Full Show Podcast: 22 June 2025

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

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Good morning and welcome to Sunday Session here on new Stok.
Would be good to have you with us and the
Crusaders are back on top.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Hold on.

Speaker 4 (00:40):
Post the true sers Havens for reception.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Asks your pleas for our congratulations to the Crusaders. I
was gatted for the Chiefs. I was hoping that Klayton
McMillen's tea would loft the trophy. But it is now
time to look aheat to the All Black Squad announcement tomorrow.
Elliott Smith is with us shortly coming up with ten.
Chris Pack joins me to talk about his new live

(01:08):
show Stop being so dramatic. The show was a hit
at the Melbourne Comedy Festival earlier in the year and
he's ready to unleature it on Kiweeds and we could
all do with a bit of a laugh in the
middle of the winter, couldn't we. He's also just got
a new fur baby. I'm gonna find out how that's
working out for him. And the school holidays are almost
upon us. And if you're looking for a new book

(01:28):
to think you'd teque teeth in two, then I've got
a great thriller for you. AA. Dan is the British
author of the di I Harry Verdie books, which are
now a maze to BBC TV drama, and he's just
released a new book series called The Chemist, which draws
on his own background as a pharmacist. The books a
great yarn. His story is fascinating. AA darm is with

(01:50):
me after eleven and as always, you're most welcome to
text me on ninety two ninety two anytime throughout the morning.

Speaker 5 (01:57):
The Sunday session.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
So this week Steven Spielberg's terrifying film Jaws turned fifty,
Yes fifty Jaws was Oh oh, please stop it now, Carrie,
it's just bringing back memories. Jaws was released in nineteen
seventy five, and on Friday afternoon I mentioned this on
newstalk Z'DB and shared how much it affected me when
I saw it for the first time. So we were

(02:32):
having our first big family holiday. Mom and Dad took
us to the Gold Coast to see some family, and
on the first night, my cousin thought it would be
a great idea to slip the Jaws vhs into the
player to entertain as KEI week cousins.

Speaker 6 (02:46):
I was ten.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
We were there for two weeks to enjoy the beach
in the sunshine, and I refused to enter the water.
I think I may have got up to my knees
at the beach and then I would ask if we
could please go back to the apartment complex pool. My
parents did not take me to Oz to swim in
a pool and look. Even though I was skewed senseless
by the film, I was reminded by the chat on

(03:08):
Friday that so was everyone else. People were calling to
say Jaws had driven them out of the ocean for
their entire lives. Not many films leave that kind of impression.
It didn't matter that we knew the shark wasn't real.
It didn't matter that we knew it was a fictional story.
It didn't matter that we all knew that we were

(03:29):
being manipulated for entertainment's sake. Jaws simply had us all
on edge in the water. It also created a template
many films have followed since alien was said to be
pictured as Jaws in space and in Nope, filmmaker Jordan
Peel's lead characters are stalked by a mysterious alien presence,

(03:50):
which doesn't reveal itself until late in the film, much
like The Great White and Jaws now with holding the
shark's appearance in Jaws until the second hour wasn't actually intentional,
but it worked brilliantly as a tension building device. What
the audience conjured up in their own imagination was worse
than anything Spielbook deliver. It turned out that Bruce, the

(04:12):
mechanical shark, was a nightmare to work with, and he
hadn't been tested in salt water and often wasn't able
to perform, So Bruce appeared less than expected in the film,
and he also pushed the shootout from fifty five days
to one hundred and fifty nine days, and this meant
that the film couldn't open when scheduled, which was just
before Christmas in nineteen seventy four, and the decision was
made to release it in the summer of nineteen seventy five.

(04:34):
So Jaws didn't just revolutionize the creature genre, it was
the first ever summer blockbuster and changed the way Hollywood
released movies. It also became the first film to cross
the one hundred million US taking mark at the box office.
It was also a disservice to Sharks, but as Friday's

(04:55):
chat proved, this pop culture phenomenon's biggest achievement is probably
that summers have never been quite the same. Thank goodness
we get to commemorate the Jaws an Avers in winter.

Speaker 5 (05:08):
The Sunday Session, So love to hear from you.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Did you find it terrifying? Did it have an impact
on you? And look, have you watched it recently? I
must go back and watch it again because I'm pretty
sure if I took a look at Bruce now, I'd
just sort of probably laugh. Will be terrified of the
old mechanical Bruce. Anyway, I love to hear from your
ninety two ninety two up next, Prime Minister is heading
to the NATO summit this week. What's New Zealand's relevance

(05:34):
at this meeting will have an impact on some of
the current conflicts taking place at present. It is a
twelve past nine You with News talksb What.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
Sunday with Style The Sunday Session with Francesca Runkin and
Wiggles for the best selection of Greg reads News Talks EBB.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
One text reads, hah, my dog was sound asleep just now,
but sat bolt upright when you played the Jewels theme.

Speaker 7 (05:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
I think we will probably felt the same way. And
Terry wants to know what the school was between the
Warriors versus the Penrothy didn't hear it in the sports
news it was it wasn't good. The Warriors went down
twenty eight eighteen. It was a frustrating game. Tery right.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxen has wrapped his trip of China.
He's now in Belgium ahead of the NATO summit in
the Hagues starting on Tuesday to discuss as Professor of

(06:22):
International Relations, Robert Petman is with me. Always appreciate your time, Robert,
Good morning.

Speaker 8 (06:26):
Good morning, Francesca.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
From what you have seen, is this China trip being
a success for Luxen? Has it gone how you would
have expected?

Speaker 8 (06:35):
Well, judging by all the public sentiments on both sides,
I think it's been a success. The President Shi Jinping
described New Zealand as being at the forefront of Western
friends of China, and the atmospheric seemed to be good
the two sides signed eleven agreements, including agreements in food safety,

(06:57):
customs and also tourism. And also I think it gave
mister Luxan a chance to plug New Zland as an
educational destination for postgraduate Chinese students who may be considering
changing switching from the United States the original destination to
somewhere else because it's becoming increasingly difficult for international students

(07:20):
to go to the United States during the Trump era.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
So, you know, a lot of positive texts there for
Laxon in China, but China has quite a negative view
of NATO. Does that make it awkward that he's hitting
straight from China to Europe for NATO?

Speaker 8 (07:32):
No, I don't think so. I mean, I think it
just confirms the fact that while United while New Zealand
considers itself a good friend of China, and I think
the feeling is mutual, they have different political ideologies. China's
one party state and this is a liberal democracy, and

(07:52):
of course it's quite natural that when it comes to
making security arrangements, New Zealand tends to link up with
fellow liberal democracies and hence the common cause or the
common links with a multilateral security organization, which largely consists
of liberal democracies like NATA.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
Luxan dismissed recent comments by the NATO chief that China
has grouped with Russia and Iran and Northern Korea. Will
anyone be listening to Luxen? How's that going to go
down at the Hague?

Speaker 8 (08:25):
I don't think we should underestimate there is a tendency
in this country for us to think that no one
takes any notice of us. In fact, because the interconnected
world we live in, they notice good things, but they
also noticed when we drop the ball. I'm not saying
mister Luxan dropped the ball, but his comments could raise
some eyebrows, certainly in NATO, because it's no secret I

(08:50):
know what he means. He's saying that the four countries concerned,
which are a number of countries which are helping Russia,
including North Korea, Iran and Russia. They're not acting as
a sort of formal coalition of the winning, but they're
all they are all helping Russia on a bilateral basis,
and therefore they are helping Russia that they're helping to

(09:13):
support an illegal invasion of a liberal democracy named me Ukraine.
So those countries are clearly looking at working against Western interests,
and mister Luxelon's denial that they're doing that on a
concerted basis, I think you know, it's splitting hairs.

Speaker 6 (09:29):
Really.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
There have been some suggestions Luxeon's lack of geopolitical experience
could be showing.

Speaker 9 (09:35):
Are you worried about that?

Speaker 2 (09:36):
I think he generally performs pretty well when.

Speaker 8 (09:41):
To be fair, Look, this be quite clear. All prime
ministers have exhausting schedules, and it's easy to say things
which can be put in a particular interpreted in a
particular way. I don't think it was a huge deal.
He didn't say those countries were not helping Russia on
a bilateral basis. He just meant that they weren't helping

(10:03):
as part of a formal multilateral alliance. He's authoritarian states
piling in between behind Russia. So I understand the distinction.
I just think that it's it will it will be
seen as a fine distinction rather than a big distinction.
And it's a sort of comment you sometimes might make
when you're a little bit tired. Look, mister Luxean, I

(10:23):
think what you know. While might question though that particular statement,
you've got to give him credit for he has a
good relationship with the Chinese leadership, and he seems to
do well in people to people talks, and I wouldn't see,
you know, I don't think it's a major commm.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
Why are we at this NATO so much?

Speaker 5 (10:43):
Like?

Speaker 2 (10:43):
How much excess will our prime minister get? Is he
getting into all the right meetings? What are we doing there?

Speaker 8 (10:49):
Well, the reason is quite simple. There's a strategic linkage
or a linkage between our strategic interest in the Pacific
and what is happening in Ukraine. And it's the linkage
occurs at two levels. Firstly, one of the biggest backers
of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is China and as

(11:11):
well as India actually, and both of those countries are
heavyweights in the Indo Pacific region where we're located. So
the outcome of the conflict in Ukraine will have critical
reverberations for our Indo Pacific region. We're very worried, for example,
about Chinese growing assertiveness around the Pacific island nations. Well,

(11:35):
that assertiveness may be emboldened if mister Putin succeeds in
his attempt to annex either partially or holy Ukraine. It
may mean, for example, that China steps up pressure on Taiwan.
That's one level of connection. But there's another level of connection,
and it's this New Zealand is a small country and

(11:55):
we have a vision of international relations being based on
rules and principles with small countries need rules and principles.
Big ones tend to be semi detached about them. But
if Russia succeeds in a settlement or a military victory
in Ukraine, it will basically normalize the principle that stealing

(12:16):
land from a neighbor a big country stealing land from
a smaller country is fine. Well, that is a red
lightning issue for New Zealand globally, because we trade with
one hundred countries around the world. We need a stable
environment where big countries are discouraged from stealing land from
smaller countries. In other words, what's happening in Ukraine, the
Russian attempt to subdue Ukraine, has global ramifications for the

(12:38):
sort of world New Zealand wants to live in.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
I mean, it's very timely that this NATO summit has
taken place right now with the conflicts that we have
going on and the new ones which are just created
I imagine that this is going to be a large
part of discussions.

Speaker 8 (12:53):
Yes, and although it's got to be emphasized that mister
tending NATO summit is only part of mister Luxeon's menu
of activities. While he is in Europe, he's also having
talks with the EU leaders in Brussels. So he'll be
in the Hague for the summit, but he will also
be speaking with EU leaders. This is a very important

(13:14):
news meeting for Newseum. We have a free trade agreement
with the EU, which is actually going very well. I
noticed that exports the EU have gone up by about
a billion since we've signed that free trade agreement. And
there'll be discussions with EU leaders I think. I know
mister Luxan has spoken to many of them by phone,

(13:36):
but there'll be discussions about how to protect the notion
of free trade while we have this protectionist administration in Washington.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
There is talk of increases and defense been into five percent,
we've only just gone to two percent. Do you think
it could be pressure put on New Zealand here?

Speaker 8 (13:53):
I don't think so. New Zine's not a full member
of NATO, it's an associate member, so to speak. He's
got an informal partnership. I think it's just as well
we put up our two percent before we're attended and
this week and say we're going in the right direction.
That commitment to five percent is an attempt, I think,

(14:16):
to win favor in Washington. It's interesting that the United
States is not, although it's insisting all NATO members spend
five percent, itself is not spending five percent of GDP,
but of course they have a much bigger GDP than
anyone else. They're spending about three point five percent. Military
expenditure alone, by the way, is not necessarily an accurate

(14:38):
indicator of a military effectiveness. You could be spending a
lot of money but not actually getting a good return
on your investment. So I suppose the government will argue
that it hopes to get a very good return on
the two percent that it proposes to spend over the
next few years.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
Robert, thanks so much for your time this morning. As always,
really appreciate your thoughts and clearly a very big weaklyhead
for our Prime minister.

Speaker 5 (15:02):
The Sunday session right.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
The fifteenth Super Rugby title for the Crusaders beating the
Chiefs sixteen twelve last night in Christy. It was redemption
for Crusaders coach Rob Penny.

Speaker 10 (15:17):
It's a very emotional time.

Speaker 11 (15:20):
You know.

Speaker 10 (15:20):
It's just so good to have the stadium rocking like
it is, and the boys really wanted you.

Speaker 7 (15:26):
To be like this and it's really a.

Speaker 12 (15:29):
Dream come true.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
It's unreal, but heartbreak for the Chiefs coach Clayton McMillan,
the team suffering their third straight final loss.

Speaker 5 (15:37):
You know it hurts it.

Speaker 10 (15:38):
We've been to the last dancing. You haven't quite got
the job done there all. You know, they will sit
deep in the stomach for a while. But on the balance,
I'm really proud of these men. They keep dancing back
every year and I don't imagine what these meaning are.

Speaker 7 (15:50):
Things are going to change.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
To talk about the final and to look ahead to
tomorrow's all black squad naming, I'm joined by Zedby lead
rugby commentator Elliott Smith.

Speaker 6 (15:58):
Good morning, Elliot, Morning Francisca.

Speaker 9 (16:00):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
Fifteenth title, eighth and nine seasons for the Crusaders. Jeez,
what is it about this franchise?

