Speaking Municipally

Mack Male:
The LRT giveth and the LRT taketh away. This week, Stephanie spoke to the comedian behind the viral LRT Takes videos.

Stephanie Swensrude:
Plus, we have an update on the Army and Navy building. It's actually happening.

Mack:
Hi, I'm Mack.

Stephanie:
I'm Stephanie.

Mack:
And we're...

Both:
Speaking Municipally.

Mack:
Welcome back to Speaking Municipally, episode 377. We're doing a little bit of time travel, Stephanie. I'm away this week as you're listening to this, but we've recorded this in advance for your listening pleasure. And I think this is a really good one. We've got a couple of things to get to. Consider this a nice little break from all of the craziness of infill, referendum. Waves hands in general direction.

Stephanie:
Yes. Yeah. Well, I think that there will actually, when this episode is coming out, there's just gonna be so little certainty about both of those news items and how they interact with each other actually. So consider this like your little dessert while you're waiting for — or, you know, dessert before dinner.

Mack:
Yeah, I like it. Okay. Well, the first item we're gonna get to is an update on something that we've talked about on the show before. This is a topic that you like to keep an eye on, Stephanie, and that is the Army and Navy building on Whyte Avenue. We love to hate this building. What's the update?

Stephanie:
Well, the other day on the weekend, I think it was Saturday night, I was strolling down Whyte Avenue as I'm wont to do on a weekend evening. And all of a sudden I stopped in my tracks. I stopped the conversation I was having. The heart-to-heart I was having with my friend. And I was like, "Something? What, what's going on here? My God, the Army and Navy building, the scaffolding is down, and it looks so good." It is nice and spruced up, but it still has that historical flair to it, but it's just nice and gleaming and new. And when you look through the windows, you can still see all of the signs, like the big Army Navy letters and like those orange signs that used to be up there. I'm like, "My God, that's awesome." I was so excited about this. Couldn't wait to talk about it on the podcast. And then I saw that the company spoke to CTV News. Vice-president of real estate Kevin Petterson said the first confirmed tenant is Anytime Fitness. Huge news for the gym rats of the Strathcona neighbourhood, including myself.

Mack:
Absolutely.

Stephanie:
Yeah, very interesting tenant to be taking up space in that in that basement.

Mack:
I see in the notes here you called it a pedestrian-oriented gym.

Stephanie:
Well, I don't know if I've ever been like a part of a gym, like, you know, had a gym membership to a gym that wasn't surrounded by parking. This is a parking — like, no-parking gym, which I think that a lot of — like, I mean, I often — this is so bad of me. I live within walking distance of my current gym and sometimes I drive because sometimes that's the only thing that will get me there. I, I don't know, I find it really interesting to have a gym that is not in a building surrounded by parking.

Mack:
I love those memes you see online where you've got the gym and it's got that giant parking lot in front and it's got stairs but also escalators going up to the front entrance.

Stephanie:
Yeah. I get it though, because like I used to go to the to the GoodLife in the Brewery District and I would always take the elevator because I — when I'm done my workout, I'm like, "I can't move anymore, —

Mack:
Right.

Stephanie:
Please."

Mack:
Yeah, you're exerting all that energy in the in the gym, right?

Stephanie:
And it is interesting because there is actually another Anytime Fitness like a block away from this. So I would assume that that one is gonna close if they're moving into the basement of the Army and Navy. I could be wrong, but no, this is this is so cool. I'm so excited. Imagine getting a little pump on before going out to the bar, like very Jersey Shore vibes. No, I'm, I'm so stoked. I, I used — I'm —

Mack:
Ha ha.

Stephanie:
Not a big hater of the Army and Navy building. No more. I love you, Army and Navy building.

Mack:
Well, I'm glad to hear that things are moving along. Scaffolding is down, that's all happening. So that's one tenant. There's gonna be others in the building though too, right?

Stephanie:
Yeah, so he also told CTV that there's gonna be three to five other tenants on the main level. And I think before there was maybe some talk of having like a bunch of micro-suites, micro-stores that kind of would be similar to what you see over at Station Park, where there's just like a bunch of little like, you know, almost like bathroom-sized stores. But I think that I don't know, I think three to five is a good amount for this space because I don't think we need more of the micro stores.

