TRANSCRIPT

Shane Hewitt: Every now and then you meet somebody cool and like in the world of DMs. It’s, you can’t just say that, like, hey, uh, I think you’re cool. You wanna hang out on my radio show? Like, it’s the worst like ever.

So that’s why we have producers that send emails for us, so we sound less like a weirdo. Uh, but truly, uh, Janet, that’s why I wanted to meet you, because I think the stuff you’re doing is cool, and I, I, I almost don’t even mean your your professional life. I think it’s the thing that you’ve taken on in your life.

Shane Hewitt: That really sets such a cool example for me and for everyone around us. So, uh, let me introduce Doctor Janet McMortie. Uh, she’s a sports medicine physician with a long CV of cool things, Team Canada physician, Paralympics, medical consultant, and so much more. But it’s actually not that part of you that I think is, I mean, that’s amazing, don’t get me wrong. I mean, I could not read that many books.

Shane Hewitt: Anyway, how are you?

Janet McMordie: I’m doing great. I’m thank you for that. That makes my makes my head swell a little bit. I’m like, oh, thank you. Oh my

Shane Hewitt: goodness. Well, you, you have, I think I’ve, I, my observation.

Shane Hewitt: You are clearly are smart. You’ve gone and chased a career dream and been very successful at it. You’ve been able to adapt that dream into things I think that matter to you, and then you, as the human Janet went, I think there’s more.

Shane Hewitt: And then you chase that too. So, can you take me back in time to for us, you know, when

Shane Hewitt: You were maybe functioning like a normal person and went to work every day, and then came home every day, and that was it, and then you had a bit of a light bulb go off and went, I want more. What happened?

Janet McMordie: Yeah, I think, and I my story is not unique in that because the pandemic was the big nexus for change for me, for sure. You know, I think as a frontline healthcare worker, the pandemic was a huge unexpected upheaval and how we work, how we practice medicine.

Janet McMordie: And how the public sees us as healthcare workers and stuff like that. And also it’s just really hard. I don’t think anyone was expecting to either a face a global pandemic in their career or face a second one because they’ve been involved with SARS. So it was an interesting shift from, I was going to work my 9 to 5 doing my night shifts as all doctors do and being like, yeah, this is fine. And then the pandemic hit, and I was still doing that. And there was this kind of

Janet McMordie: Oh, it sounds so awful to say, but there’s kind of this excitement at the beginning of the pandemic because we were like, we are, we are part of the war effort on the front lines. We can do this. Yeah, we’re we’re doing it all together. I think it was felt not just amongst frontline workers, like, we can do this. Yeah. And then as it time marched on, it became more and more of a slog. And I was like, oh, like, I am heading, I’m on the fast train to Burnoutville. This is becoming not fun anymore. Not that it was ever fun, but you kind of catch.

Janet McMordie: I

Shane Hewitt: mean there’s passion behind your career. Exactly.

Janet McMordie: That’s passion is a perfect word. Yeah. And I think what I was realizing as I was starting to not like my work, not like my job, not like being a doctor anymore. And here’s this thing that I trained for decades of my life, and lots of people want to do with their life. Here I am being like, I don’t know if I want to do this anymore. How dare I? You know, what is missing? And

Janet McMordie: The second city, God bless the 2nd city in Toronto was doing these online improv classes for healthcare workers, um, for free. They’re like, yeah, you need to laugh, let’s do it, and I signed up for one and just this like spur of the moment mania maybe, um, and absolutely loved it and thought to myself, oh, this is what I’m, this is what I’m missing.

Janet McMordie: I was a really creative child growing up. I was an artsy, fun, band nerd, like theater kid. I don’t get me wrong, I love science. I love books. I love to read, but I loved that creative part of it. But I hadn’t focused on it at all because you have to tunnel vision your brain into only medicine to become a doctor. Well,

Shane Hewitt: one thing, wait, let’s let let us judge you for a second before you continue. Uh, what instrument, banner?

