The Joyful Flamingo
The Joyful Flamingo Podcast guides and empowers women to tune into themselves and zoom in on their own well-being through laughter, connection, knowledge, and celebration! We’re here to create a tsunami of self-discovered, self-loved, and self-understood women who show up in this world unapologetically and joyfully so that we can pass the torch for generations to come! Join us to start leading your most vibrant, aligned and joyful life.
The Joyful Flamingo
Family Heirloom: A Four Generations Episode
Welcome to our Season 1 finale! On today’s episode, Emily is bringing some of her all time favourite women to the mic for a multigenerational chat— her Grandma, Mom, and oldest daughter! Each of the four generations will answer the same 12 questions without having heard the responses from the other family members! Listen in to see the similarities and differences that span across 85+ years of Anderson women! Who knows... maybe it'll even inspire you to do the same thing with the fierce women in YOUR family and create an heirloom of your own!
We’ll be back for Season 2 towards the end of the summer! Thank you for being part of our Joyful Flamingo Flock!
Time Stamps :
0:45 - Intro
3:55 - Explanation of how the episode works
6:53 - Welcoming 4 generations of Anderson women to the mic
7:47 - Did you have any nicknames growing up?
8:54 - What was your favourite subject in school?
10:06 - What was your favourite thing to eat as a child?
11:09 - What did you want to be when you grew up?
12:22 - How did you you spend your time after school as a kid?
13:50 - What are your favourite parts of yourself?
15:45 - What world events happened during your childhood?
18:13 - If you could travel anywhere, where would it be?
19:08 - Give a piece of advice to someone who’s younger than you.
20:29 - How are you similar to your mother?
23:36 - What is the best way that you know how to care for yourself?
25:51 - Thank you / Wrap up of the SEASON!
Connect with Emily:
On The Gram - @thejoyfulflamingo https://www.instagram.com/thejoyfulflamingo/
For Collaborations - thejoyfulflamingo@gmail.com
The Joyful Flamingo Podcast is produced by jpvoiceovers.
You can find them here : jpvoiceovers
*DISCLAIMER*
Just a reminder, that I am not a medical or psychological professional. Each one of my episodes has been inspired by my own experience and journey through life and is brought to you through my own opinions and my own lens. Any suggestions or advice offered here do not substitute proper conversations with your own healthcare professionals for either your physical or mental wellbeing.
Welcome to the finale of our first season here at the joyful Flamingo. For today's episode, I wanted to make it something super special and memorable,
so I decided to put some of my favorite ever humans on the mic with me today. We're doing a four generations episode with my grandma,
my mom, myself, and one of my daughters today, where we each answer the exact same questions, 85 years plus of this Anderson Jean in our blood,
and I can't wait to share the answers with you. Listen in for some fun today as we bid farewell for a short pause in production before coming back for season two.
Well, hey there, friend, and welcome to the joyful Flamingo podcast. I'm your host, Emily Schreiber, and I am obsessed with empowering women to tune into themselves,
to zoom in on their own well -being so in turn they can lead their most vibrant, aligned and joyful lives. I want to create a tsunami of self -discovered,
self -loved, and self -understood women to show up in this world unapologetically and joyfully, and to pass the torch on for generations to come. If any of that feels aligned with your vibe,
stick around. I'm so glad you're here. Now, let's go find our joy. Hey, hey, hey,
joyful flamingo flock, and welcome to the show today. How the heck are you? I'm going to miss talking to you for the next few weeks. Truthfully, we're not exactly sure how many weeks we're gonna be pausing for during the summer.
And quite honestly, it's gonna depend a little bit on many moving pieces. So the first thing that I wanna say is very important. So listen, perk up, stop doing what you're doing.
