Questionable Journalism

Tommy: Wait a minute. Crossface, the Daily Talk Show, a conversation sometimes worth recording with Josh Jensen and Tommy Jack.

Josh: It's a Daily Talk Show episode 223.

Tommy: One day away from Fat Fridays. Yep, it is good to have this as a, as a lead-up to the end of the week into the weekend. I'm pumped.

Josh: Did I go too full on with the intro? Too excited?

Tommy: Nah, I was punching in the air, you couldn't see it.

Josh: Yeah, I think I got excited about it.

Tommy: I almost got a bit punchy yesterday.

Josh: With who?

Tommy: I was in traffic and I'm coming down Punt Road and I feel like I'll tell this storey and then I'll lay out the justification.

Josh: Can I just say, a lot of Punt Road material lately.

Tommy: I know, it's I mean, I spend a bit of time there.

Josh: Every night.

Tommy: Over an hour. So that's pretty much my life. It's where I find my content on the punt road. But this could paint me as a bit of an asshole, but I feel like I have a great justification for what I did and why I did it. So I'll start with the story.

Josh: I'm just glad not being the asshole today with all the stuff we've been talking about with suburbs and status. Okay, so I thought it's self-conscious that maybe I've— I'm leaning too into the asshole thing.

Tommy: No, so go on, please. All right, so I mean, I'm in my Hyundai cruising down Perth and I get behind this car and they're kind of just like a bit erratic. And then we sort of—

Josh: wait, what does that mean?

Tommy: Just a bit erratic, driving already, like sort of starting, stopping, sort of like just—

Josh: I could— I was trying—

Tommy: I sensed something. But it wasn't until I stopped behind him 'cause I couldn't go because he had stopped.

Josh: But it wasn't changing lanes, just erratic in the sense that they were driving quickly and then stopping. Yeah, yeah.

Tommy: And I sort of drove and I was half over this side street and people were wanting to sort of spill out onto Punt Road. And I like to let people out. Like it's almost a bit of a power play. Like, yeah, you can come through, mate. You know, when you just let someone out from the side street. That they would have been there for 10 minutes if you didn't.

Josh: Like you're directing the traffic. You would love to be like in Southeast Asia being one of the—

Tommy: Even New York City, all the cops are like, you think being a cop is glamorous in New York City? They're just like, half of them are just on the traffic.

Josh: Do they have the same like training?

Tommy: I don't know. Well, they're police officers, so they're a part of the NYPD. So maybe they're just like the Junior Burgers. You don't get a gun, you have to work on Fifth and Broadway.

Josh: But I wonder if they ever do—

Tommy: Fifth and 23rd, that's better.

Josh: Fifth Avenue.

Tommy: Fifth Avenue and 23rd. I had to make sense of my— I didn't want to—

Josh: Example.

Tommy: They're two parallel streets, Fifth and Broadway.

Josh: That's why it's a real cluster— it's a good first day clusterfuck.

Tommy: So I'm preventing people from spilling out from this side street because this erratic driver was in front of me and he was parked. Josh has yawned. It's either my story's—

Josh: No, it's really good. No, it's really good. No, go on. No, I'm serious. No, that was just—

Tommy: There is so much cut-through in yawning halfway through someone.

Josh: I thought that we were close enough that I'd be able to yawn and it wouldn't have been a thing.

Tommy: It's a fascinating thing.

Josh: I can't get it out. I'm serious, it's like a half— like, it's gonna be like this for a while. I'm yawning now. If anyone else is in their car—

Tommy: oh, we did this in Shepparton, 13-10-60 or whatever the number was.

Josh: You guys didn't have a premium number like that.

Tommy: We had a 13-12-16 or something. Yeah, so it was 6 numbers, um, and we played a yawn effect. We said, call if you just yawned, if you caught the yawn. We're trying to make everyone yawn in the GV. Goulburn Valley. It worked.

Josh: Shitloads of people called.

Tommy: They didn't call for good stuff, they called for the silly, you know, crappy fun, which is what I love. Anyway, so I beeped the horn and this dude sort of like did— he didn't go at first, so I just sort of beeped it again. I was just trying to be courteous at this point.

