Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - Megan’s Son Accidentally Defeats the Entire Point of a Safe Word | FULL SHOW

Episode Date: August 24, 2026

On today’s show: (00:00) Megan Papa's teaches her son about safety code words and strangers (02:40) The surprising things we were banned from as kids, from The Simpsons to Limp Bizkit (12:15) Jono gets caught speeding in a company vehicle on the way to Masterton... (00:00) Ben admits he bailed on installing a washing machine, went to bed, and left his wife to finish the job! (18:30) Dear Megan: One parent wants to homeschool, the other absolutely doesn’t (26:35) The confusing world of automatic car boots and overprotective Uber drivers (32:35) Why are so many young kids getting old-school names like Barry, Mavis and Keith? (38:00) How we meet an adorable baby kiwi! (41:25) One lucky listener wins Olivia Dean tickets and gives her bestie the ultimate wake-up call LIVE!   Join the Itty Bitty Hitty Committee HERE!Instagram:  @THEHITSBREAKFASTFacebook: The Hits Breakfast with Jono, Ben & Megan See 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 tea. I know, you had an interesting conversation with the dinner table last night, Megan. Yeah, we were sitting around asking how everyone's day was. And Bastie, my five-year-old son, he had some homework. He'd bought home a sheet of paper. Confident Kiwis.

Now, I'm not sure this might be a nationwide thing, but it's all about protecting your spaces and your personal spaces. and your personal spaces in your body. Okay, yeah. I'm very unconfident in that area. Even just being like, do you know what your privates are? And they were like, no, and you're like, huh. That's good a good conversation to have.

Exactly. It is. I see we're ranked 16th two in the world for size. The New Zealanders came out overnight as well. I'm like, who partakes that survey? Like, I barely do the census. 16th. Someone knocks at the door in the measuring tape.

And they're like, hey, man, would you like to? Oh, yeah, I guess so. A clipboarded and a fluoro vest. You're like, yeah, I guess so. You're going to have a quick look. I did marry two men from other parts of the world. Yeah, it'd be known. Well, hopefully Andrews were citizen, isn't he?

He's bringing our average up. So we got on to, I was like, you know what, this is a good time to talk about safe word, about picking him up from school. Because remember that time I couldn't find him? Yeah. I was like, oh my God. So I was like, you know, mom and dad will always pick you up.

and if it's someone else, maybe you should ask them for a code word. I was like, anyone, anyone else, you have to ask the code word. So I was like, we need to come up with one. So he came up with one, which I'm not going to tell you, obviously. But he was trying to understand, he was like, but if they don't know the code word, I could just tell them. And I was like, no, I know you could. But the point is, I'm supposed to tell them.

So if they don't know the code word, You don't go with them. They all want to know the word, surely. He's like, but I know it. I can like just tell. And he's like, what if I give them a clue? No. Like a password sort of thing.

What was the name of your first pet? Your mother's maiden name. But he was like, I could just help them out. I was like, no, I know that's very sweet. But the whole point is you don't help them out. If they don't know the code word, you don't go with them. You give them multiple attempts like the passwords as well. You have three more attempts that are like a lock.

you out, you know? Close, hot, warm. My God, we're in trouble. So are you more or less worried about a kidnapping girl? John O'Bennon and Megan. The podcast. There could be a change coming for young Kiwis online and the National Party pushing for a social media ban. You would have seen it in the news over the last 24 hours for under 16s. Although acts in New Zealand first have agreed to disagree on it as well, meaning national needs labour support. but it does seem like anything happening before the election seems unlikely. Yeah.

So they've just introduced it. It hasn't passed any readings or anything like that. A long way to go. A lot of big questions, obviously. A lot of big debate will rage on. You know, questions around privacy, age verification, whether teenagers will find ways around it. All those things, I imagine we'll hear more over the next coming months.

Yeah, I was talking about it last night with my wife. And she's like, I guess if you think of it like alcohol or, you know, road rules, people know the rules some will flout them I just got sent email saying I was speeding in the hits vehicle some people like me will flout the road rules and then others will kind of stick to it

so I guess it's maybe just yeah but there's a big debate of whether it's the government's place to do it or whether it's a place to do it you know that's something yeah that's what Winnie's saying it's been the parent's job and for whatever reason

we haven't been able to fully do it the problem is you know there's a lot of bad that comes with it and you hear about that but there's also equal amounts of good too that can come for it. We spoke to Francis Russell she's from an organisation. It's essentially I like to call it a cell phone addiction

recovery centre. It kind of is in a way, helping out people who do go addicted to gaming and social media and things like that as well. She had an interesting take on it. Look I think that it's more about how do we help young people and their families to have a healthy relationship with technology I don't think it's about

cutting phones completely out of people's lives I can see that social media can be really beneficial for young people who are in marginalised communities. So young people that might be in the rainbow community, in the disability community or in rural communities where it's actually quite hard to see others,

that social media can be a really important point of connection for them. To be honest, I don't think that there's any one solution for this. I think that we have to take an integrated approach around it, which is really about looking at what technology we can use to support healthy use, but also how to empower the young person and their family. I hope someone's talking to you, Francis, because you sound very, very good up.