I really want you to, if you are not yet following or subscribing to the Joyful Flamingo podcast on whatever platform you listen on go do it now pause the episode click on the button that says subscribe or follow because that really truly is going to be the easiest and quickest way for you to get a notification once we officially come back with the first episode of season two so yes you can follow me on socials and
i'll be updating you all on social media as well but the quickest way to know when season two episode one finally airs, it's going to be through a notification through those platforms.
So go and follow, go and subscribe to the show so that you don't miss out. Okay, so today is going to be really neat. In my family, we currently have four generations of strong,
fierce and mighty women. Basically, we span across 88 years since my grandma is nearly 91 and my youngest daughter is almost three.
So that's a lot of time, friends. That's a lot of time that has seen a lot of change in the world and a lot of change for women and for their well -being. My goal with this podcast has always been to create a space,
to create a community of women who are aligned, who are tuned in to their own well -being so that then they can share their gifts and their geniuses with their families and the world at large.
And we've done that. We've mastered season one. We're on our last episode of season one, and we've totally done that during our first season. And I'm so incredibly grateful for every single one of our flock members.
You truly have made a dream of mine come true. And it does not go unnoticed. And since these women in my family are my guides,
are my teachers, I really wanted to share them with all of you before the season was through. So I thought, wouldn't it be super special to get them all on the mic for what we're calling a multi -generational episode.
Logistics were a bit tricky. I don't have enough mics in my studio for all of us. The timing that we had in order to be able to record wasn't the same for all of us and so we ended up recording separately.
To be honest, it kind of made it more fun because what I did was I wrote down a series of questions that I wanted each of us to answer and truthfully my list of questions was like almost 60 of them.
So I had to pair it down and I paired it down to 12. So there are 12 questions that each one of us answered and each one of us answered those questions without hearing the answers from the other people.
I thought how fun then to put it all together for people and listen in to see what similarities maybe come through, what differences, how our Anderson Jean has continued on across the span of 85 years.
Since we needed to record separately, this is how the rest of the episode is going to work. Basically, you'll always hear my voice ask the question first. And then for the answers for the first question,
we'll answer chronologically by age so that you can get to know our voices. So you'll hear my grandma answer that first question first, then my mom, then you'll hear my voice come back to share,
and then finally, you'll hear my daughter's answer. After that first question is done, and you've heard the distinction in our voices, we'll then move on to all the other questions, and you'll still hear me ask it first,
and then each one of us will eventually answer, it just won't necessarily always be in the same order. That's kind of how the show is gonna go. And then once all 12 questions have been answered by all of us,
I'm gonna come back to chat with you all again and wrap up not only this episode, but this season, which is so crazy. I really wanna put this out there too.
I really wanna know what makes you giggle today, what strikes you as moving. Share with me your feelings at the end of this episode.
Did it instill inspiration in you? It will mean the world to me. And of course, if you feel inclined, share it with your people. Maybe send it to your mom,
your grandma, your daughter. Maybe it inspires you to record something of your own with your own family as sort of a family heirloom that can be passed along for generations to come.
Once you hear it, you'll realize how needed it is to hear all four of our voices, one after the other after the other. Let's get this party started. Good morning,
Grandma. Good morning, Emily. Good morning, Mom. Good morning, Em. Hello, Sweet Pea. Hi. addressing depress the Wanna Add łą nuts press iser łą ium Was press illes rein łą Wanna Wanna Wanna Wanna 合 being 足 addressing press press computation press Wanna UA uckle press 事 its press UA Wanna press press Atlas depress аки press press illes press press press its press uckles nuts illes appreciation steel uckles press illes press Add uckles illes press łą
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62. I was born in Woodstock, Ontario on May 5th, 1988, which makes me 36. 2018 in Canada.
Did you have any nicknames growing up? Mommy calls me bug and sweet love. When I was really little my mom called me Smiler apparently I came out of the womb smiling so that's super cute to me.
My my dad called me Lil Blondie and one of my grandmas called me her golden angel so those are nicknames that I can remember of when I was really young but then growing up mostly everyone just called me M or sometimes Emily G Since Emily D was my bestie and we of course had to differentiate.
