Full Show Podcast: 10 November 2024

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks EDB. Welcome to the Sunday Session with
Francesca Rudkin and Wiggles for the best selection of great
reeds us Talk.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Welcome. Good to have you with us. This is the
Sunday Session here on News Talks FB. I'm Francisca Budkin.
With you until midday, well talk weekend in parts of
the country. Shortly, we're going to head to the West
coast to get an update on the impact of the
rain and what roads are open, and we'll get all
the information for you. Also coming up on the show today,
the talented Matty Matheson joins me. Mattie is a celebrity

(00:52):
chef and an executive producer of the Disney Plus TV
show The Bear. Now, Maddy was brought on to be
a culinary consultant, but then he was asked if he
would like to oct on the show as the handyman
Neil Fack. Now, Mattie's never asked before and I've heart
why not. So he is going to join us to
talk about his new cookbook, has restaurant Empire that grew

(01:12):
out of COVID and life on the seat of the bear.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
It's been quite a stressful week, hasn't it. But regardless
of how the US election turned out, the sun continues
to rise and life goes on. So how best to
deal with what life roads at us, especially heading into
the silly season. My guest after eleven is a wonderful
tonic to the chaos of the world. Oliver Berkman is
the author of four Thousand Weeks, and for many years
he wrote a popular column on psychology for The Guardian.

(01:37):
He's just released a new anti self help self help
book that calls in us to embrace being imperfect, accept
the fact you'll never really sort your life out, and
you know, do things that are important and meaningful and
forget about all the rest. So his take is very refreshing, practical,
full of same advice, and who doesn't need a bit

(01:58):
of that at times like this? Oliver Berkman is with
me after eleven, and of course love to hear from
you throughout the morning. You can text on ninety.

Speaker 4 (02:05):
Two ninety to this Sunday session.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
It is understandable. Auckland City Center's retail and hospitality businesses
initial reaction was one of concern after learning Auckland's trains
network will close for ninety six days and various points
in the final push to get the City rail Link
open in twenty twenty six devastated. Even in years to come,

(02:31):
we will take the CRL for granted as a valuable,
normal part of a functioning modern city, but almost a
decade of disruption has taken a toll and this latest
news will be triggering for those impacted. Yes, the round
network needs upgrades, they have to be done. Yes, better
to bite the bullet now than drag this out even longer.
We're all desperate to cut the ribbon on the CRL

(02:53):
and get on with life. But this news that kind
of came out of the blue. And it's only seven
weeks until the first shut down from the twenty seventh
of December to the twenty eighth of jan And this
is very short notice for businesses preparing for what they
hope would be a busy summer season. It is frustrating.
What helps manage the pain is how you consult, communicate
information and prepare for the inconvenience. ATS said that there

(03:16):
will be extra buses to accommodate passengers during the rail closures,
but acknowledge special events will be challenging. Of course you've
got new Ye's Eve, salgp asb Classic. They're all held
over the summer period when there will be train stoppages. Honestly,
and I know this will be hard for some of
you to believe, but Auckland is a great place to
be over the summer as long as you can get around.

(03:38):
It's not like a sold out concert at Eden Park.
Isn't challenging enough with our current public transport. And of
course this is something that the CRL will improve. And
this is the issue at the heart of it. All.
New infrastructure can breathe life into a city or region.
We want it. We just don't want to have to
live through the nightmare of building it. This is not

(03:58):
just an Auckland problem. The government has announced its preferred
plan for Wellington is to build two new tunnels to
funnel large numbers of car into the central city. That's
going to be disruptive. As in christ Church this week,
there's real excitement about the stadium and the growth of
the city. Beautiful Dan christ Church, but what an ordeal
the last thirteen years have been. This week infrastructure mister

(04:20):
Chris Bishop released a discussion document which outlines the Infrastructure
Commissions thinking for developing a thirty year national infrastructure Plan.
The idea is to create a bipartisan approach to infrastructure
to plan, fund and deliver what the country needs but
also what it can afford. It's good, forward thinking, organized
approach to infrastructure. The plan should be delivered by the

(04:41):
end of twenty twenty five and it will provide a
pipeline which gives us a much clearer view of upcoming
projects and an understanding of what's involved for those impacted.
So bring on the upgrades and the improvements to our infrastructure,
but bring the people along with you. It's not that hard.
The government just has to consult, communicate and this is
the really important but compensate when appropriate those adversely impacted.

Speaker 4 (05:10):
For the Sunday session.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
Ninety two ninety two is the text, Oh gosh, this,
let's hope that this is the final fix to makes
Auckland's train service more reliable. Those ninety six days, those, however,
they really could push users and businesses that rely on
the surface over the edge. So it is on the
Council and the government to get really organized over this shortly,
we're going to give you an update on road closures

(05:36):
and conditions in Westland. Next up though, what to do
about coastal erosion and how we're going to ensure our properties.
Twelve past nine you're with the Sunday session Grab Recover.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkine and Winkles for
the best selection of grape bringings used talks'd.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Be fifteen past nine. Now we've had warnings around the
impact of climate changes on insurance premiums for a while now,
particularly after what we've witnessed in recent floods, but questions
remain over who should cover the rising insurance premiums for
at risk properties. Should we all be chipping in or
is it on the shoulders of the individual homeowners. A
new analysis and report by the Helling Clark Foundation and

(06:17):
w SP has looked into this issue and it's suggesting
a better public backstop to be put in place. The
reports author is Carlie Mercer, and Carlie is a deputy
director of the Helling Clark Foundation and WSP fellow and
she joins me now, good morning, Cally.

Speaker 5 (06:33):
Good morning, are you good?

Speaker 2 (06:34):
Thank you tell me what are the biggest threats we're
facing from climate change impacts on properties.

Speaker 5 (06:40):
Yes, So firstly, we have a move from insurance companies
to risk based pricing for flooding, which essentially means that
we've now got better data, which means insurance companies can
price a house down the hill and a house up
the hill and say, well, this house has actually got
a much greater flood risk, so we're going to charge
you more for your premiums. And that sort of move
is slowly happening now. Within a short space of time,

(07:02):
probably a few years, I imagine, most insurance companies will
have moved to and that means for some houses, their
premiums are going to be shooting right up. Meanwhile, we've
also got climate change obviously happening, and we're seeing much
more severe flunning in some places as a result already,
and that's going to get worse. So over time, some
people's premiums are going to become increasingly unaffordable. And then

(07:23):
we're also going to probably see in not two distant future,
insurance companies choosing to withdraw entirely from withdraw ensuring some
properties because they're just too risky.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
At the stage They have been pretty good at continuing
to ensure, haven't they. I mean we haven't had a
sort of a full insurance retreat in New Zealand yet.

Speaker 5 (07:42):
Not at all yet absolutely, so we've got we've got
relatively affordable ish but still very accessible insurance in New Zealand.
Most places can still get quotes from two or three
companies online. So yes, we're doing okay for now that
the problems are going to be within the next few
years in terms of insurance retreats, but we're already seeing

(08:03):
problems in terms of affordability. People's insurance has doubled in
the last year. For example, I think the average is
about a thirty percent rise in Wellington. My taxi driver
the other day was paying eight thousand dollars for his
not very big property on a one person income, so
you know there's already strain. I think consumer consumer New

(08:24):
Zealand surveys have shown that it's one of the top
three economic concerns and families at the moment. There's insurance prices,
so that's already a problem.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
The Natural Hazards Commission that might cover damage to land
from storms and floods, but not from coastal erosion, and
coastal erosion is a real issue, isn't it.

Speaker 5 (08:41):
Yeah, coastal erosion isn't covered by insurance in general because
it's seen as predictable, so it's not one of those
things that they'll ensure private company. So private insurance currently
ensures flood risk and NHD previously EQC they ensure other
natural hazards like earthquakes and so on. But other countries
actually have public insurance schemes like the NHG that do

(09:04):
cover floods as well. So that's kind of what we're
taught looking about in the report, whether we need to
be looking at something like that here, Kennie, do we.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
Know how many residential buildings could be at risk?

Speaker 5 (09:16):
Well, we know that there's around quarter of a million
properties currently at flood risk, and those risks are going
to be increasing over time in many of many locations
because of climate change. It depends how fast climate change happens, essentially,
but you know, some predictions say that within fifteen twenty
years we might see ten thousand houses that are not

(09:38):
able to get insurance at all, and obviously there'll be
a whole lot more that are only able to get
partial insurance. Or perhaps they'll be able to ensure, but
they'll have to pay a really high access or they'll
not be insured for their full value. So you know,
it's a risk for a lot of places quite quickly.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
And so what should we be doing about this? Diould
the country implement a public insurance scheme?

Speaker 5 (09:59):
Well, that's what we're recommending, and I'm recommending that we
don't necessarily need it in the next two years, but
we probably will within the next five to ten, and
I think we should be getting it set up now
pretty urgently. And the other thing I think we need
to do is look at finding a measure for affordability,
what's affordable and what's not affordable, and should we be
looking to subsidize people who can't afford insurance. And the

(10:21):
reason for that is that insurance transfers risk from families, individuals,
communities to the financial markets. And it's absolutely essential for
community but also for the country's resilience in facing climate change.
So if you look at the christ Church earthquakes, we
were the highest in short, that was the highest insured
seismological event in history at that time, and that was

(10:43):
the reason, although it felt terrible at the time, that
was the reason we were able to bounce back so
quickly as a country. So maintaining high insurance rates is
absolutely essential for our response to climate change as a country.
So I think that's why I think we need to
be doing Yep.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
Yeah, so, Katie, I was going to say, when we
were talking about affordability, are we talking about subsidizing private
insurance or or creating or providing some sort of state
insurance it's.

Speaker 5 (11:05):
Affordable, Yeah, so one either or Really, I think in
the initial stages, it's probably easier to subsidize private insurance
in the same way that we maybe help people with
winter energy payments or subsidize with a community service card
the healthcare I guess a temporary thing we could be doing.
I think in the long term, as climate change gets worse,
we're going to need some kind of public insurance scheme,

(11:26):
probably ideally together we work together with insurance companies to
set up a scheme that works well for both private
and for the country as a whole.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
Who needs to take action here? Is it central or
local government or both?

Speaker 5 (11:40):
It's all of us, but central government are currently working
on an adaptation framework, and I think a climate adaptation framework,
and I think that's where they need to be really
thinking carefully about how insurance fits into that picture. And
one of the things we absolutely need to be doing
is working out which places in New Zealand need to
be putting in place risk mitigation and making sure that

(12:01):
we don't build inappropriately in flood zones as well. So
there's a lot that we can be doing in terms
of getting ourselves prepared physically for climate change, and that
will also keep premiums down for longer, so we don't want,
for example, some places over time are going to have
to be probably moving. Communities might be having to move
because you coast dorosional makes their places no longer safe

(12:23):
to live in, and we need to have plans on
how we're going to do that, and most importantly, who's
going to pay. I think if we leave it all
up to local governments, we're going to we don't have
a fairly inconsistent approach across the country. So because some
local governments have more funds available than others, so I
think central government is going to have to step up
to the party and fund some of that adaptation work.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
Absolutely right, and so they are in the process of
creating that strategy or plan at.

Speaker 5 (12:48):
The moment they are, but I think it's a real
struggle to get agreement on who's going to pay. That
has been the sticking point for quite a few years now.
If we don't agree who's going to pay, pretty quickly,
we're just going to keep having situations where we're not
ready for climate change. We have disasters, lots of people
lose their homes. We really need to be getting ahead

(13:11):
of this and having plans in place and making sure
that we can keep those premiums down by being ready
for climate change.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
Essentially, What is your concern if we don't find a
solution here, Well, my.

Speaker 5 (13:22):
Concern is that especially I'm especially worried about those communities
that bearing the brunt of climate change. Perhaps if we
think about ones on the east coast of the North
Island bearing the brunt of climate change in terms of
regular flooding, but also quite low income and unable to
pay for things like flood walls and for stop banks

(13:44):
and things like that that are going to be increasingly flooding,
but unable to afford insurance. And what that means is
that you're going to have poverty being entrenched more and
more for some groups of people. And I think that
would be a real shame. I think we all sort
of bear the burden of climate change. We've all sort
of created it. No one person's obviously are responsible for it,
but we've all created it a little bit, so I

(14:05):
think we all'll be sharing the burdens of it as well.

Speaker 2 (14:08):
Carlie, really nice to talk to you. Thank you for
your time this morning. That was the report. That was
the author of the report that was done by the
Helling Clark Foundation and WSP Carlie Mercer. She's also the
deputy director of the helling Clak Foundation. Twenty three past nine,
you're with News TALKSB.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin on News TALKSB.

Speaker 2 (14:35):
Love you to have you with us. We've got a
doublehead for politics this week. We'll talk with New Zealand
Herald political reporter Adam Piers shortly, but to begin with
a big week in UIs politics to talk through with
the latest time, joined by US correspondent Dan Mitchinson.

Speaker 6 (14:47):
Hey, Dan, Hey, good morning.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has come out
strongly against the Democrats and Joe Biden.

Speaker 4 (14:54):
For the loss AH.

Speaker 6 (14:56):
She has and this was something I think when we
got together last time, we were sort of talking about
there was a lot of finger pointing, and there's even
more so now post election. And what she said is
that the Democrats could have done a lot better if
President Biden had stepped aside as a candidate sooner. So
there may have been other candidates, and maybe we would
have had an open primary that would have involved a

(15:18):
number of different people debating over months. But parties here,
both Republican and Democrat, typically don't hold the primary when
they're in control of the White House. So Democrats didn't
even think about any other candidate because Biden announced he
was going to seek reelection.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
I mean, they do need to do a really thorough
debris for me. They might not want to do it
this week, but they've got to really dag and look
at things, don't they.

