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July 27, 2026 15 mins

FIRST WITH YESTERDAY'S NEWS (highlights from Monday on Newstalk ZB) Who Actually Asked for All This?/Those Poor Old Youths/Mythical Gas Is Hard to Find/Spice (And Herb) Wars

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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk Said B.
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iHeartRadio Used Talk Said Talk.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, my beautiful beanies, and welcome to the bean for Tuesday.
First of yesterday's news. I am Glen Hart and we're
looking back on Monday. The youth workforce finding a job
hard or easy these days? Poor old youths. It's New
Zealand's first laser eye focus on gas exploration, meaning that

(00:49):
they're not paying enough attention to other stuff that they
need to be paying attention to.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
Send buy for Dickens on a word and.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
On that shortly and herb Wars is a herb war
going on in Marcus's mind. So we'll take a trip
into the Marcus's mind at the end of the podcast.
But first up our data centers we all got to have.
Can I get enough of them? Which means you look
like you're gonna get one?

Speaker 4 (01:12):
In South One, Chief executive Stu Hamilton says the facility
will use a closed loop calling system, meaning the water
will not be contaminated, and he sees the project we'll
create around a twelve hundred jobs during construction alone.

Speaker 5 (01:23):
Yeah, and then so it's an interesting one. I've just
been looking into that try. I've been trying it all
morning to find evidence about the sludge because close Roubert
didn't give any any proof of the data center's turning
local water supplies to sludge, and I can't find that anywhere.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
It's sept for.

Speaker 5 (01:41):
You can find it as sort of social media memes,
but it doesn't seem to relate to any specific data center.

Speaker 4 (01:46):
Not a confirmed source.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah, I mean, if you.

Speaker 5 (01:49):
Can find one, i'd love to see it. Fire it
through nine two nine two, and I'd love to see that.
But are they terrible things that we need to avoid
or are the economic opportunities with pluses and minuses like everything? Right?
So you use some resources to make some money. That's
how business works.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
Right. If you don't have do.

Speaker 5 (02:08):
That, how do you make any money? And when they
talk about the water supply for this particular data center,
they're talking about it about the same as a medium
sized dairy farm. Yep, so do we And it just
it does seem that across everything that could possibly make
money in this country, we do seem to find reasons
not to do it. But we have to make money somehow, right,

(02:32):
And so and we are going to use data centers.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
That's right.

Speaker 5 (02:36):
So if we decide just not use data centers at all, right,
then that's fine because if we're using data centers but
we're using overseas data centers, then how have we made
anything different except for the jobs in New Zealand and
the money in New Zealand. Right, Yeah, And it seems
like the reason why this one has been put down
there is because of the temperature down there means it
cooling is easier.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
It does seem to make sense to me to have
them in cold places. They seem to intend on putting
them in the desert in the United States. And so
not only is it not cold in the desert generally,
I mean you can't it can be, but I think
most of the deserts in America it doesn't get that
cold that often. But also they less watery those places

(03:20):
as well, and I think the water seems to be
a crucial ingredient.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
News Talk Bean.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
I know Elon Mask wants to put them in space. Now,
I heard somebody saying the other day that that's not
going to.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
Work because I think it is quite cold in space.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
I guess it's getting the data in and out of them.
I think you can send it into space and get
it out of space, though, can't your data? I don't
know anyway, it was data seen on Monday yesterday.

Speaker 6 (03:51):
Oh yeah, one search takes up the electrical equivalent of
twenty minutes with a light bulb on. Okay, So it's
not cheap. No such thing as a free lunch. The
more we do, the more it costs. And two, when
lawmakers call for moratoriums or for bands, it's usually because
we don't know enough about something and we need more
time to figure it out. That is not the case here.

(04:12):
Amsterdam put a moratorium on them in twenty nineteen, the
Irish basically banned them in twenty twenty one, and some
US states have done the same.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
Since then.

Speaker 6 (04:22):
A lot has changed.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
There are now rules in.

