Full Show Podcast: 18 May 2025

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Episode Transcript

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

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

Speaker 1 (00:15):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin and Wiggles for
the best Election of Great Reeds.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
News Talks EDB.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Good morning, welcome, Good to have you with us on
Francisca Rudkin with you until midday. The twenty twenty five
Our Hero Music Awards are taking place on May twenty ninth,
and I am thrilled to see that Kaylee Bell's country
music has crossed over and she is recognized in some
of the top awards, including Best Album, Best Single, Best
Solo Artists, as well as Best Country Artist. The reason

(00:50):
I'm so thrilled for Kaylee is she is one of
our most hard working musicians and currently one of our
most successful on the global stage. Hasn't been overnight success,
It's been a seventeen year overnight success story. She is
with us after ten to talk about motherhood and her
music career. After eleven. I am joined by poet, author
and youth advocate Dominic Huey. His latest book is called

(01:11):
nineteen eighty five I read it loved it. Set in
pre gentrified Graylan, Auckland. If you grew up in Auckland
in the eighties, or you remember the eighties in New Zealand,
you're gonna love this coming of age story filled with
dreamers and underdogs and the disenfranchised. Dominic is with us
after eleven to talk about his new book and his
work with young people. And yes, for fans of the sublime,
ridiculous and catchy songs, we will keep you up to

(01:34):
date with the Eurovision final throughout the morning, and of
course you're most welcome to text anytime. Ninety two ninety
two for Sunday session. It is eight past nine. They
don't make them like Tom Cruise anymore. As the nature
of stardom has changed over the last few decades, the
idea of the classic movie star has slowly diminished. But

(01:57):
the final and latest mission impossible film, The Final Reckoning,
which I got a chance to see on Friday night,
makes it clear Tom is top of the list of
good old fashioned movie stars still out there. There are
several reasons movie stars and stardom aren't what they once were.
The rise of the paparazzi, Internet and social media means
we know much more about the people up on the screen,

(02:18):
don't we. Actors struggle to control their image and brand
the way they once did. They're no longer untouchable or mysterious,
and these days celebrity has morphed into something different. Anyone
can be elevated to famous if they're prepared to put
themselves out there on Insta or Twitch or the toc.
The film industry is also less snobby. Even a list

(02:39):
film stars do TV now, so over time we've seen
the clout of the movie star decline. Don't get me wrong,
A big studio will always want a name and big names,
but that big name no longer guarantees the movie will
open well at the box office or make a killing.
Look at last year's The faun Guy. It featured two
talented popular actors at the top of their game, Emily

(03:02):
Blunt and Ryan Gosling, straight off the Barbenheimer train, really
bothered the box office. It's struggled to break even. And
then there's the rise of the franchise. Consumers are more
loyal to a franchise than an act of these days,
and the output of Marvel and DC and Jurassic World
and Final destination films just keep on coming. But watching
Tom cruise on Friday night at this preview of his

(03:24):
nostalgic and thrilling final Mission Impossible film reminded me that
the man is in a league of his own. It's
taken most of his career for me to like the guy.
He was growing on me, but then he kind of
lost me in twenty fifteen when he jumped on Oprah's
couch trying to convince us how much he loved Katie Holmes.
That I have always respected him, not because he does

(03:46):
his own stunts, takes traditional filmmaking to its limits, and
creates ambitious and wildly entertaining films. Not for his acting ability.
He can definitely act, think Magnolia, Minority Report, Born on
the Fourth of July, and a Few Good Men. Nor
is it because he can open a film to rave
reviews and great box office. The Mission Possible franchise has

(04:07):
made more than four billion globally. The reason I respect
him is simply because he's in it for the love
of it. At the beginning of the Mission Impossible preview
on Friday night, Tom did a quick piece to camera
to thank us all for being there. Now this wasn't
a charm offensive. He was quite particular in what he said.
He wanted us to enjoy this authentic cinema experience on

(04:29):
the big screen, the way it was made to be seen.
Since the pandemic, Cruz has been on a mission to
get people back into the cinema. Long before Anora director
Shawn Baker urged viewers to keep seeing films in theaters
at the Oscars earlier this year, Tom Cruise has literally
been putting his life on the line, convincing us that
there is nowhere more magical to watch a film than

(04:51):
in a theater. Considering what he has put himself through
to create his latest film, it would be rude not to.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
The Sunday Session.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
So I think if anyone can save cinema, it is
Tom Cruise. I know a lot of people think we
know longer long have movie stars in that traditional sense,
But we do. And I think they're the ones that
still stick to themselves and retained a little bit of mystery.
I mean, we don't really you know. We hear about
the scientology and we see this. We don't really know
Tom Cruise.

Speaker 4 (05:18):
Do we.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
It's a little bit like being added DiCaprio Cate Manchette.
What about Meryl Denzil. I think we do still have
these movie stars. Chris Schoultz is gonna be with me
next hour to talk about the Mission Impossible, Final Reckoning.
I can't wait to hear his thoughts. We will tell
you more about this almost three hour epic in entertainment
later in the show. You can text any time throughout

(05:40):
the morning. Ninety two ninety two. Andrew Little is up next.
It's twelve past nine.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
There's no better way to start your Sunday.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
It's a Sunday session with Francesca Rutkin and Wiggles for
the best selection of Greg Breaths us talk.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
Say thank you very much for your tech. Someone said, Francisca,
The Fall Guy did badly at the box office because
it was crap, so it was quite a fun piece
of escapism. Oh, I didn't you know. It's not Oscar worthy,
but I thought it was all right. Someone said, keep
the Ryan Fox updates coming.

Speaker 5 (06:11):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
I'll flick the tally on for you and I will
attempt to do that as well.

Speaker 6 (06:15):
Right.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
Former Cabinet minister and labor leader Andrew Little has officially
launched his meryoral campaign At his campaign launched yesterday, Little
highlighted two main policy focuses, creating a council that serves
Wellington and prioritizing community facilities. He also highlighted a need
for greater public trust and the council and to discuss
Andrew Little joins me, now, good morning morning, Francester, thank

(06:36):
you for a time on a Sunday morning. So we
launched yesterday. You said at the launch that you promised
to change at the council. What is wrong with the
current council and its leadership just.

Speaker 7 (06:48):
People like me dalking to over the last few weeks.
When I first annow I would stand the overwhelming message
of God is that when they've tried to engage with counsel,
what they've often come up against is not a way
to enable things to happen or facilitate things, but a
whole bunch of reasons why things can't happen. And people say,
you know, when the counsel has come up with an

(07:08):
idea and they're consulting about it, what they often get
presented with as a fully complete idea and really people
are just doing us to give an opinion on it,
and nothing ever changes. So I think, and I think
that's the reason why Counselor has lost the confidence with
a lot of Weddingtonians. The reasons you are being told
you know what's going to happen, what to do. People
aren't getting a real say or real input into the

(07:30):
things that are changing their environment, changing their lives. And
that's the thing that is to change.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
Are you going to become a yes, counsel Andrew.

Speaker 7 (07:39):
I want, Well, this is a thingy that needs a
lot to happen. It's a pretty bad funk at the moment,
and there's a whole bunch of reasons for it. Something
to do with the public service cost, there's other things
as well. The time we're still struggling and so other
things need to happen. Things needed to change and actually
we do worse to need to review priorities every now
and again, that's pretty normal thing to do to do.

(08:01):
It's about, I think a council that is more response
to what Wellington Wenningtonians need now and there's they think
about the future as opposed to barreling head with a
bunch of ideas that a lot of people feel disconnected from.
That's really what it comes down to.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
Look sexting Wellington's a big job. How do you build
trust in the council and create a council that serves Wellington.
Sounds easy, Yeah, Look.

Speaker 7 (08:25):
That words that trip off the done pretty easily. But
the hard work behind it is engaging with the council
officers that look, there's a new chief executive, these council officers.
I think there are some habits in the council that
will need to change. I mean, part of my professional
work and the eighteen months or so i've been out
of Parliament, I've come up against the Local Government Act
and as the Women's City Council, and I've seen some

(08:47):
of the things that have happened internally just about the
way options are narrowed down. There's often very few options. Sometimes,
you know, an astomatic cost of something, the most inflated
cost is was presented to counselors. I think, you know,
when I get around the council of the incumbent counselors
of whatever stripe, you know they're all they've all got

(09:09):
the right intentions, they all want to do the right thing.
That defrustration is getting good information from the people who
are advising them. And I think working with a new
council and with the Office of Counsel. I think there's
a lot we can change that to make it better
for the way councilors do their job. But I think
council is taking a bit more control and saying, you
know what, we're just not going to do this right

(09:30):
now until we've seen a much more satisfactory engagement.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
With the public andrew you in it for the long haul.
Because Wellington has had a series of one term mayors.
Now is that good for the city.

Speaker 7 (09:42):
No, I think that that sort of stopped that thing,
and changes the mayor don't help so that I look,
if i'm standing now, I see it. I'm standing now.
I'm standing for you at least another term because I
think the changes that are required don't don't bed in
after three years. The need a longer horizon to do that.
But I think you've got to make the start. I'm
here for a long term change it. You know, the

(10:03):
councils of bog organization. City is a big city. Changes
that can be implemented over a year two years take
a lot longer to pare them and to get the
habits right, if you like, and so it doesn't need
to need a longer commitment.

Speaker 3 (10:19):
Investment in community facilities makes up a proportion of your proposal,
which I think is really sensible because we all want
the day to day benefits of what a council provides.
But are you campaigning on keeping the lights on? Are
they more important issues also that need to be campaigned on.

Speaker 7 (10:34):
Oh, I think I think they go hand in hand.
I think, Look, those are the community fa facilities, as
I've talked about. But you know, this is a realizing
as a city that's made up of suburbs and what
have you, and those facilities are the things that make
those communities strong and they are well used facilities. So
again it comes down to priorities. So yeah, the current

(10:55):
council and previous councils of community to some big things.
Now it seems to be at the expense of those things.
They're actually good for more localized communities. It's about getting
that balance right, make sure that the community are strong,
making sure we're doing the big stuff as well, is it.

Speaker 3 (11:10):
Work to do and improving the relationship with central government.

Speaker 7 (11:13):
Yeah, it looks like it from the outside. I think
that it's got to stand office and that's not helpful,
you know, I think the thing that really took me
over to seriously considering putting my hat in the ring
was when the news came out earlier this year about
you know, the Galvil's got a regional fund. Councilors had
to said that all they had to do was express
an interest in being putting out projects to it, and

(11:34):
we didn't do that, and we should have done that. Now.
You know, I might come from a different political strike
to the current government, but I know most to the
ministers and the parents to I think I get on
reasonings well with them. I'm confident I can afford a
very constructive relationship with them. But also, you know, when
it comes if we think that there's some overreach, you know,
I thant myself to be able to stand up to

(11:55):
a government that is overreaching itself and dipping into areas
of council authority.

Speaker 3 (12:01):
Andrew, you have asked the current council to stop signing
Golden Mild contracts before this next election. Tory Foundo doesn't
sound like she's going to stop.

Speaker 5 (12:08):
You.

Speaker 3 (12:09):
Are you overstepping as a candidate to suggest that the
council does pause.

Speaker 7 (12:14):
I think it's a realistic ask to make because I
think the I think one of the you know, one
of the critical issues of God is our particularly in
our CBD, business conditions are really fragile. There's much less
foot traffic than a fewer people and retail, retail and
hospitality in particular are really feeling it. And those those
book projects important is they are they will help and

(12:37):
lift the physical appearance of the city. They are incredibly
disruptive and we've seen, you know, with the implementation of
some of these measures and other parts of the city.
Thornton Key for example, is that it has put royal
pressure on businesses. It's so fragile at the moment. I
just think we need to think carefully about the timing
and the phasing of it, which is why I suggesced

(12:58):
to look if the contracts sounds signed, they shouldn't be signed.
And less a new council. You know, one thing we
know after the eleventh of October is they will be
a new mayor. There will be a different lineup of
council because some income A councilors are stepping down. Let
the new council gauge based on the mandate they've got
what is needed and what is responsive to Wellington's needs

(13:19):
at the moment.

Speaker 3 (13:20):
Is stopping though a good idea. I mean, it's one
of the sort of another example of the critique of
local government these days that nothing happens because it's just
constant re debating and rethinking and making decisions. Again, not
having a consistent plan is often a problem and a
waste of money.

Speaker 7 (13:36):
Yeah, I think. I think the benefit of having a
big projects that do have a longer horizon is that
you know when conditions do change, as they have in Wellington,
and then I think the next responsible thing to do
is to is to just pause for a moment, review
it all, see you right, what what should happen now,
or see whether there are other priorities that we should
be focusing on right now. Restoring the confidence of business

(13:59):
in the city is pretty critical and and that's what
needs to happen. So it's in that context I think
I think we shouldn't because the gold of my approject
I'm not opposed to gold of my project. Didn't think
it's going to lift the kind of physical appearance of
the city and whatever is going to be good, but
it is a big project and it would be incredibly disruptive.
So let's just think carefully about the impact of businesses. Yeah,

(14:24):
very much.

Speaker 3 (14:24):
So this is this a desirable job? I mean, it
can be broth worse than central government.

Speaker 5 (14:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (14:36):
I've had like you know, I've been in politics. I've
been in elected positions and roles and stuff.

Speaker 8 (14:42):
You know.

Speaker 7 (14:42):
I thought I was asked at the end of that
about August last year, and I said no. At the time,
I didn't have any particular appeal to go into a
local government. I was very much enjoying being back in
the law, being legal practice, but haven't been asked. I didn't.
Started looking more closely at what was happening, and there's
a few things going on here. And then by the
beginning of this year, I thought, actually, this doesn't doesn't

(15:05):
seem right, and then I about match. I was getting
a lot of approaches from a lot of people right
across the political spectrum somewhere we really need someone who
can you know's got to set the skills, can bring
people together. What I realized is, yestually, I do have
a set of skills that I think could make a
real difference to to Wellington. So I go in it
with that. I'm not shaved by by the job, being tough,

(15:25):
being challenging, being difficult. I welcome it, I don't, you know,
I don't. I don't look for an easy ride, so
I expect it will be. But I bet myself and
the skills I've got the ability to forge good relationships
to make to make a difference.

