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The AIH transcript for April 09, 2025

For more episodes of this podcast, please click this link.

NIL KÖKSAL: Hello, I'm Nil Köksal.

CHRIS HOWDEN: Good evening, I'm Chris Howden. This is As It Happens.

[theme]

CH: Tonight:

NK: Trading punches. As the U.S.-China trade war heats up to the boiling point, we'll hear from a consultant who helps Americans do business in China. He says his job just got a lot more hectic and a lot more precarious.

CH: Rough justice. When the former president of the Philippines was arrested last month, it was a big win for families whose loved ones were killed in his drug war. But our guest says she's been re-traumatized by online abuse from supporters of Rodrigo Duterte.

NK: Cross-country collaboration. The mother of an Indigenous woman killed by police in New Brunswick tells us about her efforts to affect change in policing -- and about how one police chief on the other side of Canada is responding.

CH: Tardigrating on a curve. The tiny, unstoppable tardigrade has taken the microscopic crown as the Guardian's "Invertebrate of the Year". We'll hear how it got 8 legs up on the competition.

NK: The rotifer was robbed! The morale of the story. The two losingest teams in U.S. college baseball went head to head this week. One pitcher tells us about the very alien sensation of winning.

CH: And... all work and no playlist. A new study finds that lousy music in the workplace can mess with job

performance. So, if you want your staff to change their tune, change their tunes.

CH: As It Happens, the Wednesday Edition. Radio that's jam packed.

[theme]

Part 1: Chinese Tariffs, Chantel Moore Mother, Baseball Losers No More

Chinese Tariffs

Guest: Ben Schwall

CH: Since the American President made those remarks, China raised its retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports from 34 per cent to 84 per cent. But markets did shoot up later today, after Trump abruptly announced a 90-day pause on most other tariffs. Obviously, the numbers are changing often, and without warning. Which is a challenge for people who do business in both countries. People like Ben Schwall. He's the founder of STG Consultants, which advises on supply chains in Asia, with a focus on importing lighting from China to the U.S. We reached Mr. Schwall in Taipei, Taiwan.

NK: Ben, I wonder what the last few days have been like for you. I mean, how many phone calls, what kinds of phone calls have you been fielding?

BEN SCHWALL: It's been pretty hectic. You could probably hear my voice is a little bit raspy because I've been speaking so much. I've had calls from clients obviously that are concerned, from my employees, from family members, everyone, factories, people that we work with professionally, and people that we just know, just wanting to know, like, what's going on? What are you going, what's gonna happen? What are you doing?

NK: And what do you say when they ask you? Those are big questions in tumultuous times with a lot on the line.

BS: It keeps changing really quickly. So, my answer has been changing. The other day, when they first came out with the tariffs, it seemed that at first, that it was going to be 54 per cent for China and 47 per cent for Vietnam. And at that point, I was very confused and almost angry thinking, we've been working so hard for the last six months, trying to get production out of China into Vietnam, or into India and into these other countries. And now, suddenly, these places have these huge tariffs, which made me think that we're gonna just go back to China. Because when the difference between the tariff rate in China and Vietnam is under 10 per cent, but it cost you more than 15 per cent to make it in Vietnam, you stay where you are.

NK: As people call and cancelations come through, can you give us a ballpark of how big those orders are?

BS: Well, in the beginning, when it was 54 per cent, it wasn't so bad. But today, when it hit 104 per cent, I had multiple clients call and say, cancel everything. Just stop. Because they need to get some vision about what's going to happen. They need to break out their crystal ball and try to figure out what to do. When everything stops, it's really not a good sign.

NK: And you mentioned friends and family asking you questions as well. What are you telling them about what this might mean for you?

BS: We're concerned. You know, this could put us out of business if it becomes so prohibitive that no one is, we're mostly in the lighting industry. And if we can no longer find any country to ship lights to the u.s. from, to the U.S., then our purpose of being disappears.

NK: The numbers are staggering. The size of the tariffs, certainly. Do you think they've hit their ceiling? Or do you think it could go even higher?

BS: You know at this point, at 104, it almost doesn't matter how much higher it goes because it's too high. It reminds me of the, when I was a child, there was the Bugs Bunny cartoon of Yosemite Sam and Bugs Bunny picking up progressively larger guns and pointing them at each other. At a 104 per cent tariff, things are stopped. If something is too expensive to ship, it doesn't if it's 10 times too expensive or 50 times too expensive, it's just too expensive.

NK: Ben, I, we just saw that the U.S. president, just as I'm speaking to you, increased the tariffs for China to 125 per cent.

BS: Well, that, it doesn't affect us because all of our shipments already stopped at 104 per cent. Down the road, when there are no more goods on the shelves, maybe then it'll make a difference. But right now, it's 125, 150, it doesn't matter. We're not shipping anything.

NK: Just the fact that they're coming like that, how quickly things are changing, as you were saying before, speaks volumes.

BS: Yeah, and it's difficult because, you know, at a snap of a finger, these icebergs are popping up and the supply chain is like a ship that, a big oil tanker that takes a long time to change direction. We can't snap our fingers and change where we're manufacturing. It's moving too fast.

NK: You certainly have a lot of experience negotiating with business people in China in particular. So, that clip we heard earlier, the tone, the rhetoric, is this going to be the right way, or an effective way to actually do business with China?

BS: You know, in Asia, it's not good to publicly back someone into a corner. It's not just the American audience and the Canadian audience that's listening to this. There's a Chinese audience, and so I think publicly, this isn't the best way to be behaving for both sides if they want to fix the problem. Maybe there's going to be some more private, back room talk to try to make a solution. Right now, it just sounds like it's soundbites.

NK: Yeah, is anyone really going to be begging?

BS: I think in the near future, the American consumer is going to be begging.

NK: People who support the U.S. President's approach have said that, you know, this is short-term pain. This all might be chaotic now, but trade imbalances are a reality. And that there will be gain in the long-term. What do you make of that argument?

BS: I don't see it being so short-term if the tariffs stay in place. Because we don't have any easy solution to come up with an alternative, even if we wanted to, if tomorrow you said we must build these in America, it will take, even a year would be optimistic to think that we could set up and manufacture lighting fixtures in the U.S.

NK: Well, Ben, it's been a pleasure speaking with you. Thank you for your time.

BS: Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity.

CH: Ben Schwall is the founder of STG Consultants. We reached him in Taipei, Taiwan.

[ambient]

Chantel Moore Mother

Guests: Martha Martin, Del Manak

CH: It's been nearly five years since Chantel Moore was killed by a New Brunswick police officer during a wellness check. The 26-year-old Tla-o-qui-aht woman had moved to Edmundston from British Columbia to be closer to her six-year-old daughter, Gracie, and her mother, Martha Martin. And today, her mother is back in British Columbia -- to draw attention to the work the Victoria Police Department has been doing since Chantel's death, to reform how wellness checks are handled there. For the past two years, the department has been piloting what it calls "Co-Response Teams," which include a police officer and a psychiatric nurse. Martha Martin is encouraging other jurisdictions to adopt that approach. An approach local police chief Del Manak says she helped inspire. We reached Ms. Martin and Police Chief Manak in Victoria.

