Full Show Podcast: 15 March 2026

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

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Selection of great reads used Talks EDB.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Good morning, I'm Francesca Rudkin. Welcome to the Sunday Session.
Good to have you with us. Coming up on the
show today after ten, I'm joined by award winning an
international best selling author, Charlotte McConaughey. Charlotte is the author
of novels such as Migrations, Once They're Wolves and one
of the best novels of last year, Wild Dark Show.
It was announced this week she would be ten in

(00:48):
New Yorkland Writers' Festival in May, and I'm very excited
to have Charlotte McConaughey with me after ten this morning.
A really good new local TV series hit three and
three now this week. It's called Crackhead. It is fast paced,
it's irreverent, it's brilliantly written and car It's a series
about a woman with addiction issues who's placed in a

(01:09):
mental health care facility. It's written by and stars Holly
Shirley and the series is loosely based around her real
life experiences in a mental health unit in her early twenties.
Holly and her director husband Emmett Skilton a Whitney after
eleven and as always, you can text throughout the morning
on ninety two ninety two the Sunday session. So if

(01:34):
you were hoping twenty twenty six would be a simpler
year than the previous view, you're probably rethinking your expectations.
There's a bit going on, isn't there. This week has
been about leadership domestic and global, the Middle East, oil
prices and reliving the past with a COVID Royal Commission report.
Oil isn't toilet paper, but there's a weird familiarity between

(01:57):
COVID and our oil supply concerns, isn't there? The fear
of what happens if we run out of something? And
so in these difficult and uncerta times, it can be
helpful to look for a distraction. And I can't think
of the better one than the ninety eight the ninety

(02:19):
eight Academy Awards, which take place on Monday afternoon, New
Zealand time. I know it sounds flippant, it is easy
to dismiss the Oscars as irrelevant during a tumultuous time.
It's all extravagant outfits, outrageous goodie bags, woke speeches, and
I can understand why some people think it's an advertisement

(02:40):
the Oceenpeck, But actually there's a place for the Oscars
beyond the distraction and entertainment. The craft and storytelling on
show is incredible and those responsible, from the directors and
actors to the costume designers and sound engineers deserve to
be respected and honored. With the news, well, when the
news is all doom and gloom, it's easy to become

(03:01):
cynical and negative about everything. So it's a choice to
retain some possistivity and remind ourselves of what's possible and
to celebrate talent and achievement, regardless of what industry it's in.
As seems to be the case year after year, Keywis
have acknowledged to their incredible work at the Oscars. Costume
designer Kate Harley is nominated for Frankenstein. She's an inspiration

(03:23):
for all young design students out there and the incredible
team at Weta FX and nominated for Avatar, Fire and Ash.
The Studio have already won the OSCAR for Best Visual
Effects seven times, seven times. I quite often hear people
say how much New Zealanders punch above their weight, particularly
in the creative industries, and I just don't like that expression.

(03:47):
It means performing or achieving results better than expecting beyond
one's ability, skill and experience, and this is absolutely not
the case. Regardless of our nation's size and where we live.
Keywis have the ability, skill and experience to be at
the top of whatever game they're in if they're prepared
to work for it. It is easy to look at
what's going on in the world and say there are

(04:07):
more important things to be doing than thinking about the Oscars,
and that is true, but hey, throughout the awards almost
one hundred year history, there have always been more important
things to think about. So if you happen to have
access to Disney Plus tomorrow, set yourself up in front
of the screen, take pleasure, and people doing well enjoy
the distraction and celebration of this marvelous art form. There

(04:28):
are some exceptional films and kiwis to cheer.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
For the Sunday session.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
So go one battle after another for Best Picture right right,
that's what we want to say, isn't it? Maybe not?
You can text on ninety two ninety two. Up next,
we get back to the serious stuff, what you need
to know about New Zealand's refined fuel supply process and
whether you really need to worry. It's eleven past nine.
You're with news talks at b Relax.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
It's still the weekend.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudgin and Woggles for
the best selection of great breads used talks.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
That'd be alrighty. So a lot of talk this week
about global oil shortages, domestic rising petrol and diesel costs,
potential restrictions, and yet politicians are doing all they can
to reassure us everything is okay. So what do New
Zealanders need to know and understand about the impact of
the conflict in the Middle East and how it will
affect the supply of refined fuel to New Zealand. Nathan

(05:25):
Surrendra Surrendering is the chair of the Wise Response Society
and an engineering consultant, and he joins me now, thanks
so much for your time, Nathan.

Speaker 4 (05:34):
Good morning, Franchisque.

Speaker 3 (05:35):
You commented yesterday that coverage of fuel shortages so far
have missed the point. Can you talk me through that?

Speaker 5 (05:44):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (05:45):
So, I think one of the big things that people
aren't understanding about the current situation is that the conflict
is likely to go on for longer than you know,
people would like it too. I think that goes without
saying to some degree, but it's likely to be months
based on the messaging from Iran, and we've lost twenty

(06:05):
percent of total oil supply globally. Now we've also lost
what's known as saurkrud from the Middle East, which means
there's sulfur in that fuel when it's refined at the
various refiners around the world, and that sulfur is a
feedstock for other processes making sulfuric acid, for mining metals,
and for fertilizer production. So there are flow on effects

(06:28):
that are going to play out over months and potentially
years as this crisis works its way through the global economy.
And because of that and understanding those supply chain dynamics,
Wise Response is calling for the government to basically step
up and introduce rationing earlier rather than later, because we
know that these second and third order effects are going

(06:50):
to affect us over the long term.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
Because we don't really think about where our fuel comes from.
We turn up at the pump, it's there, we expected
to be there. Can you just talk me through the
supply chain of New Zealand's fuel and why we're now
at risk.

Speaker 4 (07:04):
Yes, absolutely, so. New Zealand's fuel is no longer produced domestically,
and there's been a lot of talk about we shouldn't
have closed Marsden points. That's true to some degree, but
the miss is a bigger point, which is that you know,
because of the amount of fuel that's lost, the fuel
that we were refining at Myerson Point came from the
Middle East anyway, came from the straightfor moves, so we

(07:25):
would have lost that import of the raw crude instead.
Now what we do is we import the refined products,
so the petrol and diesel, and they come from a
variety of refineries, but primarily South Korea is about forty
eight percent of our total supply and Singapore is about
thirty three percent, so about half and a third from
those two refineries alone. Those refineries get their oil from

(07:47):
the Middle East, and that oil from the Middle East
obviously has stopped flowing, so those refineries are running short
on the feedstock, the raw crude oil, and they are
therefore constraining their production and in some cases having to
turn off certain parts of the production. There's multiple different parts,
so they're refining process and so on in order to

(08:10):
well simply because they do not have the materials to refine.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
So the key thing is that over eighty percent of
our refined fuel comes from South Korea and Singapore, and
both those countries refineries run on Middle Eastern crude. And
of course it's not just actually about rising prices, but
that there may be statehoarding. These countries might start restricting
what they're exporting to protect their own domestic market.

Speaker 4 (08:35):
That's correct, I mean, you know, to give you an example,
China has now said there is an absolute ban on
export of refined petroleum products from China at this point,
and that's through to the end of the month for now.
But that's the position that they've taken, and it's quite
possible that other countries will follow suit. South Korea was
having discussions last week about implementing a similar ban. We

(09:00):
haven't yet, as I understand it, heard what their decision is. Obviously,
they're monitoring a developing city cuation as we are so the.

Speaker 3 (09:08):
Fuel that is currently en route to New Zealand, are
we guaranteed that that will arrive? Could it be diverted
to another country?

Speaker 6 (09:16):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (09:16):
Possibly. So that brings up an important point actually, because
the ministers have been on the out in the media saying,
you know, well, we've got about fifty days worth of
fuel and there's three tiers to our fuel reserves, Tier one,
two and three. Tier one is the stuff we've got
on in tanks on the ground in country and stand

(09:37):
as of the end of last week, and we were
saying that's about thirty days. Then we have about another
twenty days worth of fuel coming to us on those ships,
and then beyond that the tickets to buy for the options,
which we'll talk about later if you like. But that
second tier, the floating reserve, is oil on ships that
can potentially be diverted if a supplier declares force masure,

(10:01):
it has the right to do what it wants with
the fuel that has in the tanks and so in
the tankers. And so there is already president earlier last
week of fuel that was supposed to be heading to
Europe and Africa being rediverted back to Asia.

Speaker 3 (10:18):
We are hearing this term force masure being used already,
can you explain you know what it means within this industry.

Speaker 4 (10:26):
Yeah, yeah, Basically, it means that there was something happens global,
geopolitical or natural disaster type event whereby the contract that
we've signed with you is no longer valid and the
reason for that is there's circumstances beyond our control. We
cannot fulfill the contract.

Speaker 3 (10:44):
Okay, So if South Korea or Singapore or these ships
which were you know, hopefully en route to New Zealand
are diverted or there is a restriction in what they
are prepared to export, what do we do do we
have a backup option?

Speaker 4 (11:01):
Well, there is the National Fuel Plan, so you know,
the government has effectively a staged incremental rationing type process initially,
and this is what we called for at the beginning
of the week. Should signal that rationing is a potential possibility,
because signaling it gives people time to adjust mentally, gives

(11:23):
them time to think about what they need to change.
It can indicate that we should be trying to conserve
our fuel resources, so trying to reduce our demand through
elective measures that we can take as individuals and organizations
it can force that upon us through the nineteen eighty
one forget what it's called, but the Fuel Act that

(11:45):
basically give them the emergency powers to implement rationing after
the last oil crisis that we experienced, and then beyond that,
it's a question of how you ration.

Speaker 3 (12:01):
Let's talk about the National Fuel Plan. It doesn't look
like a terribly detailed plane. Would you be expecting at
this point that the government would be just quietly looking
at a more specific plan to deal with this situation
to make Kiwi's needs.

Speaker 4 (12:17):
I've been hearing through the sort of back channels that
I think they are doing that in the background. You know,
it's it will be very, very irresponsible than not to
be at this point. And I think it's pretty clear
that you know, what they can say publicly and what
they are doing in practice behind the scenes are two
different things. Often, you know, what we've got at the

(12:37):
moment is the situation though where by doing nothing you
know no indication that rationing might be a thing. We're
rationing by price, and so you know you've seen these
price spikes. It leads to situations where people who can
afford it can go out and buy fuel, buy some
more fuel cans, store it, etc. And those who can't

(12:58):
are left looking at it. You know, they turn it
for the petro station and maybe the pumps are dry,
so you know, that's that's where we currently are.

Speaker 3 (13:04):
Those those quite mixed messages. That becomes the problem, isn't it, Nathan,
Because look, I'm not running out and buying in bulk
and hoarding in anything. But I have watched the price
shoot up dramatically throughout the week, so you can't deny
that it's not going to have an impact Onnathan. We've
got a problem coming from, you know, approaching. So it's
nice to say, hey, it's okay, no need to panic now.

(13:26):
I don't think anyone necessarily is panicking now, but I
do think that everyone understands that in the medium will
potentially the long term, there could also be issues. And
even even the Finance Minister, Nicola Willis Is said there's
no need to panic now, but in the medium term
there could be issues. What are we looking at, Yah,
in turn wise.

Speaker 4 (13:45):
Well, I think we will see some rationing introduced. I
mean it seems like it really is the only option
when you run short of a resource and you're trying
to make sure that people get a fair allocation of it.
That you have to have some sort of rushing. So
I mean, I can talk you through the sort of
different increments of rationing if you like. So, I mean,
you know, as I said, the first one is do

(14:07):
nothing the price spike analogy and using a water analogy.
If you've got a town where the reservoir is running low,
five ways to handle it.

Speaker 7 (14:14):
You can.

Speaker 4 (14:18):
Do nothing and ration by price. You can send a
letter to your people saying please use less water. Some
people will, most won't. There's no consequences, no real fairness.
It's a voluntary demand restraint. If you go to a
next increment up, no water in your garden on Tuesdays
or Thursdays, which is analogous to you know, different stickers

(14:39):
called stickers for different days you can use your car.
Simple crude problem is the family with four cars. Picks
are different one each day, single car household loses a
day of mobility and the farmer who needs a vehicles
seven days a week. The problem the next increment up
form that is actual rationing by tokens. And we're talking

(15:00):
about tradable energy quotas as the system. We'd like to see.
But before that, you know, just basic tokens on the surface.
But if a plumber runs out on Wednesday and the
retired couple has barely used half their tokens, then they'll
trade informally regardless of whether or not. You've got a
mechanism in place. So you've created a black market and
tradable energy quotas, which is the option that wise response

(15:20):
is promoting. Same tokens, but you can legally sell your spares,
so the total town usage stays within what the reservoir
can handle. Back to our water analogy, but households sorted
out amongst themselves, careful that households earn some money and
the ones that need more get it. Nobody goes to
a black market, and the total stays within the physical
limits because we're facing a situation in rustioning where there

(15:43):
is a limit to the total amount that we can
share between ourselves.

Speaker 3 (15:46):
Okay, it's interesting. I like the water analogy only, Nathan,
because I know that when councils tell us to save water,
we're very good at saving water. So yes, absolutely, Hey,
when will we reach the hard part for New Zealand
consumers and businesses, do you think.

Speaker 4 (16:01):
It's a good question, and I don't really have an
answer to you. You know, we've got thirty days of
fuel on the ground in tanks. If there was a
more widespread force masured declaration, that twenty two days worth
that is still on ships that haven't arrived yet may
not get here. So we're stuck with that thirty days.
There was some work done last.

Speaker 5 (16:23):
Year by.

Speaker 4 (16:25):
Matt Boyd a group called adapt Research, and he was
looking out, well, how could we actually ration out a
finite fuel supply. He was looking at, you know, other
potential disastrous scenarios and figured out that, you know, you
can actually stretch out quite a long way if you
start early and you know you've got that thirty days
and say we can reduce demand by two thirds by

(16:47):
absolutely you know, pairing back to the minimum. Then suddenly
we've got ninety days of fuel. So you know, the
quicker we do that sort of thing, the better. And
this is why you know we're calling for demand restraint
and the government's signal rationally now rather than in two
weeks time.

