Life & Limb - A monthly podcast about Living Well with Limb Loss

[00:00:03] Jeff Tiessen: Welcome to Life and Limb, a podcast from Thrive magazine, all about living well with limb loss and limb difference. I'm Jeff Tiessen, publisher of Thrive magazine and your podcast host. My guest this episode is a musician, a writer, a broadcaster, a filmmaker, and now the host of season five of the AMI travel docu-series Postcards From, which features a different Canadian city in each episode. Christa Couture is proudly indigenous, queer and a left leg amputee since childhood. She loves sharing stories that intersect with disability. Her work has explored experiences of loss, which include several unimaginable ones in her own life. She's here to talk about some of that and her new traveling road show. Welcome, Christa Couture. How are you?

[00:00:56] Christa Couture: I'm good, thank you so much.

[00:00:58] Jeff Tiessen: So good to have you. So, yeah, you are in Toronto right now, but originally from the Prairies and born in Peterborough and lived in Florida and some time in Vancouver. I don't know if I have that in order, but are those the facts?

[00:01:11] Christa Couture: Those are the facts. Those are most of the places that I've lived. And when I was a touring musician for so many years I drove back and forth across Canada countless times. I feel really lucky that even before this travel show that I've seen so much of this country. I've also done a number of road trips in the States and yeah, it's a different experience to grow up and live in just one place. I'll never know that experience. It's too late for me. But yeah, I like that. I've lived in so many places.

[00:01:46] Jeff Tiessen: Sounds like you have. I'm gonna ask you more about being a musician. I first want to ask you what were you like as a child where, i mean, there's a bit of a Traveling Wilbury to you. Is that something that sort of shaped your personality?

[00:01:59] Christa Couture: Yeah, it's interesting you say that because even just now I'm like, I also moved a lot as a kid. My parents were separated and both moved to different homes. My dad moved to New Jersey, Northern Alberta, Ontario. And so, I'd be seeing him in different places and he loved a road trip. My God, that was like our summer holidays with my dad. We're like, we're in the car and we're just going somewhere camping. So. there was a lot of travel and moving around in my childhood as well.

But I was also always an artist. I have a six-year-old and when I see my six-year-old, she's clearly such an artist. And I think: Is that what I was like? And I think I was, like, singing all the time, writing stories all the time, kind of documenting our experiences as we went. Yeah, I think that's a slice of my childhood.

[00:02:53] Jeff Tiessen: How old's your daughter?

[00:02:54] Christa Couture: My daughter is 6, almost 7.

[00:02:57] Jeff Tiessen: And how old were you when you lost your leg to cancer, as I understand?

[00:03:00] Christa Couture: That's right. I was 13 when my leg was amputated. But I was first diagnosed when I was 11 with Ewing Sarcoma and had chemotherapy. I went into remission, and then the cancer came back shortly before my 13th birthday. And so, the amputation. I'm very, very lucky. The amputation was the cure for my cancer. That's when I had the surgery.

[00:03:27] Jeff Tiessen: Yeah. I asked about how old your daughter was and the age you lost your limb because I resonate with this. I lost my hands when I was 11. So, when my son reached 11, this was like kind of looking in the mirror. So, this is my immaturity level at that age. These are the things I might have been interested in. So, it was an interesting crossroads or intersection for with the age.

[00:03:53] Christa Couture: Yeah. And I'm sure that I will feel that when she reaches 11. And because I, you know, when you're a kid, you're just the oldest you've ever been, and you don't feel like a little tiny child. You feel big and important and real. And now when I see even photos of myself at age 11 or 12, I think, oh, my God, I'm so tiny. I'm so little. And so, I'm sure with my own child that when she's 11, it'll be like you just described. Really interesting to think, oh, wow, that's when this huge life change was happening. And, you know, it's the only life, you know. But I think I'm kind of anticipating I'll have something similar.

