Nation Real Life

Need a distraction from all the election talk? Well, then you've come to the right spot! Nation Real Life Episode 144 is here to pleasure your earholes! This week on the podcast we were joined by local film producer Shane Fennessey for a Mary Browns Pop-In! He's worked on some fantastic pieces like 'Making Coco' and 'The Bailey Experience' just to name a few. First, we talked about working on the Making Coco documentary and some of the experiences he had with that process which involved interviewing a ton of Oilers legends. Shane talked about the differences between doing sports documentaries and some of his other work like 'Over a Barrell', which is a political piece. The topics continued to flow. Shane talked about the hockey culture in China, the City of Champions slogan, and what it means to be an Oilers fan. He then casually dropped in the fact that he's on a first-name basis with Wayne Gretzky which blew the minds of Yaremchuk, Wanye, and Jay. At the end, the guys shared their thoughts on the Oilers 7-1

We hope all of you had an excellent Thanksgiving long weekend with your friends and family, but now it's time to get back to business with a brand new episode of the Real Life Podcast.   With the Edmonton Oilers having their best start since 1985-86, the guys were beaming even in spite of last night's loss to the Chicago Blackhawks. Seeing as no one saw this start coming, having the team shoot out of the gates like a rocket to the moon has been a welcomed surprise for Nation citizens and the boys were all too happy to talk about it. Speaking of hot starts, the boys took a look at James Neal's ridiculous heater and whether or not the comparisons to Milan Lucic will ever end. Individual stats aside, the conversation pivoted to whether the Oilers are actually playing strong hockey or if they're lucking their way into victories that they might not have deserved. Unwilling to let the birthday boy's negativity ruin their buzz, Jay invited our 12 listeners to join in on Nation's new win tradition where we post gifs

Welcome, Nation, to a brand new episode of the Real Life Podcast! This week, the boys got to a lot of Oilers talk as the hot start to the season has everyone excited about what's going on in Edmonton.   To start off this week's episode, the guys got things going with a discussion about a new intro song for the podcast. Seeing as a large chunk of the current intro is poking fun at Peter Chiarelli's time as GM, the guys felt like it's time to move on and into a more positive direction. Needless to say, having the Oilers kick off their season with two straight wins had the boys jacked up on Kool-Aid and it was hard for them to contain their excitement. Speaking of excitement, James Neal has Oilers fans in the palm of his hand so far after he scored a pair of goals against the Los Angeles Kings. Turning away from hockey for a moment, Jay challenged Tyler to a bet in this week's Nation Fantasy Football Pool which stated that the loser of the matchup had to wear a ridiculous costume for a donair date video. That co

It's a very special episode of the Real Life Podcast as the boys were lucky to welcome former Oiler, Eric Gryba, to the show to a little bit about his time in Edmonton, what's next in retirement, and offer some timeless advice on grilling.   To start off today's episode, Baggedmilk and Yaremchuk had the privilege of speaking with Eric Gryba to talk to him about his recently announced retirement, what's next in his life, and what his time in Edmonton means to him. With Gryba's interview wrapped up, the guys turned their attention to the start of the NHL season and whether or not they're still drinking the Kool-Aid. Naturally, the excitement in the room was overflowing and that passion was no more evident than when the guys discussed what they expect from the team moving forward. From there, the guys discussed the Nation Fantasy Football pool and described how both Jay and Chalmers are doing horribly. Back to the NHL, the guys discussed the league's recent decision to partner with Green Day as the official musi

Welcome, citizens, to a brand new episode of the Real Life Podcast! With the NHL regular season nearly upon us, the boys were fired up in anticipation of watching some meaningful games again and couldn't hide their excitement.   To kick off today's podcast, Jay regaled the boys with tales from his Finnish vacation, including a look at the hockey culture they've got going on as well as rubbing elbows with a pair of Edmonton Oilers legends. Before finishing his story, though, Chalmers jumped in to interrupt and ask questions about the new podcast studio. Studio complaints behind them, Jay got back to his travel stories and offered updates on a few former friends in Jesse Puljujarvi and Nail Yakupov. From there, the stories took a strange twist as Jay gave the guys the ins and outs from his 24-hour stint in Russia. As North Americans, we often think of Russia as a wild place to visit and Jay's stories seemed to confirm that fact. Finally, it wouldn't be a Real Life Podcast without closing out the episode with a

