Speaker 1: Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily.
Speaker 1: Ohs oh, now it makes sense.
Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Friday,
Speaker 2: the twentieth of September. I'm Emma, I'm Zara, a new
Speaker 2: TV show has started a conversation about diversity in media
Speaker 2: and the representation of autistic people in Australian workplaces. The
Speaker 2: Assembly on ABC features a collective of autistic journalism students
Speaker 2: mentored by ABC veteran journalist Lease Sales. Over six episodes,
Speaker 2: we see the students interview some of Australia's biggest names,
Speaker 2: from Hamish Blake to the Prime Minister. This feel good
Speaker 2: series has not only entertained audiences, it started a broader
Speaker 2: discussion around representation, highlighting the strengths of neurodiversity in a
Speaker 2: way you might not have seen on screen before. To
Speaker 2: well us through The Assembly and its broader impact, We're
Speaker 2: very excited to be joined by Lee Sales herself in
Speaker 2: today's deep dive. But first, Zara. What's making headlines.
Speaker 3: Australia's population has officially passed twenty seven million. That's according
Speaker 3: to the latest figures from the Australian.
Speaker 1: Bureau of Statistics.
Speaker 3: The population grew by more than six hundred thousand in
Speaker 3: the twelve months to March twenty twenty four. Net overseas
Speaker 3: migration that's the number of people who arrived in Australia
Speaker 3: minus the number of people who left, was a key
Speaker 3: driver of population growth, with the rest made up of
Speaker 3: new births. WA had the fastest growing population, while Tasmania
Speaker 3: saw the slowest growth.
Speaker 2: Australia's unemployment rate remained unchanged at four point two percent
Speaker 2: in August. According to the latest ABS figures. The unemployment
Speaker 2: rate reflects the percentage of people who were looking for
Speaker 2: work but couldn't find any. This figure is ceas nearly adjusted,
Speaker 2: meaning the ABS that's the Australian Bureau of Statistics has
Speaker 2: removed the effects of calendar specific patterns from the data,
Speaker 2: like fruit picking in summer or Christmas casuals in retail
Speaker 2: in December. Over the last two months, unemployment has been
Speaker 2: at its highest since November twenty twenty one, despite the
Speaker 2: number of employed people increasing.
Speaker 3: Some ex users in Brazil have regained access to the
Speaker 3: platform after an automatic update the Spider nationwide ban imposed
Speaker 3: by the country Supreme Court last month. According to the
Speaker 3: Brazilian Association of internet and telecommunications providers. X changed network
Speaker 3: providers to a service that has more efficient resistance against blocking.
Speaker 3: In a statement, X said the switch was to continue
Speaker 3: providing optimal service to our users, and the renewed access
Speaker 3: for some Brazilian users was inadvertent and temporary. It said, quote,
Speaker 3: we expect the platform to be inaccessible again shortly. If
Speaker 3: you want to understand more about the context of this story,
Speaker 3: we did do a podcast on X and Brazil a
Speaker 3: little while ago, so we will throw that link in
Speaker 3: today's show notes.
Speaker 2: And today's good news. Norway has become the first country
Speaker 2: in the world to have more electric cars than petrol
Speaker 2: cars on its roads. The director of the Norwegian Road
Speaker 2: Federation called the milestone historic, attributing the uptake of EV's
Speaker 2: to government incentives including lower taxes, tolls and parking fees
Speaker 2: for evs, as well as bus lane exemptions. The federation
Speaker 2: says the country's new challenge will be to have EV's
Speaker 2: outnumbered diesel powered cars, which is projected to be achieved
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty six. We'll be back with the Deep
Speaker 2: Dive right after this. The new ABC doco series The
Speaker 2: Assembly has captured the hearts of many It's a show
Speaker 2: that's brought conversations about autism and diversity in media to
Speaker 2: a mainstream audience. And who better to talk us through
Speaker 2: the impact of The Assembly than the woman who mentored
Speaker 2: its cast. Lee sALS is one of Australia's most prominent journalists,
Speaker 2: a renowned interviewer, and we are delighted to have her
Speaker 2: on the podcast today. Lee Sales, Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having.