Speaker 6 (04:24):
Place overseas in certain jurisdictions that mean data centers basically
have to self generate their own electricity. There's no reason
that we can't or shouldn't have similar rules ready to
roll out here. It's the job of our lawmakers. Remember this.
This is there pretty much all they do, including this coalition.
I might add to keep on top of, you know,

(04:45):
the law and what's happening around the world. That's how
they justify their offshore junkets. After all, isn't it. They're
meant to keep ahead of the curve.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
But we're not.

Speaker 6 (04:53):
A moratorium on data centers is very twenty nineteen, it's
very pre COVID. Let's not be so pretentious or righteous
to believe that it's not us driving demand for data
what we need. And you won't hear me say this often,
but and regulations to make sure we keep the lights
on while feeding our dirty little AI habit that we

(05:14):
like to pretend we don't have.

Speaker 3 (05:15):
So that's that's interesting.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
I fully expected Ryan to be progress, progress, progress.

Speaker 3 (05:24):
Put the build data centers on top of the other
data centers. But he's a bit worried about AI by
some other things.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Everything is connected to everything else, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
Because I don't know who asked for this AI?

Speaker 2 (05:39):
Why why did we want it in the first place?
And and we've literally let the genie out of the
bottle now quite literally. Oh well, I'm sure it'll be
fine us talk of course, it's stealing everybody's jobs. That's
that's something else that's happening for AI. Another reason we
need data centers, so and directly we can have an

(06:02):
AI that will come and do your job. Is that
why young people are finding it so hard these days?

Speaker 7 (06:07):
I have been very very like to begin a job
at seventeen that I have loved, and I've pretty much
done it on and off since I was seventeen, working
in the media, being a television presenter, being a radio journalist,
being a writer, being a columnist. Loved it, apart from
two years of COVID, but we don't need to go
into that right now, not today. Absolutely loved it and

(06:31):
feel very very lucky to have done so. But what
is your advice to your young people or if you
are a young person who has recently graduated, how did
you decide what to do? How difficult has it been
trying to find a job? I mean fifteen percent unemployment

(06:52):
among the fifteen to twenty four year olds. That's a
lot of young kids that are knocking on doors willing
to do anything. And they are These aren't lazy kids.
They're willing to do damn near anything. They've given up
working in screen production or radio or public relations. They
just want a job. So what's your advice? Do have

(07:18):
better research and find out what jobs might be AI
proof service jobs or do you still think it's important
to tell kids to follow their passion.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
Well, obviously, my first bit of advice is the same
as it's always been, which is to never ever, never, never,
ever ever never have kids.

Speaker 3 (07:38):
But if you do make that mistake and then.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
You end up and to advise them on a career,
my advice is to just do something. Doesn't have to
be forever. Kids think that they're setting some themselves to
a life of working in the minds if they go
and work in a mine, and it's like, you don't

(08:01):
have to do it forever, but you do need to
do something until something better comes along. And you don't
always know what you want to do, do you And
sometimes you go and work in the mine and you go,
it's mine life.

Speaker 3 (08:12):
I don't mind.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
It right, I'm just talking about minds there. I think
New Zealand first are quite keen on them, quite keen
of digging holes in the not just in the ground,
but in the ocean as well. It sounds to me
like Andrew Dickens thinks they should be. If they're going

(08:36):
to spend a billion dollars or something. Maybe there's some
other things that they could splash that money onto.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
Of course, none of this is.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
It doesn't really matter because, as I have to keep
reminding people, whatever New Zealand tourist promises will doesn't happen
because they only end up being a minor party at
any coalition and they don't even seem to have any
red lines about anything.

Speaker 8 (08:57):
Compare that with us. New Zealand, on the other hand,
is considered to have one of the most secure food
supplies in the world. We make more than we eat.
We currently grow enough food to feed for million people.
We have five point five million, So even in a
major global crisis, New Zealand would remain as one of
the best place countries to feed its own population. And

(09:17):
I think that's quite important. And while we might not
export oil or mobile phones or plastic necknacks or whatever,
the one thing that every single person in the world
needs is food, and in that we are resilient and
food therefore is a good product to be making. But
we're entering an election again and once again our food manufacturers,
our farmers are going to be urged by the environmentalists.

