Pod Insights Hamish & Andy 2025 Ep 293 - Meet the World’s Tallest Hat Dream Team About this episode We meet the genius minds helping us bring the World’s Tallest Hat to life! We have a fresh batch of Extreme Empaths, and some shocking news — new $1 coins are being made, but somehow still none for us?! It’s officially been a year since we kicked off our campaign to get a dollar coin for the show, so it's time for a much-needed update. Also, Hamish has some strong (but fair) words for a few ice creams that need to lift their game.
1. Tallest hat dream team
2. Extreme Empaths
3. H&A coin confusion
4. Chocolate Magnums
Transcript 0:02 Speaker 00 A Listener Production.
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0:24 Speaker 02 Ahoy to me Merriweather, Hamish.
0:28 Speaker 03 Okay, uh, yes, Daniels, it would be my initial guess.
0:33 Speaker 02 Daniels?
0:34 Speaker 03 I think that was, was that a Daniel Merriweather, was he a singer?
0:36 Speaker 02 Oh.
0:37 Speaker 03 Well, see, deep cut from me, could have won myself a hundred.
0:40 Speaker 02 Why are you saying that, yes, there was a Daniel Merriweather?
0:42 Speaker 03 Don't press me for more, don't press me for more, an answer's an answer.
0:47 Speaker 02 No, we're not Daniels, I'm not about to say hello to my...
0:50 Speaker 03 Oh, hang on, is it, is it the ships that landed, is it Columbus's ships?
0:55 Speaker 02 No.
0:55 Speaker 03 Oh no, that was the Mayflower, okay, Jack, you go.
0:58 Speaker 02 Ahoy to me Fauna, Jack. Ahoy.
1:02 Speaker 03 Yeah, he's just saying hello, he's not doing guesses.
1:05 Speaker 02 No, no, I'm thinking.
1:07 Speaker 03 Oh, okay.
1:07 Speaker 02 Well, actually, I thought Merriweather was, was there a burger shop called Merriweather at Crown Casino in Melbourne? That was in Maryville, wasn't it?
1:15 Speaker 03 Marywell, Marywell.
1:16 Speaker 02 Marywell, and then, yeah, so that didn't really...
1:18 Speaker 03 Are we short-lived casino burger stores? She's done it again. It's a tough one, and then, and I'm Joe's Burg joint.
1:29 Speaker 02 I don't think you...
1:30 Speaker 03 What are we?
1:32 Speaker 02 I don't think you are gonna get it now, if you don't know though, so I, I'm Flora, it's Merriweather, Fauna and Flora.
1:39 Speaker 03 I mean, is it just stuff on a coat of arms?
1:40 Speaker 02 No, we are Sleeping Beauty's three fairy godmothers. A few people outside going, how can you not get that, it's like, because we aren't up to date with Sleeping Beauty.
1:50 Speaker 03 Well, I, I kind of challenge it, because I feel like I am, I've read the book a lot, but I thought Aurora was the princess in that.
1:57 Speaker 02 Well, these are the fairy godmothers.
2:00 Speaker 03 Maybe she's the main godmother, anyway. To be honest, they are my least favourite type of bedtime story, the classics, and I don't know if you do this with...
2:08 Speaker 02 Aurora's Sleeping Beauty.
2:10 Speaker 03 Oh, is that Aurora?
2:10 Speaker 02 Yeah.
2:11 Speaker 03 Anyway, I was gonna say, I don't know if you do this with your little boy, Jack, but I can read a full book out loud, if it's one of the ones I'm not into, and I can read a full book out loud and be thinking about something completely different.
2:25 Speaker 04 I've actually outsourced, I don't know if this is bad, now I've outsourced the book reading to, just to YouTube.
2:33 Speaker 03 Spotify.
2:34 Speaker 04 Yeah, so it reads like Peter Rabbit and I just, I lie at the other end of the bed playing chess.
2:40 Speaker 03 Playing chess?
2:42 Speaker 04 Yeah.
2:43 Speaker 03 On your phone?
2:44 Speaker 04 Yes, well, because he's at the other, so I go top to tail so that he can't see the lie.
2:49 Speaker 03 Mate, I mean, that's two devices going at that time.
2:52 Speaker 04 No, no, he's, so he's listening, it's playing on my phone.
2:57 Speaker 03 Oh, because your phone is on.
2:59 Speaker 04 So I go, I'm just getting my phone out to press play and then I'll just monitor the playback.
3:06 Speaker 03 I thought, while Greg Internet slides a few games in, all right, well, that's huge. I mean, I thought I was being a bad dad by thinking about golf as my mouth was reading a story.
3:15 Speaker 04 Does he have the book as well and he's turning the pages? No, no, he's in, he's in complete darkness.
3:20 Speaker 03 He's, he's watching TikTok.
3:21 Speaker 04 So you're not reading the book?
3:22 Speaker 03 He's in, he's got Oculus Rift goggles on, he's doing Beat Saber.
3:26 Speaker 04 So is that reading time? Is that what you? That's his, yeah, so that. That's not reading. It's come to be his routine now. Now he goes like, oh, let's do like, let's do Peter Rabbit for bed, let's do that and a half.
3:37 Speaker 03 Don't you want to practise the Sicilian defence, dad?
3:39 Speaker 04 Wow, wow, wow. I have to turn the brightness right down because sometimes he goes, what are you doing?
3:48 Speaker 03 How is Gordy's reading going?
3:49 Speaker 04 I bet his listening is fantastic.
3:52 Speaker 03 He keeps getting interrupted by the movement of chess pieces around the board.
3:57 Speaker 04 You can't turn that off in settings.
3:58 Speaker 03 Okay.
3:59 Speaker 04 I appreciate your honesty, Jack. Do that sometimes.
4:03 Speaker 03 No, that's, as I said, completely joking.
4:07 Speaker 04 I also to Alastair, who is from France, that uploaded this at hamishnady.com, letting us know what he's up to.
4:18 Speaker 05 Third attempt to try and get this under two megabytes. Alastair, South West France. Jack's handed his notice in with Christian, but he hasn't got another job to go to. That's quite common in media circles. However, if he hasn't got a job to go to, where's he getting his money to pay all his bills from? That Tesla ain't cheap, must be nice. Now, I seem to remember he had access to the Bitcoin wallet for both of you, and then he mysteriously forgot about it. What if he suddenly remembered it? I don't imagine it's worth, because you guys don't go on about it, but if it's three or four million Aussie dollars, then you can buy a lot of cheese with that. So I suggest you put a bit of pressure on the weasel, give him a Chinese burn. Try and find out if he's got another job, and if he has, no problem.
