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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast

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Speaker 1: from News Talks at b.

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Speaker 2: Let's Bring in Catherine Rains, our book reviewer, this morning,

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Speaker 2: Good morning.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Jack.

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Speaker 2: Oh you're headed south for the long weekend. How good.

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Speaker 3: We sure are looking forward to some interesting weather in Queenstown.

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Speaker 3: But you know, it's always such a beautiful place.

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Speaker 2: It should be fun, do you know, I reckon that's

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Speaker 2: one of the part of the South Island where often

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Speaker 2: the experience is better if you have a bit of

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Speaker 2: wild weather. You know, if it's perfect and dry, then

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Speaker 2: you know, that's sure, that has its attractions and pleasantries.

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Speaker 2: But actually sometimes if it's a bit wild, you know,

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Speaker 2: it adds another kind of dimension. So yeah, so long

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Speaker 2: as you get in.

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Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely absolutely, and you're right lake Walker tipoo and

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Speaker 3: wild weather is quite amazing.

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Speaker 2: It's pretty something. Yeah, yeah, all right. Hey, we've got

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Speaker 2: a couple of reads that sound fantastic this weekend. I

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Speaker 2: am fascinated by the sound of your first book for

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Speaker 2: us this morning. So tell us about Bonfire of the

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Speaker 2: Murdocks by Gabriel Sherman.

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Speaker 3: So this is Robert Murdoch's story, and he's now ninety

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Speaker 3: four and worth twenty three billion dollars and Rupert Murdoch, Yes,

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Speaker 3: just the past ACQUI twenty three billion, yeah, right, And

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Speaker 3: so the American Juriors Gabrielle Sherman has been reporting on

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Speaker 3: the Murdoch family for the last couple of decades and

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Speaker 3: he's interviewed all of them over over those years. And

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Speaker 3: the thing I found really interesting about this book is

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Speaker 3: I didn't realize that Robert Murdock actually inherited this media

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Speaker 3: empire from his father, Sir Keith Murdoch, and so he

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Speaker 3: grew up around the Herold newsroomman and all of that

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Speaker 3: kind of journalism side of things, and he really wanted

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Speaker 3: to join the Herald straight after he graduated from high school,

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Speaker 3: and his father actually insisted he went to Oxford, and

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Speaker 3: so he works in different newspapers as well after he

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Speaker 3: finishes as Oxford. But the real style of that whole

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Speaker 3: Murdoch style of journalism, which actually has father was really

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Speaker 3: like as well, and it's probably revealed in the book

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Speaker 3: most by the phone hacking scandal, which I'm sure most

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Speaker 3: people kind of remember about the news of the world,

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Speaker 3: where they were listening to individuals and their private messages

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Speaker 3: and breaking into the phones of famous people and also

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Speaker 3: really vulnerable people. You know, people had been victims of

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Speaker 3: attacks and bereaved parents, and Murdoch just kind of sums

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Speaker 3: them up really when he denied kind of direct responsibility

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Speaker 3: of it, but considered they called us with dirty hands

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Speaker 3: when he's in court over this. And the other interesting

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Speaker 3: thing is his relationship with his children over the media empire,

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Speaker 3: and in twenty twenty four it really came to her

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Speaker 3: head because he'd set up this family trust in nineteen

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Speaker 3: ninety nine and established this inheritance of prudence his daughter

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Speaker 3: by his first wife, and Lachlan, Elizabeth and James, and

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Speaker 3: that all inherit everything equally. But Robert at this stage

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Speaker 3: wanted Lachlan, who's probably the most right wing of his children,

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Speaker 3: to assume the full control of the business. And there's

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Speaker 3: a whole lot of legal action and they all end

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Speaker 3: up with one point one billion each at the end

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Speaker 3: of it, which is probably not a bad sum of money,

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Speaker 3: but there's this real ruthlessness about him, and he pits

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Speaker 3: people against each other, including his family, and it's just

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Speaker 3: fascinating look at the really incredibly dysfunctional family and the

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Speaker 3: control and the power and a really reckless disregard. That's

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Speaker 3: just completely driven I think by greed.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, oh fantastic. It sounds so interesting. So that's a

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Speaker 2: Bonfire of the Murdocks by Gabriel Sherman. Next up tell

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Speaker 2: us about Hooked by Azarko Yuzuki.

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Speaker 3: So this has been translated from Japanese, but it reads

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Speaker 3: really well. And Eriko's thirty and single and living at

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Speaker 3: home and kind of this almost epitome of corporate success,

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Speaker 3: well groomed, you know, really really good at a job.

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Speaker 3: But there's one thing that she's never really got in life,

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Speaker 3: and that's a great female friend. And in her interactions

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Speaker 3: in social media, she's some across this blog that really

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Speaker 3: is almost the complete opposite of her life, and she

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Speaker 3: becomes hoked on reading these and the woman that writes

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Speaker 3: these blogs, a woman called Choko, is a stay at

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Speaker 3: home housewife and she hates cooking and cleaning and anything

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Speaker 3: that requires any effort. And she never anticipated that her blog,

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Speaker 3: called the World's World's Worst Wife, would ever attract any attention.

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Speaker 3: And Arico's this fan, and she begins stalking the places

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Speaker 3: that Shoko goes to, and then one night they meet

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Speaker 3: and they get along and Arico's really excited about this,

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Speaker 3: but Choko's really unaware that Arico has this obsessive behavior

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Speaker 3: in her past, and so the relationship begins okay, and

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Speaker 3: then really very early on, the obsession becomes really obvious,

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Speaker 3: and it's the story of the dynamic between the two

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Speaker 3: and the behavior and the way they both change in

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Speaker 3: reaction to it, and the online presence. And so this

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Speaker 3: novel really focused on how modern society works and they

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Speaker 3: want real hunger for connection and just the way our

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Speaker 3: lives can go completely out of control and how easily

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Speaker 3: we define ourselves by what other people think of us

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Speaker 3: and what social media is about, and it's just it's

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Speaker 3: really interesting.

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Speaker 2: Great, okay, cool. So that's hooked by Asako Yuzuki. Catherine's

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Speaker 2: first book is Bonfire of the Murdocks by Gabriel Sherman.

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Speaker 1: For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live

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Speaker 1: to News talks 'b from nine am Saturday, or follow

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