My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda Bunjelung Kalkotin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.
Good morning and welcome to the Daily Os. It's Friday, the twenty second of December. I'm Sam, I'm Zara. It's been a big year of news in twenty twenty three, and the Daily ODS has been there every step of the way, following the big stories, explaining the big ideas
and introducing you to the main characters. On today's podcast, Zara and I are going to reflect on the year that was, break down some of our biggest moments, the ones that we'll happily remember and the ones we'd rather forget, and look into the crystal ball and give you some predictions for the year ahead. We're going to get to that little prophecy session later, but first, Aurah, what's making headlines this morning?
The Bruce Lehman defamation trial will finish today, with closing arguments heard this week. The defamation case was brought by Lerman against Network ten and its journalist Lisa Wilkinson over an interview with former Liberal staffer Britney Higgins, who alleged Lehman sexually assaulted her in Parliament House in twenty nineteen. Lehman denies those allegations and brought the case against Network ten, News Corp. And ABC before settling with the latter two outlets.
A final decision in the case will be made by Federal Court Justice Michael Lee.
Bushfires continue to burn northeast of Perth, with total firebands declared for the area and emergency warnings in place. Firefighters remain on the scene with aerial support assisting crew on the ground. An evacuation center has been set up and homes and businesses in the area are left without power.
Warner Brothers could be looking to merge with Paramount, That's according to US outlet Axios. According to that report, the chief executives of both companies met this week to discuss a pertent merger. The market value of Warner Brothers currently sits at around forty three billion Australian dollars, while paramount is around fifteen billion Australian dollars.
And today's good news they simply cannot be stopped. The Matildas have sold out their twelfth consecutive home match. The upcoming round three of the Asian qualifiers for the Paris twenty twenty four Olympics has sold out after the pre sale on Mondays or twenty five thousand tickets sell in four hours. The game in Melbourne will see over fifty thousand people watch the Matilda's play on the twenty eighth of February against Uzbekistan.
Okay, So, Sam, I've prepared a couple of questions to prompt us on our reflections of the year.
What a year. It's been a big one.
It has been a big one. But I also feel like by the end of the year, you forget what happened at the beginning of the year, You forget what happened in the middle of the year, and then suddenly you're consumed by the events of the last month or something and it kind of outweighs everything else. So I've got a couple of ideas, and I'm going to tell you the first one because I want to start on a high, love it, and go backwards from there and
hopefully also on a high. Okay, Sam, yeh, what was your best good news story of twenty twenty three?
I think if I am to think about the moments where I felt the best about the news, it would be watching the Matilda's go as far as they dealt well. So expected from you, I know, but I think it needs to be put in content. Also, sorry, can I interrupt you?
We did this podcast a year ago, actually on someone else's podcast, and your prediction for twenty twenty three was that the Matildas would be the big good news story for the year.
Yeah. And I hate to say on the profit, but no, I think it really was the moment of twenty twenty three that unified the country the most, and for us as news publishers, it was just a joy. I mean, we were doing these amazing live score updates on Instagram. Yeah.
Sometimes people think we're professional and other times times it's you and I at a pub after Courtney Vine has kicked the winning penalty for the Matildas, jumping around while also trying to work out canvas so that we can post something.
And the funny thing about that pub was that that pub didn't have any phone reception, so we had to sprint out to the road.
It got hit by a car on the way, but it was It was truly the best our country has been in a long time, I'd say, and I.
Don't think we'll ever go back from where we are in women's football, but women's sport more broadly. I mean, you think it changed the game? Yeah, I mean the Matildas have now sold out another Olympics qualifier that's happening in a couple of months.
I think that's a good point because I think everyone, maybe not everyone, the skeptics and the critics at the time said I not you, but said it'll die down, people will get over it, and then no one will ever go back to it. Obviously that's proven wrong, and there seems to be sustained interest and sustained support for the Matildas and all women's sport of that manner.
The game has changed. The commercial dollars are now there. It's going to work. What was the moment for you? Your good news story?
