Full Show Podcast: 14 December 2025

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 selection of great reeds Us Talks EDB.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Good morning and welcome to the Sunday Session.

Speaker 4 (00:31):
Love to have you with us.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
I'm Francesco Budkin, with you until midday. Coming up on
the show today, actor Julian Dennison joins me to talk
about his new career as a DJ. It's something that
he fell into while working in the UK and now
he is playing Rhythm and Bones this new year, Julian
has had a very busy year. He was nominated the
Best Actor at the New Zealand Screen Awards, is currently
starring in the latest installment of How To Train the

(00:54):
Dragon and has been shooting new projects. He is going
to join me to talk about all of this, including
his engagement. Dian Henwood is with me after eleven. This week,
he was announced as the Best Foods Comedy Gala host
Betweeny twenty six, which is quite an honor, and he
joins me to talk about his year, his health, the
state of comedy and living life well, and of course

(01:14):
is always You're most welcome to text me throughout the morning.
On ninety two ninety two the Sunday Session, it's a
stunt performative politics, a farce, a sideshow, a distraction from
the high view and quarterly GDP results being released this week.
Goodness me. The thought of a debate between our current
Finance Minister Nicola Willison previous Finance Minister Ruth Richardson calls

(01:38):
quite a stir this week, didn't it. Politics is, by
its nature a contest of ideas and value, So why
are we afraid of a little debate? We see performative
debate taking place in the House on a regular basis.
Dare I say it? But with all the hype, maybe
people will watch this one. I like the fact that
Finance Minister Nichola Willis isn't quietly counting down the days

(02:01):
until Christmas break to slink away and hope that the
fudge campaign div by the tax Payers Union will slowly
slip from our minds. After Bevy and a barbecue or
three in this column. In his column in the New
Zealand Herald this week, Matthew Houghton said that whoever advised
Finance Minister Niccola Willis to challenge her Predecessorve Ruth Richardson,

(02:23):
now chair of the Taxpayers Union, to a debate, should
be sacked. And I wonder whether Willis, in experienced debater,
came up with the idea herself. Houton does have a point.
It is potentially a lose lose situation. Richardson is going
to be cast as the member of a hard nosed
right happy to inflict misery on people to achieve fiscal consolidation,
and Willis could be a sitting duck depending on how
the High Few and quarterly DIDYP results are released during

(02:46):
the week. But do we want politicians who are always
thinking about themselves, taking a strategic approach and crafting their
message to avoid transparency or would you prefer a finance
minister prepared to openly discuss one of the main issues
concerning New Zealand is today the state of the economy,
with someone who was trying to undermine her New Zealand
Herald's Political editor Thomas Coglan does an excellent job of

(03:08):
explaining what's behind this situation in his article titled Ruth
Richardson versus Nikola willis the facts behind the argument. Essentially,
after a financial crisis or shock, it's accepted that government
spend more to get through the box end up in
a bit of a mess. But once that economy has restarted,
what's on the other side of the shock, fiscal consolidation
kicks in the budget's titan, so the country is ready

(03:29):
for the next financial shock. What is to be debated
is whether the current coalition is moving fast enough when
it comes to this fiscal consolidation. Will we be ready
for the next financial shock. We know we have challenges ahead,
with two of the nine ones being our aging populations,
impact on our house system and increasing cost of superannuation.
So do we increase taxes, reduce spending and afflict the

(03:51):
social costs of austerity or do we risk taking a
slight approach to getting back on track with less negative
impact on our communities. As long as it's civil, it
sounds like something worth debating, But it needs to be
a debate which doesn't get personal, nasty or derogatory, one
in which each debate experiences their values and the reasoning
behind their approach backs their thinking with evidence. And outlays

(04:13):
a long term vision for New Zealand. This is the
kind of discourse we should be having. Let's get an
independent economist to run this debate and get on with it.
If nothing else, it could be highly entertaining, something we
could all look forward to or enjoy at this.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Time of year for a Sunday session.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
At the end of the day. Of course, only time
will tell which approach is best, because we know we
can't look into the gaze into the crystal ball and
work out whether it's going to be another earthquake, ORed
cyclone or global financial crisis do we? So we don't
know what the next decade holds. But still, any chance
the government gets to I think to explain their vision

(04:54):
in detail, I think we should take it. Can to
hear your thoughts. You can text on ninety two ninety two.
It is eleven past nine.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
Keep It's simple.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
It's Sundays for Sundays Session with Francesca Rudkin and Wiggles
for the best selection of great release news talks.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
Envy fourteen past nine Right Reddit has launched a High
Court challenge to Australia's world leading social media ban for
under sixteens. The platform is arguing the band raises issues
around privacy and political expression. It's also questioning whether it
should be included in the aide restriction. So will the
social media band survive a High Court challenge to discuss

(05:33):
I'm joined by Australian constitutional law expert Professor Rosalind Dixon.
Good morning, Rosalind, Good morning Fiona.

Speaker 5 (05:40):
Thanks for having me, Francisca.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
I'm just going to get that right now so we
don't embarrass us. You know, it doesn't get embarrassing. That's
all right, that's all right. Is there a strong case
here against this span?

Speaker 5 (05:55):
Well, I think it's a very arguable case, but strong
I think, you know, it is a really hard thing
to predict because we really don't know a lot about
how the High Court thinks about these issues. You'd have
to say, in New Zealand you've got a clear borer
right to free expression, but there are strong countervailing concerns
that are resonating globally. It's while you're thinking about it

(06:16):
on the radio this morning. So I think it's hard
to predict the outcome. I think we can say it's
going to be a very vigorous and interesting contest in
the High Court.

Speaker 3 (06:24):
Rosalind, can you talk me through the issues read it
has raised here? They're challenging on the grounds that it
infringes the implied freedom of political communication. Does the platform
have a point there?

Speaker 5 (06:36):
They absolutely do. So, you know, the Australian constitution's a
bit different from New Zealand and that we have an
entrenched constitution where yours is a more multi dimensional, conventional
constitution with an express free speech right. We don't have that,
but the court says we haven't implied right to freedom
of political communication. So the first thing they've got to
show is that the communication is actually political. You know,

(06:59):
TikTok makeup videos aren't political, and none of those are
going to be protected in Australia where they might be
in New Zealand. So Reddit's actually not a bad plant
if here because some of what goes on and Reddit
it's a bit more political than what goes on on Instagram.
So if they can show that young people's political communication
is burdened, or that adults learning from young people and

(07:19):
hearing from them is burdened, you know, they're up and running.
And then what needs to be decided is whether the
restrictions are reasonably necessary or proportionate to a legitimate and
important government purpose. And I think what's really interesting is
there's lots of purposes the government could rely on, but
we're not entirely sure what they will run and how
much evidence they're going to have to support that.

Speaker 3 (07:40):
Okay, And what about the privacy issue. This is to
do with the fact that on Ridded a lot of
people don't use their actual names and have to share
a lot of information about themselves.

Speaker 5 (07:49):
In New Zealand, that'd be a good argument. In Australia,
privacy rights are much more limited. We don't have a
sort of constitutional style privacy right. We've got statutree rights
and there's a big debate about the common law. I
think that's going to be a less compelling argument. I
think the implied freedom ones the potential winner. If there's
a winner there.

Speaker 3 (08:08):
A lot of the arguments against the ban are around
the negative impact on human rights. Does this ban go
against human rights?

Speaker 5 (08:16):
Well, in a lot of hard cases, human rights are
on both sides. So I think back to COVID, you know,
trying to restrict freedom of expression, freedom of movement, and
protest was all about protecting the right to health. So
it was a legitimate hard case of balancing freedom of
movement against the right to health. Here you're trying to
protect kids mental health, You're trying to protect a great

(08:38):
deal of other forms of you know, public interests that
have human rights resonances against the right to freedom of expression.
So it's a true human rights hard case of balancing.
The one thing I think will be really important is
whether this actually works in any way. You know, I've
got teenagers, and I know that there's a lot of

(08:58):
sense in which these laws are designed by people like
us who don't understand how teens think and work. And
if none of these bands actually stick, ironically, if they're
too narrow and too ineffective, you know, that fact itself
might bring the law down when a broader law might
be something that's harder to sort of defend from a
first blush of freedom of expression. But at least it works,

(09:21):
you know, you can't really ban stuff without any evidence
that it works.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
And I suppose the question is our Australian lawmakers prepared
to tweak this as they go, because I mean, the
rest of the world we are looking at this as
an experiment, you know, and I'm you know, and so
we're interested to see how it unfolds. Do you think
that the you know, the Australia is open to kind
of playing around with it to get it right.

Speaker 5 (09:47):
Well, if one was sitting anywhere else in the world,
of course, that's exactly what one would be hoping, because
this is a great global experiment. But politics is complicated.
You know, whether the government's willing to stand behind this
is a major agenda will no doubt depend on how
it polls and the vagaries of politics. As your listeners
may be aware, the minut who proposed this has got

(10:07):
herself in some pretty hot water around a spending scandal,
and so her political capital is fast diminishing. It will
depend on whether the Prime Minister is willing to put
his own political capital, which remains significant, behind this issue.
And I do think he believes in it, there's lots
of evidence of that, but whether he's willing to push
it through, including through amendments, will depend on how much

(10:29):
support he has in the Senate and how he thinks
it's playing out with parents and young voters.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
Rosalind read it doesn't believe it should be considered an
age restricted social media platform. Could they have a point there,
I mean, has read it different enough from the likes
of Facebook and Instagram and things.

Speaker 5 (10:50):
I am not an expert in this, but you know,
my sort of casual impression is that they are both
more political than some of the other platforms, so have
a stronger argument for constitutional protection in Australia, but also
more dangerous. They are you know, places that have some
very tame content and some extremely non tame content. And

(11:11):
so if what you're worried about is body image for
fifteen year olds, Reddit should be out. But if you're
worried about extremism and people being kind of co opted
into an echo chamber of extremists and misinformed views, Reddit's
right in the firing line. So my own view is,
ironically they do have a stronger claim to protection than

(11:31):
the you know, likes of TikTok or Instagram, but they
also have a stronger case to be regulated. So I
think that argument is unlikely to succeed.

Speaker 3 (11:39):
Do you expect more challenges in the coming days and weeks?

Speaker 5 (11:43):
You'd think so, because of course every platform is going
to want to have its own approach to this, and
you know, if you're in, if you're meta, you might
not want to be directly associated with reddits arguments, so
you've got to see how it plays out. But I
would expect that there will be a bit of a
pylon in terms of parties and challenges. They may or
may not then be all consolidated into one. But it's

(12:05):
going to be a fascinating a legal experiment as well
as a political one. I do think, though, we're going
to have to wait and see if it sticks. I mean,
the teenagers are on it and they're getting around it
every day, and so there's going to be a lot
that happens before it gets to the High Court.

Speaker 3 (12:20):
We kind of knew that was going to happen, didn't we, Rosalind.
I mean, at the end of the day, it's sort
of the first stick. A law can't just solve the
problem for everybody, you know, can it. It's very hard
to get a lawd that's absolutely perfect that you know
can continue that out I mean for everybody.

Speaker 5 (12:37):
Of course, my own interview is though it might not
be that well designed, because again, if the people who
make laws are in their forties and fifties and sixties
and they're legislating for clever fifteen year olds, things don't
always go well. And to me, you know, I'm involved
in training people for politics. I think it's a reminder
why we need young people in politics. If you want

(12:57):
this sort of issue, we need to hear from the
young people directly if they think it's a good idea,
and they need to actually help design it well.

Speaker 3 (13:04):
And I've seen online as well that there's a lot
of comments that under sixteens haven't had their accounts restricted yet.
That's obviously going to be a problem if the platforms
aren't getting there under sixteens off their site, so you know,
dealing with it, yeah, and then the question is how
draconian do they get, because you know, to really restrict

(13:25):
might require pretty draconian measures, but that's probably what's necessary
for effectiveness.

Speaker 5 (13:29):
But then draconian measures also undermine validity. So it's a
catch twenty two for the government and they need to
litigate this really strategically as well as enforce it strategically
if they want it to stick.

Speaker 3 (13:42):
Rosalind, thank you so much for your time this morning.
Really appreciated. That was Australian constitutional law expert Professor Roslind Dixon.
They're just talking us through Reddit and the process that
they are going through at the moment. Thank you for
your text. My thirteen year old nephew, and Melbourne still
has all social media. He just changed the year of
birth a few months ago and it's been as simple

(14:04):
as that, and they are all doing it so. As
Rosalind said there, she doesn't think that the act itself
has been very well designed. But look, we're all watching
with great fascination, aren't we. It is twenty three past nine.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
This Sunday session, right.

Speaker 3 (14:20):
Well, we've all been surviving twenty five, but brighter days
of forecast. The twenty twenty six kee We Bank has
released its economic outlook and is tipping a robust recovery,
with suggestions the economy has turned a corner. KEEPI Bank
economist Sabrina Delgado joins me. Now, Sabrina, good morning.

Speaker 6 (14:38):
Good morning.

Speaker 3 (14:39):
This is a pretty upbeat report from you. You say
we are seeing signs of recovery across the board.

Speaker 6 (14:45):
Oh, absolutely, We're pretty excited going into next year. We're
looking forward to quite a broad based recovery, especially after
this year. You know, it was a frustrating year for many.
We did expect a recovery to sort of start taking
place in twenty twenty five. This time last year. It
took some hits and had some delays, and it's just
now that we're starting to see the signs of recovery

(15:06):
has sort of taken foot, and I mean, it's great
that we're finally here, and it's really all to do
with the fact that we've got the right settings now infrastrates,
you know, there are at levels that are finally encouraging
activity that matters, and it's having an impact the signs
we're seeing. You know, we've got consumption lifting, business confidence
as the firmer, the jobs market is stabilizing, we're seeing
some activity in the housing market. So the recovery is

(15:29):
underway now and you know, we think will gather pace
into twenty twenty six for a much better year.