Speaker 3 (17:02):
I've got a quick ticks here. I'm wondering if you
could answer for me. Nathan Jeroey tiks to say the
questioning here is why did prices go up over this week?
The cost of that stock wasn't the current cost price?
So why because we're not paying for we're paying for
the now?

Speaker 4 (17:20):
Yeah, I think I think you could. You can think
of it as a risk premium. That's the sort of
economic way of saying price gadging. And it's it's hard
to say definitively whether or not that's going on because
I don't have a clear insight into you know, the
specific commercial priorities. But it seemed pretty clear that the

(17:42):
price went up pretty quickly ahead of any actual limits happening,
and that we've seen that happen historically, and we know
that the price goes up quickly and then doesn't really
come back down as quickly. All of that is additional
profit that is being siphoned out of people's pockets.

Speaker 3 (17:59):
So what would you recommend Keywis do. Should they should
they store a little extra, should they be thinking about,
you know, doing more in one trip, rationing the you know,
the yuse of fuel.

Speaker 4 (18:11):
I think that, Yeah, I think that those sorts of
things are definitely on the table. I mean, you know,
there's different tiers to what we should be doing right.
So at the national level, I said, what we're doing.
At the regional level, we should look ideally to some
sort of coordinated response from our councils and our emergency

(18:31):
management teams. The problem there is that often they're extremely underfunded,
you know, and they also have other mandated responsibilities. So
it's worth going and you know, asking your council what
they what, to think hard about what they can do,
and you know, to support initiatives that, for example, try

(18:52):
to relocalize our food systems, which is part of a bigger,
longer term shift that I think we need in response
to the multiple crises, not just this specific one, that
are growing over time as we run into planetary boundaries
and resource depletion issues. So you know, buying from your
local grower, butcher or farmers market, if you're not spending

(19:14):
money on food that was trucked from christ Church or
Auckland or wherever the distribution centers are to the supermarkets,
then that shortens the chain and supports local growers who
can then support our communities better in times like this.
You've said combining your trips carpools to work if you
can't work from home, even if it's only a day

(19:35):
a week. That's twenty percent reduction on your commuting fuel bill.
And you you know fuel use should I say, talk
to your neighbors. You know, we know that communities that
cooperate and who talk to each other do better.

Speaker 5 (19:49):
In a crisis.

Speaker 4 (19:50):
There was the example in the christ church Ese quakes
of the community in Littlington which had the time bank going.
And you know there's things around that that can be
set up. We do have you know, as I said,
maybe a month or so it's worth of fuel. Now
it's time to think and prepare and get some of
these ideas out there and socialized and get people moving
on this stuff so that when the actual crisis arrives,

(20:12):
which we can see on the horizon, then we've actually
made some steps positively now to adjust. And then at
the individual level, you know, plant some more seeds, make
sure you've got some water stored. I mean, there's you know,
the steps people can take.

Speaker 3 (20:31):
It's really interesting. Again, sorry, I was just gonna say
it's really interesting. You say that because I popped down
to mind a teens today to grab a few more
punnets and lutacs, and somebody said to me, oh, yes,
we've had a lot of people coming in and restocking
their veggie gardens and things, and you know, for getting
ready for the increase in cost of food prices and
things because of the petrol So I think you're absolutely
right on that one, Nathan, surrender and thank you very

(20:53):
much for your time. Nathan is the chair of the
Wise Response Society and an engineering consultant there. You can
text your thoughts ninety two ninety two. I'll get to
some of those texts in just a moment. It's nine
point thirty.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin on News Talks AB.

Speaker 3 (21:12):
A lot of texts coming in about.

Speaker 2 (21:16):
Fuel.

Speaker 3 (21:16):
Heizb I've filled the car and sixty leaders of containers.
It's just common sense in a time like this. Thank you. Yes, look,
I'm not going to bulk store or hoard it, but
we have kind of made a decision in our house
that we will probably refill cars more often than we
used to, like not wait until where it's almost completely empty,
and be filling it when it's kind of just under
half full, to make sure that we're on top of things.

(21:39):
Most welcome to text ninety two ninety two Joining me
now News talk is he'd be political reporter Ethan Griffiths
is with us.

Speaker 8 (21:44):
Good morning, Good morning, Francesca.

Speaker 3 (21:46):
Thank you so much for being with us.

Speaker 9 (21:47):
Right.

Speaker 3 (21:48):
The Prime minister is after Summer and Tonga are today
to kick off a sort of a three day visit
over the week.

Speaker 8 (21:55):
Yeah, he is. He's taking a small business delegation with him,
a couple of MP's from other parties and his own
police and Pacific People's Minister. And this really is a
chance to probably meet the new governments of both countries.
They haven't been in power very long. I'm sure that
the oil, the issue with the oil supply will be
on the agenda, as well as transnational crime as well,

(22:18):
which has been a big issue in the Pacific over
previous years. But it was a little bit awkward. It
will be a little bit awkward for Chris Luxon as
he lands in Samoa tonight. Last night it was reported
that while in Samoa, Luxen will be bestowed with a
chiefly Martai title, which is a very high honor in Samoa.
The problem is Samos Prime minister said to local media

(22:40):
that Luxon had asked for the title, which really is
not a good lock. Now, after this report came out,
Luxon's office was quick to strenuously deny that he'd asked
for it, but that officials had checked in to see
if there were any ceremonies or honors planned, just so
the PM could be aware. So two conflicting stories there

(23:01):
from both leaders, which hopefully we will get some clarity
on this week. Immigration rules are likely to be a
big point of discussion as well someo as new Prime
Minister has made no secret of the fact that he
is wanting visa free travel for Pacific nationals coming into
New Zealand. Of course, at the moment the subject to
visitor visas, which the government has reduced the cost of,

(23:24):
but it is still quite difficult in some cases for
samow And and Tomin nationals for example, to get into
the country. So we'll be a very interesting visit right.

Speaker 3 (23:33):
Quite a lot this week on the government's move on orders,
and we've sort of learned that the move on orders
didn't get the backing of the Housing or Justice ministries.
And we've also sort of heard that the Police Minister
was concerned about the pressure was going to put on
police and things. There's now a lot of talk about
how it could potentially add more stress to the justice

(23:55):
system and our prisons and things. Where's this pushback coming from?

Speaker 8 (24:00):
Yeah, well, I mean, as you say, there has been
a lot of pushback, I mean since this was announced
from places like City Mission, the Salvation Army, organizations like that.

Speaker 10 (24:09):
But of course officials as.

Speaker 8 (24:10):
Well always give their advice and recommendations to the government
on how to progress with the sort of legislation before
they choose to announce it. We actually had that advice
released to us on Friday, and it is quite an
interesting read. The Ministry of Justice, for example, said there
was a lack of evidence that the orders would reduce
crime rates at all. They said that they were highly

(24:31):
likely to just merely shift begging or rough sleep into
different locations. Also concerns as well for the safety of
younger rough sleepers, and we have heard some MPs and
some of these organizations talking about the rise and youth
homelessness as well, and there's concerns for these people that
they might be moved on to a darker, less populated area,

(24:51):
which could really risk their safety. One of the most
significant findings how it would clog up the justice system.
Officials found that it could lead to an increase of
two hundred to eight hundred court cases a year, and
that's quite a lot for a government that has actually
had a lot of success in reducing the amount of cases.

Speaker 2 (25:11):
Before the district court.

Speaker 8 (25:13):
But on the other hand, at the same time, the
government will be quite pleased with this recommendation from Ministry
of Justice as well. It's not really expected to increase
the prison population that much. Of course, the penals he's
for ignoring these move on orders are either a two
thousand dollars fine or three months in prison, but officials
recommended that Officials advised that it would only increase the

(25:35):
prison population by about six people each year, which is
a lot lower than some opposition MPs have been suggesting.
So expect the debate on this law to rage on.
It is certainly one of the government's more controversial pieces
of legislation that has been pushed through Parliament.

Speaker 11 (25:50):
For this term.

Speaker 2 (25:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (25:51):
I have a funny feeling ethan that the police are
going to use discretion over this, and you know, they
are going to be picking and choosing when it's actually
important to be moving on and I hope they do.

Speaker 11 (26:03):
Yeah, I totally agree.

Speaker 8 (26:04):
I mean, it just seems like I mean, look, they're
living in Wellington, for example. You walk down in Courtney
Place and you see sort of the ones you see
all the time, the problematic ones that might be causing
a bit of a racas. But then you see many
others who I think have just fallen on hard times
and probably would move on it as police told them too,
So lots of discretion, I imagine.

Speaker 3 (26:22):
Ethan Griffith. Thank you so much for your time this morning.
Appreciate it. Don't forget that Australian author Charlotte macconaughey, award
winning and best selling author of books such as Migrations,
Wildlike Shawls and Once There Were Wolves, is with me
after ten. I'm very excited to talk to her. It
is twenty to.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
Ten the Sunday Session Full Show podcast on iHeartRadio, powered
by News Talks AB Love you.

Speaker 3 (26:46):
To have you with us right. A key we fashion
stylist has turned personal loss into a new purpose. Inspired
by her Auntie's cancer battle, Lulu Wilcox has created Loved
by Lulu, a range of headwear for women struggling with
hair loss from the likes of chemotherapy, Lulu Wilcox joins
me now, good morning, Good morning, First, can we chat
about the end inspiration behind Loved by Lulu. Tell me

(27:09):
about your auntie Helen.

Speaker 9 (27:11):
Yeah, Well, this was actually born from a deep place
of love and loss, and it was inspired by my
beautiful auntie who bravely faced illness and hair.

Speaker 11 (27:18):
Loss before passing.

Speaker 9 (27:19):
And I watched her journey and suddenly thought firsthand the strength, grace,
and obviously resilience they carry even in the most vulnerable moments.
So I wanted to create something that I could give back,
something that offers comfort, support and a bit of dignity
and a touch of glamour during the most difficult times.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
She died of avarian cancer aged sixty one, and you
did you nurse to her through a lot of that
period of time, didn't you?

Speaker 11 (27:42):
Yes?

Speaker 9 (27:43):
I did, So this is a bit of a tribute
to her spirit and every woman navigating sickness, recovery and change.
So yeah, I've Yeah, this has come about Loved by Lulu,
and I'm very, very passionate about it, and been in
the fashion industry for so long, I just felt the
need to be able to give back and provide something

(28:03):
for everybody navigating this journey.

Speaker 3 (28:06):
Did Helen's hair loss impact.

Speaker 11 (28:08):
Her oh, very much. So yeah it was. Yeah.

Speaker 9 (28:13):
I mean, look, I mean everybody going through these hormonal
ch whether you know, the chemo, cancer, whatever, times and periods.

Speaker 11 (28:23):
Of whatever it navigated. It actually was a lot.

Speaker 9 (28:26):
It was really hard on her and it was one
thing she did say to me before she passed was
she really didn't want anyone to see her without her hair.
So so yeah, it was. Yes, it was a big
It was a big time and journey for hair for her.

Speaker 11 (28:40):
Experiencing that.

Speaker 3 (28:41):
Did you have other conversations with other women around the
impact of hair loss?

Speaker 11 (28:46):
Yes, I did.

Speaker 9 (28:46):
Yeah, and most of most of these people that came
back to me when I was navigating the actual process
of the fabrics, et cetera, they all came back to
me and said that there was just nothing really available
here in New Zealand or if sure that they could
actually you know, have something that they could look and
feel good and as well. So the process of me
finding the fabrics and going through all that navigation has

(29:10):
been a bit of a journey, but we've I've managed
to get there.

Speaker 3 (29:12):
And yeah, taught me through a little bit the process
of getting this range up and running.

Speaker 9 (29:19):
Oh yes, well I've had to go through a lot
of a lot of well, I've been approved by the
Ministry of Health to get this, get this underway, and
to do that, I had to go through the navigation
of specific here, specific fabrics due to the chemotherapy, because
of obviously you know, the medical side of things with

(29:39):
itchiness and yeah, and you know, been uncomfortable with temperature,
et cetera. So so, yeah, it's been a bit of
a journey, but I'm finally there and excited for that.

Speaker 3 (29:50):
That's really interesting. So it wasn't just a matter of
coming up with a wonderful style. There was quite a
lot to think about.

Speaker 11 (29:54):
Oh, absolutely.

Speaker 9 (29:55):
At first I thought it might have been just something
that would be, you know, an easy process, but but
not so much. And obviously, you know, I've been in
the fashion industry for a long time and and my career.
Throughout my career, I've seen how fashion can can transform
confidence and individuality and and I've always helped make women

(30:20):
feel confident and seen, and I wanted to bring that
through into these turbans. It's about feeling, It's yeah, I
wanted to bring that same feeling of empowerment to women
experiencing the hair loss and so That's how I created
this journey. It's about, you know, the difficult moments and
feeling comfort and beauty and grace while they're going through this.
And this is a design to honor not only a

(30:43):
woman's beauty but their bravery.

Speaker 3 (30:46):
My friends who have had cancer, you know, some of
them loved the WORG, some of them really hated the work.
So it's wonderful to have another option, isn't it.

Speaker 9 (30:54):
Oh?

Speaker 11 (30:54):
Absolutely yes.

Speaker 9 (30:55):
And through the the process of going through their medical
hair loss with the Ministry of Health, the each each
chemo patient actually gets a government grant, I mean a
Ministry Health grant that that goes through as a subsidy
for them, whether it be for headwear or wigs. And

(31:18):
so this is just another another alternative for them.

Speaker 3 (31:21):
Fantastic, So you can use the headwear subsidy to purchase.

