The Andrew Carter Morning Show (Wednesday January 29, 2025)
en
January 29, 2025
TLDR: Conversation featuring Madison Odabassian, Trudie Mason, Alexandre Leduc, John Moore, Tom Mulcair, Dr. Mitch Shulman, Chris Nilan, and Dan Riskin

In this engaging episode of The Andrew Carter Morning Show, a variety of guests shared thought-provoking insights ranging from innovative educational programs and municipal issues to public health concerns and parenting dynamics.
Guest Highlights
Madison Odabassian - Teddy Bear Hospital Program
One of the standout segments featured Madison Odabassian, a third-year medical student and co-president of the Teddy Bear Hospital at McGill University. This unique initiative aims to introduce young children to the healthcare system in a friendly, less intimidating way. Here are the key takeaways from Madison's interview:
- Purpose of the Program: The Teddy Bear Hospital offers workshops in elementary schools for children usually aged between kindergarten and grade two. During these sessions, kids bring their teddy bears as patients to understand healthcare processes.
- Activities Offered: Children participate in mock treatments and procedures such as physiotherapy and pretend surgery, helping alleviate their fears about real medical experiences in the future.
- Benefits for Medical Students: Madison emphasized that engaging with young children helps medical students gain valuable communication skills and experience, making their training more fulfilling.
Alexandre Leduc - Cell Phone Use in Schools
Alexandre Leduc, a member of the Quebec Solidair M&A, shared insights about an ongoing debate regarding screen time in schools. Important points from his discussion include:
- Excessive Screen Time: There is a growing consensus in Quebec about the need to manage student screen time due to its overwhelming presence in their daily lives.
- Student Opinions: Surprisingly, many students expressed a desire for restrictions on their cell phone use during school hours, indicating a preference for a more focused educational environment.
- Policy Framework: The current discussions revolve around whether limitations should be set by individual schools, school boards, or the education minister, reflecting varied opinions on enforcing effective guidelines.
Dr. Mitch Shulman - Sleep Aids
The episode also featured Dr. Mitch Shulman, who delved into the topic of sleep aids. His insights can be summarized as follows:
- Natural vs. Medicinal Aids: Dr. Shulman emphasized the importance of trying natural sleep aids like warm milk or herbal teas before resorting to medications like melatonin or Ambien.
- Cautions on Medication: He underscored using sleep medications only as needed, highlighting potential issues with dependency when used regularly.
Chris Nilan - Recovery Journey
Former Montreal Canadiens player Chris Nilan discussed his life struggles with addiction and mental health issues while promoting his one-man show, "Knuckles: The Chris Nilan Story". Key points include:
- Personal Journey: Nilan shared his harrowing journey through addiction, including serious setbacks but ultimately finding recovery and purpose through helping others.
- Community Impact: His story highlights the importance of mental health awareness and the role of support systems in overcoming personal challenges.
Dan Riskin - Science and Nature
Lastly, Dr. Dan Riskin, the Bell Media Science Guy, provided an interesting segment on the visibility of planets in the night sky, enhancing listeners' appreciation for astronomy and encouraging outdoor stargazing activities.
Conclusion
This lively episode of The Andrew Carter Morning Show brought together a diverse range of topics relevant to listeners' daily lives, emphasizing health, education, and community awareness. The discussions not only informed but also inspired, leaving the audience with valuable takeaways and a deeper understanding of the subjects presented.
This episode highlights the importance of engaging with community initiatives, understanding youth needs in educational settings, and addressing personal health matters, all while encouraging a balanced and informed lifestyle.
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The best of the city's best morning show in a small package. This is the Andrew Carter podcast.
This next story is so it's sweeter than a cream soda with extra sugar in it. Did you know that McGill University has its own teddy bear hospital? A teddy bear hospital done in partnership with several schools in Montreal. The goal to expose young children to the health care system in a less intimidating way and to decrease the fear, the white coat syndrome. Here to explain more about this program is Madison, Odabassian is a third year medical student at McGill.
and co-president of the university's Teddy Bear Hospital program. Good morning, Madison. Good morning. How are you? Great. So tell me about the Teddy Bear Hospital. Who would go to the Teddy Bear Hospital? So essentially, the Teddy Bear Hospital is an activity primarily at McGill Run by medical students. And so we're a group of people who organize workshops and elementary schools. So what we do is we bring the Teddy Bear Hospital to the school,
And the students bring their teddy bears. So how old would the kids be? Typically kindergarten or preschool to grade two. And what kind of ailments does a teddy bear normally have? So a teddy bear has numerous ailments that involve throughout the workshop. So for example, he goes or she goes to physiotherapy. They go get their vitals taken with the nurse.
