Full Show Podcast: 28 June 2026

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

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

Speaker 1 (00:15):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin and Witkles for the.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Best selection of great reads. Us Talks EDB.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Girls Morning and welcome to the Sunday Session. I'm Francesca Budkin.
With you until midday. Love you to have your company.
So the All Whites World Cup is all over. Ricky
Herbert is going to be with us shortly. Also coming
up on the show to day, The Amazing Mickayla Break
is back three months after having a baby. The Olympic
two time gold medalist has re signed with the Blackburn Sevens,
but while she gets her fitness up to speed, she's

(00:50):
continuing her rugby commentary work. Mackada is going to join
us out to ten to talk about motherhood and being
a professional sportswoman.

Speaker 4 (00:58):
Now.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
The Bookstore That Never Sleeps is a gorgeous short documentary
about a unique bookstore called Elizabeth's Books in Nova Scotia.
It's run by eighty three old Chris. He's a former
seaman with PTUSD and a fair of crowds. He opens
his shop at seven PM and it stays open until
the last person has left the store, sometimes at two
a m. He sells the occasional book, but more than that,

(01:20):
he provides a place for people to chat, share stories
and be heard. The store is a light in the
dark for people to find their way. The film is
screening at the dock Edge Film Festival and Canadian filmmaker
Justin Zoris is in the country and he joins me
after eleven and as always, you can text me anytime
throughout the morning. I'm ninety two ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Two for the Sunday session.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
Yesterday, an article with Stuff owner and CEO Shineid Bulcher
was released on their website. It was a wide ranging
interview an included discussion about the significant impact the big
tech companies such as Google and Meta and TikTok are
having on traditional New Zealand owned media companies. These platforms
attract the vast majority of New Zealand's digital advertising spend,

(02:04):
but due to a lack of regulation, they avoid paying
a meaningful tax bill in New Zealand. And of course,
this is calling for local media companies who invest in
journalism and content, only to watch big tech scrape, crawl,
and extract and regurgitate this content for their own gain.
So we've all seen the result of this disruption. Local newspapers,
television broadcasters, and online news outlets have experienced declining revenues,

(02:28):
leading to newsroom closures and job losses. But we can't
blame big tech entirely for the challenges facing traditional media.
Consumer habits have shifted towards digital platforms, and local media
companies have struggled to adapt to audience expectations and preferences.
The government should have a legitimate and important role to
play in all of this, but they are nowhere to

(02:49):
be seen. There could be regulating big They could be
regulating big tech to create a fairer and competitive digital
marketplace and to protect the public interest by maintaining a
strong independent media sector which supports democracy and form a
public debate. As the government continuing to drag its feet
when it comes to anything to do with big tech,

(03:11):
be a social media bands, criminalizing deep fakes, requiring digital
platforms to negotiate payments for news content, or making them
pay an appropriate amount of tax. Is it too hard
or too complex? Is there a lack of interest or
is it self serving. Boucher sheared some concerning interactions she's
had from politicians.

Speaker 5 (03:33):
Actual things that politicians have said to me in the
last sort of year.

Speaker 6 (03:39):
You know.

Speaker 5 (03:40):
One of her one said, if you were nicer to us,
maybe we would care if you lived or died. One
of them says, we effectively weighed up the interests of
you and big tech and decided they were more important
to the country.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
Boucher also claimed politicians today are thinner skinned than they
used to be, which they quite possibly are. If you
can't handle scrutiny, I'm not sure you're in the right job.
But after watching scrutiny in parliament, I would suggest politicians
are as brutal to their colleagues as the media can
be to them. I've had politicians complain to me about
a media organization or an individual journalist before. But there's

(04:17):
always been an understanding that democracy requires the fourth estate,
and that where there are politicians, there will be media,
and vice versa. I'm giving politicians the benefit of the
doubt that they're not so petty as to allow the
demise of democracy because of their own fears, self interest
and adeques and adequacies. How Ironically, I can't say that word,

(04:38):
but it still begs the question. With all its social harm, misinformation,
disinformation scams, deep fakes, AI slop and disregard for suppression.
Why is the New Zealand government so scared of making
a move against big tech? Unfortunately? I suspect it's a
clear sign of who wears the pants in the relationship.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
The Sunday Session can to hear your thoughts.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
You can text on ninety two ninety two. Next up,
the All Whites run at the fifth of Cup is over.
Ricky Herbert is going to join me to talk about
what we can take away from this campaign. It is
twelve past nine. You're with News talkvie B.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Sunday with Style The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin and
Wiggles for the best selection of Greg Reeds.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
He's Talks n So the dream is over for the
All Whites, a five to one defeat against Belgium, sending
them out of the fief of World Cup. He's coach
Darren Baisley. We had to live with.

Speaker 7 (05:36):
A very good team for long periods today and the
first goal is of killer is to set play corner
that we don't deal with you know, and then if
we deal with that better, I we shut then when
Neil Nilla half times sturing the game. Once we concede,
we had to open the game up. Boys worked hard,
they gave everything. Yeah, they really tried to get back
into it, but it wasn't to be our night. And
when we look back, we know where we've really come

(05:58):
and done. You know, we're leading against Iran and leading
against Egypt.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
Former All Whites player and coach Ricky Herbert is at
the World Cup and is with me now.

Speaker 8 (06:06):
Good morning, Yes, good morning.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
This game was always going to be a big ask.
How did you rate their performance against Belgium yesterday?

Speaker 9 (06:14):
Yeah, look, I think corrected was always going to be
probably the biggest one on the agenda, but they hadn't
been great to be fair Belgium going into it, and
I think they were also going to be under a
bit of pressure and desperate to get the three points.
So I think it was going to be a difficult
night for the All Whites and to concede the way
they did, and then as Darren said, they're chasing the game,
you're going to expose yourself a bit more.

Speaker 8 (06:36):
And you know, Belgium were quite dominant on the night.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
Ricky, where was the game lost for the All Whites?

Speaker 8 (06:43):
Look, I think it's just moments.

Speaker 9 (06:44):
And I've said that all the way through the World
Cup and was certainly in my year as well, that
you know, you've got to limit the ones that are
you know, conceding, and you know take the opportunities when
they come their way. And you know, we had some
great moments going forward and scoring goals, but we just
lacked that little bit of urgency and determination and I think,

(07:05):
you know, putting that challenge in when it was critical.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
Looking at the overall tournament performance, it's hard not to
feel a little bit disappointed at the missed opportunities, given
that we were in the league where we were playing
both Iran and Egypt.

Speaker 8 (07:19):
Yeah, one hundred percent.

Speaker 9 (07:20):
I think, you know, this has been a team that
you know a lot of people back in New Zealand
have sort of held high and you know, I think
we're looking forward to seeing a winning result coming out
of the group and probably potentially moving out of the
group into the next stage. So yeah, they'll be disappointed.
I think the chances were certainly there for them to

(07:40):
maybe fall into those categories.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
And that was the main mission, wasn't it to get
out of the group With what you saw? Do you
think that they could have done it?

Speaker 9 (07:49):
Yeah, Look, I think against the Iranian team it was
sort of ebbed and flowed a little bit. They'll be
disappointed on the defensive side, I think, and the time
of conceding the goals, and I think against Egypt they
kind of rejigged themselves a little bit in the second half.
The Egyptians came out really strongly, So again that was
a tough forty five minutes for the boys. But yeah, look,

(08:12):
I think everybody's wishes for the game to keep progressing
and developing in the country, and I think we're all
hoping to see the team get a winning result and
you know, just as important getting out of the group.

Speaker 3 (08:24):
Let's have a quick talk about Elijah just three World
Cup goals. Do you think he might be onto bigger
things after this tournament.

Speaker 8 (08:34):
Yeah, let's hope.

Speaker 10 (08:35):
So.

Speaker 8 (08:35):
It'd be fantastic, wouldn't it.

Speaker 9 (08:36):
And I think that's what these tournaments are about, and
it provides that opportunity a lot. In twenty ten and
Winston Reid coming off the back of an outstanding tournament
and heading off and playing at West Ham in the
Premier League. So let's hope it can be something like
that for Elijah, because yeah, look, he had.

Speaker 8 (08:53):
A great tournament.

Speaker 9 (08:54):
I think even last night when we were really struggling
to get a foothold in the game, he was up
and down the pitch and I thought he had an
absolutely stellar tournament.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
Are there any other players that stood out to you?

Speaker 9 (09:08):
Look, I think there were some okay performances. And when
I say okay, I think we're at a World Cup.
You know, we're playing some of the best players in
the world. So the challenge point, challenge point keeps coming
for us. But luck, I thought Eliza was like I think,
you know, really stood up. Like I say, his ability
to get around the pitch through difficult moments and his
calmness and composure to take the opportunities that come as

(09:30):
way in front of goal. So I applaud It's great
to see a Kiwi boy on the world stage doing well.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
How is the future looking for this All Whites team
if we look at the next four years, is this
a good base to qualify and you know, compete with
it the next World Cup?

Speaker 11 (09:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 9 (09:46):
Look, I think qualification moving forward now that's gone to
forty eight is you know, clearly changed the landscape and
you know we'd be hoping from a New Zealand perspective
that you know, we should be at the World Cup
in twenty thirty, so the planning can be, can I say,
as safe as it possibly can be. So I think
there's a lot to look forward to, and you know,
unless something went completely wrong, we should be there and

(10:09):
there'll be the base of the team and a number
of players clearly are going to have that chance to
go back and taste it again. So there'll be a
lot of learnings and some really good experiences. But yeah,
just some really strong reflections I think on how we
can be better at a World Cup.

Speaker 3 (10:23):
Ricky, You've been at the World Cup. What's it been
like to attend?

Speaker 9 (10:28):
Just unbelievable. I've only been in Vancouver, but it's just
been sensational. We actually went to the Switzerland Canada game
as well, when clearly with the host nation playing, it
was just fantastic environment to be in. And the two
games have been just amazing, the Egypt game and clearly
last night against Belgium.

Speaker 8 (10:45):
So look a privilege to be here.

Speaker 9 (10:47):
I've thoroughly enjoyed it as a fan and certainly looking
to head back in twenty thirty to support the boys again.

Speaker 3 (10:54):
It's a bit more relaxing when you're a fan, isn't
it just a little bit?

Speaker 8 (10:59):
Yeah, I think sometimes.

Speaker 9 (11:00):
I guess I was walking up and down and hoping
we could turn things around a little bit in both
the games.

Speaker 8 (11:07):
Now, like I said, as a privilege to be here.

Speaker 9 (11:08):
I love the All Whites, and you know, I wish
them well in the future moving forward, because twenty thirty
is an opportunity for hopefully we can make that next
step forward.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
Ricky, from what you've seen of the whole World Cup
so far, who's your front runner? I would probably put
France at the top of the list at the moment.

Speaker 8 (11:26):
Yeah, look, I'm going to agree with you.

Speaker 9 (11:28):
The team I kind of threw out at the start,
and there was a sensational the other night to watch,
and I think just their ability to get forward, just
the pace and the quality of those front players is amazing.
So yeah, there'll be a difficult team to beat. But
it's a good tournament. There's some good teams and I
think some we probably haven't seen the best of yet,
and so a lot to look forward to Ricky Herbert.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
Appreciate your time, especially you know, taking time out of
having a dinner to talk to me. So thank you
so much. Enjoy the rest of the tournament. Love you
to talk to you. It's twenty one past nine.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
The Sunday session.

Speaker 3 (12:02):
So the deftoll from the Venezuela earthquakes has risen sharply
other night, with fourteen hundred people confirmed dead. It's a
race against time now for search teams with reports of
up to fifty thousand people remain missing. Save the Children's
Country director in Venezuela is Fatima Andresia, and she joins
me now from the impacted region of Caracas. Fatimah, thank

(12:22):
you so much for your time. It's a pleasure you
have been with the response team in the impacted areas today.
Can you paint a picture for us of just what
it is like there at the moment.

Speaker 10 (12:35):
Yeah, so, I think that we can see like two
different emotions at the same time. You can see hope,
You can see all the people, all their community mobilization
and all the people that it's providing aid, providing food

(12:56):
for everyone that it's working on the on the streets
and reaching the hardest areas. But also you can see,
you know, people really worried about their current situation because
we have found like informal camps nearby the buildings that

(13:18):
are affected and that the people cannot return to their
current houses. So you can see all that informal camps
and people are establishing over there, and that's where you
can see like sadness and uncertainty, like they are they're
okay right now over there, but they are uncertain about

(13:39):
what will happen next. And also we found children, and
you know, like children always provide us this this this
other face of happiness, of joyful they are playing with
what they have.

Speaker 3 (13:57):
Your focus is obviously on children and families. We've heard
many families are sleeping on the streets. They've lost their
homes and able to return. How how was this impacting
local communities? You spoke there about these camps. But is
there enough support?

Speaker 10 (14:13):
Well, it is arriving now, the support is arriving. The
thing is that obviously the first day have been focusing
about searching and rescue, and now all of the different
local organizations, international organization, governmental authorities right now they're like

(14:34):
searching their places to start working with with these current
families that are sheltering in in in public spaces. So
I think that that the support is gonna is gonna
get here. And you know, but this is like like
a long race and we're just starting.

Speaker 3 (14:54):
How much of the aftershocks affecting the rescue efforts.

Speaker 10 (15:00):
Well, it is affecting, and you know, like I don't know,
a couple of minutes, oh we have another after shock.
So it is you know, like we're really worried about
the the the the stress of the people having to
leave these uh you know and in several moments, and

(15:22):
we're worried about the yeah, the well being of the
of the people, the mental health because this is not
easy to to to be and to happen.