Mack:
Yeah, there's a lot of vacancy around actually. I'm not sure that —

Stephanie:
Yes.

Mack:
Creating a whole ton more space to have to fill up is is wise. Although I, I understand that it's hard to get a big tenant, right? So it's a victory for them to get this Anytime Fitness for sure.

Stephanie:
Yeah, I, I'm super interested to see what what comes next. Maybe new restaurant. Who knows what's gonna be there?

Mack:
Well, we'll keep an eye on it, or you will keep an eye on it and keep us posted, on Speaking Municipally.

Stephanie:
I will.

Mack:
Okay, last week I teased that we would have a fun interview for you this week and we do. So Stephanie, you did an interview. Who did you talk to and why?

Stephanie:
I spoke to Adam Dyck, who is a local comedian behind the LRT Takes videos on Instagram, maybe on TikTok too. Yeah, we wanted to again just have a little bit more fun with an episode for for this week. So as you'll hear, he started the account for a few reasons. One of them is to help his career as most people in arts generally, and then you know, specifically with comedians, you kind of have to find a social media shtick to help you with your career. And that's one of the reasons. But also he says that he wanted to spread some fun and maybe thoughtful critique of Edmonton. So let's just jump right into the interview.

Mack:
Okay, here's Stephanie talking to Adam Dyck of LRT Takes.

Stephanie:
All right, hello. I am here with Adam Dyck, a local comedian who has started a local version of a popular internet trend. You're the founder of LRT Takes. Maybe just to start off, Adam, tell me a bit about what what is this? If someone has never seen it before, what is LRT Takes?

Adam Dyck:
LRT Takes is me sitting on the train asking somebody from Edmonton or occasionally not from Edmonton for their hot take about Edmonton. And it runs about a minute and we post on Instagram and then people tell us why it's wrong or why it's great.

Stephanie:
And this does come from a popular online trend. I think it must have started in New York with Subway Takes, which is like I see those on my page all the time. So why did you decide to start an Edmonton version here?

Adam:
I was looking for something that I could start doing in terms of like social media content. I've been doing stand-up for 13 years, but you know, it takes a long time to develop a following, you know, 40 people at a time in the basement of a bar. And a friend of mine, Henry Sir, has had like a lot of success sort of pivoting to doing these reels. And he's telling me, like, "This is the way that the world is now. You have to be putting out content, you're gonna be putting out content like once a week, twice a week. You need to find something that you don't hate doing and then do it into the ground." So I started looking for things that I could do and obviously I love Subway Takes. Even when it's like a boring conversation or a guest I don't care about, like I can't not watch it because it's just so short and it's so simple. And I thought that that was a great idea. And I thought, "I bet there's a lot of this in other cities. I bet like every city has some sort of knockoff." And so I started looking around and nobody else has ripped him off yet. Really until me.

Stephanie:
Ha ha ha —

Adam:
So I texted my friend Alex Jocko and I said, "LRT Takes — Subway Takes, but in Edmonton specifically, is this crazy? Is this a dumb idea?" She's like, "No, that's a great idea. I wanna be a part of it." And so she's been the producer ever since. And I think it works really well. You know, like we're distinguished from Subway Takes by the takes have to be about Edmonton. They have to be local. And I think people really like local content. And yeah, it's been it's been really fun.

Stephanie:
Yeah. Cause I think what's different with Subway Takes is that it's just about, you know, general social etiquette, maybe, or —

Adam:
Yeah.

Stephanie:
About fashion or all these things, but they're specifically about Edmonton. You know, that makes sense that that I think that is the right way to rip it off because you can watch people's general takes on Subway Takes, but this is specifically Edmonton takes. So, you know, you've talked about it a little bit maybe, but do you have any sort of overarching goal of this show other than boosting your comedy career? Like, you know, expanding —

Adam:
I mean, yeah.

Stephanie:
People's opinions about Edmonton?

