Better Than Yesterday with Osher Günsberg

Paul Middleditch is a multi-award winning director originally from New Zealand.

Follow his adventures at @plazafilms on instagram

He’s the mastermind behind bringing some of the most memorable commercials you’ve ever seen to your screens.

Remember “It’s a big ad” for carlton draught?

The brilliant Aussie Lamb diversity campaign from this year?

And of course his incredible “It’s a Big Ad” for Cartlon Draught, including the skydiving one where the beer glass demolished a few houses?

That’s Paul.

He’s also the guy behind the new Air New Zealand campaign featuring Dave the goose - which I’m sure you’ve seen by now. As you’ll hear Paul actually donned the green skin suit and acted out all of the physicality of Dave so that the animators would have something great to work with.

He’s a funny guy, we had a great chat.

A special thanks to Air New Zealand for helping tee up this chat with Paul Middleditch.

You can actually watch an edit of this episode of Paul and I at www.betterwaytofly.com.au which includes some behind the scenes footage of the making of Air New Zealand’s brilliant new content featuring Dave the Goose. New Zealand creative agency True created the idea and Paul was the director who brought it to life.

We actually recorded this conversation in the very swish Air New Zealand lounge at Sydney International Airport which is an interesting place to come and go from if you aren’t traveling.

We even went through the “Kidman Corridor” which is where they walk Nicole and Hugh and anyone else through when they come or go from an international flight.

Glad you can be a part of this chat.

Enjoy an afternoon with the wonderful Paul Middleditch.

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When war came to his village in South Sudan, Deng Adut was taken from his mother by rebels and forced to fight in the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army. He was just six years old. 

In his recent book “Songs of a War Boy” Deng describes in chilling detail the life of a child soldier - which includes horrific first hand accounts of battle, torture, death, and the kind of barbaric brutality that only humans inflict on other humans.

When he was twelve, he was rescued by his older brother and smuggled out of Sudan into Kenya where he met an Australian couple that helped him and his brother come here to start a new life. 

Deng is now a lawyer here in Sydney, and took the time on a warm friday afternoon in November to come out to the apartment to have a chat. 

Deng’s story is familiar with many Australians because he featured in a University of Western Sydney commercial that chronicled his journey - so he and I didn’t talk too much about the story that’s already been told. 

Instead we talked about his views on the US election, happiness, Africa, and what life is like living with the constant threat of death every minute of the day. 

There’s some heavy conversation in this episode - however it’s almost unavoidable when you’re speaking with someone who was a child soldier in a rebel army in one of the more horrible conflicts in recent history. 

You can follow Deng on instagram, he’s @DengAdut

He’s a breathtakingly handsome man with a slick sense of style, and he turned up to my house looking like he had stepped out of the pages of GQ.

 So come now to my new apartment in Bronte in Sydney for a cup of coffee with lawyer, author, former refugee and one time child soldier - Deng Adut.

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Nathan Appo is an athlete, activist, TV host and Health and Lifestyle officer for Deadly Choices - which is an initiative targeting Urban Indigenous Health, particularly the mental health of young indigenous men. 

He’s raising money for Movember at mobro.co/deadlychoices

I’m at mobro.co/osher 

He’s a great guy, I’m stoked to have him on. 

We met in the radio station so there’s some BG noise. 

Follow him on twitter @elusive_sausage

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Danielle Cormack is a talented actress from NZ who’s worked across both sides of the Tasman and the Pacific over her successful career.

She was an original cast member on the landmark NZ soap “Shortland Street” and has appeared in brilliant TV such as “Rake”,”Deep Water” and the women’s prison drama “Wentworth”.

Danielle is a fantastic human with a brilliant energy I know you’ll resonate with.

We really go for it in this one, we dig super deep.

It might need two listens.

Danielle rocked up at my house with a helmet in one hand - so I was thinking it’s anything from a Vespa to a Ducati that she got here on. Afterwards I walked her outside with the dog and there’s this massive and very sexy Harley Davidson, which had wonderfully loud pipes, and she handled expertly as she roared off up Bondi Road with a goodbye wink an a smile.

Please let her know you heard her by tagging her on twitter @daniellecormack - she’s also on instagram.

Enjoy the show.

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Phil Anderson is an Australian cycling legend.

In a sport dominated by Europeans - Phil was the first non-European rider to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour De France.

Think about the Jamaican Bobsled team turning up at the Olympics but actually winning.

That’s what it was like - a rider from a country no one associated with cycling, riding so well he wore the leader’s jersey during the Tour De France.

He’s still a big part of world cycling, he does a lot for young riders and regularly leads riders around Europe on guided tours of the very same mountains that the big cycling classics are ridden on.

After swimming - Cycling is the 2nd most popular participation sport in the country, more people cycle than AFL, League, Union, Netball and Surfing COMBINED.

It’s a big deal.

With so many bikes on the road, cyclist safety is a subject very close to my heart.

Every cyclist has had a near-death experience, and every cyclist knows someone who’s been seriously injured in a traffic accident.

That’s where the Amy Gillett foundation comes in.

They campaign at a policy level to help change the traffic laws around the country, pushing the “A Meter Matters” message all around Australia.

So here’s a conversation we recorded the weekend of Amy’s Gran Fondo, the big event that the foundation puts on every year - a 120Km along a fully closed Great Ocean Road down in VIC.

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Jono Coleman (@jonocoleman) is a legendary broadcaster from Australia who has had an incredible career here and in the UK.

He worked on landmark stations like the earliest incarnations of JJJ, the BBC and at the huge upstart that was Virgin Radio in the 90s.

Starting in the late early 80s I first came to know him on a kids’ after school show called “Simon Townshend’s Wonder World” you could really get away with wordy names back then.

Now Jono’s a big bloke. He’s always been a big bloke, even when he was starting out.

There was even one particular character that he played on that show, which was a super hero called “Flash Flab”.

He was a crime-fighter who was there to save the day, and he was a bigger man.

It’s fair to say that in this conversation I have with Jono I tell him what that meant to me - to see someone that looked like me on the TV and who wasn’t being teased for being fat.

It’s all I’ve got to relate to when it comes to the diversity discussion - in that you can’t be what you can’t see.

And I get it. Until I saw that he was a fat super hero, I had nowhere to look for some reason to feel anything but shame for my body.

I still felt it in years to come - but for that short period of time, I felt empowered.

So when it comes to seeing all body types, and all colors of body types, ones that look standard, and ones with less arms or legs, or different shapes of torso - that sort of thing is so important.

I don’t work in casting for TV, but if I did - I’d try to work hard to make sure what you see on TV looks like what you see in the street.

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Dr Jen Rayner is a native Canberran who has written a remarkable book Generation Less: How Australia is Cheating the Young.

If you’re a parent, if you’re a young person in Australia, if you’re at all interested in the Australian economy and what the future holds for our younger population - this is a very interesting chat. 

If politics makes you yawn, don’t worry - Jen is a brilliant communicator and puts forward her argument in such a clear and concise way you’ll leave this hour feeling smarter than you started. 

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Andrew Valder is co-founder of Garage Sale Trail, who are on Twitter @garagesaletrail

What they do is coordinate a nation into having garage sales all on the same day, some 300,000 sales in all - in a way to bring communities together, reuse items and think about what waste really is. 

They’re in their 6th year and are gearing up for October 22 which is the date of this year’s sale.

Check out their site garagesaletrail.com.au to investigate some of the items - there’s everything on there from pots and pans to a yacht. Yes an actual yacht. 

Hope you enjoy this show with Andrew Valder.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.