Suggestible - Everybody loves a mixtape

Episode Date: October 17, 2019

Suggestible things to watch, read and listen to hosted by James Clement @mrsundaymovies and Claire Tonti @clairetonti.Eleanor & ParkMike BoydRide Like a GirlPAW Patrol: Mighty PupsTwists of FateVoicemails From StrangersCharmed Theme SongFollow the show on Instagram and Twitter @suggestiblepod or visit www.planetbroadcasting.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We can wait for clean water solutions, or we can engineer access to clean water. We can acknowledge indigenous cultures, or we can learn from indigenous voices. We can demand more from the earth, or we can demand more from ourselves. At York University, we work together to create positive change for a better tomorrow. Join us at yorku.ca slash write the future. All right, we're on, Sunny Pop. Join us at yorku.ca slash write the future. to talk about the thing that you want to talk about this week. So I figure you're probably not going to listen to me and you're just going to be thinking about things I'm going to say. I am. I'm really going to listen. So what my suggestion is, why don't you go first this week?

Ooh, controversial. Okay, I have two things I want to talk about and I love them both. The first one, it's going to surprise you, is not the one I wanted to talk about initially. It is a book. It's called Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. I know you really want me to talk about the second thing, don't you? But I'll keep you in suspense. I don't want you to talk about anything, Claire.

I want to go and have a nap. I'll keep you on your toes. Do you like Freaks and Geeks, James? Yeah, I do. Do you like Pretty in Pink? Wait, do you mean the movie or the people? Both, but the movie. It's not a movie.

It's a TV show. I'm sorry. You're the worst. Do you though? Yes. Excellent. Great. You are so annoying.

Right. Well, Eleanor and Park is one of my favourite books and I've been saving it up to share with everybody and I'm so excited. Yeah. Okay, so Eleanor is a new girl in town and with her chaotic family life, her mismatched clothes and unruly red hair, she couldn't stick out more if she tried.

Oh, my God. She sounds like a bloody regular girl but she's just trying to make a bloody girl put in the world. This is a young adult novel and it just reminds you of what it is to be a teenager. Sure. And Park is the boy at the back of the bus. He's Park Korean, wears black T-shirts, headphones, head in a book,

loves comic books. He thinks he's made himself invisible from everyone. He's too cool. He's aloof. But not to Eleanor. Never to Eleanor. And a romance kind of ensues from there. And it's just, it reminds you of what it is to be in love as a teenager,

to kind of live in that heightened technicolor world. Oh, my God, you couldn't pay me enough to be in love as a teenager again. No, but I really think you'd love it because you love freaks and geeks. And what's beautiful about this, it's actually quite raw. There's some really confronting scenes about Eleanor's family life and what she has to go through. They deal with issues of abuse and violence, domestic violence, particularly. It also talks a lot about like sexuality as teenagers, what it's like to be a misfit and an outcast at school. And they connect through what I love and have so much nostalgia for, the mixtape.

The mixtape. Of course for, the mixtape. Remember mixtapes? Of course I remember the mixtape. Oh, mate, and that's the best thing. You had a few people make you some mixtapes back in the day. I did back in the day. I did. And so Park has this Walkman and he spends his whole life reading comics, particularly X-Men because they're all about being kind of misfits

and outcasts and they come together. I'll stop you right there, Claire. Never heard of them. I don't know what you're talking about. This is one of the reasons I wanted to recommend it to you and to your listeners. What year is it set? It's set in the 80s.

Okay, right. Yeah, so it's set in the 80s. So the era before iTunes and Spotify took over the world, all of these things. So remember when you – to find music, you had to really dig for it and you had to kind of have equipment that you could listen to and it was expensive. And Eleanor has no money so she has all these lists of bands she wants to hear the music of

but she's never actually heard. Right, right. She lives in a really chaotic household. So he starts to share his music with her like The Smiths and Joy Division and U2 and Elvis Costello and through that music. Yeah, correct. Really? No, not Wham.