[00:04:37] Jeff Tiessen: Yeah. Interesting. Of course. I want to ask more about you and your personal life, but let's start with life on the road, which we kind of started with. I'm interested in what's it like doing a traveling roadshow? And again, important too, you know, the backdrop or the context is you're discovering unfamiliar places as a prosthesis-wearing above-knee amputee. And I wonder if that factors into the experience at all. But what's it like going to these different places as the host?

[00:05:07] Christa Couture: I mean it's a blast. Like it is a dream job and it feels like a gift in my life. It's exhausting, it's demanding, it's on camera. So, I really have to be on all the time. But it just feels like a remarkable gift of an experience because I'm getting paid to go to new places, try new things, meet cool people.

And it's not a job I was looking for. It kind of came to me through an old work connection and they needed a new host and it had to be someone with a disability. And so that was already kind of the first requirement. I'd never done television, but I'd done a lot of radio and I'd been a touring musician. I'm a performer. So even though I hadn't done television before, at least I've been, you know, on stage or you know, on the mic. And, so not only is it just like a really fun gig, but the fact that it is an accessible travel show and that it's for AMI accessible media here in Canada and the audience is primarily blind and partially sighted, but also broadly other disabled experiences, that piece felt really meaningful to me. So it's been this beautiful combination of fun and excitement and also feels meaningful because I'm getting to learn a lot about, as a sighted person, about how blind and partially sighted people experience the world because as the host of the show I need to think about their entry point. I feel like anytime we see a disabled person on camera, on stage, anytime a disabled person is kind of elevated, I think it is so positive as far as the power of representation. And this show, I mean, it's an accessible travel show, but not really on the nose. It's not really heavy-handed about accessibility. But I have a disability. I wear a prosthetic leg so it has to be accessible to me.

And we adapt things and we find a way to make things work and, we often try to incorporate people with disability different than my own, or other limb difference people and wheelchair users. It's sort of implicit, which is the kind of representation I really like. It's just a way for audiences, particularly non-disabled audiences to see it and go, huh? Like, I hadn't thought that someone with a prosthetic leg could do that. Or, oh my gosh, it makes me realize that my city is super inaccessible or, you know, or the things that I love to do, how would I adapt them? Or, oh, this person laughs and talks and doesn't talk about their disability all the time. Like, whatever stereotypes someone might have, I feel like I get to contribute towards changing that. And then for other disabled people, hopefully there's some, if I can do it, you can do it. These are the ways that I've been able to travel and try these things. And I'm even trying things through this show that I probably never would have tried on my own. But with having, you know, the producers and the crew, they're bringing me to new things and I'm finding out what I can do, that I can go ziplining. Okay.

So it's just a joy of a job. And it also feels like there's a light heartedness to it, but at the same time, it's my story and it's the piece around representation for me especially that feels really important.

[00:08:54] Jeff Tiessen: Yeah, it's interesting you say that about the implicit representation of disability, but I would think at the same time when you talk about meeting people and having guests on the show who have other types of disabilities, that yours would almost be a gateway to comfortable engagements and conversations, which for the viewer then I would think extends to that comfort and maybe confidence when it comes to learning about people with disabilities?

[00:09:24] Christa Couture: Yeah, I hope so, because exactly. Like, we're having conversations with people about what they love, what they like to enjoy doing. Not about how they lost their leg or whatever, but just who they are and what they love about the place where they live and how they enjoy the place that they live. So, yeah, I hope that viewers are introduced to all kinds of experiences, you know, not just the travel part, but the personal experiences that maybe they haven't encountered before.

[00:09:57] Jeff Tiessen: Yeah, yeah, I like that. Real people.

[00:10:00] Christa Couture: Real people. Yeah.

[00:10:03] Jeff Tiessen: I had read that the show highlights how you experience cities through your senses. Taste, touch, smell, hearing, sight. What does that mean?

