Matt Wells knows his way around a story. An artist, actor, musician and longtime television personality and host, the Newfoundland native owns credits across MTV, MuchMusic, Bravo and The New Music across decades in the entertainment industry.

Now, Wells has made the transition to the land of podcasting, and he’s doing so with the aim of spreading good.

“I had been flirting with the idea of a podcast for a long time because there are 45 billion podcasts,” Wells joked in a sitdown with The Herald. “And I’ve had this conversation a couple of times now, and my answers vary because I’ve had people ask me when I’m doing interviews about this. And the answer that I’ve come to now is something I’ve learned from doing the podcast. 

“One of our guests, Sharon Lewis, this wonderful producer and director, she said something like one of the things that she has grown into or helps her get through what it is she wants to do and motivates her through her life is asking herself the question, ‘how is it that I can be of service today?’ And that really hit me, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot.”

Wells, a devoted husband and father, explained that listenership and advertising dollars came second to a desire to share inspiring stories of triumph and perseverance, aiming to throw out some good vibes and positivity into the ether with Good Things with Matt Wells.

“My motivation for doing it truly was observing how hard we are on ourselves, observing how difficult it is for all of us, no matter what age we are, to live through this filtered existence where we’re comparing ourselves to what we see on our phone of people living through a filtered life. Perfect skin, staged photos, staged days. And as a dad, I’m very acutely aware of that,” Wells shared, impassioned. 

Darkness before light

“I wanted to create a space on this podcast where I could use the connections I had built over the years to get folks who are well-known on the podcast, who perhaps are admired by some people, to talk about those low moments before the high moments. To talk about the darkness before the light. Because I believe that, at least for me, hearing other people talk about it makes me feel a little bit better about my own journey.”

Across a dozen episodes and counting, Wells has swapped stories and memories with a who’s who of the entertainment world and beyond, from Canadian sports icon Clara Hughes to NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, Big Brother Canada host Arisa Cox, and Great Big Sea’s Séan McCann, to name a few. 

“What I wanted to do was create a space where people could hear those types of conversations and understand that we are all connected by the struggle, the daily struggle. Some have it worse, some have it not so bad. But we all have it and good things are coming,” Wells explained. “They’ll hear conversations with Jagmeet Singh or Clara Hughes or Séan McCann, about the low, low moments. But they’ll go, they got through them, good things are coming.

‘Transcends colour’

“I want people to be able to relate to it,” he adds. “So it could be a music executive, it could be a musician, it could be a politician, it could be a TV host, it could be an author, it could be a chef. I wanted it to be a way to show that this transcends career choice. This transcends colour. This transcends anything. This is a very human idea that things get sh***y, but if we can somehow find a way to not give up, they’re not always going to be sh***y. And that affects everyone.”

Combining past reflections of his over 1,100 pro-interviews across television over 12 years, with names ranging from Chris Cornell and Ozzy Osbourne to Katy Perry and Mariah Carey, Wells balances insights and stories and weaves connections through his current crop of guests, finding theme and meaning in a rarer form of conversation, the often forgotten deep dive.

“So what I’ve done in the podcast is that before each interview starts, I recall a moment I’ve had through from the past and I connect it to the interview I’m going to do,” Wells explained, sharing that his own personal bucket list for guests continues to grow as he embraces this new and seemingly boundless format.

“Because I’m revisiting this after ten years, the list is limitless, it’s endless right now. If I wanted to throw a couple names at you, I wouldn’t mind interviewing Stephen King. I’d like to interview Paul Simon. I’d like to interview Lauryn Hill. I’d like to have those deep dive interviews with someone like that. That’s what the podcast allows me to do.”

Still learning

Explaining that he’s still learning on the job – modest for the seasoned interviewer – Wells admits that, as long as there’s a need to absorb some positivity, he’ll continue to explore Good Things.

“This was just an idea that I wanted to throw out into the universe. I didn’t know what was going to happen. I didn’t know if I would do more than two episodes, and all of a sudden it turned into something way bigger than I ever imagined it would. So I’m going to just keep going with it, because as long as people are connecting with it, it’s worth my time. And that’s all that really matters to me.”

Good Things with Matt Wells is available on your go-to podcast provider. Stay tuned for our deep dive sitdown with Wells and bandmate Mike Rowe for our reunion interview with NL rockers Bucket Truck!

As The Herald’s newest intern, I’d like to introduce myself by sharing what I’ve been doing around here for the last week or so. 

So, what did my first few days look like? Running coffees and copying papers? Not exactly.