When I was little my brother called me Wembers because he couldn't say Jennifer or I guess that's how he said Jennifer it came out Wembers. So my family called me Wembers for a long time.
When I was a teenager My nickname was Andy, because my last name was Anderson. Ah, yes. Okay. Oh, I love that. What was your favorite subject growing up in school?
English literature, because I love to read and I like to write and I like the old stories and the new stories.
I think the obvious answers for me are drama and English because I'm a writer and I ran a children's theater company. So both those are true.
I really loved English class and essay writing and all that. My other favorite subject was history and my favorite teacher of all time was a history teacher. Her name was Mrs.
Day. Mrs. Day, a shout out for Mrs. Day. Mrs. Day, - Where are you? - Is she, do you think she's still living? - I don't know. - Maybe she will hear this episode one day.
- She really impacted me. - Did she? - Yeah. - For me, it was all of the creative ones. So language, like reading and writing, visual art,
drama, and music. And then in high school, it would have been musical theater as well. map, and music, and zoom.
What was your favorite thing to eat as a kid? My favorite thing was probably spaghetti, second only to my mom's baking.
Particularly her pies. My mom made the best pies of anyone on the planet. Bacon. All kinds of bacon.
Yeah It's something called mince and potatoes.
I think it's a Scottish dish and it's basically ground beef in Gravy with mashed potatoes and then often my mom would put like peas or something on the side I don't know why,
but to me it was so delicious. I wanted it for every special occasion. Hot dogs. Why hot dogs?
I don't know. I just always like, I still like hot dogs. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? A teacher.
How long did you teach for? Oh, that's a hard one, many years. Yeah, I mean, I think I wanted to be either an actor or a teacher.
Okay. Which is interesting because I kind of ended up doing both in a way. Explain to us then how that morphed into what you really have done over the past 45 years.
Yeah well I ran a children's theater company for 20 years with some fantastically talented people and it was a labor of love and and a great time but if I if I look back on it I think I just wanted to tell stories.
A teacher through and through like I don't remember wanting to be anything else other than a teacher And I still want to be a teacher when I grow up. It may look differently across my years as an adult of how I teach,
but I think I will always be teaching. That's for sure. - A nurse and a mom. - Both? - Yeah. - How did you and your friends spend your time after school?
- Bike and have a snack. Hmm, what would you have as a snack usually a popsicle if it's a ready hot day when I hear this question I immediately think of my childhood bestie also named Emily and I remember us walking home from school grabbing our bikes and Either doing rips around the block like ride after ride after ride or taking our bikes back to the schoolyard and then coming home.
I think our time was like five p .m. I can remember her family eating around five or five thirty. I just I remember that clear as day. When we were kids we were outside all the time so if we weren't in school or we weren't in bed we were usually outside so bikes skipping adventuring scotch all the things playing outside bicycling and swimming in the summer skating in the winter okay now we're gonna shift away from
some of the questions about childhood and kind of just get into the questions that could be answered at any age and they would probably be different for each one of us if we were answering at a different time in our life these questions are meant to be answered in the moment right now.
What are the best parts of you, your favorite parts of yourself? My brain because I like to think about things and I like to think I still have all my marbles.
I think I was a pretty observant kid which I think in turn has given me a really good understanding of what makes people tick, and I like that about myself. - It would have to probably be my humor,
my ability to make people laugh, to make people smile. - My heart. - Your heart. - I'm resilient. I've been through some tough things,
divorce. I had a really sick child at one time, and so I think I'm resilient. And my sense of self, I think, especially in the last five years, this has really grown.
And I'm really proud of my sense of self. And my white hair, because it's nice and white. It's not gray white, and it's not streaky,
and it's white. My talking. You're talking? Yeah. - I hate of my fingers. - Your fingers?
- And my sticky feet. - Your sticky feet? - And my bellybutt. - But I think the best parts about me are being a mom and a gammy.