Josh: I hadn't gone anywhere. You're getting— letting him go from the side street?

Tommy: No, no, no, I'm blocking the people that could be coming from the side street because of this dude in front. He wasn't— so all the people in front of him had gone. So there's like 100 metres between the dude who was blocking the front of me and the next cars in front. And so he could have gone, I could have gone, and just all these people jetted out.

Josh: Are you in a keep clear then? You must have been.

Tommy: No, they're not keep clear. It's because it's such a small side street, but so many people use it, they haven't bothered to— I don't know, they haven't Keep clear is usually for— I don't know how that works, but it wasn't a keep clear. So I just wanted to hurry him up, and I beeped him once, nothing. Beeped him again, and he— I saw him sort of lift his head and look and just like flung his arms out the window. And I was like, this is a bit weird. And so my heart started beating a bit, you know how you get— it's adrenaline. Yeah, I'm like, what the— what is this, dude? This is weird. And so I was watching him, and I took my sunglasses off It was a Hyundai, so I liked his car. It was a hire car because there was a sticker on the back.

Josh: Okay.

Tommy: Wasn't like one of the big—

Josh: What state? Victoria?

Tommy: It was a Victorian car. And so I was trying to suss this dude out. It was a guy, and I could sort of see he was in like a business attire, and I could just see his head sort of rolling a bit. And then I saw him like just sort of looking like he was dancing a bit, and then I just saw him stopped. I had to beep him again because he didn't go when the traffic in front of him moved.

Josh: This guy's a loose unit.

Tommy: What's going on? And immediately my heart's going again and I'm starting to think, what the fuck is this dude's problem?

Josh: I would have called triple zero.

Tommy: That's what I thought I should do at that point, but I wasn't too sure because I hadn't gone up next to him. So I had to beep him again another time, and you could see each time he would like sort of like— it almost looked like he's having a fucking nap.

Josh: Like he's falling asleep.

Tommy: And so I got in the next lane, which was parallel to him. I went up and I wasn't driving fast or, you know, I wasn't wanting to break the law. And I look because we get to a certain point together and I sort of see him and he's like sort of rolling. Like, he was dressed normally, like he seemed like a normal dude, but you could totally tell he'd either had a massive night on the fucking ice and he was coming down, or like, it's not like he had a disability because you can't have your licence if you have a disability. He is affected.

Josh: I don't know if that's correct.

Tommy: I'll say that again. People, some people with severe epilepsy cannot get their license. If you have severe autism, you couldn't get it. If you have a disability of other nature, there is plenty of friends. I had a friend who was paralysed and he had his license. That's a disability.

Josh: Yeah, so I remember doing— I used to court announce the wheelchair basketball.

Tommy: Yeah.

Josh: And they would roll into their car and put their wheelchair away and then drive.

Tommy: They've got pedals, like hand pedals.

Josh: Also, just a fun fact about wheelchair basketball, there's a number system based on your disability level, and you can only have a certain amount of numbers on the court at a given time. So there's some people, you can actually play wheelchair basketball if you can walk.

Tommy: Ah, so you might have cerebral palsy and still be able to walk?

Josh: Yeah, you like have a high number.

Tommy: Okay.

Josh: And so if you're on the court, you can't have 4 people who are just doing it for like just wanting to dominate but don't actually have a disability on the court at the same time.

Tommy: What's like in the swimming pool? You could have like someone who's got like, some of their arm missing, and then some other, you know, like they could be, you could go, this guy's got an advantage.

Josh: Yeah, but so they have like handicaps, I guess. Is that where handicaps come from?

Tommy: No, I'm not sure.

Josh: So anyway, you're in next to this car. Are you still driving along?

Tommy: I was creeping along, creeping along. And so I got to a point that was perfect where I could sort of see him, and I'm coming up, and I could tell that he was stopped, he was stopped. And so I'm just creeping and I did this, I wind down my window and he hadn't sort of engaged with me. It's like he's forgotten about me.

