Full Show Podcast: 12 April 2026

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.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
It's Sunday. You know what that means.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin and Wickles for
the best election of Great Reads Us Talks EDB.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Good morning and welcome to the Sunday Session. I'm Franchisca
Budkin with you until midday. Good to have you with us.
Hope you survived the short week and the weather. Shortly,
we're going to talk to met Service to find out
how the cyclone is expected to track throughout the day,
and we'll be keeping you up to date with warnings
and information throughout the morning. Coming up on the show today,
David Lomas from the incredibly popular three show Breakthrough joins me.

(00:52):
The show has had various titles over the last eighteen years,
but essentially, David and his team reunite New Zealanders with
their lost loved ones. We talk about the importance of
finding a lost loved one, what keeps people apart, and
just how easy is it to find someone these days.
So David Lomas is with me after ten and after eleven,

(01:13):
I'm delighted that Ala based New Zealand singer songwriter Greg
Johnson joins me to talk about turning sixty, his New
Zealand tour, and his new album Some Night Somewhere, which
is out in October. And of course, as always, you're
most welcome to text me on ninety two ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Two the Sunday Session.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
Watching Artemis two return to Earth's atmosphere yesterday, it occurred
to me that watching a space mission is a bit
like watching the Olympics. Stay with me. You discover a
new event, learn a whole lot of new words, and
almost immediately think you know what you're talking about, But
really you're a novice and you have no idea of
the complexity involved in what you're watching. But regardless of

(01:56):
how much you understand about the engineering, physics and tech
behind what has just taken place over the last ten days,
it's been easy to be awed by this historic mission,
which sent Hugh Means further into space than ever before.
The photos and the descriptions of the Earth and Moon
from the four astronauts aboard Artemis two have drawn us in.

(02:16):
But for all the poetic touches and the strategic messaging
about this being a mission to unite humanity, it's what
comes next that has rarely captured my attention. With the
success of both Artemis one and two, the vision of
building a base on the Moon has become that much
more realistic. Not since nineteen seventeen Apollo thirteen have humans

(02:40):
ventured this far from Earth, and that's a pause longer
than my lifetime. After the Apollo era, of course, NASA's
priorities shifted to programs such as the Space shush All
and International Space Station, which were focused on the low
Earth orbit. But the focus now is on testing and
advancing new exploration systems that will allow humans to live

(03:03):
in space. Imagine it the Atomist program, scientists have learned
valuable lessons about deep space radiation and orient spacecraft and
the life support and propulsion systems, and the re entry
heat protection. The benefits of the Artemis term mission extend
beyond NASA as well. Private companies such as SpaceX and
other aerospace contractors gain opportunities to develop new technologies and

(03:27):
expand the commercial space industry. Governments and international partners also
benefit by strengthening diplomatic relations and shared science. Over the years,
has been a lot of discussion about whether humans should
return to the Moon at what cost and for what purpose.
But this mission has reignited something in many of us.
There is something captivating about pushing the boundaries of what

(03:50):
is possible, of laying the groundwork for future discoveries that
could benefit life on Earth and expand our presence into space.
I may not understand the physics required to make all
this happen, and I have no idea how far things
will get in my lifetime, but the knowledge were on
our way is inspiring.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
The Sunday session.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
It's not curious to know whether the Artemis too has
brought you back to being fascinated to buy space, and
for me, it really is about what comes next. They
are thinking there's an Artemis mission next year, and then
in twenty twenty eight they are looking to start building
a base on the Moon. Can you imagine that? Personally?

(04:31):
I wouldn't want to go and live on the Moon.
I like trees too much, but I would be quite
keen to go into low Earth orbit at some point.
But I'm just going to be fascinated. I think in
my lifetime, fingers crossed, we are going to see humans
living on the Moon, and I just find that absolutely fascinating.
But the good news is, as I've said, i am
not an expert, even though I've sort of felt like

(04:54):
I've picked up a lot of new vocab that makes
me sound like I knowd I'm talking about that. I'm
absolutely delighted because we have an expert with us, doctor
Morgan Cable, and she is going to explain more about
what is to come next in this journey for humans
to inhabit space. And you're most welcome to text ninety
two ninety two. It is eleven past.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Nine, Sunday with Style the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin
and Winkles for the best selection of Greg reads news talks.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
It is at fourteen past nine. It's the dawn of
a new era in space exploration. Early yesterday afternoon, Artemis
Who completed its ten day mission around the Dark side
of the Moon. Goby flash down waiting on VLDR.

Speaker 4 (05:39):
Splashdown confirmed at seven oh seven pm Central time five
oh seven pm Pacific time. From the pages of Jules
Verne to a modern day mission to the Moon, a
new chapter of the Exploration of our celestial neighbor is complete.
Integrity's astronauts back on Earth.

Speaker 3 (05:56):
Humans have now traveled further into space than ever before.
So what is the significance of this mission, what have
we learned, and what does it mean for the future
of space exploration. Dr Morgan Cable is a senior lecturer
at Victoria University. She's also a senior scientist at the
Planetary Science Institute and a former NASA scientist, and she
joins me, Now, good morning.

Speaker 5 (06:16):
More Bana.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
How are you very good? Thank you, thank you so
much for being with us now. As someone who works
so closely in this industry, what's the feeling like when
you see the astronauts safely land on Earth.

Speaker 5 (06:30):
Oh? Well, I think a lot of the things I
was feeling were echoed by pretty much everyone else on
Earth who was watching. Just supreme relief, joy and just
such a I mean, I let out a breast that
I didn't realize I was holding when I saw those
first dragshoots deploy and then the larger parachutes. And I

(06:52):
mean the two sort of most scary parts of any
crude planetary mission are launch and re entry and landing,
and so to just be able to see them emerge
from that capsule waving and smiling and happy and healthy
is such a joyous feeling.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
I did out quite a brief when I saw the
separation of the crew and the service modules. It just
sort of sort of just happened on screen. That gave
me a bit of a fright.

Speaker 5 (07:18):
Yeah, that as well. I mean, any of those kind
of major operations where there's no going back once that happened,
and you're just like, well, all right, we're committed, hoping
for the best, and trusting in the engineering and the
designs and everyone who was supporting that mission. Back here on.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
Earth as a novice, as somebody who's not an expert
in this, it looked like it all went well, though, Morgan.

Speaker 5 (07:43):
It absolutely did. I mean couldn't have gone better. If
you look at some of the envelopes for where we
expected the performance of you know, the Orion crew vehicle
to be, it was all within just pretty much dead
on the bullseye, as it were, and we're just so
pleased that things went so well. Of course, there were
a few bumps along the way, the toilet being one

(08:05):
of them, but those are problems that you really can't
fully understand until you go and test the system, which
is what the whole point of Artemis two.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
Wasky so explain to us what the significance of this
mission is.

Speaker 5 (08:19):
There were a couple of things. The first and foremost
was essentially just kicking the tires of the entire Orion spacecraft,
seeing how it interacted with the crew, and how the
crew were able to manipulate and move that spacecraft around,
see how it behaved in the space environment. So that
was the first and foremost the primary aspect of Artemis two.

(08:39):
But they were also able to do quite a bit
of science on the way as well, a lot of
that involving how the crew, how humans and our bodies
interact and are affected by deep space. So deep space
is what we call anything that's sort of outside of
the Earth's orbits, where we're sort of partly still protected
in some respects from certain things like radiation environments and

(09:03):
other things that are present as you get further and
further away from our planet, and so being able to
understand how that can affect the crew, even on this
shorter ten day mission, can really be helpful for understanding
what it means to have a long term human presence,
either on the Moon or on the way to Mars.
Or on Mars itself.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
What else have we learned from the mission.

Speaker 5 (09:25):
Let's see, Well, we did see a really incredible eclipse,
which was awesome. Being able to have that visibility of
the far side of the Moon not only with human eyes,
but they took some incredible imagery is really important. And
I believe I heard they did catch a couple of
impacts that occurred during that time. Those kinds of scientific

(09:49):
aspects are important as well. But the crew, in addition
to just being able to study them and understand their physiology,
I mean changes, they were able to conduct a lot
of sort of biomarker immunity studies where the crew would say,
put a piece of essentially just filter paper in their

(10:10):
mouths on occasion, let that saliva sink in, which contains
a lot of sort of immune biomarkers, hormones and things
like that, and then those when they're returned now can
be analyzed to sort of understand any physiological or immunological
changes that are happening during that time and space.

Speaker 3 (10:27):
Yeah, it's going to be really interesting, isn't that. I
understand that the astronauts have headed to Houston for their
medical checks. What would you expect to see when it
comes to impacts on the human body after being in
space for ten days.

Speaker 5 (10:44):
Well, ten days is not an incredibly long amount of
time compared to a lot of the stance that astronauts
have spent on the International Space Station, for example, But
there are different radiation effects of being further away from Earth.
There are things like a galactic cosmic rays that we're
not as shielded from as we get closer and closer

(11:04):
to the Moon or are pushing towards that permanent human
presence on the Moon. And while there are some sort
of effects that we can predict potentially things that might
you might expect, say the potential risks of cancers and
things like that, but there are certain other effects that
I think we're still trying to understand, and so being

(11:25):
able to study and understand that impact on the crew
firsthand is really going to help us. We have lots
of models and things that we can plug that data
into to understand more broadly and to extend those timelines
out and understand for a long term what that could
potentially mean for astronauts help on some of these longer
missions that are planned well then for.

Speaker 3 (11:45):
Someone like yourself and other scientists working in this field.
What does it mean to see this mission succeed after
such a long gap in terms of this kind of exploration.

Speaker 5 (11:56):
It's just been so inspirational and moving, and it's really
been just a triumph of engineering, of the human spirit,
and of collaboration and coming together. This was not just
an ass emission. This was a strong collaboration with the
Canadian Space Agency and with the other partners, and we're

(12:17):
looking I think the future of space involves this global collaboration,
not just with different governments but our commercial partners as well.
And so to see this first step taken and perform
so beautifully, I think really sets the stage trust to
continue to build on this success in the future.

Speaker 3 (12:36):
And that's what's grabbed me. The future and where this goes.
What is the ultimate goal here?

Speaker 5 (12:42):
The ultimate goal is establishing a permanent human presence, first
on the Moon and then ultimately further out. I mean,
as Neil deGrasse Tyson, the famous after physicist, likes to say,
anytime a meteor comes screaming by the ears, that's the
universe's way of saying, you know, hey, hey, humans, how
is that space program coming along? You know, at some
point we are at risk, just like the dinosaurs word

(13:05):
about six five million years ago, of some sort of
global event happening. And if we can establish ourselves as
more than just a one planet civilization, I think that'll
be a really critical moment in history for us. That
will ensure the human race can move forward together.

Speaker 3 (13:24):
Wellgan, what is the timeline? I mean I sort of
heard the NESSA administration you say, say, you know there's
another mission next to you. Twenty twenty eight, we're going
to start building this base on the Moon.

Speaker 5 (13:33):
Yeah, So the plan is this one's Artemis two. Artemist
three is going to happen I think about mid twenty
twenty seven, and that one is going to be important,
although it won't involve a lunar landing. This one is
going to be testing the interface between the Orion Crude
spacecraft and a lunar lander. We currently have a couple
of lunar landers being developed by SpaceX and by Blue Origin,

(13:55):
and so it may test docking either with one or both.
That's still to be determined. But that's next year. And
then after that, Artemis four is going to be the
first lunar landing of the Artemis program. Sometime planning I
think for early twenty twenty eight, and they're going to
be planning to land on the south pole of the
Moon and that will be the first step of what

(14:19):
they're calling Phase one to build, test and learn. After
that we'll be establishing some of the early infrastructure in
Phase two and then ultimately leading to a long duration
human presence in phase three. That's the current plan.

Speaker 3 (14:33):
What is the complication about landing on the Moon, Well.

Speaker 5 (14:38):
There are a few things. First of all, the Moon
has no atmosphere, which means you can't use parachutes to land, right,
There's nothing to provide any drag, so really your only
options are thrusters, and you know, as we've seen with
some of our attempts to land commercial lunar payloads, that
can be tricky and so there are some challenges associated

(14:59):
with that. The other things are just where to land
and what to do once you land. Because the Moon
is tidally locked with Earth, that's why we only see
the near side of the Moon. We never get to
see the far side here from Earth. What that means
is that on the Moon a day lasts about a month,
which means if you wanted to use solar panels. If

(15:21):
you were somewhere on the equator, your solar panels would
only work for about fourteen days, and then they would.

Speaker 6 (15:26):
Be dark for fourteen days, Okay.

Speaker 5 (15:28):
And that's why we're targeting landing on the poles because
then you can have more access to sunlight for a
lot longer. So there are a lot of challenges that's
just associated with how to have that power deal with
that either extreme bright light and heat from the sun
when you're facing it, or the extreme cold when you're not.
So there are quite a few things that the Artemis
astronauts are going to have to face, but I'm sure

(15:49):
that they'll be able to tackle those challenges.

Speaker 3 (15:51):
So, Morgan, you tooked us through those phases there. If
we look at it in terms of years, are we
talking about ten, twenty years, thirty years until we see
humans living on the Moon, do you think?

