He Hasn’t Peed in 17 Years | Kidney Failure

Sickboy

CBC

Society & Culture

4.8 • 524 Ratings

🗓️ 12 August 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Alex hasn’t peed in 17 years — and he’s been busy. Diagnosed at 11 with a rare kidney disease triggered by a brutal run of childhood illnesses, his life became a blur of seizures, dialysis, and a transplant that didn’t stick. Now, between 7-hour nocturnal dialysis sessions, Alex co-owns two thriving Toronto restaurants and is building a creative community from scratch. In this episode, he talks about living with three kidneys (none of them working), how trauma forged his sense of purpose, and why “burnout” takes on a whole new meaning when your body’s already pulling an all-nighter just to keep you alive.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	It's becoming pretty clear that U.S. President Donald Trump is ripping up the political
0:05.3	playbook.
0:05.8	And when it comes to what it all means for Canada, well, as they say, it's complicated.
0:09.8	But our podcast, two blocks from the White House, is a way to make sense of it all.
0:13.8	Join me, Willie Lowry, and senior Washington correspondents, Paul Hunter and Katie Simpson
0:18.6	every week as we break down the headlines from Capitol Hill with a Canadian spin.
0:24.2	Find and follow two blocks from the White House on your favorite podcast app, including YouTube.
0:30.2	This is a CBC podcast. So I'll start off with this, Alex.
0:45.1	Give us your, give us, let's do this.
0:47.1	Give us a little elevator pitch.
0:48.4	Elevator pitch for me.
0:49.5	Who you are, what you do, and how many kidneys you are currently short.
0:59.7	Well, okay. i guess uh my name is a restaurant tour in the city of toronto uh since i emailed you i actually picked up a second
1:06.3	restaurant so um oh congratulations kind of weird um that it happened that fast, uh, because I wasn't expecting it.
1:13.4	I mean, running a tea house on Harvard and Bathurst for about four years, but worked there
1:17.5	about 10 years ago.
1:18.8	And then, uh, recently, um, came into ownership, part ownership of another restaurant called
1:24.4	Hawker, which is a, uh, vegan restaurant in Kensington Market.
1:27.4	Cool, sweet. And the tea house is, uh, is Bampot, right? Bampot, yes. of another restaurant called Hawker, which is a vegan restaurant in Kensington Market.
1:31.2	Cool, sweet. And the tea house is is Bampot, right? Bampot, yes.
1:32.1	That's sweet.
1:39.9	Yeah. So it's a very weird community space on purpose, purposefully weird.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from CBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of CBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.