Oversharing With Ben Fordham

Ben: It's The Daily Talk Show, episode 659.

Tommy: Ben Fordham, welcome back to the show, big fella.

Ben: G'day boys, how are we? Hello everyone, isn't this nice?

Tommy: How's it, uh, are you in isolation? Is that what you're doing? Is that why you sit up?

Ben: For years I just, uh, I just love chilling out. I love hanging out at home and Look, I'm not really completely isolated at the moment because I'm working, so I'm kind of out and about at the moment, but I'm spending more time at home now than before. And, you know, I've got my little— I've joined the kind of 21st century or whatever century we're in these days. I've got the microphone set up here. I just— also, I can join the Daily Talk Show. I mean, the length we go to. What about you, boys? Twice a day. Twice a day.

Josh: Yeah, we've got a lot of time, mate. Like, uh, clients Clients are sort of dried up, so, you know, might as well do something productive.

Ben: I'm going to look after that. I'm going to— because I come from commercial radio, I'm going to— there are going to be some pop-up ads that are going to come up throughout today's show. So at various times, there will be pop-up advertisements for products that I believe in. I won't go talking about the Man Shake immediately, but throughout the show, you'll just occasionally see a little bit of product placement that'll pop up. And don't let it disturb your viewing or listening experience, okay?

Tommy: Mate, I can imagine you're across, you know, the breaking news. And this week we had the JobKeeper, uh, programme that's gonna be rolled out. Uh, someone who I'm worried about— sorry, someone who— someone who, uh—

Ben: beautiful. Sorry, go on, Tommy.

Tommy: Ben, there's a group of people that I want to hope, uh, I, I hope they get the JobKeeper program, and that's the kids that are on the the payroll with you around the neighborhood. What's going on? Are they still got a job?

Ben: Well, mate, guess what? One of them's actually got a new job, um, and I won't say at what location because I might get in trouble, but you guys will love this, right? Because it's only a rawr if you're not in on it, and I've just discovered a whole new rawr. One of the proudest things— and, and if anyone hasn't, uh, heard the, uh, episode I was on last time, you guys were talking about the fact that I employ a lot of kids in my neighborhood— and one of the proudest things is when they go from being a an employee of mine to then working for another organization, you know, out in the brave workforce. There's a kid across the road, and I won't say his name just because I don't want to get anyone in any trouble, but he's now landed a job at a, at a business. Let's call it a supermarket, a well-known supermarket, like a Walmart. And I've discovered— yeah, it's not— yeah, anyway, I discovered when he landed the job, I was trying to hire him to do something for me, and, um, and he said, oh look, I've now got a job up the road. And I said, that's pretty good. I said, how'd you get that? And I was talking to him about it. He goes, yeah, I now get 25% off. And I went, oh really? He goes, yeah, I get all employees get 25% off. And I went, wow, that's, that's 25% is a big discount. So I then got thinking, I went, okay, so hang on a moment. What days do you work? Tuesdays and Thursday. So I could send you my shopping list. You can go and buy our groceries. You get the 25% discount. I said, let's say we spend $200, right? So that, that's a $50 discount. We could halve it. So you, you pocket $25. I say $25. And he was like, he goes, I better cheque with mom and dad. I was like, yeah, sure. I mean, double-check it with them from a legal point of view, but that's, that's a big saving. 25% is a massive saving. And if I can halve the 25% discount with him, then he pockets money for nothing, but he's gotta deliver obviously the groceries to our door. So that's a good deal.

Tommy: I think it's okay seeing as the, uh, the shopping, the, you know, shopping centres are doing very well at the moment, aren't they ever?

Ben: And no one really wants to go out at the moment. How are you boys coping? You seem pretty good. You seem like you're, uh, you know, it's, I suppose different industries have different pressures on them at a time like this. I'm finding more pressure on us and more interest in what I'm doing on radio than ever before because people are craving information. And same with you guys, right? Because People are cooped up at home, and so they're clicking on that podcast button more than they normally would. I mean, they get it daily already, but now they get it twice a day. How are you working out the twice a day thing?

Josh: I think it's easier for Sevs and I. We don't have many responsibilities. For TJ, being a dad, I think it makes it a little bit hard.

Tommy: Yeah, I got Bodhi full-time now at home by myself.

Ben: So you're a full-on daddy now, are you?

Tommy: Yeah, yeah, full-time dad.

Ben: Come on, man. Isn't it amazing? Dads get so much credit for doing the smallest things, you know, the stuff that moms do all the time. It's like when, when girls see dads running with a pram, you know, those guys who go for a jog and they're pushing the pram, and you see girls who see it and they go, oh, look at that, isn't that guy just amazing? It's like, you know, mums do that every single day of the week, and it's just like, oh, it's just expected. But when dads do it, it's like, come on, someone buy this guy a gold trophy and a ribbon, what a special individual he is.

Josh: Good on you, Tom. The Ninja Warrior stuff in, um, in Melbourne that you just filmed, what was the difference with all the coronavirus stuff that was happening? What sort of changes did they make?

Ben: Well, we had a few little complications with it, um, but it was amazing that we managed to get through because there were TV shows being cancelled all over the place. But the studio audience was the big thing. They, they essentially cancelled the studio audience initially but they allowed family members and supporters. So if the, if the ninjas were running and you knew them, you were allowed to come along. But as far as all of the members of the public who had booked their tickets or whatever, they just had to say no to all of those people. And then there was the kind of, you know, safe distancing stuff that came in. So for example, Rebecca Madden and I up in the commentary box would usually be, you know, right next to each other, but they kind of separated us a little bit. She She wasn't there for the first few shows because she'd been sitting next to Richard Wilkins on the set of the Weekend Today show, and Dickie had been in isolation for a long time. Former guest on the Daily Talk Show, Richard Wilkins. Hello, mate, if you're tuning in. So, um, yeah, Dickie's now out of isolation. He's had the all clear. Bec missed the first few nights, uh, and Shane Crawford joined us. I don't know whether you guys— I should get Crawford on for you guys to do a, uh, get him on for a guest spot. How's that bloke? I mean, I know he's a— he's— I know he's a massive massive celebrity. He's a Melbourne celebrity in a major way.

Josh: And now in your friendship group officially.

Ben: Yeah, I've claimed him. I've claimed him. And I always liked him. He did that thing when he— what did he— he kind of rode around Australia or something like that for raising money. I know for breast cancer, I think it was, many, many years ago. I remember watching all of that from a distance thinking, this guy seems like a good guy. But yeah, he joined the cast of Australian Ninja Warrior as well this year at short notice because Rebecca was missing for the first few days. And then we liked him so much, we just kept him around for the the rest of the shoot. But, um, yeah, I got to spend a bit of time with him. He's a really nice bloke, interesting kind of background. And, and I stole his line because when he won a, uh, a premiership, he, he got up on stage and, um, and famously screamed out— I might have to back off the mic a little bit— but he kind of went, 'That's what I'm talking about!' So, um, so I was like, 'Oh, surely I've got to, I've got to work that in.' Like when someone gets up to the top of, you know, up to the top of the Warped Wall or some major highlight, I've got to steal his catchphrase. So I did that several times. And what the trick is, you do it in crucial moments so you know that they're not going to be able to edit it out. And there'll be people at home going, I think you just pinched Shane Crawford's line. But anyway, what about—

Josh: I think Shannon Knowlesy.

Ben: Well, have you heard Knowlesy say— I'm pretty sure when Knowlesy's up on stage, he says, that's what I'm talking about. So I don't know whether Knowlesy pinched it from Crawford or who started it, but I'm using it now.