Speaker 3 (15:39):
Will you win.

Speaker 7 (15:43):
I think I've got a good chance, but I take
nothing for granted. I'll be working pretty hard over the
next five months for everybody I can get. It was interesting,
you know. One of my one of my competitors, asked
to come along to my launch.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
You say came a wrong and weird, wasn't it.

Speaker 7 (16:00):
Well you might have to talk to write thing about that,
but I welcomed him and we came on with some
really good check testually before and after the event, So
that was nice. But I think that's again I'm not
fancised by people who have a different set of ideas
of people who are standing in the race as well
as I say I think my skills are, I get
them with pretty much everyone and find a way to work.

Speaker 3 (16:23):
Andrew, thank you so much for your time this morning.
Nice to catch up with you. That was Andrew Littleber
talking about his campaign launch yesterday. Right still to come
this our Auckland FC CEO Nick Becker on Auckland's semi
final win last night, and also Joel Little is going
to join us and talk about the power of music.
It's twenty six past nine.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin on News Talk
zed B.

Speaker 3 (16:49):
News Talk z b ow inzid here. Political editor Thomas
Coughland joins us. Now, Good morning, Thomas, good morning. I
did it like your description of the weekend politics when
you said there was an excessive amount of pig headedness
on display, which I think standed up quite well.

Speaker 9 (17:08):
Yes it was. And I'm not the only one i
think who picked up on the fact that the last
week and actually possibly the last fortnighte has just been
quite incredible. In parliament. You obviously saw the controversy over
the C word and people's inability to say, well, look,
you know you probably shouldn't or you definitely shouldn't by
I think news that were to describe politicians. But also

(17:32):
you know obviously that the issue that that the word
was used, you know, in pursuit of which is pay
equity for underpaid people and women dominated seekers. Well, that's so,
you know, it's a worthy, a worthy issue. But but
but politicians just just they dug themselves into these positions
and couldn't really move from them. I think you saw
the same thing with Capadi Mardi that the Harker obviously

(17:55):
did break the rules, and they repeatedly break the rules,
and they cannot sort of they cannot bring themselves to
to try and follow the rules in pursuit of of
their own political goals, which are obviously to improve the
lives of Marti and to uphold the treaty. But also
you know that the governing parties are themselves dug in

(18:17):
in the sort of somewhat pick headed way and their
desire to completely throw the book at party Mary and
not try to work out some kind of resolution. And
it is quite a sad thing to see, because I
find one of the great things about Parliament is the
way that you do get one hundred and twenty odd
MPs in there and as incredible when it's working well,

(18:39):
how they can actually often find quite elegant ways of
coming together and working things out in the interests of
the country. And you have to say you haven't seen
a job of that this week it's been an absolute shandle.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
And a lot of experienced politicians kind of making mistakes.
I mean, is this just politics? This is what it's about,
trying to get it a headline, creating a bit of distraction,
getting attention, and then just sort of getting it wrong.

Speaker 7 (19:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (19:03):
And I think I really think social media has got
a lot to play to blame here. Like I mentioned
in that columnies, they I think, to party Maori, use
question time and the House in general almost exclusively to
make social media content which grows up on their on
their pages, often with quite misleading captions or descriptions of

(19:24):
what's gone gone on. And I think that's, you know,
I think that's a real abuse of quite a you know,
powerful democratic institution. But but everyone does this to a
certain extent. Everyone's in the House trying to trying to
wine people up and create social media content out of it.
And certainly I think that the digging in over the
sea word had a bit of a kind of social

(19:45):
media aspect to it, where where the people who were
supporting the use of that word labor, who who the
they backtracked on and eventually were sort of doing it
I think because they quite like the social media engagement,
no getting out of that. And it's a shame because
you know, like all of us, I mean, we're all
I think, well, it was pretty.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
Serious issues to discuss, really, weren't they all?

Speaker 9 (20:09):
Well precisely then you know, if you did of put
down your phone and and a lot of the people
are steering you from across the house, you know you
actually can get a lot a lot done. I think
I'm slightly hopeful that when in the parliament barbariopen and
so the MPs will start socializing it together a bit
more than they do. I think that that actually does
have something to do with it.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
Oh that's interesting. Hayard's budget week this week, and if
I think back to last year, I kind of those
core themes were around cost of living, relief, investment and infrastructure,
combating waste, will spending, restore or and order, better health
and education. What do you think the themes New Zealanders
will want to hear this year.

Speaker 9 (20:50):
I think they're social the of me. The cost of
living stuff is still the year and this little lesser
signal that there might be some cost of living stuff
in the budget. So I expect to see something something
in any area. But relatively modest, and I think I
think one of the big questions will be just how
modest the budget is. Obviously the new spending is quite modest,
but but Michler will it has to the signal that

(21:12):
she's freed up billions of dollars of spending from from
various cuts, including this cut to pay equity funday. So
I think one of the biggest things will be actually
how much money is there. Will there be additional money
for health? Health has got its increase in funding that
it got to the last budget, but the health system
is obviously in a bit of trouble at the moment,
so will they be chopping that up, like I said,

(21:35):
a cost of living thing. And the other big question
as well is, you know, the government's positioning this is
a growth budget, economic growth. Well, to do that, you're
probably going to need some regulatory relief or some business
tax relief. That's a pretty difficult political argument to make
right now with everyone's struggling the white businesses to the
tax cuts as through our tax cuts. But it will

(21:57):
be interesting there to see whether she manages to you know,
or the quantum that she manages to deliver to businesses.

Speaker 3 (22:03):
Thank you so much for you thought Thomas always appreciate it.
It is New Zealand Music Month and coming up after ten,
Kaylee Balla's with me for a chat and a song.
Up next, though, music producer Joel Little is with us
to talk about the incredible work the charity Music Help
does across the country. It's twenty five to ten.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
For Sunday Session Full show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by
News talksb.

Speaker 6 (22:27):
On.

Speaker 3 (22:38):
This is Sundown by Leisure, currently Joel Little's favorite New
Zealand song. This month's marks twenty five years of celebrating
our musicians and music industry through New Zealand Music Month,
and a big part of the month is New Zealand
Music t Shirt Day, a day not just about supporting
your favorite kere We band, but highlighting the amazing work
of the charity Music Helps. A number of high profile
Hey New musicians are involved in Music Helps, and one

(23:00):
of those is producer and songwriter Joe Little and he
joins me. Now, good morning, Joel, Good morning. Hi, I'm
really good. Thank you. Hey, tell me a little bit
about why Music Helps. Why is it such an important
charity to you?

Speaker 10 (23:14):
Well, I'm on the board of Music Helps it was
something that I got involved in after living in LA
and moving back to New Zealand and just wanting to
kind of reconnect a bit more with the industry as
a whole and start doing a few things to give back.
And music helps is just as like the main New
Zealand music charity that helps support hundreds of other projects

(23:35):
across New Zealand that all use music to help change
people's lives in all sorts of different ways. So they
do amazing work and I feel very lucky to be
to be on the board and be able to kind
of help out in some way hopefully.

Speaker 3 (23:47):
And there's also the support for musicians in the industry itself.

Speaker 10 (23:51):
Yeah, yeah, so have the We have the funding side
of things where we, like I say, fund programs and
projects all over the country. But then there's also within
the industry there's a side of it that helps with
a well being service for musicians and people just in
the industry as a whole who are going through hardship.

Speaker 11 (24:11):
And might need help in one way or another. So
very important work.

Speaker 3 (24:15):
Did that kind of grow out of the pandemic when
just everything stopped and everyone lost their livelihoods.

Speaker 11 (24:21):
I mean, that was crazy yeah, it was. It existed
before that.

Speaker 10 (24:25):
But definitely during that time became I mean, the music
industry was one of the industries which, yeah, completely ground
to a hole basically at that time, especially the live
music industry.

Speaker 11 (24:35):
So that was when the Music.

Speaker 10 (24:36):
Helps work became more important than ever in terms of
being able to help, and we offered a whole bunch
of grants and just and supported a lot of different
companies and different individuals at that time just so that
they could just keep living.

Speaker 11 (24:47):
Basically, it was, it was. It was a tough time
for a lot of people. Unfortunately.

Speaker 3 (24:52):
Music is so powerful, isn't It's talk me through from
your point of view why it's so powerful and what
it can do for someone. I mean, it's hard to articulate,
I know.

Speaker 10 (25:04):
I mean, it's just it's one of those things you
can do. It just it affects people in so many
different ways. It brings it brings back memories.

Speaker 11 (25:13):
Like I mean, it's funny when you say that.

Speaker 10 (25:15):
The initial thing that she sprang to mind for me
as my mum who has Alzheimer's and can't really hold
much of a conversation anymore. But if you start singing
a song, she'll start singing it, So there's like there's
this crazy power to that that I obviously have a
deep soft spot for. So that's part of the some
of the programs that music helps with, things where people

(25:38):
go into restaurants or into palliative care and run workshops
and things, and it's just powerful work.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
This month, we're celebrating twenty five years of New Zealand
Music Month, bringing New Zealand music in the industry into
the spotlight. Where is the New Zealand music industry at?
Are you feeling good about where it's at, where it's heading.

Speaker 10 (25:57):
I am, especially in our Lord's Back to Save the World.
You know, that's always nice when she's releasing new music,
But another music industry as a whole is Yeah.

Speaker 11 (26:08):
People are doing well. Leisure who you.

Speaker 10 (26:10):
Played on the way in and their their friends of mine,
and they're just they're onto their fifth album and there
and they're bigger than they've ever been. They're playing Austin
City Limits and just and doing all sorts of like
huge things overseas. So I think we're in a We're
in a good place, and I think the quality of
music here is is better than ever.

Speaker 3 (26:27):
I wasn't going to mention it, but you brought it up.
But when an artist sort of announces they're going to
release new music, I often find myself going back and
listening to old albums, and I've been listening to Lord's
debut album. It really was remarkable.

Speaker 7 (26:39):
Role.

Speaker 11 (26:40):
Well, thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (26:42):
You're still really proud of it?

Speaker 11 (26:44):
Yeah, of course, of course I am.

Speaker 10 (26:45):
I mean that was such a such a special time,
changed all of our lives.

Speaker 11 (26:51):
It was really fun to make.

Speaker 10 (26:54):
Yeah, probably will be one of the one of the
best pieces of work that I that I make. I mean,
you know, I'm still trying to do good stuff and
still think I am, But I mean, that's that's always
going to be a special a special thing for everyone.

Speaker 3 (27:06):
Timeless, remarkable album. Hey, talking about giving back, you yourself
do a lot for the New Zealand music community through
Big Fan. You've been up and running for about two
and a half years now. I think, how's that going.

Speaker 11 (27:17):
Yeah, it's going really good. Yeah, I'm very proud of that.
So that's a venue in Morningside and Auckland.

Speaker 10 (27:22):
Well, it's a venue and all ages venue downstairs and
then we have studio spaces upstairs, so we run a
lot of programs out of there as well for writing
camps and provide residency so people can use the studios
for free and workshops and all sorts of different things there.
So yeah, that's kind of a way that I can
just personally do something.

Speaker 11 (27:42):
Yeah, that kind of have the I'm.

Speaker 10 (27:44):
In a position now I can do something that hopefully
benefits the music community again, just because it's done so
much for me.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
And when you think back to when you were a
musician and starting out and things, and you look at
what's sort of available now, are there a lot more opportunities?
It feels like there are. There's a lot more you know,
opportunities to kind of participate and collaborate and things, even
as an upcoming young artist.

Speaker 11 (28:08):
Yeah, I think now.

Speaker 10 (28:09):
I think when when I was coming through, collaboration wasn't
really a thing. And that's I mean it's something that
has become more and more common and I think has
benefited everybody and the music industry that it's now that
people will work together to make music and to and
to learn and grow. And I think that Yeah, I
mean back then, it was it wasn't really cool to
work with other people to collaborate. It was you were

(28:31):
supposed to just sit there and you know, write your
song yourself with your band, and now I think it's Yeah,
it's great to see that everybody is kind of there's
a bit more of a community aspect to it, which
is really nice.

Speaker 3 (28:42):
Music T Shirt Day is a big fundraise if your
Music Helps. It's coming up on Friday, the thirtieth of May.
Whose shirt will you be wearing?

Speaker 10 (28:50):
Well, that's a good question. I've got an alright collection.
I feel like I need to I need to get
a couple more. I feel like sometimes I end up
wheeling out the same shit.

Speaker 11 (29:00):
I'm wearing a Brudes hoodie right now.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
Oh nice, just if you.

Speaker 10 (29:04):
Want to picture that. But but no, I don't know.
I might have to go shopping this week. But yeah,
it's a great opportunity for people to just show their
support for New Zealand music and raise some money. A
lot of people will get a team together at their
work and everybody will wear their their favorite band's T
shirt and donate some money to Music Helps. And you
can do that by texting music to two four four eight.

Speaker 11 (29:25):
If you're like that'll give.

Speaker 10 (29:26):
That's like an instant three dollars donation, but a lot
of people get involved and compete against their you know,
their other officers or other people in their in their office.
So it's kind of it. It's a fun thing to
do in a great way to celebrate New zealm.

Speaker 3 (29:39):
Nice if you got teenagers, Joel, because you know that
when they be teenagers, you won't see that T shirt
collection ever again.

Speaker 11 (29:45):
They definitely definitely dip into it. Yeah I do.

Speaker 3 (29:49):
Oh, look, thanks so much for your time. Really nice
to talk to you. That was Joel little there, and
as he mentioned, there are a few ways to contribute
to Music Helps. You can buy a T shirt or
donate money at New Zealand Music t Shirt Day dot
org dot nz. You can also text two four four
eight four a three dollars donation. It is fifteen to
ten putting.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
The tough questions to the newsmakers, the Mic Hosking Breakfast.

Speaker 11 (30:14):
Winston Peters as well.

Speaker 12 (30:15):
It's got a view on Jerry Brownlee's reaction to that
ruling from the Privileges Committee.

Speaker 8 (30:19):
Yes, I do, but it's not vice for me to
express it on this program. I continue to do something
about it, like downline, I don't want to talk about
it on this program. Fair enough put this way the
Select Committee and a very truncated process because they wouldn't
turn up but caused enormous de days has come to
a decision.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
That's for the House to endorse it.