Speaker 9 (31:25):
These, Yes, absolutely so the process you normally involves speaking
with the GP or nurse and completing a form and
then applying for the funding towards the head turbine or
head piece. And so I've once my website's up and
running and the next week or two, their process will
be very easy. I know that navigating those sorts of
forms and all the admin around that is quite difficult.

(31:47):
So I've wanted to make this as easy as possible
for women to be able to access and support this
with ease.

Speaker 3 (31:53):
Literally. What's been the response from those who have trialed
the turbans?

Speaker 9 (31:58):
Well, I haven't actually had too many trial them as yet,
but from you know a few couple of friends and
family that have been going through this stuff, really, yeah,
it's yeah, it's something that I think is going to be.

Speaker 11 (32:12):
Yeah, really special. I mean I obviously love color.

Speaker 9 (32:15):
And and so the other optional head where that they
could possibly only really find was something too neutral and
actually didn't make them feel feel good about themselves. That
this is a little the color options that I'm providing
is going to be something that's going to make them
feel a little bit different, because color makes you makes
you feel different in every way.

Speaker 3 (32:34):
Lulu people can check them out on Instagram Loved by Lulu.
Is that correct?

Speaker 11 (32:39):
Yes, that's correct, Loved by Lulu.

Speaker 9 (32:41):
And and yes, please feel free to you know, DM
me in regards to any questions or anything at the
moment before the website gets up and running.

Speaker 11 (32:51):
So yeah, these fabrics are soft sort of velve soft.

Speaker 9 (32:53):
Velvet with bamboo lining and breathable, stretchy and comfort. A
couple of other things is they are ready too wear,
so there's no complications with ties or adjustments. And yeah,
very sensitive first, very fit for sensitive scalps.

Speaker 3 (33:10):
Yeah, Lula, I think Helen would be very proud.

Speaker 11 (33:13):
Oh thank you, Yes, she would be. Yes.

Speaker 9 (33:16):
And it's a shame I didn't get this up from
running prior. But this, this is what's brought me to this,
and it's about making everyone feel. Every woman deserves to
feel beautiful, strong, confident and seene and these turbans are
a tribute to that. And as I say, they're like
a hug and a cloth.

Speaker 3 (33:34):
Lula, really nice to meet you. Thank you so much
for your time this morning. As I mentioned there, the
brand is going to be called Loved. Is called Loved
by Lulu. You can find that on Instagram and also
just keep out keeping eye of that website that'll be
coming very shortly. It is twelve to ten.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
The headlines and the hard questions. It's the mic asking breakfast.

Speaker 12 (33:55):
The idea of Carlos Days is once again being floated
as a way to deal with the oil issues. Nicola Willis,
Finance Minister, is with us. Are you walking a fine
line between reality and panicking people with this sort of talk?

Speaker 6 (34:05):
Yeah, because right now we have guys with a fuel supply,
but we do need to be proactively thinking heat. I
want to be clear, though we published a national fuel plan,
it has seven phases. The extreme demand management tool of
Carlos Dad is right at the end. We're only in
say one at the moment.

Speaker 12 (34:22):
None of this is going to happen as if you
won't say, but I will. This thing's over in a
couple of weeks. I'm absolutely convinced. Well, I certainly want
it to be back Tomorrow at six am the Mike
Husking Breakfast with Rain Drovers, fort SV News Talk ZB.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
There's no better way to start your Sunday.

Speaker 1 (34:38):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rutkin and Wiggles for
the best selection of Greg Reads, news talks, edb.

Speaker 3 (34:59):
Well, the lovely sounds of Lav there who we're playing
home growing of course in Hamilton yesterday. I hope you
had a great time if you headed along. Thank you
so much for your texts. I've stoppediled two hundred and
ten leaders of diesel and a drum. It's about taking
a proactive approach while you can. Desil went up again overnight,

(35:19):
someone else said, Francesca, last time we had the fuel issue,
the insurance company said bulk thwords, your fuel may affect
you cover, which I'm sure is a really good point.
But a lot of people park their cars in their garage,
so I suppose it depends on how much you've stopped.
Doesn't it filled up the garage with some of you
think that that interview was very scam hungering and panic
and all about panic and crisis. I don't feel panicked.

(35:42):
I don't quite know where that came from. We kind
of know how the system works, and even Nikola Willis
has said down the track there might be some issues.
I don't think I deserve to get all worked up
and panicked about it, because if there were some kind
of restrictions coming forward. I do a lot of work
from home. I can restrict things. It's not major. However,

(36:02):
if you're running a business and you've just survived COVID
and got back on your feet and rely on Phil,
I absolutely think it's essential that you were probably having
a good think about this and looking further down the line.
I think that's a very reasonable thing to do and
thinking about costs and survival and things. You know, I don't,

(36:22):
but I don't. I still don't think that's a panic.
I just think that that's kind of being sensible. Do
you love the old Watties tomato sauce? I don't know
if you caught it, but you say if you do.
A lovely lady claims that Sir James Watty had given
her mother the recipe a long time ago, and of course,

(36:43):
with the news that heinz Watties this week it announced
their plans to shout three New Zealand in factory, she
thought she wanted to people would be interested in it,
so she went on Facebook after if anyone wanted the recipe,
and the post was flooded with mikes and comments, and
so then as chef decided to whip it up and
give it a whirl and said didn't quite have the
same iconic Watties taste. It's less sweet, more spicy, heavy,

(37:06):
but but the chef preferred it and said it wasn't
too bad. So look, if you've always loved the waters tomatoes,
have just giggle out on Facebook and the recipe it
is all yours.

Speaker 2 (37:17):
And there you go.

Speaker 3 (37:18):
Off you go. It's probably still easier just to pick
it up from the supermarket, but give it a whirl
if you like. It is six to ten news Talks at.

Speaker 1 (37:27):
B the Sunday Session full show podcast on my Heart
Radio powered by News Talks at B.

Speaker 3 (37:35):
Thank you for your texts. Another text just in response
to talking about Lulu and what she was doing for
people with hair loss due to cancer warning Fresh Sky,
I work with women post breast cancer for prosthesis and
BRAHS and the Ministry of Health have a grant for
these also a very positive next step for women after
the treatments. Yes, you're absolutely right. Thank you for your text.

(37:55):
One of my favorite books of twenty twenty five was
Wild Dark Show. It's such an amazing book. It's a
psychological thriller, a mystery of family drama, a love story.
It's a book about a remote, remarkable place. It says
so much about the world we live in and human behavior,
and it's a novel field with secrets and ghosts and fear.

(38:17):
Yet it's also a novel field with courage and hope.
You can tell that I just absolutely loved it. It's
brilliantly Bressan Fied with twists and turns. I'm absolutely delighted
that it's author Charlotte mcconachie is with us next to
talk all about it. You're with new Storks.

Speaker 10 (38:32):
Be put on the edge.

Speaker 5 (38:41):
That's the way I can't forget damp aut you, Emmy.

Speaker 3 (38:47):
I just pray the trade to the chest.

Speaker 13 (38:50):
Goddamn the second you fuck did.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
Something like a favorite dream. It's Sunday. You know what

(39:26):
that means.

Speaker 1 (39:26):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin and Wickles for
the best selection of great reads.

Speaker 2 (39:32):
Used talk said, be.

Speaker 3 (39:41):
Good morning, this is a Sunday session. I'm Francisca Budcan
with you until midday. Lovely to hep you with us.
Australian author Charlotte mcconniey's novel Wild Dark Shore has been
widely reviewed as one of the must read books of
twenty twenty five. Last week, it also saw Charlotte named
on the long list for the Women's Prize for Fiction.
I've read it, I absolutely loved it, and I was

(40:03):
so excited this week to say that Charlotte has been
announced as one of the authors for this year's Auckland
Writers Festival, and she joins me now from Australia. Good morning, Charlotte,
Good morning. First the congratulations for making it onto the
long list for the Women's Prize in Fiction. This book
has been so well received, it's on the Time magazines
one hundred Must Read Books of twenty twenty five. And

(40:25):
did you know writing it that you were onto a woman?
Can you sense it as an author?

Speaker 14 (40:33):
Oh no, no, no, no, definitely not. My sort of
writing process for this book was just fraught with doubt
and uncertainty. It was a it was a really difficult
book to write. And I think not least of all
because I had two very young children, well one baby

(40:56):
and another one on the way when I was actually
writing the first draft and then sort of editing it
through my second child's infancy, and so there was a
lot of.

Speaker 2 (41:08):
I felt.

Speaker 15 (41:10):
I was concerned that my sort of.

Speaker 14 (41:14):
Level of immersion into my writing was so much, it
was so different than what it had been in the past,
and I was worried that, you know, it was going
to sort of translate into the book and into the writing.
And I think, you know, that's their very normal doubts
to have as a writer. I don't I don't know
any writers that don't have those kinds of doubts. So

(41:36):
it's been really kind of amazing to see that. You know,
there's if you can kind of put your heart and
soul into something, it will connect with readers, despite how
sort of you know, stolen, those moments of writing feel
when you're writing it.

Speaker 3 (41:53):
I read that you wrote and deleted the first twenty
five thousand words of this book four times. Is that right?

Speaker 16 (41:59):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (42:00):
That must have been heartbreaking. Was that frustrated?

Speaker 15 (42:05):
Yeah, it was frustrating. It's definitely not heartbreaking, though. I
think it's.

Speaker 17 (42:12):
You just have to have.

Speaker 14 (42:13):
I mean, I guess I now have quite a lot
of experience under my belt. I've been writing books since
I was fourteen years old, so I sort of knew that.
Even though it did you could look at that as
you know, hugely wasted time, it wasn't at all. It
was part of what I needed to do to uncover
what the real story was and who the real characters were.

(42:34):
And Yeah, while it does seem like a really kind
of maddening way to write a book, it was just
unfortunately what this book needed from me. I had to
experiment and explore before I found the truth of it.

Speaker 3 (42:50):
It must be rewarding to know, though, how much your
books are loved. I mean so many accolades, and not
just for this book, but your previous two books, Migrations
and Once there Were Wolves, and obviously those accolades that
open up a whole new audience. I mean, you are
truly global now, aren't you.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it is.

Speaker 15 (43:08):
Yeah, it's a very profound experience. It's a funny thing.
I sort of you have moments where.

Speaker 14 (43:17):
People reach out to you and it feels very special,
and it feels sort of like why you do what
you do because you are connecting. You're writing something that
connects with people, and that's in a sense, why we write,
why we tell stories, it's to connect with each other.

Speaker 15 (43:33):
And so there's there's a sense of.

Speaker 14 (43:37):
Just a deep fulfillment around around that, I think when
when you know that your book is reaching a really
wide audience and having a really lovely kind of response.

Speaker 15 (43:49):
But there's also an element of I don't like to
sort of get too carried away with all of it.
I just want to like, right now, this is kind
of a wild year for me.

Speaker 14 (44:03):
I actually thought this was just going to be a
year of write my next book, but it's actually turned
because you a million. I never thought for a second
that there would be awards or you know, long lists
or short lists or whatever it may be, and so
it's there's there is an element of not wanting to
sort of let that crowd crowd the actual creativity of

(44:25):
what I'm trying to do with the next one, and
not letting the pressure sort of outweigh, you know, a
sense of play with the new work. It's just a
balancing thing.

Speaker 11 (44:39):
I think.

Speaker 3 (44:42):
The book follows a family on a remote island in
the Southern Ocean. They're responsible for a seed bank, nestled
in a cave and protected by the perma frost, and
it starts with the body of a woman washing up
on shore. She's alive, that she's severely injured. It's a thriller,
it's a mystery, it's a family drama. It's a poetic
ode to the power of nature. It's it's a warning
about our natural world. And all this comes together so cohesively.

(45:05):
It really is remarkable.

Speaker 14 (45:06):
How do you describe the book, Ah, I usually sort
of explain that it is the story of a father
and his three children living on a very remote.

Speaker 15 (45:22):
And wild island.

Speaker 14 (45:23):
Down near Antarctica, halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica, which
is based on my visit to the real Macquarie Island,
and they are the last inhabitants of this island because
it's become too dangerous to live on. They're packing up
to leave until the night of a particularly bad storm

(45:46):
washes a woman on shore and they sort of they
quickly rush to help her and try to nurse her
back to life, but it becomes clear that she is
keeping some pretty big secrets from them about why she's there,
what she's doing, and she quite quickly discovers that they
have hidden truths as well.

Speaker 15 (46:09):
She discovers things like.

Speaker 14 (46:12):
Sabotaged radio systems and a freshly dug grave.

Speaker 9 (46:17):
So it is.

Speaker 14 (46:18):
It's a Gothic romantic mystery and an eco thriller, and
it's about the interconnectedness of all living things and this.

Speaker 15 (46:28):
The the difficult.

Speaker 14 (46:32):
And potentially new responsibilities of raising children in a time
of ecological crisis.

Speaker 3 (46:41):
You have a strong interest in the natural world, and
we see it in your the previous two books as
well the places you write about it, and like a
character in the book, where does this respect and love
for the natural world come from.

Speaker 15 (46:55):
Yeah, good question. I'm not sure.

Speaker 17 (46:57):
I mean, I.

Speaker 14 (47:00):
Grew up in a really beautiful part of Australia, which
is the south coast of New South Wales. I grew
up moving around a lot and experiencing lots of different places.
I used to as a young person. I wrote these
big epic fantasy series because I wanted to have experiences.
I wanted to sort of live a bigger life. I

(47:22):
think that's why I wrote these big stories. And then
I sort of reached my mid twenties and was wanting
to explore my own heritage and history, and so I
was sort of roaming around.

Speaker 15 (47:34):
The UK and Ireland and I just sort of, I
don't know something. It struck me.

Speaker 14 (47:42):
The beauty of these kind of natural spaces, and so
I wanted to sort of write my way into them.
So I started writing these characters who were deeply wild
and deeply connected to their wildness as a way of
finding my own wildness.

Speaker 15 (47:58):
But I think what happened was that.