“Hi, Michael, I’m just grabbing the Premier — we’ve got about ten minutes!” A member of the Premier’s comms team tells me. Less time than I prepared for, but what odds.

Let’s talk about that!

Enter the Premier 

A couple of questions in, I’m feeling confident that everything’s going great. Well, in the “I didn’t break anything” kind of way, more so than the “I got the Premier to say words that mean something” kind of way. No surprises there. Then there was this:

Leading up to the election you had a comfortable lead in the polls, though you only won one more seat than you needed for a majority, do you think the polls had it…

“That’s not true. We have 22 plus a large plurality; I think that gets lost in the mix here. The next closest party is 13, so this is a real and firm mandate…”

I just meant that you had one more above what you needed for a majority, so 21 was what you needed for…

“A majority is a majority.” Is it though?

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The Premier talks of two things here: a majority and a plurality, both are true to some extent, but left as is that could be misleading. Initially, I thought that the Premier was suggesting I was wrong; that he had more than just one above what he needed for a majority, and he was just bad at math. Not so likely.

While this semantically holds water — compared to the next closest party they do maintain a more comfortable lead than my setup would suggest. However, the next closest party is not the only one with the power to vote no, so comparing your own party’s seats to that of the runner-up paints an incomplete picture — or more accurately, a more appealing frame.

Important enough to have its own heading, but simple enough to express in one paragraph. The difference between 22 and 13 is nine. The nine here represent the Liberals’ seat advantage over the PCs. But, 22 minus 21 is just one. One single-seat above the 21 required for a majority government. If you were the Premier, which would you lean into, and which would you slap down?

Perhaps, but would the premier be in a better position with more seats, and more room for detractors? There are two possibilities I can personally think of:

First, the Liberals may have identified a potential weakness and are trying to spin a slim majority into something I like to call “Majority Slims Plus — same slim majority, more on-brand embellishment.”

A new career

Second, to say the election was tumultuous has already become cliché — not a good start. It may be that the Premier’s election wins don’t represent his popularity and that he hopes to project a more popular appearance to hold the confidence of his electors and detractors. 

With enough effort from the opposition parties, and enough across the aisle lobbying, the potential for sabotage might be higher than his statements lead us to believe. Either that or this is a simple sign of a bone doctor seeking a new career as a spin doctor. 

Considering his assent to elected office, it seems that conclusion might be too little too late.

The longest election in the history of Newfoundland and Labrador has finally come to a close and the Premier has sworn in his new cabinet. 

As the dust following a tiring and tumultuous election settles on the ground across our beautiful province, many are wondering where we’re going from here. The Newfoundland Herald spoke with the Premier on topics from healthcare, our population, some election reflection, and more. Here’s what the Premier had to say.

Chubbs: After such a long election, what was on your mind while counts were rolling in? 

Furey: Like most Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, I wanted the election over, certainly the longest one in our history. I was hoping that I (could) get back to work as soon as I could. 

The people in Newfoundland and Labrador need a stable majority government to help navigate the rocky waters ahead. And that’s what we got. 

The election certainly was a turbulent one. And I was anxious to get back to work to start putting together a cabinet and start to lay out the vision and the strategies for the next four years to help reshape Newfoundland and Labrador.

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Chubbs: You won a majority government and unseated two party leaders. Was that the result you expected? 

Furey: “I’m not sure what I expected. To be honest, this is a very different time with the extension of the writ period. I appreciate that all candidates went through a high level of anxiety, their volunteers and their family members too. And I’ve never been one to make predictions. And so I wasn’t predicting anything,

 I was hopeful … for a majority government, again, so that we could have a stable footing to help redefine and re-imagine who we want to be as we emerge from this pandemic in this economic crisis and set the stage for a sustainable future for Newfoundland and Labrador.” 

Chubbs: COVID-19 revealed healthcare vulnerabilities in Labrador like the airstrip in Nain. Are there any plans to resolve some of those? 

Furey: So we met with the Nunatsiavut government in November and committed to working with them in concert with the federal government to provide an update on the airstrip. I’m not sure exactly where it is in the system now. But those were conversations that we had … and we’re looking forward to working with them towards that end.

Chubbs: Are there any plans to improve access to healthcare in Labrador in general?

Furey: Of course! We’re always looking at ways to improve healthcare, not just in Labrador West, but throughout the entire province. The reality of healthcare is that our communities have changed. And we need to make sure that the system is changing to meet the demands of the communities. And during the time of disruption, of course, no one wants to get COVID, but it has provided a significant disruption in all elements of our life, including healthcare, and we’ve recognized that perhaps we can … deliver care more efficiently … One example is the use of virtual care. 