Adam:
Yeah, I think there are a couple of things that I really like about the project. One of them, really straightforwardly, is normalizing the LRT. I think that the LRT system and Edmonton's transit system is super underappreciated and there is a lot of fearmongering. You go on YEGwave or something and they really blow up any possible incident that could ever happen on there. I know I have family members who, you know, live in the suburbs and are scared to go on the train. Like they won't do it. And I think that, that's just part of a modern divisiveness that is not helpful. So part of it is I just want people to think that the train is cool because I love a train and I think our train is great. And then also, yeah, I want people to be able to — I do like that there's the opportunity to sort of promote things in Edmonton and celebrate Edmonton, but also some things about Edmonton need to get complained about and people need a platform for that too. And I think that, you know, more and more there is less and less local media. I'm sure you see this as local reporters. There's less local television stations. There's fewer local publications. There's fewer even really local websites. We don't even have websites anymore really. And everything is getting, globalized. And so having some small thing where people can see something that is specifically local to them and it won't even make sense to people in Calgary, let alone in New York or, you know, Beijing. I think that that is special, and worth doing.

Stephanie:
Yeah, it's kind of like a little digital town square, you know, where you go and stand on your soapbox a bit.

Adam:
Yeah, the old Citytv, what is it called? Speakers' Corner, where you used to be able to go and stand in front of a Citytv camera and just say something and they would air it at 4 a.m. They should, you know? Exactly.

Stephanie:
My god, that's awesome. I didn't know about that. Bring that back. Maybe it'll be a new segment on Speaking Municipally.

Adam:
You guys you guys have the opportunity.

Stephanie:
Awesome. Well, so you know, you have, I was kind of scrolling through you got a lot of different types of takes. Like I saw a couple of arts-related ones, like "There are no original male creatives in Edmonton." You know, quite a few urbanism takes. I saw one that was like, "Infill is so ugly that it feels like the world is pranking me." So what kind of things do Edmontonians seem to have the strongest opinions about?

Adam:
I mean a lot of it is that people think Edmonton is too boring and they shouldn't. I'd say probably 50 per cent of people come with some version of that take, which I love. I love that positive spirit. But, you know, often someone will come and we'll have them on and we'll do like two or three takes, and that we can't put everyone's take on how Edmonton is secretly really exciting. But I think that's a really common one. The one that you just mentioned, about Edmonton having no creative males. I think you know, that definitely spurred some discussion. I couldn't really challenge it as somebody who is literally ripping off Subway Takes as we speak. But yeah, I mean, takes kind of run the gamut. A lot of people love Edmonton, a lot of people have things about it that they really don't like. But I'd say it's probably in terms of takes that we film, it's probably 60-40 positive to negative, which is nice. Yeah.

Stephanie:
And so I do quite a bit of reporting on like business and tech here, just to like back up a little bit. And in that, I feel like I hear several times a year at panels and stuff, "Edmonton is so humble and we need to be, you know, we need to take up more space." And I always think, "That's so silly. Like, probably every city says that." But I think it's interesting that you just kind of gave a more like non-businessy side of it, is that Edmonton's actually really cool and like no one really talks about it. So it's funny to me that we have the same take coming from the business community versus the people on Instagram. Yeah.

Adam:
Yeah. Yeah, we have definitely a small-town feel in a lot of ways, right? Calgary thinks it's New York and Edmonton thinks it's Grande Prairie. And I think that —

Stephanie:
Ha —

Adam:
That's one of the best things about our city, but it is also something that —

Stephanie:
This is —

Adam:
We have to kind of work through a little bit. I think it's the greatest city in the world. You know, I think I love it.

Stephanie:
And what does Grande Prairie think it is? Okay, I agree. I definitely think that Edmonton is the best city in the world. And I'm, like, not even being ironic when I say that. What does Grande Prairie think it is? If we think we're Grande Prairie.

Adam:
I don't know. Grande Prairie probably thinks it's Edmonton. You know, they, they're, they're, they're the big fish out there, small pond, right? Like Bezanson isn't coming for their for their crown anytime soon. So they've got something cooking up there. I do take —

Stephanie:
Yeah. All right.

Adam:
Too many shots at Grande Prairie in my takes, I feel like, but they don't even have internet out there, so they never get back to them.

Stephanie:
Okay. So how do you get guests? Because I've noticed it's a bit of like a who's who, at least for me who's like super chronically online and tuned in to like civic people, but it's a bit of a who's who of like civic folks here in Edmonton. So how do you get your guests? Do you reach out to them? Do they reach out to you? Do people come to you saying, "My God, I have a hot take that I really want to share"?