Tommy: It's my new 'that's crazy.' Well, yeah, yeah, you need to bring that back at least. Did you get it in there? Actually, you probably don't know that you got it in. You probably got it in somewhere across the season.

Ben: Yeah, it's just, it's just part of my everyday language.

Tommy: Ben, how have you been making sense of all the information about coronavirus, especially like in terms of being a broadcaster on your radio show and not wanting to spread misinformation?

Ben: Well, what I've done, I've, you know, it's been really weird. I reckon the last 3 weeks I've done 3 hours every day on one topic, and I've never done that before in my life. Like, just so you have a— I'm trying to think of the last big storey that dominated a whole show. When the, um, the mosque shootings happened in New Zealand, I remember that day and us realizing, hang on a moment, this is, this is awful what's going on here. And it took over an entire show, but by the next day half of the show is on new content, and you might be reflecting on what happened the day before in New Zealand. We've done 3 hours every day on coronavirus for 3 weeks straight. I've not covered one other storey because I don't want anyone tuning into my show and hearing anything other than the one topic, the only topic that the whole world wants to talk about. No one's interested in anything else at the moment apart from this, so I'm just doing the whole show on it. What I'm doing, I probably only take 5% of the calls out of We've never ever received this amount of call traffic before. So out of all of the calls that try and get on every day, only 5% are getting through, whereas usually it'd be more like 50/50. And there's a, you know, you'll get calls where people might have a theory on what's happened, or they've heard something, or they've read something on Facebook about how it started, or how you might be able to fix it. Or, you know, so I'm just being really careful just not to take any calls from anyone that we just can't verify. I'm not interviewing a lot of politicians, so I just made a rule from the start. I was like, I do not want to hear politicians right now. I want to hear real experts and real people. So I've never spoken to more professors in my life. And then it's just about, okay, real, you know, I've got a mate Mitch Bailey who's a cameraman, and he's been a cameraman on shows like The Voice and things like that for his whole career, and a really well-respected bloke, the kind of cameraman who A lot of TV hosts say when they've landed a gig, 'Hire Mitch Bailey. What? We want Mitch.' So he's, he's top of the pops. Mitch has been in the queues at Centrelink, and as he said to me on air this week, he was like, 'Mate, the only times I've been to Centrelink are to film the queues of other people at Centrelink, and now I'm the guy standing in the queue.' You know, that's how real it's been for me. You know, I've got, I've got a guy who's, um, working outside my window right now called Anthony. Anthony's a driver, and Anthony's been driving people for Channel 9 for a long time. I met him through Dickie. So Dickie, you know, Dickie's going somewhere, he'll often— Anthony will be picking up Dickie. And so I met Anthony through Dickie, and I use him if I'm going to the airport, right? So just as a way of going to and from, or if I'm emceeing a charity thing, I tend to book Anthony. Anthony says to me the other day, he goes, mate, you're the only person I'm still driving around at the moment. It's only because I had to go to Melbourne for Ninja Warrior. He goes, mate, I almost feel like I'm just doing some painting. And I said, what do you mean? He goes, well, like, I need work. I don't want to sit at home. I'd rather be painting a fence. And I was like, do you know how to paint a fence? He goes, yeah. I go, mate, you're not going to believe it. I need my fence painted. So I'm not joking, outside my window right now, Anthony is painting my fence. And then he goes, mate, your front door's a bit scrappy. And I went, okay, right. And then he's going to do the front door. And then I just put the garage door down. He goes, mate, you know that this doesn't have a code on it, the garage door. They don't. So anyway, Anthony the driver, who just literally walked past the window as I'm talking about him, is now Anthony the painter. So I've just gone, righto, let's— I'll throw you some work. And you know what, I reckon that's what people can do at the moment— throw people work. So if you need something done outside your house, around your house, now's the time to go, you know what, hire someone now to do that job. Because it's all well and good to have the JobKeeper programme and have these wage subsidy things, and they're all really good, but But individually, if you're thinking, how can I help at the moment? It's not necessarily going and standing on a street corner and handing out toilet paper, as nice as that is. Look around your house, look around your office, look around your life and think, okay, what are the things that I have been meaning to get done and that need to get done? Do it now. Hire someone to do it. Now, there'd be a lot of people doing those jobs themselves at the moment because they're cooped up at home, and that's fine. But for people like me who've got absolutely no idea how to, how to paint a fence, and not stuff it up, now's the time to pick up the phone and hire someone because people are desperate, desperate for work.

Josh: On the political side of things, how do you feel? Like, because obviously there's been a lot of memes and stuff around how the government's responded. A lot of people have said that they've been slow to respond, like with ScoMo saying, hey, 500 people, uh, but we're starting it on Monday. You know what?

Ben: They'd never seen anything like this before in their lives. None of us had. And look, we like to be able to sit back and go— and I've watched on Twitter people where it's almost like every hour they've got a new critique. And some of them, you know, everyone from TV hosts to stand-up comedians who all of a sudden think that they are the chief medical officers of the country and they can run the country better than the Prime Minister. I think ScoMo missed the mark big time on the bushfires, big time, and for a whole range of reasons. I think we all know where he went wrong there. But on this one, I think he's been pretty good. Maybe on a few days a little bit slow to act, and there've been a few things where he could have gone a day earlier here or there. But you know what, I, I think all in all we've been faster than other parts of the world. We are gifted by the, by the body of water that surrounds us. I mean, let's not kid ourselves, it's being surrounded by water is the greatest gift that we've got in handling this thing. It makes it so much easier. But I think he's been pretty good. I think, you know, I think he, he, Maybe, you know, some people in New Zealand— I had a guy in New Zealand, Ryan Bridge, who's a radio host in New Zealand. He called in live to my show last week to go, what are you Aussies doing? You're so slow. Your Prime Minister, forget ScoMo, it's slow-mo, because in New Zealand we've gone into lockdown. I'm kind of glad that I'm not in lockdown at the moment. I'm, you know, I know some people feel like we should have just gone straight into lockdown, but at the moment, by putting everyone who's flying into the country into hotels, because 70 to 80% of the cases in Australia have come in from overseas, so they all go into immediate quarantine in hotels at the moment. So that's going to slow it down. We've started to see a bit of a result there. I don't know, if it doesn't come down too much further, maybe we do need to do lockdown. But I think they've handled it pretty well. I think it's very easy to throw stones from the sidelines and say, I would have done that differently. But can you imagine? There'd be times— and I know that this is not a really brave thing to say— But I've thought to myself, there'd be times when you'd be thinking, get me out of here. If you're the Prime Minister, just be thinking, you know what, I don't want to do this. I didn't sign up for this. I want to wave the white flag. I know that's not the Australian thing to say or the manly thing to say, but there were times last week when I thought to myself, man, if I was running the country, I'd be tempted just to lock myself in the office and go, hey, listen, Sorry, I can't do this. This— I'm not the man for this job. I, I don't know what to do, and I'm not perfect, and I don't know the exactly the right thing to do at exactly the right time.

Josh: I mean, so is that a no for becoming Prime Minister? Because 97's already said he's not putting himself forward, and so is Tommy. Who are you? Have we got confirmation that you're also not interested?

Ben: No, I'm— yeah, I've officially ruled myself out of the gig, mate. So are you still in? Is that what you're saying? If Tommy's out—

Josh: well, yeah, it's a Bradbury sort of thing.

Ben: You guys are making a decision. Can you imagine the indecision if Josh was in charge of the country? Oh my God. Wow. I mean, I love Josh.