Josh: Yeah.

Tommy: Who, the dude who was on the horn to him. And I just rolled up next to him, my window, and I just, he, I saw him, his head was down, he was basically having a quick nap.

Josh: Yeah.

Tommy: And I just said, pull your head in. And the fucking fright this dude got.

Josh: 'Cause did he have his window down?

Tommy: Had his window right down.

Josh: Oh, awesome.

Tommy: 'Pull your head in!' And he looked over at me and he kind of just looked like he was like fucking annoyed but kind of frightened. And I said, 'I've reported you to the cops.' Yeah. And he's like, 'Oh please.' And I said, 'Drive sensibly.' And he said, 'Yes, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.' And I, and I was so heated in it and I felt like I was telling off a child. Yeah. Because he was remorseful and like sorry but also cooked out of his brain. And immediately I was like, this dude's fucked off his face. He's a selfish piece of shit. I know a guy that I grew up with, was on ice, killed a grandpa driving while on ice, got 7 years jail. I saw him maybe a year ago walking down the street and he'd blown out. He was massive and he kind of just looked at me and I took 2 minutes to realise who the fuck he was. Oh my God, hey dude. But that's— he made that choice and he fucking went to jail for a long time. And I was thinking like I think about Bodhi running out on the road. I think about kids now. I think about Amy if she's walking home. This fucking idiot just drives because he's been the selfish asshole who's chosen to get in the car. And I was thinking about that. It's like, I don't drink and drive because I don't want to— I don't want to— like, that would be my selfish mistake, right? And so am I an asshole for doing that?

Josh: No. And I was watching A Current Affair last night because I just feel like if I'm living with my parents, I just watch what they watch.

Tommy: Who's the guy that said to me, did you see that stuff about Hillsong? That was on 60 Minutes. You were so the dude who's getting the scoops from ACA.

Josh: And so Current Affair, they did a whole storey on the things you can't do in your car, what you need to be careful of if you're driving.

Tommy: Which are what?

Josh: Uh, drinking. Uh, like, as in, like, uh, you know, you've got a McDonald's cup, not allowed. What?

Tommy: Yeah, you're actually not allowed to eat, not allowed to drink.

Josh: Okay, you're, um, you're not even allowed to be distracted by speaking to a passenger behind you and stuff. Like, they were going so hard on it, and they had this montage that someone from a Current Affairs job— yeah, uh, you know, yesterday or a couple of days ago— has been going on Main Street zooming in on tradies as they're eating a sandwich.

Tommy: Oh Jesus, I told you about that guy driving down Nepean Highway big highway in Melbourne, and I look over, this dude is laughing his head off, had a pair of noise-canceling Beats headphones on while eating a bowl of cereal.

Josh: Listening to the Daily Talk Show, probably.

Tommy: Yeah, I know, I see. But it was probably illegal for me to yell out the car at that dude.

Josh: I'm sure. But you know, the thing that infuriated me the most about the A Current Affair storey was they just said all these things that you can get distracted for, like what you can get done for. And there's a shot of the journalist talking to a camera while she's in the car. And they've got like a tracking shot and she's driving and the camera comes nearly in front of her face. I'm like, you fucking idiots. And it got me thinking about like what sort of respect do journalists have for the person who was in their journalism class that ends up working at A Current Affair?

Tommy: Um, so say that again. That what, what, like, what would, what would the peers—

Josh: yeah, if you're doing a media and comms fucking degree specialising in journalism, yeah, how many people are saying, I'd love, love, love, love a job at A Current Affair?

Tommy: Yeah, you know, I've thought, I've thought of a similar thought, uh, because some of them are young, right? They're actually like, they look like junior cadets.

Josh: Yeah, and it's like 20, you know, early 20s.

Tommy: It's— I, and I kind of, I always thought they were older on that show. Maybe they were, they just sort of had a transition. Tracy, isn't she on there?

Josh: Tracy Grimshaw.

Tommy: Tracy Grimshaw.

Josh: They do have some, uh, she's one of the old ducks on the team. Yeah, but you don't know if you can say that.