5:03 Speaker 05 But if not, he's got to be supporting that young family, his wife and that great big Tesla, must be nice. Maybe you want to have a look at his bank account. Stay frosty, you guys.
5:15 Speaker 03 Alastair.
5:15 Speaker 02 What an accusation.
5:17 Speaker 03 There's a lot there. Number one.
5:19 Speaker 02 We should put that backstory for people who don't know, Jack also did participate on a radio show. We've mentioned it before, a breakfast radio show in Melbourne, Krishna Comedy Show. You have resigned from that as of last Friday.
5:30 Speaker 03 Ceased your participation.
5:32 Speaker 04 This week is my first week of, I mean, I've still got this to come to, but of doing nothing.
5:38 Speaker 03 Well, I mean, Alastair.
5:40 Speaker 02 That was what we found was interesting, wasn't it, Ham? Because the meeting starts at nine forty-five, which Jack can't get to because he's got an extended radio show and he starts across town from there.
5:49 Speaker 03 Still playing the sleepy boy card.
5:52 Speaker 04 No, I actually, there was just, no, there was no, no direct correspondence about whether, because I don't, I now haven't been to a meeting for the show in years. So I don't even know.
6:02 Speaker 03 And the show's been so good, so you don't want to jinx it.
6:04 Speaker 04 Last thing I want to do.
6:06 Speaker 03 We're going to wreck the system.
6:07 Speaker 04 Is rock up and then, and no one expects me and then it puts things out of kilter. Everybody's a bit confused and, I don't know. And there was just, there's no talk of it.
6:17 Speaker 03 That's so considerable. Thank you for not spooking us, because we could have been rocked. Tell you what, I mean, Alastair, just to get back to the message, as we say, love hearing people's messages. He's done his own audition there for like, like almost a conspiracy theory podcast. Like it really did just seem like a guy, I feel like I could have just easily watched that on YouTube. If we were going to send someone.
6:37 Speaker 02 I could play that to Gordy as he goes to sleep for sure.
6:41 Speaker 03 We're gonna send someone around to Jack's house to, as Alyssa said, look in his bank account. Yes. I'd send Alyssa. Yeah. That's why I gotta do it.
6:48 Speaker 02 Have you got another job?
6:50 Speaker 04 I don't have another job.
6:51 Speaker 02 Okay, so is there any truth to the idea that the reason why you felt confident to quit your lucrative breakfast radio career is because you found the Bitcoin password and you've got that to lean on?
7:02 Speaker 04 I promise you, I look in my eyes, I promise you I haven't found the Bitcoin password. We're just, we, we saved well and we live frugally.
7:11 Speaker 03 We knew the second half.
7:15 Speaker 02 And, and.
7:16 Speaker 03 We're great use of frugal as well. And if the, if the cost of golf buggies and golf jackets is very low for us, then so be it.
7:24 Speaker 04 I did, maybe I shouldn't say because there was a sensitive point about the golf buggy, but I did think of selling it second hand this week just to make, just to keep the cash flow up.
7:36 Speaker 04 Oh, okay. Well, I thought if, if anyone caught me on Marketplace or whatever, it would be a bad look. I stole it from the people and sold it for money.
7:45 Speaker 03 It's yours now. An absolute reverse Robin Hood. Steal from, steal from those that can use it and sell for thine self.
7:55 Speaker 04 I didn't, I didn't know.
7:57 Speaker 02 Okay, we've got to keep, I mean, this is fun, but we've got to keep moving hand because we have got tall hat discussions.
8:05 Speaker 03 Yeah, it's so good that you don't have a job anymore, Jack, because you can come right on board here as helping the logistics, helping the fine tuning.
8:12 Speaker 04 Chief measure or something like that.
8:14 Speaker 03 Something, I mean, we, we thought, let's actually get this going, that we, we brought it up in jest, do we, do we make the world's tallest hat? It seems gettable, a five metre hat.
8:25 Speaker 03 I mean, it's nonsense like all world records, but it's time for action.
8:29 Speaker 04 Yep.
8:29 Speaker 03 It's time to actually start putting the angle grinder to the metal, then going, no, too heavy, we need a lighter hat and just doing a few things like, we need to get in the workshop.
8:39 Speaker 02 And we've, and it started with us taking on two, we're not gonna say employees, colleagues.
8:45 Speaker 03 Yeah, colleagues.
8:45 Speaker 02 Building the team, building the build team. I mean, obviously, Oscar Piastri enjoys the fruits of being out in front and having a strong neck, but the whole McLaren team behind him is what gets him there. And that's the team we're building at the moment.
9:00 Speaker 03 These people will get us the Constructors Championship. Doesn't matter who wears the hat. This is the Constructors. This is the dream team. Get the hat made.
9:09 Speaker 02 Um, do you want to start? Because one came in on your side and one came in on my side.
9:13 Speaker 03 I think, I think we've got them up on the phone. Grace, ahoy to you.
9:16 Speaker 06 Ahoy, boys, and happy birthday, Andy.
9:18 Speaker 02 Oh, thank you, Grace. Grace, so.
9:20 Speaker 03 Sitting straight into the team.
9:22 Speaker 02 So excited about this. You're a fourth year aerospace engineer student. Um, I think we'd mentioned Grace on one of the past pods. Um, Grace, we want to commission you to do the hat. We had some reservations. Well, first one was, how busy are you at university? We don't want this to take away from you, you know, obviously entering the workforce with as high as marks as possible.
9:45 Speaker 06 Oh, that won't be a concern, boys. Don't worry. Um, I'm actually finishing semester this week. I have my satellite due and once that's in, I'm free to build the hat, so.
9:54 Speaker 03 Are you building a satellite?
9:56 Speaker 06 Yeah.
9:57 Speaker 02 Okay.
9:57 Speaker 03 And that's not just a name for a product, like that's a real satellite that you guys are building?
10:01 Speaker 06 Yeah, it's um, about a two unit satellite, so, and it has to work as well. So that's what we're doing this week.
