Full Show Podcast: 04 April 2026

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Tam podcast
from News Talks at b This is not your weekend
off the right way. Saturday Morning with Jettam News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
It be.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yellow in New Zealand. Good morning and welcome to News Talks.
It be Jeck time with you this Saturday morning, this
Easter Saturday morning, as we all hopefully put our feet
up and enjoy a few treats over the long weekend.
My gosh, I have crazy expensive our Easter three eggs
this year has not. I mean I know that that

(01:03):
Easter eggs probably only make up a tiny bit of
the consumer price in next I haven't actually checked with
Stats New Zealand to what extent Easter eggs contribute to
our overall inflation rate, but if they were just looking
at Easter eggs, I'd be worried. So before ten o'clock
this morning, if you are looking to stretch the treats
a little bit this Eastern to elevate the treats a

(01:24):
little bit so you're not just relying on incredibly expensive
Easter eggs, we have the recipe for you, a delicious
Easter Rocky Road recipe as well of that we'll have
your film picks for the long weekend, including Robert Pattinson
and Zendaya starring together in the drama and then after
ten really really looking forward to this. If you're like me,

(01:45):
you will be a massive fan of the British panel shows.
I don't know what it is about the Brits. I
just wonder if it goes back to the good old
days of the BBC Radio, like in the nineteen forties
or something like that. But they are the absolute masters
of the panel comedy shows. And Stephen k Amos is
one of the regulars whom I love on the likes
of QI and live at the Apollo. So he's going

(02:06):
to be with us after ten o'clock this morning because
he is making his way to New Zealand, so he's
going to tell us all about his brand new stand
up tour. Right now though it is nine minutes past nine.

Speaker 4 (02:15):
Jack Team.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
So for my birthday this year, my wife went above
and beyond, as she so often does. I didn't want
a product, I didn't want a thing. I'm not really
interested in stuff, but for the last year of my thirties,
I asked for an experience and a couple of months
before the big day, I sort of casually dropped the
idea into conversation. How would you feel, I asked my

(02:39):
wife for my birthday this year. You took on all
of the family duties for a little bit, so I
can just duck off for a couple of nights in
the bush. Now, I'll admit to a bias, right, I
have spent more time in it than any other. But
I reckon the Kahurangi might be our best national park.

(03:03):
Although Fjordland National Park obviously boasts the mad of Milford,
doubtful and dusky sounds, and Abel Tasman has the golden
sand beaches. I just reckon between the Niko Groves meeting
the Tasman Sea and the true subalpine. I just reckon
that nothing can rival the Khudangi in terms of the

(03:23):
sheer variety of landscapes. And I was reminded of that
diversity this week when for my birthday escape, I joined
my brother and brother in law and we drove up
the Wangapeka River en route to climbing Mount Owen. So
we started at the spot called the Blue Creek Resurgence,
where beautiful, perfect clear water pores from the vast underground caves.

(03:49):
If you don't know what a resurgence is, it's basically
an underground river, and the key is in the name.
It's where it resurges or resurfaces. Not too far away
from the Blue Creek resurgence as the Crow flies as
the Pierce resurgence, where cave divers recently set an extraord
and terrifying record diving two hundred and forty five meters

(04:09):
deep into the earth. Like so many beautiful spots in
the South Island, the Kahudanngi had a gold rush. Unfortunately
for the hardy souls who braved the Wungapeka River in
the eighteen sixties, the quantities of gold that were actually
recovered were ultimately modest at best, and the odder I get,

(04:30):
the more I marvel. It just the ridiculous old gold works,
the huge bits of rusted iron machinery that once upon
a time were hauled up the least hospitable valleys, only
to be abandoned and left to be slowly consumed by
the bush. We climbed straight up, straight up. It was

(04:53):
too steep for chatter, and we soon fell into the
rhythm of the bush. The crunch of our boots, the
gasping heavy breath, hearts beating in our chests. The bird song,
so much bird song. Again. The old I get, the
more I appreciate it. There were countless bellbirds, robins, pewacka whaka,
and my new favorite cuty of all the New Zealand natives,

(05:17):
tom tits. We paused for a moment for a handful
of pick and mix, and two tiny, sweet little riflemen
came and perched on a twig right next to us.
We climbed above the bush line and then down into
another valley, up an old creek bed to the tidy
dock hut. It was actually pretty busy and we still
had legs, so we kept climbing up another hour to

(05:39):
a couple of tarns, where we pitched our tents for
the night. We were surrounded by three mighty limestone mountains,
a little plateau with spongy earth and tussock mother Nature's colosseum.
We dropped a couple of beers into the tarns just
to cool them off. As we pitched our flies and
cooked dinner. We were at about fifteen hundred meters, so

(06:04):
hardly everest, but high enough for the temperature to drop
really fast once the sun goes down. One minute your
clothes are rotting off, your body heavy with sweat, and
the next your double socking. We slept in our puffa
jackets and polyprops without any clouds or light pollution. The
sky was just so pure and bright. I actually had

(06:27):
to pull a beanie over my eyes to try and
get to sleep. Is it even tramping if you have
a full eight hours In the morning, we left our
camp and started climbing before sunrise. From the little plateau,
we worked up through the huge glaciated marble cast that
builds to the mountain summit. You can see why these

(06:48):
landscapes were chosen by the location scouts for Lord of
the Rings. Mind your step, skip the crevass, Up, up up.
The views from the top were awesome, not just awesome
as in good, but awesome as an inspiring war. We

(07:09):
could see incredible ranges on all sides, three sixty degrees,
clouds sitting deep in the valleys below, and one cloud
spilled over the edge of an alpine ridge and then
down the other side, kind of like water being tipped
from a glass. Several times we all just stopped. How

(07:31):
often in life. Are you ever in a time and
place where you can't see or hear any sign of
human civilization? Look, I am impossible to buy form, but
I've got to say for my birthday this year, my
wife absolutely nailed it. I walked out with burning quads
and a couple of blisters, just so content, so full

(07:54):
of gratitude, and to think these landscapes, these places are
there for all of us, that it's our home. What
a gift.

Speaker 4 (08:03):
Indeed, Jack team.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
If you want to see a couple of picks from
our excursion up Mount oh And, I've just chucked them
up on our Facebook page this morning Jacktame dot com.
We'll take you through to our Facebook page. You can
have a bit of a look. It's yeah, it's quite remarkable.
A you start not not quite at sea level, but
you start down with the old gold works and the
river up through the bush, then up into the sub alpine,
up into those marthless kind of limestone cliffs. It's really

(08:28):
quite extraordinary. Coming up Bet fourteen o'clock this morning, we'll
catch up with our Sporto get his thoughts on that
incredible Crusaders send off for Apollo Stadium last night. Next
up Kevin Milne will get us underway for our Saturday
Morning to get it. If you want to flick me
a text, you know what to do. Ninety two ninety
two is the number. Don't forget that standard text cost
a play. You can email me as well. Jacket Newstalk,

(08:49):
ZEDB dot co dot nz. It's quarter past nine.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
No better way to kick off your weekend than with Jack.

Speaker 4 (08:58):
Saturday Morning with Jack Team News Talk, said b.

Speaker 3 (09:02):
A teen minutes past nine on News Talks, he'd be
National Park tramping. Bloody good topic. I've got to say.
Jack just gets our eyes off all of the terrible,
depressing news from overseas, just for a moment. We did
the Great Barrier Island Tramp two weeks ago, two nights
at the huts and then spectacular views from Mount Hobbs
and the nights sky stars were jaw dropping. That's one
of the funny things a especially if you if you

(09:24):
live in a city and you don't get to the
bush that often, and then you just get away from
a city and you have a clear night and you're like,
oh my goodness, look look at the stars, Look at
the sky. It's incredible.

Speaker 5 (09:36):
Jack.

Speaker 3 (09:37):
I've spent fifty eight years in this country, I've not
been into the bush except taking my daughter to the
mung To Pawpaul, Central North Island, and the odd mountain
trips and beach wanders. Your description, though, fills my mind
with the wonder of it all. My eyes are a
bit blurry, but not the imagination, says Harry and Jack.
You've made my day with your description of your trip
into the mountains. There's a seventy five year old not

(09:57):
able to do much hiking anymore. It took me back.
This country is stunning and beautiful, says Dianne. Thanks Diane.
Ninety two. Ninety two is the text number if you
want to send us some messages this morning Jacket Newstalk,
z'b dot co dot NZED like I say, I've put
a couple of photos up on Facebook. I promise there
aren't too many. It's not too punishing, but I've put
a couple of photos up on Facebook. One other little
takeaway I would say, actually from tramping, given this was

(10:19):
my first tramp since we had a baby thirteen months ago,
or my wife had a baby thirteen months ago, I
did have a slightly simpler role in the whole series
of events was that if you don't go for many tramps,
it is worth making sure that you take lots and
lots of really good food. We thought, well, we could

(10:41):
go light, and you know, we could have not very
tasty food, and you know it would mean that our
packs are slightly lighter. But then we thought, nah, bugger,
let's go all out. Let's do it luck styles. So
we had all the fancy freeze dried meals and a
couple of beers up on the tarn are so beautiful. Anyway,
I'll get to Mary text in a couple of minutes.
Kevin Milner's with us this morning, kiled Kevin.

Speaker 5 (11:00):
Got it, Jack, It's a plenty old thing.

Speaker 6 (11:01):
Actually, my daughter spent last night and I presume she's
not far from it. Now your dockhart on Mountdown. You're kidding, man, Yeah, no, no,
each other. Yeah, we should have actually just cut through
to her her from up there.

Speaker 3 (11:19):
Yeah, oh how good. No, we we pushed a little
bit higher than the dock cut, just for you know,
because we had it still had legs. And actually it's
amazing to me, you know, you think, oh, well, it's
not an off Broadway tramp by any stretch. Of the imagination,
but it's probably not. It's not the heavy, it's not
a great walk. And yet you know, on a Wednesday,

(11:42):
you get there and the heart's absolutely pumping, and there
are kiwi's, there are people who are traveling from overseas.
It's great to see. I always always delighted to see
how many people enjoy, you know, getting out there and
you know, savoring. So hopefully Tommy's had some good weather
like we did, Kevin. But you were captivated by another
excursion another week, and it's fair to say it's probably

(12:02):
slightly more adventurous than mine.

Speaker 6 (12:05):
Well, what a thrill it was on Thursday to watch
the launch of Artemis two, the US rocket taking four
astronauts on a journey around them around the Moon. There's
no other site like a launch.

Speaker 4 (12:17):
Really.

Speaker 6 (12:18):
The sheer power nearly four million kilograms of thrust, seventeen
percent more than the rockets that were on Apollo what,
of course, provides the drama to the launch. Four people
at the tip of that rocket being blasted into space.
Not only did I fear for them, my heart went

(12:39):
out to the families of the astronauts presumably watching live,
though I think probably a few not I'd hate to
watch any of my family being blasted into space too
damn risky. And if I were offered the opportunity to
join the astronauts as an observer, I would decline.

Speaker 5 (12:58):
I suspect Jack, you may.

Speaker 6 (13:00):
Differ in that regard, or having a baby made you
more cautious.

Speaker 7 (13:06):
Do you know?

Speaker 3 (13:07):
I would love to do it. If I didn't have
a young family, I would leap at the opportunity. But
I don't think I could do it something like Artemis
and good Faith, knowing that they were all sitting there
on planet Earth looking up at me holding their breath.
I don't think I could put them through it. Maybe
when my son's a little bit older.

Speaker 4 (13:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (13:27):
Yeah, Because I wouldn't do it myself doesn't mean I
didn't sit back and watch that launch with huge respect
for the astronauts. I guess they see the Jenny as
a sort of freakish opportunity, really but an odd thing.
I was in full mouth, wide open or thirty seconds
after the launch, the commentator told us Humanity's next great

(13:48):
voyage has begun, and then added Ademus two is three
miles high and traveling at twelve hundred miles an hour.
My son, Jake looked at me and said, haven't you
gone faster than that? And I had a board concord.
Concord flies at thirteen hundred and fifty an hour and
eleven miles high. But of course there's no comparison. I

(14:11):
was flying not up and down, but across, and I
am sure as hell was not sitting atop a frightening
flare of combusted rocket propellant. Besides, Adamus too, was just
warming up. Really, I have gone faster than that, Jacob
said to him, and I left it at that. Jacket's

(14:32):
important for sons to think their fathers are heroes.

Speaker 3 (14:38):
This is nothing, you said, This is rocket change, This
is call us an adventure. Yeah, do you know what?
You know what I thought as I as I watched
it blast off into space. In my gosh, it was spectacular,
wasn't that you know what? I thought?

Speaker 5 (14:51):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (14:52):
Yeah, I thought. I thought that that these are the
actions of an organization who bought their fuel before the
straits of hor Moos.

Speaker 4 (15:00):
Yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 3 (15:03):
Yeah, it was. It really is something. It'll be amazing
to see. I'm really looking forward to some of the
images that come back. Already, they've released a couple of
overnight of images overnight, because very rarely do we see
the Earth from a distance beyond the International Space Station.
It's not very often these days that spacecraft go beyond

(15:25):
the International Space Station. And the thing about the International
Space Station is it's still so close that you can't
see the whole of the Earth and frame, you know
what I mean. So you have to travel further away
from the Earth to actually be able to see it
in the kind of context of space. And so they
sent the first images from Artemis to last night, showing
the Earth in space as a full sphere. And yeah,

(15:48):
it's just I mean, I just imagined that those astronauts
are just sitting there the whole time, just staring out
the window all day. Imagine trying to go to sleep
knowing that it was there. It would just be, yeah,
one amazing thing. So I'm looking forward to it watching
it over the next couple of days, like you are.