Adam:
It's been definitely a mix. Starting out, it was just purely my personal network, people I know from, comedy or the arts generally, or just like being around town. And then those people have recommended people to me and sort of put me in touch with people. Whenever we have somebody on, I ask them, like, "Do you have anyone else that you think would be a great guest?" Also people follow me on Instagram. And if they are a bigger account, I usually assume that they're following me because they want to do an LRT take. And so I ask them and then they always say yes, it seems like.

Stephanie:
Awesome.

Adam:
We've only had one no so far. And that was we just weren't gonna pay. But yeah.

Stephanie:
For the minute-long reel, right.

Adam:
But in general, you know, I think everyone has been like really down to do it. It takes like 20 minutes out of their time and they get to ride the train, which is always a thrill. And yeah, it's just in this self-feeding system. As more people watch it and as more people come on, that's more recommendations to me and more people like putting me in touch with their cool friends. And and then I get a lot of stand-up comedians bugging me that they want to do it. And because my social circle is so heavily stand-up, we have to sort of sprinkle them in here and there. But the nice thing is, you know, we shoot on like a weeknight and they don't have regular jobs, so they're usually available if somebody drops out at the last minute.

Stephanie:
You mentioned getting guests and, you know, asking people who is on your wish list? Who would you love to have on LRT Takes? And I don't know, maybe you can't share it because you're, you know, still working on the details, but do you have anyone who you'd love to have?

Adam:
We have some people, we have some pretty cool ones in the works that I really want to tell people about, but I feel like it'll just be embarrassing if I say if I talk about it and then they don't come into fruition. In terms of dream ones, obviously the mayor would be sick. We'd love to get Big Knack on here. We would like Lauren Kyle McDavid, I think would be like an excellent one. I think that she would have some takes. Obviously Connor also would be cool, but you know, either one and/or we definitely jump all over that. Yeah, that —

Stephanie:
Yeah. Both at the same time. Do you think that Connor McDavid has ever ridden the LRT? Yeah.

Adam:
For sure not.

Stephanie:
I feel like you'd need like 10 security guards if you got Connor McDavid on on the LRT. Yeah. Hmm.

Adam:
We can make it work, all right? We can we can figure something out. Obviously, you know, you and Mack would be dream guests on the show. If we can make that happen next time, yeah. Awesome.

Stephanie:
We can make it happen. That would be awesome. My god, I would love that. I'll I'll actually after this meeting I'll send Teams to Mack and say that we are officially dream guests on Speaking — or on LRT Takes.

Adam:
Awesome. And I'm — I assume I was also a dream guest on Speaking Municipally.

Stephanie:
Yes, I dreamed about it. It it came to me in a dream. Do you have anyone who is like a a nightmare guest who you don't want to hear their takes? Okay, maybe that's too mean.

Adam:
Man. You know what? One question that I've thought a lot about is would we be open, would I be open to having guests on who are politically active in ways that I don't think is good? We've had a couple of politicians come and tape ones. They've gone pretty well. We've had politicians do sort of like politically motivated takes and also like funny goofy takes. And I think that the funny goofy takes are actually really important to like humanize these people. For people. And I know that not everyone agrees with me. And this maybe is like a complicated take, but I actually would totally have on people if I thought they would be a chill hang whose political views are different than mine to share non-political perspectives, to sort of I don't know, as goofy and libbed up as it sounds, I do think we all need to understand each other better as as people. And so I think that could also be a part of the show as well. I don't know, that's a non-answer that won't upset —

Stephanie:
No, fair enough.

Adam:
Too many people.

Stephanie:
No, that's fair. It kind of reminds me, and this was — this segment was filmed at an extremely different time in Alberta politics, but when Rick Mercer and Danielle Smith went on a date to West Edmonton Mall. Like, you know, I don't know if those two would necessarily, especially today, agree on everything politically, but that's kind of what Rick Mercer was kind of about back then.

Adam:
Yeah.

Stephanie:
So I'm gonna ask you three questions about takes that have happened on the show so far. And I'll tell you them —

Adam:
Yeah.

