The Unmade Podcast - 97: The Investiture of Dr Brady Haran OAM by HRH The Prince of Wales

Episode Date: November 4, 2021

This episode features Dr Brady Haran OAM and The Moth. Go to Storyblocks for stock video, pictures and audio at storyblocks.com/unmade - https://www.storyblocks.com/unmade Support us on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/unmadeFM Join the discussion of this episode on our subreddit - https://redd.it/qmhfp0 Catch this episode on YouTube where there are various pictures and videos from the investiture at Windsor Castle - https://youtu.be/aUMuR8XZKMY USEFUL LINKS The Chair - https://bit.ly/3CYYJAN Brady writes to the Mayor of New York City in a previous episode - https://www.unmade.fm/episodes/special-wonderful-complaints Check out many of our Sofa Shop Covers here - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRNeH_Kpl1ZgpeiNeJ-oiAQ The final Sofa Shop bracket - https://bit.ly/SofaBracket Video from the investiture is within the video version of this episode - https://youtu.be/aUMuR8XZKMY Plus a few pics on Brady's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/brady_haran Pictures of Spoon of the Week - https://www.unmade.fm/spoon-of-the-week

Tim is broadcasting live from Captain Kirk's chair. I've never seen a more modern office chair. It's sort of modern in that sort of 70s vision of modernness, I think. I wouldn't have associated you with such a modern chair. I always think you like things made of oak and leather and things like that. That looks like, gosh, it looks like it's bright white. It looks like hell or something. I like to think in Return of the Jedi, remember the Emperor sits on one of the great office chairs of all time.

You know, the curves over him. Remember he pats the lightsaber. You want this, don't you? I wanted a chair like that. I don't want the lightsaber. I want that chair. I want that chair in my office back at the Rebel base. That is great.

It is. It's similar. Look, it's like one of the cheapest chairs at office worked but i sat i literally went to office works which is as people can probably imagine if they haven't heard of it is just a major office supply chain and they have all the chairs laid out and i just went along with my bum and sat in each chair all the way along you know you work your way up and down you took took your bum with you, did you, man? I did.

You're right. I managed to get it into most of the chairs. And I sat and this was, I can't remember if it was the comfiest, but it was certainly a comfy chair proportionate to the price, you know. And it was like, oh, of the cheaper chairs, this is great. But it is a bit space age. You weren't tempted to head down to Berkowitz for a look at what they had on offer. No, never fear.

No, this is a chair to order the destruction of Berkowitz from. Actually, it comes in two colours. It comes in like a grey and this sort of bluish colour. And I have to admit, they didn't have one of the blue ones, and I thought that would look nicest and a bit different. So I drove to another office work store to pick it up. So I spent an extra probably 30 minutes on the project just to get the nice colour. Well, you look comfy.

I hope it's a nice quiet chair because that's important when you're doing podcasts. No squeakiness or anything. It's nice and smooth. No, it is straining under my weight, but silently. Looks the business. Looks the business. Some parish notices. Can I read you a lovely letter that I received from Bessie?

Bessie? Really? Very southern American name. Little house on the prairie-esque. I don't know. Bessie. Really? Very southern American name. Little house on the prairie-esque. I don't know. We might. I can't. Yeah.

Funny you should say that. Have a listen. I was thinking more like Magic Faraway Tree, but I think you're more on the money because here we go. Hello, Brady and Tim. This summer, I went on my first real road trip with my dad as I am just learning to drive. And naturally, we needed a lot of podcasts to listen to.

I decided to introduce him to the Unmade podcast and he absolutely loved it. He even convinced my mom to give it a listen. They are now both listening to old episodes and it is great to hear tidbits around the house and get to discuss recent games of Tommyball with them. Thank you for making a great podcast and for making the long hours

of driving through cornfields more bearable. Ah, there we go. Corn country. Fields of dreams, yes. Yes. Iowa, maybe. I don't know. I don't know if she said where she was from.

I love the word prairie, out on the prairie. Oh, the girl who played Laura Ingalls Wilder in Little House on the Prairie TV show. That was my first proper crush, I think. Oh, the girl who played Laura Ingalls Wilder in Little House on the Prairie TV show. That was my first proper crush, I think. Oh, wow. You remember the names, her name. Well, she's famous, you know, for writing Little House on the Prairie. So this has given me a thought.

I love the idea of people introducing new people to the podcast. But rather than doing it like, you know, maybe just doing a rating or a review, which no one does anyway, wouldn't it be great to get people to introduce people to the podcast in person and then like send us proof? Because anyone can say, oh, yeah, I introduced my cousin to it. But I want a picture of you, the person you've introduced, like your inductee, and I want you both to be holding a copy of that day's paper to prove that it's a current photo. So wherever you are, that day's paper in the picture. If you introduce someone to the podcast, send us a picture of the two of you together,

copy of that day's paper, maybe podcast player too, but we want full proof, full proof of life. None of this, you know, I told my friend Jim about it. That's a great idea. That's brilliant. Proof of life, proof of podcast recommendation i'm i find it really hard to recommend the podcast like i'm you know people say oh where should you know oh yeah no it's thanks man it's sort of about nothing i'm sort of carrying this other guy through it you know and it it's um i find it hard to describe and then i they say well where do i start and i

always say oh don't start with the most recent one you need to sort of go back a bit and then i don't really know so i say i'll go to the start and then i hope i hope they're kind of of some kind of quality all the way back there i don't know years ago but i can tell you right now man they're not. No, no. They were pretty much as bad then as they are now. It's good to know we haven't gone downhill. I find it hard to recommend when someone says, can you recommend a good podcast?

Like I say, well, I can't recommend a good one. No. But my mate Tim and I have one. That's right. Speaking of letters, people may remember a little while back, Tim and I did another one of our letters of complaint episodes. And I wrote a letter to the mayor of New York suggesting that New York be renamed. I think the new is no longer appropriate for such an old city. So, anyway, I went to our postbox the other day and sure enough, there was an envelope sitting there.

And in the top left-hand corner of the envelope, it says, the City of New York, Office of the Mayor. Oh, awesome. I was pretty excited, obviously. I did notice it says City of New York, which is a bit of a spoiler that the change hasn't been made yet. Well, maybe they're just disposing of the old stationery. They don't want to waste in these environmentally sensitive times.

That's right. And I opened up the letter. It's dated September 16, so it took a long time to get here. Or did it? No, not that long a time. That's all right. And it had a lovely letterhead. I don't know if you can see that on the camera, Tim.

There's a beautiful gold embossed letterhead. Oh, yes. Yes. No, very nice. That's the City of New York Office of the Mayor letterhead. Gorgeous. And then I opened up the letter. I was immediately struck by the fact it was signed by the mayor, Bill de Blasio.

There's the signature. Oh, with a pen. Probably an auto pen. I don't think he actually signed it, but maybe. Maybe. Let's say he did. Yes. I don't know.

Anyway. He didn't do that little personalised strikethrough of your, you know, type's name. Dear Mr. You know, Brady. You know, like, you know, that little strikethrough thing and then signed down the name. Yeah. Yeah. Braids.

Braids. Do you want to hear the very personal heartfelt reply I got to this suggestion? Do I? Here we go. Dear Brady. So, I did get a Brady, not a Mr. Harron or anything. First name basis.