They have to scrub in to surgery because he hasn't appendicitis. Right. That's wonderful. So, so it's not like you're repairing teddy bears. It's like we're pretending that the teddy bear is a patient. Exactly. To help the students be a little bit sensitized to not only the whole health care system and all of the people who are involved in a health care system, but a little bit of the practices. So if ever it comes their time to have an x-ray or to undergo a surgery,
they understand a little bit more what to expect. Well, it's interesting because it must help the med students as well because I would imagine that a lot of young people in their 20s don't necessarily have a lot of exposure to four and five year olds. Yeah, that's very true as well. And I can honestly say is one of the most fulfilling activities that I choose to do outside of school because you see the students, they come in in the morning and they're all excited.
They bring their very favorite teddy bears. We've seen all kinds throughout the years from snakes to a glonhove to actual teddy bears. I think Madison, I think this is amazing because I imagine that as a med student, you've got a pretty busy schedule. Like I would assume that you don't have a lot of extra time to do stuff.
Yes, it's definitely hectic, but adding things like this is truly what makes medical fun, if you ask them. Okay, now Ida, so your third year medical student, so what's next in terms of your education as a med student? So we have a fourth year as a medical student, and then we apply to residency, and then depending on the residency you choose, it could be another two to sometimes six or seven years of training. Wow, and what would you like to specialize in?
I think this will come to no surprise to anyone, but pediatric. Pediatrics. Okay. See, that makes a lot of sense. You from Montreal? Yes. And so you want to stay in Montreal? Ideally, yes. Okay. Wouldn't that be nice? Madison, it's nice to meet you when I love this, this idea. And congratulations on doing this. Thank you so much.
That is Madison Oda-Bassian, who is a third-year medical student at the Gill and co-president of the University's Teddy Bear Hospital program. Just the Head Start Your Day Needs, the Andrew Carter Morning Show, CJAD 800. All right. It is 641, and let's get to Trudy's takeaways, shall we? Is there a comment in the Montreal Gazette from Bill Brownstein?
Yes, there is a piece from Bill Brownstein here talking about those people who were flooded out. Remember the geyser about two blocks away from our studio's Andrew? Yes, sir. Near the Jacques Cartier Bridge, that gigantic water main break that had water spraying up two or three stories into the air.
Well, one of the people who was flooded out as a result of that was Julian Moran, the maker of Lamare mustard, and he estimates he lost half a million dollars due to that flooding. He has just received a letter from
It Demny Pro claims expert acting on behalf of the city of Montreal saying you're not going to get any money. The city of Montreal is not at the origin of any negligence or omission that could have caused the breakage of the pipe.
And so we are denying any responsibility on the part of the city of Montreal. So he says he can't believe this. He says that he and his neighbors are left high and dry if I can use that term about flooding. And he lost 90% of his inventory. His equipment was lost and his own insurance, business insurance, only covered a small portion.
The, let's see, also, in the Chernobyl Boreale, Richard Martino on Paul St. Pierre Plummer, the head of the PQ, doing battle with Caillou's mother.
Well, it's, this is because, uh, Paul Sampier-Plamonton has come out and demanded a significant sentence for a man, uh, if he's convicted, accused of threatening not only him, but his family saying that they would be exterminated and, and, uh, the PQ leader has three young kids. So he was very upset when he got a death threat in the mail. The suspect in the case, uh, the,
Paul Saint-Pierre Plementon had heard that the crown was offering a plea deal that if the guy pleaded guilty, it would be a community service type of sentence. You serve in the community and you don't have to do any jail time. And so he has been demanding an exemplary sentence. So Richard Martino is turning this
He's twisting this around into a rant against Canada's multiculturalism, where you just can't say anything. You're like, the provinces become like Kyu's mother, who never really disciplined her child. He says, we have an imam who can hide behind religious freedoms in praying that Jews be killed. We have,
a person who doesn't have immigration status here in Canada, able to put up swastikas on his house. And, you know, the state can't, can't do anything. So he's, he's saying that we have now this political leader taking on a province that has become Caillou's mother.
Okay, now tell me, Mario Duma says even the cops are victims of online identity threat. Yeah, but Mario Duma decided to look up the provincial police force online on TikTok because they have this new campaign that apparently is being quite well received where they're using humor to reach young people about all kinds of different
different issues of law enforcement. So he tried to find them and discovered that there are 20 fake, Quebec Provincial Police accounts on TikTok.
