The MindSpa Podcast
The MindSpa Podcast is your go-to space for meaningful conversations around mental health, healing, and personal growth. Hosted by Michelle Massunken RSW and Tina Wilston RP, co-founders of MindSpa Mental Health Centre, each episode explores key mental health topics through expert interviews and thoughtful roundtable discussions.
From managing stress and building stronger relationships to navigating invisible challenges, the MindSpa Podcast offers grounded, professional insights in a warm and accessible way. Tune in weekly for supportive, real-world conversations to help you feel seen, supported, and empowered on your wellness journey.
The MindSpa Podcast
Ep 15 When Life Hands You a New Script: Stuntman Stu's Story
What happens when the identity you've built for 25 years suddenly slips away? When your greatest strengths become compromised overnight? This raw, heartfelt conversation with Ottawa radio legend Stuntman Stu explores the profound journey of reinvention after life-altering health challenges.
Stu takes us through his remarkable broadcasting career that began with a childhood dream at age 11. With characteristic humor, he reveals how his "disruptive" classroom behavior and undiagnosed ADHD became superpowers behind the microphone, fueling a decades-long career that made him a household name in Ottawa.
The conversation takes a powerful turn as Stu candidly shares his experiences battling leukemia twice and surviving a heart attack. With unflinching honesty, he describes how radiation treatment affected his cognitive abilities, making it impossible to continue the MC work that defined him. "If I was a guy that scored 30 goals a year in hockey, I'll score like three now," he explains, capturing the devastating loss of professional identity.
Yet beneath the struggle lies an inspiring story of adaptation and resilience. Stu reveals how he's crafted a new life as a spokesperson for local businesses, finding fresh purpose while accepting his limitations. His reflections on marriage, parenting, and supporting children through mental health challenges reveal a man whose priorities have fundamentally shifted.
Whether you're facing your own reinvention, supporting someone through illness, or simply appreciating the unpredictability of life, Stu's journey offers profound wisdom about acceptance, resilience, and finding joy in unexpected places. His story reminds us that sometimes our greatest growth comes not from bouncing back to who we were, but from discovering who we can become.
Okay, welcome back to the Mind Spa podcast. Today I am very excited with our guest, stu Schwartz, better known to Ottawa audiences as Stumpman Stu. He's a beloved radio personality, public speaker and community champion. With over 25 years in broadcasting, stu has become a household name for his quick wit, uplifting energy and dedication to his city. Beyond the mic, stu has inspired thousands through his openness about his personal battles, including his leukemia diagnosis and recovery, proving himself not only as a voice of entertainment but also as a voice of resilience. A passionate advocate for local charities and youth causes, stu continues to use his platform to raise awareness, spread positivity and remind us all of the power of community and hope.
Speaker 2:That's exactly how I wrote it.
Speaker 3:Perfect, I did a good job. We're doing good, we're well. This is awesome.
Speaker 2:This is very cool. I love a podcast where you're filming it, because I don't like listening to podcasts where I can't see them.
Speaker 3:Right, so you're winning? Yeah, I think you guys want to see what the person looks like. Maybe, if it's for a few episodes or a few minutes of it, totally.
Speaker 1:Well, one of the things, though, that we feel better about is we are reminded that usually people are only watching it here and there Because we're always like, no, it's fine, chances are people just glance at you for a second.
Speaker 3:I just want to see what you look like, and then we'll go back to it.
Speaker 2:I want to see that candy, do you like? Hopefully you guys will like the way I look.
Speaker 3:We're so happy to have you with us too.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much for the invite.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you for being here. We're excited to engage in conversation, just learn a bit more about you and things that inspire you and things that have been a part of your journey.
Speaker 2:Ask anything you want.
Speaker 3:Thank you Open book. No questions off limit.
Speaker 2:Nothing's off limit. Love it.
Speaker 3:Let's start with your broadcasting career, so maybe you can tell us a little bit about that. What inspired your journey in that space? What got that going?
Speaker 2:I love broadcasting ever since I was 11 years old. My father was driving me to school one day and we were listening to Aaron and Tass on Montreal and my father said I'd love to get his paycheck at the end of the week because my father was working in the clothing business, wasn't making that much money. So I took that to heart. I'm like, wow, maybe I can do morning radio.
Speaker 1:Wow at 11 years old.
Speaker 2:maybe I can do morning radio. I started listening to the show more and I was laughing every day. So I'm like this could be something for me. So I was a fan of these guys. I was a fan of Terry and Ted, the late George Balkan these are Montreal legends. So I wanted to be a Montreal legend or a guy on the radio. So I eventually got my start in radio. My first radio job was at 106.9 the Bear. I got a job right after graduation. I got hired the next day. I was volunteering there for a year and a half, working for free. Tried doing that in 2025.
Speaker 3:I don't work for free, no thanks. A different world.
Speaker 2:And I started working there. I spent 10 years there. I thought I would have done everything I wanted in broadcasting. So I want to try something new. So I reached out to tsn, which was, which was um, uh, the team 1200. So I got hired there. Worst mistake of my life I wasn't ready for what was in front of me. You have to. You have to know sports talk inside and out. I knew hockey, but I just started my gig with the Sens in 2006. I'm like this is perfect. The Sens being an announcer. I'm working with the sports talk station. What could go wrong? The Sens went right, but it went wrong on the radio. I was not prepared for sports talk radio. You have to know everything about everything every single day, and that was a bit of a learning curve. So did that for three years.
Speaker 1:They prep you like, they give you oh no, okay, so you have to do your homework.
Speaker 2:You have to know, you have to know it, you have to do your own prep. And I I was coming from rock radio, where I do the sports. Every morning you know two minutes, but here you have to talk for 15 minutes straight. No and no commercial break and you couldn't go and play a song to right you have to go, oh, okay, I you have to go oh okay, I remember talking to.