Speaker 14 (48:00):
You can't really write about our connection to the natural
world without writing about what's happening to them natural world.

Speaker 15 (48:07):
And so this sort of dawning awareness of our.

Speaker 14 (48:14):
Barreling towards catastrophe kind of awoke in me, and I
think I've just been writing with a sense of urgency
about it ever since. My three novels are kind of
they are love letters to the natural world, but they're
also exploring climate change through three sort of slightly different
emotional lenses.

Speaker 15 (48:34):
Migrations was a book about.

Speaker 14 (48:35):
Sadness and loss, the species Loss Once a Wolves was
a book about anger. It was my anger about the
way we were treating wild places and wild creatures and
each other. And then this book Wild Duck Show, I think,
is a book about fear, and particularly particularly the fear

(48:56):
of raising children in a really dangerous environment.

Speaker 3 (49:01):
Can we please talk about the trip to Macquarie Island.
Shearwater Island in the book is based on this sub
Antarctic island that you visited. How crucial is being there
and experiencing that setting to writing it will?

Speaker 16 (49:15):
Yeah?

Speaker 14 (49:16):
So, I think one of the reasons I was struggling
so hard at the beginning was I had chosen this
spot because I'd been fascinated with it for a long time.
I'd heard about it from friends who'd been there, scientists
who'd briefly stopped there on the way to Antarctica and
done a stint there, and I was just really interested

(49:37):
in it, so I wanted to fictionalize my own version
of it.

Speaker 15 (49:39):
But I was very disconnected from it.

Speaker 14 (49:42):
I couldn't quite get a sense of it, and I
think there was a lot of writing and rewritingmuse. I
just couldn't feel the tone of the book because I
couldn't feel the tone of the place. But as I said,
I had just had a baby. There's one boat that
goes down there at one time of year. I did
not think it was the sort of thing you could
do with a one year old, but that that, you know,

(50:07):
it was kind of make up.

Speaker 15 (50:08):
I was getting to the point where it was make
or break.

Speaker 14 (50:10):
I had to at least pursue whether or not I
could get there, or sort of almost give up on
the book at that point. So I reached out to
them and they said, well, they've never had a baby
there before, but let's give it a go. So we
headed down you depart, We made our way to Queenstown

(50:30):
and then you head down to the very bottom of
the South Island and take off on the boat from there.
And I just remember walking up to the sort of
leader of the expedition with my little baby and his
puffy life vest, and she took one look at us
and said, oh, we told them not to let you come.

(50:51):
We struck terror into my heart. It was very scary,
but actually we had the most wonderful trip.

Speaker 15 (50:58):
It was so calm. The seas were incredibly good to us.

Speaker 14 (51:03):
He had a great time. He was totally fine on
the boat. And I just remember kind of arriving at Macquarie.
You get this very short visit. You can only visit
Mcquarie for two days, and you can't sleep on the island.
Of course, there's no it's uninhabited apart from a science base.
So you're on the boat, step your head onto the

(51:24):
island for a couple of short visits. I had this
immense pressure growing, you know that I would not have
enough time to actually get this right. Everything sort of
relied on these short hours on this place. But I
stepped off onto this black sand beach and there was
a wall of sound that hit me. It was thousands

(51:46):
and thousands of seabirds just all around me.

Speaker 15 (51:49):
There were penguins waddling up to my feet.

Speaker 14 (51:52):
There were huge elephant seal pups fighting in the water,
albatross flying low overhead.

Speaker 15 (51:59):
It was extraordinary. I just had no idea that.

Speaker 14 (52:03):
Places like this still existed, where the animals would be
so untouched and unafraid of people. It was truly kind
of a beautiful experience. But the flip side of Macquarie
Island is that it's got a really dark underbelly, which
is due to its historical.

Speaker 15 (52:27):
Experiences with the oil exploitation trade.

Speaker 14 (52:30):
So the sealers and the whalers went down in droves
in the eighteen hundreds, and because of the richness of
the wildlife, they just kind of decimated it. They threw
the penguins into these huge, rusting barrels in order to
squeeze their oils out.

Speaker 15 (52:45):
It was very, very grim, dark time in this island's history.

Speaker 14 (52:48):
The wildlife was nearly completely wiped out, and the remnants
of that still are still there. The barrels are still
sitting on the beaches, surrounded now by penguins, and so
it has this you know, you can sort of feel
the hauntedness of this place hanging in the air. There
was something I did not expect, and suddenly it was

(53:09):
like it unlocked this book for me. I just all
the doubt and concern fell away. I knew exactly what
it was. It would be a gothic story about a
haunted family on a haunted island.

Speaker 3 (53:21):
Well, I am so grateful that you and the one
year old made the two Weeks Truth down there, because
and I'm sure that anybody else who's read the book
would agree like you, You draw us into these worlds
so beautifully, I think, because you do know them so
well that I find when I read one of your books,
I'm always dashing off to research something you've got me
thinking about. I ended up doing the virtual tour of
the Norwegian Suite the Seedbank oh wow, yeah, you know,

(53:45):
and then I sort of found myself researching about the
introduction of wolves in the Yellowstone National Park.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
You know.

Speaker 3 (53:50):
I mean, it's quite lovely as well that you put
a book down, but actually what you get from it
can be more than just emotional. It seems you awful
sort of lots of different tangents.

Speaker 15 (54:00):
Oh that's lovely. That's really nice to know. I mean,
one of the things I always try to do is.

Speaker 14 (54:06):
Just let you enjoy and learn about something that you
may not already have enjoyed, you know, in the natural world.
To just sort of remind us or that there are
these glorious treasures still out there that are worth fighting for.

Speaker 3 (54:18):
You're looking forward to coming to Auckland.

Speaker 14 (54:20):
Yes, absolutely, I can't wait. I've never been to Auckland.
I've been to South Island.

Speaker 15 (54:26):
But not the North.

Speaker 14 (54:27):
So I'm really, really, really excited. I've got a little
bit of research for my new book to do as well.

Speaker 3 (54:33):
Of course, you do char that It's been a delight
to talk to you. Thank you so much for the book.

Speaker 15 (54:40):
Thank you, thanks for having me.

Speaker 3 (54:41):
Charlotte is attending the Auckland Writers Festival this May. The
full program is available now just go to Writers Festival
dot co dot z. Yes, and I didn't know that.
We hit a seed bank in Norway, in a mountain
near the Arctic Circle there and it's where, of course,
we send all the seeds from around the world, millions

(55:02):
of seeds, so that in case we need to have
a crisis, a crop crisis in the world, we can
you know, grow crops again and everything. But unfortunately it
had a flood so they had to rebuild a part
of it, which of course is not what you want
when you're trying to protect all the seeds. In the
world do this do the tour. It's really just a

(55:23):
concrete bunker, but I found it interesting. Entertainment is up
NeXT's twenty two past ten news talks you'd.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
Be grab re Cover.

Speaker 1 (55:31):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudgin and Wikels for
the best selection of grape rings used Talks'd be There.

Speaker 3 (55:38):
Really is something for everyone at wick Calls. Now that
we're in the days of autumn, Wick Calls has some
great deals to help the good feelings stick around. If
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For the kids, Wikeles have twenty percent off all Pepper
Pig toys and great deals on Uno and Hasbro card games.

(56:01):
And then there's buy one, get one half price on
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picked up either in store or online and really make
someone's day with books, games, puzzles, toys, gorgeous stationary and
some terrific deals until the end of the month. There
really is something for everyone at WIT calls.

Speaker 2 (56:22):
The Sunday Session, and really good.

Speaker 3 (56:41):
News for all the fans out there of the K
Pop Demon Hunters. Netflix has announced a sequel to the
streaming platform's most watch movie of all time. No release
date has been set yet, but you know, you can
start letting the anticipation build. And of course, this announcement
comes as it is predicted that The K Pop Demon
Hunters could potentially win at the Oscars on Monday News

(57:06):
Ill in time. It's got two nominations for Best Animated
Feature and Best Original Song. And here to talk more
about the Oscars is our entertainment correspondent Steve new Ol.

Speaker 18 (57:15):
Good morning, Good morning.

Speaker 3 (57:17):
It gets you in a mood, doesn't It wakes you up,
gets you going have.

Speaker 18 (57:20):
I haven't k pop k Pop Demon Huntered yet.

Speaker 3 (57:23):
I haven't either, And look at my producer. She's yeah,
she's right onto it for her. She is very far
up through the window. But look, I think you need
to have kids of a certain age to probably jump
on board. No, she's shaking her head. No, that's not
that's for everybody. Sorry, it's for everyone. We'll give it
a gouy. Let's put it on the list. Christy Nome, though,

(57:45):
has kind of made a headline no no, no no,
but she's kind of she's kind of hit the headlines
because her the amount of money that she spent on
advertisements for Homeland Security on one advertise on one one
advertisement has kind of been compared to Oscar.

Speaker 18 (58:06):
For the this is so great. Now, this is a
story that was published in People magazine of all places. Now,
you know, I guess it's like it's a bit of
an entertainment weekly, a bit of a table almost a tabloid.
But it's one of a few interesting outlets that have
kind of done some of the best reporting on the
current Trump administration, which is just kind of cuckoo crazy
for starters that are celebrity kind of gossip. Ragger is
doing the sort of reporting, but the headline is Christian

(58:28):
Nomes two hundred and twenty million dollar Homeland Security horseback
writing ad dwarfed the budgets of these twenty twenty six
Best Picture nominees, and if we go down the list
of all the films nominated for Best Picture, these totals
that People magazine you can't with is the production budget
plus the marketing budget. Right, So you got okay, on
the one hand, you got Christian Name, a sixty second

(58:48):
ad which she's on horseback trying to get illegal immigrants
to voluntarily deport themselves to the United States. Two hundred
and twenty million dollars.

Speaker 5 (58:55):
Okay.

Speaker 18 (58:56):
So we go through these best picture numbs. If one
combined budget of production and marketing three hundred and fifty million, okay,
that's more expensive than Christian Names one minute ad on
the next one on the list, one battle after another
two hundred million, already below the line of nomes Homeland
Security ad Frankenstone over one twenty million, Muddy Supreme one
hundred and forty to one hundred and seventy five, Sinners

(59:18):
one hundred and forty to one hundred and fifty, Bigonia
eighty Hamnet over thirty, Train Dreams over ten, sentimental Value
over seven point eight million, and the Secret Agent over
five point two million. It's all a bit ridiculous, but
it has kind of cracked me out.

Speaker 3 (59:30):
Look, it is very amusing, and some people might be
taking from taking away from this conversation. It costs how
much to make if one, but that's the movie business
right now.

Speaker 18 (59:41):
I think the conversation might be like, how much money
got siphoned out of that Homeland Security ad budget to
go into someone's pocket.

Speaker 3 (59:46):
Oh my goodness. Anyway, I am really hoping that One
Battle after Another picks up the Best Picture tomorrow afternoon.

Speaker 18 (59:53):
It seems to be tracking. I think the Sinner's effect
right is kind of the big thing hanging over the soscles,
like how successful it'll convert its record number of nominations
in the Academy Awards we've seen in the last couple
of days. I think this is unrelated to the Timothy
chalo May opera ballet Bally Who that Michael B. Jordan
has overtaken shallow by long margin and the tipping for

(01:00:16):
he's going to win Best Actor. The votes closed on
the fifth of March, and as of March seven, that's
the point where he seemed to take over. So maybe
some of the conventional thinking about these oscars is being
set to one side. Maybe it is a big feel
good day for sinners, But like you, one battle after
Another's ready. The film of the name.

Speaker 3 (01:00:36):
The Timothy Shallowy conversation is really interesting. Not because you
made a flippant comment about opera and the ballet, which
is now doing wonderfully well and getting lots of support
thanks to those comments, but it was the way he
marketed the film, and he kind of stayed in that character,
and I felt like saying, dude, the character is so infuriating,
we do not need more Mighty Supreme. I wonder whether

(01:00:58):
because it is a bit like it is a bit
like a political campaign campaigning for the Oscars, You've kind
of got to win the hearts and minds of your peers, and.

Speaker 18 (01:01:08):
Narratives form, heroes and villains emerge, and it's again, it's
all kind of nonsense, but it's already entertaining nonsense.

Speaker 3 (01:01:16):
Do you think there'll be any surprises tomorrow?

Speaker 18 (01:01:18):
Yeah, I don't know. I think this might be one
of those if you're in the tipping game like me,
going to sit down and fill out a sheet tomorrow
and try and try and beat my mates at picking
the winners. Sinners. Yeah, big question mark over sinners. But really,
if you're going to win your office or friend tipping competition,
it'll be those down the down the ballot awards like

(01:01:40):
Best Animated Short or Best cinematography or Whatnotah, I think so. Yeah,
But nevertheless, looking forward to the show tomorrow. It's streaming
on Disney Plus. The ceremony starts at midday. There's some
red carpet before that. It's hosted by Conan O'Brien again
he did last year too. Yeah, I think it's I
think it's a good fight. I mean, it's like, it's

(01:02:01):
not an Edgy Awards. It's not it's not going to
set the world on fire.

Speaker 19 (01:02:06):
It's just.

Speaker 18 (01:02:09):
It's a chance to see the Hollywood kind of politics
and action in a way that does determine what films
get made and what we get to watch. And you know, yes,
you are clapping for a room of very privileged multimillionaires.

Speaker 3 (01:02:20):
But they're also very talented people.

Speaker 18 (01:02:21):
Yeah, and addressed well, and.

Speaker 3 (01:02:23):
They're dressed well. But I think you raise a really
good point there. I look at the list of films
that have been nominated this year for Best Picture, and
most of them are unique and original and ambitious, and
I get really excited about the future of cinema.

Speaker 18 (01:02:36):
Yeah, it's and you know, it's a good time of
year if there's you can realize that maybe blind spots
and New Years viewing to catch up on.

