Nothing Happened Here
New Brunswick TravelerSeptember 09, 2024x
41
00:13:3310.85 MB

Nothing Happened Here

Today I am interviewing Greg Marquis, the co-host of a brand new podcast about Saint John history. Greg is a local university professor and president of the New Brunswick Historical Society. His co-host is Mark Allan Greene, an Alberta university professor and the author of The Great Saint John Fire of 1877. The podcast launches on September 17 and will be produced every two weeks. Link to the podcast is https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/saint-john-nothing-happened-here/id1766391411


[00:00:02] Welcome to N.P. Traveler, that place where we talk about New Brunswick stuff.

[00:00:09] This morning I ran out of coffee beans so I went down to the city market and bought

[00:00:14] a bag of Foghorn by Java Moose and at the same time I stopped at Jeremiah's got

[00:00:22] me a breakfast sandwich and to my delight the hot chocolate chip cookies

[00:00:28] were just coming out of the oven. I enjoy living in St. John and today we're going

[00:00:36] to be talking with a co-host of a new podcast that's starting on the history

[00:00:43] of St. John. So sit back and here it comes. Today I have with me Greg Marquis.

[00:00:56] He is co-hosting with Mark Allen Green a new podcast called Nothing Happened Here

[00:01:03] and they're going to be launching this podcast on September 17th and I wanted

[00:01:09] to share this information with my listeners. Greg welcome to NB Traveler.

[00:01:17] Thanks for having me Mark. So to start with what's the story behind selecting

[00:01:22] the podcast name Nothing Happened Here? Well Mark and I were had a beer about a year

[00:01:30] and a half ago trying to decide if we wanted to do a podcast on St. John history

[00:01:34] and then we sort of went home thought about a potential name and we thought

[00:01:39] of something like maybe we'd catch listeners maybe a bit ironic be a

[00:01:44] bit different and I guess we're using a bit of understatement you know like

[00:01:47] we were surprised that there were quite a few topics I mean I already knew

[00:01:51] this as an historian that were quite interesting and that St. John is a like

[00:01:55] a fairly interesting past so we thought we would kind of use a bit of

[00:01:59] understatement or a bit of irony to draw listeners in maybe did not know much

[00:02:04] about St. John history. So why did you and Mark decide to collaborate on this

[00:02:09] project? Again we met he was in town promoting his book on the St. John

[00:02:13] fire I think you've interviewed him on that and from St. John originally

[00:02:17] had a bit of spare time we met for beer. I'd been interested in doing a

[00:02:20] podcast for a number of years I didn't quite know what the subject would be and

[00:02:25] during that conversation as so often happens we came up with this idea why not

[00:02:30] St. John. So how do you go about selecting the stories that you're going to cover?

[00:02:35] Well there's we started writing down potential topics and the sort of aim of

[00:02:40] our podcast project is kind of two-fold one is just sort of look at

[00:02:45] topics that have been written about in the past like sort of well known

[00:02:48] stories in St. John history like Benedict Arnold for example or the Orange

[00:02:54] Rye as in 1849 and maybe try to look at them with a fresh approach with some

[00:02:58] new questions. The second thing is to sort of uncover stories that maybe are

[00:03:04] not as well known that connect St. John to the wider world for example

[00:03:09] St. John's connection with the Titanic is something we're probably going

[00:03:13] to do right it's not a story that that's well known so yeah we just

[00:03:17] of course we both have different interests I've been working in St. John

[00:03:20] and New Brunswick history for years I have a number of stories you know up my

[00:03:24] sleeve so to speak and Mark has his own interest as well also as we meet people

[00:03:29] and tell them about the podcast they suggest topics for us and suggest

[00:03:33] people we might interview because some of our podcast episodes will be

[00:03:37] interviews with authors and people who are researching stories and topics

[00:03:41] So Coheucine has its advantages and disadvantages what strengths do each of

[00:03:48] you bring to this project? Well I think my strength is that I've been in this

[00:03:52] game for a long time Mark I've been I'm a veteran academic I've been

[00:03:57] researching St. John and Canadian New Brunswick history since the 80s which