Speaker 4 (16:02):
Yeah, very much, very good.

Speaker 3 (16:04):
All right, Hey, have a great easter again, Kevin. We
will catch you again very soon. I'll get tomorrow your feedback.
In a couple of minutes. Our Sporto will be in
as well. Twenty five minutes past nine with Jack tame
on Newstalk's he'd be.

Speaker 4 (16:18):
Getting your weekends started.

Speaker 1 (16:20):
It's Saturday morning with Jack Team on newstalks.

Speaker 3 (16:23):
'b twenty eight minutes past nine on news Doalks, he'd
be thank you for your messages this morning, get a Jack. Yes,
New Zealand really does have some of the best forests
and mountains anywhere on the planet. I wish I could
get out there a bit more. Age does restrict me somewhat,
but I totally agree with your sentiment ninety two ninety
two if you want to flick us a little text
message this Easter weekend, time to catch up with our
sporto Andrew Saville. And how about that for a farewell

(16:46):
at a polo stadium last night, My goodness, the Crusaders
over the Druer, and a couple of performances in particular
stood out. It's fair to.

Speaker 8 (16:55):
Say Cody Taylor, Yes, good morning, Jack. Cody Taylor's won fiftieth.

Speaker 5 (16:59):
I think he scored.

Speaker 8 (17:01):
He scored three tries and I think he scored his
fiftieth plus. So what a great night for Cody Taylor
and the Crusaders. Look, they're always going to beat the drawer.
They were hot favorites, but to put sixty points on
them I thought was very strong. If at Jack a
great crowd to send off the old Scaffold Stadium.

Speaker 3 (17:24):
Been here a few times but four tries?

Speaker 8 (17:28):
Was it fifty fifty one two three?

Speaker 5 (17:30):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (17:31):
Yeah, anyway, been here.

Speaker 8 (17:33):
A few times, especially for all Black Tests in the
middle of winter at night, and it is a very
tough watch at that venue. The easterly often cuts you
in half freezing cold. So I think the fans who
turned up there for the Crusaders championship winning seasons and

(17:53):
other matches need a huge pat on the back.

Speaker 4 (17:56):
That's it.

Speaker 8 (17:56):
That's a that's a tough watch at a ground like that,
and you're paying to watch as well. So it'll be
fantastic once they get into their new venue, which of
course has a roof and his ed and it's covered
from the elements. But no, a good farewell, A farewell
for a ground that you know well and truly served
its purpose years ago. Just such a shame. It's taken

(18:19):
so long, and the Crusaders have had players come and
go and coaches come and go over that period and
are finally getting into a new venue after all these years.
As a champion winning team.

Speaker 3 (18:28):
Yeah right, so we've got Chiefs Tars the scene, Chiefs.

Speaker 8 (18:31):
Tars Tonight, Hamilton. Only three games this weekend and super right,
be weird, weird, weird situation, odd marketing ploy. If it
was three five teams overall have the buy movie home.
I'm thinking, well, maybe there's a captive audience over Easter.
Possibly probably have a few more games, which the NRL

(18:54):
is doing. They had a Thursday night game, two games yesterday,
two games today Tomorrow, one game Monday, so they've they've
flooded the market. Now, if you want to see a
sport team at its absolute peak, take a look at
the Penrith Panthers. Last night. They put fifty points. Fifty

(19:15):
points on the Melbourne Storm, who are perennial, if not champions,
they Grand finalists or at least they make the top
two or four teams in the RL. Fifty points on
the Storm and they look absolutely unstoppable. The Warriors have
them coming up somewhere on the horizon. The Warriors take
on the Sharks over in Sydney. That's going to be

(19:36):
a tough assignment for them. But this Penrith Panthers team
under Ivan Cleary and Nathan Cleary dree was something too.

Speaker 3 (19:44):
Ye, Hey, what do you make of that? Speaking of
something to behold? What do you make of a this week?

Speaker 8 (19:48):
That was just staggering. I've seen some seen some great
innings means and women's cricket over the years, but when
you not only look at the innings and how she
scored and how she took a part in South African attack,
but the fact that the Black the White Ferns are
chasing nearly three hundred and fifty d in a one
day match and she never flinched. Other other batters at

(20:12):
the other end were coming and going.

Speaker 5 (20:14):
She carried on.

Speaker 8 (20:15):
She carried that team pretty much through that whole winnings.
To have that mental stress of trying to win the
game as well as score runs yourself and pretty much
do the job by yourself, it proves that she's a
one tough critter, right, Yeah, it was. It was a
fantastic innings. She Since she's taken on the captaincy, I

(20:37):
think she's got even better, which is which doesn't happen
often to players across sport. And the concern though Jack
is in the future that she's going to be the
team or the player in the team and is that
going to have to carry this team reasonably often? Yeah, yep, crazy.

(20:59):
So yeah, came burst onto the scene very very young.
But you know, let's let's hope in the coming years
she has tons of support around her and doesn't have
to take on too much of the low But yeah,
I thought that was a great thing the other day.

Speaker 3 (21:11):
And hey, so where do you land Easter Sunday morning?
Do we start off at the hot cross buns and
we are the truckolate?

Speaker 4 (21:20):
He exits.

Speaker 8 (21:20):
Well, mate, don't even I'm trying. Marshmallow is my enemy.
I've been chanting that all weekend. I don't even want
to think about it. I haven't purchased anything. I don't
tend to.

Speaker 3 (21:34):
Well, even if you don't purchase anything. The thing about Easter,
it's one of those times a year where just sort
of treats have a habit of the finding that, yeah,
may have a habit.

Speaker 8 (21:42):
I'm landing on my desk work, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm
trying hard, mate, Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:47):
Well, all the very best. Godspeed on that front. I
appreciate your time this morning. Sam Andrew savil Our Sporto
this morning. Don't forget after ten o'clock. If you are
just going to have a nice relaxed weekend at home,
you're looking for something good to watch from the comfort
of your couch. We have our screen time segment and
we're going to tell you about the show Something Very

(22:07):
Bad is Going to Happen, which is outstanding. It's a
tantalizing title, is it not? So yeah, if you're just
if you're feeling like actually, this is just a good
weekend for chilling out, for relaxing. We've got a couple
of great shows in screen time after ten this morning,
before ten o'clock, that delicious recipe for anyone not pulling
and Andrew Saville this weekend for Easter Rocky Road. Next up,

(22:31):
we've got your film picks for this weekend. It's twenty
six minutes to ten. Who talks in there? You were
Jack taming through the midday today. That's a new release

(22:51):
from One Republic called Need Your Love. Time to catch
up with our film with you at Francesca Rudkin is
here with her picks for this Easter weekend. Good morning,
Good morning. So there's been a lot of hype about
old Robert Pattinson and Z starring in your first pick
for us this morning. We'd better have a listen. This
is the drama.

Speaker 9 (23:12):
So before we got married, we did this thing, or
we said the worst thing we've ever done.

Speaker 3 (23:17):
I'll tell mine if we all do it, promise what
did you do?

Speaker 8 (23:20):
This?

Speaker 4 (23:22):
Beer bottles and porn left a nerve?

Speaker 10 (23:25):
Na?

Speaker 7 (23:25):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (23:27):
Done?

Speaker 11 (23:29):
Okay?

Speaker 4 (23:29):
I are you serious? Dan?

Speaker 3 (23:34):
Dun?

Speaker 8 (23:34):
Dan?

Speaker 3 (23:35):
I mean that is a tantalizing little Traylor, is it not?

Speaker 11 (23:39):
And I'm not gonna I'm not going to tell you anything.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
I was going to say, don't you dare.

Speaker 11 (23:45):
Is because actually you want to try and work through
it with the characters as they're trying to work through it.
That's sort of the fun of this film. Sindia and
Robert Pattinson are really good together. I kind of couldn't
quite picture it, but they're really delightful. They've got this
very natural chemistry. This is the first time they've worked together,

(24:05):
but they're actually in three films together this year. They're
also in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey and also Dune Part three,
which is out at the end of the year, so
they're really really love it together. Look this film, it
starts out as laugh out loud, funny and as it progresses,
it shifts to sort of a more cringe worthy, uncomfortable funny.

(24:26):
So they play these two characters, Emma and Charlie, and
it is the week of their wedding. They're just finalizing
the preparations, getting things sorted. I really liked the pacing
of this film. They kind of, you know, as they're
writing speeches, we have little sort of flashbacks to how
they met, so we get to know them. But it's
sharp and it's snappy, and we kind of get to

(24:47):
the point, which is this evening they have with their
some friends of theirs, this married couple, where they all
talk about the worst thing that they've done. And a
couple of them have done some quite bad things, but
nothing compared to what Zendea's character Emma kind of accidentally
drops on the table.

Speaker 7 (25:03):
She'd had a few.

Speaker 11 (25:04):
Wines and she admits to this thing, and it really
just changes everything, and it's very hard to everything from
every comment she makes to every action she does. You
now see her in a completely new context. And of
course Robert Pattinson's Charlotte character, Charlie has to work out
with actually, you know, do I know this person? Do

(25:26):
I al really want to marry this person. Do I
want to spend the rest of my life with this person? Also,
so it really looks at relationships. It looks at how
much you know, is love enough to kind of overcome
an obstacle and to forgive someone. And it also looks
at empathy and how much empathy we can have for
someone who might have made a mistake or almost made
a mistake, and how we can kind of see through

(25:48):
it. It's really look it's snappy, it's really clever, as I say,
life out loud, funny. At the beginning, I was really
enjoying it. Then it does get quite uncomfortable as the
intensity builds and we heap get to the wedding and
it all kind of falls up. I spent a bit
of time wondering how else they might have resolved this film,
because the question composed and it is quite hard to resolve.

(26:09):
And I think they've left it. I think they've done
a nice job of it and leaving it maybe in
a way that you can.

Speaker 5 (26:15):
Use your own.

Speaker 11 (26:17):
It's a little bit ambiguous. You could maybe decide for
yourself how you would like things to kind of pan out.
But no, it's it's really great. It's a bit different.
I mean, it's a it's a rom com and it's
a drama ed and it's a dark black comedy. It's
a psychological sort of thriller at the same time, it's
a little bit of everything. No, really clever thought it
was great.

Speaker 3 (26:35):
Okay, it sounds really good. I was gonna say it
does sound dark without having it feels like there's a
dark secret here.

Speaker 11 (26:43):
Absolutely, And there is some controversy around it because the
secret is something which people don't really feel should be
a gimmick in a romantic comedy. But I think it's
dealt with in a manner that we all understand the
seriousness of it. So there is a bit of controversy
around it.

Speaker 3 (27:00):
Even the way you've talked about it just makes me
so intrigue. Now, I know, I know. It's everything I
can do not to go and google it. I'm not
going to, but you know what I mean, like, no, no,
I won't, I won't won't anything.

Speaker 11 (27:12):
And it's my advice to listeners as well, do not
read anything more about this.

Speaker 4 (27:16):
Just yeah, you know.

Speaker 3 (27:17):
It's great, Yeah, don't check it out. Very good Okay, cool.
So that is the drama that is showing in Cinemas
at the Moment, starring Robert Pattinson and Zendaya. Next up,
let's have a listened to a film streaming on Disney Plus.
This is Mike, Nick, Nick and Alice.

Speaker 5 (27:35):
I'm you, but I'm from the future. They came back
and a time machine. Certainly and I understand, obviously.

Speaker 3 (27:46):
Okay, this is a little bit different.

Speaker 11 (27:49):
This is a film that really shouldn't work on paper,
and look, it probably only just works on screen thanks
to the charisma of its stars. It's a gangster flick.
I think it's sort of set around the nineteen nineties,
but it's also it's also a sci fi film that
involves time travel, and it's a comedy, and it's an
action film, and it's a little bit nuts. So we

(28:11):
follow a couple of hitmen. Turns out one of them,
Mike played by James Marsden, is having an affair with
his partner, Nick's wife, Nick is played by Vince Vaughn.
He's having an affair with his wife Alice played by
Isaa Gonzales. Now the Boys Boss, sort of mafia like boss.
He is celebrating the release of his son from prison,

(28:33):
and to celebrate he's decided he is going to take
out the person who sent his son to prison, and
it turns out that Mike is being set up and
being held responsible for this, so that there is a
hip man on the way to take out Mike. Nick, though,
decides to step in and help out. But not just
one Nick. There are two Nicks. Hence the time travel
comes into play. It's bonkers, it's really quite it's really

(28:56):
quite nuts. So there's a lot of Vince Baughn in
this film. There's two Vince Baorn's. He plays two characters,
and he is very much playing He's very much acting
in the way that we always expect him to. It's
kind of you know, I don't know if you've sick
got apple, but he's in a show called Bad Monkey,
and it's the most it's the best performance I've seen
from him in a long time. His sort of his character,

(29:17):
in his way of acting, really fitted that that show
and that character, and he's brilliant this it's just a
little bit more typical Vince Vaughn having fun in an
action comedy. But look along with James Marsden and Isaac Gonzalez,
so the three of them are really fun together. So
if you want something breezy and easy to watch over Easter,
and you've got Disney Plus once again. A little bit

(29:39):
like the previous film I spoke about. It's a real
mix of genres. It's a romantic comedy, a comedy against
a film, a crime flip in a time travel film.
So yeah, have you want something a little fun that's.

Speaker 3 (29:50):
A real trend at the moment.

Speaker 11 (29:52):
Yeah, yeah, and look if you can, if you can
do it.