Many of them using the name and the logo of the provincial police force, which is basically identity theft. So he says, that's what it's come to. You have police forces that are victims of identity theft. And the SQ is telling them, oh, yeah, we've tried to go after, you know,
these TikTok users, the creators of the accounts, but we have to go up against this big social media outlet and it's difficult to get them to act, to take down any bogus accounts. Some of them are obviously meant to be humorous or funny and are obviously
satirical, I guess you could say, but it raises the questions about what if there was a real attempt to like a real ill-meaning attempt to steal the identity of the provincial police force. Do you hear the toilet was stolen from the police station? No. Police have nothing to go on.
getting up with you weekday mornings 20 years and counting Andrew Carter on the voice of Montreal CJAD 800. There's been a lot of debate about whether or not cell phones should be abandoned in schools and the Quebec government has been looking at this. Tomorrow a committee will begin its second phase of consultations. Alexandra Liduk is the Quebec Solidair M&A for Hoshilag Amazinov and a member of the committee.
It's a select parliamentary committee on the impacts of screens and social media on young people's health and development. And he's on the line. Good morning. Good morning. So tell me about what you've learned so far in the consultations and what's ahead. Well, we've learned that there's a big consensus in Quebec about the fact that there's way too much screen time for our youth. And I think for adults as well,
I've learned as well that the students, the young people, are in search of some kind of restriction, surprisingly. I was thinking that the young people would prefer to have liberty about how they use their cell phones at school, but most of them we've heard
And we'll see if it's the same thing with the online survey. We will have ending in a few days. There's still time to go on the online survey to put your thoughts in it. But we'll see if the same thing that we've learned that they want us, adults, and legislators to put some limits on the screen time at school. So the debate we now have is not if we should or not
limit screen time at school, but how to do it? And there's a lot of different ways. Some private schools already have prohibited screen and cell phones in the school area, in school ground. But it's been from one school to another with the school committee with teachers and parents, et cetera. So should this ban of cell phone at school be
done by school should it be done by the school board for a region or should it be done by the education minister for all the problems at the same time. So this is the kind of debate we're having now and we're supposed to
try to reach a consensus and a recommendation for the end of them of the month of the week it's kind of surprising uh... i i know you you made references but to me it's kind of surprising that uh... the kids in school uh... uh... are are seem to be in favor of a cell phone band we're not talking about only in class we're talking about through the entire day luncheon recess and everything correct exact but we need to be uh... drop out of open eye on the issue one class we visited we asked uh...
We asked the professor to guarantee there would be no consequences to the questions and the answer we would ask. We asked the students in one school that had prohibited cell phones for a year. We asked how many people did not respect back today. And half of the class raised their hand. Oh, really? Yeah. So they went in the bathroom to look at their cell phones. They went in a remote area of the school to look at their cell phone. Those are always ways to
to try and not respect the law in a way or the rules. But still, they were happy about this rule. It's been a year at that school. It was in Oka, in the Rishatoga Valley region. And it was well received. And even the teacher, she had an experience in the public school when they were still having
cell phones and now she was working in that school and she said she would never turn her go back and she had way less preoccupations about managing conflicts within the students because when there is, I was in English, there's some beef online, it has direct repercussions in the real life, not having cell phones all the way
around. She makes her day way easier. Yeah, cuts down on a lot of drama. So here's the big question. And you also made reference to this. How do you, where does this go like right from the education ministry? Is it school by school? Is it school boards or service centers? What is it? Well, some people would say a clear and
Introducing, Brian Adams Radio. On I-Heart Radio. Can I first resist me? Ask if I Brian Adams himself. Join me for an insider look on a wild ride through 40 years of global rock and roll. Brian Adams Radio. I'm red! Now available on the free I-Heart Radio app. Or, ask your smart speaker to play Brian Adams Radio on I-Heart Radio. I was ready to rock. You're welcome, kids for a ride.
over the board directive from the minister would be easier to comprehend, to apply. And some people would say that it needs to be having some space from each school who have a difference for maybe social economic background.
maybe the size of the school, a large school for a thousand students, not be the same as a 200 student school. So we're not still yet decided on which way to proceed. One thing is sure there will be something that will happen. And it's the same, I think, on the
video game issue so the cell phone is one thing with screen time yeah but the video game is another one you know it's the it's it's recognized with with the again there's someone that's not the i don't know the English word for that but how hard it is Asian exactly as as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as a as
which would you pay real dollars to get some fake items in the video games to help you through the games and be more efficient. But this has been prohibited in some legislations and we're looking at that possibility because as the social networks, the video games have developed all kind of ways to keep your time and your attention on the game
so it's not uh... healthy things uh... we have a public health crisis around the screen time this is why we have the select committee with uh... all parties uh... working together to find solutions so what the video games are still i think it's looking to uh... alexon thank you very much for your time
a different look at the world of entertainment with John Moore weekday mornings at 720.
Jim is a major loser who will fail no matter where he ends up. He is such a graceless thug. It's incredible. Acosta's parting words were, don't give in to the lies. Don't give in to the fear. The problem was they were going to move him to midnight and he decided, no, I don't think so.