Speaker 6 (15:38):
I think they do. And you know, I think Republicans
would be doing the same thing if they were in
this situation, but obviously they're not. And it looks like
they're going to be controlling all parts of the federal
government at this point in time, even though we still
don't know who's going to take over the House of Representatives.
But you know, they clearly had a strong turnout, and

(16:00):
I think the Democrats underestimated the majority of the country.
I think they were focused on what we call the
left and the right coasts out here California and New York,
and they forgot the heartland of America, the Midwest and
parts of the South. And we saw a lot of
people who had voted Democrat last time that voted Republican.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
Dan, do we know when we will get the results
for the count for the House of Representatives.

Speaker 6 (16:24):
Not at this point, I mean right now. The Democrats,
I think as of last night, which were the latest
numbers that came down, they had one hundred and ninety
nine seats of Republicans had two twelve, and you need
two eighteen for control. So at this point in time,
we're still waiting on a number of races to be
called in a number of different states. So it could
be in the next couple of days, it might not

(16:44):
be for another week or so.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
When it comes to the transition, slict and candidates for
the most important jobs, and Trump's administration is probably top
of his list. How's he going to make his selection?
What's he looking for?

Speaker 6 (16:57):
I think he's looking for loyalty, which is something that
he did last time. And it was interesting because the
first official hire was a coach chair, Susan Wiles, who
is going to be his chief of staff. And she
is the first and this was something I didn't even
give any thoughts, but she's the first woman that's ever
been elected to this position in the presidential history right now,

(17:19):
and she is somebody that Trump respects and that kind
of guided this campaign and is one of the few
people I think that actually can put Donald Trump in
his place when he needs to and actually somebody that
will will be listened to. So we've got that person.
We've got the attorney general that's a critical and there's
a number of different people. The Texas Attorney General right

(17:41):
now is one of the people they're considering, and also
an activist who clerked for the Supreme Court. You've got
Homeland Security that's going to be another big position, and
then Secretary of State. Right now, it looks like, even
though nothing's been officially said, that Marco Rubio, who was,
you know, one of the people considered for the vice
president role before JB. Vance came on board, it looks

(18:03):
like he's being a name that's floated for that cabinet
post as well.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
Elon Musk seems to have incredible access to President Trump.
What roles is he going to play in this administration?

Speaker 6 (18:15):
You know, it's it's interesting because when I hear a
lot of these people on television, a lot of these
talking heads saying about what position Elon Musk is going
to take, I have to laugh and say, he's not
going to take any position. I think he's going to
act in more of an advisory role because he's he's
not going to move across country to take a job
that pays a few hundred thousand dollars when he's worth,
you know, hundreds of millions, billions of dollars, and he's

(18:35):
running SpaceX and Tesla and Twitter, so that's a lot much.
I think that's more powerful, and an advisory position would
probably suit him. I guess if you're Donald Trump a
lot better. But you're right, he's he's certainly got the presidency.

Speaker 7 (18:48):
Here.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
A lot of concerns about Trump repealing Biden's policies, fulfilling
his campaign promises, what potential changes is the everyday American
most sort of concerned about.

Speaker 4 (19:03):
Boy, that's a good question.

Speaker 6 (19:05):
I mean, I think there's a lot of scenario that
people are concerned about. Obviously, there's He's raised questions about
what would happen if, you know, unlawful order, if political
empointees inside the department don't agree with the president. I
think there is border issues. I think the gay and
lesbian community are concerned about a repeal of rights. So

(19:28):
there's also I mean the military too. I mean there's
a lot of people concerned because last month he said
the military should be used to handle what he called
I think it was the enemy from within and the
radical left lunatics. So I think there's concern about that too.
But when all is said and done, I mean, this
has at least to this point, been a very peaceful,
uh transition, unlike the last election, where there was a

(19:48):
lot of Donald Trump saying this was not fair and
this was not balance. And I think I think Joe
Biden when he spoke the other day, I think he
gave probably one of the best speeches in recent memory.
You know, he was saying that this is going to
be a calm, peaceful transition, that we're going to go
along with this, and that even though we're down and
we be the Democrats. He says, we're not out. So

(20:09):
I was very impressed. And I think if Joe Biden
had been speaking more like that earlier in the year,
that maybe Kamala Harris would not have been forced into
the position that she was put into.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
Finally, what Mike Kamala Harris do?

Speaker 1 (20:22):
Now?

Speaker 2 (20:22):
What options does she have?

Speaker 6 (20:24):
Oh my gosh, there's so much that I think she
could do at this point in time. I think she
could obviously prepare for for twenty twenty eight and as
sad as it is to say about this, with our
election process over here, we're going to be talking about
names in about eighteen months. She could have a prominent
role in the Democratic Party. She could write a tell
all book. I think she could follow on the footsteps

(20:44):
of Hillary Clinton, who wasn't really that active after twenty
sixteen in politics and she was more focused on her
personal life. But she could go back to the Senate.
I mean, there's a number of things that I think
she could do at this point in time. But right
now I think she's going to have to sort of
collect her thoughts.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
She's probably gonna have the day off or two.

Speaker 6 (21:01):
Yeah, I would I would say that she just looked.
Towards the end, she and Donald Trump too.

Speaker 2 (21:05):
They everyone looks yeah, yeah, yeah. Always good to catch up.
Dan Mitchinson, thank you for your time. Now back home,
our politics has been very much playing second fiddle to
the US this week. But to chat local politics, I'm
joined by New Zealand Herald political reporter Adam Pierce.

Speaker 4 (21:22):
Good morning, Adam, good day, How are you good?

Speaker 2 (21:25):
Thank you? Now tell me the introduction of the Treaty
Principle's Bill that was abruptly moved forward by fortnite. What
happened there?

Speaker 8 (21:37):
Yeah, it's a bit of a strange one.

Speaker 4 (21:38):
Really.

Speaker 8 (21:38):
We've got to Party Marti claiming that this was about
trying to avoid this mass protest that's supposed to come
or descend on Parliament in a week's time or two
weeks time actually on the nineteenth. And yeah, so there's
a bit of conjecture about it and no one really knows.
So you've got to Party Marti saying that, you know,

(22:01):
they're trying to pull it forward so as to avoid
the bill kind of landing in the US at the
same time this protest arrives at Parliament and then you've
got Act stated Seymour who's in charge of the bill,
saying that that actually, no, he wishes government could could
work like that, could could be able to facilitate something
like that. It's really just just a timing thing. So

(22:22):
to be honest, I don't think it's going to make
too much of a difference. At the end of the day,
if the if the protest would land on this on
the same day the bill is in the House versus
a week or two weeks, it really isn't going to
make much of a difference. The protest will still be
doing or protesting what it's about the bill, and it's
still going to carry that same message. And I think

(22:43):
it's going to you know, it's going to create a
lot of the tension because by all accounts that protest
is going to be a massive one.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
Is this building in water.

Speaker 8 (22:53):
There's no you know, unless we have this a massive
change or somehow David Seymore has got something on Christopher
Luxem that he has to change his mind. It's going nowhere.
And this is the this is the kind of frustrating
thing or the position that Luxon is in. And funnily enough,
when this bill is first read in the House, which
is this coming week, Lucky won't even be in the country.

(23:17):
He'll be at the APEC leaders summer in Peru. So
and you can kind of understand it, right. Look, I mean,
at the end of the day, Luxon doesn't like this bill,
doesn't want to be associated with it, and as he
can put some distance between himself and Parliament and that
first reading for a reason that is valid, right, you know,
going overseas and talking with world leaders, particularly at a time,

(23:40):
you know, just after the US election, it is a
really important gig.

Speaker 9 (23:43):
So you can.

Speaker 8 (23:45):
Understand it in that sense. But also you know he
is the one at the end of the day who
signed on that Doddle line for the coalition agreement to
have this bill and support it through. So you know,
it comes down to accountability and that's something that Luckson
talks about a lot that isn't quite shark here.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
It's the year now, bell important and summer day on Tuesday, Adam,
we've got the apology for abuse in State CA. Can
you take us through what's going to happen.

Speaker 8 (24:09):
Yeah, it's going to be a really heavy emotional day obviously,
as everyone I'm sure will know or at least be
aware of that. Just a horrific scale of abuse and
state care that the government will be or that the
state will be apologizing for now, you know, and that's
not a small thing, right for the government to make

(24:31):
a national apology on behalf of the state. You know,
people will remember the apology made by then Prime Minister
just Inder are doing for the dawn rate that impacts
the Pacific communities largely, and those kinds of events. I
wasn't at it, but a bit covered it at the time,
and you know, it's rare for events to have such
such a gravity and those those events do because it's

(24:55):
it's such an extraordinary thing for a state to apologize
for something on there. So it will be an emotional day.
There will be lots of lots of survivors abusive divers
at Parliament and at other events or other locations as well,
just watching this all unfold. There will be apologies from
several public public sector leaders, including those from autoing A

(25:19):
Covey Key, health police, social development, that kind of thing,
and then that'll that will lead into the apology and
the House that promise a chrys Philux will make and
I think Labor leader Crucipkins will also will also make
a statement on it. Now, the interesting thing to look
at will be how far the government goes as far

(25:41):
as announcing, you know, matching words with action, right, because
that was the thing when this national apology was announced
the survivors and survivors groups of that rather.

Speaker 3 (25:50):
Yep, we like it.

Speaker 8 (25:51):
You know, it's good that the government is fronting up
and apologizing for this. But it's not just the words.
It's the action, and specifically around compensation, you know, having
a redress scheme to be able to compensate people for
the abuse and then the torture that they suffer at
the hands of the state. Now the government will be
making some announcements, but the minister responsible for this whole thing,

(26:13):
Eric Stanford, she's already said that they won't have a
compensation regime ready to go come Chuesday, come the apology,
and she's been quite keen to at least ten for
expectations that a lot of this stuff is really hard,
and you do understand it. It is very hard to
be able to have a scheme like this. And whether
you look at having something that goes past or can

(26:37):
be used in future events, you know, or is it
just something that addresses this abuse and stake care. A
lot of questions still to be answered there, but it
will be really interesting to see what they announced and
then where the survivors think it goes far enough.

Speaker 2 (26:51):
Thanks so much, Adam, good to catch up. Coming up next,
we are going to head to Westland and I forget.
If you're a fan of the TV show The Bear,
Matty Mathieson who plays the lovable handyman, Neil Fact is
with me after ten. It is twenty to ten, so
they wed well.

Speaker 1 (27:06):
The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudgin and Wiggles for the
best selection of Greg Reeds News Talks.

Speaker 2 (27:13):
Hebby Yeah with news Talks abb This is the Sunday Session. Yesterday,
a state of emergency was declared and Westland after the
region had its wettest twenty four hours since nineteen seventy nine.
To talk us through the current situation, Mayor Helen Lash
joins me. Now, Good morning, Helen.

Speaker 10 (27:28):
Good morning, Francisca. How are you good?

Speaker 2 (27:30):
Thank you? What's the weather situation now?

Speaker 10 (27:34):
Fine, rain's gone for the cloud. You know, it's going
to give everybody a chance to have things dry out
and it's also going to give everybody a chance to
get out and actually assess at the real state of
the damage. But as usual, we have these weather events
and then they pass on and life goes back to
normal very quickly.

Speaker 2 (27:52):
Do you have a sense of the level of damage
at this state.

Speaker 10 (27:57):
I'll have more as we've progressed through the day. I
know we've got a couple of we've got that five
significant slips. Only two of them are honest the state highway,
but and we've got some serious damage at Night's Point,
which is State Highway which allows us to travel, you know,
from one end of the coast the other. And I'm
waiting for the engineers to be on site and insist

(28:21):
that that's actually going to take probably some time before
they get the head around what that situation is and
how best we're going to manage that. So probably know
the forty eight hours, potentially we might have some indication.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
Okay, So do we still have roads closed?

Speaker 10 (28:36):
Yes, we do because that road's not possible the road
slump has got cracks in it, and we're not prepared
to take any risk with putting anybody on that part
of the road. Yeah, So that's that as far as
the slips go. The teams are out there now, clearing
the roads, getting the roads open, and they're very, very
efficient at this. They're used to it. They know what
they're doing. So people can come to the coast and

(28:57):
come to the glacier country, go down to Lake Moaki,
the salmon farm, et cetera. But they just can't carry
on through to Heart, you know. Yeah, that's that's the
problem we've got at the moment. And it's the same
people coming from Wonkah through to Heart. They can get
to Hearst and enjoy all the beauty of that, but
they can't get from there to Fox Glacier or bring
it or Moritiici.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
So yeah, what do you want residents tonight at this point?

Speaker 10 (29:23):
Look in Hearst, we had a sole charged policeman there
for the emergency yesterday and he was run ragged because
we had a community that was isolated with flooding. We
had extensive flooding, which was wider than what we originally knew.
So we need assessments done where there's been significant water
through homes. We need those homes to be assessed because

(29:44):
it's not just the water in the homes, it's water
getting into wiring and everything else. So that's going to
be happening today, tomorrow, in the next day. But it's
you know, if anybody's got any needs any help, needs
any assistance, if there's something's happened that we're not aware of.
I just want them to raise their hands and say, hey,
I need help, or hey, can somebody please give me

(30:04):
some assistance with this or check this out before we
turn to this or that.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
Because we know you're a very resilient lot on the
West coast, Helen, But there is a time, isn't there
where it's I know communities look after each other really well,
but it is also important to go hang on a minute,
might need a better help here.

