Bonus Dad Bonus Daughter

From Hangovers To Highlights: Our 2025 Wrapped

Bonus Dad Bonus Daughter

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New Year energy, real talk, and a few chaotic confessions: we pull back the curtain on a year that stretched us, surprised us, and reminded us why this show matters. Listener numbers climbed to 3,937 downloads and we crossed the 100‑episode mark, but the most powerful moment wasn’t a metric—it was you choosing our women’s health conversation as the most‑played. We share what that vulnerability cost, why it connected, and how it’s reshaping the way we plan future episodes.

We also dig into the nerdy stuff people secretly love: Buzzsprout vs Spotify numbers, where you listen (hello Norfolk, Dallas and Singapore), and what our YouTube start taught us about pacing, edits and the value of candid pre‑show chatter. On the personal front, there’s travel highs and health lows, the thrill of a sold‑out gig, and a creative reboot that brings voice acting, new stories and a proper production umbrella into the mix—plus the practical fix that unlocks more guests: another mic and a refreshed, self‑made intro.

Music remains our north star. We compare Spotify Wrapped notes—alternative rock, ska punk, pop rock and instrumental scores for deep work—and unpack what it says about focus, nostalgia and taste. We also wade into AI’s exploding footprint in music and video, why labelling matters, and how we’ll keep the show human: clear voices, honest takes, and topics that meet life where it’s actually lived.

If you’re new here, expect warmth, wit and straight talk without the corporate sheen. If you’ve been with us a while, thank you for every listen, message and share. Tap follow, leave a quick review, and pass this episode to a friend who needs a hopeful wrap and a laugh—what should we dive into first in 2026?

Support the show

Welcome, New Year Banter

SPEAKER_00

Hello and welcome to Bonus Dad. Bonus Daughter, a special father-daughter podcast with me, Hannah. And me, Davy, where we discuss our differences, similarities, share a few laughs and stories. Within our ever-changing and complex world.

SPEAKER_01

Each week we will discuss a topic from our own point of view. And influences throughout the decades.

SPEAKER_00

Or you could choose one by contacting us.

SPEAKER_01

Via email, Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok. Links in bio. Happy New Year.

SPEAKER_00

Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Happy hangover?

SPEAKER_01

Uh happy hangover. Happy Hangover.

SPEAKER_00

What did you do last night?

SPEAKER_01

Yes, I am hanging. I'm gonna predict that I'm hanging. It was probably a late night watching, I don't know, Hoot and Annie probably.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, that's probably what I'll be doing.

SPEAKER_01

Graeme Norton show, Hoot and Annie, and then the the The London Eye.

SPEAKER_00

And then the London Eye, yeah. Yeah, watching all the d do they still do fireworks or is it gonna be a drone show now?

SPEAKER_01

I think they do a bit of both.

SPEAKER_00

Do they?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I'll tell you what, I don't tell you what I do like watching on um You are loud today, dude. Am I sorry? Sorry, I turned that up.

SPEAKER_01

No, no, I've got it, I got it, I got it, yeah, I got it.

SPEAKER_00

So I'll tell you what I do like watching is when they do the uh the shows from all over the world, because it starts off in Australia, doesn't it? And they do the Fiji, isn't it? Is it is it Fiji? Fiji the first one? And then it of course it then comes all the way to all the way around. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

It it it's crazy to me that there was someone that was like, this is where we're gonna draw the dateline.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

How crazy. I wonder if any of like the like any of the islands near there got a choice. Well, can I be today or tomorrow?

SPEAKER_00

There is there is that that place in the ocean, isn't there? I think I can't remember if it's one island or two little islands, and they're like, I've got Fiji on my brain, honestly. They're literally across the dateline. I can't remember it's some it's somewhere in like the Pacific Ocean somewhere. Yeah, there's there's Okay.

SPEAKER_01

No countries lie directly on the zigzagging international dateline, but several nations territories sit right next to it, causing them to be one day apart, like Samoa, uh American Samoa, uh Russia, obviously, some of the US, uh, I can't pronounce some of their names, but ki Kiribati, Fiji, Tonga, uh Tuvalu, and New Zealand.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, there you go.

SPEAKER_01

All have adjusted datelines.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I knew Fiji had something. Yeah. Yeah. Fiji are just west of the line, putting them on the same date as Australia. Okay. There you go. I knew Fiji had something to do with it. Good old Fiji. Anyway, um Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Yeah, we're not recording this uh uh well as you're listening to it, but we're uh we're we're still in we're actually still in 2025.

SPEAKER_00

It's still before Christmas, actually, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01

It's also still before Christmas, yeah. What is it? The 21st day.

SPEAKER_00

It's the 21st. Yes, 21st. Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_01

Have you had your work do? Do you do you have a workdo?

SPEAKER_00

I don't have work dos. Oh, you don't have work does? No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01

I guess it's too your I guess your place is too big for a workdo.

Around The World At Midnight

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. But people have individual work dos inside in their department, yeah. But it's quite well known that I don't like Christmas, so I I wouldn't get invited. I wouldn't get invited even if um well I get invited, but I just politely decline.

SPEAKER_01

You get invited. And I had my work due on Friday. How was that?

SPEAKER_00

Was there any office scandal?

SPEAKER_01

There was not any office scandal. We're a really small office to be fair. We're quite a small company, so there was I think there was probably about 15 of us. We went out for a meal, three. Oh nice. Had a nice Indian meal. It's good. And um sat I sat in a pub for about four hours on a really wooden, really, really hard bench, and then my bum the next day really hurt for some reason. It still hurts now. Like I feel like I'm I feel I feel like I can hit feel my my my my tailbone. Yeah. Which is, you know, fastball problems.

SPEAKER_00

Your mum went out on a Christmas do thing the other day.

SPEAKER_01

She did. She did.

SPEAKER_00

She went and she went and ate somewhere.

SPEAKER_01

She did tell me, but I know she went because of Run Club because I was also invited, but I couldn't go because of my own work do.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, yeah, that's when that's when she went. But I just stayed at home and played um Claire Obscure Expedition 33.

SPEAKER_01

Very nice.

SPEAKER_00

Which I've been play which I've been playing since five o'clock this morning as well.

SPEAKER_01

Obsessed.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Well, actually, there's something like because I told you about the game before we started the podcast recording. You did, you did. There was something that I didn't tell you about the game. Okay. So there was a bug in the game. I played it for 16 hours, and I think I turned the PS5 off whilst it was saving.

SPEAKER_01

Oh no, did you lose some of your progress?

SPEAKER_00

I lost the lot.

SPEAKER_01

The lot?

SPEAKER_00

The lot. I lost 16 hours worth of progress.

SPEAKER_01

Oh.

SPEAKER_00

So I'm I'm trying to cat I'm kind of backtracking and catching up again on myself.

SPEAKER_01

Oh guy. You wouldn't think that was a problem in this day and age.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, well, it's it's got an autosave function. You can't manually save. So I think as the or save thing came up, I turned it off.

SPEAKER_01

16 hours is a long time for an autosave not to kick it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I think it corrupted the data.

SPEAKER_01

Were you dilly-dallying?

SPEAKER_00

I was dilly-dallying. Yes. I think I corrupted the data.

SPEAKER_01

A bugger.

SPEAKER_00

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

And it's that is so frustrating.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Anyway, we were going to have a this is going to be quite a special episode, isn't it? It's going to be a bit of a mishmash.