10:07 Speaker 02 What does two units mean?
10:09 Speaker 06 It's like about 10 centimeters by 20 centimeters tall. It's quite small, but.
10:13 Speaker 03 Small satellite. What is a hat that a very, very low orbit satellite on the head?
10:21 Speaker 03 In a fixed position.
10:22 Speaker 02 That's awesome.
10:23 Speaker 03 Tethered to the head. Yeah.
10:24 Speaker 02 Well, yeah, you're the person for this then. So what we wanted to, and this is slightly dangerous, Sam, because these two haven't met, but Sam reached out. He's a composite manufacturer in Melbourne, largely in carbon fibre and fibreglass products. He can make a very, very lightweight hat. Um, Sam, ahoy to you.
10:43 Speaker 07 And Gusto to you.
10:45 Speaker 02 Gusto right back at you.
10:46 Speaker 03 Gusto, okay, this is what a team.
10:48 Speaker 02 So quickly, Sam, how expensive and hard it is to mould, you know, what, what is the li- the lightest material that you've got there in the work shed?
10:58 Speaker 07 Well, it depends on how strong you want it to be really, I mean, uh, and also the shape. I mean, if you're, if we're talking just a plain old top hat, um, that's probably the easiest thing to make because all we need to do is lay up essentially around a cylinder. Um, if we're going for more of a witch's hat kind of thing, we've obviously, we've got to make the mould. Uh, and that can be a bit tricky, but you know, we're up for the challenge. Um, you know, anything's possible.
11:20 Speaker 02 Sam, I mean, I think we are happy with the top hat. All the sketches have been of the top hat. But do you think that's gonna be, is that, is that in any way heavier? Well, it's more volume. It's more internal volume than a cone, isn't it?
11:33 Speaker 07 Yeah, it's got more internal volume, but at the end of the day, I mean, the material, I mean, probably ask the engineer, she's probably uh, able to work out how much more material there would have to be. Um, it's a bit easier to do that, but um, at the end of the day, I mean, it's, it's not, it's not too hard.
11:49 Speaker 02 Hmm. Grace, do you think, just listening to those face value, obviously not with all the calculations, do you think a top hat's a problem? Did you have an idea of what kind of hat we should be making?
12:00 Speaker 06 Well, as soon as I heard Sam come on, I was quite excited because a composite structure was my exact idea.
12:07 Speaker 03 Me too. How's this? This is crazy. All three of us have come up with a CS.
12:14 Speaker 06 Just on the same wavelength.
12:15 Speaker 02 Yeah.
12:15 Speaker 03 Yeah. And are you thinking top hat, uh, because I'm thinking sort of, you imagine top hat, internal kind of, um, weight bearing pole leading up from the head with some ribs heading out to the side. And then we just skin it with, you know, we make that the carbon fibre on the inside and you just skin it with a material that's as light as possible.
12:35 Speaker 06 Yeah, something like that. So I'm not sure how much I wanna say on air because there could be a current world record holder listening in.
12:42 Speaker 02 Oh, great stuff, Grace.
12:44 Speaker 03 But just, just with a yes or no, Grace, do you have a great trick up your sleeve?
12:48 Speaker 06 Yes.
12:49 Speaker 03 This is awesome. Sam, are you, can this work where Grace designs something and then, you know, we all get together again and she presents it to you, Sam, and you go, okay, yeah, we can pull that off. Or can we discuss this? Like, you know, we've got builder and architect here. It's often a very difficult, you know, a relationship. Are you open to taking Grace's designs and giving a bit of feedback?
13:11 Speaker 07 Absolutely. I mean, I'm actually an industrial design student myself. So like, you know, where I'm used to working with engineers and stuff. And yeah, it, yeah, absolutely. Let's go for that.
13:23 Speaker 03 Um, it doesn't, like we said, it's all about the constructor's championship here. We don't know who's going to wear the hat, but we probably need to know whose head it is now, don't we? Because we'd be building it for their head, because their head is the stable platform.
13:36 Speaker 02 Or do you feel like, do we go bigger and then pad it? So then?
13:40 Speaker 03 Oh, you don't, I don't think you want that. Even any padding between the band and their head, a little bit of wiggle room at the base is a lot of wiggle room at the top. And that's what I worry about.
13:51 Speaker 07 We could also measure the largest diameter head, and then we could actually make a few sleeves to sit in. So we can reduce the internal diameter where it sits on your head. And so that means multiple people can wear it.
14:03 Speaker 03 That's a bit of fun.
14:04 Speaker 02 Yes, because of course we'll want to wear it after the test.
14:08 Speaker 02 Who knows what event you might get.
14:10 Speaker 07 You've got to make it beautiful. How you've got to show it off.
14:13 Speaker 02 I love that it's a top hat. I feel like that makes sense. It's a grand occasion.
14:17 Speaker 03 Whoever does it.
14:18 Speaker 02 It should be in a tux.
14:20 Speaker 03 I was gonna say tails, if possible. Tails if possible. Gloves, tails.
14:24 Speaker 02 Within the rules, are you allowed a cane?
14:27 Speaker 03 For stability.
14:28 Speaker 02 That's assisted walking.
14:30 Speaker 03 I think you can.
14:31 Speaker 06 You could just hold halfway up.
14:31 Speaker 03 Yeah, I think you can.
14:32 Speaker 07 We have made a carbon fiber cane as well.
14:34 Speaker 03 Bring it. Bring it on the day. I think we should be able to have a vanity cane that doesn't touch the ground.
14:40 Speaker 02 Yes, definitely.
14:41 Speaker 03 Yes, I agree with that. Okay. Well, guys, this is tremendous. First question for you, Grace, is how long do you think you need for design? And then the follow up question will be, Sam, how long does it take to make one?
14:52 Speaker 06 Design wise, shouldn't take too long. It's more, I would say, we probably need a couple iterations, just making sure design's all good. And that it can actually stay on the head. That's my main concern is like, design doesn't take too long. It's more making sure that actually physically works and going from there.
15:12 Speaker 03 I've got a question. Now, we. I think we ruled out chin strap because we thought that was a helmet. It was cheating, even though some hats do have a drawstring underneath. We thought that's probably gonna get poo-pooed. Any wobble of the head, front or back, will create huge, could create huge structural forces. In the, you know, if you think of the top hat as a skyscraper. If suddenly the ground underneath started moving around massively, that's no good. Is there anything in the rulebook to rule against? I'm not saying a chin strap, but you create a neck brace for the wearer. That keeps the head very stable, but the, the neck brace does not connect to the hat.