Janet McMordie: I played the piano, the clarinet, and then I dabbled in the drums with a jazz, like jazz kind of soul band for.

Shane Hewitt: I was gonna say clarinet. I figured you were a clarinet. I clarinet or was going to be like a baritone sax weirdness. Interesting.

Janet McMordie: Cool. What’s funny now is that I I’m still musical. My dad, yeah, like we, I, my dad plays an Irish folk band and I play the Irish flute. So like, it’s it still exists in my world, but the, it was the clarinet growing up, let’s be honest.

Janet McMordie: Anyway,

Shane Hewitt: anyway, yeah, that’s a part of the journey you were talking about your online classes. I interrupted.

Janet McMordie: Yeah, yeah,

Janet McMordie: just, just taking these online classes made me realize I was missing that creative kind of childlike fun play and with no stakes, you know what I mean? Like, and it just grew from there and I was realizing, oh, the more I do this, the more it’s making me remember, honestly, why I went into medicine in the first place. Like finding that curiosity that

Janet McMordie: joy, that interest in other human beings and listening to them and learning about them, which had gone away because, you know, the pandemic and just medicine in general is really hard and you kind of forget why you went into it. I think most people do with most of their jobs. And so it just grew from there and I haven’t really stopped since. And I still practice medicine, but I still love to do the creative stuff as

Janet McMordie: well.

Shane Hewitt: So

Shane Hewitt: Have you focused now more so into the sports medicine, of course, post-pandemic, the the needs and demands are different, but have you been able to focus that differently now from this lesson? And I, the reason why I’m calling it a lesson is because I think that all of us in our careers have these opportunities to learn things and refocus. I think it’s very relatable. So how have you focused now? Was the sports

Shane Hewitt: Kind of a side thing in your medicine career before, and now you’ve refocused it. How does that

Shane Hewitt: work?

Janet McMordie: No, I was always gung ho sports medicine. Like, as soon as I learned that was a a fellow, a fellowship I could do, that was a career path I could go down. I was like, yeah, that is me to a T, and it still is. But I think the biggest thing I realized was I my interactions with patients got so much more fulfilling, which is why most doctors go into medicine in the first place, is they love

Janet McMordie: It’s that cliche if I just want to help people. Like, that’s genuinely why we went into it. And when you are traveling in the world of healthcare for years, you start to forget as, you know, paperwork and, you know, administration and all this stuff that you never really were taught about piles on, and you forget that little spark of joy was, you know, having another human being across from you.

Janet McMordie: Trusting you enough to tell you some pretty personal stuff. And with improv classes and acting classes, you’re all about the person sitting across from you. It’s not about you, it’s about the person across from you, it’s about your scene partner, it’s about your patient.

Janet McMordie: So it just brought that all back a light in me again. It just turned that switch back on. I was like, dang. The, the admin burnout is still there, for sure, but I’m able to respond to it a lot better because I remember the joy

Janet McMordie: of the.

Shane Hewitt: Oh, that’s fantastic. Boy, that’s a good lesson. Um, social media, not very often I say nice things about social media in general. TikTok, for example, um, I don’t have a TikTok. Yeah, well, well, you should, um, there’s meshing on you, but you should, um.

Shane Hewitt: I don’t go on TikTok either. I usually see the recycled ones that people repost on Instagram or whatever, and, but I have mixed emotions. I mean, there’s so many good things that can come from this and, you know, obviously we, we know the bad things.

Shane Hewitt: Well, there’s one bad thing that I don’t think we realized. I always say this, the more people that express themselves and dance or sing or whatever on a platform like TikTok, the better it is. There’s a guy I follow and I, I don’t remember his name, he’s like the worst karaoke singer ever, but I follow him on Instagram because he just, he gets up and he sings his karaoke songs, and it’s quite dreadful. I just appreciate the fact that he does it.