And through that music they sort of form this friendship Wham. Yeah, correct. Really? Oh, I don't know. No, not Wham. And through that music they sort of form this friendship and then it sparks into love. But it's kind of – it's not tragic but it's heartbreaking too and heart-wrenching. Okay. I really recommend this book. Do you remember recording songs off the wireless? Yeah, yes.

And you'd wait – sometimes you'd just like hit record just because you didn't know what it was and you're like, well, I want to get a new song and who knows what it is. And so every now and then it's like the exact song that you wanted and then it would just stay there for years. Oh, yeah. You wouldn't dare record over. And then you just have to kind of just keep adding to the tape. You can't go back and edit anything off.

And what I loved about that too is that I would listen to songs and then because I listened so often to them in that particular order, I would hear the next song coming. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and I remember that feeling of sitting on the bus because they meet on the school bus. Sure. And that feeling of having your headphones in and kind of hating the world

and feeling like you're an outcast and no one understands you. You're not an outcast but no one gets you. You know, you're really different. And musiccast but no one gets you, you know. You're really different. And music's a good escape. Yeah, it is. And kind of watching the world go by as a teenager in that kind of mood and listening to music that you treasure and love and it kind of lets you escape.

Yeah, and you kind of do appreciate it because you really had to work for it. But that being said, I wouldn't go back to that in a heartbeat. No. Like I really enjoy being able to choose any song ever. Oh, yeah. It's incredible. But there's definitely something lost there. And it's weird because we didn't even really grow up.

We grew up in also a generation where you could buy CDs or make CDs, but it wasn't technology that was widely available to everybody. No, and it was expensive too. I had a Walkman because I couldn't afford a Discman. I had a Walkman and then I saved up for a Discman for my final year at school. Oh, so cool. And then you'd have to have that pouch full of CDs. And a Discman is no good to carry either because a Walkman fits in your pocket

because it's like a square or rectangle. But a Discman doesn't fit in anything. No, it's annoying. It's the size of a CD except much bigger. And I actually loved my Walkman too because you could record into it. Oh, mine didn't do that. Oh, well, mine did. I loved that because I was always trying to write music and things,

so I was always recording myself. And I remember like my headphones would break or the Walkman was dodgy, so I'd have to hold it in a certain way or I knew like if I kind of pried it open and poked like a certain wire, I could get it to like work again for a little bit. Like it was this thing that was like diffusing a bomb trying to get this thing to work. Oh, I love it.

Well, I really do think that you would love this book. So maybe on holidays when you have time. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. Is it Park? As in P-A-R-K? Yeah, P-A-R-K. Yeah. And it's just wonderful.

It reminds me of the world of Freaks and Geeks. I feel like you've got like 80 copies of this book because I see it everywhere all the time. No, it's just because I've been bringing it with me to talk about it and then never get to it. Oh, okay. Well, that makes sense. Correct. Anyway, done. That's my recommendation. My first one. I'm saving the good one for last. Oh my goodness. Okay. So mine is actually a YouTuber called Mike Boyd and he's got 1.96 million subscribers. It's a lot of subscribers. It is. Millions of views per video, but doesn't upload like all the time because what he does,

he's a Scottish YouTuber and he goes away and he frames himself as like just this kind of average guy who tries like extraordinary tasks. And the reason I found him is because recently Kipchoge, I'm sure I'm saying that wrong, broke the two-hour marathon time. I saw that. Which is incredible. Like it's a feat that not that long ago people thought was physically impossible. And I watched, like I came across a video of his where he talked about what it would

take for him to break the record and what you would have to do. And it's all about obviously hitting a certain pace and maintaining it and having runners by your side to keep you at that particular pace and work as wind brakes. And you've got a car in front of you, which projects a laser onto the street in front of you. So you keep pace with that, that laser to keep running it and whatever. So I kind of went down this rabbit hole of, of that. Cause he's got a few videos on, but he does this interesting thing where like there's,

he gets on a treadmill and he tries to run the two hour marathon pace, which is basically a 4.3-minute mile. And not that long ago, like in the 50s, like a four-minute mile was considered impossible and that was a record that was broken. I think it was like 954. How far is a mile in kilometres? It's like 1.4, 1.6. Like, yeah, it is 1.6. Oh, good job.