Speaker 3 (29:54):
Well yeah, right for sure. But the kind of mooley
mash of genres where you're like, oh, it's both like
a you know, a horror and a seventeenth century period
drama and uh, you know, like in a children's comedy,
Like oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, it's quite good.

(30:16):
I like that, you know. I like the filmmakers don't
necessarily feel pigeonholed.

Speaker 5 (30:21):
You know.

Speaker 3 (30:22):
And maybe it's maybe there's another way to look at it,
and you could say they're trying to be everything to
everyone at once, you know, But yeah, I like that
sounds quite good. I like the sound of it. So
that is Mike Nick, Nick and Ellis. That's on Disney Plus.
Francesca's first film for Us, This Morning, is shown in cinemas.
That's the drama, and honestly, I really think I'm gonna
have to go and see that, if only to resolve

(30:43):
what this big secret might be. I'm going to get
to more of your feedback in a couple of minutes
on news talks. Heb right now. It's called it a ten.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
Saturday morning with Jack team keeping the conversation going through
the weekend US Talks.

Speaker 4 (30:56):
He'd be their.

Speaker 3 (30:57):
Team minutes to ten on News Talks, he'd be Jack
absolutely loved your description of going tramping and the Cahudangi
National Park. I have done the heafy I walked from
the northern end and have to agree with your comments
regarding the variety of landscapes. Amazing that you can see
such variety in a relatively small space. Yes, so I
think the code on you might be our largest national park.

(31:20):
I think fairly confident is our largest national park in
terms of actual size, certainly up there. Jack absolutely delighted
in your story about tramping with your friends. On News Talks,
he'd be this morning. I think you've hit on something
when you say that you notice as you get older
how much more you enjoy the birds, how much you
enjoy things like the old gold mining equipment. I think

(31:43):
it's an antidote to this fast paced world social media, etc.
When you can stop, pause and be reflective. Perhaps that's
what you're enjoying. I think you're onto something there. Twelve
minutes to ten, Nicky Wicks Cook is here with a
fantastic sounding Easter treat for us this morning Kelder Nikki.

Speaker 8 (32:01):
Killed a Jack.

Speaker 12 (32:02):
I also loved listening to that tramping story because I
didn't enjoy the route boot quite as much Time made
it sound. I mean, I you know, it feels as
though it's a childbirth story for me, where it's getting
better the longer the longer that the longer the time
goes between having done the tramp. But honestly, that was hard,

(32:25):
and I remember we talked about it before I went,
but it was hard work for me. It was hard yacker.
But the pride is starting to overcome the shop.

Speaker 5 (32:34):
I actually had to do that.

Speaker 3 (32:36):
See, I think that's for me too. And my wife
actually goes one step further. She thinks that my life
has been so cushy. These are her words. My life
has been so cushy that I need to suffer in
order to feel any sense of satisfaction, I have to
create suffering for myself. That's what she said. Probably that's
probably true.

Speaker 11 (32:52):
Your wife is probably right about that.

Speaker 3 (32:54):
Yeah, this sort of something I'm like, is it a
good thing or a bad thing?

Speaker 5 (32:58):
Yeah?

Speaker 12 (32:59):
All right, well I'll I'll start pegging back my eye.
Will I never need to go that far into the
wilderness again, exactly story, And I'll start pigging that back
because you made it sound so glorious and so romantic.
And yes I did have all those feelings, but I
didn't know them at the time because I was just.

Speaker 5 (33:15):
So so exhausted.

Speaker 3 (33:16):
Because focused on the page.

Speaker 12 (33:18):
Anyway, Yeah, yeah, yes, it is a mind game. Tramping
look East is a bit of a mind game too,
And I think I was just thinking.

Speaker 3 (33:25):
I think this.

Speaker 12 (33:26):
Recipe is for those of you out there who thought,
I'm not buying chocolate this year, Easter eggs. I'm going
to be good and I'm not going to have treats.
But now you're melting with your resolves melting, and you're
suddenly like, I actually do.

Speaker 4 (33:39):
Want lots of chocolate.

Speaker 12 (33:40):
Tree, So this is my Easter rocky road, and you'll
be able to get most of this at your local
dairy I suspect. So it's super simple, and it's really
in a couple of hours because it's you know, you
can pop it in the freezer to make it set.
Makes a sort of a big chunk of it, a
big slab about twenty by twenty centimeters line of baking
baking tray or something a little a baking dish with
baking paper.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
Melt.

Speaker 12 (34:02):
Two hundred grams of dark chocolate and two hundred grams
of milk chocolate. I do that the old fashioned way,
just in a pot on a really low heat. I've
chopped the chocolate up, and if you put fifty grams
of butter with it and one tablespoon of golden syrup
or maple syrup, it stops it doing what chocolate sometimes does,
which is seas when it gets it's warm. But if
you put the butter in the syrup and it won't,

(34:23):
so that you've got a lovely, shiny, shiny melted chocolate.
Brew with melted chocolate. Stir in the following, and this
is what makes it into the lovely rocky road. One
hundred grams of roasted almonds. I sometimes use those Tamari
almonds too, Jack, which I just think, God, you get
this lovely wicked kind of tamari sauce that's salty in there,
which is lovely. Half a cup of chopped dried apricots

(34:46):
you could use some other you know, you could use
figs if you want it, or even prunes, and then
one cup of chopped marshmallow eggs or marshmallows, either one
in there, and I just you know, mix all of
that together and scrape that into your dish, smooth the
top as much as you can. And then if you've
got some other mini eggs. I love those little colorful ones,

(35:06):
all the little caramelo ones, and you can just chop
those up and pour though and put you know, scatter
them over the top and it'll be ready. Chill it
for sort of two to three hours or overnight until
it's set, cut it into squares, and it's just divine.
It is so good because you get to use good
quality chocolate in this were sometimes our Easter eggs are
not the best quality. And yeah, so this is great

(35:29):
easter Rocky Road and the other one. If you can't
be bothered doing any of that, go and buy yourself
one of those long sort of cellophane I think there
are six marshmallow eggs, and then there are they only
do a half egg. Now even Jacket's so disgusting. They
don't even join the dew together. But pop them in
the freezer. Do yourself a treat. Prop them in the freezer,
and then eat them frozen. Oh my goodness, you cannot

(35:49):
believe how good they are.

Speaker 3 (35:50):
So the marshmallow ones you.

Speaker 12 (35:55):
Like, yeah, you put them in. You put them in
the freezer, and honestly, the chocolate then cracks as you
crunch into it. Marshmallow never quite freezes all the way through,
so it's sort of chewy. Oh so much than having
them fresh.

Speaker 3 (36:07):
So that I mean, this is shocking to me that
you've got a chocolate eating tip that I wasn't already
a weary This is a great information, okay, yeah yeah,
But of experimentation outdoors.

Speaker 12 (36:19):
As you get older, you can enjoy these little tips too.

Speaker 3 (36:22):
I mean, that's the other thing my wife also says
that's going tramping is just an excuse to like eat
copious amounts of pecking mix and lollies and all of that. Yeah.

Speaker 12 (36:32):
Look, I made the mistake of doing that. We talked
about what food to take and I didn't take the
right food. I tried to do the trampe stuff plus
the musley bars and all that, but I don't eat
stuff like that. So in the car on the way
back from Glen Orkie, once we'd come out, I said
to my two vegetarian sisters of my dad, I said,
next time, you know what I'm going to take.

Speaker 5 (36:50):
I'm going to take a big.

Speaker 12 (36:51):
Slab of bacon and egg pie. And I reckon, that's
going to last me the whole time.

Speaker 3 (36:55):
I reckon, that's a very good option. Yeah, I reckon.

Speaker 12 (36:58):
Yeah, that in the salami. You put me onto the
salami and that was great.

Speaker 3 (37:01):
That'll get you through all they need a bit of
sugary stuff. Yeah, Hey, thank you so much, Nicky. We'll
make sure that recipe for Nicky's Easter Rocky Road is
up at Newstalk's headb dot co dot NZ. We're back
in a couple of minutes. Right now, it's seven to.

Speaker 1 (37:15):
Ten, giving you the inside scoop on all you need
to know Saturday Morning with Jack Team News Talks dB.

Speaker 3 (37:25):
After ten o'clock on News Talks, he'db our feature interview
this Saturday Morning is Stephen k Amos you'll know Stephen
from the Amazing British panel shows. He seems to there's
sort of like the comedians sort of go through each
of the different shows over time, so they appear on
lots of different ones. He's been on QI a few
times Live at the Apollo. He's a real character and

(37:45):
he is making his way to New Zealand for the
first time at ages. He's also just one of those
stand up comedians who seems to have endured and seems
to have a kind of cross generational appeal. He's kind
of hit the sweet spot in that sense. So I'm
going to ask him about that. He'll be with us
right after the news as well as that. We've got
your screen time picks for this weekend. And you know

(38:07):
how Australia is the first country to introduce a social
media band for under sixteen year olds. Will they have
their first report card of sorts. It's giving us a
bit of an insight as to how effective the band
has been, whether or not the kids are getting around it,
and whether or not the social media platform should actually

(38:27):
be doing more. So, our texpert's going to be here
very shortly to give us the key lines from that.
Let us know how the Aussies are going and whether
or not we should be introducing a similar band here.
News is next. It's almost ten o'clock. I'm Jack Taye.
It's Saturday Morning. This is News Talk.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
Zedb's cranking way to start your Saturday Saturday morning with
Jack Team News Talks.

Speaker 3 (38:50):
Be in a good morning. You were Jack Tame on

(39:15):
Newstalks hed be this Easter Saturday Morning. Stephen k Amos
does the talking so we can do the laughing. You'll
have seen him on his regular spots on UK TV
shows like Live at the Apollo and QI my favorite
of the British panel shows, and right now Stevens in
Australia out on the festival circuit before heading our way

(39:37):
in May with his new show Deconstructing the Science of
Laughter and Steven's with us this morning. Cald A, good.

Speaker 5 (39:43):
Morning, Good morning Jack. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 3 (39:46):
It's so good to be speaking with you. I have
very much enjoyed your contributions to British panel shows over
the years. I'm a real British panel show geek. So
it is a delight to know you're coming back to
New Zealand and you're coming back with a brand new
show that deconstructs the science of laughter. So tell us
about that.

Speaker 13 (40:06):
Well, that is an element of the show that's absolutely,
absolutely true. I was asked in New Zealand good few
years ago now, so I'm absolutely thrilled to be coming
back after all this time. I've got friends who live
in the South Island, a place called Picton.

Speaker 3 (40:23):
Oh very good. It's not my aunt lives in that
part of the world, so maybe you're bumma to her.

Speaker 5 (40:29):
Maybe I will. There's not many people live there.

Speaker 13 (40:32):
So yeah, the show is called now We're Talking, And
basically that is one of the elements in the show,
where I'm talking about what laughter does to our brains
and our body, how very important it is to have
people sitting close together at any kind of comedy show
because we.

Speaker 5 (40:46):
Need you all to be infected with laughter.

Speaker 13 (40:49):
And then I talk about how it's important for us
to keep talking in a world where there's a lot
of noise out there and people aren't listing enough.

Speaker 5 (40:57):
So that's the essence of the show.

Speaker 3 (40:58):
I was going to say, the world has changed a lot.
I looked at up you were last in New Zealand
and twenty sixteen, so it feels like there's probably a
fear bit of content that you'll be able to draw upon,
given the state of the extent to which the world
has changed in that time. So when I think of laughter,
I think you hit on a really important point there.
There's a social component, isn't there. Because if you're watching

(41:19):
a TV show by yourself, even if it's really funny,
most of the time you don't laugh. But if you
have another person sitting next to you on the couch,
then for some reason you laugh. I don't know why
is it.

Speaker 13 (41:31):
It's something to do with the human connection, the mirror neuron.
You see somebody laugh, you laugh. Is a shared experience
and on your own. I suppose people don't want to
look odd if they're just sitting behinde themselves and then
go fororing like a bit of a lunatic. But it
is good for the soul. I mean, even if you
just walk down the street and you hear somebody laughing uproariously,

(41:55):
you've got no idea what they're laughing at. You start
laughing as well. I mean, that's wonderful. I mean I
don't remember back in the day, there's be a song
by the Laughing Policeman which is when and it just
went on and on, and then suddenly the entire people
in the room are laughing.

Speaker 5 (42:14):
We don't know why.

Speaker 3 (42:15):
Really, Yeah, I remember seeing an amazing short film once.
It might have been German or might have been scanning Avy,
and I can't remember exactly where it was from. And
it was the simplest concept, but it was beautifully done.
It was people sitting on a train carriage and one
person and they're all just sitting there in silence, looking
at their phones and looking out the window and that
kind of thing. And then one person just starts sniggering

(42:37):
a little bit, and then it starts to spread. And
all this film was was this this scene on a
train carriage where over three or four minutes, the laughter
spread throughout the train carriage and it was actually, it
was actually truly beautiful. It sounds kind of it might
sound a bit corny the way I'm describing it, but

(42:58):
you could imagine it happening, right, you could. You know,
there is something profoundly infectious about it.

Speaker 13 (43:04):
Absolutely, But also in the same way you can imagine
if someone comes into a room saying a party and
that person has just brought with them negative energy, You
feel that as well, somebody grumping, making noises and not
looking happy, and you avoid eye contact with that person.
Somebody comes into the room with a cheery disposition. Wow,

(43:25):
you're drawn to that person.

Speaker 5 (43:26):
It's great.

Speaker 13 (43:27):
And you know it's a cliche, but laughter is the
best medicine. Yeah, it absolutely is.

