Jodi Lee: Hello and welcome to Covered, a podcast that helps you figure out what's going on in the news and how you feel about it.

Annie Pullar: Here to guide you through the biggest stories of the week, we are your hosts, journalists Annie Puller and Jodie Lee.

Jodi Lee: On this week's episode we dive into

Annie Pullar: One Nation boots journalists from a press conference comparing its relationship with the ABC to domestic violence.

Jodi Lee: Prime Minister's plans to switch off the social media algorithm, how on earth it would work and how people are reacting.

Annie Pullar: And the NFL takes over Victoria. Where do we even start with this? An American football showdown playing out at the home of AFL. The US League is making a serious play for international fans. But first let's go to our honorable mentions. These are the stories that don't quite warrant a deep dive but are worth getting your head across this week.

Jodi Lee: Yes, and the very first one is that this week marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the September eleven terrorist attacks when Islamic jihadists hijacked four planes in a coordinated strike on the Western world and the United States of America. They killed almost 3,000 people on that day. Two planes crashed into the World Trade Center, a third crashed into the Pentagon, and a fourth was brought down in a Pennsylvania field. The attack on the Twin Towers played out in front of cameras that were broadcast the world over, watched in real time by millions of people. 25 years on, and a number of memorials have been held to honor the victims and their families, who no doubt still grieve. But new research out this year has shown that how you recall and remember the September 11 attacks really depend on your age. A US study found that six in 10 Americans born after 2001. First learned about nine eleven in a classroom and fourteen percent can't even recall how they heard about it at all.

Annie Pullar: Gosh, that is just insane. but next up, talk about sweeteners in politics. Donald Trump is quite literally trying to buy voters. This week the US president promised every adult citizen in the US what he's calling a $5,000 dividend. And that is if his Republican Party holds on to the House of Representatives and the Senate. So that's the two chambers of the US Congress at November's midterm elections. Now he unveiled this massive pledge. At the party's midterm convention in Dallas this week, which had all the bells and whistles that you'd expect from Donald Trump, but there is a catch with this handout. Trump says that the money can only be spent in the US, so it cannot be taken to Canada, China, or Germany. And unsurprisingly, no detail has actually been given on how this would logistically pay out. apparently, if $5,000 was given out to every US citizen, it would surpass over a trillion dollars. So Yeah, that's that's a wait and watch.

Jodi Lee: Yeah. He says dividend, I say bribe, potato patado. our third

Annie Pullar: Yeah.

Jodi Lee: honorable mention this week is mushroom killer Erin Patterson is working on herself behind bars, slimming down thanks to, wait for it, taxpayer-funded Ozempik. The 51-year-old is serving a life sentence after she murdered her former husband's parents and one of his aunts with a beef wellington laced with death cap mushrooms. Patterson is currently in solitary confinement and says she needs the GLP one drug. Due to her inability to exercise. Yes, it's wild. The Victorian Department of Justice claims that any medication that is handed out to prisoners is done so obviously with the approval and the prescription of a doctor where there is only a clear medical need. During her trial, Patterson told the court that she had suffered with issues around binge eating and body image. Of course, Patterson is still waiting to find out whether her appeal to overturn her murder convictions will succeed after. After that case was recently heard in court. But let's move on to our very first story of the week. And of course, it is One Nation.

Annie Pullar: Yes, I feel like we're every second week starting our podcast with One Nation, but the party is once again facing serious questions over its treatment of the media after both the ABC and The Guardian were quite literally kicked out of a press conference in Melbourne this week. So if you didn't see it, the press conference had been called by One Nations candidate in Victoria for Packenham, Warren Pickering. Now, he was pretty much being forced to come out in front of the media and defend some pretty serious allegations that had been. Leveled against him by a former partner, and that was around a history of drugs and quite serious behaviour. He came out, he acknowledged that, he acknowledged the hurt cause, but that's really not the story here. The stage was set for what should have been a press conference about Warren Pickering, but instead became a press conference about the media because before he even started speaking, journalists were pretty much walked out. Here's how it played out.

