The Langdon Auger Show
September 9th 2026
Featured Artists: The Buggles, Sinead O’Conner, Gord Downie.
Again we must talk about music and the influence it has in our daily lives. Todays featured artists are amazing examples of how musicians and their music can and does influence the world we live in. Unlike the stigma of mental health music is a needed entity. The stigma is not needed at all, how or why people with mental health are treated like a blight. I’m thinking we need to treat mental health like a broken leg or a bump on the head, think that will work. Maybe we have to start more about mental health and intensify our need for better support and more money into actually helping people instead of just keeping them medicated. Suicide has stayed relatively stable from 2020-2023 at approximately 4,750 deaths per year (or a rate of 11.8 per 100,000), with the exception of a peak in 2022 where both the number of deaths and mortality rate increased, compared to 2021. Additional years of data will be needed to determine whether this increase reflects a short-term fluctuation or reflects a true increase. The suicide rate among men is almost 3 times the rate among women. Men make up approximately half of the population, but they account for nearly 75% of suicide deaths. Across most years, suicide mortality rates tend to increase with age through adulthood. The highest rates are generally observed among men aged 45 to 64 years and women aged 20 to 24. In 2023, 8.4% of youth in Canada reported experiencing suicidal thoughts in the past 12 months. In 2023, 8.4% of youth in Canada reported experiencing suicidal thoughts in the past 12 months.
In this archived Langdon Auger Show, Ward connects Pink Floyd's ‘Keep Talking’ to his call for more conversation and support around mental health. He later shares his reading of Sinéad O'Connor's ‘The Emperor's New Clothes,’ discusses Gord Downie's ‘The Secret Path,’ and introduces the dance set.
About this episode
After ‘Keep Talking,’ Ward says mental health needs to be discussed, urges people to tell their stories and seek help, and calls on government to put more money into mental health. He says many people are struggling and deserve support.
Ward describes Sinéad O'Connor's ‘The Emperor's New Clothes’ as turning to broader cultural criticism, drawing on Hans Christian Andersen to mock phony authorities and hypocritical critics. He also introduces Gord Downie's ‘The Secret Path’ and says it confronts Canada's history of mistreating Indigenous children through residential schools.
Ward says music can be there for you in any situation. He calls one track the reminder of his best day in hockey, when he got to play on the first line. He closes by thanking listeners and naming bands coming up tomorrow.
Full spoken transcript
Transcribed from the recording and lightly edited for readability. Song lyrics and recorded interludes are omitted. Some audio could not be transcribed; those gaps and unclear words are marked in brackets. Timestamps are approximate. The comments reflect the speakers’ own experiences and views.
Full spoken transcript (click to collapse or expand)
00:00:00
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00:06:46
Possibly my favorite Pink Floyd tune, post-Roger Waters. Of course, it originally came out on The Division Bell album, and then we just heard the Pulse version. And of course, that means it's Wednesday, September 9th, and we're on mentalhealthradio.ca. Welcome to it. It is 6:01. That means you're listening to the Langdon Auger Show, and we are going to be playing all kinds of great music for you today.
The Pink Floyd song we just heard, ‘Keep Talking,’ is exactly what we need to keep doing about mental health. We can't let the stigma continue to be that bad. Mental health needs to be spoken about, talked about. Tell your story. Let somebody listen to it. Get some help.
And for you people in the government that are listening in there today, you got to start putting some more money back into mental health. There's a lot more people daily that are having problems, could use a little support. So, oh, I could say a whole bunch more, but I won't. Because, you know, we don't need to have a big argument to start the whole show, right? But it is. It is something that is very much needed, and there are people out there that deserve to be supported.
Right now, we're going back to some music and The Pretenders. Let's go back to some music and The Pretenders.
00:08:37
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00:25:05
Oh, yeah. Great song by the Black Crowes, of course, ‘Hard to Handle.’ Bruce Springsteen in before that. Reliving the glory days. Guess Who was in there as well with ‘Albert Flasher.’ The Buggles were in there as well with ‘Video Killed a Radio Star.’ And of course, that's the very first song that appeared on MTV. The very first video. Do you know what number two was? Let's see if you can guess what number two was. Andy Kim in there as well with ‘Rock Me Gently.’ And The Pretenders started off that set with ‘Don't Get Me Wrong.’ How are y'all doing? 6:22. It is our Wednesday show.
