Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - Show Highlights: The Sexism Scandal

Episode Date: November 12, 2023

A typo that really stitched us up... Tayla's public apology Jono's birthday present See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Hits, with the Jono and Ben podcast. Thanks to Challenge, putting the service back into service stations. Is everyone's weekend alright? It's good. Tired this morning. It's always a good way to start the week. It is. I woke up this morning and Joel reminded me it was my birthday today. Oh yeah. I completely forgot. The older you get, the less you like to remember birthdays, Joel. So thank you.

And I think I, so if I'm 81, 42. Is that 42? Yeah. Oh Jesus. No if I'm 81, 42. Is that 42? Yeah. Oh, Jesus. No wonder I'm tired. You're not meant to really start the week feeling super tired, are you? The weekend's normally when you catch up. How was your weekend, Eli? It was good.

You know, tried and failed to get some Taylor Swift tickets, but we'll talk more about that later on. Oh, yeah, you said you were going to dedicate a large part of your weekend to it. We did spend a couple of hours on Friday night. We tried. The family had four computers going. We got into the room once because you have to wait until you're waiting to get let through. Almost like Ticketek is like a bouncer letting you into a club. And then we finally got in there at one stage, one of the computers.

But allocation was exhausted for four tickets and all the options. So yeah, so it wasn't to be. but hey um congratulations to everyone they got tickets tell you who's exhausted this 42 year old mate you want to talk about exhausted allocations uh i now ben for years you've been uh you've been warning me haven't you about my scooter usage my electric scooter usage yeah you're like you're to come off it one day. Yeah. Well, you know when that day was? Did it happen? Mm.

Ah. Saturday, not good, mate. Elbows all bloody. Oh, when was this? Elbows, back, legs. Saturday afternoon. Oh. You go so fast, though.

You just, you don't. I went to the dairy neck minute. Yeah. Yeah, just came flying off. And you know when you're, you're hurtling towards the ground, it's all like in slow motion. And as you're going to the ground, I had that thought through my head.

I'm like, well, this doesn't look like it's going to be fun. And the worst thing too is when you're in public, people see you come off and it's skidding along the road. And you get up very quickly. You don't feel the pain then. No, I'm good. Someone will ask if you're good and you always pretend you're good

yeah no no I'm good and then you get there's blood all over the scooter oh is it really that bad yeah drips of blood on the footpath it was not pretty

I have you've warned me you've warned me you must be you must be like a parent a told you so parent but everyone could tell it was going to happen

at some stage. But even this morning, we were walking because we did the walking school bus from an area, from the car park because, you know, we have to walk

probably about 500, 600 metres, not far, but at five o'clock in the morning, it can be a little dodgy. So we all kind of wait for everyone to get together. So there's people

from other stations, but you park somewhere, I don't know, you park somewhere else and you scooter along and then we saw you flying past and someone shouted, but you park somewhere, I don't know, you park somewhere else, and you scooter along, and then we ever saw you flying past, and someone shouted, What did I pass you?

Oh, geez, John, I was going faster than a scooter, so that was this morning. Someone said that. Back to it. So that's on, yeah. That's on me again, learn. You know the thing, too, with blood, is it goes bloody everywhere.

Sheets all over the kitchen floor. Gee, my eyes are like, you've smeared blood on the cupboard doors. It's not pretty. But then I looked into, over the kitchen floor. Gee, my eyes are like, you've smeared blood on the cupboard doors. It's not pretty. But then I looked into over the last four years, ACC have paid out $30 million in e-scooter accidents. Oh, really? 30 mil.

Well, I think it's tailed off a little bit since the frenzy of the start where everyone was on them. There was a wild period there. Well, I'm bringing it back up. There you go. So well done, Ben. You did tell me so. The Hits, the Jono and Ben podcast.