Shane Hewitt: And with TikTok, the more that people are dancing, the more that people are singing, the better this world gets without a doubt. I mean, the drawback that nobody talks about is that we’re gonna have an entire generation of kids that go to a nightclub when they’re young adults, and they’re only gonna be able to dance for 15 seconds at a time, like they can’t dance for a whole song. But aside from that part, I mean, it’s great. So tell me about how self-expression has really guided this.

Janet McMordie: Yeah, oh, that’s it. I have so many thoughts about social media because social media for me is a huge positive. I think so much that was awful about the pandemic. We remember about so many good things came out of it and a lot of it was the ability to do things virtually and connect with people virtually. Yeah, our world got tiny, but I think also our world got massive during the pandemic because so many doors open to us virtually and I think

Janet McMordie: Yeah, self-expression for me is.

Janet McMordie: It is tricky because I think a long uh for a long time I didn’t really know what my self-expression was and everything I was doing just felt kind of selfish and self-serving, and like, why am I doing this? Who cares? And then I remember somebody saying, very similar to you, like, how positive it is to see people doing the things they love to, to watch that. I am the type of person who, if I see somebody posting things that bring them joy on social media, I’m like, please do more.

Janet McMordie: Of that. Send me pictures of your kids, your meal, your dance that you just learned, the art that you’re doing, even if you think it’s bad, that is what creates community. That’s what creates story. And story is what, you know, storytelling is the most important thing I think we as humans have. It’s what creates legacy. It what drives empathy. And in this world where we are so starved of empathy.

Janet McMordie: I think the more people that are creating art, just expressing themselves for the sake of just doing it, it, it just, we see each other in it. You know what I mean? We see it, we learn about each other. We go, oh, like that’s, that brings me joy. This dumb karaoke brings me joy. I remember working with, um, our development team for, uh, Canada Women’s soccer. We were in Spain and all these girls are doing these TikTok dances. This is the first time I’d ever seen this. I was like, oh, TikTok.

Janet McMordie: But this looks and then I was like, no, step back, take your like almost boomer hat off.

Shane Hewitt: Yeah, it is totally they’re

Janet McMordie: so joyful. They’re having so much fun. They’re dancing and listening to music and having fun together,

Shane Hewitt: collaborating,

Janet McMordie: collaborating and like, what a joyful thing to be doing and putting out into the world. That’s exactly what we need to be doing. It’s not what life is all about, just doing dumb things together and laughing about it.

Janet McMordie: Yeah, I think it’s, it’s great. It can be tough to do because there are also so many critical people out there who just sit and think it’s their job to just berate, you know, people online and stuff like that, but I think there’s so much good out there, um, and good people who are like, yes, show me your art, show me your crappy art, please, I need it.

Shane Hewitt: I need it. Yeah, I mean it’s, it’s it’s mentorship and leadership, right? The distinction is important that when we see somebody do art, whether we like it or not.

Shane Hewitt: We go, well, wait a second, I could do that. Uh, there we go, wait a second, what if I could do that? Or I, I wish I could be that passionate, and they start, you start to watch and you start to pay attention to it, right? You are a product of your environment. When you surround yourself with creative things, you tend to start to think more creatively. We do Good News Tuesday here on the show, and um, the more good news, I mean, the psychology is very clear, the more good news that you have around you, the more good news you tend to find. You can get into the RAS and all the brain stuff, but the reality is,

Shane Hewitt: is good news makes good news babies, right? So go make some good news babies, and my favorite thing that I’ve ever experienced on the show, and it was on my previous show, was when someone called in from Winnipeg and said, I just can’t find it.

Shane Hewitt: I can’t find it today.

Shane Hewitt: I believe his name was Henry.

Shane Hewitt: And he said, I can’t find it today.

Shane Hewitt: Help me find it.

Shane Hewitt: And then there was this overwhelming support on text messages and phone calls from audience across the country, that started to share good news.

Shane Hewitt: And he said, it makes me feel better, but I can’t, I still, I’m still not getting it. And we had the conversation but you have to understand that sometimes you have to have a little bit of bad.