Speaker 13 (16:06):
Well, that's a ridiculous record, Isn't it really in any
professional sports league to have that sort of domination? But
I thought it was interesting hearing Rob Penny talk last
night on the postgame TV covera just about the culture.
There's no golden ticket, there's no secret formula. It's just
about people. And that's what he emphasized last night, is
that they get the culture right and then the rugby

(16:28):
follows on the park. In all the way back to
sort of the nineteen nineties, that's been how the Crusaders
have managed to do it is how to build titles
as first with the people, and you get that right
and on the paddock it becomes a little bit easier.
But last night, you know, it was a very very
fine margin, and to use a cliche, it could have
gone either way.

Speaker 2 (16:47):
And you can't ignore the contrast between the season and
last season. I mean, last year, Rob Penny took a
lot of hate and for them to turn it around
a wind again this year is pretty.

Speaker 13 (16:56):
Impressive, absolutely, and they were a revel at times. Last
year they looked a shadow of the team that had
won so many titles between twenty seventeen and twenty twenty three.
I think everyone expected a year last year after all
the changes in terms of the coaching personnel, playing personnel,
but they looked on a different planet last year, and
you know, they looked breath of confidence. At times, it

(17:17):
looked as they didn't have a game plan. They looked
as they didn't have team culture, and that was why
Rob Penny was in the gun, because everything that the
Crusaders had built up had seemingly fallen away in one
off season. But credits to him, he's managed to turn
that around in the space of a year with help
from the senior leadership players, and you know, proved that

(17:38):
perhaps he wasn't a bad appointment at all, and also
underlined that the Crusaders were right not to get rid
of him. They dug really deep into the analytics last year,
all the stats, everything that was telling them that they
were creating enough chances, just not finishing them. They rebuilt
the or reset the culture a little bit in the
off season, is my understanding, and that's been enough to
get them the title. It's a remarkable contrast because, yeah,

(18:02):
he could have been sacked after one year and here
he is, you know, winning a title at the end
of his second year. He's not contracted beyond this period,
so he's currently out of contract. But you'd have to
suspect that the Crusaders would be moving quickly to get
him to sign another one.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
I was pretty gudded for the Chiefs their third straight
final defeat. Why can't they get it over the line?

Speaker 13 (18:21):
They just haven't been able to own the big moments
in finals, and I think that's been the running theme.
They lost in twenty twenty two, sorry twenty twenty one,
and the Super Rugby Old had all final twenty twenty
three against the Crusaders. They just had a few too
many yellow cards and the Crusaders scored I think all
of their points while the Chiefs were reduced to fourteen

(18:42):
men on that night. Last year they were blown away
by a very very good Blues team. But last night
again it came down to winning the key moments and
in the second spell, after they'd managed to close the
game to a one point fixture at halftime, they just
couldn't get down the right areas of the park. The
Crusaders weren't scoring points, but the Chiefs are playing at
the wrong end of the park and just every time

(19:03):
they were clearing the ball it felt like they were
restarting a year and the Crusaders are beginning that cycle
of putting the Chiefs under pressure once more and the
Chiefs didn't really cite the Crusaders twenty two. For most
of that second spell, it was all about owning the
big moments, and the Crusaders players stepped up when they
edited to. They put the Chiefs under aerial pressure. They
forced knock ons, they forced errors, and that's what good

(19:24):
teams do. And that's the lesson for the Chiefs is that, Yep,
you won the regular season. You're clearly the best team
for the fifteen or so rounds in the regular season,
but finals foot is a bit different, and when the
squeeze came on, the Crusaders were just that little bit
too good for the Chiefs in the end.

Speaker 2 (19:39):
Okay, So turning to the team naming tomorrow afternoon, what
are you expecting.

Speaker 13 (19:44):
What's gonna be fascinating, isn't it to see whether the
players from last night or over the course of the
playoffs have managed to force their way in. There's a
few logjams in certain areas. I think loose forward is
one where there's a number of players that are putting
their case forward. Christian Leo Willie last night I thought,
was again excellent for the Crusaders and must be very
very close to being in for a call up for

(20:05):
the first there's a Duplessy Kadifi out of the Hurricanes
who's been a strong performer this year as well. I
think there's a real logjam at loose ford and whether
you know the likes of Dalton Papa Lee who have
been there and done the job for the All Blacks
before Luke Jacobson, whether they go back to him as well,
I think there's going to be a real squeeze applied
to that loose forward area, so that's going to be fascinating.

(20:26):
I think midfield as well is going to be a
real area of a pressure point for selectors. You know
Rico Yuwanni, Jordi Barrett. You could probably pencil those two in,
Billy Proctor as well. But then there's David Harvelli, Quinta
pie to Marthy, Tava Tava Nawai from the Highlanders who
was putting his case forward as well, and outside back
as a real area of contention as well. So if

(20:48):
there's going to be new names, I would suspect they
would come in the loose forwards and midfield and potentially
in the outside backs as well. So look, I think
what we saw over the course of the playoffs, there's
a lot of the all black players stand up, so
I wouldn't expect too many big names to go missing.
It's just a matter of how many new faces they
can sprinklin in tomorrow's naming.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
And the announcement has been held at Scott Barrett's Coastal
Rugby Club and Tartanaki, so that's surely a sign that
he's going to be the captain again.

Speaker 13 (21:15):
I'd say a fairly positive sign that it'd be very,
very awkward. I think it'd be all yeah, awkward afternoon
out at Coastal. If that is not the case, i'd
expect that to be indeed the case. And yes, special afternoon.
Now the Barretts obviously will be named. I think Josh
Lord might be from around there as well. I might
be wrong on that front, but certainly a lot of
history going through that club, so I promises to be

(21:36):
a pretty special afternoon.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
Thank you so much for your time, Elliott, appreciate that
are going to be all over this tomorrow afternoon, and
of course we'll be covering this on news Talk s HEDB.
Local politics is up next. It is twenty eight to ten.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin on news talks
at b.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
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Speaker 5 (22:56):
Works the Sunday session.

Speaker 2 (22:59):
Joining me now is New Zealand Erior Deputy Political Editor
Adam Pierce. Good morning, Adam, good morning. Have we got
some movement on the North and Expressway.

Speaker 7 (23:08):
Yeah, we certainly do.

Speaker 14 (23:09):
We've got a shortlist confirmed by NZTA to build the
next section of the new expressway going north. So these
have basically groups of companies from infrastructure construction from here
and abroad who are putting up their hand and saying
they want to buy into this PPP public private partnership

(23:30):
that the government is looking to engage. So we've got Northway,
Go North and Together North. Those are the three groups
and they feature companies who are some pretty heavy hitters
and some of them have been involved in projects here
in the Passing transmission gully, even the Tongedito hydro scheme.
So now they'll put through proposals talking about the financing,

(23:53):
the design, construction management, and then they'll go through a
preferred bit.

Speaker 7 (23:57):
It will be picked about early next year.

Speaker 14 (24:00):
By the middle of the next year you'll get contract signed,
negotiations will conclude and then hopefully fingers crossed by the
by the end of the year, will get construction started.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
Okay, So end of twenty twenty six construction starts. And
is there any indication of how the timeline develops from
there when it will be complete.

Speaker 14 (24:19):
Well, this is this is always a big question, and
we've had transport Minister Chris Bishop even today acknowledge that
there are some pretty ambitious deadlines involved in this project,
you know, I mean, and you look at the context
of this. You know, the government's calling this quite a
win for its investment summit that it held in March.
You know, a lot of these a lot of these

(24:39):
companies and more were involved here and it was all
about bringing in overseas capital to be able to get
infrastructure moving. And I think it will come as no
surprise to anyone that things happen move pretty slowly in
New Zealand, particularly with roading. You know, I mentioned Transmission
Gully there. You know, people of Wellington will know exactly
how long.

Speaker 5 (24:59):
These things can take.

Speaker 14 (25:00):
So the question will be whether they can actually meet
these these targets, these dead lines. One of the companies involved,
we Build, you know, specifically talked about its experience in
New Zealand and how deadlines.

Speaker 8 (25:15):
Were always met.

Speaker 14 (25:16):
So I'm not quite sure whether most New Zealanders would
agree with that. But again, you know, especially when we're
looking at the politics of it, national running on getting
things done, getting things back on track. So if they're
seen as not being able to hit these deadlines, it's
not going to go down well for them.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
Yeah, it's good to see things are moving. But this
is going to be New Zealand's most expensive infrastructure project today,
is that right?

Speaker 14 (25:37):
Yes, it's estimated to be by the Infrastructure Commission, so
it's a big it's a big investment.

Speaker 15 (25:42):
I think.

Speaker 14 (25:42):
You know, anyone who's driven north knows that that road
isn't desperate need of an upgrade. You know, you need
to walk down the walk down the streets of any
Northland town or settlement and they'll tell you just how
bad it is. The further north you go, the worse
it gets. But I think, particularly as Auckland grows, particularly
as people are living further north and through the South

(26:05):
of obviously that that main hub, the roads will have
to get better, the transport links have to get better.
I think the government will be given a bit of
latitude on this, but as I say, it's all about
whether they can have those deadlines.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
Adam, thank you so much for talking us through that.
Really appreciate it. Up next a Guinness World Record attempt,
and don't forget that the hilarious Chris Parker is with me.
After ten this morning, it is twenty one to ten.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
The Sunday Session Full Show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by NEWSTALKSB.

Speaker 2 (26:38):
Thanks for the text, of course, you can text anytime
throughout the morning. On ninety two ninety two for Jessica,
I agree with your guest that with Robert Patman, we
should give Christopher lux In credit rather than underminding and
looking for an opportunity to undermine him as New Zealand's
PM abroad. It's a huge schedule. Lux And is covering
a lot of ground. He's doing an excellent job in
New Zealand no matter what people think. Thank you, Claire. Right,

(26:59):
we are getting in on a Guinness World Record attempt here.
It has just been announced this morning that a big
fitness event will be held in christ Church this November.
The aim is to break the world record of the
largest high intensity interval training or HIT class in a
single venue. You might remember a few years ago we
had UK fitness coach Joe Wix on this show where

(27:20):
he's cut the current record holder with three eight hundred
and four participants that was set back in twenty seventeen.
This event, Hit for Hope, is aiming for ten thousand.
Take that, Joe, and while they are really keen to
break that record. It's also raising awareness about the positive
impact exercise can have on well being. Organizers are calling

(27:42):
for participants now. Founder Jared Rodgers is worth me. Good morning, Jared,
Good morning.

Speaker 15 (27:47):
How are you doing today?

Speaker 2 (27:48):
I'm really good? Ten thousand. It's quite a lot of people.
How confident are you that christ Church can rustle that up?

Speaker 15 (27:55):
I don't even think it's just a christ Church. I
think it's New Zealand as a whole. As you can
probably get my accent, there's a little bit South African
inside there, and growing up as a kid seeing New
Zealand perform at the highest level, although the small little
nation on the corner of the globe, just comes to
show that when there is a challenge out there like this,

(28:16):
we will band together and we will accomplish something quite
significant together.

Speaker 2 (28:20):
How has this come about? Why have you chosen this
record to attempt to break.

Speaker 15 (28:26):
Well through personally? Excuse me, through personal experience in life? Really,
I've found that being in the health and wellness industry,
really I've seen the positive impacts that I've had with
my clients and how exercise has gone and changed their lives,
And I just thought that there was something that needed
to be done, especially post COVID, and through bringing a

(28:49):
collective of people, this many people together, I think there's
something that we could do that's going to be pretty
magical and we can rarely dial into that whole mental
wellbeing community wellbeing space through something like this.

Speaker 6 (29:01):
And I know that this is.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
Inspired by your own mental health journey and that of
your family. Would do you mind sharing the little bit
about that?

Speaker 16 (29:08):
Yeah?

Speaker 15 (29:09):
Sure, So growing up there was I grew up in
a household where there was alcoholism, brand rampant. Dad traveled
a lot for work, so it just kind of left
myself and my younger brother to to kind of sort
for ourselves. But I soon found that I too carried
this gene of of indulging and yeah, through you know,

(29:30):
by the end of after getting kicked out of university
and everything, I'd soon found myself behind a few bars
which I'd come to now found that, you know, as
I was locked up through a variety of things. So, yeah,
all of that had taken place, all of that had happened,
and through those experiences, I've you know, rarely recognized that
I think the world is hurting. People need something a

(29:55):
little bit different and exercise is a tool that's out
there that is not only accessible, but it is free.
And I just think through what exercise does not just
for us physically, you know, we talk about toning or
losing weight, seeing clients come off of antidepress and seeing
clients come off of high blood pressure medicine. That's where

(30:15):
the magic rarely starts to happen.

Speaker 2 (30:18):
So what is the Guinness World Record's criteria here? Is
there a level of exercise you need to meet, you know,
it's for it to be classified as a hit class.

Speaker 15 (30:27):
Yeah, so it's all the criteria basically is anybody from
the age of sixteen and up will qualify for the record,
although we are wanting to still bring anybody and everybody
out because this is a day for the family and
I think age is just a number. Exercise should be
done by anybody and everybody, So sixteen and up is

(30:50):
going to qualify us. But it all just comes down
to the effort of the individual and that's where my
role on the day in putting the workout out is
going to be critical in just making sure that anybody
of a certain age is going to be able to participate.
So there will be options for anybody and everybody, regardless
of your fitness level, we rarely encourage you to come
out and try. You know, there's nothing to lose. I

(31:11):
can promise you that there will be no burpees. I
can promise you that there's going to be nothing outrageous
that we're going to get you to do. At the
end of the day, my role is to make sure
that we create a positive association with exercise whilst bringing
a large number of people together to experience something quite
extraordinary really, And I just think through this we can

(31:35):
then look at, you know, hopefully seeing people engaging with
exercise in whatever form that may be on a long
term basis.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
I think that's hilarious that you thought, okay, what could
be the one thing that could stop people coming and participating?
Got rid of the burpies. I love the fact that
you're also hoping to raise an ambitious half a milion
for charity as well.

Speaker 9 (31:57):
Is that right?

Speaker 7 (31:59):
That is correct?