SPEAKER_01

A mishmash of things. As we often do at the end of the year, we have a nice 2025 wrapped.

SPEAKER_00

Indeed. Frick and freaking wrap. We're going to talk a little bit about the podcast, some figures on that. We're going to talk about what we've done last year. We've got a month by month serious versus funny edition of things that happened in the last year.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, have we?

SPEAKER_00

We have indeed. Yes.

SPEAKER_01

I haven't looked that far.

SPEAKER_00

And I've also got you a little quiz.

SPEAKER_01

A quiz?

SPEAKER_00

I've got you a quiz. So it's just not I didn't ask you to do one, but I've got 10 questions about the video.

SPEAKER_01

I was going to say I did not prepare a quiz. About last year, but they are Oh my god, this is like Big Fat quiz of the year, but bonus dad, bonus daughter edition.

SPEAKER_00

A little yeah, a little bit, a little bit, but the questions aren't very easy.

SPEAKER_01

They never freaking are with you. I'm gonna make it my New Year's resolution. Oh, this is gonna be a tough one.

SPEAKER_00

Go on.

SPEAKER_01

No more quacks.

SPEAKER_00

No more quacks.

SPEAKER_01

No more quacks. You've made me do a quack for you. That is so unhard. You never have a quack.

SPEAKER_00

And look, look.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you got the merch.

SPEAKER_00

You got the merch? Got the merch with a little lemon in, look.

SPEAKER_01

A little lemon. That looks like you've put half a lemon in there. Well, it's it's you know I don't know if it's like made it look bigger because of it is, yeah, the water makes it look bigger, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That's that's like a that looks honestly like half a lemon. That's like a quarter of a lemon.

SPEAKER_01

A quarter of a lemon, that's still a lot of lemon.

SPEAKER_00

No, it's an eighth of a lemon. So you cut it in half, cut it in half and cut it in half again.

SPEAKER_01

Cut it in half.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so you've got half a lemon. Yeah, then quarters, then eighths. Yeah, eighths come on, do both.

SPEAKER_01

It's like a Terry's chocolate orange, but lemon.

SPEAKER_00

But lemon.

SPEAKER_01

Lemon drink.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, lemon. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So we're how many how many segments is a Terry's chocolate orange?

SPEAKER_00

Go on, have a look. Have a look. I love it.

SPEAKER_01

You guess, you guess.

SPEAKER_00

Uh how many there are there? I would probably say they're uh uh eight. I would probably say either twenty-four?

SPEAKER_01

Close. Go on. There are twenty. I don't know how they've split that.

SPEAKER_00

They must be in th in twentieths.

unknown

Obviously.

SPEAKER_01

But if you you can't So there's there's uh there's four segments of five, right?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Four segments of five. So they split each quarter into fifths, into fives.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah. There you go. There you go.

SPEAKER_01

So you know if that ever comes up in the quiz. Is that in the quiz?

Work Dos, Benches, And Bums

SPEAKER_00

No, it's not in the quiz. Well, what's your favourite Terry's chocolate orange, actually? I like a dark chocolate orange myself. Oh, um Because you can get them ones with little bubbles in it and all of that as well, can I?

SPEAKER_01

You like the mint one? The mint one is so good. Really? Yeah, the mint one is good.

SPEAKER_00

Really? I really like the dark one.

SPEAKER_01

I imagine you would. You like dark chocolate.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I really like the dark one.

SPEAKER_01

Shall I go through some of the podcast facts?

SPEAKER_00

Go on.

SPEAKER_01

Should we actually get started on the episode that we've actually planned?

SPEAKER_00

Shall we? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So, unlike before, I've actually planned some of this episode. Half of this was actually me.

SPEAKER_00

It was actually. You wrote a lot of this.

SPEAKER_01

So get ducked. So um, I don't know why I've said start to 2024. I think that was because we started in halfway through 2023.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Um, so at last year we revealed that we had um a total of 2,405 downloads. We've increased that by 1,532 downloads, which means we now have a grand total, a thir no, I only said 3,900 there. 3,000. I'm really bad at like I'm really bad at numbers. Yeah. 3,937 downloads. That's amazing. Thank you. Downloads, I think, is basically what BuzzSprout identifies as a full listen. I don't know how much of a listen it is, I don't know how many seconds into an episode it is, but that's how many unique listens we have.

SPEAKER_00

I do question these figures because these figures are from BuzzSprout, but when I've actually gone onto the Spotify one for creators, it's got more on there.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, which I don't I don't quite understand. I've just done the Buzz Sprout ones because that covers everything, but I I assume maybe it's from start of episode to end of episode.

SPEAKER_00

I I genuinely don't know.

SPEAKER_01

Perhaps a little unfair because we have an intro and an outro.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So I don't know. Uh which I assume people skip because I would skip my own intro.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Well, actually I do. Every time I every time I I I mix one of these, I skip the whole intro.

SPEAKER_00

We need to do uh we need to do a new intro, I think.

SPEAKER_01

I think we need to write our intro.

SPEAKER_00

I think we need to what the music the musically.

SPEAKER_01

Well we're both musical. Why have we not done this? We've had this discussion before.

SPEAKER_00

Well we haven't got I haven't got the music production software to No, but someone might soon. I know, Ben G.

SPEAKER_01

Should we get him involved?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, hell yeah.

SPEAKER_01

He sent me a message the other day. Hang on, let me let me remember what episode it was. It was when we were talking about ASDF.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. He showed me them all.

SPEAKER_01

Oh.

SPEAKER_00

We were he was playing he was playing them to me the other day.

SPEAKER_01

Well, apparently I mispronounced it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, Azdev.

SPEAKER_01

As dov.

SPEAKER_00

As dov.

SPEAKER_01

Which is not how we used to pronounce it. I think he's made that up.

SPEAKER_00

But no one.

SPEAKER_01

And I know he's gonna at me for that. I know he's gonna message me after he hears this and say, how dare you.

SPEAKER_00

Of course he will.

SPEAKER_01

Um but yeah, we did, we did send a bunch to each other. Yeah. And I was I was actually really busy working that day, but I was like, you know what, I'm entertaining this shit.

SPEAKER_00

Find me more jewellery.

SPEAKER_01

I can dream, Harold.

SPEAKER_00

So what was the top episode last year, Hannah?

Game Bug Wipes Sixteen Hours

SPEAKER_01

So the top episode last year was Family Memories Part One, where we had mum involved. Um this year we we ditched all of our um guests. I don't think we had a single guest episode.

SPEAKER_00

No, it's because we haven't got another microphone. We don't, we don't have done that.

SPEAKER_01

We could it's not that we hate people now. No.

SPEAKER_00

We could we could um make a make a phone call and get people in, but then it wouldn't come through on the video.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Because obviously we've got the lapel mics for the video. It's more of a technical yeah, the actual roadcasters for the for the audio.

SPEAKER_01

But worst case scenario, if it comes in its own feed, I could put it into post-production, but that would involve you having to transfer data across to me as well.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but that that's easy enough. But the other thing that I got that I'm gonna do now is I will buy another mic.

SPEAKER_01

Yep!

SPEAKER_00

I've got enough money to buy another mic and another mic stand.

SPEAKER_01

Yay!

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, another XLR as well. Yeah, yeah. I I cannot contribute to this fine in a monetary because Joel wants to come on, Becca wants to come on, Benji, Benji wants to come on again, uh after your mum on again, Annual wants to come on again. I've got to get Father Jack on as well.