15:51 Speaker 02 We've gotta get on to the rules, people.
15:53 Speaker 03 Yeah. Because that, that to me seems like the best loophole.
15:56 Speaker 04 Could you hide it in the collar of the shirt?
15:59 Speaker 03 A cravat.
16:00 Speaker 04 Yeah, a cravat.
16:01 Speaker 02 Yeah, but the hiding is the problem. The word hiding is the worry.
16:04 Speaker 03 We're not gonna, no, but we're not going to.
16:06 Speaker 02 Yeah.
16:10 Speaker 04 That's right.
16:11 Speaker 03 Remember?
16:12 Speaker 04 Yeah, we are going to wear a cravat, but we're not gonna hide anything.
16:16 Speaker 03 But I might wear that big bag for that.
16:22 Speaker 02 All right, and Sam, how long does it take to make something like this?
16:26 Speaker 07 Um, again, it depends on the, on the actual shape. Um, I mean, if it can be designed around a, um, a diameter that we can, like in a pipe that we can purchase, then not too long at all. Um, but obviously the more custom the shape, the longer it's gonna take, but.
16:41 Speaker 02 Um, how, how many mils thick do you think the, the, the, the hat will be?
16:47 Speaker 07 Uh, at best, maybe two, three mil.
16:50 Speaker 02 That's a nice thin hat.
16:52 Speaker 03 That's a good thin hat. I just want it to be well balanced. My god, that's a thin, if you've got a thin hat fetish, this is the show for you.
17:00 Speaker 02 Um, all right, well, we'll leave you and Grace to connect on that and, and discuss the idea of foam inserts, et cetera. We obviously won't call the neck brace company because we're not doing that.
17:11 Speaker 03 Yep.
17:11 Speaker 02 But we will organise a big cravat.
17:15 Speaker 03 I'm saying before the end of July. Before the sun sets on July.
17:20 Speaker 02 No.
17:21 Speaker 03 We shall have the record.
17:23 Speaker 02 No, I think that's.
17:24 Speaker 03 This is what you need for stuff like this, like Kennedy going, we will go to the moon.
17:28 Speaker 02 I think we just need to chat to them about their timelines and, uh, and then.
17:33 Speaker 03 Honestly, Ando, so what's this, I'll send you this doco on the moon landing. This is how it happened. Kennedy has got up first and he went end of the decade.
17:41 Speaker 02 Okay.
17:42 Speaker 03 You need that. End of July.
17:45 Speaker 03 End of July.
17:51 Speaker 03 Pando. Yep. Um, we are a lot of things for a lot of people on this show, but I like to think we're the safest space on earth for people that feel things very, very deeply. Yep. And often handle the torment of living in a world where inanimate objects around them are given the full range and full spectrum of human emotions and they must deal with those and they must accommodate those. They're of course, extreme empaths, love to hear their stories. And the opener for the segment is every single song in the world played all together at once. So no one feels left out.
18:26 Speaker 03 Do you want to kick it off for me too? Let me kick it off because I've actually, I had this thought the other day. I didn't conduct the remedy, but I was actually thinking about this the other day. Um, this is from Brandon. He goes, I was searching for an app on my phone and I came across the Gumtree app. Oh, yes. Felt really sad for Gumtree, having essentially been wiped out by Facebook Marketplace. So every few days I just open the app and have a little look around with absolutely no intention of buying anything. Uh, but I just want the app to know that people could still be interested.
19:00 Speaker 03 It's from Jack. My dad's an extreme empath. He insists on parking his car at the airport so the car has a view.
19:11 Speaker 03 He always parks it facing a window or an open area seeing outside, ideally a few levels up and usually in the east or west. So it gets a nice sunshine or sunset.
19:25 Speaker 03 That's a great opener. This is from, uh, I believe her name's Apps, A P S. On, uh, on a multi outlet power board, she writes, it's not a hundred percent full. I make sure every outlet gets its moment in the spotlight. I rotate the power cables around so every connection shares the load equally, ensuring no outlet feels overworked or left out.
19:50 Speaker 03 Just unplug the TV and I'll move you now to second from the left outlet. Get a bit of juice from that.
19:57 Speaker 02 Um, for Paul, there are several variations of the yellow and black wildlife road signs warning of koalas in the area where he is.
20:06 Speaker 03 There are a few different ones, aren't there?
20:08 Speaker 02 There's just one where the koala's sitting. There's a version of the sign where the koala is waving as if to say hello to the cars driving by. I've recently discovered I'm a closet empath. When travelling along a country road and I pass a waving koala sign, to my surprise, I found myself involuntarily waving back.
20:29 Speaker 02 To be absolutely clear, I will not wave if the koala is not waving.
20:36 Speaker 03 Yes, I'm just aware of them then. This is from Stephen and no offence, Steve, I mean, I know this, we could say this about a lot of extreme empaths, but I feel like this is too far. Often I receive spam or unsolicited emails. Instead of deleting them or moving them to the spam folder, I instead store these in a folder named Articles. So this way they don't feel so unwanted.
20:57 Speaker 02 No.
21:00 Speaker 02 Too much.
21:08 Speaker 03 Hey, we did give ourselves two years to sort something out.
21:13 Speaker 02 We do like to do that on this show, thinking that any distance of about three months away, anything more than three months will never happen.
21:22 Speaker 03 Yes.
21:22 Speaker 02 And, but as we know, two years does come around.
21:26 Speaker 03 Yeah, time waits for no man. It just keeps on coming along.
21:29 Speaker 02 How long has it been?
21:30 Speaker 03 We're now a year in.
21:32 Speaker 02 So it goes so far.
21:33 Speaker 03 A year.
21:33 Speaker 02 A year into trying to get a dollar coin.
21:35 Speaker 03 A year and 10 shows. Cause I think it was the first show of last year.
21:42 Speaker 02 To bring you up to speed.
21:45 Speaker 03 We're gonna have to, like, we're actually gonna have to see the smokestacks pumping soon. Like, the mint making these things.
