Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - FULL SHOW: One Of Us Is A Suspected Sociopath!

Episode Date: August 11, 2025

On today’s show: We take a sociopath test... Dear Megan: I’m a teacher aide and believe a student is wearing my friend's child’s lost jumper, but I’m unsure how to handle it since the other parent is difficult... Ben accidentally shows his daughters some inappropriate photos from his Contiki days! Running into you ex stories, "I bumped into my ex in an UBER POOL!" Jono has become bald Yoda! Is the pen license still a thing? And was our hard work a waste?! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The John O'Ben and Megan podcast, thanks to Dilma. Goodness really does taste great. Dilma, making the world a better tea. Hey, welcome to the podcast. On a Tuesday morning, we've been talking about pen licenses. Megan, you've been informing us about something I've never heard the phrase before, but now I get it. At primary school, you could get a license to go from pencil to writing with blue pen.

You're going to hear more about this in the podcast. But Cody, multiple failed attempts at obtaining his pen license, Cody. Yeah, yeah, definitely. failed that a few times yeah um and it was what so you would have to hand in your work on a specific day of the week and go all right here's my best effort mark now or they'd be across it all the time no across it all the time right and then you just get it yeah we just got a text uh come come through actually um we still have the pen license it's not a big thing i'm nine so someone texts in this morning so it still exists i haven't heard it in my kids unless they don't really talk about

which could be the other thing as well I don't tell me everything at schools I'm like oh you know how much like writing are they doing at their age though it's all on computers yeah a lot of it you know but they do do some writing but yeah as this nine year old set it's we have it

but it's not really a big thing they should probably do computer licences though shouldn't they how do you know kick off the comment section how to get the top comment that sort of stuff

really helpful stuff online to be fair Cody I don't know if it was a big thing when I was younger I'm just like really competitive so everyone else probably didn't care as much as I did so yeah no there's definitely competition around it um if you're the first to get it in your class you're sort of bit more respected out of the other peers yeah someone's in saying uh you're really upgraded to the full pen license when you learned how to link your letters oh that was that was the yeah that was the

threshold lots of texts heaps of texts coming through you've really stumbled across something here megan someone said um I got my pen license but I still have a little pang of guilt when I go back to my worknotes and they can't read what I've written. I didn't deserve that license. It's what I've read. So there you go. Hey, Cody, well, you go having a great day. How's your writing now, Cody? He's still license worthy?

Oh, I wouldn't. I wouldn't say that. You used to deteriorated handwriting. You never have to handwrite now, do you? No, not really. No, but you build things with your hands, you know? I'm just trying to make you feel better. The building, because I'm not very good at,

I don't have a very good attention span, so. You're creating things. It's, yeah. Yeah. All right, mate. Well, I love your work, Cody. You're going to have a great day. Appreciate it.

Awesome. Thank you guys. You too. And you enjoy the podcast. John O'Benn and Megan. The podcast. The Hats. Megan, can I confront you about something, actually,

something that she took place this morning. I think it was 5.24 a.m. Okay? You're on your laptop. Yeah. She turns to me. And she says, right, now we're going to conduct a sociopath test on you. Here's 10 questions.

that are scientifically proven to decide whether you're a sociopath or not. And I'm like, well, this seems like a lot of tests for 524 in the morning beat. Why did you zero in on Jotto? Because, well, there is a few traits here. Yeah, you're like, good morning, how did you sleep? Welcome to a sociopath test. Well, because I scrolled down the test, and I'll read this out to you, but it screamed Jono straight away.

Can I just say I've never done a sociopath test before? No, you have. But I feel like a sociopath test needs to be conducted during office hours. Nine, nine to four, nine to five. Well, those are our office hours. No, with a media, I'm going to jump with meaghan, those are our office hours. We're here from five. Too early, but I'm just working up.

Yeah, but that's like saying someone coming in at nine o'clock, you start. Someone's tell me you at 924. But they've got a seven, they've had two hours. That's not Megan's problem, mate, you're at workhouse, you're on the clock. You're jumping on the defence. That's what a sociopath would do. Right, yeah. But this one is what made me read it out to you.

I didn't even have, by the way, I didn't even have an option to say useful no to this test. The test just... She just started firing the bullets, firing the questions at me like bullets, spraying them out. So there's a bunch of ways you can spot a sociopath,

one of them being they rebel against authority in brackets and never pay their parking fines. Guilty. Guilty. That is me. That's absolutely you. Despise paying parking fines.

Not one of my favourite hobbies. They can charm a crowd, but lasting relationships can elude them. Although you've been with your wife for a long time. Yeah, I have... She can't allure. me, I've kind of locked her in.

Often charm a crowd. Hey, you can charm one person and they get stuck talking to you for a very long time. Then she's like, you know, how do you respond when you know people wrong you? And I'm like, well, I slowly let the air out of their car tyres and put a corgette in their exhaust pipe. Next question. They live life on the edge and you were like,

no, that's not me, but I've seen the way you drive like a maniac. Like you're racing Google Maps. And this halfway through the test, I'm like, is a sociopathic a good thing or a bad thing? I don't know whether I want to pass or fail this test. Oh, you're passing the test.