We have one more day this week where we will be live on air. And then we're going to be moving the location and all that to another secret base. And we'll come back on probably next week. The radio station will continue to play music, though. For those of you that tune in during the day, there will be songs playing. Just the Langdon Auger Show. We're just going to kind of take a bit of a break, shall we say, until we can get situated and all locked in again. So keep it going with some great music here, Sinéad O'Connor.
00:28:41
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00:54:50
Yeah, I Mother Earth. What a great band they are. That is ‘One More Astronaut.’ The Eagles in before that, from ‘Hell Freezes Over.’ And ‘Life in the Fast Lane.’ Back to 1965, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, and ‘Nowhere to Run’; Prince and the Revolution, from the Purple Rain soundtrack or movie, ‘I Would Die 4 U’; Spin Doctors, ‘Pocket Full of Kryptonite’ and ‘Little Miss Can't Be Wrong.’ We started off with a great song from Sinéad O'Connor, ‘The Emperor's New Clothes,’ and that's one of those songs that just says so much.
I mean, it starts off being, you know, like [lyric quotation omitted], and, you know, all this stuff, and then it goes into a broader cultural critique. You know, it takes from Hans Christian Andersen's book, obviously, to mock phony authorities, hypocritical critics, institutions wrapped in the collective denial and false prestige. And I love the way she ends it all with, you know, like, [lyric quotation omitted]. Such an amazing song. I love that, ‘The Emperor's New Clothes.’
We are almost at our dance portion of the show, but we still got a few minutes left, so we're going to play a set of four. I think we'll be able to fit four in before then. Our dance portion should start around three minutes after the hour, so let's get right to it.
01:00:00
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01:10:00
From his fifth solo album, released in 2016, ‘The Secret Path.’ That is, of course, Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip fame. But he wrote that song. It's a 10-song album that tells the tragic story of Chanie Wenjack, a 12-year-old Ojibwe boy who froze to death in 1966 while trying to walk 600 kilometres home after escaping the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School in Kenora, Ontario. And it really, it confronts Canada's history of mistreating Indigenous children through the state-run residential school systems.
And before that, of course, we had Freddie Mercury from his solo album, ‘The Great Pretender.’ We heard the title track there. Dolly Parton in there as well with ‘Tennessee Homesick Blues.’ And we started it all off with Captain and Tennille with ‘Love Will Keep Us Together.’ Well, that must mean it's time for the dance portion of the show. So hopefully you're ready for it. It's a pretty good one. Hopefully it will keep you moving.
01:11:09
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01:24:25
Great song there by Boney M and ‘Rasputin.’ Village People in before that with ‘YMCA.’ And it started off the dance portion of our show with The Weather Girls, ‘It's Raining Men.’ And it's surprising that so many female artists turned down that song, including artists like Cher, who said they didn't want anything to do with that song, and it ended up being such a monster hit for The Weather Girls. And, of course, Geri Halliwell did it years later. We're 20 minutes after right now. So we've only got about 40 minutes of music left to play for you tonight.
[Timing uncertain.] So we better get right at it. This song reminds me of probably my best day in hockey, and the reason why I got to play on the first line. Most of my other players on my team were going to see this band during this concert, so here you go.
01:25:20
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01:46:09
The Angels, from their Face to Face album.
What a great song that is. Can't shake it. Triumph in before that with ‘Lay It on the Line.’ And, of course, Weird Al stopped by with ‘Gump.’ Max Webster with ‘Check.’ It's too bad Max Webster never really made it in the U.S., because that was the reason why they broke up. They were great in Canada. They had such a cult following, as we [unclear]. But they just never made it in the U.S. So Kim Mitchell decided, ‘No, it's time to move on.’ So he did. And, of course, a great solo career. Matchbox Twenty in there as well with ‘Real World,’ and April Wine. And, ooh, what a night.
We've got about 20 minutes left in today's show, so we're going to continue on. We're going to come back after this set.
01:46:55
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02:02:19
Oh, the Doobie Brothers, reminding us to listen to the music because the music is there for you in any situation. We had The Hollies in there as well with ‘Bus Stop,’ Paper Lace, of course, ‘The Night Chicago Died,’ The Archies, and ‘Sugar, Sugar.’ We started off with a great tune from Herman's Hermits and ‘A Kind of Hush.’
That's it for me. I'm out of here today. We're back tomorrow starting at 6 p.m. Mountain Standard Time. I want to thank everybody tuning in. We've got some great tunes coming your way: The Jitters, The New Meanies, InfoRed. Just want to wish you all a happy mental health. And we're going to end today's show with Robert Palmer.
02:03:00
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