[00:04:03] is kind of scary Mark is a slightly younger guy he's pretty good with

[00:04:07] the tech the editing the recording and things like that I think he is a

[00:04:12] natural because he's a lawyer I think he's good on his feet which is part of

[00:04:17] the game as well and I think that between the two of us you know we it's

[00:04:22] nice to Mark so you can appreciate this because you're a lone wolf operator

[00:04:25] we can split the work a little bit right so one guy can handle one thing

[00:04:30] the other guy can write the show notes and find the list of readings and

[00:04:34] that type of thing so it's nice to have you know a team even if it's two people

[00:04:38] to divide the work so what kind of challenges do you have in this

[00:04:43] collaboration and how have you addressed them well one of them is I of course

[00:04:50] technology can can bridge these gaps but I'm located in New Brunswick and he's

[00:04:55] located in Alberta so we have that time zone issue Mark has a young family

[00:05:02] that sort of complicates things a little bit if you have children at home I

[00:05:05] don't have that but we both have busy schedules so just trying to find a day

[00:05:10] where we can do some recording of course we can use email to send documents back

[00:05:16] and forth things like that is great but trying to find that time to a mutually

[00:05:20] mutually good time to do the work and then of course once we start

[00:05:23] interviewing other people trying to find a time where we can interview

[00:05:28] authors and guests in our show as well so far it's worked out so what do you hope

[00:05:34] that your listeners will take away from the podcast well we want people we want

[00:05:40] local people of course there's a lot of people working on the history and

[00:05:44] heritage of st. John there's lots of Facebook pages and blogs and and people

[00:05:49] are posting photos and things all the time but we're hoping to provide

[00:05:52] another outlet for that type of thing we hope that we want to sort of get

[00:05:56] people excited I mean there's already many people excited about this or st.

[00:06:00] John we want to try to get people excited and interested in st. John history

[00:06:04] we're trying to bridge gaps between the academic world and the non-academic

[00:06:10] world in terms of writers and researchers and things like that and I

[00:06:13] think the other goal we have is we want st. John to become better known

[00:06:17] outside the region by using stories about people and events that took place

[00:06:22] in st. John you know it's a fairly small city by Canadian standards it

[00:06:27] always doesn't always get a lot of attention within the maritime provinces

[00:06:31] right and so we're hoping to make st. John sort of give it a higher profile

[00:06:37] in the region through these historical stories what do you have strategies in

[00:06:42] place to promote the podcast and reach a wider audience yeah that's that's

[00:06:48] kind of Mark's idea like we will have we're on Apple podcast we'll have a

[00:06:54] Facebook page we'll have a web page I think once we get of course doing

[00:06:58] interviews like this is helpful I think word or mouth or like help it you know

[00:07:02] having things kind of spread organically will be useful you know

[00:07:07] asking our friends and family and contacts in the community to listen

[00:07:10] to the podcast to like it that type of thing and share those links I think

[00:07:14] as time goes on we will maybe do a bit more media after we get a few episodes

[00:07:20] released right and try to get some media coverage of it and other than that

[00:07:24] we're just hoping for the best we we we're just doing is doing this you

[00:07:29] know that this you know off the side of your desk you know which is kind of

[00:07:32] what you're doing as well right that we don't have a team someone asks us

[00:07:36] who's your sponsor and I thought sponsor what's a sponsor maybe someday

[00:07:41] right Mark you get somebody to buy a cup of coffee that there you go that's

[00:07:46] important that's the start right yeah so again we're we're kind of new to it but

[00:07:51] we understand if you get so many downloads and ratings on Apple podcast

[00:07:55] and things like that and other platforms it could increase your

[00:07:58] visibility so we're asking people if you do listen to the show and like it

[00:08:03] please try to acknowledge that so what probably would you say the most

[00:08:09] challenging part is to you of having this podcast I think it's just getting the

[00:08:16] rhythm of talking back and forth between the two of us and of course when we

[00:08:22] have a guest of course you can edit some of that out but we're trying to make

[00:08:25] our podcast sort of conversational sort of like what we're doing now Mark so

[00:08:29] we don't really have a script per se right we maybe have some bullet points

[00:08:35] and things like that and just trying to balance you know getting the story told

