Speaker 1: Already, and this is the daily This is the daily off,
Speaker 1: this is.
Speaker 2: The daily ohs oh, now it makes sense.
Speaker 3: Good morning, and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Saturday,
Speaker 3: the twenty first of December.
Speaker 2: I'm Zara, I'm Sam.
Speaker 3: We have officially made it to the end of the
Speaker 3: working year. And what better way to celebrate twenty twenty
Speaker 3: four than to go through some of the best good
Speaker 3: news stories that this year.
Speaker 2: Had to offer. I love a good the year that
Speaker 2: was like, it's always made me very emotional. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: remember actually in the kind of when everyone watched TV
Speaker 2: linear TV days, there were these two hour specials that
Speaker 2: would be on all the commercial networks taking you through
Speaker 2: the year, and we're doing it in ten minutes. Well,
Speaker 2: there wasn't always that much good news in them, and
Speaker 2: we're just going to focus on the good bits. Yes,
Speaker 2: so exactly. This is the perfect endorphin boost for your
Speaker 2: Saturday morning, Zara. When you look back at twenty twenty four,
Speaker 2: it was your good news story of the year.
Speaker 3: I think that I can't make a decision on this. Actually, okay,
Speaker 3: I think I have two favorite good news stories the year.
Speaker 3: So the verse is obviously the Olympics, because I am
Speaker 3: a sports fan and naturally I pick an Olympic story.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, take me through that one, okay.
Speaker 3: So first favorite good news story of the year is
Speaker 3: the fact that Ossie women dominated the Olympics and the
Speaker 3: Para Olympics. And I just think that, you know, we
Speaker 3: lead into Olympic season with such anticipation and so many
Speaker 3: predictions about what might happen, and yet nobody predicted how
Speaker 3: well the Oussie women would go in Paris. And you know,
Speaker 3: it started very early in the Olympic campaign when Grace
Speaker 3: Brown set the tone she won gold on Day one,
Speaker 3: and then from there the women were just flying. We
Speaker 3: went on to win. We as if I'm a part
Speaker 3: of that, Queen the women. This is the mentality we're
Speaker 3: introducing here at TDA. When Australia wins, we all win.
Speaker 2: Sure, Okay.
Speaker 3: So then the other Ossie women went on to win
Speaker 3: thirteen of Australia's eighteen gold medals in Paris, and thirty
Speaker 3: two of the fifty three medals overall across all the
Speaker 3: individual and team sports.
Speaker 2: And absolutely swimming had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Speaker 3: No, it had a lot to do with that.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: Of course, we had the Ossie women in the pool
Speaker 3: ari tit, miss Kaylee McEwen and Emma McKeon, who has
Speaker 3: since gone on to announce her retirement. But it wasn't
Speaker 3: just in the pool, you know, there were of course
Speaker 3: the Fox sisters who dominated in their whitewater events. I
Speaker 3: don't know what else to call that.
Speaker 2: The canoe Slalam and the canoe Cross.
Speaker 3: And then an unexpected highlight for me was actually the
Speaker 3: BMX racing where Sayas the Kakibara won in the most
Speaker 3: emotional fashions.
Speaker 2: So she's a BMX writer who was competing throughout her
Speaker 2: whole life with her older brother who was also a
Speaker 2: BMX rider. He then had quite a catastrophic injury while
Speaker 2: racing and isn't able to race again, and she kind
Speaker 2: of did it for both of them, which is pretty beautiful.
Speaker 3: And it was just beautiful. And again I don't even
Speaker 3: think it needs to be said, these are the moments
Speaker 3: where humanity is at its best, where we all rally
Speaker 3: behind someone. It's been it's been a dark year for
Speaker 3: many people, and yet you know, to feel galvanized by
Speaker 3: the spirit of Australian sportsmanship and the best our country
Speaker 3: has to offer.
Speaker 2: Really it takes a lot to get an Australian up
Speaker 2: at two am to watch that thing. But we were
Speaker 2: all awake for it and I know an amazing couple
Speaker 2: of weeks.
Speaker 3: Well that was the good news story. The bad news
Speaker 3: story of your year was when your wife turned off
Speaker 3: your alarm.
Speaker 2: One of Australia's biggest news podcasts, Oh my gosh, we
Speaker 2: share the responsibility of the alarm. The fact that she
Speaker 2: switched it off is a shared a beautiful part of
Speaker 2: our marriage.
Speaker 3: It is. Look, we'll go back to the good news
Speaker 3: for a moment run back. We also had more good
Speaker 3: news the Paralympics, where the country's collective heart was captured
Speaker 3: by none other than Alexa Leary.
Speaker 2: And we've spoken.
Speaker 3: We did a whole podcast about Alexi Lear. That's how
Speaker 3: obsessed we were. But if you didn't catch that one.
