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Speaker 1: Jersey and Amanda jam Nation.

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Speaker 2: Not so long ago, I was asked by my dear

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Speaker 2: Friendly Sales to take part in a show called The Assembly,

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Speaker 2: and it was one of the most wholesome, nerve racking,

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Speaker 2: extraordinary experiences I've ever had. I was in a room

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Speaker 2: full of trainee journalists who just happened to be autistic.

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Speaker 2: Nothing was off limits, full honesty, full disclosure. It was

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Speaker 2: an extraordinary experience. The episode is on tonight on the ABC,

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Speaker 2: and we're thrilled to be joined not just by Lee,

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Speaker 2: but by two of the students, Abby and Dale. Hi guys, Hello, Hello, Abby,

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Speaker 2: your twenty first birthday on the weekend.

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Speaker 3: Whoa, It was a lot of fun. I had a

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Speaker 3: great time.

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Speaker 2: What'd you get up to? Oh?

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Speaker 3: Dancing? There was a photo boof, there were photographers and yeah,

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Speaker 3: it was.

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Speaker 2: A lot of fun. Do you finally feel mature?

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Speaker 3: I do well. I missed my eighteenth due to COVID,

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Speaker 3: so I was talking about this party for at least

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Speaker 3: about five years.

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Speaker 2: Brilliant, brilliant. She was wearing sequence You love a sequen,

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Speaker 2: You've got one on today?

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Speaker 4: Oh?

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Speaker 3: Thank you?

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Speaker 2: And Dale, how did you feel about this whole experience?

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Speaker 2: Because many of the episodes have already been seen. They've

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Speaker 2: been up on iView, but mine's on Free to Wear

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Speaker 2: Television tonight on the ABC. How have people responded to

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Speaker 2: you in light of these stories going to air?

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Speaker 5: It's kind of been surreal the amount of comments that

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Speaker 5: I've got because, you know, doing the whole experience, it

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Speaker 5: was just fifteen amazing people hanging out and getting to

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Speaker 5: interview great people, you know, with our mentors and our lecturers.

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Speaker 5: And it took me a while to realize how surreal

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Speaker 5: of an experience it was because everyone's like, oh my god,

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Speaker 5: you met that one, you met you know Hamish or

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Speaker 5: you know, Lee was your mentor, and this was coming

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Speaker 5: from journalists and friends, and it's like, you just got

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Speaker 5: to do the craziest thing ever and you just got

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Speaker 5: to hang out with great, amazing people and it's just surreal.

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Speaker 2: Lee tell us about all the all the students, because

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Speaker 2: this is the first time there's been a journalism course

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Speaker 2: for kids on the Who Are You're Divergent?

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Speaker 6: Yeah, So the ABC, in conjunction with mcquarie University, set

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Speaker 6: up a course that was foundations of journalism like basics,

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Speaker 6: and just designed it from scratch basically, so it would

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Speaker 6: be accessible for people who have autism. So for example,

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Speaker 6: they thought about things like the lights and the kind

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Speaker 6: of sensory environments that wasn't overwhelming and so on. But

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Speaker 6: one of the most satisfying things about being involved with

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Speaker 6: it was seeing over the period of the show how

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Speaker 6: everyone in the group just grew in confidence, how they

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Speaker 6: all became great friends with each other. They're all so tight,

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Speaker 6: you know, like lots of them were at Abbey's party

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Speaker 6: on the weekend. Everyone's become really great friends. They've got

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Speaker 6: their WhatsApp groups going, they do lots of different things together.

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Speaker 6: So that's been brilliant because when they came in one

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Speaker 6: of the things that many of them said to me

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Speaker 6: was they felt like they had trouble making friends and

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Speaker 6: so on. Now they've got this big, amazing friendship.

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Speaker 1: Cohort, We've got a gang.

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Speaker 4: I'd like to see some of those questions on the

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Speaker 4: WhatsApp group. That would be quite a bunch of questions.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, I bet, Yeah, I bet if they get up

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Speaker 6: to a lot of fun stuff on there. I'm not

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Speaker 6: in the WhatsApp group, I might add, fair enough, Nor

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Speaker 6: should you.

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Speaker 1: Be, well, I imagine you'd be in a lot of

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Speaker 1: WhatsApp groups.

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Speaker 5: Oh, I'm in a heap.

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Speaker 2: I'm in half of them with you, I think.

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Speaker 1: And there'd be a lot of WhatsApp groups about you.

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Speaker 6: As well, and there's a lot of us Amanda will

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Speaker 6: chest with the WhatsApp groups. I'm sure this is like

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Speaker 6: with your one too. You step away for three seconds,

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Speaker 6: you come back, there's like seventy six message is.

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Speaker 2: You're a heart attack? All thre's notifications totally.

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Speaker 5: Sometimes if you go to bed early enough, you'll wake

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Speaker 5: up and it's like a full receipt. You have to read, yes,

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Speaker 5: figuring out what you've missed.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, same happens with me when I'm asleep at night

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Speaker 3: and then I wake up in the morning and look

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Speaker 3: at my phone and I'm like, oh my god, I've

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Speaker 3: got so many people messaging me.

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Speaker 4: You've just got to do the thumbs up. That's my thing.

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Speaker 4: It's just the thumbs up. Well, and also the episode

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Speaker 4: tonight where you interviewed Amanda Abby, what did you like

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Speaker 4: asking Amanda?

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Speaker 3: What were that I liked asking Amanda. You have worked

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Speaker 3: with Jonesy for nineteen years now, remember the rest.

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Speaker 1: But that's good.

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Speaker 3: Watch the episode of a bit Yep.

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Speaker 6: I think quite a few times. I think Dale lasked

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Speaker 6: in the context of how long you work together? Does

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Speaker 6: a man to get sick?

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Speaker 1: If you yeah, we've got that here.

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Speaker 5: Do you ever just get sick of him?

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Speaker 3: Oh?

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Speaker 2: Yes, Like any friendship and any friend of yours, you

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Speaker 2: see every day under some stressful circumstances. Some days are

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Speaker 2: easy and other days where things go wrong, it's you

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Speaker 2: just yeah, yeah, The answer is.

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Speaker 6: Yes, you talk it all to each other during the day,

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Speaker 6: or do you just we text a lot during the day.

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Speaker 4: You should see our whatsappen? Oh no, there's a what's

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Speaker 4: happened to be involved with? It's our one. The Assembly

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Speaker 4: is on tonight at eight thirty. You can watch it

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Speaker 4: at thirty. You'll see Amanda get interviewed by Dale and

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Speaker 4: Abby and of course Lee Salesby in there.

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Speaker 1: I don't know what you're doing in there.

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Speaker 6: Not much.

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Speaker 1: You're very good in it, actually very just on the edges.

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Speaker 1: You're a good.

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Speaker 2: Mentor oh, thank you mentor is any think.

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Speaker 1: If anyone was to ask if a party.

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Speaker 6: That's a party, She's given the perfect demonstration there isn't

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Speaker 6: you know?

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Speaker 2: In the silence that greeted it, thanks from everyone, not

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Speaker 2: just me.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for coming in

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Speaker 3: So much for having us on the show, guys, and

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Speaker 3: it was lovely chatting with you.