Speaker 5 (16:02):
You know, I'm very confident that we will have human
back on the Moon soon along the lines of about
that twenty twenty timeline that the administration is baselining. But
it is going to take sustained investment and support to
be able to have that human presence, and I think
that's more than just a NASA endeavor that's going to

(16:22):
involve a lot of support from the international community and
from the commercial side as well. So I hope it
happens soon, but you know, I think time will tell.
This is certainly as they said, the first chapter, and
I'm really excited to see where it will lead. And
just one thing that Christina Cook said just recently in

(16:45):
their interview now that they're back safely at Houston, she
talks about what it means to be a crew and
when they were up in space looking down at Earth,
it struck her that planet Earth is a crew. That
we're all in this together, and I think the more
that we can achieve together as an international community is
really going to make that to seeing human presence on

(17:07):
the Moon possible.

Speaker 3 (17:09):
Dr Morgan Cable, thank you so much for your time
for Sunday session. Right to cyclone of IONY. Now let's
get an update on where it's in what speaks throughout
the rest of the day. Mitservice meteorologist John law is
with me. Thank you so much for your time. John,
Good morning, good in the morning.

Speaker 6 (17:27):
Thank you so much for having me. Plenty happening across
thirty the North Island.

Speaker 3 (17:30):
This morning okay, so what have we seen overnight?

Speaker 6 (17:34):
So overnight we've seen those winds that really ramping up there,
gus around one hundred and thirty come ons an hour
out towards Mokhino Island out on the Auckland Golf there
and places like Channelanders or a similar kind of values.
Now the center of Cyclone VIU is still not quite
with us. It's just to the east of Great Barrier Island,
mate around aboute hundred and ten colters to the east

(17:55):
and it's still sinking at southward. So we're still seeing
our winds picking up over the next few hours or so.

Speaker 3 (18:00):
So what other areas have been impacted so far around
the North Island.

Speaker 6 (18:05):
So the area's most impact so far the Coralmandal, the
Bear of plenty, both in terms of heavy rainfall and
those stronger winds parts of Northland as well. Huge amounts
of rainfall there through the nighttime today. Another ninety one
hundred millimeters of rainfall over the last twenty four hours.
So we've seen that that wet weather coming through. It's
pretty wet as well down here and w went in
the rain now sliding down towards the top of the

(18:26):
South Island, places like Nelson Marlborough really picking up a
fair bit of wet weather and we've got more of
that rain slow to clear away from those regions too.

Speaker 3 (18:35):
So is the cyclone tracking how we expected.

Speaker 6 (18:39):
It's still very much on that same path. It's running
down that eastern coast of the Coramandal and it's set
to move on shore as we head through towards the
afternoon around the likes of the Bear of Plenty. Now
it's worth saying, as we've already seen, the impacts from
this system are far beyond that central area of low pressure.
But what the central area of low pressure does represent

(19:00):
is a focal point for the winds to change direction.
So on the eastward flank of that they're coming in
from the and that drive in those large seas and
those strong winds in towards play the Bear Plenty of
those northeasters. But on the western flank of that low
pressure looking at windsy and natural west or southwest, which
is what we're going to find places like Auckland and
Northland as we head through the next few hours. It's

(19:22):
currently not too bad in Auckland's winds proprotively light, but
as those southwesterly winds return and pick up. That's when
I think we're going to find those winds increasing through
Auckland this afternoon.

Speaker 3 (19:32):
Okay, so just give us a little bit of a
brief of what we can expeact for the rest of
the day. Across the North Island to the.

Speaker 6 (19:39):
North side, it's set to stay windy, cloudy, and where
the strongest winds across those northern parts of the country,
from say the Command or round the Bear plenty and
acrossing towards the coastal parts of Tidrafti down towards Marchia
and Hawk's Bay as well. Now it's the system that
palls away. It will take weather, the wet weather. So
we'll start to find some clearance across the lights of
Northland as we head through the afternoon. But it is

(20:01):
still going to be a pretty windy story for the
likes of Auckland at least through to this evening. The
chance of some gusts are still around abo one hundred
and twenty kilometers an hour. We've got those warners as
well that pushed down towards the top of the south Ie,
that rainfall teching. It's time to clear away from the
likes of Marlborough and White Rappa on the other side
of the Cook Straight and then of course headn't right

(20:21):
away across the water towards the chatterm Islands. Win's here
picking up as we head it through the evening, strong wind.
Watches for you as we head through towards Monday.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
John Law, thank you very much for your time, very
much appreciate it. It is twenty nine past nine.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin on News Dog ZTB.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
It is time to talk politics and I'm joined by
news Dog ZIB political reporter Azaria how Good morning, Azaria,
good morning, good to be with you. Right, we have
a former National Party candidate, James Christmas, who is was
sort of tipped to be a potential minister. He is
now going to contest this year's election as a candidate
for the Eight Party.

Speaker 7 (21:03):
What's going on here, Yeah, so candidates have been selected,
there are some new pecks to discuss really from both
National and ACT and some sort of surprises I suppose.
So first off, National's former prospect for Attorney General has
switched his ties to ACT. It's been confirmed Former National
candidate James Christmas aiming to run for ACT in Ptarmiche,

(21:26):
which you'll know is ACT m P Brooke van Velden's seat.
It's the only seat that ACT holds alongside their long
held EPSOM seat. It's been held by David Seymour for
quite some time. So Christmas was a barrister who worked
for some really high profile National Party people John Key,
Crispin Lesson, some very strong National Party people and ACT

(21:51):
leader David Seymour says he's someone that, as he says,
has a lot of sympathy for National let's how Seymour
described it, but says he feels the country and himself
both need a bit more edge. Meanwhile, National has quite
a big name in the West Coast has Men seat.
Their candidate for that seat has been announced as former
Federated Farmers President Katie Mill, the first woman to be

(22:14):
president of Federated Farmers and she was in that role
from twenty seventeen to twenty twenty. It's also worth noting
as well ACT MP Andrew Hoggard he held leadership roles
with the FEDS for quite some time nine years. He's
now Minister for Biosecurity and Food Safety as well as
Associate Agriculture Minister, so quite a good title to have

(22:36):
when you're sort of in the running in politics. Katie
Meln said she's a lifelong advocate for farmers, supports the
government's moves to cut red tape, and also describes herself
as a fifth generation West Coaster. Quite high profile, so
we'll see how that goes as well.

Speaker 3 (22:52):
Azariah, just going back to James Christmas, is there some
thought that you know, I mean, there's some leadership change
about to happen within the ACT Party. Do you think
that he's in line for that potentially Deputy Leader of ACT. Yeah.

Speaker 7 (23:04):
David Seymour said, look, let's not rule in anything out.
I mean he would say though obviously will have to
see how that actually goes in terms of him getting elected.
But it's definitely somebody who is quite high profile. I mean,
was tipped to be a very successful MP for National
didn't make it through, but was very close and has

(23:24):
quite a lot of experience not just in politics but
in law as well. And while we're on the topic
of candidates, I mean this election, this election racer is
really heating up. We'll also touch on New Zealand first,
I mean Winston Peters has been planning a public meeting
in Hastings today which has been postponed due to the weather.
So was the Green State of the Nation, or as

(23:46):
they call it, the State of the Planet, that was
meant to be today as well, So we'll keep an
eye on when those are planned to be as well.
There's quite a lot going on in the candidate space
the act Party deputy role as well. Definitely heating up.
Will be interesting to see if it is that newcomer
or if it is someone who's already been an MP
for quite some time, maybe someone who's a minister, maybe

(24:07):
the likes of Karen Chaw or something Nicole McKee, maybe
now Azariah.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
I have a funny feeling that May twenty eighth could
be a bit grim. I feel like the Finance Minister
is kind of preparing us a little bit for Budget Day.
She said that the government has had to prioritize things
in the budget after funding fuel support.

Speaker 7 (24:29):
Yeah, Nikola willis really setting expectations for the budget, making
it clear what we're expecting to see on that. Nikola
Willis has said to news talker Zedb she's had to
get the ruler out go line by line and say well,
in the light of the fuel crisis, is this a
priority now? This comes as the government has supported that

(24:50):
in work tax credit in relation to some families had
hardest by the fuel prices. So that is quite significant
in terms of We'll have to wait, obviously to get
more details until the budget is actually unveiled, but it
is very significant that the Finance Minister is omitting there
has been quite a bit of perhaps trimming going on

(25:12):
in the budget in terms of response to these high
patrol prices. She also admits that it might not be
flattering for the government's books. She also gave a bit
of an election message too, and this kind of goes
back to what we were talking before. She said National
is more fiscally responsible than New Zealand first, but also,

(25:32):
as she says, more compassionate than Act will ever be,
so really competing for those votes, but also really trying
to set a line in terms of what this budget
might be like. They've already sort of said it will
be something to the line of responsible spending, cutting inflation,
things like that. It seems like that might even more

(25:53):
be the case with what we're seeing with petrol.

Speaker 3 (25:56):
Azariah. How as always, thank you so much of your
time this morning. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and
don't forget the David Lomas from the incredibly popular three
show Breakthrough reunites New Zealanders with their loved ones, is
with me after ten this morning?

Speaker 1 (26:10):
It's twenty two to ten, So the Sunday Session Full
Show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by News Talks AB.

Speaker 8 (26:18):
Right.

Speaker 3 (26:19):
While all the eyes were on the supercars in Topaul
this weekend, christ Church is busy preparing for the competition
South Island debut with the ITM christ Church Super four
forty starting on Friday. The double header is the first
time back to back legs of the Supercars Championship will
be held in New Zealand. The Canterbury Car Club has
been instrumental in securing the christ Church leg and general

(26:40):
manager Mark Wederall joins me.

Speaker 8 (26:42):
Now, good morning, Mark, good morning.

Speaker 3 (26:45):
Tell me how significant is this double header for car
racing in New Zealand.

Speaker 8 (26:50):
It's the biggest thing I think that's probably ever happened.

Speaker 9 (26:53):
It's absolutely massive, and especially for such a big fan
base in New Zealand that love supercars, it's going to
be awesome.

Speaker 3 (27:00):
And so then, how big is this for the South
and christ Church.

Speaker 8 (27:05):
It's massive.

Speaker 9 (27:06):
I'm going to it's probably going to be one of
the bigger events that come to Crostchach. Obviously we have
a couple of you know, big concerts in that, but
as far as this sort of motorsport thing, it'll be
the biggest that we've ever had a Riboona.

Speaker 3 (27:18):
It's been a long recovery for christ Church, but the
city is really emerging as a destination for big events,
isn't it.

Speaker 8 (27:26):
Yeah, super exciting. It's all just sort of you know,
opening up now.

Speaker 9 (27:32):
You know, we've got the stadium opening and events like this.
We really have become an event center and it's just
super exciting for the region.

Speaker 3 (27:40):
It's all go, how long have you been trying to
make this happen.

Speaker 9 (27:45):
I've been in the role for thirteen years and it's
always been a dream. I have seen communications going back
to two thousand and one when one of our presidents
reached out the supercars back then and then nothing happened.

Speaker 8 (27:57):
And then yeah, a couple of years ago we reached out.

Speaker 9 (27:59):
Again and again radio silence for a weave it and
then christ Church since then got hold of us probably
a year and a half two years ago and then
we sort of started to realize that maybe it was
a bit more real, and then Supercars came and had
a visit and they like what they've seen, and then
it became absolutely real.

Speaker 3 (28:18):
So Mark, what went into securing this event for christ Church?

Speaker 9 (28:25):
For us obviously a lot of support from from christ
teuchs and local government to you know financially to get
supercars here. But for us, I think location is definitely
the key. You know, we've got a good accommodation, we've
got an airport, we've got a port. And then for us,

(28:45):
we are a club circuit, so you know we're not
we're not big and flash, so our facilities are you know,
a little old, little tied. So we just had to
work through Supercars what was important for year one. And
you know, we've probably spent close to a million dollars
this year just upgrading some of the safety things, tirewills,
gravel traps, things like that, and so we've you know,

(29:08):
we've made our target and goals for year one, so
we're pretty wrapped.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
Would this be the biggest event? Howld it?

Speaker 9 (29:13):
Roy Poona, Oh, absolutely am. Our biggest event at the
moment is the scope classical. We have that every year
and we probably attract seven to eight thousand people across
the weekend. Supercar is looking to get twenty thousand plus
a day. So yeah, yeah, awesome.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
So then Mark, going from a dream to being less
than a week out from the event, how are you feeling,
how's everything shaping up?

Speaker 9 (29:39):
I'm just trying to starting now to slow down and
then take it all in because it is it's been
absolutely hectic. Even Friday we were still digging some earth
to put in another gravel trap and stuff. So I'm
hoping this week I can sort of just maybe just
take away, step back there and start to enjoy the
enjoy the event. Obviously Supercars have a lot of contractors

(30:01):
on site putting in you know, grand stands, mark for
hospitality and all of that. So the are the ones
that are really busy there, and we'll just hopefully just yes,
step back a little and enjoy it.

Speaker 3 (30:13):
And look how important a volunteer is important do something
like this for you?

Speaker 8 (30:18):
Yeah, for our club the most important.

Speaker 9 (30:22):
So we have a small team of staff and we're
grateful that we do get paid to do what we do.
There's about eight of us, but we have a team
of one hundred volunteers that help us run our events,
and most of them are turning up to help with supercars,
and then obviously supercars.