Jodi Lee: It's so wild. So she obviously asks for clarification and he starts by thanking her. Thank you so much for coming. Yes, he'll show

Annie Pullar: Yeah.

Jodi Lee: you out. so if you're not up to speed, that's obviously James Ashby, he's One Nation's chief of staff and also their national sorry, Pauline Hansen's chief of staff and one nation's national director. and as you obviously said in that press conference, he booted out the ABC and The Guardian. Ashby basically says that One Nation gets to decide who And how certain media organizations are treated by his party, who will be allowed into press conferences, based off how they treat one nation in the media. he also compared One Nation's relationship with the ABC to a domestic violence situation, which is, I don't need to explain why, but hugely problematic, arguing that the ABC keeps attacking One Nation and yet One Nation keeps going back or allowing the ABC to come back. It's pretty ugly. It's not the first time. They've booted the ABC out of a press conference earlier this year. and again, in August, The Guardian and The Age as well. So a nine newspaper were excluded from the party's Victorian candidates launch. So he he's really they're really dwindling down the approved media that's allowed at any one nation press conference at any one time.

Annie Pullar: Yeah, and I think we could sit here for honestly hours and talk about the the outrage that, you know, comments were made around comparing our national broadcast to domestic violence, the fact that media have actually been booted out and excluded from a press conference, a public press conference that the party called. But for me, I think the heart of this problem is that One Nation is a party that literally centers itself and campaigns on the principle of free speech. It's at the heart of everything they say and do. In fact, in the last few weeks, we saw massive protests right around the country, predominantly a One Nation supporter base, arguing that free speech should be written into the Australian Constitution. So, you have a party that's wanting to have offensive language in the community, that's fighting really serious hate laws that were introduced in the wake of the Bondi terror attack, then yet at the same time, you have a party that's sort of picking and choosing who can stay and who can write words. about them. Like to me it just goes to the core of what they're for. Like it doesn't make any sense.

Jodi Lee: Well, I guess it makes it sort of see it sort of makes perfect sense to me because of what the party stands for. But you're right, it's completely hypocritical of them. The truth is

Annie Pullar: Mm.

Jodi Lee: that you the media is not there to make people happy. That's not the role of journalists or media outlets. You don't get to decide how or who scrutinizes you when you are in the public eye. But that's exactly what One Nation is trying to do. It's basically propaganda. It's saying, unless you write something favorable about us, you won't be allowed allowed to interact with us and we won't be answering your questions. and

Annie Pullar: It's it's like putting baby in the corner. It's like you're in the naughty corner until we accept you again.

Jodi Lee: Yeah, but the but the grounds for acceptance are right say be nice about us. But that's not the role of the media. The media is not traditionally there to write complimentary things about people. That's not its role. That's not the role of news, it's not the role of journalism. The role of news is to tell people how what happens impacts them as people. And it's very often not positive. You know, there might be negative negative impacts, and it's the role of the journalist to act as a conduit between the community and the politician. Obviously, we're living in a time where social media has upended that because politicians can speak directly to their audience, but then the audience should also be asking the question, can I trust what the politician says? And that is why you have news media, because their job is to understand the nuance, to have enough experience of the system and the players within the political spectrum to be able to sift the shit from the truth and be able to deliver it to the public in a way that help gives them context context and helps them understand. But you can't s it's propaganda. You can't say unless you say

Annie Pullar: Mm.

Jodi Lee: something favorable, we don't want talk to you.

Annie Pullar: But I sort of wonder, you know, we've often referred to One Nation as a slogan-throwing party. Like they love to generate a headline, they love to incite division. I can't help but think there might be a broader strategy behind this, and the timing really matters because we know that Victoria is holding a state election in November, November 28th, and One Nation is heading into that with more momentum than what it ever has after Jacinta Allen obviously resigned a couple of months ago. So it sort of makes me wonder whether there is Is more of a calculated reason to stage something like this? Like, did they know it was obviously gonna end up on social media? Because you have to think about the voter base at One Nation. These are people who feel very disenfranchised with the two major parties. They're not buying what the Labour Party or what the Liberal Coalition is selling. So is this just sort of eating into their palm? Showing them, yep, we're gonna stick it to mainstream, we're gonna stick it to the people that don't understand the state of place. in Australia and we're gonna show you how hard we're gonna fight for you and then everyone's happy. Like do you

Jodi Lee: Maybe.