I was on the motorway one time, and this car came hoaning past me, tooting and toting and then cuts in front of me, and I was like, what did I do wrong? And then I realized it was Jono. Saying hello to you, mate. Saying hello to you at 120,000. Good-oh, moot! Good-bye!

Let me just scoot in front of you. So I think you got like six out of the ten? Okay, okay. You're 60% sociopath? 60%? Well, yeah, what can I just say on behalf of all the sociopaths? can you warn us when we're having a test or just ambush us

into a sociopath test? What's the difference between a sociopath and a psychopath? Am I in the same category? One sounds more social. Yeah, yeah. Like, we can hang out with a sociopath. I don't know if you want to hang out with it. So that's positive.

That's a good thing. John O'Benn and Megan. The podcast. The Hits. Yeah, Megan. Someone has slid into Megan's DMs with another dilemma that we like to put to you on 0800 the Hits.

Or you can text us any stage 4, eight seven and help out this person in need. Did they write? Okay. Today's one reads, Dear Megan, I'm a teacher aide at a primary school and one of the mums there is a good friend of mine. Last week her son was clearly upset during class and confided in me that he'd lost a

school jumper and was scared to tell his mum. Since then I've noticed another child wearing what I'm almost certain is his jumper. It has a distinctive bleach mark on the sleeve. I quietly asked the boy about it, but he insisted it was his. The boy's mum is, let's just say not the easiest person to deal with. Here's the thing. I want to take

it back. I know it's not his and I worry if I go through the proper channels the mum is just going to kick off. Plus school uniforms are expensive and this just doesn't seem fair. What do you think I should do? Well, given Robin Hood energy, isn't it? Instead of stealing from the rich giving to the poor, she's stealing from a child to return back to another child. The kid's obviously going to be like, no, it's mine because it doesn't want to go home and tell mum that you've lost your jersey. They're expensive. They are expensive, school uniforms. Are they?

Are they? It just feels like for some reasons, particularly when he gets to secondary schools, they just really up the price. You've got no option. Yeah, no, you've got another. It's like a captive audience. Sure I can buy something of T-moor and put the school logo on it. You can give that a go, mate.

See how long that lasts. It's like a wedding. When you say you're having a wedding, boom. Yeah, the prices go up. But, you know, they could be, you've got to be careful too. They could have suffered identical bleach-based incidents as well and have the same bleach mark on their jerseys. It could be.

It could have been an accident. I mean, it might not be intentional, but the teachers thinking it's not intentional. Happened to my daughter a while ago today class, and everyone has to leave their shoes outside the Marai. Came back out. Her shoes, you know, the shambles, all the kids with the shoes. She had someone else's shoes.

They swapped back, they brought it back in. They weren't even her shoes. So someone had taken it, like, she's... Oh, these will do. Yeah. So, you know, things like that can happen in the school grounds, but... You do, by the end of the school career, you do end up with a complete mishmash of a uniform,

don't you? of other people's uniforms, different labels, different sizes, oddly shaped socks, too, one longer than the other. But can a teacher take it off, is the question. Well, I was thinking... Steal it back, I guess. Don't, like, take it off the kid. Like, don't literally peel it off his body.

But if he takes it off and leaves it somewhere, just take it. He's just going to think he's lost it. I'm kind of with you. But the protocol would be, not that. Oh, yeah. The only issue is... If you heard her, she said the mum's not the easiest person to deal with.

And the kid's taking it. Maybe she should lean into the kid and go, now I could talk to your mother, but you and me both know we don't want that. She doesn't actually want to deal with the mother. And it could frighten the kid into giving the jersey back. Where did this jersey come from? Do you need me to talk to your mom?

Did you take it? Well, that's a way rather than just taking it. That feels like maybe that's a better way to do it. But then is the kid going to say, this teacher threatened me? Threaten me. Okay, 4487. Steal it back when he's taking it off and left it.

somewhere. Oh, 800 the Hats, 4487. What's the advice for this teacher? I mean, what sort of tricky situation they're going to get themselves into if they follow your guy's advice right now? Or is that the way to do it? Yeah, do it. Approach it. Go for it. It's not your job. John O'Benn and Megan. The podcast. The Hats. Dear Megan. This feels like one of those moments where you realize that we couldn't be teachers. The three of us. Someone is messaged in. This is from a teacher aide. They're at a primary school.

One of the mum, Sarah, is a good friend of mine, and last week her son was clearly upset her in class. He has lost his jumper and he's scared to tell his mum. Now, she's seen what she thinks is another kid wearing the jumper because it's got a distinctive bleach mark on the sleeve. But the kid's mum is hard to deal with. She wants to know, should she just swipe it back? Because she knows that it's her friend's kid's jumper.

Yeah, and everything will be sorted in the end. The kid who stole the jersey won't say anything, and it'll be returned to its rightful owner. Ben, you're thinking proper channels might be the... I feel like a teacher-wise, particularly in today's society, it feels like don't go through right channels, otherwise it'll be some sort of news story. Tanya, Tanya, are you opting for the news story? Morning, how's going?

We're doing well, mate. What would you do if you're a teacher in this situation? Well, it's a hard one because my son has, yeah, lost like quite a few expensive jerseys, just leaves them lying around. Does she 100% know that it is her friend's sons? Because otherwise, I would just wait until he's taking it off and, like, pick it up and give it back to my friend. There you go.

