The reporter and CTV Vancouver personality Mike McCardell talks about his new memoir, Cardboard Ocean (Harbour Publishing, 2014), with Joseph Planta.

Cardboard Ocean by Mike McCardell (Harbour Publishing, 2014). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Cardboard Ocean

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, at TheCommentary.ca.

Mike McCardell joins me again. He’s recently published his tenth book. And it’s a good one. Cardboard Ocean is a memoir of his growing up in a rough, working-class neighbourhood in Queens. He was raised by a single mother, and despite not being well-to-do, his young life was never without joy, wonderment, and love. We get a sense of what it’s like growing up in New York in the post-war years, what a kid would have around him, and how attitudes matter. That if you have the right sort of outlook on life, well you can find what’s good in people, as in life. When you read Mike McCardell, you’re reminded of that warm and inviting reporter we see regularly on the CTV News at Six, and you’re engaged with that wonderful storytelling talent he has in the words that he writes in this book. It’s such a good book. It’ll make you laugh, it’ll make you cry, it’ll move you; and it’ll help you understand just how Mickey became Mike, and how that kid from Queens despite finding a career in television here in Vancouver, never lost those values that make him one of the best in the business, and a downright perceptive fellow. Mike McCardell’s previous books are: Chasing the Story God, Back Alley Reporter, The Blue Flames that Keep Us Warm, Getting to the Bubble, The Expanded Reilly Method, Everything Works, Here’s Mike, Unlikely Love Stories, and last year’s Haunting Vancouver. The books have been bestsellers and have been critically acclaimed. Like this new one, they’re all from Harbour Publishing. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Mike McCardell; Mr. McCardell, good morning.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (29.8MB)

Subscribe: RSS