Heavyweight - Heavyweight Short: A Canadian Tale

Episode Date: July 15, 2021

Adam swears he met Fidel Castro in Montreal 25 years ago. But ever since, no one’s believed him. Fortunately for Adam, the one person—one Canadian—who can prove his story is Jonathan Goldstein. Heavyweight returns with a full new season on September 30th. Credits This episode was produced by Stevie Lane, Kalila Holt, and Jonathan Goldstein. It was mixed by Catherine Anderson, with music by Trabants, Blue Dot Sessions, and Bobby Lord. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

heavyweight host jonathan goldstein producer kalila holt yeah i have what some people are referring to around the water cooler here at gimlet media as possibly the most canadian story ever told i don't know who you're talking to around the water cooler the office isn't even open it's a metaphor okay so these are just imaginary people you know what i'm surprised I don't know who you're talking to around the water cooler. The office isn't even open. It's a metaphor. Okay. So these are just imaginary people. You know what? I'm surprised to hear this. I never knew that you were such a literalist. I'm taking a flight of fancy. Will you join me? Sure. Trade tables up.

You know, we receive a lot of emails. Yes. People reach out and they want help with problems that they have. And recently, we got this email that was so random and obscure that normally I'd be like, there's nothing I could do to help. But just by complete coincidence, I know the one person who could actually help this guy. And I am talking about my friend James. So the first thing that I had to do was call up James and ask for a favor. Hi. And we will get to that story right after the break. Psych. right after the break. Psych! Imagine being the first person

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See Kraken.com slash legal slash ca dash pru dash disclaimer for info on Kraken's undertaking to register in Canada. Hello. Oh, I hear you. Wait one second. Look at that. I suppose you're wondering why I've invited you to this conversation. I was wondering if it's going to be some sort of intervention, but I'm assuming not. No, I receive emails to the show where people are looking for help.

Yes. The thing that I am looking for from you is a connection that you have. I hope it's not Drake, because I don't know how to get in touch with him. I knew you were going to think it was Drake and that was part of my strategy because then when you'd hear that it wasn't Drake, you'd be ready to give me anything. All right, since we're bringing up Drake, why don't you go ahead and explain your connection to Drake? Oh, yeah. So I worked on a TV show called Degrassi, The Next Generation, where he started out. He was a child actor, right?

Canadian child actor. Canadian child actor. Canadian child actor. And he did the first rap that he did on camera anyways, this one that I wrote. It's very bad. It was just a few lines. Do you remember? Can you spit some rhymes?

I can, but I won't. Oh, come on. No. How about one line? One line. You don't even have to rap it. You could just speak it like poetry. It would be so embarrassing. Really, trust me. How about one line? One line. You don't even have to rap it. You could just speak it like poetry.

It'd be so embarrassing. One line. Really, trust me. One line which you speak in a non-rapping cadence. So why did you have to go? Okay. Now you've got me looking it up. I typed in Drake, and the first thing I got was Drake and Kanye beef. They do have beef, apparently.

Here it is. Degrassi, Jimmy, and Spinner's rap. It's on YouTube? Oh, very much so, yes. Oh, let's hear it. Oh my goodness, this is so embarrassing. Okay, here we go.

Okay. Let's share. Here we go. Oh, this isn't it. Hold on. We're not forgetting it. Is this it? Yeah.

Well, we have the ammo, my friend. We have the ammo. All right. Hit it, Brooks. A homie is a player, and that is all. So why'd you have to go and kick his ball? And chain ain't that your name? Because you a player hater, and that's a shame

Yeah! Why did you make me do that? Why did you make me do that? Oh, it's great! So no, I'm not asking, I wouldn't ask you to reach out to Drake It probably wouldn't work But I was gonna say it's a smaller ask, but a way he might be bigger than drake at one time let's say he was bigger than drake is this kevin smith because no no all right okay because he's

doesn't even know my name won't even get into the kevin smith though this is someone who knows your name i have no idea who this could be all right why don't i read you the the email that I received, and as I read it, it might dawn on you. Okay. So it's from a guy named Adam Enright. I've had a problem for many years, and it's the fact that people don't believe I met Fidel Castro. And then he goes on to say that Castro was in Montreal for Pierre Elliott Trudeau's funeral, and he saw him in Old Montreal with former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. I think I know where this is going. Okay, well, let me get there.

Here we go. Let's see if you're right. So at a certain point, Paul Martin exited a restaurant, and a few minutes later, so did Castro, who got into a limousine with no bodyguards. And it all happened too quickly for Adam to snap a picture with a camera or to, you know, try to shake his hand. So he just, he ended up just saying, shouting out, Viva la Revolucion. But he describes this stunning moment where he felt just frozen in time. But then in the days and years afterwards, nobody he tells the story to believes him. So Adam is turning to me to somehow prove that he met Fidel Castro. So now you know why I'm getting in touch with you. Oh, yeah. You know former Prime Minister, former Canadian Prime Minister, Paul Martin.

I know him very tangentially. No, he would just know me as one of his son's friends. Your friend, Jamie. You are friends, actual friends, with the son of a Prime Minister. Yeah. Your friend, Jamie, you are friends, actual friends with the son of a prime minister. Yeah. For our American listeners, a prime minister is like the Canadian president. He is indeed, yes. So if I could get to Paul Martin and ask if he had dinner with Fidel Castro on the day of Trudeau's funeral, that would basically come about as close as anything else to proving that Adam had indeed seen Castro that day, right?

I think so. It can't get much better than that. You could basically place him there. So how would you feel about calling up Jamie and asking if he could ask his dad? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Let's do it. So here we go. All right, you all set? Here we go.