Speaker 3 (15:32):
Yeah, Fatima, I read a quote this morning that said,
in Caracas, this feels like the hardest moment in Venezuela's
modern history. Does it feel like that to you?

Speaker 10 (15:41):
Well, yeah, this is hard, but I think that the
Venezuelan people is no, I don't think. I'm pretty sure.

Speaker 12 (15:49):
I'm sure.

Speaker 10 (15:49):
I have been here for a couple of months, and
the Venezuela people it's really uh, it's really you know,
like they're warriors. They they know how to deal with this.
They are full of hope, they're full of humanity, they're
helping each other. They they're stunding, you know, and that's

(16:15):
what we need now. We need their strengths, we need
their their happiness, we need their community work. You can
see hope on the streets. Even when you can see also,
you know, like suffering and worried and confusion, you can
also see hope. And I think that's really important.

Speaker 3 (16:38):
So for you and other response teams, what does the
next few days look like.

Speaker 10 (16:47):
Uncertainty? I think, well, uh, we have to we have
to work in or Wed. Save the Children will focus
our working providing psychosocial support, providing specific items for the kids,
you know, like toys, wellbeing materials, clothes, hyjien kids, and

(17:10):
we have to better understand the school situation and how
we can help them to continue their education and in
a safe space.

Speaker 3 (17:20):
Fatima, thank you so much for your time. We're thinking
of you. Take care, Thank you for everything. Child that
was an independent child Right organization Save the Children Funds
director in Venezuela. Fatima Andresia. It is twenty seven past nine.
Very quickly a couple of texts. Everyone's got an opinion

(17:44):
and maybe what went wrong yesterday with the all whites.
Kirsten texts to say Paulson should have been the goalkeeper.
Is he's the best we have? Also makes the comment
that been old stuff up from the coach. I presume
you mean bringing him off, Kirsten or putting him on. Sorry,
I think he replaced Ryan Thomas, didn't he Thank you
for that. Also another text here Francisco. On Friday, Trump

(18:04):
said he would leave you one hundred percent tariffs on
the UK if a digital service tax was levied on
US tech firms. He would likely do the same to
us if we did. The government should be a slow
follower on this issue. That's on the European Union because
they've been very aggressive at the moment on the fact
that they realize they're completely dependent on China and the
US for a lot of their digital services but also
a lot of their chips and batteries and all sorts

(18:28):
of bits and pieces. So they are trying to find
ways in the European Union to boister their own digital
products and services and things there. So yep, that's exactly right,
that's exactly what happens. It'll be interesting to see whether
they will allow themselves to be bullied like that. It is,
but yes, obviously that's something we're all aware of. It's

(18:50):
twenty eight past nine.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin on News Dogs AB.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
Joining us now is Newstorgs. They'd be senior political reporter
Azaria hal good morning, good morning. Good to be with you,
love you to have you with us. It's kind of
Congress weekend, doesn't it. We've got labor and actors heaving
their AGM. Let's start with the Labor Congress. This is
of course taking place yesterday and today. I didn't see
a huge amount of news or policy or anything coming

(19:23):
out of the Congress yesterday.

Speaker 8 (19:25):
Is that h Yeah?

Speaker 12 (19:27):
I mean to be honest. Like the weather has caused
a bit of drama for Labour's major conference this weekend,
although it is worth noting as well that acts rarely
that we'll talk about later had to be rescheduled as
to not clash with nationals AGM. So it is on
this weekend as well. Because flights in and out of
Wellington have been canceled due to what we've seen severe web,

(19:48):
severe weather and wind warnings. Quite a few candidates, including
former MP Nazy Chen, had to drive from Auckland to
Wellington to actually make it in time. It comes as
most polls show Labor slightly ahead of National on party vote,
which we'll put a pep in Chris Hepkin's step and
that of the party if not sort of tired from

(20:09):
that nine hour drive. But Finance spokesperson for Labor Barbara
Edmonds has also done a speech promising she'd show how
her numbers add up, a response to National's Nikola Willis,
who's been questioning that for quite some time. Barbara Edmunds
now sort of using Willis's words against her, though, saying
essentially that the government's numbers don't add up, also pointing

(20:33):
out that many people are struggling with the cost of living,
so trying to sort of use that phrase against the
National Party and against the coalition. So Labor now though
quite a lot to talk about after multiple policy announcements.
I remember last time we spoke, we were saying that
Labor would be announcing policy that has taken place. They're

(20:54):
agm or or Congress as they call it, being held
in Wellington, where notably the Greens hold two electorate seats,
Labor's pledging to campaign hard in those to flip them.
It's also, as it's been talking about for quite some time,
aiming to flip the Maldi seats as well. So we'll
see if Wellington, which is Green at the moment, turns
red at the election. That seems like a big focus

(21:16):
for Labor as well as a big focus on Auckland.

Speaker 3 (21:18):
And we're going to hear from Leader Chris Hipkins this afternoon.
Is there any pressure on Hitt for him to make
an impact.

Speaker 12 (21:25):
Yeah, I think Labour's policies have been quite sort of
what you would expect from the Labor Party so far.
It hasn't really been things that push the dial. I
mean even their capital gains tax, which has copped some
criticism from the National Party, as Labor says, is quite targeted.
So I think the Labor maybe has that problem that

(21:48):
they don't want to be seen as too progressive or
pushing the dial too much. It's quite a tough place
to be and if you are the Labor Party, especially
campaigning in Wellington, as I say, because you're trying to
flip those more progressive seats as Green Party voters back
to your party.

Speaker 3 (22:05):
Hi Ellen was describing Labour's progress this morning in her
column and she said Labour's leader is using the microwave
to warm up stale ideas he dug out from the
bottom of the freezer. So that's another way of putting
it as area.

Speaker 12 (22:18):
Yeah, I think I think that's fair to say, to
be honest, in terms of some of the criticisms. Obviously,
Labour's come out with a policy recently in terms of
restoring the free prescriptions. That's not a new idea from Labor,
so it is sort of this maybe idea from some
that they're not really shifting the dial, they're not really
pushing it as much as they could in an election year.

Speaker 3 (22:39):
So we're expecting some policy this afternoon.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
Well hopefully.

Speaker 12 (22:44):
I mean you would expect to see some policy in
terms of a major Labor party AGM and Congress, so
I would be leaning towards it, yes, especially the fact
that it is an election year and yesterday we didn't
really see much news.

Speaker 3 (22:57):
Okay, let's move on to the act AGM. What are
we expecting from David Cmore today?

Speaker 12 (23:02):
Yeah, some big news Actors pecking its new deputy leader
today the party's agm on in Auckland we're expecting policy
as well. Obviously it's an election year AGM. But really
the big thing for ACT will be who it goes with.
As David Seymour's two I see it comes as MP
for Tarmacky Brook van Velden is leaving politics, she's starting

(23:22):
a family, and their new candidate has been announced as
former National Party candidate James Christmas. There hasn't actually been
any whispers though about potential names for the deputy as
there are sort of arguments to be made for quite
a few of them. I mean, the party's got a
few ministers on its books now, including former Federated farmer

(23:43):
Andrew Hoggard. It's got Children's Minister Karen Chure Nicole McKee
as well. There's also a case for the likes of
Simon Court or Todd Stevenson they're in the media giving
their recons quite a bent, or Laura McClure, who's been
seeing some success in terms of her Deep Fakes Bill.
David Simol, though importantly, has said it will be a

(24:03):
current setting MP, which rules out James Christmas. It also
rules out well any of the other candidates that are
not current setting members of Parliament right now but all
will be revealed today. We've also had it confirmed that
National's Paul Goldsmith will be running a two text campaign
in EPSOM David Seymour's seat, but the party's campaigning quite

(24:25):
strongly to hold that Tarmickee seat as well under a
new name. David Seymour has been dor knocking quite a
bit with James Christmas as well in Tarmacke to keep
that seat under Act. Expect quite a lot from the
AGM though the party will be fighting for party votes.
I mean the polls are showing New Zealand first up.
National also saying people should not party vote for other

(24:46):
coalition parties thinking it helps them. So some very strong
words recently, this being from campaign chair Simeon Brown. So
Act has quite a bit to deal with in terms
of New Zealand First seeing more party votes National sort
of being a bit critical of them as well, and
of New Zealand First Act. What it says a major

(25:08):
new policy announcement, saying it will build momentum for its
biggest campaign yet. Obviously you'd expect them to say it's
its biggest campaign yet, but saying it's a major policy announcement.
We'll wait and see what that means. Their slogan for
this rally is Unlock New Zealand's potential. So we'll be
following this one quite closely. But as I say, one
of the big things to come out of this is

(25:30):
who will be David Seymour's deputy leader.

Speaker 3 (25:34):
Can't wait to find out. Thank you so much, Azariah,
love you to catch up with you and enjoy the
rest of your Sunday. Keen to hear from you. If
you're an AX supporter or you're at all interested in
the ACT party, who do you think would work well
with David Seama would look good on the ticket as
his deputy leader? You can tax ninety two to ninety
two and I forget that. Michayla breakers with me out
to ten. We're going to talk about her resigning to

(25:55):
the Blackfern sevens and how she's managing being a new
mum as well as a professional athlete. It is twenty
two to ten.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
For Sunday Session full show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by
News TALKSB.

Speaker 3 (26:11):
You're with this Sunday Session. It is nineteen to ten.
Write a call for stricter rules around filming of school sport.
The debate over media coverage has risen again this week
after Augland Grammar sent to cease and desist deceased letter
to a website over filming first fifteen games without permission. Yesterday,
the New Zealand Herald reported there have also been issues

(26:31):
in christ Church. Tim Grocott is the principal at Chirley
Boys High and also the chair of school Sport New Zealand,
and he's with me now. Good morning Tim, Thanks for your.

Speaker 13 (26:40):
Time, Curler, Good morning Francesca.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
Hey talk me through the issue here. Why does schools
and players need to be protected from these content creators?

Speaker 13 (26:51):
Well, I think schools and our boards, you know, we
have a responsibility to protect the children in our care
and that that is I guess physically, but it's also
in an online digital space as well. These days, increasingly
we are seeing sport and particular being broadcast, streamed and

(27:12):
put on various places, and I think there is some
risk that comes with that, particularly if it's on an
open platform where people were able to comment freely. There's
no sort of safeguarding of what's being said or not
being said, and the sort of things that are happening
in that space. I think those are some of the
challenges that currently exist.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
So given these are teenagers, they're not professional players, does
that make it even more important for schools to know
where the footage is ending up to have control of it.

Speaker 4 (27:40):
I guess yeah, I think that does.

Speaker 13 (27:42):
I think what is probably starting to change is a
realization that secondary school sport is actually educationally based. You know, fundamentally,
where are schools who are providing an education and sport
is secondary to that, And so what we want to
see is that you know, the boys and girls who

(28:04):
are at school that the education is the focus. And
if you start broadcasting everything and all the hype and
everything that goes with students being filmed and people commenting
on that and things that it does take away from
the fundamental purpose of secondary school sport is about what
happens in a school and the education that goes alongside that.

Speaker 3 (28:26):
I would argue Tim that I look at some schools
who take rugby very seriously and spend quite a lot
of money on it.

Speaker 13 (28:32):
Yes, yes, and that is correct, you know, And I
guess there's also about managing that and that is done
within a managed space, so that is done by schools.
It's done in a school competition. There are rules and
regulations and guidelines around those competitions which mean that they
don't get out of hand. Even you know, that might

(28:55):
be hard to sort of understand, but I think you
know that there is some rules and regulations around there.

Speaker 10 (28:59):
And the.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
One that's worrying, yeah, yeah, this is this is just
something which hasn't sort of being nicely cleared up. What
are the risks of what the likes of one side
Rugby are doing?

Speaker 10 (29:14):
Yea.

Speaker 13 (29:14):
So from our perspective, there's a couple of things. One
is that we don't know how much money he's making.
He's got a number of subscribers on his channel. He's
probably not making a lot of money, but that is
coming at the expense of the schools and the students
in it. We're not seeing any of that being reinvested

(29:35):
into the schools or into education. We don't know what's
happening on that YouTube channel. So there's open comments on there,
so people are able to make comments, derogatory comments, negative
abuse of whatever it is. There's no control over that,
and there's nothing that limits the type of comments that

(29:56):
are going on there. And I guess for us that's
one of the really concerning things is just the young
people are open to all sorts of criticism with no
control or anything around that. So we would be really
keen to see something in place that limits that sort
of stuff.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
It's really hard to know where you draw the line,
isn't it, Tim, Because I contacted a couple of year
thirteens yesterday who are at top tier rugby schools and
said to them, hey, do students like film the first
fifteen games and put bits up online and share it
on social media and things? And they're like, yeah, yeah,
of course, And that's you know once again, that too

(30:35):
is open for comments and they're not often putting up
the best clips that shows everybody in the best light,
and that too can have a detrimental impact on teenagers.

Speaker 13 (30:46):
Yes, yes, I agree, And I guess that's an individual
decision that those those young people are making. Where I'm
probably coming from, Francesca is from a board and a
governance perspective very much around the risk that is associated.

Speaker 4 (31:02):
So if we're not.