NK: Martha, you were just at an event that highlighted the work of the Co-Response Teams there and you intentionally chose to wear blue, a colour associated with police, of course. Why did you want to do that?

MARTHA MARTIN: Well, OK, so for me, you know, I think moving forward, building healthy relationships with police detachments, it was important for me to show solidarity with Chief Del Manak and his police department.

NK: After your daughter was killed, I mean, could you have imagined reaching this point where there is that kind of relationship and that you'd want to be so public about your support?

MM: Honestly, you know, in the beginning of my daughter's death, you know, I would have never imagined my alliance with a police department. But, you know, Chief Del Manak made it so easy. Because, you know, he said what he was going to do and he did it. So, it made it very easy to stand in solidarity with Chief Del Manak and his police department.

NK: Chief Manak, to hear that, and I'm sure she's relayed that to you in person before as well, but to hear it again, how does that feel?

DEL MANAK: Well it's extremely humbling. I have to say that when I met Martha in a park in Victoria when she was holding a gathering and a vigil for her daughter Chantel, I didn't know what to expect. But I wanted to talk to her to find out how could the Victoria Police Department better support her? And it has inspired me to move forward with our health authority and to create a Co-Response Team that responds to mental health calls. And so, and Martha knows this because her and I have chatted many many times since our first meeting. But she's a special person and she wants to make positive change. And when I saw that in her, I knew that I instantaneously wanted to work with her and I wanted to make commitments to her that I felt I could improve the service of how police interact when responding to mental health calls, and I was committed to doing that, and working with Martha.

NK: So, these teams have been operational in Victoria for about two years now. So, participating officers respond with nurses. Chief, what have those officers told you about how those interactions have been going, how it helps them to be in those units?

DM: There are countless examples. They use trauma-informed approaches. They are looking at calls through a mental health lens, not a criminal lens. They have access now -- the team has access -- to all the databases at the health authority, patient records, medication, who the physician is. And so, what the team have told me time and time again is that it is leading to better outcomes. And I've heard from a number of the officers on the team now that this is the most rewarding work that they have done in their career, where they feel they're making the greatest amount of positive impact in the lives of people who need help.

NK: You know, Martha, our listeners heard a little bit about how Chantel was killed. It was during a wellness check. Again, this happened in New Brunswick, not in British Columbia. But if there was something like this in place, I mean, it must be a very difficult thing to think about in your mind what would have been different?

MM: It is. But, you know, like, I, we all know that not all, you know, like, we don't want to say all police are bad people. But what it narrows down to is, are they equipped to do wellness checks? And the answer is no. You know, like, had, you know, something been different the night of my daughter's death, you know, the outcome could have been different. So, you know, just knowing that they're trying to make a difference and hearing first hand from their staff how rewarding the work is, it gives me hope that we can make this transition across the country a little smoother.

NK: I know you've been hearing from people who don't agree with you as well, who don't share your point of view, or this kind of relationship that you've developed with the chief and with police in general. What do they say?

MM: Well, in all honesty, there's still a lot of mistrust with policing in general, right? So, by me standing in solidarity with the Vic PD, hopefully that can lighten some of that, where we can start building that trust within police departments across the country.

NK: There are also, Chief, as you know, people who feel that, yes, there should be teams that respond, but that police shouldn't be involved in wellness checks at all. What would you say to them?

DM: Yeah, well, I mean, we want to approach all of these situations with a health approach and a health lens, not a criminal lens. And so, there are going to be times where the police are going have to respond. And when I speak of these instances, it's where there is criminality, or where there's violence or weapons. But most of the calls, when you go to wellness checks, or when we're checking on people's mental health, don't necessarily involve weapons, or threats, or criminality. And so, the majority of the time, you can go to either a civilian-only response where there is no police officer, or where there may be a risk to safety, then you can with a co-response to the team like we're talking about -- the Co-Response Team -- where the officer can stabilize the situation, de-escalate if needed, but then step away.

NK: And just finally, Martha, the officer in Edmundston who killed your daughter was never charged with any crime. The prosecution service ultimately found that his actions were, quote, reasonable in the circumstances, unquote. And as we've said, this program is happening in Victoria, not where Chantel was killed in New Brunswick. What more would you like to see to feel that you've gotten justice and accountability for her?

MM: Well, there's a long way to go, you know? And accountability, you know, when we talking about there's no charges, and, you know we had the coroner's inquest and, you know, it was wrote a homicide, we had a knife that was supposed to be in my daughter's hand, but there was none of her fingerprints on it. So, it raised a lot more questions. And when we're talking about the bigger picture, you know, like, I want to see them do better. Ultimately because, like we talked about in the beginning, like, a mental health check should not end in somebody losing their life. And I will say it time and time again, you know, let's keep moving forward because nothing that is going to happen from now and in the future is never going to bring my daughter back. But if we can prevent another mother from losing her child is the ultimate goal for me.

NK: Martha, I'm very sorry for your loss, but I appreciate your time. And Chief, I thank you as well.

DM: Thanks for having me on.

MM: Yes, you're welcome. Thank you.

CH: Martha Martin is the mother of Chantel Moore. We reached her and Victoria Police Chief Del Manak in Victoria, B.C.

[winding instrumental]

Baseball Losers No More

Guest: Justin Chamorro

CH: It was a double-header that had the potential to be a double-bummer. In fact, earlier this week, we told you that two games between two frankly terrible Division III college baseball teams in the U.S. had the potential to be one of the worst games ever. Well, yesterday, the teams finally faced one another. The Yeshiva University Maccabees and the Lehman College Lightning took the field. And given the cathartic result, I'm pretty sure that there was crying in baseball. In the first game of the double header, Lehman College won 7-6, ending a 42-game losing streak -- and extending Yeshiva University's streak to 100 straight losses. But Yeshiva won the second game 9 to 5 -- ending the longest active losing streak in college baseball. And leaving both teams with a victory. Justin Chamorro was the starting pitcher for Lehman in game one. We reached him on campus, in the Bronx, New York.

NK: Congratulations, Justin. How does it feel?

JUSTIN CHAMORRO: It's an urgent sense of relief. [NK chuckles] I'm so happy. It's one win down. It was that hump that we needed to get over. Honestly, I'm grateful.

NK: Just, I mean, it was such a long time. How do you get through something like that game after game?

JC: It's a lot of grit, perseverance. I mean, truly, it's difficult as a team because I'm not only speaking for myself, but after so many losses, your morale starts to go down. And it's like, when is it going to happen? It's only a matter of time. And that matter of time still happened to be yesterday.