I'm all set. We're going to burn this bridge. Hey, D-Man. Hi, buddy. How's it going? Doughboy, are you going to be CFC with us tomorrow night? I don't know. If you could prove that Fidel Castro had dinner with your father, then that would go a ways to legitimize this guy's claim of having run into him. The man is now 83 years old, but I can ask my dad and I can see what he remembers.

You're not bubbling together right now for covid are you you're not you're not uh all staying in the same residence or anything i know we are exactly actually he's just downstairs oh we are we are doing exactly that we are bubbling together we have been for two months so you could you could i mean i can ask him in 20 seconds. Yeah, like you could theoretically just walk downstairs with me on the phone and say, hey, dad, does this ring a bell? Let me, you know what, let me try to do, I'm going downstairs, I'm going downstairs. Okay, all right, great. Let's see. Okay. Oh, hey, Dad.

Do you remember after the funeral of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, meeting up with Fidel Castro? Okay, more specific, Jonathan. They would have had dinner at a restaurant in old Montreal. Do you remember having dinner in old Montreal and Fidel Castro was there? The only thing I remember about the truth. This is a friend of mine who is doing a podcast. This is not some kind of gotcha anything like this would you be willing to answer his questions about 25 years ago you can talk to the man himself sure here it is hello mr martin hi how are you i'm good thank you so much for talking to me i

this is such a a strange request. I don't know if Jamie explained to you the podcast that I do. Okay. I do this podcast where people write in to me with some question or curiosity. Do you have any memory of having had dinner with Fidel Castro? The only thing I can remember about the Trudeau funeral was I remember Justin speaking over the coffin in the church. That's the only thing I can remember. I can't remember really what I did before

and I have no idea where I ate or what I did. Now, here's the problem. Jamie will tell you this. There are a lot of things that I might have done 25 years ago that I just don't remember that I might have done. Do you think that it's just that you've met so many important people over your life that Fidel Castro doesn't stand out? It's conceivable that if I had met Fidel Castro, that I would not remember it, because you meet a lot of people. If, on the other hand, if I had had supper with Fidel Castro, then there's at least a 50-50 chance I would remember it.

I wonder if you don't remember because it didn't happen, or you don't remember just because you don't remember a lot of the stuff that happened so long ago. Well, I suspect I don't remember because it didn't happen. I think if I would have had a one-on-one with Castro, I would remember that. I think if I'd been at a dinner where Castro was, listen, I hate to say it this way, but I've been at so many of those dinners where so many people of renown are that they don't stick. renown are that they don't stick. Huh. Do the meetings with people of, you know, renown like famous politicians and such,

do they have a longer shelf life than the memories, than the intimate memories, you know, memories of like your, your, your kids and stuff like that? No, no, no, not at all. And I suspect that if you reflect on this conversation in 25 years from now, what you remember is the event, not in the significance of the event in terms of a historic thing, but as opposed to the people, so that, you know, if I met somebody at a rocket launch, it's conceivable I would remember the rocket launch, and I would not remember the people that were there. To be quite honest, I do not remember meeting Fidel Castro. Okay, that is good enough. I feel like I've traveled quite a ways to answer this guy's question. I made it all the way to you.

Okay. And I promise you in 25 years, I will remember our conversation. Yeah. Well, I promise you in 25 years, I won't be here to confirm it. Adam Enright? Yes, this is Jonathan. This is Jonathan Goldstein speaking. That's incredible. He recognized my voice.

Of course. I'm so touched. That's incredible. Holy, man. I didn't think you were going to call. That's amazing. You're not crying, are you? I'm just about, yeah.

Oh. I'm a big fan. Oh, that's very sweet of you after receiving your email I kind of set to work on it so on my end what caught my eye in your email

was you mentioned Prime Minister Paul Martin yes and I have a friend who has a connection to Paul Martin. He's an old friend. I mean, this is a long way to go to tell you that I come bearing bad news. I wasn't able to verify it from Paul Martin.

Oh, okay. Oh, okay. Yeah, it's fully understandable. Yeah. Yeah. You know, maybe it was a guy that looked a lot like Castro. Who knows? I haven't even told anyone for years about it, actually. Because, you know, you just get that sort of eye roll, you know, like, because it just, you know, it just, you know, it just doesn't come off right. I'll tell you something else, actually. When I spoke to Paul Martin, one of the things that he said is that his memory of his kids, that is more vivid to him and more easily accessible than, you know, his memory of statesmen and famous people. Right. That makes sense. memory of statesmen and famous people.

Right. That makes sense. You know, I did web design for a few years, and now I've gone back to working with seniors. And people will remember, you know, things that don't reflect in the history books, you know? People remember their husbands or wives and kids. Do you have kids? I've got a little son, yeah.

Yeah, I do. Yeah, he's nice. Have you ever told him this story about meeting Castro? No. But you'd think your son, right? Like, your son would believe you, right? Yeah, definitely.

That's what kids are for. They're so naive. They're so believing. Yeah, well, you know, I won't tell them. Yeah. Will you have to explain to them who Castro is first? Yes, I would. Yeah.

Hey, listen, you know, I will say that, you know, I believe you. Thank you. Yes. Thank you Do you think that you're going to remember this conversation That we're having now, 25 years from now? Yes This episode was produced by Stevie Lane, Kalila Holt, and me, Jonathan Goldstein. It was mixed by Katherine Anderson with music by Trebantz, Blue Dot Sessions, and Bobby Lord. Heavyweight returns with a full new season on September 30th.

We'll see you soon.