Dear Brady. Yes. Thank you for sharing your interest in New York City. I always appreciate hearing about the issues that matter most to you and your community. I guess he means like the civilians when he says my community there. That's right. My team and I are working hard to make New York a city that people from all walks of life can enjoy as a place to live and visit. I appreciate your feedback as we strive to continue delivering the services that residents and visitors need and deserve.

the website for nyc and company www.nycgo.com the official new york city destination marketing organization for additional information and resources thank you again for writing we hope you visit soon sincerely bill de blasio mayor well he's gone into a bit of detail there to explain some of the things he's doing for the city, but he's forgotten to address the central purpose. My goodness. Well, I thought that at first, but now I realise he has to be seen to be neutral here. Ah, yes. Because when they change the name, like this letter could come back

to haunt him and make it look like he had made a decision before the full consultation had happened. So I think he's deliberately playing it straight at this stage just so that the whole process doesn't get, like, disrupted and there are, you know, allegations of conflicts of interest. But reading between the lines, I think it's pretty clear where he stands on the name issue. Oh, yes, yes.

He certainly doesn't refer to it as New York between the lines, does he? So he's... No. Yeah. So... Well, hmm. I don't know. We'll see.

That's step one. I'll ponder my next move in this campaign to have the name of New York City changed. What's step two? But, you know, we've opened the dialogue. We've now got the, you know, the lines of communication have opened clearly. That's the hardest part often in these things. So you're well on your way, I think. Yep.

Pretty soon it'll be you and him up at Camp David thrashing out a solution. Quite easily this could have just been handed off to a flunky and I could have been sent some pro forma pre-printed letter that meant nothing. Oh, that happens, yes. So the fact we've got this oh yep yep yep yep no that's that's these sort of bilateral negotiations um take a lot of serious time particularly after you've made that kind of personal contact between you and the key person in charge we should invite him to neutral territory like a neutral australian city to have the talk

could be like the treralgon accords or something like that, you know? Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah. Somewhere appropriate in New South Wales, maybe. No, not New South Wales. No. All right. Nice work, man.

Just one other parish notice I wanted to mark. And that is, I've mentioned before, over quite a period of time, I ran this very elaborate bracket or World Cup of SofaShop covers. And we had this kind of knockout playoff system happening where everyone was voting on Twitter. And that has finally come to an end. And we have a winner as voted by the Twitter followers as the greatest of the SofaShop covers that have been submitted so far. And I followers as the greatest of the SofaShop covers that have been submitted so far. And I just thought I would mark the occasion, let people know. After many, many rounds of voting and elimination rounds, we came down to two covers.

This famous one by Colonel Lucy. And this 8-bit version. And this 8-bit version. And in the final vote, getting 64.9% of the vote, the winning cover was Colonel Lucy's version. Here it is. The sofa shove is your only storm for the sofa's you need a sofa shop yeah come and drop in on Halliflang Street

we got a sofa design for you choose your fabric match your curtains too the sofa shop ain't gonna cost what you think it will Look, well-deserved and well-deserving of a Colonel status. Would you say almost the new definitive version? Certainly the definitive cover. Oh, I don't know. I don't know about that, Oh, I don't know. I don't know about that, man. I don't know.

I think it's too pretty and sweet to really be, like, you know. I don't know. I don't know. I think it's – I wonder if, like, there was a bit of, like, intimidation because she was a colonel and people felt they had to vote for her, you know. Was it a fair vote? I don't think people muck around when it comes to the Sophie Shop cover.

You either love something or hate it. People are very honest about it. So I don't think people can be manipulated in that way. It's too personal a song for that. I'm certainly not doing the vote again. It took me bloody ages. Yes. Longer than the real World Cup.

I'll put some links in the description. You can go and listen to all the covers and you can look at a graphic representation of the bracket to see who got to what rounds and all that sort of stuff so if it's of interest knock yourself out go and have a look links in the notes as always and we're still we're still up for new covers we still get a few new ones dribbling in and we'll start featuring soon so i have to take over at this point because i think this news is bigger than a parish notice this is moving on to the sermon to be honest this is that important this is the good news and that is that this week you had a pretty incredible experience. It was the investiture, is that the right word? Correct, correct, yes.

Nice vocab there, man. Thank you, thank you. Correct pronunciation of your... Pronunciation, yep. That's right. Order of Australia. Now, this is the's right. Order of Australia. Now, this is the member of the Order of Australia. Is that correct?

It's the medal of the Order of Australia. Yes. Yes. For services to – now, let me get this correct. This is to – did they give it – they gave a proper prescription, didn't they, for podcasting and YouTube and innovation? It was for services to broadcast on online media is what the citation said. Oh, that's nice.

Yes. Yes. And reading between the lines, it's pretty much the unmade podcast, I think. I think so, yeah. They couldn't say services to sofa shop covers, but we all knew what was going on. Now, you won this back several months ago when it was announced. Yes.

Was it on Australia Day? Is it that far back? Yes. Gosh. So what happened, man, was, as people will be aware, because we discussed at length at the time, and you can go back and listen to the previous episode, if you like, for what it was all about, but it was on Australia Day, which was January 26th.

Hang on, when's Australia Day? January 26th. Yeah, yeah. So, I was on Australia Day, January 26th. They announced the Australian – Australia Day honours, they call it, and various people get various levels of honours. And I was really lucky to get one, which we discussed. But I was in this interesting situation because what they normally do is in the months that

follow, they will have these little ceremonies at the different government houses around Australia. Because although it's been given to you by the Australian government, the head of state of Australia is still the Queen, technically. So, the Queen's representative in the different states, which is someone called the Governor, usually hands out these medals at ceremonies at all these different government houses. And everyone gives you a little clap and you get the medal put on your suit and have tea and coffee.

And it's a really lovely day for everyone. But I couldn't do that because I'm in England. Yes. So, I couldn't come over to Australia because of COVID restrictions and because it's really expensive to go to Australia. So, they got in touch with me and said I had these various options. One was I could just wait until I was next in Australia and go to an investiture ceremony at some point. But I didn't know when that was going to be. Or they said I could be sent my medal in

the post. But that felt a bit like cr I could be sent my medal in the post. But that felt a bit like crummy, just getting your medal in the post. Yeah. Or I could do an investiture in the UK. So, I said yes to the investiture in the UK. And what I thought I was saying yes to would be probably some evening in London, I'd go to the Australian embassy or something, and some diplomat would, you know, take me into a nice room with an Australian flag and give me my medal and shake my hand, and I'd have a photo taken,

and it would be just a nice evening. That's actually what I thought I was saying yes to. But then later on, I got another email from them saying, we've sent your medal, and it's at the palace now. I think they said it's at St. James's Palace and St. James's Palace will be in touch with you. That's one of the royal palaces here. So then I thought, oh, okay, obviously it's going to be done,

you know, in some room at one of the palaces or something. And then as more time went by, I realised what had actually happened and that was they had decided to give me my Australian medal at one of the British investiture ceremonies because Britain has its own honour system where people, you know, get knighthoods and OBEs and MBEs and all these things you may have heard of. I then realised, okay, maybe I'm being included

in one of those ceremonies, which is what had happened. And I thought because I was Australian and, you know, this seems like quite a low-ranking thing, maybe some, you know, assistant to the royal family would be involved in handing this thing over. Perhaps one of the corgis or something like that. Yeah, sort of, you know, the person who vacuums the rugs or something. Yeah. But anyway, then I got this nice invitation and it became clear

that it was going to be like a more elaborate event. And eventually it became clear it was going to be one of these other investiture ceremonies. So, all these other British people who were getting their honours for various things, all the way through from knighthoods down to my kind of level of honours were all there. So, that's what happened this week. And it was held at Windsor Castle. And so, lots of people have asked me about it and you've asked me about it. So I'll talk a bit about the day and you ask me any questions you want to ask me. Yeah, take us through it. So how did this

work? Because I know you went and got a nice suit. And I did. It's not every day you chuff off to Windsor Castle. So this is really quite something. No, no. I was going to wear my wedding suit, but I tried that on and it was too big for me. And it was also quite baggy because, you know, all those years ago it was quite trendy to have quite baggy trousers and now it's more trendy to have tight trousers. Yes, yes. So, yeah, I went and got a new suit so I had one that fit and looked nice. So, anyway, I'll tell the story of the day, at least so that I don't have to tell everyone. I'll just send people to this podcast if they want to hear the story.