Shane Hewitt: And then you can see the good. Like they dance, they’re dancing. It’s not about right and wrong. It’s not about all these things, but in order to know hot, you have to know cold. And when you can realize that these things are going to dance together, all you have to do is be willing to dance. And the magic of that, um, and what if I’m not alone.

Shane Hewitt: It is important. Now, you’re surrounded by people every day, and I’m gonna make a little bit of an assumption here. You’re surrounded by people every day and you’re serving every day. When you come home at the end of the day, uh, I imagine that that circle is probably pretty small and pretty well protected of the actual Janet’s private circle. So what is that told you now when you see that you’re not alone in this? What have you discovered for yourself?

Janet McMordie: Yeah, and it’s, uh, yeah, my, I keep my circle very, very small on purpose because of that, right? Like, I think, you know, when I was starting getting into the entertainment industry, there’s so many people and you want to just network, and I’m a, I’m an extroverted social person and I was really enjoying meeting all these people, but being like, who do I give all of the energy to? And what I was realizing is that the people who would be

Janet McMordie: Constructively critical of me and where I was spending my time and energy, were the ones who would, who I kept really close. And I mean, I, I love criticism cause I mean I went through medical training, talk about being criticized all the time.

Janet McMordie: Um, but I, I think in medical training criticism is used to boost you up and make you better. Where in the entertainment industry, what I found is when people critique you, they’re usually like sitting in the cheap seats. It’s not to make you better, it’s just to make you feel.

Janet McMordie: Bad about yourself. So that was a big learning lesson for me. And so it was finding those people who were constructively critical, who were also very, um, felt like they could tell me the truth of when I was, say, stretching myself too thin. But then I think the biggest part was, these are the people who would be comfortable telling me that, that I was off kilter, off balance, and also stuck with me.

Janet McMordie: As I brought myself back, you know, stayed with me.

Janet McMordie: In, you know, the good times and, and the bad. But yeah, it’s a small, small, small circle, but they are powerful. And, uh, yeah, they’re

Janet McMordie: powerful.

Shane Hewitt: I wish you could see Janet’s face right now. Um, passion overflows. I can kind of feel it. So tell me about, um, tell me about entertainment. What’s next for you? What are you working on? Because I mean, you’re online, you’re doing, you know, these online podcasty things and all these bits and pieces. So how do, how do we connect with you and what are you up to? Let’s let’s dig into that part. We know the doctor part.

Janet McMordie: Yeah, so I host a podcast called Second Act Actors where I talked to people who changed careers into acting and also people who supported us in the entertainment industry, like crew members, um, actors who’ve been actors all the time, casting directors and stuff like that.

Janet McMordie: So that gets released every Friday, and I have almost 170 episodes, so you got a lot of listening to do if you want to get started. But I’ve talked to some pretty incredible human beings from around the world. Um, so yeah, anywhere you get your podcast, Second Act actors, um, that’s where you can find us. Uh, find me, I guess I should say. Uh, the cool thing that I have coming up is a neat blend, finally, of my medical career and my acting work. So I’m working on a one woman show, uh,

Janet McMordie: About a Toronto paramedic. I’m going to be performing in it, but we’re also in collaboration with UFT’s Faculty of Medicine, which I’m on faculty, and as well as UFT’s faculty of Paramedicine. Um, I’m in collaboration with a couple of professors there because we are working on, in conjunction with the show, a wellness curriculum, because when I was in my medical training, I learned tons about how to care for patients’ mental well-being, but nothing about how to care for my own.

Janet McMordie: And so we’re trying to develop a wellness curriculum through using physical theater, using art, using improv, using what got me out of burnout as a doctor back into life, basically, into a wellness curriculum that will be hopefully shared with the students, trying to get them as well they’re in their uh in their training to hopefully.