Speaker 15 (31:59):
So the event, I'm a director and on the board
of a charitable trust called the Diamond Charitable Trust, and
we are very much all about community wellbeing. We are
as this trust hosting Hit for Hope and we're essentially
going to be raising funds for the likes of Voices
of Hope, but also looking at you know, other grassroots

(32:21):
organizations that are out there that we can really tap
into and assist because looking at the mental health space,
community wellbeing space, I think, you know, systematically, it's a
very complex issue that we're looking at. It is extremely
broad and I think you know, if we're just going
to funnel our attension down certain avenues, we're going to
find ourselves coming short. So we're just looking to really

(32:43):
engage your community in as wide a way or broad
as aspect as possible and then just seeing how big
a difference we can make.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
With this day, Jared, people can sign up now where
do they go?

Speaker 15 (32:53):
One hundred percent The website is now live and ready
to go. So if you go to hit for Hope
dot com, so h double it as in high Intensity
Interval Training for Hope dot com.

Speaker 7 (33:05):
You can go in.

Speaker 15 (33:06):
There's a little link on that front page that's going
to say become a record breaker. And the good news
is first five hundred tickets are free, so people can
head out there and get your free tickets, and then
you know, we really just look forward to again bringing
a lot of people together and making something magical happen
so that we can do this all again next year.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
Really wonderful. Jared, thank you so much for your time
this morning. Nice to talk to you. Best of luck.
It is twelve to ten, putting the.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
Time questions to the newspeakers the mic asking breakfast.

Speaker 17 (33:38):
Not sure how many times we have to tell the
government under this one or the last, but the carbon
auctions aren't working latest there were zero bids.

Speaker 5 (33:44):
In fact, no one even registered.

Speaker 17 (33:45):
Secondary market currently is it's around fifty eight dollars. Well
the auction price that's at sixty eight. So would you
rather pay fifty eight dollars or sixty eight dollars anyway?
This is their eighth auction to be declined now. Simon
Carter is the Act Party spokespirst non Climate Change and
he is with us.

Speaker 8 (34:01):
I think what we're seeing is said industrial and meadows
have already got enough units in there Harban Bank to
pay for this year's emissions and the secondary market. She
pointed out this working quite well.

Speaker 17 (34:12):
Back tomorrow at six am the Mike Hosking Breakfast with
the Defender oct News Talk sedb keep It's.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
Simple, It's Sunday, the Sunday session with Francesca Rutger and
Wiggles for the best selection of greg Ens News Talk
sed B.

Speaker 6 (34:27):
He's a to.

Speaker 5 (34:32):
Nothing, you tri.

Speaker 3 (34:37):
He's a living four.

Speaker 2 (34:45):
The beautiful voice there of Marlon Williams. He was amazing
in concert at Sparkerrena last night. I don't forget Chris
Parker's coming up after tenth They were they went to
school together, they used to s wag class together. Apparently anyway,
they turned out alright. But Marlon Williams of course released
his first Murray language film, To Fuo to Wicker Wicker

(35:05):
in April. He's been touring it around the country. Other
people have been telling me how amazing the tour has
been and how fabulous his concerts have been, and I
finally now know what everyone was talking about. So last
night was actually the first time that he had been
the headline act at Auckland's spark Arena, and it was
a really beautiful way to celebrate Marsadiki. He had his
longtime band the Arab Benders, there some special appearances from

(35:28):
some of the album's collaborators. It was just this glorious
night of song and celebration. And he's so funny. My
friend I went with said, look, I love him and
I love his songs, but he did come he comes
across as quite sometimes quite an intense and sad singer songwriter.
But he is a hoot. And if you've seen his
documentary Two Worlds, that is also now available to rent
on a lot of streaming services as well. If you

(35:50):
miss that, you'll learn that, yes, he actually does love
to perform. And he spoke to the audience more last
night than I've ever seen him speak to the audience
in a show ever before. And he really did put
on quite an act. At one point he was joking
that he felt like a stand up comedian. He could
be a stand comedian anyway. Absolutely fantastic. I'm not sure

(36:10):
that that's the end of the tour, but if you
haven't seen them yet and you get the chance, you
must go. Just wonderful And as I said, that documentary
is also available to rent now on streaming services if
you've missed it. Thanks for the text. So we were
talking about movies that had an impact on you, and
someone said Towering Inferno was another movie that that, like Jewels,
had a sort of similar effect on me. I didn't

(36:31):
like going up high after that movie. Luckily in New
Zealand didn't have any tool buildings back then. It's that reminds.
I mean, I know people who don't want if they
go and say in a hotel in a big city,
they won't go above the tenth floor because of films
like that. So you're right that one. Also, I never
had this impact on us. Someone has mentioned that Jews

(36:51):
might be on Bravo Night at seventy thirty PM. I
haven't checked that, but if you do have that and
you want to relive it, go for it. It's there
for you. You can text any time. On ninety two,
ninety two, it is six to ten.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
The Sunday Session Full Show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by
News talks'b.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
Coming up next, the Irrepressible Chris Packer. He is touring
his new show Stopping So dramatic. It's just such a
Chris Parker.

Speaker 7 (37:22):
Oh, I love it.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
He's touring that around the country at present, and he
joins me to talk about comedy is a career and
becoming the parent of a rescue dog. And yes, he
is delightfully I'm sure going to be delightful dramatic about
all that. This is some new music. It was released
on Friday by friend of the show, Georgia Lines. When
she was in here not too long ago, it was
May wasn't a music month. She did tease that there

(37:45):
was some new music coming throughout the year. And she
has also just announced that she would have a new
pea out called The Guest House at the end of August.
So this is Julia.

Speaker 3 (38:01):
She blows, Mama, I want you to be luck itches,
not this time.

Speaker 18 (38:12):
Something about Julia, something bout the way that she does,
something bout of Julia.

Speaker 3 (38:27):
I want you to be luck itches, not this time.

Speaker 19 (38:32):
This something about Julior, something bout of Junior.

Speaker 3 (38:46):
I want you to be luck itches this time. There's
something about Juicia.

Speaker 5 (38:54):
It's Sunday. You know what that means.

Speaker 1 (38:56):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca, Rutkins and Wickles for
the best Election of Great Reeds U S Talk SIP.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
Seven past ten. Good to have you with us on
the Sunday Session. Stop being so dramatic. It's a phrase
comedian Chris Parker claims he's been told every second of
his life to believe. Really, isn't it. Chris has created
a comedy show to celebrate these drama queen tendencies. The
stop being so dramatic. New Zealand tour is underway. He's
two dates since the tour and Chris has popped in

(39:31):
for a check. Chris Parker, good.

Speaker 6 (39:33):
Morning, Thank you so much for having me. Happy Sunday everyone.
I love this mustardicky weekend. It's just like it's so good.
It's like a good time for public holiday too.

Speaker 2 (39:44):
Well, well we've just had one. Yeah, but I do
feel near the middle of the year, we do just
need some breathers, don't we.

Speaker 6 (39:49):
I think so too, the moment to refresh. I just
think Fridays across the board should never be worked.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
I tend to agree with you.

Speaker 6 (39:58):
Is what they do with like Scandinavia or something. Is
like someone say, oh, we lived in Denmark for a while,
it was ten to four every day. We never work Fridays,
And I'm just like, why aren't we all doing that?
Why are we working so hard?

Speaker 2 (40:11):
First, I want to congratulate you, Oh, thank you so much.
I'll take that for just you don't know what it's about.
You and your husband Michael, have welcomed a new addition
to the family. Margo Darling park and mcape have I
got that right, the rescue pap. How are you or
adjusting to this new family dynamic.

Speaker 6 (40:29):
She's adjusting well. I on the other hand, you know,
it's a big shift. I mean, we just lived. I
think you know, if you look at sort of a
same sex relationship marriage on paper, it's a pretty easy
go in life, you know, despite some maybe like global
pushback in terms of our own lifestyle, it's just so nice,
you know, we had there's sort of no obstacle. There

(40:50):
was just like you'd wake up and whatever time you wanted,
and like we had no obligations. It was just like
one house plant that we sort of tried to keep alive.
And then we just thought, well, let's go and ruin
this all highly like high needs do that. You know,
she's so precious. But it just it's a lot, I mean,

(41:11):
and everyone tells you it's a lot of work, and
you're like, I know, and then you see everyone at
these cafes and out on walks and you're like, so
it's a lot of work, but there's a lot of
this too. And then every dog just has their own
specific personality traits and Margo has hers. But we're getting there.
We've got a trainer. He's training us. He told me
I was a good boy the other day. He gave

(41:33):
me a pat. I almost said it at his feet,
So did my belly ask for a rub.

Speaker 2 (41:39):
Everyone told you it was going to be hard work,
but you're still surprised it's as much hard work as
it is.

Speaker 6 (41:44):
Isn't that like true of life, isn't it?

Speaker 5 (41:47):
Really?

Speaker 6 (41:47):
I think that's what I'm beginning to understand. It's like,
you know, there's all these choices you can make, be
it have children or have a dog, or buy a house,
or move away from your family and friends and try
it in a new city or something, and everyone goes, oh,
it's really hard, and you think, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally,
but you don't actually hear that, and you're, yeah, understand
that's hard conceptually, and then you make the choice to

(42:09):
do it yourself and you think, oh my gosh, stay
well right, this is so hard. Why did no one
tell me, Like everyone was telling you, you just weren't listening,
or you thought you would be an exception.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
I think it's the way it can get pitched to
you at times. So I had two kids, and then
we thought I really wanted to get a puppy, and
everybody who has kids and a dog said, it is
your third child. It is a third child, and that
just resonated since we never.

Speaker 6 (42:34):
Got the puppy, so you listened.

Speaker 2 (42:37):
It's just a way that I was like, I'm not
even a third child, so why would I get a
third child?

Speaker 6 (42:41):
You know, I would say, though, like we do love it,
and I'm being like, you know, obviously like a bit
giby about it all, like, but she is a true
pleasure and she's you know, his parents say she's actually
the greater educator. She is teaching us.

Speaker 2 (42:56):
So so Maure, I heard and I don't know if
I don't know if you were joking or not that
sometimes you leave your own podcast or at home so
she doesn't get lonely.

Speaker 6 (43:06):
Oh no, we are definitely doing that.

Speaker 2 (43:08):
So you have tuned into a parent. You are parenting this.

Speaker 5 (43:12):
You have to.

Speaker 6 (43:13):
So basically, you take her out for a walk and
she sees another dog while on her leaseh and she
just goes crazy. And then if you leave her home
alone for like an for even like five ten minutes,
she'll go crazy again. And so we're just we're working
through it, and we're not like because Everyone wants to
give advice, don't they, And this is what I think
my parent friends talk about it, but you can't. Here's

(43:34):
the thing, as a dog owner, you can't compare your
struggles to parents. They don't want to. They don't want
to hear that at all. I don't hear it at all.
So you have to just find childless gaze with high
needs dogs, and that's your community. That's who you talk to.
Because as soon as you go, oh, yeah, you had
to sleep this night and you tell me about it,

(43:54):
my dog was barking at helicopters, they go, no, you
don't understand, and I don't want to hear this.

Speaker 2 (44:02):
So you're two dates into your nine date tour New Zealand.
So how's that separation going?

Speaker 7 (44:09):
Is it all right?

Speaker 6 (44:09):
It's pretty good. We're doing weekends away. Margo and I
did Todunga together because my brother lives there. So she's
you know, we had a whole system set up, babysitters,
all that kind of thing. Or she's actually I should
say she's not. She is a three year old dog,
so she's actually like a thirty five year old woman
and dog is living with us, so she was adult
sat by my brother family while we did the show.

(44:33):
I love touring New Zealand. I love getting around the country,
and it's because that's like what my fourth or fifth tour,
annual tour. I've got my favorite little spot. So I
just really enjoy, you know, popping back in and Hi,
I'm back on the road again.

Speaker 2 (44:49):
Are we quite different in different places? Where is the
sort of the comedy sensibility really the same across Keewe's Gosh.

Speaker 6 (44:59):
Imagine if the answer was like, yes, so different, you know,
but I truly as boring as the answer is like no,
I think we're the same. I think as well, we
are the same internationally, you know, maybe a little reserved,
but I don't. I mean, New Zealand audiences are sort
of no one in the comedy community for being a
bit tough because we're quite reserved people. We don't like

(45:22):
to sort of be seen laughing as well. But I
like to be like, well, I've never heard that.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
I'm not a problem over here.

Speaker 6 (45:30):
There's been pretty loud in my audience in my shows.
They I think that's what I find quite encouraging those
because I think we just still have this weird mentality
sometimes of like oh, we're just like little old Kiwis
and no one knows about us and we're just a
team of five million at the part of the world.
And then I'm like, oh no, we're like our sensibility

(45:52):
what we can laugh at as just as you know,
advanced and as complicated and as robust as any kind
of like international audience who might be seeing like comments
at the top of their game. So I'm like, we,
you know, we it's just people, you know.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
That's how I just think hugely successful New Zealand comedians
have a massive in Australia. I mean, you're taking off
to Edinburgh and London as well this year with this
tour and hugely well no one and well received in
these places.

Speaker 3 (46:26):
I know.

Speaker 6 (46:27):
I mean, but again, I'm like, when do we stop
acting surprised about this? You know, when when do we
start going oh no, it's always been this way and
we've always known that we're crack up, but we just
love to be like who us.

Speaker 5 (46:40):
You know.

Speaker 6 (46:40):
I'm like, I think about us on a sort of
global scale in terms of our industry, our entertainment industry
even broadly, you know, like, lord, who you know came
from this country is a like International, like most talked
about pop star of the year. You've got like in
terms of choreography, you Mike Paris Global is like top

(47:01):
of her game. Comedy directors you think about like Tiger,
I'm like, when's it? What's it going to take for
us to realize that these aren't miracles?

