Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - Ben’s Email Mix-Up Had Him Questioning Reality | FULL SHOW

Episode Date: July 26, 2026

On today’s show: (00:00) The show gets roasted in a listener's review... (01:30) Ben gets completely confused by an email and spends a day thinking a Six60 manager sent a very strange brag (03:45) Megan’s three-day birthday extravaganza continues... and there’s still more celebrating to come (07:00) Jono’s new role as Auckland’s potential Town Crier gains unexpected support from Mayor Wayne Brown (15:30) Forgotten jobs, featuring a human bowling pin-setter and the chaos behind the lanes (18:40) The Great NZ Pie Awards update takes a sleepy turn when baker Jason answers the phone half asleep (21:10) Megan’s birthday burns from the kids: “That’s too many claps” and “You look like a poo” (23:10) Ben discovers his mother-in-law sleeps with Newstalk ZB blasting all night long (31:00) Jono’s disastrous first impression on the new staff member after all his quirks get listed in one go! (32:50) Christopher Nolan has never had an email address and refuses to use a smartphone, sparking a debate on technology people avoid... Join the Itty Bitty Hitty Committee HERE!Instagram:  @THEHITSBREAKFASTFacebook: The Hits Breakfast with Jono, Ben & MeganSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Jono Ben and Megan podcast, thanks to Dilma. Goodness really does taste great. Dilma, making the world a better team. Well, I know, sorry to end the show on a bit of a bummer note, guys. We've had some feedback about the broadcast. Producer Troy, actually. He has to deal with the correspondence in relation to the show. You've received a piece of email.

Yeah, a critic. A critic, yeah. And it was very simple. It just said, guys, the show was better when it finished at 9. Oh, we can tell our bosses that too. Yeah, maybe I'll finish it night. To the listener, to the feedback and for us, yeah, we all agree. No, it's not fun.

I enjoy going to 10 o'clock. It's fun. It's more we hang out with more of you in the day, yeah. Oh, God, you're such a suck up. Oh, no, that's good. Suck it up to the listener. To be honest, I could lose the six to seven hour if I was going to lose any out. That would be the hour that I would, you know.

We talk less from 9 to 10. So maybe they want, they want us to talk more. Oh, maybe that's right. missing more of us. See, that's a producer who's used to dealing with fragile egos. Listen to him. He's a pro. He's worked with many radio hosts.

He knows how to deliver bad feedback. But yeah, this is probably why they're like the show. I feel like that was going to be something poetic and beautiful. It's what? I just ran out of stuff to say. Maybe you should finish at 9. John O'Ben and Megan.

The podcast. The hits. I had an email over the weekend. that it kind of threw me and I was thinking about it quite a lot and tell you who doesn't get emails Christopher Nolan he'll never be thrown by an email

yeah now just to give you context as soon as I give you context you'll probably work out what I was doing but John is the manager of 660 the band he's the American guy and you know we've met him over the years many times and a couple of times I have emailed him about various things a little bits of filming

and actually help me get some tickets in the United States when I was over there once so he lives over in America so it's not unusual for me to get an email from John from 666 not all the time, but John. And then we've got John who is, he's the New Zealand correspondent for this radio show. Oh, Kiwi John.

Kiwi Guy lives in America. Oh, yeah, John lives in Portland. Yeah, that's right. So I got an email over the weekend that said, John 660. And in my head, I was like, oh, this is John from 660, the manager. That would make sense. Yeah, and I was like, oh, John 660. And I was just like, it just said, hey, Ben, guess what?

660 are performing in America at Baltimore. It's sold out and I'll be there. John. So you're like, well, as your job as a manager. And I was like, well, there's a real humble. There's a brag from John. Yeah, the manager is six. I was like, that was a really unusual thing for him to really send me.

That it was guess what? When was the last time you heard from John? Well, it's been probably a few months. A few months. It's his first, it's returned to your inbox. It's like, guess what? They're sold out and I'm going to be there. And I thought all day.

And I was like, that was really, really unusual. You've gotten in for tickets, mate. Like, yeah. It was like, yeah. Until I thought about later that day and I was like, uh-oh, I see what I've done here. I think it's from John, the US correspondent. Did you reply to John 6, 6th? No, I had it in that stage, thankfully.

You're still downloading the email. It's like, a really weird brag that he's going along to see the band that he manages and they're sold out. Yeah. And then I went back and looked at later. I was like, I was from John who listened to this radio show and there. He's going along. Well, we must get it. We'll get a review.

from Kiwi John. Yeah. Why don't we connect John with John? We should. It's a 60 show. I don't think they're doing it until September or something I looked into it last night. But yeah. We can get them both to do a review.

And send me emails as well and I'll try and work out which John. John O'Bin and Megan. The podcast. We went to the weekend with Megan having a three-day birthday extravaganza. It was your birthday on Saturday. I don't know why you always laugh. It was a three-day extravaganza. It was a three-day.

