Season 3, Episode 23: Twila

John  hosts a unique episode of Climate Action Figures featuring his daughter, Twila. The QuickFix highlights “Adopt Don’t Shop,” encouraging pet adoption and volunteering at local shelters. Twila shares her climate actions, including conserving and reusing water (collecting shower warm-up water and catching sink water for plants), thrift shopping, growing herbs, using reusable bags and cups, combining errands into one trip, and installing solar panels. They reflect on John’s long-running environmental habits while Twila was growing up—cool house temperatures, composting, walking to school for rewards, bringing reusable containers to restaurants, and hang-drying laundry for calculated energy savings—along with humorous stories about cooling leftovers outside and wildlife getting into food. Twila says hope comes from friends’ small changes and youth becoming more environmentally aware.

00:00 Meet Twila

00:43 QuickFix Adopt Don’t Shop

02:12 Why Twila Is Here

02:52 Twilas Climate Actions

04:47 Growing Up Eco

05:21 Cold House Stories

06:08 Early Eco Habits

09:03 Walking To School Bribes

11:03 Hang Dry Math

12:34 Twila Grills Dad

14:42 Cooling Food Outside

16:53 Wrap Up Hope

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Transcript

0:01

Here's a great idea. I should interview my daughter Twila on the podcast. Surely she would be nice to me.

Twila 0:12

Hi, I'm Twila, and you're tuned into Climate Action Figures.

John 0:25

Well, hello and welcome to a, oh boy, deep breath unique edition of Climate Action Figures. More on that in a moment. My name is John Whidden, and this week on the show you get to meet Twila. But first, this week's QuickFix and we always love to hear your QuickFixes. So please send them in via social media or our email address, climateactionfigures@gmail.com. This week's QuickFix comes from Twila and Twila sent in these cards. I love my planet, and the card today says, Adopt Don't Shop. Did you know you can adopt pets? This means saving them from an animal shelter, and it's a kind way to give them a home. You can adopt cats, dogs, and even guinea pigs and roosters. So thanks to Twila for that. QuickFix. Welcome. Twila.

Twila 1:25

What a great QuickFix and, it is very relevant. I adopted this little bean a couple of years ago and actually just earlier today I was at our local shelter, the Medicine Hat SPCA, walking some lovely puppies. Honestly, the people that work there are doing such amazing work and those animals are so well cared for, I'm sure you can find a way to volunteer at your local shelter as well if you're interested, but it's such a good way to give back to these animals.

John 2:00

Well, that's perfect that it's one that you like because you're the one who gave me these cards for Christmas and we've used them before on the program, so that's why we were using them today as the QuickFix.

Twila 2:11

Perfect. I love that.

John 2:12

Now, normally a guest comes onto my radar, I see there's something on the news about them, or someone contacts me and says, you should really have this climate activist from India on your program. This particular guest, Twila, was recommended by several people: thanks to Camille and Cassandra specifically who told me that we definitely needed to have you on the program. So, uh, thanks for joining us today.

Twila 2:37

Thanks for having me.

John 2:38

Now part of the reason that they recommended her is that they know Twila is environmentally aware, right Twila?

Twila 2:45

I, I think I'm genetically predisposed to be environmentally aware. Didn't really have a choice there.

John 2:52

So let's start there. We usually wrap up with, uh, the guest's climate action, but just to be different today. Let's start with your climate action.

Twila 3:00

Yeah. So there are several things that I do. I think your influence has definitely, um, seeped into various areas of my life. And I do things from, um, like just not running the sink and not using water unnecessarily, to thrift shopping. I try to grow my own plants and herbs. Uh, what else? Oh, I am a little bit insane because I have a bucket in my shower. Every time I turn it off, or every time I run it to heat it up, I feel like it's just a huge waste of clean water, so I catch it all in a bucket and then I use that water to water my plants, and then I'm not wasting any of that clean water. And feels really good.

John 3:39

I don't even do that.

Twila 3:41

Yes. That's why I said I'm insane.

John 3:42

And you said your sink, your kitchen sink. What's the, what do you do there?

Twila 3:46

Not my kitchen sink. If I am running water there, I'll usually have a cup that I kind of catch it with, and then I'll water usually this tree with it.