Speaker 2 (47:09):
Absolutely one off.

Speaker 6 (47:11):
This is the fabric of our country that we create
incredible talent.

Speaker 2 (47:16):
Oh, you're right, you're right, you're asolutely right. Well, we're
not very good. I think we're getting better at celebrating success.

Speaker 6 (47:22):
Makes you think we should invest more in the arts
just a little just thinking about that.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
I know, yeah, I know it's quite successful. Yeah, stop
being so dramatic. Is that a title? It's aimed at
you or society as a whole.

Speaker 6 (47:36):
It's aimed at me specifically. I've heard that my whole life.
You know, I am a very What was sort of
noen and my family dining table was that I would
at dinner sort of stand up and storm out late
because my siblings have been driving at me from the
other side. And you know, growing up with siblings is
just like a very specific type of mental torture, isn't it,

(47:59):
Because they just know your weaknesses and they and they'll
push them and they are brilliant at it, and then
somehow get away purely are totally innocent. And then I
would storm out and then I'd give myself about ten
minutes to call down. Would the old stopping so dramatic,
ris I'll come back in and I'd say fine, I
liked my dessert after part of nothing as well, Like

(48:22):
I just sort of come back in because I was hungry.
So I've always sort of reacted strongly to things, been
a very passionate person, and this show is a like
a reclamation of that, of that start of myself. I
think passion is a good thing, and I think passion

(48:43):
in this world now is an amazing thing. So I
just think people want us to be less passionate because
it's easier to control us and get us in line.
And there are certain parts of my of stuff from
like I don't want to get in that line, you know.
So I think I'm just about holding on to my voltage,
you know. That's what this show is about.

Speaker 2 (49:03):
The show got great reviews at the Melbourne Comedy Festival,
and review said Packer plows through anxiety inducing anecdotes in
an earnest attempt to undermine the power of cringe, and
I love that. I don't know if that's it, that's it.
Why are we so afraid of cringe? Why do we
kind of.

Speaker 6 (49:21):
Well, I mean, as a millennial, I found cringe to like,
you know, if that word got like thrown around the playground,
it was like a death sentence in a way. You're
so cringe you couldn't kind of come back from that.
It was almost like the worst thing you ever hear
in your life. I think number one is when your
sister's friends were over, your older sister's friends, and you're
kind of running around and doing a show for them,

(49:43):
and then you hear from the other side of the lounge,
cress stop showing off, and you cannot come back from that,
And I think, yeah, you're kind of cringe. As another one,
it's like it's quite hard about people to see you
in a new light when you're labeled as cringe. I, however, think,
you know, a cringe is just like another way of

(50:04):
being like pull back, reduce yourself.

Speaker 2 (50:10):
And edit yourself, you know exactly.

Speaker 6 (50:13):
Because I don't like necessarily like what I or it
doesn't like align with how I see or you know,
it's like edit, it's so I just need.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
To take ourselves a little less seriously exactly, just you know,
and just sometimes it's okay if you know.

Speaker 6 (50:28):
And so I do think, yeah, I mean that's what
the show examines, is that potentially cringe. It was after
one quite big night I had out partying that I
thought maybe cringe is the tool of the oppressor. And
look that's quite a dramatic statement. But then it's in
the title, isn't it Absolutely okay?

Speaker 2 (50:48):
So you you've already toured this through Australia that's been
hugely successful. You're doing New Zealand, as I mentioned, You're
then off to London and Edinburgh. Is that generally the
cycle of a comedian and you come up with a
show and you tool that one for is it generally
about a year?

Speaker 6 (51:04):
There's a couple of like yeah, sort of yeah, really
do you think about it? I mean really starting to
be like, oh, I'm a business, which my dad has
been like shaking into me, you know, like this is
my job.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
So it's like and it's quite good at it and
it's gone quite well and I'm making money.

Speaker 6 (51:25):
Oh this is a job. So yeah, but it starts
as this passion of yours, this artistic vocation, and then
suddenly it becomes a big operation. And so yeah, you
spend the top half of the year sort of getting well,
first couple of months of the year, getting that show
into shape, and in the latter half of this year,
I'll start developing new material. It's a hamster wheel, so

(51:49):
you start building up that new material, you trial out
at small shows, working progresses. You're basically bombing in front
of the audience trying to find out what's working. Because
that's a hard thing about our job is that we
work it out in front of people.

Speaker 2 (52:02):
Because Margo's not going to tell you where she's not.

Speaker 6 (52:05):
No, she just loves me no matter what. UK Yeah,
and she has such an unreliable audience. And then you know,
you sort of edit what you've got and try and
get it into an hour, and then you just want
to tour it so much because it's taken so much
work and so much like dying out in front of
an audience to get it to a good shape that
you want to make the most of it.

Speaker 20 (52:24):
And so.

Speaker 6 (52:26):
Australia is the first leg and people do the Adelaide
Friende and then they do Melbourne Comedy Festival, that's a
huge festival, that's a month, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, and then
that will lead you into New Zealand International Comedy Festival,
into Edinburgh, and then you sort of might tour London,
you know, UK for a bet, and then you'll be

(52:47):
so tired you never want to say what you've ever
written again. You're so over it. You're cringing at yourself ironically,
and then you'll be done with it and you start again,
and it's just that you just don't ever seem to
get off of the wheel.

Speaker 2 (52:58):
Well, very excited that you've you've managed to fit us in.
Oh you're on the New Zealand tour.

Speaker 6 (53:03):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (53:04):
I have a blast and just contall thank you being
as dramatic as you like.

Speaker 6 (53:08):
I know I get to go to christ Church next
I'm so excited and it's sold out, thank goodness because
my parents are coming. Oh you dead, it'll be.

Speaker 2 (53:17):
Chris Parker. Thank you so much for your time, really
appreciate thanks for having me on. And as we mentioned,
Chris is stop being so dramatic. To hits christ Church
next Saturday and then continues around the country so for
more information here to Chris Parker Comedy dot Com. Don't
forget that. After eleven, I'm joined by British thriller writer
and former pharmacist Aa darm to talk about his new

(53:39):
book The Chemist Entertainment. Up next. It is twenty one
past ten.

Speaker 5 (53:44):
Relax, it's still the weekend.

Speaker 1 (53:46):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudgin and Wiggles for
the best selection of great Reads US talk z be.

Speaker 2 (53:54):
When you're looking for a good book to read, Wickles
knows that the range of choice can be overwhelming. It's
important that you find the one that's right for you
or for the person to whom you might be giving it,
and that's where the power of recommendation comes in. That's
why Wickles offers the Top one hundred, the Kids Top
fifty and Jones Picks. The Top one hundred and Kids
Top fifty have been voted for by readers of New Zealand.

(54:16):
So if thousands of people have loved them enough to
vote for them, chances are you'll love them too. Jones
Picks is a selection of books by Wickles Head book Buyer.
Their titles, She's read, She's loved and they come with Jones'
highest recommendation with the top one hundred Kids, Top fifty
Jones Picks plus books, games, puzzles, toys, gorgeous stationary and more.
There really is something for everyone at Wickles.

Speaker 5 (54:41):
The Sunday session wall good bag, Thank God, God, some
save you. It's laid septem really should be back at cool.

Speaker 21 (54:56):
Good to see that Rod Stewart, after having to pull
out of some recent gigs because he wasn't feeling too
good as managed to pull it together for Glastonbury taking
place this weekend.

Speaker 2 (55:07):
So I love the way, Steve. They seem to have these,
you know, these old codgures. They roll them out at
doors to reach the legend slots, the religion slot, that's
what it's called.

Speaker 12 (55:18):
Look if we can, if they can tear sir Sir
Rod away from his model railway, then good on them.

Speaker 2 (55:25):
Tied to talk entertainment, Steve, who's the editor at Flextar
Codo And that is with us And twenty eight years
later is out, which of course is a funow up
to twenty eight days later. In twenty eight weeks later, Yes,
so this.

Speaker 12 (55:37):
Has now become a horror trilogy. Are the first film
made by Danny Boyle, written by Alex Garland, released in
two thousand and two and sort of maybe sort of
introduced the sort of fast zombies, well it's not technically zombies,
but let's just go with it to the horror genre,
and also some really pioneering uses of cinematography and very

(56:01):
airy London as depicted in that film, which takes place
in the wake of a mass casualty event. Shall we say.
The sequel had had no involvement from Boyle or Garland particularly,
but they have come back to make this third entry
and there's a lot to enjoy about it. Set as

(56:21):
the title suggests, nearly three decades on, the UK has
become completely quarantined the world. Life goes on off its shores.
We don't see any of that on screen, but they've
already kind of not regressed to a kind of post
apocalyptic lifestyle. But what we see is a very breckxity

(56:44):
traditional England or Scotland. And what's interesting about this film
to mean is that kind of sets itself up as
a bit of a folk tale. There's a young boys
going on his first first mission to the mainland, accompanied
by his father. He's going to get his first kills.
It's like he's going for his first hunt, but it
also transpires his mum as quite sick at home, beyond

(57:06):
the capabilities of the community to help her, and so
he needs to set forth into the dark woods to
find out what's going to save her. So it's got
very much kind of the setup of a kind of
medieval folk story.

Speaker 2 (57:18):
You mentioned, of course that that first film that it
did shake up things a little bit. Does this film
do the same when it comes to filmmaking.

Speaker 12 (57:25):
Yeah, there's some interesting choices here. I mean, Boyle is
always a ready dynamic filmmaker, visually really interesting, pretty consistently.
A lot of this is shot on an iPhone, but
not like badly, like a top line iPhone set to
four K, all the settings kind of at max file size,

(57:46):
but also like big arrays of these phones, like I
think maybe like up to twenty arranged on a on
a movable rack, so he can do kind of bullet
time type effects, which there are. There are some pretty
striking shots in this film. But where it does kind
of fall down a bit is that it's very clear

(58:07):
that there are more films to come. This is a
real pet peeve of mine. I think it really kind
of takes away from the storytelling and the feeling of
going away from a movie with this kind of complete story.
It's a bit lost these days, I think. So I
left going okay, cool, we'll coming back to see more.
And the next installment is due and cinemas in January

(58:28):
of next year, so there's not.

Speaker 6 (58:29):
One to wait, okay, but it is.

Speaker 12 (58:30):
Yeah, there's there's definitely some some interesting stuff going on
in this and really interesting performance from Ray Fine in
this film as well. So yeah, some good stuff there
for horror fans, but not for the faint of heart
and not particularly fast moving horror.

Speaker 7 (58:46):
Must be said as well.

Speaker 2 (58:47):
Now, the Dock Edge Film Festival starts on Wednesday, always
a consistently good documentary festival.

Speaker 12 (58:55):
Yeah, Choker forty nine features, twenty nine shorts and twelve
amissive projects are in the twenty twenty five program. As
you mentioned, it starts in Auckland next week. It's also
come into Wellington and christ in July and nationwide available
for streaming as well. But I just thought I mentioned
a couple of highlights that have jumped out. I haven't
seen these yet, but these are things that I'm looking
forward to checking out from this year's program. First is

(59:19):
Mana Muana mana Tangata doco that follows the battle to
save Mardi fishing rights, described as a powerful tale of
resilience and determination. Also noticed the New Zealand centric note
Tears on the Field, which follows aspiring female rugby players
in New Zealand's heartland, or Shattering Glass Ceilings and Strange

(59:40):
Journey the story of Rocky Horror. This feels like a
documentary that should have made decades ago. Yeah, but looks
like we've got Richard O'Brien's involvement in this, and yeah,
very keen to find out more about the making of
this cult classic with a really interesting New Zealand connection.

(01:00:00):
And if I can throw one international selection into the
mix as well, let's let's highlight mister Nobody against poterin Oh.

Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
Yes, I want to see that the.

Speaker 12 (01:00:12):
Sort of person who can defy an autocratic propaganda machine
isn't necessarily an activist or a freedom fighter. Sometimes they're
a teacher.

Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
Yeah, I know that looks fascinating. So an amazing collection
of local and international documentaries are going to be screening.
Doc Edge dot NZ is where you need to go
to find the program and I think there's something there
for everyone, so enjoy. Thank you so much, Steve. You'll
catch up next week. As always, Michelle Dickinson brings us
a fascinating science study next, and this one has a

(01:00:43):
New Zealand connection. The study was inspired by the Kiwi
manu or bomb. More on this next twenty eight to eleven.

Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin on Newstalk ZB.

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
Doctor Michelle Dickinson is with us with her science study
of the week. And I love the fact that the
little Kiwi tradition, a little something that's stattered on a
wolf on a summer's day, inspired this particular science project.
Tell us all about it.

Speaker 22 (01:01:15):
So it's in the journal Interface Focus. It is open
source and I love it too, So I don't know
if you were there for the z Manu Championships.

Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
I think we covered it actually here.

Speaker 6 (01:01:26):
I love it.

Speaker 22 (01:01:27):
So it's in Auckland and it's basically where anybody who
wants to jumps off something high into the water and
there's this huge sort of like ruler that measures how
big the splash is. So, for those who don't know,
Manu jumping is a sport originated by Mari and it's
basically where you leap from bridges whatever diving boards and
your whole goal is to make the biggest splash ever.

(01:01:49):
And we do it here because that's what we do.
But the rest of the world thinks we're bonkers and
don't actually know this exists. So unless you're doing a
cannon ball, this thing doesn't really exist. And the research
really doesn't exist either, because the studies of looking at
how either humans or birds enter water is always looking
at how do they make the least splash possible.

Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
You think of diving want to be streamlined.

Speaker 22 (01:02:09):
You think of birds going in to get they don't go, oh,
we're just going to cannonball like, so most of them
have looked at how streamlined you can be to make
the least splash ever. And so this fluid dynamicist in
the US came across this video on YouTube of the
Menu World Champs and was like, oh on what is this?
Like this is the opposite of anything I've ever looked.