It was developing all along, but it’s been catapulted to the forefront of how we can deliver different kinds of care and different services to people around the province. I think it’s also become abundantly clear, with new graduates coming from medical school, that they want to practice differently, perhaps, than people practiced before, so we need to make sure that the system is meeting the demands of all healthcare providers … so that we’re developing a team approach to providing health care. That will make it more attractive for doctors or nurses or pharmacists to go to communities, and then stay and develop a family.

Chubbs: If you had the ears of current medical students who have their eyes set on practicing elsewhere, what would you say to compel them to use their skills in Newfoundland? 

Furey: I would ask them to not consider that and to consider all that Newfoundland and Labrador has to offer. We have an incredibly bright future here – we have a good work-life balance. There’s lots of recreational activity, there’s lots that others don’t have. So if you’re attracted to downtown Toronto right now, I suggest you turn on the news and see how intense urbanization is working out there, whether it’s through the pandemic or the work-life balance. Newfoundland and Labrador, I think, provides a great opportunity for new grads to be able to practice the profession that they love … while living in sustainable communities (while raising) a family and to hit that work-life balance that many millennials in particular chase.

Chubbs: I read that you were looking to make bold, aggressive targets on immigration and re-imagining our population. What would that look like?

Furey: There’s no question that one of the biggest elements of the crisis touches on the economic crisis, and the health crisis that the province is facing … and the population/demographic crisis. And we have basically a population with almost 25 per cent approaching 65 or above, so exiting the workforce for the most part, and drawing most of the medical services that they require in retirement, but we don’t have that base of population to support them. 

So we need to make sure that we are targeting population growth through aggressive immigration strategies, in hitting not just our minimal goals, but making sure that we’re attracting immigrants from around the world to come, work here, play here, create economic opportunities here and raise a family here. But we also need to make sure that we’re developing those same opportunities for growth on our own with our youth and potentially displaced workers across the province. 

We want to make sure that we are aggressive in our immigration targets so that we can create economic opportunities in the workforce for the future of this province.

Chubbs: One driver of immigration is education. With the pandemic turning all that upon its head, are you worried that’s not going to be as reliable of a source of immigration going forward?

Furey: I think it still will be an incredible driver …  I don’t think we’ve realized the full value of that stream of potential new Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, and new Canadians bring to the province and we need to make sure that we have a more robust strategy than is perhaps in place right now to ensure that there is a pathway available for immigrants who are attending Memorial or post-secondary educational institutions across the province, to allow them to stay here. 

There are many that I know who have come here for an education as you suggest, and then are interested in staying. But often the barriers are too high to allow them to stay.

We need to, as a government, make sure that we’re doing everything we can to minimize those barriers to allow those that have been educated here to stay here and again, create economic opportunities in the diverse workforce that is needed for the future of the province.”

Chubbs: How are you going to take the bull by the horns for the next four years? 

Furey: Well, I think it’s most important that we’re bold in our thinking moving forward. I think everyone recognizes that there are challenges. But a challenge is an opportunity in disguise. And if we don’t see this time, as terrible as it’s been, as an opportunity to reinvent and re-imagine who we want to be as a people and what we want the economy to be … what we want the social fabric to be of Newfoundland and Labrador, then that will be a failure of immense proportions. 

We have tremendous challenges, but we have a tremendous opportunity to reset Newfoundland and Labrador moving forward. But we need to make sure that we’re balanced and measured in our approach. 

We need to make sure that we’re capitalizing on initiatives like transitioning to green energy. Oil and gas is incredibly important and will be for decades, but we need to use the value of that, to ensure that we can develop our capacity here to be the green battery that can potentially drive the northeastern seaboard. So those are some of the big kind of bold ideas that we were looking forward to rolling up our sleeves and getting to work on and including.

Chubbs: You’ve had the job for around eight months. Does it feel like eight years yet?

Furey: In a word, yes. But I enjoy it! I enjoy every minute of it. And I’m looking forward to the challenge. 

I’m looking forward to working with all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians so that we can really create the opportunities that we all know that are here in this province.

From superpowers he wishes he had, to things he wished he never said, The Herald enjoys a little light-hearted moment: The good Doctor is in!

How did you end up leaving England for NL?

By sheer chance in many respects. I wanted to leave the job I was in because I was not suited to it and it wasn’t suited to me. And because of various factors I started looking abroad. I only really had the one language, so I applied to work jobs in Canada and … the next thing, I was on a plane with my wife and headed for St. Anthony. 

Where did your love of the outdoors come from?  