Tommy: Okay, can I say?

Josh: Yeah, that's fine. Quack quack.

Tommy: New t-shirt, quack quack, with a photo of Tracy. Hey, do you remember when Gordon Ramsay called her a pig? He called Tracy Grimshaw a pig. That's fucking out of line.

Josh: That's not nice.

Tommy: You can't call someone a pig.

Josh: Why? What was she doing?

Tommy: I don't know, but he just, he was so pissed off at her.

Josh: Why do you think? I feel like Tracy gets a hard rap.

Tommy: Because she's on ACA and has been for 30 years.

Josh: But there's something about every time she comes on like there's a— I go to troll her. Yeah, like, oh, here we go. Hey Trace. Like, I'll say that when I'm on the couch. Like, oh, what's happening today, Trace?

Tommy: There, there is definitely some, some people in this world, and we're talking about one earlier where someone said a comment about them in our office. Yeah, I was like, did someone else say that to you? Because someone else has already said that to us. And he's like, no, I was just joking. But it's like, I think there is some people in the world where I don't know, it just is attractive.

Josh: They just have a vibe.

Tommy: They just have a vibe and everyone's vibing off it and thinking and saying shit. But take it— there is taking it too far. Yeah, don't call Tracy— Tracy—

Josh: Tracy—

Tommy: don't call Tracy a pig. At least go with duck because I think duck's okay.

Josh: Yeah, ducks are beautiful.

Tommy: Water comes off their back. Yeah, they fly, they swim, they can go underwater, they peck a lot, beaks are cute, some of them are really smart. Yeah, but one of their biggest qualities. Back to the cadets, I think you'd be silly if you thought that was an aspirational job because the form may be aspirational to be on telly, I get that. You still haven't thought about the substance of what you're doing because it's a lot of like banging on doors like, Mr.

Josh: Smith, Mr. Smith, what do you have to say about ripping off your neighbors? Yes, yeah. And some of them, they really paint a picture of— there was one like, uh, they give them name characters and stuff. Bad Jane's at it again. Oh yeah, it's like, um, uh, she's on her crooked ways again and she's stealing from, from more people. Yeah, it's just like, um, and what's she doing with the money she's stolen? Buying chips from the servo. And then they, they cut to her at the servo and Jane's got a big fucking packet of chips, which I did think, I'm like, you must be doing okay if you're getting a big bag of chippies.

Tommy: They love a good insurance scammer witch hunt or just stakeout to catch them. I mean, there is an element of fun in all this stuff, it's kind of like finding these people. But there was a guy who, oh yeah, so I watched one and I don't think it was, it was just one of the Tonight Shows. And not the Tonight Shows, but like a news, a current affairs show. It wasn't ACA, but they—

Josh: It was like Sunday or something.

Tommy: Yeah, so it was Melbourne Cup. There was a punch-up at one of the bars in Sydney. A guy got locked up and his girlfriend got locked up. His girlfriend got in a punch-up too, and then he punched somebody or whatever. But they had footage from the night and then they'd found, it's almost like they go out, King's Cross. Okay, there's a fight here. They're getting sent off to jail. That means, that at 6 AM they'll be coming out of the cells, and so we'll be there. So the same film crew from the night of Melbourne Cup was at this dude, waiting for this dude. Gone home, had a nap, come back, tell us about the punch-on last night or something ridiculous. What do you have to say about your girlfriend smashing that person? It was ridiculous.

Josh: It's so full-on, isn't it? Because I reckon there's probably, what, 50% of the time A Current Affair is probably out of line. Yeah, do you reckon that's a fair statement?

Tommy: I'd, I'd say their journalistic techniques are, uh, not quite kosher. Well, because it's questionable, definitely 50% of the time. I was reading last night, so that thing, you know how you said, uh, Hillsong? Yeah, it's like one of the biggest Christian churches in Australia and across the world, um, and they're up in— they started up in Sydney, a guy named Brian created it, and you said, sounds like you hear about that.

Josh: Yeah.

Tommy: And, and I said, what about his dad? I didn't even see it.