Speaker 7 (01:02:30):
At in my life.

Speaker 22 (01:02:31):
So he started obsessively trying to find all of the
YouTube videos of Manu jumping, and he only found fifty
and so he like took all the videos, he analyzed them.
He tried to understand what the bodies of the humans
were doing to make a bigger splash, like guessing how
much they weighed, all of those things, like what are
the factors? And after fifty videos, he's like, this is
not enough data. So anyway, and he built his own

(01:02:52):
little he's called the menu bots little robots, So he
three D printed these little robots that are designed to
mimic humans and basically be propelled into water under different
body shapes. So he's got, Okay, I've looked at these videos.
This is sort of the body shape that a money
jumper will do. I'm going to make robots that do that,
and then I'm going to measure them with a high
speed camera and I'm going to throw them from different

(01:03:14):
heights and different angles and look at the splash that
they make. If you go to this journal interface focus,
there are some beautiful videos of all these little robots
are jumping into this little tank of water like it's
so silly. But what he found is that the best
body position for the biggest splash. And if you're competing
next year, by the way, like note this down because

(01:03:34):
this is how you're going to win the World Champs,
is you need a forty five degree V shape of
your body. So you need to, okay, go in with
a V shape and that creates a little air cavity
sort of by your tummy underwater, and that air cavity
eventually collapses, and when it collapses, it sends the water
flying up, and it's a physics phenomenon. It's really well known.

(01:03:57):
It's called the Worthington jet phenomenon.

Speaker 2 (01:04:00):
And so he's like, oh, yeah, this is great.

Speaker 22 (01:04:02):
But then he started to notice that the money jumpers
don't just go in and and then just PLoP in
and go, oh, I've done it. They actually do an
underwater back bend and they kick as soon as they
hit the water. And so he analyzed the physics of
this and what they're doing, whether they know it or not,
is they're keeping this air cavity opened for longer, allowing

(01:04:22):
it a little bit more time before it collapses, and
that little bit more time leads to a bigger splash.
So if you want to win the z Manu World
Champs next year, you need to jump off from a
high as possible, but not so high that it kills you.
So there's like a level like I think, I think, here,
we can do it up to I don't know how
many meters it is. It was high when I watched it,

(01:04:43):
maybe five meters high. And then enter the water in
a V shape. As soon as your body enters the water,
kick back your legs, do a back bend and then
hopefully you will win. And you might be going, why
do we even care? Like, why is making the biggest
splash other than winning the champs?

Speaker 7 (01:05:00):
Reason?

Speaker 22 (01:05:01):
Actually, it's great Number one for studying how to have
injury prevention for divers and athletes right. And number two
it's great for interstend biomechanics and naval design. There are
some things that you need to make us splash for
so it's great research. But I just love that this
guy came across as che Be phenomenon on YouTube. I
was like, what is this and now we have a thing.

Speaker 2 (01:05:20):
What are these people doing? I love it to thank
you so much, Michelle will always appreciate your time. Up next,
Mike vander Ellson is with us to advocate for the
Brussels Sprout. It is twenty one to eleven The.

Speaker 1 (01:05:33):
Sunday Session Full Show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by News Talks.

Speaker 2 (01:05:37):
Ib Right, we're just tracking Mike vander Elsen down and
the meantime we'll talk wellness. Erin O'Hara is with us.
Good morning, Good morning, and of course it's Men's Health
Awareness Month and Jones, we're gonna hammer these guys, get
them sorted. Tell me about the kind of health challenges

(01:05:58):
that men can often experience.

Speaker 11 (01:06:00):
I feel like, in just general sense, women's health has
talked about a lot more, but actually, if you look
at the research, men actually face significant health issues and
often experience poorer health outcomes and shorter life expectancy than women.
So it's interesting that we put more emphasis on women's
health than men when actually we need to put more

(01:06:21):
emphasis on men's health in general, and the things that
are affecting men the most are things like heart disease, cancer,
have high rates of suicide, accidents and injuries, and also
chronic diseases which sometimes and quite often can be preventable
as well.

Speaker 2 (01:06:38):
Okay, so where do you start then, Well, it's about taking.

Speaker 11 (01:06:41):
Care of your health and looking at like what are
the risk factors, and men's sex hormones as well, which
is testoscerone as well as chromosomes. There is some predisposed
increased mortality from that, so there is a genetic component,
but also looking at other factors that affect men's health,
which can be risky behaviors, the things like excess of

(01:07:03):
alcohol consumption, unsafe driving, maybe hazards in the workplace. They
tend to have a higher risk in the workplace with
maybe dangerous occupations increase the risk of injury and accidents.
And also there's that factor of delayed seeking help when
something's not quite right, which seems to be like the

(01:07:23):
male mentality, especially in New Zealand, of she'll be right,
but actually, when it comes to your health and well being,
she'll be right. It's really not good enough and commonly
can lead to an increase in more serious illness and
something that might have been preventable also then leads into
something that is not preventable if we leave it too long.

Speaker 2 (01:07:45):
Yeah, it's tricky, isn't it, Because when you become an adult,
you really sort of have to be responsible for yourself
and responsible for your own health and things like that.
And I'm sure that there's a lot of partners and
wives out there, kind of girlfriends, maybe your boyfriends saying
I've been trying to get my partner to go and
get this sorted or looked at, and things like that,
but we often can be a little bit reluctant about it.

(01:08:06):
So how do we get meant to be more proactive?

Speaker 11 (01:08:09):
I think it's about knowing that if you're busy, that's
not really a good excuse. And it's kind of been
putting your health first. If knowing without your health, you
really have nothing, So looking at even the basics of
like working on your own foundations of your health and
not letting it be somebody else telling you what to do,
but actually you taking ownership for your own health. Looking

(01:08:32):
at those foundations which we talk about so much, so
good balanced diet, moderate alcohol consumption, prioritizing your sleep, getting
an exercise aiming for a minimum of one hundred and
fifty minutes a week, managing your stress, prioritizing your mental
well being, and actually putting in the foundations. And that
can actually really do a lot of amazing things of

(01:08:54):
just getting the basics right and not being about having
being diet perfect or lifestyle perfect, but actually having some good,
solid foundations to work on, and then also just prioritizing
those health checkers and knowing how important they are, and
it might be that you put it in your calendar
like we've got it not forgetting other meetings. I think
if men can actually put it in their mindset of

(01:09:16):
like how important it is to get those regular annual
health checkups and putting it in your diary, putting on
alerts on it of like book it in, get it
booked in, check the bloods and make sure you're getting
those physical exams as well as the right but blood work, checking.

Speaker 9 (01:09:32):
Blood pressure regularly and cholesterols.

Speaker 11 (01:09:35):
You're looking at lowering your heart disease risk and actually
just having those scheduled routine checkups, particularly over the age
of forty five at least fifty, you need to be
doing your annual health checkups and keeping on top of
that and thinking about that as being one step of
hat ahead of knowing that something's not quite right. You
want to pick it up before it's something serious. And

(01:09:57):
then also if you do have symptoms, which is one
thing I do unfortunately see commonly, and the kind of
is someone has maybe stage four bowel cancer and they've
known that they've had blood in their stills for maybe
months or even years, before they go and do something
about it and know that if something doesn't feel right
in your body, or you've got some unusual symptoms or

(01:10:19):
maybe waking up five times in the night to urinate
that is not normal, go and get it checked out.
And instead of waiting until there is a big problem
there actually going and getting all those tests knowing that
you can do something about it before it's a big problem.

Speaker 2 (01:10:34):
And it's such a relief to an answer it. I mean,
I mean, sometimes it's not the answer you want and
you're going to have to hear down a journey that
you don't want to have. But you'd have to face
that at some point anyway. But at least you know
you don't hear it's not on your mind anymore. Thank
you so much. Erin it is thirteen to eleven.

Speaker 5 (01:10:51):
There's no better way to start your Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:10:54):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rutkin and Wiggles.

Speaker 5 (01:10:58):
For the best selection of gray breaths, use talk sat Me.

Speaker 2 (01:11:03):
Mike Vander Ellison, good morning, Good, I am very good.

Speaker 6 (01:11:08):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:11:09):
Now our resident chef here today is going to advocate
for the Brussels sprout.

Speaker 16 (01:11:16):
I don't think that's in my notes.

Speaker 5 (01:11:23):
Do you like them?

Speaker 20 (01:11:24):
Yeah, I know we.

Speaker 16 (01:11:28):
I was tortured as a child with overcooked Brussels sprouts
and I've never recovered. I have never I have tried everything.
I've made them an slow, I've overpowered them with every
known spice, chili says sauce, bolsama, parmesan bacon.

Speaker 2 (01:11:46):
And the store there brought us a Brussels sprouts recipe.
There's got to be there. There's got to be a
redempt sort of acct to the story.

Speaker 16 (01:11:56):
Yes, Sarah, So we we've actually tried growing Brussels sprouts
out of Middle Way many many times, probably about four years.
We've tried growing them, and we never can because as
it's simply too warm where we are, and I think
you need a good old frost for those Brussels sprouts
to set. So I'm actually not that upset, but I

(01:12:16):
thought I would bring a wreste today because everyone loves
a lot of people love Brussels sprouts, and they are
out right now.

Speaker 2 (01:12:24):
Okay, all right, then, so we're doing a semi pitch here.

Speaker 16 (01:12:28):
Okay, here's a few other things you can do with
Brussels sprouts. If you want to drive about like me.
You get blants them, saute them, and then finish them
with a little bit of lemon juice and some caramelized butters,
a little bit of what we call boon noisette. You
can blant them, peel them, and then put in some
boalsamic and brounch. You can reduce it down and you

(01:12:50):
kind of get a sticky bolsamic Brussels sprout jam. You
can load them butt at a pad with lots of
sheshad pepper, and that would dumb your taste buds, so
you won't taste any of them. I quite like that one.
You can put them into an air fry, drizzle some
honey and to butter over them. Las still have come out.

(01:13:10):
All these things are there to overpower the beautiful Brussels sprout.
But today the recipe is Brussels sprouts with bacon and
palms and two flavors that do complement Brussels sprouts. So
you've got smoky bacon and you've got salty parmesan. So
this will probably not see four people. Was a little

(01:13:31):
side to say, get half a dozen Brussels sprouts, go
hard more if you want twenty twenty four of them,
head up an oven one hundred and eighty degrees, cut
the little stalks off the Brussels sprouts, and then cut
them into half depending on size. You can go quarter
if you want. And then you know the gag. Bring
a large pot of salt and water to the boil
once this morning dropping your brussels. And brussels are quite dense,

(01:13:53):
so they're going to be in there for a little
bit longer than your normal sort of broccolii beans or
your asparagus. So I would leave them in there for
about a minute to a minute and a half. After
that time, pull them out, drop them into ice water,
hold that cooking, and then you want to heat up
a large cast iron hand. Drop in a little bit
of sunflour oil. And then then goes the all important

(01:14:14):
rations of bacon. So I've got four rations of bacon.
Chop thozer or add them in. Color them up really well,
so you start to render out a little.

Speaker 5 (01:14:23):
Bit of that fat.

Speaker 16 (01:14:24):
Pull your bacon out, chop that up, and then in
goes the Brussels strouts into that rendered bacon fat. Sautake
that for another couple of minutes. Maybe a little bit
of sea salt, maybe a good crack of pepper, drop
them into a roasting tray. Over the top goes your
cristy chopped up bacon, and then a good amount of
good palms and like Redgiana palm Janna or grand a
Bananda that's been greater nice, and finally sprinkle that over

(01:14:47):
the top. Fire them in the oven. They're going to
be in the oven for about twenty minutes until that
palms and becomes nice and crispy and coats over the
top of those brussels, and then I'd serve them straight away.
And what I would do at that point is I
would take the bacon off and the palms and off
eat that and then give the Brussels sprout to someone else.

Speaker 2 (01:15:08):
Dave does agree with you, Heath text to say, chopped
at Brussels sprouts chopped and fried with bacon. It seems
that bacon seems to be the key thing.

Speaker 16 (01:15:15):
I think so good bacon is delicious, and so you
just just clouds out that flavor of the of the
Brussels for Brussels. I'm sure there's a lot of lovers
of Brussels sprouts out there.

Speaker 2 (01:15:27):
Oh, Mike van de Elsen, thank you so much. That
sounds delicious. But that was the most half hearted pitch
for the Brussels sprout that we've heard in a long time.
But thank you for trying. Thank you for trying. If
you want to get your hands on that recipe, you
can find it at Good Good from scratch dot co
dot Inzeed or we'll get it up on our website
Newstalk ZIB dot co dot in zed Ford slash Sunday
and of course you can see all our interviews on

(01:15:49):
the website. It is six to eleven the.

Speaker 1 (01:15:52):
Sunday Session Full show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by News
Talk ZB.

Speaker 2 (01:16:02):
Author aa Dan was a pharmacist in a former life
running a pharmasy in Britain where he was surrounded by
drugs and drug dealers. He got quite an insight into
the lives of addicts and the dealers praying on the
Vonnerball and this experience is the inspiration of his new
book The Chemist and He Is with Us. Next is
a little bit of a blast from the past, requy

(01:16:24):
Virtual Insanity. Julipa treated fans for surprise appearance by Jimaraquay
as she played her first ever show at Wembley Stadium.
Enjoy We'll be back soon.

Speaker 9 (01:16:54):
Brought you wealthy upset.

Speaker 5 (01:16:59):
Began. Welcome to the Sunday Session with Francesca.

Speaker 1 (01:17:37):
Rutkin and Wiggles for the best selection of great reeds
used Corse.

Speaker 23 (01:17:42):
Be good to have you with us.

Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
Coming up this Jason Pine on the Super Rugby Final.
Meghan Singleton comes to us from her happy place, Dolly
Parton's Dollywood and Joan has a debut novel from New
Zealand author Jennifer Trevellin, who attracted the attention of one
of the world's best literary.