SPEAKER_01

Father Jack. Father Jack, because I'd probably have been saying this actually. We have to get Father.

SPEAKER_00

I am going to do an episode on religion. I feel like we need a religious person to make sure that we don't and obviously my brother-in-law, Jack, is a reverend. So, yeah, so Jack's gonna come on. I told him I'd be nice as well.

2025 Wrapped: Plans And Format

SPEAKER_01

You better be nice. Of course I will. It's Jack. I am respectful. I love Jack. You are not respectful. I love Jack. I know you love Jack. Yeah. So yes, our top episode last year was a Family Memories Part 1, but this year, to my absolute shock and surprise, was actually Women's Health, which is an episode where I felt probably my most vulnerable episode yeah. So I think for me, I just want to say like thank you, because that was very, very tough one for me to get through, and I am absolutely completely flabbergasted that that is our top episode. So thank you for listening to me rant about women's health for what, an hour? Yeah, no, that's just a lot of fun. That was a really good episode. Um so yeah, thank you, thank you so much. Because that yeah, that was that was uh that was right from the feels. That was not very uh not very I feel like when I come on this podcast, I'm I play the role of Hannah, a podcaster, but that episode was Hannah, real life Hannah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um because we I think we've talked about this on uh before, like when we go on stage, we're we're performance Davy, performance Hannah, like they're they're different people you're millions. Yeah, you almost like play a part as such. Um and that's how it kind of feels on the podcast. As much as we are real on the podcast, these are our real thoughts and feelings, but you know, we do it in a comedic effect, whereas women's health was not.

SPEAKER_00

So um Although although saying that, saying that, the the the episode that you uploaded where you didn't actually cut the beginning out and you actually just saw us talking normally beforehand, Benji even remarked on that, thought it was hilarious. And you can actually see that is uh we we are genuinely like this pretty much all the time. Yeah, with each other.

SPEAKER_01

So about that episode, what's really annoyed me is I did mix that. I just uploaded the I uploaded the raw footage as opposed to my mixed footage. So not only did I make a mistake, I also wasted my time doing all the things. I don't even know if I swore in that episode because normally I I duck it out, of course, like quack, I quack it out. So yeah, if there's any swearing on that episode, and then we were just like, well, it's so funny, we might as well just leave it up. Exactly. Because it's been left up. Yeah. But yeah, that was just me uploading the wrong footage, like an absolute donut.

SPEAKER_00

Um so we hit, what was it, 2,500 downloads this year?

SPEAKER_01

So that was that was our that was like a milestone that we hit on Buzzspray. So yeah, we so because we have uh uh 3,937 in total, 200 uh 2,500.

SPEAKER_00

We hit that milestone this year. Yeah. And we had our hundredth episode.

SPEAKER_01

Come out this year. Come out this year as well. I think this is like episode this will be like 103, something like that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, something like that.

SPEAKER_01

Um I actually missed kind of some of the promotion for the hundredth episode, just snuck up on me, really. It's amazing that we've done a hundred episodes. Yeah, so that is uh, you know, less just less than maybe eighty-five hours of content.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Perhaps, yeah, because no none of the episodes are over an hour. Um so yeah, incredible, incredible. Uh we've we've done so well. Pat on the back. Yeah, we have government. And we're still here. Yeah. So 46% of you guys are Spotify listeners, which is not surprising to me.

SPEAKER_00

PS Money Spotify.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. PS Money Spotify. 14% of you are Apple Music users. Uh, despite most of you having an Apple phone, uh, 70% of you are using a mobile device. Because we we it's scarily, we get to know what devices you're using us on as well.

SPEAKER_00

We even know the um the the the age range and gender of people that are listening.

SPEAKER_01

I didn't get age ranges up.

SPEAKER_00

Uh I didn't bother, but it is mostly your age than it is mine. Yeah.

Podcast Stats And Milestones

SPEAKER_01

High gen Xers, Xers, and Elder Millennials. So when I went onto Spotify, we had a 740% increase in a new audience. So hi new people. Um nice to see you, to see you nice. And we had a 41% increase in new followers on Spotify as well. We did indeed. Awesome. So, in terms of geography, unsurprisingly, 75% of you are in the UK, uh, which is where we're from. Uh, in case you didn't know, by the accent, um or by how much we talk about Norfolk and Norwegian.

SPEAKER_00

Although people in in America thought I was Australian.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Uh because of our Norfolk accent.

SPEAKER_01

We do get that a lot, yeah. Uh 40 14, sorry, percent of you are in the US, so hello US peeps. Uh, four percent of you in Singapore, so hello Singaporeans.

SPEAKER_00

Singaporeans. Singaporeans. Singaporean.

SPEAKER_01

Hello, Singaporeans. No, very nice to meet you as well. And then Australia, which you absolutely bashed the entire country the other day. Sorry, Australians, but thank you for listening to us. I love you guys. He just doesn't like the animals that live in your country. Um, nothing. I love the people.

SPEAKER_00

The people are amazing. It's just the it's just the we're huge Margot Robbie fans. Yeah. It's just the fact that everything wants to kill you in that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And then we've got some French listeners. Even the weather.

SPEAKER_00

Even the weather.

SPEAKER_01

Even the weather wants to kill you, yeah. Yeah. And thank again, thank you again. Or should I say merci to our French listeners as well. So um I haven't seen France on there. That's the first time I've seen France pop up on our videos, I think. Yeah. Breaking that down into actual sectors. So 19% of our listeners are from Norfolk, which is where we're from. Understandable. 7% of you from Lincoln, 7% from your neck of the woods. Uh 5% from Attleboro, which is basically just down the road of Norfolk. I don't know why Norfolk is separate to Idleboro, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Well, mm.

SPEAKER_01

Are they classed in their own? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, in Norfolk.

SPEAKER_01

3% from Singapore that uh itself. And 3% from Dallas, Texas.

SPEAKER_00

I know, I like that.

SPEAKER_01

Hello?

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, I have a lot of family in America, but no one in Dallas.

SPEAKER_01

None in Texas. So if you are listening from Dallas, Texas, hello. Yeehaw. Yeehaw. Are they cowboys generally? Yeah. I I uh what I know the most I know about Texas is is barbecue. I just think of barbecue.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So I hope you're having a nice barbecue today. Thank you for listening to us. Um so we we've got some YouTube stats for you now. We did not start our YouTube journey really until March this year. Yeah, was it in March? Yeah. Specifically the 27th of March, I Googled it. Well, no, I didn't Google it, I YouTube it. Uh, to find out. We have 17 subscribers. Hello, 17 subscribers. We assume you also subscribe to the Spotify.

SPEAKER_00

Well, actually, we've got 16 because one of them is me.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, actually, good point. I think one of them might be me, actually. Solid point there, Father. Solid point. Yeah, I didn't think about that. Yeah. Uh 15, hello, 15 subscribers, because yeah, I'm definitely one as well. The top views was Whatever Happened to, which was our white, uh, our first episode. The reason I just said white was because we talked about white dog poo on that particular episode, and I just thought it was a funny thing to say. But yeah, that was our first episode on YouTube, so I expected that one to be higher than the rest. Anyway, uh, but randomly, Easter came in second, which must have been around that same time because it's around March. So it's cool. So I think maybe we should just talk about the years that we've had. That's all the stats I have. So before we go on to talking about the kind of year that we've we've both had, I just want to say a massive thank you. Like thank you for being with us on this journey. This is the third rapt now we've done.