Yeah, I'm not lying. No, but it's not funny. Friday night, did Andrew your husband live up to his reputation of New Zealand's most glorious husband? Did he deliver? Yeah, well, yeah. We went out for a really nice dinner. Had couples messages. Oh, yeah, that too.

Yeah, God, that feels like a lifetime ago. And then that was Friday. That was you and Andrew. Saturday was you in a friend group out for dinner. And then Sunday was family time at an arcade place, right? Well, we ended up just having it at our house and we played games and stuff. It was like raining and horrible. It was, yeah.

Tell you what, Jesus, Jesus is looking at your birthday and going, damn, she's doing it right. I've got Christmas Day, but, man, that's a bonanza. Any more next weekend? No. That's it? But there is the following weekend. Oh, wow. Just because we couldn't make it this weekend.

Okay. What's this? It's a little steak-e. Oh, more, more celebrations. Okay. So I looked at your weekend, I was like, well, that's great. Can you hear it? Yeah.

It's just, we're very different. You hate your birthday and you don't like to acknowledge it. I am like, well, I've made it. Milk it. Bloody celebrate. Good on you for doing that. Over instalments. I am torn because I do love doing stuff in the weekend.

Like I love it. Why don't you want everyone to celebrate? I just rather not celebrate, but I'd love to go out and go arcades and birth and dinners. Yeah, probably. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah. Who cares? It's happening anyway.

There's nothing you can do about it. It happens to us all. He was just looking, Sydney, Sweeney. professional Thespian has here in the country with her partner Scooter Braun

who was Justin Bieber's manager for many years and you were just looking at their activities list over the weekend and Queensland it's almost like they went to Queensland

and said we'll do one of everything everything so they were bungee jumping they were helicopter riding they were jetboating you name it they did over the weekend

they saw it called a show like Jason Mamawa's show like they were everywhere they were up on the snow hitting golf balls doing archery claybird shooting

everything it was fighting when they do it but when I do it it's funny no it's fun I'd love to do all your activities I just don't need the birthday tag across it all they went on that crazy swing oh my their bungee swing yeah it looks terrifying then they performed a bit of piano man up in some little shadow on top of the mountain sing us the song sing us the song tonight beaver would have added some nice harmonies to that yeah he was there that was there that was Anyway, so they had a action-pack weekend, Megan Action Pack weekend.

Geez, what did you get up to me? Well, not quite as action-packed as that, too. I watched The Warriors and that wasn't as fun as that has been there. What happened there? I don't know. Just didn't. It's a lot. It's Marcelo Montoya, Taylor, who used to work on this show.

Her husband was with the Bulldogs, and he's had to retire, his body's not up to it now. But they gave him a good little send-off. Yeah, that was nice. She was on the field chasing around her babies. Do you see that? No. Yeah, at the beginning of the game. She was busy.

She had no time for it. that. The Warriors are quite distracted, I think, because Megan's birthday celebrations going on. They're like, damn it, we really want to be there. But, you know, that's right. John O'Brien, stealing my thunder.

John O'Ben and Megan, the podcast. The hits. You guys have come up with a genius job title for myself, the town prior. John O'Reyer, my surname, and you thought, well, why don't we get you out on the streets being the town

crier? Yeah, to go out and do that old-fashioned, you know, thing where they had someone on the streets and all the regalia, swinging a bow and making announcements. We spoke to us Joseph. Where is Joseph? Is he Perth? Canberra, I think.

Canberra. Camberra. He's the town crier for Canberra. We're getting him to say welcome to New Zealand. He doesn't go around Canberra. He's very confusing. What? I thought we're in.

Anyway, so we're going to get to talk to him for tomorrow. I get some advice for you because we're going to send you to the streets and make some announcements for people if you want some announcements made in your life. 4487 on the text. But we thought the town councilmen. Cry is a bit of a job that doesn't, obviously doesn't really exist too much anymore. No, so. It's very important.

Maybe it's important for Christopher Nolan. Maybe he could have a town crier because he doesn't read emails. It's really or have a phone. Yeah. It's like a human emergency alert, isn't it, the town crier? But I imagine there would be a whole lot of people listening right now that you used to do jobs that are no longer around. 018 operators.

Remember what you'd call 018? Yes. Can I please have the number for Jackson's on H. Is there a person? Yeah. Yeah, it was a person. It was basically they would look through the phone book for you. It was AI before AI.

Yeah. Did you not remember? No, I don't remember. I remember calling 018, but I thought it was like an automated thing. Oh, it is now. We shot we'll die out of the other day, didn't we? I'll see if it's still going. Wasn't it like you had to give it prompts and things.

Skip the number for the hats and see what they say. Welcome to 018. See it still going. Oh, that's right. Friendly AI agent. You sounds like Patrick Gower. Are you looking for a residential or business number? We're looking for a business number for the hits

Throwing him here Paddy The little AI bot that could The hits rate Oh wow They're not going to replace us just yet Well no they've already replaced us But they're not doing a good job

So yeah I imagine people who are running milk runs too Yeah Jobs that are no longer round Producer Grace Who's like 25 she's like I just don't get my head around What was the milkman

What was that? What was that all? He was a man that delivered milk to your door. Kind of wrapped up pretty conveniently in their title I would have thought. I think so, but you're like, why?