Midnight's not better because I was told that Midnight is an improvement. My boss offered me a midnight show. I said, really? Yeah, it's the way everybody wants to be. Well, if you want to be a celebrity in Hong Kong, I guess. The Mona Lisa is getting a room of her own at the Louvre.
Yeah, they announced a huge renovation to the Louvre, which is interesting because they renovated it in the 1980s. Remember the controversy over that glass pyramid that they put in? And now everybody, of course, loves it. Now, when they did the Renault in the 80s, it was supposed to welcome 4 million visitors a year. Last year, the museum had 8.7. Wow.
Yeah, I know. They're going to do a major Renault and the Mona Lisa is going to get its own room because I don't know if you've been to the Louvre, but I did what everybody does. I went in. I looked at the map that tells you where the Venus de Milo and you go right there and you go right there and you go in the room.
with the Mona Lisa. First of all, it's kind of small and it's so crowded. You can't see the thing. You know the Mona Lisa is a small painting, but you're still taken aback by the size of this thing, that it's so small.
And then you look at it and you try to conjure like, OK, what am I supposed to be feeling? Because it's supposed to be the greatest painting ever. And not much happens. It's kind of like when I do views, I did Highway 1, which is a trip everybody has to do in California. It's along the coast line. And you go from San Francisco to San Diego. So they always say, pull over here. There's a vista. And so you pull over and you look at it. And after about 30 seconds, I'm done.
Avista. Okay, let's see. A new study says parents really do have a favorite child. Yes, I'm always trying to remember you do have siblings, right? I do. I have a brother, an older brother named Paul. Okay. And which one of you do you think might be the favorite? I always thought he was the favorite. But he thinks I'm the favorite. So I don't know.
Okay. Anyway, listen, this is a meta study as they call it, where they take everything. Yeah, exactly. Every study that's ever been done, you go through them and see if you can draw some conclusions in the overlap. And they found that parents do indeed have a favorite child. And it hinges on all kinds of things. Sometimes it's birth order, sometimes it's gender, but basically they favor the one who has the nicest disposition. So I guess it must have been me.
And that story about TJ Miller and Ryan Reynolds that is not real, not true.
well you know what i'd express some doubt about it because ryan Reynolds is one of the best loved guys in show business and he's involved in a dispute right now via his wife with you know jay this jason ball doni business anyway tj miller uh... that that whole story apparently was planted as a hatchet job by the lawyers for balladoni in order to make ryan Reynolds look bad and maybe persuade him to tell his wife to back off but
T.J. Miller is actually a bit of an outcast in the industry, so everybody looked at that and said, who you'd say somebody's difficult to work with. Yeah, I saw a story the other day. What's the wife's name again? Blake Lively. Blake Lively that somebody was complaining on said that she was awful on said and that she farted a lot and made people smell her farts. See, these are the kind of stories that be the nonsense that's going around. Yeah, I mean, you know, there's some actors I believe that of. I'm not sure I believe it of her.
You have a great day, John. Take care. Sean Moore, CJAD Entertainment. Catch Tom Mulkare Live Monday to Friday at 7.35 AM and 5.05 PM. Montrealer says he's disappointed after a municipal library told him Montreal Library told him he's not allowed to hold his monthly book club there because the book club would be is held mostly in English and it would violate Quebec's new language law. Your thoughts?
Well, my thoughts are the same as those of the lawyer representing TMR in a case involving Bill 96. His name is Frederick Behar. He's a prophet, the U of M. And he very simply said, Andrew, there is nothing in Bill 101 that prevents this book group from having an English discussion group about books in a library for heaven's sakes. This is something you and I have discussed any number of times. It's the bureaucracy run wild.
So you've got the city of Montreal, you've got its libraries, you've got somebody inventing. Well, I know there's a bill about French, and it must be therefore illegal to speak English in a library, in a group that has rented a room. It is absolutely bonkers going all the way back to 1977 when Bill 101 was brought in. There's been a section that's remained largely the same. That's the same section that would allow the Gazette
or CJD, you know, section 59. If it's something that already operates in English, you can actually do your advertising in English only. And other than that, leave people alone if they're having a discussion group about, and it's a nonprofit, and it has to do with politics or culture or things like that, which was apparently the purpose of this group. It is amazing to me that no adult at that library said,
Hold on. What you're saying makes no sense. Show me where in Bill 101. You're saying that this is the law. You've never read the law. But show me where you think it says you can't have a meeting of people to discuss books in English. Andrew, if Valerie Plant does not act immediately to reverse this, it'll confirm my worst fears about her.
She's never had Bill 96 or Bill 101 either. She's always just sort of had a language serving as somebody pushing these issues simply because politically for her it was something that she had to do. Now it's time for somebody to step in, apologize, and tell this group that they are indeed allowed to have a discussion about books in English, in English.
