The Unmade Podcast - 162: Brad Pitt’s Girlfriends

Episode Date: May 29, 2025

Tim and Brady discuss a farewell service, medal progress, climbing a mountain for charity, the Viper Room, a celebrity-based calendar, a letter opener, and living in a small world.More fun in the Request Room - https://www.patreon.com/posts/130173810Support us on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/unmadeFMJoin the discussion of this episode on our subreddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/Unmade_Podcast/Catch the podcast on YouTube where we often include accompanying videos and pictures - https://www.youtube.com/@unmadepodcastUSEFUL LINKSPictures to accompany this episode - https://www.unmade.fm/episode-162-picturesBrady’s charity page (keep an eye out for special treats) - https://www.bradyharanblog.com/ben-nevisThe Viper Room - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Viper_RoomBrad Pitt - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_PittPictures of Spoon of the Week - https://www.unmade.fm/spoon-of-the-weekVince from Young Talent Time - https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/curated/asset/99843-ive-had-time-my-life-vince-and-dannii-young-talent-time-1988Catch the bonus Request Room episode - https://www.patreon.com/posts/130173810

Okay and you're you're in full peaky blinders made that. Because I'm wearing a flat cap. Flat cap yeah. All I need to do is turn it around 180 degrees and I'm in full French existentialist mode. It's funny how turning around takes you from looking 70 years old to about oh, hip. It takes me from the back garden in Middle England to a, you know, French cafe with a pretty lady and a little, you know, leather notepad. It's been a bit of a strange day for me today, you know, man, I've had a special service today. You know man I've had a special service today it's called a closing of placement service right and it's one of those strange things that we do as ministers when we're finishing up somewhere that we've been working right. So there's a regular Trisha whenever you finish at a workplace there's often if you've been there a long time there might be a real do or a dinner and some toast and speeches or sometimes if it's been a little while you might go down the pub or cafe for lunch with some workmates there's all these rituals when you finish somewhere for work and.

We have those two but the uniting church also has this strange thing called a close of placement service where they actually it's like a breaking of the ties actually like it actually is this special liturgy are you being deconsecrated. No that's if I was kicked out of the ministry itself but this is like moving to a different department right so. Okay. But there's all these words about we now release you we give thanks for what's happened and we release you from this and off you go and it's a way of drawing a line and I've always looked at these liturgical sort of ceremonies as being something that you kind of have to do and just move on. But I found it really helpful today it was like a yeah nice it's been a lot of work 14 years I've been at the college and then we had this ceremony today and it was like when the moment came. And then we had this ceremony today and it was like when the moment came I was I really took it on board I thought that's a really helpful way of drawing a line and letting go and you know moving on. Closure. Yeah. For people listening by the way Tim is still a minister at Malvern United he hasn't left that job he's just leaving his lecture ship education type job at the college at the church's educational college. That's right.

Second job. Type job at the college at the church's educational college that's second job that's right that's right so it's no great loss to the academic community but it's a. Kind of a it's a step for me so I thought that it's an interesting little thing we do a little like we do a lot of things to start things like you have a wedding ceremony but no one really has a divorce ceremony today or you know there's a big welcome and fanfare when you might start something but ending something and ending well is is really important have you ever been. Part of a unique sort of like when you finish as a journalist I know sometimes they don't they do that thing with a bang their staples or something on the desk as you walk out as a sign of tribute and respect for someone that's that's finishing up. walk out as a sign of tribute and respect for someone that's that's finishing up. No I had a I had a I had a special t-shirt made by the photographers where they mocked me up to look like an astronaut and I made and I had this t-shirt and I was wearing a picture so I was wearing a picture of me as an astronaut on this white t-shirt we went to the pub everyone signed the t-shirt but it turns out a couple of scallywags had drawn the a piece of male anatomy on my back without me realising so I was walking around all night with that on the back of my t-shirt. Classic. Yeah that's about as that's about as formal as it got. I know when my parents got divorced and signed all the papers and did the process they then went out and had lunch together. Right just to mark it and say all right well it's a new season.

All right. Yeah. I remember seeing once in a film, there was this, is it a different mind when they, all of the academics. A beautiful mind. A beautiful mind. That's right. You get given a pen. They put the pens down in front of them, don't they?

All the other faculty members come and put them. It's a nice little ritual to, to farewell someone. Interesting. Anyway, so that was today. So that's. That sounds like a good podcast idea how farewells how people do farewells. Yeah yeah there you go for workplaces and for relationships and for even retirements are obviously a real big.

I'd love to know how they do farewells at zoos I bet zoos have got got good ones. Like when the penguin keeper leaves, do they have like a ceremony with the animals or? I imagine it's like it in The Lion King where like all the giraffes bow their bow down as the person walks out like in respect. Yes, I like to think that, yeah. That'd be cool. I know that pilots do that thing when it's their final flight where the fire brigade comes out onto the runway with the hose and does like a hose tribute I've seen that done. Yes. Good one. Nice. How do you think we would mark our final podcast?

