The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad - My Chat with Erin Molan, Australia's Superstar Honey Badger (The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad_761)

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00:01:16.380 Hi, everybody. This is God's Side for the Sad Truth. Today, I'm very honored for a specific reason,

00:01:22.340 because this lovely individual, it's six o'clock in the morning there, and she's willing to wake up this

00:01:29.940 early to come speak to humble me. Erin Mullen, how you doing? Oh, God, it's so lovely to be with you.

00:01:36.440 Thank you so much for having me. I did breakfast radio for four years, so 6am is nothing, my friend. I

00:01:43.060 would get up earlier for you, I promise, but I used to have to set my alarm for 4am for over four years,

00:01:48.920 so it's an honor to be with you. I'm such a big fan, so thank you for having me.

00:01:52.840 Oh, thank you. I first heard of you because people would send me, I mean, usually they were

00:01:58.480 pro-Israel supporters, and they would just endlessly send me links to this Australian firecracker,

00:02:07.740 and that's how originally we connected, but let's take it back. I want to make sure that I get the key

00:02:13.900 points in your bio correctly. You used to be a TV personality on a rugby channel or something of

00:02:20.840 that sort, right? So by rugby, we don't mean Australian rules football, we mean traditional

00:02:25.440 rugby, correct? So rugby league, not even rugby. So we've got three, well, four codes in Australia

00:02:32.280 that are pretty big. So AFL, rugby union, rugby league, and then football and soccer, we call it

00:02:37.960 soccer here. And rugby league is, I say, the biggest, but people where I am now, which is in

00:02:44.320 Melbourne, like to argue that AFL is much bigger. It depends on where you live in Australia. But I

00:02:49.380 started out hosting rugby league, so I was the first woman to host the footy show, which was like a kind

00:02:54.820 of weekly rugby league program. Then moved into hosting Friday Night Footy, doing games, and yeah,

00:03:01.220 from there, I kind of evolved into where I am now. My dad was actually in the army for many years,

00:03:06.960 and so we moved around, and one of the probably most impactful postings that he had was in Indonesia,

00:03:13.500 in Jakarta, during 1998, when the Suharto regime fell. And I would have been 14 or 15 years old at the

00:03:19.280 time, but I remember, even quite young, being so astonished by watching a country stand up and fight for

00:03:25.480 democracy. He was a ruler that was in power for 30 years, his children owned every major piece of

00:03:30.860 infrastructure, and then the country decided that they'd had enough, and they wanted democracy, freedom,

00:03:36.960 fairness, opportunity. And they hit the streets, a lot of people died, they gave their lives. So

00:03:42.820 watching that as a young person really instilled in me this sense of social justice, and this sense

00:03:48.120 of fighting for what's right, and being willing to give your life for that. And I obviously had dad

00:03:52.140 who was in the army as well. So I think even though I did sport for many years, hosted the Australian

00:03:56.560 Open, hosted tennis, lots of different things, the passion for me was always national security,

00:04:02.160 politics, foreign affairs, much more in that space. If I can put it in a succinct way. I got sick of

00:04:10.400 talking about men's groins at 11pm on a Friday night. As I got older, I thought there's got to be

00:04:15.920 more life than this, as much as I love. And now I found it.

00:04:20.360 Now you found it. I mean, I think you're being modest about that. He wasn't just in the army,

00:04:25.220 he was a general, was he not? He was a major general, absolutely in the Australian army. He

00:04:31.240 was incredible. At 17 years old, he got in a train by himself from Melbourne to Canberra to

00:04:36.340 Duntroon. And it was his dream job. He graduated from Duntroon, which is a staff college, officer

00:04:43.180 college here in Australia, the year that the Vietnam War ended, actually. So he didn't go to Vietnam,

00:04:48.260 but he then had this, the most incredible career where he, he was the most active Australian general

00:04:55.240 slash officer in many, many years, since probably the end of World War II, end of Vietnam. He ran the 0.91

00:05:02.840 war in Iraq for a year, actually, as part of the coalition operation. So he was chief of staff there.

00:05:07.820 So he worked with some incredible people, people that I'm still in contact today, General Petraeus,

00:05:14.140 lots of different generals there and ran that war and ran their first democratic election as well

00:05:19.460 in 30 years. So it was his job to do all the logistics behind that, to protect all the Iraqi

00:05:25.280 people who, for the first time, as I said, in decades, were lining up to vote and have their say,

00:05:29.880 given how tumultuous their lives had been thus far. So he cared deeply. He had a moral compass

00:05:35.100 like no other. And I didn't really understand that, God, for many years in terms of just what that

00:05:42.320 meant or how difficult it was to maintain that. But he was also, he had a great sense of humour.

00:05:47.320 He then became an Australian senator as well. And he, this is my humble brag, because it's not

00:05:52.020 so much, it's not me, it's him, but he's the most individually voted for politician in Australian

00:05:57.280 history. And it just goes to show he was, you know, you look at so many politicians who have been

00:06:02.360 from day dot, university, politics, straight into politics, no real life experience. I've never had

00:06:07.380 real jobs. And a lot of them care deeply and good on them. They do wonderful jobs. A lot of them don't,

00:06:12.980 but some of them do. But I think you just can't replace someone who's lived in the real world and

00:06:17.160 done real things, going into politics and helping shape policy and shape the future of a nation,

00:06:22.320 particularly when it comes to national security. So his loss last year was, I say it's a privilege

00:06:28.100 to still feel this, this sick, guttural pain. And I do every, every day, we're coming up to two years

00:06:34.740 now. But I think what a privilege that it still hurts so much, because if it didn't hurt as much,

00:06:39.840 he wouldn't have been so amazing. So I see it as often an honour. Yeah, that's beautiful. I saw the

00:06:44.960 tweet that you put out, and I think I responded to it. And it actually, I mean, in Arabic, there's an

00:06:50.200 expression where you don't compare yourself to someone who's deceased, because that way, you know,

00:06:55.280 it's like a curse. But seeing the glowing love you had for him reminded me of my own relationship

00:07:02.160 with my daughter, who just turned 15. A few years ago, I was giving a plenary talk lecture

00:07:08.980 for Hillsdale College. I don't know if you know them there. Have you heard of Hillsdale College?