Speaker 8 (30:37):
Otherwise and this idea of thousand hours and days and
days weeks everyone having a chance of talking more than
once and move a memis is in my view paintly wrong.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
That's his father.

Speaker 12 (30:46):
Want to go back tomorrow at six am the Mic
Hosking breakfast with the rain drove of a lame news
talk ZEDB grab a cover.

Speaker 1 (30:54):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rutkin and Wickles for
the best selection of great bas used talk ZED be good.

Speaker 3 (31:01):
To have you with us and to the A League
Semifinals now.

Speaker 13 (31:05):
Advantage all Plan FC. Logan Rogerson is their man of
the hour. All Plan FC create another first Our Finals
win in the first time of asking.

Speaker 3 (31:18):
The Black Knights won the first League semi beating Melbourne
victory one nill away last night. The two size Medica
next Saturday in Auckland for a place in the Grand
Final and Auckland FCCO Nick Becker was at the game
last night and it's with me from Melbourne thanks so
much for your time this morning. That good morning, good morning.

Speaker 12 (31:35):
How are you.

Speaker 3 (31:35):
I'm very good. How did you find that one last
night a bit tense?

Speaker 6 (31:39):
It was super tense, to be honest, I don't know.
It was a very exciting game. It was a it
was a great game. I think they they came at
us for the first twenty minutes and we we had
a really good job in absorbing the pressure. I think
I think we were immense and defense last night. I
meant to rhyme that by the way.

Speaker 3 (31:58):
That was very good.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
I light that run there.

Speaker 6 (32:02):
And then and then Yeah, to come away with the
result was just it was a fantastic evening. But you know,
the job is only halfway done. It's it's the important
message to to give to the guys. I think, you know,
we're effectively at halfway at halftime now, so I can't
wait to get back next week and play the home
Seepe final at go Media.

Speaker 3 (32:22):
One nil. However, that could very nearly have been two nil.

Speaker 6 (32:27):
I know, I know they're not going it was yeah, yeah,
it was it was.

Speaker 5 (32:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (32:34):
We would obviously have loved to go in next week
with two nil as a sort of advantage.

Speaker 11 (32:40):
But I don't know that.

Speaker 6 (32:41):
That's football, isn't it, And you have to you have
to play what you've got on the night, and the
fact that Nana shot didn't go in, I don't know.
I'll never know how didn't and it even a bounce
off the second bar and went straight to the keeper.
You know, if it gone either side, I think we
had we had players either side and we're tappened.

Speaker 2 (32:57):
So yeah, I.

Speaker 6 (32:58):
Guess that's just the rubb of the green sometimes.

Speaker 3 (33:00):
You mentioned that your message to the team is that
the job is only half done. But what was the
mood in the team like after that game?

Speaker 6 (33:08):
I think that they were They were very excited to
play last night. They had obviously had a week off
given the buy and the finals, and so you know,
they were just chomping at the bit to get out there.
I think they knew that if they go into this
game and we've got the quality to deliver the result.
But if you if you got the sort of fighting

(33:29):
you and you want it more than the other side,
you're going to get a result. I mean that's very
much football in general, but especially a leagues, And last
night I think when they went in they knew that
they had they wanted it. I think they wanted it
more and we got the result, and then they were
very very happy. Tired and sore would be the way

(33:49):
to describe them.

Speaker 3 (33:49):
I was going to ask if everyone pulled up, Okay,
no injuries, Yeah, no, no, no.

Speaker 6 (33:54):
We're fine.

Speaker 11 (33:55):
We were good.

Speaker 6 (33:56):
I think, you know, sort of Coshumer went into the
game feeling that he had sort of a little bit
of a nickel on his knee, and he ran the
full game and did well. I think at the end
of I think he was feeling pretty pretty sore. But
you know, he'll get up and he'll be fine.

Speaker 3 (34:10):
For next week, because now is not the time nick
for injuries.

Speaker 14 (34:13):
Isn't No, No, we've.

Speaker 6 (34:14):
Got We've only got Yeah, we've got one more game
to go, and then and then and then one more
after that, as long as we make it through and
then then they've got like, you know, five six weeks off,
so it's it's yeah, I don't want our injuries right now.

Speaker 3 (34:27):
Twenty five thousand tickets were sold before last night's match,
and this is the next semi final on Saturday. Where
does that sit now? Are you close to a sellout?

Speaker 6 (34:37):
I think we're pretty much there. I think that's maybe
a handful a couple of hundred tickets at most left,
and it's just an amazing I'm so so happy for
kind of like all of the Awk fans who've come
through all season and hopefully they've all got tickets to
the game.

Speaker 11 (34:55):
It's Saturday.

Speaker 6 (34:55):
But yeah, to have a sell out a week out,
you know you kind of it just shows that we
are really like kind of we've been the most successful
club in the league across the season in terms of attendance,
and yeah, we've done again with it with a salad
a week before our game.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
No, when you were very lucky actually that my producer
managed to get some tickets and get in early. She's
sitting out there currently in her in her T shirt,
her T shirt, and she would have hit you up,
so that didn't happen. So what does this week look
like for you.

Speaker 14 (35:28):
In the club?

Speaker 6 (35:30):
We're actually we've we're in I've got to go to
Sydney tomorrow for a league meeting. We've got the Dolan
Warren Awards piece of that filming tomorrow, so I'm going
there for that. The guys would go home today, they'll
have a day off tomorrow and then we'll just be
training and focusing on what they've got to do. I
think the good thing is nobody in the team we

(35:52):
talked about the other night, is nobody's getting ahead of themselves.
They know that nobody's thinking about a Grand final right now.

Speaker 11 (35:57):
They're thinking about.

Speaker 6 (35:59):
Finishing off the semi final the second League and getting there,
and I think that's very much what the focus will be.
And everyone knows it's a lot of work over the
next two weeks, but if we get there, the prize
is pretty.

Speaker 11 (36:11):
Good at the end of the day.

Speaker 3 (36:12):
And Nick, is there anything special planned for the home
semi final leg? What can fans expect next Saturday aside
from some excellent footy?

Speaker 2 (36:20):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (36:21):
Yeah, well I hopefully that's the that's the plan. The
league's taken over the game, so they kind of take it.
It's it's a little bit less in our control than
than the normal regular season. I think the biggest thing
that they're doing is putting extra seats and so more
people can make it along to the game, so that
that kind of north end where we normally have our
family fan zone will actually be packed with seats and

(36:43):
fans going for the game. I genuinely hope there'll be
a good contingent from Melbourne Victory make it over for
their way leg as well. So we've got that kind
of like rivalry and and kind of friendly banter in
the in the in the side, sorry in the stadium.
But yeah, it's it's I think it's the occasion is
a big thing next week. It's it's a six pm

(37:05):
kickoffs that's still a good friend kick off for families
and I think this is going to be a mense
game of football and I can't wait.

Speaker 3 (37:11):
Nick. Thank you so much for your time this morning.
Really really appreciate it. That was Augland FCCO Nick Becker
talking to us from Melbourne. It is six to ten
News Talks at.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
B the Sunday Session full show podcast on iHeartRadio powered
by News Talks AB.

Speaker 3 (37:30):
Thank you very much for your text. Yes, muzz Fox
is still on the course through thirteen holes, four undertied
for fourteenth at the moment. I'll keep a better eye
on that next hour for your apologies. Are the texts
as well. What a load of waffle from Little No
doubt Wellington will get what it deserves again and another
one Francisca can't believe the people of Wellington would vote
for Little Surely people have forgotten that is restructure of

(37:50):
the health sector has made the sector worse than it
ever was. And another one here from a Morning Francesca.
Tom Cruise was never my favorite actor, but I can't
deny here has a certain charisma, professionalism and star par
I think that even it is most undignified. Yes, the
Oprah episode, He's still managers to maintain his integrity. That
combined with his forgivable boyish charms makes for old fashioned

(38:12):
Hollywood quality. Harrison Ford, Kate Winslet, then at Cumberbatch. I
would add them to the list as well. Coming up
next to the fantastic Kaylee bell Is with us. This
year is turning out to be absolutely crazy for her.
She's up for four Out Music Awards on May twenty ninth.
This is his song Nights Like.

Speaker 4 (38:30):
This co good in Impire, Kiss at Suys and I
Never want to leave him Baby.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
There's no better way to start your Sunday.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rutkin and Wiggles for
the best selection of Greg Reaves, Us Talk sat.

Speaker 4 (39:16):
Be, Niki laid a love to taken you so my
feeling bye and ever ever been so far? I've been
thinking about it every day now only christ where a
where house?

Speaker 15 (39:32):
Dear you call me Lady.

Speaker 3 (39:38):
This is ring on It by Kaylee Bell. A funny
story about this song coming up in just a moment, Johny.
Twenty five has been a bit of a wild ride
for our country music star Kaylee Bell. A music festival,
a co lab with the Wiggles, this new single you're
listening to, and she's had a baby to top it off,
Kaylee is up for four out here on Music Awards
at the end of this month. Kaylee Bell is with

(39:59):
me now, good morning.

Speaker 15 (40:00):
Good morning. How are you.

Speaker 3 (40:02):
I'm good so good to have you with us. Hey,
let's start with the awards. This is really exciting. You're
a finalist for four Album of the Year, Single of
the Year, Best Solo Artist, Best Country Music Artist. Is
the local recognition still important to you?

Speaker 15 (40:17):
Absolutely?

Speaker 16 (40:18):
I feel like I don't know, I just never really
ever thought I would make categories that were, you know,
John specific. So to be an album and single and
to have country music recognized in the mainstream now has
just been such a dream come true.

Speaker 15 (40:33):
And yeah, just a celebration.

Speaker 16 (40:34):
I think of the last few years of just seeing
this rise of country music and you know, my career
here in New Zealand, which is so important to me.

Speaker 15 (40:42):
It's where it all began.

Speaker 16 (40:44):
And always dreamed of being able to tour this country
and hear my songs on the radio here and it's
all finally happening. And it's reflecting in the olds now too,
which is just such a little cherry on the top.

Speaker 3 (40:54):
It's also it is I'm really excited that you've got
the album of the year. This is the first time.

Speaker 16 (41:00):
Yeah, absolutely, and it's I feel like we're kind of
coming back to an album world too, you know. I
think it was very much single for a while there,
and I just I love having albums out, you know
it really it felt so different this last tour that
we did with the album out in the vinyl and
really connecting with fans back on that level. And I love,
you know, when fans discover sort of more of the
deeper cuts of the record and they're just it's just

(41:22):
such a nice feeling of having a project package together
and so yeah, just moving forth, I just always want
to make records now.

Speaker 3 (41:30):
That's really interesting. Do you find are you surprised sometimes
that the songs that people sing along with because they're
not always the single, the ones that they respond to.

Speaker 16 (41:37):
You're so right, And that's the beauty of playing live.
It's like you never really know and then you play
something live and that's when you get that little surprise.

Speaker 15 (41:44):
And it has been songs that we.

Speaker 16 (41:46):
Didn't really necessarily know if they like, they weren't released
as singles, and that's when you know.

Speaker 15 (41:51):
You've got the hard course there that are singing and
I just love that.

Speaker 3 (41:54):
Yeah, country music is kind of taking off a little bit.
You've been You've got behind the new iHeart Country Music
station here in New Zealand And and your song with
you You you were the first artist off the rank,
which is that's pretty amazing. Yeah, what's behind you think
this this growth of country music and particularly here in

(42:15):
New Zealand because I'm you know, obviously we know it's
massive in other parts of the world.

Speaker 15 (42:19):
Well, it's Australia too.

Speaker 16 (42:21):
It's the fastest growing genre basically in Australasia, which there's
never been a more exciting time. But I do think
that it's also been very underground for a long time.
You know, I think there's been a lot of fans
and they just kind of haven't been fed their genre,
you know, on the mainstream radio.

Speaker 15 (42:36):
And it just took a few singles, you know.

Speaker 16 (42:38):
I think Luke Colmb's had a massive song with Fast
Car and Morgan Wallen and just a few singles that
kind of just had.

Speaker 15 (42:43):
A wee moment and slowly got the ball rolling.

Speaker 16 (42:46):
And then we've seen a lot of Americans come out
here until it in the last sort of twelve months.
And I just think it's just been a combination of
all these things. Kind of it's like a perfect timing situation.
You know, everything's exploding at once, and yeah, I just
think it's awesome now that fans can turn on a
radio station in their car and actually be driving around
listening to it. I know, but on everybody onto the

(43:07):
station and it's yeah, it's amazing.

Speaker 3 (43:10):
Hey, motherhood. This kind of came as a bit of
a surprise. Congratulation.

Speaker 16 (43:18):
I do Little Boy James, and yeah, very unexpected. We
found out we were having him in Nashville last year. Actually,
we just come off the road. We just toured through
New Zealand all of April May. We're in Nashville for
c May Fest and yeah, found out. So it's been
quite a journey. I've spoken on a few podcasts about
my journey. I'm not going to bore everybody with the details,

(43:40):
but there has been a long, long ride for me
with my health and a few different situations and issues.
And yeah, it's just so nice now to have a
little baby, and we're just very much taking him on
the road and including him in our touring and our
just in our life, you know, because I just think
what better education than you know, travel and meeting people and.

Speaker 3 (44:01):
And life goes on.

Speaker 16 (44:02):
And yeah, absolutely, And it's I've always also wanted to
that you can do both things, you know. I think
for whatever reason, as females, we still have that little
thing where it's just expected that we kind of just
carry on, you know, And I kind of am making
a point that you can do both and enjoy both.

Speaker 3 (44:19):
It's kind of quite common though in the country music circles. Yeah,
just do take their families with them. It's a bit
of a family affair, isn't it.

Speaker 17 (44:26):
It is.

Speaker 15 (44:26):
You're right.

Speaker 16 (44:26):
I think it's the one genre that really embraces family.
It's spoken about in people's songs, but it's also lived
out on the road. In tour buses and so I've
seen it in the country genre, which I think has
been a big help. But it's also something that I
think that we need to see more of. And so
you know, having him side stage and backstage it shows

(44:47):
and things like that will be something that I really
want to normalize as well.