Josh: Yeah, I didn't actually even see— I saw the promo of that. Okay. But the—

Tommy: and so last night I spent half an hour reading this response from the Hillsong Church, and it was just like, um, here is our statement against 60 Minutes. Um, and 60 Minutes like made all these massively misleading. And it was like, the guy who started this church, his father was paedophile before the church was created, before Hillsong started. And Amy, Amy went to Hillsong, and Amy's pastor was Brian, and Brian is the dude who created it, and Brian's dad was the dude who—

Josh: That's interesting. Does that mean, does that mean Amy's like an OG, or no, she just happened to— How do you— Is that because quite premium getting the—

Tommy: Yeah, I think so.

Josh: That's like, um, going to an Apple Store and being served by Steve Jobs.

Tommy: He like— so we could go up to Sydney next week and maybe be able to go to a session that he's running. So they're huge. It's like in a— it's almost like a stadium. Stadium. Yeah, I've been— I've seen him, um, with Amy. And, and so anyway, and I— and so I sort of read this thing, and as a person outside of the church, it's— it is very convenient for, uh, for a news outlet of the calibre of 60 Minutes to connect and just headline with church and pedophile. Yeah, why? There has been a lot of cases in the Catholic Church of paedophiles and priests and, you know, this whole thing. But I, I just saw it as such an opportunistic moment for 60 Minutes to create this storey about this whole thing without getting into the details. And see, here's the thing you could be triggered without even getting into the details. But that's what they want. And so that's there. And so it's amazing, like, they wrote this big response and then they outlined this thing, obviously from the lawyers, pretty serious, of what they want 60 Minutes to read out on television. I wonder if they'll do it.

Josh: I've— I wonder how 60 Minutes rates in regards to, like, journalistic integrity. A Current Affair's got to be the lowest.

Tommy: Yeah, it's almost a joke. Like, there's some moments where it's like, that's parody.

Josh: Yeah, because it's the same shit all the time too. Yeah, it's like, uh, bang for your buck pizzas. It's all that sort of thing. Or it's the fro— like, a lot of shootouts. The, the, um, Collective Noun, uh, who are in Queensland, the comedians, they, they did a, a funny one which is like, a current affair has discovered that there's a lot of wars going on. It's like the supermarket wars and they go through about like 20— war, neighbouring wars. Yeah.

Tommy: So who's their demo? Like, because it's on television.

Josh: Well, mum and dad watches it every night, so.

Tommy: Are they caught up in—

Josh: In the stuff?

Tommy: Are they caught up in it? Like, do you think they're— are they watching subjectively and saying, okay, now that's a bit of fucking bullshit?

Josh: No, no, they— They're right into it.

Tommy: "Lynn, Lynn, come look at this." Yeah, it's a bit like that.

Josh: It was like, um, they had the, uh, they had the alleged, uh, terrorist plot, the 3 dudes who arrested for sending out, like, apparently trying to buy a gun, wanted to shoot up Melbourne.

Tommy: Yeah.

Josh: And so they've got like, um, we go to the house, like the houses of the people who have been arrested, and they're like speaking to the parents. And the mum's really emotional.

Tommy: Yeah.

Josh: And dad's like commenting, he's like, oh, like, look at her crapping on. Just like, why are you buying? Like, I'm just seeing this as I'm just analysing it all, just being like, what is— who's editing? What's going on? How did this happen?

Tommy: I mean, we struggle to do— to watch any video without analysing it. But do you think these shows are perpetuating racism.

Josh: Yeah, absolutely.

Tommy: Put 3 dudes who are of Muslim descent, or, you know, religion, and connect them to the word terrorism and guns. Sure, that's what they're probably doing, but you can see the outcome for someone that doesn't really think and is a bit angry and triggered.

Josh: Well, just having that is always the headlines and stuff is pretty hyperbolic. And it was— it seemed, um, Yeah, I feel dumb when I watch it, this stuff.