00:07:14.120 I've heard them, yes. Yeah, Hillsdale College is sort of one of these real beautiful little gems of,

00:07:19.780 you know, there are 4000 universities in the United States, but they don't accept any

00:07:24.260 funding from the government so they can be truly free. So they, you know, very much classical liberal

00:07:30.140 tradition, you know, somewhat conservative values, and so on. So they had invited me down to Naples,

00:07:34.880 Florida to speak. And I had, you know, discussed the parasitic mind and so on. And at the end of my

00:07:41.040 talk, my whole family was there at the end of my talk, as I was a, you know, pretty, pretty sizable

00:07:45.360 crowd. And as I walked down from the podium, my daughter comes and hugs me and just whispers in my ear,

00:07:50.240 I'm so proud of you, dad. And I swear to God, that was, and she was about 12 at the time.

00:07:57.380 That probably was a bigger accolade for me that my 12 year old daughter would say, I'm so proud of you,

00:08:03.280 dad, than all of the other accolades combined. So I really do appreciate the love that you exhibit

00:08:08.860 for your dad. That's really beautiful. And I remember when I realized that not that dad was

00:08:14.860 special in any way that is elitist or wanky or anything like that. But when I realized just how

00:08:21.940 special he was in terms of what he stood for and who he was, which I know that your daughter would

00:08:26.780 relate to with me with what you do, because it's not, it's not easy. And he used to always say,

00:08:32.460 actually, he was, would do a lot of television, a lot of speaking, a lot of different things. And

00:08:36.180 he would joke that the saddest day of his life, and you look at all that he'd achieved in conflict,

00:08:41.980 in Australia, in politics, everything else. There came a moment when I started to make my

00:08:47.540 own name in television and in a very different field, obviously in sport, but he said he went

00:08:51.200 from being, you know, Major General Jim Molan, Senator Jim Molan to Aaron Molan's dad.

00:08:57.440 But I know he also was immensely proud of that. And, and, you know, I miss him so much. And I'm so sad

00:09:04.180 that I can't talk to him now, because sometimes I feel like I need him now more than I ever have. But

00:09:09.680 I'm not overly spiritual, I don't think. But I, I hope that he's still with me in some way,

00:09:15.940 shape or form. And I, I feel him sometimes I'd like to feel him here a lot more. But I'm hoping

00:09:21.080 that will come as more time passes. That's beautiful. May he rest in peace. And his,

00:09:25.420 his legacy will live on through just something as simple as this conversation, right? He is alive

00:09:31.140 right now. We're speaking about him, right?

00:09:33.400 Yeah, gab that they say people die twice once when they take their final breath. And the second time when you

00:09:38.880 stop saying their name. And this is, I made a promise to dad that he would never die twice under

00:09:44.100 my watch. So I will speak about him. I go to the airport yesterday, people come up and say your dad

00:09:49.000 was amazing. And then they say, Oh, I'm so sorry to bring him up. That must upset you. Oh, my gosh,

00:09:54.220 no, the opposite. I say, you know, dad, dad had a healthy ego. He loved people talking about him

00:09:59.100 and liking him as his daughter does a little bit as well. So I say, bring it on, bring it on.

00:10:04.000 Beautiful. So would it be fair to say, as I'm sitting here and sort of looking at you for long,

00:10:08.540 I mean, I, you were kind enough to invite me on your show, but it was only, I think a six minute

00:10:12.160 hit. So I didn't get to, you know, I'm focusing on what I have to say and so on. You're kind of

00:10:16.900 reminding me, I hope it's not an insult to say this. Are you the Australian Megan Kelly?

00:10:24.500 Look, it's, it's been said to me a few times and it's, it's an incredible honor. My gosh,

00:10:29.940 I take that every single day of the week. I'm different though in, in, I don't feel like I fit

00:10:36.860 into, and you're probably very similar when I look into you and, and, and what you believe and

00:10:42.280 what you feel and what you stand for. Just like she, she is as well. I think in some ways I'm quite

00:10:48.500 socially progressive. In other ways, I'm very conservative when it comes to the economy, national

00:10:52.860 security. I've just, and I'll be honest with you, I felt the way that I felt for a very long time,

00:10:59.540 but I didn't quite have the courage to express it until very recently, very recently. And I don't

00:11:07.200 know what the catalyst for that was. It wasn't, it wasn't when dad died. That was a couple of years

00:11:11.860 ago. And even then I still had this fear because I worked in, in so many different worlds and I

00:11:16.340 worked in breakfast radio where my audience were mums driving to school and it was a comedy show. So we

00:11:22.020 just laughed and we talked about Taylor Swift and, you know, all different things that, that were fun,

00:11:27.140 but, but not really of substance when you look at the world today and the things that really matter,

00:11:32.620 but, but great fun. But it's only in the last six months that I've really started to, to find my

00:11:37.680 voice. And I look at women like her and I think it's, it's similar, right? I think you, you get to

00:11:42.040 a stage where you're old enough, you're ugly enough, you're wise enough. You care much, much less 0.94

00:11:48.420 what people think, but you care much, much more what the right people think. So I care much less

00:11:54.580 now about people who are nasty, who are, who don't contribute a thing, could not care less.