Like what would what would the ritual be? That's a sad thought, isn't it? Oh golly. You could like snip the microphone cords or something instead of a mic drop or. Yes. I don't know. Golly. I have to think about that. I'll have to think about that. Snip the microphone cords or something instead of a mic drop or yes. Um, I don't know. Golly. I'll have to think about that.

I'll have to think about that. I wonder if police officers, when they finished, they sort of get like everyone pulls out their pistols and fires into the air, like Cowboys, as you sort of, you know, walk out for the last time as a big sort of tribute. There's nothing, there's nothing cooler than like on your last day, having to hand in your firearm and your badge. I'm going to need your firearm and your badge. And your badge that's right.

Yeah, the only time we ever see that is when someone gets kicked off the force for doing something dodgy or taking leave for a while because they've made too much of a mess in their last assignment. I'm always surprised how much credence is put in a police badge. Like people are like, I'm not going to do anything unless you show me your badge. And then they just pull out a silver shiny thing that anyone could get mocked up and they're like I use a policeman I'll do whatever he says like. I want to see a bit more than that to prove someone's a policeman yeah what's your bet show me your badge or you know or show me a warrant and they just show me any piece of paper with stuff typed on it and they're like. piece of paper with stuff typed on it and they're like, I know. Yeah, I know. Maybe if they're like when we had like pin numbers for our credit cards, what if that was just like based on a badge?

It's like, is this your card? And you go, yep, it's me. And you hold up a badge, flash it quickly and they go, all right, okay, there we go. And just, you know, here's your money. Here's your money. Yeah. Well, that kind of brings me to parish notices. Does it?

Wow. It does. Yeah. Cause I just wanted to update people after the last episode, we talked about having the Brady Haran medal and the Tim Hine medal. It's really captured my imagination. It doesn't seem to have captured many other imaginations, but I'm really into it. You are. I've gotten fully into having like medals commissioned and made and I've really gone down a rabbit hole.

I've got special profile pictures of Tim and I like side on profiles like like a monarch on a coin to have the medals engraved. I'm really getting into it. So if people want to feed back to me in any way about things you'd like to see on the medal, let me know. Time's running out. I'm about to get designs done. I'm really getting into it. I'm also pushing the boat out on our budget, so much to Tim's disappointment. But I've said, no, we've got to do it. I said, I've got to quote Tim.

Can I just say, this is the time to remind people to become Patreon supporters. Yes. If they want to see the podcast not go bankrupt over these medals. Now is the time to help, please. Over Brady's big budget gold medals. Yeah. Supreme Overlord23 got in touch and said the Tim Hine medal should be nicknamed the Hiney. The Hiney, oh dear.

Like the Oscars and the Emmys. Oh, who's won the Hiney? The Hiney. People are going to wear it on their Hiney. That's a bit of a worry. If they, if they're lucky enough to win one, who knows? Maybe that should be on the back of the medal, a Hiney people gonna wear it on the Hiney. It's a bit of a war. If they if they're lucky enough to win one, who knows? Maybe that should be on the back of the medal, a Hiney. I don't know. We'll see about that.

I've got a pretty nice Hiney. I think it. Have you? Oh, yeah. You've always thought you have a nice Hiney. Have I brought that up before? Yeah, yeah, you've always you've always been pretty, pretty proud of it. I've never seen it. So that's amazing, but maybe I'm just guessing.

So what's the plan? These medals are in production, are they? They're off wherever they do the Olympic medals and knowing you is where we're getting ours done. So I'm talking to two companies. I haven't made a decision yet about who's going to get the job manufacturing it. Right. You know, I'm taking it pretty seriously, but, you know, I want designs made and approved and I want them to look like Nobel prizes. That's kind of my inspiration.

Mm hmm. Are you going to the company that makes the ones for the Nobel Prize? Are they one of the companies? I hadn't thought of that. I think that would definitely be out of our budget. I've gone to some I've gone to some pretty highbrow companies and it's really expensive having medals made. eyebrow companies and it's really expensive having medals made. What it may depend on which metals you're putting in it exactly how what carrot gold are these medals going to be? No, no, even even just making them out of, you know, just, you know, bronze and stuff is like really expensive.

It's all the designing and the tooling and the casting and stuff. Right. It's a big process. Surely it's a pleasure for them to be chiselling our chiselled features into a medal. I mean, that's really quite a privilege. You sent me your profile picture and then I got my wife to take a picture of my profile and I was like, like, I've always known I have a big nose, right? That's not a secret. But seeing it like completely 90 degrees side on in the profile picture, was like wow that actually is pretty big.

