Humanity with Ben Caplan

Somewhere To Believe In

This week we connect with Canadian singer-songwriter and theatre-maker Ben Caplan. Ben joins us from the car park of a Canadian fast-food giant called Tim Hortons, en route to play a socially distanced gig as part of the Small Halls Festival in Ottawa.

We get all the deets about life and lockdown in Canada. Ben has praise for his government’s response to the pandemic – in stark contrast to what we’ve heard from other artists both here in the UK and elsewhere. We talk about Ben’s identity as a Jewish man, his experiences of antisemitism, and how growing up with Jewish values like tikkun olam (literally “repair of the world”) inspires him to make art that leaves a smile on our faces and a question in our hearts.

Plus, after recovering from the shock of hearing someone talk so positively about their government, Katherine and Paul reflect on how heartfelt and eloquent Ben is, which gives us an idea about how we can fix this mess... #BenCaplanForPrimeMinister.

Links, resources and episode timestamps (for all you skippers out there) below.

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ABOUT BEN

Ben Caplan is a songwriter, performer and entertainer in the most time-honoured sense of the word. From the moment he walks onto the stage, you are filled with his infectious spirit, and captivating presence. You can feel Caplan's comfort and ease as he strides in front of the crowd and begins the controlled collective descent into chaos.

In his latest project, Ben Caplan explores themes of immigration, loss, darkness, love, sex, and God. Caplan is touring with a fresh batch of songs which were originally composed for a new musical play called Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story. The award winning play had its international debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it won top festival honours, and has been a smash hit. The play has toured internationally including a seven-week run Off Broadway where it picked up a New York Times Critic's Pick, and six Drama Desk Award nominations, among other accolades.

Website

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

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FEATURED TRACKS

O Holy Night by Ben Caplan (12:01)

Fledgling by Ben Caplan (21:35)

Plough the Shit by Ben Caplan (28:40)

Truth Doesn’t Live in a Book by Ben Caplan (45:20)

The Happy People by Ben Caplan (50:57)

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Podcast theme - I Can Change by Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires

LINKS AND RESOURCES

The Festival of Small Halls

Old stock: A refugee Love Story

Pogroms

Tikkun Olam: Repairing the World

Investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party

Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu: Commando turned PM

The Talmud

Website

Webstore

Bowling for Columbine

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00:00 - Welcome to Somewhere To Believe In

00:20 - Katherine and Paul catch up

05:30 - Introducing Ben Caplan and his work

06:03 - Ben joins the conversation

07:51 - Ben on the pandemic in Canada

09:56 - Ben on slowing down

12:01 - ‘O Holy Night’ by Ben Caplan

12:50 - Ben on support for the arts in Canada

15:33 - Ben on creativity

16:29 - Ben on his inspirations

18:05 - Ben on refugees

21:35 - ‘Fledgling’ by Ben Caplan

22:40 - Ben on the power of art

25:40 - Ben on finding moments of joy

26:20 - Ben on telling stories of massacres

28:40 - ‘Plough the Shit’ by Ben Caplan

30:18 - Ben on Judaism

31:45 - Ben on anti-semitism

40:47 - Ben on literalist readings of religious texts

45:20 - ‘Truth Doesn’t Live in a Book’ by Ben Caplan

46:23 - Ben on commercial music

48:30 - Ben on performing

49:41 - Ben on brokenness

50:57 - ‘The Happy People’ by Ben Caplan

51:20 - Ben on Greenbelt Festival

54:20 - Ben on what he would retrain as

56:56 - Ben on how to support his work

59:08 - Katherine and Paul reflect on the conversation with Ben

1:10:07 - Coming up next week

1:10:27 - How to get in touch with us

1:11:06 - Thank you’s

1:11:30 - Hidden track

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A huge thanks to the Greenbelt Volunteer Talks Team for all their hard work on editing this episode. Our podcast music is ‘I Can Change’ by Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires.

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https://www.greenbelt.org.uk/

#SomewhereToBelieveIn

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