Tommy: Yeah, yeah. Oh, well, we had a friend of ours, Jules Lund's cousin, Oscar, Oscar Gordon. He was on one of those, and he— I'd love to speak to him about it because I want to see if he was trolling them, because this segment that he did on Channel 9 was— they came over. Oscar lives in this house where his window was pretty much on the fence line, And there is meant to be a rule that you can't build within a metre of anyone's boundary or fence line, which I don't know quite how true that is in some areas because like Albert Park.

Josh: What happened was the room that Oscar was in wasn't— I can't believe we're talking about this— wasn't meant to have a window. The window he had was illegally installed by his landlord. And so, they were able to like, they had a permit based on the fact that there's not meant to be a window on the the other property to build up so it's like a wall-to-wall. Yeah, why the fuck am I talking about this?

Tommy: So Oscar comes home and his fucking window's gone because there's now a brick wall outside his window. But so he basically— I want to know the process is, did he reach out to them or did it come about because they saw it? And did he purposefully throw the tin foil—

Josh: the foil idea?

Tommy: Yeah, one of the— they had this woman come in who was a doctor that was talking about how he's losing—

Josh: was she a doctor? She was her health and fitness. It was like a well-being coach.

Tommy: Yeah, she was commenting on how he's losing vitamin D and it's really dangerous living in this room. And then next shot's Oscar outside with foil, and this lady's like, so what are you doing, Oscar? I need to get as much sun as I can. Yeah, so he's using the reflection of the foil, which is a complete joke. Yeah, he's a big tall pasty man. Yeah, probably doesn't sunbathe.

Josh: Yeah. That was very funny.

Tommy: It's classic. So I love that there's some people— oh, actually, um, so my sister-in-law, uh, her cousin is a bloke named Lewis, and Lewis has a quite a big YouTube channel, massive one, and he's a comedian. Um, what's his, what's his surname?

Josh: Have you—

Tommy: you know who I'm talking about? Lewis.

Josh: Did you say he had a radio show as well?

Tommy: Yeah, he's got one on Triple M, Fox FM.

Josh: Fox FM.

Tommy: Um, Lewis and Luke. And anyway, Lewis is a funny dude. He's like 7 foot tall, crazy, crazy tall. That's outside of the point, it's just fun fact, fun fact. Um, and anyway, Lewis trolled the fuck out of ACA. He had, um, this girl that he was friends with, or basically this girl that he knows— I'll tell it backwards. His girlfriend, yeah, reported to ACA that Louis and these other people were sending her these lewd messages and all this stuff. And so she went— they came to her and, um, and basically interviewed her about these online trolls because Louis was seen as this famous troll. And so she's like, yeah, they were sending me things like— and she'd read out these statements, like these messages, which were crazy. Yeah, like being so obnoxious. But then a couple of weeks later, after they aired the story, they did this video together where she pops up and they were like, ACA, here's the problem, this is my girlfriend. Yeah, you've been trolled, or something like— it was crazy. We should watch it. Maybe I'll post on the Reddit, I'll find it. Yeah, but it is one of the best trolls, and they had to come back and say all this stuff like Oh, we were misled. It's like, yeah, fucking oath you were.

Josh: And you took the bait. That would happen all the time though. Like this idea of just creating a— like they love a good villain.

Tommy: Yeah.

Josh: What's your entertainment like when you get home? If now that you don't like— I mean, you haven't had a TV for a long time.

Tommy: Yeah, my son.

Josh: What do you mean? What do you do?

Tommy: We take him to the park.

Josh: Play baseball?

Tommy: No, he goes—

Josh: Catch?

Tommy: Puck, puck, slides, slides. And then he's actually—

Josh: What accent is that, do you think? Child. Child. Baby.

Tommy: And he's actually, he's getting a bit, I've got to have a stern word to him because he's misbehaving.

Josh: What's he doing?

Tommy: He's loving on his mummy a lot more than daddy.

Josh: Really?

Tommy: So when I pick him up, mummy, mummy, and just wants, I go in to pick him up.

Josh: Makes life easy for you.

Tommy: Yeah, but I want cuddles. I'm a needy motherfucker.

Josh: Yeah. So what are you going to do?