That's a good idea. So, then we drove to Windsor Castle on the day. We actually had someone drive us because we thought that would take away a lot of the stress. So, we had a car, like, you know, hired a car and a driver and took us to Windsor Castle in the morning. It's a couple of hours from where I live. There's this thing called the long walk, which people have probably seen pictures of. It's this big, big, long pathway that leads up to the castle. Normally there are no cars on it, but we drove up that with a few other cars for other people who were there and parked outside the gates, still quite away from the castle.

For those of you who don't know Windsor Castle, if you've ever flown to England, you might know it because when you land at Heathrow and take off from Heathrow, you fly pretty much right over Windsor Castle. It's right near the airport. So, you may have seen it in that context. And that's the one that Harry and Meghan were married in just recently, wasn't it? In the chapel of Windsor Castle, I believe. So...

Yes, that's right. That's right. Yeah. I think the Queen prefers being at Windsor to Buckingham Palace when she can. I think it's where the Duke of Edinburgh spent his last days as well recently. I think that's where his funeral was recently as well. Yeah, yeah. Yes, yes.

So, anyway, the Queen was there that day. I'll come to that later. Yes, yes. So anyway, the queen was there that day. I'll come to that later. So anyway, we parked outside this gate and there was lots of security and policemen and people with guns and they checked all the cars and opened everything up looking for bombs and they went, all the cars of the people who were there were thoroughly searched

and once they'd done all that, they opened the gates and they let us drive right up close to the castle and they parked our cars right next to the castle. And then we went in, we walked in, went into this forecourt and walked in this front door. And I think there were about 70 people getting on us that day. And what would normally happen, I've learned, is normally all your guests, normally you're allowed to have two guests, but I was only allowed to have one guest because of covid times normally i think what happens is all your guests go into a room go into the room where it's going to happen and sit like you know as an as a crowd and then all

the people receiving the recipients come through one at a time bit like a conveyor belt you know get your medal walk out but because they weren't allowing that many people into a room at once it ended up being done differently and at once it ended up being done differently and i think it ended up being done for the better i'll explain why we got broken into groups of about i don't know 10 or 20 or so and put in different reception rooms with staff with like royal staff and they were all really nice and really really friendly and made you feel all really special they were really good really good people friendly and made you feel all really special. They were really good, really good people. And each room you were in was incredible.

You were in this incredible room full of, you know, you know what these grand rooms are like in houses like this. They were huge paintings and chandeliers and everything was amazing. And in each room, they had also put a screen so that you could watch the investitures of the other people happening. Oh, right. So, you'd be able to see what was going on. And they moved you from room to room over time, over the course of a couple of hours,

getting closer and closer to the mothership where the actual investiture was going to happen. At this time, like, are there people walking around like, you know, like butlers and waiters holding drinks and leaning over saying, you know, another one for you, sir. And those sort of, is it that kind of thing? They weren't doing drinks, but there were lots of staff tending to you and making sure you're okay and checking everything was all right. And, you know, if there were older people that needed to sit down, they were looking after them. They were very attentive.

And people were just sort of mingling amongst the other recipients and having chats. And it was all a very nice mood. Any corgis rustling about at your feet or anything like that? We will come to that. Whoa. We will come to corgis. Wow. We will come to corgis rustling about at your feet or anything like that? We will come to that. Whoa. We will come to corgis. Wow. We will come to corgis.

Yeah. So it actually wasn't until I got into the first room and was talking to the staff that I found out who was doing the investiture. When you got there, the woman said, okay, wait here. You'll be waiting here. This is the time I'll talk to you through it. And then she said, and it's the Prince of Wales who will be doing the investiture, which is Prince Charles. Yes. Next in line to the throne, the Queen's son.

We've heard of him, man. We've heard of him. Well, that's right. Not everyone has. You have. That was the first time I knew who was going to be doing it. At that point, I had no idea who was going to be handing it over. And that was quite exciting.

I was quite pleased with that. I thought that was quite a good one a game yep it was a good you know it could have got that's like that's like top level royal it could have been you know it could have been b team but i thought that's a team i was happy with that so then they start then over time we started getting moved from room to room and then we got to the the second to last we got to the second to last room. We got to the second to last room. We were close now. It was close to the time. I was quite near the end of the list.

I was in the sort of the second to last group. So after a bit of moving around and shuffling, we got close and that's where this guy said, all right, it's nearly time, people, and he gave us a little lesson in what was going to happen. And he literally kind of walked through it and said the prince will be standing here you will walk to here and stand next to someone here when they say your name when you hear your surname you walk up to here you stand here you bow or your curtsy like this and then you'll walk up to the prince and he'll do this and this and that they'd already put a little hook on sort of the breast of my

suit where the medal was going to hang. So, it was easy for the princess to hang the medal on the prearranged hook. So, it's a bit more like war medals than it is gold medal at the Olympics. You weren't going to lean forward and get something over your head. It's more like- No, no, it doesn't. It's just going to be the breast pocket kind of action. Yes, just a little medal to hang on your breast pocket there, yeah.

So, we would talk through everything and what to expect and what would happen. And you'd watched it a hundred times already, it felt like, on all these screens. So, you knew what was going to happen, you know. It was no- It felt idiot-proof. Then they line you up in the correct order, because they know the order you're going to be read out. And then you sort of file in, in this sort of line, you standing next to your partner. So, I was there with my wife and everyone was lined up next to their partner.

And then there's this final door that leads into this amazing grand room where it was happening. And you get closer and closer and closer until you're next. And then you walk in like the recipient. So, I walked in and stood next to this equerry type guy in a suit like near the prince while the person before me was receiving their medal. Yep. And my wife was taken to a little separate area standing next to another person, but

only like a metre or two away. This is where I come to the fact that I think COVID made it better because it was really personal. Like the only people in the room were the prince and his entourage and yeoman and people all dressed up and, you know, so probably about six or seven official people, including Prince Charles and a little band in the corner. And then you and your guest. So, it was a really intimate moment where you were having this experience and just your special other person was just standing there watching and there was no crowd. It felt really, really personal. Way more than if there were like, you know,

a hundred people in the audience watching. It was better, I felt. Not like one of those university graduations where you're just, you know, one and there's hundreds of boards and yeah, yeah. Exactly, which is what I thought it was going to be like, but it wasn't. It felt like this sort of personal audience. So, anyway anyway i stood next to this equerry guy to the prince waiting while the person before me was getting their medal and

he was really nice and puts every his job is to put people at ease so he has a little chat to you and says where have you come from and i had a bit of banter with him because he looked like someone i knew so i said oh you look just like this guy i know and we had a bit of a fun talk and then then this guy who's reading out the name says. The Medal of the Order of Australia to be decorated, Mr. Brady Haran, for services to the broadcast and online media. I walked up to the prince who's on this little red square of carpet, this little special red square of carpet that he has. Really? And I did my little bow.

