Heavyweight Short: A Canadian Tale

This is an iHeart podcast.

On Fox One, you can stream your favorite news, sports, and entertainment live, all in one app.

It's fing roll and unfiltered.

This is the best thing ever.

Watch breaking news as it breaks.

Breaking tonight, we're following two major stories.

And catch history in the making.

Gabby, meet Freddy.

Debates,

drama, touchdowns.

It's all here, baby.

Fox One.

We live for live.

Streaming now.

In today's super competitive business environment, the edge goes to those who push harder, move faster, and level up every tool in their arsenal.

T-Mobile knows all about that.

They're now the best network, according to the experts at OoCla Speed Test, and they're using that network to launch Supermobile, the first and only business plan to combine intelligent performance, built-in security, and seamless satellite coverage.

That's That's your business, supercharged.

Learn more at supermobile.com.

Seamless coverage with compatible devices in most outdoor areas in the U.S.

where you can see the sky.

Best network based on analysis by OOCLA of Speed Test Intelligence Data 1H 2025.

When you buy business software from lots of vendors, the costs add up and it gets complicated and confusing.

ODU solves this.

It's a single company that sells a suite of enterprise apps that handles everything from accounting to inventory to sales.

Odo is all connected on a single platform in a simple and affordable way.

You can save money without missing out on the features you need.

Check out Odo at odoo.com.

That's odoo.com.

Heavyweight host, Jonathan Goldstein.

Producer Kalila Holt.

Yeah.

I have have what some people are referring to around the water cooler here at Gimlet Media as possibly the most Canadian story ever told.

I don't know who you're talking to around the water cooler.

The office isn't even open.

It's a metaphor.

Okay.

So these are just imaginary people.

You know what?

I'm surprised to hear this.

I never knew that you were such a literalist.

I'm taking a flight of fancy.

Will you join me?

Sure.

Trade tables up.

You know, we receive a lot of emails.

Yes.

People reach out and they want help with problems that they have.

And recently, we got this email that was so random and obscure that normally I'd be like, there's nothing I could do to help.

But just by complete coincidence,

I know the one person who could actually help this guy.

And I am talking about my friend James.

So the first thing that I had to do was call up James and ask for a favor.

Hi.

And we will get to that story

right after the break.

Psych.

Hello.

Oh, I hear you.

Wait, one second.

Look at that.

I suppose you're wondering why I've invited you to this conversation.

I was wondering if it's going to be some sort of intervention, but I'm assuming not.

No,

I receive emails to the show where people are looking for help.

Yes.

The thing that I am looking for from you

is a connection that you have.

I hope it's not Drake because I don't know how to get in touch with him.

I knew you were going to think it was Drake and that was part of my strategy because then when you'd hear that it wasn't Drake, you'd be ready to give me anything.

All right,

since we're bringing up Drake, why don't you go ahead and explain your connection to Drake?

Oh, yeah.

So I worked on a TV show called Degrassi the Next Generation where he started out.

He's a child actor, right?

Canadian child actor.

Canadian child actor.

And he did the first rep that he did on camera anyways is one that I wrote.

It's very bad.

It was just a few lines.

Dude,

can you spit some rhymes?

I can, but I won't.

Oh, come on.

No.

How about one line?

One line.

You don't even have to rap it.

You could just speak it like poetry.

It would be so embarrassing.

One line.

One line which you speak in a non-rapping cadence.

That's why you have to go.

Okay.

Now you've got me looking it up.

I typed in Drake, and the first thing I got was Drake and Kanye beef.

They do have beef apparently

here it is Dragrassi Jimmy and Spinner's wrap

it's on YouTube

oh very much so yes oh you'd like to hear it uh

oh my goodness this is so embarrassing okay here we go okay share here we go

oh this isn't it hold on we're not forgetting it if actually one more

we have the ammo my friend we have the ammo all right it's Brooks.

A homie is a player, and that is all.

So why'd you have to go and kick his ball and chain?

Ain't that your name?

Because you would play a hater, and that's a shame.

Yeah.

Why did you make me do that?

Why did you make me?

Oh, great.

So, no, I'm not asking.

I wouldn't ask you to reach out to Drake.

It probably wouldn't work.

No.

But I was going to say it's a smaller ask, but in a way, he might be bigger than Drake.

At one time, let's say he was bigger than Drake.

Is this Kevin Smith?

Because he won't.

No.