[00:10:15] Christa Couture: So, each episode has five segments and in each segment we kind of focus on one of the senses. And that's partly to help us have structure to the story, but partly it's again, thinking about, you know, depending on your disability or the barriers you face, your entry point might be sound more than sight. Right. And. Or touch more than taste or whatever. And so, it's sort of a way to also think about what are the different ways that people experience travel.

But sometimes we'll be on set and I'll be like, is this touch or hearing? Like, like remind me, remind me. And it just means that when we're filming that scene, I try to bring that part to the foreground. Like, if it's the smell scene, I really make sure I'm describing everything I can smell. If it's the touch scene, you know, I'm really leaning into what the textures are or what have you. And yeah, it's just kind of a fun way to frame the story. You know, it gives us structure to the story and an entry point into the different scenes.

[00:11:23] Jeff Tiessen: Is there a commonality that you're finding? Is there an essence of Canadiana or, you know, being Canadian? What are you finding? What are you learning out there?

[00:11:39] Christa Couture: I mean, Canada is so big and so diverse. I think, what is Canadian or what is Canada like, there are many truths in that. There are many versions of that. And I mean, we're filming season six right now and we were just in Grossmoor, Newfoundland, the west coast of Newfoundland. And you know, in season five we went to Dawson City in the Yukon. Like, you couldn't be further apart in this country. Going to these smaller towns where I maybe had some stereotypes about people being more close-minded or more conservative or whatever that you might think of smalltown thinking. I'm putting air quotes, but I'm finding in these smaller places that there's incredible community and creativity and people are very welcoming. And I don't know if that's a Canadian trait, but I've been most moved by seeing the way, especially for someone with a disability, the way that a community comes together to make something possible. Because, you know, when you live in a big city, you can kind of feel a bit anonymous. Right. That's the irony of being surrounded by thousands of people is that everyone sort of just goes about their day and doesn't look up around them. And then in these smaller communities, you say hi to everybody. There's a real sort of, like, more neighborly collaboration cooperation that I experienced on the show in these smaller places. So. I think that's been one of the coolest things to learn. And, you know, because when I think of, like, the accessibility as far as my needs, which are all based around mobility, I need elevators or, even ground. I mean, Dawson City, my God, has no paved sidewalks. It's all these wooden boardwalks. It's terrible if you know me. My toes were getting caught. I think if you had, you know, a chair, you would just be going, like, it's really bumpy. So, the cities are where the resources are. The cities are more accessible. But in these smaller towns, because there's this sort of creativity and an investment in community, accessibility looks more like support from each other. And yes, they also still need to get ramps and elevators, but there's a level of helping each other that I haven't seen in the cities.

[00:14:26] Jeff Tiessen: Yeah, that's a really interesting component of accessibility, too, that we forget about. That people can be part of our accessible tools. That's not the right word, but asset, maybe. I’ve seen that in some more developing countries where they don't have that kind of infrastructure that, you know, we're somewhat accustomed to. But everybody's willing to help, and that makes a difference.

[00:14:52] Christa Couture: Yeah, yeah. People want to help. And I know ideally there'd be universal design wherever we went, and you wouldn't have to necessarily rely on people, but at the same time, it's like, yeah, let's not forget that we can help each other, you know, and that people care about each other.

[00:15:13] Jeff Tiessen: True. I'm not going to ask you to pick favorites. That's never a good practice. But what have been some of your favorite experiences? Being out on the road, and I'm guessing maybe Prairie Oysters in those.

[00:15:28] Christa Couture: Prairie oysters? Well, yes. So, season five, we filmed an episode in Drumheller, Alberta, and Drumheller is in what's called the Badlands. I mean, it's this part of Alberta that just looks like you're on Mars. I haven't been to Mars, but, it's just sandy, rocky. There are incredible layers of the sediment. Over the years, I think there was some sort of glacial event that just created these valleys that you see everything in the rock and this is a hotbed of dinosaur bones because of whatever that glacial event was. So. it's kind of known as “Dino Town” and there's just dinosaur everything.