Well, yeah. And like, honestly, what, what, what if it was Polish or Chinese or whatever? And nobody would have said a word. It's just crazy. I mean, you know, that's the thing, you know, it is. I mean, we talked language at least once a week, but this one, this is Oscar material. This is like just about the dumbest thing I've seen since past a gate. And by the way,
You know, it started the day yesterday. In one media, it's everywhere now. Everybody's picked it up. There's a, Michelle Malone's got a piece in the Gazette. It's on CTV's website. It's on CBC's website. So it's making its way across the country as we speak. And once again, Quebec is going to look like a human rights backwater where you're told that you can't discuss books in English. This is after having senior ministers say,
I hate McGill University and Concordia so much because we hear too much English in the streets. Let's start removing their funding. This is the Quebec of Francois de Gaulle.
How are you going to celebrate Saturday, T-Day? What's happening in your house? Tariff Day? Doing anything special? Well, I'm going to be watching and I'm going to be doing media this weekend, of course, depending on what actually comes out. I mean, it's classic Trump. He's dominated in news cycle. He's got the attention span of a five-year-old, so he'll be onto something else probably in three weeks. But for now, it's something that we have to pay attention to because it's incredibly serious. And one listener said,
They wanted to know if the federal government could actually impose rules on different provinces with regard to what they could export, or if there could be export tariffs and the like. Well, the words used by the Supreme Court in the case in 2021, there was a case involving the carbon tax and dealing with climate change. And the Supreme Court said that because climate change is an existential threat, you needed a coordinated national approach that applied to all regions.
And I guess that we could say that Trump's... Now available on the Free I Heart Radio app.
Or ask your smart speaker to play Brian Adams radio on iHeartRadio. Who's ready to rock? Go kids for a ride. Threats to impose the tariffs that seek to harm intentionally. Our economy are an existential threat. And I think the federal government has all the authority that it needs to act. To like to tell Quebec that you can withhold power or tell Alberta they can stop oil. Is what we're talking about. Or tell Alberta that
that the feds are going to oppose a 25% tariff on the oil we export to the states and go tit for tat. Now, there was some discussion and thought that perhaps Trump would exclude energy exports to the United States, which would make sense. But I spoke with a very senior person yesterday said, no, no.
No, no, he'll be imposing tariffs on that as well. So we could actually do the same because that will hurt American consumers. And people will finally tweak to the fact that we're not just being annoying when we remind them. It is a fact that those tariffs apply first and foremost to American consumers.
Uh, conclusions from the UGG Commission. Uh, Parliament is not a haven for traders, but, uh, this, that was a dodge that. This information, uh, is a threat though. And, um, we, something we should be, uh, ever vigilant of. So she goes, again, and she talks about the importance of legitimate news sources. You know, people like me read that as being an example of her trying to say,
By the way, things like CBC Radio Canada, those are legitimate news sources. So Pierre Poitiers, if you're thinking of dismantling them so that your friends who use mostly social media can have their way. I think the Canadians might want to think twice about that. So she never mentions, of course, CBC or Radio Canada, but I think she was quite clearly heading in that direction. She did a good job. She, frankly,
dismantled some of the stuff that came out. You remember, as people would go and see the documents, Elizabeth May said, there's nothing in there about traders. Elizabeth May turned out to have been the one who was speaking the truth. John Meatsing went in there and said, yes, there is. And that might have been unadjacent to the truth. The guy who has the most egg on his face is David McGinty. And what's his new job? Well, he's the minister in charge of national security. So it wasn't a good day for the libs, but it is a good day for democracy and defending our institutions.
Okay. Apparently, I just got a text message. I don't know how to pronounce this, but, uh, cause it's a, they've written in the Vietnamese, but, uh, it's also tested a, apparently it's Vietnamese New Year. Yes. But it is. Yes. So yeah, I'm sure, and I'm sure. We've got joy to you too. Yeah. Thank you very much. You've got to be holding your two, your two hands together and shaking them as you say that. Well, maybe I'm doing that. How do you know you would know? I know you are. I can see you. You know, Anthony was showing me a picture of you.
Don't miss the two-minute checkup with Dr. Mitch weekday mornings at 750. Good morning, Dr. Mitch. Good morning to you, sir. OK, this morning we're going to talk about things that interest a lot of people and a lot of people use as sleep aids. Everything from, I mean, this long list, from warm milk to melatonin to magnesium, ambient, adivan, you name it. What are we talking about this morning? So basically when you sleep, many things are happening. And one of the things that we think are happening
is that the brain is being given a chance to sort of clean itself out. And to do that, we think, again, this is mainly based on animal studies, so we're not sure if it applies completely to people. But we think during that period of sleep, the pulsations of your blood vessels basically help in the circulation of the fluids within the brain to sort of detoxify, clean it out, and get things going. So these researchers were looking at the different things that people take to help them fall asleep.