Speaker 10 (30:22):
It is it really is because you know, you don't
get any badges for being a hero, as we all
know that's the common factor, but you know you don't
get that for struggling on your own and wearing yourself
down either. And these situations do take a mental toll.
They you know, they play hell on your mind. And
if you've got damage, you know, don't try and manage

(30:43):
that on your own. Get help, get company, get somebody
to talk through, because the last thing we need is
just compecting people where they sort of fold under the
pressure of what they're facing. So it's about care in
the communities and that's really important to me, Helen.

Speaker 2 (30:56):
Last night there was a high tide. I know that
was a bit of a concern in some areas. Did
it raise any more issues?

Speaker 10 (31:03):
No, we were really really lucky because the time the
high time I came, the rivers were receding, so that
was that was a bonus for us. So ocurdu down
at class again was a major area of concern. Critica
again that was up to banks, but you know, we
got away with that. But a curdu is lower lying

(31:24):
again down there at the coastal village, as is Okarito,
and the water comes in through the back of that
village and the tide affects that. But yeah, it could
have been a lot worse, Francisca. It's just, you know,
it's just whether the tides and the peak of the
floods are going to happen at the same time or not.
And the gods were looking down favorably, honest last night

(31:44):
and yesterday with that one.

Speaker 2 (31:45):
So please sure, yeah, so pleased to hear. Of course
you're now looking at clean up and repair. But I
suppose before that starts, as you say, it's really just
about assessing situation.

Speaker 10 (31:54):
It is. But where the roads are closed with slippage,
I know the teams are out there already as soon
as those slips stopped moving and a safe two they
get in there, and our road crews are so used
to this, but they also understand the importance of getting
that road open, so they're already out there doing that,
which is fantastic and also true. They're sweeping the roads
again for you know, if there's anything we've missed or
anything that's actually happened since the rain stopped, just because

(32:17):
you know, the ground can become so weighted down with
the water that a slip can happen, you know, when
the rain stopped. So they're out reassessing just to make
sure we're over this and got everything under control. So
it's a big area. My area on its own is
four and forty kilometers long, so it's a big area
to get all the teams out there covering. But admittedly
this is in southwest and only. It's not the entire area,

(32:39):
so we still have people up valleys and isolated areas,
so you know, you need those touch points with them
to check in on them and make sure they're okay,
they don't need anything, and yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
Know you're busy, Helen. So I really appreciate your time
this morning. Thank you so much and good luck with
that clean up. Is it twelve to ten newstalks?

Speaker 4 (32:57):
There be digging into the issues that affect you. On
my casking Breakfast and jobs.

Speaker 11 (33:03):
Was rate is still to rise?

Speaker 2 (33:05):
Yes it is.

Speaker 11 (33:05):
But if before car were wrong. Now my better is
those who think it will go to six percent will
be wrong next year. I've had a number of doctors
over the year. I couldn't care less who they are.
Couldn't get a manned woman, I've had Asian. I mean,
what's it matter? How is it you couldn't get National
across the line on this?

Speaker 4 (33:19):
Why is it dead?

Speaker 11 (33:20):
Essentially?

Speaker 7 (33:21):
I think the National Party are afraid of taking on
hard issues.

Speaker 8 (33:24):
That's why I never joined the National Party.

Speaker 11 (33:27):
Back tomorrow at six am the Mic Hosking Breakfast with
the Rain Driver of the Lam News, Talk ZB.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
Sunday with Style the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin and
Wiggles for the best selection of great reeds, He's talk Sedbro.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
Thank you very much for your text this morning, Malcolm
text to so that he doesn't believe that the Aukland
train service is going to be much more reliable once
this work has been done. Of course we've got we're
looking at ninety six days of closure four train services
across Auckland in order to get it all ready for
the CURL to work beautifully when it opens in twenty
twenty six. He reckons that the road closure should only

(34:23):
happen overnight. Other countries do that, so why don't we.
He said he's against the closure because once the track's
rebuilt in the CRL is over, it's not going to
stop medical emergencies, people walking on the tracks, train breakdown,
so he believes it's still just going to be unreliable.
He believes then that the time for completion should be

(34:44):
pushed out. He said that he has a medical condition,
so driving is not an option, and to get to
work from the north Shore at Sylvia Park requires at
least three buses if there are no but if there
are no trains operating, and I do know people. I
work with someone who lives in Papacutta and if the
train's not working, it's three buses to try and get home.
So I know that a lot of you very much

(35:05):
rely on that train. And that's what I was talking about.
If you're going to do something like this, if you're
going to disrupt people's lives, you need to communicate it
really well. You need to plan for it, you need
to have processes in place that are going to replace
those trains to make people's life easy. And you've got
to present this to people all at once. You can't
just go oh, yeah, sorry, It's going to be a
bit annoying, isn't it. We all want new infrastructure, we

(35:28):
want to get this country moving, and we want it
to function and be efficient, but it is really tough
try and live with it as we do that. Thank
you too for the feedback. We were talking about premiums, insurance,
premiums under pressure and how we're going to deal with
that in the future, and the interview there a lot
of you heard the word climate change and immediately went
this is lefty rubbish. We're not talking about that. Forget

(35:50):
the word climate change for a moment. Over four hundred
thousand houses in New Zealand residential properties are now regarded
they're officially at risk of flooding, which means that at
some point in the future whether you're on the coast
dealing with erosion or you're in an area where this
Floodingurance companies are going to increase your rates, your premiums,

(36:11):
and it's going to become really hard for the average
person to afford it already is So what we're talking
about is how do we plan for that in the future,
should we as a country be going, We're going to
need to find a way to subsidize some insurances so
people do not lose their homes and walk away with
nothing when they're unensurable and something terrible happens when nature hits,

(36:31):
and there's a lot of us in the situation. So
are we just being sensible about looking forward to try
and work out how we don't lose what is often
our most valuable asset, our home. So Keny heg your
thoughts on that as well. Ninety two ninety two it.

Speaker 4 (36:48):
Is six to ten, Keep it simple. It's Sunday the Sunday.

Speaker 1 (36:54):
Session with Francesca Rutgatt and Wiggles for the best selection
of Great Redings News Talks Envy.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
I am so excited because Matty Matheson, who plays Neil
Pack the Lovable Handymas and turn waiter in the Emmy
Award winning TV show The Bear is with Us Next.
He is a bit of a celebrity chef. And while
I know a lot of hospitality and you know, a
lot of restaurants and cafes really suffered throughout COVID, he
actually built a little bit of a restaurant empire out

(37:24):
of COVID. And he also loves an outdoor wood fired bathtub.
And I know this because there are many photos of
him in it in his new cookbook, which is called Soups,
Salads and Sandwiches. It turns out that Jeremy Allen White
isn't the only Bear actor who likes to go topless. Anyway,
Maddie Matheson is going to join Us next and season

(37:48):
three of The Bear the opening credit song was Eddie
Vedder Save It for Later, and of course Pearl Jammer
in the country. Their second concert is at Mount Smart tonight,
so it seems only fitting to head to the news
with a bit of Eddie Vedder back.

Speaker 12 (38:02):
Shortly, don't know why don't.

Speaker 11 (38:30):
You hold me?

Speaker 4 (38:32):
Where don't you hold me? Kiss me? Why don't you
oh me? Oh me?

Speaker 13 (38:42):
Kiss It's someday you know what that means it's the

(39:06):
Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin and Wickles for the best
selection of grape breaths news talk set be.

Speaker 2 (39:20):
You're with the Sunday Session. I'm Francisca Rudkin. Lovely to
have you with us right here in New Zealand. We
best know Matty mathieson as lovable handyman Neil Fack on
Emmy Award winning show The Bear, But Mattie is actually
the only cast member who is a celebrity chef. So
for twenty years Matty has worked in the culinary world.
He owns a bunch of restaurants, hosts YouTube cooking shows,

(39:42):
and is a cookbook author. Matty has released his third cockbook.
It's called Soups, Salads and Sandwiches. Matti Mathison joins me.
Now morning, Mattie, good morning, and how are you really good?
Thank you, thank you for being with us. Hey, you
say that you had trouble coming up with an idea
for this third book, So how did you settle on Soups,

(40:02):
Salads and Sandwiches.

Speaker 9 (40:05):
Well, you know, I was just st there and I
was just like eating a salad, and you know, as
I usually do, I eat lots of salads, avid salad eater.
And then I was just like I wish I was
eating soup and a sandwich, you know. And then I
was just like, wait, we should make a book about
just soup, salad sandwiches. Nobody really does that, you know,
Like it's always like overlay, it's just like a super
salad sand like who cares, you know, but it's just like, no,

(40:26):
they deserve their flowers. You know.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
Chapter on soup, you really give soup high praise. One
soup sort of even changed your life.

Speaker 9 (40:37):
Yeah, I think I think soup is uh, soup is
a beautiful thing. It's it's a you know, we're all
made of soup. I think it's like if I could
eat you know, FA every day, I would eat FA
every day. You know, it really is. I don't know.
I think I'm just a big baby soup boy.

Speaker 5 (40:56):
You know.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
What is it though? Is it? Is it just good
for the soul? Can you put everything? Can you have
everything in the soup from the broth to actual you know,
you know noodles, Yeah, like noodles everything. You know, there's
so many things.

Speaker 9 (41:12):
You want, you know that just a velvety, beautiful personate
maple soup. That's nice. That's nice. A brothy spicy beef
noodle soup slurping and eating incredible. You know you want
a charred broccoli cheese soup awesome? You know, like this beer.
I got the beer cheese soup with like roasted pumpernickle bread.

(41:33):
It's like drinking a fond do you know? It's incredible.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
It's so true. I love the section on sandwiches because
I think most of us, you know, we grow up
going to school with these sorry mum, but pretty lousy
sandwiches and your lunch box, you know, and you just
you get over sandwiches when you're young, and then you
just kind of blow the sandwich genre apart in this book.
I don't know where I'm gonna start when it comes
to making sandwiches.

Speaker 9 (41:57):
Well, same as they're like building buildings, you know, like
there's real architecture and building a good sandwich, a soft bun,
a toast, and you know whole we eat a ry,
the filling, cold meat, hot meat sandwich like fried not fried, grilled.
There's so many things that you can do with sandwiches,
you know. I think that it's just like, you know,

(42:21):
you want to be able to make something that like
when you eat it, it's it's delicious, and it's there's crunch,
there's sweetness, there's sour, there's you know, I don't know.
It's like sandwiches can be incredible, you know, And.

Speaker 2 (42:35):
It's a little bit like it sort of turns into
a bit of a treble guide as well, because you know,
you've got sandwiches from New York and Philly and some
of these classics that are North American sandwiches that we're
probably not hugely familiar with.

Speaker 9 (42:48):
Yeah, Like I think that's the thing is like, you know,
I'm from Canada, so it's the same type of thing
like growing up in Canada, you know, a part of
the whole commonwealth there. And I think it's just like
going to the state. I spent so much time in
the States. I'm like, these cities have these sandwiches that
it's just like we don't eat like that, we don't like,
you know, and it's just like these sandwiches are so

(43:09):
iconic and so powerful and I'm just like just trying
to spread the love, you.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
Know, the key to a salad. I thought this was
really interesting. I don't think i've ever read anybody talk
about this in a in a cookbook before and you
just go on about the seasoning of a salad.

Speaker 9 (43:26):
Well, yeah, people, like you know, God forbid you put
salt and pepper on it lettuce. Like it's just like
lettuce should have salt and pepper on it, you know,
Like it is like a thing that's like everything should
be seasoned until it tastes good. That's it. Like it's
like it's not like one thing determines the other, like
a like a perfectly seasoned salad, like even if it

(43:47):
was just lettuce greens with oil and vinegar and some
like lemon juice and some salt and pepper could be
the greatest thing of all time.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
I love the way to You include Tricia's chuna salad
in this book, and there's these photos of her with
this massive pink sort of tup ware that she's filled.
And I think all families have that one kind of
salad we go to of which we make far too
much of. And I don't know it's gonna last for
lunches for a week or something, But this is a
real family dish of yours, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (44:16):
Yo.

Speaker 9 (44:17):
I guarantee you there's a big pink bowl right now,
filled with half tuna salad in there that she's munching
on all week.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
For sure, everyone has something they love and hate about cooking.
I really hate it when I hit guests over and
they stand in the kitchen and watch me cook. That
just does my head. And what about you?

Speaker 9 (44:37):
I really don't like doing dishes. I'll cook all day.
I'll cook all day. I will do everything. I'll even
clean up, but like just doing the dishes just I'm like,
I don't want to do everything, you know. So I'm like,
I'm happy to cook. I will cook twenty four hours straight,
like if we're doing Thanksgiving or if we're doing Christmas
like a big fing, I'll cook everything. I'll do everything.

(45:00):
I'll do everything, But I'm like doing the dishes. I
just want to lay on the couch and like go
into a coma.

Speaker 3 (45:05):
You know.

Speaker 2 (45:05):
I kind of thought that it was global etiquette when
it came to hospitality and things like, you know, the
chef shouldn't never have to do the dishes. That is
the role for someone else, right.

Speaker 9 (45:16):
Yeah, you know tell Tris that, no, I think.

Speaker 2 (45:21):
Yeah, no, okay, so you do appearing to do a
few dishes.

Speaker 9 (45:26):
No, we we like to spoil it up, you know.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
Yeah, I really loved as well. In the intro of
the book, you talk about how it's absolutely fine that
cooking should make you uncomfortable, which I think is another
really nice, sort of practical, realistic thing to say, because
I'm oft and I often launched do something and just go,
I have no idea how this is going to turn out,
And it's actually really nice to you just to go, hey,
that's totally fine. That's normal. We all get like that.