Speaker 5 (01:18:07):
Agents, The Sunday Session.

Speaker 2 (01:18:12):
In a previous life, crime writer AA Down to dealt
with a lot overdoses, violence abuse. A Much worked on
the front line of the NHS crisis running his one
hundred hour pharmacy in Bradford. He was surrounded by drugs,
drug dealers and he got a good insight into the
lives of addicts and the dealers praying on the vulnerable.
His experiences inspired his new book, The Chemist. Ada Down

(01:18:34):
to joins me now from the UK. I'm at good morning.
Thank you so much for being with us, Thanks for
having me. The Chemist is such a good read. You're
a master of the twists, aren't you, I'd think to myself, Okay,
only one more chapter and then you know, get on
with life, and then you drop a twist and I
would just keep going and couldn't put the book down.
Is this one of the keys to a good thriller?

Speaker 7 (01:18:57):
I think.

Speaker 20 (01:18:57):
I think it's altay satisfying when you take you lead
the audience done the garden path and all the time
they were in the completely wrong place altogether.

Speaker 7 (01:19:05):
So I really enjoy that element of surprise.

Speaker 20 (01:19:08):
It's really satisfying for me as a writer to fool
the audience. And also I think for the audience, I
love the fact that they'll be reading it and they'll
be like, oh my god, how did he do that
to us?

Speaker 7 (01:19:17):
So yeah, it's really enjoyable for me.

Speaker 2 (01:19:19):
The line and the publicity release reads, he knows how
to save you and he knows how to kill you.
A pharmacist is a great main character for a book
like this, with that power that they hold. Were you
very aware of that concept and it's potential for a
novel back when you owned a pharmacy?

Speaker 7 (01:19:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 20 (01:19:37):
I kind of wrote it as Dexter meets Breaking Bad,
and the idea came to me because I was at
my pharmacy, and I'd seen a very unfortunate drug deal
go wrong, and somebody had died outside my pharmacy. They'd
been murdered, and the whole area wasn't lockdown, and the
police were there in helicopters, and I closed my pharmacy
and was kind of retreating into the dispensary in the dark,

(01:20:01):
and I was thinking, God, if a drug dealer walks
into my pharmacy and and me to supply drugs to
all of my methadone addicts, that would be a really bad.

Speaker 7 (01:20:10):
Position to be in.

Speaker 20 (01:20:12):
And I thought, how would I get out of that
if the lives of my family was on the line.
And I'm walking around the dispensary and I remember I
wasn't the ambient lighting was on, just the emergency of
perimeter lights, and I'm looking at all the medication bays.
But this time I've become the chemist, and I'm looking
at the medications now and weaponizing them.

Speaker 7 (01:20:29):
I'm thinking, how could I use medication.

Speaker 20 (01:20:32):
Which has always been designed for good to do bad
to take down a drug dealer? And dexter meets breaking
Bad was born. I suddenly started to realize that all
the medications I've got side effects. They've all got interactions,
and that line just came to me. You know, the
only difference between a medication and a poison is the dose.

Speaker 7 (01:20:52):
And the novel was born.

Speaker 2 (01:20:55):
Within the book we The seating is kind of near
this council housing area called the Muse. Did you work
in an area near a council housing area like The's
What was it like where your fantasy was.

Speaker 20 (01:21:12):
Yeah, there was an area which I have made into
the Mews in the books of the Dystopian world, where
drug addicts, people on probation and illegal immigrants live. And
I looked after an area like this and leads and
I remember having to go there wants to do a
welfare check on somebody who was really concerned about who'd
arrived from their daily medication. They were a blue script
of mine. In England, methodonists prescribed on blue prescriptions, hence

(01:21:35):
I referred to them as blue scripts. And I remember
going to the state thinking I really don't want to
go onto this estate because it's a bit dangerous, it's
a bit dodgy. But I got out of my car
and all my blue scripts were there and they were like, hey,
the chemist is here, because They affectionately always referred to
me as the Chemist, and they were like, what's the
chemist do in here? And I was like, lads, I
need to go and do a welfare check on this address,
and I know whees Man will escort you. And I'm

(01:21:56):
walking through this area and everybody's looking at me and going, hey,
the chemist is here. And I suddenly realized that I've
got access because of my job, because of the trust
they have in me, because they see me every single
day for methodown, you know, three hundred and sixty five
days of the year. I've got trust and I've got equity.
And they escorted me through the estate. Nobody said anything

(01:22:17):
to me, and again I just realized that actually, my
job as a pharmacist has given me privileged access to
worlds that nobody else would see.

Speaker 2 (01:22:25):
And you felt protected then, not threatened.

Speaker 7 (01:22:28):
I felt totally protected.

Speaker 20 (01:22:29):
And when we went to the address that I needed
to go to and they're like, am it do you
want to help you break the door down?

Speaker 7 (01:22:33):
And I was like, lads, you're all on probation, so
if you break this door down with me, you're going
to get into trouble.

Speaker 20 (01:22:38):
And I found the police and we did a welfare
check on this lady who had unfortunately passed away. And
I knew she passed away because she arrived at my
pharmacy every single morning for specific medication.

Speaker 7 (01:22:49):
For two years.

Speaker 20 (01:22:49):
She'd arrived every day, and then she didn't arrive one day.
And you always get worried on that because any change
routine is a red flag. And I can also tell
you I didn't feel in danger at all. I felt
empowered almost. I was like, God, I really am the chemist.
And it was just a moment where, you know, the
novel really came to life.

Speaker 2 (01:23:06):
And of course the blue scripts and the mytho and
owned patients play a large part in this boog. Do
people understand your role in their care and how dangerous
it can be?

Speaker 7 (01:23:20):
Yeah, they do.

Speaker 20 (01:23:22):
It's it's it's quite amazing that you know, the blue
scripts when they come in, that they understand this world.
And I always have a really frank conversation with them
about when they come into the pharmacy, which is, you know,
I'm gonna treat you like I treat any other patient.
So you'll wait in line for your prescriptions and I
will supervise you in a very professional manner. And I
won't treat you like a tertiary person. Sometimes they get

(01:23:44):
treated like that. So I think I had I had
access and privilege because I've always treated people with respect,
especially in my Blue scripts, because I see the person
behind you what other people would just see as the addicts.
You think, oh, there's an addict, and there's a very
sort of hostile, cliched view of what an addict should
be on my public steals and my criminal record. What

(01:24:06):
I get to know you, John Frank, Peter Luke, the
person behind the blue script, the person behind the addiction,
the person who's got a family. It's got a wife,
who's got kids, who's had hardship in life. It humanizes
them and this is lovely relationship that is born because
again the Blue scripts see me every single day.

Speaker 7 (01:24:23):
So if you think about it.

Speaker 20 (01:24:24):
How many how many how many roles have in life
where you will see a healthcare professional every single day.

Speaker 7 (01:24:30):
It's very rare. It's a very unique relationship that is born.

Speaker 2 (01:24:34):
And I hadn't thought about that. I hadn't thought about
your roles is a lot more than just providing them
with a medication. As you say, you are that person
that knows whether they are turning out they're taking it,
whether they're okay, whether they're not. You know, you're probably
the the one and only person for a lot of
these people who know whether they're okay. That's quite a
lot of responsibility, isn't it beyond just dishing out some drugs.

Speaker 20 (01:24:56):
It is, And I took it really seriously and I
wanted to get to know them. You know, I would
always say good morning to them. I would always say
you want a cup of tea?

Speaker 7 (01:25:03):
You know.

Speaker 20 (01:25:03):
I sometimes you could just know if you say good
morning into somebody every single day, you know, on day
fifty seven they say good morning in a slightly different way,
you know something's wrong. So I'd be like, look, you know,
do you want a cup of tea? Do you want
to chat? I always used to say, you know, nobody
should go hungry in this world, and you know, so
if my Blue Crips were hungry, or they wanted a
cup of coffee and they wanted a piece of toast,
I'll be like, listen to just take a seat, I'll

(01:25:25):
sort you out.

Speaker 7 (01:25:26):
So I always took.

Speaker 20 (01:25:27):
Care of them, and I was very aware that this
interaction that they're having, which is a routine, regular one
there's so much more that I can mind from it.
Rather than just being the person that hands them some
green liquid, I'm the person that they can be. Therefore
when they need help, I'm the person that can be Therefore,
when they need a shoulder to cry on, I'm the
person there when they just need an ear to, you.

Speaker 7 (01:25:47):
Know, someone to listen to them. You wouldn't believe how
much equity that gives you as a healthcare professional. So
that when I go into areas like the Muse and
they say, what's the chemist doing here? What do you
need now?

Speaker 20 (01:25:58):
And that's the difference you see in that moment when
I walked into that estate. They wanted to repay those
favors from me, have given them mendals, cups of tea
or a piece of toast, or just fact that I
would say.

Speaker 7 (01:26:07):
Good morning to them every day and treat them with respect.
Were the chemistry is here? What can we do for you?

Speaker 20 (01:26:11):
So you know, it's a really really fantastic relationship that
I managed to form with my blue stripts over twenty years.

Speaker 2 (01:26:17):
Do recovering erics get the best key that they can
in the UK? Does the system work?

Speaker 5 (01:26:23):
No?

Speaker 7 (01:26:23):
They don't.

Speaker 20 (01:26:24):
Unfortunately, it's a very cost effective system of healthcare. And
by that what I mean is we simply substituting one
addiction for a cheaper version of of addiction. You know,
I've done my job for twenty two years and I've
seen one person in that time come off of methadone.
And the point is the methadone gives them stability in

(01:26:44):
terms of that it's going to fix their opioid deficit
and give them a bridge.

Speaker 7 (01:26:49):
I really wish there was more we could do.

Speaker 20 (01:26:51):
I think addiction services in the UK and in fact
globally as some of the poorest funded areas of healthcare
that we have.

Speaker 7 (01:26:57):
It's really tragic and a lot more needs to be
done to rectify that.

Speaker 2 (01:27:01):
The chemist in the book etters Can he is a
really intriguing and richist. I feel like there is so
much more to learn about him.

Speaker 7 (01:27:11):
Yeah, and for me it was like, Okay, I've written,
you know, the Verdie novels with Dco Harry Verdi and
a lot of novels.

Speaker 20 (01:27:18):
You know, you can see a detective and then there's
a bad guy, and there's a very formulaic way of
writing those books. But this in the community pharmacy you know,
for me, it was really fascinating, really exciting to go
in there because again, I'm weaponizing the drugs.

Speaker 7 (01:27:29):
I'm the expert who knows in.

Speaker 20 (01:27:30):
Fact, you know, I take out one of the bad
guys using her medication that everybody will have at home
in their medicine drawer, Medicine you can buy from your
corner shop, from your petrol station. It's not always about
the big sexy heroine oxycontins of this world. The fact
is every single medication in the right hands.

Speaker 7 (01:27:45):
Could be deadly.

Speaker 20 (01:27:46):
So it was really amazing for me to take viewers
into the pharmacy world in a way that they probably
have never seen before, because it just can't.

Speaker 7 (01:27:53):
Is that person that will go with that extra mile.

Speaker 20 (01:27:55):
He's in a relationship where so his ex wife is
on methadone a very small dose, and she's really on
that because she just wants to see him every day.

Speaker 7 (01:28:03):
There's this unrequited love story and.

Speaker 20 (01:28:05):
She gets herself into really bad situation with a drug
dealer and it just has to intervene. And again, how
far would you go for somebody that you love? How
far would you go to protect those around you? How
far would you go to save your own lives, and
then you realize that the chemist just can't because he's
got this access to this world of the Muse, because
there's trust there. He becomes a really dangerous character and

(01:28:27):
everybody underestimates him up their peril because, as they say
in the book, but he's just a chemist. Yeah, but
he's so much more than that.

Speaker 2 (01:28:35):
I don't want to talk. Yeah, I don't want to
say word about the unpredictable ending. But you hate to
seat yourself up beautifully for a sake. Well, I'm presuming
this is going to be a series.

Speaker 7 (01:28:46):
Yeah, I'm writing. I'm on writing the secret at the moment.

Speaker 24 (01:28:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:28:49):
Absolutely. I like to get into the world. I like
to set it up with the first novel and.

Speaker 20 (01:28:53):
Would introduce readers to a world I haven't seen before.
Do it in a sort of hopefully a dynamic, exciting,
sort of pacey way, because like I said, you know,
the best is yet to come. You know, I've set
up at addrists for anarchy at the end of this book.
Really interesting to see where I take him in the
next book.

Speaker 2 (01:29:09):
Did you always want to be a writer? How did
you end up being a pharmacist?

Speaker 20 (01:29:13):
You know, I was, I was brought up in a
white working class estate in Bradford, and parents had a
corner shop, and I kind of did the South Asian
thing of you know, going to university and trying to
get the best job that I could get to ensure
that I could lift my family and myself out out
of you know, sort of relative poverty, to be honest.
So I did the tried and tested formula of you know,

(01:29:33):
who around me is doing well. And I had some
family friends at pharmacists, and it's like a good stable career.
I'd also been raised in customer service in a corner shop,
but had always been in a retail environment.

Speaker 7 (01:29:43):
So it felt like a natural fit. And I wanted
to be a pharmacist.

Speaker 20 (01:29:45):
But obviously I had this hobby in this passion of
reading thriller as I was reading Stephen King and Thomas
Harris way before I should have been, you know, probably
ten eleven years old, I was reading them. So when
I qualified as a pharmacist, it was really just a
hobby that became something, you know, I was I was
writing a novel I started in two thousand and six
to be ten years to get published, one point one
million unsuccessful words.

Speaker 7 (01:30:05):
But it was just a passion.