Welcome, citizens, to a brand new episode of the Real Life Podcast. With the NHL pre-season kicking off last night, there was plenty to talk about as the Edmonton Oilers opened up their warm-up rounds with a 2-0 shutout win against the Manitoba Moose Winnipeg Jets.   To start off today's podcast, the boys jumped in with a look at the brand new podcast studio that has been a year in the making. After kicking off the project last summer, the boys were finally able to record in the studio for the first time and they spent a few minutes talking about how the project came together. While the studio is launched on version 1.0, it was hard not to be excited about having a space dedicated to audio and video recording which opens up plenty of new opportunities in the future. Back to hockey, the Edmonton Oilers kicked off their pre-season last night with a win against the Winnipeg Jets and the guys expressed their joy about having hockey back even if it is only the warm-up rounds. From there, they broke down the new we

A new week means a new episode of the Real Life Podcast, and this week's show was filled with explosive moments as the fallout from #ChumGate continued despite the fact that Jay is vacationing in Finland.   To start off this week's episode, the boys jumped right in by revisiting last week's #ChumGate drama, but rather than letting Chalmers and Jay yell at each other for 20 minutes again, they decided to bring in a character witness (Sean Lavin) to settle things once and for all. After running through a brief history of the Angler Cup and how things came together, both Chalmers and Lavin recounted their version of the events that kicked off last week's fight, including the definition of chumming and sacrificing minnows for the gods. Back to business, the guys got into some Oilers talk with a look the upcoming season and why people should be excited in spite of history suggesting they should. As always, Wanye and Baggedmilk had plenty of reasons to be drinking the Kool-Aid while Chalmers left the conversation s

As always, a new week means a brand new episode of the Real Life Podcast! This week, the boys welcomed Dustin Nielson to the show to talk about all kinds of hockey, his journey in radio, and a little bit about business, which was exactly the listeners have always wanted.   To start off this week's episode, the boys got into Dusty Nielson's journey in radio, including his start in High Prairie to battles with squatters in Fort McMurray and living at the radio station for weeks. But as you'd expect, the conversation got sidetracked with some sweet sweet produce talk from his time at Save On Foods. Would you have expected that Nielson's fallback career would be managing the produce department at the local grocery store? Probably not.  With the food facts out of the way, Dusty spoke about moving back to Edmonton to kick off his big city radio career with a brand new morning show with former co-host Kyle Chase. After establishing himself in the market over the past decade, Dusty has seen his star grow to the point

In another very special episode of the Real Life Podcast, the boys were thrilled to welcome former Ottawa Senator and Minnesota Wild forward, Matt Kassian, to the show to talk about his time as a pro and a very special project he'll be working on with the Nation starting next month. To start off this week's show, Kassian regaled the boys with tales from the show, including what it took to go up against some of the league's toughest players. Not only did Kassian fight some of the toughest fighters in league history, but he also handled himself incredibly well and it was fascinating to hear about what it took to make that happen. In fact, his story about fighting Frazer McLaren despite the fact that the two of them are friends was one of the best stories ever told on the show. Moving on, Kassian spoke at length about his journey to becoming a professional hockey player and what it was like to realize that he was legitimately good enough to play in the NHL. Whether he was playing high school football or sparring

In the past, they combined to play 28 games with the Edmonton Oilers. This week, they combined to give us 90 minutes of fantastic podcast content! Joaquin Gage & Shawn Belle stopped by the Real Life Studio to discuss their hockey careers, grinding through the minor leagues, playing in Edmonton, and coaching the youth of today. For the first half of the show, it was just Yaremchuk, Wanye, Jay and Shawn Belle. They talked about being a young hockey phenom in Edmonton and going through the minor hockey process and the pressures that go along with it. From there, they touched on navigating the jungle of the WHL and getting a chance to play with the most stacked World Junior team of all time. Halfway through, they brought Gage out of the bullpen to join the crew. He talked about how being a goalie requires being a little bit of a lunatic. The group then riffed about the new generation of hockey players who now require snapchat to be kept on curfew.  It was 90 minutes of unfiltered hockey talk. You should liste