Speaker 9 (45:49):
Yeah. Well, I think every time you cook something, it's
still for the first time, you know, like everything makes
a difference, you know, and I think especially in the home,
like you start cooking something when of your kids runs
in and does something, then you run away and you
burn the onions or you do something, and then like
something's happening, and like every time we're doing something. But

(46:09):
it's just like cooking is a craft. It is a trade,
you know, it is a skill. So it is like,
you know, anything good worthwhile shouldn't be easy, you know.

Speaker 2 (46:22):
I read that out of all the things you do,
you like to keep the books as close to who
you truly are. So what does this book say about you.

Speaker 9 (46:31):
I love my family, and I love making soup, salad, sandwiches,
you know, like I think it's just like I love making,
you know, I love making tasty sandwiches. I love making salads.
I love making soups like I love, I genuinely do.
That's what I make most of the time. I usually
definitely make a salad every day, you know, like whenever

(46:54):
we're making as a family, like we always try to
have a salad of some sort.

Speaker 7 (46:57):
You know.

Speaker 9 (46:59):
So I think I think this book is you know,
I'm not really at home making elaborate, chefy, you know, dish.
I'm not. I got three kids at home. I need
to make grilled cheeses, like I want to share that.
I'm making tuna melts, so making like food that everybody eats,
So make it like, you know, like I think, I don't.
I think most chefs aren't cooking what they're making at
the restaurants. You know, at a restaurant, you got all

(47:21):
your chefs to help you make it, you know. At home,
it's just like this just makes something tasty and yummy,
it makes you feel good.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
I do love all the photos in the book, are
they from your home? I believe that you were on
a farm on Ontario in Ontario.

Speaker 9 (47:33):
Yeah, yeah, that's all like like we shot, you know,
we shot all the stuff, all the lifestyle stuff and
like all that. We were on the farm for about
a week and then and then we shot all the
studio stuff another week.

Speaker 2 (47:45):
I love the wood find bath.

Speaker 9 (47:49):
It's a nice thing. You know, it's a toasty little
it's a toasty little spot.

Speaker 2 (47:54):
Yeah, no, that was awesome. I wonder how important it
is to you to have a place like that to go, especially,
I mean these days, you know, you're very very well known.
Is it nice to have a place like that to
come home, to be to feel grounded in.

Speaker 9 (48:09):
It's the best. There's nothing better. I'm like, it really
is lucky, Like we found a beautiful farm in our
hometown where me and my wife are from, and uh,
I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Like, we're very
lucky to have found that house and kind of found
our forever home the first time.

Speaker 3 (48:28):
You know.

Speaker 9 (48:28):
It really is amazing.

Speaker 2 (48:30):
I love it. Just reminded me. I love the photo
of you too, when you're young, like you reenacted it.
How old were you guys, like high school sweethearts or something.

Speaker 9 (48:40):
Yeah, we went to Prome together.

Speaker 2 (48:42):
Oh gorgeous. No, I love that photo. You don't know yet,
you hardly look like you've aged. Look, I love the beer.
It is such a great show being hugely popular. Can
you tell us a little bit about how you got
involved because you weren't initially in the cast? Is that correct?

Speaker 3 (49:01):
Uh?

Speaker 9 (49:01):
Yeah, like I think they already cast a bunch of people,
and then I was brought on as like a consultant
and then grew into producer and executive producer roles and
then uh yeah, Chris was just like, Chris is my friend,
you know, Like I didn't have to audition, Like Chris
just called me. It was just like, we want you
to play this role. I don't think it was gonna
be a big role. And then it turned into maybe,
you know, it has turned into a bigger role. And yeah,

(49:25):
like Chris was just like can you act? And I
was just like, I don't know, I don't think so,
but maybe. And I was just like and that's honestly, like,
I'm just lucky that my friend called me.

Speaker 2 (49:35):
You know, did you feel uncomfortable? Was it an uncomfortable
and were working on Okay, hang on, what do I
do how do I do this ure.

Speaker 9 (49:44):
The very first, the very first, Like it's one of
those things where I was very comfortable working with the chefs,
working with the actors, working with all the departments on
making the show. Like that's like a collaborative creative thing
that I'm used to making restaurants and working with teams,
and it's amazing. But then it's like, okay, now it's
like you gotta shoot your scene. I gotta go stand

(50:04):
next to Jeremy Allen White and talk about some friggin
ball breaker arcade game. And I'm just like, ah man.
It was crazy, Like you're the first time and they're
like action and you're like wait, and I start like
laughing because I'm like, well, okay, action. And then it's
just like no, it's for everyone starts. Everyone starts acting,
and you're like what, Like we were just having to
we're just outside hanging out, Like now we're over here,

(50:26):
we're acting. I was like, what's going on? You guys
are crazy? But that's it's like, it's amazing, it really is.
It's a cool thing to be able to do something
you've never done before and be surrounded by such professionals
and they gave me the same kind of reciprocal I
was helping them do cooking stuff, they're helping me do
acting and really spend some time with me and really

(50:48):
got me to a really nice place.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
I think, you know, absolutely the show kind of gives you.
I well, I'm king to hear your thoughts on this.
Just how realistic is it? Because it doesn't look like
the kind of environment that a lot of people would
like to work in. How close to reality is it
working in a kitchen line?

Speaker 9 (51:08):
It all depends if you've got a jerk chef or not.
I think, like, once again, we're making a television show.
I think that we have somebody who has a lot
of emotional and mental damage. He's coming home to take
over his, you know, his brother's restaurant, who's passed away

(51:29):
through something pretty violent and doesn't know how to deal
with anything. Doesn't know how like just being able to
cook well, like Carmie can Carmi can cook? Well? Can
he truly lead? It doesn't seem so he's trying to
figure it out. I think there's a lot of people
around him that believe on him. I think there's a
lot of people that don't give up on him, and

(51:50):
I think he doesn't give up on them, and I
think they're all in this weird, you know, toxic little world.
And I hope there's not a lot of restaurants like that.
And I, you know, I didn't work in a lot.
I worked like pretty intense restaurants, but you know, I

(52:12):
never worked in a restaurant where it was a family
owned business like that, you know where, and especially in
the circumstances that the Bear takes place. Once again, it
is a television show, and I think some of the
realities are real, and some of the things are about
a character who's been written for television.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
You have a host of restaurants yourself. I know that
you've got a lot going on the cookbook, merchandise lines,
acting when it comes to the restaurants, of course, it's
just been such a difficult time for hospitality over the
last few years post COVID. How things were you a.

Speaker 9 (52:49):
You know, we're putting back to pieces, you know, we're
putting back to pieces. We're trying to give people a
beautiful experience and trying to make people feel welcomed and
feel part of something, and trying to be consistent with
the love and service that we give and the food
quality that we put out into our restaurants, and I

(53:11):
think we're in a really good place to be honest,
I you know, I'm very filled with gratitude of our
restaurants and the amount of people that are going to them,
and our staff that are working as hard as they are,
and you know, I'm really I'm really proud of our
restaurants and what we're doing, and you know a lot

(53:31):
of them. Like before the pandemic, I didn't have any restaurants,
you know, and now I got a couple, and and
it's it's an amazing thing. The pandemic birth my restaurants.
I went. I couldn't do anything else. I had to
go back to just feeding people, and it really sparked
my love of food and my love like really like

(53:54):
I was just like, no matter what happens, I guess
I can. I can go to the end of my
driveway and sell a sandwich or sell some barbecue, and
I can like provide for my family. Like That's what
it got to during the pandemic, where I had to
do my barbecue pop up and from there I opened
parts from their Maddie's patties and Cafe Rang and you

(54:15):
know Prime Seafood Palace and Rizzo's House a Palm and
like all these restaurants, and it's just like I didn't
have those. I didn't. They were birth from me finding
my love of restaurants again. And like you know, I
was in a chef for you know, almost seven years
and then and then I had to stay home for
a while, and then I had to figure out how

(54:36):
to provide for my family. And food gave me that
that that opportunity I can go out, I can cook,
and I can provide for my family, and that's what
we did.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
Look, I'm glad that you managed to find the time
to write another cookbook for us as well. Thank you
so much for the book, A very generous cookbook, and
thank you so much for your time. Really nice to
talk to you.

Speaker 9 (54:56):
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (54:57):
I love New zeal.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
It was many manthes andsitibrity Chef and Neil Feck from
Emmy Award winning show to bear his new cookbook, Soups,
Salads and Sandwiches are telling you what the sandwiches are remarkable.
It is in stores now and after eleven Oliver Bergman
is going to join us to talk about living life
more fully by accepting that the fact that life is
actually just a bit of a mess and being perfect

(55:22):
is a stressful waste of time. He's my kind of guy.
He's gonna be with us after eleven. It's twenty three
past ten.

Speaker 4 (55:29):
Deep, It's simple. It's Sunday.

Speaker 1 (55:31):
The Sunday Session with Francesca, Rudcat and Wig Calls for
the best selection of great release news Talks Envy.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
When you're looking for a good book to read, wick
Cales knows that the range of choice can be overwhelming.
It's important that you find the right one that's right
for you or for the person to whom you might
be giving at and that's where the power of recommendation
comes in. That's why Wit Calls Offered is the Top
one hundred, the Kid's Top fifty and Jones Picks. The

(56:03):
Top one hundred and Kids Top fifty have been voted
for by the readers of New Zealand. So if thousands
of people have loved them enough to vote for them,
chances are you're going to love them too. Jones Picks
is a selection of books by the whit calls head
book buyer, their titles she has read and loved and
they come with Jones's highest recommendation with the top one
hundred Kids, Top fifty Jones Picks, plus books, games, puzzles, toys,

(56:26):
gorgeous stationary and more. There really is something for everyone
at WIT calls Grab Recover.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkine and Wit calls
for the best selection of gras used talks.

Speaker 4 (56:38):
It'd be.

Speaker 2 (56:41):
Now. This song is definitely growing on me. This is
Beyonce and joining us now with all the entertainment news
of the week. Steve Neill, editor at flicks dot cot
onim Z, good morning, Good morning. We're playing a little
bit of Beyonce, of course, because she leads the twenty

(57:02):
twenty five Grammy Awards.

Speaker 14 (57:03):
Nominations, indeed with eleven nominations for the Cowboy Carter album
and associated singles and videos from that. Oddly the Beyonce,
as her husband jay Z's pointed out, she has more
Grammys than anyone, but has never one album of the Year.
And so, as jay Z says, even by your own metrics,

(57:25):
that doesn't work. Think about that, the most Grammys, never
one album of the year. That doesn't work.

Speaker 7 (57:29):
Well.

Speaker 14 (57:30):
She is definitely in the box Seat, I guess with
that leading the nominations position and as well as her
nomination for Cowboy Carter An Album of the Year. The
other nominees include Andre three thousand, Sabrina Carpenter, Charlie XCX,
Jacob Collier, Billy Eilish, Chapel Roone, and Taylor Swift. It's
a very female dominated Grammys this year, which is no

(57:50):
surprise given at how it reflects the last year in
pop music. So as well as Beyonce's eleven noms, you
also have Kendrick Lamar, Charlie XCX, and Billie Eilish on seven.
We're just going to rank them by numbers because that's
what that's what art is at. It's a numerical competition.
Post Malone also has seven nams, and Taylor Swift, Sabrina

(58:11):
Carpenter and Chapel Roone with six apiece. I'm just going
to keep banging on about Charlie XX like I did
last Simer was in here. She's headlining Lameway in Auckland's
West at Auckland's Western Springs on feb sixth. She's never
received a solo artist nomination at the Grammys before, so
this is I think her sixth or seventh record brat
And is also nominated as well as Album of the Year,

(58:34):
four Record of the Year Pop, Solo, pop duo, Group, Performance, pop, dance, recording, Dance, Electronics,
Albums and Music Videos. The timing of this one's interesting
because the Grammys are on February the second in La
Laneways on February the sixth in Auckland.

Speaker 2 (58:49):
Well, that's a bit of time. The celebrations just like, celebrate.

Speaker 14 (58:54):
All the way to the airport maybe and then come
on out. But the timing of that for for that
festival tour through New Zealand and Australia is a publicist's dream.

Speaker 2 (59:05):
Total Charlie Account Awards. Occasionally there isn't Kiwi sort of
snuck somewhere in a Grammy's nomination list.

Speaker 14 (59:14):
Found but I've only given up the most. This is
a top line top line report. No New Zealanders have
been nominated for more than more than six categories. I
can confidently tell you one name that did pop up
that I was very close to see though, was Kim
Gordon X of Sonic nominated for her incredible album The

(59:36):
Collective from this year.

Speaker 2 (59:37):
I haven't listened to that. I shall put that on
the list. Tell me about this new coming of age
story that's been released on Prime's Video. It's got a
little bit of a twist. It's called My Older I've
been waiting for you. So the title there we go.

Speaker 14 (59:50):
Yes, Yeah, it's yes. This is a really interesting spin
on coming of age and sort of taking a first
forays into adulthood as an eighteen year old girl in
a small town in Canada. I mean, look, there's no
beting around the bors. She has a mushroom te with
her friends, and while she's tripping on mushrooms, she meets
her thirty nine year old self played by Aubrey Plaza.

Speaker 2 (01:00:12):
Awesome, And I.

Speaker 14 (01:00:15):
Mean, what would you do if you're the chance to
meet your older self? Would you a confirm all the
awesome things that you think like just around the corner
in your life? B ask for investment advice. You can
like bank on the new stock and get filthy or rich,
or see try and make out with yourself.

Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
Okay, in this thing mad all of.