You're opting for the news story angle. I agree, not like pull it off his body, but wait until he toast it off. That's a new story. It actually leaves it lying around because he probably will. And he'll probably think he's just lost it. Yeah, that's right.

Could you pick him up by his collar against the wall and go, I know what you've done yet. That's a new story. That's a new story. Yeah. Good on you, Tanya. Appreciate you call, mate. Let's get Michelle on from Levin. You're a teacher. This scenario is playing out in front of you, Michelle.

What would you do? I'd stalk the little shit, swipe it back, put the rightful owner's name on the tag, jam it in the bottom of the lost property bin, take the rightful owner to the cross property bin, and be like, what do you know? Where's your thing? Well, there you go. Don't mess with the shell. You've got gaslit them into thinking it's in the lost property, but I love it.

You would attach a name label to it after the fact. It's the whole time. You're like, oh, okay. I love it. I appreciate your call this morning. I was a teacher aide for three years and I don't know how many times that I did that to get people, especially they've cropped your back. Oh, yeah. I don't know how teachers deal with it.

She's closed many cases over the years, Michelle, in the school yard. Good on you, mate. All me to fixer, mate. All right, love Michelle. Tessa, your thoughts on this. Would you steal the jersey? What would you do? So, I think if you do a full wide approach, if you take everyone take off their jumpers and look at the name from the number,

if you can grab it that way. Oh, so just one day you go, all right, it's time for everyone to take their jumpers off. I was a teacher, so we used to just ask, you have all the kids sitting down in the class and say we're currently looking for a jumper that's gone missing, and we take everyone take the jumpers off and look for the name. And, yeah, we used to do it that way.

I did have intermediate kids, so it was a little bit, I don't know what age these children are, so yes, it's a little bit different if they're little least. So yeah. No, that's a good theory. That's a good. And then you can slowly just, and you can sneakily grab it and give it back.

Yeah, yeah. And so, and then it's kind of just, you know, targeting one child either. Yeah, true. I suppose how you kind of stay the situation as well. Like, we understand that sometimes we actually pick up the wrong jumper. We just want to try and make sure everyone's got their jumpers, the correct jumper, and everyone's warm for winter.

Yeah. Good approach, Tessa. That's a really good, smart idea. Well, you're in the right job. still teaching? No, I'm not actually. I left about a year ago. It's a pretty hard profession to be honest. So yeah, I just had to kind of look after myself and the career change. What are you doing now? I work in HR. Oh, good on you. Yeah, the pay the teachers more for going to say. Oh, absolutely. Always back your teachers. It's my first time calling, by the way.

Oh, thank you for calling. How have you found this from a human resources point of view? See, my point of you been telling what I used to as a teacher I'm a little bit like in HR, I'm like, well, would you better get away with that now? You can't get away with anything around the office nowadays. We're going to hook you up with the Cabri Priceback. We got one of those to give away

and we really appreciate your call this morning. Awesome. Thank you so much. No, always. Have a great day, Cabri. Giving away $50,000. You can purchase any cabri, any product and head to Cabri.

Trytime.com.com. it ends here to be in to win your share. Look, I think there's two great options there. You can go Michelle's route, take the jersey off the little S word, or you could do what Tessa said. I think that's pretty good too. Round them up. Get them all to take their jerseys off and check the names

and want on. There we go. Problems solved. And it's not just... And make them cheaper. It's just a radio show. This is it. Yeah, we're helping out. Bettering life. John O'Benn and Megan. The podcast. The hits. Now something just quickly I did over the weekend. One of my daughters was doing an assignment on

a place and then my wife and I was like oh we went there and we got out a photo album book when our travels and this is from our you know in our 20s we'd done Europe for a few months we got out of a photo album we burdened the kids with a photo album and they're like how do I like these yeah can I comment on these scroll in can't hard copy photos hard copy we printed out yeah when you were 20 it's while ago yeah we had anyone re-share these yeah we're basically printed all these out and you know we didn't look to this book for ages but it's funny how your kids just judge you you know for this is like you know a while ago with stuff they're looking at all Amanda got was cute top oh that's such a cute top mom oh I love you top that's what the kids were saying

cute top and I got firstly dreadlocks they were like oh oh problematic yeah and then I'm like what's with your sideburns I did yeah big mutton chops so we're halfway down your cheeks sometimes what's the thought behind that I don't know there wasn't a lot of thought going on it was it was the time it was the time they looked at my clothing they're like oh you know it didn't get the time I don't know if I knew it's the time I don't know if I knew Sideburns were quite big for a while. I didn't have, I had met, yeah, like, yeah, they kind of had bigger sideburns. Your hero, Andrew Mertons, he was a big, didn't he have massive sideburns?

Yeah, so the sideburns, I never got any compliments about my clothing. And the one thing they did notice as well, they were like, with my wife and I, what was with your sunglasses? Now, these were, like, you know, these days sunglasses are quite thin and stuff like that. These were just like big, black. Cover three quarters of your faces. Yeah. Almost like snowboarding goggles. It's like we're out welding or something in the shed or something.

I'm like, oh, they wear a time, hey. They were like, what is up with your glasses? It looked like a fly. Yeah. And I was just like, and I said the kids, I said, well, you'll look back at, you know, your stuff in a while, you know. And 15 years time, like, we are now and go, what, look at this. And you're like, I'll be there to mock you. Yeah, what was they doing that?