And one of them is the, one of them, what we call the dead drugs. These are non-volume-like drugs. Oped M under the trade name Ambien is one of them. And how did it affect in animals the pattern of sleep? Well, it turns out in animals, the drugs of that family seem to stop this gentle, gentle pulsation and flow. In other words, they impede it. It doesn't seem to work as well in these animals when they're given the medications and they're sleeping. So what does that mean for you and me?
may not mean anything what it does remind us though is before you turn to medication and there's certain situations where i'm sure medication is really important before you turn to medications do everything you can naturally and i say naturally in quotation marks to be able to fall asleep so no screen time be for about an hour before and do something boring get into a ritual uh... you want to have more milk go for a tea with lemon and honey go for it
You know, a dark enough room, a quiet enough room, a comfortable enough room in terms of the temperature. We usually sleep at a lower temperature and it's usually better for us than having to warm a room. And then under those circumstances where from time to time you do need medication to help you fall asleep and you are using something, realize you should be using it just from time to time rather than every night. And as long as you're using it occasionally, and as long as it's just something that isn't being used every single night,
I think that these effects are probably not anything that we need to worry about, but we'll have to wait and see where the research takes us. But for now, I certainly would not freak out on the basis of this research.
you know i'd i have other things to worry about this would not be numero uno on my scale of things to worry about okay so uh... let's talk about you you know the so-called natural thing i mean you know you know you know you know you know you don't want to take something like out of an every night but no melatonin uh... or magnesium or valerian route i mean can you take these king things every night so magnesium is a natural element um... and if you're deficient in it and then you should be taking it anyway so there's probably no problem with that whatsoever valerian
Look, it's supposed to help. Who knows? Again, not something that I would worry about taking nightly. But a melatonin, and the same thing, melatonin is normal and natural. Melatonin isn't being used properly by most people. But they don't realize you've got to take it about an hour, give or take, before you want to go to bed for it to start to peak when it's time for you to go to bed number one. And more than three to five milligrams is really not going to make a difference. So I know people take a lot higher doses.
and that is not going to help them whatsoever and look anytime you can take a break from any of these things you know you're not as stressed it's the weekend go for it uh... but most of these things are probably safe to go on a regular basis
Thanks, Dr. Mitch. A pleasure. You have a great day. From the bedroom to the bus stop, the kitchen table to the car. Thanks for starting your day with us, the Andrew Carter Morning Show. CJAD 800. Oh, we love this guy in Montreal. He was an important member of the Montreal Canadiens 1986 Stanley Cup team. But off the ice, Chris Nyland has battled addiction and mental health issues, and he's come out well on the other side. Putting on a one-man show,
a stage show called knuckles the chris nylan story and uh... former have uh... chris knuckles nylan is is on the line how you do it as how are you i am good uh... actually i'm not new for land i was supposed to be a new for a local league of the yeah i'm sick of the dog on all you got that uh... i'm trying to bounce back but uh... yeah i had to cancel my trip
So up there with a bunch of former players, Sudders, Bryant Scridland, Darius Kessler, right? It's a bunch of guys that go out there, we had an implement, and I had to cancel, so yeah. Well, that's a disappointment. So you got that sort of head cold that everybody's got? Just everything. The body, the pack, and cough, and yeah.
Just misery. So are you are you believe me? I've been in a workplace. Are you able to take cold medication? Because I know you were like when I spoke to you one time your your hesitant take any kind of painkiller. Yeah, I don't take any painkillers. You know, if I have to take something, I'll take Tyler and all that. I don't take any painkillers. So yeah, nothing.
Uh, so I, some of your former teammates were in the crowd at the launch of your, uh, like Bob Gainey and, uh, Sir Savard, Sir Savard said he has the best quality of man can have. He's a good person. He's an honest person. And when I was thinking of you, this is the word that comes to mind honest. Like, uh, it's, it's nice to see that things are going well for you, Chris. Yeah. You know, um, you know, I was in a really bad place and I had to change my life and I got some help in doing so.
you know, you don't do it alone. You know, I tried to do it alone on a few occasions and it didn't work, you know. I've been trying to get sober since the year 2000. I went to treatment. I had three years and then I stopped doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I thought I could do it on my own and then I got sober again. I went to treatment again. I get out and I was good for about a year and then I went down the rabbit hole again. And then I had
In 2011, I was sober again, and then I had five years. And my mom had a stroke, and I raced back to Boston, and it was just in a bad way. Thinking about my mom, I thought she's going to die. She's in the hospital. And I made a big mistake one night, and it almost cost me life. Actually, I had to be brought back. So a lot of people don't know that story.