Okay, because he doesn't even know my name.

He won't even get into the Kevin Smith, though.

This is someone who knows your name.

I have no idea who this could be.

All right, why don't I read you the email that I received?

And as I read it, it might dawn on you.

Okay.

So it's from a guy named Adam Enright.

I've had a problem for many years and it's the fact that people don't believe I met Fidel Castro.

And then he goes on to say that Castro was in Montreal for Pierre Elliott Trudeau's funeral and he saw him in old Montreal with former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.

I think I know where this is going.

Okay, well let me get there.

Here we go.

Let's see if you're right.

So at a certain point, Paul Martin exited a restaurant and a few minutes later so did Castro,

who got into a limousine with no bodyguards.

And it all happened too quickly for Adam to snap a picture with a camera or to try to shake his hand.

So

he ended up just

shouting out, viva la revolución.

But he describes this stunning moment where he felt just frozen in time.

But then in the days and years afterwards, nobody he tells the story to believes him.

So Adam is turning to me to somehow prove that he met Fidel Castro.

So now you know why I'm

getting in touch with you.

Oh, yeah.

You know former Prime Minister, former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.

I know him very tangentally.

No, he would just know me as one of his son's friends.

Your friend, Jamie, you are friends, actual friends, with the son of a prime minister.

Yeah.

For our American listeners, a prime minister is

like the Canadian president.

He is indeed, yes.

So...

If I could get to Paul Martin and ask if he had dinner with Fidel Castro on the day of Trudeau's funeral, that would basically come about as close as anything else to proving

that Adam had indeed seen Castro that day, right?

I think so.

You can't get much better than that.

You could basically place him there.

So, how would you feel about

calling up Jamie and asking if he could ask his dad?

Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely.

Let's do it.

So,

here we go.

All right.

Y'all set?

Here we go.

I'm all set.

We're going to call, we're going to burn this bridge.

Hey, D-Man!

Hi, buddy.

How's it going?

Doughboy, are you going to be CFC with us tomorrow night?

If you could prove that Fidel Castro had dinner with your father, then that would go away to legitimize this guy's claim of having run into him.

The man is now 83 years old, but

I can ask my dad and I can see what he remembers.

You're not bubbling together right now for COVID, are you?

You're not all staying in the same residence or anything?

No, we are exactly.

Actually, he's just downstairs.

We are doing exactly that.

We are bubbling together.

We have been for two months.

So you could...

I mean, I can ask ask him in

20 seconds.

Yeah, like you could theoretically just walk downstairs

with me on the phone and say, hey, Dad, does this ring a bell?

Let me, you know what?

Let me try to do it.

I'm going downstairs.

I'm going downstairs.

All right, great.

Let's see.

Okay.

Oh, hey, Dad.

Do you remember after

the funeral of Pierre Elliott Trudeau

meeting up with Fidel Castro?

Okay, more specific, Jonathan.

They would have had dinner at a restaurant in Old Montreal.

Do you remember having dinner in Old Montreal

and Fidel Castro

was there?

The only thing I remember about the Trudeau.

This is a friend of mine who's doing a podcast.

This is not some kind of gotcha, anything like this.

Would you be willing to answer his questions

about 25 years ago?

You can talk to the man himself.

Sure.

Here it is.

Hello,

Mr.

Martin.

Hi.

How are you?

I'm good.

Thank you so much for talking to me.

This is such a strange request.

I don't know if Jamie explained to you the podcast that I do.

Okay.

I do this podcast where where people write into me

with some, you know, question or curiosity.

Do you have any memory of having had dinner with Fidel Castro?

The only thing I can remember about

the Trudeau funeral was I remember

Justin

speaking

over the coffin in the church.

Yeah.

That's the only thing I can remember.

I can't remember really what I did before

and I have no idea where I ate or what I did.

Now, here's the problem, Jamie will tell you this.

There are a lot of things that

I might have done 25 years ago that

I just don't remember that I might have done.

Do you think that

it's just that

you met so many important people over your life that Fidel Castro doesn't stand out?

It's conceivable that if I had met Fidel Castro,

that I would not remember it because you meet a lot of people.

If, on the other hand,

if I had had supper with Fidel Castro,

then there is

at least a 50-50 chance I would remember it.

I wonder if you don't remember because

you just it didn't happen, or you don't remember just because

you just don't remember a lot of the stuff that happened so long ago.