And I'm like, we just really needed our milk, is it because the milk used to come direct from like the factory rather than the supermarket? I'm guessing maybe, you're right. It did seem like an unnecessary service. You're right. Like, we could all go to the shopper, but, yeah.

Well, because there was a time when there was crossover, there was the plastic bottles at the supermarket and then you were still getting your glass bottles delivered. And everyone's like, this seems pointless. Someone had some common sense Somewhere along the milk line The timeline of milk delivery Now video easy

Did you work in a video shop Oh 800 of the hits Jobs that are no longer around That you used to do Imagine all the people you saw Going into the behind the curtain You know with the beads Oh yes

The special room in the video shop Yeah They're glad those Video stores aren't around anymore Because then you had All of their history On the computer database You could have really

you had a powerful position working in the video show. It's a great play from both of you guys being like, remember those guys? Oh, they used to do this. They did that. It's like, okay. You guys were definitely in there too. We weren't in the Beaded Curzon area.

I was just watching Back to the Future. John O'Benn and Megan. The podcast. Talk about jobs that no longer exist anymore. Well, you're trying to resurrect one. The Town Cryer this week. Sending me out, I feel like, is this just public humiliation?

disguised as the town cry that you're going to send me out yelling in in quirky clothing, comical clothing, ringing a bell. A little bit, yeah. A little bit, we just love the pun, you know. We did ask about Mayor Wayne Brown if this was possible to do in his city. He welcomed us with open arms. Yeah, he's like, get out there and do it. To the point where we got a message, producer Troy got a message from Mayor Wayne Brown's

press person saying the mayor loves the idea so much, he's messaged the government to see if the town prior can open up there at the underground city rail link oh well hey that's what we're seeing how official request yeah there you go you can do that I feel the government's just gonna be like oh yeah I mean it was just some fill of content that Ben made up for the radio show now it's really taking it on a life of its own so hey could be some big things on the horizon for the town prior Kim we're just talking about jobs like town crying that are no longer around that you used to do what was it for you

My mum used to work in an old condom factory In New Zealand Yeah so there was one in Christchurch In Fairy Mead And there was an old build It's gone down now But every time we go past My mum used to embarrass me, my friends

And go, oh my name's a condom factory I used to work in like it was an actual one Yep, an extra thing So we used to handmake them We used to handmake them and put them in little packages And do all that fun stuff Wow I never really thought

What about the logistics of that? I kind of need to know. No, you don't. Yeah, that's where they come from, what used to. Did she come home smelling rubbery? Oh, mate, I don't want to think about it. Or like fake strawberry. Yeah. Oh, no.

I didn't have flavors back then. I think they were very standard. It's not standard. Up the guts. Handmade. Don't use that turn of phrase. Good. Good.

Handmaid quality. New Zealand condo. Don't use of the guns. Now I've taken the production offshore. Nightmare. Absolute. They obviously didn't use them with me and my siblings in six of us. Didn't use the product.

Didn't want to bring work home. Fair enough. Good on you, Kim, really appreciate it. Sue with us on 0800 of the hits. A job that is no longer around, Sue that you used to do. You have to work at United Video. United Video. Whoa.

Play it one more time now. What was the worst thing? about working at a video store. Work until 1 a.m. in the morning. Oh, long hours. I used to love going along the video, choosing your movies and stuff, though. It was really, it was a lot of fun. It's just an argument. It's like when you all try and pick

something on Netflix now, you just argue. And, Sue, we must ask you the obvious question. You know, the one with the beaded curtains, you'd walk into that room. They never had beaded curtains. They were just in the really in the back of the corner.

I just tucked away in the back of the corner. People go, oh, I don't know. how I ended up here. What would people say when they bring those to the counter? You just didn't make eye contact. Yeah, just these things. They sandwich it in between back to the future and... Pretty woman and something.

Yeah, they'd be in a big bunch. They'd have like others and you'd just like stand through without even looking. Yeah, right. So you didn't try and make it awkward or difficult. But then did you have all their titles on under their name in the database? Sort of, yeah. No sort of about it. These poor people, they were, you could have really ruined some lives, Sue.

Kind of. Now, are you in Morinsville? I am. I think the last remaining United video is still open in Morinsville, isn't it? It sure is. Wilford is very good. Yeah, that's right. We went down and visited it.

It's just such a nostalgic feeling go back into that store. It's great. Hey, well, good on you, Sue. You're going to have a great day. I will, you too. See you guys later. Test on Fullford, 7. You used to work in a video arcade, too.

Oh, wow. Remember those? Yeah. Some shady shenanigans. we go on on the video arcade. What's the video arcade? They used to be in town like you go downstairs and just be like a timeout. Yeah, well they're still got.

Yeah. Yeah. I suppose they're still around and so forth. John O'Ben and Megan. The podcast. The hits. Just remembering jobs that used to be and no longer around because you two are going to see me out into the streets being the town prior, the town prior later this week.