Is anyone in your family listening to this right now? No, probably not, to be honest. I'm going to hit up CNN for that photo. Well, yeah, there was one as well, they were like, because we did a con tiki around Europe as well. We went to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and we had a competition to take the best photo with the Leaning Tau Pisa. Did you hold it up with your finger? No, I had a place between my crotch.

And the kids were like, Dad. Dad, I'm lying down, lying down. You wish, sweetheart. And I was like, guys, I got Robb. I got second on the conchuggy for that. Someone else got better. I was like, that was the most inventive photo. The Leaning Terre Pooners.

Yeah. I was like, guys, I got Rob. I brought back. by that photo competition but the kids were not they were not impressed by us we need both of them photos John O'Benn and Megan The podcast

The Hits We have producer Troy in the studio Who we're getting to know more about She's been here for two or three weeks now And she had a harrowing Heroing story This is when you realise you've shared too much with us Because you're now talking about this on radio

But you're okay to talk about it We're like laughing with you Are you okay to talk about that? Yeah it's been long enough It's been long enough. And you're very happy now. I'm in a very happy relationship now. Okay.

So we just want to front foot this and say, 0,800, the hits. 4-487, awkward encounters with the X. Yeah. Okay, that's the headline. Can you beat this? Can it be more awkward than this? Okay, I don't know.

Okay, so you broke up with your partner? Yeah, this was when I was living in Wellington, and you being in Wellington this week reminded me. We were living together on the main street and Cuba Street. How long had you been together? Two years. Okay, so it's decent, yeah. Yeah.

And my work. workplace at the time was right across the road from our old apartment, windows facing each other. Right. And so we broke up. I moved out and then for the next couple of months I'd turn up to work. Same hours that I do now, early mornings, 4 a.m. arrive at work. You're working at the breeze at the time. That's right. Yeah. In Wellington. And a couple of times a month I'd get to work I'd look out the window and the light was on

and I would see things that probably an ex shouldn't see right Troy So you had a friend in the breeze and she had a friend Multiple friends A friend over You know okay so right

Okay fine So you see that that's tough But then what was your preferred friend The radio station friend Or actually human contact So that was one of the catalysts of me leaving Wellington Was it That was up there

Oh, that's all good That's all good for everyone, right? Everyone involved Did she know you had a direct line of sight? Absolutely. Yeah, she knew. She knew. Do you think there's a part of you

where she would set the alarm and then wake herself up and turn on the mood lighting like the candles and do like shadow puppets? Yeah. It could have been just to get inside your head. Do you think she was just like moving the sheets by herself? Yeah.

There's a, what's possible. Great play from her if she did. Yeah, great. Yeah, that's something I'd do. Yeah. Okay. And then the kicker though. So I left Wellington, moved to Auckland, been here for a couple of years.

I went back to Wellington for a mate's engagement party, had a great engagement party, went out for dinner, had some drinks and thought I'd Uber home. And I'd never tried Uber pool before, which is where you get an Uber and someone else hops in the Uber with you to save money. You share it. It's carpooling out, yeah. So do you pick them up after you've jumped in the Uber, do you? So I got in first, and then it said, picking up one rider along the way. And about five minutes into the ride, we stop, and someone gets into the car and a look over.

and it's my ex Oh my gosh What of the chances? I know of the chances, what was that interaction like? It was a, oh, oh, this is awkward and she goes,

do you want me to, should I get another one? And I was like, ah, it's okay. Yes. Whatever. And she got in and we're just so happy,

how are you being? Okay, so you couldn't get much more awkward than that, did you ever, like in that Uber ride to think about commando rolling out of the passenger door on the motorway?

So close. So close. I bet even the driver's like, damn, this is awkward. I was thinking about rolling out the front door. John O'Benn and Megan. The podcast. We just heard from producer Troy

a very awkward encounter with his ex-partner. Not only did he have to work across the road from their apartment. See straight in the window. After the relationship, it ended. Ended up in an Uber pool situation where the two of them just in the back of the Uber some months later. Jeez, that's when you realise New Zealand's too small at times. Isn't that?

It's too small. Next time, Troy, if you're always in a relationship now, but I'm sure he checked whether she lived directly opposite his place of work. That's a good prerequisite. Let's get Ben on the phone from Wellington. Welcome, Ben. We're talking running into your ex-partner, the awkward moments. What happened?

Yeah, yeah. So first of all, I just want to say our commiserations to Troy. I know how he feels. Oh, really? Oh, no. So it was 2018. I was living in Melbourne at the time. I broke up with my ex who I'd been with for four.

four years. Obviously, COVID hit. I came back to New Zealand and 2021 I went to, came back here at Wellington and 2021 I went with my partner down to Christchurch for a dance comp and I then did this event called Dance with a Stranger and I actually had to walk out onto the floor with my ex-partner and dance with her for about 30 or 40 seconds. Oh my God. So you both You both walked down on stage and went, uh-oh. Does the strategy you like? Yeah, yeah, I saw the line up

and I didn't realize that she had moved to Christchurch on Melbourne. Oh, no. Oh, my gosh. To see her there. But the real, the real icing on the cake was that my partner was filming this reaction

and cackling, giving commentary. Oh, she knew. Did she know? Obviously, that was up me out. That is so. William, like, We're not strangers.