Thanks. So, yeah, so it shows that him, like an average person or even a competent runner running at that pace, you can do it for like a minute. Wow. You know? So it's one of those things where it's like you've got to be like a, genetically you've got to be kind of predisposed to these kind of things. Yeah, and you'd have to have just the most ridiculous dealies.

The training, the motivation, like the diet, like all of these things. So anyway, his channel is filled with all these different types of things that he's attempted. One of them is the salmon ladder, which you might be familiar with. It's that thing that they do in like an American Ninja Warrior and people who listen to my show might be familiar from Arrow. It's where you hold like a chin-up bar and you jump to the next rung. Oh, I've seen that.

So it's kind of like climbing a ladder but you've only got one rung. Do you reckon you could do that? I could physically do it but the technique I don't have. Because chin-ups, I'm pretty good at chin-ups. Yeah, you're really good at chin-ups. Maybe we should get one for our house. And I'm good at the outside grip ones as well, which are the more difficult ones.

Look, I don't like to brag about how incredibly fit I am. Yes, you do. I do. No, but it's with practice. I think it's possible. But he does that. He does muscle up, you know, where you kind of get yourself on top of a bar. It's like a combination of a chin up and then a dip.

Yes, yeah. He learns to hold his breath for four minutes. He does axe throwing, splitting an apple with his bare hands, how to solve a Rubik's Cube, lock picking. The lock picking one I just watched before this, the way he makes himself do it is he buys a clear lock, which you can get for practice, and it's about aligning the pins, and you do it with a lock pick.

And that's easy. You can do it when you can see inside the lock. But then he locks himself in his garage and then breaks the key so he can't get out, so he has to lock pick his way out of it. What? It takes him like 40 minutes or whatever. Oh, my God. Yeah, and it's not like extreme and crazy things that like, you know.

They're really off-putting. Who are those guys that used to do ridiculous? Like Jackass. Yeah, my God. Yeah, so it's – and it's not like extreme and crazy things that like – Are really off-putting. Yeah. Who are those guys that used to do ridiculous – Like Jackass. Yeah, Jackass. Yeah, they're all like broken and old. Some are dead. Oh, God, yeah.

I remember I could never – and they'd like put pins in their ears. Yeah, I came across that the other night. I mean, some of that stuff is so funny. I've totally forgotten about Jackass. But, yeah, a lot of those guys are like really like injured. Yeah, totally put nails in their head and stuff, didn't they? Yeah, and like drug abuse problems and all these kinds of things. Not all of them. Yeah, he's got actually one also where he attempts a backflip.

So it's basically start on a trampoline and then you work way up to doing it onto like a mattress and then from there you've got to kind of do it on a solid ground. And he doesn't end up doing it. It's one that he gives up on that he kind of lost the nerve of and he's going to come back to. But anyway, I just think it's really because they're not like super highly polished. It seems like mostly him and maybe his girlfriend or wife who you don't really see in the video who's helping him out.

And it's just and he's just kind of trying these things. And it's not really doesn't really employ experts a lot of the times. He just kind of goes, well, I'm going to try this and say what happens. And he's like, well, it didn't work. So I'm going to try this and see what happens. And it's a lot of trial and error. And it's just really it's really interesting kind of goes, well, I'm going to try this and see what happens. And he's like, well, that didn't work, so I'm going to try this and see what happens. And it's a lot of trial and error. And it's just really interesting kind of – and it's not like – because a lot of YouTube is like negative and drama

and clickbait and whatever. And I guess there's elements of clickbait to this, but there's substance to the videos. Yeah, I just really love when people try a new thing. Yeah. I just think our brains are designed to do that. And I think sometimes we get so far down the rabbit hole of internet, you know, social media, staring at screens thing, that our brains don't get