Speaker 13 (31:03):
Putting some protections around the students in around the I
guess the the the programs that we are running, then
that that's what worries me, is that boards could be
at risk if something was to happen. You know, what
have we done to minimize that risk? And so from
a governance perspective, I think that's important that schools are
coming to terms with that. If individuals decide to make

(31:26):
their own reels and highlights and put it up on
a on a social media platform, you know, I'd be
concerned about that, but I guess that at the end
of the day, that's their individual decision.

Speaker 3 (31:36):
So what would you like to see happened? All schools
need to get on the same page.

Speaker 13 (31:42):
I think that would be really good. And it's not
just schools, it's also sporting organizations so that you know,
particularly you know in term three there will be Winter
Tournament Week and that is a big event and there
are lots of tournaments going on and these are run
by national sporting organizations use on football and basketball, et cetera.

Speaker 4 (32:04):
And school sport New.

Speaker 13 (32:05):
Zealand is putting into play. I guess it's a charter
around broadcasting of secondary school sport and there are some
guidelines that are around how that is to be broadcast.
We completely understand that streaming secondary school sport is really positive.

(32:25):
There's some fantastic elements to it. People who can't travel,
get to see it family far no who can't access
it easily. So there's some real benefits to it, but
it does need to be done in a much more
regulated and controlled space and there needs to be some
guidelines around around the commentary, around what is focused on,

(32:46):
how it's broadcast, all of those sorts of things, and
that schools are actually part of that conversation. It isn't
something that's being done to them, but it is something
that they are opting into with a knowledge of some
really clear guidelines that are around that that protect the students,
the reputation of the students, the reputation of the schools

(33:09):
and the sport and I think for school Sport New Zealand,
that is something that we have developed and we are
very keen to see that become part of the landscape
of secondary school sport from this point on.

Speaker 3 (33:19):
Tim, really appreciate your time this morning and talking us
through that. That was Tim Grococh, principal at Hirley Boys
High also the chair of school Sport New Zealand, can
to hear your thoughts on this. Obviously, the creator of
One Side Rugby did accuse the schools of hypocrisy saying
that they're just protecting their subscription service. But as you
heard there from Tim, he is making the point that

(33:40):
it's more about controlling the conversation around what is put online.
And yeah, ninety two ninety two is the text. It's
eleven to ten.

Speaker 1 (33:52):
Feearlss focused informed, it's the Mic Hosking breakfast.

Speaker 14 (33:56):
So Winston Pleader's liked I mean, has he just gone
on flip So he was against it because there were
too many Indians.

Speaker 15 (34:01):
Now there aren't enough Indians.

Speaker 8 (34:02):
Is he playing games with you? Todd?

Speaker 16 (34:03):
Well, well, that's what it feels like. I mean all
of this as well, Hurston. It's in the public and
we've talked it through before I went to India for
the signing. I get that New Zealand first as opposed
to a lot of trade deals, but it is becoming
a bit confusing and it feels like it's time to
move on now. This is a deal that is in
the best justice of New Zealand. It was very caffee negotiated.
He both sides knows ex definitely what they've committed to.

(34:25):
We've got it in Parliament and we're going to put
it in a law to have jobs and hire incomes.

Speaker 1 (34:29):
Back tomorrow at six am The mic Hosking Breakfast with
Bailey's Real Estate on News Talks Dead b Keep It Simple,
It's Sunday, The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudgin and Wiggles for.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
The best selection of graverys. News Talks ed be Hey.

Speaker 17 (34:46):
You don't he love You don't mean my bee? Hey,
you don't need my words or my songs are free. No,
I've traveling and rubbled down here in your flesh and bone.

Speaker 3 (35:10):
This is the Veils. The song is called My Foolish
Heart and The Veils are on tour now around the
country country following the release of their latest album, It's
called Fragile World and don't we just live in a
Fragile World? Which reminds me. We've got a really interesting
topic coming up next hour with Michelle Dickinson. A suffering

(35:31):
from problematic news consumption. It's called PNC. Apparently it is
a thing. It's when individuals report becoming preoccupied with the
news and struggling to regulate their consumption and experiencing disruption
to their daily lives. We're going to be talking about
that next hour. So the scientists have been looking at this, Yes,
it is a thing. Thanks for the text. No one

(35:51):
believes that labor are in front of national It's ridiculous,
thanks Mars. And someone else says, and how the hammer
labor polling ahead of national given the damage they do
to this country. I despair sometimes what will be interested
to see what labor policy comes out of their congress? Afternoon,
and another here just in response to the conversation we've
just had. I've had top tier schools at the Ames

(36:12):
Games offering kids and parents scholarships for their schools. It's
ridiculous and unfair as the top schools hunt out all
the top players. Yes, a slightly different topic there than
what we were talking about, but that was me just
sort of questioning when it was education comes first and
rugby comes second, I'd say, wow, I've seen some top
tier rugby schools in action, and the rugby's kind of
it's up there. It's pretty important. It's been quite a

(36:34):
lot of money on it. So it was just a
comment I made. But thank you so much for your text.
You can text anytime throughout the morning. On ninety two
ninety two, it's seven to ten The.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
Sunday Session Full Show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by News Talks.

Speaker 2 (36:50):
That'd be.

Speaker 3 (36:52):
Mikayla Brake is a superstar on the rugby field, regardless
of what code she's playing, and after having a baby,
she's planning to return to the sevens field. But gorgeous
little Harvey has meant that being a professional athlete is
going to be the same as it was, and being
a first time mum has been harder than she imagined. MICHAELA.
Brake joins me next to talk motherhood and making it

(37:15):
to the Los Angeles Olympics. We're going to finish the
hour with the latest from Somber. This is My Body
isn't ready you happen?

Speaker 18 (37:34):
Thank you? You maybe.

Speaker 6 (38:22):
Like you my body some bread.

Speaker 10 (38:29):
The tra.

Speaker 18 (38:34):
Person expend, but I'm not. I like you of my
body red you tra person ex sent but I'm not.

(39:01):
I'm not.

Speaker 1 (39:05):
Welcome to the Sunday Session with Francesca Rutkin and Wiggles
for the best selection of great reads.

Speaker 3 (39:20):
Here it is seven past ten. You're with the Sunday Session.
Good to have you with us. She's quick, she's fiercely competitive,
and she knows how to score a try.

Speaker 17 (39:29):
Then she's got a break on the slash expertly matipulated
kind news. Zalen Break puts the heamer down.

Speaker 6 (39:36):
It's Mikayla Break.

Speaker 19 (39:38):
She is five star and goes Break London. There's the
footswork and that is felthy from Mikayla Break.

Speaker 11 (39:52):
What a joy to watch.

Speaker 3 (39:53):
Mikayla Break is a legend of KIWI seven's two time
Olympic gold medalist and the all time leading triscorer in
women's international seven's history. But Michayla hasn't been on the
footy field for a while. She's become a mumm to
we Harvey. But the good news is she's on the comeback,
having re signed with New Zealand Rugby through until twenty
twenty seven. Mikayla Break joins me now as all mums well,

(40:15):
no especially new mums. Baby son't appreciate mum sometimes spending
time alone to take a phone call. So I believe
baby Harvey is joining us too. Mikayla and Harvey, good morning.

Speaker 6 (40:25):
Good morning, How are you very good?

Speaker 3 (40:27):
Thank you, love you to have you both with us.
How old is Harvey?

Speaker 8 (40:31):
Now?

Speaker 20 (40:32):
Harvey's three months and he's officially rolling over by himself.
We didn't teach him that he taught himself, So that's cool.
We're just you know, on our toes twenty four to
seven now, which is great.

Speaker 3 (40:46):
How has motherhood been for you so far?

Speaker 20 (40:50):
It's been a humbling challenge. We have had lots of
ups and downs mentally. But now that Harvey is getting
a wee bit bigger and a week bit older, he's
obviously going into a little bit of a personality and
he's smiling and giggling and obviously rolling over like I

(41:12):
said before, so he's giving us a wee bit of
a challenge. But yeah, obviously loving the journey and loving
seeing him grow into his big blue eyes, and he's
a very long boy.

Speaker 6 (41:23):
He's got his dad's hight lucky him.

Speaker 3 (41:25):
I think if we were all a little bit more honest, Mikayla,
we would say the first three months were you know,
a huge challenge for all first time parents.

Speaker 20 (41:35):
Oh yeah, definitely, Like there was probably a good, solid
period where I definitely just wasn't enjoying it. You know,
when it comes to being pregnant for nine months and
then all of a sudden, here's your baby. You've got
to keep him alive, and it's just, yeah, I know,
it's just such a huge transition that you're not really

(41:56):
prepared for when you're a first time mum. So and
obviously you're feeding a baby that's not giving you much back,
But now that he's smiling heaps and killing and giggling,
it's definitely far more rewarding than it was a month ago.

Speaker 3 (42:12):
Was that the first time you've sort of ever had
a bit of a hackup with your mental health that
sort of take you by surprise a little bit?

Speaker 20 (42:19):
Oh yeah, massively. I've been quite fortunate in my sporting
career where I've just had the most incredible support around me.
And that's not to say that I haven't worked hard
and I haven't had my challenges, because I definitely had,
But I'd like to I like to say that my
mental health was definitely well taken care of. But this time,

(42:43):
after being selfish for thirty years, I guess you could say,
and only needing to look after myself, it has been
quite a challenge having to change my whole lifestyle from
being a high performance athlete to being at home with
a baby.

Speaker 6 (42:59):
So yeah, it's been.

Speaker 20 (43:00):
A massive shift that I probably underestimated a little bit.
And saying massive support around me, my mom is incredible.
My husband's working really hard. Mother in law as well,
was here quite often, so I've got loads of people
around me that are trying to make it that little
bit easier for me.

Speaker 3 (43:19):
I wonder too, whether when you've been able to sort
of have a certain amount of control over your career,
you know, you know that if you put in the
work you get the rewards. You've had so much success,
something new comes along, and when things don't kind of
click immediately, it can kind of play on your mind
a little bit that you're not doing a good job
or you're not succeeding at this.

Speaker 6 (43:41):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 20 (43:42):
And obviously when you're an athlete, a lot of people
say that it's such a hard job, but since becoming
a mum, being an athlete's one.

Speaker 6 (43:50):
Of the easiest jobs in the world. You just worry
about yourself.

Speaker 20 (43:54):
You just make sure that you tune up and you
train hard, and you recover better and you eat well
and sleep well. As soon as you add a little
human into the mix of it, you now aren't the priority,
and so everything revolves around Harvey, his health, his his behavior,
his sleep. So it definitely challenges challenges you in a

(44:18):
different way that I probably didn't expect. And yeah, obviously
being an athlete for such a long time where you
generally just have to think about yourself it. Yeah, it's
just a massive one eighty and you'll translating just in
this life in this chapter. But I hope he gets

(44:39):
to travel with me overseas soon and gets to watch
Mum represent the Black Friend sevens on the World Series,
because I think that will be a really cool story
to tell in the future when he's a little bit
older and well aware of what mum does.

Speaker 3 (44:52):
Oh, look, he's got incredible stories to hear about from
Mum and Dad and your mother. Of course, being a
former black Fern, I hat to be a little bit
worried about Paul Harvey and the expectation on him of
having two of them spirits.

Speaker 20 (45:08):
Yeah, he's already got massive expectations on himself.

Speaker 6 (45:12):
And like he's already been given a.

Speaker 20 (45:15):
Team New Zealand onesie from the Olympic t New Zealand,
and he's already been given a Rowing Enzied onesie as well.
He's got a Black Friend Seven's onesie, So there's lots.

Speaker 6 (45:26):
Of expectations on him. Yeah, I know, yeah, of.

Speaker 20 (45:30):
Being a successful athlete and I'm trying to remind myself,
trying to tell myself he will go towards what he
loves and if it's not sport, that's okay, But I
will be steering him towards the rugby field more than
the lake.

Speaker 3 (45:46):
This is hilarious three months old. I love it. I
love the way you're talking yourself through this. I saw
some videos of you getting back into some very restrained
movement and training just after I think three days maybe
after giving birth. Was there always a plan and place
for you to get back into exercising.

Speaker 20 (46:03):
Oh yeah, definitely. Before I got fred, I was always
planning on coming back to the Black trind sevens, But
obviously with me getting pregnant, it kind of just through
a spent in the works and the plan had to change.

Speaker 6 (46:17):
A little bit.

Speaker 20 (46:19):
So I was always going to come back to high
performance sport, and so I guess, like coming from a
dairy farmer background as well, with my parents being extremely
active and me being extremely active my whole life, there
was no doubt that once I got home from the
hospital that I was going to start something to get
my recovery on track. So yeah, day three, I started

(46:42):
doing some breathing exercises, some very very light core exercises
just to kind of put everything back together. As you know,
the core splits in half, so we got to get
that back together. But yes, definitely got some goals in
place to get back on the field hopefully by November
this year and then fingers crossed being selected for the

(47:05):
due By Cape Town Wild Series tournaments there are in
December this year.

Speaker 3 (47:09):
It's pretty exciting to see you re sign with the
Black Ferns. Is after the Paris Olympics, did you think
you were done with the sport? Or as you say,
did you was this always in the back of your mind?

Speaker 20 (47:23):
To be honest, if I had to think about you
know where I was at mentally after Paris. Yeah, there
was a stage where I thought I'd had enough. I
remember saying to my call after we received our gold
medal so after the ceremony, that I didn't want to
do there ever again, and I was like, I'm finished.

Speaker 6 (47:42):
I'm so tired.

Speaker 20 (47:44):
It was hard, like mentally and emotionally. Like physically I
felt fine, but it was a lot of rugby in
one year, and the amount of pressure that I put
on myself, that we put on our team to be
the best in the world is quite hard to handle
sometimes if you're not used to it.