But I had gone there with my mom when I was a kid. I grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, and we'd gone on a trip together. And so, in the show, it was one of the places that wasn't a brand new place to me, but it was a place that I had a connection to, which sometimes we do as well. And you know, when I went to Drumheller with my mom in 1991, it actually was, my chemotherapy had finished. We thought my cancer was gone, but we didn't know that two months later my leg was going to be amputated. And so there's photos of me in Drumheller, some of the last photos of me with two legs. And so I've always kind of thought of that. That trip is very clear because it happened just before this major life change. Right.

And so going back there with the show, there was that element that felt very interesting to go back to that place and think about myself 30 years ago. And then of course, trying some of the local delicacies, which includes prairie oysters. So. for anyone who doesn't know, prairie oysters are not oysters at all. They're actually calf testicles. And it's a big thing on the cattle ranches like Alberta, the prairies, tons of cattle. And that's a big part of the culture and industry and economy and all of that. When all the bulls are castrated in spring, or the male calves so they don't become bulls, it's a waste not want not situation, I guess. And they deep fry them and they eat them. And the ranchers cooked these prairie oysters for me on the back of their truck. Kids love them, everyone gets in on it. I don't know that I will ever eat them again.

Very chewy, Jeff. Very, very chewy. But, but I'm glad I tried it, you know. It was interesting to find out. And interesting because again, it's a big part of some people's lives there, right? So, it felt like an important part of the local culture. The prairie oysters are very memorable. I've already mentioned Dawson City. That was a really memorable place because it's so remote and there's just a lot of artists and kind of counterculture people, people living off the grid. Half the town is off grid. And so that was a really neat experience as well. Whistler was a favorite episode because even though I'd lived in Vancouver for 17 years, I'd only been to Whistler once. But I tried sit skiing for the first time. An amputee for 30 years, I'd never tried sit skiing. And I loved it. I loved it. It was so much fun.

[00:18:56] Jeff Tiessen: You're very brave, Christa. Very brave.

[00:18:59] Christa Couture: I mean, it was cross country. It wasn't downhill. I don't want to be pushed downhill yet. But cross country sit skiing was fantastic. And so that was another favorite because it felt like it was an episode that pushed me a little, my comfort level or my learning things. And so just individually, it's satisfying to get to try something and then so satisfying to turn out that I love it. So those are some of the memorable places, for sure.

[00:19:28] Jeff Tiessen: That's a great answer. Wow. So back to the Prairie Oysters, that would fit into the taste segment?

[00:19:34] Christa Couture: That was a taste segment. Yes, a very memorable taste segment.

[00:19:40] Jeff Tiessen: I just thought that was something they duped tourists into doing, like kissing the cod. But no, I guess not.

[00:19:45] Christa Couture: Right? Which I kissed the cod in season six. We filmed kissing the cod. In Dawson, there's an initiation called the sour toe cocktail, where they put a mummified toe, like a human toe, most often from someone who's still alive and lost it to frostbite or whatever. I mean, I joked, if I had known, I could have given them my whole foot when I was 13. They put the mummified toe in a shot of whiskey, and then you drink the whiskey and the toe has to touch your lips. It's disgusting. So that's a ritual that maybe is about duping tourists. But, yeah, the Prairie Oysters, it's a local thing, and families love it. And there's even a local festival called the Testy Festy, where people cook them in all different ways and celebrate this part of their yearly life.

[00:20:40] Jeff Tiessen: Sounds like a show unto itself. Before we talk about loss and your memoir, your career is so interesting. Interesting and windy, if that's the word. Not linear, for sure. So, maybe in terms of a highlight reel, your work as a filmmaker and a musician and a writer and a broadcaster, give us the high notes on how you got to here.