21:51 Speaker 02 Yes, yes. To remind people where we're at, we wanted to got Dollar Coin. We are the only podcast in the world, to our knowledge, that gives our listener, if they come to us in the flesh, a dollar.
22:01 Speaker 03 Yeah, we think the services rendered to the Dollar Coin, that would almost be enough to recognise the show. Not us personally, but the show as the guardians of the dollar.
22:10 Speaker 02 Yep, and we first wanted to chat to the treasurer. We got in touch with his hairdresser. We thought that was the best angle into him. He seems to have had haircuts since then. We haven't heard back from the hairdresser. Doesn't seem like that's the right channel. Then the Royal Australian Mint, to be honest, are a bit dour about the whole thing. And they said that, no, you have to be dead to be on a coin, which is not true.
22:33 Speaker 03 They're rules.
22:34 Speaker 02 They throw rules that they always seem to break. Sir Paul McCartney has got one at the moment, apparently.
22:39 Speaker 03 Australian Dollar Coin.
22:40 Speaker 02 Yeah, Australian Dollar Coin.
22:41 Speaker 03 Well, that makes no sense.
22:42 Speaker 02 And he's not, he's not dead. And he's not Australian. Or Australian, certainly, you know. They're, you know, they're doing up there.
22:48 Speaker 03 I mean, if they throw the book at us and go, oh, yeah, or if you're a beetle. We're like, okay, well, you're just getting us on loopholes now.
22:57 Speaker 02 Tell you what, this was shocking news this week. Have you seen this, Jack?
23:02 Speaker 03 No.
23:03 Speaker 02 They're releasing another coin, the Mint, a specialised one.
23:08 Speaker 03 What is it?
23:09 Speaker 02 Women's Weekly Birthday Cake Book Coins.
23:12 Speaker 03 Oh, we were a big fan of that. No, no, no, not a, not a cake a coin.
23:17 Speaker 02 They've got, well, they haven't announced how many coins, but it's certainly more than six for the designs. So you can get the duck cake, you can get the Humpty Dumpty cake on a coin. Like, there's a prince on a coin.
23:30 Speaker 03 Of a cake.
23:31 Speaker 02 Of a cake, and there's, it seems, I reckon, my guess is they're bringing it out to a.
23:34 Speaker 03 I feel like they're doing it to anger us. Like if they are just trying to think of anything they can put on a coin that's not this show.
23:41 Speaker 02 Exactly. How can you say the rules are so strict and then give 12 designs out to a coin? I made up 12, but it looks like about 12.
23:48 Speaker 03 It would be a lot. I mean, you think of the classics, Humpty.
23:51 Speaker 02 Yep.
23:52 Speaker 03 Yeah, you've got the duck.
23:53 Speaker 02 The rocket ship.
23:54 Speaker 03 Swimming pool, rocket ship, race car track for number eight.
23:57 Speaker 02 Train, train.
23:58 Speaker 03 Yeah.
23:59 Speaker 02 I actually love those cakes.
24:01 Speaker 03 They have great cakes.
24:02 Speaker 02 Oh, they're a great cake.
24:03 Speaker 03 That was my favourite book as a kid.
24:04 Speaker 02 Yeah, but it just didn't seem to me that they're being so strict with the rules when suddenly a cake can be on a coin.
24:11 Speaker 03 I mean, we all have beautiful memories, okay, of that, of, you know, sitting down with your mum or your dad, listening to the YouTube of that cake book while your dad played chess or World of Warcraft at the end of your bed. Okay. And that was a special time for a lot of kids.
24:25 Speaker 02 Yeah.
24:26 Speaker 03 But it doesn't mean you need to put it on a coin. If you're gonna do it, put one on a coin.
24:30 Speaker 02 Yeah. Well, I'm happy for them. It sounds like I'm having a go at the cakes. I'm happy for them to be on a coin, but what it represents to me is a bit of a kick in the teeth to us.
24:39 Speaker 03 It really does.
24:41 Speaker 02 They say the rules are so strict and now people's favourite cakes from the 1980s are going on a coin.
24:46 Speaker 03 I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but every time we've had a rule given to us, it's melted under scrutiny.
24:51 Speaker 02 Yeah.
24:51 Speaker 03 Um, much like the icing on the fluffy duck can melt, it's buttercream icing if it gets too warm.
24:59 Speaker 02 Coming from a cake man, he knows.
25:02 Speaker 03 If you want to talk about fondant or buttercream, I will tell you the right conditions in which to prepare it. I mean, come on.
25:10 Speaker 02 Anyway, where we left it last, I had a little bit of news for you that was mysterious. And just because it has been a bit of time.
25:18 Speaker 03 I can't remember where it was last left. Was it something to do with the West Australian Mint? Cause they kind of like operate separately. Were we chasing that channel?
25:26 Speaker 02 This was the last thing that we talked about. Saw a dog take a poo. Wasn't mine, my dog, or my poo.
25:34 Speaker 03 Yeah, I'm glad a dog didn't take your poo.
25:36 Speaker 02 A female owner went across and I saw her do that thing where she goes to open her bag, um, little pouch and doesn't have any plastic bags in it, which is a terrible thing for a dog owner. You're like, oh God, I can't pick it up. She turns around and she sees another dog owner, which is just euphoric. You go, great, they might have one, they can lend. She comes across to me and says, "Hey, do you mind if I borrow a bag?" I said, "No problem." She goes, "Oh my God."
26:00 Speaker 03 Yeah, don't borrow it. I don't want that.
26:03 Speaker 02 She goes, "Oh my God." We've been talking about you guys this week. I said, why? And she said, we're working on the dollar coin.
26:14 Speaker 03 Wow.
26:14 Speaker 02 And I said, do you work at the Mint? She said, no. She told me where she works, but I'm not allowed to say where she works for fear of, because it was very, she said it's very confidential. And she's for fear of that getting out and now ruining our chances.
26:31 Speaker 03 Is it government?
26:32 Speaker 02 It's not government.
26:34 Speaker 03 But who else? Who else is working on coins?
26:36 Speaker 02 All I'm saying is, is even though we've gone silent, playing hard to get has worked because people are thinking about it.
26:44 Speaker 03 Wow.
26:45 Speaker 02 So that's where I was at.
26:46 Speaker 03 And it continues to work, playing hard to get, to the point where we'd stopped talking about it and couldn't remember where the story was up to for me and Jack.