00:12:01.160 If I love you or you pay me, I care deeply what you think. That's it. Anyone else couldn't care less,

00:12:07.640 but I care much more deeply about what people who almost can't articulate what they think or my,

00:12:13.020 my daughter, my six-year-old, what she needs from me is to fight for the kind of world that I want

00:12:17.820 her to exist in when she's older. So it's, it's funny. You, you care less in some ways, but you

00:12:22.200 care deeply more in other ways. And then this ability to just, to speak without fear has taken

00:12:29.520 over me in, in a way that, that has surprised me in, in some circumstances as well. But it's,

00:12:35.520 it's also a great privilege, I think, to have a platform and you would know that as well in your

00:12:39.800 world. And I think if you have a platform, I couldn't look myself in the mirror if I used

00:12:44.300 the platform that I had and I said things that either I didn't believe or that weren't genuine

00:12:49.300 or that were trying to placate different audiences, different people, or if I was trying to, to have

00:12:55.600 everyone like me, that's one of the greatest things dad ever did was there was a protest at

00:12:59.900 university when he came home from Iraq and they were calling him a war criminal. And I was so upset

00:13:06.000 by it. I was like, how am I, my dad is, my dad is so brave. He saved so many lives, millions of

00:13:11.300 lives, you know, in East Timor, in Iraq. I forget he's incredible. These people are calling him a

00:13:16.280 war criminal. And about two weeks later, I walk into his office at home and it's laminated on the

00:13:20.940 wall. This, this poster calling him a war criminal. And he said, Erin, you haven't made it till they

00:13:26.760 protest at university calling you a war criminal. And you know why? Because I fought for their right to

00:13:31.820 do that. The irony, huh? And that was it. He would not care. He was so self-assured and he knew

00:13:38.100 beyond any doubt that every decision he made was in the best interest of whoever he was trying to

00:13:43.700 protect. He was so noble that he did not care less because he had no doubt. Wow. Well, I'm glad that

00:13:51.020 I was the first to educate the great Erin about what it means to be a honey badger. I was surprised

00:13:57.840 that you didn't know. I mean, I thought that was sort of a universal archetype. So now you clearly

00:14:02.920 understand the great compliment that it is. Yes? Absolutely. See, the issue is, Gab, that here

00:14:09.780 in Australia, we have a honey badger who was a rugby union player and he became the honey badger. And he

00:14:15.300 was this real ocker Australian who had this, this outback humor. And then he ended up doing the Bachelor 0.95

00:14:21.300 series as a celebrity bachelor. His name's Nick Cummins. And at the end, and believe you me,

00:14:26.040 I've matured since watching the Bachelor, I promise you, I'm really mature and sophisticated

00:14:29.900 now. But back in the day, 10 years ago, whenever I used to watch it, he had these two beautiful

00:14:35.380 women at the end. He didn't choose one of them and both their hearts were broken. So then in my mind,

00:14:40.020 the honey badger became this evil person who wouldn't choose a woman to marry. So now I'm glad 1.00

00:14:46.400 it's been redefined in my mind. So I'll take it. Beautiful. Okay. So I want to talk a bit about,

00:14:52.360 I mean, I have an Australian person, so I have a deep love for Australia for several reasons.

00:14:58.040 Let's begin with reason one and go back to memory lane to landing in Sydney, 2001. It's my first

00:15:06.380 sabbatical leave. So I'm taking seven weeks in to tour Australia and New Zealand, two weeks,

00:15:12.220 New Zealand, five weeks, Australia. My wife and I, we didn't have children then we land in Sydney.

00:15:17.340 Of course, it's a very long trip from Montreal. We're in King's Cross, which I hear is a pretty

00:15:23.020 shady area. Is that right? We had no... Let's go through phases. But yeah, there's a lot of

00:15:28.800 gang type stuff back in the day and strippers. So that's what I saw. I didn't feel very,

00:15:35.240 you know, threatened. I just felt like it was slightly seedy. But as we walked around,

00:15:40.180 I landed in this kind of cafe, neighborhood cafe, where I had the first orgasmic flat white,

00:15:50.240 and I still have not recovered. I still have not been able to find that hit. And so my wife and I

00:15:56.940 will often talk about, do you think we could ever replicate that first time? So you clearly know what

00:16:02.920 I'm talking about.

00:16:03.640 I'll tell you now, Gad, you are, you are already a king here in many circles, but you've just widened

00:16:08.820 that significantly because most people know that Australian coffee is the best in the world,

00:16:13.160 but the majority of foreigners will never admit it. So thank you. That, that, that was incredible. 1.00

00:16:18.800 100%. And I mean, I'm from Montreal. We've got, of course, in the Middle East, the coffee tradition.

00:16:24.200 So I'm a coffee snob and I've never experienced... Now, not every place I went in Australia,

00:16:30.360 the coffee was as good, but certainly that first one, absolute top World Cup. It's the Messi,

00:16:37.240 the Lionel Messi of coffee. So you could put that on a...

00:16:39.860 Oh my God. What's the name? I mean, this could launch them into...