We can't dance. With each other. We know each other, yeah. Was there any chat? No, I got very much the frosted stare the entire time. And she was very much back leading herself to do things. Yeah, right. So how you been as you're holding having to rock back and forth?

That is brilliant, Ben. Thank you so much for your call. Really appreciate you listening. No worries. Thanks a lot, guys. Cheers. Grace. Good morning, good morning, good morning.

Lovely to have you on there this morning. Grace, awkward ex-encounters. Went in to go see a friend who was, we were at a social gathering and she was like, I'm going to go have a moment in the bedroom, like, you know, come and check on me in 5, 10 minutes. Went to go check in on her and three of my exes, who she didn't know were all my exes, were all sitting on the bed, and they were like, come on, we'll have a group cuddle, she needs a group cuddle, and so I'm sitting there hugging three of my exes and my best friend, and none of them realized. Oh, wow.

out. It was a lot. Trying to keep a straight face during it all and I'm there for my friend and I'm trying to support her while just in the back of my mind being like, I wonder. And so no one knew? She had known that I dated one of them but she didn't know I

dated the other two and none of the three knew I'd dated any of them. So you're the only one that knew the connection? At some point the penny didn't drop? No, no, the penny dropped after everyone left and I turned to my best friend at the time

and I was like, oh, that was horrible. I was like, I got a full-way cuddle with three of my exes. But how are you doing? You're okay? Oh, yeah, no, I'm great now and I've gotten through that. You made it through one.

If you can get through that, you can get through anything in life, right? Well, thank you for sharing that story with us. We're going to hook you up with a double pass to the brand new movie, The Naked Gun, which looks very, very funny. It's in cinema's August 21st. I can't wait to see that.

Only two tickets, though, so you can't take All your exes No That sounds better than there Than having a cuddle with three of them Yeah John O'Benn and Megan The podcast

The Hits Cold starts the week Are we talking minus in the south I imagine Yeah it would be Yeah very very cold Yeah In fact if you are

Sort of an invoccal Even the bluff region Call us 0800 the hits 4487 Would love to put you on air How cold is it Are you wearing shorts

There will be people There are wearing shorts Oh, yeah. Hyundai. Some people, that's their thing. And, you know, I feel like deep down they wish it wasn't their thing, but they've gone too long without it. It's their flex. It is their flecks.

Oh, I have bloody stumbies all year round. All year round, mate. Some days they're like, geez, it's cold, but no, it's my thing. He's a guy here at work, got here at work shorts all year round. He does. He won't falter. Yeah. But he's the short, and it becomes your brand.

Yeah, it does. You can't falter from it. Well, my brand, isn't it? That's become my brand over the year. and being one of, you know, the top 100 bald media personalities in New Zealand, it comes with some responsibility. Now, a friend of ours is going through some treatment, and she's lost her hair. Okay, and I sort of messaged her and said, I hope everybody's going, okay, righty, righty, right.

She's like, I'm bald now, and I just said, well, I'll keep my head bald in solidarity with you. Right. You know, she comes back about a week later. She's like, hey, can I ask you a question? Bald-related question. So now I've become a consultant. Yeah, a bald consultant. Nice.

She's like, do you oil your head? I said, I've never oiled my head. I've done no need to oil my head. That's probably because of the slow over-time loss of hair compared to a sudden loss of hair. Yeah. She's like, I'm thinking of oiling my head. I said, well, the last thing I need to do is oil my head

and draw more attention to it. Some people do like a real shaved shiny lock. Yours is not razor shave, though. No. Some people do have that. And that looks good. That looks good. I remember the very first episode of our television show.

Yes. I was like, I went to go. I'll go get a haircut. And I turned up with like a blade shave, like zero, zero zero. Like, yeah. Like I looked like a cone here. We've got that photo. We should put that photo up on the hits breakfast.

Oh, what did Ben say? Oh, I didn't say anything. But everyone when he came back in, it was like, oh, really, wow. It was a lot of head. Yeah, just shiny head. I think I had to make up this head, you know, where that makeup just keeps going, you know, because it was so short and shiny. You're like, if I lost all my hair, I don't know where the makeup were, I'd stop. Yeah, you'd have to keep powder.

Yeah, that's, yeah. The whole head would be. It's a interesting point of conversation. But, yeah, some sort of bald yoda now. If you ever need any advice, if you know, you're new to the bald community, I'm here for support, advice, tips, hints and tips. John O'Benn and Megan. The podcast. The hits.

who was explaining to Americans about something they do in Australia. And we do it here. Well, we did it here. I don't think it exists anymore. I got really excited to tell John and Ben about a pen license. And that's when the two of them were like,

I have no idea what you were talking about. I've never honestly heard that phrase before in my life. I used a quill pen. A feather quill pen when I was being educated. So this was something that would happen at schools. I'm guessing not every school around the country because I haven't heard of it. But it was obviously a bit of.

thing for a while yeah so we were doing like when you're doing handwriting in class when the teacher would mark your writing you would get like red pen first and in our school that meant you could like rule off with red pen so if your writing was good enough your handwriting yeah you'd upgrade so that was you on your learners your learners pen license once you got the red pen access and then if your spelling and writing was like good and you kept it up then one day you just get written on your book blue pen and like that was you've got your pen that's the full license and you get a certificate and so you're like writing a pen or everyone else is just scribbling away a pencil you're like nah nah nah nah but producer troy i asked the producers since jonah and ben don't know

what i'm talking about if you did or if you got your pen license but you never quite made it i remember it well i remember everyone in class being so excited that they got it and i was like oh one day one day and no my writing never improved you failed your pen license failed my pen license Not even on your learners. You didn't even get the red one. Didn't even get the red pen. How have you ended up here? Is your writing really bad, is it?