Tommy: Yeah, I don't know. I've just got— maybe I've got to play hard to get.

Josh: Yeah, just completely ignore him.

Tommy: Neg him.

Josh: Yeah, the big neg. You could give that a go.

Tommy: The little neg.

Josh: The little neg.

Tommy: Because the little one is still quite big.

Josh: Buddy, I don't have time for you tonight, okay? Daddy's watching ACA. Talking about entertainment in the evening, yeah, I'm a bit of a bookworm now.

Tommy: Oh mate, have I heard about it. Has everyone else heard about it?

Josh: No, drum roll please. Uh, thank you, I finished my first book.

Tommy: Yeah, I'm proud of you. Tell us about— because what I've noticed is how big of a deal it is for you and how little of a deal it is for other people when you tell them, because there's a lot of people—

Josh: I haven't told that many people, I've mentioned a few times.

Tommy: I'm around you a lot, so it's I actually get—

Josh: You're like Bray, you get storeys told time and time again. But I like it 'cause you'll start positioning them. Like when Conspiracy Jimmy came in here earlier, you said, "Oh, Josh, Jimmy was saying that he enjoyed hearing about me and my ridiculous eating habits and my cheat day." And then you got me to reel off two other stories.

Tommy: Yeah, so I know the content. I know your content bank.

Josh: You're managing it, which I appreciate. No, excitingly, I can announce today that I finished a book from start to finish, which I talk about books a lot, I quote books a lot, I know a lot of authors, I'm a very smart, smart, smart man. As I'm saying, I'm a great dad, basically, great bookworm. But I have always been shocking when it comes to actually reading physical books.

Tommy: Finishing is not most people's problem.

Josh: What?

Tommy: What? You know what I'm saying?

Josh: Finishing?

Tommy: Yeah.

Josh: Is not most people's problem?

Tommy: Yeah, most people are great at finishing.

Josh: Yeah, sure.

Tommy: It's a bit smutty.

Josh: So you understood the smut? Yeah, of course I did. Is that why you said it?

Tommy: Yes.

Josh: Oh, okay.

Tommy: Comedy.

Josh: No, it's good. I enjoy the comedy. But the— no, I finished. Yeah, I'm excited about it. Yeah, because the, um, uh, what the technique that I used, I want to share with everyone because I think that it could be handy.

Tommy: What is the technique?

Josh: So it's using a pencil.

Tommy: So this is, um, the thing that was invented before a pen?

Josh: Actually, was it?

Tommy: That's actually, as I say that, I was thinking about old fountain pens. That's real old school. There's a fun fact we need to work out, which was invented first, the pencil Or the pen.

Josh: Which was started first, Don Bradman or the pencil?

Tommy: Definitely the pencil was invented by Donald Bradman.

Josh: Hi@thedailytalkshow.com, any interesting facts around stationery, pencils, pens? Yeah, please. No, but what I've been doing is I started this book around Melbourne Cup weekend. So when was that? First weekend of November.

Tommy: Yeah.

Josh: About 3 weeks ago. Okay. I've managed to finish the book by, as I read and I find interesting bits, I'm underlining it. The problem that I've had with books is I'll read and then I'm like, what the fuck did I just read?

Tommy: Yeah, I think my brain used to do a lot more of that. Read, read, and I'll just start thinking about something else. I had found that from just reading more and more, I'd been able to retain it. But I do reread things because I think it's like focus, you know, slowly sort of shifts out of it because you can be— I've literally read a whole page where I've legitimately said the words in my head, but I've been thinking about what I'm doing at work tomorrow.

Josh: It doesn't go in your head.

Tommy: It's bizarre. So yeah, basically I think it's a thing everyone faces to different degrees of the sort of losing focus as, as reading. But you're saying this was a big thing for you.

Josh: Yeah, use a grey lead.

Tommy: Now you're on the grey lead.

Josh: Yeah, you're on the lead.

Tommy: You're on the lead train.

Josh: Are they still using lead?

Tommy: Definitely not. Okay. Definitely not. When did that stop? It was always the thing at school, people like, oh, don't stab me, you might die, you might get lead poisoning.