Speaker 2: Me, Thank you for being here. We're talking today, of course,
Speaker 2: about The Assembly, a show that brings together a group
Speaker 2: of autistic people who are interested in pursuing journalism. But
Speaker 2: for anyone listening who might not have seen the program,
Speaker 2: how would you describe it in your words?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 4: It's fifteen autistic people who are given some training in
Speaker 4: the basics of journalism and then I work with them
Speaker 4: as a mentor. Then they every week are told that
Speaker 4: they're going to be interviewing a celebrity or a sports
Speaker 4: person or some other notable Australian. I work with them
Speaker 4: to help them craft the questions, and then as a
Speaker 4: group they interview that one person.
Speaker 2: What was that mentoring process like for you? Had you
Speaker 2: ever done anything like that before?
Speaker 4: I actually after I finished anchoring seven point thirty, one
Speaker 4: of the things I asked the ABC was to try
Speaker 4: to do a job that carved out more time for
Speaker 4: me to work with other reporters and younger reporters to
Speaker 4: pass on some knowledge and skills. I really love doing that,
Speaker 4: so that's actually part of my job description to do that.
Speaker 4: So I do that quite a lot around the place
Speaker 4: in the ABC, So that side of.
Speaker 1: It wasn't new to me.
Speaker 4: What was new to me was dealing with all the
Speaker 4: different kinds of people who because autism is such a
Speaker 4: wide variety of presentations, so everyone's kind of different. So
Speaker 4: dealing with all these people to try to assist them
Speaker 4: to find what they wanted to ask, and to also
Speaker 4: just give them the confidence to do it, because it's
Speaker 4: a big thing to have to stand up in front
Speaker 4: of everyone and ask questions of the Prime Minister or
Speaker 4: something like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, I wanted to talk to you a little
Speaker 2: bit about how you kind of developed that trust and
Speaker 2: you helped those journalists feel safe. Obviously a diverse range
Speaker 2: of comfort and experience levels and skills. There's this disclaimer
Speaker 2: that one of the students leads at the start of
Speaker 2: each interview that I really loved, where you know, they
Speaker 2: kind of established that this is a safe space, that
Speaker 2: you know, the talent are in a safe space, there
Speaker 2: are no questions off the table. How did you navigate
Speaker 2: helping them feel safe and confident and trusted.
Speaker 4: I think there are a couple of layers to it.
Speaker 4: One of the really important ones was that the producers
Speaker 4: of the show, which was a production company called Helium
Speaker 4: in conjunction with the ABC, worked very closely with a
Speaker 4: group called Aspect, which is an autism body to kind
Speaker 4: of create a space that people would feel comfortable with
Speaker 4: and to use them as consultants for advice about how
Speaker 4: to create a space that's ticking all the boxes you
Speaker 4: need for television in terms of lights and equipment and
Speaker 4: the whole rigamarole, but to also make it autism friendly.
Speaker 1: And so before I would even get.
Speaker 4: Involved, there was already a level I guess of comfort
Speaker 4: and familiarity and people being made to feel like we're
Speaker 4: here to make you feel like you know, this is okay.
Speaker 4: But then also for me, I think it's the same
Speaker 4: thing that makes anyone comfortable in an interview, which is
Speaker 4: just listening really carefully to them and making it about
Speaker 4: them and not about you. So I would always try
Speaker 4: to be paying attention and getting to know everyone and
Speaker 4: making them feel like I was interested in them and
Speaker 4: cared about them, which I did. And I think that
Speaker 4: people just sense that if you're genuine about that, and
Speaker 4: that that enables people to feel kind of relaxed. And
Speaker 4: even you know, in my job, when I'm interviewing people,
Speaker 4: I'm all the time trying to give people that sense
Speaker 4: that they're in a kind of safe place.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Similarly, for the talent, was there a bit of navigating
Speaker 2: their concerns or their insecurities about what they were walking into.
Speaker 4: Definitely, so, because I think for the talent, the show
Speaker 4: had never been on before, so they didn't really have
Speaker 4: anything to compare it to or to know what to expect.
Speaker 1: And so you can imagine the pitch.