Annie Pullar: see what I'm saying?

Jodi Lee: Yeah, maybe. And may maybe it's a tactic insofar as they know that they're e I mean, Donald Trump started this, right? Donald

Annie Pullar: Yeah.

Jodi Lee: Trump coined the term fake news. He's been obliterating certain media outlets and certain journalists in press conference for years since he's taken office. You know, there's an amazing book written by a j a CNN journalist called Katie Tur, and he's always used to single Katie out in the back, you know, little Katie, what are you doing here? He does it now to Caitlin Collins from CNN and a Range of others, and they do it. He does it very, he does it very deliberately to subvert the power of the media. And I think that here in Australia, that has cottoned on, albeit a little bit later, this idea that traditional structures, like traditional career politicians in the, you know, in the two major parties, like mainstream media, people are tiring of those institutions because they feel like they've been failed by them. So you're right, I don't, I don't know what the thinking is. By James Ashby in One Nation, but maybe it is a calculated play to appeal to people that have had enough.

Annie Pullar: And we've already heard Pauline Hanson come out swinging against the media, you know, during that speech at the National Press Club. She famously said that she would abolish the ABC while the World Cup was playing out, and that she would turn the ABC to a subscription model. But I think the question really comes down to, and the reason why we're having this conversation is: should we be comfortable with this? Should we let this just slide? when politics and the media have honestly never been more important in this country. Like you don't see or you wouldn't see Labour or the coalition just boycotting the media, picking and choosing who can stay and who can go and who says what. I mean Yeah.

Jodi Lee: Well, you might. I mean, anything goes now, right? I mean, look, we've talked about it a lot on the podcast. You've seen particularly federal labor courting and engaging social media influences. So that's not traditional media. I would argue that they don't go as hard as traditional media. They don't necessarily contextualize stories the way that mainstream media typically would. so

Annie Pullar: It's also it's also really easy to be a fringe party not governing a country. Like you can really do whatever you want, pick a fight with whoever you want, and you don't really face the consequences of that. So it's sort of like a win-win scenario for them. There's no downside.

Jodi Lee: Yeah. A hundred per you're right. There is no downside. What I will say is the downside is for the lay person in Australia and listeners should be asking themselves exactly the question that you just asked. Are you comfortable with one nation gaining momentum and picking up votes and picking up seats right across the country and potentially continuing to hold press conferences where certain sections of the media aren't welcome because of how they might cover an issue. Like I personally like to canvas a range of different medium. I like to canvas a range of different news outlets. I like to get a very broad spectrum so I can form my own opinion. I'm completely uncomfortable with this idea of censorship, which then becomes propaganda in my view.

Annie Pullar: I mean I'm just starting to tire of one nation altogether. It's like nothing can nothing really surprises me anymore. But should we park it there and move to our next story, which has been equally headline grabbing this week? Australia is sort of leading the way when it comes to social safety online.

Jodi Lee: Yes, well we already know, as you said, that Australia sort of revolutionized the way that young people use social media. There's obviously a ban for people under the age of 16, but Albo actually wants to take this a step further. So he's released these draft laws called the Digital Duty of Care, and inside that there's a section called My Feed My Way. Essentially, the Albanese Labour government is saying that it wants to force social media companies to offer users the option to turn the the algorithm on or off.