And then i walked up to him and we were right right face to face just before you walk up someone whispers something in his ear he's got like a briefer who whispers a few things in his ear so he's ready to know things to talk about i don't know what was said about me or that but there was someone saying something to him so he was constantly getting fed this information. Something like, this is the one that owns the Chihuahua, Audrey. Oh, yes, yes. So, he straightaway puts the medal on before anything gets said. And at that point, I've sort of stepped a bit closer to him.

And at this point, you're right face to face with him. This is the first time I gained an impression of what he looks like. Oh, yeah. Because I had a picture, because everyone knows what Prince Charles looks like, right? And I sort of picture him very serious and with a very long face, because you always see caricatures of him, quite a long horsey face and things like that. And he looked completely different to what I expected.

His face was really wide and really, like, really rubbery. You know, you get those rubbery puppets of people, like those spitting image type rubbery. That's what his face looked like. It was really expressive and really, like, he looked like a caricature of himself. And he looked quite, he looked really different to what I expected. A bit shorter. Apparently, he's a lot shorter.

I didn't really gain an impression of his height, but apparently he was a bit shorter than what other people thought he would be. He seems to smile a lot. I mean, on television, of course, he'd have television makeup as well, whereas in real life he's going to have, you know, shiny skin too. But he's a smiley kind of guy. Presumably he was smiling at you. Well, I'd watched him doing lots of other ones, and I always thought the conversations looked quite serious. And I can imagine why, because most of the people who receive these awards quite often are receiving

it for quite serious things. You know, they've been raising money for charities, for people with brain tumours and stuff like that. So, I imagine sometimes it's probably not the jokiest time. Yeah, yeah. So, I thought all the investors I'd seen looked nice, but reasonably serious. But apparently, all through mine, he laughed the whole time and was smiling. We had quite a fun one. So, I was- afterwards, my wife said, I can't believe that. He was laughing the whole time. What was going on? And I know people who have received these sort of things before, and also, you know, I've seen

interviews with people. And the one thing they all seem to have in common is they can't really remember the conversation. Right. Yes. That they had. It's a blur for them or something. Yeah. Yeah.

And I'm the same. I can't remember it very well. And I think it's partly, maybe it's partly because it's a momentous occasion. Although I have to say, I'd never felt nervous or anything. I was very calm. I also think it's partly because it's a very whispery conversation. Just the nature of those conversations is they're very quiet because they're in a quiet room and royals always talk quietly because they don't want to be, you know, overheard or I don't know why. Royals always speak

quietly to people. So, partly for that reason, it was hard to remember. But I do remember the first thing he said was he asked something along the lines of why I was in England, you know, or did I live in Australia? And I explained, I live in England and the reason I live in England. And at that point, I turned to my wife and pointed to her because she was so close. And the only other person in the room, I said, because that's my wife and she's English. And he looked over to her and smiled at her. And that's when it felt really personal. If she'd been in the crowd, I couldn't have done that. But I said, oh, there's my wife and she's English. And he looked over to her and smiled at her. And that's when it felt really personal. If she'd been in the crowd, I couldn't have done that.

But I said, oh, there's my wife. And he looked over and smiled at her and she smiled back. And then I made some comment about how she trapped me in England. And I was trapped now. And then he had a right laugh. He thought that was funny and laughed. And then sort of from there, quite a smiley conversation ensued. He asked where I put my videos, like where these videos I make go.

And I said, oh, I put them onto YouTube. And he's, oh, YouTube, of course. Yes, yes, of course, YouTube. I should have known. Yes. Yes, yes. And then he asked a bit about what they were about. And I sort of said, you know, science and mathematics and things like that.

And he said, oh, I can imagine that was really useful during the pandemic. I said, I travel all around the world and interview all these scientists and mathematicians for them. And he found that interesting and said, you know, do lots of people watch them? And I said, oh yeah, they've been watched, you know, like over a billion times. And he said, oh, it's very good. And we had this nice conversation. And then he kind of, he initiates the end of the conversation and you kind of know it's over and he sort of steps back. Yeah. I stepped back and then you do another bow and then you just walk out and join up, join

up. And then you walk out of the room and then someone immediately greets you and takes your medal off and puts it in the box that it comes in. Oh, yes. And at this point, I found out all the people involved in the ceremony in this process found the Order of the Medal of Australia really interesting because they thought it was a really cool looking medal that they hardly ever see. And also, normally when you get like an OBE or an MBE or a British Honour, you just get one medal

in the box. But the Australians give you your medal, a smaller version of the medal that you can wear, presumably to have a low-key version for events and things like that, a little tiny pin version and a little ribbon-only version. So you get this whole collection of different versions of it. People wear them on the lapel of their suit and so forth all the time. Yeah, things like that. So they found that really interesting

and they were all really interested in the medal. And so they said, oh, that's really cool. We never get to see these. These are really nice. So that made you feel special. And then you get like led into this huge hallway where there's all these photographers taking official pictures and which you then later on buy and stuff like that. So, I did all these- did these pictures and the photographer was really great. They've all just got such great way with people and they make you feel like a million dollars.

Yeah. And then we left the building, went out into the forecourt. You could take some of your own pictures, you know, out- you're not allowed to take any pictures inside the building, went out into the forecourt. You could take some of your own pictures, you know, you're not allowed to take any pictures inside the building of your own. So when you got outside the building, you take your own selfies and there were a few staff there from the palace and they were really happy to take pictures and again, they were all really nice and stuff.

And then we went out of the forecourt back to where the car was parked and basically got in the car and left. But our driver was telling us, some people may know that at the time of filming, the Queen hasn't been very well. And she's at Windsor Castle at the moment, just recuperating. So, she was at the palace. And you can tell that because her flag was flying. Obviously, we never saw her or anything.

But our driver, who was waiting with the car, told us that at one stage while he was waiting, someone came out with the corgis and walked the corgis and was just letting them, like, have a wee on the grass and stuff like that. So he did get to see the corgis getting walked. Oh, that's great. Like, at one point during the day, which was really cool. We probably should explain to maybe some of the American listeners and in different parts of the world don't know,

the Queen is famous for having these little corgis, these dogs around about. They're very much the royal dog. Apart from the ones that the hounds that go and hunt foxes. In years past, these cute little corgis always scurrying around the palace. So, my old man, incredible. My key takeaway impressions that I'll share, and then I'll let you ask anything you wanted to ask,

was one, I know a lot of people are anti-royal family, right? You know, everyone's got their own opinions on that. And that's fine. You know, I'm used to hearing all that. Yep. Even people who are anti-royal, whenever I read articles, always say the one thing the royal family does quite well are things like this. And I completely agree. There were all these people there and I don't really count myself as

one of them, but there are a lot of people there who've done really amazing things, who've like done really amazing things for charity and made the world a much better place. And giving those people a special day is a really good thing. And that's one thing the Royal Family does really well. And that's a really good reason to have things like this, because like, you've got this amazing, famous building, and you get to meet this really famous person. And it's almost like we've made someone famous just so we can have a famous person to feel special around. That's kind of what the royal family is now. Like, it's almost like you've just like arbitrarily made these famous, important

people so that they can then make you feel special for being with someone who's famous. Yes, yes. And rich and with a nice castle and stuff like that. So, every time I've shared a picture of me with Prince Charles, like everyone's gone, that's amazing. That's incredible. What an amazing thing to happen. And like, he's just a dude. He's just a guy. But we've just anointed him as famous because his mum was famous because her mum was famous because, you know. But having someone who can then fill that role of being a famous person to be nice to