Speaker 4: You know, you're in the prime Minister and go, Okay,
Speaker 4: we've got fifteen autistic people. They're all going to interview
Speaker 4: you at once. They can ask whatever they like. It'll
Speaker 4: go for an hour and a half and once we
Speaker 4: get going, I'll have limited control over the situation.
Speaker 1: It's not the most we.
Speaker 2: Can possibly go wrong for a politician.
Speaker 4: Exactly so I think, you know, for everyone who agreed
Speaker 4: to be in it, I so appreciated it because there
Speaker 4: was a bit of trust involved that it's going to
Speaker 4: be okay, and I thought that was just really wonderful
Speaker 4: that they were all willing to kind of give it
Speaker 4: a go.
Speaker 1: So that was lovely.
Speaker 2: A lot of the students involved, we hear a bit
Speaker 2: about their personal lives, and many of them have experienced bullying, loneliness, isolation.
Speaker 1: What was the.
Speaker 2: Significance of giving those people access to some of the
Speaker 2: most influential names in the country, not only sitting them
Speaker 2: in the same room, but giving them their time.
Speaker 4: It was so lovely to be around it because the
Speaker 4: group of students would always be so thrilled and excited
Speaker 4: about whoever was coming in, and so that was just
Speaker 4: so nice because you know, I've been a journalist for
Speaker 4: thirty years, and so when the Prime Minister's coming in,
Speaker 4: I tend to just feel nervous and worried and anxious
Speaker 4: and pressure, whereas for this group, they'd be like, oh
Speaker 4: my god, I am going to be talking to the.
Speaker 1: Prime minister right.
Speaker 4: So it just reminded you what a privilege that is
Speaker 4: that we get to do that. In journalism all the time,
Speaker 4: and it was just such a kind of positive environment
Speaker 4: to be around. Because the other thing, too was the
Speaker 4: nature of the questions and the way they were asked.
Speaker 1: There was never really an agenda.
Speaker 4: It was just whatever they were interested in or curious about,
Speaker 4: and so that also was a different kind of vibe
Speaker 4: to what media interviews or press conferences can be like.
Speaker 1: So it was just lovely being around it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was that kind of lack of agenda that
Speaker 2: I noticed really put the interview subjects at ease in
Speaker 2: a way I hadn't seen before. We've all seen Anthony
Speaker 2: Albanezi interviewed one hundred times, You've interviewed him a hundred times,
Speaker 2: but the kind of relaxed nature of it being a
Speaker 2: really pure sort of space.
Speaker 4: And you see that from the way the questions are asked,
Speaker 4: like just the genuine sort of interest. The other thing,
Speaker 4: other than the fact that things were asked without any
Speaker 4: kind of parent agenda, was every question, whether it was
Speaker 4: a really serious one like what are you doing to
Speaker 4: help people with disabilities get employment? Or how many times
Speaker 4: have you kissed Jody, everything was asked with the same
Speaker 4: level of emotional intensity, and so it's a really I
Speaker 4: think interesting experience for the person being interviewed, because it's
Speaker 4: this wildly veering rollercoaster that you're never kind of sure
Speaker 4: where it is. Ras say, if you come in for
Speaker 4: an interview with me, and you're familiar with how I interview,
Speaker 4: you've probably got a fair sense of how that will go.
Speaker 4: You won't know every single thing, but you'd have a
Speaker 4: reasonable idea what to expect. Whereas who could possibly expect
Speaker 4: a question like how much money do you have in
Speaker 4: dollars and cents?
Speaker 1: Which was what Amos Blake.
Speaker 2: Got A asked that question ruthless but amazing and yielded
Speaker 2: really really interesting It was great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I loved it too.
Speaker 2: Thinking about then, that sort of divergent thinker's approach to
Speaker 2: an interview and that curiosity and positivity that we saw.
Speaker 2: Do we need more of that in media?
Speaker 4: Well? I thought it was a fantastic reminder when you're
Speaker 4: in interviewing somebody, especially somebody who's been interviewed a lot,
Speaker 4: like a politician or a celebrity or a sportsperson, to
Speaker 4: think really carefully about what you might be able to
Speaker 4: ask them that they haven't been asked a million times before.