00:16:44.180 Can I tell you something? I've often fantasized about whether I can go back to that spot and

00:16:50.880 they're still open now. This is 2001. So it's 23 years ago. The likelihood of a cafe being open for

00:16:57.900 that long is probably remote, but... Particularly with our political government there. That would

00:17:03.500 also be very hard for them to have stayed open for that long. Oh, is that right? Okay. Well,

00:17:07.600 if by, by fluke, they know who they are, please send me an email, but it was really sort of off.

00:17:14.460 It wasn't on the main street of, you know, the King's Cross. It was an off street, sort of the bottom

00:17:20.820 of a residential building and it was just magical. All right, let's keep going. So I just make the

00:17:26.040 point that I've, I've heard many men start a line toward me and it's maybe getting a little bit less

00:17:32.060 as I get older, but I've often fantasized about, but none of them have ever finished it with finding

00:17:37.380 that coffee shop again. So I just want to let you know, thanks. I have to be careful. I'm a married

00:17:42.340 man. So I've got to do the whole, uh, professorial. Very lucky. Well, thank you. Uh, all right. So

00:17:50.260 first I begin with Sydney. Sydney was absolutely outrageous because it reminded me of Southern 1.00

00:17:55.540 California, but just with people with weird accents. Does that make sense? Yes. It makes total sense.

00:18:02.580 I think you've nailed it. There you go. Then I go to Melbourne and I had heard in the past that

00:18:08.340 Melbourne is akin to Montreal. There's, there's been a, so I, I live in Montreal. Uh, so a lot

00:18:14.580 more sort of cultured and so on. So loved Melbourne, uh, even won 20 Australian dollars in the Melbourne

00:18:21.840 casino on, on the river or whatever it's called. And I told my wife, if we win $20, we stop. So that

00:18:27.560 way we paid for the all you can eat buffet. So that was that. Then, uh, we went to, is it Phillips Bay?

00:18:34.680 Yes. Yes. Correct. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Beautiful. Then we hit, uh, the great ocean, uh, road. I

00:18:43.900 still haven't done that ever in your life. Never. I need to get out more. I'm actually quite a

00:18:51.540 non-social. I get social awkwardness and anxiety. So I just stay home generally for the most part,

00:18:56.180 but I need to hit the great ocean road. Clearly. Or you will find the right people to invite me over

00:19:02.260 and pay me the right remuneration and then we'll go do it together.

00:19:07.240 Do you know what? That is a great point. And for everyone listening here, if you want to bring

00:19:10.160 this man over, come on, come on. There you go. Uh, here's me being a Jew again. Look,

00:19:17.360 Jews just run after the money. That's all we care about. I'm just doing it. Uh, all right, 1.00

00:19:21.940 let's go on. Uh, then after that Adelaide, it's slightly bit more, not antiseptic, gorgeous,

00:19:29.440 but a bit more sort of planned, rectangular, so on. Then we went to Kangaroo Island.

00:19:35.900 Oh yes. Then Brisbane, surface paradise and so on. And now I come to arguably, uh, the,

00:19:43.640 the scariest part. We ended up in Cairns and I've often joked that if I were hired to be the

00:19:50.680 tourism board director of Cairns, here's what the slogan would be. Come visit us in Cairns where

00:19:57.520 there's a thousand ways for you to die.

00:20:02.740 I tell you being there, you're being only a thousand. Wow. You must've gone and no, look,

00:20:08.840 it's, I've only been to Cairns twice. And once was, we took a group of radio listeners and look,

00:20:17.220 there are, it is stunningly beautiful in some parts, in other parts, not so much, which is

00:20:23.840 probably reminiscent of most places in the world, but how did you nearly die? This is a great story.

00:20:28.900 Get ready. You're right. I'm going to try to list them off my head. The date, the, I think it was

00:20:33.680 like sort of dusk. As we get there, there was a level one, I guess you guys call it cyclone or

00:20:39.680 typhoon, whichever, a hurricane basically. So there was that. So we had to be careful. Second. So that's

00:20:44.900 number one, death. Number two, be careful. Don't walk here or there. Cause there are all sort of

00:20:50.420 rowdy indigenous guys that will pick fights with you. Number two, number three, be careful. Don't 1.00

00:20:57.120 get stung by mosquitoes, which is not a difficult thing for me to try to avoid. Cause I have a huge

00:21:01.340 mosquito phobia because they have Ross river fever. Number three, number four, don't go into any of

00:21:09.760 these gorgeous beaches because the box jellyfish will kill you. Number five, there is a spillover from

00:21:18.260 the rivers. So the salties, the salt crocodiles will come on the beach, be very careful. They'll

00:21:25.380 kill you. And then to end it all, there was about four different types of man eating sharks 0.97

00:21:30.540 lurking. If you actually wanted to jump in the water and not be killed by the box jellyfish.

00:21:36.000 So death was everywhere, Aaron.

00:21:39.860 Oh, it sounds like a typical Australian town with the nature and the wildlife. Absolutely. But

00:21:46.060 isn't it, isn't it exciting? Wouldn't it be so boring if you went to a place, I know like

00:21:49.780 Hawaii, where you just lay on the beach and there was nothing trying to kill you. I mean,

00:21:54.260 live a little gad, come on, live on the edge. You were an adventurer.

00:21:58.760 Very true. All right. So I missed probably Perth.