Speaker 3 (15:33):
Okay, so that's why things are looking brighter. Where are
we seeing shifts at the moment, in.

Speaker 6 (15:39):
Particular, definitely across consumption. You know, we've been looking at
some of our own Kiwibank card data. We've seen that
consumers they're signed to spend more on some of those
funno discretionary items. That's a good sign and consumer confidence.
They're also starting to spend more on your big ticket items,
particularly around housing related spending, so that usually tends to

(16:02):
tick point to maybe a bit of a pickup in
the housing market too. You know, if people are out
buying new furniture or even buying some paint, they're either
you know, maybe looking to moving homes or putting their
house back on the market. So it's all pretty positive there.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
Love hearing about the uptick. Love hearing that things feel like,
you know, the bell curve is kind of on a
it's heading in a different direction and things. But it's
really interesting, isn't it. Because then I go and talk
to someone, you know, who is a very big retailer
who says to me, oh, it's still really tight. People
aren't shopping. You know, it's hard to kind of get
a gauge on it, but it does. It feels like
it's moving in the right direction, but it's quite slow.

(16:39):
Would that be fair to.

Speaker 6 (16:40):
Say, yeah, we're still at the beginning of the recovery now.
You know, it wasn't until a couple of months ago
that we actually thought interest rate settings move into levels
that actually do encourage activity. We were more at neutral
settings before, so it will take some time for that
path through to continue. We still have around thirty percent
of you know, the mortgaged households to roll onto lower

(17:02):
rates as well in the coming six months. So there
is still a part through effect that will take time,
but we are starting to see those signs that Okay,
there's signs of life here. The recovery is going to
take place now.

Speaker 3 (17:15):
Signs of life. I love it. We've seen long term
interest rate rises this week. What do you expect in
twenty twenty six on that front.

Speaker 6 (17:25):
Yeah, Look, ultimately it's a little bit annoying, and I
guess the premature toy seeing these financial conditions tightening, and
it's a little bit frustrating because it comes from a
bit of a missfit from the Reserve Bank. You know,
following their last meetings, they sort of signaled that they
were done cutting completely and it encouraged traders to price

(17:47):
the rate hikes into next year. For us, you know,
rate hikes are still a twenty twenty seven story, but
that poor signal has seen you know, bank's funding costs
through wholesale rates increase quite dramatically. But ultimately, you know,
it doesn't change our outlook or derailed the recovery that
we're expecting. You know, if we look at interest rates today,

(18:09):
they're so materially lower than they were compared to this
time last year, and they're still upsettings that you know,
should encourage this lifting consumption. It should encourage investors be
investing in businesses to invest in higher So we still,
you know, still expect the recourverry to take place.

Speaker 3 (18:26):
Even with that, what are you expecting from the housing market?

Speaker 6 (18:31):
The housing market or we are starting to see quite
a list in activity. You know, how sales are up
six percent compared to this time last year, and we
always say, you know, where where house sales go, prices
tend to follow interest rates. Again, they're always the largest
driver for the housing markets too, So we do expect
a lift. We're saying about two to three percent next year,

(18:52):
and that's against the backdrop where you know, we do
see that we have quite ample supply in the market
right now, and you pair that with weak population growth
because of the sort of migrate low migration levels that
we're getting into the country right now, so that that
does temper any bigger gains in house prices, but it's
definitely an improvement from you know, what we've been seeing

(19:15):
over the last two and a half years, which is
that house prices have just largely tracked sideways.

Speaker 3 (19:20):
And Sabrina, how about households. Do you expect households will
feel a bit of a shift in twenty twenty six
and for a little bit of relief.

Speaker 6 (19:27):
Yeah, absolutely, I think we're hearing that a lot already.
I think you know, as households roll onto these lower
interest rates, that makes it difference. And as the housing
market picks up, you know, we know that the wealth
perfect in New Zealand is quite real. So if we
see those gains as two to three percent house based
gains next year in the housing market, you know that'll
add a bit more boost of confidence out of you know,

(19:48):
sixty seven percent of KII own their own house. So
when the housing market does it better, you tend to
feel a little bit better too. So we are we
are hopeful there.

Speaker 3 (19:56):
So Brena, if you've got a good saying for twenty six,
like we've survived twenty five or we were going to
thrive but we survived twenty five. Unfortunately, robust recovery twenty
six kind of has a ring to it, but we do.

Speaker 6 (20:08):
It's not as good as our previous rhymes, but it's
fixed in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 3 (20:12):
Okay, fixed in twenty twenty six. Yeah, nice, not bad,
better than what we came up with this morning, Sabrina.

Speaker 7 (20:19):
Thank you so we tried.

Speaker 6 (20:20):
We tried.

Speaker 3 (20:21):
No, no, really honestly, we tried to and it didn't
go very well. Thank you so much. Serena really appreciated
that was Kiibank economist Sabrina Delgado. There so good news
on the horizons. I hope you're feeling the same that
sort of twenty twenty six. You feel like they'll be
a little bit of a switch there as well. It
is twenty nine past nine these Talks B.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
On News Talks at B.

Speaker 3 (20:52):
In regards to the social media band Mauz text to say,
it's a parenting thing, not just a law enforcement is suit.
You have to know what your kids are looking at
on social media. Lazy parents are the ones who are
letting the side down. Completely agree with you. It's not
a cure, is it. It's a treatment, and you know,
depending on how well you go about that treatment will
depend on what the results maybe are.

Speaker 8 (21:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:10):
No, it's very much a team effort. Oh Rod Rod
came up on the saying for twenty six more tricks
in twenty six more likely. Humph, he says, well tricks,
what kind of tricks? Rod? Anyway, I'm getting completely distracted.
Now let's talk politics News Talk ZB Political reporter Ethan

(21:32):
Griffith is with me now.

Speaker 2 (21:33):
Good morning Ethan, Good morning Francesca.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
Okay, we got the half year Economic Fiscal Update being
released this week. Are you excited? What are we expecting?

Speaker 7 (21:42):
I am kind of excited. Actually, it's the final sitting
week of Parliament for the year and it's going to
be a really, really big one. Not only is the
House sitting under urgency so from nine am to midnight
each day to pass a bunch of legislation. We've got
two very big economic updates. The first, as you say,
is the half year Economic and Fiscal Update, or HEYFU

(22:04):
as we call it. It sounds boring, but it's one
of the biggest days of the year in terms of
the government's books. We get to look at Treasury's latest forecasts,
what's the predicted growth, where's unemployment and inflation going? All
very important things as we head into election year. And
of course the government opens its books too, so what's
the debt track, what's the income looking like, what costs

(22:25):
have risen? Now we only see this data twice a year,
once at the budget and again each December. It all
happens in the lock up where journalists are locked in
a room for three hours to pour over the data.
So that's happening on Tuesday. Then on Thursday we get
some real data, not forecasts. The Q three GDP figure
is out telling us where the economy's gone and the

(22:48):
three months to September. You'll remember, of course, the Q
two data had a huge drop zero point nine percent,
which no one was predicting. But economists are a lot
more hopeful for this set of numbers, so that'll be
interesting on Thursday too.

Speaker 3 (23:01):
I was going to say, can you tell by the
sort of the look on the faces of ministers as
they're walking around Parliament to whether it's going to be
with the news is going to be good or bad?

Speaker 9 (23:10):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (23:11):
I mean they claim that they don't find out the
information before all the rest of us, but I'm not
entirely sure of that. I would think that they would
get somewhat of a heads up, but whether they have
the figures or not at the moment, I'm not sure.
I suspect there might be some buoyant faces around after
some decent polling on the government side, particularly that One
News poll last week. But yeah, it's also the end

(23:33):
of the year, so over I was kind of happy anyway, Ethan.

Speaker 3 (23:35):
I understand it's a bit of a stunt, it's a
bit of a side show, it's a distraction, it's performative politics,
all the things that people have called it this week.
But I'm actually quite interested to see Nikola Willis debate
Ruth Richardson. I'm quite happy to have a contest of
ideas and values and to hear things in detail and
have a good debate on it. Are we going to
get our debate?

Speaker 7 (23:55):
Yeah, I'm equally as excited as you are. I think
it would be quite cool. I'm not sure it's the
smartest move in terms of political optics from Nikola Willis.
You know, why are you debating someone that was in
charge thirty years ago? But regardless, I think it's going
to be very entertaining if it does happen. Now that,
of course, is former Finance Minister Ruth Richardson challenging or
Nichola Willis challenging her.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
To a debate.

Speaker 7 (24:18):
Now, Ruth is the chair of the Taxpas Union, which
this week came out and fiercely criticized Willis handing around
hacks of fudge with Nicholas's face all over them, claiming
she's fudging the numbers. Ruth says, as we know that
Nicholas spending like a drunken sailor, claiming she hasn't reduced spending. Nichola,
on the other hand, says she has cut wasteful spending
and of course wants to debate Ruth and I quote

(24:42):
to test what her tolerance for human misery is. So
there does seem to be a little bit of an
impasse between the two sides. The Taxpayers Union, of which
is the chair, as I say, says they want the
debate on News Talk ZB with Heather on breakfast. Willis,
on the other hand, had already booked out a hall
at Parliament. She wants it to be hosted by Toby
Mannhei from The Spinoff, who's just completed his Fantastic Juggernaut

(25:04):
series where he extends interviewed Ruth. Now, I have spoken
to Nichola's team this morning. They say they're still at
an impasse, but it's looking very promising that it will
be held this week.

Speaker 3 (25:16):
I like the fact we've got a finance minister who
is not afraid to step up and you know, debate
her beliefs and in her approach and her policies. Yeah,
someone's trying to very openly undermine her. I like the
fact that she's just not slinking off to Christmas and
hoping everybody forgets about it.

Speaker 10 (25:32):
Yeah, totally.

Speaker 7 (25:32):
And one thing that Ruth keeps saying is, you know,
Nikola needs to have the courage of her convictions and
start cutting spending like she did.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
Well.

Speaker 7 (25:41):
It remains true that the two I think have very
different convictions. I think Nicola is not a finance minister
that would openly cut you know, benefits, the health budget, etc.
I think it's going to be a very interesting debate
and I can only hope that it does get off
the ground.

Speaker 3 (25:57):
Ethan, thank you so much for your time this morning.
Really appreciate it. Coming up after ten, actor and now
DJ Julian Dennison is with me to talk about playing
his first festival, Rhythm and Vines this new year. It's
twenty two to ten.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
The Sunday session full show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by
News Talks.

Speaker 3 (26:19):
B Thank you very much for your text this morning.
Somebody else text dinner saying survived or twenty five same
trip in twenty six. Well, look all you guys have
done much better with the rhyming than Garry and I
did this morning while we were redempting to come up
with a slogan, thank you very much. Ninety two ninety
two is the text number right this week? Expat Kiwi
entrepreneur Harry Melsop has raised four point three million US

(26:40):
dollars for his AI startup Antioch. The former Tesla engineer
and Stanford University graduate, is part of a team bringing
AI into the physical world. So Antioch has built a
software program that lets companies building robots test them in
real world scenarios. So Harry has just rved back in
New Zealand. He joins us to talk through what he

(27:00):
is hoping to achieve. Harry, good morning, Good morning, How
are you good? Thank you?

Speaker 11 (27:04):
Hey?

Speaker 3 (27:05):
Talk me through what created here?

Speaker 12 (27:07):
In Layman's terms, Sure thing, yeah, so, I mean, you know,
at Antioch, our mission ultimately is to help companies who
are building autonomous systems, whether that's a self driving car
or a robot in a factory, or a drone to
sort of shift all of their validation workflows from hardware

(27:29):
into pure software. And so, you know, as you can imagine,
if you're building a self driving car, super important to
test that system thoroughly. And so what that means is,
you know, hundreds of thousands or millions of kilometers driven
on real roads, super expensive, you know, the car's breakdown.
And so we're really helping all of those companies move

(27:50):
their workflows into what's basically you can think of it
as a really high fidelity video game engine that really
closely models the real world.

Speaker 3 (27:59):
Okay, so what other kind of industries would be using
this technology?

Speaker 12 (28:05):
Yeah, so we work with Yeah, so you know, beyond
the the autonomous driving space, beyond the drone space, we're
seeing a lot of interest from manufacturing, from logistics. I
think something that's also personally surprised me is a lot
of interest from smart security companies. So you know, smart

(28:25):
home sensores, smart doorbells, those sorts of applications as well,
because you know, you can imagine for them at testing
that that those devices are properly detecting as they should be.
Is a high priority too, So there's really quite a
wide gamut of applications there.

Speaker 3 (28:42):
I'm assuming that there's a gap in the AI market here,
is anyone else doing this?

Speaker 12 (28:48):
Yeah, so what we typically see is that companies who
are trying to make this move into software simulation him
to try and build that capability internally. And so you know,
for example, when when I finished my master's degree, my
first job of that was that Tesla's autopilot team. We

(29:09):
had a fantastic simulation team there internally. But that costs
tends to hundreds of millions of dollars to kind of
build out within the company. And you know, we don't
think that that's the way it should be, right. We
want to make sure that we're kind of equalizing the
playing field so that newer and smaller startups can also
kind of participate here.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
So that's yeah, so quite different industries using this technology,
do you need to then design it? Are you constantly
designing for different specific companies and industries?

Speaker 13 (29:46):
Yeah, no, that's a great question.

Speaker 12 (29:47):
And so I think there's kind of two parts to
how we structure the business. So the first is that
we build the simulation technology in a very bottoms up fashion,
so we add support for you know, maybe its motors
or maybe it's cameras or radars, so on and so forth,
and then that kind of allows us to you know,

(30:10):
service a more diverse stet of customers ultimately, because you
can start to think of all of these different categories,
whether it's a drone or autonomous vehicle as a sort
of you know, bringing together of those different foundational technology.