Speaker 4: You know, what are not the obvious questions, what might
Speaker 4: be things that build rapport And so I thought it
Speaker 4: was a really useful reminder to do that, and also
Speaker 4: a useful reminder for journalists to approach things completely open
Speaker 4: mindedly and to not go into things with an agenda,
Speaker 4: because I just think the talent can kind of sense that,
Speaker 4: and I've found in my own career you can pretty
Speaker 4: much ask somebody anything if you ask it with genuine curiosity.
Speaker 4: So you can, you know, ask something even quite personal
Speaker 4: or offensive if you preface it by saying, look, you know,
Speaker 4: I hope this question is not going to offend you,
Speaker 4: and you don't have to answer it, of course, but
Speaker 4: I just wondered, you know, why did you steal that money?
Speaker 4: Or you know, if you ask something in that kind
Speaker 4: of a manner, that's far more likely to elicit and
Speaker 4: engage response than you know, being on why did you
Speaker 4: steal the money? Yeah, So it was just a reminder
Speaker 4: of those things, like having that kind of open mindedness
Speaker 4: and just going in with a spirit of curiosity is
Speaker 4: really good.
Speaker 2: Of course, with the assembly, we had a room of
Speaker 2: fifteen autistic student journalists. That is not a reality that
Speaker 2: is reflected in most press conference rooms, in most newsrooms
Speaker 2: around the country. Do you think that this shows us
Speaker 2: that that needs to change.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I hope that it does lead not just to
Speaker 4: employment for the people in the show, if they want
Speaker 4: it in media, but even just for them that the
Speaker 4: confidence they got from that experience that they might be
Speaker 4: able to take into whatever they choose to do.
Speaker 1: I do think that we need to.
Speaker 4: Have a more open minded approach to the kinds of
Speaker 4: people we employ in journalism, because otherwise there's just these
Speaker 4: whole and not just in neurodivergence, in all sorts of things.
Speaker 4: There's this whole kind of series of blind spots that
Speaker 4: we have. If we just employ people who went to
Speaker 4: private schools and grew up in inner city Sydney or Melbourne,
Speaker 4: we're going to get a particular kind of people who
Speaker 4: are working in journalism, and so we need to kind of.
Speaker 1: Look further afield.
Speaker 4: And I think, you know, with this show, what it
Speaker 4: demonstrated at the end of the day is even if
Speaker 4: you strip aside the worthiness of doing a show with
Speaker 4: autistic people, it's just an entertaining show. And so I
Speaker 4: think what it proved is you can make an entertaining
Speaker 4: piece of television. Forget the kind of diversity goals. You
Speaker 4: can make entertaining television with a diverse group of people.
Speaker 2: Do you think there is fear and hesitation from employers,
Speaker 2: you know, the whole from the whole spectrum of the
Speaker 2: production company to journalists and the experience. Are we too
Speaker 2: afraid to lean in to those conversations.
Speaker 1: I think there is a degree of that.
Speaker 4: And I noticed even when I was doing the publicity
Speaker 4: rounds for the show, one of the things that came
Speaker 4: up was language. So, for example, you would have noticed
Speaker 4: I've been saying autistic people. One of the interviewers who
Speaker 4: was talking to me, high profile interviewer, said, Oh, I
Speaker 4: was really worried about this because I wasn't sure if
Speaker 4: I should say people with autism more autistic people. The
Speaker 4: advice from aspect was autistic people. But that's the kind
Speaker 4: of thing that makes people feel worried about, well, should
Speaker 4: I do an interview about this or just avoid it?
Speaker 4: Because if I misspeak, then I could be at the
Speaker 4: center of some kind of big controversy and then be
Speaker 4: in trouble and everything could fall apart. And so I
Speaker 4: think there's two ways we can look at that. One
Speaker 4: is I think we all just need to kind of
Speaker 4: educate ourselves a bit better about things. But the other
Speaker 4: thing too is to make sure when people are well
Speaker 4: intentioned and they do make mistakes, that it doesn't turn
Speaker 4: into catastrophe. So there has to be kind of I think,
Speaker 4: just general understanding and compassion at all ends. But I
Speaker 4: do think there's a little bit of fear.
Speaker 2: Did you experience that yourself in the room with the
Speaker 2: journals you were mentoring them, working on their questions when
Speaker 2: you went into it initially for the first episode, did
Speaker 2: you have a little bit of that hesitation in your
Speaker 2: own self?