[00:21:13] Christa Couture: Yes. My circuitous career, I mean, it's just been connecting the dots. I started as a singer songwriter in my 20s, and I have seven albums, and I toured for 10 years, and I loved it. And then I had to take a break, actually, because I had thyroid cancer, and I was having my thyroid removed. And so, I needed to take a break from singing for a while. And then in taking that break, I had this idea to write a memoir. Had been kind of on my mind, but I decided to spend the time doing that, and then that experience was so positive, and I really enjoyed that process. And so then I started doing more writing. And then out of the book, a project to create a short animated film based on an excerpt of the book came up. And then that grew into a series of five short animated films. It just kind of happened.

So, I produced five short animated films, all by indigenous artists. I don't know if I'll ever make other short films, but that was like three years of my life. I learned so much, and I'm so proud of those films. And then the radio work. I've been on radio off and on for years, but I feel like that was sort of an extension of being a touring musician. You know, it was like I'm speaking into microphones all the time. I would just get these gigs of hosting different things. And I also really love being in radio, and so they all kind of connect. I'm definitely a master of none. I know that. But, they're all sort of storytelling, some kind of storytelling. And I’m connecting the dots from one project to the next.

[00:22:56] Jeff Tiessen: Ironically, it seems very unscripted. It doesn't seem like you planned out what the next opportunity was going to be, right?

[00:23:05] Christa Couture: No, I have no career plan.

[00:23:10] Jeff Tiessen: Well, that's working out for you. I'd stick with that if that's the plan. No plan. Let's talk about loss. And unfortunately, you are more familiar with unimaginable loss than and grief than most. Your memoir, How to Lose Everything, is certainly a testament to that. So, I'm going to hand it to you here and let you take it from here and share what you'd like to share.

[00:23:38] Christa Couture: Sure. And thank you for that. Yeah, a lot of my work has been about grief and loss. Definitely my albums, as a singer, songwriter, so much of it is about loss. The short films, which are also called How to Lose Everything, they came from the book. They're about loss. And I mean, the book. When I would tell people about the book, I would share what I call my grief bio, which is also my book outline, which is cancer, amputation, death, death, divorce, and more cancer. I mean, we've already touched on this. I had bone cancer as a child. My left leg was amputated above the knee. And I am so grateful that there was a cure. I had friends in the hospital for whom there wasn't a cure for their cancer. All of us have lost people to cancer. Right. Like it's fucking cancer. If I can swear?

[00:24:35] Jeff Tiessen: You can, and especially when cancer is concerned.

[00:24:39] Christa Couture: Yeah. And so I am very lucky. And it was a loss, right? Losing my leg, of course, was a big loss, changed the trajectory of my life. And then in my late 20s and 30s, I had a child in 2006 who died when he was a day old. And then I had a second child in 2009 who died when he was 14 months old, because he was born with a serious heart condition. And then after that, my marriage ended. Like, you know, we understandably couldn't survive as a couple through these really devastating experiences. That was all in Vancouver. And so, I moved to Toronto to try and pick up the pieces and start over in some way. And then I got thyroid cancer, which put my career as a singer-songwriter on hold. And so that's the bullet point losses. In the book, all of those stories are in it. The having bone cancer, going through divorce, it's all in there. But for me, the Everything is definitely my children. You know, there's nothing that compares to the loss of a child. And so that's kind of always present in the book. Even though I go through these other stories, I feel like that's my biggest loss, and that will always be heartbreaking. I can say these things to you in this podcast, and I published the book, but that's because I've had years, many years, to come to terms with how to say it. You know, like 10 years ago, I wouldn't have been able to say this without crying. And it's not that I'm not still heartbroken. I am. But I can talk about these experiences, and I've been driven to create work from them and about them partially as my means for survival, certainly in the beginning, like recording albums and singing songs that gave me something to hold on to. It gave me a way to express myself. It gave me a way to connect with other people. I mean, grief, you know, not everyone has lost a child or two children, but grief obviously is so universal We all experience grief. And at the same time, it can be so specific and it can feel so isolating, like our own grief can feel like exile, you know. And so, in creating work about grief, I've been really helped by saying like, you know what I mean? And then other people go, yeah, yeah. But in recent years, I've been making less work about grief, which has felt good. It's been now more disability focused or other parts of my identity. And I'll always want to talk about grief, I think, and make space for grief because I think it's so important to make space for it.