Speaker 6 (48:01):
So I think.

Speaker 20 (48:02):
Mentally I was just ready for a break and really
just to calm down and sit at home and do
nothing for a while. But then I got back onto
the series after getting married, and I was like, oh, actually,
and I.

Speaker 6 (48:13):
Love this, this is fun.

Speaker 20 (48:15):
So yeah, I think I just needed a really good
break away from rugby, and then obviously just got excited
about getting married.

Speaker 6 (48:23):
That was really important to me.

Speaker 20 (48:24):
Obviously, so a lot of things were happening in between
Paris and the next time that I was going to
be playing rugby, and I just needed to do me.
I just needed to have some Michayla time and do
things that I can't do during the season. And that
definitely just sparked the year did It sparked the excitement for.

Speaker 6 (48:44):
The game again.

Speaker 20 (48:45):
And then all of a sudden, I thought, you know what, buger,
let's go back and try again for the Olumpacks, but
let's do it as a mum this time.

Speaker 2 (48:53):
Why not.

Speaker 3 (48:54):
I believe that the Black Ferns sort of the medical team,
have given you a return to play program, like You've
got really good support there haven't you.

Speaker 6 (49:02):
Oh massive.

Speaker 11 (49:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (49:03):
And the cool thing about.

Speaker 20 (49:06):
I guess the evolution of women's sport right now is
that when your athletes for most sports that I can
think of, get pregnant, it's not just a matter of
our bugger, Okay, we won't resign you. It's about, okay,
how do we support you to get you back physically
playing for this team. And there's so many female rugby

(49:26):
players right now that have either done that or are
pregnant for the second time or first time, who are
planning to come back to represent their country and rugby.
So I think it's amazing that we're now in a
place where we are supported the way that we are.
And so when I did tell my coach and agent
that I was pregnant, their mindset went straight to cool, Okay,

(49:48):
let's let you obviously enjoy being pregnant and get through
this phase, but let's also put a plan in place
where we know exactly what to do when you come
back onto the field, when you come back to training,
and let's get it right. So, yeah, messive support around me.
I've got such an awesome medical team who check with
me all the time and making sure that I'm doing

(50:09):
everything right and being patient with my body, but also
doing what I need to do mentally and emotionally to
make myself feel good during the day, because exercise makes
me feel really, really good. So yeah, massive support around
me to try and get me back in the black jersey.

Speaker 3 (50:24):
Which is fantastic. And I watched the documentary No Tears
on the Field, of which you participate on You and
your Mum, which is when I learned about your mum,
which I really loved, sort of going down that path.
But the one thing that you noticed in this film,
which was really a documentary about grassroots women's rugby, which
I highly recommend everyone told watch it. But you know,

(50:45):
even when they were looking at grassroots, they were you know,
these clubs were talking about how do we support women
to be able to continue to play sport. And that's
even at that level, which is great to see, isn't it.

Speaker 6 (50:58):
Oh for sure. I think the beautiful thing about.

Speaker 20 (51:02):
Being a woman and being a mum is that your
mindset changes when you've got yeah, okay, the responsibility of
a little human. And I think it's amazing how at
grassroots rugby, even like you're not getting paid to play there,
it's out of your own personal time to go and
play grassroots rugby. And it's no guarantee that you know,

(51:27):
the woman's game is going to I guess you could
say shoot off the way.

Speaker 6 (51:31):
That the men's game does.

Speaker 20 (51:32):
But yet women still commit to the Tuesday and Thursday
night's trainings, they commit to the Saturdays and try and
figure out how their kids are looked after. So yeah,
it is definitely a great representation of what it means
to play rugby, okay and the Naki, but also you know,

(51:55):
across the country. Yeah, and so hopefully it's a movie
that inspires well, first of all, hopefully it's a movie
that makes people a weird of the things that we
do as rugby players to enjoy the sport that we do,
but yet to obviously inspire some young girls to play
rugby as well, because it is an incredible career to
represent your country in sevens or fifteens, and to be

(52:18):
able to do it as a mum for me is
going to be an exciting challenge, but yeah, ready for it.

Speaker 3 (52:24):
And Harvey has been so well behaved. I won't keep
you for much longer, but I'd love to talk to
you about your commentary work because You've been doing a
bit of commentary work for Sky for suit Her rugby
ol Picky. Next up, you're part of the Sky's NRL
women's coverage for the Warriors game. Is commentary in the
media work something you really enjoy? Is this something that
you'd like to kind of have on, you know, to

(52:48):
do in the future.

Speaker 6 (52:50):
Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 20 (52:52):
The first time I commentated was at the SEVENS Nationals,
I believe, and oh gosh, it would have been twenty nineteen,
and I loved it, like it was so much fun,
and obviously I was rusty airs I think I would
have been well twenty two. I've never done it before
in my life, so I just got chucked into the
deep end. And then I had my first expert commentating

(53:15):
gig for a Blackfoods game in twenty twenty four. I
think it was so I literally skipped all the little
steps and went straight into commentating a Blackfoods game with Recky.

Speaker 6 (53:27):
But I loved it.

Speaker 20 (53:28):
Like I am someone that enjoys adrenaline, pressure, high expectations,
and so when you commentate a live game, there's obviously.

Speaker 6 (53:39):
No redos or replays.

Speaker 20 (53:41):
What you say for that game right there and then
is forever on TV and you can't say, oh, what's
actually let me do that sentence again. So I enjoy
putting myself in pressure moments like that, and it's been
you know, obviously rugby's in my blood and I always
watch rugby, and so obviously watching rugby and playing rugby

(54:04):
for such a long time, you kind of get your
head wrapped aroun the lingo and how commentators kind of
slot themselves into her plays and there, and so I
loved listening to her commentators, like Justin Marshall, even Liz
Alder when she's expert commentating. Obviously Wrecky, but she's just better,
better than anyone to me, Recky Swenel is just top

(54:26):
of the game when it comes to play by play commentating.
So would love to do it when I retire. And
then yeah, in a row, I'm doing that obviously next
weekend for Round one when the Girls play the Bulldogs.
I'm not commentating, I'm just doing panel work. But yeah, obviously,
now that I've had that experience in league and played
four games pregnant for the Warriors, I've got a better

(54:49):
understanding of the game and can talk about players and
as individuals and as humans. So I'm excited for that
challenge as well because I've never obviously done Sky's boot
work with the INTERLW, so excited to add that to
my resume.

Speaker 3 (55:04):
Mikayla, thank you so much for juggling and having a
chat with us this morning and beast of luck with
all the training. We can't wait to see you on
the field again soon.

Speaker 6 (55:13):
Thank you.

Speaker 20 (55:13):
I can't wait to see me on the field too,
so whenever that may be, I'm really excited, sons. I'm
very very grateful for everyone's support and appreciate everyone's kind words.

Speaker 6 (55:24):
So yeah, let's get back on that field.

Speaker 3 (55:26):
Love that attitude, Mikayla, and we wish you all the
very best for that return. But if you can't wait
for her field comeback, as we mentioned, you can catch
Mikayla as part of the Sky Sport NURLW commentary team
for the Warriors opening match next Sunday. Exciting times and look,
speaking of rugby, love to get your thoughts on what
you how you feel about New Zealand rugby and Rugby

(55:46):
Australia's announcement that they've made today. It was in the
ten o'clock News they have confirmed there's going to be
an Anzac Day Bleders Low Cup test. These tests are
going to take place in twenty twenty seven, twenty twenty
nine and twenty thirty one. Those are the years where
it's only a two tests let us Low Cup, so
it'll make it a three test competition. How does that

(56:08):
sound to you or does the idea of having it
so early in Anzac Day in the middle of Super
Rugby not sound like such a great idea to you?
You can text me ninety two ninety two. It is
twenty four past ten.

Speaker 2 (56:24):
Relax, it's still the weekend.

Speaker 1 (56:26):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin and Wiggles for
the best selection of great Reads Used Talks that be.

Speaker 3 (56:34):
When you're looking for a good book to read. Wickckles
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 part of recommendation comes in. That's
why Wickles offers the Top one hundred, the Kid's Top
fifty and Jones picks the Top one hundred and Kids
Top fifty have been voted for by readers of New Zealand.

(56:56):
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 the Wick calls
head book buyer, the titles she has read and and
they have come. They come with Joanes's 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

(57:18):
at wit Calls.

Speaker 2 (57:21):
The Sunday Session.

Speaker 6 (57:23):
Don't come, don't stark, cad me.

Speaker 17 (57:29):
Bucko, you'll know how, don't dark Carridler bow me.

Speaker 3 (57:35):
Now versus dua leaper Now. She has just opened the
world's most beautiful bookshop. It's called the Manifesto Library. She's coming.
It's the most beautiful bookshop. It is a book. It's
a library, a band censored and restricted books. You'll find
about one hundred books there. The library is a shrine

(57:55):
to books that have disappeared, that have had to disappear,
to authors whose carriage unmasks structures of power and control,
and to readers who refuse to be told what book
they are allowed to read. The only problem is you
gon have to go to Portugal to go to this library, unfortunately,
but there we go right times talking entertainment and I'm
joined now by Steve Newil.

Speaker 14 (58:15):
Good morning, Good morning.

Speaker 3 (58:16):
Okay, So was it last week we were talking about
venues sort of closing and disappearing, and we were talking
about Nick of the Woods.

Speaker 14 (58:23):
Yeah, it was a bad news week class, Yeah, it
was a big but we're on kind of turned into
a good news this week. So Auckland venue Nick of
the Woods, well announced its closure, citing that their business
was really unsustainable in the current climate where people were
still going out but were just drinking and spending less,
and with music venue so reliant on alcohol sales, it's

(58:43):
a perfect storm, I guess for them to still feel
busy but actually be losing.

Speaker 8 (58:48):
Money every week.

Speaker 14 (58:50):
In the wake of that announcement, the community rallied around
the venue and fundraiser that I wasn't sure would get
anywhere near its goal of one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars to save the venue. That money was raised from
a whole bunch of different sources, with an average contribution
of like fifty nine dollars. That was kind of just
people reaching in through their pockets, but also also artists
like the Beths who donated the merch sales from one

(59:11):
of the US shows to the cause, and it gives
us venue an opportunity to continue what it's done for
the last eleven years and provided a great home for
a really wide range of music and helped develop the
next generation of artists and also audience and club guys.

Speaker 3 (59:26):
That's amazing because often when we talk about art and
culture and things and excuse me funding and people say, well, look,
you know, you know, people aren't really that interested anymore,
or people have moved on, or people get the entertainment
in different ways and things like that. But this is
just a classic example of showing the value that an
institution like this, a place like this has.

Speaker 14 (59:46):
To absolutely and to put it in perspective in a
listener story about sort of what's been going on around
K Road. There's been a few other closures like Verona
and Flying Art Records and stuff like that. Lucia McCrae
from Whammy gave some figures from their business. They see
about twelve hundred people through each week through the various
rooms and Whammy, and they buy an average of one

(01:00:08):
point seven drinks, so it's not a huge amount coming
across the bar, and that's the majority of their income.
So it's a challenge to make this work. We need
to start thinking about these spaces less as hospitality and
more as part of our cultural infrastructure.

Speaker 3 (01:00:24):
I could probably pop in and help them out.

Speaker 14 (01:00:26):
Yeah, I mean, let's try and get out to two drinks.

Speaker 15 (01:00:29):
Up to two drinks. That's a good idea.

Speaker 14 (01:00:32):
And then actually another figure to throw it this as well,
sort of in the context, just so people don't think
this is like help out the poor struggling arts. A
massive university survey over twelve month period found that the
live performance sector contributed over seventeen point three billion dollars
in social and economic value to the country, and that
for every dollar spent in live performances, three dollars twenty

(01:00:54):
was returned in value. So it's it's not nice to
have this is making a big contribution to our country.
It's not being supportive enough nice.

Speaker 3 (01:01:02):
Let's talk about Apple TV's Cape Fear series. I've managed
to get through the first episode and I'm I'm I
love the cast, and I'm kind of a bit nervous.

Speaker 14 (01:01:13):
Yeah, and I think I know why because I've got
a similar feeling. It's been a book, it's been a film,
and it's been another film. So the Martin scorre Ces
version will be the best known, although probably you could
say that maybe the Simpsons parody of it is actually
the most known. It admits some of them were adult themes,
The Simpsons, the Simpsons version, but we kind of know
that this really nice seeming family that's at the center

(01:01:36):
of the show is about to be tormented by an
ex convict and a whole bunch of physical and psychological ways.
And I'm not one hundred percent sure if I'm ready
for exactly where the show is going to go by
the time it finishes, but I'm really enjoying it, and
I think a big part of that is there's been
these different versions. But Robert de Niro is the kind

(01:01:57):
of the baddie that I imagine when I think of
Cape Fair. Such a ferocious performance he gave back in
the ninety two version, and so I thought, for age,
who's who's got the who's got the hots pa to
step into those shoes, And it's Javier Bardem And it's
awesome because he's sympathetic and terrifying charismatic and revolting. All

(01:02:18):
those things kind of wrapped together. He can turn on
a dime, and so I can't kind of can't wait,
but I'm kind of terrified to see what it does
to this seemingly nice, successful American family.

Speaker 3 (01:02:29):
Also stars Amy Adams and Patrick Wilson, so it's worth
a look better.