I've been the passenger seat in the car next to you for years like all our lives and so forth so I've got used to it but you only ever really see it front on so. Yeah no much like your backside I never get to see my nose side on so you know. Well maybe the nickname for yours mine's the H Hiney, what could yours be the? I don't know, the Pinocchio. The Pinocchio, who's going to win the Pinocchio this year? I feel like that diminishes some of the the air of authority that we're bestowing on them with the ridiculous price. So. Can I also just do a little kind of like advertisement promotion with your permission, Tim?

You may, you may. I am doing some fundraising for muscular dystrophy UK. Uh, some friends of ours, really close friends who became friends with sort of through baby stuff, had a little boy who's like one of Edward's absolute best mates, top little lad. absolute best mates, top little lad. And devastatingly, he's been diagnosed with this condition called Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which if anyone knows about it, it's, it's a really serious condition. It's really a, really a real blow for them. And, you know, uh, to their credit, one of the things they've decided to do

since having this diagnosis is really throw some effort into fundraising for muscular dystrophy. And I've been very willingly roped into a trek up Ben Nevis, which is the highest peak in the UK, and sort of attached to that, I'll be doing some fundraising. I always find it weird doing fundraising around doing something cool that you're going to enjoy doing anyway. I know it's a challenge, but I always find it weird. Someone's doing something really cool and adventurous. Like I'm tracking the Andes, give me money. Like I'm like, why, why, why am I giving you money? You're doing a cool thing that I wish I was doing, but that's what I'm doing.

I'm going up Ben Neverson. I'm using it as an excuse to do some fundraising. Some people have already given donations and I'm also going to be selling an auctioning lots of cool stuff that you wouldn't normally get access to a lot of us to do with this podcast other podcasts and my videos and things like that so if you go to brady heron blog dot com. Brady heron blog.com slash Ben hyphen never or I'll link it in the show notes or it's on my website and I'll make it easy to find you can go along and have a look at later stuff that I might be selling auctioning or you can just make a donation I really I really appreciate it I'll try not to pester people too much about it but I just wanted people to know that something I'm doing and there's going to be some opportunities associated with it I might even wrote him into a couple of things as well hopefully I might ask him to sign a few things and help out so which I'm sure he can't say no to.

I don't have to run up that mountain though do I like that's not something you don't have to go up the mountain no you don't have to go near the mountain. Unless I get unless I unless we make a massive donation. Yeah. Then we'll fly Tim over and send him up the mountain. But, um, yeah, keep an eye on that people. There's going to be some really unusual, interesting opportunities. For example, just today, I finished auctioning a sofa shop mixed tape that I have signed the front of that someone has bought for charity. Uh, so things like that.

Uh, but also a few, I'm working on a few really unique things that I hope will tempt people into contributing to a really important charity and something that's close to my heart. We heard from impossible rich 6884 who saw a story that he thought might be of interest to us because the the Viper room the famous club in LA. Yeah. The apparently that site has has had a big development proposal put on it. They're going to build some big building with apartments, presumably knocking down the nightclub. No. But it turns out the company that was going to do the redevelopment and got like the approval to do it, is 70 million dollars in debt and has been foreclosed upon and gone into default and you know gone out of business so there could be an opportunity coming up here the viper room who knows could be put up for sale and.

Impossible rich 6884 wondered if we might be interested what would Tim do what would you do if you got your hands on the Viper Room? Well I'd run it as the Viper Room, that'd be cool. Yeah? Yeah, yeah, it's like a club, I'd put bands in there and have entertainment and events and all that kind of stuff, it'd be great to run a venue. You could do all sorts of stuff with that, for sure, absolutely. Would you like to run the Viper Room? Is that one you'd like to run with all its notoriety? Sure, sure. Yeah, I'd make it an ethical sort of safe place in that sense but still a good rock venue I just use it as an opportunity to meet a heap of bands that I incentivise

to come and play at the Viper Room that's what I do I mean running a venue is a bit like running a movie theatre you do it because you love what you get to curate and put on for others and enjoy yourself. What would your opening act be what would your under new management performance be? Who would you want to be your first one? Oh, look, I'd probably ask Nick cave. I mean, that'd be the sort of dream to start with Nick. Um, you'd move on to maybe Pink Floyd, maybe the Beatles after that.