Speaker 8 (30:39):
Have a lot more roles.

Speaker 9 (30:40):
You know, they think they use volunteers for parking and
you know, greendstand seating and that. But yeah, our team
of one hundred is certainly excited to be there, and
without them we wouldn't be able to run the events
we run.

Speaker 3 (30:53):
So what can people expect if they've never been to
a supercar championship.

Speaker 9 (31:00):
I think with a supercar championship it's just a lot
more excitement around around the place. So you're going to
see some amazing racing. One of the features of roup owners.
Obviously you can see the whole track from just about
where if you sit, but you know, if you're lucky
enough to have a pit pass, you know you're able
to get over and get up close to the cars
and there's just always a lot of lot of excitement.

(31:21):
One of the support classes that are raising historic touring cars.
Most of those cars should be in museums. You know,
they're worth a whole lot of money, but these guys
and girls have got them out racing, so it's really
cool to see things like that.

Speaker 3 (31:33):
This deal for christ Church entip words for three years.
How vital is having that length of contract to really
be able to make a good cracket you know. This
becoming a permanent fixture in christ Church.

Speaker 8 (31:45):
Yeah, super important for us.

Speaker 9 (31:47):
It's giving us the confidence to tackle the biggest project
that we really need to do, and that's build new
pit lane garages.

Speaker 8 (31:56):
So that's progressing nicely.

Speaker 9 (31:58):
We're hoping that after Supercars leave this year, we're able
to move the old ones back to other parts of
the pits and start on that. We're confident that if
we can build those garages, then we're in a really
good position to have it longer than three years.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
Mark Witterll thank you so much for your timas wanting
to have a great weekend, have a good time, enjoy it.

Speaker 8 (32:19):
I promise I will thank you.

Speaker 3 (32:20):
Excellent jeeus. It is thirteen to teen neused to except.

Speaker 1 (32:23):
Big, the headlines and the hard questions. It's the mic
Hosking breakfast.

Speaker 10 (32:29):
To men's science into how if a purity plays out?
John Bolton, He's seen it all for the United States
Ambassadors to the United Nations of course, security advisor to
every Republican administration since Reagan, including Donald Trump. John Bolton
is with us.

Speaker 11 (32:41):
I don't think there's really much desperation on the Iranian side.
Their rather primitive view of the world is they win
if they survived. But I don't think they feel the pressure.
I think Trump's the one who feels the pressure. I
think he looks at oil price is going up and
equity markets going down, and he wants out. And I
think the Iranian senses that, and I think it leaves
Trump and the US therefore in a more vulnerable position.

Speaker 10 (33:03):
Back tomorrow at six am the Mic Hosking Breakfvist with
a Vida News Talk zedby Keep.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
It Simple, It's Sunday, the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin
and Wiggles for the best selection of great Reads, news
talk sedby.

Speaker 3 (33:22):
On the Table.

Speaker 1 (33:24):
As a mother of men.

Speaker 3 (33:30):
Love are your Mothers? Are you Gonna be? This his
new music from an artist called Triseca. I really like this.
I think this has got a very good Sunday vibe.
I think we should get her in for a chat
and maybe see if she'll sing us a song or something.
So jasiek It was originally born in South Africa now
lives in Artero At has toured with Olivia Dean, played

(33:52):
The Silver Scrolls last year and performed at south By Southwest. Yeah,
really liking this Let's get her in Hey Out. About
a week back, Fionda Samuel's came in to chat about
her new play. It's called Helen Clark in Six Outfits.
It's an Aukan Theater Company play. It's on now. We
spoke about how you take such a big life in
a career and you assimilate it into a play. But
what Fiona didn't say was how righteously funny this play is.

(34:14):
It is very sharply written. It really is quite hilarious,
and it's short, It's only an hour fifteen so this
was a very fun night out on Thursday night when
I went to check it out. Jennifer ward Leyland is
absolutely amazing in it, as as Lauren Gibson as the
younger Helen. The two sort of speak to each other.
No really good night out, and I thought Fiona did

(34:34):
it dis service. She did not tell us at how
funny her script was. And it's brilliantly acted as well.
So if you're looking for a night out, give it
a go. Thank you very much for your text. Morning Francesca.
I lived Artemis for ten awesome days. I saw a
man step on the moon, and now I have traveled
an Artemis and been in awe of the skill and
knowledge that allowed me to have this amazing, awesome experience.

(34:54):
Thank you for your text. An someone said they seemed
to take for ever to get the crew from the
capsule to the ship. Yes, it took a long time,
didn't I I too sat there for a while ago.
What is going on this? Could they not have used
a heavy lift? How they got to lifted out of
the water onto the deck? I have no idea, Peter,
but I was watching this and I too, and they

(35:16):
showed you they get that they had this inflatable, that
they had the sort of a flatable thing that they
put around integrity, around the crew capsule. And then they
have the front porch they called it, which was another
inflatable that they came and walked out on and they
sat there, and then they transported them to the ship
and things. And they told you how much work had

(35:37):
gone into preparing this, and they'd been planning for it,
and they'd been practicing. But actually all you watched for ages,
wasn't it, Peter, was just a little run about an
iob going run around the capsule and you thought these people,
I must be going, what are they doing? We've been
in space for ten days? Could you just speed this
up a little bit? Anyway, as I said, we're a

(35:59):
lot more complex than what we were seeing, Peter. So
when I said, franchise gives us is going to turn
into a scrap over moon minerals, and it most likely will,
along with all the other scientific benefits potentially to mankind,
I'm sure that that will also be an issue. Thank
you very much for your text. You're most welcome to
text ninety two ninety two. Also, if you want to

(36:20):
let us know what the weather is like where you are,
what the conditions are like, you're most welcome to text
through as well. It is seven to ten you with
News Talks AB.

Speaker 1 (36:31):
The Sunday Session Full show podcast on my Heart Radio
powered by News Talks AB.

Speaker 3 (36:39):
Right, the Masters has taken place and I am attempting
to keep an eye on it for you. Rory McElroy
had an incredible six shot lead overnight and everyone was going, oh, well,
that's that's going to ruin the masses. You know, we
like it to be much closer than that, and you
know it's not going to be much of a competition. However,
is now one shot off the place he is now?

(36:59):
And second, apparently he's been playing pretty well. It's just
that everybody else has been playing really well. So we'll
keep an eye on that for you throughout the more
as well. David Lomas is back on our screens this
week with his latest show that reunites New Zealanders with
lost loved ones. The show is called Breakthrough, and David
joins me to talk about just how easy it is

(37:19):
to find someone these days, or how hard it is
to find people in the digital world. We're going to
talk about also what keeps people apart?

Speaker 12 (37:28):
Why? Why?

Speaker 3 (37:29):
Why are they apart? Why aren't they connected? So David
Lomas is with me. Next right, Noah Can announced on
Friday he's heading to New Zealand in October as part
of his The Great Divide World tour. So here is
a little bit of Noah with the Great Divide. Factually every.

Speaker 13 (38:06):
Oh, you're scared all the old Mary that mans those
cancer on his skin, if not your soul? What he
about do its.

Speaker 2 (38:33):
Straphings? Did Jewish that I know.

Speaker 14 (38:40):
You think.

Speaker 2 (38:44):
The stot things.

Speaker 8 (38:47):
I wasn't breed enough to come.

Speaker 15 (38:53):
How the settle down, aw doll, Marry Rich, How you're
scared of all the ordinary mist that birds and cancer
on your scam.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
So welcome to the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin and
Wiggles for the best selection of great reads used talks.

Speaker 3 (39:32):
Good to have you with us on the Sunday Session
at is seven past ten. David Lomas has made a
career out of solving family mysteries and reuniting families. Initially
a crime journalist, David switched to his own model of
reality TV around eighteen years ago. After all these years
and many incarnations of his shows, David has proven if
there's someone to be found, he is the man for

(39:55):
the job. David is back with an all news series,
David Lomas' Breakthrough is coming to three this week and
David Lomas joins me. Now, good morning, Thank.

Speaker 16 (40:02):
You so much for coming in, Oh, thank you for
having me.

Speaker 3 (40:06):
Background is an investigative journalist and crime reporter. So have
you always sort of had a little bit of a
thirst for finding the answers?

Speaker 16 (40:16):
Well, that's journalism. Yeah, it's basically you want to find
the answers. And you know, when I was doing a
lot of general reporting, I stayed with crime reporting because
I love love the challenge of finding about out about people,
why did someone do a crime, what happened, and just
the nosiness, which is fantastic.

Speaker 3 (40:37):
And you were one of the and you were in
sort of the initial startup team for the Home Show
in the late eighties, as well as sixty Minutes you
worked on the six PM bulletins. I've got to ask,
of course, what was it like working with Paul Holmes.

Speaker 16 (40:51):
Paul was just amazing. I mean, you know, he's a
character and one of the things which when we started
homes we wanted them to go out and do things
in public, and so we sort of needed to create
a bit of a persona for him. And the first
person which I think was the first out in public

(41:13):
sort of with a celebrity type interview was with Kelly Evandon,
who was a top tennis player. So I said, well,
what we should do is get Paul out on the
tennis court and Kelly can serve. And Kelly told Kelly
don't hold back, just whack him, you know, and not
whack homes, just whack the ball down. So I've got
to pull in and carry Anne Evans, who was working

(41:35):
on the show at the time, she said, well, we'll
get them baggy white shorts and an old wooden tennis racket.
So he had Paul flopping around in his shorts and
Kelly just firing the ball down and Paul never got
within cooey of it.

Speaker 12 (41:49):
But he was just great.

Speaker 16 (41:51):
I mean, he's one of those amazing people.

Speaker 12 (41:52):
You know.

Speaker 16 (41:53):
You'd go out and we got him walking through a
crime scene one day and he was just really amazing,
just how respectful he was, but curious and you know,
as you know, he could talk to anyone and it
was just a really nice chat.

Speaker 3 (42:09):
Am I Right. There was he had been doing some
work in Gisbon. Then there was that you were flying
back on a chopper and there was the helicopter crash
out at sea. You were on the helicopter with Paul Holmes,
weren't you, Yes, yeah, yeah, And it was a tragic
accident that there was a loss of one life. Was
that a life changing moment for you?

Speaker 8 (42:28):
Oh?

Speaker 16 (42:29):
Absolutely, I mean I was I think thirty five or
something like that. I sort of you know, all of
a sudden thought, cracky, I'm going to get myself sorted
out a little bit.

Speaker 3 (42:40):
So how did you then move into this form of TV.

Speaker 16 (42:43):
Well, I was with TV and Z for twenty almost
twenty years and doing all sorts of things, and mainly
a lot of years doing current affairs, which is amazing.
We traveled the world all the time and just went
to amazing places. But and then I'd sort of done
stuff in the newsroom, run a few programs, and I
sort of I thought, I want to do something else now.

(43:06):
And then Julie Christie, who I'd worked with on the
Auckland Sun newspaper, she said to me, I've got a
new series which I'd like to try and do, which
was about taking young Maori back to the Maria who
had lost connection and trying to do that. And she said,
what do I think of that? And I just said, well,
I think it'll be magic for the first two or three,

(43:29):
but then it would start to feel a bit of
the same same. And so we talked about and we
decided we should just do Connecting Families, and I was
to come in and just do it for one series,
and I was only going to direct it. And we
got halfway through one one episode filming it, and then
we got this phone call one day from a woman saying,

(43:53):
I'm desperate to find the father of my daughter who's
dying in a hospital in Brisbane. So all of a
sudden we had this desperate chase to try and find
this guy. Was sort of life and death. And when
we stayed doing that, I went down to christ Church
to try and find this guy and we were and
I just said, film me because we had nothing else

(44:13):
to film, and so we rang.

Speaker 3 (44:15):
Up, I'll sacrifice myself, I'll put myself out there.

Speaker 16 (44:18):
Well, it was just to get the drama of it,
and we rang up this. We're trying to find a
chap Ted Paul, and we couldn't find him, but we
could find his phone son's phone number, and rang up
the sun and I said, I'm trying to get hold
of Ted and he said why and I said, well,
I have to tell him that before I can tell you.
And it was sort of drama and that that story.

(44:42):
We tracked head down to a little farmhouse way up
and they just in the bottom of the Southern Alps
and there so I said to the camera and jump
out in the paddock film through the window and we'll
just see what happened because we're going to tell which
guy he had a child, and it just became magic.
He says, nah, no way, no way, you know, and

(45:04):
we thought we'd lost the story. But the next day
he rang us and he said, right, I'll do the
test and he was just the most amazing man. Flew
the next day to Sydney to meet this girl, walked
into the hospital room and you know, it was just beautiful.

Speaker 3 (45:20):
But you've found that format, from that magical format, there.

Speaker 16 (45:25):
Was an accidental discovery sort of the accidental presenter in
a way.

Speaker 3 (45:31):
You've been doing this now for about seventeen eighteen years.
Do you know how many reunions you've had over that time?
Do you keep to count?

Speaker 16 (45:41):
Not specific count, but it's somewhere over in the three hundred.

Speaker 3 (45:46):
Era, which is remarkable, wasn't it.