Tommy: You would pull up your speechwriter mid-speech that you're giving. You'd be like, nah, that's wrong.

Josh: I wouldn't have a speechwriter.

Ben: No, no. And imagine Organized August. Imagine taking that on a national level and just saying, okay, we'll just shut down the country for August and everyone just get their shit together.

Josh: We're almost doing that now, aren't we? That is—

Tommy: this is organised March and April. Ben, in terms of the economic shitstorm it's creating, what are some of the— are you having people on that look into the future that are much smarter than all of us in the sense of numbers?

Ben: Well, mate, it's changed everything as far as, you know, you have a look at— you have a look at what's happened with— I mean, you guys have been way ahead of the curve, right? You've had this thing going for— how long has the show been going now? A year and a half? Yeah, 2 years.

Josh: Over 2 years.

Tommy: Yeah.

Ben: So, you know, you guys are obviously ahead of the curve, but everyone else is playing catch-up, you know. And there'd be, there'd be, you know, this thing I paid for last week because, you know, the lengths we go to to still get on the Daily Talk Show. So there's this business happening that wouldn't have been happening had it not been for this crisis. And you have a look at what's happening with Zoom, and you have a look at what's happening with Houseparty and these kind of things. I find that really interesting, the way the business moves and the market moves. But But here's the other thing. How many businesses, after having all of their workers working from home and working rather effectively from home, how many of them are going to be looking at their next bill coming in for a massive office space and thinking, you know what, do we really need all this space? Do we really need the boardroom? Do we really need to be employing everyone to go between A and B and C and D, or can we just do business like this from home? Over the net, using the cameras, using this kind of equipment that you guys have been using for over 2 years. And you say, look at the broadcast business, you know, there are some TV shows that have been filming their shows with remote cameras for the first time instead of having 7 cameramen in the studio. Um, I've got a lot of mates who are cameramen, and they're worried at the moment because they're thinking to themselves, well, now they know they don't necessarily need us all there in that studio. And the robots do a reasonable job, uh, are they just going to stick with the robotic cameras? So there'll be a lot of people who, who will never get their jobs back. Their jobs will never come back, and it's going to be a major shift for people to work out what are you going to do, how are you going to survive, and if this is not going to be your job going forward, what is going to be a job going forward?

Josh: I've always had the dream of one day being set up, um, the, the specific location is The Nut in Tasmania. I want to buy a bit of land on the nut, have a cottage, and have a fibre connection and do the show from the nut. What do you think about doing your radio show forever from home?

Ben: No, I don't know. I, I can't do it from here. I can't do it from home because I've got 3 kids 5 and under, and it's just not gonna— you know, there's enough, you know, there's enough pressure on my wife at the moment. Looking after 3 kids at home, but then to have me doing a radio show from here as well, producer who'd have to be here as well to assist with the whole thing. Yeah, it's not ideal for me. I still like going into the office, so I prefer that. You know, it's like putting on the boot or the shoe that you're used to wearing. When I'm not in my studio, it takes a bit of adjustment. If need be, you do it and you kind of make do, and I've done my show recently from 3AW in Melbourne because I've been there filming Ninja, but it's not the same. I like being in the studio, uh, and it just wouldn't work at home. The amount of pressure that it would put on Jodie having me doing the show from here, and, and, and the kids, when they know you're in the house— as you know, Tommy— when they know that you're there and they know they're not supposed to go in that room, um, it's like there's just a massive, you know, magnet in that room and they just want to come in and see what's going on. I'm quite surprised that none have come in so far and and interrupted, but that's only because I've got Sophia who works with me out there running interference, just kind of tackling the kids as they barge their way in here.

Tommy: And the fence painter is also crossed with a childcare worker now.

Ben: It's, uh, he's backing up on that as well. Max will be around this weekend to water the lawn and also empty the skimmer box. As you boys know, uh, the Foxtel memory to about 85%, so, um, I would suggest that, uh, Beau and Kyle have to drop in at some point. I'd say not this weekend,, but by next weekend it'll be up to about 93, 94%, so they'll have to drop in and do that. You don't want to go paying someone to clear the foxtail when it's down in the 60% because kids will turn up here and go, 'Oh, do you want me to clear the foxtail?' And I have a look and I go, 'Memory 60%.' I go, 'No, no, come back.' Ben, 3 hours a day consuming—

Tommy: I think it's probably, it's greater than just watching telly and sort of receiving the information. You're trying to process it and then deliver it back on air. How are you actually escaping, uh, this sort of thinking? Are you doing anything? You know, I'm not.

Ben: No, I'm not.

Tommy: Turned into a coronavirus little green thing. It's amazing.

Ben: Yeah, you're actually one of them. Yeah, I just, um, I don't know. I, I think that when it's on, it's on, and at the moment it's on, and the only thing that's going on in my world is this. I mean, I don't, I, I don't kind of obsess about it when I'm, I'm not in the office, but I, I'm thinking about it a lot because everywhere you go, it's the only thing anyone wants to talk about. I mean, really, I mean, maybe in Melbourne you get that, ah, the AFL's cancelled as well because the AFL is just as big as the virus as far as people in Melbourne are concerned. But apart from that, I have just not had anyone say anything to me apart from coronavirus. And you know that look when people give you, like when I went up to the cafe this morning I went up there and people are like, hey, they just kind of that look, you know, as if to say, we all, we both know what's going on. We're not supposed to kind of stop and chat too much about it at the moment. But there's this look that everyone's giving each other at the moment, this knowing look that we're all in this together. And I've just never experienced anything like it in my life. It's, um, we get worried about things that we don't know. And because we feel at the moment that the answers to everything are at our fingertips, and we can sort anything out in an instant. This one we can't sort out. We don't understand it. We don't get it. And that scares us when we don't understand something that makes us really frightened.

Josh: What are you actually worried about? What do you go to at this time?

Ben: What do you mean, what do I go to?

Josh: Yeah, like in regards to the worries, there's obviously lots of different elements. There's kids and education.

Ben: Oh, kids. I mean, it's funny, Jodie said early on, Jodie's mum's a nurse, so she's got that medical side of her. Her brain. And she said early on when it first started, she was— I said, this thing looks like a real worry, you know. This is when it first broke out in China. And Jodie was like, yeah, yeah. She goes, it doesn't seem to kill too many kids though. And I went, oh, okay, sorry, it still sounds pretty serious to me. She goes, no, no, it's serious. But she was like, you know what I mean? Like, that was her first thought. Is this one of these viruses kill kids, you know? And there's so many viruses that, that that's the first thing. It's like, if a kid gets it, man, it's going to kill that kid. Now, some children have died from coronavirus, but not many. So So it's a bit of a saving grace for, for mums and dads out there. But yeah, look, you really do have to think about it. I stopped shaking hands really early on because I, I don't know, when you think about it, I mean, it's, it's built into us. One of the first things I was taught to do as a kid was to shake hands and to look in someone's eye. The first thing that my, my dad drilled into me as a young boy was how to do that. And same with me with, with my kids, you know, I'm big on, you know, making sure that they they learn about shaking hands. But when you think about it, it is such an unnecessary spread of germs, even before coronavirus. I mean, and if you're, if you're an AFL captain, right, and you're, you're out and about in Melbourne, can you imagine how many hands you shake? I mean, you would be shaking 500 hands a day and taking 500 selfies a day, right? Because you're, you're a famous AFL star, but, but your whole livelihood depends on you being healthy and making sure you're not going to get sick because you need to be there on Saturday. So are we really going to go back to the same levels of handshaking that we were doing before? I'm not convinced that we are. I reckon there'll be a lot of people who forever from now on will go, oh, I don't know, I'll find another way of— whether it's bumping a fist or elbows or, you know, even if you, if you're really close to someone. I'm a big hugger and I'm looking forward to getting the hugging back. I can't wait. Let's bring back the hugs. I can't wait for that to happen.