Speaker 20 (01:30:06):
I had a side hustle that ended up becoming a
full time job. So it was the hobby that basically
became my full time gig.

Speaker 2 (01:30:14):
I love the way. You know how many unpublished works
they were. Twenty fifteen, you became the first South Asian
writer to get a publishing deal in the UK. Others
have followed. Since you're also bringing the you know you
people to life in your books and now in TV
adaptations as well. How important is it for you to
have that representation in both characters and writers.

Speaker 7 (01:30:37):
Yeah, it's really important.

Speaker 20 (01:30:38):
So I aspired to live in a world where we
don't fetishize representation anymore. It's not like, oh, yeah, who's
the South Asian person we can go to. I want
it to be so normalized that there are lots of
South Asian writers. There are lots of South Asian TV shows.
Obviously when I first started, I did.

Speaker 7 (01:30:52):
Hear a lot. But you know, South Asians don't write crime.

Speaker 20 (01:30:55):
They write wonderful literary works of fiction that when Man
Booker prizes, or they write about arranged marriages or terrorism.
Because there wasn't a single commercial crime fiction writer out there,
which is probably why it took me ten years and
a lot of rejections along the way, but I was like, well,
at some point we're going to change this narrative, I'd
like to be the one to do it. And the
same with the TV adaptation that took seven years. For
verdie it was like, well, we've we've seen South Asians

(01:31:17):
on TV and comedic roles are very cliche ridden worlds.
Where's the cool Maverick, where's the Bruce Wallism die Hard,
Where's that kind of gong ho sort of character that's
going to break.

Speaker 7 (01:31:26):
All the rules.

Speaker 20 (01:31:27):
So I think representation is really important, But like I said,
it has to be something that isn't fetishized. It has
to be something that's just so routine and so mundane
that nobody talks about representation representation anymore because it's so
normal and so routine.

Speaker 2 (01:31:39):
Absolutely much. Thank you so much for your time, and
thank you so much for the book.

Speaker 5 (01:31:44):
Loved it.

Speaker 7 (01:31:45):
Oh, thank you so much for your time. Thanks guys.

Speaker 2 (01:31:47):
That was UK author Aa Dan. His new book is
called The Chemist. It's in stores now. The panel is
up NEX It's twenty one past eleven, great cover.

Speaker 1 (01:31:57):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin and Wigkeles for
the selection of US Talks.

Speaker 5 (01:32:04):
It'd be joining me on the panel.

Speaker 2 (01:32:06):
Today we have broadcaster and journalist Wilhelmina Shrimpton.

Speaker 23 (01:32:08):
Good morning, Wilhelmina, Good morning from a very crisp but
very sunny way he Beach this morning.

Speaker 9 (01:32:13):
Happy Martha, Dicky.

Speaker 2 (01:32:14):
Fantastic and resident economists at OPI's partners. Ed mcnight is with.

Speaker 4 (01:32:18):
Us, Hi, Ed, great to be here, Francesca, Oh, good.

Speaker 2 (01:32:21):
To have you both with us. Peter Berling has announced
his next move in the America's Cup arena. He is
going to join the Italian syndicate Luna Rossa for their
next challenge. He is unlikely to be sailing because there's
a mission. You know, there's some rules that man, he can't,
but he's going to be very much part of their
leadership team and things. I say, good on him and

(01:32:42):
best of luck. These are professional sports people. If you
can't organize a contract with, you know, a team, you
look around for another job. It's just the nature of
the business.

Speaker 4 (01:32:53):
I reckon Ed, well, I'm quite surprised you see that, Francesca.
I thought you might be quite against it, but.

Speaker 6 (01:32:58):
I kind of agree with you.

Speaker 4 (01:32:59):
On that, especially because he went into the negotiating table
and ultimately couldn't create a deal with Team news Land.
And the way that I think about it, some people
might be quite concerned that he's going away. But if
your whole team and your whole winning strategy is based
on one guy, you're probably in a bit of trouble.
And the only way you can really steal all of

(01:33:20):
Team in z is to hire all of Team ins En.
And really they're just taking one player.

Speaker 2 (01:33:25):
And look, I'm you know, Willhelmina, I'm not naive. He
knows an awful lot about tam New Zealand, the way
they work, the way they prepare, the design of boats,
all those kind of things. I mean, obviously hasn't been
part of this sort of next build up at the
stage yet, so there's probably things he doesn't know. He
probably does have an awful lot of information he's going
to take with us, which is why he'll be attractive

(01:33:45):
to another syndicate. But that's just once again the nature
of it. We're always we're all moving jobs and taking
our knowledge with us at times.

Speaker 23 (01:33:52):
It's the nature of the game, right, you're really good
at your job, people are going to try and poach you,
and obviously they offered an attractive offer that bets what
Team New Zealand was offering. I think the thing is
as well as that, as much as we're there for
the sport and excitement of it, what I think I
think it's also a huge part of the America's Cup
is actually innovation and the tech side of it. And
I feel like, yes, we've lost this person, but it's

(01:34:13):
more motivation and more inspiration to try and go above
and beyond, try and figure out the next groundbreaking move
or the next technique or not that I'm a sailor
or anything, so I have no idea what I'm talking
about when it comes to technique, but finding the next
best way to approach the race, I feel like that's
kind of fifty percent of what the America's Cup is
all about. So I think it's a really exciting opportunity

(01:34:33):
that actually forces us and pushes us to do better,
to come up with the better technology to go that
step further when we all meet at the next Cup.

Speaker 2 (01:34:44):
And you'd think that Team New Zealand be very much
aware that if they aren't able to come to an
agreement with him, that this is probably going to be
the lightly outcome.

Speaker 4 (01:34:53):
Well, the really interesting thing was he said that what
he wasn't getting from Team New Zealand was flexibility to
do what he wanted to do on and off the boat.
So it's interesting that moving to Italy, going to the
other side of the world, gives him more more of
that flexibility that he's looking for. So it does make
you question, well, how deepped were these negotiat Is that
team in seed or maybe they just weren't that bothered

(01:35:15):
at keeping him?

Speaker 2 (01:35:16):
Well, I think he's got a lot of fingers in
a lot of different parts, has any of course, he's
got the organization and then he's got the sal GP
and things like that. So yeah, yeah, you're totally right.
It's that's a thing, and this is why it needs
to be a Netflix show. And I know Netflix is
never going to make a TV show about a competition
which happens every three or four years, because there's too
much time in between, and it would be really boring
because most of it would be sent in a courtroom.

(01:35:38):
But I mean, there are a lot of conversations that
go on behind closed doors that we're not privy to,
and it would be pretty interesting to be privy to it,
wouldn't it. I also it's interesting though ed you mentioned
that you were surprised by my comment. I'm getting less
and less. I love it when the competition comes around,
and I absolutely get behind Team New Zealand. I get
behind the Sailors, but I don't feel quite so patriotic

(01:36:00):
towards the team as I maybe did in the past,
and I think that's why I'm a little bit less
worked up out where peat building's heading off to Do
you feel the same?

Speaker 4 (01:36:10):
Well, for me, it doesn't really bother me. I'm not
hugely into sailing, but of course I always like to
see a New Zealand team winning. What would be interesting, though,
is would you feel different if it was the captain
of the All Blacks.

Speaker 7 (01:36:23):
H ah.

Speaker 23 (01:36:27):
I think this whole thing it adds a bit more
excitement to it, you know, the time and the throw
and the changing of teams. It adds another dynamic and
I think there's a risk of feeling and getting complacent
if there isn't a bit of a shakeup.

Speaker 9 (01:36:38):
I think this is what adds to the excitement of
the sport.

Speaker 23 (01:36:40):
If it's the same every single time, it's the same
as if the All Blacks were winning all the time,
I feel like we get a little bit bored.

Speaker 9 (01:36:47):
I think there's.

Speaker 23 (01:36:47):
Excitement and getting it right down to the wire, or
losing a team member or having to rejig and overhaul
the way that things are done. I think that's half
of the excitement, and I think we should continue that.

Speaker 5 (01:36:58):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:36:58):
Whether in All Blacks Captain would want to go anywhere else.
Wouldn't They kind of go, this is where I want
to be for as long as I can, and then
when the body gives up, I'll go to Japan.

Speaker 23 (01:37:07):
Depends on how much they're getting paid, right, Yeah, exactly exactly.
There is a new study that has come out of
MIT's Media Lab which is basically saying to us that
if you use chatte g GPT, there's a possibility that
you're going to start underperforming cognitively, which may or may

(01:37:27):
not be a surprise to you guys.

Speaker 2 (01:37:28):
And there's still a lot of work that needs to
be done on this research, but they're basically saying that
the chat GPT users had the lowest brain engagement and
consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic and behavioral levers levels. Compared
to other people. I don't know, Ed, do you use
chat gpt.

Speaker 4 (01:37:49):
Every single day? And I will give you an example.
So last night you don't know this about me, Francesca
or Wilhelmina, but I absolutely love getting a cookbook and
spending a couple of hours in the kitchen. And last
night it was lamb leg night and I wanted to know, well,
what internal temperature should I cook my lamb to? Well,
chat GPT told me and gave me a breakdown based

(01:38:11):
on whether I wanted it to be rare, medium, rare,
whatever it is. I also use it if I'm trying
to cook three different things at once. If it's some
roast potatoes and some lamb and something else, well, they
all need to be cooked at different temperatures in my
oven and put in at different times. What should you
you know when should I put each dish in and
should I adjust the temperature on the oven. It's absolutely

(01:38:32):
great for things like that, But what I would say
is dumb use of chat GPT makes you dumb.

Speaker 6 (01:38:37):
Smart use of these.

Speaker 7 (01:38:38):
Times makes you sweat.

Speaker 2 (01:38:40):
You come with a good argument there. ED very impressed
with the cooking, by the way, what about you Willielmina,
Do you use it? Do you think it's dumbing you down?

Speaker 9 (01:38:47):
One hundred percent?

Speaker 23 (01:38:48):
I'm offended that I've just been called dumb based on
the study, by the fact that I use.

Speaker 9 (01:38:52):
Chat GPT so much in my everyday life.

Speaker 6 (01:38:54):
I love it.

Speaker 23 (01:38:55):
I use it more of a search engine than I
do for Google. So it's a great research tool. It's
a great way to just add efficiencies. I'm a one
man band. I'm a soul trader. I don't have anyone
to palm off at work to or to help me
with my admin work. So chat GPT is like my
virtual assistant. I can summarize meetings, I can transcribe interviews
that I'm doing.

Speaker 9 (01:39:16):
It saves me so much time. If I need a
bit of inspiration, it gives me the base.

Speaker 23 (01:39:20):
It's never going to replace my creativity and my ideas
and and my inspiration, but it's a great point. It
means I can get way more done with way less time.
And yeah, I'm a proud chat GPT user.

Speaker 2 (01:39:32):
I don't know.

Speaker 9 (01:39:33):
I know people also use it as chat GPT therapist and.

Speaker 23 (01:39:36):
I have asked it a friendship related question before, and
you know, the advice wasn't bad.

Speaker 2 (01:39:40):
I'm so, I'm so intrigued. I'm just starting an AI
course because I've decided, I you know, you've got to
know what you're talking about it if you're going to
have an opinion on it. I've just started. So I
had to download chat GPT and I just I've only
just did that. I felt dirty. I felt like I
started to the dark side. I just felt I just,
I'm really. My hand was almost shaking as I did
the double click. I was like, oh my gosh, sure

(01:40:01):
you have fun. And then I was only on it
for life. I did my little project that Michelle Dickinson.
She's put me on this course. I did a lot
of a project and then I got a little addicted.
And then I started using it. And that's what I realized.
You need to learn. You need to know how to
use it well and efficiently to assist you. Otherwise, yes,
you could potentially spend a lot of time. Otherwise you'll
get left behind if they don't learn to use it.

(01:40:23):
God for but I get left behind. I've always said, well, Amina,
I'm quite happy to be a slow adapter when it
comes to tech. I still haven't got myself on social media,
and I don't think that's harmy what so we all
might get there one day, but you know we won't
rush that.

Speaker 9 (01:40:37):
Can chat gpt to create you an Instagram or facebo
and see what it comes up with.

Speaker 2 (01:40:42):
I look very quickly, though, I do want to touch
on a lovely story that came out of the UK
whereby and look. If you've read the news or you've
watched Claqueson's farm, we all know that the last few
years been really difficult for farmers in England, a lot
of floods. So one farm has decided to actually stop
farming and use their farm to offer visitors a cuddle,
a brush or a stroke of a cow. As I

(01:41:03):
lie on straw covered enclosure inside, they're charging two hundred
and thirteen dollars for a visit. You also get a
safari to see the heartland cattle. And apparently this is
just going off like everybody wants to cuddle a cow?
Would you pay two hundred and thirteen dollars to cuddle
a cow?

Speaker 5 (01:41:22):
No?

Speaker 9 (01:41:22):
No.

Speaker 4 (01:41:23):
I grew up around cow, so two hundred and thirteen
dollars seems very state. But I do have a soft
spot for highland kettle. I went on their website saw
some little baby Hiland kettle. I'm like, oh, maybe I'd
go one hundred and twenty for.

Speaker 2 (01:41:36):
The cute babies, the little calves.

Speaker 3 (01:41:38):
What we love it?

Speaker 2 (01:41:39):
What about you, Wilhelmina, Do you see the carf as
a support animal, good for a therapy animal not?

Speaker 23 (01:41:45):
They seem like quite calm creatures the majority of the time,
but it depends on how cute they are if it's
a little baby freezing or something.

Speaker 9 (01:41:52):
But I don't know if i'd falk out for that.