NK: And at what point during the game yesterday, because it was right down to the wire for that first game, how--

JC: Yes, yes it was.

NK: [chuckling] Yeah. At what point do you feel like, okay, this might be it. This might be that moment.

JC: Well, when we took the lead in the seventh, in the bottom of the seventh, and I knew I was going out there for one more inning, I knew, I was like, I'm going to lock down this inning and we're going to secure this win for Lehman. I just knew it and I'm just grateful that my teammates had my back and picked me up.

NK: And the moment you realized that you did win, I saw a little bit of a video on Instagram. There was a little but of strut there, understandably, but what were you feeling in those moments?

JC: You know, I was feeling a sense of pride, you know, being a New York native coming from the Bronx, this school has seen a lot of obstacles and adversity. And basically, I don't know if you could make out, but I was just saying, we're here, we are here. Because we're representing. I'm representing this school. I'm representing everything that I've gone through, all the struggles that the program has gone through. We made it through. That was the daylight that we needed to see.

NK: How did you guys celebrate?

JC: [chuckle] I mean, truly, I don't think we celebrated yesterday. It was, we still had to get the job done and we didn't. But after two games, I think, well, I didn't, I don' think, I went to my favorite spot in the city -- 375, it's a chicken and waffles spot -- and got myself some fries.

NK: Nice! [chuckling].

JC: That was about it

NK: very, very responsible, very responsible celebration. [both laugh] What do you think, you talked about that with the struggles of the team, you know, and earlier this week, I spoke with Dan Sarmiento, who was at the game. He's a YouTuber, and he's, he thought that that part of the issue might have been funding, and funding leads to better recruiting. So, he thought that was that was part of the issue. But you're on the team. What was getting in the way of a win before now?

JC: Oof, that is one of the biggest issues, actually. I feel like if we had the resources we needed, we would have definitely been competing at a much higher level. The support has also been an issue. I mean, be it that this school is more recognized for basketball and athletics. You know, we don't really get that much shine and attention. But yeah, it's a lot of, a lot also the players as well. A lot of players are young, it' rebuilding. You know, after the year we had last year, it was difficult. This is a rebuilding process. We're just basically getting the experience that we need for the freshmen, incoming class to be successful in the future.

NK: Does this feel like a turning point? The head coach, Chris Delgado, sent us a statement, too, after we requested one talking about the rebuilding of the program, new coaching. Do you feel that that process of rebuilding, plus the win yesterday, it is a turning for you guys?

JC: I think so, I know so. I mean, I know for me, I hope I demonstrated to my teammates that we can definitely do this together, you know? I need each and every single one of them invested like we were the first game. We're taking it a step at a time. I know Coach Delgado has invested so much of his time and I give him a lot of props.

NK: What did Coach Delgado say after that win?

JC: [laughing] Congratulations on your first win. And I told him the same. [laughing]

NK: You're laughing, so I feel like there were other words there that you don't want to repeat.

JC: No, no, no! [NK laughs] It was literally just like that. We just both smiled because, you know, it was a long journey for both of us. And him being that he has just recently been named head coach, it's an accomplishment

NK: Right. There's gotta be life lessons in every one of those losses and yesterday's win. What has this all taught you?

JC: [warm chuckle] Truly, I could give you the most clichéest lesson, never give up, but it taught me that even in the face of adversity, it builds character. And all it takes is that one win to show you that it was worth it. All the hard work was worth it, all the effort you put into it, all that concentration you put into, it's all worth it in the end.

NK: What has the reaction been like on campus? I'm sure there was a lot of ribbing going on during your streak, losing streak, right?

JC: Oh my gosh! [NK chuckles] I'm just glad to put a stop to the nonsense I was hearing around campus, all the negativity. I mean, truly, the softball team was there supporting us. They were a very good support system yesterday, and I'm so grateful for them. And I've also gotten different players from different teams congratulating us, and it's a different feeling now.

NK: That's great, Justin. Congratulations to you and your teammates. I appreciate this. Take care.

JC: No, of course. Thank you so much for taking some time out of your day to interview me.

NK: A pleasure.

JC: Honestly, a pleasure.

CH: Justin Chamorro is a pitcher for the Lehman College Lightning. We reached him in the Bronx.

[pop]

Workplace Music Study

CH: You really enjoy being a dental hygienist. Tartar, plaque, gingivitis: it's all terrific. Except for one aspect.

[Kokomo by The Beach Boys/surf rock]

CH: It's this radio station they pipe in. It feels like these mellow hits are chipping away at your sanity, like you chip away at unwanted buildup on patients' teeth. You hear Kokomo five times a day. When you're carefully scraping tartar off someone's incisors.

[Kokomo by The Beach Boys/surf rock]

CH: When you're demonstrating proper flossing technique.

[Kokomo by The Beach Boys/surf rock. This time, it’s distorted]

CH: You struggle to ignore it. But one day, as you're polishing someone's molars, it comes on again. And this time, you snap.

[Kokomo by The Beach Boys/surf rock, this time it’s all falling apart]

CH: Before you know it, you're yelling "Stop calling me 'pretty mama'!" and smearing a thick layer of toothpaste on the speaker in the ceiling, trying to silence it. But it's not your fault. For one thing, you've got a musical mis-fit. And for another, you're a non-screener. These are the conclusions of a new study in the Journal of Applied Psychology, which examines the issue of music in the workplace. This music is chosen to improve the customer experience. But customers are only in a store or dentist's office for an hour or two at a time. Employees are there all the time. And if that music doesn't fit with their experience of the job -- if it's a mis-fit -- their work will really suffer. Especially if they're what’s called "non-screeners", meaning people who can't filter background music out. So, if you're trying to increase productivity, maybe let your staff pick the tunes. And that's the Koko-moral of the story.

[chillhop house tour music. I can’t listen to music at work. I wish I could listen to music at work]

Part 2: Duterte Lawsuit, Winning Invertibrate

Duterte Lawsuit

Guest: Sheerah Escudero

CH: It's a major development -- but the victims of Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs still have a long fight ahead. As we told you last month, the former president of the Philippines was arrested under a warrant from the International Criminal Court, and accused of crimes against humanity, over killings carried out when he was president and, before that, as the mayor of the city of Davao. It was an important moment for Sheerah Escudero, whose brother Ephraim was found dead in 2017 -- his hands bound and his head wrapped in packaging tape. He was 18 years old. Now, she and other families are raising the alarm once again. Ms. Escudero is part of Rise Up for Life and for Rights, an organization that brings relatives of victims together to push for justice. And they say that since Mr. Duterte's arrest, they've been facing a flood of online attacks and harassment. She is one of five people targeted who've filed a complaint with the Cybercrime Division of the National Bureau of Investigation. We reached Sheerah Escudero in Manila.

NK: Sheerah, how are you coping now with all of these threats?