It's really bad. Yeah. It's illegible. I write little love notes to my partner every morning and she's just going to, oh, that looks nice. She can't read it. Do you write a note every morning? Every morning, yeah.

Oh, that's a lot. Do you send a text, mate. Yeah, it's a lot easier. She might be able to read what it is. Yeah. Well, maybe he's not writing a love note, but he's just scribbling and something down. She's like, oh, I guess that's a love notes. She's like, she's like, raises a red?

What? So I wait under that. Have you, I'd never heard of the pen license. People out there have, did you fail your pen license? Did you get your pen license? 4487 is our text.

I feel like it's something I would have loved to have had. Like, you know. Oh. Yeah, like a private, you know, writing, I feel like I'd be with you and me and I'd be like wanting to get this pen license. I never got the chance. A lot of time with the pencil though.

Yeah. You're hanging around with the pencil for a few years, don't you? I feel like it just upgraded all of a sudden for me. It was just like, now we're writing a pens. Yeah. Everyone's, we're all doing it, guys.

Tell you what you need to master is the art of twink. Twinking, you know? Yeah. Because you could really, you could overdo the twink, and it would end up as like sort of a mountain of white, and it would crack away, and you'd have to hack away it. When you're trying to write over top of it? Yeah, it doesn't really work again, does it?

Yeah. Oh, someone, should we call this person? Oh, they had a penalise. See, I told you it was the thing. But apparently, Americans are blown away. They're like, this must be lies, that New Zealand and Australia do this. yeah you get your pen license nowadays i imagine you know kids aren't writing as much because a lot of tablets a lot of laptops at school but you still need to know how to ride yeah grace got

halfway through her pen license and gave up because they got a tablet you got your pen license you got your pen license oh i did proud day was it it definitely was they got a little certificate to go along with it yes were you like one of the first in the class no definitely not one of the first, but I put in all the effort of the primary school days to achieve that license. Well, Cody's texting as well. He failed his pen license multiple times. Oh, we've got Cody on the phone, too. We'll talk to him about that.

Hey, you're going to have a wonderful day. Congratulations on your pen license. You still got that certificate. Cody, you failed multiple times your pen license. Yeah, yeah. Turns out I couldn't get like Bs, Ds, P's and Qs that are. way around so they kept failing me for that but eventually they just gave up

it's like failing a warrants isn't it you're like we can't pass you on that one well I did read that I think that's why they took it away because it you know created a bit of a segregation in the classroom yeah I don't know if the competition was intense or whether it was just me I wanted to be first I can imagine you would be quite intense if you got your license was it like a driver's license if you're you know

been reckless with your pen could you lose it oh yeah you could lose it really privileges yeah privileges are gone all right yeah Talk this morning about a pen license, G-flip, the Australian musician was explaining it to the American audience that she was talking to. I'm an Australian living in America and today I found out that Americans don't get their pen license when they're a kid. So in Australia, when you're like eight or nine, you do a test to deem if you are ready to upgrade from a pencil to a pen. and then you'll get a certificate that says that now you can use your pen.

You've got your pen license. But apparently, Americans, y'all don't get a pen license, and you're out here using pencils in your teens. Oh, do they run pencil all the way through the education system? Just keep going. Do they? Interesting. It's probably bitter because then you can rub out your mess up.

You're really locking in a permanent option, aren't you, when you upgrade to the pen. You got your pen license and Nelson, Megan, proud day. It was a big day. We got a red pen first. That meant you could roll off with red pen and then you got upgraded to your blue pen. What was it like wrapping your little fingers around a bick for the first time? Sweet.

Yeah. Especially when you're one of the first, because I probably pushed harder than most. Pretty competitive. We hadn't heard of it. No, and my wife's the teacher. I was just thinking as well. She's been bored it up. I know, but probably does it.

But it's not a rich topic of conversation. I get it. To be honest. It was a big moment when you're like. If she starts talking about that, I'll be like. Handed out to 15 pen licenses today, you'd be proud. Sweet, cool, yeah, cool, cool, cool day. She probably has told you.

You're probably looking through Instagram on your phone. Louise, morning to you. Good morning. Great to have you on. Teacher, a teacher of many years. How many pen licenses have you biffed out over the years? Oh, goodness, no. It's not really a thing anymore that I know of,

but, you know, probably given out 100 or so over the time. And what were you looking for? What was the protocol, the prerequisite, it to handing out a licence? Well, you had to think the slope, the size of the letters, yeah, just the general neatness, but, oh, and it could have been the linking back in the day. The linking, yeah, I do remember the links, the O's to the air.