I look at my kids sometimes, and obviously like all parents, you know, you look at the good and the bad and stuff, but when they're using it and they're editing and they're creating videos and they're using it creatively, I'm like, man, this is such a great tool. They're learning about things in the world and they know about stuff. And I'm like, how do you know about that? They're like, oh, I've just learned about that on social media.

I'm like, there is some... And, you know, like, I think even for kids that are growing up in maybe communities where there's, not a lot of money going around. It's harder for them to afford things like text messaging. And so if we exclude these kids from things like social media, it's actually almost impossible for them to contact their friends because they can't just text them, you know.

So we do need to think about that and take a bit more of an integrated approach. There you go, Francis Russell from Touch the Grasswich. So, yeah, an interesting take on it. You know who I think it should fall on? Social media companies. Correct. Well, there's a lot for that, right? Turn comments off.

Have a good system in place or algorithms that, you know, kids don't get fed content that they shouldn't be watching. And if you use the license example, well, that's in a staggered stage too. You know, you do, you know. Could you have a social media license. Yeah, like, and maybe it starts a bit earlier because it's not going to go away. That social media world is not going to go away. And suddenly at 16, you're like, here you go, where you go?

You're like, whoa. How do I use this thing? You're right. Real talk. Are we not putting enough pressure on the social media companies because they bring money in to the country? And they do, you know. there's more of that pressure coming on now. I don't think they have to answer to a country as small as New Zealand.

They're like, we didn't even know you were a country. Yeah. They don't, but they should. It should fall on the likes of meter and Roblox is apparently a nightmare. Yes. Hunting ground for predators. They're still carrying on under this, this thing. Robsters.

Yeah, it's not one of the things as well. Those social media companies need to be held accountable for this thing they've created that's damaging young people. Yeah. So were you banned from, well, were you not allowed to do things? things when you're a kid in your household, apart from the obvious. I remember Annie and John, they were really, because I was an only child. So I imagine the older kids really forged the way for the younger ones with what you are

and aren't allowed to do. But mum was like, don't you ever listen to Cypress Hill. That was her big. And then one day I went to Kmart and I bought the Cypress Hill cassette tape. Did you have an interest in Cypress Hill before she said that? Yeah, my friends were listening to it. I was like Cybers Hill. I didn't understand what they were singing about.

And then, no, she found my Cypress Hill cassette. Annie Pryor not happy with me that day. Yeah. All right. She went insane in the break. John O'Ben and Megan, the podcast. The Hats. ...inning National Party seemed to going out on their own,

away from Act and New Zealand first, and saying that they want to push forward a social media ban. It looks like nothing will happen before the election, and national need labour in this instance. Interesting. that they had a thing going into the coalition called the agree to disagree policy. I'd like that in every relationship.

I'd like to say that to agree and disagree. Sometimes it's a good end or a thing. Oh no, no, it's great. Oh, but sometimes you're like, I just keep, it's like, agree to disagree. No, but I need you to hear my point. Yeah, but I hear it, but I doesn't change my mind is the thing. So agree to disagree, Megan.

Why need you to change your mind? You guys are starting arguing, but you're not arguing about anything. Exactly. But I'm like, yeah, sometimes I'll agree to disagree. I don't believe what you're saying. No, and it's the tone with what you say. she says it. Oh, I agreed to disagree.

Anyway, that's not what we're arguing about right now. Can we all agree that we can stop this agree to disagree conversation? Okay. So, you know, everyone's going to change their opinion just to yours. That's why I agree to disagree. Hey, we just said we were going to stop. Well, I'm not, I'm not stopping.

Well, I'm not like an old married couple. I'm not literally arguing about nothing, nothing. There was no topic at discussion here. So, oh, 800 of the hands. I agree to disagree with what John is. Stop. It's also quite inflammatory too, isn't I? I can see where Megan's coming from.

Thank you. You know, it's not the first time that potentially things could be banned for kids. It's happened for generations. Megan, you weren't allowed to watch what when you're younger? The Simpsons. Really? Well, I guess it. Which is your favourite, Ben.

Yeah. I mean, it's got like some, I mean, not I'd say adult stuff, but it has some jokes that are probably. But it feels like it's quite layered, you know? As a kid, you probably don't get some of those references. I seem to remember my parents saying something like they didn't like the way the dad was treated, like as a dummy, like not a lot of respect for him, you know? And they really went deep on the character arts. Yeah. A little strangling of your kid and stuff, but it's a cartoon, you know?

I was with you being a lot. It's a whole different viewing experience when you watch The Simpsons back as an adult. You're like, oh, give that joke now. Yeah. Yeah. And it's a really good joke. Yeah. Well, I've seen the movie they're referencing here that I hadn't as a kid.

But you know what, for me at home, the colour printer. Oh, if I. I used the colour printer. Oh, that was a big thing. Oh, you would have black. Because sometimes it would default to, you know, colour. And you just print something and be like, who's printed 24 pages of colour printer? And that was a big, yeah.

Now, it doesn't matter because you have to replace the whole bloody in the tone anyway. Yeah, I'm not even allowed to use the printer here at work as well. So it's continued on into your adult years. Let's get Alex on the show. Good morning to you. Good morning. Yeah, lovely to have you on, Alex. What were you not allowed to do as a child in your household?

