A 12-year-old boy from Ottawa, who overcame a rare heart condition, is raising awareness with his podcast.
From Jimmy Kimmel’s interview to John Stamos, and now, two star Ottawa Senators players.
On his Friday podcast, Zander Zatylny had the chance to interview Brady Tkachuk and Tim Stützle.
“I’m just going to ask them funny questions about the team regularly,” says Zatylny.
Zatylny has faced heart disease all his life. He uses his podcast to help hospitals, which in turn help kids like him.
“I’m a heart patient myself and I have heart disease, and I go to CHEO,” says Zatylny. “So I want to raise awareness so people donate to children’s hospitals and raise money for new technology.”
This is his second leg of a cross-Canada tour. He visits all seven Canadian hockey teams to publicize local children’s hospitals in their cities.
Zatylny’s parents support him to the end. Her mother Chrystal Raymond loves her way of giving back.
“I’m super proud of him,” says Raymond. “I’m very, very proud of my two children. But I’m very proud that he overcame his own heart issues and is trying to pay for what he’s been through.”
Stützle and Tkachuk jumped at the chance to be on Zatylny’s podcast, to help him in any way he could bring more donations to children’s hospitals.
“To see how mature he is and what he does, I think it’s just a good cause,” Stützle says. “And we’re really happy to be here and help him out as much as we can.”
“It tells you about the character he has and we honestly had a great time,” Tkachuk said. “It was a great interview. It was one of the best interviews we’ve had all year.”
“It was really fun. A really good interview,” says Zatylny. “They were awesome, they were fun, I was having fun, the questions were fun. It was just a great, fun interview.”
With Montreal and Ottawa on the books, Zatylny’s next stop will be in Toronto to interview a Maple Leafs player.
You can find all of Zander Zatylny’s podcasts on his YouTube page, including his interview with actor Matthew McConaughey and pro golfer Brooke Henderson.
“Amateur web enthusiast. Award-winning creator. Extreme music expert. Wannabe analyst. Organizer. Hipster-friendly tv scholar. Twitter guru.”