SHEERAH ESCUDERO: So, with all of these threats, I'm still trying to live my normal life. And at the same time, do advocacy work by day and by night. It's honestly taking toll on my mental health. I've been seeking professional help since my brother died. And I still keep on going to therapies. Until now, I actually had a conversation with my psychiatrist earlier. So, it's really hard to, like, fight. At the same time, get attacked when you know you just want people to know the truth. You just want justice, but they try to manipulate your narrative. They try to harass you and bully you online instead.

NK: I'm so sorry you're --

SE: And coping.

NK: I'm so sorry you're going through all of this, Sheerah. And thank you for letting us know that you are getting help. I'm glad you have people to help you and to speak to because it is a lot that you have on your shoulders with your own grief, but also the advocacy work you do. If you can, as much as you want to share, a lot of these messages you're getting are mostly on Facebook. What do some of them say?

SE: I get, like, harassments from the comment sections, both on my Facebook account and on the post that the both local and international media outlets do publish. I remember someone saying that I am a criminal, I am an addict. And they, someone said they should just hung themselves, referring to us, the families of the victims. And I remember seeing this message saying they are irritated with me. And then, one initiated that I should get punched on the nose. And then, the other person replied, if only I am near.

NK: So, direct threats. What do they say about your brother?

SE: About my brother, they keep on accusing me that he's an addict. They go to my Facebook and send me direct messages. They say that's great that it happened to your brother. He deserves to die because he's and addict. They even told me addicts should be beheaded. Are you an addict, too? And then they spam me with all the available curse words that they know, I think.

NK: I'm so sorry, Sheerah. I know you filed an affidavit at the National Bureau of Investigation. Do you get the sense that these are individuals, single people doing this, or that it's part of an organized campaign?

SE: It seems like an organized campaign. Most accounts do look like trolls, but most private messages that I get, they're coming from accounts that looks like real people. So, it's really very saddening for me.

NK: And I think some people listening outside of the Philippines, and they hear you talk about Facebook might think, okay, maybe they can shut down their Facebook, or just delete the comments. But Facebook is a major form of communication in the Philippines. This is, you know, would it even be possible for you to step away from the platform?

SE: So, for me, this is a very crucial moment for me to stay visible so I can keep on doing my advocacy work, so they'll know that I am a real person and they'll my brother's stories and the other family stories.

NK: I spoke on our show to Kristina Conti just last month. She's one of the lawyers with the Union of People's lawyers, which represents you and others. She has also submitted a complaint to the NBI because of online threats. And she has said to Reuters that she believes supporters could be doing this -- supporters of Duterte could be doing this -- to discredit victims' families who might eventually appear as witnesses in Duterte's trial. Do you think that that could be what is happening?

SE: Yes, for me, they're trying to discredit us to make us look that we're not real, our relatives are not real. They never really died under the Duterte's drug war. That's why we keep on standing out. We keep on telling people that we really do exist and these killings really do happen. And as much as they try to shut us and intimidate us, even if it's hard for us as well, we really try our best to be strong and to keep on fighting for justice because justice is all we want for my brother and for the other thousands of victims.

NK: Before we let you go, Sheerah, what do you want people to know about your brother? Because many of them are learning about him because of how he died and what happened to him. But what do want people know about who he was?

SE: I want people to know that he also left us two sons. They were toddler and infant when my brother died. And my brother is really a good person. He never had any criminal record. It's really painful for us, for my brother to experience such brutality. I hope people will keep on listening and also join us on our journey for justice.

NK: How are your nephews doing?

SE: Sometimes, they ask why their father died. So, it's a really hard question to answer and we still can't tell them the details yet. Right now, they are happy kids who keeps on missing their dad. They keep on saying, why did he die so early?

NK: Sheerah, I'm sorry for your loss, but I do appreciate your time. Please take care.

SE: Thank you so much.

CH: Sheerah Escudero has filed an official complaint about the online harassment she's been facing since the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte. We reached her in Manila.

[lofi]

Winning Invertibrate

Guest: Bibi van der Zee

CH: It was a battle for the ages. Not so much a David and Goliath story as a David and David story, if David was really very little. Facilitated by the Guardian newspaper out of the U.K., the 2025 "Invertebrate of the Year" contest captured imaginations the world over, with its mostly small and entirely spineless contenders. And it captured our imaginations, too. We spoke with a writer who contributed to entries celebrating each of the ten shortlisted invertebrates -- from the amber comet firefly to the flamboyant cuttlefish. And we heard from a Guardian reader here in Canada, who made a passionate pitch for the underrated bdelloid rotifer. Today, we reached Guardian editor Bibi van der Zee in London, with an update on the paper's long-awaited winner.

NK: Bibi, this is the moment that so many listeners [chuckling] and your readers have been waiting for, I know. Who is the, which is, what is the Invertebrate of the Year for 2025?

BIBI VAN DER ZEE: It was the Tardigrade.

NK: Oh boy!

BVDZ: Which was a favourite from the beginning. Yes, Milnasium tardigradum.

NK: This is going to be controversial for some who were involved in this, including one of your readers, who was one of our guests, Nina Munteanu. She nominated the bdelloid rotifer and waxed poetic about it. I remember that interview. It was great. It was a great conversation. It was on the shortlist. Clearly, did not come out on top. But Nina had some things to say about your winner. Have a listen.

SOUNDCLIP

NINA MUNTEANU: Everybody seems to know about the tardigrade or the water bear, you know, the cute moss piglet because, because of all the propaganda. But nobody knows about the bdelloid. [both laugh].

NK: Well, they will now!

NM: So, they can do just about everything the tardigrade does, by the way.

NK: This is a hard-hitting interview, Bibi. I need to get your response.

BVDZ: [laughing] Well, I know. I mean, I did think of Nina when I heard that the tardigrade had won because we had thousands of nominations, and we went through them, and it was so much, it brought us all so much happiness because we just got in touch with all these incredible creatures that they loved. And Nina was very passionate about the rotifer. And we all got quite passionate about it as well. I means, it is really amazing, So, I knew she would be disappointed [NK chuckles] because she, I think even in her nomination, she was slagging off the tardigrade. [chuckling]

NK: I mean,. does she have a point, though?

BVDZ: I mean, tardigrades are incredible now they are actually making and they kind of a cult status and they're kind of, like, they've reached outside the invertebrate box, and they're all over the place. But I know why she loves the rotifer so much. I mean, it is just, I mean every single animal on the short list had a fact which just made your jaw hit the floor. And I think the one that, with the rotifer was the fact that it, they had dug one with a dog one up. It had be frozen for 24,000 years them. And they thawed it, it came back to life [chuckle] and was able to carry on reproducing.

NK: [both chuckling] We also spoke, as you likely recall, with your colleague Patrick Barkham. He mentioned the tardigrade as well. And we asked him how he thought this year's contest might go because the earthworm -- common earthworm -- won last time around. Have a listen.