Speaker 16 (45:48):
And that's the ones which we're filmed. We've done a
heck of a lot of put a lot of people
together who have approached us and one person doesn't want
to do it, or for story from a television perspective
doesn't quite.

Speaker 3 (46:02):
Stack up, but you've still gone through the process and
connect it and them together. Yes, what makes you so
good at it? I mean, you have been fondly referred
to by the media as the human location Beacon.

Speaker 16 (46:16):
I don't know, I just I mean, I honestly think
most people are decent and it's come through and when
you're doing this, you're dealing with decent people. My old
lady who was my partner but sadly died, she called
the two truths. You'd go to someone and they'd have
one story about what happened, and another person would have

(46:36):
the other. Like a family split up, the husband leaves,
he thinks he can't contact again because the new boyfriend's
moved in and he doesn't want to upset family life,
and so the daughter or a child gets lost in
that is.

Speaker 3 (46:52):
That generally what keeps people apart misunderstandings.

Speaker 16 (46:55):
A hell of a lot of misunderstandings, I mean, and
other things. I mean adoptions. Adoptions are a big one,
and again they're some of the toughest ones because if
it's a New Zealand adoption, often you'll find the birth
mother may never have told her current husband and children

(47:18):
about this child. And we've had some really really sad ones.
Where was one where I rang up a family down
christ Church and a child was trying to find his
birth parents and rang them up, and we discovered the
birth parents had gone on and got married and had

(47:40):
four more children, so four full siblings of the person
who approached us, and the parents said they wouldn't meet
because they hadn't told their children about it. Now, it's
a heck of a delicate situation those because but I
just said to the parents, well, you've made your choice
over the years. It's now your son's choice what he does,

(48:02):
and we will tell him who you are, what we've
found out, and it'll be his choice whether he approaches you.
And I don't know what happened because I didn't keep
in contact. But yeah, it's sad, I mean, force full
siblings and they say no, we don't want them to know.

Speaker 3 (48:19):
It's a heartbreaking one, David, that one. But this is
the thing. The situations you deal with can be very
delicate and very sensitive. Have you kind of I mean
you come across as a very respectful man, but have
you sort of learned how to talk to people in
these situations or there's a certain way to approach things.

Speaker 16 (48:42):
Well, I suppose I have, but I'm not sure. It's
sort of I mean, I'll go back way back to
my early journalism days. Would do you know if somebody
had died or something like that, you'd often go and
see the family and ask them to talk about it.
And it was just you just did it in a

(49:04):
kind way. I mean, you know it was a terrible
time for them, so you just you don't go charging
in and says tell us about them. You just ask
if they will talk. And most people are very happy
to talk because it's a big moment of grief or happiness,
depending on which sort of thing we're doing.

Speaker 3 (49:24):
Because I wonder whether you talk. You spoke before about misunderstandings,
and I wonder whether actually the two different people, the
two people on who you're trying to reconnect, I wonder
if they actually feel the same that they would really
like to reconnect but they don't know how to reach
out or to find somebody or do. You often find
that it's that's where you come in. You're kind of

(49:47):
like this mediator who's able to put people together.

Speaker 16 (49:51):
Well, there was this amazing story actually at work where
a lady who does Gail, who does a lot of
our research and are marvelous at you know, genealogy and
so now are quite a DNA expert. And she had
a brother in England who she had moved to New

(50:12):
Zealand when she was quite young, got married and moved here,
and she had lost contact with his brother and had
been sort of ostracized from her family a little bit
because he was gay. And Gail had come to New
Zealand and she had had an address for him and
then it had gone and now, what was it, thirty

(50:34):
or forty years later, she was trying to find him
and she does all the stuff for us, rings people
sometimes and all that, and she was too scared to
do it. So I tracked it down Trevor in England
and he was ecstatic, and of course Gail was, so
we took him there and it was a wonderful reunion.

Speaker 3 (50:53):
But a good example of, yeah, that people are just
a little bit fearful, you know, and people might not
know where to start. Is it hard to find people
these days? Well, people quite easy to track down.

Speaker 16 (51:07):
It's getting harder because as we get more and more
secret about our lives. I mean, once upon a time
we had phone books which you could just look up
and you'd basically find everyone in New Zealand. In New
Zealand used to have you could easily access who owned homes,
and since most people owned homes, you could find people.

(51:29):
Cell phones have just taken away to phone book altogether.
You know, someone in the government decided that you shouldn't
be able to find out who owns a house. I mean,
I mean you can do it, but it's a complicated
system now and the mobile world, not in the mobile
phone world, but the people moving things. Lots of New
Zealanders go to Australia and they just get lost over there.

(51:51):
They're not necessarily citizens, so you don't have that key
thing where you can check an electoral role, and if
they don't own a house, it's very hard to track
people down.

Speaker 3 (52:02):
Where do you start.

Speaker 16 (52:04):
One of the great things which we always say is
to go back backwards, to go forwards, or go sideways.
I mean, if you're looking for a New Zealand or
in Australia, well, hopefully someone else in the family knows
where they are, so you go back and look that way.
In Australia you can go and search electoral roles and
hopefully you find there. And social media obviously, but that's

(52:28):
you know, just about everyone's closing their Facebook pages now,
you know private. So there's lots of hard things and
there's a lot of little things you do and you
just hope they come to fruition.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
Why is it so important to find a close family member?
What kind of closure or healing have you seen it
give people?

Speaker 16 (52:48):
Ah, it's amazing what happens. I mean, like there's so
many stories. But I mean one story, a New Zealand
woman was trying to find her dad and he was
a Frenchman who had come had a very lovely relationship
with the mother that traveled through Australia, done lots of

(53:08):
things together. But the Frenchman was a wanderer and he
just wanted to carry on, so he moved to when
traveling went to South America and they lost contact and Charmaine,
many years later, came back trying to find her dad
and it was an incredible search. We found him in Ecuador,
living on a chicken farm and a little village way

(53:30):
out sort of a western the Amazon jungle, and turned
up there and found him and he was delighted to
meet and that has been one of the real enduring relationships.
I mean, he's now ninety two, still alive. He's come
to New Zealand to see her, always in contact and

(53:51):
it's just an amazing connection and it's just wonderful to
see David.

Speaker 3 (53:57):
I can't thank you enough for coming in today. It's
been lovey to chat. That was David Lomas. The new
show David Lomas Breakthrough starts this Tuesday on three and
three Now and don't forget. La based singer songwriter Greg
Johnson is with us after eleven to talk about turning sixteen.
He's going on tour again, which is very exciting. It
is thirty eight to eleven.

Speaker 2 (54:18):
Relax, it's still the weekend.

Speaker 1 (54:20):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudgin and Wiggles for
the best selection of great reads.

Speaker 2 (54:26):
US talks' be.

Speaker 3 (54:28):
School holidays are here and Wickles have some hot deals
available to help you keep the kids entertained and make
the most of the in law time during the bad
weather being predicted for many of us. Head on into
your local wit Call store or go to wit caols
dot co dot nz online where you'll find that book.
You'll find books for kids and young adults as well

(54:48):
as almost all toys can be bought on a buy one,
get one half priced. Basis Wickles also have a game
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hours of fun. And you'll also find lots of great
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(55:11):
There are some great items to brighten up the wettest
days with books, toys, puzzles, stationary, giftwear and their game
of the month. There really is something for everyone at Workles.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
The Sunday sessionne.

Speaker 3 (55:39):
How good is this? This is Katie Perry's raw, but
it has performed by the key week cast of and Juliette.
So for the news, I was talking about my night
out at the theater on Thursday night. That same night,
a bunch of the ZB crew and my producer, they
went to the opening night of the musical and Juliette.
The show has been a smash it overseas. It's written
by shitz Creek writer David west Read features the pop

(56:02):
the music of popmaster Max Martin. It's got music, great music,
everything from Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande and Bon Joe, v
And Andreliette is here for the first time with an
all q WE cast and they are sounding spectacular. And
the reports back from the ZB crew was that it
was a great night out, a lot of fun loved
the music and the show was very clever and funny.

(56:25):
So the show is in Auckland for a few more
weeks before heading off to Wellington and christ diaching. Look,
we all need a bit of entertainment at the moment
these days, don't we see might want to give it
a try. It is time to talk entertainment now, and
I'm joined by Chris Henry, director at eight one eight,
Good morning, Chris.

Speaker 12 (56:40):
Good morning. Franchesco was hearing the music. It was such
a good show.

Speaker 3 (56:44):
Oh, I know, I'm so sorry. I'd already I'm very good.
Like if I r SP or something and I've accepted
an invitation, I always stick with it. And then I
got your invite and I was but I was a
bit torn, but I shall make an effort to go
along and check it out. Hey, thank you, Prime Minister.
The documentary gets Emmy nods.

Speaker 12 (57:03):
Yeah, so this film was. It did over a million
dollars the local box office. It's now streaming on Netflix,
and it's just been nominated this week for two Emmy Awards,
so Best Documentary and it's standing Politics in Government Documentary,
which is pretty impressive. It is a fantastic film. I'm
sure that you had the chance to see it when
it came into the cinemas, but I was a little
bit late on the buzz and we watched it last

(57:23):
weekend and I really really enjoyed it. I mean, I
would say not necessarily a powerful advertisement for being a
woman in politics, especially at the top, but I'm fascinating
to see behind the scenes of what was going on
across all of those years just under our journal being
in power.

Speaker 3 (57:37):
And I think that's what's key about it. That's what
made it just stand out to me, was that access,
you know, with Clark Gayford just filming his wife quietly
at moments when she wanted to be filmed and didn't
want to be filmed. I just I just think that
behind the scenes gives you a whole new perspective of
the job and what it entails, what it takes.

Speaker 12 (57:56):
Oh fantastic, and also the sacrifice that was going with it.
You know, we all know the headlines of her becoming
the first, one of the first women in power to
have a child. But just watching some of those sacrifices
that she had to make while that child was so
young for the country as it's only just strengthened my
result towards her now.

Speaker 3 (58:15):
Chris Claudia Winkleman, I absolutely love her on Trading. I
absolutely love her, and so I was kind of excited
to see that the Claudia Winkleman Show has arrived. And
I love a little bit of Graham Norton. Love a
chat show, and look, I haven't watched a lot. I
only got through one EBB but it's terrible.

Speaker 12 (58:35):
So we watched this on Friday night. So it's just
launched on TVC one, first episode on Friday night. So
Claudia had she'd done a couple of filling things for
Graham Norton, and obviously networks were like, she is our
number one. We're going to get her back out, We're
going to give her her own chat show. And I,
like you, was very excited about this. I think she
was fantastic and trader, she's amazing going to I think

(58:55):
she's absolutely hilarious. But oh my goodness, it was a
train wreck. Some would call so she had four guests
on the couch, which is a way too many, and
she had Jeff Goldman Gobloom, Vanessa Williams as Jennifer Saorders,
then luckily, an amazing comedian called Tom Allen. She kicked
off the show with asking all of her guests to

(59:17):
give commentary on the set and the color of the
couch was rethey brought in the upholster or the interior
designer that had done it was It just sort of
felt like the whole show was a well warm up
for what the show could have been. And look, I
have really high hopes and I would like to watch
another couple of episodes, but the first one was pretty rough.
The Guardian gave it two stars. I think the headline
was what was the headline here? We love her, but

(59:39):
this chat show is a mess.

Speaker 3 (59:41):
I yeah, And look, I will give it another go
as well. It did feel like it was finding its feet.
And you should never judge a TV show on its
first its first ap You always need to give a
little go, and especially Charlotte, this is that it needs
to bed in, doesn't it. So we'll give it another go.
But I think the genius of Graham Norton is one
is that he is a comedic genius. But the second
thing is I feel like they prep their guests really

(01:00:03):
well as to what is expected of them and how
to come in, and that they are allowed to talk
to each other and sort of you know, like I
don't know if they do, but that's always the thought
I had, And yeah, I just thought everyone was a
bit lost anyway.

Speaker 12 (01:00:16):
Yes, I mean, if you do want to see what
Jeff Blueberg girl Broom's take on between normal pencils and
mechanical pencils, then it's definitely the show for you.

Speaker 3 (01:00:25):
Okay, there we go. Hey, let's talk Coachella.

Speaker 12 (01:00:30):
Yeah, so it's the first weekend of Coachella happening in
Los Angeles or in Las Vegas at the moment. Is
it twenty fifth year. Last year they had pretty soft
ticket sales, but this year they managed to sell it
out in three days. So the festival is back. Sabrina headliner,
Sabrina Carpenter's headliner, Carol g Addison Ray and the big
one is Justin Bieber, who canceled his last tour in
twenty twenty two when he got Ramsey Hunt syndrome, which

(01:00:53):
is that awful thing about it kind of gets browed
and inside of his face, so it's all eyes on
the beabs today as he sort of makes us try
and return to the stage.

Speaker 3 (01:01:00):
Can we watch it here in New Zealand?

Speaker 2 (01:01:02):
You can, can't you?

Speaker 12 (01:01:03):
You can? It's all it's all live stream on YouTube,
which is fantas so perfect for today when we're not
going anywhere to be able to get some YouTube and
watch him. I think he's on just after lunchtime today.
As my understanding, Oh look, there we go.