Speaker 2:I remember Steve Lloyd. One day we were talking about Roy Halladay and I said I have no, I don't even like the Blue Jays. Like I cannot believe. You just said that on a sports talk station in Ottawa you don't like the Blue Jays. I'm a Montreal Expo fan. And I got reamed by the emailers, got this guy off the radio. So then I got moved across the hall to Bob FM, which is now Pure Country 94. I spent a year and a half there with Sandy Sharkey and then two years later my boss called me to his office. He's like we're going to replace Kevin and Bill on Magic. We're going to bring up Angie Poirier from TV and you and Angie for the morning show on Magic 100. So I rode her coattails for 15 years. That would eventually became Move 100. And coattails for 15 years that would be eventually became move 100. And uh, then I got let go last year, that's my, that's my life in a nutshell.
Speaker 1:What do you think contributed most to like getting that job right out of college?
Speaker 2:um, I was looking, listening back to my, my, my tapes from college. I was a go-getter, I there wasn't an opportunity. An opportunity If I saw an opening mic, an open and a chance to something at Algonquin, I take it. I got banned from the Algonquin times because I literally would MC everything on campus and the editor told the students don't put stew in your paper anymore, cause literally every issue. Hey, there's stew on stage for the mic. Like they put a publication mat on me and Algonquin. But I love, I love the microphone, I love the audience, I love a crowd. I love entertaining people.
Speaker 2:So me and a microphone. It was like two peas in a pod.
Speaker 1:I love that Now could you share, cause you shared a little with us before we started recording, but I really love to tie in the piece that you were talking about like as a kid, as a kid in school and that type of stuff Cause I think it can be really encouraging for anybody listening, because very often, well, you tell the story you tell.
Speaker 2:So I was the kid in school. Every report card we'd get Stuart would be better if he applied himself. Stuart is disruptive in class. Stuart is the class clown. Well, the class clown eventually paid the mortgage and later in life it did me well. But when I was in school I was always the bad kid. I was always in the principal's office.
Speaker 2:I remember going to principal's office in grade 11 my grade 11 French teacher, madame Tapiero, I always tell this story. So I skipped class to go to the Montreal Expos homeowner. So the two previous years I forged my parents' signature. So this time my father said to me the night before he goes I know what you're doing tomorrow. I said what am I doing? Tomorrow? He goes, you're leaving school to go to the Expos homeowner at 1 o'clock. I said, yeah, he's like, I'll write you a note.
Speaker 2:My father, legit, wrote a note in my agenda, a real note. She said Stuart, votre cahier sur place. So I brought up my cahier to the front desk. She looked at the note OK, bureau maintenant. She sent me to the office thinking that it was fake. So the principal of my care called my father, mr Schwartz, calling from high school Did you sign a note for Stuart to be away from school. Yes, I did so. He brought me back to class, madame. For Stuart to be away from school yes, he did so. He brought me back to class, madam. It's true, it was a real note, stuart. I hated her. I hated her. She was doing her job, but I just didn't like her. Every kid's got that teacher that you know.
Speaker 3:It's like ugh Right but.
Speaker 2:I've also had a lot of great teachers, too that molded me in broadcasting Lady and Barry, norm Wright and Don Cockford, who's still alive, thank God. They're the reason why I have a career. But the teachers that I had growing up would all say the same thing Stewards are disruptive in class. I wasn't diagnosed with ADHD yet, because now they diagnose somebody when they're two years old. But back then it was. He's very hyperactive with ADHD yet because now they diagnose somebody when they're two years old.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but back then it was he's very hyperactive. When did you get an official diagnosis?
Speaker 2:I never actually had one, but I know that I've got it.
Speaker 3:Okay, there's a lot of you don't need to necessarily, I think there's lots of symptoms and a lot of times nowadays you're seeing parents go forth and getting diagnosed because their children are getting diagnosed or because, similar to your reports, the teachers are now calling it out and seeing it more in kids as well.
Speaker 2:You do morning radio host for 25 years and do a show for 25 years. You're not a normal person. You're worrying about callers, you're worrying about what you can say, what you cannot say. You're worried about a contest coming up. It's like being a line cook in a restaurant. You're, you're, you've got so many dishes that have to be done a certain way and if you screw it up, be sent back and you get fired. So I was basically a line cook for 25 years and I loved every second of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that's what we hear now with the idea of adhd having its superpowers that's right being able to provide its pros in different ways, and it sounds like you were able to draw on those superpowers Totally.
Speaker 2:I love that saying superpowers, because I had superpowers for 25 years.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like I wasn't. I mean, I wasn't a firefighter, I wasn't a cop, I wasn't, you know, finding a cure for cancer. I was entertaining people, even if they would only listen 10 minutes on their way to work. I was doing my job and people wanted to listen. They didn't want political talk, they wanted stupid talk. They come to us. There's a number of choices on the channel. I said to people if you only listen for 10 minutes a day, that's all I could ever ask for. The greatest compliment to me could be hey, I listened to you driving to school. There's a girl that used to listen to us and she started her own spice company, spice Girls. So she told me that she used to listen to me on her way in. When her mother used to drive in, they used to listen to Magic 100. Well, that's a great compliment to me. I'll support you till the day I die.
Speaker 1:So Spice Girls seasoning the best? Well, actually that sort of segues into a question about what it's been like to sort of live your life in this limelight. You know what it's like to walk around Ottawa, people recognizing you, people wanting to kind of meet you. What's that like?
Speaker 2:It's a great compliment. Somebody comes up to me at Costco and says hey, I used to listen to you on the radio. I follow your journeys now and what do you do? I'm like, I'm a 51 year old influencer which I hate that word. I hate that word. Influencer with a passion.
Speaker 3:It's a diarrhea in my mouth.
