By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot

Phil Main, long-time radio host and musician, loves to connect with people in his community and now he's doing it as a podcaster.  
    Since teaming up with Ally Campbell-Main in life and work, the pair are telling the stories of artists, business owners, farmers and interesting people on their podcast “A Life That’s Good”.
Called Boomer and Millie to acknowledge the different perspectives their generational gap creates, the pair made an excellent team as they achieved their goal of “65 before 65” interviews of local characters as part of Phil Main’s goal to mark his birthday milestone.
But now that it’s done, Phil and Ally realize they want to keep going.
“I want my guests to feel how good life is, how good their families are, how good their community is and how lucky we are to live here,” says Phil, who describes himself as someone who feels deeply. His empathetic nature, combined with oft-voiced love of Huron County and a genuine curiosity about people seems to draw intimate conversations out of his guests, some of whom have brought him and Ally to tears.
He recalls interviewing Mark Duckworth, a doctor and recording artist with roots in Huron County whose father passed away a few years back. “I put his songs on and I was listening when suddenly tears dropped down my cheek because I realized he is singing about his dad.”
Agriculture is a huge part of Huron County so the pair also interview farmers and agriculture leaders on their podcast.
Glen and Vanda McNeil were interviewed in the studio in Wingham to talk about modern dairy farming and his role as warden of Huron County. “It was a lovely interview made extra special because their nephew, Neil, was my best friend when I was a kid and I spent a lot of time on their farm,” remembers Phil. Ally’s understanding of dairy farming changed from an old-fasioned vision of farmers milking from stools to technologically savvy farmers being able to monitor the patterns and health of their cattle via a smartphone.
The pair also travelled to Meeting Place Organic Farm to chat with the McQuail family and learn about the Eat Local Huron movement. 
“The fact that we can get local food online, delivered to our door, is insane!” exclaims Ally, excited about all the opportunities she is learning about via the podcast. 
A favorite interview for Phil was chatting to his former highschool teacher, John Smallwood, at Goderich District Collegiate Institute. “He helped me become the best version of myself,” says Phil.
When Smallwood assigned his class a project asking students to analyze three books from a Canadian author, he suspected Phil would struggle with the task. Knowing music was a passion for Phil, Smallwood took the initiative to visit the Main family at their home where he put on a record. “I remember this acoustic guitar and a voice singing about a little seahorse,” says Phil. Smallwood encouraged Phil to look deeper in the lyrics and as he listened, Phil realized the artist Bruce Cockburn was talking about his unborn child. 
Smallwood told Phil that Cockburn was every bit as great of a Canadian writer and poet as any author he could pick from so he allowed Phil to listen to the records instead of reading for his project. “Well, I got one of the best marks because he was the kind of teacher who was invested in his students, and I wasn't the only one.”
That podcast episode was so moving, the story was picked up by the CBC.
The joys of rural and small town life are a recurring theme in the Boomer and Millie podcasts. Phil interviewed Huron’s hockey great, Justin Peters and asked him if he could go backwards in time, where would he go? “He told me he would go back to the street he grew up on to play street hockey with his friends because that was one of the best parts of his life,” says Phil. “Can you believe that? Not what you’d expect from a hockey dude but he was all about family and love for his community.”
Other episodes include stories from the Bayfield Lavender Farm, 
The “65 before 65” series began on March 23, 2023 and concluded on June 17, 2024. During that time, Phil and Ally visited two dozen towns and villages, supported more than 60 local organizations and interviewed over 100 individuals. It’s been quite a ride, says Ally. 
“I'm sure Phil is having a much easier time with the interviews than I am (because of a lifetime in radio),” says the millennial photographer, Ally, who works in health care. “But I love the community we are creating and now people know us which helps them to lower their guard a bit. We now have random people approach us on the street and ask if we’ll do a family story on them.”
Phil is equally loving the community and connective aspect of the podcast. “With podcasts, as someone sits in your studio, you can just have a heart-to-heart conversation. You may not  know them that well, but you both end up with some tears or shared laughter or finding out something really remarkable about them. There's a really special thing that happens in those moments.” Phil says he just feels so blessed that people let him in the door and are willing to share their life with him.  
What’s more challenging is scheduling  the time to create the podcast. Phil says creating podcasts is far more involved than conducting an interview for 30 minutes to an hour. “It can take eight or 10 or 12 hours to go through it, edit it and mix it plus do the writing and the posting and all of that stuff … it's time intensive.” 
This summer, Boomer and Millie took a short break to consider how they can continue the podcast moving forward. Buoyed by the things they are learning, the joy of working together, the community they are creating and the energy of being involved in this popular medium, Phil and Ally are hoping to become full-time podcasters. 
They imagine working with communities as podcast sub-contractors, or offering “limited series” runs such as the monthly podcast they are creating for the town of Seaforth in preparation for its 150th anniversary celebrations next year. 
Podcasts continue to increase in popularity and Phil says the largest percentage of listeners of their podcast tend to be “boomers”. “We believe that (especially after the isolation of the COVID years) these folks listen to our show seeking to build new connections or deepen ones that already exist with friends and neighbours,” he says. 
Plus, doing a podcast is fun, laughs Ally.
A Life That’s Good, the podcast, is connective, heartwarming and emotional with a twist of boomer and millennial curiosity.  ◊