SOUNDCLIP

PATRICK BARKHAM: Well, I was surprised at the outpouring of love for the common earthworm last year, but I do think readers seem to be -- or people in general -- seem very drawn towards insects that are useful and sort of maybe unsung heroes, you know, and perform all these important tasks. I suspect the really gruesome ones, the tongue-biting louse and so forth, won't triumph in the end. I think it will be a more useful creature. But I do quite fancy the tardigrades this year, I think.

NK: Not that you want to tip the scales, Patrick, I mean --

PB: We have to stay neutral. I'm very neutral.

NK: I mean, we'll have to ask if this was rigged? [chuckling]

BVDZ: It was absolutely not rigged. And, in fact, there was great disappointment from everyone else on the desk who did not want the tardigrade to win. So Patrick was, although I think our editor-in-chief also told me she was very fond of the tardigrades. It was, actually, it wasn't quite as big a gap as I thought it would be. And the flamboyant cuttlefish, amazingly, came in really close as well.

NK: I was going to ask you about some of your other favourites.

BVDZ: I mean, I honestly do love all of them and I think one of the things, I mean, I think Patrick in his final piece, you start off not taking it very seriously and then you just, it's very moving reading about these extraordinary creatures that we know so little about. I mean, we hear endlessly about pandas and, you know, lions, and bears. And yet, these creatures have their own charisma, don't they? And this is why we're talking. Because once you start to read about it, you just become transfixed by how creative and extraordinary they all are. But I love them all. I loved every single one of them, including the tongue-biting louse.

NK: I know, the tongue-biting louse is, it's a had sell.

BVDZ: [laughing] It's not very incredible. So inventive? I mean, wow, what a way to, you know, get along.

NK: [laughing] Do what you gotta do, right? What do you, I mean, did the reception, the excitement from readers, the responses you received, was it as you imagined it would be, or did it surpass what you thought?

BVDZ: It was just lovely. I mean, I think everyone, we all just, it's just about affection and respect and enjoyment and, you know, and the reader's nominations were just, they loved it. And we had an amazing email from Mark Baxter at the Sanger Institute who said his entire, it's a genome sequencing institute in Cambridge and they said their entire team was obsessed with it. And news is glum a lot of the time at the moment. And it felt so good to step back and look at some of the extraordinary things that we also live with, not just the, you know, tariffs.

NK: I don't know what you mean at all. What did you say, tariffs?

BVDZ: [chuckling] I'm sure you haven't noticed it.

NK: I'm going to write that down and investigate that further after this conversation, Bibi. [BVDZ chuckles] I wonder, this has been a passion and obsession for you as well. I mean, are you ready for what the workday holds for you after this?

BVDZ: I, yeah, the head of news did ask me how I was feeling when it all finished and I admitted I was, you know, life was opening and emptily ahead of me without Invertebrate of the Year, but I'm sure I'll come up with something. It has changed the way I see the world, definitely, doing this. You know, I found myself picking a worm up off the pavement that had got stranded and putting it in a nearby flower bed, so, I think, yeah, it does make you see things a bit differently.

NK: That is a beautiful thing, Bibi. I'm so glad we could speak. Thank you.

BVDZ: I'm so glad you wanted to speak. [both laugh]

NK: Thanks, Bibi.

BVDZ: Bye.

CH: Bibi van der Zee is an editor on the Guardian's environmental desk. We reached her in London. And, you know, if you have a favourite invertebrate -- whether it made the Guardian's shortlist or not -- whether it’s a tardigrade or not -- we'd love to hear about it. Call Talkback, 416-205-5687. Or email us at aih@cbc.ca.

[chillhop house tour music]

Greer & Horsford

CH: The President's announcement on tariffs today came as a surprise to an awful lot of people -- including, it seems, his own top trade representative. Jamieson Greer was in the middle of testifying before the Congressional Ways and Means Committee, when news broke that President Trump had taken to his Truth Social platform to announce a pause of 90 days on most tariffs -- but an increase of tariffs on China to 125 per cent. Democratic Congressman Steve Horsford of Nevada took the opportunity to question the administration's trade rep about that development.

SOUNDCLIP

STEVE HORSFORD: Mr. Trade Representative, are you aware that the tariffs have been paused?

JAMIESON GREER: I am, yes.

SH: When were you made aware of that?

JG: I understood the decision was made a few minutes ago and it's been under discussion.

SH: Sitting here, sitting here, under discussion, so did you know that this was under discussion? And why did you not include that as part of your opening remarks?

JG: So, typically, what I don't do is divulge the contents of my discussions with the president.

SH: What are the details of the pause?

JG: Well the details, as I understand it, is that China continues to retaliate. Other countries didn't retaliate. The president two or three days ago said we wanted to with those countries that ask for lenience --

SH: What are the details? How long is the pause? How many days? How many weeks?

JG: I understand it's 90 days. I haven't spoken to the president since I've been in this chair.

SH: So, the trade representative hasn't spoken to the president of the United States about a global reordering of trade.

JG: Yes, I have. I've just been in a hearing with you.

SH: But yet, he announced it on a tweet. WTF? Who's in charge?

JG: The president of United States is in charge.

SH: And what do you know about those details?

JG: Well, as I mentioned --

SH: It looks like your boss just pulled the rug out from under you and paused the tariffs, the taxes on the American people. There's no strategy. You just found out three seconds ago, sitting here, we saw you.

JG: We've been discussing a variety of things.

SH: If you came here knowing that you were going to be turned off, that these tariffs were going to be turned off, why didn't you include that in your opening statement? Why didn't reference that as part of your testimony?

JG: Well, I don't disclose my conversations with the president, Sir.

CH: That was Nevada Congressman Steve Horsford, questioning Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in Washington, earlier today.

[R&B]

FTR Malala Scholarship

CH: The Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific -- or Pearson College UWC -- has a mandate that seems relevant to any era, but maybe especially relevant to ours. According to its website, it endeavours to, quote, "make education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future." Unquote. That mission was highlighted by speakers at a 50th anniversary celebration for the college in London, England today -- and Malala Yousafzai was among them. Ms. Yousafzai is, of course, a Pakistani education activist and honourary Canadian citizen who was shot by the Taliban in 2012 in an attempted assassination when she was 15 years old. Now, she's a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and the force behind a new scholarship in her name, enabling a female student from Afghanistan or Pakistan to study at Pearson College UWC in Victoria, B.C. From this afternoon's event, here's Ms. Yousafzai -- For The Record.