Speaker 3 (44:51):
The change to motherhood though it's quite it's quite major.
And I mean you went from touring with US superstar
Cane Brown to having the baby. Six weeks later after
he was born, you were performing at a festival and
os I mean you even released a single in this time.
Is the this is a sign of your work ethic
and dedication.

Speaker 15 (45:10):
Or am I crazy where you've got today?

Speaker 3 (45:12):
Or actually that yes, life goes on or is it
actually Hey, I've spent fifteen years slogging it out to
get to where I am. I've now got this huge success.
I'm not sure if New Zealanders quite realize how successful
you've been overseas. You've got to keep the momentum going.
Is there some pressure on you to keep that momentum going?

Speaker 16 (45:32):
Yeah, and it's pressure that I put on myself, if
I'm being honest, You're right, though, I mean this has
taken me years to get where I've wanted to go
and I'm still not there yet. And I think that
no one cares about your career more than you do yourself.
Hence why I've always been self managed and independent. I'm
a big believer and get the job done yourself. And
I think I really think that, you know, reflects the

(45:54):
key we upbringing that we have here. You know, it's
like that DIY like get the job done kind of mentality.
But it's really been something that I've needed in this industry.
And yeah, I just knew that there was no time
to take, you know, peel off the metal. It was
like I had to be organized, and so I finished
my record at the end of last year, knowing that

(46:15):
I would then be able to release it this year
and carry on. And again, I just think it's I
always wanted to prove that you could do both things,
and it's just taken a little bit more organization, and
like you said, though, we haven't really slowed down, and
it's sort of I think that's great.

Speaker 15 (46:30):
We can just kind of carry on now.

Speaker 3 (46:32):
That new single rag On It is it a tricky.

Speaker 15 (46:38):
It could be.

Speaker 16 (46:41):
It was actually written as a joke I wrote it
in New York last year, and I was terrified. I
just would not play it to my partner for about
six months. And yeah, I never thought that song would
see the light of day, if I'm being on this,
But the amount of females that have sent me that
song being like this work, I'm like, Okay, it hasn't worked.

Speaker 15 (46:58):
For me yet, but it's worked for you.

Speaker 3 (46:59):
That's great. I love the fact that you also did
a co lab with the Wiggles, which means that in
about two years time, you were going to be regarded
as a very cool mother.

Speaker 15 (47:11):
I know right, I'm still waiting for that.

Speaker 3 (47:13):
You are your time. You're thinking about it's very strategic.
You're going to be able to say your child. But look,
here's here's what I did beside themselves. How much fun
was that?

Speaker 16 (47:22):
Oh my god, that was actually such a cool day.
I filmed for a whole day in Sydney with the
team and they, I mean, talk about work ethic. They
have something insane work ethic. They all have families, and
I mean Katerina, the Red Wiggle, she just had her
two little twins. They were six weeks old, and she
was back at it. She had a Nanny. We were
out filming for like hours in the afternoon, and it

(47:42):
was just like it was probably what I needed at
the time, because I just found out that I was
having a baby and I was just like, how is
this going to work? And to see them just make
it work was like a really important moment for me.
But also they were just so nice, Like they are
the nicest humans in the world. And I've had the
chance to see them at the Arias and a few
different places since, and I feel like I've just been
kind of part of that Wiggles family now. So, like

(48:04):
you said, in two years time, I'm going to be cool, mom,
and I can't wait.

Speaker 3 (48:09):
Are you surprised are the people that you do meet
and that you have meet along the way who are
very very well known?

Speaker 15 (48:15):
Yeah, at how grounded they are. Yeah.

Speaker 16 (48:17):
I think if there's one thing I've actually learned, it's
like the more famous people are, the nicer they are,
which is really ironic, but I speak for that, you know,
each year and was like that, Keith Evans like that,
the Wiggles are like that. It's like not that they've
got nothing to prove anymore, but I think they've probably
seen it all and they've been through every kind of
up and down that it's like nothing really gets to

(48:38):
them anymore. And I think that must be a really
nice place to get to. Thinking back to when you
start it out, there's so much for a potential for
young Kiwi artists. Now, yeah, are you excited about the
opportunities for them or is it still going to be
a fifteen years log for most people?

Speaker 5 (48:58):
Yeah?

Speaker 16 (48:58):
I mean, I don't want to scare anyone off, but
I think if you really want to do this properly,
it's you see people you know, have their little moments
off TikTok and things. Now that I think it's awesome
that being an independent artist and a self managed artist,
all those things I think would be a lot easier
now to get off the ground because there's a lot
more avenues, you know, with social media that you can
do it without needing to spend any money or like

(49:20):
we can do it from New Zealand and people in
America can see it, for example. But I still think
the long game is the most important game, and I
think that it all comes back to being able to
put on a great show live and things like that
take time, and I don't think you get the chance
to take any shortcuts in this industry. I think it
all comes back to you if you do. It's like, yeah,
there's kind of no secrets in this industry.

Speaker 18 (49:42):
You know.

Speaker 3 (49:42):
It's interesting. Was there a time when you kind of
went after you know, performing gigs and things, you kind
of went, Okay, I'm getting this, I'm developing as a performer.
I can you know that you actually recognize to actually
I can kind of. I'm just constantly stepping up.

Speaker 9 (49:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 16 (49:58):
I think it was really when I made that call
with again the live show, to be like, I'm going
to have my band.

Speaker 15 (50:03):
That's going to be my band, and we're going.

Speaker 16 (50:05):
To work at butts Off rehearse every week even when
we don't have shows on, and just that mentality of like,
this is like my career and it's not a hobby,
it's my job.

Speaker 15 (50:15):
It's my job.

Speaker 16 (50:16):
And yeah, and I think once I really shifted into
that headspace, it was like we just always constantly want
to keep getting better, and I think that should be
the goal anyway, Right. So Yeah, I think I hope
that it's easier for the next generation coming through, and
I think there's now a lot more avenues where it
can be. But I still think if you want to
have a real career in this, you've got to play

(50:37):
the long game.

Speaker 15 (50:38):
Yeah, do you ever go back?

Speaker 3 (50:39):
Have you got any videost?

Speaker 15 (50:40):
So many videos?

Speaker 3 (50:41):
Do you ever go back and watch them? Not so much?

Speaker 16 (50:44):
It's yeah, way too humbling at this point. Actually it's
I mean I started so young. I was four years old,
and I've never really known anything else. You know. I
was lucky that Mum and Dad were just very encouraging
that we go and play music in but never ever
thought I'd do it as a career.

Speaker 4 (51:01):
You know.

Speaker 16 (51:01):
It was like the way to pay through my union
and be able to get some drinking money or you know,
like it was just always something that I did but
never really thought much of. It was always like okay,
you're doing that, but what are you actually doing? You know, like,
what's what's the job? What's the And So I mean,
if that's one thing I can show, you know, the
next generation, that you actually can have a career in
country music in New Zealand, then I think that would

(51:24):
be an amazing thing to a legacy to leave behind,
because I didn't know that when I was coming through.

Speaker 3 (51:28):
What do you think of all these pop stars now
putting that country jumping on the g.

Speaker 15 (51:31):
I know, right, it's kind of awesome.

Speaker 16 (51:33):
I mean, Post Malone's record was probably one of my
favorite country records that came out last year, and it
all I just all think everything. You know, the more
we collaborate, the more we knock down walls with genre,
I think is a great thing. And so I'm always
excited to see how you know, different artists like Lana
del Rey has such a different take on country music
than you know, somebody like an Ed Cheer and I

(51:53):
Fever did a country record, which I'm sure he probably
wills do. It's just like, I just love it all
comes back to the songwriting. So I love hearing their
stories and why they wanted to do it too.

Speaker 15 (52:03):
You know.

Speaker 3 (52:04):
So you're spending your time now between well, all over
the place, but New Zealand and Nashville they're the main
two bases.

Speaker 15 (52:10):
Yeah, in Australia.

Speaker 16 (52:11):
We spend a lot of time playing in Australia now too,
which is awesome. But my goal was always to live
just to never have a winter, and so it kind
of works perfectly with the American thing.

Speaker 3 (52:21):
Another tech. Yeah, it's good. So what does the rest
of the year hold for you and the family.

Speaker 16 (52:26):
Yeah, I feel like we've actually I mean, I know
we're already in man. This year's kind of come off
with us in a role, but we kind of haven't
even really got started yet. We've got a really crazy
end of the year. We're going to be out on
the road a lot more here in Australia as well,
So we're going to see a lot of our KII
fans over the next sort of six months, which I
can't wait to get back at, and we'll have a
lot more music to share with them as well. So Yeah,

(52:48):
the rest of this year I think is going to
fly by super fast because there's just so much coming
and I can't wait to be able to reveal it
all the time.

Speaker 3 (52:55):
Well I can't wait because right now, Kayla, you and
Aaron are going to perform your AMA nominated single Cowboy.

Speaker 15 (53:02):
Thank You.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
We are all right, let's do it.

Speaker 4 (53:15):
You were in left here, right on track, my fence
out front, cars parked out back.

Speaker 15 (53:24):
We had everything we needed and he treated.

Speaker 3 (53:28):
Me like maybe I'm a.

Speaker 4 (53:32):
It.

Speaker 17 (53:33):
You hung the.

Speaker 15 (53:34):
Cars, I hung.

Speaker 19 (53:38):
Bill Brown, Ice Crant my baby Booze. Here they ever
sawthing in allis he got me thinking.

Speaker 3 (53:47):
Maybe we could have it all?

Speaker 15 (53:50):
Hey after all?

Speaker 19 (53:52):
Now it's he'll toll and around he goes to rodeo
over now my first baby bill chopping, you pull me back?

Speaker 3 (54:00):
Get ahead of that.

Speaker 4 (54:01):
It's see how baby drip you got go crazy me Piscotte.

Speaker 15 (54:07):
Ag be thesa How you fall?

Speaker 3 (54:12):
If you think that on the long and see it alas.

Speaker 19 (54:15):
Two up, two out, Hey, don't tell me down, don't
tell me loose, just pull my.

Speaker 15 (54:31):
Name come next you.

Speaker 19 (54:35):
Because how I can see the down there ring They
dress a cake of hold everything that I can't wait
for everybody to do.

Speaker 3 (54:45):
So it's he's.

Speaker 4 (54:46):
Rolling around me go, it's a roade over now my
first baby rough chopping.

Speaker 15 (54:51):
He pulled me back, Tilli Edit night is he how baby?

Speaker 4 (54:55):
God?

Speaker 2 (54:56):
Your character crazy?

Speaker 4 (54:58):
Read a piscott adrie better.

Speaker 2 (55:01):
Reason How you fall?

Speaker 15 (55:04):
If you think that I the wrong.

Speaker 19 (55:06):
Is take it a laugh cable ll cabble all he.

Speaker 3 (55:17):
Do cago crazy? Y's he how baby? He told around
to go?

Speaker 4 (55:25):
It's a ROADI open the lockers baby at the tip
and you pull me back, Tilly edit that it's here,
how baby?

Speaker 3 (55:33):
Will you beabolder? Die be delivered bam myself.

Speaker 15 (55:38):
He the He's a liar fault.

Speaker 4 (55:42):
If you think that I'm wrong, just sing it aloud.

Speaker 19 (55:45):
Cowble hill cabo l Hey, if you think that I'm
ang and say it aloud, cabble ill, cablef.

Speaker 4 (56:01):
Hit Tamawandre You're killing without cableill cab Oh.

Speaker 3 (56:08):
Kaylee Aaron, thank you so much. That was absolutely fantastic.
It is just wonderful to have you in the studio.
Thank you so much for before you.

Speaker 15 (56:16):
Thanks Francesca, thank you.

Speaker 3 (56:17):
That was the wonderful Kaylee Bell As I mentioned, Kaylee
is up for four Altier Our Music Awards. A ceremony
takes place on Thursday, the twenty ninth of May, and
this year marks sixty years of music awards in New Zealand.
Hey if you love Trent Dalton the author Trent Dalton
in his books and I Reckon You're Gonna Love Kiwi
author Dominic Hoey's new book is called nineteen eighty five.

(56:38):
They share a love of writing about the underdog and
an empathetic manner, and even amongst all the dysfunction in
their stories, there is love and hope and a Dominic's case,
a very well captured eighties New Zealand. Dominic is with
me after eleven to talk about his latest book and
the work he does with young people. It is twenty
four past ten years News Talks eb.

Speaker 1 (57:00):
Sunday with Style the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudgin and
Wiggles for the best election of great Reads, use Talks Heavy.

Speaker 3 (57:10):
Every year, Wikeles invites readers to vote for their three
favorite books to help compile the new annual Wikkels Top
one hundred. This list is assembled from all the votes received,
literally thousands of them, which arranged an order of reader
popularity from numbers one through one hundred. Voting for the
twenty twenty five Whitkkels Top one hundred is open now
and you can have your say by going online to
Wickls dot co dot nz or by visiting any one

(57:32):
of the whit cal stools around the country. The results
will be collated and then the new list goes live
at the end of July. WHI calls I love to
hear from you. The great thing about this list is
that if thousands of other readers have loved a book,
chances are you will too, So have your say and
tell them about the books that you want everyone to
know about. With books, games, puzzles, gorgeous stationary toys, and
the Whikels Top one hundred. There really is something for

(57:55):
everyone at Witkels.

Speaker 2 (57:58):
This Sunday Session.

Speaker 3 (58:11):
Mission Impossible scene there Chris Shaltz joins me now to
talk entertainment. Good morning, Good morning. The Final Reckoning. This
was released. There was a preview of it on Friday night.
Took most of our Friday night, two hours and fifteen
minutes of it. I didn't wait for the burgers and
the chips. I just went straight to the there and
got my fantastic seat. This is the final last film

(58:35):
in the Mission Impossible series, and I'm going to be
honest with you, Chris. As far as thrillers and action
flex go, I do appreciate and really enjoy the silliness,
the escapism, and the incredible kind of stunts and the
thrill that's presented to us in a cinema.

Speaker 20 (58:53):
This does the job right. I get the action set
pieces a way. You're going to these things. You're not
going there to try and understand what's going on, because
the backs don't. Oh my god, there are hard drives
and us flash drives that need to be combined with
a poison pill that.