I'm completely devoted to my family. - And my butt. I've got a great butt. Oh, and I love my butt. I also have a great butt.
What was the biggest world event that happened while you were growing up that you can remember? COVID, it's a type of sickness.
World War II. Can you give us maybe a story that you remember from World War II? I remember at the end of World War II,
when the war ended, we lived in Ottawa, and we all went down to the middle of the city to celebrate with everybody.
My father was with me and he had lost his right arm in the First World War so he was with us and in the crush of the crowd because he only had one arm he was being turned around by the crowd and we had to rescue him and get get a motive there.
And was he okay? He was fine. Okay, good. Oh, for me, there's a few. JFK was assassinated when I was really young,
and the first man walked on the moon. And I do have recollection of that on the Black and White TV. Computers were invented. Smallpox was eradicated.
Also, the AIDS epidemic began when I was a teenager. John Lennon died when I was 18, I think, and that was a really strong memory for me because I was doing a production of Hamlet at the time when we had a school matinee,
and I can remember waking up that morning, finding out that John Lennon had died and going to perform in a production of Hamlet. That was a surreal experience.
Oh, for me, it's 9 /11. I remember I was 13. It was grade eight for me. And I remember there being a lot of commotion at school that morning.
I don't know if it was, you know, a lockdown or or or what it was, but I just remember the feeling of chaos, of commotion. And the other thing I can remember is walking into the Charles Dickens pub in Woodstock for dinner that night,
and the news was being played on every single TV in that restaurant. If you could travel anywhere in the world today, if you had to choose where would it be?
Well anyone who knows me knows that my favorite place to travel to is Newfoundland. I love traveling but Newfoundland is the place because your dad and I met when we did a play written by a Newfoundlander.
So we've been going there for many years and it's our favorite place to go. One of the reasons that I like Newfoundland is because it's near the water and it reminds me of Black Cottage which was near the water on the lake.
- Honestly, it would be anywhere on the water for me. I know that I feel the most at peace when I can look out onto a vast body of water without anything else in view.
- Mexico, Florida, or Bluefinland. - What piece of advice would you pass along to any people that are younger than you? - Make a new friend if you don't know them.
So you have someone to play with. - I would say nothing is permanent. This advice technically comes from my mom, but I would pass it along to anyone I can.
The idea that hard times eventually won't feel so hard. And also if you're struggling to make a decision that feels monumental and you feel paralyzed by that decision,
just remember decisions can change, they're allowed to change and it will be okay. I would say talk less and listen more, laugh lots.
I'd also say that being right isn't such a big deal. It really doesn't matter if you're right. Love is what matters. Love is everything so surround yourself with people who feel the same.
Oh and I'd also say get up and down from the floor often so that you can still do it when you're old. I've learned that from having grandchildren and a new puppy. Keep learning.
Always keep learning. Never stop learning new things. In what ways do you think you're similar to your mom?
I'm active like she was, always on the go, and always looking to help somebody else. Well, I wish I learned to make pies like she did.
That's for sure, but you've got that covered, so thank you for that. Otherwise, I think I get this storytelling gene from my mom. She is, was a writer,
and she loves to write and tell stories and so do I. When I was a kid and I used to have to write essays or maybe write a short story or whatever, I'd sit at the dining room table and I'd moan about,
"I don't know what to write and what am I going to write?" And she'd always say the same thing to me, which is just start writing and then the ideas will come. You used to say that to us. Did I? Yes.
Yeah. That's probably the thing that connects us the most. Oh goodness, in so many ways. Our desire for a plan to be made,
we both really like knowing what's going to happen, like planning ahead. Our particularness? Is that a word when it comes to our homes and the way that we keep our homes?
I mean our looks, if you look at a picture of my mom when she was my age, it's uncanny. Our wheezy laughs that are almost silent,
like truly, and my sister has this as well, completely silent, like no sound comes out when we are really laughing really hard at something. But mostly I think the way I'm most like my mom is in our ability to connect with people.
