Do you have a favourite kids book? Can you still recite it? Jules and Jez chat about their most-loved children's books and the ones they remember reading to their own kids. Have you got a favourite? We'd love to hear from you. You can email us at [email protected]

Buy tickets to our Adelaide show here: https://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/events/2025-writers-week/podfest-not-stupid/

This year, Jules has been speaking to lots of people about what makes them resilient. She wanted to know how they cope in the aftermath of horrific events or how they deal with ongoing pain. She's been writing about it in her "Staying Upright" column and she and Jez chat about what she has learnt. 

STAYING UPRIGHT

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-24/staying-upright-life-can-be-hard-how-do-people-endure/103615514

STAYING UPRIGHT: JAMILA RIZVI

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-07/staying-upright-jamila-rizvi-brain-tumour-diagnosis/103673974

STAYING UPRIGHT: JON OWEN

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-26/jon-owen-wayside-chapel-helping-others-staying-upright/103887876

STAYING UPRIGHT: SARAH LULU FAITH

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-14/staying-upright-crochet-and-healing-power-of-knitting-needles/103700364

STAYING UPRIGHT: DAVE TARNOWSKI

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-05/dave-tarnowski-stigma-mental-illness-disappointing-affirmations/103795176

After a big year of pretty toxic politics globally, can we learn to disagree better? Jules has been reading up about the "Dignity Index", so could it make a difference? And the so called "hot assassin" has lots of people talking about healthcare and health insurance in the US. Also, could "Not Stupid" get in the Guinness Book of Records?

SHOW NOTES

Buy tickets to our Adelaide show!

https://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/events/2025-writers-week/podfest-not-stupid/

Utah Governor advert:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5_ajRH0QN8

Jules' Pick:

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2024/12/record-breaking-best-of-2024-iconic-meet-ups-amazing-animals-and-age-defying-love

Jez' Pick:

https://iview.abc.net.au/show/very-musical-christmas

We asked if you needed any life advice and you've got questions. What's the best trifle recipe? Is a plastic Christmas tree better than a real one? Do I have to buy nice presents for people if they only give me rubbish ones?

Jules and Jez offer their advice and their baking tips.

MADS' EMERGENCY TRIFLE TIPS

1. 1.Use the right bowl. A good bowl is the difference between an amazing looking trifle and slop in a bowl. Making a trifle on holidays? Take the bowl to the holiday house. They never ever have a trifle bowl.
2. 2.Best Christmas trifle recipe: Morello cherry jelly (add alcohol if you want), choc cake (I make and freeze this so its ready when I need it), crushed gingerbread layer, cream or mascarpone cream, more cherries, another chocolate cake, more cream or mascarpone, fresh cherries, shaved chocolate and gingerbread Christmas trees on the top.     

The Raygun Musical was shutdown before it even began, so is it ok to make fun of celebrities? How much do people in the public eye get to control their image? And if we can recreate dead celebrities with A.I., who controls that story?

Also Syria is back in the headlines as Syrians across the globe celebrate the end of fifty years of the Assad regime. Jules and Jez take a closer look at what's happened and what it means for the Middle East.

SHOW NOTES

The Celebrity Machine Never Dies https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2024/12/ai-dead-celebrity-estate-profit/680873/

Jules' pick: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/14/us/fake-bear-insurance-fraud-charges.html

Jez's pick: https://www.smh.com.au/national/one-of-the-worst-people-i-know-got-an-oam-so-i-ve-decided-to-act-20241129-p5kujr.html

Jez had an idea to make a playlist with all the songs he loves to dance to. When he asked for song requests, so many of you got in touch. Jules and Jez chat about some of the songs you love to dance to and why you love them.

You can find the playlist here:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/36xBCBL6jCrPJe6J8drjYe?si=BF6PCTj-QCK-nIDa1LTPTg&pi=a-CpIDFEEDROGt

And if you have other suggestions, you can get in touch at [email protected]

Has your year been: a) brat b) demure c) enshittified? Join Julia Baird and Jeremy Fernandez as they chat about the words of the year. Plus why is it so hard to cap the amount of plastic produced globally? And would you eat a $9 million dollar banana?

SHOW NOTES

NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE ABOUT THE PLASTIC INDUSTRY

 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/27/climate/plastic-industry-internal-documents.html

MACQUARIE DICTIONARY WORD OF THE YEAR SHORTLIST: 

https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/WOTY_2024_shortlist_FINAL-1.pdf

 JEREMY'S PICKS

https://hbr.org/2024/11/lets-end-toxic-productivity

https://hbr.org/2019/07/making-joy-a-priority-at-work

JULIA'S PICKS

https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/crypto-executive-eats-banana-artwork-bought-for-9-6-million-says-it-tasted-quite-good-20241130-p5kus4.html

Jules got a tattoo in New York after some particularly strong margaritas, so we asked you for your tattoo stories. And boy did you deliver. Join Jules and Jez as they read through some of your emails about weird and wonderful tattoos. You can always get in touch at [email protected]

Donald Trump's White House picks have many questioning whether the #metoo movement is dead. So is it? And here in Australia, executives from Coles, Woolworths and ALDI have appeared at the ACCC’s supermarket inquiry, so what have we learned and is anything going to change?

SHOW NOTES

Please do our survey! Link here: https://forms.office.com/r/XCJvrKqCkd

JULES' PICK

Jesse Krimes Exhibition https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/jesse-krimes-corrections

JEZ'S PICK

Nadal Retires. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zka2KlZ_-GM

Jules is in the US talking about grace and forgiveness and it is a tricky topic in the wake of the election result. So what reaction has she been getting?

If you can, please fill out our listener survey. It's anonymous and will only take a few minutes.

SURVEY LINK HERE:

https://forms.office.com/r/XCJvrKqCkd