Okay, we normally motivate you with something that we've stolen from social media. Yeah, usually from some sort of chiseled, tanned, bleach-haired sort of guy on Instagram sitting on a beach somewhere. But today, what's more motivational than hearing motivation from the people who are up with you at this time of hour Tim got in touch with us And he joins us on the phone this morning Welcome

Lovely to have you on You sound like a motivated guy Mostly, yeah We all have our days, don't you Some days more so than others How motivated are you feeling today? Mildly, I've got a bit of pieces to do, well, stuff I should be doing,

but my motivation led me down to New Brighton Beach to play Pokemon Go. Oh, hey. That's a great start to the day. Well, normally we give Monday morning motivation and we normally steal something from Instagram, we play it, and then we talk about it

and decide whether it's worthy of motivating everyone for the week. But you text in something, what you use, a little saying that you use for motivation. We thought, well, maybe you could have the responsibility of motivating everyone this week. Yeah, it's not necessarily mine. It's just something I've adopted. Basically, it's called giving it the dog treatment. It's basically no matter what life throws at you, just give it the dog treatment. It's basically no matter what life throws at you,

just give it the dog treatment. Just kick some grass over that crap and move on. Oh, the old dog treatment. That's not bad. Yeah. Okay, so move on. Don't linger with something. That's the one.

People spend so much time lingering on stuff they can't change and they can't fix. And, yeah, stressing over stuff. And basically, the longer you're stressing, you're just going to start feeling crappy. And yeah, just kick some grass over it and move on. That's a really good way to approach life, isn't it? Because what happens, happens. Can't change that.

Can't undo that unless you've ruined a home renovation or something. You can probably, you can't undo that. You can fix that. But then you move on to fix it I guess in some regards. Get on to the next thing. That's the one Great, that makes me feel a lot better about all the terrible things I've done in my life

just move on. The last one, can't change first. Hey hey I love it great job. The dog theory Do we also go to the lavatory in public as well if we're applying dog theories? I don't know. I think the cops might have something to say.

Yeah, that's true. Do I start inappropriately sniffing Ben? Oh, yeah, that too. Or anyone else for that matter. All right, I love it. Monday Morning Motivation. Thanks so much. No worries.

Have a great day, guys. The Hits, the Jono and Ben podcast. Well, you knew I was going to go home and do this particular thing with the family, didn't you? Yeah, I thought, jeez, there's no chance of you even getting these. These were Taylor Swift tickets that sort of turned up. So these were the obstructed tickets. Oh, not just that, though. They released some more seating in the stadium, including obstructed areas as well.

So not a limited amount of Taylor Swift tickets. What is obstructed? Are you behind the stage in front of a wall in front of you? What is justified as obstructed? I'm not entirely sure. I guess you've got some sort of obstructed view, as the name would suggest. But yeah, there was tickets, a limited release for Australia

when she comes next year, Melbourne and Sydney. So we wanted to jump on board. My daughter Sienna was in here. She had a teacher's only day day on Friday So she was in here That's all she could talk about We had the mics rolling I'm going to set up four computers No five

Because we're the two in the lounge Four computers Yeah Four computers So this is your plan No Five I don't know how many computers

I'm going to go How many computers have you got? So I have my computer Dad's computer Mum's computer I don't know Indy's iPad Or the neighbour's computer

I can lend you my computer Yes please How does it work though? Dad's computer, mum's computer, Indy's iPad, or the neighbour's computer I can lend you my computer. Yes, please. How does it work though? So you get into like a waiting room, you get into a waiting list and then people are just plucked out of I've heard it's random But I don't know and then you have I've had this before and you have ten minutes when you're in that thing to be selected I can't remember what concert I got and that's a stressful time because're like, they just give you the tickets and you do want these. And you're like, well, if they're not the tickets that you want, you're like, I can get cheaper ones, but I've been allocated these.

I don't care. I'm just going to press yes. As soon as it comes up. Do you refresh or not? Oh, so you're well known. You've won a corporate box. And you're like, no, no, no. $29,000.

All right. We'll see how we go. I'm going to get these tickets or I'm going to cry. Okay. Well, there might be a little bit of tears in your future. So that was my daughter Sienna when she was in here on Friday. We went home on Friday and spent hours with multiple computers open trying to get Taylor Swift tickets. You saw some sort of like international hacking team.

Yeah, it did feel like that as well. We sort of had them on. You kept looking at the computers, kept going, oh no, we're not in yet. And then eventually, at one stage, after hours and hours, one of the computers let us through into the area. We were like, oh, this is happening. And then we got through and they said, tickets allocated.

