A curious lesson from the Vinyl Cafe
Halfway between Montreal and Toronto lies the town of Picton, Ontario, in Prince Edward County. In 2009, Picton received a visit from Stuart McLean, journalist, author and broadcaster, who came with his crew to tape an episode of The Vinyl Cafe — the program from CBC Radio in Canada that became a staple of some line-ups of American public radio stations.
The episode, “Dave and the Elevator,” featured McLean’s reflection on Main Streets, and spoke of the reinvention that Picton went through, and the resilience of the county’s government seat. As one listened, one heard something come full circle — the journey of McLean the journalist to McLean the humorist.
McLean, who died in 2017, was a journalist before the Vinyl Cafe debuted in 1994 (he was a professor at Toronto’s Ryerson University from 1984 to 2004, later becoming professor emeritus), and the pieces that were his niche were pieces that reflected his curiosity about his fellow human beings— he was interested in the stories of others — and that curiosity was the key element that helped keep listeners interested in the stories of not just Dave and Morley, but also of the stories of the people in the places he ventured to, including Picton.
They were human stories on the most human of mediums — stories that could pique your curiosity just as much as they did McLean’s — and listeners, near and far, took notice — this one included.
“Stuart believed in love and he believed in goodness. And he knew that, on some level, they were the same thing and that one encouraged the other. He believed in people’s capacity to be good and their desire to do good. And he reminded us that if we act from a place of love, we will have a society always willing and able to do the right thing.
Over the years, we got a lot of flak for our show being saccharine. It was a valid criticism. But it wasn’t an act. That is how Stuart lived. That is how he saw the world. He wasn’t ashamed of that. He didn’t apologize for it. When he hired me, I was fresh out of journalism school. I knew nothing, or nothing about producing a successful national radio show. But I saw the world the same way he did. And he gave me permission to own that. He gave me permission to see the good. Always.” — Jess Milton, Vinyl Cafe producer, writing in The Walrus, Canada, 2017
Fast forward approximately three years later, to 2012 — my mid-university days. I was running late for a telephone interview with a famous Canadian journalist, broadcaster and author. It was for my student newspaper and I was wondering if this interview can still go on as the minutes ticked away, one by one, as I tried frantically to get to the phone in my student newspaper’s office.
I got into the office, located in the basement of a residential hall. I sat down, looked up the Toronto-based telephone number in my email and I started dialing — first for an outside line, then to the local Google Voice telephone number I personally use to call America and the world for journalism, and then the 416 number.
“I’ve been waiting for your call,” my interviewee said once I reached him. I don’t remember very much about our conversation that morning, but I remembered the curiosity that I had. Just as he was curious about the world, I was curious about his process and what his program on public radio stations across America meant to his neighbors to the south, 7 years after Seattle’s KUOW became the first public radio station in the US to air his program.
My interviewee was the journalist, author and broadcaster whose curiosity about characters, in fiction and real-life, took him to Picton, Chicago, Calgary, Seattle, and points in between and beyond in both countries — Stuart McLean.
Recently, I stumbled upon the article I wrote after our conversation. It went unpublished, and it wasn’t the best piece that I wrote, but as the Vinyl Cafe’s summer run on CBC Radio and in podcast form comes to an end, there is something that will remain about McLean for the benefit of journalists everywhere — curiosity, no matter what beat you cover, is quintessential.
McLean’s philosophy about the Vinyl Cafe, was simple: “I have no agenda to spark,” McLean said. “I just think there should be a conversation. We have something to learn from each other — we’re very different.”
That conversation McLean spoke of got the attention of a teacher in Everett, Washington, a suburb of Seattle, who had her students do a project about Canada. They wanted to learn about life in Canada and its communities. The teacher wrote McLean and the project was featured on the Vinyl Cafe, and asked listeners to write, saying the school would reply to each one. The letters came by the thousands, and told about where they lived and why they loved the country.
“I had no idea what would come of it and trust people and their good intentions to know what comes of it will be a good thing,” McLean said. “My contribution was this show — it’s what I do.”
Indeed, while the conversation and curiosity had been a part of the routines of listeners on both sides of the border for over 20 years, there was one thing that was the focal point of the show for McLean — the story. He’d rewrite the story, edit it and try it in front of an audience to see what would work.
He’d then edit it again all before showtime, because at the core of McLean’s storytelling was the curiosity that he honed as a journalist and a humorist — the curiosity about the people and the places he has encountered, and the desire to tell the world about it.
Journalism in America is without a question going through a lot, especially during this election year. Amid issues surrounding business models and trust issues between journalists and the public, there are questions about the future of journalism and how it can remain sustainable in the years ahead.
Yet, McLean’s work serves as one of many reminders that a good journalist is a curious journalist — unaware of how the story will end or where it will lead, no matter the subject. Curiosity is a need that keeps journalism going, no matter the circumstances in its industry, and curiosity was something that McLean had in abundance.
If the author E.B. White wanted to say in books that he loved the world, Stuart McLean did that and then some through books, the radio and the connection he had with audiences. He also shared one other important lesson to those who want to tell stories — some of the greatest stories in the world come from the most universal trait that all good journalists should have — curiosity.