Speaker 14 (01:00:33):
The above, Heaven. That's not really a spoil This is
in the last than the sort of first fifteen minutes
of the film. But after they hang out and kind
of connect across the generational divide.

Speaker 15 (01:00:44):
Is it a.

Speaker 14 (01:00:44):
Generation divide if you're the same person. Not sure. Aubrey
Plaza leaves her number in her younger seal's phone, and
by movie logic, they can call each other and have chats. Right, Okay,
So the older version is trying to help her avoid
some mistakes and the younger version is just trying to
be young and make mistakes. So it's a really interesting

(01:01:05):
kind of looker. There's different phases of our lives, and
maybe it's not such a bad thing making a bunch
of mistakes.

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
No, it's not.

Speaker 14 (01:01:14):
I had a very gentle cry at one point during
this film, and it's a kind of pretty bittersweet, gentle
comedy that look, if you don't like doing mushrooms, this
is not the film for you.

Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
It's interesting you mentioned a gentle cry because we just
spoke to Matty Madison from The Bear and Grant texts
me to say, Francisca love the Bear. He said, I
thought I would be interested to know from those who
have watched every episode of season two, episode seven Forks
is the best TV episode of any show they've watched,

(01:01:48):
and Grant that is the episode I think I've got
the right one where Richard cousin Richard has his moment
Olivia Coleman is in that episode. I had a gentle cry,
and I think you're right, Grant. I just thought that
was one of the most perfect episodes of television I'd
seen in a long time. I completely agree with it
was stunning.

Speaker 14 (01:02:07):
Yeah, and I think as well as the motive qualities
that episode, it really nails that idea of there is
joy to be had in service, and not in a
kind of weird medieval surfdom way, but just in diligently
doing a job, really really, but.

Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
Also just this gorgeous character act. You just still just character.
You know, there was this click with him and you,
and as he clicked I kind of clicked with him
as well, Like you just went from the annoying cousin too.
I just went I get you. I love you. You know,
I completely agree. Thank you for bringing that up.

Speaker 14 (01:02:38):
Ready for more the beer. To be honest, you are more,
which is will not what you'd necessarily think when you're
right in the thick of the more stressful episodes.

Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
You'd like a little bit more. Always good to catch up,
just reminding people my old house is on Prime. Is
that right?

Speaker 16 (01:02:54):
House?

Speaker 14 (01:02:54):
Loved it?

Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
Okay, So that's a film there for you.

Speaker 14 (01:02:57):
And Grammy'sara coming up in fairb and we'll have some
more info on on where you can watch that closer.

Speaker 3 (01:03:01):
To the time time.

Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
Thank you so much. Right, I've had probbly interested to hear.
I've had some knee issues recently, so I've been on
a balance board wabbling and trying to build up some strings.
But according to our Science Study of the Week, my
wobbling might tell more about my health than just the
state of my knee. Michelle Dickinson is going to explain
more next year on Newstalk SEDB. It is twenty six

(01:03:22):
to eleven.

Speaker 1 (01:03:26):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin on News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
So you might be really good at standing on one foot,
balancing on one leg, but what about if you close
your eyes, or what about if you sort of add
something to the mix, like try and pass a tennis
ball around your back and things like that. These are
the things that I've been doing and I'm really interested.
Because doctor Micheld Dickinson joins us now and for our
Science Study of the Week, she is going to talk
about what standing on one leg can reveal about your health.

Speaker 17 (01:03:55):
Hey, fantastic, and I think you're one of the few
people who are actually just standing on one leg on
a regular basis.

Speaker 2 (01:04:01):
Well, no, I'm having to do it, like I've had
this issue, right, so I've had to do it, and
it's amazing when you start. But it's also really interesting
how quickly you can build up that stability.

Speaker 17 (01:04:10):
So that's the great thing about the study. So it's
in the journal Plos one. It was out this week
and it basically says, if you measure how long you
can stand on one leg and ideally your non dominant legs,
the leg that you don't prefer to stand on, you
can tell a lot about how you are aging and
if you are aging well. So often we think about aging.

(01:04:31):
We look in the mirror, we count another wrinkle on
your face, and we go, oh, I'm not changing well,
or oh maybe I'm doing okay. This has got nothing
to do with superficial skin aging. This is all about
aging that actually can predict whether or not you're likely
to have a poor outcome such as a fall in
the long term as you age, which we know has
once you have a fall and you often can't come
back from that in older age. So if you're over

(01:04:53):
sixty five and intentional falls are the leading cause of injury,
so how do you prevent those?

Speaker 2 (01:04:58):
You're able to balance?

Speaker 3 (01:04:59):
Well?

Speaker 17 (01:05:00):
How do you know if you can balance?

Speaker 6 (01:05:01):
Well?

Speaker 2 (01:05:01):
Do a test?

Speaker 17 (01:05:02):
Literally, get a timer right, not done right now, when
I'm done, when the ad breaks on, but I get
a timer and then stand on your non dominant leg
and see how long you can do it for. If
you are aged over fifty and you can stand on
your non dominant leg for more than thirty seconds, you
are aging well. Really simple tests. And I don't think
people stand on one leg for thirty seconds very often intentionally.

(01:05:25):
So it's a good just check to say where you were.
So how does this work? This study was all about
trying to find something that predicts whether or not you're
aging well. That's easy to do at home, and so
they did a whole bunch of things that we know
are to let you sort of lose as you age.
So they tested balance, which is are standing on one
leg and they did it in lots of ways. You

(01:05:45):
could stand on both feet with your eyes open. You
could stand on both feet with your eyes closed. And
then they did dominant leg, non dominant leg, eyes, open eyes, clothes,
and basically as soon as you shut your eyes, everything's
over with me, like I you know, And why is that?

Speaker 2 (01:05:57):
Well?

Speaker 17 (01:05:57):
Balance is really complex. It's based on number one, muscle strength,
so you can build that up. It's based on visual inputs,
so if you shut your eyes, you lose a part
of your balancealance, which is why things start to get
really mobbily.

Speaker 7 (01:06:09):
Eat.

Speaker 17 (01:06:10):
I do this a lot with kids, Actually, I make
them shut their eyes and stand on one leg.

Speaker 2 (01:06:14):
And I was going to ask you why that is,
because it is amazing the difference it makes. Oh yeah,
you're fall right, Oh yeah, totally.

Speaker 17 (01:06:19):
It's also to do with your vestibular system, which is
that little system inside your inner ear, which is to
do with balance. And it's also your somatos sensory system,
which is your system that helps you detect pain, temperature,
and body position. All of those four systems together are
what you need for balance. So if you're not balancing well,
you can try and improve it with muscle strength. But
if it's still not working, then you know you might

(01:06:41):
also have an issue. And it's a really good indicator
of any new degenitive diseases too. Your brain's not quite
aging well. Sometimes this balanced test can help predict that.
So what they found on balanced test, grip test, nieche
strength test, and walking gait basically how you walk and
whether or not that changes if you walk at different
ages and you walk at different speeds. That this balance

(01:07:02):
test is a really good predictor. And so do it.
Sit at home, stand up thirty seconds, stand on your
non dominant leg. If you can stand there for thirty
seconds without falling over in your age of for fifty,
you're doing well. And even if you're doing well, the
suggestion is if you can help improve that, increase that.
So do a bit of muscle training, do a bit
of strength training. What are you doing You're standing on

(01:07:23):
a ball.

Speaker 2 (01:07:23):
I'm on a wobble board that yeah, yeah, I'm not
not very good at it. To say, well, I've had
a text here from muzz who said that I need
to do what Mike Hosking does and start standing on
one foot while you brush your teeth. It's a good
it's a good time to do it perfect. But I'm
doing something else while I brush my teeth. We're an
odd lot here in these talks. I brush my teeth

(01:07:45):
with my non dominant hand. So this is all about
trying to do things differently to keep my brain, yeah,
functioning and going well. One day on your leg, one
day on a leg one day, or I could do
my non dominant leg and my non dominant hand and
they'll just be toothpaste.

Speaker 17 (01:08:01):
Everywhere and maybe the time your dentists be like, what's changed?

Speaker 2 (01:08:05):
Do you say?

Speaker 9 (01:08:05):
Off?

Speaker 2 (01:08:08):
Oh, the things we do. Michelle love you to catch
up with you will catch up next week. It is
eighteen to eleven.

Speaker 4 (01:08:14):
There's no better way to start your Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:08:16):
It's a Sunday session with Francesca Rutkin and Woggles for
the best selection of great breaths us talk say.

Speaker 2 (01:08:24):
We had Matti Methison on the show at the top
of the hour, of course, the actor from The Bear,
but also celebrity chef. He's just released his new bookets
called Soups, Salads and Sandwiches, and what do you know
he loves a meat loaf sandwich. Yep, I think that's
that's going to be taking a look at it as massive.

(01:08:45):
I don't know how you would eat it, But turns
out Mike van Dowsen doesn't mind a little bit of
meat loaf either, and he joins me, now, good morning.

Speaker 18 (01:08:52):
I don't know whether I would have it in a sandwich.

Speaker 2 (01:08:54):
It just looks like white bread, meat life, white breadd
is a stack of it. This is crazy. I don't
think I've ever Yeah, I don't. I've never put it
in the sandwich. But it is a classic, isn't it?

Speaker 7 (01:09:08):
It is? It is.

Speaker 4 (01:09:08):
And I was doing some research this week and I
was like, I.

Speaker 18 (01:09:12):
Wonder because everyone was talking about Donald Trump, oh week,
and I was like, I wonder what.

Speaker 4 (01:09:15):
Donald Trump eats. So I did a bit of research
around it.

Speaker 18 (01:09:19):
And unlike previous presidents like Obama, whose favorite food is broccoli,
Bill Clinton, he's now vegan, Donald Trump is neither of these.
He's not the healthiest to be. His go to is
fast food? Is what fast food?

Speaker 2 (01:09:39):
Or fast food? Fast food he loves.

Speaker 18 (01:09:42):
He will go without breakfast. He'll have a light lunch.
This is all you know from from Google, so take it.
Take it like a grain of salt. But he will
have a light lunch and then he his favorite go
to his macs and he'll have two big macs, two
full of the fish fries and a diet coat for dinner.

Speaker 2 (01:10:03):
You know what, I don't think say anything. I'm not
I'm not going to get into the shaming game. Don't
think I need to say anything.

Speaker 18 (01:10:10):
And his go he has twelve cans and diet coca
day because he doesn't drink, So I guess that's his fix. Yeah, yeah,
But he also loves meat loaf, and so I thought
there's something that I can cover. So I went back
through the Good from Scratch cookbook and there's a great
meat loaf in there, and so it was called a
summer meat loaf. So I'm called make America Great meat Loaf.

(01:10:34):
I've renamed it Brilliant. Right, So it's quite a lot.
There's a few ingredients, but I'll make a disease as
I can. So oven one hundred and eighty degrees. Then
you want to take one cup of bree crumbs and
just combine that with half a cup of milk. Set
that aside, and that's just going to allow those breadcrumbs
to soften up. Then take a fry pan and slowly

(01:10:55):
sort off one onion that's been peeled and dice. Finally,
along with two cloves of garlic that's been chopped and
crushed while they're frying.

Speaker 9 (01:11:03):
Corsets are just starting to come back into season.

Speaker 18 (01:11:05):
Now take one and a half cups of corsettes grated,
pop them into a tea towel and just squeeze out
the excess juice. Once that's done, chuck them into a
bowl along with half kellar portmints along and half killer
of beef mints. Add your bread crumbs that have softened.
I've got a tablespoon of diesel mustard. Add in your

(01:11:28):
onions and your garlic. Add in mixed turbs. I've got
some roughly chopped parsley, thyme and rosemary. Season that up
really well and set that aside, and then take a
mote like a loaf tin lightly greasy inside of it,
and then just line it with some parma hammel some prosudo.
Just overlap that. Press in your meat filling, fold over

(01:11:49):
the remaining parma over the top, so it's sealed up nicely,
covered in tinfall, and then fire that into the oven.
Leave it in there for thirty minutes, covered and then
pull it out, unwrap the tin, fire it back in
for another thirty minutes. After this time it should be cooked.
Pull it back out. I put it like a chop
board on top of it, just to press it down

(01:12:11):
to make it nice and square, and then just set
it aside and let that call.

Speaker 2 (01:12:14):
Just sounds great. Thank you so much. Mike good from
scratch dot co dot z or news Talk SeeDB dot
coded inzad Food Sat. Sunday is where you'll find the
recipe Relax.

Speaker 4 (01:12:23):
It's still the weekend.

Speaker 1 (01:12:24):
It's a Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin and Wiggles for
the best selection of gray reads used talk z be.

Speaker 2 (01:12:33):
Time to Talk Wellness and I'm joined by naturopath Eron O'Hara.
Good morning, Good morning. I don't know about you, but
I kind of feel like everybody has saddled up the
horse and is galloping to Christmas. Like everybody's already got
Christmas on their mind, the end of the year on
their mind, and I just feel like that sort of
adds quite a lot of stress and pressure, you know,

(01:12:56):
at this point in the year, whereas I'm sort of
trying to take to step back and I'm just gonna
take it day by day. I'm not going to let
that end of year pressure build. But there are a
lot of people facing burn out about now. Aren't there.

Speaker 16 (01:13:08):
Yeah, I think everyone kind of gets to this point
of the year and time starts to really speed up
and you start to think, oh, my gosh, I've got
so many things to do. Work commitments, social commitments, and
it's kind of trying to wrap up for the year,
and it's easy to kind of get into the place
in your mindset where you're thinking, oh, just keep going,
I'll just keep going, and then I can just fall

(01:13:28):
apart in this in the holidays. But actually it's a
good time to kind of just think about, you know,
keeping that balance through this busy time. As you know, yes,
the body can cope with short term stress and being
extra busy, but we don't really want to end up
getting into the holidays and feeling super tired and burnt
out and having to sleep through our entire holiday.