Speaker 3 (01:02:42):
And totally because we can see most of these films.
That's the other thing. Once upon a time we would
be watching the Oscars here in New Zealand going Okay,
these are the films I'm going to watch over the
next six to twelve months. Now we can sit and
go as you go and watch them.

Speaker 18 (01:02:55):
Now the movie differently in that regard.

Speaker 2 (01:02:58):
Love it.

Speaker 3 (01:02:59):
Thank you so much, Steve. As Steve mentioned, the ninety
eighth Oscars are on Tomorrow afternoon, sixteenth a mark from
Proferitty on Disney Plus.

Speaker 18 (01:03:08):
Get dressed up on a Monday afternoon or not.

Speaker 3 (01:03:13):
Just enjoy them. It is twenty six. I'm so good
that there's that casual New Zealand attitude. It's just just
some gendles. It is twenty six to eleven.

Speaker 1 (01:03:28):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin on News Talks
at b Doctor.

Speaker 20 (01:03:33):
Michelle die Can say, good morning, good morning, right as always,
You've found a fascinating science study for us to talk
about this week, one that I'm not sure I'm on
board with.

Speaker 3 (01:03:45):
Oh, I'm totally on board with this.

Speaker 16 (01:03:46):
Oh.

Speaker 3 (01:03:47):
I have just sort of packed the last of my
tomato crop, and my goodness, it's been a good summer.
I only normally get one one crop of something that
is absolutely fantastic.

Speaker 7 (01:03:58):
Give me some.

Speaker 3 (01:03:59):
I'm such a bad gardener. And my tomatoes have been beautiful,
and I literally take them off the line and start
eating them in the garden. They taste so good that
you're telling me that you would prefer a tomato that
smells like buttered popcorn.

Speaker 20 (01:04:10):
I'm not saying I prefer it, but I'm also having
just picked my last tomato and it's been such a
good crup and then having to go back to supermarket
tomatoes where they just taste of water, I've gone, oh,
there's gotta be a better way. So scientists have created
tomatoes that smell like buttered popcorn.

Speaker 3 (01:04:29):
Is the study. They smell like it. Yeah, okay, so
not taste like but smell like it. So confusing.

Speaker 20 (01:04:35):
Well, it's confusing, but it's the same smell that we
have in fragrant rice varieties like basmati and jasmine, and
in freshly baked bread. It's that it's that buttery popcorn
smell that you don't realize you're smelling it, but go
to some freshly baked bread and smell it and it's
that same scent. And so they've basically, look, if you're
not into genetically modified your foods, you're not gonna like this.
But they've used crispur, which is how we can genetically

(01:04:58):
modify some food, and they've basically taken a molecule called
two AP and they've put it into a tomato and
it has made the tomatoes smell like buttered popcorn and
this has allowed the popcorns to produce higher levels of
this TWOAP compound. And what it has done is it's
improved the flavor of the tomato without at all harming

(01:05:21):
the plant. So often when you do a genetic modification
to a plant, something suffers, but they've been able to
do this where everything the plant has almost stayed the
same other than its smell and its fragrance and therefore
its taste. So the crup yield is the same, the
size of the tomatoes the same. There basically haven't been
any negative consequences to this gene which is great because

(01:05:46):
now it means that potentially if we do this, and
we know that New Zealand is very strict on GM,
so maybe this is somewhere else. But supermarket tomatoes, which
I think we all agree are a little bit flat
sometimes in their taste, would now have much richer aromas
and far more complex flavor and maybe taste like our
summer ones that we've grow in our gardens.

Speaker 3 (01:06:06):
The smell is different. It will still taste like a tomato,
but those that there will be a stronger taste and
more rich and complex thing right, Okay, because you I mean,
you know what a supermarket tomato tastes like it? Yeah, yeah,
just tastes like water.

Speaker 20 (01:06:20):
It's so it's basically going to help those complex flavors
form in the plant. But also because smell is such
a big.

Speaker 3 (01:06:28):
Part of how we taste it, you, I don't think
it might be a bit disappointing when you smell and go, oh,
this smells like fresh bread and popcorn. Then you go, oh,
it's tomato.

Speaker 20 (01:06:36):
Maybe Look the taste is they have. Official tastes are
part of the scientific study.

Speaker 3 (01:06:40):
It's amazing what people are working on, isn't it. Yeah,
and I go to improve our lives.

Speaker 20 (01:06:45):
I've never thought, oh, buzzmutty rice smells like fresh pop No,
But the minute you see it, I went, yeah, absolutely right,
and you're not were God buy it right?

Speaker 2 (01:06:52):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:06:53):
So who knows?

Speaker 20 (01:06:54):
So yeah, if you want your tomatoes to smell like
buttered popcorn, there's a genetic changer to ap molecule and
it might make out tomatoes and a market something to
look forward to.

Speaker 1 (01:07:04):
Thank you so much, Michelle Monday Session Full Show podcast
on iHeartRadio powered by News talksb.

Speaker 3 (01:07:12):
Thank you very much for your text. A few of
you have been texting in the England versus France rugby
game which has taking place the Six Nations is pretty
exciting the season. So we're at the sixty third minute mark.
I think thirty eight thirty nine to England. It is
so close. It's been a pretty good game. Anyway, it

(01:07:34):
is time to talk food now, and our resident chief
Mike Vandalsen joins me.

Speaker 16 (01:07:37):
Good morning, good bonding.

Speaker 3 (01:07:40):
You are coming to us from the Marlborough Sounds.

Speaker 16 (01:07:42):
I believe, yes, lovely, beautiful sunshine, no clouds, no wind, gorgeous.

Speaker 3 (01:07:49):
You are there for the Havelock Havelock Muscle and Seafood Festival.

Speaker 16 (01:07:54):
Yeah, I was there yesterday on the stage. He's the slight,
croaky voice, but when they asked it, this is the
third year of being down to the Havelock Festival and man,
if you haven't been there, please go there next year
because it is so well run, it is so well
put together. It's in a tiny little community and I

(01:08:14):
think they I think they had just under five thousand
people there yesterday and.

Speaker 3 (01:08:19):
They had Shape Shift to play a love sh awesome.

Speaker 16 (01:08:22):
It was they were and they were on point. They
were amazing. So that that was my bonus because I
tend not to go to festivals just because it's you
kind of don't know. As people get a little bit
of alcohol in to them, they start grabbing there like yeah,
let's have a phono with the food cruck guy, and yeah,
I tend to avoid them. So when I'm invited to

(01:08:44):
a festival to work, it's actually quite special for me
because I can be there and you kind of get
shuffled around the place and here and there, but it
was such a good day.

Speaker 3 (01:08:54):
So you actually like muscles. I love muscles.

Speaker 16 (01:08:57):
I used to I used to quick story, it must
have been about twenty years ago. I burnt myself really
banding in the kitchen and I was on antib because
of it, and so I had a day off. We
were living in Grayland at the time, and I said
to be let's cook. Let's cook up big pot of
muscles for dinner. So yeah, steam them off, but a
white wine, putting some tomatoes, sat down, had a big

(01:09:18):
bowl of muscles, which I normally would never worry about anything.
Woke up in the middle of the night and I
had these weird welts all over my body and I
and you would kind of scratch them, and they're double
in size. So I woke up b and said drive
yourself to a and E. I was like, okay, darling,
don't worry about me. I'll be fine. Down down the
highway towards Green Lane, towards the White Cross, the air

(01:09:41):
and I had I had to scratch my throat and
I just instantly scratched it and all of a sudden
my throat closed and I'm driving like unable to breathe
at this point, and I'd pull into the White Cross,
fall out of the car, and luckily there was there
was actually a nurse there knew what was going on
straight away and had an EpiPen there within ten seconds
and all was fine again.

Speaker 3 (01:10:03):
But but it was something to do with the antibiotics
that you can eat muscles now that yeah, well.

Speaker 16 (01:10:09):
I haven't eaten them for twenty years. But in preparation
for the Muscle Festival, because I had to judge in
between the demo, I had to judge a recipe and
so I was like, I was going to be eating mussels.
And so on Wednesday we sat down and had some mussels.
I actually prepared this dish just to practice it, and
I had my first muscle in twenty years. And I'm
still here.

Speaker 3 (01:10:28):
Now you're still here, and you've got a beautiful hot
smoked mussel pate for us today. Take us through it.

Speaker 16 (01:10:34):
So we made this yesterday. So what you do is
start you off. It's actually got muscles, but it's also
got a darker fish like a car wire or a
tra valley, or it could be any other fish. You know,
kingfish doesn't matter. So salt about three to four hundred
grams That make a ten percent salt solution. So ten
one hundred grams of salt until a letal water whist

(01:10:55):
that drop your fish in. But this time you only
live in there for thirty minutes while that's soaking. I
take two carst iron pans. You could take an old
roasting tree that you don't really care about. Sprinkle some
large manuca chips onto the bottom, and then put those
onto an open flame, and then I scramble up like
little pieces of tinfol put them onto the wood chips
as it's starting to heat up, and then onto those

(01:11:16):
pieces of tin. Four you put your fish that's been
salting for thirty minutes, and then I've got ten large
green lit muscles. So in one pan, I put the
fish in the other pand I put the muscles onto
the tin flour. Once it starts to smoke, put the
lid onto it. Leave it for about another minute. It
doesn't need a lot longer, otherwise you potentially oversmoke and
it becomes way too, way too bitter. Crank it. It

(01:11:38):
does smoke a fair amount. Yesterday I think I smoked
out the Marquee. It does smoke. So if you can
do it outside, all the better. Once it starts to smoke,
leave for a minute, like I said, and then turn
it off and just leave the lids on them and
just let them sit in there for ten to fifteen minutes.
Once it's done, pull them out, Take your muscles out
of the shell, take the bed out of you. If
it's not already taken and then into a blended They

(01:12:01):
go along with the fish that's being freshly smoked. Two
tablespoons of dijh on mustard, tablespoons of cram, fresh the
juice of a lemon, a tablespoon of honey, a pinch
of paprika. I put in some chopped up fennel tips yesterday.
It could be some chibes. If you want a lit
bit of salt, crack at pepper, blitz that until it
basically turns into a nice pace. You could just roughly

(01:12:23):
blitz it to begin with and then stop and you've
got a chunky or you could blitz into a smooth
and then maybe reserve some of the muscles back, chop
them up and then fold them through. It doesn't matter really.
I serve it with some sourdough, some toasted sourdough, and
some fresh lemon. It's to be able to smoke your
mussels and make a path within a timeframe of about

(01:12:43):
twenty minutes, not taking in the brine and the fish.
It's a pretty fast it's a pretty cool recipe to do.

Speaker 3 (01:12:49):
Love it, Thank you so much, Mike, and enjoy the
rest of your day. In the Marlborough Sounds. Hot smoked
mussel paate. Recipe will be up on our website News
Talk zb dot co dot in Z, Food Slash Sunday
you can grab it from Good from Scratch dot co
dot n Z or Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:13:04):
With Style for Sunday Sash with Francesca Rudkin and Windles
for the best selection of great reeds.

Speaker 2 (01:13:11):
News Talk.

Speaker 3 (01:13:13):
It is time to talk wellness.

Speaker 9 (01:13:15):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:13:15):
I'm joined by Aeron O'Hara. Good morning, Erin, Good morning. Okay,
so today we're going to talk about how to hell
the gut if you have IBS or chronic bloating.

Speaker 16 (01:13:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 17 (01:13:29):
So, IBS is actually really really common in New Zealand
and about fifteen to twenty percent of our population, or
roughly one in seven adults will get a irritable bow
of syndrome and something that generally when I see people
in the clinic, the first thing they do is they've
usually pulled a whole lot of food out of their diet.

(01:13:50):
They've made their diet really really restricted to try and
help with some of their symptoms. And the common symptoms
with IBS is abdominal pain, cramping, bloating, changes in bow,
habits of things like diarrhea or constipation, sometimes both, and
so their way of managing that is generally pull as

(01:14:11):
much food out of their diet as they can, trying
to figure out what is triggering the symptoms, and generally
it's not actually all the food that they're eating, it's
actually the gut itself that's actually triggering a lot of
those symptoms.

Speaker 3 (01:14:23):
Okay, it's interesting. I thought that was a pretty common
way of responding though, was doing the elimination and working
out kind of you know, what worked for you. And
we hear about diets like the low fod map diet
can be useful as well.

Speaker 17 (01:14:39):
Yeah, low fobac diet is helpful and for some people
does work really well. I think for short term can
be a really good elimination phase to get symptoms under control.
So thinking about doing it for maybe four or six
weeks while you're trying to figure out what is going
on with your gut. However, when you're doing these restrictive

(01:14:59):
diets long term, you end up restricting also the nutrients
that are going in and you actually create long term
actually worse gut function because the gut microbian really relies
on diversity. So if you're restricting your diet, you're actually
restricting the diversity within your gut as well, So it
means that you're actually not solving the problem. You're just

(01:15:19):
actually symptom managing, which is actually not going to get
to the root cause of what is going on with
your guts.

Speaker 3 (01:15:25):
Okay, so how do you heal and rebalancey gut?

Speaker 17 (01:15:28):
Yes, it's looking at that overall picture, and I think
starting to get some of the symptoms actually just to
get calmer, So things starting like herbal support, so you
might start with even just some teas are really helpful,
so things like ginger, peppermint, camma or phenyl and if
you find tea not helpful, maybe looking at tablet version
of those sorts of herbs or even a tincture. As

(01:15:51):
well as repairing some of the lining of the guts,
you might add in a glutamine powder which is great
for calming the lining of the gut so it's less reactive,
as well as things like sliperown, which is a herb
that you have that helps to soothe the lining of
the gut so you can get the gut functioning properly.
And then when it comes to fiber because quite often
with ibs motility or the bowel movements is actually part

(01:16:14):
of the problem. That's actually creating a lot of the
cramping and bloating. And it might be adding in some fiber,
but going really slowly. If you start adding lots of
added guts that's not functioning very well, actually you'll cause
more problems. So going nice and slowly adding in maybe
some extra fruit. You might start with things like plums, pears, apples,

(01:16:34):
berries like raspberries are greape for fiber Kiwi fruit and
putting a little bit more on your diet and not
adding everything all at once, but instead just adding a
little bit more fruit, a little bit more seeds getting
in the fiber, so you can allow the gut microbuiing
bugs to adjust to those foods as you put them in.
And then if you get improved motility as well as
keeping the gut calm, that can be really helpful to

(01:16:56):
get a better gut function.