Speaker 2:It's like I'm a spokesperson, but that sounds old. I'm a spokesperson for Barhaven Ford.
Speaker 3:Right but.
Speaker 2:I love meeting people. People will come up to me. Hey, I followed you on your cancer journey. I prayed for you and said thank you very much. It means the world to me when somebody's been a fan of my work, because that's telling me that what I'm doing is resonating with people.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. That's a great compliment it is. And so, speaking of the cancer journey, that's also been in the limelight and in the public. You've been pretty open about your journey and your experiences as well. Maybe you can talk to our listeners a bit about that.
Speaker 2:The cancer journey was when I got diagnosed. I looked at the doctor and I said what do I have? She goes well, you have leukemia. So I foolishly said is that cancer? She says yes. I said can we beat it? She goes, yes, I said, okay, let's go, let me leave. She goes no, you're not going anywhere. I said but I have an event that I'm hosting on Friday night and it was it was Sunday and she says you're going to be in the hospital for a while. You're basically a race car with no gas.
Speaker 2:So I was in the hospital and I was told that had I gone home that night, I would have died in my sleep because my blood levels were like at so low, like I was running on fumes. And when I got in the hospital that first night, my nurse, Sarah Ayers who's the best nurse in the world she was there for me when I had nobody to talk to and she was the shoulder cry on Like I asked a thousand questions and she had a lot of patients that night too. So she was coming into my room giving me new bags of blood and I felt better after every bag. So I was getting okay. I'm feeling great now. I got more and more blood in my system and I was like, okay, I'm super strong, now I can leave. But I was on false pretenses because it wasn't my blood, it was somebody else's blood that was pumping me up.
Speaker 2:That cancer journey was tough because I was at my best Physically. I was at my best career-wise. I was on top of the world. I thought I was 40. I had just turned 40, 41. And my world was rocked in an instance. So I was in the hospital. So I decided to share everything, be public. Because I thought I'll share everything, because people have a right to know. And I stole my friend Colin Gillespie's story because I had followed his story the first in 2015,. I met him and his family in Barhaven. Somebody said you should go and introduce yourself to the family. You know he's a young kid, he's got cancer. So I went, I became friends with the family. We just you know when you connect with people, right?
Speaker 2:away you're just instantly connected. I brought my kids because I wanted them to see somebody with cancer, not like I wasn't using him as a prop, I just wanted to expose the other side of the world that they probably haven't seen. I said he's got cancer and he's going to live. I didn't know. And so I noticed the mom telling her story Colin's Army. That was a very passionate story for me, so I decided to tell my story through his lens. So I was like, okay, I want my kids, and my kids are going to go to school, they're going to hear that your dad's going to die. No, I'm not going to die. So I walked my kids through the cancer journey and I walked them through it my way and I told them everything. I told them I said you can ask me any question. So I remember holding up a car on a video. One day I said this is daddy. Daddy's a 69 charger. The body's fine, but we have to replace all the wires. They're going to replace what's going through my wires Now.
Speaker 2:I didn't understand a bone marrow transplant back then. So basically what they do is they wipe your system clean, wipe your DNA to nothing, to zero. It's like a computer where you remove the operating system and put a new operating system. So I have a new operating system now. So I had a new donor, a new donor's blood that was donated to me in 2016, in May of 2016, where I had and another donor's blood running through my system. So the bone marrow transplant is a bag of blood, okay, and it sounds bigger than it is. So I'm like how do you put marrow in my body, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had no idea bone marrow was a blood product. Me neither.
Speaker 2:So I, neither did I. So I found out, basically it's a blood transfusion. Is that a bone marrow transplant? Why is it such a big word, right? So bone marrow transplant.
Speaker 1:Why is such a big?
Speaker 2:word. So I got the bone marrow transplant bag of blood but then your body has to accept it and your body has to accept the new blood. And there's sometimes your body says yes to this but no to this you get. You can get a really negative reaction. So I got and I still have it to this day where my skin itches because, my body is still getting used to.
Speaker 2:But then I got sick in 2020, second battle of cancer, again leukemia. Didn't work the first time, so then I need another donor. So I have another donor. I went from a 48-year-old man to a 23-year-old woman. I have a 23-year-old woman's blood running through my system, so when I got her bone marrow donated, I was like this is going to work. So, basically, the first guy I wasn't able to eat shrimp because he had an allergic reaction.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:So second bone marrow, I can eat shrimp, oh.
Speaker 1:And I love shrimp it's a win. Wow.
Speaker 3:I'm like oh this is awesome.
Speaker 2:I can eat shrimp for four years. Then all of a sudden I can eat shrimp again.
Speaker 1:I'm like yes, what was the process like in finding those donors? Do you like? Can you speak?
Speaker 2:to that Cause a lot of people listening. Don't really know how that works they had to go across Canada, so I wasn't a match in.
Speaker 3:Canada Okay.
Speaker 1:From.
Speaker 2:There's a giant database, so they went to Israel because I'm Jewish and they found a match, because anybody that signs up for the Israeli army automatically has to donate their blood. So they have almost a million members that are signed up.
Speaker 1:So when it comes to being a bone marrow match, is it more complicated than being a blood match? Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:It's way above my pay grade. Okay, dr Sabloff, who looks like Mr Bean, I told him that to his face. Oh, hello Would walk me through it. I'm like I don't understand. I don't understand what you're saying. You're talking in numbers. I don't understand this. Okay, have you found a match? Perfect, you've found a match.
Speaker 1:So basically, there's a match criteria you have to match. So many.
Speaker 2:But it can be a hit, it can be a miss. I mean, not everyone that gets a bone marrow transplant lives. Unfortunately, it can affect you a certain way. I've seen horror stories. Unfortunately I'm one of the lucky ones. Thank God, Knock on wood, but yeah, I beat cancer twice and our thing.