Speaker 3 (01:01:15):
You've solved what we're up to this afternoon. Thank you
so much, Chris. Really nice to talk to you. We
should have actually just checked what was it Claudia Winkleman
show Kerrie, The Claudia Winkerman Show Kerry. That was TV
and zed, wasn't it Claudia Winkleman show TV in ZED?
I believe? Okay, righty hope. We're going to talk science next.
It is twenty eight to eleven.

Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin on News Talks
at B.

Speaker 3 (01:01:44):
Doctor Michelle Dickinson joins us now with her science study
of the week. Good morning, good morning. This is an
interesting one for us today. I think at some point
as children or with our kids, we've all sort of
laid down on the grass somewhere and look to the
clouds and imagine what we can see in the clouds.
But this is actually a thing.

Speaker 17 (01:02:02):
There's actually a thing, and I'm going to prove it
to you because this is new research published in the
journal Royal Society Open Science. And I'm going to show
you a photo that is in this steady Francesca, okay,
And I want you to tell me what you see.

Speaker 3 (01:02:15):
Well, I see a hambag with a face on it. Yeah,
I see a bag with a face. It's on the end.

Speaker 12 (01:02:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 17 (01:02:24):
So it's actually just a hambag with some zips and
some folds. But like many you have seen faces. So
this is what the research is about today. It's about
how we can see faces in all sorts of shapes.
I mean, there's been like Jesus and toasts, there's been
all all sorts of things that have gone viral. But
it is a very common experience and it's actually called peridolia,

(01:02:44):
which is to see faces in objects. Now, the hambag
one which if you take a look, so Royal Scienty
Open Science is that open source journal you can take
a look at some of these images that I'm going through.
It basically says that humans are very good at recognizing faces,
and our brains often see them where they don't exist,
such as hambags. That wasn't a face on the hamburg
you just saw it. You might have seen it on
like coat hangers and door hooks things. But what they

(01:03:09):
did is the research actually asked participants to look at
random visual noise and describe what they saw. And in
one experiment, participants looked at basically just black and white
noise on an image. I'm going to show it to you,
and so there's there are no faces in that image,
but if you look carefully, you might see something you

(01:03:32):
can cut, maybe a scale, yeah, yeah. And so people
identified in what is basically noise, a black of white image,
a demon like face, yes, so an evil looking face,
and there is no face there. It's just black and
white noise. And one of the ways they made this
more prominent is the researchers put vertical symmetry into these images,

(01:03:57):
which is actually the critical symmetry is a characteristic of
human faces. And what they found is our brains actually
see faces and all sorts of things and they recognize
on a built in face template which tends to lean
towards male features and scarier features, and actually shows up
even when we're children, which implies that it's something that

(01:04:22):
may be ingrained in us or is intuitive in us,
because if children are seeing it without being taught that
there are faces and things, and they tended to be
angry male faces, and so you go, well, why are
we seeing angry male faces everywhere? And the researchers think
it's actually to do with with how to protect ourselves.
So when faced with uncertainty, it's actually safer for the

(01:04:42):
brain to assume something that you don't know what it
is is a potential threat to protect you from danger,
rather than you not observing something that might be something
and not seeing is it really basic strange to danger
one hundred percent? And so our brain tends to follow
the simple rule that says detect first, analyze later. So
assumance a face, assumeman's angry, Assume it's male, assumant's going

(01:05:04):
to attack you, put up boy your hackles, and then
if it's not bonus, you don't ever.

Speaker 3 (01:05:09):
Run away from it.

Speaker 17 (01:05:10):
And so you know, this whole icee faces and thing
actually is something that is deeply ingrained in us. And
so the next time you spot, you know, facing the clouds,
or you see a coat hook or a door handle
that looks like a happy face, just chill. Let's turn
exactly what your brain has evolved to do, which is
see something even if there was nothing there at all.

Speaker 3 (01:05:30):
Have you seen Jordan Peele's film Nope, No, okay, So
in his clouds there are very nasty aliens and spaceships.
And now when I look at clouds mostly we've moved
on from bunny dayberts and faces. I'm always going, oh,
oh that's a little bit Nope. Thank you so much, Michelle,
really appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:05:49):
We'll talk next week the Sunday Session Full Show podcast
on iHeartRadio, powered by news Talks it be.

Speaker 3 (01:05:57):
It is eighteen to eleven. So in the air break
in the news break eas show, I was just saying
to my producer, God, this weather, it just makes me anger.
I just feel like eating the whole time. And she
said to me, oh, yeah, we were going to do
a vegetarian salad the dinner tonight with Halloomi. But it
just doesn't really feel like it's fitting the weather, you know,
you feel like you should have a roast in the oven.

(01:06:17):
And along comes Mike Lander, ours in our residence chef,
and he's got a CHIPOLTI pulled lamb shoulder for us,
and I'm like, this is the perfect recipe for the
kind of weather we're dealing with. Good morning, Mike. Oh
he's up here.

Speaker 8 (01:06:32):
It's me.

Speaker 3 (01:06:33):
Oh no, it's all right now, I've got you now.
So we were having problems with the reception, so we
put you on the phone. Wasn't prepared for that.

Speaker 18 (01:06:40):
Good morning, good morning.

Speaker 3 (01:06:43):
Loving the idea of the CHIPOLTI pulled lamb shoulder. I
was just saying, you know, this is the kind of
weather when we need something sort of hearty, don't we know.

Speaker 18 (01:06:52):
I just hope that the power stays off for most
people to be able to do it.

Speaker 12 (01:06:56):
It's not.

Speaker 18 (01:06:57):
Then get the barbecue out and try it on there.
It's pretty wet. But yeah, I'm doing this recipe because
I noticed the other day when I was in the
soupermarket that there's a fair amount of lamb around, and
particularly lamb shoulders. So there was there were two cuts.
You've got lamb leg and then there was a lamb shoulder,

(01:07:17):
both pretty much equally priced, pretty much same weight. You
would potentially get a lot more meat or a little
bit more meat out of a leg than you would
out of the shoulder, just because just because the bone
and the shoulder is probably a little bit more substantial. However,
if you're going to do a dish like this, I
would choose a shoulder over a leg because the shoulder

(01:07:38):
has better marbling of that throughout the throughout the meat,
so when you go to cook it, that results in
more flavor and more moistless.

Speaker 3 (01:07:47):
Okay, sounds good.

Speaker 18 (01:07:48):
Deliciousness and deliciousness.

Speaker 12 (01:07:51):
There we go.

Speaker 3 (01:07:53):
Fat marbling does that play a role in the cut?

Speaker 18 (01:07:58):
How the fat throughout the meat helps to maintain the moistless.
So if you if you've got a leg, it's leaner,
it's going to tend to dry out faster than a
shoulder which has the fat. The fat helps to keep
the moisture in that cut of meat.

Speaker 3 (01:08:13):
All right, take us through the recipe.

Speaker 18 (01:08:16):
So we've got so this is called a chipotle pulled
lamb sholder. Say A you need a lamb shoulder, you
can add bonan or bone out. It's entirely up to you.
Bonan will take a little bit longer than bone out.
You need to go to see market or call somewhere
you can get those little cans of Chipotle sauce and
Adobe sauce the readily available. The jars are getting smaller

(01:08:40):
and smaller, so you can use one if you like it,
but at fire just go for two. So I've got
one deep boned lamb shoulder. Preheat your one hundred and
fifty degrees. Take a roasting trade not too big. You
want that lamb shoulder to kind of sit in there
reasonably snug and not have too much room around it.
So it's about I guess twenty five to say, twenty

(01:09:00):
centimeter roasting trade. Pop your lamb into there, and then
over the top of that, you want to put your
jar Chipotle and Adobe. I've got a tablespoon of tomato paste,
tablespoon of brown sugar, teaspoon of paprika, either sweet paprika
or smoke up to you, teaspoon of salt, sprinkle that

(01:09:22):
over the top, and then teaspoon of oregano flakes or
a regno leaves. Now it's time to get nice and messy.
So you want to message all of that into your
lamb shoulder and then over the top of it. I've
got a bottle of hoppy beer, so a bear over
the top. Pour that on and then go greaseproof paper first,

(01:09:42):
and then go tinfall over the top, and the reason
will come through as we've cooked. Buy that into your oban.
I'm going to leave the tinfole on there for ninety minutes.
After ninety minutes, remove the tinfall, but leave the paper
on top. And the paper does two things that protect
the top of that lamb, stopping it from getting too
crusty so that we can't pullo that in the end result.
And also it just stops or it slows down the

(01:10:04):
absorption or the dehydration of that liquid that's in that
roasting trait. So just leave the paper on top. Fire
that back into the oven same time to one hundred
firs degrees, leave it in for another ninety minutes, another
hour and a half after that point, pull it out,
and we just want to test it. So push your
finger down on top of that lamb. If it pushes
down and stays down, it's good to go. If it
pushes down and springs back, needs a bit more cooking.

(01:10:26):
So that will really determine or be determined by the
size of that custle lamb and potentially the age of
that cuss lamb. So once you push it down, it
stays out. Good to go. Pull it out, let it
cool down a little bit, and then take your lamp
shoulder out of that roasting tray and I use two forts,
and you just start to tear the meat apart, discard
any skin, discard any excess fat. That all goes to

(01:10:49):
the side to less us for the dog. The rest
of the meat back into a container. Those roasting juices
are left over the rest of the tray, pore those
over the top, and then just pack the whole lot
into another kind of a heatproof dish, I guess, and
then just cover it in crispberry paper. That's good to go.
So when you're ready to eat, when you're ready to
with your tacos or your feet burgers or whatever you

(01:11:10):
may want to do, just reheat that in the oven.
Good to go.

Speaker 3 (01:11:14):
Oh fantastic, Thank you so much, Mike, appreciate you. Take
care in this weather. That was Mike vander Elsen there.
You can get that recipe good from scratch dot co
dot NZ, or you can get it from Newstalk zedb
dot co dot nz Ford Slash Sunday. If you're all
interested in the Masters, Rory is back in the lead.

(01:11:35):
Here is one shot ahead of Cameron Young. At this point,
we will keep you up to speed with what's happening there. Right,
Digital dementia. Have you heard of this? This is the
impact of expressive excessive screen time on cognitive performance. We're
going to be talking to Erin about this next. It's
twelve to eleven.

Speaker 2 (01:11:55):
There's no better way to start your Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:11:58):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rutkin and Wiggles for
the best selection of Greg reads news talk sad be.

Speaker 3 (01:12:15):
Right, let's talk digital dementia. There is a lot of
research going on in this field to talk us through
what Aaron O'Hara joins us now to talk. Well, that's
good morning, good money. So digital dementia. I'm presuming that
this means that our cognitive abilities declining the more we're
spending on screens.

Speaker 19 (01:12:35):
Is that how we describe it pretty much pretty much
like there's lots and lots of research going on in
this area. But the symptoms are similar to your traditional
dementia symptoms, so it includes memory, last shortened attention span
and emotional disturbances, and it's becoming actually more prevalent in
younger people from excessive screen use. And there's so much

(01:13:00):
research underway, especially at the moment now. This term digital
dementia was really queer by German neuroscientists and psychiatrist Dr
Manfred Spitzer in twenty twelve, and he really described it
as the cognition changes from over using technology. But there's

(01:13:21):
also been other research studies that have been done with
similar condition names like your digital amnesia as well as
the Google effect of how technology is really changing brain function.

Speaker 3 (01:13:33):
So there might be different names out there, but it
is a real condition. It's been acknowledged as a real condition.

Speaker 19 (01:13:39):
Well, there's a big controversy on that that it isn't
actually a condition, but actually it's actually an effect from
using too much screen exposure. So it is just that
brain change that's happening from heavy screen use. And they've
noticed that if we're using a lot of heavy screen exposure,

(01:13:59):
there'll be an impact on the brain, leaving leading to
structural changes, particularly thinning in the cerebral cortex as well
as lower gray matter density, which is affecting cognitive processing, memory,
and impulse control as well. And there's also changes in
also neurotransmitter balance in the brain, which is affecting things

(01:14:21):
like anxiety depression as well as sleep disturbances from the
change in melatonin levels from lots of blue light exposure
on the screen as well. So they can really see
that scientifically that there is distinctive changes in the brain
from excessive brain use, so excessive computer use and screen exposure,

(01:14:42):
and they're seeing it more and more in younger people
because the screen exposure is far more than older generations
because they're starting on screens a lot younger, and they're
actually not actually using their brain as much as you
used to because they've got Google doing a lot of
the search changing engine sort of looking for things, so
they're not using all their brain pathways, which is really

(01:15:03):
important for young developing brain is to actually using your brain.

Speaker 3 (01:15:07):
Because many of us have been on computers for years, right,
We've all had computers for decades. But then you throw
in the smartphone, you throw in the iPad, you throw
in all these sort of other portable devices you can
you know, you can always have something in your hand.
Has that led to an increase in this as well.