Josh: Not yet. Not yet.

Ben: Not yet. Yeah, well, not yet, but, um, when, you know, I don't know, I'm probably more inclined to do that than shake hands with a lot of people. When you just think about— I've become really conscious of germs and all those types of things. And when you've got kids, you think about it, even pre-coronavirus, as you'd know, Tommy. I don't know whether it came from your other half or from you, but it just gets drilled in you really early on that the moment there's a sick kid around, anyone who says to you I like— my brother will say, oh yeah, we're coming over with Maisie and Coco. Coco's got a little bit of a sniffle, but she's— and I'm like, whoa, she's got what, a sniffle? No, no, she's not coming over. Don't come over. We'll see you next week. Because you know that when that hits your household, it is World War III for the next 3 days. Sick kids, they can't sleep, they pass it to the other one. So as a, as a parent, you really become accustomed to, you know, putting up the guards, putting up the borders, and and stopping any infection or illness coming into your house. So yeah, that's probably been the main thing on my mind at the moment, the kids.

Tommy: We've had a few cruise ships roll into Melbourne, but it's, you know, it's not like Sydney Harbour, the clusterfuckery of that ship that rolled in and 1,500 people got off. I heard yesterday that, uh, based on the incubation period, the people who got off, it's almost 2 weeks ago, so like next week will be the 14 days, which means that you'll probably start to see the cases pop up from the people who got off the boat. Like, how did that happen? Have you been covering the cruise ship?

Ben: I've been going— yeah, been going really hard on it. One thing I've been doing, like, during the whole coronavirus thing, I've been thinking to myself, I don't want to go hammering politicians over every mistake that they made, because as I said before, at the moment, they are— this is an hour-by-hour kind of prospect. But that cruise ship in Sydney, the Ruby Princess cruise ship, You know, they've now got— and this, this will probably change by this afternoon, or it might even by tomorrow— but we're up to 6 deaths just from that cruise ship. So there are 6 people dead, 400+ cases. And what happened is they had those sick people were on the Ruby Princess cruise ship, so it's contained at sea. They allow it to dock, there are sick people on board, then people leave that ship on foot They get in cars, they get in trams, trains, planes. They go to the city of Sydney, the suburbs of Sydney, regional New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, taking that killer virus right around Australia. All because some dickhead at New South Wales Health went, "Oh yeah, let's let them get off the ship." Why would you let them get off that ship? There are now 6 people dead. There's 400+ cases. That 400 could end up being 800, 1,200, who knows. It is absolutely unforgivable, and nobody's copped it. You know, like Gladys Berejiklian, who's our Premier in New South Wales, who I don't think there's a politician in Australia who I've got more respect for than Gladys. And one of the things that Gladys is famous for is not throwing anyone under the bus. But Gladys, you've got to chuck someone under the bus on this one. Like, there are some things where to the families of those people who have been infected or who are dead, you need to be able to say to them, look, the dickhead who made that call is no longer in the position that they were in when they made that call. But at the moment, no one's paid the price.

Josh: Shannon says, uh, that's actually crazy, not even taking a piss.

Ben: Shannon, too soon.

Josh: Um, the, the The idea of the whole culture world changing, I'm even thinking about my domain name hugkisshandshake.com, which I bought late last year, whether that's more relevant or less relevant. What do you think will actually—

Ben: How many domain names have you bought?

Josh: A few. A few. Yeah, I'm cutting back now, obviously.

Tommy: 200.

Josh: But, um. What do you think are some of the things that you're the ultimate doomsday prepper, really, aren't you?

Ben: I mean, you just— let's just buy every domain name just in case it's going to be relevant one day.

Josh: But no, look at Off the Grid. I had, um, so offthegrid.com, I had, um, I bought that maybe, uh, 5 years ago, and I couldn't believe that it was available, and my heart was pounding. Like, you get this sort of sensation when you buy domain names at that quality.

Tommy: It's called erection.

Josh: Yeah, it's a little bit— I was slightly, um, hard. But I, um, I, but, but I straight away when I, when I bought it, I went to offthegrid.com to make sure that it had all gone through, and there was another website on there. And I was like, what is going on? Anyway, I checked my email. I bought offthegird.com.

Tommy: Instant flop.

Ben: Some people are beyond help, and I just, you know, I want to help you. I'm a helper, but there are some things I can't help you with that I really can't. I can't help you. I need to work on my background here, don't I? Because you got— you guys got the nice little bookshelves and plants and things like that. So I'll have to work on that, that I get something in the background. You know, I can't just be, you know, just holding up sponsored content constantly, man. The Alka Power alkaline water. Everyday hydration, it's fantastic stuff to anyone watching at the moment. And can also just get in the plug for the Man Bar. Boys, do you like the bars when you, you know, you just need a little bit of a snack? Yeah, but you don't want to, um, you know, the Man Bar made by Adam McDougall and the team at Man Shake. Strongly recommend it. I'll send a, I'll send a box to the, the office in there. Who's in the office?

Tommy: Be careful sending it to the PO Box because that will just go straight to Josh.

Josh: It's either that or our editor George, and I know who I would trust.

Ben: You're looking fit, by the way. You're looking real fit. This home iso—

Josh: I'm actually, um, I'm one day into my, um, diet, so I'm doing—

Tommy: I thought that was an April Fool's gag.

Josh: No, no, no. So I had, um, I had a beautiful— I can't show you now, but I, uh, I, uh, have been making baked eggs in the morning with heaps of veggies and just, just trying to remove all the, uh, baked eggs. Okay.

Ben: Yeah, I'm into the eggs, into the hard-boiled eggs. When I started, you know, trying to focus on health and all that kind of thing, the eggs were a bit of a revelation for me to, um, you know, boil up a whole heap of them. And, and when you, when you just need something to get a couple of them, a little bit of goat's cheese on a, uh, Vita Wheat, that's my kind of go-to. Like, I need something, but I want to avoid, I want to avoid hitting Uber Eats or, you know, getting something that I don't really need, but I need some energy to go with it. Yeah, a couple of Vita Wheats, a little bit of goat's cheese, and, um, and some boiled eggs on top. Bloody good.

Tommy: Ben, have you done any telly recently? Have you been on the Today Show? I've been watching. Yeah, because I've been getting up early.

Ben: I did it last Friday and I'm doing it tomorrow morning, but I'm doing it from here. So I've just been getting the, um, what I did is, you know, those things, I got one of those things in my car like a suction cup thing that goes on the windscreen and, um, and the phone goes in it. So I just pulled that out of the car and I put it on my, um, on, on the window here at home, and I just, um, whacked the mobile phone in there and and go live via Skype. So I'll be doing that tomorrow morning on Today Extra at 10 AM, I think I'm doing. So it's kind of nice not having to go into the studio and, and, um, you know, going in and putting a jacket on, whatever. I just, just do it from the living room. It's quite a relaxed vibe at the moment. I'm enjoying that.

Tommy: The opposite to Richard Wilkins. He couldn't wait to get back to make some quality telly.

Ben: Well, mate, I mean, he was 17 or 18 days stuck there, and Diggy's used to having company. He's not a man who's been left lonely for a lot of his life, so to be trapped at home for 17 or 18 days on his own, I can understand why he went through bucketloads of gin.