Yeah. Uh, sort of work your way down the list. Yeah. That's how I'd go. Yeah. Um, Quentin Ayres, Sophie shop. Absolutely absolutely I mean as an opening act most evenings I would have thought, who would I mean if there's someone in particular you'd love I mean it'd be a real statement to

sort of get I don't know Bob Dylan to come and play a small show of course the problem with that is that you're paying him money to come and play in your venue when actually it should be him paying you to use the venue to host a concert that's how the business that's how you don't go broke running a venue but. Right. But I think I'd be too excited so I'd be like let's let's let's see who we can afford. As opposed to me who'd come in and immediately get a bunch of gold medals struck and then go out of business. Sell the property to be able to buy more medals. Oh dear. It's become a bit iconic. I mean, it certainly has. Of course, it's become iconic. It's been known because we're here, you know, kids on the other side of the world. We knew about it 30 years ago and we know about it now. So,

it's clearly iconic. We've not heard of any other really, you know, nightclubs. For people who don't know, of course course it's iconic because that's where River Phoenix died. That's the first time we heard about it wasn't it? Yeah the actor River Phoenix, Yuckwin Phoenix's older brother died out the front tragically in 1993. But then it became associated Johnny Depp bought it and ran it for a while and it's just a rock venue really a nightclub. I know Jason Donovan passed out there one night and then Michael Hutchins like helped him and saved his life and in front of Kylie Minogue so there's all these other things that pops up in all sorts of people's biographies but it's just a club I think on the Sunset Strip I don't think it's that remarkable but it's got that reputation. could be coming up for sale. Let's, uh, let's up the Patreon support people and let's see if we can all club together and buy the Viper room. Buy the Viper room.

It's, it, we could rename it the request room and then only like Patreon supporters could get in. Genius. Genius. Ultimate Patreon perk. Our very own LA nightclub that only Patreons could go into. People could come in and just hear us answering questions and talking and bantering with one another. Like cheers, we'd just be at the bar. It's like real time nightclub.

Call us clubbing down. If I did buy the Viper room, right? What would it take for you to start calling me Viper as like my serious nickname? Would you just go, well Viper's just gone out, out it be back soon or hey Viper would you would you. I'll make you a deal Tim if you buy the Viper room I will call you Viper for the rest of your life. Wow really. Yeah. I could get V T-shirts people when they see me would give me the V there we go.

Yeah Viper can you call me Viper for the rest of this episode. I will see how we go I make no promises. I'll put the flat cap on backwards because I think I think wearing I think wearing it backwards is a little bit more Viper. Alright ideas for a podcast who's going to go first is it going to be me or do you want to go Viper. podcast who's going to go first is it going to be me or do you want to go Viper. Well, I actually think my idea is a better segue. It jumps on much more naturally from, from this idea that we've been talking about. How do you know my idea is not about people called Viper?

That would be a lovely segue. That's true. That's true. I don't, but I'm taking a wild guess. I don't know about you, I know that most people use the traditional agrarian calendar to mark, you know, the months and years of time. As you look back though, you tend to mark life in chapters and they don't always line up perfectly with years, they're sort of of errors and seasons of life and sometimes I might be at a particular workplace or a particular time living in a particular city but. I don't know about you man but I've started finding the most helpful way to mark my life is via Brad Pitt's.

Girlfriends so right I've been looking over the list of Brad Pitt's girlfriends and wives and by golly there's a lot of them and they sort of slot into different seasons of our life. I'm just thinking because Brad Pitt is kind of like that iconic kind of character you know he's sort of name a good looking guy Brad Pitt comes to to mind. He's in the top three, right? Tim Hine, Brady Haran, Chiseled Features, Brad Pitt, number three. So I was looking back through the list of people that he's dated and he's had a lot and they sort of neatly match. Like I can remember seasons of my life through Brad Pitt's partners. And so my podcast idea is working through an interviewing each of Brad Pitt's girlfriends and talking about their relationship with Brad how did they find Brad knowing Brad had been with so many girls beforehand did they. Feel like it was going to be forever and generally reflecting on their experiences and the world around them during the era that they were a part of Brad's life.

Can we before we before we go into like their experiences of going out with Brad Pitt, can you talk me through some of the eras of your life and which Brad Pitt girlfriend or wife they map onto? Like, like, help me understand better how you go by the bread pit calendar. Well like I just glance at the extensive list here and and we've got Gwyneth Paltrow now Brad was with Gwyneth Gwyneth from 1995 to 1997 and so that era firstly you market by the film seven right because they were both in the film seven and so I got okay what was happening I saw seven with you we saw it at the Academy cinema you had just started as a journalist at the advertiser your girlfriend was at the movie as well. the sort of two years after that through to 97 when I then started as a studying ministry at college and going off in a new direction and I generally consider that period there as the Gwyneth season of life. Yeah. So instead of like, you know, BC or AD, this is this is the GP years. That's right. That's right.

That's right. Everything. Everything after that is A GP and everything before that is BGP. BGP. Right. BGP. Yeah. I mean, I could jump to two girlfriends earlier and you have Juliette Lewis.