Speaker 19 (01:15:23):
It's just the overall use, Like the average young person
spends six hours on a screen in a day, and
I think AI, which there's not actually go clinical research
on what effect is that going to have on brain
pathways because now we're not actually having to think, we're
actually using sometimes AI to just do all the work
for us. So if we're not using our brain, we
actually lose our ability to use our brain. If we're

(01:15:46):
not using it, all, losinges it, all, lose it when
it comes to brain function. And that's where if you're
about keeping your brain functioning well, it's limiting your use
of screen exposure, maybe turning off some of the notifications,
focusing on things in your everyday life, doing more activities
that really help with your memory, like board games are great, puzzles, crosswords,

(01:16:08):
racket sports, even any sort of sport is actually great
for brain cognition and learning new skills. And I think
that's where I think knowing that yes, screens are helpful
in our everyday life and really useful, but also knowing
that excessive yose is actually going to make you basically
lose a lot of your brain functioning over long term.

Speaker 3 (01:16:27):
Well, there was an article in the Washington Posters recently
talking about digital detoxes, and they're saying that sounds like
a fad but actually can have a massive effect on
the brain. So you know it's worth looking into a
little digital detox. Thank you so much, erin Ohar, I
really appreciate your time this morning.

Speaker 1 (01:16:45):
The Sunday Session Full show podcast on iHeartRadio empowered by
News Talks.

Speaker 12 (01:16:50):
At b Right.

Speaker 3 (01:16:54):
So that article I was talking about was saying a
digital detox may raise ten years of social media brain
damage would go. That's hopeful, isn't it. Studies show that
even taking short breaks could reverse measures of cognitive climb.
But better still want you to listen to the radio.
Just flaky screens, listen to the radio. That's all you need.

Speaker 12 (01:17:11):
There we go.

Speaker 3 (01:17:11):
You're you're on the road to recovery already. Hey yeah,
I am so delighted to have Greg Johnson on the
show next. I've enjoyed Greg's music, his live shows, and
interviewing him for decades now, and he is based in LA.
He has got a sixth date tour to celebrate his
sixtieth birthday in New Zealand. It's coming up this year.

(01:17:32):
We're going to talk about turning sixty and touring. Greg
Johnson is with me next.

Speaker 19 (01:17:39):
Day.

Speaker 13 (01:17:40):
She may not come again to since stops.

Speaker 3 (01:17:59):
Start begain something to say.

Speaker 2 (01:18:04):
Dog Ways Sunday. You know what that means.

Speaker 1 (01:18:08):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin and Wickles for
the Best Election of Great Reads US Talks.

Speaker 3 (01:18:15):
Be coming up this hour on the Sunday Session. Meghan
is in Washington, DC and a surprised by the amount
of police and security on the streets. Joan has a
book on the Murdocks, which apparently makes the TV show
Succession look tame and piney. On the Warriors, the Wars

(01:18:35):
are back and outstanding when over Melbourne last night.

Speaker 2 (01:18:40):
The Sunday Session.

Speaker 3 (01:18:58):
This is London the latest single from La based que
singer songwriter Greg Johnson. It's off his upcoming album Sunlight Somewhere,
which is out this October. Now Greg has hit a
bit of a milestone in life. Some of us hide
away from the big birthdays and getting older, but some others,
like Greg, book a big party in the form of

(01:19:19):
a six date career spanning tour of their home country.
What a way to celebrate. Greg Johnson sixty is traveling
around New Zealand to this October and Greg Johnson joins
me now from LA good morning, how are you fan?
I love the way you're turning sixty in such a
public way. Was this your idea?

Speaker 14 (01:19:38):
No, you know what it wasn't I've spent most of
my life pretending to be just a little bit younger
than I was actually, And then we all and then yeah,
like everyone else, and then I guess finally I thought,
you know, there's a certain point where when I turned sixty,
I was like, wow, I've I'm kind of officially sort
of ancient now I am. Everywhere I go everyone seems younger.

(01:20:03):
You know, the pilots get on, I think, gosh, they
look young. The to come down, they go, what's that
boy talking to me about? And it's like that, now
I'm that old conscious. So I thought, rather than just
try and pretend you're not, I figured I'll just say
it now. In fact, I might even say I'm even older.
I might say I'm seventeen. And then you get that,
you still get the old.

Speaker 12 (01:20:22):
Oh gosh, you look pretty good.

Speaker 14 (01:20:23):
I wouldn't have pictured you at more than sixty five.

Speaker 3 (01:20:26):
Well, what is the sixty? Is the new fifty?

Speaker 8 (01:20:29):
Isn't it.

Speaker 14 (01:20:32):
Well, I guess we won't see it. Hopefully it's not
the new eighty for me or something. But it seems
like you're as you're as young as your mind is. Really.
I suppose my dad's eighty eight and he's kicking around
with his Danish girlfriend. I mean, they're having the time

(01:20:52):
of their lives at that age, and so I think
there's no it's really up to up to you, isn't
It's how well you feel and what you can get
away with. Obviously not everyone's that lucky.

Speaker 3 (01:21:02):
Completely, No, I completely agree with you. There's lots of
different ages, isn't there. There's biological, call chronological, psychological. I claim.
I'm sort of worried about thirty five when it comes
to my psychological age.

Speaker 14 (01:21:12):
So there we go. How yeah, and there are teenagers
who are more like our old grandmothers than we as well. Oh,
don't go out its weir, I'm going to be missing.
It's like good grief. It really does skip a generation sometimes,
doesn't it.

Speaker 6 (01:21:25):
That stuff?

Speaker 3 (01:21:25):
Does it make you a little reflective though over your
life and career?

Speaker 14 (01:21:32):
Yes, it does, But I think that was the fifties
was when the angst was kicked in and I thought,
my god, I've made some stupid decisions. I should have
been so much more. I could have been this, could
have been that, And you wrestle with all of that,
and you think of the moments when you said no
and you should have said yes, and vice versa. But
all of those things, there's a consistent thing that I've

(01:21:53):
come to, I suppose understand about myself, and that is
that the one constant I've had ever since I can
absolutely remember as music. It's just the one thing that
is consistently and always, no matter what, never let me
down and saved me more times than you know than

(01:22:14):
a cat and a room full of rocket chairs or whatever.
But so that's why I think it's important to just
keep doing music. And I'm well, I'm excited about making
list new records because it's actually I'm kind of figuring
out my own stack a bit better. And it takes
a long time to do that. People would agree, no

(01:22:35):
matter what they do, it takes a while to figure
it out, and then you know, yeah, then you die.

Speaker 3 (01:22:43):
I thought I thought that was so positive there greg
and then just bad and at the end. But actually
I like that. I like the fact that's really interesting
that you sort of had that little moment of angst
at fifty and now yet to a point, don't you
when you go, actually, I'm here, I'm living. I'm not
going to worry about what people think so much anymore.
I'm just gonna do me, be me. And you know

(01:23:04):
it's too late, Yes.

Speaker 14 (01:23:06):
It's far too late. Now there's no more pretending you
are what you are.

Speaker 12 (01:23:10):
And the thing is, you know you've got to.

Speaker 14 (01:23:14):
Realize I guess depending as long as you're happy, it
doesn't really matter. I mean, I'm the happiest people I know.
Our gardeners, you know, professional gardeners and people like that.
They just spend their life in a good place, you.

Speaker 12 (01:23:30):
Know, when in the garden.

Speaker 3 (01:23:32):
So when you sort of because you've you've said that
the tour is going to cover music from right throughout
your career. It's going to be a memorable journey, which
it's very much to be, especially for someone like me
who's followed you from very early on. Do you enjoys
revisiting the different areas of your career.

Speaker 14 (01:23:51):
Yeah, that is always fun, and that's very much. You know,
it's forty years since my first singles were out now,
and so of course I don't really remember much about
them either, and I can't really tell you what they're about.

Speaker 12 (01:24:06):
So you re you do.

Speaker 14 (01:24:07):
Reevaluate and some the some of the new year. Years later,
I'll hear a song, go, that's what that song is about?

Speaker 3 (01:24:14):
Right, that's interesting. You can remember all these songs, can't
you agree that you're gonna play for us?

Speaker 14 (01:24:22):
Well, I will have to rehearse some extensively years poured
over the records and go what bloody called is that?

Speaker 3 (01:24:30):
But does it also get me an a chance?

Speaker 12 (01:24:32):
Does it also get exactly yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:24:35):
But does it also give you a chance to play
around and you know, find a freshness in bringing them
live again?

Speaker 12 (01:24:42):
Oh?

Speaker 14 (01:24:42):
Totally. It's it's really, I mean, I'm lucky in that
I've got, you know, really extensive catalog to choose from,
and all without bragging, but I've got like it'll be
fourteen albums, So that's one hundred and forty songs, and
let's say even you know, let's be honest, maybe twenty
percent of those are going to be any good. But
it still gives you thirty great song choose from, and

(01:25:05):
so you know, and you'd throw on the old album
track and the odd because the thing about my audience
is that they they do know some of them do
at least know a lot of the radio ones that
I used to have back in the day, that Save
Yourselves and Isabel's. But there's also other years of touring
I've built up, you know, at least a dozen or
more songs that were never on any radio station, never

(01:25:27):
will be, but we've developed live and people kind of
love the story of them or whatever whatever reason, So
you know, I mean there are some advantages of sticking
with it.

Speaker 3 (01:25:38):
Yeah, you're playing some beautiful venues on this tour, the
Holy Trinity Cathedral, Old and Paul's what was the thinking
behind these types of venues.

Speaker 14 (01:25:47):
We always try and keep it, mix it up a
little bit, and it's never a slight on the venue
prior or very seldom. It's always you know, as an audience,
I know that my people like to go. They don't
mind dressing up, but they don't mind going somewhere different
like theaters, but they don't always want to be in

(01:26:08):
the theater as well, So it's like it just keeps
it interesting. And I think those kinds of spaces are
also kind of quite fluid in that if you get
a surge of population you can expand them a bit
and an if this you know, if it's five or
six hundred, it still looks great. So it's it's a

(01:26:29):
lot of it's pragmatic. But as you say, they're all beautiful,
all really beautiful venues, you know. So yeah, looking forward
to that a little bit, a little bit of a
lot of church, a lot of churches. The one in
Wellington is beautiful. The old Saint Paul's now that's actually

(01:26:52):
a historic building now and they use for all kinds
of things. We played there a couple of years ago
and it was I mean, it's the most beautiful wooden building.
It sounds incredible in there.

Speaker 3 (01:27:01):
So yeah, it's going to be good to have you back.

Speaker 7 (01:27:04):
Greek.

Speaker 3 (01:27:04):
By my calculations, you left country about probably twenty four
years ago.

Speaker 14 (01:27:08):
Is that how long you've been in la That's yeah,
that is exactly right. It's hard to believe, isn't it.

Speaker 12 (01:27:14):
That's like where did it?

Speaker 14 (01:27:15):
Some of them go, Yeah, that's that's how long it's been.
And it's it's been through a lot of changes everywhere,
hasn't it. Everywhere's everywhere's different than it was. But yeah,
it's interesting interesting times.

Speaker 3 (01:27:31):
Certainly is has it been? What did move in La
do for your career? Has it panned out sort of
the way you thought it would?

Speaker 4 (01:27:40):
You know?

Speaker 3 (01:27:41):
What's kept you there?

Speaker 4 (01:27:42):
No?

Speaker 12 (01:27:43):
I don't think it ever does.

Speaker 14 (01:27:44):
I mean, no, it didn't because the intention, you know,
of course, we think you will go to La sign
a big deal and then sell some rail records and
get rich, get a place up Malibu Drive.

Speaker 12 (01:27:58):
I don't carry on.

Speaker 14 (01:28:00):
People have told better stories than that. But what it
did do was break a kind of I guess boredom
that I had reached where I was, and so there's
only certain times in your life where you can really
set up sticks and just guard. And I was at
that point. I had no children and no relationship, and

(01:28:21):
so I just thought, well, now's the time we've you know,
got to get a shot, and what the hell, you know.
I got a bit of radio in the US and
sold a few resks but it was a very few,
and met my wife and had my studio. I've got

(01:28:41):
my daughter, she's Californian now. So just lived the life,
you know, it was, except I had fine weather the
whole time, which was really actually strangely important for me
because I was really getting I get really bummed out
by that gray wind that just I don't know something
in my ancient Irish ancestry that says, Greg, get out of.

Speaker 3 (01:29:00):
There when you wouldn't want to be here today, that's
for sure. Yeah probable, Yeah, no, No, we're getting through. Hey,
so excited that you're coming back. You do enjoy coming
back and performing, don't you. You do dant to love it,
which is great.

Speaker 12 (01:29:18):
I absolutely love it.

Speaker 14 (01:29:19):
I mean, that's the thing I've been to way twenty
four years. I've been back at least twenty four, if
not forty eight times, and every time it's wonderful. And
I'm never there long enough to get to know who
to complain about politics, or whether or not the council
is doing well, or any of that stuff that I
really don't actually care about. I just get back enough
to play some music, see a bunch of cool people,

(01:29:40):
and you know, it's quite quite a fantasy world in
some ways, but you know it's going to be great fun.
We've got a bit of a lead up to it,
but the pre sales on it plus one dot co
dot z our wonderful man Kirk Shanks and his wonderful
touring company that brings in all the decent mid size

(01:30:01):
sort of acts from everywhere. It's not Live Nation somewhere else.

Speaker 12 (01:30:06):
So yeah, it's good to support.

Speaker 14 (01:30:08):
We'll have the usual crowd Wayne Bell and Mark Hughes.