Annie Pullar: Right. But that sounds good in theory, but my first question about this is how like how will we know how to opt in or out? Because when I look at my feed, like I I just get what I'm given and I go with it, if that makes sense. So it sounds like in this case, people will receive a push notification where they'll be able to choose sort of a recommended feed or an algorithm feed, the recommended feed being the people that they follow, so they're not getting any content outside of that realm. But I just, yeah, it's a little bit confusing as to how this will actually play out in my mind. Because

Jodi Lee: Yeah,

Annie Pullar: when you look at platforms like Instagram and TikTok and Facebook, from my understanding, what you're seeing, it's not chronological, it's actually ranked on content that you've lingered on or paused on or engaged with or gone back and re-watched, and then it's sort of spitting out exactly what it thinks you want to see.

Jodi Lee: Yes, so the algorithm recommends content to you based on your b prior behavior. That's why you are often you see suggested posts on Instagram and suggested accounts to follow, because it thinks based on what you've liked previously, you might be interested in this. The algorithm is geared toward keeping you on the platform for as long as possible. That's why you end up doom scrolling. but if you remember back in my day, you might be too young, back in my day when Instagram started, it was just a chronological feed of people that you had elected to follow. Chronological,

Annie Pullar: Literally.

Jodi Lee: like literally in the literal sense of the word. So if Annie posted at midday, you'd see that. And then someone

Annie Pullar: First, yes.

Jodi Lee: who posted after that would come on top and that's all you'd see. So yes, and you're right. The idea is that you'd be offered a push notification and you'd have to opt in or opt out.

Annie Pullar: Right, okay, and Albo has actually been quite deliberate about the framing in all of this because as we sit there here, there's obviously gonna be people that are gonna be outraged by the fact that their doom scrolling could be taken away from them. I mean, I have several friends that literally stay up till two o'clock in the morning on TikTok, and they would

Jodi Lee: I love my algorithm.

Annie Pullar: they would be devastated to hear that that's not a possibility anymore. But the good news is is that Albo says people actually have the choice. So you will be able to decide at the end of the day, the power sits with you, and that's really what this policy. Mm-hmm.

Jodi Lee: The whole thing is that this, the government says that this is about consent, which is why I was unsurprised to hear that the idea in and of itself came from Chanel Contos. If that name sounds familiar, it's because you would have heard a heap about her. She was at the time a Sydney schoolgirl who was horrified by the fact that kids weren't being teet taught consent in class around sexual consent, obviously. And so she built the organization called Teach Us Consent. Now she wants people to have further consent. online and obviously Labour has taken this idea and run with it.

Annie Pullar: And that's exactly what they've done. They've pretty much snatched her idea and made it their own. And Chanel actually dropped this hype reeler on Instagram when she found out that the policy had been announced. Yeah, I it sort of does hype me up.

Jodi Lee: Day, she's so impressive.

Annie Pullar: yeah, I honestly think she is incredibly impressive. She's been campaigning for this since two thousand and twenty-five. So what, a year ago, but the fact that she made sexual consent, you know, mandatory in curriculum and now she's turned her attention to this, like far out. We're flat out turning up to this podcast each week.

Jodi Lee: Yeah, I know. But look, what I will say is I really feel strongly about my algorithm. I've spent a considerable amount of time curating it. And now it knows to feed me content that is only about dogs, the great British bake-off, the NRL and the AFL, and I'm okay with it. Like I opt in. I I choose to opt into this.

Annie Pullar: I mean, yeah, if you took my dog content away and those random AI videos that genuinely do make me laugh, like I think that is pure joy that I find in my day now. But the point is it's really not about our golden retrievers, our Labrador puppies,

Jodi Lee: Yeah.

Annie Pullar: and our bake ops. this is more about dangerous content online, and we know that that is a massive, massive issue on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. As you just heard in that hype reel, research actually shows it can take as little as 23 minutes for Misogynistic material to start appearing in a new male user's feed. And that's purely because these content platforms sort of keep watching people and they start pushing content when they feel that a person could be suited to that content. And when you think about the rise of the manosphere and what's happening in that world, it becomes really damaging that you have this sort of AI algorithm that is literally potentially targeting vulnerable young men online. And it's not just men, it's women too.