We should do a game where we each write on a piece of paper and then people have to guess who's handwriting it is. Put that up on our social. Mine's, yeah, mine's extra, probably because I was trying so hard to get a pen license. It's very slopey and blinky. Yeah, that's... Well, hey, thank you so much, Louise. And would you have an official license-handing ceremony?

No, I don't think so. I think it was just a little wee note in the book, and away we go. And away you go, you're off on you. Yeah, we just had a note in the book. I think it all fell apart with, you know, pencils. We didn't really want them anymore. The rubber, and then the word rubber kind of didn't really work anymore. and so, yeah, we had to move away from that

because you were always sharpening pencils. Yeah, that's true. I get it. The teacher had the pencil sharpener screwed onto the desk. Yeah, the wind-up thing. Yeah, that's a little wind-up. Okay. Old people reminiscing.

Dean, welcome. You're nine years old. Yeah. Have you got your pen license? No. No. Is it still a thing in your class? Yeah.

Is it a big deal, or do people not really talk about it? People don't really talk about it So that's why you haven't heard about it From your wife there Ben Do you get red pen first Or is it just straight to blue pen? Straight to blue pen Are you close?

You feel like you're close? Yeah Yeah You know I failed my driver's licence Multiple times Didn't get my pen licence And failed my driver's licence Three or four times

Yeah and you're still Still out on the road He's never got my licence No one's surprised by that To be honest He's still racing and driving Not well In either of those things

No Well Dean Good luck Is it a goal this year To get the pen licence before Christmas Yeah Okay get those linking Get the Lincoln

Good luck buddy Good luck Dean Lovely to talk to you Have a great day You too John O'Ben and Megan The podcast The Hits

I went to Disney on Ice You don't need me to tell you It's epic But it is It's such a production It's so cool And it was the first time That me and my husband

Had gone And we took our kids All of us first time is and I had seen Is it cold in there? No, not overly. No, you think it would be really cold but for some reason it's not as...

Whenever I go to like Paradise Ice or anything I'm like, damn, it's like a bloody the beer fridge in here, you know, the liquor land but obviously they've got the... Maybe they've got the freezing elements under the ice. Yeah, yeah. Maybe.

I don't know how they cracked it, but yeah, you're right. That's not the topic of conversation, John. Probably move on from those little districts. So it was great and before we went, you guys took the piss out of me because I did make my own merch. I made knockoff merch. My son a little cap. He loves his caps.

So I put some Mickey Mousey's on a cap that had a light up, had a little blue LED light. Did you feel guilty wandering into the venue with counterfeit Disney merch? I think Disney's going to be okay. Yeah. You like those people with the stands, you know, 100 meters from the venue. You guys want to need cheer into a T-shirt. But also like I was just like, we're not going to have time.

The lines as well. I was like, just want to get in there and watch. So we watched it. It was amazing. As we're leaving, hordes of kids, hordes of kids, they're having mountdowns. My daughter was on the floor, didn't want to walk or something. So I'm like, I'm one of those people picking her up. As we're halfway to the car, we're like, where's your hat? We're your hat, bud? And he's like, I don't know, you have it. It's in the bag. I was like, I don't have your hat. It's your responsibility. The security guard took it off his head. He's the counterfeit guys I can smell a knockoff when I see one And he throws down He's devoid And I'm like

Oh I'm ready just to pick him up Get to the car, get going He absolutely loses the plot And my husband's like I'll go back and look for it Hero Hero He goes straight through all of the people

Of course they don't let you back in there It's probably a safety thing They're like are you planning a bomb or something Sorry where is this? Spark Arena It's a big place to hide a hat Yeah It's a lot of

He has to give our seat number to all of the security guards. Describe the $7 hat that I made. That's not even official merchandise. And the whole crew are there with their torches looking for Bastian's hat. Oh, that's wonderful. They did that. I know, but that's why I want to say thank you and the apology. Like 15 minutes later, one of the big...

When they found the hat, they're like, oh, this is that? You got this from bleeding one. We've got an account of it one, guys. That's one, two, three, and a dollar shop. I know, yeah. This burly dude comes out and he's like, is this the hurt? And we're like, yeah, thank you. thank God.

You didn't think about making another one? I did. I was ready to let it go. I was like, I'll get him another one. It doesn't matter. My husband's like, oh, go find it. But he... They had their finest security ops on that.

The whole team. They're like, this was definitely not worth our hourly wage. While they were doing that, it was three break-ins around the other side of the spotlight. A whole crew of people searched for this counterfeit $7 hat. But he'll be pleased to know he got it back. Not all heroes wear caps. And it never wears it again. That'll be the big.

The lights are already bugger That doesn't light up anymore John O'Benn and Megan The podcast The Heds And that's very cool Cassie Henderson New Zealand singer

Now it's just been released She was on the Voice Australia Which is pretty cool Huge judges on the Voice Australia Ronan Keating Obviously we all know him From his pop career As well as Mel C

from the Spice Girls Two of the judges Richard Marks Another one throwback Richard Mose was from the 80s, wasn't he? Yeah, Richard Marr. M.A.R. X? What did he think? I have no idea who that is.

I've heard the name. I have no idea what he's so. We'll have a look here. Richard. Right here waiting for you. Wherever you go, whatever you do, I'll be right here waiting for you. We're all husky sort of aides. Oh, my God. Whatever you do. Yeah, so here's not the judges.