26:54 Speaker 02 And hadn't heard from or seen that woman again. That's how mysterious it was. So I was like, oh, well, that must have gone away because that's five months ago, whatever. I'm at a bucks party on the weekend. A guy comes up with me to me and goes, you know what? I said, what? He goes, I work with the lady in the park. And I had no idea what he was talking about.
27:19 Speaker 03 This is incredible.
27:20 Speaker 02 What, which lady? He said, remember the story you told on the podcast?
27:24 Speaker 03 It's like a spy thriller.
27:25 Speaker 02 Yeah. I said, oh, my God. He goes, I'm in the same team. We have a meeting about the dollar on Monday.
27:34 Speaker 03 That is awesome. Also awesome if this guy's just remembered that episode and could just say that to you. Because anyone could come up and go, you know, the lady in the park? I'm her boss. Really?
27:47 Speaker 02 Yep. And I'm flying to Canada on Wednesday. Well, unlike.
27:51 Speaker 03 To talk to them about it. Yep.
27:53 Speaker 02 Unlike the lady in the park, I exchanged details with this fellow. I said, can I tell everybody the business? He said, no.
28:05 Speaker 02 I said, can I tell everybody what we're talking about? He said, no, but I'm doing it anyway.
28:09 Speaker 03 Will this jeopardize the coin?
28:10 Speaker 02 I don't think so.
28:11 Speaker 03 Great.
28:11 Speaker 02 Because, yeah. So.
28:13 Speaker 03 Because I don't want it to.
28:18 Speaker 02 So it's Monday, it's this coming Monday is the meeting. And I'm going to reach out to him and to see how it went. And I guess I don't know what kind of info he can give us, but.
28:32 Speaker 03 Hang on, so, okay, this whole thing's just, okay, this is not a criticism. I'm just, so I've got this straight. This is just you dipping back in to say it's still bubbling.
28:41 Speaker 02 Yes.
28:42 Speaker 03 Okay, so I thought we were gonna get more information than that, but the meeting's coming up. The meeting hasn't happened yet.
28:47 Speaker 02 No, the meeting's on Monday.
28:49 Speaker 04 You know what the meeting's about, but you can't tell us?
28:51 Speaker 02 Yes.
28:52 Speaker 03 Hey, what's the bit that you could, what's the bit you were gonna, what's the bit you were gonna tell us where he said, don't tell them? But you're gonna do it anyway? You haven't told us the company or what the meeting is.
29:01 Speaker 02 He said, don't say that we're having a meeting. Who? But like, we don't know who it is, that's why I don't mind.
29:06 Speaker 03 Yeah, yeah, yeah. So some organization that's not government, but has the power to influence coins is having a meeting on Monday?
29:14 Speaker 02 Yes, and obviously they've been talking about it for five months. So you'd think someone would have poured cold water on it if it was a no, is my point.
29:21 Speaker 03 If it was not popular, yep. Have they produced coins before?
29:25 Speaker 02 Yes.
29:26 Speaker 03 More than one?
29:27 Speaker 02 Yes.
29:28 Speaker 03 Jack, do you have any questions?
29:29 Speaker 04 Yeah, so the girl in the park, was that last year?
29:33 Speaker 02 Yes.
29:33 Speaker 04 So do you feel like that's a bad sign that five months has passed and not a lot has been done?
29:39 Speaker 03 Does it seem like the kind of company where the wheels, wheels turn slowly?
29:42 Speaker 02 Yes. And I think it's a good sign because we know it seems like there's a heap of red tape for this thing. Like, it's already been over a year and.
29:55 Speaker 03 I think if it was simply a form on the Australian Mint's website that you could fill out to ask for a dollar or a $50 note with your face on it or whatever.
30:03 Speaker 04 Like they do with M and M's at Times Square.
30:06 Speaker 03 Lots more people would do it, so you're right, the red tape's phenomenal.
30:09 Speaker 02 Hmm. And so the fact that there's, I mean, it could be, I wonder if it's the final meeting? Like, they might go, okay, we need to just get on with this or.
30:17 Speaker 03 Do you know what the meeting's about, but you're not telling us?
30:20 Speaker 02 No.
30:22 Speaker 02 He said we've got a meeting about the coin.
30:24 Speaker 03 But yeah, but you, did you say, how many meetings have there been? Is it the final meeting? Will we have an answer?
30:29 Speaker 02 No.
30:31 Speaker 02 Should have. Yeah, it was, it was actually quite weird. It was a very quick conversation. Yeah. Yep. I think we were just leaving a little unsatisfied. You've done good, great stuff, but is that what you're feeling?
30:41 Speaker 03 Yeah. Was he a participant on the Bucks Day or was he like an erotic dancer?
30:48 Speaker 03 Is that why it was so quick? He just whispered in your ear? Has you slipped a dollar coin in his G-string and he just left?
30:57 Speaker 02 Did it feel like one of those filler episodes of Game of Thrones?
31:01 Speaker 03 Yeah, we couldn't afford to, we couldn't afford to do dragons in this one. So we're just gonna have everyone in castles talking about when the dragons might appear next.
31:14 Speaker 03 Guys, we've tackled a lot of, I think we've done a great job, a great service to the chocolate confectionery and supermarket food industry on this show. Sometimes-
31:25 Speaker 02 We've celebrated them, but we've also kept them on their toes.
31:27 Speaker 03 Yeah, and sometimes challenged them. Who does the stars? How do you do the stars? Well, that's well documented.
31:34 Speaker 02 Yeah.
31:34 Speaker 03 The, the health stars.
31:35 Speaker 02 Yep.
31:35 Speaker 03 Something in the chocolate slash ice cream world I wanted to bring up. I feel like we're always, we're not just nitpickers, we're, we're improvers as well. We always wanna see, you wanna see the, the, the good things get even better. Well, how do you improve without critical feedback? That's it. I mean, you assume these companies, well, you hope these companies are doing it themselves. Like, I'd like to think if you're in charge of something, cause remember, if you're in charge of a snack, you are in charge of sometimes the best part of someone's day.
32:07 Speaker 02 Do you risk it often? Like- Biscuit? Do you risk it?
32:13 Speaker 03 Hearing most of the sound of a word.
32:16 Speaker 02 Yeah, biscuit.