But, you know, we've spoken to somebody who worked in a video shop, somebody who worked on a milk run. And Jamie, good morning. Good morning, guys. Lovely to have you on the show. Happy New Year, Jamie. Thank you. Jobs that are no longer around, but you used to do them.

Yes, in the 90s here in New Plymouth. I worked at a bowling alley for a very, very short time, and I actually had to pick up the pins after they got knocked over. Oh, you were the... So now they've got the machine that comes down and replaces them. There was a human doing that. This is the thing. Even at that time, every other place that I'd ever been to used the machine.

I didn't know there was such a job until after I got there. When the ball came down and knocked them, I had to pick them up, and then the alley next to it was also being used, so I had to jump over this sort of wooden thing. That's what I was going to ask you, Jamie. Is it just you back there? So what if all the lanes are full? They had to book in advance to make sure they had enough, you know,

pin set her up or is. So they only had two, so they only needed one person to do it, but it felt like about four people's jobs, to be honest. They just kept coming. And what happens you have to pay attention that knocked down this? These ones got to go up?

That's hectic. Well, that was the scary thing. I was worried that if they were out of sync, if there was a gutter ball that I might forget which number it was that I had to... Oh, yeah. It was terrible. And you don't want balls coming down

while you're putting your hands and all sorts out there as well. I also worried about both, yeah, there were sort of a little bit of system in place for that, but yeah, it was horrible. You put a pin up and then you race to the next one, and then the pin you put up, topples back down, you'd be like, oh. I mean, you know, and the whole domino effect as well, of course, so if you'd knock one over. Like, yeah, I never did that again. What happens if you needed a toilet break? Like, how long was a shift?

Oh, I didn't even have time to think about the toilet. I just had to just jump from one to the other for two hours. I didn't even know if I open these days, but... Have you kept it on your CV, pins, set her uprope? I haven't, but I probably should. And so would you, like, would people yell down at you if you put the wrong pins up, or would they sledge you from the other side of the alley? I think they were pretty understanding.

One frantic guy. You just see this frantic hand. Oh, wow. We always wanted to see behind that We got to see behind that As a kid you're like, what goes on there Is this this magical place? It's pretty mundane behind there too

It's just pins getting set up and stuff Even with the automation It's just Jamie frantically running back and forth Oh dear That took years off your life by the sounds of it Jamie Totally I couldn't move the next day at all I just didn't bear John O'Benn and Megan

The podcast The Hats At a roundabout way We're really invested in the pie awards Which are happening this way Well they're being judged this week All the pies from around the country For

We call it the Academy Awards of New Zealand Don't we? And some guy ran into it in the supermarket Just asked me about my preferred cheese flavors And I said I was an E-em guy Through and through and he said What would you put in a pie? I said tasty

And I got a little rattle And it turned out he was entering the pie awards His name's Jason And he did put Tasty in Yes I did I did a few different cheese, not just tasty. And we always try to combine a little bit of this, a little bit of that. So are you allowed to, or are you worried about the competition

if you tell us what was your favorite? I can say it. Cheddar is always bringing up the color, made people hungry, and why it's people to eat. So not just about the taste, the look, the aesthetics. So, you know, blow-by-blow coverage of Jason's entry into the place. awards this week. We're going to be taste testing them. I think later. And we should give them a call and see how it's been going.

Jason. Yes, yes. Oh dear God, are you asleep? I am. Oh, Jason. Sorry, I thought you were going to be up. Oh, Jono is Jono Ben and Megan here from the radio. Johno was like, he'll be up. He is a baker. He'll be up early. Oh, Jason, I'm sorry.

That's okay. We got up late last. No, that's why. Oh, he's working like, you know this is his busy time? So he's trying to, he's like later in the week and come visit try a pie, but right now he's like, he's in the lab. He's, he's creating. He can't come visit anymore. We just want to see how the pie is coming along for the awards.

The pie we will do with tonight. Tonight we till trial and then tomorrow we will make a perfect one. Perfect pie tomorrow. I feel like you need to go back to sleep. Yeah, Jason, let's pretend this is a dream and it didn't happen, okay? Okay, go back to sleep, Jason. Bye, John, thank you. Good night.

Thank you. Bye, Jason. You're a monster. You're like, help me up. He's a baker. I text him and he didn't reply. That's our in the game. Jono Ben and Megan, the podcast.

The hits. But it was my birthday on Saturday, and I woke up, it was pretty cute. I woke up with my little family coming in to sing to me. And I was like, this is sweet. My husband's like carrying a present and even the dog came in. Join it. Very wholesome. And what time of the morning is this?

It was like 7.30. Okay, so not a pretty good wake-up. Yeah. Yeah, not a crazy amount of time. And first time I'd seen my son and I get some sass. Hey, Vib! Hooray! How many claps?

How old is Mommy? How many claps? Oh, see. We can't do it. I love his reaction. His reaction, huh. As if we'd even embark on that journey. But his face is like, oh, oh, you're serious, Dad.