you for a minute or two, to thank you for service is a really like, it's a really useful thing. It's a really useful service to have in society. Yes, yes. There's a lot of thing about you know monarchy and that that's bad but this is quite a good thing having this place you can go and this person you can meet to say thank you to people felt really good and like i did appreciate you know the job the skill and the job that a royal must have of sitting there and just talking

to a new person every two minutes and have a two-minute conversation with person after person after person i appreciated that there was a there was a skill to that and a service to that. I think he's well compensated for it, but there is a service to that. I was struck by the Disney nature of it. Whenever I've gone to theme parks, one thing I've always noticed is how they have to deal with the queuing and the waiting and distracting the people in the queues and keeping them happy for essentially what is then like a two-minute rollercoaster ride. And that's very much what this was like. It was like an hour or two of standing around in lovely rooms and standing and queuing and queuing. And then you

did a quick rollercoaster ride, which was the thrill. And much like a theme park, you then went through the door and exited through the gift shop where they take lots of pictures and extort lots of money from you. Because it costs a fortune to buy all these pictures. And the pictures of actually meeting Charles, you know, that are photographed in the room cost a fortune as well. So, they do extract a lot of money from you like a theme park too. I was struck by how excellent all the staff were. Of course they were, but they were great. And they just made you feel really special. And as you left, you know,

all the guards and the police and all the people like that would say congratulations and well done and make you feel- they always made you feel really special for the day. It became, you know, it was like a wedding where everyone just tells you how wonderful you are. It was like that. It was really nice. Was there anything that really surprised you about- anything else that really surprised you about the day? The main surprise was that how intimate it was and how it was just, you know, me and my wife in the room. And I didn't expect that.

I was pleasantly surprised that, you know, I got such a high-ranking monarch for what I thought was just, you know, some Aussie guy that got some low-ranking Australian honour. But, you know, so that was a – I think I basically, you know, slipped in the back door in that respect. I was a bit lucky. I was lucky I couldn't do it in Australia. It felt like, although I'm proudly Australian and I identify as Australian, I do think getting given it by Prince Charles was cooler than if I'd just gone

to Government House in Adelaide. I don't even know who the governor of South Australia is. We have a new governor as of a few weeks ago, and I do not recall her name. So, I do feel like I sort of slipped in the back door a bit. And I think as a result of that, like, I think people are a bit more impressed by the honour than they would have been otherwise. And I also feel like a bit of a fraud because on Australia Day, when it was announced, lots of people congratulated me and all my family and friends.

And I felt, you know, I felt like a million dollars. It was a really nice, you felt really special that day. Deserved or not, it felt really nice. And I feel like it's all happened again. Like, since I posted a few pictures of me and Prince Charles, everyone's like, congratulations. And it's like the slate has been wiped clean and everyone's saying, well done again. And I feel a bit like, well, I've already had all my congratulations for this, but all right. Thanks. Thanks again. And it probably wouldn't have happened if it wasn't Prince Charles, like the stardust of it being, you know, the Prince of Wales.

If it had just been me going to government house, people probably would have thought, oh, okay, he's picking up that medal from nine months ago or whatever. So, I do feel a bit naughty getting all the glory again, but it's been nice. The conversation, the skill he has at making short conversation, because he'd be aware, of course, like probably most famous people to some degree, that every little forgettable conversation that he has, the person he's having it with will never forget and will repeat ad nauseum to all of their friends. So you can never be off. You can never, you know what I mean? I mean, of course, celebrities are dismissive and all the rest of it. They don't care. But Prince Charles must remember, okay, this little moment is the biggest moment, not the biggest moment in your life, but you're never going to forget this moment.

Of course, yes. Yeah, and I don't think he, like, you know, I don't think he had the incredible skill and charisma of, you know, a Barack Obama or someone like that. I think the royals are usually a little bit forgettable in that respect, sometimes deliberately. Yes, understood. You know, they don't want to say something controversial or wrong or upsetting, so they play it pretty straight. All right, a few more questions. Did you know anyone else?

Was there anyone being knighted that day that you knew of? Someone from a band or Elton John or someone like that? There was an actress being knighted that day that all the English people knew, but I didn't know who she was. She was like a TV actress who's quite famous in the UK. I didn't know her. That was- Yeah, there were no like superstars. There was no, yeah, there was no Elton John. I was, it seemed like if I was probably the youngest person receiving an honour.

Oh, right. Generally, it's quite old. I don't know that for sure. Maybe there was someone younger, probably was one or two, but it was mostly older people, of course, because, you know, that's usually when honours are bestowed. That's how you know you're getting old, man. The honours are starting to arrive from the palace.

Yes. Were you at all tempted to make a little joke? Like, it's the most daring moment to maybe step forward, like a kneel before him as if he was going to knight you or something like just to presume i know or like yeah the equivalent in in football when you take a penalty kick you can do this thing called a panenka which is instead of whacking the ball to the left or the right of the goalie you just do this dainty little soft kick down the middle and the goalie when he dives one way or the other usually just dives out the way and you just dribble this little

cheeky kick into the net so yeah you could do a panenka of receiving an honour and do something like crazy, like turn your back and go, oh, whoops, sorry, I thought it was the other way. Yeah, that's right. But no, I wasn't. I mean, I felt I was pretty jovial, like, and making a joke about being trapped in England was probably, you know, at the upper end of jokiness. But you don't want to be a dick. No, no. And also, you know, you weren't hugely aware of the security, but I don't know what the security situation was.

And if I had done something rash, like, you know, tried to shake his hand or touch him, I don't know who would have jumped out from behind the curtains. It didn't feel like the time to do something stupid. Would you have done something cheeky? No, no. I think you really have to be bright self or unselfaware to do something like that. I do know the British security, I mean, it's often not seen,

but when it appears, I've noticed it's machine guns and very serious people. It's not like the bill with, you know, the old Bobby and so forth. It looks very serious around Parliament House and places like that. So, yeah, you don't want to. One thing that would have been daring, maybe you do it on your third honour or something like that. Like, oh, here we go. like that like oh here we go right you know is but maybe you can so write this down for the future man is um right as you step forward to preach as you reach forward to his breast pocket you go congratulations your highness like as if you're bestowing something on yeah you've done bring

out the unmade colonel certificate yes yes yes this is a big moment for you and sofa shop pin one of our gold sofa shop pins that go to patrons. He wasn't wearing one? You didn't notice anything related to the podcast on? In hindsight, I should have worn one on my other side of my pocket. Oh, yes, yes. You were told not to wear other honours, I think. There were very prescriptive instructions like in the weeks before of what to wear.

No, I was going to ask you about that as well, the dress code. You bought a suit, but they insisted on that. Please wear formal attire, that kind of thing. They said what you should wear and it was lots of stuff that I was not familiar with. Have I got the letter here? You know, it's stuff like, you know, lounge dress and all these posh terms that you then have to Google to see what they mean. Women are supposed to wear a hat and things like that. Oh, another thing I've learned is whenever you win an honour, there are two types of

people. There are people that say, well done. And there are other people who talk about the person they know who got an honour and then tell you all about that. Yes. I've been hearing lots about other honours. But one person who was telling me about when their father won an honour, they told me something really interesting because it was a while ago now.

And when his father won an honour and he went to the palace to get it, he was allowed to take his wife and his oldest unmarried daughter. Oh. Back then. That's who you took with you. Your wife and your oldest unmarried daughter were the two guests you could have. Oh, wow. That's interesting.

I reckon for honours, I mean, the fact that they give you an honour is marvellous, but the fact you have to go to them to get the honour is slightly less honourable. It's like, well, you can have one, but you have to come and get it and you have to be dressed correctly. You know what I mean? Like, I think he should, at least Father Christmas comes to you. I think it adds to it. No, Father Christmas. I think it adds to it.