Speaker 4: Not at the point at which I went in to
Speaker 4: shoot the show, but when I was approached about doing it,
Speaker 4: I had exactly those thoughts about, well, is it all
Speaker 4: do side risk for me? What if I said a
Speaker 4: foot wrong? Everyone I'll be looking to, you know, kick
Speaker 4: me in the pants, you know, like a lot of
Speaker 4: things in life. Actually, when you're working with the people involved,
Speaker 4: it's completely awesome and fine. It's just the kind of
Speaker 4: fear I guess, based around the kind of stuff we
Speaker 4: see on social media. You just think, oh, maybe I'll
Speaker 4: find myself the target of a whole lot of you know, people,
Speaker 4: So that thought did cross my mind, but then you know,
Speaker 4: the people involved on the show were just absolutely delightful.
Speaker 2: What comes next for these fifteen journals? Have any of
Speaker 2: them gone on to continue pursuing journalism job offers?
Speaker 4: So all fifteen were offered a paid internship at the
Speaker 4: ABC if they wanted it, and everyone accepted it, which
Speaker 4: was lovely. The thing that's going to be interesting is
Speaker 4: to see, you know, like, say, for example, I went
Speaker 4: to university with say thirty people who were in my
Speaker 4: course at the time into journalism. I think within about
Speaker 4: two years only maybe ten people were still in journalism,
Speaker 4: and today probably only two are still in journalism. So
Speaker 4: sometimes people dip a toe in media. They decide, oh,
Speaker 4: it's not actually for me. I don't like deadlines or
Speaker 4: I don't like not knowing what I'm doing every day.
Speaker 4: So you know, it'll be interesting to see of this
Speaker 4: group whether anyone's actually decides yeah, you know, I really
Speaker 4: would like to do this. One of the great things
Speaker 4: has been while it's been on air, various contacts of
Speaker 4: mine have wrung me to say, I think I could
Speaker 4: probably offer some work to that person. Yeah, based on
Speaker 4: like the kind of interests that the different students showed,
Speaker 4: So that's actually been just fantastic to see. You know,
Speaker 4: hopefully some opportunities come up for people, and so if
Speaker 4: we could kind of get to the other side of
Speaker 4: this and see some of them landing with some work
Speaker 4: that they want to do, I'd be so happy.
Speaker 2: That would be amazing. Just the influence of the right
Speaker 2: people watching the right show at the right time really
Speaker 2: goes to that issue of representation and how powerful it
Speaker 2: can be.
Speaker 1: Well, that's exactly right.
Speaker 4: And also just I think to encourage people, you know,
Speaker 4: if you're listening to this, if you ever see something
Speaker 4: on TV and you think, oh, I could make a
Speaker 4: difference with that, to just pick up the phone and
Speaker 4: think who you know, or just drop them a line
Speaker 4: via their website or whatever. Because many times in my
Speaker 4: career people have rung. Like I remember once we had
Speaker 4: a story on seven point thirty about a woman who
Speaker 4: had been caught in floods in northern New South Wales
Speaker 4: and left homeless. And I won't name the person, but
Speaker 4: quite prominent, wealthy Australian businessman rang and he paid for
Speaker 4: her rent for a year while she and her kids
Speaker 4: got on her feet. Another time, Ben Mendelssohn, the Australian actor.
Speaker 1: He rang.
Speaker 4: We had this amazing story about this initiative where a
Speaker 4: mum of a teenager with special needs had organized this
Speaker 4: kind of dance and it was for other people with
Speaker 4: special needs because she said it's hard for those kids
Speaker 4: to ever really go to an environment that's kind of
Speaker 4: going to be safe for them, and so she'd kind
Speaker 4: of organized this thing and paid for it out of
Speaker 4: her own pocket and so on, and you know, they
Speaker 4: didn't have a lot of money to keep doing it
Speaker 4: as a regular thing, but we had footage from the
Speaker 4: event and the kids had such a great time. And
Speaker 4: then Ben Mendelsson was watching the ABC on iView in
Speaker 4: LA and then he got in touch to say I'll
Speaker 4: pay for another one of those things, and so he
Speaker 4: just paid for them to have another one.