Jodi Lee: I agree. I think it's for young people in particular, incredibly dangerous. That's why obviously kids under 16 have been banned from social media, but there are further protections from them inside this social media bill. communications minister Annika Wells outlined five specific harms that social media companies will now have a duty to actively protect kids from. So the government's putting the onus back on the businesses, companies like Meta and like TikTok. And I found these really, really important. So it's any content promoting eating disorders, pushing hostile attitudes

Annie Pullar: Okay.

Jodi Lee: towards women, pornography, content glorifying crime or dangerous stunts, and anything causing serious mental health distress, including bullying and abuse. So the government's taken it a step further. Said it's not only the responsibility of the social media companies, but these are the categories that we're looking out for.

Annie Pullar: I think the big question is how they actually hold these big tech companies to account as well, because that is that's really at the crux of this. They have announced that you know, these big, big companies could face penalties of over a hundred million dollars if they don't comply, and that will be enforced by our e-safety commissioner, but You have to also consider that $100 million is quite literally a drop in the ocean for for companies like Google and Meta. Like Meta only settled a landmark court battle in the in California in the last couple of weeks over teen social media addiction. They agreed to pay more than $23 billion. So y it makes you wonder like if nothing's gonna change and they're just gonna throw the hundred million at it and move on. Like they have the money to do that.

Jodi Lee: Yeah, but I don't I think it's less about the money. These legislation would also give stronger powers to Australia's eSafety Commissioner. So at the moment, the e s e safety could only respond after someone lodged a complaint. But under this new legislation, it's proposed that they can basically now order takedowns of Nutify app so they can just demand that it's shut down immediately. and platforms would only have twenty-four hours to react.

Annie Pullar: Yeah, well it certainly caught the attention of US President Donald Trump. I saw a pretty bizarre AI generated video ironically on social media this week with him taking aim at the Australian government. and apparently a White House spokesperson came out saying the president considered these fines a digital services tax on big tech companies and that the US would be raising its concerns with trading partners. But it doesn't seem like Annika Wells really cares about that at all. She says that we're a sovereign nation and we actually have the right to be able to protect, you know, our kids, our parents, anyone who is on social media.

Jodi Lee: Says the president that literally imposed tariffs on most of the free world. But anyway, by the by, I think it really gets murky for me when you try to decipher what is the threshold for harm. So they've obviously

Annie Pullar: Wow.

Jodi Lee: come up with these five key categories. Annika Wells says that any content equating women to animals would be captured. But what about, you know, content arguing that w women shouldn't be allowed into certain workplaces? Like I just think it's it's really difficult to prove why and how. how something is harmful. and obviously e-safety will then have to go to court to prove why specific content counts as harmful. And that's not a cheap or a fast process by any means.

Annie Pullar: No, it it really seems like it is great in theory, and I actually really support a move like this. I think anything we can do to actually give people a choice online is ultimately a good thing, but I think this is very much the start of the road and there's a lot more to come and play out as a result of this. but shall we move to our final story? I feel like this is a combination of a lot of worlds you love colliding, all in the same place, all at the same time, with a little bit of an American touch. Well, actually a lot of American touch.

Jodi Lee: Okay, well look, let me just start by clarifying that I know absolutely nothing about the NFL outside of what I watched on the quarterback series on Netflix. but I obviously

Annie Pullar: Ha ha ha ha.

Jodi Lee: am a massive fan of live sport. Everybody knows that I'm the biggest fan ever of the city of Melbourne. They can it can literally do no wrong. And I'll jump on any bandwagon. So for me this was just like the just The confluence of everything good and right in this world. Obviously the N

Annie Pullar: Holy Grail.

Jodi Lee: the Holy Grail, I mean the NFL rolled into Australia for the very first in-season game on the hallowed turf of the MCG. More than a hundred thousand people went to this game, where by the way, like some nosebleed seats cost like, you know, close to six hundred and fifty bucks, for a game that started at ten thirty on a Friday

Annie Pullar: You didn't.