They should turn up at the door. Don't get me wrong. Like, you know, if Prince Charles came to my house, that would be like a memorable day. But, no, I think there's something special about being in these rooms and these places you would normally never get to go, these huge throne rooms and stuff like that. I can't agree with that.

I think getting to go there is part of the treat. Right. And I know people don't like royalty and the royal family and, you know, I'm probably a little bit Republican at heart too, deep, deep down. But it still feels pretty cool. You still feel like, oh, wow, this is pretty awesome. Yeah, yeah. There you go.

Wow, man. Gosh, that's quite a day. What did you do afterwards? Did you go and have a celebratory lunch or something like that? Lovely high tea or? Everyone asks that. And this is kind of disappointing, but we just wanted to get home. And by that time, my wife was really hungry.

So, we actually went to a motorway services and I had a pasty and a sausage roll. And then we said, well, shall we book somewhere nice for dinner? And then my wife said, you know what, I actually kind of feel like chips. And she's quite a healthy eater. And I said, are you saying we can have like takeaway, like fish and chips takeaway? And she said, special occasion. Okay. So, then for dinner, we had like takeaway chips from the chip shop instead of like, you know, a healthy salad.

Oh, man, why didn't you lead with this fact? What would you do? Would you go to KFC afterwards? Or would you book somewhere fancy? I'd probably go to KFC on the way because, you know, you're sort of building up to the day and then afterwards. So, yes, yes, I'd go twice. Oh, yeah, no, that's great.

That's marvellous. Thank you for indulging a very long, boastful monologue. But at least now I can send people here if they want to find out about what happened on the day. Yes, that's right. Where have you got it displayed? I don't know yet. It's still in the box, just sitting on a table. I haven't decided what to do with that, whether I should put it in a little frame or something or just leave it in a box.

I will get back to you on that. Any suggestion? Well, one idea is obviously to put it in a safe and then have a fake one that you just wear every day around the house and out to the shops and all that kind of stuff. On my pyjamas. Don't. Yeah, I would have it within easy access for holding for conversations with,

marital conversations where you feel you've not got the upper hand or you're being ordered around to do something. Point to the medal, yeah. Can you do the dishwasher? Can you unstick the dishwasher, please? Just point to the medal. I could put it on my spoon rack over there. I could sit with the spoons.

Man, that's for spoons only. Gosh. All right. Goodness gracious. Come on. If I was going to give a medal of honour to a stock footage company, there is no doubt which one I would choose. There is no doubt.

I think I know which one it is, Matt. Do you? Go on, then. Storyblocks? It is Storyblocks. Yeah. Go to storyblocks.com slash unmade to check out this incredible demand-driven library of royalty-free 4K and HD footage, After Effects, Premiere Pro templates,

music images, sound effects. It goes on and on. They offer subscriptions to fit any budget, including their unlimited all-access, which gives you unlimited downloads. Check them out, storyblocks.com slash unmade. This is a very, very honourable service that I'm honoured to use on a daily basis in my own creative endeavours. How ironic that it's royalty free. Yeah.

Your award wasn't royalty free, was it? No, no, exactly. Storyblocks is royalty free. No, you pay your one-off subscription and after that you can use it in your projects free of royalties. I'm still getting slugged 30 pounds per picture of me and Prince Charles. I'm far from royalty free with those pictures. Imagine if every time you got a photo through Storyblocks, you had to go to Windsor Castle and Prince Charles handed it over to you and then you could take it away. It's like, I'm sorry, you didn't get royalty free.

So, keep have to say, if Storyblocks offered that service, it would be interesting. And I may use it once or twice just because, you know, it would be quirky, but I much prefer their current system where I just go onto the website, choose my picture, choose my sound effect, press a button. And seriously, within half a second, it's in my downloads folder. Within two seconds, it's on my timeline. Love my storyblocks. Let's see if they have Windsor Castle in their library. Windsor Castle, I'm typing into storyblocks. Didn't, shouldn't have even asked. Here they are. I'm looking at six videos of Windsor Castle where I was just a couple of days ago.

And it is filmed much better than on my iPhone. Windsor. What a great word Windsor is. So if I was making like a documentary about my day and I needed better footage of Windsor Castle, because to be honest, I was a bit overwhelmed. I didn't film much. I could be using this. Thank you, Storyblocks. Storyblocks.com slash unmade. Seriously, people, if you do anything creative, if you're making stuff, this is a resource, Storyblocks. Storyblocks.com slash Unmade. Seriously, people, if you do anything creative, if you're making stuff, this is a resource you should be considering. So anyway, Tim, obviously, the Unmade podcast is about coming up with ideas for podcasts,

and I've had an idea for a podcast related to my day there. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I think I'll call this podcast honourable, maybe, because I think they're missing a trick here because I had, you know, five or six conversations with other people who were receiving honours during the day. And every one of them, obviously, was really interesting, really amazing, incredible story. I think if you just sat outside the palace on honors day and just hoovered up all the people as they walked out and interviewed them about why they're getting honors they've all got great stories to tell like i think whenever honors are given there should be a podcast about

each winner i met one guy who'd been involved in racehorse welfare and he'd invented a new whip that they use on horses so the horses don't get hurt because they used to have these terrible whips that really hurt the horses. And he's designed one that inflicts, is supposed to inflict little to no pain on the horse. It was really interesting talking to him. I met another guy who was like, had been involved in like the fight against COVID and keeping COVID off the Isle of Man in the UK,

where the COVID never got to at the peak. And I met another guy who'd been working as a prison chaplain and had all these interesting stories to tell. And, like, it's just like this concentration and bringing together of people with really interesting, amazing stories to tell who've led wonderful lives. So the honourable podcast would be who's being honoured by their country today and why.

Yes. And just let them tell their story. That's fantastic. Often the only thing you hear is in the newspaper those tiny little paragraphs on people and there's got to be a lot more to this. That's a fantastic idea. Yeah. Yeah.

Flesh them out. Flesh out the stories. People who have a story that's worthy to be told as well. That's the other thing. Tell us, how did you get onto that? Why did you get onto that scientific exploration what was the accident yeah um what just i did feel a bit of an imposter though i'd be the one guy you wouldn't make the podcast about though because then when people said to me what are you getting yours for i'm like i'm i make youtube videos oh yeah tell me more about the horse whip.

No, they'd be like, oh, you're that guy that made that one with the gold. That was cool. That's brilliant. Yes. It's like, well, I make a podcast about people with honours, and I've made so many they finally said, all right, here we go. You can have one too. One of the categories of honours they do give, and there were a few on my day, is the royal family give their own honours to people who've just worked

for the royal household for a long time. Ah, yes. Which I always find a little bit meta, like the Prince Charles as they're giving something to someone who's, you know, looked after the royal spoons for the last 30 years. It was interesting, though, because one of the people receiving an honour the same day as me was the person who is like the fire warden and in charge of fire safety at Windsor Castle.

And Windsor Castle famously had a really bad fire. So I hope it wasn't that guy. I hope it was the guy that took over. Oh, dear. No, that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. Can I just say I do feel more comfortable now you have this award because I feel there has been a bit of a medal imbalance between us

since I won the 1993 Swimming Carnival gold medal. And I've always felt you've been a bit intimidated by it. I haven't tried to lord it over you, but I know you've felt a great sense of envy. Now you have your own medal. I feel we're finally on an even plane again. I hardly think they're even, man, because, I mean, the medal of the Order of Australia is just arbitrary. It's just like there's no, like, who gets it and who doesn't. Whereas your medal, it was decided by pure hard numbers and points and times.