Speaker 3 (01:30:11):
And literally getting the old band back together again.

Speaker 8 (01:30:16):
Oh I love Yeah, nice exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:30:20):
Greg, It's been wonderful to talk to you. Thank you
so much for your time this morning. Greg Johnson's sixty
tours throughout New Zealand from late October. General ticket sales
start on Thursday, but for early access you can sign
up for the pre sale at plus one dot co
dot nzeed and thank you very much for your text, Paul.
He texts us A Greek played for us at a
conference I attended in the early two thousands in Vegas

(01:30:42):
and it was the highlight of the trip for me.
He is very good, live, very entertaining and he always
has an amazing band with him. So check it out.
It is nineteen past eleven. You're with News Talks ab.

Speaker 2 (01:30:57):
Graber cover It's.

Speaker 1 (01:30:58):
The Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin and Wiggles.

Speaker 2 (01:31:01):
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so just getting a quick up there will be a

(01:32:07):
stand up with Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell
that would be taking place at midday. We will be
taking it live here for you on News Talks. He'd
be It is time for the panel, and I would
like to welcome host of the Prosperity Project podcast Nadine Higgins.
Good Morning, Koda and also News Talks hea'd be host

(01:32:28):
Roman Travis, Good Morning, Romance.

Speaker 20 (01:32:29):
Nadine Francesca, good morning.

Speaker 3 (01:32:31):
Good to have you both with us. Okay, I've been watching.
I've got a little bit hooked on the Artemis to Journey, right,
and the reason that I've become quite obsessed about it
is because of the future and what comes next. I
had no idea how close we were to start building
a base on the Moon, like twenty twenty eight. You know,

(01:32:52):
a few years time we're going to be thinking actually
about putting humans on the Moon, which I think is
really exciting. Does it rock your boat, Romance, because I
mean people are either and to it. They're either paying
as no attention or they're a little bit like me,
getting just sucked into what it all means and significance
of it.

Speaker 7 (01:33:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 20 (01:33:09):
Look, I think it's fascinating. And I've enjoyed watching what
I've seen. My concern is what's the race for what's
up there that people really want? And I think many
know the answer. I'm personally a big fan of Uranus.
I'm not a follower of the proverbal sheet. So when
people are heading to Mars, I'll be heading to Uranus.
It's cold there and I like it cold. They get
about two hundred degrees below zero, so you can imagine

(01:33:30):
every night you've got a log fire.

Speaker 8 (01:33:32):
That's me.

Speaker 3 (01:33:33):
Well, I don't think I'm going to be moving anywhere,
to be honest with you, the dam because I like trees.

Speaker 4 (01:33:38):
So.

Speaker 21 (01:33:39):
Like oxygen and stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:33:42):
I like trees, and I like going outside.

Speaker 14 (01:33:44):
Would you move?

Speaker 3 (01:33:46):
Would you you know? Live alone?

Speaker 21 (01:33:49):
And feel like that is still the stuff of science fiction.
And look, it's exciting from a kind of awe and
wonder perspective at what we're able to do and what's
out there. But I just can't get my head past
the cost of it. You know, ninety three billion US
dollars I think they've spent on Artemis to date and growing,

(01:34:10):
and look, the fuel bill alone would have been pretty wild,
and that's obviously a precious resource.

Speaker 12 (01:34:17):
Right now.

Speaker 21 (01:34:17):
But also, look, we can't figure things out on planet Earth.
You know, we're polluting it and we're fighting with each other.
Why would we extend that to another planet. Maybe we
should just focus on making sure everyone is fed and
peaceful here before we start burning money to get to
the Moon and beyond.

Speaker 20 (01:34:35):
I do wonder though, how much of that cost was
actually road user charges, you know, because with the cost
of feel that you've got to look at that more closely,
don't you.

Speaker 21 (01:34:43):
Yeah, I don't know if they've paved the path to
the moon yet, so I'm not sure that it rucks
are obligable.

Speaker 3 (01:34:49):
I think I think you're absolutely right, and I think
that's why it's taken. What was it, nineteen seventy was
the last time humans went, you know, the service into space,
and there's a reason why we haven't done it again.
And I think you've nailed it. There's you can absolutely
see better use for that money on planet Earth, right,

(01:35:09):
But that we're seeing private companies coming in, could the
commercial space industry is being involved, So I think governments
are realizing that they can't carry the burden on their
own nine So you know, that's that's at least a
step in a new direction, I.

Speaker 21 (01:35:24):
Suppose, Yeah, And I guess, like all things, if there
is a commercial game to be made, then yeah, the
private sector the race will be on. But I guess
you've got to make that case right when the cost
is that astronomical?

Speaker 2 (01:35:39):
What is the payback? Yeah?

Speaker 20 (01:35:43):
Or even another question, who's going to be in control
of it all? If you've got people like Donald Trump
at the helm, that's a worry. He should be sent
to out of space, shouldn't he?

Speaker 2 (01:35:50):
Honestly?

Speaker 3 (01:35:51):
Yeah, And I think you're right. I am totally caught
up in the ore and the wonder of it all.
And that's because to me, the moment is a really
nice distraction as to what has going on. And you know,
in our current lives and our current world, non this
current planet.

Speaker 21 (01:36:04):
Yeah, when we look back at the Earth, remember how
small and insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things.
We are but a blip on the timeline of the universe.

Speaker 3 (01:36:14):
So I'm taking it not either of you would jump
at the chance to go in space.

Speaker 12 (01:36:16):
I would.

Speaker 3 (01:36:17):
I do low Earth orbit. Absolutely.

Speaker 12 (01:36:19):
That doesn't mean I wouldn't go.

Speaker 21 (01:36:21):
I just I just don't know if I wouldn't I
wouldn't pay for it the bends who's flogging the bell
because I think the cheapest ticket you can get, what
was that one that was at Blue Origin sent out?
The cheapest ticket's probably about quarter of a million dollars,
But I definitely have some other uses for that much money.

Speaker 3 (01:36:37):
Yeah, you're in finance, aren't you.

Speaker 22 (01:36:39):
I love it.

Speaker 3 (01:36:39):
You're totally you're totally thinking about the household budget going. No,
we're not going to be able to ful that, but possibly, you.

Speaker 20 (01:36:45):
Know, I'd sneak it on. I just put it on
the nz ME credit card, I think, and just sort
of code it to some weird expense.

Speaker 3 (01:36:52):
I'd like to see your tribe, Okay. An American delegation
led by Vice President J. D Vance is in Pakistan
meeting with senior Iranian negotiators. This was taking place on Saturday,
after known few details about the talks have been least
How positive are you Roman that some kind of resolution
will come out of these chats.

Speaker 20 (01:37:11):
I think with this you need to go back to
the people of Iran. They've risked their lives, thousands have
lost their lives to get this far. For them, the
focus is not a return to freeing up the Strait
of Hormuz. It's about not having the Islamic state ruling them,
and I wonder to what extent that will be remembered
through these peace talks, because Donald Trump can't even clearly
articulate what this war is all about, and by now

(01:37:33):
his completely undiplomatic mind will be focused on the valuable
liquids underground. That is really after who's going to be
focused on the people of Iran. Trump is not only
mentally unfit for office, He's also a clear and present
danger to the entire world.

Speaker 3 (01:37:48):
So I don't have a lot of hope, to be
honest about Nadine.

Speaker 21 (01:37:54):
I mean, I guess I'm similarly pessimistic. If anything that
makes me slightly optimistic, it's that they're actually having these
negotiations face to face rather than through intermediaries. I guess
that takes one out of the chain, and you know,
maybe they can get on the same page. But no,
the Iranian people aren't thinking about the Strait of Humus,

(01:38:14):
but the Iranian regime will be. There's no way that
they are going to give up control of that straight
because that's the only leverage they've got, that's their trump card.
If you will and that will remain a sticking point.

Speaker 12 (01:38:31):
And I think.

Speaker 21 (01:38:34):
I wish I could be more optimistic. But when the
guy in charge says it makes no difference to me
if the two sides make a deal, you have to
wonder really how invested.

Speaker 3 (01:38:46):
He is in peace.

Speaker 21 (01:38:47):
I mean, his challenge for the Nobel Peace Prize is
well and truly in the review mirror.

Speaker 3 (01:38:52):
Well, it just feels like he's sticked a box and
gone and moving on to the next thing. His comment was,
maybe they make a deal, maybe they don't, doesn't matter
from the standpoint of America, we win. And I just
think that there seems to be a complete lack of
real concern about how this all unfolds. Interestingly, though, I
think it's this week you have the Israelian Lebanese ambassadors

(01:39:13):
to the US meeting there for direct talks, because I
think that's going to be really key. Is you know,
Israel obviously is continuing this ground invasion and attacks on Lebanon,
and that's going to have that's going to impact these talks.
The other talks progressing forward too, So there's there seems
to be an awful lot going on. I'm going to
try and remain a little bit more optimistic than you two.

Speaker 21 (01:39:36):
But I mean, I don't feel like we've been trying
to broke a piece in the Middle East for generations
and this is the latest iteration of that, and everyone's
a little bit more invested in it because it's literally
hitting everybody in the pocket so hard. I hate to
bring it back to finances, but that does focus other
people's attention on it when they directly feel the impacts

(01:40:00):
of something happening half a world away.

Speaker 20 (01:40:02):
Yeah. And I think the other thing too is that
when you've got people like Pauline Hanson getting a lot
of them media in Australia, Donald Trump in the US,
I think there's a responsibility that media need to be
more focused on not what's being said and the swear
words in a tweet and getting outraged by that, that
the actual actions of these people. They get the airtime
because it's clickbait and it's just horrific to see what's happening,

(01:40:25):
and I think we need to be more focused on
outcomes than the actual words said.

Speaker 3 (01:40:29):
I think we will at some point come to an agreement,
but whether we're leaving Iran in the Middle East in
a better place, I certainly don't. I'm not sure I
see that happening. Okay, very quickly, Roman, do you think
your phone is making you dumb?

Speaker 2 (01:40:43):
Yes?

Speaker 20 (01:40:44):
Oh, you know that's thick. There's two planks sometimes because
I and what I find weird is that when your
phone is not in your hand or not with an eyesight,
I always feel like, oh, perhaps the boss is going
to care, perhaps someone needs me. Yesterday I was in
the gardens for four hours and it was this Catharsis
of freedom. I felt like I was running naked.

Speaker 8 (01:41:00):
Through the gardens.

Speaker 2 (01:41:01):
It was great.

Speaker 3 (01:41:02):
Were you gardening? Were you in some local botanical gardens?

Speaker 4 (01:41:05):
No?

Speaker 20 (01:41:05):
I dress up like Barry Crump and everyone thinks on
the village, the village idiot. I do all the gardening
for the apartment block and.

Speaker 3 (01:41:12):
Yeah, okay. Well, the whole reason I'm asking this is
that there's this term digital dementia and our memories and
our cognitive functions getting worse because we've just spend so
much time on your screen. How do you feel, how
do you feel in your memory and cognitive ability? Isn't
it Deane?

Speaker 21 (01:41:29):
I'm not the best one to ask, because when your
children are still working, you several times a night you're
you're you know, you're, you're putting the butter in the pantry,
and the.

Speaker 3 (01:41:37):
You've got an excuse the fruit.

Speaker 21 (01:41:40):
But what I took from this study is that my
husband gives me grief because every night I'm on my
phone doing the puzzles on the New York Times and
he teases me. But apparently that is good for my brain,
so slightly better than all the scrolling. But from that perspective,
generations of us are screwed because we're sitting there scrolling
our lives away on increasingly a name stuff. And I

(01:42:04):
guess your brain is luck any other the muscle. If
you're not using it, it gets.

Speaker 12 (01:42:09):
You lose it.

Speaker 3 (01:42:10):
You got to use it or you lose it. I
also think they make us lazy phones, so so some
people you know at home, I live with what we
call finger princesses. Have you heard of those? Excuse me?
I think people who are too precious to use their
to use their fingers to google something on their own.
So they're always saying to you things like what when
you win as Easter or what times the dance pack up?

Speaker 2 (01:42:32):
Or what you know?

Speaker 3 (01:42:33):
Like they just ask you all these questions and you
want to go gurgle it yourself, check your calendar. But
people are too they're too precious. Do you live with
one of those, no, dab, I'm probably, I'm probably princess.

Speaker 1 (01:42:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 20 (01:42:49):
I think one of the best things you can do
is that when you're searching anything, at the end of
what you're searching, put minus AI and it takes the
AI summary out of the top and you go straight
to the articles. Do that and you won't feel quite
as thick.

Speaker 6 (01:43:02):
Oh there we go.

Speaker 3 (01:43:03):
Nice, very nice advice. Thank you both so much, Adan
Higgins and Roman Trevors. That is twenty five to twelve.

Speaker 1 (01:43:14):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin on News Talks
at b coming up at midday.

Speaker 3 (01:43:21):
Jason Pine will be with you for weekends sport and
he's with me now. Good morning.

Speaker 23 (01:43:26):
The curse is broken.