But it's less the focus of what I do publicly. But I'm so glad my book is out there and the films are out there. And I just hope that they reach people who need them. Because I know, in the early years after both my son's deaths, the books that I read or the songs that I heard were sometimes that lifeline, you know. And so, I felt like in writing the book, it was my way of giving back or something. Now there's one more thing, there's one more resource and people will find the things that they connect to. My book is one of the possibilities. So, yeah, it's felt, I don't know, it's felt good, but it's been meaningful to me and healing for me to make this kind of work.

[00:28:28] Jeff Tiessen: I'm sure. And I'm thinking the book, which I'm looking forward to reading, is that message of how to, or how you got through, or for others reading it, that can resonate with one or more of the different types of traumatic experiences you've had in your life. What is that end message to folks?

[00:28:56] Christa Couture: There is the final passage in the book How to Lose Everything that I turned into a short film because it's only five minutes if you read it out loud. But it's like the one moment that I give a little bit of advice and generally the advice I have for people, especially in the immediate days after the loss, through illness or of a relationship or a family member, like whatever that loss is, my advice is to wait. Time heals is so trite and I don't think it's true. But I do think that you need the shock to pass; you need that initial reaction to pass and really it does just take time. If you have to just sit and watch television for a month, do that, like whatever is the gentlest way to get through those early days. And then slowly you will build, you will rebuild and you will create other bits of life around you. But there's no, unfortunately, there's no way to hurry it up. And so when people reach out to me or they're in those early days, all I can suggest is just wait and do your best to not hurt yourself or others if you can avoid it. Time really will take that shock out and then time will allow you to create new things.

[00:30:37] Jeff Tiessen: Seems to me that that kind of wraps around self care in a way. And if sitting and watching TV for a month is one way of taking care of yourself.

[00:30:45] Christa Couture: Yeah, right. Yeah, whatever it takes. I think, when it comes to traumatic events and really stressful life events, I am all about whatever it takes. You know, you need to check out and play on your phone, whatever. Just get through it. Just get through and be gentle with yourself. And then later when you have the resources, you can do other things. But yeah, just an acceptance and a care. Absolutely.

[00:31:17] Jeff Tiessen: I've got one more question for you and it's not so much around advice. I'm listening to you. However long your book is, you say you dedicated one page to advice, right? I think this is more of an observational question and as I said, my last one for you. I've been an amputee for 45 years plus and I've been asked so many times, you know, what has losing your arms taught you about yourself? Or what have you learned about being an amputee? And it's a really hard question for me to answer because I've been through so many ages and stages of life as an amputee and yeah, probably some of the lessons I learned along the way, you know, were through the lens of being an amputee. But, I would have learned them somehow someplace. I hope otherwise as well. So, I want to flip the script a little bit on that question and ask you, what do you think your amputation has taught others in your personal and professional life? What have people learned from you because of your circumstance?

[00:32:24] Christa Couture: Oh, interesting. I haven't been asked that. I have been asked, like, what have you gained from this? Or what has it taught you? But what has it taught others?

I think some of the same things that it's taught me, is a greater understanding of our bodies. You know, we're all in a body, and yet there's such a pervasive idea about what a body should be and should do. And we've all been affected by that. And so, I feel like for the people close to me, it has helped them maybe undo some of the ideas of like, a body should be able to do this. And, and then in turn, a broader understanding of looking at the world around them. Kind of like, I think what happens in this travel show is the people in my life can now show up at a space and go, oh, wow, this would be really tough for Christa. Like, maybe I can do something differently or, the more we understand different experiences, the better. And so, I feel like in my life, people learn more about disability and maybe more about how they might think of their own body and accept and love their own body as it is. And, you know, because I think for me as an amputee, I don't know if this is true for you, but it's so visible. Right. People look at us and can see how we are quote, unquote, different. Yeah. Whereas lots of other people, the ways they might feel different in their body might be something they can kind of hide or whatever, but with us at a glance, people know. And so, I think it's been helpful to people around me to be confronted with their own ideas of disability, ability and again, just those impossible ideas of what bodies are supposed to be like. Does that make sense?