You know, it's been nine years since that night. And I finally, finally, I'm in recovery and doing it the way it's supposed to be doing it and accepting help from others, talking to other people, helping other people, not worried about self and just taking care of yourself. So, yeah, it's been quite a journey and, you know,
I've learned a few things about life that maybe I didn't so much learn when I was a kid. Chris, what happened? What happened that night in Boston? Oh, I ended up snoring some heroin and it was fentanyl and I overdosed and flatlined and I was lucky.
that I was in a hospital. It's funny how God works in your life, and I truly believe this. I almost went out and got in my car and did it. I met somebody in front, and I said, I'll just go all the time and do it. And then I said, no, you know what, I'm just going, there's a bathroom down the hall. And I remember snowing a line of that shit, and I remember
A nurse slapping in the face in the darkness saying, Chris, Chris, what did you take? What did you take? Yeah, they'd rush me down to speed in the emergency room and they'd hit me with no I can and he'll reverse it and I came back. But let's get the living show out of me.
No kidding. No kidding. Do you think, Chris, do you think that you always had this in you? I was speaking with Chris Knuckles Nyland. Do you always have this in you or do you think that if you had not been a professional hockey player and had all of those injuries and those 50 operations or whatever you had, do you think you, is that what caused this? This addiction problem or? Well, listen, addiction is said to be a disease, right? Alcoholism.
a disease. And I had a difficult time buying the disease concept. Because I did this myself. I took the drugs. I drank the alcohol. Difference being it's a disease. It's thinking, thinking, and yet it's a threefold disease. It's physical, mental, and spiritual. And when you're
You know, I first got spiritually bankrupt as I moved away from any kind of church or anything like that. Then I got mentally sick and then I got physically sick. And when you're going to rehab, like I did on two occasions, they treat you in reverse. They treat the physical first. They get you feeling better physically. Then they work on you mentally. And then the last piece is the spiritual piece that
They try and it's still in you. A lot of people run from that because high power in God are two things a lot of people are disillusioned with and probably have issue with. But it doesn't have to be a God thing. Religion is a theory in spirituality, the way of life. It's the way you live your life.
Are you willing to help other people? You're available to other people. Are you being a good person? Are you somewhat humbling in your life today? And I've been humbled, you know? So it always doesn't take getting punched in the mouth to be humbled. I'm so amazed at your story, you know, and every time I speak to you, there seems to be a new chapter. And so tell me about the show.
Well, you know, I was talking to Barry Lauren Zetti. Barry Lauren Zetti, BFL Canada, largest insurer in Canada. Barry has a mental health foundation. He did a hockey game last year at the Bell Center and asked if I would play in it. And I said, well, I can't play because I don't play anymore. But I'll coach. He said, sure. So can you get me some players? I got them some players. So we got to know each other a little bit.
he asked me to come in one day when I have lunch and he asked if I would be an ambassador to his mental health foundation. I didn't show it. I wanted to do it. And Paul Byron also, um, Caroline, who let and, um, uh, oh, the girl from the West Island, she's a singer. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, uh, uh, Kennel. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Bernie Kennel. Yeah. Britley, Britley. Yeah.
You taught me off God here in my office sleep. So where where is it? Where is the show Chris? The show is going to be at Maison Presipatt. Yeah, Maison Presipatt. You know, there's going to be four nights and you know, we're just I'm going to get up and tell my story. We're going to they're going to be going to be good. You know, I've done a few. I've done one of these couple of weeks ago for an hour and a half. I spoke at
John Abbott College for mental health a day for their employees. And I spoke for an hour and a half. And if the show goes anything like that one, I'll be awfully happy. Well, I think it's great you're doing this. And I know you're going to inspire a lot of people and they'll be able to connect to your story because I'm sure it reflects their lives as well. So it's good you're doing this, Chris. Yeah, I, you know, listen,
to both give them back today, you know, and I always try to get back even when I played, you know, I did work at the hospital and stuff and you visited kids when, you know, I always try, I try to do something good with someone else every day and don't get caught. And that's not always easy to do. But I try and I keep that in my, my,
in the forefront of my mind each and every day. So I can do what I do. I make sure to get it done the next day. You're a good man, Chris, and I really do appreciate your time and good luck with this. Talk again. Andrew, thanks, buddy. Good to talk to you. Good to talk to you, too. This is the Andrew Carter podcast. Like what you hear, catch the show live Monday to Friday 5 30 tonight.
His name is Riskin. Dr. Dan Riskin. And his middle name is Danger. Actually, you know what? If you got married to somebody named Danger, your name would be Dan Riskin Danger.
Nice. And I said, I'll have to break the news to my wife, gently, but... Your wife's name is gently? That's strange. You're on fire today. Six plus. You barely started talking. You've already made like eight jokes. Okay, go ahead. Okay, so tell me about the six planets in the night sky this week. You can actually see a few planets, but the naked eye, I would think.