to try new stuff and build those synapses in our brain. Totally, yeah. You know, because you create a neurological pathway every time you create a new skill. Yeah, and that path gets stronger every time you do that. Yeah, exactly, and it staves off dementia and all kinds of things. So learning how to unpick a lock and all of those stuff that, you know, back in the day, people would have had to know how to do because you couldn't call the RACV or something

to come and get you out. You just had to figure out how to get out of your car or whatever you needed to do. Absolutely. I think that's awesome. My dad used to be a locksmith, didn't he? Yeah, he did. And a bike mechanic and a bus driver and a taxi driver. He did a lot of things, my dad.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and I do think there's something wonderful. I think there's a move back to that. I think people have come full circle and are starting to learn how to do things, you know, on their own. I think so, yeah. I mean, I'm not one of those guys because if I can pay somebody to do it all. That's because you've got your dad who can do everything.

That's true, my brother. And your brother, yeah. Thank God for your brother. One of my brothers. Aw. So, yeah, anyway, it's just a kind of interesting. Cool. Yeah, I want to check that out.

Can you remind me? Mike Boyd. Always linked below, Collings. Excellent. Thank you so much, sir. All right, it's time for my second recommendation. Oh, my goodness. You've been all week.

You're like, oh, my God, I can't wait to talk about this. But we're running out of time, Claire. No, we're not. We're fine. 12 minutes. Okay, Ride Like a Girl. Oh, it's so good. It's a film produced by Rachel Griffiths.

It was just released recently on like the 26th of September or something. I went and saw it last week. The writers are Elise McCready and Andrew Knight. It's an Australian film. It's the true story of Michelle Payne, who was the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup. The Melbourne Cup is Australia's most iconic horse race. It's 3,200 metres.

So it's known as the richest two-mile handicap in the world and the richest turf race. So there's $6 million in the winning pool for this race. It's one of the most iconic races really in the world, I think, for horse racing. It's over 150 years old, so it's been going since 1861. And the first woman jockey to ride in the Melbourne Cup was in 2003. Introducing Uber Teen Accounts, an Uber account for your teen with enhanced safety features.

Your teen can request a ride with top rated drivers and you can track every trip on the live map in the Uber app. Uber Teen Accounts, invite your teen to join your Uber account today. Available in select locations. See app for details. So the year that Michelle Payne got into this race, she was a hundred to one odds to win. So nobody thought she could win. She was on a horse called Prince of Penzance that was an injured horse that had done, had a whole lot of operations and really similar to her story.

Cause she'd come back through so much adversity and so many injuries. Do they cover that in the movie? They do, hugely. And she really connected with this horse. And her brother, she comes from a really big family of 10 and they're like a very sort of Christian family. Her mother died in a car accident when she was six months old. And so her father raised these 10 kids on his own. Yeah, on a dairy farm. Like my dad was a dairy farmer and he's like, that's a brutal job.

Yeah, completely. Yeah. Yeah, her dad used to. And you need the whole family to kind of get it going. Yeah, exactly. So she was basically working on the land since she was, you know, able to walk. But her family were heavily into horses as well and she has this kind

of deep connection with them. Her brother Stevie, so she's the youngest, he's the second youngest, and he has Down syndrome. Yes. He becomes a horse trainer because he's just got this incredible affiliation with them. Her brother Stevie, so she's the youngest, he's the second youngest and he has Down syndrome. Yes. He becomes a horse trainer because he's just got this incredible affiliation with horses. So in the film, Michelle Payne is played by Teresa Palmer, who is incredible, and Patty, her dad, Patty Payne,

is played by Sam Neill, who just plays it so well. Yeah. But Stevie Payne, her brother, Dancer in Her Own Place himself, and I think he just steals the show. He's a real character. Like you see him in interviews. He's very funny as well, yeah. He's really funny.

He just does not care. Like he does not care for the rules but has this real connection to horses. He is slightly older than her. Is that right? Yeah, he is. I remember I saw an interview with him like at the time and he used to try to get away with things because he's got downsies on. Yeah, completely.