I got banned from watching Power Rangers. I had three younger sisters, and I used to line them all up and practice my moves on them one by one. Oh, so it was for violence purposes, I see. Do you know that Power Rangers were actually banned in New Zealand officially? The Broadcasting Standards Authority upheld complaints from teachers and parents because people were doing exactly what you were doing, Alex. I can't imagine that.

It was built in New Zealand, that wasn't it? Yeah, it has been. for years and years and years and years, but we banned it from our TVs. Our mate, Nick, he was the Yellow Power Ranger. That's right, yeah. Wasn't Kim Crossman the pink one? She was a Power Ranger too. Very crotchy outfits as well, the old Power Rangers. So thank you so much, Alex. It's not allowed to watch

the Power Rangers, I can understand why. Now we've got Michelle, Happy New Year. Happy New Year, mate. Good to have you on, Michelle. In your household when you were growing up, you were banned from doing what? Listening to Liv Biscuit. Oh, I like John. Harper's Hill, they was like, I'm a little bit of a big set wasn't.

It's just one of those days we don't want to wake up. Angry, angry, you know, angry. Everybody sucks. It was the new metal era where everyone did suck. Your parents are you being like, everyone sucks. You're going to be like, don't listen to that, hon. Did you manage to sneak it into the house and Michelle? Yeah, we had burnt the old CDs, me and my friends and my friends and mum had snapped them as soon as she lost to thought of it.

And you're like, well, there's more than where that came from, mum. They were like 35 bucks back in the day. day, Mum. I know. Well, Keebis coming through, actually. What were the things that you weren't allowed to do as a kid? What you were banned from? I had a system of a down phase.

Mum didn't love that. Oh, yeah. Wake up! I quite liked Marilyn Manson at one point, too. I think she was like, oh my lordy. What are we raising here? What are we reading? We went through the got goth years.

I think a lot of girls went through the goth year. John O'Bin and Megan, the podcast. The hits. Megan says she's got a surprise for me. It makes me nervous when great. comes in, it's the whole team in here, it feels like an intervention. I feel like you need one.

Thank you. Because we went on a trip. We drove around, we went on a little road trip to Masterton, obviously, for the World Smallest Parade. We were all in a car together. With like 60, 70 costumes. Oh, my Lord. My stilts at our face.

It was what, that trip on the way down, you could not have fit one. Like, even if you tried to fit a Mentos in the car, it was. It was so packed. Bags on our laps, everything, right? We were stuffed. There was five of us, stuffed into a car full of costumes and stilts. We looked like a family and the dad was like, we'll be right. We can fit it all in.

Megan kept saying, I want to stop for water. You did not stop once. To be honest, I don't know if I would have been able to get out. I couldn't hear you. You were muffled by costumes. So I didn't actually hear you so you needed to stop for liquids. So, yeah, we were, you know, tensions were high. But I don't know why we obviously.

we opted for Jono to drive. Yeah. Because... Safe pair of hands. Safe pair of hands on the road. Minus, there's infringements, my demerit points, and my parking tickets. Safe pair heads. Are you?

Well, this is where the email comes in. I have had an email. So you were driving a company car. It was a hits vehicle. And I have an email with a subject, driving speed violation. the vehicle facilities have been alerted to the fact that there was a hit promo vehicle

from the site of Palmerton North 2 o'clock in the afternoon driving in an 80K zone Oh God, what was I doing? 97. It's hard to tell. You're driving, you should be out of tell. You're the one that's meant to be paying attention to that.

It's hard to tell. Sometimes the zones, they all change and you're like, this looks like a hundred dairy to me. You literally said, does this vehicle have the speeding email thing set up? And it turns out? It does. It does. Monstrous act tracking all the employees.

Where's the trust? Where's the trust from the top brass in this company? Obviously, I'm the one breaking us. Yeah. That is an important reminder to ensure that speed limits are adhered to when operating an NZME vehicle. They want to know who it was so they can send the fine to them. Guilty as charge. No.

Oh, I was just to say, yeah, guilty as charge. I remember another word... But to be fair, you might... It seems like you thought it was a 100k. Yeah. So, I mean, the positive is I wasn't going over 100. If we're going to take a great learning lesson out of this... So if it was 100k, you would have been out there.

Three case under? Yeah. Okay, yeah. I'm sure that would wash with the New Zealand police. I thought it was 100, but I didn't think I was going under the speed of it. You actually give me some reward points. I remember we went on a work trip once, and the car kept going, bang, bang.

Bing, bang. We couldn't figure out what it was. And I was like, apparently if you just drive on through that Bing, Bing, it'll stop eventually. Turns out all those bings were alerts. Each one was an email. Okay, I won't drive again. John O'Ben and Megan, the podcast.

The hits. But something at home, I've talked about this point. I'm not very good at practical sort of stuff. You know, like, anything to do with, I can't even know. I can't even give you examples. Well, you got you get someone to help you hang up picture frame. and stuff. My wife's actually pretty good. She's pretty practical. You've got skills that you bring to the house. So, to do lists and you get stuff done.

I feel like I've got my lane and I like to stay in my lane. And my wife, you know, I've worked out as I get older what things I am good at and what I'm not good at. I appreciate you bringing that to the table because I love it when people upset the gender roles, you know. So my wife, we got a washing machine, a washing machine basically car. And so we got a new one and I was like, well, let's get someone in to install it. My wife's like, no, I can do this. Oh, geez, I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't do that. And so I had to be the person helping to move it out and in and that.