Speaker 3 (59:10):
Is Ai that someone I'm not entire you can't really
remember who created which is going to take over the
world and we're all going to.

Speaker 2 (59:16):
Be like control.

Speaker 3 (59:17):
They've got the nukes. What we know, Chris is the
world's going to explore. So this is part two. This
finale has been done in two parts, hasn't it? So
Part one Dead Reckoning was that last year or the
year before twenty three? Yeah, so this is this is
final and they do take quite a lot of time
to set it up. So if you can't quite remember
the end of there's a lot of reminiscing about where we're.

Speaker 20 (59:40):
At, Like an entire hour of backstory, I want to say,
but not just backstory for the seventh film, the last film,
this backstory for the whole series. They're going back to
some of the first films.

Speaker 3 (59:50):
It's nostalgia, isn't it.

Speaker 20 (59:52):
It's almost like a greatest it So I felt too
with like some of those first set pieces they were
almost HARKing back, like when when Tom Cruise ethan Hunt
the spy is tied up in a chair and he
can't find a lock packs and he's about to be
tortured like I've seen that scene before, right, like several times,
Like this felt like a greatest hats But then they

(01:00:12):
get to the set pieces, the action set pieces. In
the middle of the film, they put Ethan Hunt on
a sunken submarine, and that is one of the most
spectacular cinematic sequences. I think I'll see all yet. For
twenty minutes, I just sat back in my seat and went, Wow,
he's he's trying to make his way through a submerged

(01:00:32):
submarine abandoned, right, But there's missiles going around like pickup sticks.
So he's got this face helmet diving suit thing on,
so you can't really see him properly, but it's spectacular.

Speaker 3 (01:00:44):
Five hundred meters you know, on the ocean, will sort
of on an ocean floor.

Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:00:48):
The whole thing is ridiculous, but as you say, absolutely thrilling.

Speaker 14 (01:00:52):
Where you're going. Yeah, and do you know what?

Speaker 3 (01:00:54):
It was long, and it was probably too long, but
these days the price of a movie ticket is twenty
five bucks and he is going to give you bang
figure back totally.

Speaker 20 (01:01:03):
Also, I've got a hot tape. If you get bored,
just watch Tom Cruiser's hair. It changes scene to scene,
and I think that's because they shot this over two
years in different countries. He must have changed hair dresses
multiple times, because it's it's wafty and breezy in some
scenes and it's longer, and then it's like cut back
to like it's shorter like the Tom Cruise we know,

(01:01:23):
and other scenes, and then he's on the flight and
it's like helmet hair right, like it's all down over
his face and.

Speaker 3 (01:01:28):
The way you should make comments about it, Oh, I
like your hair longer. And I did wonder if that
was a bit of a joke, like hang on and
the scene before, wasn't it shorter?

Speaker 9 (01:01:36):
Look?

Speaker 3 (01:01:36):
I love watching him do his own stunts as well.
There is something old fashioned about it. You know that
what you were seeing is being shot in camera on location,
and he's not afraid that he looks so funny because
his hair has been blown into, you know, into strange
sort of shapes, and his face and his cheeks are
all sort of wobbling around.

Speaker 20 (01:01:55):
Gives it a spectacle, right, Shit, it's exhausting, it's exhausted.
I did love this this whole like hunt to bring
down Ai, which is like kind of what Tom Cruiser's
mission impossible in film is you know we saw Harrison
Ford get de aged in the last Indiana Jones movie.
I really hope Tom Cruise just sticks to his guns
here and he doesn't go down that route. I don't know,

(01:02:16):
he's sixty three. I don't know how long he can
keep doing this. Probably not that long. But you know,
I'd hate to see him pop up like daged with AI.

Speaker 3 (01:02:25):
I know, because he's really stuck to his guns. I mean,
he is single handedly trying to save Cinema Cinema's theaters.
You know, he's trying to keep us going.

Speaker 20 (01:02:34):
That really is a mission impossible.

Speaker 3 (01:02:35):
Yeah, suair enough, Hey tell me about something a little
bit different. This is Darkfield. It's a live theater experience.

Speaker 20 (01:02:43):
Yeah, if you've been done to Ats Square in Auckland,
or if you're coming up soon, you'll see these two
huge shipping containers that bright white, you can't miss them,
and one's got flight written on the side of it
and the other one's got seance. These are I want
to call him immersive experiences that they're sensory deprivation experiences.
So you buy a ticket Q up and you go in.

(01:03:06):
And so I did the flight one last week, and
it's set up like a plane. You go in and
you go through the normal routine of going on a flight,
and then they turn the lights off and you put
headphones on and things get weird. So it's sensory deprivation.
Your ears start hearing more, okay, And so they're playing

(01:03:28):
with audio. There's things that you hear, people whispering, and
the flight itself is quite messed up and it gets
tripier and tripier.

Speaker 3 (01:03:37):
Yeah, so if you're afraid of flying, would this be triggering? Okay,
we don't go anywhere near it if you're afraid, Well,
if you're.

Speaker 20 (01:03:43):
Afraid of flying, if you don't like being in enclosed,
dark spaces as well. Yeah, Like, so I went with
my wife. She hated it, like the worst thing ever
for her. For me, I was grinning the entire time.
I actually loved it. I don't think it's a complete
experience that you hear. In the UK they have these
like immersive theater experiences. They set up a whole house

(01:04:03):
like you know Georgian Times with you know, oh, you know,
you're in a murder mystery or something.

Speaker 14 (01:04:09):
This isn't that.

Speaker 20 (01:04:09):
This is about twenty five minutes, but it is trippy.
It does change your reality you come out of it.
I did feel like I've been on a bit of
a journey and it had changed things for me. So yeah, no,
it's definitely worth checking out interesting.

Speaker 3 (01:04:22):
Thank you so much, Chris. And look, the French Film
Festival kicks off later this month from Kettkety to Dunedin
twenty three films including thrillers, drama and comedies. And you
can win tickets. Hit to newstalk zbot co dot mz
ford slash win to enter and for more about the
French Film Festival at twenty twenty five and today is
the last chance to enter, so get onto that. It
is twenty four to eleven.

Speaker 1 (01:04:49):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin on News.

Speaker 2 (01:04:52):
Talks at B.

Speaker 3 (01:04:55):
And it is time for our science study of the
week and what can Barbie tell us about women and
their fashion choices when it comes to footwear over the
age as well? Quite a bit as it turns out,
because yes, somebody has studied this. Michelle, good morning, good morning.
Where did you find the study this?

Speaker 5 (01:05:14):
Do you know what?

Speaker 21 (01:05:14):
I do a science study every week and I always say,
you know, go read it. Blah blah blah. If you
have never read an academic scientific study before, this is
the one for you.

Speaker 2 (01:05:25):
Don't read any of the others.

Speaker 21 (01:05:26):
It's the most delightful research I have ever read. It's
totally random, it's easy to read, its open, saucy. You
can just google it.

Speaker 7 (01:05:35):
It is lovely.

Speaker 21 (01:05:37):
Yeah, I stumbled across it. It was published last week
in the journal Plos one, and it's called fat out,
flat out fabulous How Barbie's foot posture and occupations have
changed over the decades. And it literally is a lot
of pictures of Barbie's feet from the nineteen sixties through
to today and how they have changed.

Speaker 3 (01:05:59):
Because I think we all I remember them always being pointed,
which tells you a little bit about how old I am.
I don't know if you've got to the flat footed Barbie.

Speaker 21 (01:06:08):
No, so us old people. They were always poenty high
heeled Barbies. And I didn't realize this, but ninety two
percent of girls in the US and the Western world
have owned a Barbie, so most of us will know
at least one Barbie. They've sold over a billion of
these dolls. And I didn't realize how cool and actually
game changing they might be. From a diversity perspective. So

(01:06:31):
in this study, they basically took twenty seven hundred and
fifty different Barbie dolls that had been released from Barbie's
launch in nineteen fifty nine all the way through to
the latest one in June twenty twenty four, and they
divided this beautiful custom mode Barbie foot angle measuring tool

(01:06:53):
called a goniometer to measure basically whether her feet were
flat or she was on high tiptoes or somewhere in between.
And usually she's on high tiptoes. It's because she's come
with stilettos, because standard Barbie only ever came wood still
lettos right in the beginning, because standard Barbie never had
a job, because regular Barbie back in the nineteen sixties

(01:07:15):
and many women didn't work, and so Barbie was just
about being fashionable and being gorgeous and wearing fancy clothes
and that's all Barbie meant. But things changed, and I
did not know this. So actually, in nineteen sixty five,
before we had the moon landing, there was Astronaut Barbie,
which is actually quite cool. And then in nineteen seventy

(01:07:39):
three there was surgeon Barbie, and you go, oh, yeah,
that's fine, but at the time in nineteen seventy three,
ninety one percent of doctors were men. So this is
quite cutting edge and quite disruptive. And then in nineteen
ninety eight, and this steady is standard me because obviously
a lot has changed recently. In nineteen eighty eight, the
law in the US changed which allowed women to have

(01:08:03):
their own business because prior to nineteen eighty eight in
the women could not take it out or secure alone
without the permission of a man and his co signature.
So from nineteen ninety eighty eight, Barbie started having businesses
and she could do a whole bunch of stuff. So
she killed off a stiletto, she got jobs, she got
flat and she started to enter male dominated fields. And

(01:08:26):
I think it's really cool that this study basically has
looked at how women have changed, but also has barbied
has changed over time.

Speaker 3 (01:08:34):
Absolutely Barbie reflecting us. Thank you so much, Michelle. Nice
to catch up with you, righte, spinach. It's an interesting vegetable,
isn't it. It's not what I love to eat, like raw.
I have to kind of do something with her. Throw
on a forratata or preferably blended up into a smoothie.
But look, if you are looking for a new idea
to use a spinach in your garden, Mike is a
tasty curry for us.

Speaker 1 (01:08:54):
Next the Sunday Session Full Show podcast on iHeartRadio powered
by News Talks, it be.

Speaker 3 (01:09:02):
Time for our resident chief Now Mike Venderhus in. Good morning,
Good morning, how are you.

Speaker 14 (01:09:08):
I'm all right, it's good.

Speaker 22 (01:09:09):
We're We're about to go somewhere very cold. So I'm
at the airport waiting to fly. Well, just going down
to Queenstown. But apparently it's minus two.

Speaker 3 (01:09:19):
All right, the spinach will be wilting down there.

Speaker 22 (01:09:23):
I'm gonna need lots of spinach keeping fit and strong.

Speaker 3 (01:09:26):
Look, I don't like spinach, and it's so good for us,
but I like the idea of giving us it's something
something new to you just throw it into because I
do find it's much more tasty when it's been it's
contributing to a dish rather than you eating it as
a salad.

Speaker 22 (01:09:40):
Yeah, and this is a fantastic dish. Like once a
month we host the master class at the school and
Ash comes to some of them and host them. And
Ash is the owner of Tendori Restaurant on whollpie and
she's amazing, obviously amazing, and Jim cook and one of
the dishes actually does is pollect ponier, which is basically
translates into spinach and pre so it's spinach and cheese curry.

(01:10:04):
Some of us probably know it as sad panier, which
is the same it's the same dish, but it's just
outside India they call it sad.

Speaker 11 (01:10:11):
God knows why.

Speaker 22 (01:10:12):
So anyway, let's start by making up we need a
kelo spinach paste. So to get this spinach paste, we
go out and we probably purchase about a kilo and
maybe a little bit more of fresh spinach. Take off
the large stalks, bring a big pot of boiling salted
water to the boil. Drop in your spinach leaves, let
them in there for about thirty seconds, pull them out
into ice water that just stops them from cooking, brings

(01:10:32):
out the color, and then fire them into a food
processor and just blend them until they turn into a paste.
You might want to just reserve a little bit of
that blanching that hot blanching water and just add that
into help turn that spinach into a paste. Once that's
turned into a paste, to set that aside, and then
into a large cast iron pan you want to start
to heat up a little bit more. So, I've got

(01:10:53):
two tablespoons of someplower oil. Into there goes a tablespoon
of whole Komon seeds. Cook them until they start to
sizzle and pop. And then add in foreclosed of garlic
that are been peeled and chopped. Add that in sort
for another couple of minutes, and then one onion that's
been peeled and fine your dice, saute that, and then
you go in with the fresh ginger really important. I've

(01:11:14):
got a teaspoon of freshly grated ginger. Feel free to
go harder on that if you want. Sautee the ginger.
And then in some tomatoes. So I've got half a can,
I hope your tomatoes. If you've still got some fresh
tomatoes floating around, you can add in two large fresh tomatoes,
add a little bit of salt, add a little bit
of chili if you wish, half teaspoon of tumeric powder,
and then in goes the all important spinach paste. Cook

(01:11:36):
that for a couple of minutes until it's basically starting
to heat through. You don't want to cook the bugger
out of it otherwise you're spinch going to turn army green.
So just cook that to keep it nice and fresh.
And then goes a half a tin of ei either
half a cup sorry of coconut cream if you want
it vegetarian lotion, or you go half a cup of
fresh cream up to you add that in and then

(01:11:57):
right at the end, I've got one and a half
teaspoons of goar and missela. Add that and mix that
through until that cheese is just heated through. Don't heat
it too far. Those cheese canna start breaking down.

Speaker 5 (01:12:08):
And that's it.

Speaker 22 (01:12:09):
Is the most amazing, flavorsome, simple vegetarian cheese curry you
could ever make.

Speaker 3 (01:12:15):
Thank you so much, Mike, have a great time in Queenstown.
Of course you can get that recipe at good from
scratch dot co dot zed or head to news Talk
zb dot co dot inz a Ford slash Sunday, someone
texts to say, who was the name of that New
Zealand female country singer you interviewed this morning. Beautiful voice
Kaylee Bell. A lot of you really enjoyed hearing from her.
What a lovely less Kaylie is, talented, articulate and awesome

(01:12:39):
and other text reads what a great lady, nice interview.
Thank you someone suggesting I should google heel toe rodeo
line dance to the song. Thousands of people doing it
all around the world, including Huntres and Crat. Do you
know I wouldn't mind giving line dancing a bit of
a goat. I've never ever thought to myself I'd want
to do that, But every time I see it, of course,
and the movies are on the tally, I think that
just looks like a bit of fun. Might be a

(01:13:00):
bit of me.