00:22:04.340 And Canberra. Don't people in Australia are so mean to Canberra. We're our own people. I was born

00:22:10.240 there. They say it's boring. Oh, it's got Parliament House. They hate it. It's politics,

00:22:15.020 blah, blah, blah. It is one of the most incredible places in the world. It is one of the most

00:22:19.300 aesthetically beautiful places. And I'm obviously a little bit biased as I consider it home,

00:22:24.440 but it's just Canberra in autumn. That's when you need to go driving down some of those streets and

00:22:30.580 the lake and it's beautiful. So Canberra next time, it doesn't usually top the list of kind of must-see

00:22:35.700 places, but it should. Oh, wow. So that's the capital, correct? Capital, yes. So it's kind of

00:22:41.540 like our Ottawa. Yes. Yeah. And it's got the war memorial as well, which I guess just given

00:22:47.140 dad and my kind of passion in that space, it's the most incredible place where you just, I mean,

00:22:53.440 not enough young people do it today in so many ways. And I'm sure you would agree with this in 1.00

00:22:58.740 terms of actually understanding history. But when you want to decide that you care deeply about

00:23:03.680 something, when you want to advocate for something, when you want to protest, you know,

00:23:07.340 I feel like protesting is just back in the day, protesting was such a noble thing because people

00:23:13.300 understood the cause. People protested for things that were genuine and legitimate and they fought

00:23:19.900 because they understood. Nowadays, I see so many people protesting for hate and terror and evil

00:23:26.520 because most of them don't understand. Some of them absolutely understand and that their

00:23:32.340 intentions are awful. But a lot of people just don't understand. So I feel like going to places

00:23:36.960 like that, going to places where you actually learn and understand history and understand. And

00:23:41.960 you, I've mentioned you probably 50 times since we did our interview. Even last night, I was at an

00:23:47.020 event in Melbourne at a fundraiser because what I'd struggled with so much since speaking out in

00:23:52.340 this space and so many young people said, don't you care about all the kids dying in Gaza?

00:23:57.020 Don't you? I read a headline about something bad happening to a child and I am in tears. I am the

00:24:03.820 most empathetic, emotional person. You know, my daughter has a blocked nose and I feel sad because

00:24:10.420 she might be uncomfortable. Because I care so much is why I stand so strongly against terror,

00:24:17.400 against the people causing that death. And I said to you, how can these people who wave the flags of

00:24:21.740 must legitimately believe that they are helping children? And you said to me about this concept

00:24:27.740 of suicidal empathy, about the book you're currently writing. And it's blown my mind. It's comforted me

00:24:33.560 in so many ways because I go, okay, now I get it. Because people, yeah, so many people seem so,

00:24:41.640 just so confused in so many ways. But when you put it that way, I went, that's it. You've nailed it.

00:24:47.200 And that is one of the greatest issues that we as a society face is misplaced empathy. Because I

00:24:51.500 like to believe most people are inherently good. So if they're inherently good, why are they

00:24:56.780 supporting terror? And you're right, you've nailed it there. So I think your education coming back to

00:25:02.500 the War Memorial is kids' understanding. So therefore, they can put their energy and their passion and

00:25:07.760 their fight into things that are noble. And it doesn't mean it has to be things I agree with,

00:25:12.280 but things they understand and things that are noble. Yeah, I'm very, thank you for mentioning the

00:25:17.240 book because I'm feverishly writing it, even at a faster pace than I would typically do so. Because

00:25:23.340 it has really gone unbelievably viral. And people don't even, so people are sending me tons of emails

00:25:31.000 saying, well, how come I can't order it? Well, I haven't finished writing it yet, you know, but that's

00:25:35.700 kind of putting, sorry? That's my fault for saying it was done in my newspaper. Maybe you're the cause.

00:25:40.980 No, but thank you. Yeah, so I mean, I'm going to try to have a first draft ready, way ahead of

00:25:48.340 schedule, probably in the next few months. But we'll see, fingers crossed. How is it if you were

00:25:54.240 to look at the ratio of people who come up to you, you know, very complimentary and positive and

00:25:59.820 supportive versus the ones who don't? What is the ratio, I'd like to think, 99 to 1? Or am I being too

00:26:06.820 optimistic? No, do you know what? You've absolutely nailed it again, which doesn't surprise me. But

00:26:12.240 this isn't new to me, right? People disliking me. I feel like, you know, if people, if everyone likes

00:26:17.740 you, you're not doing things passionately enough. You're not standing up for what's right. You're not

00:26:22.460 making enough of a difference. And when I started in football as the first woman to do a fair few

00:26:27.880 different jobs, the people that came out and were so offended by my mere existence were just,

00:26:35.900 you know, online, it felt like so many, you know, be one dickweed 101 on Twitter thinks you need to

00:26:41.700 go back to the kitchen. Oh, thanks, dickweed. Yeah, really, really clever insult there. But in real

00:26:47.100 life, not one, I think one person in 10 years said something mean to me. And I can't even remember,

00:26:52.780 it was in a pub. And I was like, whatever, every other person would come up to me and say, you are

00:26:57.540 amazing. You're leading the way for women, you're incredible, etc, etc. And it's the same in this space.

00:27:02.960 And this is what gives me hope that the vast majority of people understand what's at play

00:27:08.200 here. They don't find it complex. There is no blurry line in terms of, do you support terror or

00:27:13.900 do you support not terror? You know, it is so simple. And I think most people believe that. And

00:27:18.500 look, where I live in Sydney, it's daily. And it makes me sad that people feel the need to thank me

00:27:24.800 because all I'm doing is looking at a situation without any bias, no skin in the game. I'm not Jewish.