Speaker 3 (43:31):
Yeah, No, I totally agree with that. It's the beast medicine.
And it's the universal language, which I suppose when you're
making I appreciate it's not the full show, but when
it's a component on the show, you can be relatively
assured that there is a subject that is going to
cross international lines pretty pretty smoothly.

Speaker 13 (43:49):
Well, indeed, it doesn't matter where you are, where you
come from. If you think about this on a basic
human level. Babies learn to laugh before they can speak.

Speaker 4 (43:58):
Yeah, I mean that.

Speaker 13 (44:00):
It's incredible when you just break it right down, that's
what it is. One of the oldest jokes in human
history is, of course, peekaboo that you do with your babies.
Who's there, Daddy's there, and your babies starts howling.

Speaker 4 (44:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (44:13):
Yeah, that's a very good point. I've got a one
year old at the moment, and he's just at that
delightful stage where Peekaboo is an enormous hit and I
can just do little things to make him laugh. And
seeing him laugh it's as though I can feel my
blood pressure relax or something like. I feel a kind
of physiological reaction as I as I join him and laughter.

(44:34):
You know, it's a it's an amazing it's an amazing thing,
and you never really consider it.

Speaker 4 (44:37):
I suppose no, you don't.

Speaker 13 (44:39):
And that's why I'm taking time out in the show too.
I mean I should stress it's not a Ted talk no.

Speaker 5 (44:44):
No, absolutely a comedy show.

Speaker 3 (44:46):
Doctor Stephen is going to be addressing us about yeah yeah,
yeah yeah.

Speaker 13 (44:50):
And will I will be guaranteeing that laughter will ensue.
Where I've been doing the show recently in Adelaide and
now in Canberra, and it's gone down I can say particularly, well.

Speaker 3 (45:03):
That's really good to hear. So so you're sort of
on the feasible circuit a little bit at the stage
of the year, right, and you you had a real
breakout back in the day at the Edinburgh Fringe. That
was where you really started to connect with people. So
how do you reflect. I don't want to suggest that
you've been in the game a long time. But how
do you reflect on the kind of on the kind

(45:23):
of changes in the comedy scene, in the way in
which comics travel and tour today compared to when you started,
Because from the outside it looks like there's been an
explosion and stand up comedy.

Speaker 13 (45:36):
Well, I think you're absolutely right, Jack, there have been
an explosion. And I think partly what's that got to
do with is the fact that people's tastes have changed
over the years. How people consume comedy has changed. The
gatekeepers who used to tell us and put on TV, etc.
What they thought was funny. That has changed, the advent
of social media where people can create their own stuff.

(45:59):
And what I've seen in particular in the last ten
ten or so years is the different voices coming through now.
When I was doing The End, I used to the
Edinward Festival every year since nineteen ninety seven, for example,
and back then, for example, I would be one of
maybe two other black comedians there, or you wouldn't hear

(46:19):
of any LGBT voices, you wouldn't.

Speaker 5 (46:22):
See many women.

Speaker 13 (46:25):
But now that the landscape, as I say, has changed,
and it's wonderful because every one of us has got
a story to tell. And you know, comedy is subjective.
What you do is you find your tribe. You know,
if you don't find someone particularly funny, don't go and
see them. That's how simple it is. But I think
with comedy as well, that laughing, it's very emotional, very emotive.

(46:47):
I think people get so angry if they didn't like
a policular comedian or they didn't like a comedy show.
Like music as well, Oh that band is awful, don't
it might be awful to you. Somebody else likes them.
There is a reason for their success, you know, let's
try and balance things out.

Speaker 3 (47:04):
That's a very mature reflection. Well, I just because you
know there are I mean, you see these stories about
you know, people either saying one of two things, first
of all, saying that you know, this comedian isn't funny
and this person shouldn't be saying this, or you conversely,
hear the other side of the coin, where you know,
people moan about living in two censorious a society these days,

(47:28):
and I can imagine that you sort of need to
know where you stand on those points if you're going
to be getting up in front of people and you're
going to be and you're going to be cracking gag.
So where do you want to Where do you land
on the continuum?

Speaker 13 (47:39):
Well, well, the way I think the world has got
and this is perhaps the negative side of social media
has got censorious, has got full of misinformation, downright lies, untruth.
People say whatever they want without recourse. But I think
in the in the in the arena of comedy, I

(48:01):
really do believe in freedom of speech. But also with
freedom of speech comes freedom of expressession, whereby we can
react however we see fit, depending what it is you say,
that should be the payoff. I think any decent comedian,
any good comedian, should be able and allowed to tackle
any subject. Whether they tackle it and get it right

(48:21):
is another story. But let's not forget that we're in
the boundaries of comedy. It's a comedy show, and that
doesn't mean you say what you want to make people
laugh in a cheap, easy laugh, because we can all
do that. I'm pretty certain that every single one of us,
every one of the listeners right now, will the most
outrageous things your friends and family that you never say
an open company. You know, that's polite society. So for

(48:44):
me and myself, as I say people like my stuff,
people don't like my stuff. I don't get involved in
online spats with anybody. You know, people people have said
some stuff about me in the past over the years.
I don't get involved with it because I'm not adding
fuel or oxygen to something that's not going to benefit
my life or my mental space.

Speaker 3 (49:03):
Very wise, very wise, and I'm one hundred percent. I
always just think context is so often forgotten.

Speaker 13 (49:09):
With these contexts, it's so easy to sit behind your
phone and you just have a comment and at the
end of the day, to be honest, Jack, I don't
want to hear I don't want to know what people
who know nothing think.

Speaker 3 (49:24):
This is. That's a great attitude. I always think, you know,
if you've taken the time whoever you are, anonymous keyboard warrior,
to take, you know, three minutes out of your day
to write a horrible message to me, I can only
imagine how vacuous an empty your life must be, because
if that's the use of time, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 5 (49:42):
No, I can't imagine sitting I don't think I could.

Speaker 13 (49:46):
I could put my hand on heart and say I
can look through all my social media over the years,
and I've never written anything.

Speaker 4 (49:51):
Horrible to anybody good?

Speaker 5 (49:53):
I mean, how what benefit does it make you feel better?
My goodness? Gracious?

Speaker 3 (49:59):
Hey, why are the Brits so good at panel shows?
Why don't we see the Americans doing funny panel shows?
But I mean they're a diameter dozen in the UK
and almost to a program, they are sensational.

Speaker 5 (50:13):
Do you know what? I don't know what the actual
answer is. It could be.

Speaker 13 (50:18):
I mean, for example, the Americans are very good at sitcom,
maybe because they have lots and lots of writers. They're
good at sketch in some in many respects, maybe because
they have lots and lots of writers. But with a
panel show, it's about getting about each person being individual,
and it's kind of in the moment and it's funny,
and some people are very self deprecating on there. So

(50:39):
you again, like comedy, you find the ones you like
and then you go bang, oh yeah, that's that's he said,
that's spontaneously, that's funny.

Speaker 5 (50:47):
Maybe that's the secret.

Speaker 3 (50:48):
Maybe I don't want to say the Americans aren't witty,
because I enjoy American comedies as well, But I think
maybe that's it. Maybe maybe there's something about the British
sensibility that just leans itself to being wittier in those
in those moments and those shows beat a suitor kind
of witty format, you know.

Speaker 5 (51:06):
But Jack.

Speaker 3 (51:09):
Exactly, you put it on me, Steve, And yeah, you
take the full to see all the comments flooding and
I'll be totally misrepresented here. And yeah, my final question
for you. You were in the Beetlejuice sequel a couple
of times. Yes, So how did that come about?

Speaker 5 (51:25):
Well, it's one of those things.

Speaker 13 (51:26):
I'm just very grateful that over the years catop has
opened many different avenues to walk down through.

Speaker 5 (51:32):
I've done a West End musical for example. I mean,
who would have thought it?

Speaker 13 (51:36):
And then I got a call a couple of years
ago from casting people and they give me a code
name for this thing and they mentioned Tim Burton and
I'm like.

Speaker 5 (51:46):
Whatever it is, I'm in. And then, of.

Speaker 13 (51:48):
Course I find out with a script that arrives a
couple of days later, and it's watermarked and it's highly
tightly secure, and it's got a cowbird and I know
exactly what it is and I'm like boom, of course,
and everyone has seen it. You'll know that the scene
that I'm talking about is. It's a pastiche it's quite
a nod back to a certain very famous music program

(52:13):
in America in these late sixties and seventies, and that's
I think it's quite funny. I think it's the best scene.

Speaker 5 (52:20):
But I'm buyased.

Speaker 3 (52:20):
Yeah, of course you are. Yeah, yeah, no, no, we
can definitely agree on that point. Hey, thank you so
much for giving us your time. We are delighted to
have you coming back to our shores and look forward
to seeing you very soon.

Speaker 13 (52:29):
I can't wait. I'm absolutely thrill it to be coming
out to a New Zealand. Yeah, it's been too long.

Speaker 3 (52:36):
Oh so good. Looking forward to Stephen. We'll have all
the details for Stephen k am Moss's tour up on
the News Talks. He'd be website so you can get
along and see him as well. Now before eleven o'clock
on News Talks, he'd be our personal finance expert has
been doing the numbers to see how election years impact
the housing market. He reckons that actually there are a

(52:58):
couple of trends that he's identified, which he's going to
share with us before eleven o'clock this morning. If you
were in the market by any chance, we'll have a
definitive measure as to whether or not now it is
a good time to buy, are you before the election
or after the election, whether or not you should wait?
So he's going to join us very shortly. Next up, though,
we've got your screen time picks for this weekend, a

(53:18):
couple of cracking shows to watch your stream from the
comfort of your couch. Right now, it's twenty one past ten.
You're Jack Tame. It's Saturday Morning and this is news
Dog ZBT.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
On your weekend off the right way. Saturday Morning with
Jack Tame, news DOGSV.

Speaker 3 (53:36):
News Dogs B twenty four minutes past ten, You're Jack Tame.
Thank you for your Textas Morning Jack. British banter is
developed in the pubs. That's why I think it's the
best Jack. The British comedy game shows are so good
because mainly only one person talks at a time. If
you watch the New Zealand ones, it becomes a bit
of a shout fest. That's an observation that Leo's made
on the textas Morning and Jack. I'm listening to your

(53:58):
program right now with my one year old. At the
mention of peekaboo, he started laughing. Out loud. Little ones
are so marvelous. Thanks for Unka and Josh take listeners
of all ages and on Saturday mornings. You know how
it is ninety two. If you want to send us
a message this morning, Jacket Newspek saidv dot co dot
nz is the email address. Our screen time expert Carl
Pushman is here this morning with two shows to recommend

(54:20):
for watching or streaming from your place. Do you have
a Carl? Good morning, Jack.

Speaker 5 (54:25):
Hello.

Speaker 3 (54:26):
We're going to begin this morning with the latest show
from the creator of Stranger Things, tell us about something
very bad is going to happen.

Speaker 14 (54:35):
Yes, I'm gonna have some minor spoilers, but nothing more
than you might have gathered from that title. It's very descriptive,
and indeed something very bad does indeed happen throughout and
continues to happen pretty much from.

Speaker 8 (54:46):
The word go.

Speaker 14 (54:47):
The show's sort of a horror romance, perhaps not the
way you might think. The remance comes from the show
revolving around a wedding and the idea of marrying your soulmate.
Then the horror comes from a generational curse that kills
the bride on the evening of her wedding day in
quite gruesome fashion if the man she's married is not
in fact said soulmate, which is quite a unique idea.

(55:09):
And the show follows a bride Rachel in the week
leading up to her wedding as she discovers first why
all these bad things are going on around her, secondly
if fiance is actually her soulmate, and then thirdly finding
a way to sort of survive the curse if it
turns out he isn't. And of course there's loads of
bad things happening. This idea isn't waste and there's been

(55:31):
a lot of buzz around the eight part show. Like
you said, it was produced by the Duffer brothers who
created Stranger Things, and that was a slick show and
sort of set a visual visual tone for the zeitgeist
in a way, and this does the same sort of thing,
but it doesn't lean on nostalgia like that does. It's
very modern and flashy, which you know you sort of

(55:52):
expect from those guys, right, Yeah, And I think this
would have been an absolutely cracking movie. It would have
been amazing. It would have been six episodes, would have
been a very good show, but at eight it really
does start to drag and lose that momentum that it
has in the first half. Right, the first four episodes, man,
I was all in on the show. It was moving fast,

(56:14):
it was creepy as heck, it was dark, it was
you know, quite quite scary at times, and had it
almost like a David Lynch vibe to it. It was all
this weird stuff happening, and it was very very creepy
and tense. And then there's a reveal which is I
guess supposed to raise the stakes, but it kind of
just deflated them for me, which was a bit disappointing.

(56:38):
And then the pace really slows down and characters have
lots of earnest conversations where you're thinking, can we just
get back on with what's going on? So I think
they just like cut it down to six episodes. That
would have helped a lot, but it's still you know,
I still wanted to see. I stayed right to the end.
I wanted to see what was happened, what would happen,
how they're going to resolve this thing. I was very

(56:59):
curious to see what was going to go on. But
it did feel not a slog but you know, there
were different definitely get.

Speaker 3 (57:07):
Out more than was necessary sometimes Lisa's more with these things.

Speaker 14 (57:11):
I think so, and especially with you know, with horror,
you want to keep that Kent awful atmosphere, and it
does lead to like sort of like a commediately horrific finale,
I think is a way to almost compensate for that
slow sort of pace that it falls into. But by
then it wasn't enough. It was almost comedically comedically gory.

Speaker 3 (57:30):
In a way.

Speaker 14 (57:32):
So it's not very it's not very bad, but I
would say it's probably average. It would have been an
amazing an amazing movie. But yeah, eight episodes so long?