Now he met her, I believe. This is the Julie, the Juliettean calendar. That's right. That's right. Juliet season is actually stretches from eighty nine through to ninety three but this is they were in the film California together I believe. And so that's that sort of first I mean when I first when Brad first emerged into my consciousness it was via and with Juliet Lewis so my first memories of Brad have Juliet standing next door and so that sort of those were our sort of latter dated in nineteen eighty nine pre history almost like in the dark ages. Indeed indeed where Brad was was obviously clearly a young man that it that it be exciting to find out all about that I don't know much about that but that's that early era and you could follow it all the way through the Brad Pitt partner calendar through to presuming he's still I mean he's been with it says here that since nine 2022 to present but who knows since this article was written four days ago where he's at and who he's with now but in this dirt Ramon I'm not sure if that's correct way of saying that but she's.

Is she a jewelry designer there always jewelry designers the girlfriends of these people. Jewelry designers and co-stars here right. Yeah yeah well I mean of course you know the most famous of them all are Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie. Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie and the and the and the overlap that happened there as well. There is a bit of an overlap there which is which is a bit of a fault in the calendar because the regular agrarian calendar doesn't have overlaps. It's quite sequential so there is a bit of a blur period and some memories when I look back at them I associate with Jennifer and some of them I associate with Angela it does get a bit of a hazy and sometimes I have to consult my my diary from the time to just to sort it out but. But you know that would that was that's a complex period that covers quite a bit of time that takes us from 1998 all the way through to 2016 so that is a. Putting putting putting aside putting aside the affair it was a very stable period for Brad. Alright let me ask you a controversial question but it has to be asked you know obviously you're a happily married man to a wonderful wonderful woman but if you were forced to go on a date with one of Brad Pitt's. Who would you choose if you had to just go on a date just for a pizza just for a pizza in a chat.

Look I'll tell you I'll tell you what the person I'm most curious about because I think it's because it's emerged that Gwyneth Gwyneth is quite odd. her goop store she's a bit of an eccentric and so I've always thought oh gosh this is a not not a very substantial person that's maybe a bit judgmental but her goop store that's a little bit weird. However I then read an article talking about maybe Gwyneth is one of the great last Hollywood eccentric. You know our world is extremely conventional and everyone's blurring into one another and maybe she is more like these wonderfully eccentric people that really don't care what people think. And I and live in a curious you know kind of diluted world and I think Gwyneth for all intents and purposes would be an interesting pizza companion just to try and find out is this a person is this a true eccentric issue. companion just to try and find out is this a person is this a true eccentric is she is she truly odd because I think odd people are really quite quite fascinating and marvellous. Yes I'd go with this. I just googled Brad Pitt's dating history and like nine people came up and then there was a little drop down menu that said show 15 more. That's great. That's great.

Would you get it? But Gwyneth, the big question, of course, the big sliding doors question is, would I want to go on a pizza date with Gwyneth with long brown hair or with short blonde hair? That's the sliding doors question. That is the sliding doors question. Yeah, that's a tough one. What do you think about this idea? Firstly, of organising your life through chapters in Brad's dating history. Love it. Love that.

I find that very amusing. Who was Brad Pitt dating when certain things happened in your life? I love the idea of that. The eras. In terms of getting them all on for interviews, I mean, if you could negotiate that, you're onto a winning podcast there. Who in the world is not going to listen to that? All these exes dishing the dirt on Brad Pitt. But I think it'd be a hard one to get off the ground.

Good luck with that. What if you got them in not to talk about Brad, but just to talk about the world in that season? Like, we usually use them as sort of like, OK, well, you were with Brad at that time, Christina Applegate, tell us about 1989, the wall coming down, you know, the, the end of the cold war. You don't actually ask them about Brad. You just sort of take that as a marker by which you are able to look at his. Yeah. And do that things that happen while they were dating Brad Pitt.

Yeah. Never ever talk about him. In fact, you never even reference it in the podcast name or topic. And it's just an interview podcast. And you see how long it takes people to figure out what the common thread is. Hang on. This is the fourth guest and they all went out with Brad Pitt. I see what he's doing.

I see what he's doing. That could be the way to get them on. It's not about Brad. No, no, no. It's coincidentally, Jennifer Aniston was on last week week Angelina but not no no no she's quite a slightly longer history to map all of our life. But I think he's a pretty good choice you know Tom Cruise maybe but he's got you know he's got probably less less people there are a few people going back into the eighties sonata Malone some sort of british pop star and so forth he dated from nineteen eighty six to nineteen eighty eight. So you could push back further of course you could push back into into his sort of high school years and he's been he's who was his first little girlfriend in the primary school you could all the way back but you could go. Yeah, you could go deep. They may have fewer memories about the world at that time.