John 3:53

Okay, so lots of water recycling in your house.

Twila 3:55

Yes. I was very grateful that my family sponsored me to get solar panels on my house. So I am taking the energy of the sun and using that to power things in my home. I take like reusable bags with me to the grocery store. I always have my reusable cup. Another thing I found is that your influence through me, so kind of my influence or your grand influence has really extended through the people in my life. My partner has become more environmentally aware. My friends have become more, um, kind of like aware of their impact on the environment. And even my best friend always says like, oh, what would John think if she gets something that's very plasticy or all that, she's like, oh my gosh, John's gonna kill me. Um, or like, I'm gonna get disowned.

John 4:42

I don't judge, Adriana! I don't judge.

Twila 4:46

How did you know?

John 4:47

Now, the other big reason Cassandra and Camille and several others by the way, thought you would be a great guest is the opportunity to debrief some of the environmental aspects of our past together.

Twila 4:59

Oh, the trauma.

John 5:02

I guess some people might call it that. They were probably hoping some funny aspects of my past would be revealed. So I guess we have to go here now, don't we? On that topic, your grandmother, Barbara, has given us a few suggested questions, so I guess we're going to go there next, right? Grandma Barbara asks, first: what was it like growing up in your household, Twila?

Twila 5:28

Mm-hmm.

John 5:29

Were you cold all the time in your house?

Twila 5:30

Absolutely. It was freezing. I don't think our thermostat ever went above 17, and if we ever were cold and complained, the response that we got was: Put on a coat, put on a toque, and I mean, look, he's still doing it, so I...

John 5:48

I don't think, I don't think I ever told you. I didn't tell you you had to wear a toque and a coat in the house. Revisionist history.

Twila 5:58

I beg to differ

John 5:59

17. Oh boy. I mean, that's what I keep our house at during the day here, but, okay. Well, I'll give you 18. Second question from Grandma Barbara: was your dad as concerned about the environment when you were younger?

Twila 6:14

Hmm. I feel I've, I would say you've always been very environmentally aware. Like growing up we always had one vehicle and you would bike to school. I think you skied once.

John 6:26

Oh boy. That was a disaster. If that was, let's just go there for a second, just so people don't think I was like a regular cross country skier to school. It was a snow day, so most of the kids were not at school. It was about a four kilometre bike normally to school, and I thought, why don't I cross country ski to school?

Twila 6:44

Why not

John 6:45

I got, I got to school and I was a big sweaty mess and I was about half an hour late, but fortunately I had called by then and they knew that I was going to be coming in a little late. So

Twila 6:56

On your skis.

John 6:57

That was an interesting experiment.

Twila 6:59

You definitely built things into like, we always composted when I was younger, and then as you knew more and kind of understood more and learned how to be more environmentally friendly.

John 7:11

I have to say though, that I just looked at a photo from when you were three years old and we were at a restaurant with some friends and there was a stack of styrofoam takeout containers, and I looked at that and I thought: that tells me something about me, you know, 20 some years ago, because I would not take styrofoam now, I would just, I don't know what I would do stuff myself with the leftovers, 'cause I wouldn't leave food behind. But no, we would always just take our own containers now,

Twila 7:41

Yes.

John 7:41

and reuse.

Twila 7:43

And growing up, I would be ashamed of you grabbing the Tupperware and bringing it out in a restaurant. I would just be like: please, nobody... i'm not here.

John 7:52

You mean when we brought our own.

Twila 7:54

Yes. Yeah. When I was like in elementary or junior high. I was like, oh my gosh. We're the only people with Tupperware, like, ah!

John 8:02

When you're in junior high, the parents' job is to embarrass you. Is it not? And now who brings the reusable containers? More often than not? Twila. Okay. Uh, anyways, good, good point that we all change over time and nobody's perfect and we make better choices as we go. Right? Or, so the hope goes.

Twila 8:25

Exactly.

John 8:26

Next question: you did a lot of outdoor activity when you were younger. How did all those things affect how you are these days?

Twila 8:33

I would say that I gained a lot more respect and appreciation for the environment. I think that we also did a lot of things outside. We would go hiking and camping and I got to see a lot of just like natural beauty and some of the animals even, and really got to see what I was helping to protect because once, like if you're just stuck in the city, it can be really sometimes tough to remember that there's so much beauty in nature outside of our concrete oasis.