Speaker 2 (01:13:51):
So this is the.

Speaker 16 (01:13:51):
Time where we really want to bring in all those
self care tools and it's not adding to the to
do list, but it just thinking about how we can
maintain a healthy lifestyle as we head into the last
few weeks heading towards Christmas, and bring in some nice
healthy eating, keeping the balance and making sure we don't
just fall apart through this part of the year.

Speaker 2 (01:14:13):
What are some of the symptoms of burnout?

Speaker 16 (01:14:16):
So burnout you can get physical symptoms, so starting to
get things like headache, feeling just really exhausted, more frequent illness,
changes in sleep patterns, as well as emotional symptoms, so
feeling a lack of motivation, feeling a little bit helpless
but sorry for yourself. And also behavior changes which might
be super procrastination or withdrawal or reduced performance in your workplace.

(01:14:43):
And they are kind of the main things that you're
kind of heading towards that burnout and burnout if you're
feeling like that, So.

Speaker 2 (01:14:50):
What are some good tips to keep the energy levels
stable and avoid this?

Speaker 16 (01:14:55):
So keeping that life balance, it's always back to those
foundation things of the nutrition, exercise, sleep and stress management.
When it comes to nutrition, being organized remember and keeping
the balance of the meal, so plenty of vegetables, protein hydration,
and some good carbohydrates, making sure you're getting good three

(01:15:16):
meals a day. Limiting the snacks as well as maybe
popping in a few supplements can help you for this time,
whether it's adding a multi vitamin or a B vitamin
in the morning for a nice bit of BB balance
as well as the magnesium to really help with winding down,
getting a good quality sleep, and supporting your nervous system.
Exercise you can bring in, like we talked about last week,

(01:15:38):
some maybe some exercise snacks into the day of little
short bursts of exercise, or even just like adding in
a ten or twenty minute walk in your lunch break,
and then also prioritizing sleep where making sure you're kind
of still getting to be at a decent hour, prioritizing
getting a good night's sleep by reducing the amount of caffeine,
maybe reducing the amount of alcohol they're having, which we

(01:16:00):
tend to drink more at this time of the year
as we head towards summer, and then also managing dress
and just having some self care tools. Maybe it's in
the weekend, taking some time out, maybe going out for
a beach walk or reading a book, you know, simple
joys of life, or getting a massage or having a bath,

(01:16:21):
just to do something that's actually caring and nurturing your
body and your soul.

Speaker 2 (01:16:25):
And just saying no occasionally eron, you know, like if
people are trying to catch up and do things and
you may us to do things, and if you don't
have time. Are you going at it? There's just making
everything too busy.

Speaker 5 (01:16:35):
Just say no.

Speaker 16 (01:16:36):
I think that's probably the hardest thing that people find
to do. But actually the simplest tool that we can
actually use is that when we know that we've overloaded
ourselves with too many commitments of being like, actually I'm
at my full capacity and no, can't do anymore, and
just finding that confidence to be like, actually I need
to pull back and do less.

Speaker 2 (01:16:56):
Love it, Thank you so much. Erin We'll Talk next week,
Grab a cover.

Speaker 1 (01:17:00):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudgot and wid calls
for the best selection of great bringings.

Speaker 4 (01:17:06):
Talks be so.

Speaker 2 (01:17:07):
Aaron has just given us some great tips to keep
your energy levels stable and avoid burnout. But if you
want to take things a step further and change your
perspective on how to live life, then you want to
catch my next guest here on news Talks, Hebb Oliver Berkman. Now,
Oliver isn't a fan of self help books, but his
new book, Meditation for Mortals might just change your life.
Unlike others who want to help you to be more

(01:17:28):
productive by getting up at five in the morning and
jam more into the day. Oliver believes we should accept
time as finite and we all have limitations. So let's
focus on making time, you know, for what counts, and
stop stressing about the rest. So Oliver Berkman is with
us next here on Newstalk's Hebb.

Speaker 18 (01:17:56):
To Stop.

Speaker 1 (01:18:03):
Welcome to the Sunday Session with Francesca rud and Wiggles
for the best selection of great reads.

Speaker 2 (01:18:10):
US talk seven past eleven year with the Sunday Session.
Good to have you with us this hourther panel discusses
whether Donald Trump will be a better president than Joe Biden.
Megan talks about the growing trend of traveling and running

(01:18:30):
a marathon. No, probably not for everybody, and Joan reveals
what surprised her about reading John Farman's memoir. Right, So,
I'm reading this new book and the very first line
really stood out to me. It said, this is a
book about how the world opens up once you realize
you're never going to sort your life out. Interesting concept,

(01:18:51):
isn't it. The book is Meditations for Mortals, four weeks
to embrace your limitations and make time for what counts,
and its authors journalist and columnist Oliver Berkman. You may
have heard of his last book. It was called It
was a best sell it was called four Thousand Weeks Now.
Oliver is not your usual self self help guru, but
is he here to give us all a bit of

(01:19:12):
a reality check on just how finite life is and
realistically how much we can get done and whether we
even need to get any of us done at all.
Oliver Berkman joins me now from London. Good morning morning.
You write this book for yourself. Why was that?

Speaker 19 (01:19:29):
Well, I think that's true of pretty much any book
that reports to offer advice or wisdom. You know, it's
really the author trying to work out what they think
and write the advice that they need to.

Speaker 3 (01:19:41):
Hear or have benefited from.

Speaker 19 (01:19:44):
Very recently, specifically, I think you know that what I
take to be the topic of this book, which is
how we actually get across that gap from knowing how
we want to show up for life to actually doing it.
That was something that was really sort of has weighed
on my mind for a very long time, right, you know,
having this really strong sense of the work I want

(01:20:04):
to be, focusing on how I want to be in
my real lifelationships, the activities I want to do, in
my spare time. You can have some great ideas about
this and just always never quite get around to actually
doing it. So that was what I needed.

Speaker 2 (01:20:19):
Oliver, we should be clear at the start of this
this isn't self help. In fact, you're a bit of
a skiptic of self help, aren't you.

Speaker 19 (01:20:26):
Well, I don't mind the label. I've sort of resigned
to it at this I'm not offended if it's shelved
in that section. I'm just happy for it to be
shelved in a bookstore. But yeah, I mean, what I'm
trying to resist in this book, and in the structure
of this book too, if you want to talk about that,
is that risk that I think is so present where

(01:20:48):
people feel like, Okay, they've got a problem, relationship isn't
going well, or they procrastinate too much, or they're too
anxious about the news headlines, whatever it is. So they
then set out to kind of find some system for
fixing this and for making their lives totally different. And
they have also sorts of ambitions for how perfect this

(01:21:08):
is going to be, and then it just all goes wrong,
or they put it off for months and never get
around to it, or it never really happens. I wanted
to write a book that was very explicitly about doing
things just a little bit differently, but doing them right
now in reality, in this kind of limited, finite situation
that we find ourselves in as humans.

Speaker 3 (01:21:29):
Doing stuff differently, right in the middle of the.

Speaker 19 (01:21:32):
Too many emails and the terrifying news headlines, and the
imposter syndrome and your problem with distraction and procrastination and
all the rest of it.

Speaker 2 (01:21:41):
You say that we've never lived in more anxious times.
Why do you think that is?

Speaker 19 (01:21:48):
I mean, I think what lends a lot of the
anxiety to our situation now is just the level of
connectivity right the degree to which you can find out
about things that are happening right around the globe. You
open up a social media app, You're you're connected to
more genuine and appalling human suffering than the greatest saints

(01:22:11):
in history ever even learned about, because you know they
lived before this level of connectivity. I also think that
you know, in our lives, in our personal, our working lives,
we're sort of beset by all these kind of infinite inputs.
There's no limit to the amount of email you could receive,
the amount of family obligations.

Speaker 3 (01:22:33):
You could see on the amount of books.

Speaker 19 (01:22:36):
You might feel you needed to read, articles, you know,
I needed to catch up on. It's just the list
just goes on and on and on. And I think
all of that leads us to this feeling of like, well,
we've got to try to get on top of everything,
We've got to try to sort our lives out, but
it's harder than ever to do so. And in that gap,
there's a lot of anxiety.

Speaker 2 (01:22:54):
Where do you think we're going wrong with the many
ways we're sort of approaching our lives. Why are we
so obsessed about perfecting them or finding the next thing
that's going to make us happy, you know, make life
look perfect.

Speaker 19 (01:23:09):
I mean, I think, to get right down to the
sort of philosophical roots of it, we don't like being finite.
We don't like having limited time on the planet, limited
time in the day, limited control over how our lives unfold,
limited knowledge and understanding of what's going on, you know,
all the rest of it. And so we sort of

(01:23:31):
comfort ourselves by chasing these fantasies of one day in
the future, finally being on top of things, finally knowing
what we're doing, finally being sorted out and organized, because
it sort of keeps alive that fantasy that maybe we
don't have to feel what it is to be a
limited and a finite human, which is all sort of

(01:23:52):
uncomfortable to.

Speaker 3 (01:23:53):
Face the truth.

Speaker 19 (01:23:55):
What I want to argue is that it is uncomfortable
to face the truth, but on the other side of
that discomfort is something much more freeing and energizing and
exciting than, you know, continuing to do this sort of
futile search for the perfect system or the perfect way
of life.

Speaker 2 (01:24:13):
The other thing is, none of us actually know what
we're doing, do we. I mean, it might look like
some people do, but we don't. I mean, I've spent
my life winging it, and I've always been slightly ashamed
of that, and now I'm holding on to that, and
good on me.

Speaker 3 (01:24:30):
Yeah, No, I think you're exactly right. I think.

Speaker 19 (01:24:34):
Imposter syndrome is a great way in which wet to
sort of dramatize the way that we are limited. Because
people think that they don't know what they're doing in
their job or as a parent or a relationships, but
they also think that other people do know what they're doing,
and perhaps if they themselves put enough time and effort
and study and discipline into it, they too could get
to the state of competence and knowing what they're doing.

(01:24:56):
But yes, what you learn as you get a bit
older is that everyone's winging it all the time. The
difference is that some people are more comfortable with that
fact because they've sort of accepted that that's how it is.
So this is another example of how actually there's a
lot of liberation in seeing that our troubles are worse
than we thought they were. You might think that your
imposter syndrome is going to be you know that your
lack of experience is something that needs to be fixed.

(01:25:19):
But when you realize in the end that like everyone
feels that way all the time, it's actually worse than
that it's not fixable, that's kind of wonderful because then
you might as well just roll up your sleeves and
get stuck into doing some things instead of waiting for
this time when you feel ready.

Speaker 2 (01:25:35):
So talk me through this approach a little bit more.
How can we realize how can we realize that we
aren't going to sort our lives out?

Speaker 3 (01:25:44):
I mean, I think it comes from.

Speaker 19 (01:25:48):
Ultimately from kind of a certain kind of perspective shift
that really has to be constantly reinforced, and part of
what I'm up to in this book is trying to
structure it, you know, four weeks, consisting of seven short
chapters for each day. It's something that people might actually
do in the midst of their lives, right, might actually
see how these perspective shifts interact with the ordinary daily activities.

(01:26:11):
Not you have to go away on a retreat for
three months in the mountains and come back totally transformed,
because when does that ever happen, but just you know,
something that really gets into the texture of.

Speaker 3 (01:26:24):
Daily life.

Speaker 19 (01:26:25):
I think beyond that, when it comes to sort of
specific things to do, people are very very hungry for advice,
like every morning, do these three things before seven o'clock
and you'll be fine.

Speaker 3 (01:26:38):
But I think that's the problem, right, this idea that
there exists some.

Speaker 19 (01:26:44):
Instruction manual that if we just followed it then life
would all go smoothly. So when people ask me for
sort of specific advice, I'll almost always say, like, pick
something that you know your life should have more of,
certain kind of work, creative practice, a relationship you wish
you were nurturing, more, a hobby, whatever, and just bring

(01:27:05):
yourself to do ten minutes of it today, however, imperfectly, however,
you know, falteringly and badly, but actually in reality, instead
of launching into these big schemes that we always love
about how we're going to become a very different kind
of person, you know, in a few months time, a
few years time.

Speaker 2 (01:27:26):
And that's the thing, isn't it. We pick something that
we want to change, we pick a bad habit we
want to improve, and then we spend all this time
planning how we're going to do it, when really what
you're saying, Oliver is just get up and do it right.

Speaker 19 (01:27:38):
Right, and don't even think right, no, exactly, and don't
even think about I mean, even the idea that there's
a problem you have to fix can be quite It
has a sort of secret payoff, you know, as long
as you're still trying to fix something in yourself, you
almost kind of don't have to show up quite so
fully for life now. So I think a great thought experiment,
if say procrastination is your problem, or you're a catastrophist

(01:28:00):
or something or whatever, it is a good thought experiment, like, well,
what if I always am going to be like this?
What if I never am going to completely get rid
of my tendency towards procrastination or being a catastrophizer. Oh well,
maybe if I'm always going to have that, I can
just sort of leave that aside and get on with
some things instead of spend my whole life trying to.

Speaker 3 (01:28:21):
Trying to fix it. I think that's a really powerful framing.

Speaker 2 (01:28:24):
And that was one chapter that I really enjoyed, and
I think sort of stands out as being a sign
of the times. You can't care about everything you know,
and you also talk just sort of about trying to
stay sane when the world is a mess. You've just
kind of got to let the future be the future,
don't you.