So there we go. What would I call it? What's it called? Brad, the world through Brad Pitt's partner's eyes or something like that. Uh, that's not the catchiest name I've ever heard. Um, um, I mean, just Brad Pitt's girlfriends. Pretty funny. I mean, I don't like the podcast idea as much as I like just the concept of you

charting your life through Brad Pitt's girlfriends, like how that's your little mental calendar for me, cause I'm really bad with dates and years. I've said before, everything for me is things that happened before September 11 in 2001 and after. Right. Like everything in my life either happened before that or after that that's about as much as I can date anything in my life. You've got to two filing cabinets is a whole bunch of stuff. Two years.

Yeah yeah. Imagine if they divided history like that. Imagine if they just got one significant person and said, well, history is in two halves before, I don't know, Jesus and after Jesus. How crazy would that be? That's far too simple. Imagine, imagine the concept. Do you want to do a Spoon of the Week for us? Let's do it. We haven't had one in there for a while.

Should I cue the music? Spoon of the music. Spoon of the week this week, Brady is a knife and knife. We haven't had a knife on spoon of the week, but hang on, hang on. I'm going to have to redo the, redo the tune. Here we go. Did I send you a photo for this already? Oh yes. life of the week. Did I send you a photo for this already? Oh, yes, I think you did, because we were going to do it last episode, weren't we?

And then we didn't. Let me have a look. I've got to scroll through lots and lots of pictures here from birthday parties and all the rubbish we send each other. Hang on. Wow, we've sent a lot of texts and photos. Here we go got it okay so this is like a this is like a letter opener isn't it. It's a letter opener. So it should actually it should be letter opener of the week. It should be.

Yep and it's from Sydney I see the little at the top there little enamel top. It is it is and I believe I believe dad purchase this on a trip he took through Sydney in nineteen eighty eight and I've got a mental picture of dad on a ferry in the middle of Sydney harbour on this particular trip it's it's a letter opener which is it but it was in amongst the spoon collection and so clearly dads put it in there with the spoons so I'm counting it as today's spoon of the week. It could be a whole other collection of course of of knives or letter openers I always thought when I was a kid that letter openers look cool because I kind of look like little swords like I could put them in the hands of you know action man or something like that and use them as a sword and this one's a beautiful and elaborate one. I was going to say it's very plain down by the the scoopy bits but it's not scoopy of course it comes to a point it's perfectly straight lovely. Cutty bit or the pointy bit the pointy bit. Yep. It's not a double-edged sword. It's not even an edge to sword It's just sort of a a non edge to sword They're very benign letter openers really out there they get their force from you I think they've got like a cut they have got a kind of you know

Scabbard sword type look to them though Like it does look like it looks like if that was huge it would be a cool looking sword Oh, yeah, no, this is a imagine that sword size it would be a mighty weapon. It's sort of a small Excalibur it moves up though to a beautiful head beautiful proportions yeah yeah it's lovely I love that the design is is replicated on the back as well as the front so it's got that nice feel it feels real and it comes in a little bit little bit like a figure eight an hourglass which means you can just imagine yourself holding your hands in that spot there and wielding it around so. Nice pictures in the show notes people. There we go spoon of the week is a letter opener of the week and I think it's the only one in the collection it's I haven't seen any others in there so it's a bit of a special. And the picture itself like on the enamel is like a little representation of Sydney Harbour with the Sydney Harbour Bridge a few buildings in the background no Opera House by the looks of it which is kind of weird. That is weird isn't it. Because behind or is that the Opera House on the far left nuts not but they've got like the they've got like circular key there like the weather ferries come in so the heart that you feel like the opera house is begging to be there on the left of

that picture but it's not. She that makes me wonder whether it's even older perhaps it's before the opera house which would put but I think that's much earlier than dad's ever been to Sydney that couldn't be the case. So yeah. Were you on this trip to Sydney the one you were reminiscing about 88 you were there were you? No no I wasn't no no but dad took a lot of photos and and I just I just remember it distinctly and him coming back with loads and loads of bits and pieces and I'm I he he did no other significant trip to Sydney and so this this is.

Almost certainly from that trip it doesn't look that old as well it doesn't look like it's from the seventies or something like that it's still very shiny so nice there we go. People who support us on Patreon are incredibly important you're the whole reason the show happens that we do lots and lots of things to try and make it worth your while not least of which is the request room. Another cracking request from coming today last request from was an all time favorite of mine. tracking request from coming today last request from was an all time favorite of mine. And if you become a patron, you can go and listen to previous episodes, by the way. But another thing we do is we give stuff away. Uh, so we've got some winners this week. Tim, do you want to get out the guitar? I always like a guitar during this, during this part.

All right. Take it away. Okay. I know you could never hear this because of your microphone, but I am now playing. Okay, thank you. I can't hear it, but I believe you. We have a Australian nut leather keyring with the unmade logo on it going to Dewey in the Netherlands. Dewey in the Netherlands? We're in the Netherlands, do you know? Oh look I did but I haven't got that in front of me. It might be Utrecht? Utrecht's lovely. I think. That's a guess. Unmade podcast Spoon Forged in the F fires of a spoon manufacturer here in the UK will be sent to Ben in Nebraska.