Allocation's exhausted. I was like, I'm exhausted, mate. Not you. You can't be exhausted. So we couldn't get four tickets. How many tickets could you get? I'm not sure. In the end, we lost our, panicked and distressed and we lost our time. I reckon you might have got maybe one or two at that stage, but not four. And then, so we didn't end up getting Taylor Swift tickets.

At the end of the day, it would have been a very expensive weekend. Look at the silver lining. Was the high worth the pain, Ben? Well, hey, we did it. We sat around while we had a few Friday night drinks and did some stuff. And, you know, so it was on kind of in the background. Feels like they've created a system that really whips people up into a stressed up frenzy. It does, yeah.

Who invented this? Yeah, well, I'm sure that people that have waited longer. Like, we waited hours for these tickets. But I'm sure people have waited in line or waited for things for hours before. Yeah, okay, I wait 100 of the hits. We're going to open this up on a Monday morning. Longest waits. What have you got?

I have spent on the phone line before probably about two hours, 45 minutes with councils, with the Inland Revenue Department, and you hear a medley of all of our greatest domestic friendly rock and roll hits. You're right, yeah. Dave Dobbin, 660, bit of Golden Horse. Maybe tomorrow. Oh, Andrew, the hits, 4487, make me feel better

because we waited for hours and got no tickets. What have you waited for hours for? The hits, the Jono and Ben podcast. I wanted to feel a little better this morning. When have you waited hours and hours for something? Just imagine you would have been fighting and cursing other 12-year-old girls, mate. Wendy, longest time waiting. What was it for you, mate?

It was on hold to end New Zealand. CFL sites are still going. How long were you waiting for? I think it was about eight hours. I put it on hold, went to bed, woke up, and it was still playing. Did you see it through the whole night? Yeah. Wow.

And then did they pick the call up in the morning? Yeah, they did. And just told us, yeah, the flight's still going. It was worth the wait. Oh, wow. We're going to send you out some help each of this morning. Thank you so much for your call Hopefully we didn't make you wait for too long

on hold there. Yeah, how long were you waiting for, Wendy? Uh, no, only two seconds Yeah, no, that's good, we like to keep a pretty tight ship there, don't we? Gordon with us on 0800, the hits this morning, talking longest waits, Gordon, how are you? Yeah, good In Christchurch this morning, longest

time you've waited for something? About three and a half hours for KFC. Three and a half hours for KFC. Jeez, you must love the Colonel. Yeah, when was this? It was just around about, I think it was just when the pandemic, the first day the restaurant opened after the pandemic. Oh, so this is when we could all have fast food again and everyone went bonkers for it wasn't it called tea day or something take away

day and everyone goes i'm gonna go for takeaways so how many people in front of you were you in cars were you on uh it was down i think it was uh yeah the side street was was completely blocked people couldn't even get out out down the drives because of people waiting to get into the drive-thru. I remember the time too when there were gang members ferrying KFC across the border. Because you couldn't have it.

It was a wild time. And was it worth the wait? No, because it was burnt when I got it because they were doing so much. And when I took it home to my ex and the kids, it was burnt when I got it because they they were doing so much and when I took it home to my ex and the kids yeah

it was burnt so I had to call up and complain so you took a plane and they're like yeah come on down mate we'll refund you

and you're like what another five hours oh well there you go three and a half hours for KFC that's brilliant Gordon thank you very much alright cheers mate

the hits the Jono and Ben podcast. A bit of a sexism scandal over the weekend for the show. Online sexism scandal. To be honest, it's the last thing we need to be is embroiled in a tornado of sexism. But it was all accidental. I thought it was a joke. Well, let's find out the backstory.

Producer Tala, you came to us last week. You know, like Patrick Dempsey, who people will know from TV from many years ago. Grey's Anatomy. Grey's Anatomy, yeah. Mick Dreamy. Yeah, he was. He really is. Grey's Anatomy's now his hairdo, isn't it?

Yeah. He's still a good-looking guy, and he's been just voted sexiest man of the year. 2023, yes, by People magazine. Yeah. So it's a beautiful front cover, and I said, oh, my God, let's front foot this, guys. Let's recreate our own version. You know, we're ahead of the wheel. So let's do it.