I think specifically youth. So the ability to bring connection, love and community to young people and kids is something that we're both really good at.
My Your face? Yeah. Is there anything about our insides that are the same? Like are we both very Dutch?
We're both very Dutch, okay. Mummy actually isn't Dutch. Daddy's Dutch. But what is Dutch? what are what do we both do the same okay we're funny okay can I ask you the question again and then see okay okay how do you think you're similar to your mom can you say it though some people can hear you because I think they won't understand the word we're funny like you are and you are and you are and you are here at
the joyful flamingo we're all about women's well -being so we talk a lot about holistically being able to thrive in our minds and our bodies and our spirits. If I were to ask you what's the best way that you know in this moment how to take care of yourself,
how would you respond? Wait,
hydrate and eat too. Okay, so say all three of those again. - Hydrate, eat food, and sleep. - I mean,
there's the obvious answers about what you eat and getting outside and moving your body and all those things, which are all true, which I guess speaks to really just being mindful about what you surround yourself with in general,
what you consume, the books you read, the people you and time with, are you surrounding yourself with joyful, positive, loving connections?
Because if you do that, you've got a really good start to self -care. - Exercise in any way that you can,
no matter how old you are, don't stop moving. Keep moving and push yourself. Go to exercise class even when you don't want to,
because it keeps you moving, it keeps you on your feet, and it keeps you wanting to be out there.
I would say, oh there's so many things, hence this podcast, but I would say Just being aware, you know being in tune with yourself at each phase of life even when you change and evolve,
which you will, learning how to learn the newest version of you so that you can honor her in all of her forms. I would say that alignment is the key piece in taking care of yourself.
- Thank you so much for sharing with us a little bit about yourself and about your life and I appreciate you doing it for me and hopefully we can maybe do it again sometime. - Well,
that'll be wonderful and I plan to be around for a long time. So I'm sure we will do it again. Thanks, Sam. It was so much fun. - You're welcome. (laughing) - Goodbye.
- Goodbye. (upbeat music) - My oh my. How fun was that? You should have seen me during the recordings when things were coming up over and over again from each of us My jaw was kind of dropping because I recorded my own answers And then I recorded with my mom and then I recorded with my grandma and then I recorded with my daughter and every time a Similarity came up.
My jaw was like, whoa, are you sure you didn't hear what we said? It's just so crazy. Certain genes, they run strong. It's almost kind of like a side note in our brains,
you know, something we don't give too much thought to, but then when you hear it put all together the way that you did for my family today, it really truly is just something so special. I feel like this is going to be such a gift for all four of us to have and to be able to listen to for years and years to come.
When I think about it, also just such a special gift for the generations of the Anderson clan yet to come, how cool would it be for one of my granddaughters if I ever have one to listen to this in 30 years time?
I mean, this is the shit that makes the world go round, friends. It's this feeling of goodness, of connection, of community, of women loving each other of women loving on each other.
This is your sign today. It's our last episode for a little bit. Go hug a woman you love. Tell her what she means to you.
Share your stories with her. Share your tears with her. Share your laughter with her. It's so vitally important. And I cannot think of a better way to end the season.
Don't forget subscribe or follow the show or at least follow me on socials keep track of what I'm doing over the summer So you can see when season two airs But in the meantime, you know,
what's coming. I'll say this to you over and over and over and over Have such a joyful day. I'm so Incredibly grateful for each and every one of you Thank you for being part of this joyful Flamingo Flock.
Until next time. Until next time. Just a reminder, Flamingo Flock, that I am not a medical or psychological professional. Each one of my episodes has been inspired by my own experience and journey through life and has brought to you through my own opinions and lens.
Any suggestions or advice offered here do not substitute proper conversations with your own health care professionals for either your physical or mental well -being.