Speaker 3 (01:28:40):
Well, I think that a.

Speaker 19 (01:28:41):
Lot of people, you know, anyone who sort of cares
about being a good citizen, anyone who thinks that anything
happening outside their four walls of their own house is
concern to them, which is, you know, a lot of
us is terribly liable to then think you've got to
somehow make a difference to sort of everything you see happening,
and unless you're really really helping the world, you're a
bad person. And I kind of make the case in

(01:29:02):
that chapter that you know again, because we live in
this attention economy where everything is brought to us constantly,
and you hear about so much awful stuff, all the
crises unfolding around the world, you actually, in order to
make a difference to any of them, you actually have
to be willing to withdraw your attention from others of them.
You have to be willing to pick your battles and say,

(01:29:25):
I'm just not going to be able to care about
all the things, and as a result, I can focus
my volunteering time, or my charitable donations or whatever it
might be at a level that is actually at the
scale that a human can can do something.

Speaker 2 (01:29:41):
I love the done list versus the to do list.
Talk us through this.

Speaker 19 (01:29:46):
Well, this is just the very simple idea of keeping
a list of things that you have accomplished through the day.
You know, a list that gets longer during the day.
I mean to do lists tend to get longer during
the day as well, but they're not meant to.

Speaker 3 (01:30:00):
That's a problem.

Speaker 19 (01:30:02):
So the idea of a done list is just that
it will shift your focus little bit away from comparing
what you've done to all the things you could. In theory, do,
which is an infinite list, and therefore you'll always feel
bad when you make that comparison, and shift your attention
back to the comparison between what you've actually done and

(01:30:23):
what if you've done nothing today? Right, and if you
get through, if you do sort of twenty useful things
in a day, or even five useful things in a day,
compared to the infinite number that you haven't done, that's nothing,
but compared to doing nothing, that's quite a lot.

Speaker 3 (01:30:40):
So I think it's a.

Speaker 19 (01:30:41):
Helpful way to break this habit of always finding the
comparison that makes us feel the worst.

Speaker 2 (01:30:48):
Oliver, talk to me about productivity. Are we approaching it
all wrong?

Speaker 3 (01:30:54):
I mean, productivity is such as strange.

Speaker 19 (01:30:56):
I spend a lot of time writing about now, a
lot of time thinking about it. But it's such a
strange concept, really, I mean, clearly, on an individual personal level,
there's no value. There's no inherent value in just like
doing a lot of things. It depends what the things are, right,
I mean, there's plenty of things it would be good
if people in the world did less of. So I

(01:31:17):
think that what I'm trying to do, I suppose, is
is come up with some sort of notion of meaningful
productivity that honors the fact that, yeah, a lot of
us do want to accomplish things. We don't just want
to become completely passive and drift through the world, you know,
and be at peace in that way. We actually want
to find our peace and our fulfillment in doing a

(01:31:41):
bunch of stuff, but not just doing things for the
sake of doing them, and not and certainly not out
of any notion that if we did enough of them
we might one day get to the end of the
list of things to do and finally be able to rest.

Speaker 2 (01:31:56):
So another, you've been doing this writing for a while, now,
where are you?

Speaker 3 (01:31:59):
It?

Speaker 2 (01:32:00):
Has it changed your life?

Speaker 3 (01:32:02):
Oh? It totally has.

Speaker 19 (01:32:03):
I mean, you know, I'm definitely a work in progress,
and I often feel like questions like are you a
lot less anxious than you used to be? Or something
need to be directed to my wife rather than me. Right,
And I'm not really the right judge of my own
of what I'm like to live with, But I think
I am a lot calmer and a lot more able
than I used to be to choose a few things

(01:32:25):
to focus on, and to focus on them, less tormented
by all the other things that I that I am
could in principle be doing with that time. And on
a sort of meta level, I guess I've also realized that,
you know, the end point of all this is not
to become the perfect person, even the perfect person that
being imperfect. It's just it's just a sort of open

(01:32:47):
ended journey towards a sort of greater and greater acceptance
of the reality that we're really in.

Speaker 3 (01:32:55):
And so I find that very empowering.

Speaker 19 (01:32:57):
But I don't think it's all going to end with them,
you know, me achieving the perfect level of attainment at
it or anything like that.

Speaker 2 (01:33:05):
Olan you so much for your time today. It's been
wonderful to talk to you.

Speaker 3 (01:33:10):
It's been a real pleasure. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:33:11):
That was author Oliver Berkman. The book is called Meditations
for Mortals. I do recommendate you. The great thing about
it is the book's been designed to read a chapter
a day. It's not like you need to sit down
and a mercy south in it for a long time
chapter day, which is quite manageable. I did love the
bit at the ending where he talked about, you know,
there are some people who are probably going to pick
up this book and go Okay, Now I'm going to

(01:33:31):
be perfect at being imperfect, which is just what we want,
don't we. We always want to nail things. Anyway. The book
is in stores now. It's twenty two past eleven.

Speaker 4 (01:33:41):
There's no better way to start your Sunday. It's the Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:33:45):
Session with Francesca Rutkin and wood Girls for the best
selection of great Reads News Talk.

Speaker 4 (01:33:51):
Sady, it is.

Speaker 2 (01:34:06):
Time for the panel and I will explain the relevance
of this song and just a moment. Joining us today
we have director at Capital and political commentator Ben Thomas.
Good morning, Ben, and we have seen your pr consultant
at one plus one Communications, Damien Venuto. Hey, Damien, Hey,
good to have you both with us. Of course, it's
been a very big week, heavy week. Some might say

(01:34:30):
there are people who've taken the result of the UIs
selection on and feeling very concerned or upset and things
about it. My colleague Heather doclos Allen wrote a column
today in The New Zealand Herald saying, yes, Donald Trump
is a bad guy, but he should be a better
president than Joe Biden. And she talks about his sort

(01:34:50):
of international relations and his performance sort of last time
in various areas. Would you agree, Thomas, You might not Ben, Sorry,
you might not like the guy, But do we need
to be depressed and hysterical about his reelection?

Speaker 7 (01:35:10):
Well? Yeah, Look, I mean there is a bit of
a sense. I don't know if you've ever read the
Kurt Vonnegut novel Time Quake, where if everybody is thrust
back into the past and has to relive it like
an automaton unable to change anything for ten years or something,
And that's sort of what it feels like, was Trump.
That's kind of we're just doing it all again. Look,

(01:35:34):
I'm an old fashioned kind of guy. I'm a traditionalist.
I think it's quite bad for democracies. If you have
somebody who kind of endorses a sort of violent resistance
to an electional result is on track to pardon the
people who invaded the Capitol. That sort of encourages political
and violence, that encourages the sort of weakening of institutions,

(01:35:57):
including trust and elections. And I think even just by that,
it will be met bad that Donald Trump has been
restored to the White House. But know, look, he Biden
got trapped in the same kind of situation that leaders
across the Western world have where you know, inflation is slowing,
but we have not dropped their stalls high have ever

(01:36:19):
and people are caught in that kind of trap of
high prices and high infrast rates as they try and
battle to get inflation down, and that's proven pretty difficult
for anyone to kind of overcome. Will he be a
better president than Biden? I wouldn't think so. In terms
of international relations. You know, the way that he sort
of I think encourages the enemies of the West, you know,

(01:36:43):
not to be too dramatic about it, like China and Russia,
only adds more instability to world orders, to the world order.
You know, if he goes through with his promises, he
will have calamitous effects on international trade, which will be
bad for America, will be bad for New Zealand in particular.
So no, I respectfully disagree with.

Speaker 2 (01:37:06):
Yeah, but you know here there is also you know,
she mentioned something in this article that Jack taym was
speaking about, and he's been on the ground in the
US as well, and he was saying that a lot
of his friends were saying, actually, look, you know there
was peace under Trump because he is unpredictable. No one
knew how he would react. People were more cautious about him,
so actually international relations may have actually been better off

(01:37:27):
under her Damien.

Speaker 20 (01:37:30):
I absolutely disagree because we can't describe that period as
peaceful when you look at the fact that he was
trying to hold onto power in twenty sixteen. And the
scene that keeps like replaying in my head as I
think about this is justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime minister,
when he was asked at the time in twenty sixteen
what he thought of what was unfolding in the Capitol

(01:37:50):
in twenty sixteen, he had this expression, he paused for
but twenty seconds, didn't say anything, and then what he
said was, we watch with great consternation what is happening
in the United States right now? And I feel like
that sense of consternation it just hasn't gone away. It's
like on It's very much like that Kurt Vonnegut novel
that Ben Thomas has just referred to. It's we've paused

(01:38:13):
on a sense of consternation, because that's what you feel
when Trump is in power, when he is in a
position where he's trying to hold onto power, you just
don't know what's going to happen. And it's an uncertainty,
and it's that uncertainty is never good. It's not good
for markets, it's not good for business owners, it's not
good for international relations. So along with Ben, I completely

(01:38:33):
degree I disagree.

Speaker 2 (01:38:34):
With Yeah, I suppose. I suppose I'm coming from a
position whereby the deal is done, he is the president,
and we've got to kind of be practical about it
and move forward. Obviously, our greatest concerns are sort of
geopolitics and potential tariffs on New Zealand businesses, and all
we can do is try and move forward and make
sure that we've got good relationships and that we're looking

(01:38:56):
after the interests that we need to. And you kind
of just got to get on with the guys, right,
There's no point actually sitting getting stressed about it. You've
actually just got to you know, once. That's funny.

Speaker 7 (01:39:08):
I think the last sort of eighty years has shown anything.
It's that's sort of moping around and going on, going
on Twitter and saying that you've lost faith in everything
and this isn't normal with capital letters and things doesn't
really help anybody. You know, I think people of my age,

(01:39:29):
you know, dinosaurs in the current world you know, people
whose ages passed will look back and think, you know,
the sort of after the end of the Cold War
and for about twenty five years, we had a remarkable
era of global peace and economic well being. You know,
it may not have seemed at the time, and and

(01:39:52):
look now we're going back to sort of more business
as usual in the course of history, where you know,
there are challenges, there are always challenges, but by and large,
lots of things in the world are getting better as well.

Speaker 2 (01:40:04):
And good history is chaos. It's always been chaotic. Even
when one part of the world might think that they're
having a relative sort of secure, sort of uneventful period,
there were another part of the world that isn't. It's
just kind of it's you know, I know that everyone
looks at it as unprecedented times, but you could probably
look back through history and there's plenty of unprecedented times,

(01:40:24):
aren't there.

Speaker 20 (01:40:26):
I think us millennials have lived through this period where
there was incredible peace, and the mistake that we made
was thinking that it would stay like that indefinitely. It's
just a return to the mean. Really, we just have
chaos returning again, and that's pretty much where it's gone
where it's always been.

Speaker 2 (01:40:40):
All right, let's move on to more chaos. There's over
four hundred thousand residential buildings that are deemed already at
risk of flooding in New Zealand, and of course we're
seeing a lot of storms, we sing a lot of flooding,
we seeing a lot of erosion. Nature is doing its business.
At the moment. There is this sort of steady increase

(01:41:01):
in insurance premiums. We're going to get to a point though,
where they're going to get quite steep, and we will
get to a point where as will stop insuring certain
areas or certain properties. Do we need to be looking
ahead and having a backstop here, Ben, Do we need
to be going We need to have a public insurance
scheme that is going to mean that people who are
in a position whereby suddenly their house has no value,

(01:41:23):
they can't sell it, their one main asset is no
longer viable, that we help them protect it with some
sort of public insurance scheme.

Speaker 16 (01:41:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:41:38):
Yeah, So there was that Helen Clark Foundation of this
week which sort of suggested some moves along those lines.
A task force, I think maybe chaired by Shan Elias,
came to similar kind of conclusion on a conceptual level,
you know that this is a huge issue in the

(01:41:59):
sense that you know, ultimately you can talk about it,
and there's been discussions about the principles for a number
of years in the Select committed the Financial Expenditure Select
Committee released another report on that as a sort of
way forward that the government wants to basic sort of
bipart as an approach on but ultimately that the issue
here is that there is a huge expense coming down

(01:42:20):
the line, or a huge cost coming down the line.
And you know, initially there was sort of it was
it was kind of passing the passing the you know,
the hot potato around of who will pay for it,
councils or central government or landowners or insurance companies. Over
the last couple of years, with more and more severe

(01:42:42):
weather events, the insurance companies, which I said, like, don't
count us out, you know, we're not going to be
part of it, will either recover the cost or or
we will just exit those difficult markets. And so the
you know that that that puts it between the landowners,
the councils, and central government, none of whom executly sort

(01:43:05):
of coming forward to say they're flush with extra cash
and so there are going to be some pretty hard decisions,
you know. I think one of the things you mentioned
that the coverage of the report was, you know, in
Florida has been you know, houses that have been rebuilt
about forty times and fifty years to yeah damage, and
that's not going to fly in New Zealand. The Select

(01:43:26):
Committee sort of said maybe we need to put people
on notice.

Speaker 2 (01:43:29):
Yeah, there's more to it, isn't there?

Speaker 7 (01:43:31):
Then don't get rebuilt.

Speaker 4 (01:43:32):
You know, I mean your thoughts.

Speaker 2 (01:43:35):
I mean, there is more to it than just and
necessarily looking at the insurance side of it.