Speaker 5 (01:13:01):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:13:03):
We all know that gardening's good for the soul, right,
but did you know it's also good for the gut
microbiome yep, it is time to rip off the garden
and gloves, sacrifice the nails, and get those hands in
the soil. More on this next It's eleven to eleven beef.

Speaker 2 (01:13:17):
It's simple. It's Sunday, the Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:13:19):
Session with Francesca Rudgater and Wiggles for the best selection
of great breedings used Talks'd be joining us.

Speaker 3 (01:13:26):
Now to talk wellness eron O'Hara. Good morning, good morning.

Speaker 21 (01:13:29):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:13:29):
I think most gardeners will tell you that there are
a lot of benefits to getting outside in the garden.

Speaker 17 (01:13:35):
Yeah, I think so many people get out in the
garden more for light, just that physical health benefit. But
actually there's so much good research around the effect on microbiome,
and I think over the last few years we've got
more and more and more interested in microbiome and gut
microbiome and probiotics, but I think not a lot of
people think about the things they could do just in

(01:13:57):
their lifestyle that could actually help with microbiome and their
physical health as well.

Speaker 3 (01:14:02):
So it's that contact with the soil that can affect
the diversity of your gut microbiome. But we're not suggesting
you start eating a soil no, no, no, no, You're
not going to be eating the dirt.

Speaker 17 (01:14:12):
Instead, just getting out and touching the dirt has amazing
benefits for your health, and that might be getting out guarding.
And I think most of these most of the time
these days, even gardening people put on gloves, but actually
need to touch the soil. And touching the soil has
an amazing benefit for your health because the gut microbiome,

(01:14:32):
so the microbiomes and the soil touch your skin and
that actually helps change your whole immune system as well.

Speaker 3 (01:14:39):
We absorbing them through the skin.

Speaker 6 (01:14:40):
Yeah, we do.

Speaker 17 (01:14:41):
We get all that bacteria on our skin, and actually
that will help with improving your health. And there's research
that suggests that people who grow up on farms, for instance,
have lower rates of Crone's disease, asthma allergies because of
their exposure to a different array of microbiomes that they're
exposed to from living on a farm. And that's where

(01:15:02):
for all of us, if you live in the city,
just getting out and actually been in nature, it is
amazing for your health with getting more variety of microbiomes
in contact with you.

Speaker 3 (01:15:11):
Have they worked out what these particular soil born microbomes,
what their role is.

Speaker 17 (01:15:18):
Well, they have and they haven't. They know that it
will help with anti inflammatory, lowering stress and immune improving
immune function, and there's actually research it dates back to
nineteen seventies, So this is not something new. I think
it's more just come up into the limelight as gut
microbiomes become more popular, and I think there's more studies underway,

(01:15:38):
even sort of children and daycares when they are exposed
to more what they call forest floor, so instead of
having concrete floor, having grass floor and gardens. Actually the
effect that it has on their health and those kids
are actually healthier. So things that we can do really
embracing getting in the dirt without eating the dirt is

(01:15:58):
things like walking outside bare feet, maybe packing up the soil,
sort of rubbing it through your hands. Maybe go back
to sort of our late states, so things like making
mud cakes, which you might think, oh my goodness, so
do more things like you did as a child. So
actually getting out and touching the soil, maybe gardening, and

(01:16:19):
don't put your gloves on instead, just let it get
in your nails and you can always wash your hands after.
But also just you know, being out in nature. And
maybe forest bathing is another big popular ad.

Speaker 3 (01:16:31):
Forest bathing, forest pape you just strip off and lie
down on the forest.

Speaker 5 (01:16:35):
Oh you don't.

Speaker 17 (01:16:36):
Necessarily need to strip off, but just even laying on
the ground, laying on the ground, breathing, connecting to nature.
But if you're laying on the ground, you're actually connecting
to the dirt as well.

Speaker 3 (01:16:47):
Oh youses, I spent my childhood making mud pies and cakes.
Well they were kind of clay where we lived. Setting
up your immune system so much fun. Thank you so
much eron. That's given us something else to think about that,
you know, how we might spend our Sunday afternoon.

Speaker 14 (01:17:02):
We'll talk next week.

Speaker 1 (01:17:04):
The Sunday Session Full show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by
News Talks.

Speaker 2 (01:17:09):
At b.

Speaker 3 (01:17:11):
I read a fabulous book this week. It is called
nineteen eighty five. It's such a wonderful depiction of a
time and place, and we are of course talking about
nineteen eighty five Grayland Auckland. It's also this really moving, funny,
engaging coming of age story about a twin called Obi,
his dysfunctional family. The people around are, many of them
living life on the margins, doing what they need to

(01:17:32):
do to get by. The book is written by Dominic Huey,
and I'm really excited to have Dominic in the studio
with me next here on Newstalks at Bunny.

Speaker 20 (01:17:41):
Welcome Fool Do It Monohing and your checks for.

Speaker 11 (01:17:46):
Free, A.

Speaker 1 (01:18:09):
Welcome to the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin and Wiggles
for the best selection of great reads.

Speaker 2 (01:18:15):
News Talk.

Speaker 3 (01:18:25):
Good morning, this is a Sunday Session coming up this hour.
Pioney on Auckland, FC's When and What Next. Disney has
announced a new theme pack. Can you guess where where
is all the money these days? And Nick's going to
tell us all about it? And you love tennis? Then
Joan has a.

Speaker 2 (01:18:41):
Book for you, The Sunday Session.

Speaker 3 (01:18:46):
Donnic Hoey is a champion of the underdog. He's the
best selling author of playwright, poet, former rapper and slam
poet Champion. Dominic's new book, nineteen eighty five is a
coming of age story about Obie, a child growing up
surrounded by poverty and a dysfunctional family who goes on
a bit of an adventure to save the family home.
Nineteen eighty five has been touted as a future New
Zealand class can. Dominic described as one of the best

(01:19:08):
natural writers in the country. But this success has been
a long time coming. Diagnosed with dyslexia at thirty, Dominic
largely taught himself to write. He's now giving back through
writing courses, doing incredible work helping those with dyslexia and
other learning disabilities. And Dominic, Howei is in the studio
with me now, Good morning, Curda, so good to have
you here. I hope you don't mind. But much earlier

(01:19:31):
in the show, when I was mentioning you were going
to be here. I compared you to Trent Dalton, and
the reason why is because you do both write about underdogs,
often children living in poverty and dysfunction, but you do
it with such empathy and fondness that as a reader
you get drawn into this story and you know, really

(01:19:53):
feel for these characters.

Speaker 2 (01:19:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 14 (01:19:55):
Yeah, I think it's like because that's still the world
that I'm kind of adjacent to in, you know what
I mean. And I think there is so much sort
of beauty and humor in that world. But I think
if you just watched it use, you know, you sort
of think it's all crime and awfulness, but you know,
in any community there's lots of love.

Speaker 3 (01:20:12):
You know, humor. How important is that too when you're
dealing with often quite sort of dark things.

Speaker 17 (01:20:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 14 (01:20:19):
I think it's the best way because I'm a performer
as well, and I find that if you get up
in front of an audience you make them laugh, they'll
go any with you after that, you know. And I
think it's the same thing, you know, when you're talking
about you know, poverty and crime and violence and all
the things that populate my books. For some reason, Yeah,
I think it's important to make people laugh as well.

Speaker 3 (01:20:35):
I think you're too young to have grown up in
Auckland in the eighties. I did think it did.

Speaker 14 (01:20:40):
I'm a little bit younger than the protagonist.

Speaker 3 (01:20:43):
Right, Okay, so is that why it is set in
Auckland any five, that's that similiarity.

Speaker 5 (01:20:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 14 (01:20:49):
So, like I wanted to see it in central Auckland
because that's just what I knew, you know, great land
and stuff. And I found that there were a lot
of people sort of talking about that time and I
was like, well, not that they're wrong, but I was like,
I want to put my two cents into that. And
also I guess like there was all this historical stuff
going on then. It was just before Roger Nomics that
Rainbow Warrior had just blown up, you know, we'd had
to spring Bok to us, so I sort of wanted

(01:21:10):
to take all that historical stuff and then have a
sort of family drama coming of age going in the
middle of that.

Speaker 3 (01:21:16):
I loved it because of that familiarity. You know, even
if you weren't in Auckland, as you say Rainbow Warrior,
there were all these things happening, and it is great
to be able to get sort of involved in a
novel where things are familiar, isn't it familiar time and place?

Speaker 5 (01:21:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 14 (01:21:31):
I feel like setting is so important to me, like
when I'm reading a book, like I have to really
be taken there.

Speaker 5 (01:21:37):
So yeah, and I just I don't know.

Speaker 14 (01:21:38):
It's something I really worked on because I don't think
it necessarily came naturally to me. And this one I
did a lot of research. You know, I went to
the library, I interviewed a lot of people that were
around at that time because I was quite young in
eighty five. I think I was seven, all right, So
you know, I talked to older people and it's funny
because my memories. I was like, I know what it's like,
and you need to talk to people and they're like, man,
that wasn't like that.

Speaker 3 (01:21:56):
What are you talking about. That's the problem with memory,
isn't it Exactly? It's tricky. We kind of all remember
things how we want to remember.

Speaker 14 (01:22:02):
It totally, you know. And I think even I've found
out with my other novels because I running about specific
times and places, people who often pop up and be like, wow,
that's not you know, that's not my experience, and you
have to remind them that it is. Fiction at the
end of the day.

Speaker 3 (01:22:14):
You know, absolutely, And was it fun to revisit that era,
not not just the not just the locations, but all
the just what we were doing. I mean, it was
it was a time where kids we did wander the
streets because we weren't on screens the whole time. We'd
hire five VHS's from the local video storeline. There was

(01:22:34):
just something I got quite nostalgic reading this for a
sort of a slightly simpler time, even though it wasn't
It was act quite a complex time.

Speaker 14 (01:22:42):
Totally. Yeah, and I think that it was. It was
definitely fun like going back to that and like trying
to remember all those things and again just speaking to
people and being like, what do you remember about that time?
And yeah, I remember hiring the VHS's. That was a
big thing. You know, what was it like ten videos
for five dollars or whatever?

Speaker 3 (01:22:56):
You know, No, it's great. The book has been described
as outrageous Fortune meets the Goonies, But don't I don't
think you'd even seen the Goonies hit you before you
started writning this.

Speaker 14 (01:23:05):
I thought I had, and I think of imagining another film,
and then when someone my partner at the time was like,
this is kind of like a social realist goodies And
I was like, and we watched it. I was like,
I've never seen this. What am I thinking about?

Speaker 3 (01:23:16):
And look, the book focuses on working class, poor parts
of society. Is this also something you know? These themes
come from your background as well?

Speaker 5 (01:23:26):
Yeah?

Speaker 14 (01:23:26):
Yeah, so we grew up. Like the book's not auto
biographical in the sense that it's not about my life
per se, but I grew up in that community, Like
we grew up in that social class. There's a couple
of things in there. And there's one character, the character
Mad Sam is based on a real person who was
called Mad Tom who's past now. So that's the one
real person that's snuck into the book.

Speaker 3 (01:23:45):
How does where we grow up in the community we
surrounded and shape us?

Speaker 5 (01:23:50):
Oh?

Speaker 14 (01:23:51):
I think it has such a huge influence, you know,
Like I always think. I always wonder like because I
feel like I would have been a writer anyway. But
I feel like if I had grown up in like
a middle class in you know, environment and gone to
like a proper school and university and stuff, I would
be writing very different book, do you know what I mean?
So I often wonder about that, you know, because I
think I just always wanted to write for some reason,

(01:24:12):
which was weird because I was dyslexic. So but would
they be you, I don't know that. Yeah, that'd be different.
I don't know. Maybe i'd be running like crime fiction
or something. I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:24:20):
Tell me about your dyslexia. How does that impact your
writing process?

Speaker 14 (01:24:26):
Well, I think, like you said at the top, like
I had to teach myself because I couldn't. I went
to UNI briefly, but you had to write by hands
and an exam. I can't write by hand and I
can't spell without you know, technology, so I couldn't do university,
so I couldn't do a masters or whatever. So then
I had to go away and be like, oh, I'm
gonna have to teach myself, and so that was tricky.
But I think also like I understand like grammar and

(01:24:47):
stuff now, but I did it for the longest time,
so I would just I'm very loose with the way
I use words, but I mean that's ideal for poetry,
not so great for essays.

Speaker 3 (01:24:55):
It's interesting because I don't feel like the book is loose.
I feel like every word is considered.

Speaker 14 (01:25:00):
Oh no, I mean it is, but I mean, I
guess just like some of the way I put words
together is grammatically incorrect. And even with the one of
the editors, they were like, oh, you can't say that
and this, and I'm like, what do you mean? It's
so beautiful.

Speaker 3 (01:25:11):
You mentioned before that maybe writing this sort of the
setting and location didn't come naturally to you, but I
think dialogue does.

Speaker 5 (01:25:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 14 (01:25:18):
Dialogue and character, I think are two things. I don't
know why, but I've always just found that really easy.

Speaker 2 (01:25:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:25:23):
Yeah, How was it for you growing up learning to read?

Speaker 14 (01:25:28):
So I didn't learn to read too. I was like
about eight, and then my family moved for a year
to a little village could Warrington outside Dnedin and and
by the time I came back to Auckland a year later,
I was like reading it the eighty or thirteen year
old at nine, amazing or ten or whatever it was happened.

Speaker 5 (01:25:43):
I don't know.

Speaker 14 (01:25:44):
I guess the schools were better down there.

Speaker 3 (01:25:47):
There's a teacher there of it needs to thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:25:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:25:49):
Isn't that interesting though, because when you write, do you
often think about trying to write for people that maybe
aren't great readers.

Speaker 14 (01:25:55):
One hundred percent. Yeah, definitely. I mean like I have
short chapters, short paragraphs, you know, have like title headings
at the start of chapters. And I can't count the
many people that have come up to me in the
street or emailed me and being like, I haven't read
a book or I have read a book in ten
years and you got me back into it or got
me into it, which is just so humbling, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:26:13):
So that's quite a conscious effit when you're writing.