Speaker 3 (01:16:58):
Erin Thank you so much for that, appreciate it. We'll
talk next week. It is six to.

Speaker 1 (01:17:04):
Eleven the Some They Search Full show podcast on iHeartRadio
powered by Newstalk ZB.

Speaker 3 (01:17:13):
It is all going the rugby. If you're all interested
in what's happening between England and France. France is back forth.
It's forty five thirty nine, but the French have just
got a yellow card, so it's all go for the
last kind of what have we got? Five minutes Also
here right, a new local show has hit three and
three now and it is really really good. It's got
an amazing cast, it is really sharply written. It's filled

(01:17:35):
with plenty of sort of dark humor, but it's also
based on quite as serious on serious issues. It's about
a woman with addiction issues who finds herself in rehab
to avoid jail time. It's written by and stars Holly
Shehrby and along with her husband Emmett's Skilton, he is
the director. I think they have crafted what is going
to be one of the best shows on our screens

(01:17:57):
this year. They are both with me next here on
Newstalks EVB Back to.

Speaker 2 (01:18:01):
Your dat.

Speaker 1 (01:18:36):
Welcome to the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin and Wiggles
for the best selection of great reads used to talk me.

Speaker 3 (01:18:52):
Good morning. This is a Sunday session on Francisca with
you until midday. Coming up this and New York Boss
and whispering why you should be there, Cynthia Dupree, Sweeney
has a new book out, John gives us her verdict,
and Piney looks ahead to the black Caps to South Africa.
The summer of t twenty.

Speaker 2 (01:19:08):
Continues this Sunday session.

Speaker 3 (01:19:13):
A cracking new local TV series hit our screens this week.
Created and written by actress Holly Shirvey, Crackhead is loosely
based on Holly's own experience of addiction and psychiatric cam
I absolutely love this show and I'm not the only one.
Another review this week is rating it as possibly the
best New Zealand TV show this year. Holly Shirvy and

(01:19:35):
her husband, director of the show, emmett' Skilton, are in
the studio with me. Good morning to you both.

Speaker 21 (01:19:40):
Hello, good morning.

Speaker 3 (01:19:41):
First, I just want to say congratulations. This is so good.
It's pacey, it's darkly funny, it's reverent, it's brilliantly acted
by an exceptional cast. But it also deals with this
serious issue about mental health and addiction. So congratulations on
pulling it off so beautifully.

Speaker 13 (01:20:01):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:20:02):
That means so much.

Speaker 2 (01:20:03):
Tell me.

Speaker 3 (01:20:05):
The series drawls on your own experience, Holly with addiction
and mental health. Why did you want to use that
experience to create the show.

Speaker 22 (01:20:14):
I think there's something about having lived in experience and
you don't have to fabricate any of the world, and
that makes it really wonderful for not only the team
who were creating it, but for the performance because there
are no trips. It's I mean, we just had the
best time diving into that lived experience.

Speaker 3 (01:20:36):
And for you as well.

Speaker 21 (01:20:38):
While you were going through your own care back in
the day, you didn't have a lot of things that
you could draw on to go, Oh, I feel safe
going to this place except for maybe Girl Interrupted.

Speaker 22 (01:20:48):
Yeah, that's a film I talk about a lot.

Speaker 17 (01:20:50):
Have you seen it?

Speaker 3 (01:20:50):
You have Angelina Jolie film?

Speaker 22 (01:20:52):
Yes, yes, so before I went into psychiatric yet there
was no one sort of to talk about this thing,
and so that was a film i'd seen close to
when I went in.

Speaker 3 (01:21:06):
And even if somebody did have some experience, they probably
didn't talk a lot about it.

Speaker 22 (01:21:10):
No, not thee The one New Zealand sort of blink
I had was is it John Kerwin who does the
rugby at Yeah? And is it like young woman going
through this? It's kind of hard to identify with that,
but girl interrupted.

Speaker 17 (01:21:23):
Was it for me?

Speaker 22 (01:21:23):
And I was like, Okay, maybe it made me feel
less alone in my own struggle with it. And that's
sort of always been the goal with making this show,
is for anyone who's going through it to just feel
less isolated.

Speaker 3 (01:21:37):
Holly, are you nervous about opening up about a difficult
and personal time in your life?

Speaker 2 (01:21:41):
Oh?

Speaker 22 (01:21:41):
Yeah, Oh yeah, it's terrifying. But it's also like the
whole Crackhead journey has been hugely cathartic.

Speaker 3 (01:21:51):
Can I ask, because there's quite a lot of outrageous
things that do happen in this particular mental health facility
that your character Frankie ends up in, how much of
it is based on actual experiences? If you sort of
had to try and do a bit of a percentage
how much you created and how much is really what
you lived, I'd.

Speaker 22 (01:22:11):
Say the heart of what Frankie's going through is what
I lived. Some of those more extreme scenarios and extreme characters,
we came up with those in the writer's room, and
it was also a way to protect anyone from real
life in our families who were involved. We change characters

(01:22:33):
and scenarios to protect them.

Speaker 3 (01:22:35):
Yeah, but how did you find watching Holly's story and
struggle that she went through come to life on screen.

Speaker 10 (01:22:44):
I was actually riveted by this whole process, to be honest.

Speaker 21 (01:22:48):
I've known Holly for.

Speaker 10 (01:22:51):
Almost fifteen years, and.

Speaker 21 (01:22:54):
Very early on in our relationship she informed me of
this world that she'd lived before she knew me, and
I've always been fascinated by it, and I've always treated
her with know this, this care and concern of like,
oh man, what did you go through? And then firstly
developing and reading the scripts with with with Holly's work

(01:23:15):
on the page quite confronting because I go, Wow, that's this.
This poor girl sat through this, lived through this, you know,
tried to sleep through this for three.

Speaker 3 (01:23:27):
Months in care.

Speaker 21 (01:23:29):
And then when we start finally start to put it
on a page, I see, Holy.

Speaker 10 (01:23:32):
I'll take it off the page.

Speaker 21 (01:23:33):
Rather, I see Holly really embracing it that she mentioned
it's cathartic. She is very liberated by doing this and
filming it has been very very hard, you know, watching
her relive those things, because Holy is Holy's not really
an actress that phones it in. She's an actress that
relives what she's written or brings to life what she's

(01:23:53):
what she sees on the page, and so it was.
It was a struggle, but yeah, absolute pleasure to be
able to have an end product that is so rats
with Holly's experience and and Holly's skill just smashing on
the face on screen.

Speaker 3 (01:24:09):
Holly having lived in that world. How important was it
for what we see to be accurate?

Speaker 22 (01:24:15):
Oh, that was the most important thing. And the whole
team was really great at honoring that, and if they
ever felt stuck with anything, they were check in and
our world, our world was created from that truth.

Speaker 21 (01:24:30):
Yeah, we never wanted to look at tropes or stereotypes.
Every character has some form of trauma or addiction or
mental health struggle, and the accuracy of what those really
were was very, very important, rather than just what you
could generally chuck on a New Zealand screen, which often
can happen.

Speaker 22 (01:24:52):
Even though it's a comedy, and that's what we're all
trying to achieve. The comedy never worked unless people were
playing this really broken truth that sits underneath it.

Speaker 3 (01:25:02):
Yeah, you're absolutely right. This isn't the first show that
you have written in STUF. There's been a couple previously,
Awkward Love and Millennial Jenny. But do you think that
this is the best thing in Britain. Hell yeah, yeah,
how much can I swear? Please? Not at all? Yes,
we'll leave that to Frankie. Yeah no, look and Emmett.
It's so sure of its tone this series. I feel

(01:25:25):
like you've lived with this show for a long time
in your head. You knew exactly what you wanted it
to look like and how you wanted it to feel.
Did you have other shows that you kind of referenced
when it came to achieving what you wanted to achieve
on screen?

Speaker 21 (01:25:38):
Yeah, in a big way. We're massive fans of a
lot of what comes out of the UK. Fleabag was
a big inspiration. I May Destroy You both written and
acted by the same person.

Speaker 10 (01:25:49):
So you've got, you know, MICHAELA.

Speaker 21 (01:25:52):
Cole bringing this brilliant character to life through trauma, and
you've got Phoebe waller Bridge bringing this wonderful character life
through trauma.

Speaker 10 (01:25:58):
We also loved I Hate Susie.

Speaker 21 (01:26:00):
Another really incredible, fast paced show. And then from the
States you got The Bear, which is like really in
your face. And then one of the things that we
did while we were because it's had a lot of
breathing space. This show across the maybe seven years of development.
Right before we went into pre production, myself, Holly and
our incredible cinematographer Dave Cameron sat down and we were like,

(01:26:22):
all right, show and tell. So we went through every
single scene and went, how do we want this to feel?
How do we want this to look? And we would
just go, all right, chuck this up on the big screen.
Here's the toilet scene from Trainspotting where he disgustingly crawls
into a toilet during.

Speaker 10 (01:26:39):
A massive, massive drug dive.

Speaker 21 (01:26:43):
And so what it meant for us is that we
didn't leave many stones unturned. It didn't involve our actors
at that point yet. So the beauty of that was
that we had this framework that we then sort of
explored with them on set, but we knew damn sure
of how we wanted every scene to go and feel.

Speaker 3 (01:27:00):
How easy is it to come up with an idea
and get it on air these days? In New Zealand,
it always feels to me that it's been a necessary
thing for an actor to come up or create the
work that they want to peer in. But how necessary
is it in today's environment?

Speaker 22 (01:27:21):
I guess it depends on the story and the performer.
For me, it was completely necessary.

Speaker 2 (01:27:28):
It was like.

Speaker 3 (01:27:30):
A story I lost sleepover.

Speaker 22 (01:27:33):
It just needed it needed to be told.

Speaker 21 (01:27:36):
But I think the challenges needing to be told, and
also someone willing to take a risk on it is
a big thing because Crackhead, you know, doesn't doesn't shy
away from being a very confronting, full on show, and
that's not often something that gets funded in New Zealand.
And so it took a while to get people on board.

(01:27:57):
But once they were on board, they went, let's do
this one.

Speaker 3 (01:28:02):
And then hollywoore you given sort of free license to
do what you wanted once it was picked up.

Speaker 22 (01:28:08):
I think so there were a lot of steps to it,
but because it was such a personal story, I was
given that freedom initially and that's why people jumped on
board in the beginning, like Philipperini who was at Warner Bros.
And then we had an incredible producer, Britta Hawkins and
Tina McLaren at three and so they they trusted my voice,

(01:28:29):
and I guess that trust kind of grew with each.

Speaker 21 (01:28:33):
Step and they wanted to keep it intact. Was a
really really important step for them.

Speaker 3 (01:28:37):
Husband and wife team. So have you guys worked together before.

Speaker 2 (01:28:42):
Everything.

Speaker 3 (01:28:43):
Yeah, okay, so you've got this dynamic.

Speaker 21 (01:28:46):
Awkward Love was Holly's first sort of step into writing,
and it was also my first step into directing. It
was something as an actor I was always on set
going huh, why are you holding the camera like that?
Why do you have your why choosing that frame size
or why you know? And the edit thing, why are
you cutting that? And so when it came to Holly

(01:29:06):
writing Awkward Love, which was about the embarrassing date shehit
experience before she met me, we kind of went, well,
I'll direct it because I know what I wanted to
look and feel like. I think I got enough skill
to kind of go, let's do it. And for Holly
it was a great vehicle as an actress but also
as a writer.

Speaker 22 (01:29:23):
But also you're a wonderful perfectionist, so in every moment
you feel held, which is what I wanted. And I
also there's a huge fear around this stuff, and I
get to check in with them and I get really
honest feedback and it doesn't happen a lot.

Speaker 3 (01:29:38):
So I suppose I should ask you, is this the
best thing I've ever directed?

Speaker 2 (01:29:41):
Heck?

Speaker 21 (01:29:42):
Yeah, I love this from a start to finish. I
and very kind of you to say wonderful, perfectionist, I I, it's.

Speaker 3 (01:29:51):
Always it always sounds like it means something else.

Speaker 21 (01:29:55):
I know what you mean, though, I really I will.
I will adjust frame by frame. I will make sure
a sound effect is perfectly accurate.

Speaker 10 (01:30:03):
And it's not because I.

Speaker 9 (01:30:06):
No, no, it is.

Speaker 21 (01:30:07):
It's because I desperately need it to be exactly right.
And I direct, and I edit with rhythm and beat
and make sure that breath is why you end the
scene or start a scene. All these little bits that
people kind of go, what are you talking about?

Speaker 3 (01:30:19):
Not a bad trait because you can see it on
the screen.

Speaker 22 (01:30:22):
I say wonderful because the end result is wonderful, but
it's painful, like whoa holy no, but we get to
this wonderful place.

Speaker 3 (01:30:30):
Yeah, well, now we're getting to the truth of us.

Speaker 21 (01:30:33):
Because the wonderful thing about this as well is Holly
is also very very specific in what she writes and
what she does, So I think it's yeah, we don't
sort of shy away from it being as accurate as
we want it to be.

Speaker 16 (01:30:45):
Holly.

Speaker 3 (01:30:45):
The timing of the show release is lined up with
the birth of your first child. So how's that been.
You've kind of launched two babies into the world.

Speaker 2 (01:30:51):
Alls.