Like, yours is pure. Yours is truly earned. You cannot argue with the stopwatch. Measurable achievement. Measurable. Like, there's no arguing with it. So, like, I still feel there is an imbalance, but it was very humble of you to say otherwise. Well, that's true.

I mean, let's be honest, there is an imbalance. It's a good start. Let's put it that way. And now it's time for more impressive silverware to be displayed. It's time for Spoon of the Week. Well, Brady, I've got a very interesting spoon here today, which I'm quite perplexed about what it's about. Look, it's a peanut. All I can say is it's a peanut. It's clearly a peanut.

On top of this. Well, it's a spoon, but on top of the spoon is a metallic peanut as the ornate handle object. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And I actually did contact mum and ask her, like, where is this from? Here is her reply. I literally wrote to her, mum, do you know where this spoon is from? And sent her the photo of the front and the back.

And her reply was, yes, it is a peanut and i'm like thanks mum she goes she said i got it from where they grow heaps of peanuts but the peanut turned into an emoji so it's actually got the emoji there. She goes, I remember going there, exclamation mark. And I'm like, where, where? Then she replies and says, no, sorry, it doesn't, does not ring a bell. But I remember going to the farm. So I think it does ring a bell.

She just can't remember where the bell is. It may have been Fiji. It was definitely not New Guinea, but I think in the countryside of Fiji. So there we go. Because the name on the back, ironically, the name on the front is missing. Ironically, but the carved name that remains on the back says Randa. And I'm assuming that is a little region or area of Fiji based on mum's flawless memory and documentary style commentary there. Possibly collected by your mum during a visit to a peanut farm in Fiji.

Or possibly not. Possibly. I would have guessed Queensland because that's where they grow peanuts in Australia, isn't it? But your mum seems to have another memory of it. Yeah. Well, I mean, Fiji is not a million miles away from Queensland. Do you like peanuts?

Do you like nuts? Are you a nut person? I do like nuts and I do like peanuts. I especially like them when they're covered in chocolate or some sugary caramelised yumminess. But straight peanuts are good too. I'm against the combination with chocolate. I like to keep it separate. I'm not a big fan of nuts. If I'm eating some and they're there, you can be

into the zone and, oh, okay, so I'm enjoying these nuts, but I'd never go out and buy nuts. No. Or go looking for them. I never feel like them or anything like that. But I would say peanuts are the funnest and easiest to open. Yes. Yes, they are. They are fun to open. I think that's the limit of my knowledge and commentary on this quite peculiar Spoon of the Week. Do you have any other questions about it? No. I'm happy to move on to announce who is going to win an Unmade Podcast, Smoon. We like to give things to our Patreon supporters as a little thank you for

supporting the show. Go to patreon.com slash unmade FM to become one of them and help us make more episodes. You know someone who did become a supporter and is about to really be thankful for that? Yes. It is Clemens from Switzerland. Clemens from Switzerland is getting an Unmade Podcast spoon sent in the post. Also, we're going to send a SofaShop cover mixtape to another Patreon supporter, and that's going to Nathan M. from Victoria in Australia.

Oh, fantastic. I don't know Nathan. No, you don't know a Nathan in Victoria? Well, I do, but not a Nathan M. I'm always glad when Australians win some of these Patreon prizes, although it does cost us more money to send it so it's kind of a bit of a bittersweet moment for us financially and we are also sending unmade podcast collector cards uh just a handful to these five people

trenton in arkansas sissy in London, Vikram in Montreal. Good to see a Canadian there. Jacob in Michigan and Tatiana from Hertfordshire in the UK. Congratulations. Can I just take this opportunity to remind you, if you are a Patreon supporter, go and double check you've put your correct postal address in the Patreon profile thingy, because

sometimes I send things out to you guys and they come back to the post box saying it could not be delivered to this address. So you may be missing out on stuff if you have the wrong address. Make sure you've got your address all correct and proper. You can be a Patreon supporter and not put an address, by the way, by the way. You won't get sent stuff, but if you're not comfortable putting your address on this website, then, you know, you can still do that, of course. I wonder if we'd save on postage if instead of posting them out everywhere, we did what they do with the honours, and that is that we had them bestowed by the local head of state of the country that the person dwells in.

Or we could buy a castle and invite people to that castle to come and receive them. Once a year we have these big investiture ceremonies and all the spoon recipients, all the card recipients, all the tape recipients, all the unmade kernels, all the prize winners, they all descend upon the unmade castle. The unmade castle. For an audience with Tim.

Yeah. Wow. They get two minutes just murmuring sweet nothings with Tim on a red carpet. My little square patch of red carpet. Yep. Let's get on that. In the meantime, do you want to bring this episode home with one of your fabulous podcast ideas?

I think I need to get us back on track by actually having a good, strong idea. And this is one I think that could go in several directions. It's one that has many different facets to it. You could maybe point out the most fertile conversational direction for it to go in. But this podcast is called Rewind to 2000. Basically, if you could go back to the year 2000 and start again, what would you change? You know, remember there was just so much optimism about starting 2000,

the new millennium, and I know there was a debate about when the millennium actually begins, but for this conversation we'll say, you know, the marker of 2000. It's going to be a new era, a new, we'll say, you know, the marker of 2000. It's going to be a new era, a new season, new music, new film, a new whole world. And look, we're 21 years into it, right? And I'm just wondering, putting aside, you know, some of the frustrations of COVID and so forth the last little while,

which are beyond our control, if you could go back to 2000 and cross with a clean sheet of paper, what would you do differently? So, it's a new, new millennium. Yes. So, can I do things like contact the FBI and give them the name of all the 9-11 hijackers, or are we talking more personal here? Well, that's one direction you could go in. In other words, if you knew what you know now,

could I go back and change major history points, which I think that's a thought exercise in itself. Which things could you avoid and help and play with history in that regard? Another way of approaching this would be much more personally, a decision. What would you buy? And, of course, there's, oh, well, I'd buy Bitcoin and I'd buy this property and, you know, there's those sorts

of general things that you could talk about. But it would only be interesting if you got really specific about perhaps a sliding doors moment or something in particular that you wish you'd done or a regret or a relationship or a particular concert. I'd go back and I'd attend this concert or I wouldn't have gone to that concert because I was staying there all night long. It was awful.

You know, it's that kind of thing. Obviously, there's a million little things I would change, you know, mistakes and stupid things I did. Everyone has regrets, don't they? I mean, overall, I can't complain too much. So, I'm worried if I change, you know, I always have that worry that if you change one little thing, it could have all these unintended knock-on consequences. Yes, yes. So, there's always that, you know, there's always

that. So, you know, even you, you going and having a cup of coffee 30 seconds later than you did on one time could result in you having completely different children. No, no, that's exactly right. Yeah. So I'm sure there's part of you that would say, well, I'm not going to change anything because I don't want to, you know, change with the two children I have because of how, you know, how much you love them. But then again, if it means you get to see a cool U2 concert, maybe that's worth the trade off. Just to clarify to my children as they're listening, let me explain the logic of that later on. Remind me to go through as to what Brady means. Right.

Okay, yeah. He's not saying if I'd had another cup of coffee, I wouldn't have had kids. Right. Chain reaction of the butterfly effect. No, that's exactly right. But I'm thinking back to, you know, that yellow shirt that you've, T-shirt you've worn from time to time when we've been recording.