Oh, no, it's too many. Too many collapse. Those are the burns that cut through the most of the honest ones, too. Unintentional, just a natural reaction. And I did like a fake tan because I was like, I want to look cute and going out to all these things. so I was tanning and my daughter comes in and she goes, oh, he looks like a poo. I'm like, guys, come on.

I'm old and I look like a poo. You answered the door, didn't you, in full fake tan? Yeah. Which is so risky because there's obviously tan on my face too and it's ultra dark. I'm full body tan. So these little kids open the door and were like, um, yeah, happy birthday?

And I was like. Oh, you're going to present as well. Yeah, I was like, this is fake Dan, but they also didn't know what there was. You've got a nickname now. You've got a nickname now. I've got a nickname. So how many claps do we do? Can we do the claps now?

No, you'll be here for a long time. God, 29 claps. It'll be here forever. Jono, Ben and Megan. The podcast. The hits. Because my mother-in-law helps out for times of time when my wife's busy and she goes away, just because we get up early in the mornings and just having someone in the house with the kids.

And Joyce Boyce, Yeah, Joyce. And, well, last name isn't voice, but yeah, but it would work well. It would work well if it was Joyce Boyce after my last name. But, yeah, I went, well, woke up in the morning, you know, as we do, a bit earlier. And I was just like, wow, there is just loud, blaring radio coming out of the room. And I was stood in the hallway, and I was like, oh, my goodness, it's ZB. Oh, I thought she was listening to the hits.

No, no, so she listened. Back through the night, loud, loud and proud. And like sedates, Joyce people moaning about interest rates and roundabouts. Yeah, just loud. Weather to a midnight. The central rail loop, the weakened politics. Earthquoise.

Oh, and the weather with snow around. I'll just do a bit of a quick... Just constant talking too. It's not like music or a consistent, you know, white noise or something. And yeah, and I didn't want to, like you said, Megan, I didn't want to go in and turn it off. I think that'd be weird if I snuck into a room.

Where is the radio right beside... I'm guessing it's quite beside... I didn't open. and have a look. I just heard it from the hallway. Imagine if she woke up as you're doing it, she would have been like, Ah, man!

Just got to do that down a silhouette of a scrawny man. I was just turning down Roman Travis on his overnight. And then does she wake up and does she engage in a bit with it? I don't know. I'm not sure. Like, I always wonder what sleeps into your brain, like you're subconscious as you go to sleep with like that. But that's what she obviously listens to?

That's like you trying to go to bed and someone's sitting there having a one side of conversation with you. You'd be like, okay. I don't understand how she falls asleep But generally not a nice conversation either It's just people like a negative party labour party You know Imagine someone sitting there

moaning about the labour party While you're trying to go to sleep My wife with her laptop We'll leave it on On the bed play I'd say I've probably digested subliminally Every island-based Love reality show that has ever been produced

Yeah but I understand that because that's mind-numbing. Yeah, right. You know? And it's not like political debates. Judge Judy was another big one that I'd wake up to, and she's just... That's the dumbest thing I ever heard. This is a crock of baloney.

That's up there with talk back, listen to Judge Judy while you sleep. So 4487 on the Texo 100 of the Hats. What's something you like to go to sleep too? You can win three months of neon. Thanks so I'm friends at Leon. Well, mind you, I tried to watch the Formula One this morning, and it was like race cars, you know, and I fell asleep in the middle of that.

I quite like going to sleep with sport and then you kind of woke up and you're like, oh it's still gone, you know, and then back into it. Like if there's like test match or something overnight. I guess if it's anything you like, you find it relaxing. Yes.

Right. Okay, well, we're going to tell you what Producer Grace falls to sleep to next. But in the meantime, we need your calls. 0800, that's Monday morning, roll the sleeves up, dial the phone, text 4487. John O'Ben and Megan,

the podcast. The hits. So what are you sleeping to overnight? Ben's mother-in-law, Joyce, really, a big fan of over- nights on ZB. The central rail loop the weekend politics.

Air bleedingly loud as well. No, we start the promos. Keep the his loud, but she's keeping ZB loud, that's for sure. She must wake up, like, having digested quite a large amount of current events over a sort of an eight-hour period. But it's not unusual. You know, people love listening to things. One of my daughters now and again listens to white noise really loud, and I couldn't

do it. Oh, yeah, white noise blears in our house. Yeah, I hate anything like that, you know? Have you, because when I lie with my kids sometimes, you're in a dark room with the noise, and suddenly you just kind of rambling, and you're like, ugh. It does sound like you're sleeping next to an extractivey.

Yeah, it does. Even, like, that's making me snoozy now. Producer Grace is in with us right now. Producer Grace, you're very unusual thing that you listen to. I actually thought this is normal for people to do until you guys told me I listened to Murder Podcasts. But do you know what? I think a lot of women do.

Like, my best friend does as well. Don't because it's like, she's like, I fall asleep to the gory details of a crime scene. Seems like a reassuring thing to fall asleep too. Do you have nightmares? Once again, keep the context of this moment in mind. Keys is sitting across from the FBI discussing the death. So this is stuff you're like, yeah. I'm straight asleep.