Speaker 22 (01:30:51):
Oh, yeah, that mean it sounds fun, but it's the
most intense, terrifying magic, like so many words come to mind.

Speaker 21 (01:30:59):
I don't know how to describe it yet.

Speaker 3 (01:31:01):
I'm still processing. The show's being picked up by HBO
in Australia. Are you hoping that that's just the start
when it comes to going global?

Speaker 23 (01:31:08):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (01:31:09):
Yeah, big time.

Speaker 10 (01:31:10):
Yeah yeah.

Speaker 21 (01:31:11):
We We've always had our sights set on the international
market when we were making it, So hopefully it finds
that audience over there.

Speaker 3 (01:31:18):
And I look, I'm only three episodes in and I'm
so hooked, but I'm going to demand the second season.
I hope that one is in the in the making.

Speaker 22 (01:31:26):
Oh yeah, there's definitely a lot of story and journey
for these characters.

Speaker 21 (01:31:31):
Yeah, there's quite a large cliff at the end of
this season, so we really have to make more.

Speaker 3 (01:31:37):
Please do. Holly and Emmett, thank you so much for
coming in and congratulations on the show.

Speaker 2 (01:31:41):
Thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (01:31:42):
Craighead is shoving on three every Thursday at nine pm.
It's also available to stream on three now. It is
twenty past eleven you're with news Talk's edbep.

Speaker 2 (01:31:52):
It Simple It's Sundays the Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:31:54):
Session with Francesca Rudcoater and Wigles for the best selection
of great reads.

Speaker 2 (01:31:59):
News Talks EDB.

Speaker 3 (01:32:02):
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Speaker 2 (01:33:00):
Awaits for the Sunday session.

Speaker 3 (01:33:04):
Very quickly. If you were following the rugby it was
forty eight forty six to France in the end their
water game. Right, It is time for the panel and
I'm joined by Roman Travers New Stooks they'd be host.

Speaker 10 (01:33:17):
Good morning, I'm morning to you.

Speaker 3 (01:33:18):
I've turned your microphone on.

Speaker 10 (01:33:19):
Sorry, I know you're a bit too loud.

Speaker 3 (01:33:21):
I know you're a professional, but yeah, sometime also editor
and journalist Jo McCall, Good morning.

Speaker 7 (01:33:25):
Joe, Good morning, s Jiska and Raman Helloo.

Speaker 3 (01:33:28):
Good to have you both here. Roman, is the government
taking fuel supply chain issues seriously enough?

Speaker 10 (01:33:34):
Do you think, oh that's like Monty Python. Did you
get that from a comedy? That's just terrible this government. Honestly,
it's like we must be the only first world ish
country in the first world to be dragging ourselves back
to the nineteen eighties. We had this. We've got Shane Jones,
who's like a dinosaur from the eighteen hundreds, going back
to nineteen eighty saying drill baby, drill, dig baby, dig

(01:33:56):
like some trump more on and you know, we just
we're not future proofing. We don't have a focus on
the future. Do we a weird What do you think, Joe?

Speaker 7 (01:34:05):
Well, I have to say Shane Jones saying no need
to panic? Is there a phrase more weighted to induce panic?

Speaker 16 (01:34:11):
No, no one here is that not?

Speaker 11 (01:34:14):
Not?

Speaker 19 (01:34:15):
Not?

Speaker 3 (01:34:15):
In the week that we released the COVID report, and
we all can remember we all panicked about toilet paper,
So how of course we're going to panic about fuel.

Speaker 7 (01:34:21):
You know, well, I mean I think COVID is a
relevant thing to mention because it's d javous or over
again with you know, the fragility and complexity of these
global supply chains, which are normally invisible and not thought.

Speaker 19 (01:34:33):
Of, are suddenly very visible, and you you just begin
to realize that, you know, we've prioritized expediency and efficiency
and in the name of like cheap of fuel, cheap
of fuel, cheap of fuel, and there's not a lot
of resilience in this system.

Speaker 3 (01:34:52):
I'm aasually not panicking, Joe, Like, I'm not panicking. I
don't think that I'm not stockpiling, that I'm really hoping
that the hind closed doors. There is some very very
very careful consideration going on to not the short term,
not next week or the week after, but probably the
medium to long term. I think that's when it's going

(01:35:13):
to hit and probably not be but more of the
businesses who rely on fuel.

Speaker 7 (01:35:18):
Yeah, I'm not bolt buying, and because I think that's
you know, morally questionable behavior, but also because I'm not
really keen on the edge of a lot of containers
of very flammable liquids being stored in the gun shed,
you know, five minutes from my house. But you know
there have to be you know, as you say, for
just got long term solutions. You know, I've been thinking

(01:35:40):
about getting the bike out, you know, bought optimistically post
one of the Auckland lockdowns and really use since it
might brush the cob webs off, and look at using
that for short trips. You know, we have to see
modal shifts bikes and scooters and public transport.

Speaker 10 (01:35:55):
We do, but it's difficult. I mean, I have certainly
hand on hard. I'm not stockpiling toilet paper because of
the fuel crisis either, but I do. I love the
idea of biking I love the idea of catching a bus,
but it doesn't work for me. I don't want to
be you know, taken advantage of and stripped naked on
Hobson Street in the middle of the night as I'm
coming to or from work. I can't come here soggy

(01:36:16):
after a bike cried. You know, you've got to look
relatively professional when you're an award winning overnight talk host.
So there is a you know, there is the ability
to make some changes, but effectively. What you know, what
really gets up both of my noses, both of my
noses all the time, is the way that our politicians
are not advocates for us. We're a very compliant bunch

(01:36:37):
of people in New Zealanders. Well bitch and moan, well
bitch and moan on the old talk back, but we
won't actually do anything about it because we want the
politicians to make significant change, and you have our dinosaurs
with the biggest voices dragging us back to nineteen eighty,
not future proofing for the next Trumpism to affect the world.

Speaker 3 (01:36:56):
Are you book buying?

Speaker 15 (01:36:58):
No?

Speaker 2 (01:36:58):
No.

Speaker 10 (01:36:59):
In fact, before I went to Melbourne, I filled up
the old Defender. I filled it up with diesel because
that's what it runs on. And it was a a
dollar fifty eliter and now it's up round two twenty
two thirty. I'm just going, well, what am I supposed
to do? I need my vehicle or pay whatever it
says at the pump. But I don't feel like we
have people that really care about us in leadership, do you.

Speaker 3 (01:37:22):
I think we are constantly reminded about how little control
we have over so much here in New Zealand, and
we're just at the very end of a long list
of you know, a long supply chain. And I think
that it's so unfortunate that just as it felt like
the economy was about to kind of blossom a little

(01:37:44):
bit and we were turning a corner and people who
have suffered so much over the last five years, we're
going to be able to get decent night sleeps. And
I just feel like this is just a cruel punch,
you know that actually we it's happenings, there will be consequences,
It's coming our way. We've actually got to step up
and deal with that. I think, yeah, I'm not getting

(01:38:06):
too about it. I can probably make some changes, But
the people I'm concerned about are those businesses which have
been hanging on for so long over the last few years,
Joe and are finally turning a corner and are going
to get hit potentially.

Speaker 7 (01:38:19):
With the con with you more and that thing where
we are a cork in the sea of international affairs.
But again I agree with you too, Raman. I'd like
to see solutions that do help vulnerable people. I mean,
I don't see how something like public transport been free
if you had a student ID or a community services card.
It already is for older adults with a Gold card.

(01:38:39):
Those solutions could help New Zealanders who are vulnerable more
vulnerable to the consequences of a reduced fuel supply high prices.

Speaker 10 (01:38:50):
Well, having just been in Melbourne and seeing just how
effective all the public transport there is and people use it,
and we've got this mentality here of wanting to park
outside the shop door and I'm not using public transport.
It's never reliable. That kind of ethos and ongoing commentary
is not going to help people to want to make
the change. But to your point, if it's too expensive,

(01:39:10):
people will still keep running their car. And to that
point about stockpiling toilet paper and the ongoing cost of
everything being delivered. That will filter down. If you thought
butter was expensive before, or toilet paper, watch the space.

Speaker 3 (01:39:23):
Well, the problem with the reliance on the public service,
the public transporters, of course, is that they're not fully
electric services. I don't think AT is going to be
a fully emission free fleet until twenty city five. So
this has all just happened a little bit too early. Well,
we're almost organized, almost organized, and ready to manage it.

Speaker 7 (01:39:42):
Yeah, it's not a complete solution, but nothing is, you know,
and we just need to look at a lot of
small changes because we are so dependent on fuel in
this country. We are a long skinned country with a
lot of driving, and to get things from one end
to the other, it takes fuel and we're not we
have absolutely no capacity to refine on shore. We are

(01:40:04):
where we have to import, and those those choices have
already been made and we're now dealing with the consequences
of them.

Speaker 3 (01:40:11):
Do you know what I might not be able to
cope with. I might find a little bit triggering, and
that is if they give us another alert level system,
can we just come up with a new like for
this national feel pain? Could we just have a let's
just not call it.

Speaker 7 (01:40:27):
Get your steps and Wednesdays, catch you train Thursdays, like
you know, change the brand. Eg I just let's alert
system it's too soon.

Speaker 2 (01:40:40):
I'm not sure.

Speaker 5 (01:40:41):
I cope.

Speaker 3 (01:40:41):
I think that would probably push me to be a
little bit rebellious. I do try hard to sort.

Speaker 5 (01:40:47):
Of you know, can you mention?

Speaker 10 (01:40:49):
Can you imagine this is the time I wish I
was selling those hideously ugly electric cars. You'd be standing
in your sales or you need to do is show
when people say, oh, what have you got? You just
show them the gas by app and then say which
color do you want? Because they're all ugly, but you
can have one because.

Speaker 3 (01:41:05):
If you're in the tesla, you feel good about yourself.
Well yeah, but you about yourself that We've got another
very serious topic to talk about, which generally pops up
around this time of the year every year. And of
course Easter is closing in and hot cross buns are
flooding the market. Would you pay forty two dollars for
a six pack?

Speaker 2 (01:41:24):
Joe?

Speaker 7 (01:41:26):
Look, never say never, Francisca. I do have quite a
weakness for hot cross buns. And you know, and I
want to hold the line and be like you know,
morally above having the new ones with all the flavors
and things. But you know, I just there's one of
an Auckland restaurant that I love is serving hot cross

(01:41:46):
bunds with a bourbon glaze filled with bacon bacon bunnies,
and I'm like, take my money.

Speaker 3 (01:41:51):
You know, my producer's got a real issue with that.
She'd say to you, it's not a hot cross bum.
They're trying to They're trying to, you know, benefit on
something that it's not.

Speaker 5 (01:42:01):
You know, they're.

Speaker 7 (01:42:04):
Oh, I mean, I think that's position if the symbolism
around it around Easter has mean to you, and for
many people it does. I think that is a position
to hold. But I am not a person with religious faith,
and so it doesn't hold to me.

Speaker 3 (01:42:19):
Man, what about you a lemon callow hot cross bun.

Speaker 10 (01:42:21):
Look, I was in a rush. I misread the notes,
so I thought that was a new dating site hot
cross buns, I was in. Sorry, No, but no, no
one makes hot cross buns like my mother, and my
mother should open the bakery because like all the fancy
pants stuff, people are too scared of cinnamon. Oh don't
put that downe whom someone.

Speaker 3 (01:42:38):
Won't like it.

Speaker 10 (01:42:39):
They're supposed to be spicy and fruity. Put the fruit
in and the spice and the cross. Remember Jesus God
bless some baby cheeses all that stuff. But you know,
leave them for Easter for a start.

Speaker 7 (01:42:50):
Yeah, well, I see, and fruity. It would be a
great name for a daddy app put.

Speaker 10 (01:42:53):
On that one too.

Speaker 3 (01:42:54):
Yes, I'm not a huge fan of a hot cross bun,
so I'm not really.

Speaker 10 (01:42:57):
Fuss what you do with your prey.

Speaker 5 (01:42:59):
For you as well, and I.

Speaker 3 (01:43:01):
Sort of think that you probably get to a point
in your life you've had quite a lot of hot
cross buns. So putting a bit of limonchallo, we're putting
your bourbon, you caramel on the top of it doesn't
sound so bad, So there will It might be.

Speaker 19 (01:43:11):
The cheaper option.

Speaker 7 (01:43:12):
If you've seen the price of those gold rabbits that
have a red ribbon on at my supermarket, the two
hundred grand months, which I mean I must say could
be considered a single serve by some naming no names.

Speaker 19 (01:43:24):
I genuinely researched this.

Speaker 7 (01:43:26):
They are three times more expensive by weight than actual
rabbit meat.

Speaker 3 (01:43:29):
There is an issue with chocolate as well as the
forty two dollars hot cross funtons and yes, I think
they're over twenty bucks. Someone's text to say that they've
seen them.

Speaker 6 (01:43:40):
Four.

Speaker 3 (01:43:41):
I think that they're the London bunny one.

Speaker 7 (01:43:43):
Yeahs around the worner from me twenty.

Speaker 3 (01:43:46):
Yeah, twenty four.

Speaker 10 (01:43:46):
You'd rather spend that on a dating site myself?

Speaker 3 (01:43:49):
All that you be a toss up? Yeah, fill the petrol,
fill the car or buy my bunny. Excuse times that
sounds weird, so funny. Thank you both very much, Joe
and Roman appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.
It is twenty five to twelve.

Speaker 1 (01:44:10):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin on News Talks
at B and coming up.

Speaker 3 (01:44:16):
At midday is Darcy Watergrave with Weekend Sports.

Speaker 5 (01:44:19):
Good morning, Marina, Frank, how are you.

Speaker 19 (01:44:23):
Just good?

Speaker 3 (01:44:24):
Thanks Darcy. Great sprint race from Memlawson yesterday was it
shag high and then he's landed himself fourteenth When it
comes to the China Grand Prix, this evening got chopped.