SOUNDCLIP

MALALA YOUSAFZAI: When my father and I co-founded Malala Fund, we started it with a vision where we wanted to see every girl having access to quality and complete education. However, it was just a dream. Ten years ago, we could never even have imagined that today we would be making an impact, helping millions of girls enter classrooms, holding leaders accountable, and keeping girls' education on the global agenda. Our model is based on working with local activists on the frontlines. And we draw our inspiration and solutions from girls themselves, who know exactly what they want from their governments and how their education can set them up for success. But despite the progress we have made, the deck remains stacked against girls. The right to education and the resources they need to learn are under direct and growing threat. War and conflict often claim girls and schools as their first victims, as we heartbreakingly witness in Palestine, Sudan, and Congo. Funding cuts are impacting the most vulnerable people and organizations in countries where the crisis is most severe. In many places, regressive regimes are outright denying girls their fundamental right to learn. Nowhere is this more widespread and evident than in Afghanistan, where the Taliban have banned all girls and women from education past Grade 6. Since their return to power four years ago, their criminal regime has sought to erase girls and women from public life altogether. In their courageous defiance, many Afghan girls and woman continue learning and educating in secret, from radio programs, to mobile apps, to underground schools. I am amazed at how Afghan girls find creative ways around the Taliban's strict surveillance and brutal crackdowns. All they want is to learn about math, science, and all the subjects that they are deprived of.

CH: Malala Yousafzai, speaking at Canada House in London, England today.

[percussive jazz]

Part 3: ELXN: MB Dad, Pet Portraits

ELXN: MB Dad

Guest: Joseph Fourre

CH: Joseph Fourre hasn't decided how he'll vote yet. But the Winnipeg resident knows exactly what will determine how he casts his ballot: he'll get behind whichever leader makes the best case for preventing drug-related deaths. Two years ago, Joseph's son Harlan died, after taking a drug at a party that he didn't know was laced with fentanyl. So far, this election campaign, Mr. Fourre has gone to hear Pierre Poilievre speak at a Conservative rally and Mark Carney at a Liberal event in his city. As It Happens is talking to voters across the country during this election. We reached Joseph Fourre at home in Winnipeg.

NK: Joseph, what message did you take to those two political rallies you attended?

JOSEPH FOURRE: The message that I took was, "No Thanks, I'm Good", the anti-fentanyl awareness campaign that I've created after the death of my son. I was lobbying MPs, just wanted them to understand during this opioid crisis that it wasn't just the addict was dying and I wanted to share my son's story with them, so that we had a different approach to dealing with the situation our country finds ourselves in with the fentanyl.

NK: Awareness and prevention are the are the key things you want them to focus on. And just tell our listeners what it was about your loss -- about Harlan's death -- that, that made you want to focus. You mentioned he wasn't an addict. He wasn't a user.

JF: No, Harlan was a great guy. He was a wonderful man. And he had went out one night, just kind of made a mistake and made a bad choice and just got convinced to try what he was told was a recreational drug and turned out to be almost pure fentanyl. But what started it all for me was during the condolence period, I guess we'll call it, when people would phone and say I'm really sorry for your loss, you know? And then they would always add, I didn't know Harlan had a drug problem. And that was what really got me going in regards to, okay, this needs to be talked about because everybody's assuming that everybody who dies from a drug poisoning is a drug addict. And that's not the case. Harlan was not, and made an unfortunate mistake one night that cost him his life.

NK: I'm sorry for your loss, Joseph. How was that message and that information received at the rallies that you went to?

JF: Well, I went to two rallies. I went to both. I mean, I'm undecided. And I, you know, I wanted it to make a clear, educated decision in regards to where I was going to put my support. And I had lobbied some MPs prior to the election and, you know, they, they all understood this was a different approach to the fentanyl crisis that nobody was talking about, and they were really trying to wrap their head around fentanyl poisoning because nobody was ever even talking about fentanyl poisoning. You know, they used the word accidental overdose. Well, you know, my son did not die of an overdose, and there was nothing accidental about the way my son died. Somebody poisoned that drug that they gave to him, and it killed him. And so, what No Thanks, I'm Good is all about is we go from community to community, schools to schools, talking to kids about the dangers of recreational drug use. And that there's not a drug out there right now that cannot be poisoned by fentanyl. So, I was hoping to hear from both leaders of the Conservative and the Liberal Party that they would change their approach to the way that they would handle this one particular crisis within our country.

NK: Well, did you get a chance to speak with them directly? And if not even, did you hear anything that answered some questions for you?

JF: Well, I didn't, I got to shake Pierre's hand. Mark was a little harder to get to. I did manage to stand next to Mr. Carney's wife and had a small chat with her and gave her some of the information that we give out. And same with Mr. Poilievre, I was able to give him some material as well. Mr. Poilievre seems to have a plan. Some of the required changes that I think need to be made in order to change the direction of what's happening with the tainted drug crisis. Mr. Carney didn't really touch on it during his rally. He spoke more about international things and how we need to get back to our strength and our sovereignty and a very Trump-oriented delivery, whereas Pierre Poilievre was more about the stuff that was going on in the country that we need to fix. I understand we have housing issues. I understand that we, the cost of living, I understand all those other issues. So, we do need an internal plan to get our House going again. But this is one for me that I'm paying attention to because I've been to a number of communities and I'm doing that prevention and awareness. I am doing that, you know, changing the stigma. And I am paying for it out of my own pocket. So, I'm hoping that whoever forms the next government will certainly have that aspect in mind when it comes to dealing with the fentanyl crisis that's facing our countries, killing our young people.

NK: The riding that you vote in -- Winnipeg West -- historically has gone back and forth between the Liberals and the Conservatives. The incumbent Conservative candidate last time around won by fewer than 500 votes. So, how do you weigh all of that as election day approaches for you? I mean, are you considering other parties or the NDP at this stage, or is it just between the other two?

JF: Well, and I hate saying this because, you know, my family has been strong NDP supporters, but I've, I hate to say this, but I have lost faith in the NDP. So, to me, really, it's a two-party race and I will be listening very carefully.

NK: When voting day comes, how are you going to make that decision, do you think?

JF: I know I will definitely be watching the debates because I really believe that we need a strong debater in the House and especially in international affairs. And I know Pierre gets the nub as being a career politician. So, if I'm going and I'm needing neurosurgery, would I not want a career brain surgeon to to operate on me, or would I want a mechanic who's just jumped into surgery? What I'd like to see, you know, probably, would be a minority Conservative government and having Mark Carney lead the opposition so that we can get a good look at Mark Carney and see exactly what kind of leader he is and how he would deal with being the leader of the opposition, so that going into maybe the next election we could gain the confidence that was lost in the Liberal Party.

NK: Joseph, I appreciate your time. Thank you for this.

JF: Thank you for having me.

CH: Joseph Fourre runs the No Thanks, I'm Good fentanyl awareness and prevention campaign. He's in Winnipeg. He's one of the voters from across the country we're speaking to during this election -- asking, where are you feeling the squeeze?