[00:34:33] Jeff Tiessen: Makes a lot of sense. It leans right into the whole, ableism aspect. Right. And how people value normal and ideal and productive, and those bodies that are different and don't live up to that societal expectation are then valued lesser and have a lesser currency.

[00:34:54] Christa Couture: And that applies to even, you know, learning disabilities or neurodivergence or any kind of way of not conforming. Maybe gender, you're not conforming0. Or, you know, even with grief. Like we talked about the self care piece. If you just need to sit there for six months and do nothing, people will tell you you're wasting space. But, like, that's just coming from, again, these ideas of the ways it should be like. So, I think all of those things are really connected. Like Ableism, baked into our culture so deeply in so many ways, and you see it around any difference, like economic differences people have all sorts of attitudes about. Right. So I think anytime we can chip away at those biases that we all have is beneficial.

[00:35:51] Jeff Tiessen: Yeah. A friend of mine describes ableism as not the shark, but the water. And that it's not one biting comment or, you know, ableist comment. But it's like you said, that pervasive societal thinking.

[00:36:10] Christa Couture: Yeah, just the attitudes, they're just really baked into our culture. And, you know, I think I've probably had to fast track undoing that because I'm in a disabled body. But other people don't necessarily encounter it until they know someone. Right.

[00:36:28] Jeff Tiessen: That's right. Wow. Thank you for sharing. Personal sharing too. And I think with the grief that you talked about, us amputees, those who have llost limbs along the way for medical reasons or trauma. Yeah. We've had to grieve. But there's always a little bit that lingers often throughout our life, and it's how we manage it. And thanks for that. Time was great. A great suggestion. And thanks for your time.

[00:36:58] Christa Couture: I mean, it feels so basic, but it's all I've got. It's just give yourself time. But thank you, Jeff. I appreciate it and I appreciate you giving me the space to talk about this stuff.

[00:37:09] Jeff Tiessen: Appreciate what you're doing, Christa, and we want to let people know where to find you if they want to find your book, order your book, buy your book. Where can they find that?

[00:37:18] Christa Couture: My book is in local independent bookstores, your big online bookstores. It should be in your libraries. It's called How to Lose Everything and it should be pretty easy to find. I'm online, you know, at Christiacouture on Instagram or christacouture.com and I love to connect with people there. And the show is only available in Canada, but in Canada it's on AMIplus.ca.

[00:37:46] Jeff Tiessen: Okay, so for those not familiar AMIplus.ca, you started with Season five, right? And now you're into Season six. But are the previous episodes there too?

[00:37:58] Christa Couture: All five seasons are there. Yeah, I came on as the host just in season five. There were other hosts before me. Season four was hosted by Theresa Stashin. I don't know if you know her. She's an incredible bilateral amputee. She wrote a book of poetry called Phantom Pain. Anyway, she was an amazing host of Season four and she just couldn't schedule-wise do Season five, which was great news for me. But she did a fantastic job. And yeah, we're filming Season six now and that will be coming out in April. But all five seasons are online. Yeah.

[00:38:33] Jeff Tiessen: Excellent. We'll let our readers know too in the magazine about that for a reminder. So, with that, again, thank you so much. This has been Life and Limb. Thanks everybody for listening. You can read about others thriving with limb loss or limb difference and plenty more at ThriveMag.ca and you'll find our previous podcast episodes there too. Until next time, Live Well.