Speaker 3 (30:23):
So you've kind of got it sitting there and it
depends on what the client's going to need. You kind
of take that and take that and take that and
put it all together.

Speaker 13 (30:29):
Yeah, that's exactly right.

Speaker 3 (30:31):
Sure, that's not quite out works at all.

Speaker 13 (30:33):
Eric, No, No, that's actually that's pretty accurate.

Speaker 3 (30:37):
How big do you think the physical AI industry is
going to be.

Speaker 12 (30:41):
Yeah, that's a great question, and it's something that we
have spent a lot of time thinking about before we
started this company. I believe that it's going to be
the largest industry in the world over the next ten
to fifteen years. I think that we you know, we've
seen with the rise of large language models and companies
like open ai, that the world of desk work has

(31:06):
fundamentally changed forever. And I think we're going to see
those same trends playing out in the physical world as well,
and ultimately those industries are really what matters, right, you know,
we need to we need to eat food. You know,
we consume things in the physical world, and so the
scope for impact there is enormous.

Speaker 3 (31:25):
So, Harry, what is this funding going to do for you?

Speaker 12 (31:29):
Yeah, so we're using it to expand the team out.
We've been building the team primarily in New York City
and so you know, bringing in new engineering staff that
allows us to take on new customers. Currently, we are
in an unfortunate position where we're pretty saturated in terms of,
you know, the number of customers that we can kind
of help, so we we pretty urgently need to expand.

Speaker 13 (31:52):
A little bit there.

Speaker 12 (31:53):
And then also, you know, the other surprising piece for
us has been the need to kind of produce content
in these simulations. So, you know, if some of our
customers have the need for particular warehouses to be modeled
or home environments or whatever, that looks like we actually
need quite a large treaty artistry capability as well, So.

Speaker 13 (32:17):
Bringing some of those folks into the team.

Speaker 3 (32:19):
This isn't your first company. You also founded a company
called Transpose, which you sold after setting up. Is Antioch
a project that you're really keen to kind of get
up and running and see where it will go and
stick around whether or are you sort of planning on
getting it up and running and selling that as well.

Speaker 12 (32:37):
Yeah, it's a good question now. I think for us,
we kind of see the opportunity here as being enormous.
You know, I think we're all very aligned on this
idea that this physical AI industry is going to be
world defining over the next ten to fifteen years, and
we think that we're building a product which is really

(32:58):
very necessary. Everyone who's participating in that space is going
to need a solution like Antioch. So for us, this
is this is a business that we're going to want
to hold on to and we hope to grow.

Speaker 3 (33:10):
Harry, You're most welcome not to answer this question, but
can I ask how old you are?

Speaker 13 (33:15):
I'm twenty seven, cry.

Speaker 3 (33:17):
Key, Okay, this is your second business? Ah, yes, yes, yes, okay.
Oh look, Harry, really impressive stuff. I'm really keen to
keep it on it and see how it goes. Thank
you so much for your time, Have a lovely Christmas
and enjoying your time back in New Zealand. Well that
was quite impressive, wasn't it. It is twelve to ten
News Talk CB.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
The headlines and the hard questions. It's the mic asking Breakfast.

Speaker 14 (33:43):
Primary Principles payoffer has been rejected. Robin Brown is the
principle of Birtuville School and a member of the NZDI
negotiating team. You've been offered up to twenty one thousand
dollars last four point six percent, but you still want
another fifteen on top of that.

Speaker 15 (33:56):
What we want is recognition for the unsustainable workload and
curriculum upheaple.

Speaker 14 (34:01):
If they say to you we give you fifteen thousand dollars,
we will take the offer. We will take that offer
out to our principles see whether they would take that off.

Speaker 3 (34:07):
Robin, that's a lot of money.

Speaker 14 (34:09):
You guys are basically asking for an increase of thirty
six thousand dollars plus four point six percent.

Speaker 16 (34:14):
No one else gets that kind of money here.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
The duplessy Ellen on the Mic Hosking Breakfast back tomorrow
at six am with the Defender and used talks ed
b relaxed.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
It's still the weekend.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin and Wiggles for
the best selection of great breeds used talks.

Speaker 15 (34:32):
Ed b when is Christmas time? After snows falling from
the sca and no, well be here's sad under miss
Hotoo because you're.

Speaker 3 (34:47):
Common, but a camy bell getting us in the Christmas spirit. Now,
if you think if you embarrassed yourself at the Christmas
work do this week, well maybe you didn't do as
badly as a raccoon did in Virginia that really embarrassed
itself at broken to a liquor store and it had

(35:11):
quite a good time drinking its way through the product.
Apparently it's suspected of a wider crime spree. The raccoon
also broken to a nearby karate studio, and then it
raided the department of Motor Vehicles for snacks as you do.
And then the raccoon was found passed out in the
bathroom of the liquor store two days after this is

(35:32):
a couple of days after Thanksgiving, and then it was
released back into the world. The funniest thing is this
has gone viral, right and the reason that the officials says,
so you know, you know, the officials have said that
little Kung Fu trash panda was living his best life
when he was detained in the liquor store. He kept
his spirits up even after being placed in the county kennel.

(35:55):
They just put him in there, let him relax for
a few hours. The sun was beating on him, so
it's feeling good. Apparently. The officials also said that they
released him about a mile away from the shopping complex.
He didn't do anything wrong, they see, he was just
having a good time. And the official son that the
story has gone viral because it's so relatable. They said,
everyone's been there. Everyone's had a few extra and passed

(36:15):
out by the toilet and hope someone came to get
them the next morning. No, I don't think everybody has.
But anyway, the cutest shot of the little raccoon, they're
all passed out by the toilet. I hope you've been
better behaved at your Christmas parties. And some very good
news from King Charles. He gave us a cancer update today.

Speaker 17 (36:36):
I am able to share with you the good news that,
thanks to early diagnosis, effective intervention, and adherence to doctors' orders,
my own schedule of cancer treatment can be reduced in
the new year. This milestone is both a personal blessing

(36:57):
and a testimony to the remarkable advances that have been
made in cancer care in recent years.

Speaker 3 (37:04):
So that is very good news heading into the new year.
This was a pre recorded television message that was broadcast
on Channel four on Friday, Saturday our time as part
of a stand up to Canconite that the King was
taking part of.

Speaker 18 (37:18):
So there we go.

Speaker 3 (37:19):
Some good news you've got. Oh look you've been thinking
about twenty twenty six and your slogan for twenty twenty
six brick by brick in twenty six. It's pretty good, Chris,
Lots of bricks in twenty six. Bricks' is obviously popular.
Optimistic twenty twenty six, Optimistic twenty six, So I just
take to do optimistic twenty six. That works quite well.

(37:43):
Another text here, Hey Francesca, can you please give us
Harry's last name again and any information you have on him,
so I can none of my friends of his mission,
thank you so much. So it was Harry Melsop and
the company was Antioch that he has started up. He's
American based, doesn't he, kerriy Yes, My producer's nodding. Harry Melsop.

(38:04):
Google that and I think you'll find some pretty impressive information.
It is. Yes, it is five to ten News Talks EB.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
The Sunday Session Full show podcast on iHeart Radio powered
by News Talks FB.

Speaker 10 (38:22):
Right.

Speaker 3 (38:22):
Julian Dennison is one of our finest actors. He is
only twenty three. His resume is impressive for someone his age,
as is his range. He can like kids and adults
and films like How To Train and Dragon, but he
can also move us to tears by telling important kuby
stories like he did in Uproar and Now Dennison has
found a new way to fill the time between shoots.

(38:43):
He started djaying and he's going to tell us what
it is he absolutely loves about it and why got
into it in the first place. Next, we're going to
play a little bit of kid cudding to Coody Kid Coody, Sorry,
I'm so down with the kids. Is also playing with midvines.
No doubt these still be kicking around together taking us
to the news. But Julian Dennison is.

Speaker 9 (39:05):
Next received the free as Mine and Nay He's either
Day and Night.

Speaker 2 (39:13):
The Long and Lone received the freeze.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
Mine and Name and n Welcome to the Sunday Session
with Francesca Rudkin and Wiggles for the best selection of
great reeds used to talk.

Speaker 3 (39:33):
Good to have you with us. It is seven past ten,
Hunt for the World of People, Deadpool, Godzilla Versus Kong
and now Rhythm and Vines. It turns out Julian Denison
is a man of many talents. This summer, he's switching
from film set to turntables to play his very first
festival gig at Rhythm and Vines in Gisbon. We had
to find out more about this newfound talent, so Julian

(39:55):
Denison joins me.

Speaker 19 (39:56):
Now, good morning, good morning, how are we very good?

Speaker 3 (40:00):
Thank you? Now, Julian Dennison, the DJ, tell me about this.
How did it all come about?

Speaker 9 (40:04):
I know that's a it's a pretty funny sentence, but
it came about. I was overseas. I was working over
in the UK for a little bit, maybe around two
years two and a half years ago, and I have
a friends who DJ's here in Auckland and yeah, I
think we were on FaceTime and I was like, man,

(40:27):
you know my works it's up and down and it's
like I need another hobby. When I'm here and he's like, man,
why didn't you why didn't you pick up some DJing?
Like it's a fun hobby, you know, you get to
listen to music, cur music, you know, kind of just
you can kind of do whatever you want with it.

Speaker 19 (40:43):
And yeah, and that's kind of how it started. You know.

Speaker 9 (40:45):
The place I was staying at was like above a
DJ shop, miraculously, so kind of went downstairs and asked
questions and then.

Speaker 19 (40:54):
Kind of just got into it.

Speaker 9 (40:55):
I feel like how everyone gets into it, just like
curiosity and yeah, and then it's just kind of a
vole from there.

Speaker 19 (41:01):
It's been really fun.

Speaker 3 (41:02):
It was clearly meant to be if you were living
above a DJ shop.

Speaker 19 (41:06):
Right yeah, yeah, yeah, clearly, yeah, clearly meant to be.
Yeah yeah, They're like, oh, this guy's got to come
in here one day. So there are a.

Speaker 3 (41:13):
Few videos on TikTok from around May this year onwards,
and I've watched a few of them.

Speaker 19 (41:18):
You're good, Thank you.

Speaker 9 (41:20):
I try, I really try you you kind of I
think growing up you always just think that you know,
they're pressing buttons and they're like you know, but what
I've really fall in love with is like the craft
of it, you know what I mean, Like it's about
playing music that people want to hear, that they want
to dance to, and you know, you realize, you kind

(41:41):
of realize how extensive it is. Like it's not just
people pressing buttons and changing songs like this.

Speaker 19 (41:46):
They're not just like.

Speaker 9 (41:47):
The hit like the Master of the Playlist, but they're
really they're controlling a kind of controlling a room and
helping people kind of yeah, have a good time, which
I think I've that's the thing I've really fall in
love with, and that's why I've like continued.

Speaker 19 (42:00):
To always wanting to get better at everything I do.

Speaker 3 (42:03):
You know, I was one did you did you pick
it up up sort of naturally? Did you just teach yourself?
I'm wondering, if you're with one of these sort of
annoying people, it's just naturally good at everything.

Speaker 10 (42:13):
No, no, no, no, not at all, not at all.

Speaker 9 (42:14):
There was like a lot of YouTube, a lot of
like calling my friends and being like, yo, well what
do I do this?

Speaker 10 (42:19):
How do I do this?

Speaker 9 (42:21):
A lot of like oh, how do I download this
song and like put it like this and mix it
like this? And you know, I think I think it's great.
I think a lot of DJs that I know now
and a lot of DJs that I've met, it's always like, oh,
my friends started, so I started, and now like we
get to do it together. Like it really is just
like a fun hobby, like you know, my friends will
come around home and wall or play and we'll or

(42:43):
you know, go back to back and he'll play a
song and then I'll play a song. So it's kind
of just like it's also been I think something that's
really uh kind of and and in my circle being
something that's been quite cool.

Speaker 3 (42:57):
R and V is your Is it your first festival?

Speaker 9 (43:00):
Yes, R and V first festival, which is yeah, I'm
very excited for that.

Speaker 3 (43:05):
How you feeling about playing such a niconic festival.

Speaker 19 (43:09):
I know, I don't know.

Speaker 9 (43:10):
I just I'm excited to to kind of see what happens, you.

Speaker 19 (43:14):
Know what I mean. I've this will be my first
R and V as well. I remember all the times
you know, coming you.

Speaker 9 (43:19):
Know, fresh out of fresh out of college, and you know,
my friends are like, oh, let's go R and V,
and I was like never, I was never really into it.
And then as I've gotten into this kind of DJing
and kind of like fall in love with the music.
It's like, man, this is going to be fun. So
I'm very excited. It's going to be a good time.
I'm excited to play some good music or some good

(43:41):
people and yeah, ye have a good time.

Speaker 3 (43:43):
So what is a Julian Dennison set?

Speaker 9 (43:45):
Like, I think it's it's a lot of things that
I think I would listen to, Like if I'm hanging
out with friends and when you're tired and you need
to get home and you need to play the music
that's going to keep you awake and keep you going.

Speaker 19 (44:01):
That's that's the kind of music that I'm going to play.

Speaker 9 (44:03):
At R and V, Like very kind of high energy,
high bpm. I'm excited to play some stuff that I
wouldn't normally play at the places that I normally play at.

Speaker 19 (44:14):
Here in Auckland.

Speaker 9 (44:17):
And yeah, I've been like really wanting to get into
move into dance music, which has been something that's really
kind of captured my ear this past few months.

Speaker 19 (44:27):
So I'm excited to play some stuff that I want
to play.

Speaker 3 (44:29):
Did you ever contemplate a DJ name like dropping Julian
Dinnison and going with something completely different?

Speaker 19 (44:35):
Yes, I did.