Speaker 3: Alexa or Alexi as she's known, was a triathlete who
Speaker 3: had the world at her feet. In July twenty twenty one, though,
Speaker 3: when she was training, her front wheel clipped the bike
Speaker 3: ahead of her and it caused an accident that saw
Speaker 3: Alexa land on her head. It resulted in major brain damage,
Speaker 3: blood clots, several broken bones. She spent a week on
Speaker 3: life support and when she woke up, she pretty much
Speaker 3: had to learn how to do everything again from scratch.
Speaker 3: She had to completely learn to walk and talk again.
Speaker 3: A huge recovery lay ahead for one Alexi Leary, but
Speaker 3: she can't be stopped. She didn't let that stand in
Speaker 3: her way, and this Paralympics she managed to not just compete,
Speaker 3: but to win gold.
Speaker 2: She in fact won two golds and just amazing. It
Speaker 2: was in both an individual but also in team relay
Speaker 2: where she was the anchor of that reala team and
Speaker 2: really brought the team home. I just want to focus
Speaker 2: on the timeline here. July twenty twenty one was the
Speaker 2: catastrophic injury. June July twenty twenty four, she was winning
Speaker 2: gold in Paris.
Speaker 3: It just, you know, I think the word resilience gets
Speaker 3: thrown around a lot, and sometimes I think we overuse
Speaker 3: these kind of buzzwords. There is nobody more fitting for
Speaker 3: a description of being resilient than Alexilari. She's just unbelievable
Speaker 3: and again just demonstrates what hard work, perseverance and putting
Speaker 3: everything in can get you.
Speaker 2: And not bad in front of a microphone either.
Speaker 3: She's hilarious. She is so funny and like really ozzy humor.
Speaker 3: She's unbelievable and so together. The Aussie women that guided
Speaker 3: us through the Olympics and Paralympics were my favorite good
Speaker 3: news story of the year.
Speaker 2: Well, you told us it was tired. Actually yeah, he
Speaker 2: told us at the beginning there was a tie. So
Speaker 2: we're going to put Paris in one bucket. What is
Speaker 2: the other story? Yeah, so the other story.
Speaker 3: I don't know why this story has stuck with me
Speaker 3: so much, but my other favorite good news story this
Speaker 3: year is about Richard Scoalia. So, Richard Scolia is our
Speaker 3: joint Australian of the Year. Him and his colleague and friend,
Speaker 3: Professor Georgina Long were named Australian of the Year back
Speaker 3: in January, and that was because they have pioneered this crazy,
Speaker 3: incredible melanoma research that has saved and will continue to
Speaker 3: save countless lives around the world. And so Richard, along
Speaker 3: with Georgina, has dedicated his life to cancer research and treatment.
Speaker 3: But eighteen months ago his world was turned upside down.
Speaker 3: He was diagnosed with an incredibly aggressive form of brain
Speaker 3: cancer and he was told that he had you know,
Speaker 3: no more than twelve months to live. And so the
Speaker 3: reason that this is my good news story is that
Speaker 3: since that time, Richard has been working with Georgina to
Speaker 3: treat his cancer with the same breakthrough approach that they
Speaker 3: have used in the field of melanoma. And just be
Speaker 3: really clear here, they are using a very novel approach
Speaker 3: for one cancer and have since taken the learnings to
Speaker 3: treat another cancer. It's never been done before. And the
Speaker 3: great news is that Richard has confirmed that there is
Speaker 3: no recurrence of his cancer and it's now over eighteen
Speaker 3: months since he was first diagnosed. We sat down with
Speaker 3: Richard earlier this year. Emmera, our editor, spoke to him
Speaker 3: and there are just very few people, I'd say, who
Speaker 3: have more humility, more perspective and more warmth than someone
Speaker 3: like Richard, who's dedicated his life to others and is
Speaker 3: now you know, he's taken such a risk in treating
Speaker 3: his cancer this way. He had to forego what the
Speaker 3: traditional treatment plan would look like in order to potentially
Speaker 3: save thousands more lives, and you know, it just gave
Speaker 3: me the woman fuzzies and I just think it's worked.
Speaker 3: He's doing really well, and I just wanted to play
Speaker 3: you a clip from what he said. His perspective on
Speaker 3: this whole thing has been.
Speaker 4: Earlier this year, you shared the milestone news that you'd
Speaker 4: been cancer free for a year. What do those milestone
Speaker 4: periods mean to you personally? What was that moment like
Speaker 4: after twelve months to hear that news.