Speaker 1:What were the symptoms that led you to?
Speaker 2:oh, I had I felt extremely exhausted. Remember driving to work that day on my first diagnosis. I was driving to work and I started looking at the opposite lanes. I'm like, why are the headlights red? So I was seeing blood through my eyes. Oh wow, I couldn't. I couldn't understand it, I couldn't explain it properly because I went to the hospital. I'm like I'm seeing blood on my eyes, like what, and it's like that. Then they finally understood what I was saying. Oh, you can see blood in your eyes because you're you're, because I was. My body had nothing to draw from. It was drawing from my eyelids and it was was trying to. I know somebody's going to watch this thing.
Speaker 3:That's wrong, this guy has no idea what he's talking about.
Speaker 2:But from my experience I was told that my eyes were drawing blood from and it was recessing from the front of my eyes.
Speaker 3:That was the first telltale sign for you.
Speaker 2:And that's when I realized that I was in the shit.
Speaker 3:I think one of the things that we often hear and we know is that when we do have these health experiences, they change how we view life, they change our outlook of life, sometimes giving a greater appreciation for life. What in any way have you noticed?
Speaker 2:I have not been a good example of that. There's been moments where I've lost my temper over the stupidest things, because I am, when it's all said and done, when I'm 95 years old. If I make it that long, I'm sitting in my hospital bed and I'm going to sit there with moments to live. I'll be like I could have had another 10 minutes. So I wasn't waiting for that stupid lady behind me at Costco. Or if I wasn't waiting for this stupid guy to show up to my house. I get mad about the dumbest things. So if you're saying you're going to be at my house for a certain time, show up on time. That's all I'm asking. But other than that, I mean, you know, I don't see it that way where I've cheated life no, I've cheated death. I know I've cheated death. I know I've got three chances at life. You know, when you're staring at death's door once, twice and then a third time, it takes a while to sink.
Speaker 2:In the last six months it's really sunken. My son said to me at the beginning of the summer he's like, if we're going to go to Italy as a family, you've got to start walking. I'm like what do you want? I'll walk, I'll be fine, I can take a cab. He's like no, you're going to whatever. I started walking, started putting 10,000 steps a day. When we got to Italy, holy shit, did we walk?
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 2:My son would walk 30,000 steps a day. I was not doing 30,000 steps a day, I'd maybe do 15 and I was done. I'm like, okay, kiddo, had I not done these steps, you would have brought me home in a box. But that's when I finally realized that, okay, 51 years old, they realize that okay, 51 years old, I want to live long. I got to listen to my son, I got to listen to doctors. I got to start listening to people around me. And you're looking at me. You're both looking at me, just like my wife does. Give me that look like okay, you finally understand.
Speaker 1:Right, you know what I feel like. A lot of times a lot of attention is given to the illness and the sort of crisis point, and I don't think a lot is said as much about the whole recovery process, when you're trying to get your life back. You're trying to get your body back, no, because everything disappears so quickly and then you have to build it back.
Speaker 2:You're right, they can fix you. They can fix the cancer, no problem, but they cannot fix your life. You're really fucked up for like a long time you get PTSD. The PTSD that I've gotten is not PTSD in the same way that military members or firefighters deal with and cops deal with it. It's different for me because I couldn't even walk in the hospital before my second battle, like I couldn't even go in the hospital before my second battle, like I couldn't even. I couldn't even go to near the emergency room. And then I went there a second time and I got the double PTSD, ptsd. But when I think back about my experience, yes, they fixed me, but they didn't fix me between here between the years, and that is the most important thing.
Speaker 2:They can get you through your illness, but they cannot fix you because you have to go back to work. I was off work for 18 months and you go back to work after being gone for 18 months. It's actually funny, because today's date is when I went back to work in 2017.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:And I look back on that, and I was off work for 18 months.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 2:The second time I was off work for 13 months and it really messes you up because, you're out of, you're out of skills, you're out of, you're out of whack your whole life.
Speaker 2:I remember going to Costco the second time around and my bill was like $800. Cause I, I was always the Costco guy, I'd always get and I I'd missed that. I'd missed going to Costco, I missed getting the stuff from my family, little things like that. It just it really rocks your world and that's what thing that? That when you, when you get diagnosed that they can't fix. So I tell anyone that's had cancer this is the time you have to rely on your friends and family. Don't be afraid to ask for help. I never want to ask for help and that was foolish of me and, um, I made a lot of mistakes along the way. I didn't seek help. I didn't seek meta, um, psychiatrist help.
Speaker 2:I'm seeing a psych Uh, I always screw this up Psychiatrist or psychologist, therapist one that can't prescribe that psychologist? I'm seeing a psychologist. Can I say your name? Yeah, lisa Richardson. She's amazing. She just sits there, shuts up, doesn't say anything. I do all the talking. I feel bad cause I'm like you must.
Speaker 2:You must be tired of hearing people complain all day, but she's awesome, it's just another voice to talk to, because I can't talk to my wife about it, can't talk to my friend Angie Poirier about it, who was my work wife for 15 years. She's got her own problems and not her own problems. She has her own life and I can't dump my shit on them.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I'll dump my shit on somebody who will pay, who gets, paid to do it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can imagine it rocking your world, but even like those around you, right? So even like the impact on your wife or on the children or those closer to you and how they are dealing with it and in the process of it as well and trying to support you. But the caregiver piece, I think, is something that often gets spoken about or not even enough.
Speaker 2:My wife is my rock. I mean, I have not been a good husband. You know. There's been days where I'm like, why are you still with me? Like you could be much happier with somebody else. I'm not a good person. I'm not the man you married. I'm a different guy and if the tables were, I'm so thankful that I have her because she is my rock. My rock Not saying that because the camera's on. She's my rock and you have to have a good.