SPEAKER_00

This is the third rapt, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so we've been doing this now two and a half years, I think that makes it. So, so yeah, thank you for coming along with the journey. And I think again, genuinely from the bottom of my heart, women's health episode being the being our top one this year, um, really uh gets me in the feels. When I saw that, I actually uh I may have shed a tear when I saw the uh Spotify wrapped. So I was like, oh yeah. Um because it's just uh yeah, it's a tricky subject for me to talk about, and I'm I'm glad people resonated with it enough to to listen to it. So thank you very, very much from the bottom of our our hearts. Um anyway, enough gushy, gushy, mushy, gush, mush. Tell us about the year that you've had.

SPEAKER_00

So me, I've had quite an eventful year. Um go on. I went to America twice.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you lucky thing.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I went to Florida very early on, Florida in March, and then went back to New Jersey in uh June.

SPEAKER_01

I remember picking you up from Gatwick.

SPEAKER_00

You did it with your little with your little sign that said whales on it. My little sign. Yeah, little sign that said whales on it. Yes. Yeah, yeah, that was sweet.

SPEAKER_01

Picked you up.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Uh but obviously a lot of money.

SPEAKER_01

Ah, father, we've got to believe that one out, darling.

SPEAKER_00

What's that?

SPEAKER_01

You've just said your last name.

SPEAKER_00

People know my last name.

SPEAKER_01

Do they? Yeah, we were not revealing that.

SPEAKER_00

It's quite obvious what my last name is. Okay. Yeah. But yeah, I said it loads of times because of the mammal not fish thing. I thought it was a lot of things. Okay. Uh but but yeah, moving on. This year has been I've been doing a A lot of work with music this year because obviously we had our final gig. So that was quite bittersweet. That was that was quite bittersweet. Meow meow. So yeah. But we did a lot of work. Me and the boys did a lot of work early on. Right doing some writing of new bits for the tracks and putting it all together and coming up with the show. And then performing to a sold-out show in the waterfront.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, I was there.

SPEAKER_00

And you were there.

SPEAKER_01

I was there.

SPEAKER_00

Not only were you there, you were part of it as well.

Platforms, Listeners, And Geography

SPEAKER_01

I sang My Little Heart Out when you'd done summer sickness and you didn't look at me once. Devastated by the way about that.

SPEAKER_00

I was concentrating because that was a cover. And yeah, it wasn't one of my songs, so I was uh I was concentrating.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That's a good song. We've oh, your poor mum as well this year.

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

As well. She's had her operation on her knee.

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Which it's starting to get better, but yeah, she'll get there. Bless her. She's uh still in she's still in a lot of pain.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

A lot of pain. And other things I've done this year is coming up with the new idea for um for my new little venture.

SPEAKER_01

Your new venture, your new musical venture.

SPEAKER_00

My new musical venture. Which I'm not going to say too much about at the moment on that one. Creative venture. Creative venture. And but I will say about the the voice acting and also the uh uh the stories that I've been writing. So I've been I've I have been quite creative this year.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and I feel I think BDBD will probably just be absorbed uh presumably into that nest of things um within that sector. So uh BDBD will be become well we're not changing BDBDB, but um BDB BDB.

SPEAKER_00

It'll be part of MNF productions.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it will it will be under its own own production company of yours. Yes um so yeah, nothing's changing. I'm not leaving. I hope you're not getting rid of me. No, no, no, no. New management coming in and they're gonna they're gonna get rid of they're gonna get rid of her. Of all the ones they're gonna get rid of it, it'll be me. The one that doesn't ever read the uh script.

SPEAKER_00

I have to give you an appraisal.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. I maybe I need to like re-interview for the job. I I'm I'm pure nepotism, baby.

SPEAKER_00

You are a Nepo baby.

SPEAKER_01

I am a Nepo baby. Oh dear. Do you know what? I've been watching Stranger Things recently just on Nepo babies. I love Stranger Things. It's great. Sorry, just to cut across your uh your year, but um I every time she does like a little face or something, I'm like, duh gosh, does she look like her mum? What Maya Hawk? Doesn't Maya Hawk look like her mum? All I can see is kill Bill. When I'm looking at her, I'm like, that that is Uma Ferman.

SPEAKER_00

Funny thing, I saw an interview with her and that where they had an interview with other people, and they said, Do you ever get mistaken for any other actors and actresses? And she sat there and went, My mum. Yeah. It was like, yeah, my mum. Yeah. So she's walking down the street and someone will just seen Pulp Fiction and go, Oh my god, you're so good in Pulp Fiction. She's just kind of like, That's my mum.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, they do look very alike. Yeah, very alike.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, actually, you talk about Stranger Things. So, because this will be going out on the on New Year's Day, Stranger Things has come out. That's what I've done last night.

SPEAKER_01

It would have been closed.

SPEAKER_00

That's what I've done last night is I watched the final episode of Stranger Things. Because it's coming out New Year's Eve.

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

So we've got another four episodes coming out on Boxing Day, and then the final episode on New Year's Eve. So that's what I'll be doing.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah, so as when this episode comes out, Stranger Things will be dusted.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, Stranger Things will be done.

SPEAKER_01

And dusted forever.

SPEAKER_00

Done and dusted forever. So we'll know who died, who survived. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

If anyone.

SPEAKER_00

If anyone survived. And yeah, how it all how it all ended. Exactly. So that's kind of what I did. Although I did write something else below there, but I didn't. I just seen that, like honorary mention. Yeah, yeah, honorary mentioned, but that's not for that's not for now, that's for later on. I'll put it in the I wrote it in the wrong segment. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01

I wrote it in the wrong segment. No worries.

SPEAKER_00

So over to you, Hannah. What what have you done this year today?

SPEAKER_01

Do you know what? I've had I've had a really weird year. I've had yeah, I've had a really weird year. I think 2025 for me, I'd I'd be very, very glad to see the back of, to be honest.

SPEAKER_00

Oh god, so am I.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Uh for me, I think just health-wise, generally, it's not been a great year for me. But having said that, I did go to Vegas this year, which is it just seems mad to me that that was this year. Like that that happened in February, and it just seems so long ago. It feels like it was the year before. So I met Flowrider this year, which uh I don't think many people can say. Yeah. I forgot about that. I also won on the roulette quite big this year as well. So that's that's mad.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I celebrated 10 years of being with my husband this year. Ten years together. Uh, not married for 10 years, but been been together 10 years. We've been together for a decade now. Um, so yeah, that's Dada Frere. Do you know?

SPEAKER_00

Yes, yeah, yeah. Oh, he's amazing. Icelandic guy. Yeah, yeah. He's a brilliant.

SPEAKER_01

You get him better.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I saw him in um I watched a YouTube video of him the other week on in concert.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

He's brilliant. He sings just as good live as the videos. No, and he still does all the weird dancing and stuff. He's great. Love it.