So I got our awesome social gal Rach to create a front cover of you two topless on the People magazine front cover saying sexiest men. Sexiest? Yeah. Sexiest men. Now I looked at this photo and I'm like... Sexiest men alive. Yeah, sexiest men alive. And I looked at this photo and I'm like, sexiest man alive. Sexiest man alive. I looked at this photo and I was thinking, I don't think Taylor believes that we're the sexiest men alive. Given the image that you use.

So, okay, you just go on. It was us shirtless. You guys shirtless and we came up with funny catchphrases for both of you. I said maybe we put a question mark so we don't look too arrogant. Don't worry, mate. I don't think anyone was thinking we were believing believing You know, we were putting out this, we don't look like we're propaganda We're like, hey look Wes, I was like a question mark would be good, right?

And then there were little quips on there as well Bleak and bald for me Yeah, that was yours When he's lacking in hair, he's making up in wrinkles for you Bony and bleak for me And so over the weekend, this went up. We shared it across all our multiple social media accounts. And then I didn't realize until looking at the comment on Sunday,

someone said, ha, ha, ha, about the typo. Or was it a typo? Question mark. So then you had texted Taylor in our group text. You're like, what was this? Was it meant to say sexist? Sexist. Sexist men meant to say sexist? Sexist. Sexist men alive.

Not sexiest men. I'm not. Because even I'd written underneath, though, sexiest men. And then I look back and I'm like, oh, my God, that says sexist men alive. Question mark. Thank God I put the question mark in there. Who's happy I put the question mark in there now? Now, Jen, my wife, she actually front-footed this with me on Sunday

She's like, is this meant to say sexist men alive? She's like, because Ben's posted it on your Jono and Ben account Like you're proud of it She said, that's very off-brand for Ben And I was like, oh yeah, I think it's just the gag Sexist, I think he must be mad-dogging it or something Honestly, the fact that you thought that was's just the gag sexist I think he must be mad dogging it or something honestly the fact that you thought that was part of the gag is concerning

why was I sexist so what happened because it feels like a hit job on us right so I went back on my emails to make sure I didn't accidentally brief the sexist men alive and I did check it did in fact say sexiest so unfortunately

Rach you know, because we do send her a lot of edits. It was a Friday afternoon. It's something that can definitely happen. It's funny. She's mortified. Don't be mortified. Don't be mortified.

She's like, take it down now. I'm like, no, no, it's too late, mate. Listen, autocorrect has stitched us up. AI generated madness. Not to mention it's grammatically incorrect as well. Sexist? Man alive. Sexist man alive.

Sexist comma, man alive. These guys are sexist. So there we go. There's a backstory to it if you see it. It's on our socials. Yeah, we're leaving it up. It's still there. It's still there.

I'm like, what's up there now? No shame. The damage has been done. The hits. The Jono and Ben podcast. Now, it was last week that producer Taylor jumped on and told us something that happened last weekend, right? Yeah, what?

No, just to recap, Taylor, it was a retail incident, wasn't it? Yes, so I bought three items and was charged incorrectly. They underpriced me by $30, and I left the store, and then I was contacted by them from email saying I owed them $30. And you were like, well, this is not my issue. You undercharged me and you wouldn't have my email if you didn't need to send a receipt. Exactly.

And I didn't really think anything of it at the time because it was a store three hours away. I was already back in Auckland. So not much I could have done regardless. So we spoke about this a week ago, exactly a week ago and then on Saturday we have the Saturday morning show that

we replay some bits from the week. Our best bits from the week and we thought, well this is worthy of a best bit because it got such great reactions. It did, yeah. And so you know, this was some of the calls that came through a week ago. Now that they've actually reached out, I've been the person behind the till, hit the wrong button before, got to the end of the calls that came through a week ago. Now that they've actually reached out, I've been the person behind the till, hit the wrong button before,

got to the end of the day, my till's been out. Since I've reached out, you've got to pay. Otherwise, Karma, she'll come and get you. Yeah, so a lot of people sort of throwing the moral, where's your moral compass at, Taylor? Now, we replayed this bit on Saturday,

and boy, it kicked off again. Had another breath of life on the text machine. And on our social media as well. I mean, hundreds, without a word of a lie, hundreds of comments. And your credibility has been caught in the question, hasn't it? Yeah, yeah.