Speaker 2:You have to have a good partner who puts up with everything because it's a lot, it's a lot of, it's a lot of a lot of garbage to get thrown at and a lot of emotional baggage.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you were a part of the program at all, because if you were at the Heart Institute, but I had heard that because the EFT by Sue Johnson, which is a couples therapy modality, basically she has put together a program that's called Hold Me Tight I think is what the program's called in the Heart Institute for couples because of how often they saw that positive outcome for the heart patient was determined by their support system and that ability to keep that loving relationship during that hard time, and I think that would apply to cancer.
Speaker 2:I think it could apply outside of heart. There's definitely a need for that. I didn't experience that in the Heart Institute, but I was only there for a day.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:But I spent a lot of time at the Ottawa General. I mean, I say nothing bad about them. They were amazing. The nurses are the angels of the hospital, but there's a lot of emotional trauma that goes on with your spouse, with your kids. I remember my wife telling my kids you don't have the regular daddy you had before cancer. You have a new daddy. And my wife's telling my kids it's, you're not. You don't have the regular daddy you had before, before cancer. You have a new daddy. And my wife said you have to get used to it. And I could. I spent a lot of time since 2016 and only last year I started to get used to the new me, and the new me is not very active. The new me is very quiet. Sometimes there's days where I just want to be on my iPad. Let me go watch my movies. At seven o'clock at night, I'll sit in bed and, yeah, I'm. I'm a little more, a bit more recluse. I'm more of a homebody, although I like going out to restaurants and having dinner.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was a good time, a little too expensive.
Speaker 1:Well, you you were saying to you were talking about the changes that occurred for you in that ability to read a script and all that. Can you talk more about that so?
Speaker 2:in 2016, I had radiation done on my brain because I had 21 rounds of radiation. So the purpose of the radiation was to wipe out the cancer completely. And they did, and they wanted to have radiation on the brain. I said why there's nothing in there, you're wasting your time joking. I said, well, we have to do it in case the cancer the brain? I said why there's nothing in there, you're wasting your time joking. I said, well, we have to do it in case the cancer goes there. I said, okay, so I was looking at the brain, where the cancer could go.
Speaker 2:I was very cocky in my first cancer battle. I was like I'm going to get through this. I'm working out, I'm built like a truck. I'll get through this. I'll get through this. But the radiation really did me in a year later, where I started to realize I was stumbling on my strips at Sens Games. I didn't have the flawlessness that I used to have in my scripts.
Speaker 2:When I went back to the radio in 2017, I noticed a big difference between what I could do and what I could not do previously. My speech was impacted where I could normally talk flawlessly. Now I was stumbling on my words and I was noticing it and I was like, okay, is the audience noticing it or is it just me? So obviously the audience is noticing it as well. And then I decided, after the last sense game in 2018 home opener night, I said, okay, I'm done, I can't do it anymore because I have anxiety where I never had anxiety before, and I don't know if that's associated with the radiation, but I know the radiation. I remember the radiation doctor said to me you're going to have three things. The first thing could be lung cancer, cataracts, loss of libido. I said, what Loss of libido? I said what lots of libido was. I mean, thank god, I have pill now.
Speaker 2:That helps I had cataract surgery. I haven't had lung cancer god, god forbid. But he was right. He said it'll, it'll mess you up. I didn't realize at the time. I was like, well, I got this mess, you're not doing anything in the radiation. What's radiation? Yeah, he really messes you up. It messed me up for years. And the point now where I tell people flat out I can't MC your event. I can co-MC, but I can't MC. I cannot stand there like I could previously and hold a microphone in my hand in front of a group of people I just can't. I've done it for 30 years and I mean I've made the commercial for myself but I can't make any money. I can't expand on that anymore.
Speaker 2:So, now, when somebody asks me to emcee something, I'm like do you ever co-emcee? You do the majority of the work. I can be the pretty prize.
Speaker 1:I think something that you're talking about too that, again, people don't always, I guess, realize is part of the package is that lost sense of self. This is who I am, and your job not everybody's career is part of who they are, but I think of like as a therapist. There's a certain part of who I am that matches with being a therapist, and if that part was gone all of a sudden I would be like I wouldn't know what to do. That identity piece is huge, yeah.
Speaker 2:You hit the nail on the head with the identity, because that was my, that was me. That was where I would walk into an event and everyone would know me. I started laughing oh, you're going to MC this. I would MC every golf tournament in the city for 20 years. And there was always the same joke that I'd make every tournament and all the people would laugh. And I heard that joke at the last tournament.
Speaker 2:And I mean I do one tournament a year. Now it's from a buddy, Pat Frost, who runs it for his son, Danik, who's got autism, and I said I'll do this till the day I die because you've been a great supporter. And this is the longest tournament that I've done and the room knows mostly cops. They can put up with my shit. The jokes are just as bad, but I feel comfortable because it's a group that's a group that I know, right, it's a 300 people that I know.
Speaker 2:But, uh, I could never do a new event now because my identity is gone and that's hard, a hard pill to swallow. So I, I I'd always put into hockey terms If I was a guy that scored 30 goals a year, I I'll score like three now, and that's when you're in hockey terms, you're paying somebody to score 30 goals, not paying to score three goals. So the fans come, they want to see you score 30 goals. You're scoring three goals now, like, give me a break, trade this guy. So I I'm putting it hockey terms I feel like the guy now who's only scoring three goals a year. And that's tough, I mean, for me, from when I went, from 2015, I was doing MC work, I was all over the city and then all of a sudden I got cancer once, twice and then a heart attack.
Speaker 2:Fuck me, but you know what my wife says. You're really going to complain about this. This is the hill you want to die on Like shut up, Shut up Big deal.
Speaker 3:You can't MC anything anymore, you're home with your kids, whatever, yeah, and I guess that's what it comes down to right, like how do I redefine my identity?