I know I started this by saying that when we reflect on the year, we just think about the last month. So I'm going to do just that my best story of the year is actually about someone we interviewed on this podcast, Kirsty Bryant, and she was a woman who, after giving birth to her first child, had to undergo emergency surgery that ultimately meant that she was never going
to be able to carry a child again. She desperately wanted more children, and she became the first woman in Australia to undergo a successful uterus transplant, and then this week also became the first person to undergo a successful uterus transplant and give birth to said child. And I think the reason that this story excited me so much, I think there are a couple elements. Firstly, science is amazing, and I just think that this shows so much progress. And I also feel like we were all on the
journey that we yeah. Like Nina, our podcast producer, first told us about the story when she joined TDA, and then I personally took great interest in it and the fact that it has ended in a successful, healthy birth
is amazing. I also think that we very rarely, and this is a problem not just of the media but of many professions, we don't really focus on women's health and science that relates to women's bodies, and I just think it's such a breath of fresh air to have followed a story like this and for it to have been good news.
Interesting.
Okay, So second question, it is inescapable that working in the news, stories stick with us. And I think the most common question I get is how do you switch off from the news? How do you know stop thinking about it? And the reality is is you basically don't. You perhaps become a bit desensitized to some elements, but stories stick with you. What is the story from twenty twenty three that will stick with you?
It has to be Israel and Gaza and it has been the most diabolical personal professional challenge we've ever faced, and I have seen not just at TDA but in the entire global media landscape. Every news organization grapple with how to cover this story properly. And I think a really important part of why this story has stuck with me so much is the amount of vision and photography that we have seen from Israel and Gaza and just
how accessible it is. I mean, we kind of saw a bit of that at the beginning of the Russia Ukraine crisis. You know, this tik this was the first time a conflict was playing out on TikTok, I only think it has become more sophisticated of a landscape since then.
I agree. I have wanted to talk to an expert about what watching this play out on our phones has actually done to our brains, because you're right, it's horrific. The fact that there are journalists on the ground who are taking an iPhone and just filming around them, and that we are seeing those unfiltered images. It has changed everything.
It's changed how the global community responds to violence. It's changed how the media has a duty to report, and I just think on a human level, it's just catastrophic.
And I think the other part to this story that we cannot ignore is the rise of anti Semitism and Islamophobia in places like Australia, but I'd say most countries around the world at this point, there's a lot of people outside of the Middle East who are experiencing this conflicts and hurting in another way and really hurting. If we park that global conflict, what was the story that stayed with you this year?
I think that domestically, it would have to be the referendum. I think that we did a series during the year about understanding the Voice, and during that we had Tom speak to so many First Nations voices in so many parts of the country. And I'm not casting judgment on the results of the referendum, but what we heard about the need for change and the need for betterment of the outcomes of First Nations people in this country.
How we get there.
Obviously the Voice wasn't supported by the country, but I think it was a recognition that something had to be done. And I think the stories that we heard from First Nations people about the need for change will probably be the thing that sticks with me when I think about Australia in twenty twenty three. Okay, so now moving into the future. As I said last year, you predicted that the Matilda's would be this big news moment. Turns out
you're right. I actually hate you a bit when we do these things, because you're much better at thinking about the future than I am.
Must be hard. What is your twenty twenty four prediction. I just don't know if Donald Trump's going to be the candidate for the Republican Party, and I think we've all kind of accepted it as that's what's going to happen, and that is what the polls say, and that's why I think I can kind of justify this as a bit of a dark horse prediction. But I think he has a real challenge in overcoming this decision from the
Colorado Supreme Court. I think it is going to be copied by states around the US, and I think it is going to mount a serious, you know, barrier for his team to overcome. I also think that there's some really strong competitors in the Republican race, and the one
that I'm particularly keeping an eye on is Nikki Haley. Yeah, and I think that she is running a really efficient, well oiled campaign and I wouldn't be surprised if, you know, a couple of rogue comments from the former president and he never does that, no, no, no, be out of character, but if he did, a couple of rogue comments could lead to her strengthening her run and then at the primaries, anything can happen.