I think it makes it worse for people that you're Australian too. They're using that as well. They're coming in with the Aussie angle. I just want to preface this as well by saying I did actually email the store back and said, cool, send me your bank details because I'm not driving back three hours to pay for your mistake um and they ghosted me so they haven't got back

to you so you have done the honorable thing okay so this was your front foot of the air okay but anyway no one knows this that have texted texting through and we thought we'd play some oh well right now you can read out some of our favourite messages right now. Hit the music, Producer Joel. Shows what kind of person you is. Also bringing the other uglies out too. It's actually just highlighting your really incorrect grammar. Okay, no, wait, let's over crack it. You should have heard her reading these next door before. And the response that she was giving.

You knew the price and agreed to that. By law, you should go to jail. Jail? A bit excessive. Prison time. By law, you should go to jail. Jail? A bit excessive. Prison time. Oh, okay. No, fair enough. Fair enough.

Yes, jail. You decide, but it will haunt your soul if you don't pay up. No, I think I'm all good, eh? Has it been haunting your soul? No, I've been sleeping quite well, actually. What an immature person. Be honest, bro, and go pay what's due. Okay.

Everything wrong with New Zealand in one clip. You guys should take offense to that. Yeah, yeah. We love to do that as well. Yeah, I think definitely we are. You can tell she was not raised the right way. Can you sleep at night knowing that poor store worker was deducted the $30 in wages?

Now, how do we know that? How do you actually know that? Did you go ring them up and ask? Because I didn't name the store. Don't assume. Sucks that she knew and didn't have the decency to even mention it. You might be a hardworking Kiwi, but you're not an honest one. Oh, my God.

Wow. Touching. Typical Aussie criminal behavior. Shame on you. You better. And so can your spelling, hun. An honest person would. You're clearly a bad person. Wow. Taylor, well, just so you know, we agree with every single one of those comments. I thought so. That's why you made me do this. Yeah. So there we go. Well, thank you for your feedback. But just so you know, it's all been cleared.

So everyone, yous can sleep at night, yeah? It's your birthday, John, and you got a great present from the Auckland City Council. Just three. Three envelopes arrived. Three. Every week,

I feel like we're talking on the radio. People must be like, shut up about your tickets, but these really affect my life So many tickets They obviously clearly don't You got one for driving in a bus lane I did

And we all enjoyed the photo There's about 150 bucks We all enjoyed the photo Because producer Taylor What's the photo? Because they always send photographic evidence Right so there's clearly no one Even in the appropriate lane

You had two lane choices I don't understand why you would just go, oh, stuff it, we'll drive in the bus lane. There's no traffic. Stay in your lane, buddy. Literally, stay in your lane. And then parking. It's my birthday.

What have I done to these people? What have I done? Honestly. I'm going to have to explain this when I get home. Shocking. And then you come in, Taylor, and you're like, oh, it's your birthday. How old are you again?

You're like, oh, it's also Ryan Gos How old are you again? You're like, oh, it's also Ryan Gosling's birthday too. Look at him. You're like, look at him showing me this shirtless photo of Gosling looking about 22. I just think it's crazy

that you guys are pretty much the same age. Like, wow. And I look 10 years younger. It is crazy. It's crazy. Now, what we found crazy as well on Friday,

producer Taylor, was that we went to all this trouble through the help of the hits, you know, family, friends. We got these cheese rolls, the iconic cheese roll from Southland, all the way from the Batch Cafe up here to Auckland. It took days. It took everyone pitching and helping out. And this was your reaction when you tasted a cheese roll for the first time.

Have a listen. At least I pretend like you're enjoying it. And? Initial thoughts? She's cringed. Why is there onion in it? Because it's part of the recipe. It's cheese, onion, and zinni.