Speaker 14 (01:02:32):
The Cleanest of Cut Parents is too. That's on Apple TV.
It's a couple of its into its season. I think
it's an eight episode run and it's maybe a one
and done, so I think it'll just probably recap the
kind of arc of the film and then go away.

Speaker 3 (01:02:47):
There we go, Brillan, Thank you so much, Steve. Coming
up next, Michelle di Concerns with us and she's going
to talk us through PNC, which is something that you
might have. It's called problematic News Consumption. It is twenty
six to eleven.

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
It's the Sunday session with Jessica Rudkin on News Talks
at be.

Speaker 3 (01:03:10):
Joining me now is doctor Michelle de concern Good.

Speaker 6 (01:03:12):
Morning, Good morning.

Speaker 3 (01:03:14):
You've got such an interesting topic we're just talking about,
we'll stay before he left, about our our issue with
problematic news consumption.

Speaker 21 (01:03:26):
Yeah, and do you know what I read this study
a few weeks ago, and I actually made some changes,
and I'm going to tell you it's made a huge
difference to my life, and I hadn't realized how much
it was affecting me. So for those of you who
haven't read the study, it's in the General Nature Human Behavior,
and basically it says that our modern brains were never
designed for this much bad news. And I don't know

(01:03:48):
if you've noticed that most of the news headlines are negative,
not positive.

Speaker 3 (01:03:54):
You have, you got looks of the positives.

Speaker 21 (01:03:57):
You can look for them, but look, in the olden days,
the biggest fret threats that we all faced were local.

Speaker 6 (01:04:05):
Right we didn't have the internet.

Speaker 21 (01:04:06):
Would worry about whether or not there was a sick
child in your village, or maybe that was a predator
hiding in long gress. And you had to notice these
behaviors quickly because it could be faithal if you missed them.
But what's happening now is we have that same sense
of emergency around danger, but it's like our world is
transformed so that we're getting danger signals all the time

(01:04:27):
from the news that we get because it's global news
and it's things that you know don't affect our day
to day lives, but we're taking on as a burden
because you know, there are wars, and there's financial market means,
and there's a whole bunch of stuff. And so this study,
which was interesting, it actually examined twenty two thousand controlled
experiments that were run by the website upworthy, and they

(01:04:50):
created one hundred and five thousand different headline variations and
they were shown to readers over three hundred and seventy
million times, so this is amazing data. And what they
did is they changed the headlines every time, and they
put in some headlines more negative words than the others
to see whether or not we are attracted to negativity.
And obviously we are because our brains go, it's negative,

(01:05:13):
it might be a threat, it's potentially important, and so
we jump onto these negative news stories. But then we
take it on as a burden and it's starting to
stress us out. So this study basically said, if you,
like me, feel the pressure, just turn off your notifications,
set specific news reading times, and basically go read some

(01:05:34):
good quality news rather than scrolling social media posts and
understand that no news is important, but you don't have
to have it ping you every five seconds, and then
maybe like me, if you're starting to feel a bit overwhelmed,
you can stay up to date and not feel like
there's a tiger in your backyard every two minutes.

Speaker 3 (01:05:53):
I love it. Thank you so much, Michelle, appreciate your time.
This morning. It's twenty one to eleven.

Speaker 1 (01:05:59):
The Sunday Session Full Show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by
News Talks.

Speaker 3 (01:06:04):
It'd be thank you very much for you Texas Warning.
Someone said, Hi, it's great there's an ANZAC test that
we're talking about rugby and bled Aslow. But every game
is in Brisbane. Why couldn't they make it alternate between
New Zealand and Australia. Very very good point. So the
first one is going to be on Sunday, the twenty
fifth of April in Brisbane. But I do note that
the Warriors are going to host the NRL ANZAC Round

(01:06:26):
match at Eden Park in Auckland on the twenty fifth
of April. But we do have other stadiums in this country,
don't we. There's lots of other space. We've got some
very good stadiums. Now right joining us is Mike vander Elsen.
Good morning, Good morning, So New Zealand's first Mitcheland Star
is to be announced on Tuesday. I mean, will it
be one, will it be two? How many stars do

(01:06:46):
you think though? How many different? How many stars do
you think they might hand out?

Speaker 22 (01:06:52):
Hard to tell, hard to tell, But what it is
is massive news for New Zealand's dining scene to be
in the Mitcheland Guide as yeah, it puts us up
next to some of the best rest in.

Speaker 4 (01:07:06):
The entire world.

Speaker 23 (01:07:07):
You know, little old New Zealand, We're going to be
receiving Michland Stars. And you know what the Michland system
is to a chef, like, I'm out of it now.
I'm out of that sort of restaurant world. But whilst
I was in it, it was massive. So originated by
the two Michland brothers in nineteen hundreds, this Michland Guide

(01:07:30):
came about to encourage people to drive, to get into
their cars, to use their tires so that they would
be replaced by new Michland tires. So yeah, it's incredible.
So what happens is there's anonymous inspectors who are trained.
These are professional trainers or professional inspectors that travel the
world evaluating restaurants completely an ominously so that they receive

(01:07:55):
absolutely no preferential treatment, so you have no idea who
they are.

Speaker 4 (01:08:00):
They focus on the food.

Speaker 23 (01:08:02):
There's there's strict criteria that they follow in regards to
the ingredients and mastery of flight, the cooking techniques, even
the personality of the chef is taken into consideration.

Speaker 4 (01:08:11):
You know, the consistency, the restaurant, decorps, the toilets, everything
goes into play to award these stars.

Speaker 23 (01:08:18):
And now Michland restaurants that they're in the tens of
the thousands across the globe, So people travel the world
just to go to Michlan Star restaurants. So you're awarded
three stars, one, two or three, so one being very
very good in its category, two stars excellent, worth of detour,
three stars exceptional worth a journey. Take all the money

(01:08:43):
out of your bank, go there and spend it at
this restaurant. So, you know, will we get a three
Michan star? I don't think so. Will we get two? Possibly?
You know it's the restaurant's are Auckland, Wellington, christ Church, Queenstown.

Speaker 4 (01:08:59):
Will we get one star? Restaurant? Absolutely?

Speaker 3 (01:09:02):
Okay, I thought you got a start. And then if
you've got another star, you got then you got And like,
I didn't know that you could earn two stars straight off,
with three stars straight off. I thought you earned them
as you went. But that's no.

Speaker 4 (01:09:13):
You can Yeah, you can go in at two. Yeah,
and going that three. That is cool.

Speaker 3 (01:09:18):
Can you tell me about your own experience with the
Michillin system.

Speaker 23 (01:09:22):
So working in London in the two thousands, I remember
walking I was working at Bluebird, and I can remember
walking past Gordon Ramsey's Aubishing restaurant, which was his first
Michelin star restaurant, and I can remember walking past about
sixt eighty in the morning on the way to Bluebird,
and I remember stopping at the door looking into the
kitchen and there was Gordon Ramsey, steam firing up everywhere,

(01:09:42):
steam coming out of his ears. You could see he
was just yelling at all his stuff, and I was like,
I do not want to work in that kitchen. However,
after that we ended up working in a small luxury
hotel in Ireland, and whilst Ben and I were the
only two chefs in the kitchen.

Speaker 4 (01:09:59):
We earned a Micheland Star, which was massive.

Speaker 23 (01:10:02):
However, the owner turned it down because he was you
know what happened when I know what happens when you
leave and you go back to New zeal which we were.

Speaker 4 (01:10:10):
We're only there for one year. So he actually turned
it down.

Speaker 23 (01:10:13):
So he got what they call a blue star, which
means that you're of Michellan level, but you're not in
that judging criteria. Paul that the pressure to get a
star is one thing. The pressure then is on you
to keep that star. It's massive. There's a very famous
restaurant in Paris. They had three Michan stars. The chef

(01:10:34):
got it into his head that he was going to
lose a star before the ceremony. He actually committed suicide.
It came to the ceremony and he didn't lose a star.
He remained at three Michlan stars. So he committed suicide
for no reason other than the pressure of losing that star. Okay,
it's been incredible.

Speaker 3 (01:10:54):
Yeah, look it's been a rough time for hospitality here.
But could this be a bit of a boost.

Speaker 23 (01:10:59):
I think it'd be massive. I think it'd be massive.
It will bring thousands of people to New Zealand just
for the journey of coming and experts into a mission
star restaurant.

Speaker 4 (01:11:07):
So you know which restaurants will get it hard to tell.

Speaker 23 (01:11:11):
I'm kind of a little bit out of the loop
when it comes to Wellington christ Church in Queenstown restaurants. However,
with an Auckland itself, there will be maybe Guilt by
Josh Emmittt. Possibly there will be maybe are He by
Ben Bailey. Maybe there'll be my very good friend Micky Meredith,
that mister Morris. Maybe it's hard to tell. It's hard

(01:11:34):
to tell what level they put their bar at when
it comes to offering the mission starts, but there will
certainly be some.

Speaker 3 (01:11:41):
Does it add a sort of a layer of competition
between the sheets that is that healthy?

Speaker 8 (01:11:47):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (01:11:47):
Actually, there's always been their competition. It's always been there.
It's just now, you know.

Speaker 23 (01:11:51):
Previously world Go would have the Cuisine Restaurant of the
Year awards, which are still amazing, the Metro Restaurant of
the Year awards, They've.

Speaker 4 (01:11:58):
Always been there.

Speaker 23 (01:11:59):
It's just this is another level above all of those,
I believe.

Speaker 3 (01:12:02):
Oh, it's going to be very exciting. We'll have it.
We'll have a debrief at the end. Would have a
debrief next weekend. Thank you so much, Mike. It is
a twelve to eleven.

Speaker 2 (01:12:12):
There's no better way to start your Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:12:15):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin and Wit Girls
for the best selection of great breaths use talks.

Speaker 8 (01:12:22):
That'd be.

Speaker 3 (01:12:24):
Joining me now to talk wellness. Erin O'Hara, good morning,
Good morning. You've got a very good topic for us today.
We're going to talk about the hidden risks of using
AI for health advice. And look, I believe AI absolutely
has a role to play to make our lives more
efficient and more useful, but this is probably an area
where I would be, you know, slightly suspicious about taking
you know, it is truth.

Speaker 24 (01:12:47):
Yeah, millions of people turned to conversational AI like chat,
GPT or claude all the time to ask questions around
their symptoms, maybe their medications, supplements, create me a diet plan,
or they put all their lab work into AI and
see what's wrong with them, which is always concerning. And
the research that's coming out on AI for medical decisions

(01:13:10):
is really inaccurate and inconsistent and actually a real mixture,
and it says it's a mix of good and bad information,
which means that you really need to know what you're
kind of analyzing when it comes to that information coming
back to you of what you get back from AI,
is that the truth or is that actually not what
is really going on with your health.

Speaker 3 (01:13:32):
There are actually some specific health AI programs which even
some doctors use, which can be very good. But you're
just talking about just general AI, just throwing it into
as you say, Claudal chet Ye.

Speaker 24 (01:13:43):
I'm talking about the average person at home who goes,
I've got X y Z symptoms. They put it into
their chatbot and see what comes back, and that's where
there's actually a high error rate and what's known as hallucinations,
where actually the AI models are designed to predict language,
so rather than giving you clinical reasoning, it might actually

(01:14:05):
tell you what you want to hear, what it thinks
you want to know, which is actually not very good
for a medical diagnosis. Also can miss red flags like
symptoms because obviously that AI doesn't analyze you and your
breathing and whether you're weazy, whether you've got a rash.
It can't look at all of those factors. Also, there
can be misinterpretation as well, where it kind of misinterprets

(01:14:27):
what you tell it and then gives you a totally
different diagnosis.

Speaker 6 (01:14:30):
There's the risk of privacy also if.

Speaker 24 (01:14:32):
You're putting all your personal information, where's it gone, And
you've got to look at that as a concern as well.
And there's that absence of physical examination, which is such
an important part when it comes to particularly medical diagnosis
and making medical decisions as well, you know. And it's
not all negative though. I think we've got to look
at the positives. There are some positive parts of using

(01:14:55):
an AI checkbot to help you with medical advice, and
that might be just organizing a large amount of information
very quickly or summarizing some research you can actually you
make some good decisions. So I think we've got to
look at the benefits as well. So it's get a
proper diagnosis. But then once you because we do often
get overloaded with information and we come we do sometimes

(01:15:17):
walk out about it out of the doctor's you know,
meeting a little bit overwhelmed. That is when you can
take all the information you've got and help and use
AI to help you get that all get absolutely or
maybe you use it before you actually go to your
medical consultation, because then you can actually sort of ask
some questions and actually go there and already have some
informed consent to have questions that you can then ask

(01:15:40):
the healthcare provider, whether it's your doctor, natural pair, pharmacists.
You can actually have some good questions that you've already
discovered through your AI. The other thing you can also
do is ask questions that you might feel uncomfortable asking
a medical practitioner. You can actually ask AI and maybe
it can give you some ideas of how to kind
of approach it with your medical practitioner without feeling embarrassed.

Speaker 3 (01:16:02):
And if you are going to use it, you need
to be really specific when prompting, don't you absolutely.

Speaker 24 (01:16:07):
And I think the more specific you are, the better
you're going to get the information back. And I think
it's just use it, but use it with caution and
know what you're asking and how you're asking it, and
what kind of information is coming back fact checked it
because sometimes it will use clinical research that's like a
case study of one person, which is obviously not very
good scientific research.

Speaker 3 (01:16:29):
Thank you so much, erin a fascinating topic. Today it
is six to eleven.