Tommy: Is it true that he actually started using his two pools each day, alternating?

Ben: Well, yeah, well, you'd have the corona-related pool and then you'd keep the other one clear for other guests, surely. But, um, yeah, I really feel for him, mate. He, uh, he Well, it was a bit of a shock, to be honest, when, when it all happened. It's funny how you count things back and you go, okay, so Richard Wilkins has got coronavirus. Fitzie and Whipper, the radio hosts, they then went into isolation and went into quarantine and were having tests done because they had spent some time with him. And then I'm like, oh, hang on a moment, I spoke to Whipper in the car park at work for about 20 minutes. What day was that? And then you start adding it up, and then I realised I I look at, you know, I was close talking with Whipper for about 20 minutes in the car park.

Josh: What do you mean close talking?

Ben: Well, we were gossiping. So naturally when you kind of outside the lifts and we were kind of having a bit of a gossip about a few things. And so, you know, when you kind of lean in a little bit, then I was thinking back going, geez, that was some close talking. That was some leaning in. And Whipper was with Dickie and Dickie's got coronavirus. Has Dickie given it to Whipper and has Whipper given it to me? But thankfully I thought, well, you don't want to go and get tested unnecessarily. Early, so I thought I'll just wait and see if Whipper's got it. And Whipper didn't have it, so I didn't bother going and getting the test done. But, uh, yeah, poor old Dickie. He's had a bit of a tough time at home, but I'm guessing he'll be back on the Today Show this weekend. He's been stinging to get back on there.

Josh: What are senior managers and leaders in the companies that you work for— what are they saying about all this?

Ben: I think they are doing a bit of ass covering, um, and I don't mean that in a, in a negative way. I just think that early on, I, I know that, um my boss at the radio station early on, before there was a lot of talk about people working from remote locations, he was, he was wargaming, war rooming that for a long time to kind of think, okay, who's going to go from where and how are we going to sort this whole thing out, and separating people and, and whatever. And, and I suppose with businesses closing, and there are businesses shut right around the country, those businesses aren't necessarily going to be advertising because they've got nothing to advertise. So that impacts the amount of people who want to advertise on the radio or on the TV. But then again, there are businesses changing. So when businesses— say, for example, there are, you know, food businesses in Sydney and Brisbane that I've got relationships with, and automatically they were really quick. There's a guy, Con Deities, who runs the Deities Group in Sydney, and a guy, Johnny Gambaro, who runs Gambaro's in Brisbane. And they're both well known in those respective cities. And so they were going to be at the front of the curve in terms of going, okay, Gambaro's becomes Gambaro to Go, you know, click and collect. And, and Conditis, who would never have done food delivery in his life because he runs finer restaurants, all of a sudden he's doing deliveries and pickups. And so those businesses need to advertise their new methods. So I suppose there's some, some revenue coming in from the people who are changing their business ways. But to those businesses who just had to shut up completely, well, why would you be advertising at the moment? So that presents a real challenge for the bosses that I've got in TV and in radio.

Tommy: A common thought is like, uh, people having— it's, we've had it too easy, you know. The— you think about a— when an economy is good, people are spending money on shit that they don't really need. And so it's kind of popping that bubble. What do you think about, you know, the $6 coffees, or $7 in Josh's case, when he gets out of the shop?

Josh: Yeah, if you have mocha in the place nearby, charge— bucks it cost me.

Tommy: But in, in terms of when we come out the other side of this when people's main prerogative was to survive. I mean, this has to change our cultural society approach.

Ben: I think, I think you're right. And look, there are going to be— and this will be hard for people to, to cop at this point because we're in the middle of such an awful thing— there are going to be some positives out of all of this. And you, you just look at the way that, that people appreciate more stepping outside and appreciating what's around us. You know, it has changed us. And even, even people spending more time at home, people— you look at, you look at the greater appreciation for teachers that's happened because mums and dads have realised this is hard, hard work. Teachers will end up being paid more. There'll be a greater love and appreciation for the role that they carry out. There will be a greater understanding of what's being taught to kids and what, what really works with kids and what they respond to in a teaching environment by mum and dad. There'll be fewer parents who'll be going, what are they— what's going on at school and what's this teacher teaching them? And they'll have a much greater love and understanding for the job that the teachers are doing. So that's just in teaching, but I think for all of us, I don't know, I think you value the people who you're with that little bit more. And also, can you imagine the next time you go to the pub Like, you know, I'm not a, you know, I'm not a massive— I'm not someone who goes to the pub, you know, 2 or 3 times a week. I might get to the pub once every fortnight, you know, every second Friday night maybe I might go. And I tend to only go for a couple of hours and then I'm off home. But I cannot wait to go to a pub. Like, I am stinging to go to a pub because someone stopped me from going to the pub, and for a really good reason. So there'll be an appreciation thing that'll turn on. There'll be an attitude of gratitude that we haven't seen before for things that previously we were just like, "Oh yeah, that's a sunset, that's a park, that's a beach." Well, no, not everyone gets that. Not everyone has that in their country. We've got it here. And maybe the other thing from a social point of view, are we going to be a bit more selective in who we hang out with? Are we going to still be chasing that big social group and feeling like, you know, when you get to the weekend and you go, oh God, I've got to catch up with those people and we've got to— haven't seen them in 3 weeks, haven't seen them in 4 months, haven't seen— do we really need to be seeing all those people all the time forever, or are we going to be a little bit more focused on, on the people that really matter to us in our, in our closer social circles and family groups?

Josh: Do you think that there will be a shift in how much sports people will be getting paid?

Ben: Big time, mate. They're not gonna— no, that's not gonna come back. That'll take years and years and years to come back. And you know what people are doing at the moment? There are people at the moment straight away strategizing, what sport can I get on TV that doesn't involve a lot of competitors and doesn't involve live audience? So I know for sure, and some of them have already been knocked back, but I've got a mate, uh, in Victoria who straight away was going, okay, no AFL, no other major live sports. And so he was workshopping an idea and trying to get it through the health authorities there to say, would you let us put this on? Because it's, you know, it's only going to involve 2 people and it's only— no, that no live audience and whatever. So there are people automatically thinking, okay, there's going to be this, this massive gap as far as live sport is concerned, so there's going to be an appetite for it. So for example, now that I think about it, Ninja Warrior, it'll go off this year as far as ratings, it'll, it'll climb higher this year as a result of this. Because when you want your fix, there's no AFL, there's no NRL, and all of a sudden you've got 3 weeks of, of people, sports people, athletes doing something on, on camera that people are going to watch that more. So it's just everything, the ripple effects from it are just so far and wide. Everything's changed. Not everything's changed completely. But everything in our lives has changed by a degree, a big degree or a small degree. It depends on what it is.

Tommy: What about talent? You know, like, uh, celebs, movies. You're gonna think these, um, networks are struggling. It's— which seems crazy, but you know, the big movie, there's no— there's no sort of premiere of Bond in any time soon, which was meant to be. And so there's all these— you think people who are the entertainers are going to be affected, like in what you do as well?