YouTube Beginnings And Top Videos

SPEAKER_01

I went to a lot of music gigs this year, obviously, namely Mammal Not Fish, but I also I went to Reading this year, so I saw quite a few peeps there. I saw Chapel Roan, I saw Hosier, I saw the Kooks, which was awesome for me because it's very nostalgic. Well, who else did I see this year? Fickle Friends have seen this year. Uh I think I saw Rory earlier this year. Yeah, you saw Rory. Um, so so yeah, um, been a good year in in terms of music for me or seeing music stuff. And then a couple of babies were born. So a nephew of mine has been born, and then I've become an honorary auntie this year as well, so that was cute. Um so doubles, double trouble. I've just found out actually my friends are expecting a new baby next year as well. So everyone's being brought in by a stork. Yes, yes, yes, traditionally, uh as as as foretold by the prophecies. Yeah, bringing bought in on a stalk. Um Actually, that's the point.

SPEAKER_00

We've got an episode coming up on fortune telling and psychics.

SPEAKER_01

Have we?

SPEAKER_00

We have, yeah. Very nice.

SPEAKER_01

Exclusive BDBD there.

SPEAKER_00

There you go.

SPEAKER_01

Then I guess also I went to Tenerife this year.

SPEAKER_00

You are umming a lot today.

SPEAKER_01

I am umming because I was just I I I've do you know what?

SPEAKER_00

Every time you do that, I'm thinking, oh, I've got to cut that out.

SPEAKER_01

It just feels like this year, I think it's because it's hard for me to talk about this year without talking about the medical stuff. I have had one MRI, two CT scans, one day procedure.

SPEAKER_00

It's just been a partridge and a pear tree. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

How many how many I think I might have had seven, eight maybe even double figures of doctor's appointments this year. Like it's just been a lot. That's all I can think of is the medical side of things. So that's why I'm I'm an NR and because I'm trying to think of things that aren't medical, medical related. Yeah. I've been in so many waiting rooms this year, it's unreal. So yeah, colonoscopy was probably the low light of this year, I would say. But yeah, there's there's there's been a few things going on. But I I think uh overall it's uh this year's been fine. It's been fine. You okay?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, I was I was looking for my Spotify uh stuff because we're coming onto that section and I opened up my phone and there was that.

SPEAKER_01

Oh Archie eating a carrot.

SPEAKER_00

Archie eating a carrot. Cute. Bless him.

SPEAKER_01

Cute, cute. Um are you struggling to find yours? Because I can do mine if you prefer.

SPEAKER_00

You you start yours, I will, I will scroll.

SPEAKER_01

So enough about our year, uh 2025 year, we're gonna move on to our Spotify rap. So our individual music taste spotified rap. So I'm gonna start with genres because I think that's another easy one for me.

SPEAKER_00

I've got mine up so we can do genres, what you, me, what's the boy.

SPEAKER_01

Well bouncy bouncy, fancy bounce. Bouncy bounce.

SPEAKER_00

Fancy bounce, yeah.

Gratitude And Women’s Health Impact

SPEAKER_01

So my top genre this year, no surprise, was pop rock. Okay. Um, I also had uh gentle mention to indie rock was in there, electropop was in there, neoclassical, I'll explain. Neoclassical. I'll explain in a sec, and then alternative country, which I'll also explain. So neo. So neoclassical, I'll we got both kinds of music.

SPEAKER_00

We got country and west.

SPEAKER_01

Uh so neoclassical, I have been listening to a lot of music that is instrumental, um, and I like to use that to concentrate on. I've had some massive projects at work, and sometimes I can't listen to songs with words in it. So neoclassical, so a lot of that stuff is like music music soundtrack, uh music soundtracks, movie soundtracks, things like that. Yeah, instrumental, just just just modern instrumental shit.

SPEAKER_00

Listen to the Expedition 33. Okay. Put that on there. I will. That song, Loom in the Air. Oh. No, no, not that one, not the video I showed you earlier. Um gotta be careful what I say about the game because some people might might play it and there'll be spoilers. But Luminar. Yeah, don't spoil it. Yeah, don't spoil it. But that that song is it's phenomenal, and it's just it's just strings.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, a lot a lot of gaming gaming soundtracks are on there. Uh Lord Ring soundtrack is on there, like those things. Um, alternative country was because I don't know why, but my top artist well, I do know why. My top artist was Bill Murray this year. Sorry to move on because I know we're doing genres. I think he is classed as alternative country. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Which Well, you mean Ghostbusters, Bill Murray?

SPEAKER_01

No, no, no, no, no. It's I'll I'll explain Bill Murray later when we talk about top artists. But I think that's why Alternative Country is in there, because I don't actually listen to any country. And I can only he's the only person that's remotely close to that. So what your top genres?

SPEAKER_00

My top rock scar reggae. Uh do you know, top one? Alternative rock. Oh, alt rock. Alt rock, an alternative one.

SPEAKER_01

Basically dad rock now.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and that yeah, exactly. When did Foo Fighters become classic rock? Uh so number two, Scar Punk.

SPEAKER_01

Of course.

SPEAKER_00

Of course, of course. Number three, soft pop. Soft pop. Soft pop, whatever that is.

SPEAKER_01

What have you been listening to that's soft? I've no idea.

SPEAKER_00

I've no idea.

SPEAKER_01

What have you been listening to? Like Ariana Grande?

SPEAKER_00

No. It would be like old old older stuff. It might be like 80s sort of stuff. Could be that.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, can we? Um four is soundtrack.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Uh and five, dance.

SPEAKER_01

It's such yours is such a mix.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

It's like rock meets scar meets well, pop, basically.

SPEAKER_00

I've got every you know You've got everything. Everything. Every genre you've got.

SPEAKER_01

Every genre other than jazz.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Because yeah, no one likes jazz. No one likes jazz. Do you know what jazz is? Jazz is. Can you play all of the notes?

Our Year: Travel, Gigs, And Life

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah. Every instrument all of the notes.

SPEAKER_00

And now do it in the wrong order.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's jazz.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Um, what was your listening age?

SPEAKER_00

My listening 26, baby.

SPEAKER_01

How the hell yours is 26 and mine is 39? As a 29-year-old, I'd gained 10 years. How many years have you 24?

SPEAKER_00

I lost.

SPEAKER_01

You've lost 24 years and I've gained yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so it's literally half my age.

SPEAKER_01

I think, well, it said to me the reason my age is 39 is because I listen to a lot of naughty stuff. Yeah. So maybe we should swap. Maybe we should swap.

SPEAKER_00

Maybe. Yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_01

Although is mine closer in age than yours? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I've just had a little look at my top song for this year.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It was Portugal the Man.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, okay. That brings in the pop side.

SPEAKER_00

So that probably brings in the pop side. That brings the pop side. Oh, do you know what Youngblood is in there as well? Yeah, Youngblood. No, no, no, um, sorry, Five Seconds of Summer, the song Youngblood.

SPEAKER_02

Oh.

SPEAKER_00

Ah, I know why I was listening to that because I like the way the drum comes in. Oh. And I was listening to that drum pattern.

SPEAKER_01

I did not have you pegged as a Five Seconds of Summer girl.

SPEAKER_00

No, no, that was listen. I was listening to that because of the the arrangement of that song. I was like, oh yeah. So that was research purposes. That was research purposes, okay.

SPEAKER_01

I listened to a total of 2,139 songs this year.

SPEAKER_00

Wow.

SPEAKER_01

Uh and several minutes. How many songs did you?

SPEAKER_00

Only 1,300.

SPEAKER_01

Oh.

SPEAKER_00

Ha ha. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01

How many minutes did you have?