And then I was like, I'm, that's, you're on your own. This is, this is where I can't do anymore. Do you find when you're always sliding like fridges and washing machines and dries into spaces, they don't give enough space for your fingers on the other side of the, you know? I'm still like, like, for the last time we did that with a fridge, I've still got a like a. And then someone would always push, yeah, one side in, you're like, oh. Just give it another, like, two. centimeters on either side.

So my wife's in behind the thing with wrenches and all sorts of pipes and hoses and stuff. And I'm like, oh, she's doing her thing. She wanted to do this. And then she got to point to when she was like, can you help? And I'm like, no. Like, I mean, I can help, but I'm not going to be any good at this. Emotional support. Yeah, like, I'm not pretty good.

And she, and this caused her frustration, which I get. She's like, what, at least try. Try to look at something. I'm like, I could, but I just no good at it. I'm with you, Ben. I reckon you reach a certain stage in life. I reckon everyone on this earth. could be good at everything.

It's just what they can be bothered putting their time and energy into it. Yeah. Exactly. So, yeah, this caused a bit of a standoff situation. Yeah, and she went back to it as well. And I'm like, in hindsight, I'm like, maybe I should try to be good at these things. But she didn't want you to be, you know, the leader of the situation. She was doing it right.

She probably just needed a bit of a hand, like an apprentice. Now, tell everyone what you ended up doing. Didn't you go to bed? Well, I did actually go to bed here. It was getting really late. She went on to it really late. I didn't think this was like a like a 10, 30 job. And she's still in the laundry trying to install the washing machine.

And you're like, see you're like, see you. And I said, look, I'm really sorry, but I would go. Yeah. She's a week night. Yeah, and I was like, I started at 9.30. I was like, this is way too. This, for me felt late. And then it was a Sunday night.

And there was like, well, I'm with you. I'm with you. That is not ideal washing machine. installing conditions. As much as every bone in my body wants to tease you and go against you. I'm with you too. So I went to bed. I don't know the result of it.

We haven't lost close since. We have all spoken. But we'll find out. I'll let you know. I'll keep you updated. John O'Benn and Megan. The podcast. The Hats.

Dear Megan. Okay, dokey. Dear Megan is a segment where we get you to write in with your dilemmas. Your situations. can be trivial, they can be serious, whatever you like, we'll keep it anonymous and we will give our feedback on what we think you should do in that scenario. One day I'd like you not to keep it anonymous, full names, email addresses. Well, some people do say, I don't need it to be anonymous, but I just do it anyway.

You do it out of respect, out of your moral beliefs. And that's why we love Megan and her belief system. Okay, today it reads, dear Megan, what do you do when you think you have an idea of what your partner stands for and wants in life, and then their views change. My wife wants to homeschool our kids. We have two children, and our eldest has just turned four, so we've restarted the school conversation. Then she dropped the bombshell that she wants to homeschool him, bombshell. I'm not on board at all. It sounds like hard work, but aside from that, I worry about the social aspect for him. I think school is such an important part of growing up. I'm not. I'm not on board at all. I'm

She's also never mentioned this before, and we've always talked about when our children would start school. So I don't know where this has come from. We can't seem to agree, though, and I don't know how we're going to resolve it. It feels like in a mum-dad situation or any parenting situation, that you probably both need to be on board. If one's not on board, then you probably have to stick with the stock standard New Zealand education. system. But it sounds like one of them is not on board for that. Yeah, that's the thing.

How come that gets to be the default. Yeah. Just playing devil's advocate. Normally you'd say in that situation, like maybe for a lot of families, like, who wants to do that? But in this case, someone wants to. Like, someone wants to. So that makes it, you know.

If COVID taught me anything, homeschooling's a nightmare. And I didn't even do it. Gene, my wife did the large part of it. Some people would probably enjoy it and it would probably benefit some people. But maybe the social thing, like they say, like I'm feeling like a little bit isolated. Is that a problem?

I think the only way you're going to resolve that is you're going to have to talk to people who were homeschooled. You're going to have to do some digging and some investigating. My friend's kids homeschooled. Yeah. But again, that situation, they were both on board with it. So it was an easy decision for them to make. I don't know. Speaking of COVID, again, a lot of people, parents decided to homeschool their kids after COVID as well.

Does she know what it entails? Like, look into it because I don't think it's easy. and then all of the admin might put her off. Yeah. School Athletics Day in absolute. You're coming first in every event too. I mean, there are positives. Positives.

At top of the class. You're like, hey, look at me. I only tell my parents would be proud of me for the top of the class. There's lots of comments on our Facebook page of people who were homeschooled and who are advocating for it. Oh, really?

It's good, yeah. Well, I guess in some cases, you know, They talk about, you know, people like Billy Elish and things like that, but often those things are done because they are so busy with other stuff, that they should have able to keep the school going. Well, Taylor Swift and Bieber, they were both homeschooled, but again, had a thriving career, so probably didn't even need school at the end of the day.

But, yeah, 0,800 of the hits. Should we get some people who have been homeschooled on? Yes. And, you know, are you in this situation where one wanted to homeschooling on the other, didn't? Have you done it as a parent? I'd love to hear from you. Was it harder than you thought?