Speaker 1: I guess just fills me with joy that I'm still
Speaker 1: around and able to enjoy my life. We're going to
Speaker 1: have a jat like we can today, I guess, you know,
Speaker 1: I wasn't really expecting that. And the other thing that's
Speaker 1: really really changed is that I don't know how long
Speaker 1: I'm going to be here for, but it makes me
Speaker 1: feel like I still want to contribute to society as
Speaker 1: I have for decades, but also to enjoy each one
Speaker 1: of those days, especially with my family and kids have
Speaker 1: been incredibly supportive of going down this.
Speaker 3: Path, all right, Sam, So that's me jointly allocating my
Speaker 3: favorite good news story of the year.
Speaker 2: Both very well deserving they are what is yours? I
Speaker 2: am going to bring you the people's good news story
Speaker 2: of the year. So this was the good news story
Speaker 2: that has stuck with me, but also it seems to
Speaker 2: be stuck with a lot of people because it is
Speaker 2: the highest ranking good news story TDA reported on Instagram
Speaker 2: this year, so I think it reached almost a million
Speaker 2: people this week.
Speaker 3: Love that you're diving into the analytics here. I love
Speaker 3: only meant to be a vibe.
Speaker 2: I love seeing what the people well resonated with the people.
Speaker 2: And this one was back in February, and it was
Speaker 2: a one billion US dollar donation to a Bronx medical school,
Speaker 2: the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and the donation is
Speaker 2: to cover tuition for all students going forward. And there's
Speaker 2: this incredible moment whether students find out that their college
Speaker 2: tuition is being paid for the donor. Her name is
Speaker 2: Ruth Godisman. She is a former professor at the college
Speaker 2: and she studied learning disabilities. She ran literacy programs for
Speaker 2: medical students from disadvantage and low socio economic communities around
Speaker 2: the Bronx. And now at ninety three, she's saying, my
Speaker 2: legacy is to ensure that whoever wants to study medicine
Speaker 2: and can do so for free. Unbelievable, It was absolutely incredible.
Speaker 2: It was one of the biggest philanthropic gifts in recorded history,
Speaker 2: definitely the biggest in medicine, and it's going to make
Speaker 2: a huge difference for students whose college degrees can cost
Speaker 2: around two hundred thousand US dollars. It's a massive, massive
Speaker 2: impact and I just feel like it's one of those
Speaker 2: amazing uses of money. And we're in a world and
Speaker 2: a new cycle. I mean, we have a new richest
Speaker 2: company in the world now in the video and the
Speaker 2: AI wave where there's a lot of wealth and there's
Speaker 2: a lot of people doing really interesting things with their wealth.
Speaker 2: And this has set a gold standard and that story
Speaker 2: has stuck with me for the whole year. And a
Speaker 2: special runner up for me is the baby white rhino
Speaker 2: born out of Victoria's Werribee Open Range Zoo. The white
Speaker 2: rhino is really really endangered all around the world and
Speaker 2: it was incredible to have such a gorgeous little guy
Speaker 2: born in Australia. And by gorgeous little guy, I mean
Speaker 2: a sixty kilo grand baby. So the gorgeous photos we
Speaker 2: also put them up on our Instagram.
Speaker 3: I think that it's been the year of people falling
Speaker 3: in love with animals on TikTok. We've had Mooding, We've
Speaker 3: had Pesto the penguin, We've had the white rhino whose
Speaker 3: name you didn't say.
Speaker 2: We had the forty year old penguin from San Francisco
Speaker 2: Zoo Exactly. We've loved San Francisco Zoo. San Francisco. I've
Speaker 2: had a breakout a year for their animals.
Speaker 3: But you know what, all in all, there have been
Speaker 3: good news stories. There has been a lot of brightness
Speaker 3: in amongst the darkness, and I think that that is
Speaker 3: an extremely good note to end the year on and
Speaker 3: to take us into twenty twenty five, remembering to always
Speaker 3: look on the bright side and to seek light in
Speaker 3: the news cycle wherever you can.
Speaker 2: Okay, Zara, We're done here for the good news for
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four. But it's the twenty first of December,
Speaker 2: and that means that one song needs to take us out.
Speaker 2: Paul Kelly's How to Make Gravy made this date pretty iconic.
Speaker 2: Enjoy and we'll be back with more good news in
Speaker 2: the new year. Bye, hell Day, it's Joe here. I
Speaker 2: hope you keep them well.
Speaker 1: It's the twenty first of December.
Speaker 2: Now they're ringing the last bill.
Speaker 1: I get good behavior.
Speaker 2: I'll be out here by Delia.
Speaker 1: Want to kiss my kids on Christmas Day?
Speaker 2: Please don't let them crack. My name is Lily Maddon
Speaker 2: and I'm a proud Arunda Banjelung Chalcolton woman from Gadighl Country.
Speaker 3: The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on
Speaker 3: the lands of the Gadigel people and pays respect to
Speaker 3: all Aboriginal and Torres Straight and Island and nations. We
Speaker 3: pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries,
Speaker 3: both past and present.