Marksy. That'd be like dusted off Marxie for the judging panel. No offense, but Mow C's there. Mow B. And then you're like, oh, damn, I'm Richard. Well, no, they spend most of the budget on Ronan and Mel C. I don't know. So we've got 10 grand left for Richo. Yeah, so anyway, Cassie Anderson on the show, and she wowed all the judges.

You know how they have the chairs around the other way. All four of them turned around. I love it when they turn. It's like, buch. And this is Cassie's a little bit. She sung some chaparone, and this is Mel from the Spice Girls reaction. new excuse for the super reason good love thank you so much felt like you were already established as an artist and you are coming to

perform your new single here on the voice that's what that felt like you know what you are born to do this you just own that stage it's so natural to you oh good on it cool and she i mean she is he's right she is established isn't that she's a big deal here in new zealand she at some point you have to go yeah i am but it's great yeah i don't have an album yet didn't Did she win X Factor? No, she was in, she is a 14-year-old. She was on X Factor in New Zealand. Yeah, she was.

I don't, and no, she didn't win, but she was, she got really far up there as well. Very talented. Yeah, very talented. So very cool, congratulations to Cassie, and we'll see how far she goes in the competition. Great way for her to get an aim out there across the ditch to enter a competition like that. After seven o'clock, which just moments away. Remember we did the boys? The boys, yeah, not quite as far as well.

And it was like Ben would turn around. Do you want the boys? What was the, what was the idea of that? How did you become the boys? There's no real format. to that one. We're a warrior's top. Get nervous about stuff.

He's doing it around. Your hand sanitizer on. Boom. He's doing it around. He's done boys. John O'Benn and Megan. The podcast. The Hats.

Now, Danielle, now if you've been listening to the show for a while, you'll know and probably love Daniela. We stumbled across to her. She works in Tauranga at a hotel when we're on a silly mission to try and retrieve my lost sock. And we've loved talking to her since, and we've continued to talk to her. She's great. Originally from Italy.

but never met in person. No. She joins us on the phone right now. Daniela, good morning. Good morning. Ciao. Chao. Bonso.

Giorno. Bonjour. That was the right one. Yeah, well, Danielle, we've got something we want to pitch to you, okay? Oh, dear, yeah. We want to come visit. We keep saying we're going to come visit. We keep saying we'll do it in the next couple of weeks.

Well, we thought, why don't we come see you this week? How's that sound? Exciting. Sounds inconvenient. Yeah, you sound like that pause. That pause is, you going, oh, this week. You thought it was just one of those relationships were like, oh, we'll catch up soon, you know,

we'll do it at some point and never do it. I think, you know, this marriage is being going nearly for a year. In November will be a year, sorry, in September will be a year. We should celebrate our anniversary. Oh, you're right. Well, how about we come down Thursday? We need to make sure that you're not catfishing us, like this is a real relationship.

You are real. Yeah, that's true. Correct. You never know. She could be AI, Megan. You're right with this whole time. With an accent. A big hairy old man.

You don't even know. Nowadays, can't trust anyone. No, that's right. I don't know exactly know what your scam is because all we've got out of you is free radio. Yeah. A long play, long play. And we will finally see each other on flesh. Yes, on Flesh on Thursday.

How's Thursday sound for you? Let's do dinner, eh? How's that sound? Yeah, are we having a romantic dinner for us? Yeah, for us. Anniversary dinner. Yeah. Do we have candles on a cake, something like that?

Yeah, we can do that. We can celebrate our anniversary. And how about, we'll do a show the next day from somewhere around Taaranga and someone could win $1,000 on the show as well. We'll give away some hot drinks as well. Sounds good, right? Nice. I cannot wait.

The dinner comes with a twist, Daniela. Oh, do I need to do push-ups or something like that. I'm very good on that. Yeah, you can show us your push-ups. We're going to be serving the Italian cuisine. We think it's only fair that we, provide yeah oh that's good that's good i cannot wait we're going to have uh mccain pizza traditional italian pizza oh i can't wait yeah pizza frozen pizza you know pasta really convenient

spaghetti pasta from a can no no no no do you want to poison me we wanted to see if you could try it you get your actual genuine reaction to some of that stuff and then we might have a nice dinner afterwards how's that sound okay then you know because i never try the mcane pizza maybe yes someone make me try but not the spaghetti and can's that make sure you bring me a nice cold Coca-Cola, then I can burp and digest, you know. And garlic bread, should you get some garlic bread? Oh, I can do it, yeah. Oh, I love garlic bread. Oh, that's good. You go with that at least, you know, cover the spaghetti on care.

Can't wait to get your reaction and your first thoughts of the out of Italian cuisine. See you Thursday. Guys, have a lovely week. You too. See you. For real. I look forward to it. See, mate.

Very cool. And actually, we're going to be in Tauranga at Florence Bistro on Friday doing the show from there you can come along get a free hot drink between six and nine and someone could be playing for $1,000 as well. So thanks you very much to Florence Bistro in the heart of Taodonga. We can't wait to see you all there on Friday. I just thought we should put the spaghetti, the canned spaghetti,

on top of the frozen pizza. Oh, we could do that as well. Combining two Italian dishes into one magnificent Italian. If I like it, might change your life.