Speaker 3 (57:41):
Yeah, yeah, okay, well it depends how the weather is
it your plays, you know, if it's if it's one
of those weekends, then maybe eight episodes isn't actually too many.
But yeah, okay, get the message there. So that's that's
something very bad is going to happen. That's streaming on
Netflix and on Apple TV plus. Tell us about your
friends and neighbors.

Speaker 14 (57:58):
Now this is season two has just started, and I
was super invested in season one. I don't know if
you know much about it. It's a crime drama with
you know, a little little comedy thrown in here and
there the light of the mood, and it has a
great premise as well. John Hamm stars as a recently
divorced hedge fund manager who gets fired from his job.
So to keep himself in the lifestyle he's accustomed to,

(58:21):
he starts robbing his neighbors in the extremely wealthy neighborhood
that he lives in. So he do things like he'll
break into their house and steal a rolex from their collection,
or a piece of jewelry from the jewelry draw just
small little items that are worth a lot of money
but wouldn't be immediately noticeable, which is how he gets

(58:41):
away with it.

Speaker 3 (58:43):
So it was a lot of fun.

Speaker 14 (58:44):
He'd have these great high scenes when he's breaking into
people's houses and you know, the show, and getting around
their dogs and things like that, and they explained how
he sort of would bypass alarm systems and things like that,
so it was a lot of fun. And they sort
of balance that heist with the family drama of him
and his divorce process and things like that, so it
was it was quite good, and it ended on an

(59:05):
almighty cliffhanger that I've been waiting a full year to
see how are they going to get themselves out of
this thing?

Speaker 4 (59:11):
Like it was?

Speaker 14 (59:13):
It was major. I was like, Oh, this is going
to be great, explain away. So I was really man,
I was ready. So imagine my disappointment Jack when they
simply hand waived the whole thing away. It was such
a letdown. You would not believe they do a time jump.
They sort of a couple of characters mentioned it a
couple of times.

Speaker 3 (59:32):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 14 (59:34):
I won't spoil what they do, but I will say
that it was very lame and sort of up there
with and it was all a dream.

Speaker 3 (59:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 14 (59:42):
So after that, it was very hard to get to
invest into season two because you know, once you've been cheated,
once you're not lying again. Of yeah, they introduced James
mar and Marsden to the cast, who you might know
from the Sotnic movies, and you know, he's been a
movie since X Men, way back in the twenty two
thousands naughties, and he plays sort of charismatic, mysterious, extremely

(01:00:05):
wealthy new neighbor and he has a sort of like
gregarious energy about him, and he comes in and he's
all vibing and he's great and quite a perfect foil
to John Ham's, you know, sort of signature, dead pan,
cynical kind of performances that he does. So those two
work together really great, and it's really fun and it's
still flashy and it's still fun to watch, and it's
got that Apple premium look to it, but I just

(01:00:27):
can't get as invested because yeah, what they did, how
they got out.

Speaker 3 (01:00:31):
Of season one.

Speaker 4 (01:00:33):
Yeah that is.

Speaker 14 (01:00:35):
It's still a fun watch, like, you know, you sit there,
you watch it, but there's just something holding you back
from being like, I'm all investing.

Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
Yeah, yeah, okay, So that's your Friends and Neighbors. That's
on Apple TV Plus. And Carl's first pick for us
this week is something very Bad is going to Happen.
That's the one that's from the makers of Stranger Things
that's streaming on Netflix. All the details for those shows,
of course, will be up on the News Talks He'd
be website and you can hear more from Carl on
his sub stack screen Crack. It is twenty eight minutes

(01:01:04):
to eleven.

Speaker 4 (01:01:08):
Getting your weekend started.

Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
It's Saturday morning with Jack team on News Talks.

Speaker 4 (01:01:14):
B that's cool.

Speaker 3 (01:01:41):
This is ar Low Park that songs called Softly. It
sort of feels like it's going to be really conventional
pop and then it's just a little twist, don't you think.
So Arlow Parks is a songwriter from South London who
has established herself as one of the most emotionally transparent
voices in today's pop music. She was a Mercury Prize
winner for her debut album, Collapsed in Sunbeams, which she

(01:02:04):
released just before her twentieth bird She's always kind of
been drawn to an influenced by early two thousands Croydon
post dubstep sounds, which I'm very familiar with no but
actually know the likes of James Blake, for example, who
is just Fantastic, whose new album is oh Obnestly par Excellence,

(01:02:26):
Joy Orbison another one and who Anyway, her new album's
kind of absorbed a lot of that feeling. So Arlo
Parks's new album is called Ambiguous Desire. We're going to
have a little bit of a listen before midday today,
before eleven though. We're in the garden looking at the
crazy number of New Zealand snail varieties, including more than

(01:02:47):
just the common ones you like you to encounter in
your backyard, and our personal finance expert is going to
be in. He's going to tell us once and for all,
from the data he has crunched across eleven MMP elections,
how elections influence buying behavior in the housing market, and
whether or not having an election in the near to

(01:03:09):
medium future makes it a better prospect for buying a
house than it might otherwise be. He'll be with us
very shortly. Next up, though Australia's social media band has
been in place for more more than six months now,
I think, and the first reviews are in so our
Textbert's going to run us through the details twenty three
to eleven.

Speaker 4 (01:03:26):
Start the day. It's a team. It's the mic asking breakfast,
quick question? Did you buy the mini? Good question, Tim.

Speaker 15 (01:03:33):
The more pertinent question would be after she said we
were going to buy the mini? What happened when I
went home? Would that be the question you'd like to ask.

Speaker 4 (01:03:40):
Me, Mike, after she said that she would buy the mini?
What happened when you got home?

Speaker 15 (01:03:43):
For a good question, Tim, I'm glad you asked that.
The answer was that's not happening. I regret saying that,
and that's the last we will ever talk about. That's
not true.

Speaker 11 (01:03:51):
Because the Mini Garage did get in touch with me.
She was like, hey, I'm not building it out.

Speaker 15 (01:03:58):
This is like the US and Run at the moment,
isn't it we're talking about we're not?

Speaker 4 (01:04:01):
Yes we are, No, we're not. Is the AMNI know
there's not? Yes, it could be no, there's not.

Speaker 15 (01:04:05):
Back Tuesday for six am the Mic Hosking Breakfast with
rain Drivers fort SV News Talk ZB.

Speaker 3 (01:04:11):
Twenty one to eleven non news talks. They'd be the
first reviews or report cards are in on the Australian
social media ban. Of course, sixteen year olds in Australia
are banned from using social media. Our Textbert Paul Stenhouse
is here with the details. So how's it going, Paul, Yeah.

Speaker 16 (01:04:27):
There's room for improvement. Jack, So maybe what's that a
C or maybe a B. I don't know, but the
regulator is watching. I don't think they're taking any measures
as yet, but they are. They're paying close attention to
those ten social media companies who ye have to try
to keep children off the platforms, and I think it
is possibly easier said than done.

Speaker 3 (01:04:48):
Right.

Speaker 16 (01:04:49):
The regulator at the moment has flagged a couple of
things though, where they've said that where they're sort of
not following or where there could be some improvements. Yeah,
one of those is that before the band came into play,
some kids said they were under sixteen, and since the
band came into effect, I've had the opportunity to change
their account to say that they are over sixteen. So

(01:05:10):
that's one little check mark in the maybe things to
improve column. They've also found that there are insufficient ways
to report under sixteen accounts, whether they be from other
kids or from adults or things like that. And also
they still don't have good ways to prevent kids from

(01:05:32):
just creating new accounts who are under sixteen but maybe
aren't saying that they are under sixteen. So look social
media companies, both Meta and Snap, they both saying they're
doing the best they can to comply.

Speaker 4 (01:05:44):
But it is and.

Speaker 16 (01:05:46):
They say this. I think we've talked about this as well.
It is really difficult without a form of government ID
to know how old a person is. Otherwise we're just
trusting or potentially maybe inferring from some of their activities.
But that's not one hundred percent. So Meta has at
least suggested that the app stores should really be the
place that age verification takes place, which is a little

(01:06:08):
bit of a little shift aroo.

Speaker 3 (01:06:11):
If you will. I was going to say basically, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 16 (01:06:16):
So they're kind of saying, well, we operate and we
can't really figure this out. But hey, app Store, you
maybe have credit card details, you maybe know something else, Apple, Google,
maybe you can just figure this over here.

Speaker 3 (01:06:28):
Oh man, that is so interesting. I suppose at the
end of the day, though, I mean supporters of the band,
which they don't let the perfect be the enemy.

Speaker 4 (01:06:35):
They're good.

Speaker 3 (01:06:35):
Like, if it's still stopping some younger kids from accessing
social media, and I think it is, I think everyone
agrees that they might otherwise have been using it, then
it's still a net positive compared to the previous setting.
But yeah, it's going to be very interesting to see
if the big social media companies come out with some
alternate plans for actually being able to verify people's ages

(01:06:56):
without using those government issued ida Thank you very much,
Paul our Textbert Paul Stenhouse. There, we're talking personal finance.
In a couple of minutes, It's eighteen to eleven.

Speaker 1 (01:07:06):
No better way to kick off your weekend than with Jack.
Saturday Morning with Jack Team News talk set me sixteen
if you're eleven.

Speaker 3 (01:07:16):
The talking personal fins with Ed McKnight from Opie's partner
is a good morning, sir.

Speaker 4 (01:07:20):
Great to talk to you. Jack.

Speaker 3 (01:07:21):
You know what it feels like, elections come around faster
and faster and faster. Maybe that's just my job, but
also maybe that is just the experience of anyone who
keeps even a cursory eye on the housing market. Because
it's funny. In election year, it feels like the date
itself and the uncertainty that comes with elections looms over
the property market.

Speaker 17 (01:07:41):
Well that's exactly right, and in fact, so many things
routinely impact the property market and we can see that.
So what I've done is analyze the last eleven MMP
elections going back to nineteen ninety three, and looked for
patterns about what almost always happens. And what I've found
is there a pretty clear trend. Actually, so before the

(01:08:04):
election and up until about a month after the election,
kiwis do routinely buy fewer houses. Now it's not by
a huge amount, it's by kind of somewhere between four
to ten percent fewer houses before the election, and then
on average they start making up for lost time after it.
And I think what this does come down to is

(01:08:26):
the uncertainty about the outcome, the uncertainty about the policy
settings or what might happen afterwards. It just makes some
people decide to hold back a little bit, delay that picture,
such a delay taking out that mess of mortgage or
switching homes, of just saying, oh, wait and see what
happens after the election. And I think we all kind
of knew or sense that that might.

Speaker 5 (01:08:48):
Be the case.

Speaker 17 (01:08:48):
But it's interesting to see that once you look at
the data. Hey, that's what actually happens.

Speaker 3 (01:08:53):
Yeah, that's interesting. Does if you're going through those different
elections and the different results and then mapping it onto
activity in the housing market or plopping it against activity
in the housing market, can you see any discernible difference
depending on who wins you actually do it.

Speaker 17 (01:09:09):
I was a little bit surprised by this now bearing
by just before I tell you what the results actually are,
because we're only looking at eleven elections. I think six
of them were won by national, five of them were
won by labor, and so we are talking about a
very very very small sample size. But when I do
split it out like that, we have seen historically that

(01:09:33):
property sales, so people buy more houses when national wins.
Now that could be for a few reasons, Yes, okay,
maybe one part is that people think that national might
be better for housing policy, despite the fact that here's
a curly one four you jack. House prices have tended
to go up faster under labor than national in the past.
But putting that aside, some people think that national might

(01:09:56):
be better for housing policy, so they might pile in.
Some of it also comes down to just when national
have gotten in the past. So if I think about
the two most recent times where a national government came in,
one happened in the GFC. Now John Key comes in,
and what happens is the property market was already in

(01:10:17):
the middle of a downturn right and then we had
a rapid recovery. So did we see how sales increase
when national came in because John Key got it or
was it because there was a recovery happening anyway from
the GFC. And then even if we look at the
last election, think about what was happening there. We were
in the middle of this absolute housing market downturred. We

(01:10:38):
were well below average in terms of how many properties
were being purchased. Then Christopher Luxid gets it. Now, did
he change all the policies of back the housing market
will better? No, But we started buying more houses because
that was the that was the right part of the
cycle where people were going to start to purchase more houses.
So that's where I'm just trying to be a little
bit careful and say, hey, it's not all doubt of

(01:10:59):
the politicians.

Speaker 3 (01:11:00):
Yeah, sometimes it's just what's.

Speaker 17 (01:11:02):
Happening in the property market at the time, and.

Speaker 3 (01:11:05):
It's the old relation versus causation situation. Right, You've got
to be very careful. So I'm glad that you've given
us that you know that that precursor, because that's a
very important point. Well what does this mean though, for
people who are thinking about purchasing proper property at the moment.
Is there anything that can kind of take out of it?

Speaker 17 (01:11:23):
Well, I think there's a little bit of an opportunity
for the wily people out there who are planning a
purchase and think, Okay, I know that the property market's
going to be a bit quieter in the call it
six months before the election. Maybe if I'm not so
worried about who's going to get in because I'm buying

(01:11:43):
this for myself to live in. Right, I'm going to
eat a house where a label or national wins the election.
If I know that the market's going to be a
little bit quieter, maybe I can negotiate a bit. And
maybe you start saying to the real estate agent, well,
you know the election is going to make a lot
of people uncertain. Maybe I'll hold off, but actually, if
I can get a good price, if you accept this

(01:12:04):
lower price, yeah, I'll do the deal before the ELI
because we all know that's going to be If it's
quite a market, we can use that to our advantage.