SPEAKER_00

Minutes was I have a feeling I might beat you on this one. Minutes, minutes, minutes, sorry, bear with me. It was 15,773 minutes.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, so double that for me. 37 minutes uh oh god, I can't I can't say work. I can't say numbers. 37,175 minutes, but caveat that I do work from home. Yes, you do. So I can literally have it on all the time. Um what was your top artist?

SPEAKER_00

Oh, do you know what? I listened to 246 genres. Ooh, I don't know if it's a lot of things. They said taste like yours can't be defined, but let's try anyway. And I listened to 246 different genres.

SPEAKER_01

I don't know how many genres I had.

SPEAKER_00

What did you say, sorry?

SPEAKER_01

What was your top artist?

SPEAKER_00

My top artist was actually Authority Zero.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, top artist was Authority Zero.

SPEAKER_01

Uh so my top artist was Bill Murray, not Ghostbusters Bill Murray. Um Do you know what third was? Go on.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, you have to remember the songs because we played them for so long. Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Uh Bill Murray uh was top, Stand Atlantic for me came in second, yours truly, Taylor Acorn and Rory. Now, other than Bill Murray, all the rest of them are all female-led bands. Really? Yep. Yep. Female vocalists. Excellent. Uh top song?

SPEAKER_00

Go on.

SPEAKER_01

What was your top song?

SPEAKER_00

Uh my top song was uh Summer Sickness by Authority Zero.

SPEAKER_01

Mine wasn't a Bill Murray song, surprisingly, even though he was my top artist. I Can't Feel by Yours Truly, which was my third artist. Yeah. The End, which was uh Bill Murray, Run It. Can't remember those things, run it. Uh Spinning You Around, which was Bill Murray, and Savior, which is Rise Against. Really? Excellent. Kills Me Nuts Notice for that. Oh, but just forgotten. I just just sang that one a lot.

SPEAKER_00

My top songs were Summer Sickness Authority Zero, Youngblood, Five Seconds of Summer, What Me What Me Worry by Portugal the Man. Okay. And uh Hideaway by Mammal Not Fish. And Karma Boomerang by Mammel Not Fish.

SPEAKER_01

Of course, yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_00

Well, they're the they're the two W ones, and so I told the The W ones, yeah. The W ones. Um my top artists were Oh yeah, sorry. Yeah, my top artists. Skip over those, didn't we? Uh Portugal the Man.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Authority Zero. Yeah. Main Skin.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Lincoln Park.

SPEAKER_01

Lincoln Park! Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, Lincoln Park.

SPEAKER_01

Emptiness Machine.

SPEAKER_00

And Ruskaja.

SPEAKER_01

I don't know that one.

SPEAKER_00

Do you know this song that we started the gig off with?

SPEAKER_01

Oh. That was Ruskaja. Right, right, right. Where I did the um the news presenter. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Here is the news. Bam, bam, bam, bam. It's mammal nut fish tag. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. Well, that's um pig bag, is that? But they did. We all did different versions of it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So but I did pull some other little figures up as well from Spotify.

SPEAKER_01

Did you?

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Intrigue me. Mammal knot fishes.

SPEAKER_01

Of course. Of course. Share Mammal Not Fishes stats. How are they doing this year?

SPEAKER_00

We we did 7,000 streams. So not too bad. Not too bad for a band that hasn't been around for a while. Yeah. 1.5,000 listeners worldwide. Nice. And the top one, uh 68 countries.

SPEAKER_01

68 countries.

SPEAKER_00

In 68 countries, we we were played. What was your we were played?

SPEAKER_01

Do you have like top streamed song?

SPEAKER_00

Uh yeah, we own the night last single. Yeah, 3.3k. We own the we own the 1.4k listeners and 68 countries.

SPEAKER_01

Nice.

SPEAKER_00

So I'm quite chaffed about that.

SPEAKER_01

Good job, Mama Lotfish.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_01

MF productions.

SPEAKER_00

MF Productions. Yes. But you but there may be some other stuff coming out. Ooh. There might be, but we won't say too much about that. Okay. Yeah, but we'll we'll see where we go with it.

SPEAKER_01

And I whether I need to reapply for my job.

SPEAKER_00

No, no, you don't need to reapply for your job. You're on a rolling contract, you're fine.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, okay. I'm safe for now. It's not being made redundant yet.

SPEAKER_00

No, not yet, yeah. Even though I don't get paid. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Exactly. But uh so next section of the episode.

SPEAKER_01

Let's go.

SPEAKER_00

We're gonna do a so I did a Google. You didn't. So I say I did a Google. I was a bit short for time. I must admit this is Chat GPT.

SPEAKER_01

Oh I checked this one out, so it might not even be accurate.

SPEAKER_00

It might not even be accurate, but I've just see I did give me one serious and one funny thing that happened every month of the year.

SPEAKER_01

Go on then.

SPEAKER_00

But before we do this, I want to give an honorary mention to something that happened this year.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Which I think is probably the best story I have heard for decades, and I I just loved it.

SPEAKER_01

Have we shared this on the podcast already?

SPEAKER_00

We have mentioned it, I think, before.

SPEAKER_01

Go on then.

Health Challenges And Small Joys

SPEAKER_00

But it's it's about a guy um who's English and he flew to Nepal and when he got off the plane, he ended up in the middle of a revolution. And the TikTok videos and the subsequent interviews and all, and he became a face of the um Nepalese revolution. Just completely the best when he's being interviewed, and he's being they said they said, How long have you been here? He's like, one day. That bit when he's running through the running through the streets.

SPEAKER_01

I haven't seen any of this footage. You've not seen any of this footage.

SPEAKER_00

No. Have you not?

SPEAKER_01

No.

SPEAKER_00

Oh my god, I'll send it to you afterwards. But yeah, put uh Nep Nepal Revolution Taurus. I I think you spend far too much time on TikTok. And have a look at that. It is amazing what happened to that guy. Okay. Yeah. So starting off in January, something serious is that record low temperatures in Scotland sparked a lot of climate debate.

SPEAKER_01

As in because it's not happening?

SPEAKER_00

So cold, as in people panicking about the climate in Scotland.

SPEAKER_01

I thought you meant people were like, oh, because it's cold, climate change isn't happening, but isn't that the point? Like it gets really, really cold and really really hot.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Funny in January. Apparently, a gritter in Manchester named Ice Ice Baby becomes the first becomes the year's first beloved local celebrity after someone livestream it doing crispy 4am laps. So there you go.

SPEAKER_01

I don't know if I I understand what is happening in that sentence.

SPEAKER_00

So basically, a gritter, they called it Ice Ice Baby.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And someone street live streamed it doing laps at 4am. Oh, okay. I see.

SPEAKER_01

I don't understand why that made news, but I I I I is it because of his name?

SPEAKER_00

Yes, I think so. Ice Ice Ibe. Ice Ice Baby.

SPEAKER_01

Vanilla. Can you imagine if Ice Cube was driving it? That would be funny.

SPEAKER_00

Uh in February, it was announced that the NHS was uh pretty much overwhelmed. Yeah, for the worst time ever. And yeah, it's for the first time ever, well no, no, as in as in the the highest level of overwhelmingness.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Despite not being overwhelmed in COVID when the whole world was sick.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Yeah. Sorry. I know, I know.

SPEAKER_01

Roll's eyes. Something funny happened? Yes, to get over that.

SPEAKER_00

A London cafe accidentally goes viral for offering a deconstructed English breakfast, which is literally just each item in its own tiny jar. Can you imagine a pride egg in a jar? But apparently the cafe sold out for weeks.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, well, good for them.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, because it's quite niche and do do do.