Oh, yeah, like, actually, you were like, well, hey, it worked out right. How do you do your job and homeschool your kids? I look at you, Megan, I was like, yeah, you could have been homeschooled. What do you mean? Yeah. What I mean? But I mean, but I mean, but I mean, that's a compliment. Yeah, it was something.

You look like, if you told me I was homeschooled and I'd be like, yeah, that tracks. What, first is Nelson and stuff? Is it? Because I'm like giving like only child vibes or something. Yeah, no, Nelson. Well, John, I was the only child, didn't he? Yeah. Oh, because I'm a bit of a.

Nelson, yeah. Happy, Diffy. Yeah. Right, I got you. Yeah. Nudity. Yeah. Yeah, screams commune, home school, Stilt Walker.

John O'Ben and Megan, the podcast. The hits. All right, we're in the middle of DM, Megan. Someone slid into Megan's DMs, which you can do any time of the day or night, although it looks a little unusual if you're DMing her at 3 in the morning. Well, I don't have notifications on, so I don't care when you do it. You won't be alerting her. No.

Only DM through business hours. These will be tended to. So this one is a couple who have a four-year-old, and they've researched. started the school chat and the husband has discovered that the wife now wants to homeschool their son when he gets to five which they've never discussed before and he is not for it at all says it sounds like a lot of admin and he's worried about the socializing aspect of it um there's lots of people on our facebook page thank you for your comments um that have been homeschooled emily says i was homeschooled my whole life i'm so grateful for the experience as i didn't have to

experience the social and peer pressure like those at school did. I became very self-motivated, and that was a huge asset to getting my assignments done for my degree. That's really cool. Yeah, now she's got a degree, which is better than you, John. Jesus, what have I done? You could see that I was homeschooled. Yeah, you were trying to, yeah, the time you said it before, yeah. Oh, yeah, that's what I did.

I forgot. I had a very short memory. I thought I was just sitting here, smiling and nodding politely. Now, Sue's with us on 0800, the hits. Good to have you on Sue. Okay, so one parent wants to homeschool, the other doesn't. What are you doing, Sue? Well, I just wonder if she's, oh, good morning.

Good morning. I just wonder if she's having a bit of separation anxiety from the daughter of the child going to school and be away from her for that period of time, because she's obviously been a stay-at-home mum for four years. is that that's coming into it Yeah, that's a potential because the letter did say

that she was all for school and there's obviously had to change her heart it could be a bit of that and getting back to normality God, can't relate send them off to get some separation maybe that's what you need. It does create a full-time job

for the parent as well but then if you're not working then maybe that's what you want to put your energy into you know each to their own Lots of people do it. It obviously works for some kids as well because I know like I did fine in school but my brother, some people just aren't that way inclined

and school was kind of, you know, very much one way. Yeah, that's right. Well, I mean, if it was good enough for Alexander Graham Bell, have you heard of him? Thomas Edison? Yeah. Two famous high school. It was a long time ago.

Was there schools? They probably didn't have an option. Ryan Gosling, apparently mainstream school wasn't for the Goss. So, yeah, he got homeschooled as well. So, I mean, it happens. It does happen. So in this situation, if you've got one for, one against, what are you telling them, Megan? I mean, it just sounds like a lot of work to me, but.

But you're not having to do the work, okay? No, I just think you should. That's the terrible advice. From an admin point of you, you don't have to do anything. Given what everyone's saying on the text machine and on the Facebook page, look into it because it might sway one of you. You might decide, actually, this is going to be really good for our kid. Or she might decide, no, I'd actually

don't want to do this. You could try it for like a month or something, you know, before school starts. Especially when they're young. You're not going to do too much when they're young. Yeah, that's right. Just dip your toes in. Don't poo-poo it either of you until you've looked into it deeply.

Can you do a half-day school, half-day homeschooling? Give it a week and go, oh, you're definitely sitting in the school. John O'Bin and Megan. The podcast. The heads. I feel like we're in a really confusing time with car boots technology guys okay so

big issues big issues at hand here we've been doing a bit of travelling recently for work and so we'll get like an Uber or a taxi to the airport and for the most part you put your luggage in the boot of the car yeah now you've got two types of two types of drivers you know those

that are really pretty casual with how you use their boot give you free rein and then you got the other drivers and they're the drivers who are in charge of the automatic boot. And they're real jumping, really protective, because I don't know if it's an automatic one or a manual one, you know, the boot. And so once the boots open, they pop it open.

And then I'm trying to yank it down. And it's having to be forced. He's like, no, no, no, it's an automatic boot. Whereas the other, you know, the manual boot guys, they're chill. They're chill. You just like slam it as hard as you can. But it seems like a really unusual thing to get overprotective about. And what I want to say to the car industry is, can we just have one or the other?

Let's just have all manual or all automatic. Well, I feel like now it's more, it's probably like an age thing, isn't it, for the cars? It is, yeah, we're in a transitional period. Yeah, we're still got both. We're phasing out the old ones. We're getting to the new ones. And I don't know, I'm not an expert on cars, but what happens if you are trying to force an automatic one? Is that bad for it or not?