Speaker 23 (01:41:54):
I remember going to Japan, though, I feel like the
more unique the animal, the more willing I'd be willing
to pay money. I went to an otter cafe and
sat in this little kind of enclosure area and they
made you kind of wear full ppe but they I
had this pile of cuddly otters on top of me,
and we paid about fifty New Zealand dollars to get
in there, and we had ten minutes with them, and look,
they were very cute. They smelled awful, but they were

(01:42:17):
super cuddly and just, you know, an experience unlike anything
that I've ever actually been able to do before.

Speaker 9 (01:42:24):
So I'd pay for that. Unique animals I think, but
not so sure about the cow.

Speaker 2 (01:42:29):
Oh well, Amina, I am so jealous about the otters.
I tried. I tried to climb into the otter enclosure
at the Auckland Zoo when I was about eight years
old and Mum had to be called and I was
removed from the zoo. I just thought they were adorable. Oh,
very jealous. Yeah, no, I think cute animals. I think
if you walked into your therapy you walk into your
therapist and there was a cow there, I'm not sure
that that would have the same sort of impact when
it comes to a support animal or therapy animal, but

(01:42:51):
a cute little otter love it. It is twenty four
to twelve sports.

Speaker 1 (01:42:56):
Next, it's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin on Newstalks at.

Speaker 2 (01:43:04):
B At midday Jason Pine with Weekend Sport and he's
with me now, Good morning, Jason.

Speaker 12 (01:43:10):
Good morning Francesca.

Speaker 2 (01:43:11):
Okay, wish we start we do rugby?

Speaker 6 (01:43:13):
I think so.

Speaker 25 (01:43:14):
I think it's the obvious place.

Speaker 2 (01:43:15):
I think it is the obvious place. Congratulations to the Crusaders.
I was guarded for the Chiefs, though I was really
hoping that maybe third time lucky. They were going to
go home with the trophy.

Speaker 25 (01:43:24):
But yeah, I think I think a lot of people
outside christ Church probably felt the same way. I must say,
very lucky to be in christ Church for the game
last night, and that's where the show's coming from today
as well as we unpack it all. But you forget
how much the Crusaders fans loved the Crusaders until you
go to christ Church. Honestly, last night, Francisca, it was
jumping in there, absolutely jumping, and they do add significant

(01:43:48):
home advantage to that team. I'm not saying it was
the reason they won the game, but man, it was
noisy there last night. Yes, there were some Chiefs fans,
and when the Chiefs got a try, I've got a
couple of tries, you could hear the Chiefs fans. But man,
those Crusaders fans turned up last night in numbers, and
I just felt there was quite a bit of emotion
wrapped around last night with the final game at Addington
and just what happened last year and the redemption story

(01:44:11):
and all of that, and yeah, I found it difficult
to not enjoy the Crusader's success, which is a very
odd thing to say.

Speaker 2 (01:44:19):
It'd be a huge amount of hype though of this game.
Of course, you had the two best teams. You know,
everyone found it was the two best teams going head
to head. All the games have been tighted throughout the season.
Was it a good game?

Speaker 25 (01:44:29):
It was a tight game. It was a tight game.
I think it delivered on what we expected. It was
never going to be a trifest It was never going
to be a forty five forty two kind of situation.
It was always going to be tight. And you know,
the second half, there was one bit of scoring action
in the second half of Rivers Raeahanna penalty late on
in the half that took it out. It was thirteen
twelve at half time, sixteen twelve at the end. But
it was just an arm wrestle. And look, it wasn't

(01:44:51):
one for converting new fans to the game, probably, but
for those who enjoy an absolute arm wrestle and you know,
just a battle between, as you say, two powerhouses of rugby.
I think it absolutely delivered so plenty.

Speaker 2 (01:45:04):
Tomorrow we have the all Black squadnouncement. Which rugby players
do you think will be the most nervous tomorrow at
that way they receive a call or not. I think.

Speaker 25 (01:45:15):
I mean, the nerves are probably around and I don't
know if nerves are right, it's probably more in anticipation.
You know, the guys who've never been All Blacks before,
players who are going to hear their name read out
for the first time. And you look at a guy
like Fabian Holland out of the Highlanders, I think you know,
he was on the end of year tour last year
as a kind of an apprentice. I think you'll hear
his name. Duplessy Khalifi. I really hope that he gets
his call up out of the Hurricane Superb this season.

(01:45:37):
I think he deserves an opportunity. And others as well, who,
as I say, might expect that they've done enough. Lee
Roy Carter another example. You know, a really good season
for the Chiefs, winger Josh Fuster Tour, the front rower
at the Blues. So these are the kind of guys. Look,
we saw ten new All Blacks last year. I don't
think we'll get anywhere close to that this year. But
I would expect, you know, four or five guys tomorrow

(01:45:59):
would be would be celebrating something pretty special in their
rugby career.

Speaker 2 (01:46:03):
Well, the Warriors had the home advantage yesterday and that
didn't go well. None that they should have been the Panthers.
That should shouldn't have been an issue. Pony.

Speaker 25 (01:46:10):
Yeah, I kind of had eyes on this, sort of
half eyes on this before the rugby. I was, we
had it on a screen as we were preparing for
the rugby and and yeah, what an odd result. I
really thought the Warriors would win this game and they
did not win this game. So, you know, Penrith have
had a pretty tough season, you know, up and down
given the fact that they're four time defending champions and
missing a bunch of origin players.

Speaker 16 (01:46:31):
So good on them.

Speaker 25 (01:46:32):
But yeah, there'll be some some thinking to do around
around Warrior's HQ today, no doubt.

Speaker 2 (01:46:36):
Brilliant. Thank you so much, Pony Pony. We'll be back
at midday with Weekend.

Speaker 1 (01:46:40):
Sport The Sunday Session Full show podcast on iHeartRadio powered
by News Talks, Travel with Windy Woo tours Where the
World Is Yours book Now, Live.

Speaker 2 (01:47:12):
Time, We'll travel now and coming to us live from Dollywood.
One of Meghan Singleton's happiest places on Earth is Meghan Singleton,
how are you?

Speaker 26 (01:47:23):
I Am just absolutely wired? Honestly, I didn't really know
what to expect, and I've done quite a lot of googling,
you know, but it's so I flew to Knoxville. Knoxville
is the airport you need to come to because Dollywood
is in Pigeon Forge. That's about an hour's drive away.
So you will probably want to get a car if
you're going to come to Dollywood. Dollywood is on the

(01:47:46):
site of a former like goes right back with sort
of theme parks of the sixties, but she's had it
with a family. She owns fifty percent of it since
nineteen eighty six and it turns forty years old this year,
and it's spread over sixty five hectares.

Speaker 7 (01:48:03):
You walk and walk and walk.

Speaker 26 (01:48:04):
I think I did seventeen thousand steps. But it's not sitchy.

Speaker 5 (01:48:09):
Well, it kind of is.

Speaker 26 (01:48:10):
That you walk in and it's very huntry, oldie worldy,
like wooden sort of buildings and stuff. But they've put
some extreme roller coasters in there. Like it's one of
the top theme parks in America, and people come. They
have an annual pass like we went yesterday, to be honest,
and it was much nicer.

Speaker 9 (01:48:29):
That was Friday.

Speaker 26 (01:48:29):
Today being Saturday, the traffic was backed up for miles
and it's hot. It's over thirty degrees in there today,
and people will be staying right through till the fireworks
and I Will Always Love You, which happens from nine
forty to ten pm, and a drone show and the
drones form Dolly's face, as well as other very clever things.

Speaker 2 (01:48:53):
Okay, have I described it enough?

Speaker 6 (01:48:57):
I do love it?

Speaker 20 (01:48:58):
Is it great?

Speaker 2 (01:48:59):
Is it fabulous?

Speaker 26 (01:49:01):
It is fabulous? I probably I would come again. I
would bring people, I think next time on a tour.
There's so many So there's lots of shopping and I
did buy a Dolly shirt, yes, And there's Dolly bugs
and there's Dolly everything. There's also her costumes, and there's
also some videos about the people who have worked for
her for twenty thirty years just styling her. There's one

(01:49:22):
of her tour buses that she used to travel the
country in and sleep in, so you got all that.
There's live theater. We watched stunt dogs running across the stage,
catching frisbees and doing funsi there's funsy things for kids,
and then there's the stream rides as well.

Speaker 2 (01:49:38):
You see it all. Has it cost you a bit? Today?

Speaker 26 (01:49:43):
It has cost me.

Speaker 5 (01:49:44):
But stand right now.

Speaker 26 (01:49:45):
I'm in a little tiny town called Sevierville, and I'm
probably one of the best restaurants in Tennessee called The Appalachian.
I just want to give it a shout out because
I hope there's no vegans listening. But I've just had
the bone marrow on their charred bread and it's the
best taste I think I've ever had. Amazing, So put
that on your list. I will have a blog post up.

(01:50:06):
I just haven't got to it yet, but I've put
a bunch of pictures on my Facebook page.

Speaker 2 (01:50:10):
Oh wonderful, Meghan. Thank you so much for talking us
through that. Travel safe. We'll talk to you next week,
and as Meghan said, she will be getting everything up
on her blog at blog at large dot com. Thank
you for your text I have one here saying, oh
my god, had to go to the odders in Japan
last month with my eighteen and twenty one year old grandsons,
so surprised, not sure it's my thing, and another one

(01:50:33):
here reads I think Keewe's may have found more disappointed
with Pete leaving if the races were held in New Zealand,
but being overseas, I think we have less of a connection,
So good on your peak that was from day. Thank
you very much for your feedback. You can text anytime.
Ninety two ninety two it's twelve to twelve.

Speaker 1 (01:50:49):
Books with Wiggles for the best election of Greek Reads.

Speaker 2 (01:50:54):
Joe McKenzie, good morning, Hello, Hey, You've got a brand
new book from a new author, Jennifer Trevellan. She's a
Keiwi author.

Speaker 24 (01:51:01):
I believe she lives in Wellington, Okay, and this is
set in nineteen eighty seven about at family who are
heading up the coast for their summer holiday, and it's
told in the first person by ten year old Alex.
But right from the start things feel very different from
the kind of summer holiday that they usually have. They
get there, her sister's a teenager and she wants to

(01:51:22):
run with the wild in crowd. Her mother's very distracted,
very unusually, and her father seems quite adrift, and there's
a really creepy guy in the house next door that
keeps an eye on everything that they do. The thing
that's really clever about the writing of this book is
that it's told in the first person by Alex, who,
as I said, is ten years old, and she doesn't

(01:51:43):
really understand what's going on around her. She can't pick
up the nuance and the dynamics and see what's actually
happening with her family, but you can as the reader.
It's a really clever device and she does it really well.
I've got a fun fact for you. Jennifer Trevellian sent
this manuscript out to I believe a number of literary
agents and she got a phone call from one of

(01:52:04):
the most respected agents in the UK. He a woman
named Felicity Blunt, who happens to be the sister of
the actress Emily Blunt and is married to Stanley Tucci.
So Jennifer Trevellian has really landed in the middle of
some great company. And boy, she can write.

Speaker 2 (01:52:19):
This book is got.

Speaker 24 (01:52:20):
It's kind of full of foreboding and haunting, set against
the New Zealand summer with the sun streaming down and
the beach, but you know there's something sinister going on.

Speaker 2 (01:52:30):
It can be hard to nail when you're trying to
write from a child's point of view. I think Kate
de Goldie does it so brilliant. Yes, she did. In
New Zealand And, as Jennifer good at it as well.
Yes she is okay cool. We had Evor Popovich on
our show last weekend of talking about his book A
Dim Prognosis and telling us through talking us through what
you know, what he felt was right and wrong with

(01:52:51):
our public health system. A really interesting book, isn't it.

Speaker 24 (01:52:54):
Yes, it is, and he is a very angry man.
Some of this book is really funny, but it's very
black humor, as you would know. And after all the
news reports we've had over the last while about the
stay of our health system, a lot of this won't
come as a shock to many people. But as he
says and he writes in this book so well, it's
a system that's on life support and it's also a place.

(01:53:16):
The stuff that I found fascinating was that he writes
about how bullies and sociopaths thrive in our health industry
in the shape of senior doctors. He says there's a
culture problem that's embedded in the system. Talks about the
inequities of a public private system where specialists get to
make a lot of money from public coffers because they're
needed to keep things moving in the public care system.

(01:53:38):
He talks about the fact that the it is archaic,
an awful lot of stuff in here which as a
user of the New Zealand health system you will be
very alarmed about and to be working and it must
be well. As he puts it, it's a very very
difficult environment.

Speaker 2 (01:53:54):
Yeah, no, it's a fascinating read. Thank you so much, Joan.
Those books A Beautiful Family by Jennifer Trevellin and also
A Dim Prognosis by Evil Popovich. Will Talk Makes Me See?

Speaker 1 (01:54:05):
Then six to twelve, the Sunday Session Full Show podcast
on my Heart Radio powered by News TALKSB.

Speaker 2 (01:54:16):
Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope
you've been having a fabulous Marto Riki long weekend. Enjoy
your afternoon. Jason Pine is up next with Weekend Sport.
Few of you are already texting in your comments, so
I'm sure there's going to be some robust conversation about
rugby and all sorts of things this afternoon. Thank you
to Kerry for producing the show. Next week, on the show,

(01:54:38):
we are going to be talking to a curator of
a brand new Banksy exhibition which is heading to New Zealand.
Couldn't get Banksy on because he doesn't really like to
you know, expose himself too much. We still have no
idea who he is, but we're hoping this curator who
does might just be able to give us a little
bit of information about Banksy. So I'm very much looking

(01:54:59):
forward to that. We are finishing with BTS Dynamite because
one of them members has just finished their military service
uh in South Korea. I think if you're a K
pop fan you'll know all about this, But to the
rest of you, just just enjoy, have a great afternoon.

(01:55:20):
I'll see you next summer.

Speaker 3 (01:55:26):
Interest Shot.

Speaker 5 (01:55:33):
Into the Dam.

Speaker 1 (01:56:17):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.

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