Speaker 1 (01:16:33):
The Sunday Session Full Show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by
News Talks.

Speaker 11 (01:16:38):
At b.

Speaker 18 (01:16:41):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:16:41):
I don't know about you, but I struggle to walk
past a bookshop. There's something familiar and welcoming about a bookstore.
Wherever you are, a good one will feel like a sanctury,
where there's no need to rush to buy something or
to be on your way. Well, in Nova Scotia, there
is a unique bookstore run by a now eighty three
year old gentleman called Chris. And Chris is a former semen.

(01:17:02):
He doesn't open the bookshop during the day. He opens
at night and he stays open as long is he's
got a customer, so he basically just gives people a
place to come and spend time in chat and brows.

Speaker 2 (01:17:13):
This.

Speaker 3 (01:17:13):
Chris's story has been captured by Canadian filmmaker Justin Zuris
in the short documentary called The Bookstore That Never Sleep
And Justin is in New Zealand for the dock Aage
Film Festival and he joins me, next, we're going to
end with a little bit of Phoebe Bridges. This is
her first solo single in four years. It's off her
up and coming album Lost Weekend.

Speaker 25 (01:17:35):
This is Lost Boys.

Speaker 2 (01:17:55):
It's Sunday. You know what that means.

Speaker 1 (01:17:57):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin and Wiggles for
the best selection of grape reeds used talk Sepp.

Speaker 3 (01:18:10):
Coming up this hour on a Sunday session, Jason Pine
sums up the All Whites feed the World Cup campaign.
We're going to talk about where the top can make
it to the five percent threshold to end of Parliament.
That's going to be on the panel. And a look
at a beautiful book from GP Claire Ward on her
work and life in Northland. It's seven past eleven.

Speaker 2 (01:18:32):
The Sunday session.

Speaker 3 (01:18:35):
So while out walking one night in a small town
in Nova Scotia, film director justin's or As stumbled across
a very special bookstore. Elizabeth's Books, opens only at night.
There's no set hours. It just closes when the last
customer leaves. Justin got curious and he stuck around, and naturally,
the story of Elizabeth's Books and its owner, Chris, is
now a film.

Speaker 8 (01:18:56):
I'm a light person.

Speaker 26 (01:19:00):
When I was at sea, I did watches round the clock,
and I've found that I much prefer the night watches.
I felt much more comfortable working at night. People are
out on the street walking around. There's nothing else open.
Everything else is closed by about five or six pm.

Speaker 8 (01:19:26):
But I'm still here.

Speaker 3 (01:19:28):
The Book Store that Never Sleeps is having its world
premiere at the Dock Edge Film Festival today. Director Justin
Zoris is very kindly coming to the studio.

Speaker 15 (01:19:36):
Welcome Justin, good morning, thanks for having me here. This
is great.

Speaker 3 (01:19:40):
First of all, can we please just talk about Lundenberg,
Nova Scotia. What a ridiculously picturesque town. It's crazy, tell
me about it.

Speaker 15 (01:19:51):
Unbelievable.

Speaker 27 (01:19:52):
It's a touristtown in the South Shore and it's picturesque.
You could definitely, you know, take a photo, put it
on a postcard. And it's just such a beautiful, wonderful place.
The people are fantastic. There's loss of you lost to see,
but fortunately around five or six pm when the sun
starts to go down, not a lot on the go there,
so which is great.

Speaker 15 (01:20:13):
It's gorgeous.

Speaker 27 (01:20:15):
But that's how I stumbled across the certain stores after
the sun went down.

Speaker 3 (01:20:18):
Are you from there or were you visiting?

Speaker 27 (01:20:20):
So I I'm from Nova Scotia, but I do a
lot of work in TV and reality unscripted, and so
you know, certainly they kind of bounce you around the
province basically where the stories are. They send you a
lot of the time when you work in my field,
they put you up in you know, the Motel six
or like the Airbnb, not like the greatest thing. So
of course when you're doing a shoot in the South
Shore and they put you up in Lunenberg, it's.

Speaker 15 (01:20:42):
It's a treat.

Speaker 27 (01:20:43):
So that's kind of how I stumbled across the store
was you know, you're working a long day on set,
twelve hours, and then once you're done, you kind of
want to, you know, grab a pint somewhere or grab
you know, something to eat. And as you're walking through
the town and there's not a lot of the go,
you just see this light spilling out on the street.
So naturally, being curious, you know, I have to kind
of go in there and investigate.

Speaker 3 (01:21:01):
So I did think one of the benefits of opening
the shop in the evening was you could always get
a park outside, you.

Speaker 8 (01:21:06):
Know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:21:06):
I'm very easy to just get a cat back out
side and hit on it. Chris Is now the owner
of the shop. Can you tell me about Chris Chris Is?

Speaker 15 (01:21:15):
He's so special.

Speaker 27 (01:21:16):
It's one of those things where you know, immediately you
see the store it's open at night, and you immediately
want to go, hey, that's quirky or that's odd, which
frankly it is.

Speaker 15 (01:21:25):
But you know, when you actually talk to people about it.

Speaker 27 (01:21:27):
And you say, hey, like have you seen that bookstore
or have you walked by it, like what's the deal there,
a lot of the time the people in the town
will say, oh, that's just Chris.

Speaker 15 (01:21:35):
So it's one of those things of you know, once.

Speaker 27 (01:21:37):
You say that, you're like, oh, there's a story here,
and there's a person here with a big heart. So
I think one thing that kind of speaks to how
sweet and Condye is is that the moment you walk
in the store, he greets you and he has a
chair next to his desk. So a lot of the
time you walk in a bookstore and you see a kioskar,
you know, and enter the book here there's an associate
running around with stacks of book in their hands. But
with Chris, he's seated and he's welcome, welcomes you in,

(01:21:58):
and he invites you to sit down. And I think
the moment that you sit down, you know, okay, this
is a special and this is a really unique place.

Speaker 3 (01:22:03):
And then what happens once you sit down, does he
just kind of ask you something about yourself.

Speaker 24 (01:22:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:22:11):
Does.

Speaker 27 (01:22:12):
It starts off with a bit of a conversation and
a lot of it is like, okay, this is the
layout of the story here the books that we sell. Okay,
and then great, and then we just talk about our
passions and we talk about you know, what makes you know,
you know, this evening book store so special in terms of, hey,
you have time to talk about things, you have time
to look into things.

Speaker 15 (01:22:28):
You'll point out a book at the.

Speaker 27 (01:22:29):
Shelf and you get up and kind of you know,
look at it and bring it back and talk about it.
You know, it seems like he has a story for
every book in the store. Which makes it really special
is that you can talk about one really obscure book
or one very obscure thing, and he knows something about
it and he wants to share that with you.

Speaker 3 (01:22:42):
So when you walked in, you sat down in that state.
How long did it tank for you to know that
there was a story that you wanted to capture on film?

Speaker 15 (01:22:48):
Almost instantly?

Speaker 27 (01:22:49):
And I think it was certainly his picturesque So of course,
you know, you look at him and you know, he
looks like something out of like a Wes Anderson film.
But you know, you sit down and you realize, you know,
he doesn't really talk about himself. He talks about other
people in the town and the beauty, and so as
you're sitting there, you're almost imagining these things in your
And of course, because I have a very you know,
cinematic lens and eye, it was really easy for me

(01:23:11):
to put it together. So I think it was almost instantly.
Chris didn't necessarily want to do a documentary. It was
sort of thing that you know, he goes, you know,
who wants to do a documentary about me? And I'm
there kind of banging my head on the table, like,
come on, like loads of people would love to do
one about you. But uh, yeah, I'm glad it worked out.
I'm glad that over the years because you know, I
got to know him through years of kind of going
in there and buying books and sitting down, and I

(01:23:33):
think over the years it was, you know, we built
this trust and connection and it was interesting.

Speaker 3 (01:23:38):
So it wasn't like you stumbled across it and went,
I have to make this film and I'm going to
you know, I'm going to make it in the next
you know, Immediately it took a little while to get
him on board, and I can understand why it comes
from such an interesting background. He was a seaman for
for decades and decades, and you know clearly there's some
sort of PTSD there, and he narrates his story to us,

(01:23:59):
how did you decide what to use in the film, So.

Speaker 27 (01:24:04):
We want to use a lot of it was and so,
but we also knew that we couldn't just make the
film ten minutes long. We couldn't just say, hey, this
is a quirky store Bata Boom, and that's it. We
know that there's so much depth there and so much
history there that we wanted to explore. I think the
big thing for us what kind of brought us back
was that we wanted to make sure we you know,
try to make sure that we show an evening in

(01:24:25):
the store. So we want to make sure we capture
the town during the day, the experience as a customer
when you walk in and as he tells the story,
you're almost like along for the ride. So conveniently it
kind of works in a really interesting three acts structure,
so I don't really have to do a whole lot
in terms of, hey, we have to move this bit here,
this story here, et cetera.

Speaker 15 (01:24:43):
You're just sort of along for the ride.

Speaker 27 (01:24:44):
And so I think that's kind of what makes the
story really interesting, where a lot of the time you'll
watch a movie and you'll watch a TV show and
it's very structured. It's very much, hey, we need action here,
we need some sort of conflict here, et cetera. And
you know, to me, I wanted to make the documentary
as you know, as close to the experience as possible,
and just conveniently it worked out as a beautiful story.

Speaker 3 (01:25:03):
Yeah. And as I said, it's clear he's had this
some really full on life, some pretty grueling stories to tell,
especially at sea, and you don't pressure him to share
a huge amount of detail, and it's like you're trying
to match his restraint with the film is trying to
match his restraint. Is that a fair comment to make
because you didn't need the detail. You can you can

(01:25:24):
see the impact of his you know, and what he's
going through on his face and the way he tells
a story.

Speaker 11 (01:25:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 15 (01:25:30):
I also feel that less is more.

Speaker 27 (01:25:32):
I think that's sort of the thing in this age
of when you're watching content on your phone or TV
or online, they really kind of get to the punchline
really quickly, or they really shove it in your face,
you know, quite fast. And I think with Chris, you know,
just being there and seeded with him for hours talking
to him, you can feel that weight and that, you know,
in terms of his grief and the things that he
struggles with.

Speaker 15 (01:25:53):
And I think that's enough. And I think that comes
across something.

Speaker 3 (01:25:55):
I think probably what I was trying to say was
there is power not saying everything exactly showing it, which
is what this film does.

Speaker 27 (01:26:02):
Yeah, and I also feel that, you know, with the imagery,
it really reflect what Chris says. So what's beautiful is that,
you know, we sat down with Chris, we shot for
about six hours.

Speaker 15 (01:26:11):
We just sat and talked.

Speaker 27 (01:26:12):
And then once we had that, we really you know,
everything you see in the film and he shots of
the ocean or the town, it's all reflective of what
he says. So that's why sometimes you know, when he's
saying less or when he's kind of hinting at things
and you're seeing the images on the screen, you're like, wow,
this is a beautiful you know, marriage of soundbites. And
also you know what you're seeing on the screen.

Speaker 3 (01:26:33):
He's such a lovely man. We learned throughout the film
that he each night he reads for an hour or
so to a ninety two year old woman who can
no longer read. She's lost her eyesights gone for reading.
It's such a lovely act of kindness. And it kind
of reminded me about what we were all like during Lockdown.

Speaker 15 (01:26:49):
Oh no, we're going to go there.

Speaker 3 (01:26:50):
I think I got to go there because I was decided.
He does this beautiful thing, and he does it night
after night because he would love someone to read to
him if he couldn't read. It's that simple, right, And
it's this beautiful act of kindness, and that's a word
kindness sort of triggers a few people in New Zealand
these days talk about Lockdown. But I did think, gosh,
you know, we came out of that and we learned
so much about how we can look after each other

(01:27:12):
and get in a way just the world's just thrown
so much at us. We're just back into our very
individualist lives.

Speaker 27 (01:27:18):
Yeah, And I also feel that that's, you know, he
that's only one small thing that he does, and I
think it's a huge deal, and it certainly it's a
highlight of the actual film. But you know, he does
so many small gestures and kindness and and I think
it speaks to the person that he is and how
he lives his life and kind of you know, what
he wants people to take away from coming into the store.

(01:27:39):
You know, and this is something that he isn't really
told about. It's not something that you know, I go
in the store and he tells me this right off
the bat. So as a day to day customer, they
don't really know about these things. But certainly I've gone
in there at night and seen him on the phone
and he'll even say, like hold on and hold his
hand up as he's finishing the last page in the
last chapter and closes it and then says, you know,
good night to his friend on the phone. And I

(01:27:59):
just think that's so sweet in a world where it
can be you know, often just you know, miserable and negative,
to have one sweet sp yeah happening and we get
to highlight that it's so important.

Speaker 3 (01:28:09):
It really is a sanctuary, this this job. And in
a way, I it made me think about the role
that our overnight talkback hosts play here on news Stork
cp NO. Because it's all about providing that air, that comfort,
that companionship, the sense that you're not on your own. Yeah,

(01:28:29):
and I also feel that it's important to have that.

Speaker 15 (01:28:32):
Yeah, it's so important.

Speaker 27 (01:28:34):
And you know, I think a lot of it too,
is that you people who visit the town specifically and
they're out and about and they just have no idea
where to go or where to look, or there's night owls.
There are people that will just take long drives to
the town knowing that there's something there.

Speaker 15 (01:28:47):
It's there for them to walk in and discover. And
you know, I think you know.