Janet McMordie: You know, try and improve the massive levels of burnout that we’re seeing in the on the front lines right now. So I’m really excited about that. We just, we literally just started last week and it’s gonna be a big year-long process, but I’m thrilled to be

Janet McMordie: involved.

Shane Hewitt: I was given the word depleted a couple of years ago.

Shane Hewitt: And that one’s uh that’s a big one, so I love what you’re saying. So tell me, uh, moving your body is key, lighting up your spirit is key, play is key. I recently learned that one. Now, just to be clear, I’m guilty of not doing all these things. I should probably declare like terribly um guilty of it, but when we look at this today, what’s something that we can give to everybody who’s with us right now?

Shane Hewitt: Um, to get started in this, cause a lot of people are saying, well, I wish I could play the guitar. I wish I could be a stand-up comedian. I wish I could, I learned to play the piano. I wish I could walk my dog and sing songs quietly to myself. But like, which, um, what, what’s one thing that maybe you’ve learned through your journey here that that you had to take on that really might have sucked at first. Fear, whatever, judgment, vanity, ego, what was it?

Janet McMordie: Uh, I think it was definitely, it was going to an improv class because there is absolutely no script. And for me, in medicine, we work with a script. We work with an algorithm, we work step wise, there are distinct steps to go and be successful in seeing this patient and you show up in an improv class and they’re like,

Janet McMordie: Go, go nuts, go be an elephant, go, you know, you’re making it up as you go along, move your body. How does it feel to be hot? How does it feel to be cold? Move your and I’m like, this is so stupid. What is this? I think that was the biggest kind of barrier cause I’m like I look dumb and everyone’s gonna think I look dumb, and I don’t like feeling.

Janet McMordie: Stupid. I rarely feel stupid as a doctor. I don’t like this. This is weird. So I think that, but that was the most freeing feeling cause you look around, you hear all these other people being stupid. Nobody cares, get over yourself. So I think finding something, remind yourself what you used to love to do when you were young.

Janet McMordie: And then do that even just for 5 minutes a day. Don’t judge yourself. You didn’t judge yourself when you were a kid playing. You were like, oh God, I look so stupid playing house like you don’t know, but just remember what that was. That was key for me and then just go be stupid for 5 minutes. You don’t have to do an improv class. You can literally sit on your carpet and roll around listening to a song that brings you joy, just something like that, something so simple and short.

Janet McMordie: Term, you don’t need to invest in a theater school. It could be something just so small to remind yourself of what it was like, what it was like when you were a kid with no stakes, because there are no stakes with something like this. There’s stakes in medicine, but like there’s no stakes in this. Get over yourself and just no one cares.

Shane Hewitt: No one cares. Yeah, no one cares. You could be really disappointed when you find out how little people care about you.

Janet McMordie: This is very true.

Shane Hewitt: Um, but I, I would say there are stakes.

Shane Hewitt: I think there are stakes on the other end. Um, there’s a lot of stakes if you don’t.

Janet McMordie: Oh, that’s lovely.

Janet McMordie: That’s, I like that a lot.

Shane Hewitt: OK, uh, podcast again.

Janet McMordie: Second act actors.

Shane Hewitt: And any easy way to get it other than Googling it?

Janet McMordie: Uh, Googling it and we’re on Spotify. We’re like, we’re on anywhere you put your ear holes and get to listen to podcasts. We’re on YouTube as well if you want to watch. You can see all my wonderful guests, they are fabulous humans. Um, and then, yeah, my, my own personal website, you can find me at janet McMorty.com, anywhere, you know.

Janet McMordie: or die, as I love to say. I know that I wish I could take credit for that. That’s my dad. That’s my dad, the teacher, but yeah,

Shane Hewitt: I guess really MCM or Janet, it’s been a pleasure to meet you, Doctor Janet McMortie, your resume is long, but your spirit is even bigger and stronger. So thank you.

Janet McMordie: Thank you so much. That was so kind. This is great.

Shane Hewitt: Shane Hewitt, Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift on the iHeartRadio Radio network.