[bright piano]

‘Minecraft’ Warnings

CH: You've squeezed through throngs of frankly intimidating teenagers to get into the theatre. You take a seat near the back -- somewhere you hope is unobtrusive -- to relax, eat your Twizzlers and poopcorn, and enjoy A Minecraft Movie. But about an hour in -- BAM. Chaos. Suddenly, kids are screaming, jumping on their seats. Some of their shirts have gone flying. Popcorn -- including yours, unintentionally -- has been launched into the air like confetti. And from somewhere in the centre of this storm comes a raucous shout of “CHICKEN JOCKEYYYYYYYYYY!” It's not the kind of experience you'll have at Conclave. It's a rowdy trend in which tweens and teenagers are going absolutely feral during a scene where Jack Black and Jason Momoa have to fight a baby zombie riding a chicken.

SOUNDCLIP

[sounds of A Minecraft Movie in the background, as people lose all sense of sanity of Chicken Jockey]

CH: Good heavens! It's happening all over the world. And despite lukewarm reviews so far, the film adaptation of the popular video game is smashing box-office records. But some theatre staff who have been tasked with managing and cleaning after the crowd are less enthusiastic, describing the TikTok-fueled audiences as "a wreck and a mess." One theatre in the U.K. has posted a warning reminding guests, quote, "We know the chicken jockey is epic. But please don’t throw popcorn or soft drinks at the screen.” Unquote. And at least one theatre has already had it. Township Theatre in Washington Township, New Jersey announced on Facebook that unaccompanied minors are now banned from seeing Minecraft. So if you’re planning to catch A Minecraft Movie, maybe take earplugs. And a poncho.

[elevator music]

FOA: Sheep Feeding

CH: Any journalist who has done live TV knows it can be a challenging, and humbling, experience. You do a fun report from a snowy hill and get launched into the air after being hit by a fast and furious tobogganer. A bird decides to use you as its toilet. Or, if you're BBC reporter John Maguire, you try to bottle-feed a newborn lamb on camera and the lamb won't have it. It began so confidently, too.

SOUNDCLIP

JOHN MAGUIRE: I've been promised that this will work because why wouldn't you want a little bit of milk, hey? Here we are. Oop, all over my trousers, oop, there we go. Come on, come on. Delicious. No? [sheep brays] Obviously, we've been well fed this morning, haven't we? It's live television, you know? You're supposed to drink this milk for me. Anyway, we'll have a little conversation and see if we can get this one to take a little bit of milk and feed it. A little heart beating away, but doesn't seem that bothered by this milk at the moment. We'll show you around the farm, you'll get to see some lambs being born. It's quite the sight, I can tell you, all after the news, travel, and weather. You're watching Breakfast This Morning.

CH: BBC reporter John Maguire trying, and failing, to feed a lamb on live TV. Now, of course, As It Happens has a whole flock of sheep stories in the archive. Especially stories about untended, wool-heavy sheep being sheared -- including Shrekapo from Lake Tekapo in New Zealand. Shrekapo had gone unshorn for years, after running away. And after he was found in 2022, the community decided to hold a public shearing. Hundreds of people attended. As It Happens guest host Dave Seglins spoke with Shrekapo's owner Gavin Loxton after that haircut. He told us how Shrekapo was doing.

SOUNDCLIP

GAVIN LOXTON: Yeah, he's just parked out there in the… in the pony paddock. He spends his nights in the pony shed. And, yeah, he's quite taken to it, really. [both chuckle]

DS: He likes being back in captivity?

GL: Oh yes! I can… I can just see him out there at the fence there now. He's actually… he’s actually made friends with a clothes pole, [both chuckle] which is a little bit unusual.

DS: A little antisocial behaviour from… from years on the on the lamb as it were?

GL: Yeah. He’s been parked up on the hills there for three winters now. And I suppose he's only had the… the odd bird to talk to and the… on the odd rock.

DS: For those who haven't seen the pictures, what did Shrekapo like before he got his haircut?

GL: Just a big bundle of wool. You could just about roll him like a ball. [chuckling] He had… he had… yeah, he was quite, quite large, yeah.

DS: What was his body weight to wool ratio?

GL: He's about, oh, 40kgs without his wool on. So he had about 18, 18 and a half kilos of wool. So yeah, he had a… he had a fair proportion of wool on him. Yeah, he was quite happy to be shorn by Tony up there at Tekapo. Yes.

DS: [both chuckle] Well, I understand he was wool-blind. What does that mean?

GL: Yeah, wool-blind. He had… the wool around his face had grown around his eyes, and he was only able to see down… down the edge of… down the edge of his nose. He could still find himself a meal on the ground, but yeah, if anything was above him, he couldn't see any of that.

DS: So, take us back, how did you learn of Shrekapo’s situation earlier this month?

GL: Well, we were mustering the wethers down off of the hill for the autumn muster. And Emily… Emily was taking the top bait. She's a shepherd that works for us. She had her two young dogs. And she came across Shrekapo, and she tried to get him to move down the hill with the other sheep, but he didn't really associate with the other sheep. He kept wanting to get back to his rock. So they… she left him up there, and we brought the other wethers back down. And in the afternoon, Emily and Joel and Ziggy, a bit of a more experienced dog… Joel's my son. And they all… they all went up the hill, and they clipped it up, clipped up Shrekapo and got him into the back of the truck, which was a bit… apparently is a bit of a mission because he had so much wool on him, and they had to, you know, sort of drag him back up the hill to the truck. [DS chuckles] And they brought him back down, and that was the first time I saw him when they turned up in the yard with us. [chuckling]

DS: And when you saw him, what did you think?

GL: [hearty laugh] I was like… oh, I was like… oh, it’s good to get him back. But now, somebody has to shear him! [laughing] So… so, we… we had drinks at the Blue Lake, at the local pub that night, and we discussed what were going to do with Shrekapo. Ange Taylor was there, and she's… she's a bit of an organizer in Tekapo and organizes a few different things. And she decided we were going to shear him on Monday morning at… at the local farmers market, and Tony Dobbs was going to do it. [laughing]

DS: So you had… you thought you'd have a public haircutting?

GL: Yes! [chuckle] And, oh, it was good… it was good to get. And Tony was on board… on board with that for Monday. So, yeah, well, after that, well, it was all going to happen. And having… having a world-class shearer, yeah, hugely beneficial.

DS: And he's… well, he's shorn. How does he feel when he's emerging from all that wool?

GL: Oh, it's probably like a spaceman or woman experiencing weightlessness for the first time. That's because all of this weight just comes off his shoulders. And you could… you can see when he went to… when he was first trying to stand up, it was like a bit of a shock. [chuckling] Walking around with sort of no backpack on or something, yeah.

CH: From Our Archives, the owner of Shrekapo the sheep speaking with As It Happens guest host Dave Seglins in April 2022.

[disco]

Pet Portraits

Guest: Phil Heckels

CH: When someone draws your portrait, it's like looking into a mirror in which you see yourself as someone else sees you. For example, this portrait of me here in the studio really reflects the artist's sense that I have a gigantic forehead, and that I'm a silly goose -- at least judging by the voice balloon saying, "Duh, I'm a silly goose." But that's how the caricature guy at the carnival saw me, I guess. It's fun. Phil Heckels's success shows that he's a great artist and great at teasing out certain fundamental characteristics in his subjects -- which happen to be pets. His drawings are so popular that he's launching a second book featuring some of his artwork tomorrow. The portraits themselves just might not look quite like you'd expect them to. We reached Phil Heckels in Worthing, England.