I do sometimes get nightmares, but like. You just love sleeping. I could sleep to anything. I love listening to just people. Jack will talk to me and I was full of sleep. But you wonder why you're so tired all the time. Because your body's frightened listening to people who are with eight bodies hidden in the trunk of his car. All right, let's get to the calls and text.

Jenny, happy new year. Hello. Oh, happy new year. Cheers, everyone. What are you listening to to sleep? I listen to, like, reels of Megan and Harry. Oh. You know, everybody bitching about them.

Like, I don't know, Kenzie, Schofield. You like that? You like listening to people. I love it. Like people mowing in on them going, how do they leave the family? What's that? Like people mowing in on the couple

or Harry and Megan talking. Yeah. Just saying what trash they do all the time and how they get their money and, yeah. How often can you listen to that? Oh my gosh. Well, I fall asleep. But I listen to it, yeah, probably 20, 30 minutes tonight.

Wow. We're going to hook you up with three months and they on. That's very unusual. Thanks so much for us. But I can't imagine the story changes too much. I mean, there's only so many things you can have a crack at them about. I say the same story. And that's probably why I can sleep so well because I've heard that yesterday.

Yeah. She pulled him away from his family, grabbed his money. Mark, good morning to you. Good morning. Happy new year, guys. Happy new. What are you falling asleep to? Well, it's a little bit happy, did he?

And I didn't really believe in it. But by lateral beats. So it's different hertz of music So if you fall asleep between say four to seven hertz And it's a sort of lower beat It makes really stupid Well actually producer Troy Does some great producing and provided some bilateral beats for us Mark

Oh yeah, I can fall asleep to that Sounds like you're a day spa or something like I know Very relaxing Different ones to heal certain parts of your body And stuff like that Megan's already falling asleep right now Okay, well, Kent is coming through. John O'Benn and Megan.

The podcast. The hits. Well, speaking of, we did have a wonderful birthday morning tea for you Friday. And also for Rach Bache, too, too, my birthday morning day was split between the three of us, because Larissa was leaving, too. I was like, come on. Oh, stealing my bloody thunder.

Well, it was it about Larissa? You got a happy birthday, and you got to blow out a candle. Yeah, but I had one of those happy birthday where it's like, happy birthday dear Megan and Rachel. Happy birthday. Can I tell you mind back to when you turned 40? I know, that was a absolute fiasco. You had a giant screen and reception.

Poor, Ray's just had to come in and celebrate her birthday in silence. It wasn't a big one. She will get the same when she gets to 40. Okay, so that aside. We're at the morning tea. It was split between three people. We have a two people. No, and Larissa.

Larissa's thing was later in the day. No, she had balloons. Lones. But that was earlier. That was for the first thing in the morning. It wasn't during your morning tea, though. Well, everyone was like, and bye to Larissa. I was like, she's got her own thing.

Well, Larissa's gone forever now. So, you know, we did have to acknowledge that. I love her. So, I've forgotten the point of my story now. We're at the morning tea and we're made a terrible person appreciate. And now, because Larissa is leaving, she has a person taking her position. Brittany.

Now, Brittany, I worked with many years ago, but then our boss Harriet decided to take upon herself to sort of introduce Brandy to me and it was a shopping list of all of my quirks So You know when you get

If you know someone for a number of years You go oh that's quirky That's quirky You kind of learn them over a timeline But when they're all listed out Bang bang bang She's like Britney this is This is Jono

He doesn't eat He won't eat during the day He gets up at 3 o'clock in the morning He lies on his driveway And just see us at the sky Yeah that's all He drinks a lot of He drinks a lot of Heineken. Fact.

Writes all his emails and caps. Fact. And I was a little thrown because... You heard all your... All in one... And then, poor Brittany, you can... I share the look on her face. I'm like, oh, dear God, where have I signed up to work?

It's a lot to say you on board. Am I stuck in this office with this man alone? So, yeah, in hindsight, it's probably best to just drip feed that information. Because she's got so much to download there as well. It would be, we should do that for all of us. Would it make you feel better? It would. Right, a bunch of our, can I do Ben?

We should do it. Walks around with hand sanitizer. Yeah, that would be me. Brushes his teeth in his car. Don't say anything remotely negative because he'll be riddled with anxiety when he's just to bed tonight. Schedules all his emails so it doesn't look like he's a psycho sending emails at 4 o'clock in the morning on the weekend. Yeah, you're right. Those things when you first meet someone, then be like, oh.

Yeah. Don't lead with it. Do not lead with it. He washes his teeth all the time. Yeah, got a bit of brand damage. Brand repair to do with Brittany in the office there. John O'Benn and Megan, the podcast. The Hits.

The Odyssey, huge movie at the moment, isn't it? My son went to watch it on the weekend. Really enjoyed it. It's a strap yourself in. Yeah. You know, it's a long run. Three hours. You said that's the absolute max limit for a movie.