Speaker 3 (01:43:27):
Oh I'm prettier. We're talking about the wars. We are
we are got a game so good. I are embarrassingly
went to beat quite early big week, but I could
tell from the noise coming from upstairs that things were
going well, that's good. It's silent, you know, things haven't
gone So from my bed I was sending go to
vibesod it.

Speaker 23 (01:43:48):
Was well, it was worth a bit of hoping and
horror hollering, because seventeen games without ever beating this team
is a very long losing streak and to have it
broken last night, and not just broken, but in pretty
emphatic fashion. I thought the Warriors were well worth it
last night, both in the way that they scored their tries,
but then the way they muscled up, the physicality they

(01:44:11):
brought and there were just a couple of moments, one
in particular, and you wouldn't have seen it because you
would have gone nine eyes by it.

Speaker 2 (01:44:17):
Both the stages.

Speaker 23 (01:44:17):
But yeah, but Roger too, we've asked of check put
a hit in on Will Warbrick as he was approaching
the right wing corner flag and just monstered him into
touch and he was immediately surrounded by his teammates and
they just were beating their chests and just loving the moment. Warbrick,
of course, is coming to the Warriors next year, so
he's probably quite pleased about that. And then Roger looked

(01:44:40):
up and sort of wagged his finger and said, not here,
you're not going past on my watch. I just thought
it was a cool little moment. Within a really good performance.
So off the back of two losses, you know they
needed it, and you know, to break that long standing
who Do is something I'm sure they'll be very proud of.

Speaker 3 (01:44:57):
And you've got Stacy Jones on the show today.

Speaker 23 (01:44:59):
He is Yeah, he's going to join us just after midday.
Looking forward to chatting to him. And we'll take a
lot of calls as well. Obviously we've got the Civil
Defense media conference at midday, so as soon as that's
all done and all the informations across will get staced
on the air, and then we'll take a few Warrior's calls.
And the hurricanes are pretty frightening as well, thunderbolts and lightning,
very very frightening, those hurricanes, Francesca top of Super Rugby.

Speaker 3 (01:45:21):
They're going to win the whole thing.

Speaker 23 (01:45:22):
I told Mike this and sav on Monday last Monday
morning on the commentary box, and I'll we're doing the
en tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (01:45:28):
Out of all the things we could have touched on,
I appreciate you bringing up the Hurricanes versus the Blues.
I've been watching the Masters this morning. Have you been
following that?

Speaker 23 (01:45:37):
I have Rory McElroy's record lead of six strokes after
two rounds completely evaporated. He's now the joint leader. This
is a quite remarkable third round. Cam Young has shot
seven under I think, and so now they're tied for
the lead. It looked as though McElroy was going to
win it easily, but I'm now for a very exciting

(01:45:57):
fourth round tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (01:45:58):
Sure loves to talk about this afternoon. Thank you so much, Jason.
Jason Palin will be back with you at midday with Weekend.

Speaker 1 (01:46:05):
Sport Sunday Session full show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by
News Talks at b SO.

Speaker 3 (01:46:13):
Just reminding you you heard Piney mentioned there the civil
Defense update that is taking place at mid day to day.
We will take that live. That's a stand up with
the Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell and Auckland
Mayor Wayne Brown. We have seen a lot of posts
coming out of Auckland Civil Defense and also Waykaso Civil

(01:46:34):
Defense just saying urging people not to be complacent, saying
the full force of the cyclone is yet to hit
the region. You're probably thinking to yourself and you look
at the window, Oh it's not so bad, but just
be that in the back of your mind that the
full force of the cyclone is yet to hit the
region and Hawk's Bay coastal areas have been asked to evacuate.
So we will give you a full update of where

(01:46:55):
we're up and where the cyclone is tracking. You'll be
able to get that at midday when we take that
stand up live.

Speaker 2 (01:47:03):
Travel with Wendy wu Tours Where the World is Yours.

Speaker 3 (01:47:07):
For now, Coming to us live from Washington, DC is
Meghan Singleton. Good morning, good.

Speaker 22 (01:47:13):
Morning, goodness. You've got dramas going on over there.

Speaker 12 (01:47:17):
I just heard.

Speaker 2 (01:47:18):
But anyway, we got.

Speaker 3 (01:47:19):
We got a little bit of weather, and you've got
a lot of police and security on every street corner. Yes,
that is that different to previous you know, previous trips
you've made to Washington, DC.

Speaker 22 (01:47:30):
Yeah, well I was here probably a year ago, not
two different.

Speaker 12 (01:47:34):
You know.

Speaker 22 (01:47:35):
We stayed this time right behind the White House at
a beautiful the softer tails right there, such a great
location for walking to the museums, getting the hop on,
hop off bus and there's cock cars with flashing lights
just parked at every corner. You're literally in front of
the White House though. But yeah, a lot more police,
a lot more security than usual walking in threes on

(01:47:58):
their bicycles.

Speaker 7 (01:47:59):
Even a dog.

Speaker 22 (01:48:00):
We came walking up past the monument back to the
hotel and there was, you know, like the an airport
dog handler just kind of sniffing people as we walked by.
And do you know you couldn't feel safer though, actually
in Washington decent because of all of that.

Speaker 3 (01:48:13):
Is this because of the conflict of the Middle East.
Do you ask anybody why there's such a presence?

Speaker 10 (01:48:19):
Oh?

Speaker 12 (01:48:19):
No, do you know what?

Speaker 22 (01:48:20):
I didn't actually ask that, But there's two big cranes
on the White House grounds and so there's security all
around it. You can't walk where you used to be
able to walk just last year and one of the
security or cops or people dressed in black that says
secret security. And it's not very secret if you're wearing
a name.

Speaker 2 (01:48:37):
Tag, is it.

Speaker 22 (01:48:38):
But anyway, they were like, oh, it's his ballroom, it's.

Speaker 2 (01:48:42):
For his ballroom.

Speaker 3 (01:48:43):
I just thought the ballrooms of that, the ballroom.

Speaker 22 (01:48:46):
That and they reckon all that used to be able
to walk behind the White House will be closed off
for about two years because all the construction vehicles and
everyone's coming in and out of there all the time.

Speaker 2 (01:48:57):
But I tell you the thing.

Speaker 22 (01:48:59):
I came to the cherry blossoms and they're all blown
off the week before, So I think now I've missed
it two years in a row. You really probably need
to be resident for about a month if you truly
truly want to see those title black basin terry blossoms.

Speaker 3 (01:49:15):
Don't las sorry? Are what are the highlights of your
trip to Washington, DC?

Speaker 4 (01:49:19):
Are you?

Speaker 2 (01:49:20):
Well?

Speaker 22 (01:49:20):
I tell you an amazing highlight, and everic I'm on
my tour now and everyone is saying that they thought
it was fantastic. So this year is the two hundred
and fiftieth year of the signing off the Declaration of Independence,
and there's a play kind of musical on at Ford's
Theater called seventeen seventy six, and it takes you through
how they got the thirteen states to sign that declaration

(01:49:41):
and how the compromises and what they sort of came
to to kind of agree to it in the end.
But the amazing thing about Ford's Theater is it's the
theatre where Abraham Lincoln was shot, and so they've still
got the box with his kind of shrine and we
sat like directly opposite, which apparently is what you used
to do in the day when you wanted to be
seen by whoever was in the presidential box. So luckily

(01:50:03):
for me we had those fabulous seats, not but anyone
was in them because it is a shrine and we
were seeing I think by somebody.

Speaker 3 (01:50:10):
It was fabulous.

Speaker 22 (01:50:11):
It was an excellent, excellent show and I would recommend
it if anyone's coming to the Capitol, you know, but
I think it runs till May.

Speaker 3 (01:50:18):
And a trip to Arlington Cemetery.

Speaker 8 (01:50:21):
Was so moving.

Speaker 22 (01:50:23):
So they do the changing of the guard, they guard
the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. They take it very
seriously but actually on and they do it on the
half hour every half hour, and they had kids doing
a reef lank ceremony. So these guards would be very
shouty pants with their clickie heels and walking up and
down steps without wobbling their heads. And these children had

(01:50:45):
to kind of follow and step and go ahead and
lay the wreath. But it was wonderful. Lots of schools
here it's kind of spring break or just after spring break,
so they're on their school expeditions. And so you do
need to book tickets for things, not that you can't
book for Arlington Cemetery, but some of the museums are ticketed,
even though they're free. They are it's good to get

(01:51:06):
a time and takatsi you can. Don't have to line
up with everybody. But it's such a beautiful city. The
buildings are majestic, the monuments, the wide open spaces. Just
the Wolf for its rooftop, which is kind of a
new neighborhood of DC now faces the river, sits on
the Potomac and looks out at Virginia. Beautiful spot to
come to eat and drink and make Mary.

Speaker 3 (01:51:28):
Thank you so much, Meghan, our travels safe. Look forward
to catching up next week. You can read more about
Meghan's travels at blog at large dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:51:38):
Books with Wiggles for the best selection of great reads.

Speaker 3 (01:51:43):
Jo McKenzie, book manager at Wickles, joins us now, good morning,
Good morning. What do you got for us today?

Speaker 24 (01:51:48):
My first book today is a novel by an Irish
writer called Tana French Who You Love I Do. She
is actually one of my favorite writers of all time.
She just has a way with her about understanding people
the nuance of local dialect. Her books are set in Ireland.
She's famous for a books she did which were known
as The Dublin Murder Squad. This new one it's called

(01:52:11):
The Keeper. It's the third in a trilogy. And I
will start by saying that if you've not read the
previous two books, it really doesn't matter, because she's clever
enough to fill in the gaps as you go. But
if you love a good book, then you should hunt
out The Searcher and The Hunter, which were the first
two in this trilogy, and they're all about a retired
Chicago detective called Carl Hooper who decides to leave the

(01:52:33):
States and move to what he thinks will be a
really nice, quiet life in a small village in western Ireland,
which Tana French has called Ardna Calti. And he arrives
in Ardna Calte and finds out that actually you can
have as much intrigue in a small village as you
can in a big city, maybe more even because of
course it's so local and personalized. And he befriends a

(01:52:53):
young girl and becomes a kind of father figure to
a young girl called Teresa, who is known as Trey.
And in this third book, a body is found. A
young woman has died and it's originally decreed to be suicide.
But Trey is certain that a local big shop businessman
has plans to Developnakelty into something completely different from what

(01:53:15):
the locals currently know it, as they think that he's
likely to bring in a big housing development or a
data farm or some other modern atrocity that they simply
don't want on their doorstep. And Trey starts investigating this,
and Carl gets drawn into it, and it's just brilliant.

Speaker 3 (01:53:30):
Oh, I'm very excited to have Cal Hooper back, very
intrigued about the second book that you've got for us today,
Bonfire of the Murdochs by Gabriel Sherman.

Speaker 24 (01:53:39):
Which of course I imagine as a play on Tom
Wolfe's famous book Bonfire of the Vanities, works perfectly in
this case and Gabriel Sherman. Some listeners may have watched
a recent movie called The Apprentice, which was about Donald
Trump's early days in real estate, his early beginnings in
New York, and that was written by Gabriel Sherman. He's

(01:54:00):
a very interesting guy. And I understand that one of
the Murdoch children are not sure which one said to
somebody that if you liked succession, then this. Their lives
are succession on steroids, and anybody who's watched Succession hard
to imagine that it could be any I thought it.

Speaker 19 (01:54:18):
Was the other way around, didn't we Where I thought
the TV show was the Murdock's on Stairs.

Speaker 24 (01:54:22):
This is extraordinary, and it's about the way that Murdoch
some years ago had set up a trust for his
children so that they would essentially have equal shares and
equal interests in the business. But over time he's decided
that Lochlin is his heir apparent, and in order to
make sure that Lachlan could take over the business and
protect it from what Trump said was his lefty liberal

(01:54:43):
other kids and make sure that the legacy in the
future of the Murdoch empire was all about the conservative,
far right populism that he's been espousing for so many years,
he decided to dismantle the trust, and in doing so,
each of the other kids were given over a billion
dollars each in order to walk away, and Lachlan then

(01:55:03):
would become the obvious successor. But the kid weren't taking
that lying down, and they started to slug it out
and it went to court in Las Vegas, and it's
absolutely fascinating. The Washington Post said about this book that
it's kind of a how to manual on how not
to manage your children.

Speaker 3 (01:55:21):
Right, I was wondering where that was going to go. Yeah,
that sounds about right. It's really good. Thank you so much, Joan.
Those two books, the first one was The Keeper by
Tana French and the second one is Bonfire of the
Murdocks by Gabriel Sherman. We'll see you next week and
see you then.

Speaker 1 (01:55:37):
The Sunday Session Full show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by
News Talks a B.

Speaker 3 (01:55:45):
Thank you so much for joining us on the Sunday
Session today. Love you to have your company. Thank you
to Kerry, who has been nominated for Best Producer at
the Radio and Podcast Awards for producing the show today.
Thank you so much. Make sure you keep listening to
News Talks. You'd be We're going to cross live to
the stand up with Mark mitchong ukro mayor Wayne Brown.

(01:56:05):
They're giving us civil defense updates and we will take
that when that that kicks off. That will be around
the day at some point, and then of course Jason
Pine will be with you for the afternoon covering off
all your sports and sport, talking things, So take care
out there, look after yourselves. Look forward to seeing you
next Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:56:52):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it Be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio

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