Speaker 2:You know what I have. In the last year I've redefined my identity because when I got fired, I said to my wife. I said I don't know what the hell I'm going to do. I can't do nine to five work, Like I'm not wired that way. It's like why don't you keep doing what you've been doing? Like what do you mean? Make more money? You won't have the station in front of you. You have more freedom, yeah. And so I thought about it. I'm like okay, I got four, but I started going on linkedin hire me. But nobody would hire me because I didn't have a track record. I had 30 years of radio behind me but I didn't have proven track record where somebody would hire me to to be their spokesperson.
Speaker 2:So I had barry, even ford and they had maverick's Donuts, which is whatever they sold. So they got rid of me and that's fine, I have no ill will towards them. They gave me a shot and that led to Farm to Fork, that led to Cobb's Bread. I literally walked in a year and a half ago. I said I was walking out, I said if you ever need a spokesperson, let me know. And the owner was standing there. I'm the owner. I'll call you tomorrow. What, pardon me? What? So I go there every Friday, do a Facebook live. I love it. I literally love it. I love starting off my weekend there it's great.
Speaker 2:And then City View Retirement reached out to me after I got fired. I said I can't do anything for you right now because I'm still being paid by Bell or whatever. So when that settled, I started doing stuff for them. Thus settled, I started doing stuff for them. So I got City View Retirement on Monday, I've got Farm to Fork on Tuesday. I have Barium Optometry on Wednesday, I've got Barium Ford on Thursday and then on Friday I've got Cobbs Red and another Barium Ford.
Speaker 1:Fantastic, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:I've got five really good clients, and if one leaves I'll get another one. There, you go and I'm not worried Because I've got. My wife says people know you, you've established your reputation. If somebody wants you, they'll hire you. If they don't want you, they don't want you. But my brain has to still understand.
Speaker 1:I'm still. I need to get invited to that. Why didn't I get invited to that? But then I said to myself, would I have gone? No, yeah, yeah. And I think you have to find what lights you up again. Yeah, right, because I think that, again, when you're fighting for your life, when you're battling and trying to get everything back, nothing lights you up for a while. Yeah, right, and it can be really hard to find that path for a while. Right, and it's just, it can be really hard to find that path.
Speaker 2:What lights me up is walking into a client and then leaving and they're very happy with my work. So if I've done it cause I told every client the same thing I'm like if you're doing something for not longer than 90 seconds, people are going to check out because there's so much to compete with. Cause I'm going through my newsfeed on four different channels.
Speaker 3:Facebook.
Speaker 2:Instagram, twitter and LinkedIn. Linkedin's kind of like the least one. It's just like here's number one. Look at us, we're so great. I post LinkedIn just to show people that didn't hire me what I can do, and I don't care, but I'm going through my newsfeed constantly, so what is attracting me is the stuff that's short, to the point. If you want to sell me a car, sell me a car in 30 seconds or less. If you can't sell me a car in 30 seconds or less, I don't want it.
Speaker 1:I love it. Actually, one of the first things you said to me today was tell me what you do in five seconds. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Literally Keep it short and sweet.
Speaker 2:Short and sweet Because I heard when I was younger, the elevator pitch. It's true If you can to sell me Just sell me now Sell me.
Speaker 1:Did you even realize that that's what you were learning? Like? That was one of the things you were learning all this time in radio.
Speaker 2:No, I didn't. I indirectly, I knew it, but my father was always a sales guy. He could sell shit to a shit shoveler. He could sell anything to anybody. And I remember Doc Hale, the first guy I worked with. He said you're going to be a sales guy in 20 years. You won't last. I said I'll never be a sales guy and I'm a sales guy now for myself, so I can sell me to anybody.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's amazing. And that's the thing with identity right. It's kind of based on our values and who we are and that might shift with our titles and our professions and what we do. But who you are is what you're selling to the world.
Speaker 2:I tell my kids, especially my daughter. She's very much like me. I said, Isabella, if you don't love yourself, first nobody will love you.
Speaker 3:So true.
Speaker 2:And that's true, because I was hating myself after I got sick the first, the first time, like I can't do what I used to do anymore, as I was getting mad. And I remember my wife saying to me why are you so mad, why are you so upset? I'm like because I'm not the same guy. She's like, well then, figure out who you are and shut the fuck up about it. Like enough, I'm tired of hearing this. And she, when you got to listen, when it's your wife.
Speaker 3:You got to listen.
Speaker 1:Right, sounds like she kept you like. She's very straightforward and direct.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she is. Yeah, yeah, she doesn't mess around.
Speaker 3:That's good, I love that.
Speaker 2:Italian. You don't mess around with Italian. There you go.
Speaker 1:I was wondering something, because to be in the limelight is to get a lot of feedback. We talked a lot earlier about, like, people's comments and that type of stuff and you can have the positive side, where there's encouragement and prayers and all that type of stuff. When you're going through a hard time there's the critics. But I was just wondering if you've noticed over time and through this whole process if the effect of people's negative comments affect you differently or more now than they used to, or vice versa they used to affect you more, now they don't.
Speaker 2:Now I see negative comment. I don't give a fuck.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:You know what? I'm 51. If you like me, you like me, you don't like me, then piss off.
Speaker 3:I don't feel like you're more resilient to the comments.
Speaker 2:That would. A comment like that would really piss me off five years ago. Now, I don't know, I don't care. Like I've reached the point in my life where you don't like what I do, then I'm not your cup of tea. And there's people that come after me on Twitter all the time. There's this guy that's constantly trolling me. I'm like, okay, I'll kill him with kindness. Like piss off. If you're rubbing me trying to get a reaction to me, congratulations, you got one, but move on with your life. That's some people's MOS. I understand that people don't know the whole story about me. And to come after me to attack me like do your homework first. Like if I, if I, deserve the shit, I'll take it, but if I don't deserve the shit, piss off.