Jodi Lee: morning.

Annie Pullar: And can we also point out that we're two weeks out from an AFL grand final? Literally, the holy, the holy turf of the AFL is just being rolled out for America's big league. I don't know how I feel about that, but anyway, it's all over. More than 100,000 people turned out, so clearly a lot of people wanted to see it. Important to note though, this was certainly not a cheap deal to get in Victoria. Visit Victoria actually outbid several other states: New South Wales, also Western Australia, also Japan and South Korea. For the rights. So Victoria paid about $16 million for this game alone. Other international cities have also paid for hosting rights, including London, Madrid, Mexico City, and also Brazil. So the deal, from my understanding, locks in two regular season games with an option for a third. So we don't really know if that's gonna happen. Apparently this deal was struck over breakfast, like all good deals are. So was playing out in London and Australia actually convinced the NFL Commissioner that they could get a hundred thousand people there and this happened at 1030 in the morning and they pretty much went, yep, let's lock it in. Let's go.

Jodi Lee: It's just it's just everything good and right in this world coming together. But we'll bring you up to speed in case you didn't watch and you didn't have the day off to head to the MCG. So the San Francisco 49ers beat the LA Rams 27 to 7 at this game that started at 10:30 on a Friday morning. I don't know about you, but my entire feed was full of people I know doing like shots at nine o'clock this morning.

Annie Pullar: It's just so random the time.

Jodi Lee: It was wild. It was incredibly wild. Obviously 10.30 in the morning here is primetime TV viewing in the United States. So they were able to really capitalize on the broadcast dollars. Netflix obviously has the broadcast rights and it reportedly paid $500 million for a five-game package. So just for five games, not five seasons, five games, five hundred million dollars that included this Australian one. And of course, we can't forget that the Jonas brothers performed at halftime. So it was literally

Annie Pullar: I know. 'Cause this

Jodi Lee: like a it was it was like a Super Bowl, but in round one in Australia.

Annie Pullar: And this sounds so bad, but I I really didn't care about the game at all. But when they wheeled the Jonas Brothers out, I was like, let's let's get Netflix on. Let's turn it up. And then they

Jodi Lee: They got you. They got you.

Annie Pullar: and they literally pulled out that John Farnum tribute. And it's like I fell in love with the Jonas Brothers boys all over again. So let's roll

Jodi Lee: Roll the tape.

Annie Pullar: the tape.

Jodi Lee: my god.

Annie Pullar: Sort of just wanna play that.

Jodi Lee: He's gonna ask is how long can we look at each other? But my question is, how long can I look at Nick Jonas?

Annie Pullar: But seriously, how American was that? The bomber jackets, the sunglasses. I literally felt like this was a mini Super Bowl in Australia. Like what what just happened today?

Jodi Lee: It's so good. I'm obsessed. Australians are such suckers for a tribute.

Annie Pullar: my god, don't we love a tribute? It's like we all go crazy for just hearing a song that we've heard millions of times before, but I don't know.

Jodi Lee: I know. It's like Daryl Braithwaite at the grand final every year. But hang on a second. Despite the show that the Jonas brothers put on, I actually don't think that they are the most interesting part about this game. So I actually want to enlighten our listeners. Obviously, this was round one of the NFL season, and this was two teams going up against each other, both from California. So it's the LA Rams and the San Francisco 49ers. They're like, you know, I don't know, 500 kilometers away from each other typically, but they both had to fly hundreds of thousands of kilometers to get to Australia to play against one another. another. Now the LA Rams are actually favorites this year to win the Super Bowl. So they had a lot on the line, but this was in essence a competition between who had the better jet lag strategy. So the

Annie Pullar: Yeah.

Jodi Lee: 49ers flew into Melbourne a week before the game and you saw so many of their players and coaches doing press conferences and meet and greets. They basically wanted to give themselves as much time as possible to adjust to the 17-hour time difference. The LA Rams obviously played this as a approached this as a game they needed to win. And so their coach, based on experience they'd had in a previous game in London, went, uh-uh, we're gonna fly in the night before. And we're gonna leave the day after. And so

Annie Pullar: What I actually did not know that. That is an insane

Jodi Lee: Yes.