Hello Ben, congratulations. A special commemorative postcard for the asteroid Brady-Harran is going to Vince in Kansas. Congratulations Vince. I used to, when I was young, think Vince was such a cool name because there was a guy on young talent time called Vince. Yeah. And, or Vinny. Yeah, and I remember thinking,

that's a cool name. That's a cool name. I wish I had that name. I'm now glad I don't, but anyway, no offense, Vince. Why not? What's wrong with Vince? Why wouldn't you want to be Vince Hyne? It sounds almost like Viper. Vince Viper, that could be...

What a great name. I guess because I associate it with that era and with thinking of, you know, I'm picturing someone in the eighties with a leather jacket with the, you know, like the collar up and walking around going, hey, hey, hey, lots and lots of times and I'm sure that's not you Vince because you're in Nebraska rather than um downtown LA anyway.

No Vince is in Kansas. Vince is in Kansas. Oh Kansas even better he'd be an unpretentious heartland man yep. Yeah Vince thanks for your Patreon support which I suspect is about to end so we appreciate it. Vince, thanks for your Patreon support, which I suspect is about to end. So we appreciate it while it lasted. Maybe I should send Vince the letter opener to make things okay. Spoon of the Week collector cards are going to Jeffrey in Ontario, Canada, and Diana in California. Congratulations everybody. California. Congratulations everybody. And just as a little bonus this week I'm going to be sending two Tim Hine autographed guitar plectrums because

there's been a little rise in demand for them just lately. Oh yes. To Alexander in Slovakia and Natasha in Berkeley California. There's a quite a few just laying around the church you know on stage around the band area people ever want to come run up after church and grab one there's a few laying around. Well when I went and gave my Zeman medal lecture a few weeks ago I took a few in my backpack and a few unmade listeners came up to me and were very excited to receive a Tim Hyde autographed lecture. That's fantastic. Idea for a podcast. Here's one from me. It is based on an email I received.

It's not my most original idea. We may have done it before. Who knows? I know we've done something similar, but I fancied it anyway. And I love doing things that relate to the week I've just had. I got an email from a chap named Jeb and it said I'm an American living in Northern Ireland and I recently met a guy through work who I immediately clocked as another immigrant.

I asked him where in Australia he was from. He said Adelaide. I mentioned I listened to a podcast hosted by two guys from there. When I said your name, he lit up and said, this is going to sound weird, but I used to live next door to him. Suddenly I had a face to go with all the stories of backyard cricket and growing up in Adelaide. It was a surreal and really lovely moment Just goes to show how far your stories travel and how deep they resonate and he sent me a picture and there he was

Standing next to my childhood best friend Stephen with whom I played Thousands of cricket matches and spent endless summers who I haven't spoken to you for over a decade well over a decade. But there it was he bumped into my my best childhood friend Stephen shows what a small world we live in hey. That is nuts that's incredible oh my goodness it unfortunately just totally matches people's view of Australia I think that we're all just down here in one big gang hanging out with kangaroos and we all know each other but that is a remarkable. So my idea I know we've done like coincidences and what a coincidence and stuff yeah my idea on a talk about today is. It's a small world and it's these moments in life when suddenly the world seems very small and more interlinked than it really is because of moments like this and I know people love sharing these stories to like and I'm hoping as a result of us talking about it some of the listeners will get in touch via email or reddit or all the usual ways you can contact us and let us know your stories about it being. a really small world have you ever had one of these Tim besides every single day when you walk around Adelaide and bump into a thousand people you know which I know from first hand experience. It's a small world story for me. Oh look there was a friend recently who was in the UK and got talking to a particular musician like a person who works in the church which does make it the world a little bit smaller there's only a billion of us as opposed to six billion but.

He just got talking about the fact he was from adelaide and mentioned you know Tim high and he goes yes we've been we've been we've been in contact emailing and it was a guy that had been in touch with me that had read my book and had been inspired by it and we'd been going back and forward and he was just astonished he was on the other side of the world and suddenly there it was a connection back home. I was my cousin Matt is married to a lovely lady named Stacey from Adelaide and I was once changing trains changing like a really literally jumping off one train to get on another one at Reading station in the UK. Which I live nowhere near and have nothing to do with and I think it's the only time I've ever gotten off a train at Reading in my life and as I was walking across the platform from one train to the other I bumped into Stacey who was changing trains there while on a holiday to England that I knew nothing about which was like kind of amazing. Two of my favourite stories like this and I know I've told these before. A million times so apologies and I'll keep them brief for those who have heard them before but one was I was in a football match and Australian rules football match at the MCG in Melbourne. And sitting in front of me with two Dutch girls who had just decided to go and watch an Australian football game while they're on holiday. They thought it would be a fun thing to do. And me and my mates got talking to them and were explaining the rules of football to them. And so they understood what they were watching.