SPEAKER_01

Random.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I like it.

SPEAKER_00

Uh of course, March, the London summit on Ukraine, puts the UK centre stage diplomatically on that. Eek. Yeah, let's uh let's move on from there. But in Wales, a flock of rogue sheep. That is so Welsh. Yeah, and uh locals called it a uh they this flock of rogue sheep escaped. Yeah, yeah, and formed what they called a sl a sheep flash mob and it blocked littles for two hours.

SPEAKER_01

That was their revolt. That was their revolution. Yeah their the Nepal revolution.

SPEAKER_00

Can you imagine pulling up flash mob? Can you imagine pulling up trying to follow it? What everybody do with a flop? Can you imagine doing your weekly shop with Liddles and you get to your car and you can't go meh

SPEAKER_01

They're trying to revolt. They're like Lamb Easter, nay nay, soldier. Yeah. It's March as well.

SPEAKER_00

Oh dear lord. So in April, I don't know what this means, Railway 200 celebrations kick off nationwide.

SPEAKER_01

What's that? Well, I feel like you should have checked this with Chat GBT to find out what these were. Let's go to the funny one.

Spotify Wrapped: Genres And Ages

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, the funny one. Uh, a commuter on the Jubilee line becomes an overnight TikTok staff for hosting spontaneous guess the stop before the doors open quizzes.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, fair enough.

SPEAKER_00

Uh in May, oh yes. I didn't know about this because Joe told me about this, actually.

SPEAKER_01

Go on.

SPEAKER_00

So Joe is obviously an archaeologist now.

SPEAKER_01

He is uh Indiana Jones.

SPEAKER_00

He is indeed. Did I did I tell you? Well, actually, no, I said it on stage, didn't I?

SPEAKER_01

I think you did.

SPEAKER_00

When I said about, you know, he needs to start his own company called Marriage.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Because he's always digging up the past. Yeah, get it?

SPEAKER_01

I do. That's a very boomer joke.

SPEAKER_00

I know, I thought it was great. Uh, but the Mel the Mellsby horde was discovered, and that basically reshaped Iron Age understanding. Oh now, I yeah, so Joe's actually found quite a few interesting things himself. Has he? He has indeed.

SPEAKER_01

A girlfriend?

SPEAKER_00

No.

SPEAKER_01

Sorry, Joe. I couldn't help myself.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, blessed. He wants to come on as well, by the way.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, Joe wants to come on. I'm not sure if not. I don't think that's appropriate. I don't think it would be a good idea. Um, but apparently, a seaside town in the UK in May, they installed an animatronic seagull to scare off real signals, seagulls. Signals! Signals to scare off real seagulls. And the animatronic one actually became more aggressive than the real ones, and they had to switch it off.

SPEAKER_01

Hold on. But surely it's being controlled by someone. Well no, it would be automatic. But how did it become more aggressive?

SPEAKER_00

AI. Oh, that's what I mean. Yeah. AI.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Um, in June.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Uh the strategic defence review shakes up security debates. Shake them up. Yeah, exactly. So you know, again, looking at Ukraine and Russia. Because yeah, you're watching the news at the moment. You know, we're all the apocalypse is gonna happen at any moment at the minute.

SPEAKER_01

I see.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we're all gonna die. Um well, we are at some point, aren't we? Let's be honest. We're all dying. Yeah, we're all dying. Uh anyway, something funny that happened in June. Uh, somebody replaced every portrait in a small town pub with framed AI images as customers as Renaissance nobles. And no one noticed for a week.

SPEAKER_01

That is the greatest prank I've ever heard in my life. That's so I love pranks like this, that that no one is humiliated. No, but it's just so funny when someone oh, yeah, that's that's that what a great use of AI.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Well, there was that those those guys in McDonald's as well. Did you hear about that? No. Where they got a picture of themselves and blew it up to like A2 size and put it on the wall in McDonald's, and it was up there for it was up there for a couple of weeks before anyone noticed.

SPEAKER_01

What is this?

SPEAKER_00

Uh in July, the Kensington, yeah, in July, my birthday, the Kensington Treaty strengthens UK-Germany relations. So again, there's a bit of a theme here, isn't there?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, there's a lot of let's make some allies. There's a bit of a big goes kaput.

SPEAKER_00

There's a bit of a theme here. Everybody's scrambling to be friends and yet everyone on each side before the bombs start flying. Yeah. But in Bristol, an ice cream van apparently accidentally blasted heavy metal music instead of the jingle for an entire afternoon as it's driving around. Can you imagine Iron Maidens bring your daughter to the slaughter as you know I was thinking like killing in the name of Fuck, I won't do what they tell me.

SPEAKER_01

Fuck you, I won't do what they tell me.

SPEAKER_00

Do you know what I realized the other day? What? And it to it's taken probably 30 years for me to realise this. What? You know the Matrix? You know the film, The Matrix. Yeah, okay. What is the mate? Is he is literally fighting the machines, isn't he? Yeah. Yeah. So who do they get to do the soundtrack for it? Rage Against the Machine.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It was like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I know it's it makes sense. Yeah, it just, you know what it was one of those things about, yeah, anyway.

SPEAKER_01

Full meta moment now.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, of course. Yeah, August. Remember this? The operation raise the colours. You know, putting starting to put the UK flag up everywhere. Yeah, let's move on. Funny, a Scottish man, uh Scottish man's attempt to break the world record for most iron brew cans stacked vertically outdoors ended when a gull came down and ploughed into them.

SPEAKER_01

Why are there so many seagull-related ones here today? Yeah, yeah. Seagulls are taking over the world.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Um in September there's again the the anti-immigration rally and canter protests, dominate headlines.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um but but on the funny side.

SPEAKER_00

But in September, a squirrel stole and hid 200 garden gnomes from a village over the summer. They're found in one giant stash behind a shed. And the squirrel promptly becomes a folk hero. Is it from one house? No, just around the whole village.

SPEAKER_01

It's just funny, it's funny to me that he would have if he had targeted one house, they kept replacing the gnome and being like, What the hell are these gnomes going? Hilarious. Or do you think someone stole the gnomes and then blamed it on the squirrel?

SPEAKER_00

Possibly. Yeah, possibly. Um, in October, it was there was a whole controversy about facial recognition tech.

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

Deep fake AI.

Top Songs, Artists, And Minutes

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Yeah. But in Essex, a pumpkin at an Essex farm went viral for being shaped exactly like King Charles' profile. The farmer names it his gorgeous. Yeah, Gord as an yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Cool. Isn't there a name for something when you see humanoid uh things in everyday nature? Yeah, you do, you mind ghost stories. Not personification, but something like that when you yeah, when you see stuff. And that's why they think that's where a lot of ghost stories and stuff come from. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01

Anyway, yeah. Cool though.

SPEAKER_00

November, so you eat the pumpkin?

SPEAKER_01

Who knows?

SPEAKER_00

No, they probably they probably froze it, framed it. Well, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01

Put it in a bin.

SPEAKER_00

Put it in a bin. Um in November, the it was reported that where there were weekly large-scale cyber attacks worldwide.

SPEAKER_01

Damn.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, lots of people doing cyber attacks. Exactly. There was.