Speaker 14 (01:26:15):
Definitely, yeah, because I think like so much of them.
So many of the people in my life are new,
a divergent and stuff. So if I didn't write for them,
you know, who am I running for?

Speaker 3 (01:26:23):
How did that make you feel? When people come up
and tell you.

Speaker 14 (01:26:26):
That I was maybe cry before? To be honest, I
said a bar a while ago, and this guy comes
up to me and he's like, oh, you're Dominique, and
he's like, my son had never read a book, and
he read your book and gave it to his friends
and now they all read books and they want to
you know, some of them want to be writers and
us just like I actually started crying. I was just
like because I think when I was growing up, like,
I didn't really have that moment so much, so to

(01:26:46):
be able to be there for someone else is pretty incredible,
you know.

Speaker 3 (01:26:49):
I do know how that feels. And it unless you
are I am a parent of and you're a divergent child,
and unless you have watched them, you know, struggling things
and then you see that moment of breakthrough, it is
momentous in that moment to break through totally. It's extraordinary. Yeah,
It's just something that a lot of other parents take
for granted totally.

Speaker 14 (01:27:08):
And I think, you know, even for me being able
to remember the moment I learned to read because I
was so old, you know, I think it's quite special.
And I guess that's what makes reading and writing quite
a special thing to me.

Speaker 3 (01:27:18):
So tell me a little bit about our learn to
write Good. I have to read that learn to write Good. Yeah,
So that's my writing program I started about ten years ago.
So when I was learning to write, I always was like,
I just want to go somewhere which is really relaxed
and it's open to you know, everyone, where you just
learn craft. And it just wasn't really anywhere like that.

(01:27:40):
And so I had in the back of my mind
as like if I ever get good at this, I
want to be that person. And so yeah, I run
courses primarily online and it's just like a crash course
and like how to write poetry, how to write prose. Yeah,
and a lot of my students are going to do
really amazing stuff. And I think, you know, it's less
like giving them that confidence as well, just being like,
you know, like I'm dyslexic and have no education and

(01:28:02):
I'm doing this.

Speaker 14 (01:28:03):
You can do it too, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:28:04):
It's so important that confidence. So is it for dyslexic
people or anyone with a learning disability.

Speaker 14 (01:28:09):
Just anyone in general, like you know, so like often
because there's no sharing in it, so often we'll have
people that are like professional authors, you know, and someone
that's never written before, but no one knows who's who
you know as well, So it's like, yeah, it's a
really cool environment.

Speaker 3 (01:28:23):
Do we need to change the approach to teaching dyslexic children?
Do you think have we have we correcked at you?

Speaker 14 (01:28:29):
I don't really know what's going on in school, so
but I imagine it's probably not great, you know, from
like the kids that I work with don't really seem
that supported. And I think even just getting the test,
there's like thousands of dollars, you know, and it's like
who's got that? So yeah, I think that just understanding
as well, that if you support these kids early on,
they're potentially going to do really incredible things, you know.

(01:28:49):
And I think the sooner that you can get them
past that sort of shame around being neurodivergent, the faster
they're going to get to doing those amazing things.

Speaker 3 (01:28:57):
No, I completely agree with you. How important do you
think is it to have to hear different voices in
the literal literary world, you know, such as your neurodivergent ones.

Speaker 14 (01:29:07):
And I think it's so important, you know, I think
that you know, obviously, the Masters of Credit writing programs
are important and lots of great people come out of them,
but those only work for certain people, right, And if
all our writers are coming through the same programs, I mean,
taught by the same people, they're going to write the
same books. And I think it's that's another reason why
you know, I started doing to write good and I
have my own publishing house could did good books that

(01:29:29):
do in my mate Sam, and that's why we started
those things to bring up those voices.

Speaker 3 (01:29:32):
You know, you've got an event at the Auckland Writers' Festival.
Does that I do in a moment. I've got two.
I got yeah, two, You've got writing Auckland.

Speaker 14 (01:29:41):
Yeah, there's at one o'clock, and then there's one at
five point thirty, which is called Somebody Saved My Life,
I think, which is a bunch of writers and we're
just telling little stories about times people saved our lives.

Speaker 3 (01:29:51):
Fantastic. It's such a fantastic event. There's writing about such
a specific place like Auckland and things, and especially at
that particular time you chose, it has changed so much
and as I've already mentioned, it made me feel a
bit nostalgic. Gentrification can be a good.

Speaker 14 (01:30:06):
Thing, not in my experience. You know, I think that
obviously progress and like investing in neighborhoods, but there's no
reason why. I mean, you know, like these poor neighborhoods
are full of smart, you know people, entrepreneurial people, like
why not give them the money? Why not like build
up these places of infrastructure, because you know, it's not
only bad for the people that originally live there, it's

(01:30:26):
like the rich people that move in, like they end
up in a soulless place, you know, and it's so
it's sort of like everyone loses, and I think all
you got to do is walk for Grell and pont
to me now to kind of experience that.

Speaker 11 (01:30:37):
No.

Speaker 3 (01:30:37):
Oh, look, Domic's so lovely to have you with us,
and thank you so much for the book. I thoroughly
enjoyed it.

Speaker 14 (01:30:42):
I told you that so much.

Speaker 3 (01:30:43):
I picked it up on Tuesday and then I didn't
put it down to I've finished it so really enjoying it.

Speaker 14 (01:30:48):
Thank you so much. Thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:30:50):
Dominic's latest book, nineteen eighty five, is out now and
as he mentioned, you can also catch in this afternoon
at the Auckland Writers' Festival. I do have a copy
of the book to give away. You're going to need
to text an answer to this question your full name
and your address please to ninety two ninety two. What
is the name of the twin who was the main
character in the book. And I did mention it a

(01:31:12):
couple of times at the beginning of the interview, but
maybe just have a It's sort of if you've struggling
a little bit, just think Star Wars and hopefully that
will Rejeg your memory there, so flip me that name,
your full name and address to ninety two ninety two.
The panel is up. Next, It's nineteen past eleven. You're
with News Talks ab Relax.

Speaker 2 (01:31:32):
It's still the weekend.

Speaker 1 (01:31:33):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudgen and Whig Girls
for the best selection of greg reads used talk zb
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Speaker 2 (01:32:35):
The Sunday Session.

Speaker 3 (01:32:54):
Crikey, curious is there anything else? Is there more to this?
This is Wasted Love by JJ. This is the Austrian
song and yet to Eurovision which has won, which maybe
a little unfairly sounds like a bit of a wailing
missed But NaN's head to our panel and get their

(01:33:19):
opinion on this. So we are joined by managing director
of eight one eight Chris Henry. Good morning Chris, and
Director at Capital Ben Thomas. Good morning Ben.

Speaker 5 (01:33:31):
Yeah, it's kind of like a lament, right, It was
so much the moment.

Speaker 3 (01:33:37):
That is polier. That is a much more polite way
of trying to describe that song, Chris, your thoughts on
the Eurovision twenty twenty five.

Speaker 23 (01:33:47):
To be fair, Francisca, I think you're giving it a
bad run because from what I understand, it starts off
with these sort of cinematic high notes, but it actually
ends some club banging beats. We need to skip a
head to sort of three minutes, okay, and feel how
it comes out, and then maybe we can make a
judge from there. Because I'm right into a Eurovision song.
It's a it's a particular part of society, and people
love it and people get into it, and I say,

(01:34:10):
all for it.

Speaker 5 (01:34:10):
Go jaj.

Speaker 3 (01:34:12):
Carrie's going to try and find the end so that
we can have a fear make some fearer comments on that,
and good on you, Chris. You're right we shouldn't just
listen to five seconds of a song and make a
judgment of it.

Speaker 2 (01:34:22):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:34:22):
I do struggle to get your vision like I get
it as a musical extravaganza. I love the fact that
it's over the top and it's theatrical and things like that.
But if you called it a pop competition, I sort
of struggle to take it seriously. Chris, would that be fair?

Speaker 2 (01:34:39):
Well?

Speaker 23 (01:34:40):
Possibly, it's definitely an entertainment competition. But you've also got
to remember that the Eurovision has actually produced some of
the biggest stars in the world. That's where Ebba was
first discovered. I think they won it in nineteen seventy
and Theelean Dionne when she first came into Eurovision, and
then look at her now, and in fact she was
almost supposed to be performing in this but obviously her

(01:35:01):
stiff person syndrome has got.

Speaker 11 (01:35:02):
The better of her and she only appeared via video length,
not in person.

Speaker 3 (01:35:05):
As a speculat well, Ben, I should never have taken
on Eurovision of thought nine Chris was such an advance.
Hang on, this is for you, Chris.

Speaker 9 (01:35:13):
Here we go.

Speaker 3 (01:35:14):
We've got a bit of ending.

Speaker 2 (01:35:15):
At mets planning on.

Speaker 4 (01:35:20):
Here we go.

Speaker 3 (01:35:20):
Okay, I'm going to kill it. There's actually only thirty
seconds left of that, Ben, mm hmm, Okay.

Speaker 5 (01:35:34):
What what I would say is that since the first
end of the First World War, whether it's of nations,
with the European community, whether it's NATO, Europe has been
trying to find a way to kind of keep peace
on the continent and and manage these traditional sort of
nationalistic rivalries in such a way as without plunging the

(01:35:58):
continent into war. Some of them have been more successful
than others. And Eurovision, you know, sort of it enables
this kind of healthy nationalistic competition, you know, with you know,
some collateral damage as we've seen from over the last
few minutes of audio clips, but without open hot conflict,

(01:36:20):
so you know, look, you have to see it in
the context from which it emerged.

Speaker 3 (01:36:24):
I love it so Austria number one, Israel was second,
Estonia third, Sweet and fourth with their song about the sauna,
and Italy fifth.

Speaker 2 (01:36:33):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:36:33):
Okay's move on political behavior. We spoke to our political
journalist Thomas Coglan earlier in the show and I did
quite like the way he described the week as an
excessive amount of pig headedness when it comes to what
came out of the House this week. Ben fair to
say we've not seen a high amount of quality work

(01:36:56):
come out of the House this week. Do we deserve
a bit better than this?

Speaker 5 (01:37:01):
Yes, I think that there's been a kind of tender
for politicians to just this is just in general over
the last set of ten fifteen years or so, to
talk about you know, their journey and you know their
vision for New Zealand and their feelings. And I think

(01:37:21):
we're reaching about the natural end point of that where
Parliament is. You know, we're seeing you know that Parliament
has the two and a half sort of sword rule
in terms of keeping people apart so that it can
be a safe space where everyone just talks about how
they're the most demonized and persecuted for MP in parliament.

(01:37:41):
You know, we're going to have to get rid of
the order paper and substitute what the American liberals called
a progressive stack, where the speaking or is determined by
your your lack of privilege, and your persecution. So Mikola
Willison Brook van Velden can talk about the misogynistic attacks
on them by Andrea Advance and the Malori Party can

(01:38:02):
talk about, you know, being punished for being a Maldi
and some other stuff that we won't get into, you know,
like reaching parliamentary order. And it all is just an
extremely self centered salt system wind fest by all of them,
and they're not talking about policy or the work that
they should actually be doing.

Speaker 3 (01:38:21):
Would we expect more, ben, because these are some pretty
experienced politicians.

Speaker 5 (01:38:27):
Yeah, look, absolutely their experienced. But look, I mean, I
mean that might be a part of it is that
you know, they know that politically, you know, because politics
is turning into more of a team gay team sport.
You know, it's more of a sort of fandom these
days where people just kind of pick sides and the
party MOBBI for instance, know that their Instagram followers just

(01:38:50):
want to see that they're being persecuted by the establishment.
I think the National Pandact parties were pretty relieved when
andre Vart's column was brought up in Parliament so that
they could start talking about you know, mean spirited language,
whether we're a particular word was feminist or not in
its use, rather than the actual policies under discussion. So

(01:39:13):
I think the incentives are getting pretty bad. Yeah. I
think as a public and as textplayers, we should be
able to expect more from them than just a monomaniacal
focus on their own feelings.

Speaker 3 (01:39:26):
So Chris, you know this is probably you know, it's
just politics, isn't it. It's about distraction, It's about getting
a headline. As been mentioned there. You know, you see
some parties using that you know, question time in the
House to provide some content for social media. As a purposis,
would you go, would you say, well, actually, you're doing
a good job. This is what we expect.

Speaker 5 (01:39:46):
I don't know.

Speaker 23 (01:39:47):
I mean I think that the behavior just it turns
into white noise and then nobody is aware of what
the actual issues are. I mean, That's definitely how it
feels from my perspective. Someone made a great point to
me at the back end last week. They said, it
sort of feels like that last week of high school,
just before you're about to leave high school and go
after university and everything, so it's just goes out the wind.
And I was like, it's true, but it is only May,

(01:40:09):
like we're only we're only just really into the year.
It seems wild and I think Ben's points are totally valid.
It seems very self serving and maybe it's time to
get back to the things that actually matter.

Speaker 3 (01:40:21):
Who's to blame for this?

Speaker 6 (01:40:23):
Ben?

Speaker 3 (01:40:23):
I mean, if we're talking about behavior in the house,
is a speaker not doing their job?

Speaker 5 (01:40:29):
I think if we talk about behavior in the house,
and this is what Winston Peters himself, an unimpeachable upholder
of standards in the house, was complaining about. Yeah, look,
I think there has been a degradation for some time.
I think Peters has point when he brings up the
sort of slipping standards, even when it comes to things
like dress, because I think again it makes the focus about,

(01:40:52):
you know, the feelings of particular MPs at Parliament is
a venue for self expression as opposed to representing voters
or debating ideas. You know, I mean, for me, the
personal low low point came during Mallards as Triva Mallard's
time of speaker. You know, he said that you could

(01:41:12):
wear a poramo instead of a tie, and that's totally valid,
totally legitimate, so a formal expression, and I think then
he gave in on it. You know, Jordan's were allowed
in the house instead of dress shoes. That was the
party while he were arguing, because that was part of
already waited his culture growing up in South Ork apparently,
So I think everybody just needs to stop treating it

(01:41:38):
as you know, and I think the high school comparison
is probably pretty act. You know, his high school a
place to go to learn or is high school a
place to go to express yourself and to do a
fit check and to show everyone that you're wearing Now
in reality, you know that think and part comes into it,
but the primary verse and the primary personal parliament is

(01:41:58):
you know, to talk about these ideas on legislation.