Oh. It's like a French onion with, like, crap on it. I'm sorry. I don't want to be. Do you not like it? Don't Don't Oh anything French onion With like crap I'm sorry I don't want to You are Do you not like it Don't like it I think we'll stick to

Ham and cheese toasties We'll like Swallow it Swallow it Yeah I did eventually Yeah One bite is all you could manage

I don't Oh yeah I just hate Hate onion dip The lengths we went to To get you this Five day old Cheese roll Well to dip. The lengths we went to to get you this five-day-old cheese roll. It was a year. Well, to be honest, the lengths you went to, the logistics you organised,

and for you to not even enjoy it at the finish line? I wanted to. I really wanted to. I thought I'd be officially Kiwi if I liked it, but sorry, I'm not going to fake it. Well, we were a little hurt. Yeah, we were hurt. To be honest. So we thought we'd get, we were a little hurt. Yeah, we were hurt. To be honest.

So we thought, oh, we'll get science involved. Surely there's some sort of scientific explanation that your Australian criminal genes won't let you enjoy this cheese roll. So next we're going to talk to someone from the University of Auckland. They basically study taste buds. And can we train you to enjoy it? Hopefully. Yeah, we want to know, on 0800 The Hits as well,

4487, what's not, basically your taste, what do you not like? What's not to your liking? Maybe it's stuff that everyone else loves. You can text 24487. We'll find out if we can not leave a nasty taste in your mouth. Tell you what's not to my taste, bud, it's parking tickets. The Hits, the Jono and Ben podcast.

Now, what's not to your taste on 0800 The Hits? Because producer Taylor does not like a cheese roll. We thought everyone liked a cheese roll from Southland, so now we've got science involved to see if we can particularly change your taste. We saw in the news that Andrew Schelling, he's a taste expert, he invented these new taste kits for the new Heineken Silver low-carb beers. And as he's a taste expert, we thought we'd get him on this morning. Andrew, how are you?

Very good, thank you. Lovely to have you on. So far, leaving a good taste, bad taste in your mouth. It's a good story. It's good, yeah. We leave a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths. So it's really fascinating the work that you do. You work for the University of Auckland, right?

Exactly, yep. And you've developed a taste kit. Kind of what you explained. I always got to mansplain it to you, but you mansplained it back. Okay. It's a little strip that you can put on your tongue and it contains a bit of compounds. It's got a terrible name, phenylthiocarbamide,

which we'll just call it PTC. It's a bitter taste. Some of us can taste it and we'll go, wow, that's really bitter. We call that person a super taster. Some of us can taste it and we'll go, wow, that's really bitter. We call that person a super taster. Some of us can, oh, I can just taste it, and you're called a taster. And some of us don't taste it at all,

and you're called a non-taster. What we understand by this test is that those that are super tasters don't like bitter. Don't like bitter, okay. Yep, so more likely to not eat things like, you know, broccoli, spinach, strong coffee, beer. Are our taste buds genetically predisposed? Yeah, so a lot about taste is about genetics because millions of years ago, if we came across a new vegetable or fruit or something like that and we tasted it and it was bitter,

it could have been poisonous. So we've retained this ability to detect bitterness very, very sensitively because in the old days it could have killed us. But do your taste buds change over time or do you just become more used to this sort of food? Yeah, you're exactly right. So we start off disliking bitter flavours intensely. Most kids hate bitter stuff.

Exposure to a range of foods over time, and people do change their taste perception. We sort of get conditioned to some flavors, so we can partly overcome our genetics. But there might be some other advantages. So most people hate coffee when they're younger, but it affects adrenaline. I've already had four coffees this morning, so adrenaline. You're sounding good. You're sounding alert, Andrew.

Yeah, because you're right. Coffee's not a great tasting thing, but then coffee drinkers, like a lot of people, they learn to kind of love it, right? Exactly. So just sort of climatisation. So we can overcome the genetics to a certain extent, but we'll still have that bitter taste in our mouth. So you can bully your taste buds just through persistence

into liking stuff. Yep, getting the hang of it. Most kids like RTDs and things like that, sweet stuff. Yep, yep, getting the hang of it. And, you know, most kids like RTDs and things like that, you know, sweet stuff. And as you get older, you might get into craft beer and things like that. Gotcha. Now, we'll get, Producer Taylor, we'll get Taylor in

because last week, Andrew, you know the humble cheese roll from Southland? Yeah, yep. We transported one all the way from Invercargill to our studio. It was a five-day process, a lot of logistics, and it had finally arrived. Now, Taylor's Australian, so we're like,

we need to treat you to this slice of New Zealand culinary history. Yeah. And she tried it and absolutely hated it. So one of the things we wanted to talk to you about was, why should we be offended, and do we revoke her residency and send her back to Australia? I would have thought that was a pretty good solution yeah but she needs she probably needs to try it again and again and again to get that conditioning going. Condition yourself