I don't know. Every time I've forced it, it's always gone down. I don't know what's happened after I've forced it. Yeah, yeah. Like, if everyone's forcing it, is that a good thing? And then it's always a little bit of a size. A silent sort of spiky reception from the driver when you get in the car after you're forced his automatic boot down. I'm trying to figure out which one I'd prefer.

I've never had a push the button, ooh-l-la, fancy one. I've always just manualed it, you know? Well, you probably have, but you've just manualed them, mate. And the drivers, they don't like it. 100% you would have had an automatic one and you've just shunted it down. No, but usually, maybe because I'm a girl and I'm weak, but they come out and they do my bags. What are you done for you? Do you not get that?

Sometimes they do come out. Yeah, I mean, I'm not fussed if they don't. They do for Ben too. He's not going to lift it back. Weak little man has no core strength. You went in an Uber and boy oh boy, he was proud of his Tesla, wasn't he? Oh, yes. Yeah.

That's the other thing. Tesla drivers, they are so happy to be driving a Tesla. It was pretty cool, but it was like, yeah, I felt like at the end of it, he was going to go, hey, do you want to buy a Tesla? We had a full narration of everything that was going on. Yeah. Because they can go in auto mode and everything, can't they? They can do a lot.

They'd love to show you every feature the Tesla has in a 25-minute car trip. I'll just take over for a minute and, okay, no, it's back doing its thing. Look, it just turns a calling. He knows when it in the game. He had a really interesting take on it, though, didn't he? He was like, the future is he's going to own a fleet of cars that they're all going to be driving themselves out there, and he's just sitting at home. He's got to do maintenance, of course, but, you know, and probably go, hey, that's an automatic boat. They're trying to figure out of the people that are going to be trying to flatten the boots in.

With no drivers in that year. Will it have a voiceover system where he's like, Hey, don't fool that down. I love it that will reach a point of driverless cars. Still, there will be people trying to pull down. Come on, I can't get the boot down. John O'Ben and Megan, the podcast. The hit.

Good morning, Alex Warren in the country at the moment. He played Christchurch on Friday. We talked to 9-year-old Peyton yesterday on the show, which was really cool. She was the person who got to go up on stage and push Alex Warren's confetti cannon to let that go during ordinary. Hi, guys.

Hi. Hi. What did you do over the... What did you manage to achieve over the weekend, Peyton? I pushed the confetti button on Alex Warren. So hang on. So you went to Alex Warren's concert in Christchurch, and you got to go... What?

Did you get on stage with him? Yeah. No. Wow. How cool. Were you close up to the front, were you, and he picked you out? We snuck around to the front. Oh, that's a good effort.

And then there's a button that someone gets to push. rains confetti down on everyone and he got you to push it. Yeah, he read my sign first. Oh, what'd your sign say? You are in my favourite dreams. Oh, that's very cute. That's really good.

That's really good. Alex is like a little problematic. That's so cool. Yeah, so very cool on Friday night but unfortunately Alex Warren yesterday bedridden could barely talk, let alone sing. So unfortunately had to cancel his Auckland show,

which is gutting. I'm sure he's the most gutted out of everyone. You know, when you're calling sick for work, not everyone's letting down 20,000 people, you know, so I'm sure it's a big decision for the poor guy to make. Totally, yeah. So full refunds for everyone, but yeah, I'm thinking of all those people who traveled, though, to see him. Oh, no, but if he can't sing, you can't sing. No, I know, but it sucks.

Yeah, like my sister, she drove down with her, you know, kids from up north to Auckland, and it was about half an hour away from our place, and it was like, yeah, hey, there's a bit of an update. Did you deliver the bad news? Did they turn around and go back? No, they stayed at about hours last night Which is nice we hung out as well But yeah

Don't lie It was nice Do you need that on a Monday night? No, I did it was nice Are they going back today, are they? They'll go back at some stage today Yeah, well Just a fun night in all, please

So your thoughts with everyone who missed out on the gig And thoughts with Alex Farrant Hopefully he's been And that's such show Would you rather The artist, if the artist is not like, you know, can move a little Would you rather they come out and just lip sync

in that situation. I don't know. I mean, it's kind of... Probably not. You could have caught a fever. Yeah. It's going around. The flu's going round.

There is a lot of folks. It's like the worst flus, you know, winter for many years, right? So, yeah. I was coughing for like nine weeks. Yeah, you were. I kept thinking it was the tail end of the whole journey. God, I hope we didn't give him influenza, eh, that's going around. Oh, no.

Sorry, Alex. Well, that'll pay the international musicians back for Elton John bringing COVID here. John O'Ben and Megan The podcast The hits Now we had There's a whole bunch of kids That came over to our house

Sunday morning Oscar My son was They got the year nine Boys over and I We're teaching them about all sorts of stuff I wasn't really paying much Yeah what's the stuff

They teach It was got They had a couple of girls Year 12 girls From another school And they came up Teaching the young boys About respect

And stuff With girls And things like that And Just I didn't I was on catering. I was on

I was on snacks making sure there were snacks and high fluids keeping the fluids up here Maybe you should have been listening You might have learnt something Sh woman You can't leave a straight face

When you do it So I could get talking to a couple of the kids And one boy He introduced himself as Barry I said Barry How old are you? He said I just turned third I said that is the oldest person's name for a young person I've ever

I've ever heard he's like oh yeah no my dad liked uh I think he's got a brother called Murray too dad like sort of straight up the guts names Matt Heath from his radio Harki now on his son's name's name's name's name's it's actually yeah I was actually yeah I was thinking of someone we know yeah it's a it's a rock solid name but it's a really it's like a I'm looking a greasy hand mechanic yeah yeah A divorce dad, you know, run in a business. That's a barrier I'm thinking of, not a 13-year-old child. But I suppose to get to the mechanic stage, you need to be a child.