I feel like it should. I feel like it should. I feel like it should cap movies at three hours. Yeah. Have you seen it yet? I haven't. No, I was trying to find a gap in his to do list. Gap in his calendar.

Exactly. That is, yeah, but you've been told to go see it at the IMAX by producer Troy. It was very busy over the weekend, yeah, as well. So he is obviously an acclaimed director and some information coming out about Nolan over the last couple of weeks as he's been doing the press rounds, is he doesn't engage with certain parts of technology, which I imagine would be, it's like he's living in 1996. Be very freeing.

You don't have a cell phone or an email address. I don't have an email address. I never use email and I don't have a smartphone. I will carry a pay-as-you-go, like dumb phone thing when I need to. So you have a burner phone. I, yeah. You go. So doesn't have a smartphone, which is fine.

But they never had an email address. He's living my dream. You don't reply to emails. Nolan doesn't engage with emails. It's just people can get in touch with you too much now. Because I can avoid the knock at the door. And I can avoid the ring of the phone. but like, I don't know,

something about emails, people were like, you didn't reply! Well, I mean, it's easy for Nolan to say that. He's got like 45 people who do all that administration for him, no doubt. I think people print out stuff and bring it to him and he kind of go through stuff. So he's got people that.

They're probably like, you know, you're not having an email address. It's a nightmare for, you know, 50 of us on the crew. He didn't explain why. Like, he's just not a fan of, because he likes technology because he's one of the biggest directors of our time.

He's using all the IMAX cameras. Yeah. But yeah. How does he know? you know who's parking in the work car park who needs to move their vehicle how does he know what his dental hygiene department is or that they're cleaning out the office fridge how would he know this information Nolan is that's a good point yeah yeah on the odyssey he didn't know who's parked in the wrong place when he's in typo and they're like as you've got a little perks card you're like

oh yeah it's on my email you he just can't get one of those yeah but he must not like be a part of any loyalty programs yeah the loyalties will be under yeah what's uh i don't think he needs to What about every day rewards, Nolan? He's worried about that. Do you think his life's better or worse without email? I mean, you're a prolific email. It's very quite freeing for him in some ways. I imagine it would be.

100% would give up my phone. 100%. I just, I'm not into it, but you have to be into it. Says the lady who spends 12 hours a day working on her fictional, her digital farm. Yeah, exactly. Like, that's a game. And I, yeah, I don't really like doing anything else. On my phone.

Okay, 0800 the hits. What technology do you refuse to engage with? Have you not, have you ever had a cell phone? Well, you probably can't call us right now, but maybe you know someone who's never had a cell phone, never had email, never had social media. Because imagine it's a lot easier for someone like Christopher Nolan, you know, because he's got people.

Because he's got people. Same as he'd cheering, right? Yeah. Otherwise, if you knew someone in your life that didn't have it, you'd be like, this is a pain. How do you get him over for a barbecue? Yeah. Must be a nightmare for the family to organize a barbecue.

would be the other person. It's a burden on the other person. That's what I always think about. These people are like, oh, I don't have this thing. So, yeah, because his wife's having it gets messages about him. I can hear my husband listening to the radio right now. He'll be saying the same thing.

Okay, well, great. If he had a... It falls on me. But now I'm at, hey, your mates have got the thing. Yeah, it's a pain for it. John O'Benn and Megan. The podcast. The hats.

We're just talking about Christopher Nolan, director of the Odyssey, who has two major parts of technology. I don't know, really how he gets through day to day, that he just does not. engage with you don't have a cell phone or an email address I don't have an email address I never use email and I don't have a small phone I will carry a pay as you go like dumb phone thing when I need to hear so you have a burner phone I yeah I suppose

you could put it that way imagine all the memes he's missing out on all the dancing cats and it does scream privilege though because like whilst I'd love to be in that position you can't because you need to function whereas he's got people that are doing it all for them. Yeah, but I mean, you don't reply to emails anyway, so you are. No, but I see them. You know, I get the information in my brain. You'd rather not see them. No, I just don't understand why you want me to

email back and be like, yeah, cool, that sounds great. Well, they are they've got little things you can do like little thumbs up and little hearts and sometimes I do that. That's quite good, so you don't have to go huge things, and you know, that. Sometimes I write back real long passive, aggressive ones, which is fun. It depends if I have time. Your New Year's resolution was, remember that?

We had a meeting on Zoom over the holidays and you're like, oh, I tell you what, I'm going to be the year of the email for Pappas. Day one, day two, who, there was some emails coming through. But I broke my own rule. Don't get good at what you don't want to do. I started getting good at it and people emailed more. And I was like, oh, yeah. So, yeah, technology you refuse to engage with some great techs coming through.

They, well, they refuse to engage with this radio show. They don't want to come on here. But there were some beauties coming through there, Ben. Yeah, my auntie refuses to use internet banking. Why don't he do phone banking? Oh, my dad, he doesn't trust internet. banking. Yeah, or obviously,

face-to-face banking, which they really try and face you out of that these days. Even when you go on the bank, they're like, you really need to be here. Come to the machine over here. Don't you try and force me to a machine? There's only one poor teller behind there now.