Taylor what do you think? I'm fine with the one bite I had but yeah that does make sense. Well because it's interesting when you say about taste we did a chilli eating competition uh Jono and I a few years ago and we ate a lot of hot chili spicy chilies and then afterwards after we'd done that we had like i think we had a beer afterwards and the beer tasted sweet and my taste buds for 24 hours everything tasted sweet it was like my taste buds had gone haywire yeah yeah you've probably switched a whole lot of things on it's hard to switch off so uh would have stayed with you for a while it did it felt like three days for me. Yeah. It really reset, I was like, you know, when you reset your

computer. Taste buds, eh? What's one fun fact you can tell us about taste buds? Well, we've got about 10,000 taste buds in our mouths, and each of them have got hundreds of different specialised cells and there are zillions of different receptors. There are actually 25 different genes that taste bitterness

that have stayed in our DNA for millions of years, haven't been removed. In every person, 25 different genes. Wow. They were fun for you. I see one fun fact, I've got two out of you. Andrew from the University of Auckland. Very, very fascinating.

If you want to, so these taste kits for Heineken are going to be in some bars around the country. The Hits, the Jono and Ben podcast. How about you? Anything? Well, nothing. You're pretty open to all flavours, aren't you? Yeah, I mean, when it comes to fruit and vegetables, you know I like

those, but yams, I'm not... Yams and parsnips, but they don't come up that often, you know? To be honest, I haven't tried one for many years. As a kid, yams and parsnips. I wouldn't even be able to remember what a yam flavour is. It's a yam. Jeez, you tried one for many years. As a kid, yams and pasta. I wouldn't even be able to remember what a yam flavor is. Geez, you're done deep for that example. There's not much that I want. Something really spicy maybe, but I'll still be like, but yeah, yeah, yeah. You give me a yam, I'll eat it, but I probably won't enjoy it.

All right, Louie's with us on 0800. What's not to your taste, Louis? Well, it's a strange one. It's the color red. For whatever reason, it's really off-putting. I actually couldn't stand letting it touch me or having shoes with the color red or even a watch face that has red or anything that had to do with red. It used to be very bad.

It used to be almost nauseating, but it's not so much a problem anymore. How did you work through that? Oh, well, actually a bit of therapy for that. Similar to therapy that you'd get if you're scared of elevators or high heights. You slowly expose yourself to the thing that's annoying, and then over time it gets to be less of a problem. Do you know where it's steamed from? No idea, mate. No idea.

It was quite bad a couple of years ago. I had some other issues going on, but red was certainly one of them. How did you avoid the color red, like on a day-to-day basis? Because I'm looking now and there's this red stuff everywhere. I guess when you notice it, you're probably going to notice it a lot more. No, no, no, no, no. When you look at my, uh, when you look at my house and, uh, uh, the clothes that I wear, red is almost completely gone out of it. Nothing, nothing red in the household. No, no, nothing red in the house. Um, what like a red capsicum or something in the fridge or, you know, like vegetables don't bother me. It's, it's stuff that's close to me like clothes. Yeah, right. Artwork,

dials that I look at, red buttons, red lights on the dashboard. That usually doesn't mean a good thing anyway. No one wants to see those, that's for sure. Well, geez, you'd be a nightmare in the mongrel, Bob, wouldn't you? There's a lot of places you'd be, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, that's right. Red pen? What about a red pen? Like, if you're writing something in a red pen? No, no, that's not going to work. Not going to work? Well, hey, I'm glad you've worked through it to a certain point where you can handle it somewhat. That's really interesting.

I really appreciate you sharing your story, Louie. Yeah, no worries, mate. Yeah, no worries, anytime. Keep them coming through. 800 The Hits, what's not to your taste?