00:27:30.300 I'm not from Israel. I've, you know, I'm not married to nothing, zero connection, zero. All I'm

00:27:38.560 doing is looking at a situation, looking at as many facts as I can find, and telling you what I think

00:27:43.960 about it. And that's it. And what I think about it is what I think about it. And in my mind, it's

00:27:49.480 the truth. I'm saying the truth. So the fact that that needs to be thanked, or that people need to

00:27:54.900 be grateful makes me incredibly sad. You get the idiots online. Absolutely. And I, you know, it's, 1.00

00:28:00.500 I've got a six year old daughter, so I get threats all the time that scare me. Absolutely. I've had to

00:28:05.940 have police protection. I've had to give my daughter to her father. But when I lay awake at night

00:28:12.180 wondering, is it worth it? Am I endangering her? I think about the kind of world that will exist if I

00:28:18.960 don't do this. And if other people don't do what I'm doing. And the reason I fight so hard, and I

00:28:24.200 stand up so strongly against what I see as terror and evil, and people who only want death, is because

00:28:30.500 I want her to grow up in a world that values life. So when I worry about her safety now, I'm far more

00:28:36.960 worried about it down the track. If people like me, like you, if other people don't stand up and fight

00:28:41.840 for the kind of world that that everyone deserves. Perfectly stated. I think I just found that, you

00:28:47.760 know, those short clips that you have to share, just to make the thing go viral. I think I found

00:28:52.340 that it's around the 30 minute mark. There you go. Let's make it go viral. Where does where does?

00:29:00.980 So let's say we had the the woke meter that or as to use my term, you know, parasitic continuum. So,

00:29:08.620 you know, Canada is an utter disaster. So let's put it at the extreme. I mean, it's kind of trying 0.99

00:29:14.540 to now outdo some of the traditionally woke countries, Sweden, and so on. And but certainly

00:29:20.280 with Justin Trudeau, we've perhaps even exceeded the most woke of European countries. United States

00:29:25.920 is turning a bit more work, although, of course, now with Trump winning, there'll be an auto correction.

00:29:30.900 Where does Australia fit in that woke meter?

00:29:33.620 That's a great question. I talk about this analogy when I talk about the perception of a country in

00:29:41.960 Canada, you're right, I look at that country at the moment, and I just think, what a disgrace. Yet,

00:29:47.540 I know that that most people in Canada probably are not representative of that, which gets most of 0.97

00:29:54.080 the attention. I think it's the same thing in Australia, we have, we have a very loud minority,

00:29:58.260 a very, very loud minority. And I talk about the fact that the things like, like wokeness or evil

00:30:04.700 or things that hurt us, regardless of how severe they are in the scale, it needs three things to

00:30:10.520 survive and thrive. And that's weak leadership, silent majorities, and useful idiots. And we've 1.00

00:30:16.460 got a lot of useful idiots, like there's a lot of people around the world, but what drowns them out 1.00

00:30:20.700 is the silent majority being less silent. And that's where I think we've gotten to where we need to 1.00

00:30:26.160 make a decision as a people. Do we want these people to get all the airtime on the news every

00:30:31.160 night? Do we do we want our kids looking at a saturated environment where they think that is

00:30:36.300 normal, or that is caring, or that is this or that is that? Or do the silent majority who actually

00:30:41.260 stand for what is good and right in this world, actually want to decide at some point to speak up

00:30:46.880 and to take up the space that's been taken up by them. So we're very woke when it comes to a very

00:30:51.860 loud minority. But but the mainstream Australian, I get reassured of this all the time, I think is is

00:30:58.520 is against all of that. They are kind, they're caring, they're inclusive. You know, I've got a

00:31:03.200 gay brother, I'm socially progressive, I'm but but it's gone to a stage where it has gone so so far

00:31:09.820 that all it is doing is hurting us in so many ways. So so we're we're woke with the minority, but I

00:31:16.060 think the majority is not like most places. I look at so car racing. So when I was a sports host,

00:31:22.260 I would do cover seven or eight hours of car racing. And in my one minute 10 package on the

00:31:28.020 news, the 6pm news each night at 642, it would go to air my one minute 20 package on the Bathurst car

00:31:34.520 racing. What would I show in that one minute 20? Prashers. That was it. I had one minute 20 to fit six,

00:31:41.100 seven hours in. And the most interesting, the most stimulating, the most ratings driven content

00:31:47.440 was the car crashes. So so someone might have driven 800 perfect laps. That might get a say at

00:31:53.660 the end in a little afternoon. Oh, and blah, blah, blah. He was good. But look at Barry and Gary and

00:31:59.600 Darry who all crashed. Oh, it's made, you know, it's exciting. It's, it's dangerous. It's this,

00:32:05.340 it's that. And I see mainstream media in particular, do that all the time, not just with sport,

00:32:11.160 but with everything. So so we might have a day of peace and beauty and fulfilling heart. And then

00:32:17.380 one idiot gets a sign or goes and harasses someone and they make up the majority of the news. So you 1.00

00:32:22.720 could watch it and think, my God, but the majority is not like that. Thank goodness.