Speaker 3 (01:42:01):
Right, talking about reality, Chris, the Department of Homeland Security
in the UIs is considering a reality show where immigrants
compete for US citizenship and I look, we toss. We
really thought this was a joke when we heard about it.
But no, it's a show where they would get a
group of people together. It would be called The American

(01:42:23):
It would start with pre vetting contestants arriving at Alice Island.
Then the immigrant contestants would then ride a train across
the US and compete in an array of challenges, including
log rolling in Wisconsin. You know, to take such a
serious issue at the moment and to turn it into
entertainment feels really crass. But weirdly, when I read this,

(01:42:45):
I'm so not surprised by what reality TV will thrit
me these days. I just kind of went, oh, yeah,
it could be quite entertaining.

Speaker 23 (01:42:54):
I mean, to me, it looks like a show that
Trump must be disappointed that he didn't come up with
himself or be.

Speaker 11 (01:42:59):
Asked to host.

Speaker 23 (01:43:00):
Like it feels like a perfect extension of his character.
I mean, there is a reality TV show for everything,
it seems. I mean, this definitely seems crass and after
such an important issue. And I know that that the
people in living in America, especially those that are that
are immigrants of that country, whether they legal or not
would be feeling sort of awful about the fact that

(01:43:21):
they had come together, and I can't imagine the rest
of the American people. It's going to go very down
with the mean unless the contests of the show have
sort of no trace of diversity, and then it becomes
a bit of fun and games.

Speaker 3 (01:43:31):
Then someone described it as kind of the Hunker games
or squid games. But no one is going to get
shot or you know, an arrow through the head, and
no one apparently is going to be no one's going
to be deported at the end of it. So these
people could potentially turn into stars and then people would
want them to stay. I mean, you never know, could
could be a good thing.

Speaker 5 (01:43:54):
I guess the question comes down to and again it's like,
you know, what is the government for and why does
the government have powers over the citizenship, over immigration? You know,
there are policy reasons behind it, and the policy generally
will not be that we want to, you know, have
more resources to create the television and the you know,

(01:44:21):
I just I just sort of feel that, you know,
there's this sort of commingling and you know, you know
suddenly between you know, Trump is legitimately the first reality
TV president and and entertainment, which I think, you know,
shows up in sort of very sinister ways, you know,
like when they have pictures of sort of extraditions to

(01:44:44):
ol Salvadorian jails and video on Twitter with the cleaning
of chains and call it deportation the as MR and here,
you know, the sort of maybe maybe it is a
bit harmless, but I think there is something about degrading
to the human spirit, sort of saying you know, I
mean we obviously, you know, all countries do make people

(01:45:05):
jump through hoops in order to you know, in order
to get citizenship. But it's not you know, in the
middle of an arena. Oh no, it's not for entertainment.
So it is just a sort of I think partially,
you know, we're losing sight of what is government actually for.

Speaker 3 (01:45:22):
It's not long rolling in Wisconsin. No, Yeah, now, I
completely agree with you. I think the reason I'm so decent,
stive and no longer shocked is that I've just I
just might have clicked on the Secret Lives of Mormon
Wives yesterday, which the second season has just come out
on Disney, and let me tell you, yeah, I just

(01:45:42):
oh my goodness, you just have to watch it.

Speaker 14 (01:45:45):
I have no words.

Speaker 3 (01:45:46):
I have no words, but I just keep coming back
for more and it's pretty bad anyway. Moving on, Thank
you very much to Ben Thomas and Chris Henry. It
is twenty two to twelve.

Speaker 1 (01:46:01):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudgin on NEWSTALKSB.

Speaker 3 (01:46:08):
Congratulations to Fiona Bauer, who is the winner of Dominic's
book Dominic Hoey's book in nineteen eighty five. Thank you
so much for all your text. Lookuy's being a bit
cheeky about Eurovision. JJ, the Austrian winner of the Eurovision
Song twenty twenty five, is actually a classically trained singer.

(01:46:30):
Operatic voices don't usually feature at Eurovision. JJ was a
bit of an exception. Johann Pettish is his real name.
He's a counter tenor, meaning that his vocal range most
closely matches a female mezzo soprano, and he is in
the choe at the Opera School of the Vienna State
Opera se Clearly a very talented musician. So there we go, right,

(01:46:51):
Piney's going to be with you at mid day. He's
going to be talking about Wina Pacifica beating the Blues
twenty seven to twenty one. How good was Ardie Savie.
We're talking about it earlier, actually saying maybe Addie Severe
is really just you know, I mean he single handedly
kind of managed to get that team over the line.
Is he the next All Blacks captain the Warriors? Of

(01:47:12):
course bet the Dolphins sixteen twelve Jason will be talking
about that, and of course he'll also be talking about
the Auckland FC when they've won their first semifinal. He
reckons next week the semifinal. His prediction is that Auckland
Football Club will win to nil, and of course that
is taking place here in Auckland. It is eighteen to

(01:47:35):
twelve News TALKSB.

Speaker 1 (01:47:36):
The Sunday Session full show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by
News TALKSB.

Speaker 2 (01:47:43):
Travel with Wendy wo tours Where the World is Yours book.

Speaker 3 (01:47:47):
Now, and Disney has announced a new theme park and
to tell us all about it, we're joined by blogger
at large dot com Meghan singletonk of Morning, Good morning.

Speaker 21 (01:47:56):
This is exciting.

Speaker 18 (01:47:57):
It's actually the first theme park they've opened since twenty sixteen,
which was in Shanghai, but this time they've partnered with
a local entertainment park developer base in Abu Dhabi and
they don't have to buy the land. So Disney are
going to be licensing their characters to this new park.
I mean, their imagineers will work on the designs that

(01:48:19):
are going to blend Disney stories with Abu Dhabi culture.
So it's going to be an indoor park because we
know that temperatures get to fifty degrees in the summer
over there. But that allows for so much more scope
when it comes to things like facades that don't have
to be weather approved, think lighting, lasers, projected art, secret

(01:48:42):
doors that are going to lead to rides, and it's
going to be very futuristic and things. So it is
on the edge of the ocean at Yes Island. So
Yes Island already has Warner Brothers, the Formula one racing track,
Ferrari World, and so there might be roller coasters that
sort of zip in and out like at Ferrari Word,
which I have been on their mental roller coaster that

(01:49:04):
scoots you out so fast you're going to lose your hair.
And it's slated to open in about twenty thirty, between
twenty thirty and twenty thirty three, so there you go.
You know, Disney Company, I just googled this quickly while
you were in the ad Brak made ninety one billion
US dollars in the last fiscal year. So they're not

(01:49:25):
short of a bob to open a new park, are they.

Speaker 3 (01:49:27):
No, it sounds like they've already got There's already quite
a lot that happens in this area, though, will be
will this could have increased you think tourism through the region.

Speaker 18 (01:49:35):
Well, that's the idea. So there's two point five million
people that live in aber Dhabi and twenty three million
visitors that come every year. There is a lot of scope.
They just build another island, but so there are other
islands there. The Guggenheim is slated to be built there.
That seems to be stalled at the moment. The Loover
as well on the other islands, and they're all sort
of linked by causeways.

Speaker 21 (01:49:55):
But they just build it. You know, they've got the sea.

Speaker 18 (01:49:58):
They just pop another island in and put another thing,
bark on it, another hotel, and.

Speaker 2 (01:50:01):
Away we go.

Speaker 3 (01:50:03):
Oh fascinating stuff. Thank you, so actually place a visit.
Thank you so much, Megan. The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo
is celebrating at seventy fifth anniversary and its show The
Heroes Who Made Us is coming exclusively in for the
first time ever to Auckland in twenty twenty six on
the nineteenth and twenty first of February at Eden Park.

(01:50:23):
Tickets are on sale from mid day next Friday, the
twenty third of May, and we're going to have all
the details of what's of it on our What's on
page at Newstalk zb dot co dot nz, so feel
free to head there if you want some more information
on You don't have to go anywhere to see the
Edinburgh military tattoo. They're coming to us. It is thirteen
to twelve.

Speaker 2 (01:50:45):
Books with Winkles for the Best Election of Great Reads.

Speaker 3 (01:50:50):
John mackenzie, good morning, Hello. Now tell me about The
Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vong. I hear Oprah call
that hauntingly beautiful.

Speaker 24 (01:50:59):
Yeah, she's not wrong. And I'll start by saying that
this guy has great titles for his books. I think
The Emperor of Gladness is really good. His previous book
was called Here on Earth, We're Briefly Gorgeous.

Speaker 3 (01:51:10):
Isn't that long? They are good titles.

Speaker 24 (01:51:13):
This is about a young man called High Hai who
lives in the town of East Gladness in Connecticut, and
we meet him when he's got one leg over a
bridge and he's about to jump when an elderly woman
sees him and talks him down and they strike up
a really unusual friendship. She's eighty two with dementia and
he's a young man in despair with nowhere to live.

(01:51:34):
But he moves into her house and they become each
other's best support people. He's Vietnamese. His parents brought him
to the States after the war, but he's really struggling
to find his place in the world. And his mother,
of course, she's brought him the next generation to America
looking for a better life, and she's desperate for him
to take the opportunities her generation didn't have and get

(01:51:55):
himself to medical school and be a doctor. And he
can't bear to tell her that he didn't get in,
so he brings home the brochure for a degree at
a university in Boston, which he says he's got into.
And on the day he's due to leave, it's heartbreaking.
He won't let her walk him to the bus stop,
but she prepares this package of beautiful food, special food
for him to take for the journey and actually he

(01:52:17):
doesn't know where he's going. She sends him off with
such pride and love, and after wandering the streets, he
checks himself into rehab and he wrings her occasionally from
rehab and says, I'm here on the campus and everything's
great being a medical student. Like I say, it's just heartbreaking.
And it's after he gets up from rehab that he
goes to the bridge. He gets a job at a

(01:52:38):
local restaurant through his cousin who works there, and together
these people, they have difficult lives and there's no Eureka
moment in this book. It's all about being vulnerable in
a world which doesn't care. And it is, however, quite
uplifting to read because it's written with such empathy. And
before we came on are You and I were comparing

(01:52:59):
this to Trent Dalton because Trent Dalton also writes so
well for the Underdog.

Speaker 3 (01:53:04):
Absolutely The Warrior by Christopher Clary.

Speaker 24 (01:53:08):
Yeah, he wrote a book called The Master about Roger Federer,
and he's got about thirty years of tennis journalism with
extraordinary access to top players. I've read both these books
and I loved them both. But of course I do
love a bit of tennis, and I am really proud
to say that I saw Raffa Nadal play in Auckland
when he was seventeen years old.

Speaker 3 (01:53:27):
I thought you were going to tell me that you
were very proud that when you were seventeen you won sometimes. No, no, no,
I was there.

Speaker 24 (01:53:33):
I saw him at the age seventeen, and I've never forgotten.
He is the only man to rank number one in
three different decades. He's the only man to spend nearly
eighteen consecutive years in the top ten. It's just extraordinary.
He first held a racket when he was three years old,
and people who know tennis know that his uncle Tony

(01:53:53):
saw the potential, which is folklore by now and by
most standards, Tony was considered completely ruthless. A large part
of what he did was to make Raphael run towards
the challenges and teach himself how to get through the
difficult times. And he was so talented. He could have
had a career in soccer, well football, but he didn't.
He chose tennis. And this is a portrait of a

(01:54:15):
relentlessly focused, disciplined man. He has a degenerative congenital issue
in his left foot, for which he's had to take
constant painkillers through the course of his career.

Speaker 3 (01:54:26):
You just wouldn't know. No, it was going to say,
as somebody who follow it likes tennis, do you learn
quite about reading this book?

Speaker 9 (01:54:32):
Oh?

Speaker 18 (01:54:32):
You do?

Speaker 6 (01:54:33):
You really do.

Speaker 5 (01:54:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 24 (01:54:34):
He's known as the King of clay, and not only
do you learn about him, you learn fascinating stuff like
how a clay court is constructed. I could give you
a little lesson on that. I'm sure you're fascinating another time.
But there's really interesting stuff on it, and it is
clear that he is a really decent, lovely man who
speaks to journalists when he comes off the course exhausted

(01:54:55):
after a five hour match. He's really kind to the
player support people at tournaments. They all speak so highly
of them. I will say that it's reasonably tennis heavy
here about the various matches, so you will get more
out of it if you enjoy and follow tennis. But
if you do, then this is the book for you.

Speaker 3 (01:55:14):
Thank you so much, Joan. The first book was The
Emperor of Gladness by Oceanvong, and the second one was
The Warrior by Christopher Clary. We'll took next week.

Speaker 1 (01:55:22):
See you then the Sunday Session Full show podcast on
iHeartRadio powered by News TALKSB.

Speaker 3 (01:55:31):
Thank you very much for joining us this morning on
the Sunday Session. Thank you to Kerrie for producing the show.
Jason Pine is up next with Weekend Sport. He's got
a jam. Oh look he's pumping the air. I don't
think that's about aukwand FC. I think that's because he's
got an amazing show lined up for you. And here
is rip rolling and ready to go.

Speaker 6 (01:55:49):
Hey.

Speaker 3 (01:55:49):
Next week on the show, I've got a wonderful guest.
Rayna Wynn. She wrote a book called The Saltpath and
it's been turned into a movie. It's a true story.
She's written about how her and her husband Moth, they
lost their home in their middle age and their kids
sort of were off and at university and working and
they literally had no money and they had nowhere to go.
They were homeless, and so they decided to start walking,

(01:56:09):
and he had also been disdiagnosed with a terminal illness,
and off they went. They walked six hundred and thirty
miles in the southwest of England around the coastline, and
it's extraordinary story. So I'm really excited that she's going
to be with me next week and we're going to
keep the live music coming in New Zealand Music Month.
Georgia Lines is going to be with us to perform
in the studio. They're going to finish with her song Wayside.

(01:56:32):
Have a good day. See you next Sunday, Way so sad,

(01:57:07):
don't fall.

Speaker 2 (01:57:07):
By the way side Full Bay the Way.

Speaker 1 (01:57:14):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.