[00:08:42] on the one hand but also making it a bit sounding it like a conversation between

[00:08:47] two friends or two people who are maybe having a coffee or having a beer in

[00:08:52] the pub right so we want to sort of try to strike that balance and it means

[00:08:57] that sometimes you have to do more than one take and much like being an

[00:09:01] actor I guess and then but of course a lot of it is you know Mark can be

[00:09:05] handled through editing yeah that's true nothing's live so changes can be made

[00:09:11] and there's nothing that happens on here that we can't get rid of if we've said

[00:09:17] it wrong or done it wrong or we just leave it and let everybody laugh at

[00:09:21] it yeah pretty much can you give my listeners a little peek of what's

[00:09:26] coming in the next few weeks yeah well our first episode on the 17th of

[00:09:35] 1785 election riot that took place in St. John during the first

[00:09:40] provincial election and the riot took place on King Street in the heart of

[00:09:44] the new loyalist town so it's just we thought that we would start with a

[00:09:49] bang so to speak and it's all about the loyalists and the different

[00:09:51] problems that they faced a couple years after arriving from New York City

[00:09:56] and the riot shows that the loyalists were not divided or were not

[00:10:02] united and it shows a lot of the tensions within the community I think

[00:10:06] the second one will be the deadly cholera epidemic of 1854 which took

[00:10:13] hundreds of lives in St. John and what used to be called Portland which is

[00:10:17] down the North end of St. John so those would be the first two episodes I

[00:10:21] think we will also be looking at the in the fall the early fall the

[00:10:27] the York Point riot another riot which was a deadly riot that

[00:10:32] number of people have written about that took between 10 and 12 lives it was

[00:10:37] a riot amongst mainly amongst Irish immigrants and native born

[00:10:43] Irish Protestants single debt the single most deadly riot in

[00:10:47] New Brunswick history most people don't know about it or don't

[00:10:50] remember it and then we're going to try mark to do episodes that

[00:10:54] tie into certain anniversaries or things that are going on through the

[00:10:58] year so around Remembrance Day November 11th we will have around

[00:11:03] that time an episode on a topic about World War One in St. John

[00:11:08] will try to do something around Christmas time about Christmas

[00:11:11] past or Christmas is past and so on so some of our episodes we

[00:11:16] will try to link to seasons of the year or things that are going

[00:11:21] on or being commemorated at the time such you know in the spring

[00:11:23] obviously St. Patrick's Day would be a good example so I guess even

[00:11:28] though the loyalists left the states and they came up here an

[00:11:33] election riot here almost makes me think that maybe not all the

[00:11:40] loyalists left the United States.

[00:11:42] No most of them and they were divided you know much like

[00:11:45] much like their opponents I mean they didn't always agree on

[00:11:48] everything and you know so it's they were even before the left

[00:11:53] of York there were divisions and the divisions as listeners here

[00:11:56] were largely class based you know it's elite versus the popular

[00:12:01] elements right and so yeah and of course the use of the riot

[00:12:07] was an old phenomenon in both British society and colonial

[00:12:11] society as well so it wasn't like the loyalists invented

[00:12:15] rioting but it is interesting that during the first election

[00:12:17] there was a riot.

[00:12:18] Well I'm looking forward to hearing the very first episode of

[00:12:22] Nothing Happens Here when it airs on September 17th.

[00:12:28] It can be heard wherever you listen to podcasts and the

[00:12:32] contact information will be on the show notes.

[00:12:36] Thank you Greg.

[00:12:37] I appreciate you being here with me today and I trust that

[00:12:40] you and Mark have a great launch and that you keep this

[00:12:45] going at least for a few years.

[00:12:49] Thanks Mark we're going to try and do every two weeks and we

[00:12:51] appreciate your support and we also appreciate what you're

[00:12:54] doing with your podcast.

[00:12:56] I'll be listening and I'll be promoting thanks so much Greg.

[00:13:06] Thank you for taking the time to come and listen to this

[00:13:09] podcast today it's produced edited and hosted by me Mark

[00:13:16] Brewer and it's commercial free except for the fact you could

[00:13:21] go to my website and buy me a cup of coffee if you care to.

[00:13:25] For now have a good day.