Ben: Yeah, well, look, mate, it couldn't have come at a worse time because I know I've got a couple of mates who are in the comedy game who all of a sudden had, you know, had their stuff cancelled overnight. You know, I've got a mate who I think sold out his shows for the first time, you know, before that even started. He'd sold out shows before, but this time he'd sold out every single show and he was like, I can't believe it, this— I've finally reached that point where all of my shows are sold out before the festivals have even started, and then the festivals were all cancelled, you know. So that's going to be really hard. Comedians, how do you get back up and running? I mean, if you're Ricky Gervais, you can just go live on, on Instagram and millions of people will tune in and watch it, and it's fantastic. I've loved watching that, the way artists have performed from home. And I've been doing on the radio, I've been doing Corona Concert Series every day, uh, where I have artists like, um, and I've had a you know, everyone from Guy Sebastian or Jessica Mauboy performing exclusively for our show from their homes. And I get them to record them at their homes, and then, and then they send it to us, and then I have a chat to them on the phone prior and then play their, their stuff for everyone. And I've been doing some, some comedy bits as well where I've got people like Vince Sorrenti, who's a great comedian and a really entertaining bloke. He's been homeschooling his, his kids, so I got him on to kind of talk about that. So You know, they're finding— I'm trying to find my best ways of trying to, you know, bring some of that into the radio show for starters, and therefore leaning on mates who are comedians and singers and things like that so that their work can still be used and the creative juices are still flowing and we can put it on our radio show. But, you know, it's adapt or die, and you've got to find ways. I've been doing lessons on my show every day. So at 3:25 every afternoon, my show starts at 3, at 3:25 every afternoon I say Mums, dads, you're homeschooling, you need a bit of a break, gather the kids around the radio. Your radio relief teacher Mr. Fordham is about to take over for the next minute. And I just do a fun fact of the day every day at 3:25, which is a chance for the kids to gather around the radio. I wait till they're all nice and silent, and then I give them one fact, like something like, um, apples float because they're 25% air. And then I just play and I move on. And the idea is that the kids go, what? How does that work? And then, and then I say, look, don't ask me, don't ask me how it works. Just either try it, try it at home, do an experiment with mum and dad, or any follow-up questions that'll be asked to mum and dad, because I can't answer your follow-up questions.

Tommy: So, you know, does that mean that when, when my poos float, they're 25% air? Is that what you're saying?

Ben: We've just gone from apples to poos. There you go. Welcome to the Daily Talk Show. So, um, yes, uh, I can give you another one. Okay, Tommy, listen to this. So your orange, right? If you've got an orange— this was another one of our little fun little lessons— if you've got an orange that's peeled, it'll sink, but an orange with the skin on will float.

Josh: So does that mean if my shit is sinking, I'm eating too much?

Ben: Talking about your shits. Come on, Mr. 97, isn't this 101 of podcasting kind of etiquette? We just don't talk about our shits. Oh, we mention shit every day.

Tommy: I always try and get a little turd in there, you know.

Ben: I, I, I, I love what you guys are doing, and I, I, I was thinking to myself the other day, I don't know how I actually came across you. I'm trying to work out how I first came across what you guys were doing, but I'll tell you what, it's been a, a life-changing experience for me because I I listen to you every day. Well, there might be maybe one day a week or two days a week where I don't, but then I, I tend to play catch up on, on most of them. But it's been a, um, it's been a really great thing for me to come across your, um, your podcast. And, and I, I still don't know how that first happened, how it all kind of kicked off, but I'm, um, I'm really, really thrilled that you guys, um, came into my orbit. And I, and I love the success you're having. I looked at that that self-serving graph that you posted the other day.

Josh: Most months, it's one of my favorites.

Ben: Download that I, I then linked to Organized August. I think if you have a look at it, there's a massive spike just before September. So that's obviously when all that kicked off, which was— that was your idea, Josh. And even though Tommy shit-canned it at the time, mate, you should now have a look at all of that hard work. Sometimes you've just got to ignore the critics and just keep punching on through. But have a look at the downloads and have a look at the interest in what you guys are doing. You're just nailing it.

Tommy: Ben, Emma, uh, made a gag on our YouTube best comment. I reckon this is comment of the week. It was, um, the only curve you don't want to flatten.

Ben: And that was our download podcast download numbers. See, well done. How's your little mate Gemma? What's going on with Gemma?

Josh: She's going well. We had her on the— we had her on the show, um, yesterday. She was giving us some, uh—

Ben: I really want to meet Gemma. Really want to meet her.

Tommy: She's good fun. You imagine the, uh, Gemma and Ben Fordham podcast? That'd be a great podcast.

Ben: I think we should just keep it funnelled through the Daily Talk Show.

Josh: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ben: Um, mate, she's got great energy, amazing energy, and it just comes across in, in everything she does. So yeah, she's another one where I'm like, I wouldn't have known her if not for you guys, and now I kind of, you know, pay a bit of attention to what Gemma's doing and And Mr. 97, I'm intrigued by Mr. 97. And I love that thing on the, the show yesterday where something came up about— either you guys were talking about, um, about how this is affecting relationships and people dating, and you picked up on it. It was just this great moment, and I know you've put it up on Instagram, the video where you were saying, oh, if you know, if you just started kissing someone or you just slept with someone for the first time, and then the most uncomfortable reaction shot comes up where he just starts thinking about sex. And Josh picked it. You just started smiling and it was like, yeah, yeah, ah, the perfect cutaway.

Tommy: Uh, has your drinking increased, do you think? Because we've had a, you know, Gemma's one, a lot of us just starting to up that standard drink per week.

Ben: No question. Yeah, it's definitely gone up. Um, yeah, just, I don't know, I don't know what it is. I, I've got a mate, um, he was a producer on on Ninja Warrior, Joe May. And Joe goes to me, um, don't you reckon, uh, ScoMo should be closing the bottle shops as well through all of this? And I said, no, mate, no, I don't.

Josh: You reckon?

Ben: Oh, what, so it's okay? So what, you, they, you lock down the monkey bars, you're not allowed to go on the monkey bars, but you're, you're still allowed to stock up your minibar? And I went, oh, it's a good line, I like the, I like what you've done there with the monkey bar and the minibar. But mate, are you freaking crazy? No way in the world are we going to shut the bottle shops at the moment? It is crazy. That's crazy. We need the bottle shops at the moment more than ever before. And I'm not saying that as a, you know, the kind of, you know, to talk up drinking as being something that, that, you know, we need to put on a pedestal, but let's face it, people are self-medicating at the moment. And, and part of that for me has been drinking a little bit more tequila than I normally would and a little bit more red wine than I normally would.

Tommy: Can we get an official number for your weekly standard drinks? Limo came in at 48. And, uh, what are you?

Ben: I reckon I'd be— at the moment, at the moment, I reckon I'd be 3 glasses of wine a night and about 6 tequilas on a Friday night. So what's that? Uh, 3 times 7, 21. So maybe about Yeah, hitting about 28. So yeah, Limo is just a complete grog dog.

Josh: What's happened to your job at the pizza shop?

Ben: Well, mate, the pizza shop is not really operating the way it normally is at the moment. It's— you're not allowed to eat in. So, you know, I lost my job at the pizza shop, pizza shop essentially. So that hasn't been brilliant. But then again, I wasn't getting paid, so it's kind of worked out quite well. Yeah, they just do.

Josh: Will you get access to that?