Yeah, they have to be a child. You'd be right. It's one of those names that fits quite well for an adult. Like a baby called Trev, you know? Yeah. But as an adult, you're like, oh, you can see Treve. But you've got to remember, Trev was once a baby. Yeah.

It's right. Baby Barry. Have you got other people, because you deal with young kids, are there any ones with, like, old people's names? Well, my daughter's middle names, Audrey. which is... Oh, that's fairly old school. Yeah.

Yeah, Audrey. I wasn't gutsy enough to give it to her as her first name. But yeah. Because it does sound old and like... It kind of does cycles, though, isn't it? Yeah. Names that sort of, they sort of come back in again, you know? So maybe this is the new way.

Oh, yeah. I mean, 10 years ago, people will name our kids after fruit and produce. Yeah. All sorts of remote, little baby remote control and things. Maggie? I know a little... Oh, yeah. Maggie's good, that's cute, man.

Maggie have the Simpsons, though. That's the baby. Yeah. Okay, so 0800 hits This is what we want Is there a 7-year-old wandering around With the name Doris Is there an 11-year-old Janice

Oh, you're not going to do Janice, are you? Please, 4-487 on the... John O'Bennon and Megan The podcast. The Hits. We're talking about, you know, babies or young kids with sort of older-sounding names. Yeah.

But I guess what you think about it, they're only going to be a kid for so, you know, so many years. I think once you're over the age of 20, you're in clear territory. There's just 20 years where people are like, oh, okay. Your name's Doug. I love it. Colin, morning to you. How are you?

Good morning. I'm good, thanks. How are you? We're doing well. Young children with old people names. What are you got for us? Yes, I have a six-year-old niece named Mavis. Mavis.

Oh, that's not an old-sounding name, but kind of cool at the same time, right? Is there a family connection? Yes, so grandparent's on both sides of a family. Yeah, and her parents were really young when they named her that, too, 19 and 20. Mabas is a great name. It'll come back in fashion. Yeah, well, you're right. There's a great text here, too, on 4487.

We have a Vera, Ivy, Mabel in our family. Oh, I know lots of ivies, and a Mabel. You know a Mabel. You know a Mabel. Mabel sounds like she survived two world wars. Nick, young people with old people's names. Yes, my friend, Georgia, about a month ago, gave birth to a Lincoln. Oh, little baby Lincoln.

Yeah I think she's around the name in a book somewhere That's cool Yeah But it's like, oh you know Abraham Lincoln Yeah Has it already been short into something?

I don't think so I think she's stuck with Lincoln Because she thinks it's fancy Oh Someone's just text in saying Our neighbour's got a baby Gordon Gordon That's a cute little baby Gordon

This thing like Gordon Ramsie Oh yeah true I'm a idiot sandwich There's a kid at my son's school name Keith Kee Primary school Keith's a rock solid name

Keith's a good name, Keith's never going to let you down Latisha welcome Now this is your child Your little baby with an old person name Her name's Florence Oh yeah That's a cute name though isn't that Florence

But yeah Florence Pugh Her parents just wanted something that You know suited her when she was older as well Yeah. Well, that is, yeah, sometimes it can go the other way where you have kid names that are more suited to, you know, ages zero to 15. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah, you're right.

Do you know one actually that's very popular at the moment is marigold. I know, like, four marigolds. Really? And they get short into like Goldie mostly. Sounds like one of Donald Trump's casinos. Yeah. It doesn't about it. Hey, Latisha, thanks so much for your call.

Really appreciate it. All right. Thank you. Good morning. Last week, we went to Pukaha National Wildlife Centre, Mount Bruce, Warrarapa. A place I spent many school trips. It was really cool to go along there, beautiful spot, lots of lovely native bush, lots of beautiful birds as well. You don't appreciate it on a school trip, do you?

I felt like you probably appreciate it more as an adult. Yeah, you're right. And we got to do something pretty special. We got to see one of the new baby Kiwis that was only just a couple of days old. I've never seen a Kiwi in real life. I go to the zoo and they're like, this is the Kiwi enclosure in like pitch black darkness. And you're like, trust us, there's one in there. And what I didn't realize is that one of the parents of that Kiwi was like full white Kiwi.

Yeah, not albino, just like coloured white. Yeah. Not as white as my thighs. No. Very white. Yeah, you're right. It was a translucent. But yeah, we've got to meet a baby Kiwi.

Megan, what are you holding? A Kiwi egg that was infertile and it's been hollowed out. that is huge I've been told it's what it would be the equivalent of a human giving birth to a four year old Do they do C-sections here

or not for the Kiwis or not? No, not for the Kiwis She's got to do it all by herself Yeah So you can see why the male incubates them and does all the work So once she's laid it That's her done

I'm out I'm out Boy comes in and does the job Oh Jeez Today is pretty exciting Because we've got a new Kiwi chick

How old? He's nine days old Today Yes So I'm saying he but I don't know yet boy or a girl. Oh, you don't know? No, it'll be a wee while yet, but yeah.