32:16 Speaker 03 I'll have a biscuit.
32:18 Speaker 02 No, would you, cause we'll be at the supermarket and Beck goes, oh, these Try something new. Oh, these look, these look nice. We should try that. And I, I sit there and go, why?
32:27 Speaker 03 The last big risk, the last big risk I took was going over to Cadbury Marvelous Creations and I don't regret it.
32:34 Speaker 02 Really?
32:34 Speaker 03 Yep. I got some tiny improvements. No, but I saw it had popping candy in it and I am a sucker for popping candy. So for credit, for credit to
32:44 Speaker 02 It's base though. It's a block of chocolate. It's like when Beck finds some exotic new brand that's doing Bloody competitive industry, the block of chocolate. You got a lot of, lot of brands screaming. Taking a risk. It's not a huge risk. It's like
32:55 Speaker 03 What risk are you talking about? It is a big risk. I was usually on an arrow, but a peppermint arrow. And I thought, all right, that's a huge job. What kind of a risk are you talking about? What are you talking about eating a roll of tinfoil instead of an ice cream?
33:08 Speaker 02 No, Beck goes, hey, look at these. You know, there's some weird brand that they're doing, you know, something, you know, peppermint and whatever. Let this sound like a good snack. And I'm like, oh, let's just stay with the, the usual peppermint, you know, the arrow mint or a Cadbury block of chocolate.
33:22 Speaker 03 Yeah. But what's the, you need to give me the example of what she's saying, cause it doesn't sound like it's too different to my risk. And if I'm being slammed for not taking big enough
33:30 Speaker 02 You went from one big brand, Arrow, to another big brand, Cadbury. It was, it's 98% Cadbury chocolate. We know exactly what that is. And then it's got a little bit of risk.
33:40 Speaker 03 It is mar from 98%.
33:43 Speaker 02 And you know what popping candy, you know what that's gonna taste like? Know what popping candy is.
33:46 Speaker 03 What about the Smarties in there? What about, what about the jelly? What about the jelly in there? Lot of risks.
33:51 Speaker 02 It's not that much really.
33:52 Speaker 03 It's a very crowded chocolate. Actually, it's a very crowded chocolate. So it was a big risk.
33:57 Speaker 02 I think, all I'm saying is it's a no. It's like
34:00 Speaker 03 Well, you won't even name what your risk was. What's the big risk you took?
34:03 Speaker 02 She's like, okay, it's McDonald and Farrelly's new chocolate range of organic peppermint with crispy centers. And I'm like, why, why are we even doing this? That's the risk. That's a risk.
34:16 Speaker 02 But now I feel bad for the small business chocolate makers.
34:19 Speaker 03 Yeah, well, that's true. There is the artisanal bars, but you know, honestly, they're not at the big supermarkets. I think there's a lot of brands that are made to look like, oh, we're just.
34:26 Speaker 02 That's true.
34:27 Speaker 03 You know, tinkering and we've got a little place out in the country. And, um, you know, we hand make these chocolate bars, but I.
34:34 Speaker 02 You're in eight hundred stores around in Coles.
34:36 Speaker 03 If you're in Coles or, or, you know, if you're in Woolies, you're doing all right.
34:39 Speaker 02 Yeah.
34:40 Speaker 03 Anyway, they know what I'm talking about.
34:44 Speaker 03 What I wanted to say was like, I want to focus today on a, on a product that I think is doing well. And I hope the ones that are doing well are still critical of how they could be better.
34:52 Speaker 02 Yep.
34:53 Speaker 03 E G, and this is not the ice cream I want to talk about, but you look at the Milo ice cream, which is the cup and the spoon. Now they're doing great. Okay. Yeah. I think you're probably a fan of a Milo ice cream. I know I am.
35:04 Speaker 02 I haven't, I don't gravitate towards it, but I would be a fan.
35:08 Speaker 03 You're a pretty heavy Milo user.
35:09 Speaker 02 I wa- yeah, I used to use Milo a lot.
35:11 Speaker 03 Hmm. They're good, but you some, you sometimes look at them and go, okay, are you absolutely at the top of your game? Sometimes I worry about the consistency of that ice cream. It's a little, it's very hard for the power of the spoon they provide.
35:25 Speaker 02 Yeah.
35:25 Speaker 03 And that's going to be a nightmare for them because I think sometimes the shop provides the spoon.
35:28 Speaker 02 Hmm.
35:29 Speaker 03 And it's not the official Milo spoon that comes with it.
35:32 Speaker 02 Surely it would be in the, it's, is it built into the packaging?
35:35 Speaker 03 I think it's a grey area. Sometimes it is.
35:38 Speaker 02 It's a grey area? Either it has a spoon or it doesn't.
35:41 Speaker 03 Well, it's not often not built into the packaging. Sometimes it's in the ice cream container, like in the ice cream freezer.
35:47 Speaker 02 Oh, right.
35:48 Speaker 03 At the milk bar or the kiosk or whatever.
35:50 Speaker 02 So when they're, when they, when they come from the Milo ice cream factory, they send, they send them in a box.
35:55 Speaker 03 And you're relying on the workers to, to give, to put them there and to keep it organized.
35:59 Speaker 02 They could have slipped that out.
36:00 Speaker 03 God knows if I was at the servo, I'd be like, mate, I don't know where those are. I'm just saying. I've had instances where I've bought the Milo cup and you've had to use a different spoon.
36:10 Speaker 02 Yeah.
36:10 Speaker 03 That's shattered in the Milo cup. So you feel bad for Milo in that instance, but you go, my user experience here now is deeply down. Again, that's just an example. Here's who I do wanna talk about. Magnum's.
36:22 Speaker 02 Oh, now you're talking. What kind? Almond? My favourite.
36:27 Speaker 03 Yeah, I do like an almond, but I'll go plain and or a mini, you know, like I don't go too crazy. I know there's been some wild experiments in flavours, but I do like the classics.
36:37 Speaker 02 Too much.
36:37 Speaker 04 Oh, I don't like an ego. Yeah, because you're a little boy, you like all the sugar.
36:41 Speaker 03 Like the sweets. You're just a little boy, tricked by two layers and caramel. Now, I had a problem, as we well know, when I was sixteen with Magnum Egos.
36:50 Speaker 02 Yes.
36:51 Speaker 03 And I was a little burnt by that.