John 9:02

Very good points. Next question: what do you remember growing up in terms of being environmentally aware?

Twila 9:08

Well, the first most prominent thing I remember was being bribed to walk to school and would you like to, I think you know the reward, but for everyone else, the reward was one dinner out at the end of the year for walking to and from school

John 9:26

Okay.

Twila 9:26

every day.

John 9:28

Okay. Speaking of revisionist history, we, uh, here was the deal. It was a kilometre to school. You had a bunch of little buddies who you liked to walk with and we're like: oh, if they walk together, they'll all be safe and they can cross the busy street together. And

Twila 9:43

we won't have to drive them!

John 9:45

Sometimes we.... and sometimes we can join them. No, it really was, we, all the parents were thinking it would be good if we didn't, you know, all drive our kids to school, which, you know, I see people driving their kids to school all the time and I think they miss out on the responsibility of walking and the excitement of being on your own and all those kind of things, as well as the fuel that's used. Plus then we didn't have to drive you. This is true. So there was a certain number of trips, which I believe was 20. I'm quite certain because we'd chalk those up on the paper and then when we got to 20, the parents took you all out for lunch and that was a pretty exciting event. So that's the way that worked. I think that's a pretty good deal.

Twila 10:27

I don't think it was 20.

John 10:29

Oh yeah.

Twila 10:30

Oh, it was way more than that. It was like once a semester.

John 10:34

I'll give you once a semester. But that's because sometimes some people wouldn't walk and then, That's

Twila 10:38

not my not my fault!

John 10:39

You had to. You had to, do your part to get your lunch, but it was fun, wasn't it?

Twila 10:44

No.

John 10:45

Yeah. Admit it. Admit it. It was fun.

Twila 10:49

Mm-hmm.

John 10:51

You are, you are getting sleepy. Do you remember it being fun now? Twila? Yeah. Excellent. Those are not the droids you're searching for.

Twila 11:01

Oh,

John 11:02

Okay, next.

Twila 11:03

I will speak on behalf of my sister for this one and I will raise her grievance to the public. Um, Father also bribed us to hang our clothes and not only that, to, to hang-dry our clothes instead of using the dryer machine. On top of that, him and my sister spent lord knows how many hours, and brain power calculating how many freaking kilowatts of energy one dryer load was and how many cents that equaled from our power bill so that my sister could get what, 2 cents per load. And I think she made a grand total of $4 and she hang dried her laundry for like four years. So.

John 11:47

her clothes lasted a lot longer, didn't they?

Twila 11:50

No, she never learned how to empty her lint trap, and almost put her apartment on fire.

John 11:55

Oh yeah.

Twila 11:56

almost lit on fire.

John 11:58

Yeah. She didn't clean the lint trap because she didn't know that you had to clean the lint trap. So true dat, but we did calculate that one. So it was fair. She got all the money from the energy she saved by hanging her clothes to dry. So that seems like a fair deal. And it seems to me it was more like 20 cents per load, I think.

Twila 12:18

Um,

John 12:20

Well, whatever, it added up to cash that she got to keep, so I think that's a pretty fair deal.

Twila 12:24

I don't think she would say it was worth it in the end, but...

John 12:28

Well, she does hang dry her clothes now.

Twila 12:30

Yes, that is true.

John 12:32

Shout out to Aleida!

Twila 12:33

Mm-hmm.

John 12:34

And now the moment I have been dreading: the segment of Climate Action Figures, this special week, where my daughter asks me questions and I have no idea, was not allowed to find out the questions ahead of time. Are we ready?

Twila 12:52

Number one: this is an estimation question. How many years off of my life have you shaved with your eco shenanigans?

John 13:06

I would say I've added years to your life because you're so much healthier and have such a great respect for the environment now. Next question.

Twila 13:16

Oh my goodness. Question number two: this is another estimation one, bit of a calculation one: how many miles in total have you run in order to get Tupperware?

John 13:31

Tupperware meaning reusable containers for the supper, right?

Twila 13:34

Yes, either to purchase or to get them from the car or from home.