I acquired it here. I grew up in a big city. Manchester’s population is well over half-a-million and  … It was a typical northern industrial centre of manufacturing, engineering and commerce at the time I was growing up, but it changed over the years. 

So really getting out in the country was a break for me. I had actually lived in  rural Cheshire (England) for a while whilst working at the University of Liverpool and I really liked it there, so when I went to St. Anthony it was just a different kind of rural and it was great. And when I was in Gander working, I actually lived in Appleton which was smaller still and I  commuted for 18 years, so I like the rural areas. Today, I live in Gander. Home is where the mortgage is. 

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What type of things do you like to do outside?

When I grew up in Manchester, the only thing you’d catch in the river was heavy metal poisoning. It was a real mess. And I came to really just sort of enjoy walking and hiking.

I have the dogs (Westies, Chloe and Gracie) so I get out with them. I love maps and I’m interested in that, too. I actually taught navigation …  But I get a bit lazy I suppose sometimes. I walk some days, but I like to take the side-by-side. My middle daughter Jennifer was a real quad enthusiast. She was forever … scooting around probably at an age when she shouldn’t have been at it. 

Speaking of your children, on Mother’s Day, your daughter Elizabeth posted something quite touching (Page 11) Do you mind sharing what that was about?

My wife (Jane) died of a very rare throat cancer and the girls (Hollie, Jenni and Elizabeth) were younger, so for a time, it was just us. 

I think it’s interesting, (Jane) said before she died – she was a nurse and a midwife herself – but one of the things she kept saying was she couldn’t get over how well she was looked after by the nursing staff or the physicians over the course of her illness. She spoke very highly of those in the health care system. 

You have a camper you enjoy at Square Pond Park in Gambo. How did that passion come about?

In many respects, the tragedy of the girls and their mom in 2005 kind of refocused us a little bit. So camping, and before that the cabin, became much more a part of our lives. By then the girls were 14, 15 and nearly 18 so there was a lot of the activities we could do that made getting away, for those weekends where we could getaway, more important in a way, and more enjoyable.

Take us down memory lane of Victoria Day of weekends past.

Well one of the most spectacular memories was when we had a cabin years ago and we went out there on a fairly nice sunny Thursday evening and then on the Saturday, we had 59 centimetres of snow. In this province, if you worried about the weather before you planned anything then you’re really not thinking straight because it’s going to do what it’s going to do. (laughs).

What do you enjoy doing in your time off this time of the year?

We have a camper and it’s a seasonal site and whatever the weather, we’ve got heat. May 24th, for me, it marks the functional end of winter and spring and summer are ahead of you. And while the weather may not be the best, it’s just the fact that you’re in a different routine where you can be out more easily and you’re getting away from the cold of winter to some warmer temps. 

So many have fallen hard for your no-nonsense yet comical style. Where did that come from?  

It came from two sources. As a surgeon, it’s very difficult to be too flowery with your language. Medicine, along with a lot of professions, have got a lot of technical terminology. But when you come to someone who is frightened, who’s had bad news, who’s really agitated, and may actually be acutely unwell … you need to be able to explain what you’re going to do while you’ve got a knife in someone’s innards. You have to translate medical jargon and it has to be understandable and clear cut, no nonsense. 

The other side, I was raised by my mom and her younger brother, Glyn (Wilson). Glyn was an academic … a historian and he had a real flair for language, not just in terms of vocabulary, but in the terms he could spin sentences together and had a very dry sense of humor. My sister, she says to me to this day;  ‘Glyn will never die as long as you’re around.’ And, yes, it’s got me in as much trouble as it’s got me out of sometimes. 

Any tales you’d like to share on that sense of humour of yours?

I remember this one patient I had from maybe Gander Bay, and he heard my accent and said, ‘you’re not from ‘round here, are ya?’ and I said, ‘No, b’y, I’m from C’nantny’ (St. Anthony) and he said, ‘Oh yes, b’y, that’s alrite.’ (laughs). 

When I left Liverpool, one thing I missed was the humour, but I’ve found that again here. Liverpool has several things that are interesting about it. One is that it has a really strange and unique accent that people love to mock. Another is that the people there have a really self-deprecating sense of humour that others in Southern England have a hard time getting, and another thing about the people there, they’d give you the shirt off their back. Sound familiar? So, you see, I feel right at home. 

Tell us about a typical day for you these days. 

If I find myself under stress I like to get some fresh air. Go on the side-by-side, or read a good book. And I work. In the beginning of all this, I’d stay (in town) but it’s hard being away from home. For me, while I wouldn’t say the pressures have eased, they’ve changed. It’s a lot less stressful when you don’t have rising numbers of patients to deal with or concerns about seriously ill individuals in hospital in large numbers.