Yeah, someone's saying, you could do this on the internet. You could do this on the app. AI as well, someone saying would never will use that as well. I said, I'm 32, said it to my classmates who are like 18 to 20.

They look like I had two heads when I said it to them. We'll never use AI. But the thing is you probably already are. Without knowing it. Yeah. Yeah. You're not willingly using AI. I'm afraid you're just going to become so reliant and lazy on it.

I already am. I'm like, er, fix this email for me. Boom, send it off, make this sound nicer. You're right a thing. You're like, I'm not even going to bother to spell. You know. I don't even spell correct. You'll work it out.

Yeah, but it's like, it's getting rid of all the long, arduous tasks. You're still the brain behind the operation. And then AI comes back to bite like that guy, the Canadian politician who read out the prompt in his speech. That exceed the powers actually granted to those offices. Here's a more natural flowing version of that section that reads like a legislative speech rather than a series of short points. And the speaker, one of my concerns with...

Do you think AI's like, there's not much more I can do? Like, at some point you've got to have some responsibility. They definitely wrote it, make it read more like a legislative speech. John O'Ben and Megan, the podcast. We are off to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, right now. He's elbows deep in haggis with his mouth wrapped around some bagpipes. James McCone, live from the Com Games. That's right.

I'll hear you the new. Have you tried haggis yet, James? Is that something that everyone tries or not really? I have had haggis before. I haven't had it on this trip, but I want good haggis. You can get haggis from the like all fishing. chip shop. Yeah, that's street, street level haggis. It doesn't read well, Haggis.

You know, when you look at the cocktail of ingredients. That's the issue. It's a lot of awful, isn't it? Yeah. You've got that in your head. It's awful, awful. Just before we move on from the haggis, how do they serve it at the fish and chip shop? Is it like deep fried? Yeah, pretty much. Everything's deep fried there.

What's the vibe like over there in Glasgow, Scotland for the Commonwealth Games, James? Oh, there's good vibes up here, actually, thank you, Ben. I've enjoyed it Sometimes I need subtitles from the locals But I'm I reckon it's as good as they've opened their doors again Because you know

Nobody wanted the Commonwealth game It sort of became this little orphan And then Glasgow said Come on, come on back I'm not at the Annie Of the athletics and sporting world Do they have trouble understanding The New Zealand accent

Because I mean we're not really You know Probably I mean we are If you lay it on a bit I was thinking, who's the most Kiwi person, the only person? Was it Laura Langman? Oh, yeah.

She was up there, wasn't she? Yeah. You know? And so, what do you do? What's an average day for you at the Commonwealth Games, James McConey? Fish and Chip Shop? Hey, yeah, fish and chip shop, obviously, karaoke over the road, maybe teenage dirtbag, not sure, you know what.

I got two tickets to us. Baby! Yeah, that's it. and kids in pub socks, yes, yes, yes. And then I was out at the three times three basketball, three X3 basketball. Our team beat the Cayman Islands, which is a nation of 77,000 people just south of Cuba, just north-west of Jamaica, and it's a tax haven.

But, yeah, I mean, that's fine, we still beat them, okay? So what, yeah, like some great performances in the pool so far, you've been catching up with some of the athletes from netball, the pool. What are their vibes like, the athletes for New Zealand? Wait, I caught up with netballers from the pool. Oh, sorry. That confused me too. I linked them all in together.

I was going to let them have that, James. Thanks, James, you're a professional. You know what I mean. Just answer the question, mate. You don't need to pull me up on it. Okay, follow netballers to the pool. Fine. Is that all you want? No. Have you been interviewing soaking wet netballers, though? That's the main part.

Why are they wet? All right, Lewis Blerburt. You talk to him. He's a swimmer. We're not going into that with a three people wanting to jump him with a one liner there, maybe. Okay?

Let's not end the live cross on this. Okay? We've covered zero sport. Yeah, that's what I'm trying to just talk sport for just one second, all right? And then we can wrap it up. James, Lewis, in the pool. Hamish curse,

spoke to her, he was dry. He's not competing in the high jump. It's a bit of a bummer. Tom Walsh has got his young apprentice, Nick Palmer, so it's like a sort of quiet-on-jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi-type scenario from episode one of Star Wars. Hopefully the younglings are slaughtered. And then the weightlifters, there's so many good personalities there,

including David Litsy, and a guy called Marco Molo, who basically couldn't afford to go to the gym down in Wellington, decided to be the janitor. Now, guess what? He owns the gym, guys, because he's an Italian mafia box. Wow, what a story. That's a great story. Who are we looking forward to today, James?

What should we keep an eye out for? Well, look out for the netballers. They'll be playing Jamaica very shortly. Dry. Oh, James, always love... Thanks for canceling me, guys. Another station. Love catching up with you.

I don't know if you'll do it again, James. We'd love to chat to you again. But have fun over there and enjoy the pool. I'll think about it.