Speaker 1: Wow, yeah that is so cool, so cool. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So you just never know who's paying attention total cares
Speaker 2: and what a difference they might And you can really
Speaker 2: really make a big difference to somebody if there are
Speaker 2: employers watching the assembly thinking gosh, I've been wrong about
Speaker 2: autistic people, or I want a more diverse workplace, but
Speaker 2: they don't know where to begin or they might be feeling, oh,
Speaker 2: it's going.
Speaker 1: To be too difficult.
Speaker 2: I don't know how to support an additional needs person
Speaker 2: or someone on the spectrum or someone who's neurodivergent. What
Speaker 2: have you learned about supporting people in that group?
Speaker 4: So firstly, there's heaps of organizations you can turn to
Speaker 4: for advice on that. So one of them is called
Speaker 4: Employee for Ability. So you can just contact those organizations
Speaker 4: and say, look, i'd like to have more diversity in
Speaker 4: my workforce. Can you give me some information. There's plenty
Speaker 4: of information just on their websites. And then I think
Speaker 4: also the other thing is to just look at your
Speaker 4: own employment practices and see have you got things in
Speaker 4: place maybe that unfairly weed people out where actually, with
Speaker 4: the slightest adjustments, maybe you could have a more diverse workforce.
Speaker 4: So say, for example, one of the students on our
Speaker 4: show was really badly bullied in high school to the
Speaker 4: degree that she's very scared of teenagers, and so it's
Speaker 4: hard for her to commute in peak hour because you're
Speaker 4: going to see school kids on the way to school
Speaker 4: and that freaks her out. So with her internship, her
Speaker 4: hours are after so she doesn't have to get on
Speaker 4: the bus or whatever when she's likely to run into
Speaker 4: school kids. So just little things like that where you
Speaker 4: can maybe make some small adjustments that make it easier
Speaker 4: for somebody to do your.
Speaker 1: Friends for someone else.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and often also just I saw Dylan Olcott once
Speaker 4: do a keynote somewhere. He's such a good public speaker,
Speaker 4: but he was basically saying, also, just ask the person
Speaker 4: who's working with you, like, how's it going for you?
Speaker 4: Is there anything we can do to make things but
Speaker 4: more comfortable for you? How are you managing with this? Again,
Speaker 4: people I think sometimes are maybe scared to have that conversation,
Speaker 4: but if you do it kind of in a well
Speaker 4: intentioned way, hopefully you know it can work for both parties.
Speaker 2: I thought Adam Goods was the real master at putting
Speaker 2: everyone at ease. I was so impressed by that episode.
Speaker 2: If anyone listening hasn't watched it, and you will only
Speaker 2: watch one episode, I think that's the one I would
Speaker 2: wish you to watch because it really just sums it
Speaker 2: up so beautifully. He just engaged with them on such
Speaker 2: a beautiful level, and it really changed the way that
Speaker 2: I think about how you can engage with people, but
Speaker 2: just small things like remembering someone's name.
Speaker 1: I noticed that too.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he really remembered everybody's name and just paid full
Speaker 4: attention to every person when they were speaking to him.
Speaker 4: All the others, I mean, it was funny. Like Hamish
Speaker 4: Blake and Amanda Keller, who were on it, they kind
Speaker 4: of came in and I felt like, look, I can
Speaker 4: really see why you two are such big stars because
Speaker 4: you're just so charismatic and hilarious and everyone loves you
Speaker 4: and they were fantastic, and yeah, it was just it
Speaker 4: was a really, it was wonderful experience.
Speaker 2: I wanted to finish up by asking you, Lee Sales,
Speaker 2: the master interviewer. You are regarded for good reason as
Speaker 2: one of Australia's most prominent interviewers. Did you think that
Speaker 2: you could learn anything about interviewing before this process and
Speaker 2: what were your big takeaways that surprised you?
Speaker 1: Do?