Speaker 3 (01:43:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 20 (01:43:40):
So, I mean insurance companies are within their right. I
mean their job is risk miss mitigation. And when you
have Lloyds of London declaring he's in there's the second
riskiest place in the world from an insurance perspective, that's telling.
That's telling what insurance companies are thinking about. But one
thing that I've thought about is if we don't settle
this debate between landowners, central government and council, then what

(01:44:02):
happens is that it does it lands on the landowners.
And I've always found the climate change it's about the
environment yes, but it's also fundamentally an economic issue. The
poorest among us will be those who are affected the
most by climate change. Those who can afford to sell
their house, make a lass and live somewhere else will
be fine. But those who have to stay in those houses,
they're the ones that are going to be affected by

(01:44:24):
So this is a fundamentally it's a poverty issue. It's
an issue that we have to solve on an economic
level because it's an economic issue as much as it's
about the environment.

Speaker 2 (01:44:34):
Thank you both so much for joining me this morning,
Ben Thomas and Damien Venuto. And since I brought you
to depressed millennials on the panel today, I'm going to
give you something to cheer you up. The music that
I played in sync Bye Bye Bye. That was a
song that was used by an Australian fast five netball team.
They did this little dance before the tournament yesterday. If

(01:44:55):
you have not seen it, google it and go and
watch it. At first, I thought, hmm, that's unusual. They're
kind of doing a little dance before they start playing
the game, which we haven't really seen before. And it
sort of started out a little bit chitzy, but I'm
going to be honest with you. They kind of won
me over. They're all very good dancers. So did we go?
If you want to laugh, if you just want to
cheer youself up, Australia Fast five Men's Dance, Heaver, Google

(01:45:17):
and have a laugh. Twenty three to twelve.

Speaker 1 (01:45:22):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin on News Talks
at b.

Speaker 2 (01:45:28):
Coming up after midday Jason Pine with Weekend Sports and
he joins me, Now, good morning, good morning. I saw
that Australia beat England at Twickenham over and I was
just very exciting, isn't it?

Speaker 5 (01:45:41):
Yeah?

Speaker 21 (01:45:42):
What a points fest as well? It sounds as though
defense was optional in that game. Was it forty two
thirty seven or something like that? Nothing but the defense
of you know, arm wrestle we got yesterday in Dublin.
But good on Australia, you know, I mean they haven't
had a lot of joy this year under Joe Schmidt,
so for them to go to Twickenham and beat England. Look,

(01:46:02):
I don't mind it at all. I'm not sure who
to cheer for when Australia. If I'm brutally honest with you, Francesca.
But look, if we don't have any skin in the game,
no horse in the race, then a spectacle is what
we're after and I think we've certainly got that at
Twickenham this morning.

Speaker 2 (01:46:17):
Southern Hemisphere rugby is back. Hey, what have you got
coming up on the show.

Speaker 21 (01:46:22):
Neil Wagner is going to drop into the studio after midday.
His book is out. It's called All Out. It's a
good read, a really good read. So an extended chat
with Neil Wagner after midday as he read lives his
career and some of the highs and lows of it.
Also want to drill down into this issue of a
second NRL franchise in New Zealand. And it feels to

(01:46:43):
me as though there are three bids now in christ
Church's Free in the same city. Why don't they just
get around a table and come up with one monster
bid and go that way. We'll drill down into that,
and also want to talk to Grant Nisbet after two
o'clock Test match number three hundred and fifty behind the
mic yesterday for Nisbo, so we'll have a look back
at his career as well, and lots more besides Francesca.

Speaker 2 (01:47:05):
I wonder what he feels has been the biggest changes
over that period of time that he's seen in the game.

Speaker 21 (01:47:10):
Shall I ask him?

Speaker 2 (01:47:11):
Could you that I appreciate that? Oh well, just while,
I mean, it feels like it's moved on, but then
really it's still just rugby, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (01:47:17):
You know?

Speaker 21 (01:47:18):
Yeah, look, I think it's sort of There's been so
many rule changes, so many different tweaks. Things are put
in the spotlight, like you know, yellow cards and all
that sort of thing. But at the end of the day,
it's still fifteen on fifteen you've got to run down
the other end and put the ball down behind the
opposition's line, So you know, that hasn't That hasn't changed.
So yeah, but what a career from his boat before
the chatting to him as well.

Speaker 2 (01:47:39):
I'm looking forward to the show. Thanks so much, Painey.
Jason Pine will be with you at midday Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:47:44):
With Style the Sunday Session with Francesca, Rudkin and Winkles
for the best selection of Greg Reeds news Talk Zebby
Travel with Wendy Woo Tours, unique fully inclusive tours around
the world.

Speaker 2 (01:48:00):
Right Friends of Mine, Sue and Simon ran the New
York Marathon last weekend. No, a lot of key weies
are going and doing the now. They said it was incredible.
They said the noise from the crowd and the music
was so loud. It was just constant sharing and screaming
from the beginning to the end. And this is becoming
kind of popular. Joining us now is Meghanson, Singleton blogger

(01:48:21):
Atlanta dot Com. Morning, Megan, good morning.

Speaker 15 (01:48:24):
Don't make anyone think that I'm in any way in
running myself.

Speaker 9 (01:48:28):
I think I think I'm a good researcher.

Speaker 2 (01:48:30):
I think I think we've heard enough about where to
get good cocktails everywhere you go that we know that
that is probably running a marathon. Probably isn't the top
of your list when you travel, but you never know.
Never say never, Megan, because it is becoming popular. It's
really it's a thing, isn't it. Lots of people do it.
They do Berlin, Paris, London, New York.

Speaker 15 (01:48:49):
Yeah, and Sydney was just added to the World Majors,
making it the seventh World Major marathon, along with Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London,
New York, and Tokyo. I was at the New York
Marathon though a few years ago my brother ran it
and we were on the sidelines and we were all
in amongst that whole hype and stuff, and what he said,
which was really good idea. Someone had told him to

(01:49:09):
put his name on the front of his shirt, and
he said that was great because when you're flagging, you're
feeling exhausted, people are shouting and cheering you on and
calling you out by name and going.

Speaker 9 (01:49:19):
Come on, Richie.

Speaker 2 (01:49:21):
Oh yeah, yeah, mine, it's.

Speaker 9 (01:49:24):
A really good idea.

Speaker 2 (01:49:24):
A friend of mine, Simon, did that, and he didn't
He forgot his name was on the thing. He keeps
just running old on going yeah, see who I am?

Speaker 15 (01:49:31):
Yeah, Hey, But I did a bit of research because yes,
they've got all the world majors, but there's also some
really quirky ones. And I noticed that in January. So
it's all sold out now too late for this coming January.

Speaker 2 (01:49:42):
But there's the.

Speaker 15 (01:49:42):
Walt Disney World Marathon in Florida. Now, Disney World is
so big it could fit into the city of San Francisco,
that is how big Disney World is. So you run
through all four parks, they've actually got five k events
and family events, and then they've got what they call
the Dopey Challenge at forty eight miles, So that sounds
like a really good time to be in Florida and

(01:50:03):
also won't be as hot January and Florida the Great
Wall of China Marathon in May.

Speaker 6 (01:50:10):
Now I have.

Speaker 15 (01:50:11):
Walked a little segment of the Great Wall and they
are steep, so.

Speaker 2 (01:50:16):
Heavy and incredibly uneven.

Speaker 15 (01:50:18):
It would be a lot of lunging, yeah, yeah, yes,
and a lot of shuffling because there's a lot of people.
A friend of mine's run it and she said, you
really just you know, you didn't get your stride on.
You just sort of shuffled along with a lot of
people for a long time. But I mean, how amazing,
how iconic. That's pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (01:50:34):
A absolutely. I'm looked at doing a trail run through
Africa at one point, and the reason that I did
that was because my partner, who was very good at
supporting me on trail events and things one hundred kilometer
walks and stuff like that, he said to me, I
found this amazing, this amazing event. You just run through
the wild and there's quite a few whild animals, you know,
if you look after. But I get to go and

(01:50:56):
do a safari and then they do lovely lunches for
the supporters and things like that, and I was like, okay,
so you're going to be having lunches and drinking champagne.
I'm going to be running through the wild potentially getting
eaten by something when you're relaxing and having good time. Anyway,
that's the way these things go, isn't it. Twelve to twelve.

Speaker 1 (01:51:15):
Books with winkles for the Best Election of Great Reads.

Speaker 2 (01:51:20):
Joe McKenzie joins me now to talk books. Good morning,
Good morning. I am so excited. I just love Nile Williams.

Speaker 22 (01:51:27):
I'm so glad to find another adoring fan.

Speaker 2 (01:51:30):
Oh the way he writes it's just beautiful.

Speaker 22 (01:51:33):
Yes, it is so anybody listening who values and loves
really fine writing should immediately go out and get a
copy of Time of the Child by Nile Williams. It's
set in a small Irish village and it's centered around
the local doctor, a man called doctor Jack Troy, who
lives with his unmarried daughter Ronnie, and they've got a

(01:51:53):
fairly pedestrian, quiet life. Because he's the village doctor, he's
kind of set apart from the rest of the community
and everybody respects him, but nobody interferes with his life.
And one day a young boy comes across a baby
who's been abandoned and thinks that the right thing to
do is to give it to the doctor, who will
then make the appropriate decisions about what should happen. But

(01:52:15):
when this baby is given to the doctor and his daughter,
they simply cannot bear to give it up. It is
beautifully done. It's one of those books where I almost
had to read every sentence twice because he has an
extraordinary gift for words and for atmosphere and for putting
things together. And it's impossible for me actually to say

(01:52:38):
how good this book is.

Speaker 2 (01:52:39):
My mother put me on too him. But the problem was,
and my mother is an avid reader and has an
awful lot of books, but she has a very small
pile of do not lend because they are so special
to her. I understand that that she just doesn't want
to risk never getting it back. And Niles's books are
all in that pile.

Speaker 22 (01:52:54):
Yeah, I don't think he's nearly as widely known as
he deserves to be. This book I describe it as
being sublime.

Speaker 2 (01:53:01):
It really is. Okay, well, that's mum's birthday sort it
bring in to that she's not listening very es. Oh no,
I'll tell her because she'll go out and try and
grab it. The Voice Inside by John Farman. We've been
hearing a little bit about this memoir that he has
written and some of the fascinating stories that he has
to share.

Speaker 22 (01:53:19):
Yeah, fascinating. He was born in England and emigrated to
Australia at the age of nine with his family. He
as a teenager became an apprentice plumber, but he was
very interested in music, and as he got more and
more gigs, he decided that he'd give full time music
a go. And I was particularly charmed by the bit
in the book where he had to attend a hearing

(01:53:40):
in front of the Victorian Apprentice Commission to see whether
or not he could be released from his apprenticeship. But
clearly he was because he went on to have a
terrific career. He had a manager called Daryl who was
based in Adelaide and knew South Australia very well. So
the first part of John Farnham's career was very much
traveling hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kilometers around South Australia.

(01:54:03):
What he didn't realize for quite some time, because he
was a very naive, sweet young man, was that Daryl
had been drugging him for years, putting amphetamines in his
drinks at night to keep him up singing all night,
and then giving him sleeping stuff in the morning so
that he could knock him out for the rest of
the day. And it took him a long time to
work out that that was happening, but also that Daryl
was ripping him off right left in center. He became famous,

(01:54:27):
and some listeners may recall this for the song Sadie
the Cleaning Lady, which his record company essentially forced him
to record against his better judgment.

Speaker 2 (01:54:36):
I didn't realize he had this. I just think of
him as sort of the rock pop star.

Speaker 5 (01:54:40):
No.

Speaker 22 (01:54:40):
I had no idea he had this early career. He
did almost sort of manufactured early career. And he's probably
most well known in Australia and possibly here for the
album he made called Whispering Jack, which is still the
biggest selling record ever made by an Australian and the
third biggest selling record ever overall in Australia. So an

(01:55:01):
extraordinary career. Some listeners may remember that last year when
there was a refereence being held in Australia called The Voice.
He gave his song The Voice to be the anthem
of the referendum, and so it was widely played and
he had quite a big comeback. He had a tough
career because there was a point where his record company

(01:55:21):
just turned their backs on him and he was left
defend for himself and wasn't sure he'd ever make it back.
And then in twenty twenty two he was diagnosed with
oral cancer and had a very rough time. So this
is triumph over adversity. I will say it is not
one of those rock and roll sex and drug books.
He met his wife. I think he was twenty three,
she was nineteen. They've been together ever since and I

(01:55:42):
said he was a very sweet, naive young man at
the beginning. I think he's still a very sweet man.

Speaker 2 (01:55:47):
And now it's a two very different books for you today.
Time of the Child by Nile Williams and also The
Voice Inside by John Farnham. Thanks Joan, see you next week.

Speaker 4 (01:55:56):
Heep, it's simple, It's Sunday. It's the Sunday Session.

Speaker 1 (01:55:59):
With Francesca Rudcater and Whitggles for the best selection of
great readings, news talk, ZEDV.

Speaker 2 (01:56:06):
Mary text me to say, Francesca refast five dance routines.
It's a tradition. Each team develops their own dance, including
the men and umpires. One team performs the dance before
each match. I got Mary's text, looked at the TV
screens and there's another team going for it. It's likely
just TikTok. Ready, this looks like a really fun tournament.
I suppose that's what they're trying to do, make it

(01:56:26):
really entertaining and appealing. Just letting you know. A local
state of emergency has ended in Southernwestland on the West coast.
Of course, widespread downpours forced people to leave their homes,
caused slips and brought down trees yesterday, so it's good
to hear that's moving on. Thank you for being with us.
All Black Zuises France next Sunday, followed by All Black

(01:56:47):
Serises Italy the week after. So we're going to be
back on December the first. We shall miss you and
look forward to being back. Then enjoy the rest of
your day. Take care.

Speaker 1 (01:56:57):
Confusio for more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin
listen live to News Talks at B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio

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