Stephanie:
All at the beginning here, but I can tell you them again. Okay, what is the absolute hottest hot take that you've heard? What's the one that you agree with the most? And what's the one you disagree with the most? So, first, the spiciest hot take that you —

Adam:
The spiciest hot take we had was definitely that you should be allowed to speed on Groat Road. People did not like that one.

Stephanie:
Okay. Okay, I'm gonna say mild agree, and it's only because so many times I have gone down that road and just accidentally been speeding because the way that it's designed is — exactly.

Adam:
You're picking up some centrifugal force.

Stephanie:
And the thing is, is what drives me crazy is from an urban design perspective, when a road is not built to the speed limit that it is supposed to be. This is like a whole concept in urban planning. There are — and I'll give an example. When you're coming north into the city on Gateway, the road goes from, I think, 110 on like on the QE2, and then it goes from 90 to 70 to 60. And the road looks exactly the same the whole time. So how can you expect people to intuitively know to slow down other than looking at the sign if the road has not changed at all? It still feels and looks like a 110-kilometre-per-hour thoroughfare. And that's why that before photo radar was banned, that intersection, I think that would be 34th or 23rd Ave., that was the highest place for photo radar in the city because you aren't giving people the reason to slow down. So on Groat Road, if the road is literally designed to make you speed, I don't think you should be allowed to speed, but maybe not penalized as heavily. I —

Adam:
Right?

Stephanie:
Know that does — that's not how it works, but yeah.

Adam:
Yeah. And I'm just gonna correct you on one thing. You don't "mildly agree," you "low-level agree." We we —

Stephanie:
Low level, okay.

Adam:
We, we term these things based on the bridges here on LRT Takes. You've entered my — you've entered my world now. So you high-level agree, high —

Stephanie:
Okay.

Adam:
Level disagree, low-level agree. This is the this is yeah. This is how we measure our agreement or disagreement.

Stephanie:
The, the parameters. Okay, I understand. Okay, I low-level agree with that. Okay, so what is the one that you've heard on the show that you agree with the most?

Adam:
Definitely it was one of the first ones that we did. My friend Craig Martell came on and he dropped that if a place has donair or pizza in its name, it does not make good donaires or pizzas. So, donair and pizza in its name. It does not make good donair or pizza. You gotta pick one.

Stephanie:
Okay. I think I think can I say "Walterdale agree" because that's medium level. Cause okay, fine.

Adam:
Sure, you — yeah, you can you can be a coward if you need to here. I don't —

Stephanie:
I think I agree, and I think it could also apply to other restaurants too, because no hate at all to my first job, which was Royal Pizza, very Edmonton institution. But for a while they were going by Royal Pizza and Spaghetti House. And no, just stick to one. The pizza is better than the spaghetti.

Adam:
Yeah. Pick one.

Stephanie:
But okay, that's a, that's a, that's a nice, simple, easy take. Hey, really quick, what's your favourite donair place, Adam? What's your favourite donair place in the city?

Adam:
Favourite donair place, probably PrimeTime. I don't know if that's — they're, like, they're low-level going out of business. I don't know if you've noticed. Used to be like a hundred PrimeTimes, now there's like four and 96 permanently closed. But I just think those guys do tremendous work. They may be overexpanded. I know they're like one of the iconic spots, but I love me some PT.

Stephanie:
That's a pretty good one. Honestly, the Whyte Avenue PT has carried me through some difficult times in my life. I've been there.

Adam:
Did you ever go to the King of Donair that was there before them? It was like apparently —

Stephanie:
I don't think so.

Adam:
That's some like mythical, like famed Atlantic Canadian donair place. They'll be, like, their second location on Whyte Ave. And I don't know what they were doing so fundamentally different than every other donair place I've ever been to. But it took like 25 minutes for them to do the thing with like the dong of meat. And I — I've never, I've never seen it take so long. It was good. It was delicious. I was like, I can, I can see why —

Stephanie:
Was it worth the wait?

Adam:
This is popular, but no, it was not worth the wait. Nothing's worth that kind of wait.

Stephanie:
Yeah, I don't think — $25 — well, $25, yes. Twenty-five minutes for a donair is criminal. That shouldn't be allowed. Okay.

Adam:
It was nuts. Yeah, I was there before comedy shows. I was trying to get someplace. It was nuts.

Stephanie:
Okay. Now what is the take that you disagreed with the most that you've heard so far on the show?