It was a very special episode of the Real Life Podcast podcast this afternoon as former Oilers' captain and assistant coach Kelly Buchberger stopped by to walk the boys through his incredible career. To kick off this week's show, the guys jumped right into things with a look at Buchberger's early hockey days in Langenburg, Saskatchewan, and how that spawned a lifelong love of the game that eventually led him to the NHL. From his time with the Moosejaw Warriors to playing his first NHL games to becoming the ninth captain in Edmonton Oilers history, Kelly Buchberger's road to the best league in the world was incredible to hear and the guys were so fortunate to listen to a firsthand account of how it all went down. Just wait until you hear the story from when Buchberger completed one of the greatest comebacks of all time with his legendary OT goal against Dallas Stars back in 1997 when the Oilers put home three goals in under two minutes to get the team to the extra frame — it blew our minds wide open. With his

Since it's the dog days of summer and there isn't anything interesting happening around the Oilers, the boys decided to talk about movies on this week's podcast. Of course, that lasted roughly one segment before they got sidetracked by tales of their old restaurant, the fact that Jalen Ramsey showed up to Jaguars training camp in a Brinks truck, and some Big Brother talk. If you were looking for some Oilers talk, they did cover the fact that newly acquired New Jersey Devils forward Nikita Gusev will wear number 97 next season. THAT'S THE SAME NUMBER THAT CONNOR McDAVID WEARS! HOW DARE HE! But the group quickly realized that this was hardly a controversy. Wanye also discovered that he knows one of Yaremchuk's cousins, Chalmers talked about complicated construction stuff, Jay talked about his trip to the Royal Alberta Museum, and they gave an update on the new podcast studio! There was truly a little bit of everything in Episode 132 of Nation Real Life. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Monday = a brand new episode of Real Life! Wanye, Jay, Chalmers, and Yaremchuk cracked their mics and dished out their hottest takes on the trade of Milan Lucic and the addition of James Neal. Naturally, they also go sidetracked with talk of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, honey production, invasive technology, and bachelor/bachelorette parties. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Another Monday is upon us and that means the boys are back with a brand new episode of the Real Life Podcast to get you through the week. This week, the guys get into what's coming for the Real Life Podcast, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins' wedding, and a whole lot of Big Brother talk.  To kick off this week's show, the guys got into the mechanics of the podcast and talked a little bit about what's to come for the show as we progress into a new season. As any listener of the podcast knows, the boys want to have more guests in the studio to sit down and talk about how they process of how they ended up where they are. Now that we have Yaremchuk working the case, the list of potential guests is growing and listeners of Real Life are in for some major upgrades in the coming weeks and months. Back to business, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is getting married to his high school sweetheart today, so the guys took a few minutes to talk about the longest serving Edmonton Oiler and what it must be like to be the guy that's seen and lived th

Another Monday means a new episode of the Real Life Podcast, and this week's show was, once again, jam-packed with all of the sweet, sweet Oilers talk and randomness that you could ever hope to hear. To start off today's episode, Chalmers made his triumphant return to the podcast and recapped his Ontario vacation which came complete with a Niagara Falls tour and a walk through the Hockey Hall of Fame, a building he ended up hating. Next up, the guys touched on the new podcast studio that's been under construction in the basement at Little Brick for what seems like years now. With Chalmers back from vacation, Wanye and Jay walk him through the upgrades that needed to be done to be able to move the project forward. As you'll soon hear, putting a podcast studio in the basement of a 100+-year-old building is a little bit more complicated and a lot more expensive than they originally anticipated. Lastly, the boys got into some music talk after Chalmers dropped another hot take that Queen wasn't a very good band. N