00:32:28.080 Right. I was trying to think before we began our conversation, how many Australians I've had on the

00:32:33.720 show. And forgive me if I forget to anyone that I might forget, but off the top of my head, I can

00:32:39.520 think of two people, one of whom is your colleague at Sky News Australia. Do you know who I'm talking

00:32:44.880 about? A female. Oh, I do. I have many colleagues, but I don't know which, can I guess? Yes. Only because

00:32:51.320 I saw the other day that she'd retweeted one of your tweets. And so I thought, I wonder if she knows

00:32:56.900 him. Rita? Yes. How's that? Yes, yes, yes. Actually, yes. You and Rita would get along

00:33:03.420 incredibly well. She's been on my show once and she was kind enough to invite me on hers a few

00:33:08.480 times. The other Australian, I really wonder if you would know him. Do you know a lot of the

00:33:14.060 Australian filmmakers? I don't know how famous he is, but I had him on before I even tell you his name.

00:33:20.280 He's a gay filmmaker. Would that help you guess who it might be? Can I be honest?

00:33:26.980 No? I am the worst. So I think the last movie I saw was Mr. Bean's Holiday. I listened to Billy

00:33:34.460 Joel, Rod Stewart and Meatloaf. I am the least cool person when it comes to pop culture, anything new,

00:33:41.060 anything modern. So it's not what I'm trying to say is he should not be offended that I will probably

00:33:45.320 have no idea who you're talking about. Okay, so I'm going to say, but to your point, you mentioned

00:33:49.520 Billy Joel, Rod Stewart and Meatloaf. And I'm going to use, I think you'll understand the reference,

00:33:56.000 two out of three ain't bad. And you know who's the one that I wouldn't include on that list? Mr.

00:34:01.600 Billy Joel. Rod Stewart, legendary Meatloaf. Certainly some of his songs are incredible and

00:34:08.260 certainly two out of three. Billy Joel will have to have a separate private conversation about your

00:34:12.720 love of Billy Joel because that does not... What about Catholic girl stuff? Much too late. 1.00

00:34:17.540 The honey badger of Australia should not be admitting publicly that she's into Billy Joel, 0.99

00:34:22.820 but okay. So, but here's the filmmaker. Let me tell you the story. So my wife, unfortunately, 1.00

00:34:30.280 sleeps very, very early. It's a miracle if she could be awake past 8.30 at night. And so pretty much

00:34:37.920 after 8.30 at night, I'm on my own. And one of those lonely nights, I'm flipping and I find a movie,

00:34:45.080 an Australian movie. Now I'm telling the story of how I hooked up with that film director. And the

00:34:50.940 movie is called Cut Snake. Have you heard that? Have you heard that? Yes, I have. Yes. Have you seen it?

00:34:56.940 No, of course not. Oh, it's fantastic. And so I watched this movie. I think it's absolutely

00:35:03.600 brilliant. And so I just decide I'm going to... And this is probably eight, nine years ago. I'm just

00:35:08.980 going to reach out to the guy, the filmmaker, and have him on the show. So he's the other Australian. 0.98

00:35:15.280 His name is Tony Ayres. A-Y-R-E-S. Is he at all? Is he a household name?

00:35:21.120 The name is very familiar. Look, I thought you might've been going to say Russell Crowe,

00:35:25.860 but no, Tony Ayres. He's close. He's close. I'm going to look him up now. If you have an

00:35:31.400 interest in him, then he must be pretty special. So I'm going to look him up.

00:35:34.040 Oh, you're very sweet. Well, but I'm glad you said Russell Crowe, because I have here,

00:35:37.820 I prepared a list before we came on. What is going on with Australia? Some of these,

00:35:41.880 I didn't even know where Australia, most of them I did. You, Jackman, 0.94

00:35:46.040 Guy Pearce, whom I love as an actor, but I found out he's a bit on the walkster side.

00:35:51.140 That kind of pissed me off, but I really do love him. For example, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,

00:35:56.120 one of my favorite movies of all time. Wow, that surprises me. I would never have picked that.

00:36:02.060 Yes. See, I'm socially liberal too, Madame Honey Badger.

00:36:08.060 Geoffrey Rush, Nicole Kidman, but let me tell you when, I don't like Nicole Kidman of now.

00:36:13.360 Nicole Kidman of 1992, flirting. Have you ever seen that movie?

00:36:19.180 No, of course I haven't. I need to. Put it on the list.

00:36:22.340 I was going to say she was flirting with you. 1.00

00:36:24.600 No, no, she wasn't. I've never met her. Of course, if she met me, she'd flirt with me, 0.99

00:36:28.520 because it's just natural to fall under the sway of the Lebanese lover. Exactly. 0.99

00:36:32.380 But no, I haven't met her. Mel Gibson, well, you know, he's Australian. Tony Collette,

00:36:37.440 Russell Crowe. And here's one that I only recently found out she, I was surprised that 0.87

00:36:41.300 she could carry such an American accent. Sarah Snook.

00:36:44.800 Yes, isn't he amazing?

00:36:46.580 He's amazing. So what is going on that small country in terms of population, not in terms of,

00:36:52.820 you know, size? How are you guys generating so many top artists? What's going on?

00:36:58.700 Yeah, it's a great question. And it's, I think you look at, and look, we steal some of them.

00:37:06.900 Russell Crowe was born in New Zealand, but whatever. We only kind of steal one.

00:37:11.680 But New Zealand's not a real country, right?

00:37:13.960 No, of course not. No, it's not a real island. I adore New Zealand. The Prime Minister is a good

00:37:18.460 friend of mine. Hello. You are wonderful people. But I think it's, you know, I think it's this

00:37:24.380 passion and this drive that we have and this overcoming the odds mentality. I mean, you talked

00:37:30.060 about the kind of animals that we face day to day in this country. Like I can't walk to the mailbox

00:37:36.500 without a kangaroo trying to kill me. You know, it's intense. So when you learn to survive in this

00:37:42.520 jungle that is Australia, when you go to somewhere like Hollywood, you're like, oh God, is this it?