Ben: I haven't applied for it, but Josh Frydenberg on the phone. So yeah, it's— they're just doing pickup and home delivery at the moment. I really feel for them, you know, because the boys— you met Carlo that day who runs the pizza shop Giovanni's. I was up at Maggio's, which is his cafe, this morning, and I went up there and, and I'm not— I don't think I'm speaking out of school here, but He said to me, I've got an account there, right? Because I worked out that there are people there who've got accounts. And I was like, I kind of like that so that you can just say you're not having to transact every day. They just put it on your account and once a month they send you a bill. Anyway, when I was up there yesterday picking up my coffee and picking up my lunch on the way through, he said, oh mate, just so you know, we're wrapping up the accounts. And I said, oh, what do you mean? He goes, yeah, as in, you know, we're not going to have people with accounts here anymore. And I went, okay, is it— you guys okay? Like, I know people are doing it tough. He goes, no, no, it's just, you know, we just don't want to have all those kind of outstanding amounts, you know. So I thought, geez, that's, you know, two things. I mean, sad because it's a— it's just one of those kind of signs. I don't know whether he's just done it because he's just trying to, you know, just rationalise things a little bit, or whether he's a bit worried, or he doesn't want— you know, if you've got 30 customers out there who own— who owe you $200 each, there's a lot of money there that could be in the til. So I went, yeah, mate, no worries. And I said, so hang on a minute, could we switch it? Why don't I give you credit? Why don't I give you $1,000 credit and you can just bank the $1,000, and then you just gradually just take the money away out of the $1,000, and then when the $1,000 runs out, you let me know and I'll put another $1,000 in. So he turns to his brother Christian and goes, do you want to turn it into credit? Christian goes, yep. So all of a sudden I'm like, all of a sudden I've invested $1,000 into Maggio's and Giovanni. So Maybe you switch this whole thing around and people who are like me, who are your loyal customers, will start buying in. Let's buy in and pump the money up. So, um, so yeah, so he's now just taken $1,000 out of my account because, you know, between the— they run the bakery and the cafe and the pizza shop, and we're up there all the time. So, you know, I don't know, it'll last obviously a number of months or whatever, but I just figure, um, you know, I wanted to try and keep my account. It's going to cost me $1,000, um, and I've just got to, you know, eat my way through the grand over the next 3, 4, 5 months or something. Happy days.

Josh: Love that. You reckon that's how long it's going to take you?

Ben: Oh no, you're right. I was, I was blowing it out to make it sound like I, I wouldn't go through it in 2 months.

Tommy: They also sell alcohol.

Ben: I was thinking in my head that's a 2-month prospect. I'll get through $500 a month. Well, like at the moment, mate, there's a lot of, there's a lot of You know, home delivery and a lot of picking up food and all that kind of stuff going at the moment. So yeah, look, I, I don't know. And as I told you last time, a lot of the kids who work for me in the street, they've got access to my account. So, um, so I might have to tighten the, the eligibility test on that a little bit at the moment as well, make sure I've been taking the piss.

Tommy: Gemma Watts has just arrived, she's watching the live stream. If you have any, uh, words—

Ben: hello Gemma, how are you? Shame that we can't talk directly, but I'm—

Josh: I'm just looking forward to— sorry, I'm late to the party.

Ben: It wouldn't be a party without Gemma, let's face it. Just wouldn't be a party without Gemma. Can I just know, with anything, 97, is everything going okay in the office? Is there anything from an HR point of view? And I want you to speak freely here at the moment. Is there anything— doesn't have to be a big thing, but if there's anything that you'd like to change around the Daily Talk Show office, now might be a time where you can discuss it openly with me in an environment where other people are listening as well. And because there is a power imbalance sometimes because the, the other two guys kind of own the business. Is there anything that I can help from an HR point of view? Um, my God. No, I mean, I think it's all— they want to know, they want to know.

Tommy: It's all—

Ben: I mean, it's all tracking along. Um, I mean, over the past couple of days, I mean, JJ's potentially overstepped a few boundaries, but other than that, please discuss what, what boundary. 97. Uh, I mean, just I was, I was telling him stuff and he's just shared it publicly. Oh, I see.

Josh: We don't have a mutual NDA, so there's no—

Ben: yeah, but would you like a, some kind of, um, you know, signal or some kind of understanding so that there are some things that are, are not for broadcast?

Josh: Well, normally I just wait until he gets too red. If he gets too red, I sort of back off. But that requires him to— I normally have stepped the mark by that point.

Ben: Mate, what you got to say— so I'll come up with a solution for this, right? What you got to say is you're just about to tell him something, and even if you're not sure about it, just say to him, NFB, not for broadcast. And he has to say yes, and you go, okay, and you tell him something right now. If he then wants to broadcast any aspect of that, he then has to negotiate with you to say, now listen, 'Oh, that little— can I—

Josh: that—

Ben: can I— can we— can we use that?' Right? And it has to be a negotiation. But the trick is, don't ever tell someone something and then afterwards say, 'Oh, listen, I'd probably prefer that not be.' It's like, mate, politicians who do that, they'll tell you something and then they go, 'Oh mate, by the way, that was off the record.' And you go, 'No, it's not.' Well, this is the problem. I think you tell me up front that it's off the record.

Josh: Exactly. And I think that my feedback to 97 is that what he's been saying is, like, I asked, hey, because 97 sort of built a lovely relationship with Grace from Perth, who is a gronk of the show. Anyway, so basically I asked 97 before we had Grace on, is there anything off limits? And all he said was just, oh, nothing too personal. I feel that like that wasn't specific enough.

Ben: Yeah, mate, you could just drive a bus through that, that grey area. There was such a grey area there, mate. You could just put a whole fleet of 747s through that, that gap. Close that down. You need to lock down the borders, 97, on these things and make it really clear where you say this is not for broadcast. I don't want that mentioned or that mentioned. And you just, you just tick those two off and you go the rest of it, do your best.

Tommy: There's also the bro code. You get told stuff by your mates and you don't want to come across like a keen bean.

Josh: Sorry, I'm not under you. I'm not part of the code.

Ben: Oh yeah, the bro code, bro, is, uh, very vague as well. I mean, sometimes the problem is this—

Tommy: how has this gone from help for Mr. 97 to you two manipulating him, and now it's all just his fault?

Ben: I've just given him very clear procedures going forward. Involving not for broadcast. So you just say— what you say to him is not for broadcast, and then he says yep. And you can even say to him, I want to hear those words back, not for broadcast. Okay, here we go. And then it's everyone clear then, everyone knows. By the way, Grace, you know, I'm replaying— here's a first— I'm replaying some of your interview with Grace on my radio show this afternoon because there was a little bit there where she spoke about the lockdowns in WA. Seriously, where she It's just like a little 20-second grab, and when I heard it, I wrote the timecode down straight away. And I can tell you, we're running it this afternoon where she was just talking about the, the different sections of WA that have been cut off from the other, and the fact that you've got police on in various places stopping people from moving around. And I thought, geez, that was quite interesting the way she told it. So I've got the, um, I've got a little grab of Grace right here, in fact, that's ready to go for this afternoon. Do you want to hear it? So this is the bit of grace. Locked into certain zones in WA, so there's like 9 different zones, so we can't go down south or up north or anything. And there's police at like the board or the borders, um, stopping us and giving us fines if we try to get out. See, good little grab. So that's getting around on my radio show this afternoon, right?

Tommy: Scamming for content.

Josh: I love it. Do we think it's more acting cool around all of this?

Ben: Good grab.

Josh: I feel like Fordham's worse than I am.

Ben: There's nothing out of this that's getting around on the show this afternoon, but Grace is getting around.

Tommy: Um, Fordham, sorry, I must go for it.

Ben: I was just going to quickly say Shannon says stop telling him shit, Mr. 07.

Tommy: Now that is one way. Yeah, no, stop telling you stuff, which is a way to get around it.

Ben: No, we're made to share. You know what I mean?

Josh: We—

Ben: let's face it, you see something, you think, who can I tell? You know, we want to share stuff.

