Saturday Morning with Jack Tame

The co-host of the award winning podcast, ‘The Worst Idea Of All Time’, Tim Batt is one of New Zealand’s sharpest comedic minds.
He’s taken some time away from the festival circuit to raise his children, but has decided 2026 will be his return.
Batt is bringing his dry humour to the International Comedy Festival with a brand-new stand-up show, ‘Eternal Optimist’, in which he, in his own words, “makes light” of the rising tide of fascism and offers a sincere apology for accidently causing a dire situation.
He told Jack Tame that while the world’s not looking the best it ever has at the moment, it’s important to keep your chin up whenever you can.
“For me it comes from a place of like, I wanna be useful, and I think you’re not useful to anyone if you’re sort of paralysed by the world, by all the negativity.”
Circumstances have been getting tougher and tougher over the years and Batt believes the funk that causes can make people easier to manipulate.
“We’ve really been put through the meat grinder,” he told Tame.
“And I think that there are some pretty evil, very wealthy people who have taken advantage of the fact that they've got a lot of power and they've tricked us into thinking the wrong people are our issue.”
Since everything seems to be getting worse in real life, Batt decided to take a more optimistic approach in his comedy show. Kind of.
“I went in with a hiss and a roar being like, hey, let’s flip the script a little bit. Yeah, we’ll be radically positive in this one. Is that in the show? A bit!” Batt explained, agreeing with Tame’s assessment that the show would be more “optimism adjacent”.
His show won’t be over the top “himbo comedy”, he stressed, focusing only on the positives – there will be some gallows and black comedy too.
“I’ve got a lot of Irish heritage,” he told Tame.
“I'm certainly down for having too many whiskeys and talking in a, very dark pub about how bad everything's gotten as well.”
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A Kiwi company is flipping the bird, pivoting from making environmentally friendly wool shoes to AI.
After years of losses, Allbirds sold all its assets this month and now plans to lease GPUs – chips used to train AI software.
It's revised its moniker to NewBirds AI.
Kevin Milne joined Jack Tame to talk about the rise and fall of the company.
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"After taking in the retro charms of Route 66’s on a romp across northern Arizona, the desert was calling. I pointed the car south, driving through the achingly gorgeous Oak Creek Canyon route to Sedona, bound for Scottsdale. Towering red sandstone cliffs and an undulating quilt of ponderosa pine create a riveting scenic medley.
"Situated on the eastern flank of the sprawling Phoenix metroplex, Scottsdale has been dubbed “the Beverly Hills of the Southwest” and “a desert version of Miami’s South Beach.” It’s desert chic, unmistakably stylish and manicured, but it’s also stimulating, creative, and rugged. The singular beauty of the landscape is sublime, inspiring Frank Lloyd Wright to set up shop here, ninety years ago. It’s the same reason artists have been swooning over Scottsdale ever since – drawing inspiration from rugged nature and the soft light. And all of that derives from the Sonoran Desert, one of the world’s most diverse ecosystems."
Read Mike's full article here.
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

English singer-songwriter Holly Humberstone has released her second studio album, ‘Cruel World’.
It’s a shift for the artist, delving into a more upbeat pop sound, whilst dealing with themes of belonging, steadiness, repair, and discipline.
The atmospheric style and intimacy of Humberstone’s musical style has seen her compared to artists like Lorde and Bon Iver, and she herself has described her style as “quite self-exposing".
Chris Schulz joined Jack Tame to give his thoughts on the new album.
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Saoirse by Charleen Hurtubise
In the wilds of Donegal, Ireland, 1999, Saoirse is an artist living an outwardly idyllic life. Her tender husband Daithí and two beloved daughters are regular subjects for her work, and in them she has found the safe home that she has always longed for. She tends not to talk about her past, and those that love her have learned to accept that the full story is too painful for her to disclose.
When her Dublin exhibition unexpectedly wins a prestigious award that invites a swarm of publicity, Saoirse is left panic stricken. The unanticipated recognition threatens to expose a decade's worth of buried memories and past crimes. Because what her family and friends don't know is that Saoirse has been on the run since she was seventeen, she has stolen an identity to survive, and whilst Ireland might now be her home, it wasn't her first - and now her past life is poised to reclaim her.
The novel weaves between flashbacks to a complicated childhood in Michigan, and Saoirse's journey to and in Ireland to forge safety for herself.

Hope Rises by David Baldacci
Walter Nash, working under the alias of Dillon Hope, is on the road to revenge after becoming an informant for the FBI against a global criminal operation headed up by Victoria Steers. Steers has ripped everything Nash held dear away from him. He has nothing left to lose and with long, rigorous training under his belt the gentle and sensitive Nash has transformed into something he never thought he’d be: a physically imposing man with lethal skills. And now he has only goal left in life: taking down Victoria Steers.
In order to succeed, he’s going to need to cross enemy lines and work the job from the inside. But Steers is shrewd and only brings those with her complete trust into her inner circle. Nash must rely on every ounce of his hard-earned skills in order to prove himself an ally to Steers if he’s ever going to get close enough to decimate her criminal empire.
Yet, despite hating the woman for destroying his life, Nash finds himself oddly drawn to Steers in ways that he never could’ve imagined. And what he ultimately discovers will turn all he believed upside down, forcing Nash to do something truly unfathomable.
So, will the truth set Nash free?
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.