Speaker 9 (44:36):
There was like a few at the start, but I
was kind of like they never really stuck. And a
lot of my friends were like, hey, bro, like just
use your name, like your name is known, like it's
not that you're it's not that you're because I, you.

Speaker 19 (44:48):
Know, a classic New Zealander.

Speaker 9 (44:50):
I was like, you know, I want to, you know,
I don't want to you know, be too. You know,
I don't want to, like, I don't want to each
drop my name. I don't want to like and I'm
not using for cloud Like it's like I want to
you know, everyone else has started here and I want
to start here at this and they're like, you're not
starting anywhere. It's like there's a lot of DJs who
just use their name, so yeah, it's always just.

Speaker 19 (45:10):
Been Julian or Julian Dennison, which is which is so
funny to think of that.

Speaker 9 (45:14):
And then you see me like DJing like the amount
of people who have walked up to me and be
like you're the last person I expected to see here,
and I was like, thank thanks, man, I appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (45:24):
Talk to me about twenty twenty five. Obviously you've got
the new found career as a DJ. You played fish
leagues and how to try to drag? And how's the
year been for you?

Speaker 19 (45:34):
Yeah, it's been it's been fun.

Speaker 9 (45:36):
It's been really good, you know, being able to work
a little bit over season, some other films that will
be coming out soon. So it's just been nice to
be working, like and doing something that I love.

Speaker 19 (45:48):
And the DJs.

Speaker 9 (45:49):
I think the DJing has been something that's really as
creative people, right, Like our industry is always so up
and down, you know, like one season you could be
working like you know, you have two three jobs in
a year, and then one year maybe you have one
or maybe you have nothing. And I think, you know,
for myself these past the years, it's been like, man,
what are other creative processes that like scratch that itch?

(46:14):
And I think for me like being able to work
and do how to train your Dragon and then have
a few months breaks and be able to do gigs
and like kind of build this thing that I have
going here and then and then go do film. It's
just like, man, I just feel really lucky to be
able to be in a creative space, you know, kind
of constantly.

Speaker 3 (46:32):
And congratulations, I believe you got married.

Speaker 19 (46:36):
I did not get married. I got engaged. Engaged well but.

Speaker 9 (46:41):
Marriage, yes, yeah, one step towards marriage. Uh yeah, very
exciting going going into the into the new year. Very
excited about the next step of life. So yeah, I'm
very excited. She's she's amazing and and she's and she's
always at like my gigs and stuff, like she'll probably
she'll be at R and B like behind me, like

(47:04):
making sure, you know, pressing the buttons, et cetera.

Speaker 3 (47:07):
So oh, congratulations, Hey, How to Train a Dragon. That
was one of my favorite films as a parent, taking
my kids to those animations, and of course they've re
done them with live action and things. Were you a
fan of the original animations?

Speaker 19 (47:25):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah I was.

Speaker 9 (47:28):
I remember the first one coming out and seeing that
in the movie theater and the second one, so yeah,
I kind of grew up, like through those early teens
into the teenage years watching them and I love them
so much. So just being able to do yeah, do
that film really like really spoke a lot to like
my inner child. Like I was very kind of giddy

(47:49):
that whole time shooting that movie.

Speaker 19 (47:50):
So yeah, like very very very very excited to like
just be a part.

Speaker 3 (47:56):
Of that Julian, you have this incredible mix of sort
of Hollywood and ki Wee movies on your resume. What
do you get out of those sort of different films
that you participate and do they fulfill sort of different
things for you?

Speaker 19 (48:14):
Yeah? I think.

Speaker 9 (48:17):
Like whenever I do a film, I'm never really looking
for fulfillment, but I'm more just looking for like, man
like what it's like, I always want to do films
that I know I'll enjoy watching and that I know
that I'll like, I can set I'll like sit down
and I can like watch it with like my family
or my friends and actually enjoy it. So I think

(48:38):
I think the whole journey's just really been like, Yeah,
all I'm wanting to do is like make great films
or like or make things that I enjoy and then
like see what I can get along the way, you know,
like you know, whether that's advice or whether that's you know, holpful,
whether that's whatever. I'm working with people that I've never
worked with, or being able to travel. Like really it's

(48:59):
just like being a sponge for my whole life and
just like absorbing everything I can and like making sure
I'm reciprocating that.

Speaker 19 (49:08):
To everyone I meet as well, you know, giving giving back.
I guess.

Speaker 9 (49:12):
So, yeah, that was kind of a it was kind
of a strange answer to that question.

Speaker 3 (49:17):
I know, no, I know exactly what you think, because
I mean, there must be such a huge difference between
doing some of these you know, these massive action films
like Dead poland Godzilla and Kong and things that you
do and How to Train and Dragon and then coming
home and making you know, a smaller New Zealand story
like Uproar, which I haven't had the chance to talk
to you about that film, but I just thought your
performance was stunning. I felt like I was watching you

(49:40):
evolve from a very competent young actor to an adult
actor who just has so much more to offer. I
was so impressed by that performance.

Speaker 19 (49:51):
Oh, thank you so much.

Speaker 9 (49:52):
I think for me that was, yeah, that was like
my first film, kind of like going to set by
myself and like and and and and Mum was like
obviously Mum was in the film. Uh, but yeah, it
was kind of just like a really interesting time for me,
and it kind of you know, I think in anyone's
career or anyone's life, you know, when you realize you

(50:15):
kind of oh the thing that I love.

Speaker 19 (50:17):
There's more to it than just what I've always done.

Speaker 9 (50:21):
And I think it really opened my eyes in terms
of like how much how important the craft is and
how important you know, everything about this is.

Speaker 19 (50:30):
Like it kind of opened my eyes towards.

Speaker 9 (50:32):
Like producing and writing and directing and kind of just
made me realize, like, man, this is like this.

Speaker 19 (50:37):
Is why I love it.

Speaker 9 (50:38):
You know, like we're in New Zealand, we're shooting you know,
not a crazy budget, but like an importance or an
important film, and like that's that's that's what it's about.

Speaker 19 (50:49):
That's it. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:50):
I mean you're only twenty three, which seems crazy given
how much you've done and the experiences you've had.

Speaker 12 (50:56):
Right.

Speaker 9 (50:58):
I I yeah, I think I'm very I'm just like
very blessed, they like very lucky, And I think I think, yeah,
I'm just very thankful to be able to have done
the things I'm doing, and I just want to continue
to kind of do everything I can and and yeah,
just like keep going like.

Speaker 3 (51:18):
Yeah, no, it's been an impressive transition sort of from
child to teen to sort of adult actor, and you've done,
I think, a really good job not to get type
cast is that something that plays on your mind.

Speaker 9 (51:31):
Of course, like all the time, like as Keywi's as
I guess you would say, comedic relief. I mean like
at the end of the day, you know, like I'm
gonna do the films that I enjoy and if that
is me like doing like a role that's similar to
another role that I've done, like all good like people

(51:52):
like oh man, I've sometimes been told like, oh, you're
the funny guy. I'm like, yep, And this funny guy
is able to pay his bills, this funny guy gets
enjoys his job, this funny guy loves what he does.
And I'm like, and there'll be a role that comes
around and it's different, and when I do that, I'll
give as much if it as I do, and that
role then I do in my other roles. So I think, Yeah,

(52:15):
I think I've been lucky to have like quite a
diverse range of films under my belt, and I'm just
I'm just keen to like do more and see what
happens there.

Speaker 3 (52:27):
So what's on the cards for twenty twenty six? What's
coming up apart from the DJing.

Speaker 9 (52:33):
Yeah, going to the going into the New Year and
Rhythm and Vines with the with the DJing with this
new thing that I got going on, and then heading
over to the UK.

Speaker 19 (52:45):
To do a project over there, which I can't say
a lot.

Speaker 9 (52:48):
About, but very exciting, Like just just nice to know
that going into the new year, like all kind of
aspects of life are on the up.

Speaker 19 (52:56):
So yeah, that's good. I'm excited.

Speaker 9 (52:58):
I'm excited to go that Rhythm and Vines and started
off with like, oh yeah, like I solid like a
good a good, a good, solid time with some good people.

Speaker 3 (53:07):
Oh, Julian, it's been a pleasure to talk to you.
Thank you so much for your time, have a good
time at Rhythman Vines and all the best of twenty
twenty six.

Speaker 19 (53:15):
Thank you so much. I'll see you there.

Speaker 3 (53:18):
You might see my kids. But I love the fact
he thinks that I'm going to be at Rhythm and Vines.
That was Julian Dennison. He'll be playing the Seal Estate
at Rhythm and Vines. The festival course kicks off and
gives been on December twenty eighth. The tickets are on sale.
If you want to check out the full lineup, head
to Rhythm and Vines dot co dot NZ. I got
a text from someone who's said, young Julian Dennison, I
can't believe how mature and insightful he has become. Onya Julian,

(53:41):
do you know what I really enjoyed chatting to him.
I completely agree. He's clearly a young man who's had
some extraordinary experiences very early on in his career, going
from Hollywood blockbusters to small New Zealand films. He understands
the nature of the business that it's not always going
to be on a high and you know, there are
times you don't have work and you've got to be

(54:02):
grateful for all the work you get. Yeah, no, I agree.
I thought he's very grounded and down to earth young
man setting off on this new career. It is twenty
one past ten. We're going to talk entertainment next.

Speaker 2 (54:17):
There's no better way to start your Sunday.

Speaker 1 (54:19):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin and Wiggles. For
the best selection of great breaths, use talk Sevy.

Speaker 3 (54:29):
With only eleven sleeps till Christmas, many of us are
looking for ideas and inspiration for Christmas gifts and also
to help decide which books to pack to take away
on holiday. Wickles can help with both. They have a
Christmas Catalog which highlights not only the best books around,
but also showcases a terrific range of games, puzzles, toys,
gorgeous stationary, ideas and even wrapping paper, ribbon and Christmas

(54:50):
cards to make your gift just perfect. You can find
the catalog in store or online. Wickles also proudly host
the Wickles Top one hundred, Kids, Top fifty and Jones
Picks a Wonderful a collection of wonderful books which have
been loved by thousands of readers, and chances are and
the special people in your life will love them too.
With books, games, puzzles, toys, gorgeous stationary and a Christmas

(55:12):
catalog with loads of great ideas, there really is something
for everyone. At Wit calls for the Sunday Session Entertainment
Time now, and Steve Neil joins me, good morning, good morning.

Speaker 10 (55:34):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (55:35):
So this is a I always I think I'm repeating
myself because I say this at this time of the
year every year, But going into summer and the Christmas
break and over New Year, there are some really amazing
films being released. Basically because we're starting to kind of
get ready for the Oscars, and everybody wants the Golden
Globe and Oscar nominees to sort of nominations to be

(55:55):
released around this time of the year, so there's so
much to choose from. But on Thursday, Avatar is being
released in New Zealand, which numbers.

Speaker 20 (56:03):
Does number three? Number three Avatar fire and is the
full title of this one. And look, anyone listening in Whalington,
I'm sure is extremely aware that the premiere was held yesterday,
and in fact, you know, it's plastered all over the media.
You can't miss the fact that that New Zealand's hosted
this New Zealand production.

Speaker 3 (56:22):
Oh it takes me back to the Lord of the
Rings day.

Speaker 20 (56:24):
I think that there's definitely definitely a bit of an
effort to rekindle some of that feeling. Although you know,
there's really a big difference between how Peter Jackson realized
that he could build a film franchise using locations just
in one country versus James Cameron. Maybe a bit more
of a technological approach, like harnessing New Zealand's technology more

(56:46):
than its landscapes. I don't know if you'd really say,
beyond the people working on it and the skills. I
don't know if you'd necessarily see a lot of on
the screen and Avatar as you do in a lot
of the rings, but I'm interested to see the film.
If I had attended the premiere, I would either be
calling and very sleepy from Wllington or just absence. Haven't

(57:06):
had the chance to see it. Hopefully we'll get the
chance to see it this week and we can have
a chat about it next.

Speaker 3 (57:11):
It's starting to haven't done any previous screenings for it
that I know of anyway, which is unusual a special
because as I said before, there are so many, you know,
amazing films coming out in the next couple of weeks.

Speaker 10 (57:21):
Totally.

Speaker 20 (57:21):
I think obviously that the track record of Cameron kind
of speaks for itself. He's responsible for three of the
four highest grossing films of all time. Everyone, I guess
everyone knows what Avatar is. So yeah, it's a lot.
A lot's changed between the releases of the films in
the series done, and I think, you know, even since

(57:42):
twenty two, the film landscapes changing. There's you know, all
the sort of Netflix stuff we're talking about with Warner
Brothers purchase and just the dominance of streaming of a
theatrical that keeps getting talked about. As Cameron told The
New Zealand Herald, I can't even tell you that there
will be another Avatar film. That business model itself may
have collapsed, he continued to the Herald. Everybody's belt tightening

(58:05):
right now because the theatrical marketplace has reduced by about
a third. That's a big deal. So big films like
Avatar aren't getting green lit as I understand it. They
shot a lot of Avatar for concurrently with this production,
but it's already going to rest on its box office
performance before they are set in motion the next film
because so much of the costs and actually what happens
after they've shot the shot the.

Speaker 3 (58:26):
Actors, Oh, well, very exciting. Number three out absolutely now.

Speaker 20 (58:30):
Cameron is looking forward to Christmas, so he's because there
isn't Avatar for green lit yet. Now he's, once he's
done the promotional stuff, is technically out of a job.

Speaker 4 (58:40):
He told the Herald.

Speaker 20 (58:41):
He's having Christmas in Colorado, and then he says, hopefully
get back in time for the back half of the
beautiful New Zealand summer here, which I'm sure will enjoy
on our farm and the widered Upper. I'm just going
to take it easy for a little while. I'm unemployed
and I'm enjoying it. Go unemployment during the summer, I say.