Speaker 27 (01:28:50):
The fact that he does that, there's many people around
the world that do that and have those you know,
those jobs and passions I think are just fantastic.

Speaker 3 (01:28:56):
Okay, so what's it like going from making television. I
know that you've been directing and producing for a long time,
but as you say, sort of reality through to making
a documentary, right.

Speaker 27 (01:29:04):
It's it's different, and in a good way. I found
it really refreshing. I feel like when you're dealing with
a lot of unscripted and reality shows, there's you know,
certainly a lot of structure, there's certain a lot of
you know, beats that we need to get like, hey,
we need to make sure that you know, we're highlighting
this sort of tension or conflict. But I feel like
the skill set is the same in terms of you're
sitting down with you know, ordinary folks and there's a

(01:29:25):
story that you need to bring out of them. And
I think with Chris that was, you know, a natural
thing that we had to do, and it's it's easier
for me because I built a year long rapport with
him of going in there, sitting down and talking to him.

Speaker 15 (01:29:38):
But you're it was odd when you had.

Speaker 27 (01:29:39):
To switch gears because I went from a customer to
someone who's doing a documentary and so a lot of
it was a lot of the questions I would ask,
you know, prior to filming was like, oh, hey, have
you read this book?

Speaker 15 (01:29:49):
Have you done this?

Speaker 27 (01:29:50):
And then of course once the cameras are up and
we're filming, it's like tell me about your life or
tell me about your earliest childhood memory. And it's kind
of at first he was like, what, like, where where's
this going?

Speaker 3 (01:29:58):
You know, So we should also probably say that this
probably is about forty thousand books in this shop, but
the majority of them are not actually facile because Chris
hasn't read them yet and you'd like to read them moment.
This is not a commercial sort of wrote operation, is it.

Speaker 11 (01:30:14):
Yeah?

Speaker 27 (01:30:14):
I know, And it's sort of a thing of you
can visially see it. He's surrounded by five books. And
the one thing I'll say too is that this is
something that we couldn't include in the documentary that I
would absolutely love to.

Speaker 15 (01:30:23):
But Chris also.

Speaker 27 (01:30:24):
Rents DVDs and that, and it's it's one spot that
I wanted. I wanted to bring it in but we
just didn't have time. But there's a whole area of
the story that we just didn't film that just walled
a wall with DVDs. And you know, I think that
speaks him as well as that even if you don't
love books, you don't love like reading, there's something here
for you which is so important.

Speaker 3 (01:30:44):
Justin thank you so much for the film and introducing
us to Chris. He's been the de light to meet him,
really hands fain. So I wish you all the best.
Is this the beginning? Do you think this is documentaries
is your thing?

Speaker 11 (01:30:54):
Now?

Speaker 15 (01:30:55):
Maybe?

Speaker 4 (01:30:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 27 (01:30:55):
I think a lot of it is that I think
you need to kind of have many irons in the fire.
So I definitely have more documentary stories that I'd love
to tell, but then there's also a lot of you know,
TV unscripted stuff that you know, there's stories out there
too to tell.

Speaker 3 (01:31:05):
So well, Nova Scotia Tourism Board should be thinking you
as well, because my goodness, it has gone on my
list of places I must go.

Speaker 15 (01:31:12):
And you definitely need to come up and check it.

Speaker 3 (01:31:15):
Oh, thank you so much. The book Store That Never
Sleeps will have its world premiere as part of the
dock Edge in Auckland this afternoon. If you're around head along.
There are more screenings before it will be available online
to view as well, so for more information head to
doc Edge dot Nz. It's twenty past eleven. You're with
a Sunday session.

Speaker 2 (01:31:34):
Grabb Recover.

Speaker 1 (01:31:35):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin and Wikeles for
the best selection of great bringings used talk zed be.

Speaker 3 (01:31:42):
It is time for the panel and this morning I'm
joined by Director at Capital Ben Thomas. Good morning, Ben,
a moderner, and I'm also joined by Chelsea Daniels, host
of the front Page podcast. Hi Chelsea, morning, wonder if
we could talk about the kickoff by talking about stuff.
CEO had a long interview on their website, you Sday,

(01:32:04):
just talking about the media and polar titians and how
they're all kind of getting along and various other things.
Shared some interesting interactions that she'd had from politicians, and
her overwhelming thought was that they're just becoming a lot
than a skinned than they used to be being. I'm
wondering if you could talk to that. Do you think
that's the case?

Speaker 11 (01:32:26):
Yeah, Look, I certainly think that that's the case. We've
seen it this term, and I think increasingly in the
last probably year year and a half, and I think
really ramped up this year. We've seen the government be
much more sort of confrontational with the media. And that's
not just you know, you know these kind of behind

(01:32:48):
the scenes chats like I think Shanaide was talking about,
but you know, I think more in terms of trying
to influence the coverage very overtly. We're seeing, for instance,
the Prime Minister in his interviews now is basically just
going in and saying what whenever he's question why don't
you ask the opposition that you know, why don't you,

(01:33:08):
as the media ask the opposition that We've got people
like Shane Jones and Winston Peters who will sort of say,
don't ask me that question. You shouldn't be you know,
you should be very careful before asking me that question.
And it comes against this backdrop of these comments about
you know, r NZ funding and staff members and you know,

(01:33:30):
John Key always used to tell tell us when I
worked as a press secretary in his government, you know,
our real opposition is the media. And by that he meant,
you know, the media of the opposition that self was
underperforming and not really probing the people who were, you know,
really contesting the ideas of the government instead of holding
the feet to the fire and the people that we

(01:33:50):
had to sort of deal with and instead of, you know,
come to the arguments of where the media. But they
seem to be taking it in a very literal sense,
this government right now and really just sort of being
very combative and trying to sort of jaw bone the
media until I think, you know, what they would see
as more positive coverage.

Speaker 3 (01:34:09):
I think, I think everything you've said there we've all seen,
haven't we, Chelsea. But then I watch Scrutiny Week, and
my goodness, they go at each other they're su're not
afraid to be confrontational towards each other either.

Speaker 19 (01:34:23):
They're Yeah, you do see kind of a streak of
pettiness more more often now, don't you. It's kind of
very like I'm taking my ball and I'm going home energy.
So there's a major difference between calling out a bad
story and going on a long term grudge campaign. I
suppose the irony is they still need the media when
it suits them, when they've got a shiny announcement or

(01:34:45):
like a nice picture they want taken. It's just that
awkward question over whether they'd rather outsource that to social media.
Rants and things like you get in this cycle where
politicians complain about biased coverage and their supporters stop trusting
anything that doesn't flatter their side of the story. And
that might feel good in the moment, but it does
leave us all with kind of this less shared reality

(01:35:08):
of what we're going through, and I think that's really dangerous.

Speaker 3 (01:35:11):
I mean, Chelsea, do you have if you have problems
getting politicians on the front page?

Speaker 19 (01:35:16):
No, I don't, And I mean I've been called everything
from you know, a leftist commie to a right far
right extremist online. So I mean, and that I take
that as me doing my job well because I remain unbiased,
and I think that politicians really find the front page
is kind of a safe space. And it's a different

(01:35:37):
format as well, isn't it. You've got twenty minutes to
really go through the discussion. It's when you've got those
tiny clips and those journals that are out for kind
of gotcha moments.

Speaker 6 (01:35:48):
That you get a real you know, pushback from.

Speaker 3 (01:35:52):
I mean been social media plays a role in the
fact that it is a great way for people to
get their information out there.

Speaker 4 (01:35:59):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:36:00):
We see politicians often focusing on their own social media
channels as opposed to wanting to speak directly with the
media and the criticism there as well. They're just avoiding
robust debate and discussion, and that might be the case,
but then they're also finding a very effective way to
communicate with people.

Speaker 11 (01:36:19):
Yeah, and look at varies. You know, there will be
times when all they're doing is sort of clipping up
controversy confrontation, so sort of the opposite of the gotcha moment,
or the same as the gotcha moment, but on the
politician side. You know, Chelsea was talking about New Zealand
first are very good at that. You know, you will
see sometimes these interviews where Winston Peters I think, you know,

(01:36:42):
there are some interviews with our and Z where he'll
just come out swinging, you know, he won't engage with
the interview at all and we'll just start sort of
insulting the interviewer and then that immediately gets clipped up.
And honestly, the coverage is incredible. They'll get you know,
sort of five thousand shares on Facebook, twenty thousand likes.
I mean, those are those are non trivial numbers for
a party that's looking at five percent of the vote.

(01:37:04):
Now where I think National and Labor you can get
into trouble if they tried this, as they are still
going for those centrist voters you know, who are yeah
and well and who are more likely to watch TV
and Z and will not see the Prime minister if
he stops doing his you know, Monday morning interview with

(01:37:25):
Obra Brian or similar h and so I think politicians
feel emboldened, particularly the major parties, because the media is
not as strong as it used to be. It doesn't
have that kind of monopoly. You know, I never had
a monopoly because of course it's competing outlets, but you
know they feel more sort of emboldened, I think, to
take on individual outlets. But of course the issue is

(01:37:48):
that if you take on too many individual outlets, you're
taking on a huge you know, you're taking on and
try to say threatening to withdraw from actually a big
chunk of the electorate which you know could come home,
you know, chickens could come home to rest in an
election year that's looking very tight, when you would think
you would be scrapping for every center voting your curt
here's the major.

Speaker 3 (01:38:07):
Party, Chelsea wondering if we could talk about the Opportunity Party.
We've seen them polling at four point six percent this
week in a couple of polls. Now, we're still a
long way out from the elections. It doesn't mean anything.

Speaker 19 (01:38:19):
I think it means something. I think the trajectory means something.
In these If you look at the Opportunity Parties polling numbers,
they've constantly gone up and up and up, And I
think that really, I mean, is it because of their policies?

Speaker 6 (01:38:32):
Probably not.

Speaker 19 (01:38:33):
Is it because people are bored of politics?

Speaker 6 (01:38:35):
Probably?

Speaker 10 (01:38:36):
Yes.

Speaker 19 (01:38:37):
They want someone to come in and shake it up.

Speaker 6 (01:38:39):
And you know, see something a little bit different and.

Speaker 19 (01:38:41):
What they're saying out there to vote is is fair.
You know, Look, we're going to be working with anybody,
anybody who.

Speaker 6 (01:38:48):
You know, gets into politics.

Speaker 19 (01:38:49):
We're open minded. We come to the table with policies
that are evidence based driven.

Speaker 24 (01:38:54):
In terms of their policies.

Speaker 6 (01:38:56):
Though I spoke to their.

Speaker 19 (01:38:57):
Leader q A Wong this week actually in regards to
the polling numbers and how to talk through the policies.

Speaker 3 (01:39:04):
They do tend to lean a little bit more left.

Speaker 19 (01:39:07):
And you had Christopher Luxen completely, you know, dismissing them
when he was asked about them. He said, I haven't
really thought about them at all. All of their policies
look Labor Greens aligned, and honestly, I can't fault him
on that, but I can fault him of being too
dismissive of them. I think that would be a major
opportunity missed for them.

Speaker 3 (01:39:27):
Ben, What does it take to turn four point six
percent into five percent in election?

Speaker 11 (01:39:33):
Part of part of what it will take more attention,
you know, continuing to stay in the narrative, continuing the
stays as part of the discussion. And you know they
are well placed to do that. You know, good Poland
builds its own momentum four point six percent, creates this
sort of storyline of can they get into Parliament, which
is you know, an interesting thread in an election which

(01:39:56):
is otherwise a bit of a rerun of last year
with the last time with Christmas Chris, which didn't do
huge numbers at the box office for the major role.
And I think the other factor is that Quille is
you know, by far the most attractive to the electorate
leader the top has had. You know they have and

(01:40:20):
you know, individually I like all of them, but previously
they've been led by a succession of slightly sort of
off putting, smarter than now middle aged men economists, you know,
who sounds like they're kind of delivering a bit of
an electure to you, you know, after you've said something
dumb about the ocr or something, whereas she's very personable,

(01:40:44):
very positive. You know. Look, there's nothing new about the
sort of framing of saying, oh, we're not left or right,
we just want to do what works, what's best for
New Zealand. You know, it's a story as old as time,
and it's not one that it matches up with their policies,
which are actually quite radical in a lot of respects,
but it is an attractive, you know, argument to a

(01:41:05):
lot of the electorate, particularly when it is so polarized
right now and so negative. In the past, you've at
least had like, you know, maybe the opposition might be
presenting a positive narrative or the government might be presenting
a positive narrative. Right now, it's very negative. The government
probably the only person who's tried to be positive, and
the past term of the government was Christopher Luxen, and

(01:41:27):
it didn't really work out for him because it didn't
match up with what people were feeling on the ground
and was seen to sort of strike a bit of
a discordant tone with how the economy was going. But
in terms of just this, you know, Labor versus National
Greens versus New Zealand first, yeah, even the Green constantly
sort of angry now and Top has the opportunity or
the opportunity party has the opportunity to actually seem like,

(01:41:50):
you know, we're positive, we want to get on with things.
We actually see you know, good things happening, and we're
not going to get into all of this petty points scoring.
And it's quite feasible that there's five percent of the
electorate that will go for that.

Speaker 3 (01:42:03):
I think you summed up really nicely there, Ben, Thank
you so much for your time, both of you today.
That was Chelsea Daniels and Ben Thomas there on the panel.
Keen to hear your thoughts as well. I think the
Opportunity Party is going to be really interesting to watch.
Two ninety two is the text number. It is twenty
six to twelve.