With the NHL Draft and opening days of free agency in the books, the boys are back with a brand new episode of the Real Life Podcast to break it all down. To kick things off, the guys jumped right in with a look at the moves the Oilers made on free agency day. Some Nation citizens were upset that the team didn't take swings at some of the bigger names that are available, but the Real Life crew saw things a little bit different. Considering the lack of cap space Ken Holland had to work with, the guys actually thought the volume approach Holland took to revamp the bottom six was a nice change of pace as compared to the wild overpays that came in the Chiarelli era. While the most pessimistic fan could argue that the team still overpaid on some of its deals, you could counter by saying that none of the contracts handed out are going to hurt the team in the long run. From there, the guys revisited the Jesse Puljujarvi situation now that he's made it through both the draft and opening days of free agency without be

Welcome, citizens, to a brand new episode of the Real Life Podcast to finish off your Monday. This week, the boys were happy to welcome Ryan Byks to the show to talk a little bit about the Oilers and a whole lot about wrestling. If you're an Oilersnation fan, chances are that you know Ryan Byks from the hilarious team-related jokes he puts on his Twitter account about the state of the franchise. What you may not know is that Ryan is also an avid wrestling fan, which gave the Real Life crew plenty to talk about with the NHL Draft wrapping up this past weekend and Summerslam coming up in August. But to kick things off, we looked back at the NHL draft from this past weekend and gave our takes about how things went and whether or not Philip Broberg at 8th overall was the right play. Sticking with the draft, the boys recapped their flop trade ideas from last week's show and mused about whether or not any of them might still happen. Could Russell still be moved? Will Lucic go after the Oilers pay out his signing bo

After a one-week hiatus due to power upgrades getting done at Nation HQ, the boys are back with a brand new episode of the Real Life Podcast. This week, the guys talk a whole lot of sports as both the NHL and NBA wrapped up their respective seasons. To start off this week's show, the guys discuss trying to level up the podcast and turn it into something that sounds a little more professional. With the likes of Jason Gregor and Yukon Jack often listening to see how things are going, the need to level up is on everyone's minds and the boys tried to take a step in that direction. Moving on, the Toronto Raptors won their first championship in franchise history and the guys discussed whether or not they got wrapped up in the hype despite not being basketball fans. With the Raptors being front and centre, how could the guys not touch on Drake? As always, Chalmers came in hot with some spicy Drake takes and it kicked off a disagreement about whether or not he was too much of a distraction during this run. Getting of

Welcome, citizens, to another special edition of the Real Life Podcast. Last week, the boys were pumped to welcome former Oiler, Ladislav Smid, to the show to talk a little bit about hockey and a whole lot about life. This week, we get to part 2 of the interview where we discussed Smid's climb to the NHL, playing on both sides of the Battle of Alberta, the injury that caused him to miss a full season, and a whole lot more. As you saw heard last week, Ladislav Smid was very forthcoming with stories about his life and rise to the NHL and the second part of the interview is more of the same. From distractions to training to coming over to Canada to play in a young stars tournament, Smid walked us through the incredible journey that led him to become a fan favourite in Edmonton. To hear him talk about when he knew that he had a real chance of cracking the NHL was a story that you'll definitely want to hear. We also spoke about what it was like to play on both sides of the Battle of Alberta and how it took some ti

Welcome, friends, to a very special edition of the Real Life Podcast. This week, the boys were thrilled to welcome former Oiler, Ladislav Smid, to the show to talk a little bit about hockey and a whole lot about life. In part 1 of the interview, we discussed Smid's reaction to getting traded to Edmonton from Anaheim, driving Nicklas Lidstrom around the city, the Battle of Alberta and a whole lot more. To start off part 1 of the interview, we started with a look at how Ladislav Smid became an Oiler in the first place and where he was when he found out he was traded. His reaction to finding out that he was moved for Chris Pronger is absolutely hilarious, and hearing his first-hand account of the deal is well worth your time. From there, we got into life as an Oiler and what it was like to find out that he would be sticking with the roster after spending the previous year in the AHL. In his eight years with the Oilers, Smid went through a wide range of new experiences, including being tutored by Jason Smith and