Speaker 3 (58:55):
Exactly, exactly. Hey, there's a new mysterious Spielberg movie that's
been teased on billboards.

Speaker 20 (59:03):
What's speaking of sci fi masters. Spielberg's back next year
with a film called All Will Be Disclosed. It's kind
of mistake. I believe All Will Be Disclosed. It's a
UFO film. He's come up with the story, so it's
kind of his idea. The billboards feature, I mean, there's

(59:26):
a lot being read. It's like an image. It's a
bit mysterious. People trying to figure out what it means.
You could say, like it looks a little bit like
one of those gray aliens from twentieth century sort of
alien mythology. But mid next year we're getting a film.
John Williams is doing the score, so it's kind of
like but it doesn't seem like it's close encounters that
it feels like it's a bit more of the sinister

(59:47):
sci fi buzz cast is awesome. Emily Blunt, Colin Firth,
Josh O'Connor, who you can see in the fantastic New
Knives Out film which is hit Netflix this weekend. Wyatt Russell,
Common Domingo, and Evan Huston. We don't really know much more.
It's an ad. Would we're on the radio. I'm talking
about a Billboard ad. But it as a Spielburg so worked.

Speaker 3 (01:00:08):
It's done its job.

Speaker 20 (01:00:09):
Damn you Hollywood again, Hey.

Speaker 3 (01:00:12):
And thank you very much for the recommendation for Wake
Up dead Men, which is the New Knives Out My Street.
It's been in cinemas hit Netflix this weekend. We had
a movie night last night and watched it and absolutely
loved it. I like a lot more than the second one.
Really into it.

Speaker 20 (01:00:25):
It's a really strong edition. I think he's broadening what
these films are. Each one's got its own distinct flavor. Hey,
speaking of distinct flavors, very quickly. This is a recommendation
not for the faint of heart. But this morning on Neion,
I watched comedy special from Sarah Squirm aka Sarah Sherman.
She's one of the cast members of SNL. She's got
this like real line and gross out comedy and particularly

(01:00:48):
about the female body. So we've seen this stuff from
male comedians for young's but she's look, let's put it
this way. John Waters introduces the special. So it's in
that kind of category on Neon. You can watch it,
Sarah Squirm live and in the flesh. Don't watch it
with your kids or your parents. Okay, but you might
better to watch it with your partner.

Speaker 2 (01:01:09):
Maybe not.

Speaker 21 (01:01:10):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:01:10):
Good advice. I appreciate that. Thank you so much. Steve
will get up next week, right. You know how some
people say yelling at your kids doesn't really achieve much
except maybe while venting some of your own emotions. It
turns out that yelling at seagulls is very very effective
if they're trying to steal your picnic. More on this
next it is twenty eight to eleven.

Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin on news Talks at.

Speaker 3 (01:01:38):
B Okay is upon us and a lot of us
heading off to parks and beaches in various places to
have a picnic, where we quite often end up having
to share our meal with the local seagulls. But a
new study has determined the best way to stop a
seagull from stealing your chips dotor. Michelle Dickinson is with
me now to explain more.

Speaker 18 (01:02:00):
I love seagull research. Look, it wasn't that long ago.
I came in and we were chatting about this research
that said if you stared at a seagull intently, it
won't steal your chips. Well, we've gotten one up from this.
There is new seagull research and I had to share
it with you because if you're done with stirring, the
new study says, all you have to do is yell
at the seagull and they have to be very specific
in your yelling. And by yelling, we don't have to

(01:02:22):
increase our volume. This is what's interesting. So these amazing
researchers just put a box of chips out in popular
seagulld tourist areas, so where seagulls will be stealing your
chips anyway, tupo a box of hot chips and just
let the seagulls come over and eat them. And then
they had recordings of a male voice doing different things.

(01:02:43):
So in the first the male voice shouted, no, stay away,
that's my food, and the recording just kept going on.
They observed what these seagulls did, and then they had
the same voice saying the same things, but in a
more gentle tone, so, no, stay away, those are my chips,
whatever it is. And then they had a recording of

(01:03:03):
a robin just singing delightfully, just to show that if
is it a sound or is it the sound of
the human voice? This is what's important. All of these
sounds were played exactly the same volume, so although the
man voice was shouting, it was no louder than the.

Speaker 3 (01:03:18):
Talking His tone was different.

Speaker 18 (01:03:20):
Yeah, the tone and the sharpness of the words were different,
but the volume was the same. Because we know that
high volume can scare away birds. And the reason why
this is interesting is because we know that domesticated animals
can tell the difference between the tone and our voice. Dogs, cats,
for example, if you change your tone, if you're sharp
with your tone but not the volume, your dog will
know the command is different. But we've never seen this

(01:03:43):
in wild animals before. What they found is, yeah, half
of the girls that listened to the shouting voice or
the angry voice flew away within a minute, but only
fifteen percent flew away when they heard the normal speaking voice.
So there's something about human tone that seagulls have whether
it's because they've been because they're in high tourist areas,

(01:04:04):
whether it's just because they're around people a lot, or
is innate to them. They can tell an angry, scary
human versus a non scary one and they choose to leave,
whereas the ones who were just spoken to just sort
of walked backwards. But I didn't fly away. They were like, whoa,
the chips are still in. We're not going to too far.
This isn't scary. And so this is really interesting from

(01:04:26):
a are they understanding our tone? And is it because
seagulls have been not domesticated but around humans much more
in these tourist areas. And so I really like it
as a study because I could just imagine this like
Hyphi system with these chips next to it in like
a tourist area, just yelling like no, stay away. But
what was interesting is they only did a male voice.

(01:04:48):
So the researchers were like, well, you might not have
a male at your picnics. So now they're going to
redo the study with a female voice to see whether
or not it was like the tone right. But yeah,
so basically, if you've got a male at your picnic
and you've got a seagull and you're done staring with it.
Step number two, according to science, because I'm full of
useful facts, this is to get your man to go, no,

(01:05:08):
stay away.

Speaker 3 (01:05:09):
Those are my check And if you don't have a man,
just lower your voice a little bit and put on
you put on your your seagull voice. There's a new
voice to add to the next of the many other voices,
appearents and things that we add. Thank you so much, Michelle.
We are all now prepared for the summer. Appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:05:24):
The Sunday Session Full Show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by
News Talks.

Speaker 13 (01:05:29):
It be.

Speaker 3 (01:05:31):
Joining me now, Mike vander Alison, our resident chef.

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
Good morning, top of the morning.

Speaker 3 (01:05:36):
We have been you have been very kindly giving us
some inspiration for our Christmas menus over the last few weeks.
And last week you touched on sides and you'd be
amazing number of people who said to me during the week, Mike,
is so right, sides is the most important thing on
the table at Christmas. It really is. It's kind of
like you know. And then Carrie, my producer, took great

(01:05:57):
she disputed it. She says, well, if you eat my turkey.
My twoki is absolutely amazing. You'll eat nothing like my turkey.
So look, she backs herself on the turkey. But today
we are going to talk about the protein, what it,
what's on your list? What's on your menu?

Speaker 13 (01:06:12):
This year?

Speaker 22 (01:06:14):
We are we we are doing a ham and then
we're also doing uh. I spoke about last week a
traditional Dutch dish called cal scotta, which is mayonnaise salad.

Speaker 2 (01:06:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 22 (01:06:25):
So, and apparently I've been I've been rung into doing
a hot smoked salmon as well. So I'm just going
to do one side because it's horrendously expensive and they
can just fight for it. There it is, That's all
that's there.

Speaker 23 (01:06:43):
Go for it.

Speaker 22 (01:06:44):
If you get some, you get some.

Speaker 3 (01:06:46):
The family prepared for hearing themselves. Now it's fair enough.
I think. Look, there's nothing like ham Atchrystmas time, and
it just it's just you know, the ham semis go
on and on and on, don't they.

Speaker 22 (01:06:58):
Yeah, And it's great and a good glazed ham is
a is a thing of beauty. So okay, a couple
of other tips. If you're not doing a ham, have
you doing wagons or turkeys? I would always brine them,
so ten percents old solution, leave your chickens in there
for twelve hours and maybe leave your tekis in for
a bit longer. Worth the price of lamb and beef
at the moment, even though it is freaking delicious. You

(01:07:20):
could possibly look at an alternative like a butterfly lamb
shoulder as a slightly cheaper alternative. The only reason bean
is there's no wastage. You know, you're cooking the whole
lot and you're cutting the whole lot up. There's no
wastage in there. Fresh fish lights having like a Saint
is really expensive, so you could look at something like, yeah,

(01:07:41):
you go to supermarket, they do something like a smoke
gym fish. It's about twelve bucks for maybe three hundred grams.
That will make a lot of smoke fish patte instead
of salmon. If you want to go down that road.
And for Christmas Hams themselves shop around there is a
huge array of all variants and pricings and Christmas Hams
I noticed this year. You know you're going from like

(01:08:02):
thirty five up to one hundred and fifty extra. Yes,
probably the quality does change to.

Speaker 2 (01:08:09):
Being on weather.

Speaker 19 (01:08:09):
How commercially it's made.

Speaker 22 (01:08:12):
However, you know if you glaze it sometimes it's quite
a hard thing to tell the difference between.

Speaker 3 (01:08:17):
There we go, Do you want to talk us through
what you're going to do with your ham?

Speaker 22 (01:08:22):
So this is cider, star anise and pineapple roasted ham.
So I've got a three kilo ham here that I'm
going to use. So preheat your other one hundred and
sixty degrees on bambake, not ridiculously hot, and then you
take the outside skin off the ham, and then you
crisscross the fat and diamond pattern. Set that aside, and
now we make the all important glaze. So into a pot,

(01:08:44):
I'm going to put two bottles of dry cider. I've
got six star anise, and I've got three hundred things
like a lot three hund grand is a brown sugar.
Chuck that into a pot, reduce it down to it
becomes syrupy. And you'll tell this because the bubbles will
start to increase in size and slow down once this happens.
I take a fresh pineapple. I've got about two cups

(01:09:05):
of maybe slow and diced pineapple, add that into your
sider syrup and then just turn it off and just
let that cool down on the side. Take a roasting tray,
take your hamd that's been cut in the diamond fashion,
and then I smear two tablespoons of dish or mustard
over the top of the ham, and then I spoon
over three tablespoons of the sider glaze. And then you

(01:09:27):
pick out all those pieces of pineapple and you stick
them into your hand with clothes to hold them in place,
and then maybe just drizzle a little bit more of
that glaze over the top. Fire that into the middle
of the oven on one sixty young to leave that
in there for one hour. Every twenty minutes, just open
it up and just check a bit more of that
glaze over the top, whether you're putting fresh glaze on

(01:09:48):
or whether you're taking the glaze from the.

Speaker 19 (01:09:50):
Bottom of the roasting train and re applying it over
the top.

Speaker 22 (01:09:53):
Either either after an hour, pull that out and then
you can serve that either hot, you can serve it
at room tempertu if you're going to transport it, but
keep it. If you've got a little bit of that
side of glaze, serve it with that side of glaze,
and then people can slice the ham and then pour
a that siding glaze over the top.

Speaker 3 (01:10:08):
And then you need to make sure that you've got
an old pillow case that you can sacrifice, you know,
as your handbag.

Speaker 2 (01:10:15):
As your ham.

Speaker 22 (01:10:16):
And also trick for handbags is make sure you soak
them in cold salted water, cold salted right salters in
that and the salt is just a bit more of
a preservative.

Speaker 3 (01:10:27):
Wring it out, put the hand put it in the fridge,
and then you're good to go for three weeks worth
of ham sandwiches.

Speaker 22 (01:10:35):
And then I'll come back on that in the middle
of January to do what to do with.

Speaker 10 (01:10:40):
The leftover ham.

Speaker 3 (01:10:41):
I don't know, because it's sort of the only time
of the year that I really eat it. You don't
kind of, I don't really sort of tire over just
putting a bit of mustard and a bit of letters
and kick over on top of a bit of bread
and eating it.

Speaker 22 (01:10:51):
You know what I mean saying, if you want to
get rid of if you've got a bit more ham steaks,
is a very good way of using up ham ham steaks.
Just barbecue them barbecued ham hot ham steaks on.

Speaker 3 (01:11:03):
The okay, So just keep them up on the barbie,
heat up the okay, all right, Give that one the
world to see. Look at your full of amazing ideas.
So next week we're on to my favorite part of
the meal.

Speaker 22 (01:11:18):
I presume desserts, yes, and I'm not doing a p.

Speaker 3 (01:11:24):
You don't have to. You know, you can buy some
pretty good ones these days. Is that a terrible thing
to say? But if you think about the price of
fresh fruit and or fresh berries, but you just can't
put it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:37):
All together, bees desserts.

Speaker 22 (01:11:39):
Okay, I won't tell you what of those. It will
be surprised next week.

Speaker 3 (01:11:43):
Okay, I love it. Love a surprise. Thank you very much, Mike,
appreciate it. We'll talk next week. And of course that
recipe for the roasted ham, we will get that up
on our website. Newstalk ZIDB dot co dot m z
forward slash Sunday. It is twelftleven.

Speaker 2 (01:12:00):
Grab a cover.

Speaker 1 (01:12:01):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudgin and Wikles for
the best selection of grap use talks.

Speaker 3 (01:12:07):
They'd be joining us now to talk wellness. Is Erin O'Hara.
Good morning, give them money. You've got a good one today.
You're going to review the health trends that we saw
in twenty twenty five and tell us which ones are
actually healthy and which ones were just myths that we
kind of got slightly attached to.

Speaker 21 (01:12:22):
Every year, there's always some fantastic health trend that's supposedly
going to make you healthier and change your life with
clearer skin and live long. And there's a lot that
you're like question, and I think a lot of people
who don't know a lot about health, or they seem
really good in the theory and that what they put
on social media or in the media that you think, oh,

(01:12:43):
that sounds good, might give that a go. And some
of them are things like detoxes and cleansers. They seem
to come out every year, especially in the new year.
People will be like, I've got to do a detox,
I've got a cleanse. But actually, the thing about the
body is that it's amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:12:58):
It cleanses every day.