Well,

I suspect I don't remember because it didn't happen.

I think if I would have had a one-on-one with Castro, I would remember that.

I think if I'd been at a dinner where Castro was,

listen, I've been, I hate to say it this way, but I've been at so many of those dinners where so many people of renown are that

they don't stick.

Huh.

Do the meetings with people of, you know, renown, like famous politicians and such, do they have a longer shelf life than the memories, than the intimate memories, you know, memories of like

your kids and stuff like that?

No, no.

No, not at all and i suspect that i we if you reflect on this conversation and 25 years from now i the the what you remember is the event not in the significance of the event in terms of a historic thing but um

the the as opposed to the people so that

you know if i met

If I met somebody at a rocket launch, it's conceivable I would remember the rocket launch, and I would not remember the people that were there.

To be quite honest, I do not remember meeting Vidal Castro.

Okay,

that is good enough.

I feel like I've traveled quite a ways to answer this guy's question.

I made it all the way to you.

And I promise you in 25 years, I will remember our conversation.

Yeah, well,

I promise you in 25 years, I won't be here to confirm it.

Adam Enright.

Yes, this is Jonathan.

This is Jonathan Goldstein speaking.

That's incredible.

He recognized my voice.

Of course.

I'm so so touched.

That's incredible.

Holy, man.

I didn't think you were going to call.

That's the reason.

You're not crying, are you?

I'm just about, yeah.

I'm a big fan of that.

Oh, that's very sweet of you.

After receiving your email, I set to work on it.

Oh, really?

Okay.

So on my end, okay, so what caught my eye in your email was you mentioned Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Yeah.

And I have a friend who has a connection to Paul Martin.

He's an old friend.

I mean, this is a long way to go to tell you that I come bearing bad news.

I wasn't able to verify it from Paul Martin.

Oh, okay.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, it's fully understandable.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, maybe it was a guy that looked a lot like Castro.

Who knows?

Like,

I haven't even told anyone for years about it, actually.

Because, you know, you just get that sort of eye roll, you know, like, because it just, you know, it just,

you know, it just doesn't come off right.

I'll tell you something else, actually.

When I spoke to Paul Martin, one of the things that he said is that his memory of his kids, that is more vivid to him and more easily accessible than, you know, his memory of statesmen and famous people right that makes it

you know um

i i did web design for a few years and now i've gone back to working with seniors

and people remember you know things that don't uh reflect in the history books you know people remember their you know husbands or wives and kids and

um

do you have kids i've got a little son yeah yeah i do yeah he's nine have you ever told him this story about meeting Castro?

No,

but you'd think your son, right?

Like your son would believe you, right?

Do you think?

That's what kids are for.

They're so naive.

They're so believing.

Yeah, well, you know, I will tell him.

Yeah, will you have to explain to him who Castro is first?

Yes, I would.

Yeah.

Hey, listen, you know, I will say that,

you know, I believe you.

Thank you.

Yes.

Do you think that you're going to remember this conversation that we're having now, 25 years from now?

Yes!

This episode was produced by Stevie Lane, Khalila Holt, and me, Jonathan Goldstein.

It was mixed by Catherine Anderson with music by Trabance, Blue Dot Sessions, and Bobby Lord.

Heavyweight returns with a full new season on September 30th.

We'll see you soon.

Eloceano nos muybe.

Ya sía surfiendo na hola o disfrutandos unlensidar.

Elo ciano nos alimenta.

Las practicas sustenibles de pesca nos trián su ríquesa a la mesa.

Elo ciano nos insena.

Que cada decision que tomamos deja huella.

Eloceano nos delenta.

Con nutrias juquetonas quer estabran vos quez de algas costeras.

Eloceano nos connecta.

Descubre tu conection en

The new Dell AI PC with Intel Core Ultra helps you fast forward through busy work like editing images, summarizing meeting you, responding to Jim's long emails, leaving more time for you time.

Get yours at dell.com/slash AI-PC.

Top reasons technology pros want to move to Ohio, a thriving tech industry with high-paying jobs for programmers, developers, database architects, and more.

Ohio is the silicon heartland with the top tech brands and thousands of startups too.

Shorter commute times mean more time for you.

And since your dollar goes further in Ohio, it's like a cheat code for success.

The tech career you want and a life you'll love.

Have it all in the heart of it all.

Learn more at callohiohome.com.

This is an iHeart Podcast.