Speaker 4: You know, interviewing is one of these weird skills where
Speaker 4: I think, no matter how many times you've done it,
Speaker 4: there's still always something to learn because every person that
Speaker 4: you're talking to is different, and so there's no kind
Speaker 4: of set formula that you can always follow. There's tips
Speaker 4: you can apply, but it's always going to be different
Speaker 4: when you're in the environment. And so it's been something
Speaker 4: for me over the course of my career that I've
Speaker 4: never found ever interviewing people boring or stayed because it's
Speaker 4: always different when you get into the moment. I think
Speaker 4: for me in that space, it was just it was
Speaker 4: more the reminder of things like, Yeah, it's worth the
Speaker 4: effort to put in to think up original questions, it's
Speaker 4: worth the effort to take something down a different path.
Speaker 4: It's worth listening really closely to what the person's saying
Speaker 4: and really paying attention, aging with them in that sense.
Speaker 4: But there were certain things the students did that I
Speaker 4: wouldn't do, and so I wouldn't get to the same
Speaker 4: responses they did. Like there was an interview where Savannah
Speaker 4: asked Amanda Keller, do you love your husband? Now? I
Speaker 4: of course would not phrase it like that. She got
Speaker 4: this most incredible answer from Amanda because Amanda's husband, Harley,
Speaker 4: has Parkinson's and so it's very much in her mind
Speaker 4: how much she loves Harley. So actually wording the question
Speaker 4: like that elicited a really incredible.
Speaker 1: Answer from Amanda.
Speaker 4: So yeah, there were certain things with the students that
Speaker 4: I just wouldn't get to myself because I wouldn't I'd
Speaker 4: never think to phrase things like that.
Speaker 1: So season two, are we getting it? I'm hoping. So.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's been very popular. It's one of those
Speaker 4: programs where you notice sometimes if you do something, if
Speaker 4: it's struck a chord, because when I'm out and about
Speaker 4: in the community, people stop me and talk to me,
Speaker 4: and at the moment every time I leave the house,
Speaker 4: somebody will say, excuse me, I just wanted to say
Speaker 4: I love the assembly, So it's really sort.
Speaker 1: Of struck a chord.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: The funny thing is I can't imagine doing it now
Speaker 4: with a different group of people. Yeah, because I just
Speaker 4: love all of them so much and it was such
Speaker 4: a It was one of those rare experiences in a
Speaker 4: work life where it just everyone clicked. The chemistry with
Speaker 4: everyone was great. We all love each other. So yeah,
Speaker 4: I can't imagine doing it with a different group.
Speaker 2: I can't imagine it either because now we've got these
Speaker 2: personalities and everyone's so distinct in their interview style. Yeah,
Speaker 2: waiting for it in the interview made it's so dynamic
Speaker 2: because you know, okay that guy's going to ask something
Speaker 2: really intense, or I love her, she's going to ask
Speaker 2: something really silly and funny.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly, And you get very invested in them, particularly
Speaker 4: when as the season unfolds, you see little snippets of
Speaker 4: people's backstories and you know what their childhood was like
Speaker 4: with their families, like and so then you sort of
Speaker 4: you know, and you can imagine how much more so
Speaker 4: when you're working with them all the time, like the
Speaker 4: level of like rooting for them in the moment to like, oh,
Speaker 4: come on, ev.
Speaker 1: You can get it out.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's They're just a fantastic group of people.
Speaker 2: It was just brilliant, such a beautiful viewing experience. I
Speaker 2: highly recommend that everyone check it out. If you're feeling
Speaker 2: a little bit down on yourself and you need a
Speaker 2: reminder that being different is one of the best things
Speaker 2: you can be. Check out The Assembly on abciview. We
Speaker 2: will pop a link in the show notes. Lee Sales,
Speaker 2: thank you so much for coming on the Daily OLS podcast.
Speaker 1: Oh, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3: That's all we have time for today, but thank you
Speaker 3: for listening to today's episode of The Daily OS. Tomorrow
Speaker 3: we'll be back with good news. But in the meantime,
Speaker 3: if you want to share the love, feel free to
Speaker 3: hit subscribe or follow on whatever platform you are listening
Speaker 3: or watching us on. We'll chat to you tomorrow, but
Speaker 3: have a great day.
Speaker 1: My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Runda
Speaker 1: Bungelung Calcotin woman from Gadigol Country. The Daily os acknowledges
Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Speaker 1: Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the
Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.