Speaker 21 (01:12:59):
You've got all these organs that do cleansing that we
don't need to be so excessive about doing things like that.
And the respect is malnutrition and electrolyte and balance it
actually disordered eating. So I think just being mindful around
that as we kick into the new year, that just
brings some healthy, healthy ideas that you can bring in
that you can actually achieve throughout the year, rather than

(01:13:19):
just a detox that you do for seven days and
then that's the end and back to what you were
doing before. The other big thing in twenty twenty five
has been protein everything protein, Eat.

Speaker 3 (01:13:29):
Your protein, heat your protein.

Speaker 18 (01:13:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 21 (01:13:30):
Yeah, and it's been a big thing, and I.

Speaker 3 (01:13:32):
Think for people that are certain age and stage, it
can be helpful to check how much protein you're eating,
but you don't need to make everything protect.

Speaker 21 (01:13:39):
And that's the thing is that it's about keeping that
balance of macronutrients of the carbohydrates, fats, fiber, starch, protein,
keeping the balance that it doesn't need to be protein everything.
And just because it has a big protein contains protein
on the label doesn't necessarily mean it's also healthy.

Speaker 3 (01:13:55):
So something to watch out. A lot of marketing involved
with that, isn't there.

Speaker 10 (01:13:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 21 (01:13:59):
And then with the big AI growth, I think a
lot of people think AI is the experts, So when
something's not quite right for them, instead of going to
their doctor, they seem to go onto AI and to
ask AI what's wrong with their body, which AI can
give you all sorts of answers, and I can remember
even back to when I was at university. You can

(01:14:19):
be really quick to diagnose yourself with all sorts of
things by reading the diagnosis. And I think that's where
AI can actually be a little bit complex when it
comes to health, and I think be cautious.

Speaker 3 (01:14:30):
So if you're if there's.

Speaker 21 (01:14:31):
Something not quite right with your health, instead of asking AI,
maybe you could check in with your doctor or health
practitioner and get some better advice rather than just following
whatever misinformation you might find online.

Speaker 3 (01:14:44):
One health trend that I seem to miss this year
is no days off mentality for exercise. Was that a
thing fad? That's a big TikTok fad is don't don't
cut the.

Speaker 21 (01:14:55):
Brakes and exercise instead, keep the consistency for mental health.
But actually the risk of doing that is you're not
actually getting yeah, and you forget to listen to your body.
You push stuff beyond your limits, you're going to increase
the risk of injury. And I think that's where yeah,
keep the balance of keep the exercise flowing, but also
when you know you need a rest, have a rest here.

(01:15:16):
You're going to get a lot of gains from having
arrests from exercise with some repair and muscle growth as well.

Speaker 3 (01:15:23):
I know that this year supplement stacking was quite big too,
wasn't it.

Speaker 21 (01:15:28):
Yeah, supplements always seem to be in there, and there's
always the fair supplement that's out there, which I always
find really interesting because people always tend to ask me
in consultations, what do you think about this, particularly things
like collagen and mushroom powders and whatever is the trending thing?
And if you think back through history, I think everyone
can think of the different trends that flow through. Whether

(01:15:49):
it's spilling a powder, non ey juice and coconut water.
There's always something that's there that seems to have extreme
amounts of marketing.

Speaker 3 (01:15:57):
I might have fallen for a couple of those.

Speaker 21 (01:15:58):
Yeah, whether it's the wonder thing that will actually help
you and heal you is questionable, and I think that's
where the supplements. Mindful of what you're taking. I think
some people can take a little bit of everything but
not much of anything, and that's where it's like, why
are you taking this up? And always ask yourself what
am I taking this for? What is it going to
do for me? And am I getting the right dose?

(01:16:19):
And sometimes that's a matter of getting a bit more
advice on it.

Speaker 3 (01:16:22):
Look, mindful eating's really become something which is quite popular,
and I suppose maybe a little part of that is
being really mindful of when you're hungry and only eating
when you're hungry. Is that sensible?

Speaker 21 (01:16:32):
Yeah, it can be can be sensible, but also I
think that you can take it to extremes as well.
And that's that sort of theory of only eat when
hunger strikes, which means that if you're not very good
at sort of listening to your body, you actually won't
need it all, which is not going to be very
helpful for you and your health either. And that's where
it's about, Yeah, listen to your body, but also keep
some foundations and I always say you can't go past

(01:16:54):
the old fashioned eating of three meals a day.

Speaker 3 (01:16:57):
Thank you so much. Erin will catch up next week.
It is five to eleven.

Speaker 1 (01:17:01):
The Sunday Session Full Show podcast on iHeartRadio powered us
Talk to Me.

Speaker 3 (01:17:10):
Die Henwood joins me next to talk about his latest gig.
It was announced this week that he would be hosting
the Best Foods Comedy Gala at the twenty twenty six
Comedy Festival. This is quite the honor. But then it's
been a year of honors for Die. We're going to
talk about his King's Birthday honors, living life with Purpose,
and stage four cancer, and yeah, we'll talk about comedy

(01:17:30):
as well. Die Heindwood is with me.

Speaker 10 (01:17:33):
Next send me sitting unco true. Nobody knows what I'm
gone and through At the Double Morning Walking Mushroll, we're
saw musing honor is a little good news? Honor any mean,

(01:18:03):
isn't it.

Speaker 19 (01:18:05):
Something?

Speaker 10 (01:18:05):
Mami Milan Mittle.

Speaker 2 (01:18:13):
It's Sunday, you know what that means.

Speaker 1 (01:18:15):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rutkin and Wickles for
the best selection of grape reeds.

Speaker 2 (01:18:21):
US talk set me.

Speaker 3 (01:18:30):
Coming up this our Jason Pine on the Cricket, Megan
takes us on a journey to the European Christmas Markets,
and Joan has her favorite non fiction books of the
year for us.

Speaker 2 (01:18:41):
The Sunday Session.

Speaker 3 (01:18:43):
In nearly three decades as a comedian, Die Henwood has
pretty much done it all, ticked every box. But I
was surprised to learn he's never hosted the Best Foods
Comedy Gala. And that is all about to change because
Die has been announced as the host of the twenty
twenty six Gala, to be held in May next year.
Die Henwood, good morning.

Speaker 4 (01:19:00):
Good morning.

Speaker 11 (01:19:01):
It's a pleasure to be here. And I'm pretty excited
about this because I started out two thousand and one
would have been my first first Gala, and that was
back in the day when Kiwi's didn't host it. We
had would bring in a big international right like there
was your people like Wayne Brady, who was from whose

(01:19:21):
line is it anyway over there? And my favorite was
always Jamoan and Bill Bailey and these. So as a KIWI,
especially as a young comic, you're so excited because these international.

Speaker 4 (01:19:34):
Acts would be on.

Speaker 11 (01:19:35):
And this was also back in the time where New
Zealand had quite a bit of cultural cringe, so when
there was an Irish comic on, their accent would get
them half the way there and then it was the
extra hard as a KIWI. And it's super cool now
to host it. See how vibrant the comedy industry is,
how diverse the comedy industry is, and how Kiwis are

(01:19:58):
just sort of really killing it with the overseas acts
as well.

Speaker 3 (01:20:03):
So are and actually that explains it because I was
thinking to myself, and you know, I didn't want to
remind you it had been over twenty years since you
you know, first appeared at a gala, but I was thinking,
that's crazy that in that time you haven't But that's
exactly what they did.

Speaker 10 (01:20:16):
We had to have.

Speaker 3 (01:20:17):
Yeah, it was sort of given some sort of validation
as being a top class comedy thing because there was
an international host. And now we all know, we don't.
We just do not need that.

Speaker 11 (01:20:26):
It's no, it was it was comedy and music because
I remember with New Zealand Music Month was a big thing,
right and it was, oh my gosh, radio stations have
to play a certain amount of New Zealand music. Now
that's not even thought of, It just is out there.
And it's been awesome growing up through all of that

(01:20:50):
and seeing that and sort of through the rise of
the Internet and seeing how comedy and even promoting shows
is pivoted from oh you just do a poster run
to now there's all the dynamics around.

Speaker 4 (01:21:06):
So that I always love.

Speaker 11 (01:21:09):
I'm someone who loves change and I've always loved change,
so seeing how things evolve is awesome. Yet it's so
cool you have something like the gala that in its
essence has stayed the same. It is an intro to
the comedy Festival. You get to have a sort of
topper's plate of comics. You can go, oh, they're up, malely,

(01:21:31):
I'll go and see them. Oh, I wasn't expecting that.
And that hasn't that hasn't changed, And it's amazing saying
that the Comedy Festival is still so vibrant. And the
joy of comedy is people want to laugh in hard
times And we've just done a we've just done a
seven days to it and people are struggling a bit,

(01:21:52):
and you know, it's just a time in the world
where things are a bit tight. So comedy is always
a good place to fall.

Speaker 3 (01:22:00):
See how different is it from being one of those
topers to hosting it because if you the tap of
you put together what a four minute routine or something.

Speaker 11 (01:22:09):
Yeah, that in a way, it's harder being the act
because four minutes, Yeah, you're like, Okay, I'm doing a show.
I need to sell the show, but I just need
to be funny. I've got to be funny straight from
the get go.

Speaker 3 (01:22:26):
You know, you can't build into this, No, you can't
hit you strive. Its three minutes.

Speaker 11 (01:22:30):
If you're building into it, you're doing it wrong. And
the hard thing is because a lot of international acts
are coming and they've done say an Edinburgh Festival or
Melbourne Festival, and so they're hit the ground polish. They
know how to sell a show. They've sort of clipped
it into a bit, whereas a lot of the local
acts are building up. They have just written a fresh show,

(01:22:53):
they don't know quite how it's going to go or whatever.
So I enjoy hosting also because it's a big day
and if you're just naming it four minutes, it's so stressful,
Like I remember, just the nerves and trying not to
cite yourself out and that thing getting so wound up

(01:23:13):
in just trying to relax.

Speaker 3 (01:23:15):
And so you're quite looking forward to the fact that
you've got a whole show to drag a joke out,
you know exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:23:21):
We're going to go back to a bit of Edmund, So.

Speaker 10 (01:23:25):
A housekeeper here we go.

Speaker 3 (01:23:27):
What is your approach to comedy Over the years, I've
had some hilarious conversations with comedians, as you'd expect, but
what surprised me was some of them get prepare their
show for the festival months out. They know what they're
going to do, They organize others, take a photo for
a poster and give it a name, and still kind

(01:23:47):
of weaks out, don't quite know what they're going to do.
Which basket do you sit?

Speaker 11 (01:23:53):
I almost in the middle, but more to over prepare.
I mean, my dad was an actor, so I grew
up in a theater where shows are very much rehearsed,
all of that, and I don't like to leave anything
to last minute, so I prepare it.

Speaker 23 (01:24:12):
Yep.

Speaker 11 (01:24:12):
There's always about ten minutes of the show that I
leave towards the end as sort.

Speaker 4 (01:24:17):
Of massage around. And my main thing is in the
lead up to it.

Speaker 11 (01:24:22):
I like hanging out with funny people and laughing because
it's that thing of if I'm having fun and laughing,
that's what people want. They want to have fun and laugh.
So my style of comedy is very much just I'm
a happy guy. I've always described myself. I'm just a
key you try and to have a good time, and

(01:24:44):
that's what I think a lot of us are.

Speaker 3 (01:24:46):
Have you always had done that when you've had that
ten minutes at the end just to play around or
does that come with experience.

Speaker 11 (01:24:52):
It sort of comes with experience because now i know
I'm in a play around, but I've got an idea
I know that could weave into that, and if someone
gets a bit chatty, that could happen. And so now
it's that thing of having the experience and being comfortable
with yourself that you can handle it, because the hardest
thing is standing on stage and that something hasn't popped

(01:25:14):
into your head. And five seconds to me feels like
an hour. And people I'll say, my wife comes to
a show and I'm like, after that, but I was
struggling to know it, and she's like, I just went seamlessly,
and but in my head it was this cavern of silence.

Speaker 3 (01:25:33):
I don't know how you do it. I couldn't do it.
I mean, even if I was completely and fully prepared,
I'd still walk up in front of an audience and
just stand there and look at them all and walk
off again. I just hate I would love to talk
to you about your year, because I'm sure it's been
a bit of a rollercoaster. At the end of twenty
twenty four, you did say it's been one of your
hardest years. How is twenty twenty five being.

Speaker 11 (01:25:54):
The winter of twenty twenty five was real rough for me.

Speaker 2 (01:25:56):
I had some.

Speaker 11 (01:26:00):
Four unexpected hospitalizations that were sort of talking for anyone
who doesn't know, I've been on a five year stage
four cancer journey, and I got pretty grim in the
winter there. It was sort of cancer adjacent things and
sort of had to have a surgery here and there.
And the last three months have been absolutely wonderful. I'm

(01:26:23):
still doing chemotherapy. It's still bloody tough, but just managed
to do a seven days tour with people who are
my absolute best buddies and travel around the country sharing
jokes that the sun's been shining this whole This whole
journey for me has really isolated each day and like,

(01:26:46):
for instance, I'm waiting for scan results and I now
actually can honestly be in the moment of will lats
of worry for another day, which has been that has
been so hard to get to and to get to
that point where I'm like, no, the sun's out, go

(01:27:07):
for a swim with my kids after school.

Speaker 4 (01:27:10):
That's what matters, and not worrying about this.

Speaker 11 (01:27:13):
Oh, in a day, I'm getting that result and what's
going to happen because that the scan result always sort
of changes what the next three months looks like. And
I'm feeling I'm feeling great, so that's all you can
ask for.