If you could do it all over again, man. The one that was forbidden. Oh, what one was that? Oh, yeah, the yellow T-shirt. Yeah, my wife doesn't like that. Yeah. Oh, no, I'd buy it again. I'd buy that yellow T-shirt again.

Defiant, is that right? You learn from your mistakes. Look, going back to 2000, what would I do differently? Other than things like gaming the system to win the lottery. Yeah. And just obvious things like, you know, life mistakes, like, you know, things you did that you shouldn't do or said that you shouldn't say, like obvious things that you would change.

I don't think I'd change much else about like the overall life path. There are probably a few, yeah, there are probably a few concerts and events that I would like to have gone to, football matches that I didn't watch that I would like to have watched. I once had tickets for the second radio head concert in Melbourne and they played the first show and then Tom York's voice was off, so they cancelled the second show. So, if I could go back again, I would have gone the first night. Not many more things more serious than that. Most regrets relate to laziness, things I didn't do because I just couldn't be bothered. And afterwards I thought, oh, I probably should have got off my butt and done that. It would

have been pretty good. But I was too lazy on the day. You know, that's always a good life lesson. Don't be lazy. Go and do the thing. You more often regret the thing you didn't do. It's mostly about, yeah, delayed gratification or the discipline of doing things well, because it does pay off. You knew it would pay off. You knew the lesson. Do you know what I mean? Like if I save this little bit of money, there would be lots down the track. Or if I was just did a little bit of fitness, then I would be more fit down the track. And I see why you chose the year 2000 because it's a nice gimmick. You know, it's a nice round number and it's got, you know, it's obvious why you chose 2000. nice gimmick. You know, it's a nice round number and it's got, you know, it's obvious why you chose 2000. But I do wonder whether or not a better concept or show would be inviting people to go

back to one point in their life, one decision point. You can change one decision, go to one fork in the road or things like that, rather than just arbitrarily attaching it to 2000. Because attaching it to 2000, in my case, feels like a bit of a meh time. To be honest, isn't it funny to think of the celebrations and how vast they were at the time in retrospect? Like, it does feel meh now we went from 99 to 2000. It all just blurs in your mind.

Apart, I guess, we had the Olympics in Australia in 2000, so that's probably the thing you remember. But it is so funny to think how it did feel like a real crossing the Rubicon. Yeah. Apart, I guess, we had the Olympics in Australia in 2000. So, that's probably the thing you remember. But it is so funny to think how it did feel like a real crossing the Rubicon. I liked it, though. I like that, like, you know, my lifespan will span that. Like, you know, when I live and die, one year will start in the 19s and one will start with two. I quite like that I got to live across that changeover. I remember a time when I convinced myself I wasn't going to live till 2000

and I'd feel really pissed off that I died just before 2000 because I didn't get to see it. Now I've overshot it by 21 years. It's like, okay, I probably didn't need to worry so much about that. No, that's true. That's true. I wonder if that's an idea then. What did you do on Millennium Eve?

I was working. I was working for the newspaper because we did a big coverage and put out a special edition of the paper afterwards. So, I was in the office. I think for the actual fireworks moment, we may have gone down to Victoria Square. I don't have a great memory of the actual moment. I remember the advertiser of the newspaper had a big countdown clock put in front of the building to 2000, which was pretty cool. And you were going around sort of interviewing people like, what are you- are you having a good night tonight or what's your story or just covering it generally. I don't know what my particular role was.

I don't think it was that. There were so many staff. There were people who were doing that. I don't think that was my role that night. I don't know if it was- I don't even remember what my role was. It was pretty unmemorable. I wonder if anyone looks back and goes, yes, we had the night of our life that night. Like it lived up to the.

What did you do? Mine was pretty meh as well. I was living in Melbourne by that stage, but I was actually up on the northern New South Wales coast, just underneath Byron Bay. I was on a road trip with some friends and was just in a beautiful, you know, that northern New South Wales. That area is just like gorgeous. Loads and loads of little hippie villages. And I was in a little hippie village and a friend's band was playing there. And I was with them.

And it was pretty, like I had a really wonderful time a couple of days before and a few days afterwards. The night itself was just in sort of a small pub in the middle of nowhere. And what, you just counted down to midnight and then just did cheers with a few people and shook a few hands and had a drink? That's right. Yep, yep. And then continued on the journey. Yeah.

I didn't really plan it out that much. It was more about the trip and didn't plan that night very, probably didn't plan it very well, actually. Well, we'd better head off. I've got to write another response to the mayor of the city of New York and get this name change thing back on track. High-level bilateral negotiations. Oh, are you going to add something?

What do you add to your name now with your new honour? There's a little OAM on the end is the little initials that can go afterwards. So you're going to add them on to your reply to the Mayor of New York? Yeah, I mean, I normally wouldn't use them because obviously that's a bit posey, but yeah, maybe. I wonder if there will ever be circumstance when I do use it, like, and also maybe chuck on a doctor on the front just for the, you know.

I've been having a few problems with airlines at the moment i'm thinking of writing some letters of complaint so maybe i'll maybe i'll chuck a chuck a bit of honorific onto that honors at the front of your name honors at the end of your name it's not something uh it's not something i i will not would normally use so but i might use it in the description for this episode. Dr. Brady Haran, OIM, and Tim Hart. What letters do you get on the end of your name for that swimming medal? That's not being clarified by Swimming Australia. Yes. In fact, that's a matter of some dispute between us at the moment.

I haven't mentioned this, but my lawyers are writing back and forward to them. They're insisting that I use them more often and I'm more humble. So I'm saying no, no, no. Having witnessed you win that medal, I always put swimming in quotation marks when I say swimming medal. I always, you know how when people have received a PhD, but then it's from Oxford or Cambridge, they write oxen, like in a little, in parentheses, you know, in brackets, just to sort of denote that it's a PhD from that particular place. I put the words butterfly in mine, like swimming medal, butterfly. Because it's so hard. It's like, whoa. whoa i mean anyone can swim freestyle

breathing breaststroke is like that it's like i won for the butterfly yes it's like oh crikey i remain unconvinced what you did was truly butterfly for the whole length of the pool but the medal is yours i just got in the water and imitated a butterfly and somehow managed to propel myself forward enough. I think if there'd been one in the pool, an actual butterfly would have beaten you. I think I would have been more successful if I'd tried the caterpillar rather than the butterfly.

That's not a butterfly. That's a moth. Tim, you're doing the moth. Tim, you're. I actually was talking. The moth. Someone mentioned the other day, actually. I saw on Twitter someone saying, how come people called Timothy, you know, don't get called the nickname the moth?

Tim Mothy. Like, you could be The Moth. Yeah. And I was like, wow, that would be an awesome superhero name. So I told my daughters and insisted that they refer to me as The Moth for a few days, which they sort of went with for a while, not terribly long, but yeah, The Moth. The Moth.

So now the description will be today's episode is presented by Dr Brady Haran OIM and The Moth. The moth. So now the description will be today's episode is presented by Dr. Brady, Haran OIM and the moth. The moth. People will know who you mean. Like, wow, the moth. What would the moth, if you were a superhero called the moth, what would your, like, talents be? Like eating clothes?

Yeah. Just eating little holes in the bad guy's clothes. And avoiding mothballs. That's your kryptonite. Kryptonite is mothballs. What else do moths do? They just sort of float around and get accused of being in amongst clothes the whole time, don't they? Yeah.

Get out of here, moths. And you'd just always be hanging around like bright lights and stuff. That's right. Moth into the flame. Yes, of course. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

I go after the... Just looking for bright lights and clothes. That's what I'm all about. Avoiding moth bombs. Okay, it's still recording but when i go uh