But while the pressure hasn’t changed, it’s easier to manage from home now. My wife (Jeanette) was frightened because I usually do a lot of chatting. It takes me 45 minutes to an hour to get a carton of milk under the best of circumstances and Jeannette, she’s a healthcare worker, an RN at the hospital here  … so it’s important to maintain that bubble. 

I’ve got the technology working here, though I actually burnt out a tablet. It overheated from all the Skype I was doing, so I got me a new laptop and I’m into a comfortable routine. My office is in the forestry building and I’m the only person there, so I don’t feel as though that’s breaching any bubbles. So I work, and I go home, and to relax, I get outside. 

There are chocolate bars with your sayings on them. There’s also artwork. Thoughts?

These sayings are not new for me. The one about hope being a girl’s name, staff at the hospital I worked with would roll their eyes whenever I said that. I say that without thinking. 

You’re talking about a patient; you hear, ‘I hope you’ll be better soon.’ ‘I hope it’ll all go all right.’ ‘With any luck, we hope this will work.’ And of course, me being me would say, hope is a girl’s name. The one about Tinder and Grindr, they just slip out naturally. Things just popped into my head because again, this goes back to the idea that you’re trying to explain complicated ideas by analogy.

Tell readers something you’ve said that you immediately wished you hadn’t? 

My wife always said, ‘would you, for God’s sake, put your listening ears on while you’re talking?’ And just today, in the briefing, I used the word handicap and I realized that wasn’t right. 

You are heading into the woods for a year. All your shelter and grub needs are taken care of, what other two items do you take and why? 

I would take my Kindle and either a notebook and a pen or a laptop so I could jot down and journal things. I got into the habit of doing that when I did some stress management kind of self-love schooling back in the day with the Medical Association. That will help my enjoyment of playing with words. Maybe one of my ambitions would be to write a book, though I don’t think anybody would want to read it. 

You get to have two superpowers. What are they?

Wow. You know, I really don’t know. I’m not much fun, am I? I’m a pilot, so flying sounds good. Being invisible sort of seems like unnecessary nosiness, really, though maybe that’s fun. I wouldn’t mind having better eyesight. 

You get to pick a song that plays every time you walk into a room. That song that will play is…?  

Piece of music that would play? Every time I walk in the room? Obviously I have no imagination. I can certainly dredge up something that would label me as a child of the 60s, but one piece of music that would get me up and on the go or relax me, Fantasia on Greensleeves by Ralph Vaughan Williams. 

It’s an orchestral piece by an English composer at the turn of the last century. I don’t always listen to classical music, I mean, my tastes go from there all the way to Led Zeppelin. 

You get to plan a celebratory parade for Newfoundlanders to enjoy once this pandemic is over. Describe the float that you’re riding on and who’s on the float with you? 

Oh, yeah. Easy. I want a bubble machine. And all my kids and grandkids are on it, and we just blow a whole bunch of bubbles. We’ll have a huge family reunion on that float and they’re all blowing bubbles. I’m in charge of the biggest bubble machine. 

You have one day where you can only say one word. What’s the word? 

I learned a long, long time ago how to say no, it’s one of the most liberating words you can use. But, if I could only say one word for one day, it would be ‘fantastic!”

What’s an item that you keep stocked in your fridge at all times? 

The thing that I get most concerned about running out of is anchovies.  I love anchovies and I’ve always got them in the fridge. Every once in a while I’ll sit down, I’ll eat one or I’ll put it on pizza or something.

You get to be a member of any sitcom family you pick. What family do you join?  

There was a sitcom in the U.K. called Till Death Do Us Part and it was the prototype for Archie Bunker. I’ll be the patriarch, Alf.  

He got to swear at everybody and say exactly what he wanted. It was totally politically incorrect. Obviously, something totally fun. 

If anyone asked you what’s the best thing since sliced bread, what would that be in your opinion? 

Donair meat. I love that stuff. (laughs)

Name something you’re horribly bad at and one thing you’re surprisingly good at. 

I used to think I was a hopeless handyman. In actual fact, I surprised myself because the projects I’ve done have worked out well so that answers both questions. I still think I’m bad at it, but the things I have done, particularly the ones I haven’t analyzed to death, haven’t been bad. 

Describe your life so far using one word. 

You know what? I’d have to use fantastic. I mean, it’s had its ups and downs, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve done things in the last 25 years I would never, ever have envisioned.