I don't know though, Like I don't know that there is that much overlap between those that are looking for a President Trump and those that are looking for a President Hailey. Yeah, you're probably right, Like, I don't know that voters who might have been Trump. Voters would then turn to Nicki Haley. She's far more moderate than he is.
Yeah, but I just wonder at what point does the Republican Party see it to be unrealistic to back another run from President Trump.
I know, I said you were good at that, But I think he'll win the nomination and he'll win the president.
So you think he's going to be the president in I.
Think this time next year we'll be talking about President Trump. Yeah, okay, well we'll come back in twelve months and sex Yes, So what's going on? Hello, Futures Area talked to you. Then mine's a bit rogue. Okay, it's actually well, every time I thought about what would happen, I don't know if this is a reflection on me as a human, but I just kept thinking about like who was going to die? And that felt morbid. So I've shifted mine
to be industry specific. I think that in twenty twenty four we are going to see a major disruption in the audio space.
Okay.
Interesting, I've been saying this for so long and no one listens to me. But in the video space, we had TikTok. It changed everything. It changed the way we consume video. It changed our attention spans. It changed what we're looking for on social media. We haven't had that in the audio space. Like in the podcasting space, podcasts have ranged supreme for so long, and there's I mean
now streaming platforms have them on there. But like other than that, there's been no real huge innovation in a while. And I think given how many of us listened to posts, there has to be something coming. There has to be some new technology coming. I don't know what it is, don't have that answer, but I think there's something interesting.
I like the facts that we're going to be around to write that, and maybe we should do some innovating ourselves.
Perhaps we should all, right, Sam, take a home for us. What is your recommendation for people over the summer break?
So I think we all need to take the opportunity over this break to decompress. It's been a huge year. Let's find a way to get some just mindless joy.
Yes, but you know, I hate telling people to turn off the news, not suggesting.
That, not about that. It's about turning on other things. And I think everyone should go and watch somebody feed Phil on Netflix. So Phil Rosenthal, he's one of the writers for Everybody Loves Raymond. And here's this like Daggy, sixty ish year old man who travels the world, eating delicious food and exploring cultures.
Amazing.
But the condition on this show is that every single thing the guy eats, he thinks is the best thing he's ever had, and he's just so excited to be where he is. Far from a critic show, and it's just joy and it makes you remember how big the world is.
I love that.
Ask me about Sorry, what about You?
Mine is a podcast episode. So I went through a stage where I thought I was an influencer and asked people to on Instagram give me podcast recommend nations, expecting to get like thousands of responses from my one hundred followers. And I got a few responses, and funnily enough, I
had like eight people recommend the same podcast episode. And it was a podcast called The Case of the Missing hit by reply All, And it's not new, but it is one of the most interesting podcast episodes I've ever listened to.
Give Me the TLDR.
It is about someone who has a song stuck in their head and they can sing the they know where the harmonies lie, and they like they have the song in their head, but it doesn't exist, and so they go on this investigation to understand why they have this very clear tune in their mind of a song and like they know everything about it but it doesn't exist.
Well, that's a good road trip podcast, it is.
And I know it doesn't sound interesting, but it's so interesting and it's such a good investigation and it's so out of my realm of like caring.
Yeah, we'll put a link to this because that's a good one.
Yeah, I mean, it was just it was super interesting.
So it's been a big year and I do want to thank everybody for listening along. Now, this is not the last episode of the Daily Oz for twenty twenty three. We're going to continue all the way through the summer
period with a summer series. Summer series, we sat down looked at all the episodes that we did of the last year and decided these are the ones that we think you should listen to on the beach, or when you're on a road trip, driving to a music festival, driving the family lunch, or importantly even if you are still working over this Christmas period, to get you feeling good on the work commute and bring some interesting stories to your ears.
We'll be back on January eighth to cover the biggest stories of the day. Until then, have a wonderful new year. Thank you for all your support, and we look forward to another big year ahead.
See ya.