Speaker 3 (01:12:12):
Yeah, right, that makes total sense. That's very interesting. Thank
you for crunching the numbers for us.

Speaker 4 (01:12:16):
Eat.

Speaker 7 (01:12:17):
Thanks.

Speaker 3 (01:12:18):
Yeah, we appreciate. It'd be very interesting, actually, given the
events of the world at the moment, the state of
our economy, to go in a year's time and look
back at the kind of sales data from this year
and see what impact the elections actually had. Ed McKnight
there from Opie's Partners, our personal Finance Expert.

Speaker 1 (01:12:34):
Gardening with Steel Sharp, Autumn Deals on Tools.

Speaker 3 (01:12:36):
Bil Wright, and our Man in the Garden. This Easter
weekend is rude climb pass.

Speaker 7 (01:12:41):
Good morning, Serve, A very good morning to you. Jack.

Speaker 3 (01:12:44):
We always think of you as our cultured European, so
no doubt you're here talking s cargo this morning.

Speaker 7 (01:12:51):
Yes, the Frenchman herego. Well, no, actually I started I
started reading some of this literature, you know, on all
sorts of bits and pieces. And when I read that
we had fourteen hundred different species of snails in oh
Tier Yet fourteen hundred different types, that's amazing, Yeah, yeah, unbelievable.

(01:13:14):
And and you know, they go, they're doing all sorts
of stuff. They're going to forests into liquid habitats and
all that sort of nonsens and tree trunks and in
your because they can do quite a bit of damage.
Actually yeah, but first of all, let me talk about
the native snails. First. They are really not a big deal.
They consume dead and decaying leaves and all that sorts
of fundy and algy so they're not really yet worried

(01:13:38):
about everything else. So I thought, let's talk about some
of these fourteen hundred species that I think are really called.
And the first one is the leaf veined slug, because
it looks like it has the veins of a leaf
on the back. You can see it quite.

Speaker 3 (01:13:53):
Yeah, yeah, you've sent us to a photo. It does
look a bit like that.

Speaker 7 (01:13:56):
No, it's really nice and they go really quick, by
the way. But the best thing they do is they
go outside on your outdoor furniture and things like that
and they clean the surfaces.

Speaker 3 (01:14:09):
Because they eat all of the algae and that kind
of stuff that gathers all that kind of musty stuff
on the furniture, right.

Speaker 4 (01:14:15):
You got it.

Speaker 7 (01:14:16):
And they leave trails. That's why I always call them
the wet and forget slug because it looks like that.
That's exactly what they do. It's really cool. So you
find them a lot if you go out of side
with the little torch of course. Yeah. So that was
number one. Number two Perry Fanta, which is a big bugger.
That's the coldie snail, the largest one. We've got, about
eighty millimeters diameter. It occurs all the way from Kaitaia

(01:14:39):
down to north of Auckland. But then again, I remember
that when I lived in Titirangi or in Langholm rather,
I used to have them literally in my garden right
and every evening or afternoon when I do the mowing,
of the lawn. I had to take them away from
the lawn otherwise they would die. The poor things. There,

(01:15:00):
really beautiful things. But here comes the nicest thing. They
eat worms and they do that by having their body
going over the soil, if you like. And if they
find a hole with a worm in it, they go
and they suck the whole worm up as if it
costs nothing. It is really amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:15:21):
So through the hole like spaghetti.

Speaker 7 (01:15:24):
Yeah, you know how you get once there spaghetti?

Speaker 3 (01:15:28):
Yes, yes, that's a great there's limits.

Speaker 7 (01:15:31):
You can see that at night when you've got them
in northk just just have a look at it. It
is fabulous. That is That is my second wonderful one.
Then the third one I've got Jack is Limus maximus,
which literally means the largest slug. I don't I think
it's an introduced one, but it's a really nice one.
But here comes it. Here comes the thing when you've

(01:15:53):
got cats, for instance, these things go under the door
and they find the milk and then they go and
it wakes up everybody, including neighbors.

Speaker 5 (01:16:03):
It's brillier.

Speaker 7 (01:16:04):
The slurp up. It's wonderful, it's good, amazing. So what
is the last one? Is the last one is the
one you already alluded to. This the one that is
about having escaygo. It's comparispersus. It's the brown garden snail.
Originally it came from Africa. The French put it into France.

(01:16:25):
They decided that it's good eating, and that is now
in France one of the two major ones that they
eat escago. So what do we have to do with
about the people in New Zealand, Get them, cook them
and use them as escago. We instead of poisoning them
and doing all this stupid stuff, why don't we start

(01:16:46):
a real escigo team here in New Zealand.

Speaker 3 (01:16:50):
I love it. I'm into it. I mean we might
have to ramp up production. The problem with you risk
cargo is you need you need a fair amount to
have a full meal, don't you. But no, I'm into it.

Speaker 8 (01:17:01):
Road.

Speaker 3 (01:17:01):
I think that could be our It could be a
dragon's den, million dollar idea route climb park in the
garden for us. This morning, we're just coming up to
news time one news talks. He'd be this morning is
absolutely you're racing by. But after eleven o'clock we are
focusing on the lives of them rich and the famous
In our book review, we're going to tell you about
this journalists who's released a brand new book on the Murdochs.

(01:17:24):
I roup up Murdoch. The journo has been covering them
for years. So we'll tell you about Bonfire of the
Murdocks and from those who are inheriting millions of those
who are trying to win them. Our travel correspondence in
Vegas News is next.

Speaker 1 (01:17:37):
Saturday morning, with Jack dam keeping the conversation going through
the weekend news talks.

Speaker 3 (01:17:42):
At bed morning, you were jactating on newstalks that would

(01:18:10):
be this long Easter weekend. I hope you're soaking up
a little bit of sun wherever you are, although I
know that some parts of the country are going to
get drenched this weekend. At the very least, wherever you are,
you should be able to enjoy a few treats. My goodness,
what a tale it has been for the team behind
All Birds. Oh. I must confess to feeling a bit, oh,

(01:18:34):
just feeling a real kind of sense of sadness for
the whole team Behind All Birds, but in particular Tim Brown,
who of course founded it from his little Wellington flat
all those years ago. I think Cuba Street was where
All Birds first began. I actually went in film with
him years ago in San Francisco when he had first

(01:18:57):
taken the brand to San Francisco and they were first
starting to build the company into a serious company rather
than just a bit of a startup idea with a kickstarter,
And it was one of these things where I went
and met them in the in the San Francisco office
and film with them, and you know, saw some of
the shoes that were being made and stuff, and afterwards
I thought, my gosh, they actually do seem like a

(01:19:17):
really cool idea. And I tried on a pair of
shoes and thought, oh, these are amazing. They're so comfortable,
and so I started wearing them. And then I was
living in New York at the time. Over the next
six months or so, increasingly I started to notice people
wearing All Birds and I thought, this is astonishing. This
guy has managed to build this brand out of Wellington,

(01:19:38):
go and get investors and take on the world. So
at its peak, I think after it listed on the Nasdaq,
the All Birds Company was valued at almost seven billion
dollars my goodness. So they have had a rough couple
of years. So confirmation this week that all of their
assets have been sold down for just under seventy million dollars,

(01:19:59):
one percent compared to their previous peak valuation. And I
don't know. It's I'm no f and I'm no business mastermind,
but it seems to me there are a couple of
things at play when you think about the trajectory of
the company over the last teen or fifteen years. So
first of all, when they had that breakthrough when they
showed that you could make wall shoes that were super lightweight, breathable,

(01:20:22):
super comfortable, they were everywhere. They were kind of the
it shoe for a little window there. The likes of
Barack Obama were wearing All Birds. They were felt like
they were sort of the it shoe for the Silicon
Valley crowd. And then very quickly there were various companies
through Amazon that seemed to be making ripoffs of All Birds,

(01:20:43):
very similar looking shoe, maybe not with quite the same
kind of production standards and all that stuff, but they
were sold way way cheaper than All Birds, and the
company kind of went on a trajectory where they were
really trying to prioritize their eco credentials, so they wanted
to have a shoe that could be carbon positive that

(01:21:04):
effectively was putting more carbon, bringing more carbon out of
the atmosphere than it was putting into it, and they
really prioritized that as a message. But I don't know,
it felt like they kind of slipped off the aesthetic
side of things. So whereas they'd been the cool shoe
to be seen wearing, all of a sudden, there were
lots of shoes that looked very similar, and just because

(01:21:24):
they'd been cool one minute, it didn't mean that they
were able to stay cool. I mean, cool moves quickly. Again,
I'm not an expert on this front, but cool moves quickly.
And it feels like after that original shoe they never
really quite nailed it ever again. And yeah, whereas once
upon a time it was the thing to be seen
wearing all birds, all of a sudden, it wasn't. And

(01:21:45):
they've just never really been able to get that back.
So I don't know. Maybe they prioritized the carbon stuff
over the aesthetic fashion stuff maybe, or maybe it's just
really really hard to have more than a one hit
wonder when you are a fashion or apparel brand trying
to break into a world where a few big companies

(01:22:06):
dominate anything. But anyway, I felt really sad this week
to see All Birds sold off for one percent of
their previous valuation. I've still got a pair actually of
All Birds. I think they are limited edition Bird of
the Year Kia all Birds from I don't know five
or seven years ago that I might hold on to.
Like I say, they're still extremely comfortable. But yeah, that

(01:22:28):
company not worth anything like it once was just a
couple of years ago. Now before a day on news talks,
he'd be We're going to have a listen to Arlo
Park's brand new album. She's a British singer songwriter from
the South of London who writes really interesting, kind of
introspective pop music. So we'll play you some of Ambiguous Desire,
which is the name of a new album before midday.

(01:22:49):
As well as that, we've got your book picks for
this weekend, including this fascinating new biography exploring the contest
within the Murdoch family. It's called Bonfire of the Murdox.
It looks at Rupert Murdoch's rise, but also the contest
between his children to take over the Murdoch Empire. So

(01:23:09):
we'll give you a few more details on that very shortly.
Right now it is twelve minutes past eleven. Team Doogle
Sutherland from Umbrella Well Being, our clinical psychologist, is with
us this morning talking meaningful connections this Easter weekend. Get
a dourgle cured to Jack.

Speaker 9 (01:23:25):
Yes, it seems the perfect time, really, doesn't it, to
be connecting with people. I was just listening to your
interview with some Stephen k Amos around. You know, the
connecting power of humor around laughing, And I think in
this sort of day and age, the more that we
can get connections with other people, the better. Frankly, I
think it would help many many things in our lives

(01:23:48):
and in our worldy.

Speaker 3 (01:23:50):
Isn't it of the digital age? We are more connected
than ever and yet somehow less connected than ever. It
is that this great tragedy of the of the technical
and technological innovation of the last few decades.

Speaker 9 (01:24:03):
One hundred percent And this new survey from from two Degrees,
it says exactly that they say, like two of the
key finding sixty seven percent of us would like will
say that a meaningful conversation is hard to come by.
So that's two thirds of us saying that, And yet

(01:24:23):
we are nine times more likely to scroll on our
phones than to pick up the than to use the
phone and actually call someone. So we're kind of this
where where it paints a picture of sort of us
desperately wanting human connection and just not kind of getting there.

Speaker 4 (01:24:40):
We just sort of get distracted by the.

Speaker 9 (01:24:42):
Phone and the well, not the phone. The phone's not
the problem. It's the scrolling, really, and you get tied
up in your social media and the endless scroll. You know, once,
can you ever get to the bottom of your chosen
social media platform? Probably not, But doing that at the
expense of actually calling people and just having a meaningful conversation,

(01:25:03):
which is I think so much more important than just
alling around on your social media.

Speaker 3 (01:25:08):
So I reckon there are a couple of upsides to it, like,
for example, I think one of the great things for connectivity,
at least in my experience. I mean, obviously it's easier
to keep in touch with people who are overseas and
you know, that kind of thing that was in the past.
But one thing I really like is in our family,
we run a we have a WhatsApp chat. Yeah, we
can all kind of contribute to it, and it does

(01:25:30):
seem to me, like it's really easy for the family
to have kind of family wide communication in a way
that we never were able to before, and that there
is something meaningful on that. Like even for example, like
we just share like silly photos or you know, like
in jokes. WhatsApp Chat is a really good place for
sharing in jokes, and that is meaningful connection. But like

(01:25:52):
you say, like the number of times I speak on
the phone compared to what we were dound twenty years ago,
compared to a text or something, Yeah, it's.

Speaker 8 (01:26:03):
I agree.

Speaker 9 (01:26:04):
I think those sort of things, like the texts and
and the social media stuff a bit like I always
think they're a bit like postcards. You know, back in
the day, you would send a postcard and it's just
an update on what my life is like. But it's
not really that interactive communicate that interactive thing, and sure
it can supplement it. But interesting this two degrees studies

(01:26:25):
said that seventy cent of it, seventy seven sorry percent
of us feel better after we've had a phone call
with a loved one. So it does have that payoff,
I think. And you know, if you've been catching up
with you know, if you've been monitoring people via social
media monitoring is possibly not the right word, sounds of
it sort of nineteen eighty fourst But keeping up with
them then you've got more to chat about when you

(01:26:45):
actually do ring them and have a call. But it's
and the sad news too, is that it seems worse
for gen Z. Gen Z reports sort of higher rates
of of having meaningful conversations and even higher rates of
feeling better when they actually talk on the phone, and

(01:27:05):
they probably scre rolling more than the rest of us.
But I would say when I read that, I thought
it's easy to bag on gen Z. But I remember,
and I was talking about this to somebody in the
office during the week. I remember my first job when
I was sort of early twenties, and the anxiety that
was filled with actually having to make a phone call

(01:27:26):
to somebody. It was like, oh, and you know you'd
write it down. My name is Dourgle and I am
a clinical and you know it it all written down
so that I could And there's nothing better for social
communications and reading out a scripted So I think that's
a bit of a generational thing, and actually the survey

(01:27:50):
results kind of backed that up. But by saying that
people often don't call because I think I might interrupt somebody,
or you know, it might not be okay for them,
or they might not know who I am. But you know,
you can always text that stuff and you know, say
hey is it you know you called to talk now,
or this is who I am, and then follow it
up with a phone call.