36:52 Speaker 04 I don't know what happened. What happened?
36:55 Speaker 03 I worked at a video store, now defunct, but people may remember Video Easy well. And I, much like yourself, Jack, I was always interested at the store I worked at as to where the legalities lay of what was and wasn't mine.
37:10 Speaker 04 You can eat a few Magnum Egos on your shift, that's fine.
37:14 Speaker 03 Is a sentence that wasn't said to me, but one that I certainly assumed could have been said, the same way that you might have thought you heard, hey, look, you know, the movie tickets are so expensive, no harm in you taking a little bit of the time.
37:32 Speaker 04 The parallel there would be eating the popcorn.
37:35 Speaker 03 Sorry, I forgot the code name we used on the show. So, I'll tell you what happened. One day.
37:42 Speaker 04 You know the story, that they can track Video Easy's demise, not to the fact that DVDs became made of paper.
37:47 Speaker 03 Was it Netflix? Was it Netflix that did it all?
37:49 Speaker 04 You can also track Tamish's weight.
37:52 Speaker 03 It all started one Sunday.
37:55 Speaker 04 How many were you eating per shift?
37:56 Speaker 03 It all started, it all started one Sunday when the, the ice cream delivery came. And I happened to be there on a Sunday afternoon, which is not really a peak time. Unusual for me to be working that shift. I was just added on on peak times as a sixteen year old. Saw the ice cream delivery come. I go to the manager, hey, who's the owner of the store? Do we need to scan these in? Like, do we need to put them in the computer? So we know how many we've got before we sell them. He goes, nah, mate, just dump them all in. And I went, really?
38:23 Speaker 04 Loophole. Dump them all in my mouth.
38:25 Speaker 03 So the computer, the computer doesn't know where, how many we have, but I do. And so I began to, instead of spending, you know, ten dollars a shift to go next door and buy a sublucky for dinner, I would just sustain myself on Magnum Egos. To make sure I had enough calories to get through the shift. As it turns out, each back into me goes, I think about four to 500 calories. And I was eating four a night. So I was eating, I was eating quite, quite a few.
38:54 Speaker 02 Just save yourself a day.
38:54 Speaker 03 Yeah. Yes, I was able to ga- gain quite a layer of blubber to see through the winter, through the harsh video winter. Um, and hopefully still be there in spring. And so my pants exploded one night.
39:11 Speaker 02 Exploded one night. They did.
39:14 Speaker 03 I was leaning down to put a new release back and my, my button and ass both popped at the same time.
39:21 Speaker 03 And something deep inside me, which was by that stage was definitely a core of Magnum Egos. Maybe we've overdone these.
39:30 Speaker 02 And the manager said, gee, we're moving a lot of ice creams in winter.
39:35 Speaker 03 Not very far. We're moving them from, from fridge to desk.
39:39 Speaker 02 So what do we want to talk about magnums?
39:41 Speaker 03 All right. What I'm going to say was ignoring the Magnum Ego, though this issue does happen with Magnum Egos. Um, you know, everyone's got their favorite Magnum.
39:49 Speaker 03 We're a big fan of magnums in our house.
39:51 Speaker 02 Yep.
39:51 Speaker 03 The, one of the big letdowns of the Magnum, and they would admit this because it's part of their feature as well. They got a thick layer of chocolate on them. It is a very must be nice ice cream. I understand that, but it's a special trait. As you bite into the Magnum, you get the giant shard.
40:05 Speaker 02 Yes.
40:06 Speaker 03 Right? Because, because it's such a thick layer of chocolate. We don't want to change the thickness of the chocolate. Then you're playing in a whole different category. They're in the thick chocolate category. You, you, you know, you're looking at like some of the, no offence, but some of the buller stuff. And that's for kids, like that don't understand the thickness of the chocolate game.
40:24 Speaker 02 Agreed.
40:24 Speaker 03 It happened the other day, right? We bit into the Magnum, huge shard, just shears off the side.
40:29 Speaker 02 Yep.
40:29 Speaker 03 Like, like a whole side and, and most of, you know, the north face of the wall of chocolate just collapses to the floor.
40:36 Speaker 02 Yeah.
40:36 Speaker 03 And you go. What do we do about this? Because that is an absolute ice cream disaster. It's not Magnum's fault for making it so thick, because that is what we like about the ice cream. And your heart breaks because you go, I want to help you Magnum, I want to help you. But I don't actually really know how to fix this problem. The best I could come up with is they make it with inbuilt fault lines.
41:00 Speaker 02 Oh, oh, yeah, like little panels rather than one big shape.
41:03 Speaker 03 Yeah, I know. So, I mean, could they experiment with that? So it would be, wouldn't be easy, but when you dip the ice cream in the chocolate, you also lay like a netting in it that then comes out after it's set.
41:15 Speaker 02 Yep.
41:16 Speaker 03 And it's, it's, so you might lose a bit, but you could never kind of shear off the whole thing.
41:21 Speaker 02 That's interesting, but what about this? They burrow through the ice cream and leave holes. So when they pour the chocolate in, it creates guide ropes on the inside that hold.
41:35 Speaker 03 Oh, so you've got chocolate core.
41:36 Speaker 02 One side's holding the other. Just small lines of chocolate core that hold the other side.
41:42 Speaker 03 So fully, yeah, fully injection molded chocolate, now wall-to-wall chocolate, now with wall-to-wall chocolate.
41:51 Speaker 03 Enhancing the structural integrity of your ice cream.
41:53 Speaker 02 And giving you more chocolate.
41:55 Speaker 03 So it's like buried kind of stellate types and stellate mites of chocolate that have linked up.
41:59 Speaker 02 They're like, oh, that's, maybe they don't have to go all the way through. If it, I like the stellate type.
42:05 Speaker 02 Just little spikes all the way down.
42:07 Speaker 03 To stop large piece shear offs.
42:10 Speaker 02 But then you got, then you got danger of eating spikes. Well, you'd be scared of it.
42:17 Speaker 02 But that is like, you're calling it a spike, you're calling it a spike.
42:21 Speaker 03 This is the chocolate game is a hard game because now you've got to remember you've got soft mouthed consumers as well.
42:36 Speaker 01 Thanks for listening. The Hamish and Andy podcast will return next week. Catch up or contribute at hamishandandy.com.
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