Yeah, you can see four of the six that are up there. The seventh will join them at the end of February, which is Mercury. That's the odd one out. But if you want to impress your friends or if you just kind of are one of those people that likes to sort of have a sense of what's going on up there, when you step out in the evening and if you've got a clear sky,
However windy it is, doesn't matter how windy it is. The stars will be the same. You've got Venus is the bright one that's in the part of the sky where the sun just sets out in the east. Venus you'll be able to see right away. There's another pretty bright one pretty close to that. That is Saturn. And then kind of above you, a bright one is Jupiter. And then on the sort of other side of the sky,
where the sun will come up later, you see a red one, and that's Mars. And so going from where the sun set to the other side of the sky, it's Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, and then Mars. And Uranus and Neptune are up there, but you need a telescope to find those, and people have a very hard time finding it. Uranus is always hard to find. It always is. Evolution.
Why we love celebrity gossip explain yes, so I know that you know John Moore loves coming on and telling you what the latest is with What's happening and for me as a person that like I don't know I spent all this time in grad school I really feel like I'm supposed to be working and when I start like drifting off and looking at some headline about how You know Jimmy Fallon doesn't really like his eggs scrambled or whatever. I'm like why am I really?
This what is wrong like why do I don't he doesn't know me Why do why do I think that this is anyway? There's a new evolutionary theory to explain why we obsess with celebrities and it has to do with the fact that as humans and this is kind of new piece We know humans are social we know humans need to hang out with other humans But everybody always thinks about humans in pairs everybody always all the researchers have been thinking about humans like they need a best friend or they need a romantic partner or they need a mentor or a
you know, these one-on-one relationships, but there's also something about being in a crowd. And researchers are really looking into that now. The emotional effect of being part of something, being part of a group. And we feel that, you know, if you're at a Canadians game, you're gonna feel that when the goal goes in and it re-cheers. That is a rush that you don't get in any other way. If you go to a concert and you're singing along with 10,000 other people, that is a rush you don't get any other way. And during COVID, that was taken away from us. And so we really felt how important that is. And the argument is that when you watch the office,
You are part of the office. Your brain has not evolved to know the difference between a thing you're watching on TV and the real experience of being with a group of people you know and recognize. There's research showing that when you're feeling lonely, people that feel lonely tend to watch TV, and after they watch TV, they feel less lonely.
When you are engaging with these celebrities on TV shows, in movies, or even just watching them banter on a late night talk show, you feel like that's your part of your posse. That's part of your gang. And so that is why we're drawn to celebrity cultures, because it scratches that itch that need to be part of a group. Speaking of scratching an itch behind your ear, maybe. Let's talk about the science of having a dog.
Yeah, this is a nice eel like this because I know you're a dog guy, but it's a research study from from Hungary where they took a whole bunch of people who own dogs and they asked them to basically rate these 33 statements from things that are really positive about having a dog to things that are really negative. So, you know, an example of a positive thing would be that dogs can help their owner through a difficult situation in life.
Well, of course, that's positive. So when they asked all these 6,000 people, you know, people said, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a positive. That's a positive. And then they said other things that were, you know, dogs can damage property. Oh, yeah. That is a bit of a pain, but it's not a huge pain. It's just a little bit of a pain. And so they noticed that the overall trend is that when something was positive with dogs, people rated it very, very high. And when something was negative about dogs, people rated it low, like, but not that low. And so overall, people tend to have a valence.
Where they think the dogs are worth it and the dogs are better to have than to not have and it's a nice little result I do I would point out that they could have made the list different and they would have gotten maybe a different result like they could have had hundreds of statements that are negatives like the dog throws up and then tries to eat it and then the dog throws up again and make that like a whole bunch of different statements and you'd be like yeah that's bad bad bad bad bad then they could have put just one positive and they would have maybe got a different result so this is a little bit of them having a thumb on the scale but nonetheless
It's nice to have a scientific study that shows that dogs are good.
By in the chat to Jim. Oh, you got to look this up. So Keenan Thompson is playing a dog and he keeps, he keeps throwing up and then eating and throwing up and eating and throwing. But they're all a bunch of dogs. It's a Larry. It's hilarious. Yeah. I saw John Stewart live once and he did an impression of that. And he did it like six times over the course of his impression. It's like, it's like he throws up in his pond. He goes, what is that? He goes, oh, what is it? Then eats it again. And then, oh, that don't feel good. I'm going to watch it. Right after I talked to you, I'm pulling that up. I got to see it.
All right. See you later. Take care. Thanks. You do. That's Dr. Dan Riskin, Bell Media Science Guy. Listen to the Andrew Carter Morning Show Live Monday to Friday, 5 30 to 9.
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