Annie Pullar: move by a coach. Like he must back himself so hard to pull off that.

Jodi Lee: Well, they won thirty-five seven when they played against another team in London and they had it was that FIFO strategy, fly in, fly out. So but granted, London to California is nowhere near as far as California to Australia. And now we know which strategy was more successful. The team that took a week to acclimatize came out on top.

Annie Pullar: Yeah, well it had nothing to do with what they were eating before because they both got the same catering on Quantas Like, which I have not been able to get my head around this. Like I have literally been glued to the pictures because I saw the Australian put up photos of what was actually being loaded onto these Qantas planes that they all flew over on. So apparently our national carrier spent nine months planning for the catering for these players and the coaching staff, really working hard to make sure that they were, you know, full. Loaded ahead of this big blockbuster game. What's insane is they loaded these two flights with more than 2,000 meals and had they actually stuffed extra snacks in the overhead carriers because they couldn't fit it all on the plane. They had like cheeseburgers with you know really premium quality beef, on demand, steak sandwiches, so people could pretty much eat and load up whenever they wanted to. I mean, I wanted to be on this plane. It would be like an eating marathon, an eating marathon. You could sell.

Jodi Lee: Yes, you know when you're on a flight and you get really hungry, well obviously

Annie Pullar: How did you get into that?

Jodi Lee: I fly economy, but you get really hungry in between meals and you have to like awkwardly go back to the galley and like linger near the kitchen and ask if they've got any snacks. There's this amazing photo. Also, it was all American snacks. They wanted to feed them things that their body was used to and everything was high protein. There were like little containers of gif, peanut butter, as you said, those ginormous sliders, steak sangers. I saw coconut water,

Annie Pullar: My God. And we're grateful

Jodi Lee: Like ch there was Doritos. I

Annie Pullar: for an Arn It's biscuit. Like honestly, I think we should lift our standards. Like

Jodi Lee: It's so great. It's so great. I also saw that the Qantas team had made custom pajamas. Did you see this for the LA Rams? They were all

Annie Pullar: I I did.

Jodi Lee: in size extra large and they were co-branded Quantas and LA Rams. I really want some of those pajamas.

Annie Pullar: I mean, I'm glad Qantas is pulling out all stops for an American team, but if you're an Australian athlete right now, I reckon you'd be pretty filthy. Like you'd be like, W where am I getting

Jodi Lee: Yeah, it's actually a good shot. Although

Annie Pullar: my snacks stuffed in an overhead carrier and my, you know, branded Qantas pajamas? But we won't hold it against them because it's been quite comical to unpack.

Jodi Lee: No. I also read, and I haven't been able to verify this, but I read somewhere that the 49ers, the team that won, stayed at a hotel in Melbourne, and but well before they arrived, like months earlier, they flew the chef of that Australian hotel over to San Francisco so that they could coach them in how best to cook for the team. I mean, it's it's nuts.

Annie Pullar: I mean here you have them flying a chef and Donald Trump handing out five thousand dollar dividends. I mean, should we just move to the US?

Jodi Lee: Well, Jet Star wants you to pay extra to use the overhead compartment, just as a reminder.

Annie Pullar: Do we have time to talk about how the players have been pronouncing Melbourne or is that another conversation?

Jodi Lee: Melbourne. Melbourne. I've actually been really impressed by that, can I just say? Because how annoying is it when Americans like Melbourne? They've

Annie Pullar: Well, it is technically spelt like Melbourne, so I get how they I get how that's how they articulate it, but it has been hilarious watching them try to unpack how to actually say Melbourne. Anyway, I think we could go on forever talking about our NFL players. Hopefully they lock in a third game because we'll absolutely be here for it. But we'll park the episode there for this week. We hope you feel covered with the week's biggest news, and as always, we will be back next week.