Speaker 3 (01:27:26):
There will be so many people out there who completely
resonate with what you're saying, and even even people who
are waiting you know, may have been clear to cancer,
who are waiting for scan result. It it is so
hard to get to that point. It's just there, isn't it. Yeah,
it's part of life and it's there.

Speaker 11 (01:27:43):
And it is You get to that point through I
suppose a lot of trauma and realizing hey, because up
until when I got diagnosed, I was always I always
associated myself as a healthy person. I'd never I'd been lucky.
I hadn't dealt with the hospitals much. And then now

(01:28:04):
you know, every couple of weeks I'm doing chemo that
has its ups and downs, and struggling with that fact
of seeing my mates just living their life and doing
their things and I hunker down for a week.

Speaker 4 (01:28:13):
Then it's sort of out doing things for a week.

Speaker 11 (01:28:17):
That's been so hard to get into the zone of right,
today's a hard day, but today's a great day. Yesterday
I had a great day and actually I think so
many people could benefit from that idea of taking quiet
moment at the end of the day and just going, huh,
you know, today was a really good day, or today

(01:28:39):
was really hard. But I actually dealt with that pretty well.

Speaker 4 (01:28:43):
And I think.

Speaker 11 (01:28:46):
Speaking to people and knowing myself before cancer, people are
way too hard on themselves.

Speaker 10 (01:28:52):
Like you are enough.

Speaker 11 (01:28:54):
You are doing the best you can and this is
our only shot. So don't give yourself grief. Sit at
the end of the day and actually go no, I
could have dealt with that better. I didn't, or I've
learned from that, or wow, today was awesome, which when
the sun's been out like it has it certainly is.

Speaker 3 (01:29:16):
You were made the Officer of New Zealand Order of
Merit and the King's birth Day Honors. Was that a
big moment for you? I mean, I know it's kind
of what you do in your family, but was that
quite special for you to just stop and think about
what you've achieved and what you've given them?

Speaker 4 (01:29:33):
Oh, it was huge. So I over sort of my
career and stuff. I've been.

Speaker 11 (01:29:41):
Blessed to have won comedy awards and that sort of thing,
but I've always been about guys, about the process, like
I've sort of always looking at the next thing rather
than celebrating the last thing. And also in New Zealand,
to make a living in this game, you have to

(01:30:01):
be on to the next thing, because it's not like
one thing pays and then that you sit on your
lone rules. But getting it after I had done a
book and a docco series on my journey and then
two of the pieces of work that I'm most proud of.
It was huge for me, and it actually I did

(01:30:22):
sit back and go, I'm very proud of myself. I'm
proud of like what my kids can look at and go, oh,
you know, Dad.

Speaker 4 (01:30:33):
Did a good job there. He was a good guy
as well as just funny and it was massive.

Speaker 11 (01:30:42):
And on the back of that, I got a distinguished
alumni from Victoria University, where I felt so out of
my debt because I'm there with a guy who negotiates
the end of wars. He negotiated the end of the
Bosnian Serbian War and he's been the Congo and then
it's like, oh, I am he's sort of going around

(01:31:04):
New Zealand telling jokes. But also I have a kiwi
thing that's easy to underestimate myself.

Speaker 3 (01:31:11):
And I was just going to say, I'm really thrilled
to hear you say that you're proud of what you've done,
because I know how much people have benefited from what
you've shared and the way you're approaching life and the
way you're approaching this study that you're on. So actually,
and it's too we're too quick in New Zealand not
to want to actually go, you know what you did good?

(01:31:32):
I did good, and I think I'm thrilled to you
say that you're proud of what you've achieved.

Speaker 4 (01:31:37):
It completely.

Speaker 10 (01:31:38):
It is.

Speaker 11 (01:31:40):
Something that it is easy to underplay and it's so key.
We it plays into the tall poppy thing and don't
want to stick your head up too much. But going
back to that end of the day thing, you do
need to sit back and go, actually, I've done a
good job there, or you know, I am a damn
good husband, I'm a damn good father, And it's not

(01:32:02):
bad saying that. It makes you want to sort of
aspire to be better at and on this journey, I've
been contacted and I am in contact with so many
patients around New Zealand, and we share our war stories
and our ups and downs and getting contacted by people
I couldn't email. I get a few of these of

(01:32:24):
someone who said, I read your book. I've pushed for
a colonoscopy and they found cancer, but they got rid
of it early. And I wouldn't have pushed for that colonoscopy.
And it's very easy to say that thing of you know,
if it helps one person. But I think of my

(01:32:45):
life over the last five years and the half a dozen,
my seven surgeries and all done, forty six rounds of
chemo and radiation and all that, and I go, if
that person can get early, they got rid of it,
do minimal treatment and not have to do that five
years or who knows how long.

Speaker 4 (01:33:07):
The rest of this journey is going to be, then
that is worth it.

Speaker 3 (01:33:11):
It served its purpose.

Speaker 11 (01:33:12):
So no, I'm super proud of that and the fact
that I can still get out there and two or
seven days and be a part of the Best Foods
Comedy Gala and that, and it is taking each day
at a time, and I put my optimism.

Speaker 4 (01:33:29):
Out there because I enjoy laughter and happiness.

Speaker 3 (01:33:34):
Die Hendwood, congratulations on scoring the gig. Can't wait to
see your hosting the gala next year and rest of
life for twenty twenty six. Thank you so much for
having in and you can catch die at The Best
Food The Best Foods Comedy Gala and Auckland on May first,
Wellington on May second. Tickets are on sale now and
if you order before the eighteenth of December, you go

(01:33:55):
on the drawer for a bunch of prizes, including a
signed copy of Diye's book. Coming up next, we've got
the panel here on the Sunday Session.

Speaker 1 (01:34:04):
Sunday with Style The Sunday Session with Francesca Runkin and
Winkles for the best selection of great Reads, news talk Savy.

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Speaker 2 (01:35:04):
Professional Sunday session.

Speaker 3 (01:35:07):
Alrighty Ho, time for the panel, and I'm joined by
New Zealand Herald Senior writer Simon Wilson.

Speaker 23 (01:35:12):
Good Morning, Morning, Francesca.

Speaker 3 (01:35:14):
And resident Economists economist at over his partner's Ed McKnight.

Speaker 24 (01:35:18):
High Ed, great to be here, Francesca.

Speaker 3 (01:35:21):
Okay, Surviving in twenty five is a phrase that we've
heard quite a lot this week as people start to
assess the year. Ed from an economic point of view,
has twenty twenty five been as bad as it's felt?

Speaker 24 (01:35:34):
Yes, short upside, it's not just because the economy has
been shrinking, which it obviously has. With our population has
still been growing over the last year, even as our
economy either went sideways or went down or went backwards,
and so that means, on a per person basis, we
have seen the economy shrink.

Speaker 2 (01:35:53):
That basically means that kiwis.

Speaker 24 (01:35:54):
Are getting poorer on average. Though it's important to recognize that,
especially if you work for a mature company, you know,
one that's been around for a long time. Times this
year twenty twenty five probably felt than if you were
working for, say a growing company. You know, some growing
companies are still posting record results, but if you aren't,

(01:36:14):
especially a mature business, you've probably felt that twenty twenty
five was pretty tough.

Speaker 3 (01:36:19):
How do you rate twenty twenty five, Summon?

Speaker 23 (01:36:21):
Oh, I think perceptions are important, and people have felt
that their dollars do not go as far. It is
harder to shop in the supermarket and buy what you
thought you were going to buy. And it comes down
to that very simple truth. It's been a tough year,
and I'm not sure it's going to change much next year.
I think there's also a larger issue involved that we

(01:36:45):
don't talk much about poverty anymore. But while we are
talking about way journeys and how it's a problem for
everybody who's earning a wage, pretty much everyone, there are
also a lot of beneficiaries in this country who are struggling,
and we don't talk much about climate change either. We've
seen a big shift this year in policies that have

(01:37:07):
moved the country away from the kinds of climate action
that we were set on, and I think that's going
to come home and invite us before long time.

Speaker 3 (01:37:18):
Do you a little bit of optimisms in twenty twenty six, Simon?

Speaker 23 (01:37:22):
A little bit of optimism? What am I going to
say in relationships?

Speaker 3 (01:37:28):
That the bad you have to think about it, Simon,
is all.

Speaker 23 (01:37:32):
But I think probably it's clearly going to be a
very close election, or this stage it really appears like
it will be. And therefore I'd like to think that
that will force the parties on both sides to think
really seriously about what they need to do to win
our trust, and there might be good outcomes from that.

(01:37:53):
There could also be terrible outcomes, but I'll be optimistic
and say they could be good outcomes.

Speaker 24 (01:37:59):
Well, I've got some optimism for you, Simon. I mean,
the good news is that business confidence is that an
eleven year high, and so even though the start of
twenty twenty five has been really tough, businesses are now
saying that they're seeing more spending throughout December, and so
hopefully that continues and there at least there's going to
be some optimism and businesses. If not with Simon today, I.

Speaker 3 (01:38:21):
Think you think Simon, anecdotally, we've all got an interesting
mix of stories.

Speaker 1 (01:38:24):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:38:25):
I know people at the moment who are being made
redundant just before Christmas. I know people who you know,
are finally feeling like they are back to where they
were pre COVID, just in the last forty six months.
I hear from some people that say, you know, consumer
confidence is up, but I know big retailers saying, actually
we need people to shop. People aren't shopping. I feel

(01:38:45):
like we're just at that turning point where there's still
quite a mix of anecdotal sort of you know, stories
coming at us, but I am hoping it's turning and
on the app Simon.

Speaker 23 (01:38:57):
Yeah, well, okay, to be hopeful. We'll know this Christmas
is clearly going to be really critical all Christmas shopping period.
It's a critical every year, but this one feels like
it really is. We don't yet know how well it's
going too early, but if it has done well for retail,

(01:39:19):
then that means that points to a confidence of people
being able to spend and also means that a whole
lot of businesses get that fillip bleeding into next year.
It is, you know, the prospect of shops continuing to
close is a terrible one for the contue. We do
need we do need shops to stay open.

Speaker 3 (01:39:36):
I mean, if you look at the big picture, there
are some tics here. You know, we think the exports
sector is remaining resilient, Tourism activity is recovering in New Zealand,
inflation has eased somewhat and fingers crossed. But some of
the global risks that we've dealt with this year, the
trade tensions and thing, that's all sort of settling down
a little bit.

Speaker 24 (01:39:58):
Well, it does seem to be settling a little bit.
The one thing I'd just say about their anecdotal evidence
is you'll only ever hear people complaining and you New
Zealand about their own situation. So I mean that very
kindly because what you won't hear is it but if
you are, if you are doing well as a New Zealander,
you don't sing from the rooftops about it, especially when
the economy is doing quite poorly. So if you're a

(01:40:20):
business owner and you're having a record year, but your
friend has just lost their job and another business is
going through a redundancy process, you're probably not going to
sing from the rooftops about how well you're doing.

Speaker 3 (01:40:31):
Obviously you read the room at the right time. But
I've got people telling me positive stories as well. We're
not We don't just winch.

Speaker 2 (01:40:41):
Existed that you were just a window.

Speaker 24 (01:40:43):
I was just saying, on average, you do need to
hear more negative stories because it's it's people will share
it when they're having a hard time, but when you're
doing really well. Us as New Zealanders, we don't want
to be seen to be, you know, too showy.

Speaker 2 (01:40:56):
I suppose I think.

Speaker 23 (01:40:58):
I think it's right about that. And I was talking
to somebody I've interviewed for a story, Stephen Pinker, who's
a had psychologist talking to him this week because I've
got a story coming, and he made the point that
you know, bad news always gets into the paper and
always gets amplified, but often it's anecdotal people complaining, but

(01:41:21):
the data might tell a very different story. And a
good example of that is you could get the impression
from the media that we live in a completely crime
riddled society, but actually we don't, and the data tells
a much clearer picture. And I think there's a challenge
for all of us in media to work out how
to tell the stories about what's really going on that

(01:41:42):
don't just rely on as Ed says somebody complaining.

Speaker 3 (01:41:47):
Well, Simon, I do wish you all the best the
twenty twenty six because you're making some quite big changes
next year. You're retiring from your time here at nz
ME and the Herald and things, and we're going to
miss you terribly, but we're going to still hit you
up to be on the panel. But obviously, you know what,
do you have a little saying for your twenty twenty
six If you come up with some sort of witty.

Speaker 23 (01:42:07):
Little all the kicks in twenty six, you know, because yeah,
retiring is right. I'm going to retire in order to
work desperately hard for myself for much less money.

Speaker 3 (01:42:21):
What about you, Well, thank you very much for being
part of the panels, Simon, and we will miss you
in the office. Do you have a little saying for
yourself for twenty twenty six?

Speaker 24 (01:42:29):
Hope for effects and twenty six has been the one
that I've been saying to people.

Speaker 3 (01:42:33):
Oh, we took a slightly more positive chance sort of
take on that KI and I said, we said it
will fix in twenty six.

Speaker 19 (01:42:40):
So there we go.

Speaker 3 (01:42:41):
Simon Wilson and Ed McKnight, thank you both very much
for being on the panel today and throughout the year.
Really appreciate it. It is twenty five to twelve.

Speaker 1 (01:42:50):
Piney's up next, It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin
on News Talk ZB.

Speaker 3 (01:43:01):
And coming up at midday is Jason Pine with Weekend Sport.
Good morning, Good morning.

Speaker 25 (01:43:05):
Do you not mind functioners today.

Speaker 3 (01:43:08):
To host a radio show? It is, but more than that.

Speaker 25 (01:43:11):
More than that, it's to look after those people who
are Christmas shopping and don't want to be Christmas shopping.

Speaker 3 (01:43:18):
That is what I will do today.