John 13:40

Yeah. There were actually a couple of times when I walked, or ran probably more correctly, to the nearest store where we could buy reusable containers so that we didn't have to do takeout containers.

Twila 13:54

Oh,

John 13:55

uh, I'm gonna say a total of four kilometres.

Twila 14:01

That's way too low.

John 14:02

Well, most of the trips were just out to the car because we left them in the car. So there weren't that many times. I actually went and bought new containers maybe two or three times, I think.

Twila 14:11

Fair.

John 14:12

But I did run out to the car quite often, and now we're... your mother, Colleen always brings the containers. She makes sure that they're with us and so we just go in with our little bag of containers and any restaurant that we've been to, they always say: oh, you've got your containers again! But they all love it. It's great.

Twila 14:33

Yeah.

John 14:33

and you

Twila 14:33

them money too,

John 14:35

Oh, sure. Then we're not throwing out all those containers. Right?

Twila 14:38

Exactly.

John 14:39

Well, so far I'm not sweating too much. Next question?

Twila 14:42

Okay: how many birds do you think have benefited from your dinners cooling outside.

John 14:48

Oh, that's a nasty question. Okay. Backstory here, folks, is that, Yes. Okay. My theory is this: you, you make let's say a big pot of stew and you have this big pot of stew and it's super hot and you've eaten it and enjoyed your supper, and now it's still super hot. So you put it in a container and put it in the fridge. And well, the fridge has to work all night to cool it because it's at, you know, such a warm temperature. My theory is: put it outside the door so that it cools outside in the natural winter weather, in the winter, even in the summer, usually by the end of suppertime. It's cool enough that it can cool for a while.

Twila 15:29

Mm-hmm.

John 15:29

A couple of times that one's come back to bite me because, uh, only maybe three or four times I've gone out and it's clear that some bird or other animal has, I think a cat once, had made its way into the dinner and that one, we were like: hmm, I guess we'd better throw it out. Which was tragedy, of course. But, uh, a couple of times when there's been beak marks in the whatever, then we've just kind of, you know, scooped the beak mark part out and, and eaten the rest and, hey! We're still alive. Share with the other natural animals, right.

Twila 16:05

That actually leads me perfectly into my next question, which is: have you picked up any rare avian diseases?

John 16:13

Not that I'm aware of.

Twila 16:15

Oh good.

John 16:15

Here's another one that's worked. Actually, our garage in the winter is very cool. It's not heated, but it's insulated, so it's pretty much fridge-temperature. So, often, in the winter, we will put the leftovers out sometimes in the whole pot and just throw 'em in the garage and then by morning they're fridge temperature, and then we put 'em in containers and put 'em in the fridge. No energy used. Bingo!

Twila 16:37

Hm.

John 16:39

Okay. Next question.

Twila 16:41

That's all I have for you.

John 16:42

Oh, that wasn't so, uh, difficult or traumatic as you would say?

Twila 16:49

Not like my childhood.

John 16:53

We are gonna wrap things up, but uh, usually this is where we ask for the guest's climate action. You've shared yours. Did you miss any though?

Twila 17:00

Oh, the one that I was thinking of that I hadn't shared earlier is: typically when I do take my car out, aside from driving to and from work, I usually try to do a couple of things in one trip. So I usually try to not just go to the grocery store and home. I usually try to hit the grocery store and something else, or a couple things just to make the trip worthwhile.

John 17:21

Oh, that's a great suggestion. Something that people can do.

Twila 17:24

Mm-hmm.

John 17:24

Last question, Twila: what gives you hope?

Twila 17:27

Ooh, lots of different things. I see lots of other people doing little actions, seeing my friends kind of adjust their ways and become more, um, environmentally friendly. And then a lot of our youth are moving towards understanding, and appreciating that we need to do a lot better than how we're currently doing if we want to preserve this planet. Which I really appreciate and gives me a lot of hope for our future.

John 17:58

Well, thank you so much for joining us today and revealing so many fascinating aspects of our past together.

Twila 18:06

Mm-hmm. Thank you for having me.

John 18:08

Thank you, dear listener or viewer. We love to hear from you, so if you have something to say about what you've heard on the program or seen here, please drop us a line via social media or email. We will be back again next week, same time, same place to hear from another climate action figure. Until then.

Twila 18:26

Go figures!