Tommy: How do you, Ben— you, you're talking a lot, you're broadcasting a lot— how do you not overshare? Because I feel like we've moved into a new territory of so much content, and so it's almost anything's up for grabs.

Ben: Yeah, well, I, I think I— Jodie is probably the person who picks me up on that the most, where she'll say to me She will, you know, or she'll say to me, listen, if you're going to tell a storey from our lives, can you not exaggerate some of it to make me look bad and you look better? And I'm like, what do you mean? And then she'll say something. She goes, this is what you said. And I'm like, well, isn't that how it happened? She goes, no, it's not. You know, so I've had to be a little bit conscious of it with Jodie. Sometimes I go to tell something, I think, hang on a moment, I might just have to really think about the telling here and that it's not, you know, completely from my point of view. But the other one is, did I tell you about the time I bought the rights to a storey where, um, I don't know whether I told you this, but Zach McClain, my executive producer, um, fell asleep in a car in my street once. Have I told you that? No, no. So what happened, I had a party one night and Zach, who's my mate and my producer, um, I said to him about 1 AM, mate, you should just stay here, stay here, stay in the spare room. And he said, nah, nah, let's kick on, let's kick on. I went, well, I don't know where you're kicking on, mate, I'm going to bed and I strongly recommend you do it world, because I know when Zach's had enough. So anyway, he leaves my street. It's a dead-end street. It's raining. He went the wrong way, and then he couldn't find his way out of the street, and then it was pissing raining. So what he did was he started opening car doors, hoping that one of the car doors would be open so he could shelter from the rain in the back of the car. He slept in the back of a car in my street, and then he woke up the next day in a stranger's car. And so then he decides, I've got to get out of here. So he bails, but then he realises he's lost his phone. So the next day he rings me from his girlfriend's phone, Dani, and he says, mate, listen. I said, hey Dani. He goes, mate, it's Zach. He goes, mate, I think I've embarrassed you. I said, what do you mean? He goes, mate, he goes, do you know someone in your street? They've got a silver four-wheel drive BMW and a black four-wheel drive BMW, both parked end to end in a driveway. I was like, No, he goes, because mate, I slept in the silver BMW. I was like, what? He goes, yeah, I slept in it. He goes, and mate, I've lost my phone. I think I might have left it in the back of their car. I was like, mate, you gronk, what have you done? So I come and knock on the front door. I said, I'll go and knock on the door. He goes, don't do that. I was like, well, man, I'm not just going to go start opening their freaking car door like you did last night. So I knock on the door and I noticed that the silver BMW, the car door, you know when someone closes a door but they don't shut it? Fully. It needs a little bit of a bum tap. So I knew he slept in the back of that car. So I tap on the door and the kids open. I go, is your mum and dad here? And they went, yep. So alarm bells straight away, they're thinking, what's all this about? So then the mum and dad come to the door and I went, oh, hi, how are you? Introduce myself. And I said, look, bit of a tricky situation, but had a party and got a little bit out of hand with one of my guests. He's a really nice bloke, but he slept in your car. And they said, okay, are you sure? And I went 'If you have a look at that door, it's ajar. He slept in the back of it and he's lost his phone, and there's a chance the phone's going to be in the back. Do you mind if we cheque the back seat for his phone?' They go, 'Yeah, right.' So I meet this guy Jeff. We've now become mates thanks to Zach sleeping in the back of his car. So, but as I'm going to the car, I have that moment where I think, 'Oh, imagine he spewed in here,' and we're about to open the door. I was like, 'Oh no, maybe this is a bad idea.' But, you know, I was so keen to see whether or not the phone was there. Anyway, we open up, there's no spew, no phone. So anyway, I call Zach, I go, mate, here's the good news is you did not spew in the back of Jeff's car. The other bit of good news is I've now met my neighbour Jeff and he's a lovely guy, really like him. And the bad news is you're dating your Foxtel IQ as well.

Josh: Does he—

Ben: that's right, he'll be working for me. So, um, so I then said to Zach, I said, look, you know when you're waking up, you're hungover and you've lost your phone, it's the worst feeling in the world. So I thought I said, Zach, I'm going to make this problem go away. Go to the Apple Store, I'll send you a photo of my credit card, I'm going to shout you a brand new iPhone, and I'm going to make this problem go away for you. He goes, no, I can't have you paying for my fuck-up. And I went, yeah, you can, mate. That's the best thing about it. Jodie and I've got a system that if I get a parking ticket, I just hand it to Jodie. If she gets a parking ticket, she just hands it to me because I don't mind paying her parking tickets, but I do not like paying my own. Right? So it's like we've got a little system in place here on parking tickets, and it works really well because then when you get it, it's like, hey, it's not my problem, I don't want to deal with it, someone else pays it. They don't mind paying it because it's not them who, who got it. So I said, trust me, Zach, it works with Jodie and me on the parking tickets, it'll work on the phone. I'm going to shout you an iPhone, you go and get a top-of-the-range iPhone, and I'm paying to make your problem go away. Anyway, I— and then I had this moment where I said, but I now own the rights to this story. He goes, what does that mean? I said, well, I can tell as many people as I want about this. He goes, no worries. And as he's since admitted, he goes, I never anticipated how many friggin' people you would tell that storey to. As soon as anyone meets Zach, I go, this is Zach. Zach slept in Jeff's car up the road. I tell the storey straight away, and Zach's realising I've got value for money out of that transaction like he never anticipated at the time. And all he got was an iPhone.

Josh: Ben, mate, thank you for coming on the show. Are you going to be doing your radio show from the studio for a while, or are you looking at—

Ben: Yeah, I'm going to be. I've had the next 2 weeks booked in for holidays, for kind of Easter holidays and school holidays. But a couple of weeks ago, I contacted the boss and said, mate, I'm not comfortable taking holidays at the moment. And I can't believe those words just came out of my mouth because I love I love a holiday more than anyone I know, but I just said, mate, it's at a time like this where you don't want to desert your listeners. And I really genuinely mean that, you know, you want those familiar voices there. So if people want to listen to you, I want to be there, and I'm not going to be— he said, what about the public holidays? I was like, nah, mate, I need to work the public holidays as well. So, so I've cancelled 2 weeks' leave and I'm going to keep on broadcasting the show. And, and for now I'll be doing it from the studio, but you never know, boys, in this brave new world You never know where we're going to be next.

Josh: Thanks, Fordo. It's a daily talk show.

Ben: I love it. I've now got my daily talk show studio set up. I just need cameras like yours, so you all look so— why is it that I look so foggy and you guys look so crisp?

Josh: Well, we spend a lot of money on our cameras, so I need better cameras.

Ben: Wait till you see the camera quality next time we do this.

Josh: Really? Can we just very quickly— the current affair that Tracy Grimshaw, doing it from her joint I reckon a waste of time.

Ben: What?

Josh: It just— the amount of effort is probably all your mates on the cameras look like they had the biggest production and it looked like it was shot on a potato.

Ben: Oh, let's face it, I mean Tracy's probably thinking, you know, Tracy kind of lives way out of the, uh, out of the big smoke because she's got horses and things like that. So Tracy might be thinking as well, hey, this could be the future here. I just set up a little studio, uh, next to the horse stables there and I don't have to go into Channel 9. Smart lady.

Josh: It makes sense. Uh, it's a daily talk show, uh, Four Dos, uh, radio show is available as a podcast as well. And, uh, this was our 11 AM show. You can join us live at 4 PM at youtube.com/thedailytalkshow. See you then, guys. See you guys.

Ben: Love your work, boys.