Josh: And it was a real thing, wasn't it?

Tommy: Yeah, I think it probably was in our parents' day. Yeah, there definitely has probably been a few ACA storeys on The lead that's killing your kids. Yeah, it's graphite, the new lead.

Josh: There's a 4 lead warnings you won't expect. Do you reckon it's, um, scummier to be a journalist on ACA or BuzzFeed?

Tommy: Um, definitely ACA. Yeah, BuzzFeed is just in a whole other hipster league.

Josh: The other funny thing is I saw one of them in like some sort of suit, but it's just like they seem young still. So they're like man children in like these outfits to sort of yell. Like, it's very interesting. I wonder if it's always been like that, but we just never realised because we were young when we used to watch.

Tommy: It's so up in Shepparton where I lived doing the radio, there was the local news stations. And it's interesting, young people, like I was mates with a lot of them. They were, you know, in their suits sort of like doing what the Big Smoke happens and what happens in the Big Smoke, dressed the same out in regional towns, going out driving, doing stories.

Josh: So there's nothing wrong with that. Like, I don't want to hate on that. I think that's awesome.

Tommy: That's cutting your teeth and working hard.

Josh: But what I'm pushing back on is the just willingness to slam people. Yeah. And just, it's, and just, and just be they're— when they communicate, they're just always like looking at the camera and talking to you like you're a bit stupid.

Tommy: Yeah, yeah. Give me another— I quite like your ACA impersonation. Okay, we'll finish, wrap up the show with what we've talked about, some headlines.

Josh: Um, um, yeah, uh, uh, why eating chips in the car could kill you and your family. You can see Josh's face. Yeah, it's quite funny.

Tommy: His eyes look like they're about to pop out of his head.

Josh: So there's— I'll do one more. Um, uh, the, um, uh, I've got one. Give me a sec.

Tommy: Here we go. He's pulling Mason.

Josh: Sorry, Mr. Mason.

Tommy: Here we go. 3, 2, and take us away, Josh.

Josh: The 3 demerit point move you won't be doing this week. That's a bit shit, wasn't it? That's okay, it's the Daily Talk Show one. Hi@thedailytalkshow.com. Tomorrow is Friday, we are at Eazy's from midday. We're going to be eating some burgers. We've got, uh, Hulk Eats— what?

Tommy: Hulk Smash Foods. Yeah, Hulk Smash, number one eater in Australia, number one competitive eater in Australia. Yeah, I've been watching some videos, like the 3 videos I watched, no one fucking compares to how quick you can eat it.

Josh: The real question is, what I want to ask him is, but are you enjoying it?

Tommy: There's a real ACA storey in Hulk Smash.

Josh: Yes, maybe we should contact ACA to try and get the podcasters with their new movement. Interesting. Maybe, but we need to throw a villain in, so yeah, maybe food poisoning at a— no, no, no, we want to support local business. Yeah, absolutely.

Tommy: They want to destroy Destroy local business.

Josh: Yeah, exactly. Why these guys don't eat at McDonald's. Yeah, something like that. Yeah. Um, why the fast food chains are in trouble.

Tommy: One more, last one.

Josh: Um, uh, there's definitely something around, um, the— something around dish— like detergents. Like, um, the—

Tommy: what about how my wife got, um, an allergic reaction from Aldi, uh, washing detergent?

Josh: Yeah, um, the Aldi allergic reaction affecting all suburbs. No, that was shit. No, allergy— there's something in Aldi's allergy, um No, we've got to do this.

Tommy: Makes for the worst podcast.

Josh: This is great.

Tommy: Josh was actually wrapping me up about 3 minutes ago.

Josh: Sorry, I didn't know you saw that. How old is—

Tommy: and that's the Daily Talk Show. Hi@thedailytalkshow.com. Okay, I'll come up with Mr. 97 was. You'll get one more chance tomorrow in front of everyone at, um, at Easies. Truth.

Josh: I've got nothing. Is it a joke show? Have a good one, guys. Bye.