NK: Phil, I've looked through a couple of your portraits. How would you describe them to people who haven't seen them yet?

PHIL HECKELS: Well, I describe them as rubbish. Other people call them quirky and funny, sometimes cute and endearing, but I still nail my colours to the flagpole of rubbish. [NK chuckles] That's kind of where I am with them.

NK: Why?

PH: Because of the context of kind of, like, the original joke, which was that, you know, people were asking me to draw their pet portraits expecting, like, a really good, like, proper --

NK: Like a classical portrait? [chuckling]

PH: Like, you know, like a proper portrait. That still remains, you know, the kind of starting point of the joke. And I know that subsequently so many people have come to the project that we're a million miles away from where it started out, but I'm still sort of there, yeah.

NK: Yeah. 2020, This begins as a joke. You share a portrait of your own dog online, right?

PH: Yeah, exactly that. I drew a portrait of our dog whilst basically just trying to coerce my then six-year-old son into making a thank you card. And I was sat at our dining room table with his kind of colouring pencils and paper. And to just get him interested in what we needed to do, I drew a picture of our dog. I'm going to use that word again, it was rubbish, but it made us laugh and smile. And so, I just shared that picture out to my friends on Facebook with a very, very tongue-in-cheek kind of comment offering pet portraits for sale.

NK: [chuckling] And then, people respond.

PH: And people responded, yeah. So, on the day it went out, six or seven of my friends messaged and wanted a portrait. I don't remember exactly what stage of lockdown, but we were in lockdown and I'd perfected my banana loaf recipe. [NK chuckles] And I was bang up to date with Tiger King and I had nothing else to do. So, I drew these requests that came in. And because I was suddenly drawing other people's pets, they were sharing it. And that meant that by the end of the first week, I had around about a hundred requests for portraits.

NK: And to be clear, I mean, were you, were you an artist before?

PH: I've never drawn before in my life. Like, I didn't do art at school. It certainly wasn't a hobby or anything like that. So, when all this started, a lot of my friends and family all kind of like, you know, kind of said, where's this all come from? And being honest, I didn't have an answer because I didn't know either. It was just something that I just suddenly found myself doing and enjoying doing. There's something quite kind of cathartic and therapeutic about just sitting and drawing and coloring and, you know, having fun, right?

NK: So, you went from not ever really being an artist, barely drawing to now that's your full-time job?

PH: Exactly, yeah, yeah. So, I mean, I had these 100 requests for portraits. And then, shortly after that, a friend who I drawn their pet wanted to pay me some money for it. And in refusing that money, it was kind of agreed that he would make a donation to our local homelessness charity -- Turning Tides. And then, there was this kind of, like, light bulb moment, I guess, that, you know, we can do some good with this. And so, I set up a fundraiser, and I just said to people, look, the portraits are still going to be free and we're all going to still hopefully just have some fun with this. But if you want to make a donation, wouldn't it be really good if we could, you know, maybe do a bit of good with this? And by the end of the first month, we'd raise just shy of four thousand pounds.

NK: And it's a lot more than 4,000 pounds now.

PH: We're at 400,000 pounds now. [NK chuckles] So, well, August this year will be the five-year anniversary. So, we're about sort of four-and-a-half years into the project. But I was doing this alongside my full-time job for about 18 months, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep it going because the whole project was just getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And what that meant was it was taking up more of my time. And actually, it was, I was on the brink of burnout and I decided that that meant that I was gonna have to give up the pet portrait project and bring it all to a close. And I did have my very last Facebook post written out. And when it came to it, I just couldn't, I knew we had so much more that we could do with this, so.

NK: You loved it too much.

PH: Yes. I left my, I left my job. And we've taken the project full-time and we raised another 250,000 pounds since then. So, I don't regret it, but it was a very scary time.

NK: before the charity aspect came into it what do you think it is about these portraits. You call them rubbish. They are quirky, they're lovely, they're simple, but there's there's joy in them, certainly. So, what do you think the appeal is for all those people who initially wrote in?

PH: I think they make people feel good because they make you smile. And then, I think also, you know, people love animals, don't they?

NK: They do!

PH: They love pets. You know, they want to share it. And then, that brings more people to the project.

NK: Are you still taking commissions?

PH: Yes, I haven't actually taken commissions in the usual way because I've got over 80,000 requests for portraits.

NK: Oh my.

PH: So basically, it's a lottery. So, all they have to do to request a portrait is send me a message on Facebook with a picture of their pet. I try to draw one every day, it doesn't always happen, but I try post most days.

NK: You know, this started with your own dog and your son, you know, do they feel proud of their role?

PH: The dog's not fast, and I'd say that probably my son's, as, it's funny with my son, especially because he's 11 now. And this all started when he was six. So, it's kind of just normal for him, you know, like seeing Dad sort of lost in a pile of papers with a pencil in his hand, you know, kid of as a family. And I think all of this has happened so quickly in a relatively short space of time. So, it's been a real kind of community thing. And, yeah, it's been a wonderful thing to be a part of. It's a truly joyous thing.

NK: Good to speak with you Phil, thank you.

PH: No worries. Thanks very much for speaking to me.

CH: Phil Heckels is drawing portraits of people's pets. We reached him in Worthing, England.

[toy store music]

Library Of Congress Additions

[Moog City/video game music]

CH: As you may or may not immediately know that's Moog City from Minecraft – Volume Alpha -- the first soundtrack album for Minecraft. Yes, there's more than one. Of course there is! And that album is one of 25 new additions to the National Recording Registry, announced today by The Library of Congress. The library says the recordings are selected, quote, “based on their cultural, historical, or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage.” So, Minecraft, obviously, hitting all those criteria. Other entries to the registry include... Oh darn it. My computer just went off. Let me just fire it up here...

[Windows reboot sound. Oh, this hits me like the Talkback beep]

CH: Excuse my Microsoft Windows '95 Reboot Chime there. Now: some of the other new entrants to the registry are: Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On, the original Broadway cast album of Hamilton, and -- oh, that's weird -- the Microsoft Windows '95 Reboot Chime. Written by Brian Eno! Now, you might know Brian Eno for any number of musical achievements. And it turns out we have that reboot chime to thank for some of them. Mr. Eno says he was in a deep creative funk when Microsoft tapped him for the job, and he appreciated having a specific problem to focus on -- the problem being how deliver on a creative brief that asked for something inspiring, universal, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, and emotional -- all in a piece of music that's 3.25 seconds long. He wrote 84 different versions, and in so doing, broke free of his creative block, by taking a step back to focus on the little picture.

The AIH Transcript For April 9, 2025

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