Speaker 4 (01:28:07):
So yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:28:09):
But the funny thing is that I would also say
that even though we don't speak on the phone as much,
when when you do have good conversations, because the barriers
to communication is so much lower than they yeahs and everything,
you can actually like I'll happily just ring someone sometimes yes,
and they'll be like, hey, I've got like three minutes
and then I got a shoot and nobody like yeah,
you're good, you know. And it's not like in the past,

(01:28:30):
where you know a few people overseas you'd have to
schedule a time and the arrange to talk on the phone,
and you know, it's a really good and every second
you're thinking, right, okay, this is costing me a dollar
a minute.

Speaker 10 (01:28:41):
And.

Speaker 9 (01:28:44):
You can devestrate into right because you know you've you've
perhaps been catching up with their life and you've seen
something Oh look, you know they've they've done such and such,
they've had such a big experience or or this bad
things have Actually I'll call them. And I think that's
our challenge, is actually giving people a ring. And I
think perfect to be talking about it over Easter, right
because almost all of us have got a couple of

(01:29:05):
days extra off when lots of things are closed, you know,
everything's closed or most things are closed again tomorrow on Sunday,
and perfect opportunity, I reckon to actually call somebody and look,
I've had this experience of getting into the habit. My
mum is getting a bit older, and I've started to
get into the habit of giving her a call every

(01:29:27):
week on a Sunday, just kind of a regular thing,
just to hear her voice and for her to hear mine.
And it's actually been really nice. I've really started to
enjoy it. And last Sunday, I think we spent like
an hour and a half on the phone just talking.

Speaker 4 (01:29:40):
And it was like, good Lord, who would have thought that?

Speaker 9 (01:29:42):
But you know, just that will be my challenge to
people this Easter weekend, as if you know, pick up
the phone and make it. If you're not sure, if
you're not sure, if it's going to be right. Just look,
I'm a text and say hey, you know it was
going to call you sometime this weekend. Win suits and
then give them a call and see what a difference
it makes.

Speaker 3 (01:30:01):
Can you remember people's phone numbers? Can you do that?

Speaker 10 (01:30:04):
No?

Speaker 9 (01:30:05):
No, no.

Speaker 6 (01:30:07):
Have you ever tried to go in and fill out a.

Speaker 9 (01:30:09):
Form or fill form online and they say what's the
phone number of your next of ken? Then I say
or R A, C H E L and what's the phone?
I don't know what the phone number is, but yeah, yeah, no, no,
and you have to pull out your phone and go
two two one, yeah two, oh yeah, no, I can't think.

Speaker 3 (01:30:29):
I can remember maybe three, including my own. I can
remember mine, my wife's and maybe my mum's as well.
That might be yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:30:37):
Well I don't know if it's helpful, but I can
remember my phone number when I was from when I
was about eight living in Dunedin.

Speaker 3 (01:30:42):
But it yeah, it had.

Speaker 9 (01:30:46):
Only had five digits. Yeah yeah, but I don't think
it's used anymore, so it's not particularly helpful at all,
but it's it's embedded in my long term memory.

Speaker 3 (01:30:55):
I've got that same feeling with our childhood phone number.
In fact, every time I you know, even like we'll
go through stuff that's kind of survived, you know, the generations,
be it bookboards or tramping pa and that kind of thing,
and often in huge letters burned in with the most permanent,
permanent markets as much after the phone number. You know,

(01:31:16):
I'm like that great, I'm really glad that dad did this.

Speaker 9 (01:31:18):
Because yeah, we get little We used to get printed
out labels, I think, and you could sew them, you know,
your mum would sew them into your clothes with so
that it had your surname and your phone number on
the back of your school jersey in case in case
you lost it, which at some point, but no, we
don't do really that much anymore.

Speaker 3 (01:31:37):
So yeah, that's so good. Hey, love that. Hey, thank
you very much. Have a great Easter weekend and we
will catch you again soon. Google Sutherland. They're from Umbrella
Well Being. In a couple of minutes, we are taking
you to Nevada, of all places. Our travel correspondent is
going to give us his latest picks in Las Vegas,
so he'll be with us shortly. Twenty one past eleven.

Speaker 4 (01:31:57):
Travel with Wendy wo Tours where the world is yours
for now.

Speaker 3 (01:32:02):
Travel correspondence Mike Yardly, he's taking us to the Las
Vegas have arted this morning for the latest and greatest
in Sin City. And it's not the sort of place
that rests on its laurels, is it, mate?

Speaker 18 (01:32:14):
This is very true, Jack, Yes, I was thinking Vegas
is more like a globulous shape shifting organism.

Speaker 4 (01:32:20):
You know, it's always it's always on the search for biggest.

Speaker 3 (01:32:23):
Prescribed as globulus, isn't it. This is very true.

Speaker 18 (01:32:28):
But I mean the latest Star specimen, which I checked
out a couple of weeks ago, is undeniably the Sphere.
I've heard a lot about the Sphere and it really
is quite trippy. So they are saying in Vegas this
is the entertainment venue of the future because it's just
got so much immersive technology. And interestingly, Jacob, you are

(01:32:49):
going there in the next few months. I noticed the Eagles,
Backstreet Boys, and Metallica all have residencies in the Sphere
over the next few months. But even if you don't
venture inside what is the world's largest spherical structure, it's
from the outside that it's just so remarkable. So that
exterior skin, which they call the Exo Sphere. Yeah, it's

(01:33:14):
become the greatest advertising billboard in the world and it
is just positively eye popping to see in the flesh.

Speaker 3 (01:33:20):
Yeah, it looks amazing, Like I really, It's one of
those things where like just I constantly, you know, I
often think about wanting to go there, and not for
the rest of the city, but just to experience the
sphere itself, because it does look extraordinary. I'm always amazed
that they don't like accidentally bring down planes and things.
That's so bright, you know. Anyway, what about the strip

(01:33:43):
itself has that smart and dantec Does it change at all?

Speaker 5 (01:33:47):
Interesting?

Speaker 18 (01:33:48):
Yeah, because it's been ten years since I was last
in Vegas and the whole scene feels cleaner and classier,
and without being too judgy, I think it is that
Vegas has decided we're not just going to pander to
the Singleton Shorts brigade. And by the way, Robotax is
as you will know, Jack, they're on the March in

(01:34:08):
the US. If you're heading to Vegas, take a ride
in a Zooks. So this is not a car, it's
more like a glass cabin on wheels and it will
just zip you all over sin city with autonomous Precision.
It's an Amazon product, but Vegas is one of the
two test cities. Sanfran Is also been used at the moment,

(01:34:28):
and you can hail a ride with the zooks for
free at the moment with the app. So I think
they're offering free rides this year in Vegas. So yes,
super cool.

Speaker 3 (01:34:38):
Yeah, that's great. I suppose it's to try and help
its machine learning and all that kind of thing. But then, yes,
sound like a bit of fun. Vegas is making a
big move into the sports market to.

Speaker 4 (01:34:48):
Massive.

Speaker 18 (01:34:49):
Yeah, so obviously people will know about the F one
that street circuit down the strip that's become such a
highlight on the F one roster. Allegiant Stadium, Oh my goodness,
what a venue. Go and check out Allegiant Stadium on
a tour. They hosted Super Bowl two years ago and
this it's just been confirmed they will host Super Bowl

(01:35:09):
again in two years time. And across the road from
Ndolai Bejack, I was gazing over a four billion dollar
basketball arena which is currently been constructed. So they're expanding
the NBA league and Vegas is gunning to get a team,
you know, sort of home base for this glitzy new arena.

(01:35:32):
So yeah, Live Sport is definitely the new god in
Sin City.

Speaker 3 (01:35:37):
What are the best free attractions in Las Vegas?

Speaker 18 (01:35:41):
Yeah, well, for all the latest bling the classics, they
still resonate, and none more so than those Billagio fountains.
There are plenty of imitations around the world. I'm looking
at you do Bai, but you cannot beat the original.
And I was just watching the crowd, you know, thousands
and thousands of people just stopping in their tracks to

(01:36:02):
watch these incredible dancing fountains. They are gorge There are
so many free attractions in the Strip hotels. My favorite
would actually be The Fall of atlanis animatronics show, which
you can find inside Caesar's Palace. I used to love
watching the volcano erupting outside the mirage. I was sad

(01:36:24):
to discover a couple of weeks ago that's gone. It's
been bold, but taking its place is the new hard
rock Hotel Jack, and they are building a fifty story
guitar shaped at tower as you.

Speaker 3 (01:36:38):
Do yees, yeah, I mean even just the people watching
it going out on the watching. Yeah, you certainly get
some color, to say the least. So for oddes school vibes.
What hotels on the stats did you check out?

Speaker 18 (01:36:53):
Well, all things Elvis is trending. So if you want
to check out the hotel where he notoriously performed night
after night, year after year and the lead up to
his death, go to the West Kate Hotel formerly known
as the International, now known as Westgate. You can even
stay in the Elvis Suite where he was domiciled for

(01:37:13):
seven years. I noticed Barry Manilow is currently doing a
residency at the Westgate.

Speaker 4 (01:37:18):
Jack and I also love the Flamingo. They do have
flamingos in the garden, although.

Speaker 18 (01:37:25):
When I was there a couple of weeks ago, Yeah,
a drunk Canadian tourist kidnapped two of the birds. So
security is rather tight at the Flamingo. And Mobster Bugsy
Siegel actually established this hotel, the Flamingo just before he
was assassinated. So there's just a bucket load of history

(01:37:46):
at the Flamingo.

Speaker 3 (01:37:47):
Yeah, amazing. So speaking of history, Fremont Street in downtown
is that worth a jawnne.

Speaker 18 (01:37:54):
Yeah, dip into vintage Las Vegas. This is where the
first bursts of blazing neon and casinos were established. It
does have a ceed vibe, to be honest, but there
are a lot of cheap thrills, like that slot Zilla
zip line experience. So you can actually fly right above
the original cluster of casino hotels and Fremont Street, and

(01:38:17):
the whole thing has been encased by this massive canopy
which stretches for four blocks along Fremont Street and around
the clock. That canopy sort of sets the stage for
a very trippy sound and light show. So yeah, a
lot of cheap thrills downtown in Las Vegas.

Speaker 3 (01:38:36):
And if you're into museums, we is good for a nosing.

Speaker 18 (01:38:39):
Two super quick tips.

Speaker 4 (01:38:41):
The Mob Museum is a cracker.

Speaker 18 (01:38:43):
It's writ large with macarbon sights into the vice like
grip the Mob had on Vegas and maybe still does.
And I do adore the Neon Museum jackets where iconic
hotel signs go to die, laid to rest and freshly
lit before the buildings are demolished, like the Mirage Hotel

(01:39:04):
in My Volcano's very good.

Speaker 3 (01:39:07):
That sounds like a lot of fun. Yeah, I've got
to get there. I haven't been there in oh probably
ten years, as well as probably ten years since I
was lasting Vegas. I feel like Vegas is like great
for forty eight hours. You know it's near I spend
two weeks or anything like that.

Speaker 4 (01:39:22):
But a quick dip is good.

Speaker 3 (01:39:24):
Yes, quick dip is a way to do things. And
now with the sphere, I really must get there. I
would love to see that. Yeah, yeah, thank you so much, Mike.
We'll put all of Mike's tips for tripping the best
of new and old in Las Vegas up on the
News Talks. He'd be website before midday. Arlo Parks has
a brand new album called Ambiguous Desire, So we're going
to pick out a couple of great tracks to play

(01:39:45):
you from that, and we'll have your book picks for
this weekend, including this new one that explores the relationships,
the tensions, and the drama within the Murdoch dynasty. It's
just gone eleven.

Speaker 4 (01:39:55):
Thirty, getting your weekends started.

Speaker 1 (01:40:01):
It's Saturday morning with Jack Team on News talks'db.

Speaker 3 (01:40:05):
It's twenty six to twelve. Have on Newstalks. They'd be
Jason Pine is in for weekend sport this afternoon. Fairwelling
Apolo Stadium one of those funny places for Crusaders fans
Pioneer that they sort of have mixed memories because the
Crusaders have had some extraordinary performances over the years, the
least of which, of course, being last night's went over
the drawer. I mean, they've won Super Rugby titles, they've

(01:40:27):
done all sorts, but it's hardly the best rugby viewing experience.