Speaker 24 (01:44:37):
Off a bit and that Colpento decided to drive off
the track and so suddenly double yellow wave flag, so
that means that he couldn't complete it because it was
getting quicker on cracker like you do with forming along
the qualifying and you get more betted, and so he
didn't quite get there.

Speaker 5 (01:44:52):
But that's okay.

Speaker 24 (01:44:53):
He's you know, mid range in that and as far
as seventh in the sprint race, that was a great
team decision. Stuck him on hard compound and whether another
yellow interruption towards the end of that he would have
finished further up or further behind.

Speaker 5 (01:45:07):
Of you, But it doesn't matter.

Speaker 24 (01:45:09):
He passed so many cars I think six cars in
total through that, so a lot of glory out of
that one.

Speaker 3 (01:45:15):
I'm just so loving watching the drivers get to grips
with these cars. How much fun is it watching the
leadership change in a race as opposed to sort of
you know, it might change once or twice. It's just
I'm loving looking face. No, you're not enjoying it, whereas
I am enjoy your news. I want the entertainment.

Speaker 24 (01:45:33):
You're the drive to survive generation which wants an instant
fix without the actual mockey behind what they're doing. What
do you mean back in the old days, right, you
had to work your pass out from you know, a
number of corners laps back and it's like, drive it
behind them, hit a button.

Speaker 5 (01:45:49):
Yeah, yeah, who passed them again?

Speaker 24 (01:45:51):
So I don't think that that artificial nature though, and
Formula One's got a lot of artificial parts of it.

Speaker 3 (01:45:57):
You're saying it's more like a video game now.

Speaker 24 (01:45:59):
Yes, it's PlayStation and I think as it starts balancing
out and drivers and teams get used to the cars
and how they can operate things, maybe we'll start see
it bedding in and settling down, which we've seen.

Speaker 5 (01:46:12):
At the end of the Australian Race.

Speaker 24 (01:46:14):
But I find the battery. Look it comes up at
the bottom of the screen. You've got the graphics going
this much battery and that much better. Come on, this
is not a video game, and I do wonder about
the distraction of the drivers as well looking at that.
Shall I be quiet now and just say I really
love Grand Prix and I'm stoked it.

Speaker 3 (01:46:31):
So I bet that a test, a cricket test, is
your favorite form of cricket.

Speaker 24 (01:46:37):
Yes, sorry, Look, and a great friend of mine, uncle Fatty,
And you know Uncle Fatty from way back and it's
okay he calls himself that from way back in the
day as well. He's a tragic Formula one fan.

Speaker 5 (01:46:48):
So like I am. So we sat there on text
and moan at each other.

Speaker 3 (01:46:52):
I'm glad you've got someone who's interested in listening to
your moan all the time. I think we all need
someone like that.

Speaker 24 (01:46:56):
Michael Lamonato is going to join us on the show
Formula One, a qualified, sorry, accredited writer.

Speaker 5 (01:47:02):
So we talk about what happened yesterday.

Speaker 3 (01:47:04):
We have a cricket game tonight, have we We're still
playing T twenty. It's ongoing the Black Caps across South Africa.

Speaker 5 (01:47:09):
It never stops.

Speaker 24 (01:47:10):
Well, the Black Cats and the White Ferns are playing
South Africa and T twenties.

Speaker 5 (01:47:14):
Howth African women's team is very good. They've got some
fantastic players. It's amazing.

Speaker 24 (01:47:19):
So they're all double heaters, which is really cool, except
the fact it's the start of autumn.

Speaker 5 (01:47:24):
But we've got the film My Summer Cricket.

Speaker 3 (01:47:29):
Start of Autumn, Take it any old Time from the
band of the we're doing this now. Who else is
on the show.

Speaker 24 (01:47:35):
We've got Gregor Paul, the New Zealand Herald at rugby writer.
He'll be joining us as we look at the ab
assistant coach role because it looks like that is being released.
We'll go to the assistant coach the Crusaders who somehow
won last night with Dan Peer and Kane Williamson's on
the program too.

Speaker 3 (01:47:49):
Look at you now you're coming out with the names.

Speaker 5 (01:47:50):
A talking about this brand new box that he's got. Well,
it's true, he's invented it.

Speaker 2 (01:47:56):
Tell me how fun this is? Oh?

Speaker 24 (01:47:57):
Nathan Smith joins us. We're talking cricket at the end
of the piece. Cole Forbes as well, because the Blues
are playing the My One pussy Faker Team three thir
you're on well research how long a box has been
around for? I don't know, and I do not have
to discuss thirty years when we introduced helmets about forty
years ago.

Speaker 5 (01:48:16):
It sees a lot about what men think are important.

Speaker 3 (01:48:19):
I cannot wait for the interview. Thank you so much.
Darcy will be back with you at midday.

Speaker 1 (01:48:25):
The Sunday Session Full Show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by
News Talks A B Travel with Windy Woo tours Where
the World Is Yours book now.

Speaker 3 (01:48:37):
Joining me now took travel. Meghan Singleton, blogger at large
dot com. Good morning, Good morning. You are talking about
heading to New York and Washington DC this morning, but
for a particular reason the blossom.

Speaker 13 (01:48:49):
My entire tour, which is going to start at Easter,
was designed around what I was hoping would be peak
blossoms in Washington, d C.

Speaker 15 (01:49:00):
So I pretty much so I was there.

Speaker 13 (01:49:02):
Last year after Mardi graand New Orleans, and it was
about mid March and too early, So I'm such a nerd.
I've been watching the blossom bloom tracker, yes, and I've
been watching it for weeks and weeks, and I've found
now some live blossom cameras on the roof of a
nearby hotel. Not that, of course, they were in full

(01:49:24):
you know function when I was booking my tour, But anyway,
it looks like we're going to be bang on peak
blossoms in Washington DC. So I've whipped up a blog
post with all of these links in it, which also
shows you the live webcams.

Speaker 15 (01:49:37):
Now right now, the trees are.

Speaker 13 (01:49:39):
All not in bud or anything yet, but I know
from the tracker that they are in that there are
some florets coming out on the branches.

Speaker 3 (01:49:47):
This thing cannot it only lasts about five seven days,
doesn't it? The peak blossom, the.

Speaker 13 (01:49:52):
Peak peak yeah, yeah, but if you think about your
own streets or whatever in the spring, there's and also
it's not just the cherry blossoms. So the people of
Japan gave the people of America three thousand cherry blossom
trees back in nineteen twelve. They were all planted around
the tidal basin, which people will know if you've been there.
The Thomas Jefferson memorial sits there and all the way

(01:50:15):
round that basin. That so you get those classic quintessential
blossom photos the Washington Monument.

Speaker 15 (01:50:20):
In the background.

Speaker 13 (01:50:21):
So I am all for what we're getting up at
seven o'clock and we're going walking.

Speaker 15 (01:50:26):
It's just coming up to sunset now. Al though I
think they're going to get daylight saving.

Speaker 13 (01:50:29):
That might throw me a little bit, but I'll be
there for that magic hour taking my photos as well.
And I yeah, just can't wait. So this post I've
put in like there's free walking maps that you can download,
or you can do tours. Of course you can be
driven around or you can go on an e cart
or bikes or whatever, but you can just walk around

(01:50:49):
the title basin and see the flowers in bloom.

Speaker 11 (01:50:53):
So, yes, peak.

Speaker 13 (01:50:53):
Blossom is five to seven days, but you'll get about
a two to three week window of blossoms.

Speaker 3 (01:51:00):
Is it a very busy time? Like, is it annoying
to have everyone else in your photos? Is there crowds
that get in your photos?

Speaker 15 (01:51:06):
Yes, crazy crowds.

Speaker 13 (01:51:08):
He's getting up at the crack and heading straight out.
And actually I've got thirteen people off my tour of
seventeen joining us in DC, and so we will all
be doing that and they're up for it. We're like, yep,
because we're going to be staying quite near the White House.
I've also put a few hotels that are quite nearby.
DC's a very spread out city, so walking can take

(01:51:28):
you know, suddenly you're like two miles.

Speaker 15 (01:51:30):
Of course that worken.

Speaker 13 (01:51:31):
Miles from one you know, monument to the next. And
so I've got it really fined down as to how
we're going to get there as quickly as possible and
hopefully get out there before all the masses i mean sunset. Yeah,
it's going to be all the masses, so expect lots
of people shots. But you just lift your camera up
and take photos into the sky under the trees.

Speaker 11 (01:51:50):
That'll work.

Speaker 3 (01:51:52):
Thank you so much, Megan, and you blossom with such
a thing. It is twelve to twelve.

Speaker 2 (01:51:57):
Books with Wickles for the best election of grape Reeves.

Speaker 19 (01:52:02):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:52:03):
Book manager at Wickles, Joan McKenzie's with me now, good morning,
good morning, what have you got for us today? My
first book is.

Speaker 23 (01:52:09):
Called Lake Effect by Cynthia Dupree Sweeney, and some years
ago she wrote a book called The Nest, which was
a kind of family story of family saga which we
at Whitkells really loved. So I was very keen to
get my hands on this one. And listeners will be
familiar with the fact that in the nineteen sixties the
sexual Revolution came along, and then in the early seventies

(01:52:30):
you might remember that doctor Alex Comfort published his groundbreaking
work The Joy of Sales right, which eventually, in this book,
made its mark in the suburbs of Rochester, New York.
It was a book at that time it helped women
look at their lives differently and go in search of
genuine happiness. So when the character Nina Larkin is given
a copy by a friend who's recently divorced, she finds

(01:52:54):
it profoundly unsettling. In fact, the friend bought seven copies
and dished them out to pretty much everyone she knew,
and Nina soon begins having an affair with Finn, who
lives directly.

Speaker 3 (01:53:04):
Across the street. We're so intrigued as to wear this
was going to go. Yeah, No, I was like, this
is an interesting setup.

Speaker 23 (01:53:11):
So as neighbors, their families are pretty much intertwined, their
kids are particularly close, so near and Finn really messy.
They head away for a quick divorce and remarriage, which
is a seismic betrayal to all of their kids, which
then of course has repercussions throughout their lives.

Speaker 3 (01:53:26):
And it is Rochester.

Speaker 23 (01:53:28):
It is a city, but cities have suburbs and small
communities where everyone knows what's going on and has an opinion.
But this is a story which reminded me and reminds
those of us who read it that families have their
own special glue and no matter what gets thrown at
them over time, there is something in the fabric of
a family that can shift and change and move to

(01:53:51):
accommodate the things that get thrown at it, which is
what this book really demonstrates very well. So like the
Nest which I mentioned earlier, it is one of those
family dynamic stories, which is really meaningful and I found
it thoroughly enjoyable.

Speaker 3 (01:54:04):
Okay, interesting. Last weekend we had Charlotte Genny on the show.
She has released a memoir, Every Second Council, which I
thoroughly enjoyed.

Speaker 23 (01:54:13):
Yes, she's terrific, isn't she. Listeners who heard her last
week will know that she's a New Zealand journalist. Her
careers included some of the most challenging and extraordinary recent
world events, things like the two thousand and eight Sick
One earthquake, Boxing Day, tsunami, migrant refugee camps, that kind
of thing. But first, as you will know, she had

(01:54:34):
to recover from a terrible accident she had while she
was backpacking in Croatia, and it took her months, if
not years, to recover. And in fact, I think that
story is a story all of its own.

Speaker 3 (01:54:46):
Yeah, it is very much so.

Speaker 16 (01:54:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 23 (01:54:48):
But after that she did recover, and in the two
thousands she persuaded Television New Zealand to make her their
first Asia correspondent based in Hong Kong, and then she.

Speaker 3 (01:54:57):
Really hit the road.

Speaker 23 (01:54:59):
The pace at which she worked was frenetic, simply extraordinary.
She filed stories from China, Mongolia, Russia, Singapore, North Korea,
other places. She'd just get home from doing one story
and suddenly she was off again on another. And it's
a real ride alongside her as she remembers what it
was like during those years. I found the book was

(01:55:22):
so concerned with the humanity of people caught up in
these situations, and there was so much compassion and for me,
getting the chance to ride alongside her as it were
and see exactly firsthand what it was like for all
those people was really deeply moving.

Speaker 3 (01:55:37):
But it's quite a unique lifestyle, isn't it, you know,
And it does take a toll, and potentially you're sacrificing
so much, so much and it would not mute everybody.

Speaker 23 (01:55:46):
Really interesting, Yeah, yeah, no, it's a thoroughly enjoyable look
back at recent history through the eyes of somebody who
was actually there.

Speaker 3 (01:55:54):
But the other great thing about it is that we
know all the names, we know all the people that
she works worth what she's talking about in the book,
because you know, she's a New Zealander working in the
New Zealand you know, industry, industry, but with an international Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 13 (01:56:07):
No.

Speaker 3 (01:56:07):
I thoroughly enjoyed it as well. So the first book
that Joan mentioned was Lake Effect by Cynthia Dupree Sweeney
and the second book Every Second Counts by Charlotte Glennie.
Thank you so much, Joan.

Speaker 1 (01:56:19):
Thank you the Sunday Session Full show podcast on iHeartRadio
powered by News Talks NB.

Speaker 3 (01:56:27):
Thank you so much for joining us this morning on
the Sunday Session. Thank you to Kerrie for producing the show.
Narcy Watergrave is up next with the weekend Sport. Next weekend,
I'm actually going to run away to Siberia Valley, which
is a valley in the Mount Aspiring National Park. I'm
going to I'm on a bit of a mission to

(01:56:48):
head to Lake Crucible. I'm very excited about this little journey.
Andrew Dickens will be with you next weekend, but I'll
be back on the twenty ninth of March, so take care,
look forward to catching up with you then.

Speaker 2 (01:57:06):
Just how the greatest.

Speaker 20 (01:57:26):
Stupid fail.

Speaker 3 (01:57:34):
You sid my heart from the Fate of Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:57:40):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it Be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.

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