(09:38):
Of fact, the Greens did it over the weekend. They're
going to be told to cut production to meet climate
change targets, when in fact the world will be begging
us to make more food. The greenies are worried about
the globe, but the thing the globe needs most of
all is food and water. Yes, the climate might be
a thing, but they need to eat and drink. And
I think that is a very important thing to remember.

(10:01):
And I wonder also if New Zealand first might be
better advised to put a billion into making our farms
efficient and clean rather than some sort of survey on
whether we have any mythical oil or gas.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
I didn't realize we were trying to find mythical oil
and gas that is a lot harder to find than
the actual oil.

Speaker 3 (10:16):
And guess that's true news.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
Talk it all right, and we're going to finish up
here with a staff that seems to be brewing. I think,
just in Marcus's mind, he's got a problem.

Speaker 3 (10:33):
It's spice Wars.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
Now, if you're a Doom fan, fan of the books
or the movies, you'll know all about that, and funnily
enough that it is all connected to robots and stuff
as well. Never I think of it, I don't think
that's what's actually going on. Here though, I'll tell you.

Speaker 6 (10:51):
Something about.

Speaker 9 (10:54):
Greggs. And this is just a propos nothing, because I
see Griggs is phasing out. I hope they don't phase
out their herbs because the Greggs herbs are fantastic because

(11:23):
the boxes work so well. But these days you can
buy herbs and cardboard boxes called Missus Rogers. They are
the devil's herbs. I don't know who Missus Rogers is,

(11:44):
but they are impossible to open and the fit and
I'm not of the age where I should be complaining
about packaging, but they're a disaster, so avoid them, like
the play. I don't even know who Missus Rogers is.
I was cooking something the other day. I needed cumen
ground cumen, and there was and maybe a Regano, and

(12:07):
there was no one of the Greggs. I had to
go with Missus Rogers. Goodness, gracious me. It wasn't a
fun experience. And even the plastic inside kind of all
ripped down the side and off. It was terrible. Well
that in the seatbel I still feel traub I don't even.

Speaker 6 (12:22):
Know who it is.

Speaker 9 (12:24):
I'm looking at their web page now. It all seems
confusing anyway, So it doesn't say who runs it or
who it is or where it's from. But yeah, no,
they're the Devil's Herbs. I had no idea who they're
from that it's not very clear on their website. I
don't know if they're a multinational or some small person

(12:46):
in a shed. But anyway, so I love the Greggs Herbs,
those cards, those paper bags inside you roll them out,
just works so well. Missus Rogers terrible.

Speaker 3 (12:56):
He's quite hit up about that, doesn't he.

Speaker 2 (12:59):
I thought I could have sworn that he was going
to go on a rant about how he doesn't like the.

Speaker 10 (13:06):
Taste or the quality of the actual spices. But it's
all to do with the packaging, and I think he's
misunderstood about what's supposed to happen, because with the Missus Rogers,
I mean, if you're not familiar that you can get
them in the glass jars, and obviously they are a

(13:29):
bit more expensive, But then you get your cardboard box
with the little plastic bag of the spices to refill
the glass jars with, and that to me is quite
a good system, except I will agree that the little
plastic bags inside unless you just chop the top off
them with a pair of scissors, and even then, if

(13:49):
you're getting the spice into the jar, you're probably going
to have to resort to a funnel.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
I suppose that's not the end of the world. And
also sometimes they come with a little wooden peg slotted
wood thing, which confuses me because I guess that's there
to keep the little too.

Speaker 3 (14:09):
He might be onto something actually.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
That. Yeah, none of that's to do with the actual
quality of the spices and the herbs, is it. I
think I'm pretty sure they all pretty much taste the same.

Speaker 3 (14:21):
I e.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
They don't really taste of anything, and they just make
you feel better about that you're.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
Doing actual cooking with actual ingredients, don't.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
They oregano or oregano? That might be the exception. I
feel like even mixed herbs don't really taste like anything.
I don't even really know what they are. This has
gone on so long about herbs. Maybe I need to

(14:50):
do a herb based podcasts. There'll be one of those.
There'll be a million of those out there already. I
think we'll just stick to the normal thing and we'll
do it again to morrow.

Speaker 3 (15:01):
Said then used talks it Bean

Speaker 1 (15:07):
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