Speaker 3:So you're able to put it in perspective now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, much easier now than I could ever like. 10 years ago I'd be on a. I'd tear the guy a new one.
Speaker 3:Now, I don't care.
Speaker 2:I'll respond kill him with kindness and somebody else will attack him, which I'll respond kill them with kindness and somebody else will attack them, which is true.
Speaker 1:We talked about that. As soon as there's like a really nasty comment, very often there's like 100 people that'll chime in to put them in their place, so you don't even need to.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we don't have to talk anymore, just hand it over to the audience when my mother passed away.
Speaker 2:There was this one woman that came after me. I got like 3,000 comments when she passed away and I couldn't respond to every single one and I saw one comment. This woman was just a space cadet and I went. Thank you very much. Thank you for the nice comment and the emoji like the guy's rolling, like all these people attacked her Like that. If you're going to say something stupid on a public page, you deserve to be attacked.
Speaker 3:I say a lot of stupid stuff on Facebook.
Speaker 2:Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I love trolling Leaf fans On Facebook. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it doesn't. I love trolling Leaf fans. I know you're from Toronto, you're a nice Leaf fan, but there's a lot of Leaf fans that I had to put up with for 12 years when I was at the Sens the most ruthless fans in the world and I know I know you're looking at me like, hey, you're just as bad. You're also a Montreal Canadiens fan. You guys are just as bad. We're obviously just as bad.
Speaker 3:I love trolling Maples.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to deny that I will troll them for the day I die, and I was on this page and I said, well, congratulations, can you make it past second round? Oh, boy. And I knew it. I was on the Leaf page and I knew it. I looked at Matt and and I walked away oh, you're a girl. I love those. Those I can live for any day.
Speaker 1:Set them up, yeah, yeah, I mean I imagine that was part of like being doing the Sense for 12 years. You ended up getting exposed to a lot Because I mean, I've been the only, yeah, I've been to games where it's the Leafs and the Sens at the Senseplex and I actually just feel really, really bad for the sends For the leaf sends?
Speaker 3:Oh the sends.
Speaker 1:No the sends, because they try to go, sends go and it just gets drowned out. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like shut up, we don't want you here. Like shut up, you're in our building, but you know, it's like that with Boston and New York, it's like that with Montreal and Toronto.
Speaker 3:Like in our DNA in Montreal to hate.
Speaker 2:Toronto. But you're nice, you're from Toronto, I am from Toronto, you're nice.
Speaker 3:Thank you, I'm the exception, I guess.
Speaker 2:You're the exception to the rule. Look at that. Yeah, you are. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:I love it. Can you tell us actually a little bit about the community causes that you're passionate about?
Speaker 2:I got involved in the community causes when I was first getting involved in radio. I remember emceeing my first event in March of 96. It was a chicken wing eating contest at Local Heroes and I was disgusted with what people were doing with those wings and I swore off wings from Local Heroes for five years until I finally got around to eating their wings again, which are the best wings in the city. What people were doing in that wing contest was disgusting. The way they're shoving it in their mouth for a wing contest.
Speaker 2:So it was for the March of Dimes and I got exposed to a lot of charities in the city and my favorite charity to this day is CHEO. They have been there for my kids. I see the work that they do behind the scenes. It's just a great hospital, a great institution for children in the nation's capital. We have Heart Institute, we have the Ottawa Hospital, we have Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. Within 20 minutes you get there from Canada, from Orleans.
Speaker 3:It doesn't matter where you are in the city.
Speaker 2:It's a beautiful bar haven. I've driven down River Road many nights fast to get to the hospital, but it's a great, great hospital. I mean, there's great causes in the city and a lot of people are asking me can you promote this on your Facebook page? But I said I can't, because if I do it for one, I do it for everybody. Yeah, but you did for Angie, but Angie is my co-host. I can't Like tag me in an Instagram story. There's so many great charities, but the one that I will always hold a candle for is CHEO, because that's just my favorite. They're bursting at the seams. They got a new building that's going to be opening up for mental health. They're just a great charity.
Speaker 1:That's actually one of our next episodes is going to be on youth mental health and the youth mental health crisis that we are currently in.
Speaker 2:We are children, especially the ones that went through COVID.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They're going to be messed up and they need help. I mean, there's kids that are taking their own lives at a young age and my. I see my daughter's 17 and, like I, there's times where I don't hear from her for a couple of hours. I sent her a text. You okay? Yeah, I'm just in my room. Can I come? No, leave me alone. Okay, you need a year and a long time, but then I'll go into her room. Daddy's here, what?
Speaker 3:are you?
Speaker 2:doing Everything, okay, yeah, I want my kids to know they can always talk to me.
Speaker 2:That's beautiful as a parent to hear. Remember Luke Richardson's daughter passed away in 2011. I remember I was in Montreal and my buddy called me. He's like did you hear what happened? I said no, he goes. Darren Richardson killed herself. I said what, how? And then it hit me like a rock.
Speaker 2:It was in 2011 where I was a new parent. My kids were very young and I was like how could a child take their own life? And then I went down that route and then that's where I opened up my eyes to kids that bully other kids and we launched a campaign at the Move, magic 100. That had a lot of attention no more bullies campaign. We talked to thousands of schools. We didn't know what the hell we were doing. We were walking into school gymnasiums with this presentation with Shio and YouthNet and we actually did a pretty good job, and where teachers would come up to us afterwards they would say that's the best anti-bullying presentation we've ever had. Thank you very much.
Speaker 2:I was bullied in high school and got my ass kicked a lot, obviously for having a big mouth. I remember a bully saying to me we got caught. Principal said why'd you hit him? Well, he asked for it. I did. But you live, you learn. And yeah, that Darren Richardson really rocked us and I remember talking to her mother and just they were a brave force in Ottawa for many years and I was like if they can be that public with their story and I remember Alfredson came in and when he told the story about his sister having mental health issues and that was a captain of the Ottawa Senators and the captain revealed that side of him.