And his sister would be like, he knows what he's doing, he's tricking you. Because they're like they both do something and he would get into trouble and she wouldn't. Yeah, she would get into trouble and he wouldn't. Totally. He does that throughout the film. It's really funny. Like he gets in under fences and stuff to go and talk to these

like really incredibly expensive racehorses and people just let him do it because he's, you know, got down syndrome. And he just gets away with saying cheeky things. And actually he pulls out because just before the race you have to pull out your gate number and your gate number can have a huge effect on where you're positioned in the race. And he says he wants to pull out gate number one and then he just pulls it out.

Oh, right, okay. Yeah, which is just like so many things for her just went right on the day. But the film itself just shows you because racing, and I didn't realise this, is the most dangerous sport in the world. Is that like numbers wise put like injury, death? Yeah, death. Things like that, yeah, right. Yeah, and the way they film it, often they shoot within the horse race itself.

So you really get a sense of just how dangerous this sport is, how heavy the horses are, how fast you're going, how intense it is between the jockeys, how they're yelling at each other. And because jockeys are also based around weight. And so I didn't realize this, but for jockeys, you have to keep your weight really strictly in check. And if you're even slightly over, that's it, you're done. It makes a huge difference. Yeah, it does. That's why, obviously, also why they're short. I remember seeing an interview with a guy like decades ago who was like a six-foot

jockey, which was really unusual. So for him to get like down to weight. Oh, my God, he would have to be almost anorexic, I think. And that's what you see in this. She is just a killer athlete. The lengths that she goes to and the extremes she puts her body through to be able to do what she does is just spectacular. And the risks that she takes, and I don't want to go into too much of it

because I want you to watch the film and I don't want to spoil all of it, but there's a lot of really heartbreaking things that happened to her during her journey and you just almost can't believe that she actually gets back up again and keeps going. There's also a really great kind of look at what it's like to be a woman in that industry and there's just men everywhere, right? Men, male jockeys like to get a ride in. It's pretty uncommon to see a female jockey let alone one.

Yeah, well, it's really, really hard for women to even get a run in the Melbourne Cup. Well, in any race. And there's obviously also the politics behind it. And there's been a lot of scandals of like bribery and cheating and drugging and all these kinds of other things that also go on in addition to. Yeah, but it's just such a masculine culture.

So she'll be standing outside just watching, trying to get a run and get one trainer to believe in her to allow them to ride the horse, allow her to ride a horse. Yeah, because you don't own the horse that you run. No, so the trainers and there's a lot of people invested in horse racing. So even at the end of the film, when she was the one that saw the potential in Prince of Penzance and rode him in nearly every race,

she has to fight tooth and nail for the owners of the racehorse to let her ride in the Melbourne Cup. Tooth and nail. Like they very nearly didn't let her ride. Yeah. Because they just said, well, a woman's never won it, why would we let you? That's a good point.

Yeah. But how many women have actually ridden in the Melbourne Cup a good point. Yeah. I mean, but how many women have actually run in the Melbourne Cup? Well, that's what I mean, very few. I mean, the first woman was in 2003. Really? Yeah, so very few. It kind of surprises me that it's that far back. If you had said, like, 2010, I would have been like, yeah, probably.

Yeah, but when you think about that. It's not that long ago. But it's not for lack of ability. Like, she had, like, a lot of sisters, and many of her sisters were jockeys as well. And girls love pretty horses, Claire. You're so annoying. No, I know what you're saying. But it's also about, and she says, is Lee Sales,

who interviews her in a video I just watched, asked her what it's like to be the first female to win the Melbourne Cup. And she said, oh, it doesn't feel like it's that big a deal because I know how many great female jockeys there are. Oh, right. It's just that they're never given a go and they're never given the good horses. Oh, right. So that's part of it because none of the, you know, really amazing horses generally

tend to be given to women. And I mean, she was odds 100 to 1. Prince of Penzance, you know, he qualified, but no one thought he'd win. God, you would have cleaned up on that. Yeah, and there's these just because Magda Skavansky's in it too who's like an iconic actress in Australia, comedian. She's just brilliant and an LGBTQI activist as well. She's so great.