Speaker 25 (01:43:19):
So to get to it, well, if you get to
the car park of the mall and one of you
is more enthusiastic about shopping than the other, did I
say send that person in, Stay in the car and
be informed, educated, entertained, even contribute to the radio show.
I worry about people like that on days like this.

Speaker 3 (01:43:40):
Bless you Piney. Good You're just doing public service today. Right, yeah, no,
good on you. So what are they going to be educated,
informed and entertained about. I said to you, what, I've
got a question for you. Why why can is it
so hard for cricketers to play like five days in
a Test?

Speaker 10 (01:43:57):
Well we did so.

Speaker 25 (01:43:59):
It appears so. But but you know, there is a
bit of cricket on the show this afternoon, thankfully for
askers of that question. The ashes are to start with.
And I know you're referring to the blackcoups on Wednesday,
they are, indeed, And so far we've had six of
ten days of the ashes. Two days in Perth, four
in Brisbane, So yeah, what's going on there? Jonathan Agnew

(01:44:21):
is one of the most respected voices in English and
in fact global cricket. He's going to join us after midday.
I don't think he's quite an Adelaide yet, but he's
certainly in Australia covering the tour. What's he made of England's,
you know, really poor performances in the first two Test
matches and does he sense their ability or anability for
them to turn things around? Because I'm sure you've seen
these photos as well. Francesca England off the back of

(01:44:44):
two pretty heavy defeats in the first two Test matches,
have spent most of the last week sunning themselves and
having a few beers and nooser. I'm not sure that
it has landed particularly well with England cricket fans. Imagine
if that was us, Imagine if we were too downs.

Speaker 3 (01:44:58):
Tour Australia at this time of the year.

Speaker 25 (01:44:59):
If you can the play cricket to the subject to
play well, if you're you and I of course yes,
I love Nosa. It's a fantastic part of part of
the world. But if you're if you're a Test cricketer
and you're two nil down in a five match series,
I'm not sure.

Speaker 4 (01:45:14):
I'm not saying for it's the best lock?

Speaker 10 (01:45:15):
Honey? Is that a photo?

Speaker 3 (01:45:17):
Would they photographed from nine in the morning until four
in the afternoon or were they did someone snap a
photo of them at five o'clock? Who are we to
say that they haven't been at you know, training all day?
And then this is exactly I'm hoping for the s
You should see the lock. My producers given me She's
going seriously, friend, she said, do you really think that's
the case?

Speaker 25 (01:45:35):
Anyway, I'm looking forward to hearing hearing views like yours
and the and the other views as well. See this
is what we do, you see we we we sort
of cultivate a conversation around these things and take all
the different aspects into account and look and.

Speaker 4 (01:45:50):
Before you know it, the Christmas shopping is done.

Speaker 3 (01:45:53):
There you go, No, you're absolutely right, Piney, it's not
a good look. But you never know that might they
just might be being stitched up by a cheeky photographer
who took one photo and you know, next thing, You
know that it's implied that that's what they've been doing
for a week. Who knows anyway, Piney will get it
all sorted at midday with Weekend.

Speaker 1 (01:46:09):
Sport for Sunday Session full show podcast on iHeartRadio powered
by News Talks at b.

Speaker 2 (01:46:18):
Travel with Windy Woo Tours Where the World Is Yours
book now lay Blacking.

Speaker 3 (01:46:36):
It is time out of Talk Travel and I'm joined
by blogger at lines dot com, Meghan Singleton.

Speaker 5 (01:46:41):
Good morning, Good morning, so festive.

Speaker 3 (01:46:45):
Oh my gosh, I love this time of year so much.
I knew you would, but you have had some extraordinary
sort of Christmas y experiences and I know that today
we're going to talk about the European Christmas markets because
they that's really a destination trip, isn't it. It's sort
of a bucket list for a lot of people to go.

Speaker 8 (01:47:04):
Definitely, it had been on my bucket list for you,
and so two Christmases ago we did that. We cruised
along the Danube starting in Vienna, and then we added
on a few nights at the end to spend Christmas
Day in Paris. But if I do it again, I
just thought i'd share today with your listeners what I
would do differently, because I definitely would like to do

(01:47:25):
it again, and I'd probably go on a different river
and see different markets. The German markets are amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:47:31):
I imagine, Megan, if there's something that you're keen to
do next Christmas, you would be starting to think about
organizing it now.

Speaker 8 (01:47:37):
Yeah, definitely, And actually you'll be getting some good deals
soon after Christmas. Typically, you know, before Black Friday and
things like that came along, we would see the sales
kick off from Boxing Day. But I would if you're
thinking about doing it for next year Christmas twenty six,
I'd be definitely looking to scoop up a deal in
January and book it. So there's lots of cruise lines

(01:47:59):
that do it. Avalon is amazing. We went on them
and they have these little Juliet balconies that you can
slider like a ranch a door back, and your room
sort of feels like it's a meter wider, but you've
actually got this balcony that's right there, but it's in
your room. If you know what I mean, you don't
step out on twitter. It does make your room a
meter wider. Sorry, but then the doors roll back and

(01:48:20):
there you are right on the river. Beautiful total along.
But the Christmas markets open sort of mid to late
November and they run until Christmas Eve. Some of them
goes through to New Year's Eve. So I didn't actually
find Christmas Day very Christmas Eve, and so I would
go next time, I would do an earlier December Christmas

(01:48:44):
Markets cruise, and then I would not stay over because
like and when you add Christmas Day in Paris, like
we did, it's frightfully expensive. It's probably the most expensive
night to be staying there. I didn't really find it
wasn't easy for us to find a hotel or anywhere
to have a Christmas Day lunch. There's a lot of
people Paris was heaving with tourists on Christmas Day or

(01:49:07):
getting selfies at the Eiffel Tower from nationalities that don't celebrate,
and I just sort of hadn't really factored that in
all the French people were probably in their own homes
and the shops were all closed, but you could barely
move for the tourists.

Speaker 13 (01:49:20):
So that's what I would do differently.

Speaker 8 (01:49:22):
I'd say, do the Christmas markets cruise a little earlier
in the month, and either the home for Christmas Day
or maybe you're off with family in another part of
the world.

Speaker 13 (01:49:30):
That's what I would do differently.

Speaker 3 (01:49:32):
Huh, Okay, that's really good advice because everyone sort of
thinks it's so magical. It's very magical Christmas Peris. Unless
you've booked the restaurant months in advance and got yourself organized,
it could be a little bit disappointing.

Speaker 8 (01:49:45):
We ended up on a cruise along the same river
which was a buffet Christmas dinner and that was nice.
I mean, you know, and you could go up and
have a Christmas dinner up the Eiffel Tower, but you're
talking two hundred euros a pop to do that, just
to eat, but not that it was lovely and I
absolutely my heart was stolen by the Christmas markets. Vienna
was my favorite, the food and Frankfurt probably was the best.

(01:50:09):
You know, you go also around those markets, you go
to live opera shows and things like that. Just incredible.
I've got a post on what to wear get all
rugged up warm. Yeah, so I'll definitely do it again.

Speaker 3 (01:50:21):
So Megan, just really quickly. So you said the shops
will shut on Christmas Day? Do they do also sort
of Boxing Day as a public holiday and things?

Speaker 16 (01:50:28):
So yeah, look, we left on Boxing Day and out
of Paris.

Speaker 3 (01:50:35):
You need to do your research because you're right. You
don't want to be somewhere where it's all public holidays
and you can't do much. No, very good advice, wonderful,
Thank you so much, Meghan. Meghan will have blogs about
this all over blogger at large dot com. If you're
thinking that the Christmas markets and cruising is your kind
of thing, it is twelve to twelve books.

Speaker 2 (01:50:56):
With wiggles for the best Election of great Reads.

Speaker 3 (01:51:00):
Joan McKenzie joins me. Now, good morning, good morning, right
as we do at this time of the year, every
you give us a list of some excellent Christmas gift ideas,
but also you know books that we might want to
catch up and read over the summer ourselves, but a
good holiday reading and things. And today we're going to
take a look at best nonfiction. And this is your list.

(01:51:21):
I like this, my very subjectiveness, very subjective list. Take
me through it, John, These are just some great books
I came across this year. The first one is by
Arundhati Roy, who won the Book of Prize I'm going
to say twenty years ago with the God of Small Things,
So we know that she's a good writer. And this
is her memoir and it's marvelous. It's called Mother Mary
Comes to Me by Aaron Dati Roy, and it's her

(01:51:43):
story of growing up in India, first in Kerala, where
she had a really tempestuous and difficult relationship with her mother,
who she refers to throughout the book always as missus
Roy and who was a genuine force of nature. But
you can see that she'd have been absolutely terrifying to
be around. Arundherty left home when she was eighteen and
moved to Delhi specifically to get away from her mother,

(01:52:05):
but she never did manage to escape the enormous influence
that Missus Roy had on her life.

Speaker 16 (01:52:08):
And I just loved this book. It's wonderful.

Speaker 3 (01:52:11):
I've noticed it's been on a lot of bests.

Speaker 16 (01:52:16):
The next one is also a memoir. It's called How
to Say Babylon by Sapphia Sinclair. She grew up in
Jamaica as the child of a deeply conservative Rastafarian man
who was determined to keep his two daughters away from
what he called Babylon, which was for him, the secular world.
And she had a pretty miserable time of it. He

(01:52:37):
was overbearing and actually quite cruel, and they had no money.
But she had the soul of a poet, and she
hoped that one day she would be. And this is
a book about a young girl who finds her voice
in defiance of a really difficult father, but eventually manages
to stand up to him and become the woman that
she never actually thought she could be. A lot of
listeners will have read a book called Educated, which they

(01:52:58):
may have loved as much as I did. And if
you loved that, then you will like this.

Speaker 3 (01:53:02):
Okay, excellent. Tell Me about the Breath of the Gods
by Simon Winchester Well, this is a book about the
wind which doesn't sound very prepossessing, I know, but when
you consider how generally speaking it's a constant in our lives.
You know, you can have a nice breeze on a
summer's day, or you know that it's generating renewable energy.
But it can also be a bit malevolent, with cyclones

(01:53:23):
and tornadoes and things that go wrong. And Simon Winchester
is a genius at explaining things. He's rarely good at
this in all his books, and.

Speaker 16 (01:53:31):
He uses a mix of science and poetry and literature
and anecdotes from right around the world, and it's all
absolutely fascinating. And I'll just say he's really familiar with
New Zealand. He knows Wellington's wind really really well. And
there's a section in this book about the way he
node disaster in nineteen sixty eight, with a truly extraordinary
description of what happened on the ship that day.

Speaker 3 (01:53:52):
You have spoken about this book so often this year.
I thought the least I could do the other day
was pick it up. So that is sitting on my
well summer reading pile. But a book that I have
just picked up and started reading is The Hollow Boys.

Speaker 16 (01:54:04):
Yes by Peter Carey. The Hollows Boys, Yes, the story
of three brothers, the Hollows brothers Gary, Mark and Kim,
who were pivotal in the helicopter deer recovery era in Fiordland.

Speaker 1 (01:54:14):
Different I'm going.

Speaker 16 (01:54:17):
To say it was dangerous and unregulated and there was
no such thing as health and safety in many respects.
This is a tough book about tough men. But Gary,
one of the brothers, died about forty years ago in
one of these operations, and it feels reading the book
as raw today as it did back then. But the
work they did was extraordinary, with lots of money sloshing around,

(01:54:38):
lots of deer dyeing, daring do by a group of
brave and reckless men who lived by their own rules.
It's one of the most sought after books this Christmas.

Speaker 3 (01:54:47):
I can say, Okay, there we go, and we're going
to finish with Tamma Etty.

Speaker 16 (01:54:50):
Yes, who for much of his life was considered something
of a pride but became a national treasure. And this
is a beautiful book with him telling his story in
his own voice about the years of activism, about discovering
his talent for art. He says, actually that art saved him.
It's been beautiful we produced and put together. And for
me who's watched this man over many, many years and

(01:55:11):
seeing the work that he's been involved in with and
the criticism that he's been under off and from the establishment,
it was quite revelationary and I really loved it.

Speaker 3 (01:55:20):
An amazing collection of books. Thank you so much, Joan
or talk next week.

Speaker 1 (01:55:24):
See you then the Sunday Session full show podcast on
iHeartRadio powered by News talksb.

Speaker 3 (01:55:33):
Thank you so much for joining me on the Sunday
Session today. Thank you very much to Kerrie for producing
the show, not just today, but for you know, the
entire year. She is finishing up today. I've done her
and she can't make it to the end of the year.
She's just got to go. So we are we're letting
a god. I made her a cheesecake to say thank
you very much, but no, thank you, Kerrie. Couldn't it

(01:55:56):
without your love. So have a great summer and look
forward to seeing you mid next year, well mid jam,
not mid next year. Come back before the middle of
the year. Please grow you a disaster to come back
mid jam would be great. Thanks love. Jason Pine is
up next here, has got a whole lot of different
sport to talk about, and he's going to kick off
with a little bit of cricket for those of you

(01:56:16):
who are stuck in the car as you do your
Christmas shopping. He's keen to hear from you. I will
be back next week. Got some great guests for you.
We have got Domglashan joining us. He finally agreed to
have a documentary made about him, so we're going to
talk about that. And Hollywood director Paul Figue who did
Bridesmaids and Freaks and Geeks and a whole lot of
other amazing TV shows and films. It's going to join

(01:56:36):
us to talk about his brand new film, The Housemaid.
So make sure you're join us next week. Enjoy the
rest of your day, take care, We a.

Speaker 4 (01:56:43):
Green West crash.

Speaker 26 (01:56:47):
And a wild pool spend Anchor me, Anchor me, anchme me,
and come.

Speaker 1 (01:57:03):
Down for more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin.
Listen live to News Talks at B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.

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