Adam:
Okay, so this is going directly against what I said live and on camera in the actual take. But I actually do want to say that I strongly disagree, high-level disagree with the "no creative males in Edmonton" take. I think there are — Edmonton is one of the best art cities in Canada. There are so many creative people. I'm so, you know, lucky and fortunate to be a part of the comedy community and the greater arts community here. And I think some of the most exciting stand-up and improv and music and theatre is happening right here and that's boys and girls and everybody in between.

Stephanie:
I think I'm gonna go with with what you just said. I'm gonna say high-level agree. So high-level disagree with the original take. Only reason I say that is because I feel like I don't know enough about the creative scene to be able to make make a judgment like that because it's so vast that it's like that the more you know, the more you know you don't — you know, you... I go to a new theatre show and all of a sudden I'm opened up to this whole world of creative people that I didn't even know existed. And then I'm like, dang, how much else do I not know? So yeah, I'm gonna say that I also — there's a ton of creativity among all people in Edmonton. So I agree with that. Yeah.

Adam:
High level agree. And if you want to educate yourself even more, you can always come down to the Underdog Comedy Show at Black Dog every Thursday night, —

Stephanie:
Ha ha —

Adam:
9 o'clock. We're Canada's oldest free weekly comedy show. And you're gonna see somebody on there every week who's been on Just for Laughs and somebody who's doing it for the first time. And you will be able to tell the difference, but you're gonna have fun with both of them.

Stephanie:
Awesome. Is that — we're recording this on Friday morning? And I didn't know that you were up at a comedy show last night. So I'm very sorry for putting this on your calendar schedule, Adam. Okay.

Adam:
Yeah, yeah, it's it's always fun.

Stephanie:
Okay, so this is kind of my last question. And I don't know, maybe maybe you'll have a no comment and be a coward, but you've put everyone else on the spot. What is your most controversial Edmonton take?

Adam:
So I've been saving my take for live publication —

Stephanie:
That's fair.

Adam:
When I hit 2,000 views, but I will — 2,000 followers. But I am gonna say I think that YEGwave is bad for Edmonton. I think it is deliberately divisive, and I think that people shouldn't follow it. And that's my hot Edmonton take.

Stephanie:
High — higher-level, highest-level agree with that as a journalist. It breaks my heart when like intelligent people that I know are like, "Yeah, I saw this on YEGwave. Like, I didn't know what was going on, so I checked it out on YEGwave." Don't do that. And then and and they acknowledge to themselves and to me that the comments are a cesspool of negativity and often racism and xenophobia. And like, "Yeah, the comments are so bad. I don't even know why I look at them." Then block them. It's one button, block YEGwave. You don't need to see it anymore. And it's so sad that there's no real news allowed on Instagram anymore. So that is all that people have. Yeah, extremely high-level agree, unfollow and block YEGwave. And I and I'm not afraid to say it.

Adam:
High level agree, cosigned.

Stephanie:
Yeah. Okay. That was that's the end of what I've got for you. But and you did do a little plug already. But Adam, is there anything else you want to add about LRT Takes, about Edmonton's comedy scene? Anything else you want the the listeners of Speaking Municipally to know?

Adam:
Follow me on Instagram at adamdyckjokes. I started this whole thing in the first place because after doing comedy for 13 years and performing and producing over a thousand shows, I still had fewer Instagram followers than my wife, who is just a nice lady that people like. And so and so that's really —

Stephanie:
No.

Adam:
What I'm in this for. Follow me on Instagram at adamdyckjokes. Dyck with a Y. There's no I in my Dyck.

Stephanie:
We will put the link in the show notes for those of you who want —

Adam:
Perfect.

Stephanie:
To follow. Yeah, okay. Again, thank you so much, Adam, for joining me. This was a really fun conversation. And I will see you on the train or maybe on the bus. Have you done a bus take yet? Because I love the bus. I love the eight bus.

Adam:
We haven't done a bus take yet. We've — I've been thinking about bus takes, especially for non-Edmonton. Like the plan down the line is to go and do some CTrain takes in Calgary, maybe even some like St. Albert Transit takes in St. Albert, stuff like that, where they don't have a train. So we would get on the bus. And hopefully live shows. We wanna do some live shows. I know you can put stuff together on the streetcar and things like that. So stay tuned for LRT Takes live, probably in the new year.