She's great to follow on Twitter actually. But she's a – she plays a nun and her teacher. Interesting story of her life and her family. Yeah, she's written an incredible book I'll talk about on another show. She'll do that one day, actually, yeah. Yeah, she's great. But she plays a teacher in it and she put, you know, money on the horse. And, you know, just the way that she was dismissed at every turn

is just kind of breathtaking. Yeah. It just shows, and I sobbed through the entire thing, because it just shows you again how far women have to – like how much further women have to fight. But you also sobbed through the Paw Patrol movie you sat through the other day, remember? Oh, that was the worst. Oh, my God.

It's the worst movie. It's just awful. It's like nails on a chalkboard. Anyway, I would highly recommend this. Rachel Griffiths saw Michelle Payne win the race. Is it her production company? I don't know if it's her production company. I don't know if it's her production company. I know she's produced it.

So she's the brains behind it. She saw Michelle Payne cross that finish line and then saw Stevie Payne come up to hug her and hug the horseman because Michelle Payne dedicated the race to her brother and she saw that and just said, this has got to be a movie. And so she fought tooth and nail to get it across the line. Pretty big turnaround as well. Yeah, from 2015, yeah.

So she's done an amazing job with the film and I just think it's absolutely brilliant and everyone should see it. It's a great film to show teenagers as well. Really excellent. And not just for girls, it's for everybody because it's really about the strength of fortitude and resilience and what the human body can endure and the human spirit. Yeah.

Also, she went to school with my cousin. Yeah, she grew up in Ballarat. There you go. I mean, we're practically related. Practically. Yeah. Teresa Palmer plays an amazing. Probably doesn't remember my cousin either.

Yeah. Anyway, amazing. Teresa Palmer. Yeah. She's good. Really good. Sullivan Stapleton, star of 300, the other one. You know, even the trainer of the horse did not think that she would have

any chance of winning and said to her, I'd be happy with the top 10 if you can just get us into the top 10. Well, the chance is like winning it at all. You know what I mean? So slim to win. Yeah, correct. Incredible. And it's horses from all over the world.

It's not just Australian. It's horses for courses, mate. Horses for race Yeah, correct. Incredible. And it's horses from all over the world. It's not just Australian. It's horses for courses, mate. Horses for race courses, I should say. Also, I hate horse racing. I think it's a fucking terrible sport and I don't know why. Well, you know what? And I know. And there is a lot of sort of controversy around the way the horses are treated.

I'm not a vegetarian. I think so. I know. Yeah. Oh, look, I'm not saying I condone horse racing, but I am condoning and just like admiring Michelle Payne and what she achieved. And the Paw Patrol movie.

We'll put those two together. So both of those things, recommend them below, please, colleagues. Put Paw Patrol above. Oh, the worst. All right, your turn. Oh, yeah. I know it's showing in Australia, but is it around the world? It will be.

Yeah, I'm sure it is. Yeah. Cool. Awesome. My second thing is a graphic novel called Twists of Fate. It's by Arpaco Roca. I've definitely said that wrong. He's a Spanish writer and graphic novelist cartoonist.

And basically it's about a Spanish veteran of the Spanish Civil War who's exiled with a whole bunch of other people to france during at the beginning of world war ii right so it's basically it's the idea of it's world war ii but it's from a refugees perspective because often for with world war ii stories it's like it's this you know if you're australian like it's the australian it's the british it's the american you know what i mean it's the you're saving private ryan's and and whatever and and that kind of situation then your pearl harb Like it's the Australian, it's the British, it's the American, you know what I mean? It's the, you're saving private Ryan's and whatever. And, and that kind of situation, the Pearl Harbors, it's your Normandy and whatever. But this is like a, which is nothing