SPEAKER_01

I remember actually uh going into uh the the local Marks and Sparks. Very rarely do I go to Marks and Spencer, but I was I just happened to be in there and they were like, oh yeah, we're not we're not accepting card payment. We were like, oh like that's a big thing, not accepting card payment. Um so yeah, it's because all their systems got hacked.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I think it was like, I want to say like Marks and Sparks co-op and they're all like part of the same group. Yeah, um, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That's how Flight Club ends, you know, destroying all the credit card companies and hacking them all and setting everybody's debt to zero.

SPEAKER_01

I thought you weren't supposed to talk about Flight Club.

SPEAKER_00

Oh yeah, sorry. But uh but funnily, a cat funnily, a cat repeatedly disrupted a local council live stream by walking repeatedly across the camera and became known as the parliamentary cat. There is a lot of animal related like well I put animal, I did say funny animal once because I thought for of you. So you like animals.

SPEAKER_01

I do like animals. I do like animals, these are cute.

SPEAKER_00

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

What happened in December this month? I was still in.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, then we're still in December at the moment, but there's still going on about the controversy with the with asylum seekers and immigration and duh into the UK. Cool. But did you know that a Christmas light switch on went viral when the mayor's microphone failed, so a random kid from the crowd did the countdown in the style of WWE.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, that kid has had good upbringing.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly. Nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Very, very John Cena.

SPEAKER_00

So there you go. That was that was yeah, just uh as I say, I didn't write that, I didn't get time, I just literally popped that into chat GPT and I yeah. But I did do a little quiz for you. Have we got time? We've got time. This this literally uh just a couple of quick questions. Is this quick fire quick fire questions?

SPEAKER_01

Let's rock.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, so just just just a few.

SPEAKER_01

I'm ready.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. So do you know anything about uh musicals and theatre, Hannah?

SPEAKER_01

No.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Hamilton.

SPEAKER_00

So let's just ask a couple of questions here because some of these won't get because these are quite hard. So which iconic British music group performed at the 2025 BAFTA Film Awards? Was it Coldplay? Was it Take That? Was it Depeche Mode, or was it the 1975?

SPEAKER_01

Depeche Mode.

SPEAKER_00

No. If it was Coldplay, it was Take That.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, it was Take That. I they were my second guess.

SPEAKER_00

Mm-hmm. Uh next question. I say we'll only do four or five. Uh which 1990s British band hit number one on the UK albums chart in 2025 with their comeback record. Was it blur? Was it Suede? Was it pulp? Or was it Oasis?

SPEAKER_01

Oh, it must be Oasis because of No. Oh. Well it's not blur. I haven't heard a blur song.

SPEAKER_00

No, it wasn't blur.

SPEAKER_01

I can't remember the other two. Pulp pulp.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Let's all meet up in the year 5000. Is that pulp?

SPEAKER_00

Pulp, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Is that what I sang was pulp? Yes. I always get those confused with. Yeah. Yeah.

Band Stats And Creative Plans

SPEAKER_00

Uh not white era. So which British crime drama series became one of Netflix's most watched shows in the UK after its March 2025 release? And pretty much everybody in the country watched this because it was so good. I don't think I watched this. I watched this, yeah. It was it was amazing. Was it called Missing You? Was it called Adolescence? Uh huh. Was it called Unforgotten? Or was it called Trigger Point?

SPEAKER_01

Adolescence.

SPEAKER_00

Adolescence. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

My first question, right?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I still haven't seen it.

SPEAKER_00

You still haven't seen it?

SPEAKER_01

No. Been a bit behind. Been a bit behind.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. So the next, the last two questions.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Right. Is I I put these in on purpose, very music related.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

In 2025, what was the biggest trend in song uploads worldwide? Okay. Was it AI generated music surged dramatically? Was it vinyl record vinyl recordings being uploaded was doubled? Classical music started to dominate the charts.

SPEAKER_01

It did for me.

SPEAKER_00

Or was it that live recordings started to replace studio tracks?

SPEAKER_01

I am more inclined to say the vinyl record one because that that industry has boomed recently. I'm gonna go vinyl records.

SPEAKER_00

Nope.

SPEAKER_01

It's not the last two. It's gotta be A then.

SPEAKER_00

It's AI.

SPEAKER_01

It's AI.

SPEAKER_00

AI.

SPEAKER_01

I didn't want it to be.

SPEAKER_00

Did you know I read the other day 50,000 tracks a day AI generated get uploaded to Spotify.

SPEAKER_01

Really?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

unknown

Damn.

SPEAKER_00

I'm so I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01

I I have to say I'm really against this, but there is one I do enjoy, which is the lady that explains how things work, but in song. Have you heard that? No. So it's like, say for example, like how uh something as stupid as how a boiler works, she'll explain it through song. And do you know what? That really sticks in my brain. Weirdly enough though, I can't actually remember now what what song that was what but say it was like fixing a car or something and it was all in AI. That's pretty I I think I can turn a blind eye to her. Well, fake her, not AI her.

SPEAKER_00

But so much so they're actually putting through some kind of legislation so that people have got to label the fact that it is AI generated content.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, no, no, no, they have to. Like again, with like Instagram uploading videos and stuff, there needs to be some sort of this is AI.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Because it's so hard to know.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Because I think a lot of the footage I see that's now AI is even looks like it's been poorly recorded, like from a ring camera or something. Like it's really but it'll be something funny like a cat coming through a cat flap or something, or a hedgehog going through a cat flap. Yeah. It's really cute. And I'm like, oh, this is so cute. And then someone's like, oh, it's AI, and I'm like, oh. I'm annoyed that it's AI when someone says it is. Um we ending it there.

SPEAKER_00

So there you go, yeah. But that's it, but yeah, 50,000 songs per day get uploaded to Spotify that have just been generated through our and I'm sorry, but as you know, someone who writes music and writes songs, that is just lazy.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and Spotify is barely pays you anything anyway for the real artists that put in all the work.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_01

So, yeah, that is annoying. But they very, very annoying.

SPEAKER_00

But who knows? You know, the robots may take over the world in 2026.

SPEAKER_01

Let's hope so.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, three eye Atlas, that went, came and went, by the way. That wasn't an alien spaceship in the end. That's I think that's gone past, got nearly gone out of the solar system.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, cool.

Month-By-Month: Serious And Silly

SPEAKER_00

You know, the big old asteroid that everyone thought was going to be a uh the saviour of the broken. Either that or it genuinely was an alien. It genuinely was an alien craft, and they kind of flew past and was like, nah, keep going.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, keep going. Keep going. They're destroying themselves, don't worry about it.

SPEAKER_00

Just leave them to it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Well, if you enjoyed this very cheery end to this episode, um Happy New Year! Happy New Year. Um, no, uh a massive thanks to all of our listeners over over the years, um, but particularly this year, we've hit quite a few big milestones with 100 episodes out um and uh 2,500 downloads as well. So thank you so much for listening or watching us on YouTube. And um we hope you have a pleasant year ahead. Um, and I hope that in my future there's more fun and music coming my way. I hope there's more fun and music coming for you as well.

SPEAKER_00

I sincerely hope there's more fun and music.

SPEAKER_01

Here, here, goodbye, good riddance actually to 2025. Um, and let's hope 2026 has much more in store for us. Cue the outro. Thanks for joining us on bonus dad, bonus daughter. Don't forget to follow us on all our socials and share the podcast with someone who'd love it. We are available on all streaming platforms. See you next time. Bye-bye.