Speaker 19 (01:40:32):
Now I think we get a bit misty, I don't
we a bit romantic when it all comes to an end.
And there were amazing scenes there last night, jack with
you know, people led onto the ground and sort of,
you know, for the last time, probably wandering over that surface.
It was supposed to be temporary, wasn't it when it
was stood up in twenty twelve in the wake of
the earthquakes. But here we are fourteen years later, and

(01:40:53):
it has I guess you'd say stood the test of time.
They would freely admit it doesn't have the facilities for players, responsors,
for media, for fans that the new stadium will have,
but it has come to represent something I think greater
than just to rugby ground. It unified the city again
and brought them together and brought them pockets of joy
when they badly needed them. And no other, no other,

(01:41:15):
No Crusaders player, No modern day Crusaders player knows anywhere else.
None of the current guys ever played it the old
Lancaster Park. They have all had all of their Crusaders
experience on that ground. So yeah, I'm quite looking forward
to chatting to CEO of the club Colin Mansbridge after
midday and then perhaps taking some people's memories, do we
you know, Like I say, it's it's easy to get

(01:41:37):
misty eyed about these things and forget the fact that
sometimes it was just bloody cold there, you know, to
watch the game of right, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:41:45):
You know what, it did have one one thing that
really had going for it, and that was that the
fans were on top of the game. Yes, I really
like going to a ground where you are close to
the pitch. Yep, it makes a huge difference, I reckon
a and some having some, don't you know. Even I
was at owned Eden Park for the All Whites on

(01:42:05):
Monday with the nine year old, which was a fantastic
occasion by the way, And I know the Chilean's didn't
get the night they wanted. The Chilean fans didn't get
the night they wanted, but as fans, they probably put
the new Zealand fans to shame when it comes to
singing in yahooing, et cetera. But one of the reflections
I had was that, you know, even at a place

(01:42:26):
like Eden Park, you're still you're not quite on the pitch. Yeah,
and it's just it's really it's a great fing and
at least they sometimes you know, they bring in some
of the temporary seats and that sort of thing for
the big test, but it is it is really nice
to be right on the ground. You see it sometimes
in the English Premier League and stuff, right where the
players can basically just dive into the stands if they will.

Speaker 4 (01:42:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 19 (01:42:46):
Yeah, rectangular, rectangular shape is the main thing. I mean
Dunedan's done it very well. When you go to forsythe bar,
that's how you feel you're right on top of it.
And thing we'll do that too, yeah, well it will. Yeah.
So so memories of Addington after midday to day and
also why are there only three games over Easter weekend?
Jack Mesley you have the competition and to on his

(01:43:06):
son on that and Darren basically speaking of the all Whites,
but later on how is he going to narrow down
his squad for the World Cup to twenty six because
there are more than twenty six good players now at
his disposal. How's he going to decide who gets a
seat on the plane and who doesn't. So Darren basely
with us after two o'clock this afternoon.

Speaker 3 (01:43:23):
Jack, When does he have to make the call?

Speaker 19 (01:43:25):
Mid May is when he's going to make it. They
don't have to make it until I think early year.
But yeah, because they've got a couple of warm up
games over in the States in early June and he's
going to take his World Cup squad there, So mid
May I'll ask him. Hey, she'll see if I can
give us a date.

Speaker 3 (01:43:41):
Yeah, good, oh great, Thank you, sir. I'm looking forward
to this afternoon. Jason Pine with us for a weekend
sport right after the midday news. Next up, we've got
your book picks this weekend. It's twenty two minutes to twelve.

Speaker 1 (01:43:51):
Saturday Morning with Jack Team Full Show podcast on iHeartRadio
powered by News Talk z'bo.

Speaker 3 (01:43:58):
Twelve on newstalksz'db let's bring in Catherine Rains, our book reviewer.
This morning. Good morning, Good morning Jack. Oh you headed
south for the long weeken? How good?

Speaker 10 (01:44:08):
We sure are looking forward to some interesting weather in Queenstown.
But you know, it's always such a beautiful place.

Speaker 3 (01:44:14):
It should be fun, do you know, I reckon that's
one of the part of the South Island where often
the experience is better if you have a bit of
wild weather. You know, if it's perfect and dry, then
you know, that's that's sure, that has its attractions and pleasantries.
But actually sometimes if it's a bit wild, you know,
it adds another kind of dimension. So yeah, so long

(01:44:35):
as you get.

Speaker 10 (01:44:35):
In yes, absolutely absolutely, and you're right, lake Walker Tapoo
and wild weather is quite amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:44:42):
It's pretty something. Yeah, yeah, all right. Hey, we've got
a couple of reads that sound fantastic this weekend. I
am fascinated by the sound of your first book for
us this morning. So tell us about Bonfire of the
Murdochs by gabriel Sherman.

Speaker 10 (01:44:54):
So this is Robert Murdoch's story, and he's now ninety
four and worth twenty three billion dollars Rupert Murdoch, yes
from yeah, right, And so the American juris Gabrielle Sherman
has been reporting on the Murdoch family for the last

(01:45:15):
couple of decades and he's interviewed all of them over
those years. And the thing I found really interesting about
this book is I didn't realize that Robert Murdock actually
inherited this media empire from his father, Sir Keith Murdock,
and so he grew up around the Herald newsroomman and
all of that kind of journalism side of things, and

(01:45:35):
he really wanted to join the Herald straight after he
graduated from high school, and his father actually insisted he
went to Oxford and so he works in different newspapers
as well after he finishes as Oxford. But the real
style of that whole Murdoch style of journalism, which actually
his father was really like as well, and it's probably

(01:45:56):
revealed in the book most by the phone hacking scandal,
which I'm sure most people kind of remember about the
news of the world, where they were listening to individuals
and private messages and breaking into the phones of famous
people and also really vulnerable people, you know, people had
been victims of attacks and bereaved parents, and Murdoch just

(01:46:17):
kind of sums him up really when he denied kind
of direct responsibility of it, but considered they called us
with dirty hands. When he's in court over this, and
the other interesting thing has his relationship with his children
over the media empire, and in twenty twenty four it
really came to her head because he'd set up this
family trust in nineteen ninety nine, and you established this

(01:46:40):
inheritance of Prudence, his daughter Bikes first wife, and Lachlan,
Elizabeth and James, and that all inherits everything equally. But
Robert at this stage wanted Lachlan, who's probably the most
right wing of his children, to assume the full control
of the business. And there's a whole lot of legal
action and they all end up with one point one
billion each at the end of it, which is probably
not a bad sum of money, but there's this real

(01:47:02):
ruthlessness about him, and he pits people against each other,
including his family, and it's just fascinating. Look at the
really incredibly dysfunctional family and the control and the power
and a really reckless disregard that's just completely driven I
think by greed.

Speaker 3 (01:47:19):
Yeah, Oh fantastic, It sounds so interesting. So that's a
Bonfire of the Murdocks by Gabriel Sherman. Next up tell
us about Hooked by Azarko Yuzuki.

Speaker 10 (01:47:29):
So this has been translated from Japanese, but it reads
really well. And Eriko's thirty and single and living at
home and kind of this almost epitome of corporate success,
well groomed, you know, really really good at a job.
But there's one thing that she's never really got in life,
and that's a great female friend. And in her interactions

(01:47:51):
in social media, she stumbles across this blog that really
is almost the complete opposite of her life, and she
becomes hooked on reading these and the woman that writes
these blogs, a woman called Choko, is a stay at
home housewife and she hates cooking and c anything that
requires any effort. And she never anticipated that her blog,
called the World's World's Worst Wife would ever attract any attention.

(01:48:15):
And Arico's this fan, and she begins stalking the places
that Shoko goes to, and then one night they meet
and they get along and Arico's really excited about this,
but Choko's really unaware that Arico has this obsessive behavior
in her past, and so the relationship begins okay, and
then really very early on, the obsession becomes really obvious.

(01:48:38):
And it's the story of the dynamic between the two
and the behavior and the way they both change in
reaction to it and the online presence. And so this
novel really focused on how modern society works and they
want real hunger for connection and just the way our
lives can go completely out of control and how easily
we define ourselves by what other people think of us

(01:48:59):
and what social media is about, and it's just it's
really interesting.

Speaker 3 (01:49:03):
Yeah, great, Okay, cool. So that's hooked by a Sako Yuzuki.
Catherine's first book is Bonfire of the Murdocks by Gabriel Sherman.
All the details of those will of course be up
at Newstalks hedb dot co dot nz. In a couple
of minutes, that brand new album from r Low Parks,
We're gonna have a little bit of a listen to
Ambiguous Desire.

Speaker 1 (01:49:22):
Giving you the inside scoop on all you need to know.
Saturday morning with Jack dam News Talks.

Speaker 3 (01:49:45):
This is Arlow Parks. That song is called Get Go.
Arlow's new album is Ambiguous Designer, and Chris Schultz has
been listening. He's with us this morning, Gay Chris, Hey, Jake.

Speaker 20 (01:49:58):
I think the word silky was invented to describe music
and her vocals too, right, you can hear those vocals.
They sound silky to me. That's the it's the best word.
I think that sums up her music on this album.
It's a very different album to her first two. Arlo
Parks is a UK singer songwriter. She is about as

(01:50:18):
close to a lockdown artist as you can get. She
wrote her first album Collapsed in sunbeams in like bedrooms
and airbnbs between lockdowns, and you could sort of hear that.
You know It became quite a big hit. She won
the Mercury Prize for it in twenty twenty one, and
apparently she went to that You Know That awards ceremony

(01:50:42):
straight after that had come out of London's last lockdown,
which would be such a surreal experience. The Mercury Prize,
by the way, like that that can often be a
bit of a kiss of death for some artists. A
lot of artists who want it don't tend to go
on and make their best music, or that can happen.
But she released the second album in twenty twenty three,

(01:51:02):
my Self Machine, that kind of wasn't as God and
so it felt like maybe that curse has struck. But
ambiguous desire. I'm happy to say, is a rebirth, a
proof that maybe that trend hasn't quite sort.

Speaker 4 (01:51:18):
Of worked on her.

Speaker 3 (01:51:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 20 (01:51:21):
Yeah, it's a really interesting album. It's got quite a
big backstory. She's only twenty five years old, and she
has talked about how she missed all of her friends
going up clubbing and partying in their twenties because she
was busy working on music and touring, and so this
is an album to try and get back to that.
So it's got this kind of you can hear it

(01:51:42):
on that song. It's got this clubby kind of disco
housey kind of undertone to it. That's the blueprint. It's
what they call morning music, Jack. I don't know if
you've been visiting any clubs lately, but morning music is
what DJs play at six am when everyone's been partying
all through the night and they put on music to

(01:52:03):
help you transition.

Speaker 4 (01:52:04):
Back out into it.

Speaker 3 (01:52:08):
Okay, it's been a few years.

Speaker 5 (01:52:12):
I just learned this myself.

Speaker 3 (01:52:15):
I see, but unfortunately I don't see it in the club.
I see it, you know, my one year old bedroom.

Speaker 20 (01:52:23):
When you're being asked to make porridge.

Speaker 5 (01:52:24):
I get it.

Speaker 20 (01:52:25):
Yeah, No, this is yeah, this is it's a really
good album. I almost see it as a counterpoint to
Robin's album last week. You know, we talked about that album,
which is like this euphoric bursts that's kind of like
that the headline at the main event. This is sort
of the aftermath. It's very wistful. She's looking back with
regrets about missing out on this time and trying to

(01:52:46):
make up for it. So a lot of the songs
are about sort of like getting into a cab to
go to the party, that kind of thing. But but
then the way she sings it is just so I
don't know, she's got the sweetness and lightness to her,
but some of it's so personal that, you know, she's
talked about fans sort of like sending her the message
of a message from the spilling their guts to her,

(01:53:09):
and what a toll that's taken on her too, you know,
like she she did have some time off, she did
stuff a burnout, which I think sort of reflects us
how fast she rose and the fact that it all
sort of happened during lockdown. So yeah, it's really interesting album.
I almost see it as like an autumnal sort of album,
you know, if you're not transitioning from the club out
into the day. Well, we're transitioning right now from you know, yeah,

(01:53:32):
summer into.

Speaker 3 (01:53:33):
All daylight tomorrow, you know, yeah exactly.

Speaker 20 (01:53:36):
I've been playing it and it's perfect for that kind
of this kind of time of year.

Speaker 3 (01:53:39):
Yeah, yeah, I love it. Fantastic. Okay, what did you
give it?

Speaker 20 (01:53:42):
I'm going to give us four stars. I'm really enjoying
this album.

Speaker 3 (01:53:46):
Four stars for ambiguous is. I will have a bit
more of a listen to Arlow Park's latest in a
couple of minutes, and of course you can catch more
of Chris on his sub stack. It's called boiler Room.
Right now, it is eight minutes to twelve.

Speaker 1 (01:54:00):
Cracking way to start your Saturday Saturday morning with Jack
News Talk.

Speaker 3 (01:54:06):
It is just coming up to midday on News Talks EDB,
which means it's time for me to scurry over and
for Jason Pye to take over the mic. With Weekends Sport,
he is reflecting on the legacy of Apollo Stadium. This afternoon,
he'll be catching up with the Whites coach Darren Baisley.
Is we count down to the Football World Cup as well.
Thank you so much for joining us this morning. For

(01:54:27):
all of your texts and emails, newstalkszb dot co dot
He's ed forward slash Jack is the best place to
go for everything from our show. I've put a few
photos from my excursion up Mount Owen up on Facebook
as well to search Jack Tame on Facebook. There aren't
many Jack Tames, so you should be able to track
me down there. Thanks to my wonderful producers Liddy and

(01:54:50):
Kerry for doing all the tough stuff this week. I'm
gonna be back with you next Saturday Morning, but until then,
I'm gonna leave you with Arlo Parks. Her new album
is Ambiguous Desire. This song is two sided. Have a
Good Easter Old by cart to Wow.

Speaker 5 (01:55:12):
The friends are all the side.

Speaker 2 (01:55:19):
Bucking, but the dog hurt is soot. He'll tell me
it's side buck, But the dog.

Speaker 10 (01:55:38):
Head is so.

Speaker 2 (01:55:46):
He'll tell me it's to the side. It's sim dog.
The doghead is sooth, He'll tell me it's side.

Speaker 1 (01:56:27):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks at b from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.

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