wrong with any of that, obviously, because those are huge influential factors into winning the war. But just telling the story of people that you don't really hear about these heroes that, and at events that aren't really, that were highly politicised at the time that weren't really covered in the same way. So because they'd fled Spain to France, they got their refugee status removed. And it focuses on one character in particular who seems to be an amalgamation of a few. It's based on interviews and history reports of the time

and newspapers and things like that. And the refugee status of these people are removed and they're forced to work in these like appalling work camps in africa and the heat just like hauling rocks for like three years with like little to no food and water and then them and then they're like have a choice of like well you can do this other terrible thing or you can also fight the you know the nazis or whatever and they and they do want to fight you know they would they do want to do their bit as well but they want to kind of fight under their own flag but there's kind of political things that

like around that it's basically the the treatment of these people and one in particular like these forgotten heroes who experience so much but they you know that's not the medals and the fanfare and the movies and then whatever it's just kind of these stories of people who kind of just kind of slowly died and disappeared. The guy who's in this, because this was written in like 2015 or 2013, he's 94 years old. So, you know, there's barely any of them left anyway, even if there is now.

And it's just a really like well-drawn, like beautifully written story about someone in the modern day talking to this man who's very reluctant to kind of tell the story of what had happened because he's just like it was a terrible thing that happened to me and i don't want to talk about it and you know it's why nobody nobody cares then nobody's cared for 70 years why would anybody care now kind of kind of thing but it's a really it's really interesting because it's again it's a story that you don't you don't see. Do you know what I mean?

Yeah. And that I think is a really interesting – I mean because there's war heroes from World War II from all over. You know what I mean? Like India fought against the Nazis, for example, things like that. But you don't really hear about things like that. You know what I mean? So it's – yeah, it's just really interesting.

Yeah. It's really interesting. Yeah. It's really interesting. My mum's neighbour has dementia and his wife rang her the other day and said, can you just come and look after him just for an hour? Because I've got to get to a medical appointment. And so mum went over there and sat with him and he's in his, you know, nineties now. And he just started talking about the Burma railway. Really? Yeah. And he was on the Burma Railway. Really? And he just kept talking about this moment where he was held at gunpoint

and his men were running around him. Jeez. Yeah, and he was kind of in charge of a group. In the 90s? Yeah. Yeah. And it just made you think, like I lived next to him for my entire life until I moved out of home at like 25.

I remember we could do squats. Yeah, I remember he came over and he was like, life is about the three Ms. Yeah, marriage, what was it? I can't remember. I've forgotten. Maybe you can tell me. He gave you the secret to life and you've forgotten it.

Yeah, I don't know. It was three Ms. I remember being like, at least one of those is bullshit. The marriage one. No. But it came over like the day after your dad had passed away. Yeah. And he came and he's like, I'm living next door.

Watch me do squats. And I'm like, this is great. You're great. But this is like not a good time. Not exactly the time. He may have started to have dementia already by that point. But isn't that crazy? And it does make you think, right, about how many stories we have never heard.

Yes. From war. Yeah. And then also what people have gone through in their lives and how we're such a soft generation. Yeah, well, yeah, we are. Yeah, well, I think what is it that's saying that hard men, that's the saying, let's say people, Claire.

Okay. Hard people kind of breed soft people. So that's because, you know, they do all the work and then the next generation is kind of they don't have to do any of that. They just kind of have the benefits of that. Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does make sense.

I wonder if that's us. That's not even the proper expression. No, I wonder if that's us. That's not even the proper expression. No, I wonder if that's us or whether the baby boomers are the soft ones. It's them, but then we're probably even softer again after that. What you're saying is we're very soft. Yeah. I don't know. Well, it's just things that used to happen.

You can't imagine things that used to happen happening now. Like, for example, our parents' generation, like conscription. Like, you can't even imagine something like happen happening now, like for example, our parents' generation, like conscription. Like you can't even imagine something like that happening now, being like, well, there's a war in Vietnam, a country who cannot get here. Like they're not going to come and take our land or whatever. No, but you must fight. But, yeah, you have to go.