Speaker 1 (01:42:24):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin on News Talks at.

Speaker 3 (01:42:29):
B and Live from Vancouver at the Fief of Old Cap.
Jason Pine, Good morning.

Speaker 28 (01:42:34):
Hello Francesca.

Speaker 3 (01:42:36):
Okay, so that's that home time, home time. What do
you make of the campaign? Of course, the goal was
for the All Whites was to get out of the
group session. And if you take a look at those
first couple of games against Iran and Egypt, there were
times we were in the lead. It must be a
little disappointing that they didn't quite hit that target.

Speaker 28 (01:42:58):
Yeah, bang on, I think that's exactly how they feel.
They feel as though, you know, after the game yesterday
they said, look, we didn't lose our ability to or
we didn't miss our chance to go into the knockout
rounds today against Belgium. We lost that opportunity in those
previous two games. Whereas you said, they led one nil
and two to one against Iran, they led Egypt one.
They'll after one of the best hearts of football they've

(01:43:20):
probably ever played. But at this level you have to
be one percent on one hundred percent of the time,
and they weren't able to capitalize. They got the drawer
against Iran, couldn't get anything against Egypt. It was always
going to be tough against Belgium, the number ten side
in the world. So yeah, they'll be disappointed. Yes, they'll
be pleased with parts of their campaign, but as you say,

(01:43:40):
the stated aim was to get out of the group.
They haven't done that, so there has to be a
degree of disappointment around that.

Speaker 3 (01:43:45):
So Piney, have you had fun? Has it just been
a blast?

Speaker 28 (01:43:49):
It's been amazing. I mean, Vancouver is an amazing city
and it's embraced the World Cup and look, I mean
to be here and to be able to go to
that magnificent stadium three times in the last week to
watch New Yelland twice and also the host nation Canada,
to be so warmly welcome by Vancouver people, who, as
I say, just you know, they've just caught World Cup fever. Look,

(01:44:12):
it was obviously a little bit deflating last night when
the game ended and it all kind of came to
a screeching halt, but it's been amazing to be here,
feel very very privileged and lucky to have been able
to watch the team up close. And I think they've
they've played with dignity and pride, they really have, So
you know, I hope that this is the start of
something rather than the finish of something.

Speaker 3 (01:44:33):
I'm not sure if you're up at the news, but
New Zealand Rugby and Rugby Australia have today announced a
new Anzac Day Blederslow Cup test match that's going to
be in twenty seven, twenty nine and thirty one. The
years with there's only normally two tests, so we're going
to have this very very early test match, which look,
iway was low It when there's three bledterslow games makes

(01:44:54):
a lot of sense to me. But having it so
early around Anzac Day, before the All Blacks have really
even been kind of together or named or you know,
anyone's in the middle of Super Rugby.

Speaker 28 (01:45:05):
Is that can work interesting dynamic a you know. I
mean I was made aware of this by my producer
extraordinaire Andrew what's his name and Andy Andrew of it
was called and Andrew Andy McDonald. He has arranged for
New Zealand Rugby Chief Executive Steve Lancaster to join us
straight after the one o'clock news on this, so we
will be talking about it. What does it mean for

(01:45:27):
I mean, like you say, the Super Rugby season is
almost like a sixteen game All Blacks trial, isn't it.
Now we'll have the first sort of five or six
games and then Dave Rene will have to pick his team.
Then what does it do to Super Rugby? A presentment
stops down for that weekend? But how disruptive will that be?
Will the the Super Rugby teams be okay with their
players heading off into an all Blacks camp? I'm sure

(01:45:48):
they will, But then coming back so many different layers
to this and why is it in Brisbane every year?
It's in Brisbane three times? Obviously they paid a lot
of money for it, so fair enough, but I would
quite like to have one over here. But yeah, we'll
talk about that with Steve Lancaster after the one o'clock
news sounds fantastic.

Speaker 3 (01:46:04):
Thank you so much, Plinty, looking forward to it some time.
We're back at midday for.

Speaker 1 (01:46:09):
Sunday session full show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by News
Talks atb Travel with Wendy wo Tours Where the World
Is Yours book.

Speaker 3 (01:46:19):
Now and joining me is Meghan Singleton, blogger at large
dot com. Good morning, Good morning, So today we're going
to talk about what the impact Mitchelands star system could
have on New Zealand tourism. Of course we're going to
find out this week if any of our and I'm
sure they will have restaurants here in New Zealand have
earned one to or three stars. How much of an

(01:46:40):
impact can a michelind star have on tourism.

Speaker 29 (01:46:43):
Well, I think this is probably the most exciting thing
to happen to New Zealand's tourism for such a mighty
long time. You know, it's a small investment that Tourism
New Zealand have made and it will.

Speaker 6 (01:46:56):
Have massive effects.

Speaker 29 (01:46:57):
So first they let me explain that for years and
years I have been getting press releases from cities and states,
particularly in the US, but obviously through Europe as well.
Lauding their Michelin Guide inclusions announcing new restaurants. It's such
a huge impact. It's a draw card come to visit
us in this city. We've just got three stars, you know.

(01:47:18):
Or we've got three new restaurants that got a Bibicalmand.

Speaker 6 (01:47:21):
Now that's another whole award for value, value added restaurants.

Speaker 29 (01:47:27):
So not as expensive as you're fine owning massive Michelin
stars who we expect to hear about on Tuesday, but
there will be probably some other restaurants that get a
Bibicalmand mention which we.

Speaker 6 (01:47:39):
Can probably all afford to go to.

Speaker 29 (01:47:41):
So now and then I'm like, okay, So tourists come
to New Zealand mainly for our food sorry, our incredible scenery,
our outdoor activities, maybe our wines, and then they're often
surprised and delighted by our food scene because they don't
understand our hat system, or they don't subscribe to magazines
that have the top one hundred or whatever because they've coming.

Speaker 6 (01:48:02):
From France or Texas.

Speaker 29 (01:48:04):
So, and did you know that in New Zealand directly
and indirectly employs one in ten people in this country,
and that the biggest employer is in the food and
beverage industry.

Speaker 6 (01:48:15):
So I'm telling you.

Speaker 29 (01:48:16):
All this to then go on and say that the
international tourism only accounts for a third of that. And
last year the expenditure was forty six billion, over seven
percent of our GDP.

Speaker 6 (01:48:28):
So now, Tourism New.

Speaker 29 (01:48:30):
Zealand took six million dollars, spread over three years, out
of its marketing budget to get the Michelin Guide here. Now,
I know it's only going to start in four cities,
and that does mean that some gorgeous restaurants that I love,
like Edburgh and Tapo or Craggy Range and have long
laws will not be able to be included this time.

Speaker 6 (01:48:49):
But let's hope that, you know, the next year's one
will come.

Speaker 3 (01:48:52):
Everybody knows that Craigie Range has got three stars around.
Yes that's okay, Yes that's totally right. If you've had
the privilege of being able to dine there, then you
will know that that's where that one's going to land. Yeah, hey,
am I right in thinking that? Actually you are the
one that really kind of started to push the Restaurant
Association of New Zealand to get them here.

Speaker 29 (01:49:14):
Well, look at two and a half years ago. I
pitched it because of all of what I've just said.
You know, I've been reading these press releases. People don't
know about our food scene in New Zealand because they
don't understand our hat awards And yeah, so I'm invited
to the awards ceremony on Tuesday and I can't wait
to see who's in there, who's included. But more importantly,

(01:49:37):
it's going to give global travelers who are foodies and
excuse to go out of their way you see Michelin tires,
and go out of their way to experience some of
our amazing restaurants and celebrate our food scene.

Speaker 6 (01:49:50):
You know, our grass feed beef.

Speaker 29 (01:49:52):
People in America can't believe that all our beef are
grass feed, like what, so we just take it for granted.

Speaker 6 (01:49:58):
How amazing our food scene is. I'm supris.

Speaker 3 (01:50:01):
Is it going to make it impossible if you know,
my one special like they treat dinner out, It's going
to be impossible for me to get into some of
these restaurants.

Speaker 29 (01:50:10):
Now, well, the good thing is you know when your
birthday is so yeah, book books and advance look it
might do.

Speaker 6 (01:50:16):
Hey, we can only hope for the sake of you
know the.

Speaker 29 (01:50:18):
Hospitality industry has been had had for the sake of
them and their employees and our food.

Speaker 6 (01:50:24):
Suppliers and growers and producers. It can only be a
good thing. And I just can't wait to see who's
in it.

Speaker 3 (01:50:30):
Neither can I. So we might have to have a
little debrief. Can we get it? Can you find carry
and I text on Tuesday night when you're your fancy
drinks and let us know the goss because we're all
dying to know. Gosh, it's going to be fascinating to watch,
isn't it. Thank you so much, Meghan. You can find
more from Megan at blogger at large dot com. It
is twelve to twelve books.

Speaker 1 (01:50:49):
With Wiggles for the Best Election of great Reads.

Speaker 3 (01:50:55):
Joining me now is John mackenzie Wickles head book by
good morning, Good morning. You've got a couple of really
interesting and quite different books for us this morning.

Speaker 30 (01:51:02):
Very different, that would be fair.

Speaker 3 (01:51:04):
What have we got?

Speaker 30 (01:51:05):
The first one is a novel. It's called Boring Asian
Female by Can Ween Ju.

Speaker 3 (01:51:10):
And it's the story.

Speaker 30 (01:51:12):
Of Elizabeth Jang, who's an undergrade student at Columbia University,
and she's incredibly intense. She measures her life and her
self worth and percentiles. She measures herself against other people
for intellect and beauty and so on. And she's desperate
to get into Harvard Law School and she thinks that
she'll be a shoe and as her grades are simply exceptional,

(01:51:33):
so she's really stunned when they don't accept her. And
eventually she reckons she's worked out why they see her
as just another boring Asian female, which of course is
where the title comes from. And then she's simply gobsmacked
when they take on one of her classmates, a young
woman named Laura Kim. And at that point Elizabeth becomes
obsessed about what Laura has that she doesn't, and I

(01:51:56):
have to say, she becomes increasingly unhinged. She starts to
stalk Laura on Instagram and in person. She becomes convinced
that if Harvard will just rescind their offer to Laura,
she could take her place instead. But of course, then
reading the book, you have to start wondering what she
would do to make that happen. It's really very clever
and very well done. Some listeners will know a book

(01:52:19):
called Yellow Face, which Rebecca Quang wrote a few years ago,
and at whit cause we just loved it, and I
suspect a lot of people listening will know it. If
you read that and you loved it, then this is the.

Speaker 3 (01:52:31):
Book for you. Okay, brilliant. Now you've brought another book,
and it's called A Place to Stand. It is a
beautiful looking book. It is one of those books which
is a joy to sort of hold. It's very tile,
very tactile, and to flick through. But it tells an
incredible story as well.

Speaker 30 (01:52:47):
Yes, it's set in Hokianga up in the Far North,
and it's written by a woman called Claire Ward, who
is a practicing GP up there. She's been there for
over thirty years. And I say two things about this.
I love this book and I would love to have
her as my doctor. It's a very thoughtful in many ways,
quite profound reflection on life and life as she's discovered

(01:53:11):
it over many years in the Far North. When she
first arrived, she was unfamiliar with Maori protocol and custom
and the way in which you need to manage yourself
and work with people in that community. And I believe
that she's part of a practice which has seven thousand
patients on its book and almost seventy five percent of

(01:53:32):
them are Maori, and over the years she's really come
to understand the importance of being respectful and thoughtful, and
this really is a book about bridging between two worlds.
I think it's a very special book because all the
way through she tells lots of stories about things that

(01:53:54):
she's been told by people who live in the area,
about their ancestors, or about their family, or about their
own place in the world. And she's put black and
white photographs all the way through it, which I can
only assume that she took, and it's very evocative of Hokianga.
I know that area reasonably well, and a absolutely love her.
And of course it's quite remote, it's isolated, and these

(01:54:15):
pictures really reflect that. But it is a thoughtful, lovely book.

Speaker 3 (01:54:19):
Oh wonderful. Thank you so much, Joan. Boring Asian Female
by Can Weinju is the first book. The second book,
A Place to Stand by Claire Ward. Thanks Joan, See
you next week.

Speaker 1 (01:54:31):
The Sunday Session full show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by
News Talks.

Speaker 11 (01:54:36):
I'd be.

Speaker 3 (01:54:38):
Thank you so much for your company today. Thank you
so much to Kerry for producing the show. Jason Pine
is up next with weekend Sport, and there is so
much to talk about. Good night for the black Caps,
not so good for the White Ferns. God the worry
is lost at the last minute last night. How heartbreaking
is that you got the rugby to talk about? Is

(01:54:58):
the blederslaw? The extra tests all been held in Brisbane,
which will be I know, contentious this afternoon, so make
sure you join Jason at mid day. Hey, coming up
next week on the show, We're really excited Tandy Wright
is going to join me now. She is in a
new film called Evil Dead Burn. Yes, this is the
latest and the Evil Dead franchise, and oh my goodness,

(01:55:22):
what a film this is. This is full on She
is incredible and it not only does she have this
quite complex and emotional role, but it is also full
on action, action, violence, blood and gore. Fantastic stuff. So
I'm really looking forward to talking to her about making
this film and was it as terrifying to make because

(01:55:43):
it was for me to watch, So that'll be an
interesting one. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday afternoon and
take care. We'll see you next week.

Speaker 1 (01:56:47):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin. Listen
live to news talks it Be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio

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