Archeology classic radio series features original episodes of Dragnet and Gun Smoke. You'll find these podcasts and more at thepulsecommunity.ca.

Peter McCully: While you're on the website, sign up for our weekly newsletter. It'll keep you up to date on the latest podcasts, guests and contests.

Dave Graham: Before we wrap it up, I just want to say new year, new opportunities. Whether working to improve communication skills such as we heard from Kristen, or finding beauty in unexpected places like Ryan's song suggests, this time of the year brings hope and possibilities.

Peter McCully: And that speaks to what we do with this podcast, Dave, which is to shine a light on the people and stories that inspire us. They show us what's possible.

Dave Graham: I have to get out of here. I've got to go shopping. It's possible I could wake up tomorrow with no coffee in the house.

Peter McCully: It's also possible you could wake up tomorrow and not have any coffee and be okay.

Dave Graham: Wow, Peter, did you resolve to be a funny man this year? That's hilarious.

Peter McCully: You seem a little on edge, Dave. Can I buy you a coffee?

Dave Graham: Throw in a donut and you have a deal. Hey, what's the next size up from extra large?

Rockin' Rhonda & The Uptown 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. Peter and Dave, they're on the mics, all right. Join the ride. It's gonna feel just right.