Speaker 2:I had never seen that side of him working for the Sens and he was so emotionally open that day where he came and talked to us about it in 2008, where he was the face of the you Know who I Am campaign for the Royal Ottawa and I was like if Alfie can tell the story. I mean, why can't I tell mine? So I'm a lot messed up in my head and when you sent the email to come and do this podcast, I was having a horrible day.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:And I said this was meant to be, Totally meant to be.
Speaker 3:I think that's what's allowing youth and adults alike to come forth when it comes to mental health pieces. It's just being able to have people who can normalize it.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:And talk about it and destigmatize the process of mental health supports and oh, destigmatize, that is the word.
Speaker 2:I love that word because if if children see an adult or somebody their own age, they can relate to that adult or they can relate to that student and unfortunately darren rich then had to lose her life. But it opened up a lot of eyes for a lot of other kids in that same situation and I mean I thank God my kids. I mean there's days where I want to throw them in the garbage but there's days where I want to hold them and hold and hug and squeeze them and kiss them because they're our children.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. I think that what we just know so deeply is when you can just openly talk about your experience with someone else who's going to receive it with compassion and kindness and warmth, it makes all of the difference. And I think what's really tough is because so many people are struggling, there's fewer people in the average person's environment that can actually be show up for them, because everybody is struggling in their own silos themselves, yeah, you know.
Speaker 3:And so how do I show up if I'm going through it or if I'm struggling? How do I be present for my child to be vulnerable? That's, that's narrative, that's reality, yeah yeah, it's, uh, it's not easy.
Speaker 2:My daughter, you know her high school experience was not a pleasurable one. She had to go to two different schools because she learned a different way than her brother did and, uh, it's caused a lot of tension in her house because there's one student who's doing really well and there's another student who's doing really well, but at her own base. Yeah, and they're two different children. My, my wife, is different than me. I learned it a different way and back then they called it special ed classes, but now it's not special ed anymore.
Speaker 2:It's like you're not in a special ed class. You're at a different learning level and you're learning the same thing that your brother's learning, but at a different speed. So her high school experience was very different, but I'm glad she went through it. I mean, I'm glad that system existed for her because there's too many students that are on the waiting list and that is a problem and that's a big problem with our education system. I'm not going to go on a rant.
Speaker 1:I won't shut up, but there's a lot of issues with our education system. I love that.
Speaker 2:I don't envy teachers, I don't envy what they do. No, I yeah, I love that I don't envy teachers.
Speaker 1:I don't envy what they do. No, I mean it is attempting to be a one-size-fits-all for a situation that is far from one-size-fits-all.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that's everything with children with autism. I mean it shouldn't cost as much as it does to have somebody that has to pay $40,000 a year to have their child looked at from a specialist because there's not enough of them. Our system is fucked, not on purpose. Just too many people have put it off to the side for too long. Now it's coming to the forefront. There's a lot more students. There's a lot more parents that are going. We're struggling, we were. It's like four extra car payments we have to pay for our child and there's more than one child that's affected by it. They're seriously financially screwed. Like how can you expect somebody on a two maybe one person family, one income, to support two person family, one income support?
Speaker 3:that supports us, it's impossible.
Speaker 2:It's so brutal, and it doesn't matter who's in government, they're all going to screw it up. Anyways, I go on. Sorry, sorry, I went off a tangent there. No, no, no, that's all right.
Speaker 3:It's all good. So what's next for you Stu? What's next for you Big?
Speaker 2:movies, big movies. Yay, there you go Now coming to a theater near you. Stuntman Stu superhero. I'd like to be in a movie actually one day. What's next for me? Just paying my bills? I'd like to retire in Italy. I'd like to retire in Tuscany and maybe have a house there six months of the year. After tasting the waters, after tasting italy it was incredible. My son said it'll change your life, and he's been there five times last two years. I now understand what he's talking about. It is another world, beautiful world. They do things at their own pace. Um, I'd like to maybe have a house there in tuscany six months out of the year, maybe. What's next for me? I'd like to continue working with my clients, being a spokesperson for Bar-Evan Ford City of Retirement Farm to Fork Bar-Evan Glasses Place and Cobb's Bread.
Speaker 2:I mean, they've been good to me and I'd like to continue doing that for as long as I can do it. And yeah, I don't know what's next for me. There's no place that's going to hire me full time, because I'll show up when I show up, that's what I do. If you want to hire me, hire me for this, but that's what I do.
Speaker 1:That's living the dream, though actually, you know at this point where it's just kind of like I know what I can do and I know what I can do well, and hire me to do it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that flexibility right, which is what we all strive for having that flexibility and not having to like give into the hustle mentality of like go, go, go but, sleeping in if you need to, or just going at a pace that works for you.
Speaker 2:I slept in till 8.15 this morning I woke up at eight o'clock. I heard my wife's alarm go off at 7.45. I'm like I used to get up at like 3.45 in the morning and after a Senator's game and on like three hours sleep and going into a radio show. But now I sleep in till 8 o'clock and I slept until 8.15 this morning.
Speaker 3:I'm like oh yes.
Speaker 2:I'm having a great day Starting off my weekend.
Speaker 3:I'm good, I'm at a good level. Yeah, it's beautiful. Thank you for sharing that with us.
Speaker 2:Thank, you, you guys rock, thank you, you guys literally rock. Thank you for this opportunity, our pleasure.
Speaker 1:Our pleasure. Our pleasure and thank you so much for listening today. And if you want to get in touch with us media at themindspaca, if you want to share any stories or have any questions that you want us to talk about. Thank you for tuning in. We'll see you next time.