Stephanie:
Nice. Also, one thing I will maybe rescind my, my bus takes thing because don't ask me how I know this, but if you ever try to film something on a bus because the driver is right there, they will tell you to stop. So maybe we — I don't want to get banned from transit. So maybe we should just do it kind of in secret on LRT.

Adam:
That's fair. They put on the LRT on the train, they put the driver in a little room and he — they have no idea what's going on. Yeah.

Stephanie:
Yeah, exactly. Okay, cool. Adam, thank you so much and yeah, see you on the LRT.

Adam:
Absolutely.

Mack:
Well that was fun. Good interview.

Stephanie:
I had, I had so much fun talking with him. We just — I, I, I like debating. I liked that we got to debate some of the takes that have been on the show. I'm very opinionated. So yeah, that was very fun. What are your — what's your take on the takes?

Mack:
Well, I love that he's such a supporter of transit and he's trying to create, like you said right off the top, this sort of thoughtful critique about what's going on in Edmonton. I guess this is a fun way to do it. I just, you know, these are these are all of a piece, right? Comedians in cars and Subway Takes and like there's a ton of these style of videos, and I feel like they are very, you know, 2020s social media and I'm not sure that they will exist in a couple of years. Already, with the amount of AI slop that is available on these platforms, I think it's hard for things like this to you know, find an audience. Having said all of that, he's a real person in Edmonton who cares about this place, cares about LRT, trying to build community in in his own way. And I, I really love that. I think if more people did that, the world would be a better place. I'm a bit saddened that it always has to take place on social media, but I guess that's the world we live in.

Stephanie:
Yeah. And what was your reaction when you heard that he wanted us on the show?

Mack:
I'm very excited about that. I, like you, am opinionated, obviously. We're podcast hosts. You kind of have to have an opinion, I think. I have a few takes in mind. I won't, I won't spoil it for now, but I'm working on that. I know you have been working on this. You've got some things in mind.

Stephanie:
Yeah, I literally have a note in my phone that I'm keeping to write down like I'm not gonna — it's not gonna be scripted, but it's just points that I wanna make sure I hit when I'm defending my take.

Mack:
Yeah. Okay. Well, stay tuned for that. Stephanie and I on a future episode of LRT Takes. It should be fun. Thanks for doing that interview. That was great. Okay, we hear from you regularly, listeners and viewers. Sometimes you email us, sometimes you text us, you send things in, and we really appreciate all of that. So I just want to encourage you to always feel free to reach out to Stephanie and I with your feedback, with your ideas. Sometimes the things, the threads we follow, the things that come on the show, are a result of the input that you share with us. And so we love to hear from you. If you've got a question or you've got a suggestion or you want to introduce us to somebody, please feel free. If you love the show, this is a good opportunity to go and tell other people that you love the show. Leave us a rating on your site of choice, and that helps other people find Speaking Municipally. We would appreciate that. This has been a fun episode. Next week we'll be back again with one that is a different kind of fun, I would say. Stephanie will probably have more on infill, referendum, other serious...

Stephanie:
Something else will probably pop up and happen. Every day things happen. I'm sick of it.

Mack:
But we might make it fun because our next episode will be Oct. 30, which is Halloween, right before Halloween. Maybe maybe Stephanie will dress up for us. Have you got a costume for this year?

Stephanie:
Yes. I, I, I, I might. I'm not really sure yet. With, with everything happening, like Halloween is the last thing on my on my to-do list. You know, last year because around this time last year was almost the election and of course infill was such a big deal on the ballot and I thought it'd be a really funny costume to go with like something really scary, go as an eightplex, just have like a T-shirt with eight doors on it. I can't —

Mack:
Yeah.

Stephanie:
Believe a year later I can still make that exact same joke.

Mack:
You absolutely could. It'd be scarier this time, actually.

Stephanie:
Ooh.

Mack:
Okay, well tune in next week to see what Stephanie wears.

Stephanie:
Ha ha ha.

Mack:
Until then, I'm Mack.

Stephanie:
I'm Stephanie.

Adam:
I'm Adam.

Mack:
And we're...

All:
Speaking Municipally.