When you did you find out? So we have to take a feather to do a DNA test. So I like to wait until they're a bit bigger because I don't want to pull the feather out. So is there nothing obvious? No, absolutely nothing. Not until they call, which is usually about a year old. So, yeah, the distinctive male-female calling,

but otherwise they look identical. Do you do like a bogan gender reveal on the caravan for that burnout? No, but we have done the smash the Kiwi egg. Obviously not a real one, but the chocolate egg. Oh, that's nice. That's nice. Oh, we love it. Yeah. No, it was a huge hit.

And the Kiwi's just eaten for the first time yesterday, is that right? By himself? Yeah, itself, sorry. Yeah, itself. So, yeah. Tricky territory, bro. Tricky territory. Miss you in 2026. I don't know what to know anymore. Okay. Okay, yeah. So what is the Kiwi eating? So we cut the ox heart into strips. So catch us prepared some.

So we're going to, yeah, looks like little mini worms. Makes it easy for the chick to pick up and then swallow. So they'll feed off this for the first few weeks and then we'll start introducing the bugs and grubs and normal stuff that they eat and then yeah he'll go outside and be a proper little wild Kiwi and the name so far a lovely MB 1-130

131 oh yeah oh yeah okay so MB is Matt Bruce where he's come from and then 131st chick to actually it's part of the programme yeah it needs proper name and so how many Kiwis are there in the wild in New Zealand? Oh gosh in the wild there's about 70,000 across the country

probably more now that's a world are we worried about that number or that's a good number? That's a really good number really, really good. So people are starting to report them in their houses and on farms. Came in my mum's cat or up north. I just see that one. She gave it exclusive to stuff, not to us. But anyway, that's fine.

That's a story for another day. You know your son works in the... Anyway, that's fine. That's my family issues. You don't need to hear my family issues. We just stop the recording after that. He's got a little sad to me. Sorry about that, guys.

But it really is awesome. If you end the Wadadadap, I go along to Pook. Wild Life Center. John O'Bennon and Megan, the podcast. The hits. Speaking of Olivia Dean. We have Olivia Dean tickets to give away. We're doing a fun little game to see how many baby steps it takes one of us to walk around a particular location.

Now, we, some misinformation, fake news media. We said it was our last day of Olivia Dean tickets today. Olivia's like, well, two more. Yeah, have another double for tomorrow, which is great. She's being reckless with her tickets to Livyade. So yeah, yesterday went to the supermarket. The mission was simple bread, milk, frozen vegetables. The location on the exact opposite side of the supermarket for when you enter.

Now, a lot of people guessing the steps, it is sort of in the 1,000 category, but one person has got it bang on. A lot of text coming through. It really does saturate the text machine, isn't it? Well, people are desperate to go. Yeah, a sold-out show. Hello, Eric, speaking. Oh, Erica, how are you?

I'm good, how are you? It's Jono Ben and Megan from the John O'Benomedeer Radio Experience. Holy shit. That's right. Now, any chance we get it off speakerphone there, Erica. We're going to need crystal clear sound for what we're about to talk about. Okay, give me a second. Okay, is that better?

That's way better. Dolby Digital Surround Sound, Erica. Now, the baby steps went to the supermarket yesterday. baby steps do you think it took me to collect the items? 1331. 1331. Well, I'm going to take you, because I figured that the finish line was the self-service checkout. Okay.

We'll take you there now. Welcome. Please scan your first item. Okay, I'm at the self-sour's checkout, and it's official to get bread, milk and frozen vegetables. I took 1,331 baby steps. Hey! Congratulations. You've got a double pass to see Olivia Dean.

Oh, that's so good. Thank you so much. Were you one of these people who, you know, put their life on hold to wait online to buy the tickets? Absolutely. Oh, well, you did it and now you've got the tickets. Awesome. Thank you very much. You've just got to find which one of your friends or families worthy enough to go with you. Oh, no, I've got someone in mind. Oh, let's talk about them. Who are we thinking of?

One of my best buddies, Emma. Absolutely love Olivia. Should we call Emma? Should we call Emma? Listen to this soulless radio host just looking for content. Should we call her? Sure. Tell her the good news.

Hello? Hello? How are you? Who is it? It's Jono Ben and Megan from the hits here. Oh. I feel like we might have woken you up. I'm sorry about that.

No, no, no. You're confusing me, though. Yeah. We have some good news. This is a good. the good phone call to get. Okay. We've got your friend Erica on the phone.

I just got us tickets to Olivia, your dean, mate. You're joking. You're bloody joking, man. Where? When? Can I go now? Unfortunately you have to wait to October 17,

but she just won them off us on the hats. Oh, Erica, you're a bloody stah. Oh, I know, right. My God, I can wear my new frock. You can. Apparently, pocodots are the things are wear. Apparently, my daughters were saying. A lot of her fans wear polka dots to the concerts.

They do, you're absolutely right. Oh my God. God, I can't quite believe this. Is that real? This is real. This is real.