And I said to them, if you come to Adelaide, here's my phone number and I'll show you around Adelaide. And one of them did come to Adelaide and she called me and said, Oh, I'm that girl you met at the football. You know, show me around. So I, there were whales down at Victor Harbor, which is quite far from Adelaide, down south, down south. And I said, I'll take you to Victor Harbor and we'll see the whales. So we drove an hour or two from Adelaide. We're getting really far south and far from anywhere now. And then I said, there's this Island called Grana Island that you can go over to on a causeway is this little rocky island that's usually got no one on it was a cold miserable day so there really was no one on granite island.

We walked around to the back of granite island where there really is no one next stop antarctica it was freezing it was windy it awful weather, but I was showing her anyway. And suddenly this person came walking over the hill. The only other person on the island in a big raincoat came walking towards us, came right up to us and walked up to us. And it turns out it was someone who lived in her street in the Netherlands that she didn't even know was in Australia. She came all the way to Australia, to the absolute back and beyond nowhere and then bumped into her friend from the Netherlands.

She couldn't believe it. Unbelievable. That was pretty amazing. My other favourite one was I was covering a story for the advertiser newspaper. It was about a woman that owned too many cats. I think she owned 26 cats and she wasn't allowed to and the council was cracking down on her. But instead of taking away her cats, they just said, you can't get any more. You can stop at 26 and then as you lose them through attrition, that's it.

Don't get any more. But to make sure they could police that they had to photograph all her cats, which was a crazy thing to have to do. So I said to this lady, I was covering this, I said this lady, when the council comes to photograph the cats, call me because we want to come and photograph the guy from the council photographing the cats because we thought it would look so ridiculous because there is cats everywhere how do you even do this. So she calls me up one day and says the man from the councils here so we I got my photographer and we rushed to this woman's house across Adelaide so we were there. woman's house across Adelaide so we were there and the guy from the council turned up with his Polaroid camera and he was there to take 26 photos of cats. He saw us from the advertiser there he knew what was going on and he was like I'm not doing it you're stitching me up I'm not gonna let you photograph me photographing the cats. He was an older man he was a bit stoic and he just wouldn't let us do it and I was trying to talk him into letting us do it. Come on, come on. And I said, I'm Brady Haran from the advertiser. And then he said, did you say your name's Haran?

And I said, yes. And he said, you related to Peter Haran? And I said, yeah, yeah, he's my father. And this guy says, I fought in the Vietnam war with Peter Haran. He saved my life. You tell him beach ball said hello. And he suddenly hugged me. And then I was like, Oh, can we take these pictures? If of you photographing the cats? He's like, no problems.

Anything you want. And he's posed for all the photos for us and really hammed it up and just did everything we asked and made it an absolute pleasure because of the small world that the guy photographing the cats that I wanted to photograph happened to fight in the Vietnam war with my dad. And dad saved his life or some some some story say small world. That's amazing that is amazing. I the other one that comes to mind for me happened recently and it's not better than that or more coincidental than that but it is related to your dad because preparing for your father's funeral which was the next day a couple of months ago now I was just looking at what I was gonna wear and realizing oh gosh this white shirt that I pull out for these kinds of occasions is pretty darn tight around the neck and so I last minute thought okay bugger that I'm gonna zip over to Rundle Mall go to David Jones and buy a shirt. And it was like five o'clock at closes at half past five.

So I jumped on the Vespa, zipped around, got off and just walked straight down Adelaide arcade to go in to buy a white shirt for the funeral the next day. And who do I bump into is your sister and her family who just happened to have arrived and got off the plane and we're walking through the mall at the same time. It's like you've got to be kidding. That is amazing. And I know if you're on the other side of the world, you go, well, Adelaide is probably a small town. And of course, if you go into the city, you bump into someone else.

But no, it's a city like that is a crazy coincidence. So if you have it's a small world coincidence get in touch with us and made FM at gmail.com or the red or all the different ways you can get in touch with the social media let us know some of your small world stories that always great to hear so my podcast I do of course is just people telling stories like that. Yeah yeah. I don't know if it's a good it is it's good dinner anecdote conversation but turn into a podcast you do also have the opportunity of doing a bit of research so you can pull out some real big ones and talk to people about you know. How they happen to where they came from. It's time for us to go to the request room if you're a patreon support you can keep listening we're having so much fun there at the moment we're going to be doing some more blind ranking. That is blind ranking in the request room and we are going to be doing we're going to be talking about quizzes we've got lots of interesting questions lots of fun. Come and join us and if you become a Patreon supporter you can listen to all the previous ones as well so brilliant if you're not a Patreon supporter that's fine too.

We love you and hope you enjoyed this episode. See you next time or in a minute.