And your name's been pulled out of a ballot, like a lottery. Fucking lunacy. And then not only been pulled out of a ballot like a lottery. And then not only that but you'll then have lasting effects and repercussions from the war that you've experienced and the trauma. Plus when you get back home, everyone will think you're a villain because it turned out to be such a disastrous decision. Oh, God, yeah, I know. But can you imagine like conscription now? Like just like the circumstances for that to happen again. I just can't even fathom it. Yeah, I know. It's crazy. I know. But can you imagine like conscription now? Like just like the circumstances for that to happen again.

I just can't. Yeah, I know. It's crazy. I know. Well, on that cheerful note. Oh, my God, I love podcasts. Right. That brings us to the end of our episode.

This is a bit of a downer, this one, Claire. No. Oh, gosh, you really need to read Eleanor and Park and also go watch Ride Like a Girl. It's brilliant. You're right, I should and will. And I want to go and learn how to pick a lock. Absolutely.

We were talking about doing an upcoming episode where the other person has to read or watch or do the things that the other person was going to. Recommend. Yeah. We have to swap, which means I have to watch something about death and destruction. Oh my God, I'm going to find the saddest, most crazy sci-fi nonsensical thing for you to watch. Right. Well, I'll give you a rom-com and you love rom-coms. I'm not carrying find the saddest, most crazy sci-fi nonsensical thing for you to watch. Right. Well, I'll give you a rom-com.

And you love rom-coms. I'm not going to do that. Exactly. So I should have got you to read Eleanor and Park because I just think you'll love it. I think it would help me expand my worldview. And if people want to help expand this podcast, let me tell you. Oh, well done. You can do a rating in your app.

You can give it a five stars if you're so inclined on iTunes. This is from Lundov. Great show. T tons of heart. I started listening to this podcast because I was a big fan of James' other podcast, The Weekly Planet. I was surprised about how deep and heartfelt this show can be, particularly in the most recent episode where they discussed a famous comedian return after dealing with a long bout of depression.

They're both great hosts and I really enjoy their talk and they would recommend some really great books and TV shows. So thank you very much. That's a very kind review. I appreciate it. Oh, that's so lovely. And you can also send us recommendations of your own. I love your recommendations.

We would love to hear them. We love them. We kiss them. We print them off and we kiss them. We do. We do. We smooch them with lots of tongue on Twitter at SuggestiblePod or on Instagram at SuggestiblePod or on Facebook at SuggestiblePod.

This one is one that comes from Lewis5707. Hi, guys. Really like the podcast. I wanted to suggest a short film by Austin McConnell on his YouTube channel. I know this guy. The film is called Voicemails from Strangers and it's a great way of hearing people's small snippets of their lives. Okay, right, yeah.

A little bit like this podcast. Oh, my God, I love podcasts. I know. Thank you so much. Louis. Louis. Louis5707. Oh, don God, I love podcasts. I know. Thank you so much. Louis. Louis. Louis 5707. Oh, don't sing that song.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Why were you listening to Joy Division before? Is that because of. Yeah, it was just reminding me of New Wave and, you know, punk rock and all that vibe. And you were listening to the theme song from Charmed. I'm like, it's the theme song from Charmed. Yeah, correct.

The TV show Charmed. Yeah, exactly. Because that song is sung by the Smiths. Great. Correct. I noticed you subtly checking your notes like you knew it was the Smiths. I didn't know it was the Smiths. I just thought it was the Charmed theme song.

I just wanted to check. I had no idea it was the Smiths. No, it is the Smiths. Yeah, it's brilliant. And that's the other thing. Go listen to some 80s new wave punk rock. You love punk rock? It gets you in a real zone. I love it.. Yeah, it's brilliant. Oh, and that's the other thing. Go listen to some 80s new wave punk rock. You love punk rock? It gets you in a real zone.

I love it. I also think it's fine. All right. Yeah. All right. See you guys next week. Bye-bye. Thank you for listening.

It's really, yeah, we appreciate it. No, I don't. Oh, that's so rude to our listeners, Claire. See ya. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. I mean, if you want. It's up to you.

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