00:37:47.900 Oh, ages. Oh, no, that's nothing. You know, I've got this. So I think we have this mentality where

00:37:52.760 nothing is ever too hard and we try. And I, you know, I'm not a Hollywood superstar by any

00:37:58.040 stretch of the imagination, but even from my first ever job in TV, I went to an audition.

00:38:02.500 I was hopeless. I was so bad. I had to read an autocue. I was 20 years old. I left knowing that

00:38:08.160 I was horrific. But once a week for six months, I sent an email to the boss of that community TV

00:38:13.800 station and said, I know that I was awful, but please give me a shot. Please give me a shot. No reply

00:38:18.000 for six months. It was almost six months to the day he rang me and he said, if I give you a two

00:38:22.900 minute segment on the food show, will you leave me the fuck alone? Absolutely. And that was my first 0.99

00:38:30.200 taste of not being particularly talented, but just annoying the shit out of someone until they gave 0.83

00:38:35.260 me a shot. And I think that's, that's a kind of mentality that we have in Australia and same as, 0.92

00:38:40.320 you know, being smaller and less powerful than a lot of other countries. But gosh, we, you know,

00:38:46.780 in different conflicts, when we would go to war with our allies, we more than carried our weight

00:38:51.500 and then some, you know, I think we're a country that punches above our weight in many ways.

00:38:56.140 Russell Crowe is actually, he's a good friend of mine and we've played tennis a few times.

00:39:01.600 Myself and another friend of mine play against him and his girlfriend, Britt. And I tell you what,

00:39:06.960 if you think he's competitive in the film space, you watch him play tennis. Crazy. 0.60

00:39:12.160 Does not like to lose. I'll put it that way. 0.98

00:39:15.020 Wow. All right. I'm looking at the time because I know that you have a flight or trip coming. So we

00:39:21.940 only have about two or three minutes. This is a question that's become part of sort of the setup

00:39:28.320 here on the show. And it stems from the fact that when I wrote my last book, I wrote a book on

00:39:33.120 happiness towards the end of the book. I talk about, you know, how to hopefully live a life where when

00:39:38.400 you look back, you don't face many regrets. And so the regret question has become a staple of the show.

00:39:43.780 So let me set it up for you. So there are two types of regret that most people think about.

00:39:48.560 They think about regret due to action. So I regret that my marriage ended because I cheated on my

00:39:55.200 wife. So I did something and that caused regret versus regret due to inaction. I regret that I

00:40:00.680 never became an architect and decided to go in the military because my dad was pushing me to go into

00:40:06.140 the military. Right now, it turns out, Aaron, that over the long run, when you ask people to look back

00:40:11.120 at their lives, the most looming regret is one of inaction. So you're still a young woman. So

00:40:17.560 you have a lot more life to live. But if I were to ask you today, what is your greatest source of

00:40:23.120 regret? Would you be kind enough to share it with us? Absolutely. I don't think I've ever really been

00:40:29.780 asked this question. I was thinking about it. I know that you do ask this at the end. And I think

00:40:36.400 it definitely falls into that inaction space. And it's if my father ever heard me say something like

00:40:44.680 this, or if I had heard myself say two years ago, say something like this, I would have said you are

00:40:49.520 absolutely kidding. I'm a 41 year old single mother who did therapy for the first time last year. I

00:40:57.840 actually sat down with the most incredible psychologist and I, my dad was a major general

00:41:02.340 in the army. He was a blokey bloke, six foot six, this warrior. You know, I'd say, love you,

00:41:07.300 daddy. Like, goodbye, Aaron. Like, you know, we don't talk about feelings. We are, we were never a

00:41:13.880 family that ever talked about feelings, mental health, whatever. But last year I gave when dad

00:41:18.360 was dying, he looked at me and he kept me in the room. My siblings had all had all left. And he said,

00:41:24.900 and I thought he was going to say, you're my favorite, you know, you're my hero. And he said,

00:41:29.180 you look awful. And I kind of went, wow, you know, like for starters, I'm losing the most

00:41:35.760 important person in my life. So I'm not going to look that crash hot. But I actually then started

00:41:40.600 to think about what he meant. And I was so miserable in so many ways. I had no peace in my

00:41:46.940 life. I was constantly anxious. I was on edge. I just was this chaotic mess. I'd never spoken about

00:41:53.560 things that had happened to me. I'd never healed. And I never thought I'd be someone who would use the

00:41:57.320 word healed. I'd never done any of that. As I left the room, my siblings and mum were waiting

00:42:01.340 outside. And they're like, what did he say? And I said, well, he told me I look awful and I'm the

00:42:05.340 hot one. So you guys are screwed. In you go. But what I thought my gift to my dad would be 1.00

00:42:11.200 was to do some therapy because he was right. I was, I was, when I smiled, it wasn't genuine.

00:42:17.680 There was nothing genuinely happy about me. I had this facade of happiness and joy. And so I did

00:42:23.080 therapy and it changed everything about my life and I don't do it. I get one year and I now text

00:42:29.300 my psychologist if I'm having an off day, but it changed my existence. And I, even as a mother,

00:42:34.220 I've always, I thought been an incredible mother. I love my daughter more than life itself,

00:42:38.100 but I look back at the first four or five years of her life and I was there, but I was never present

00:42:44.780 because my mind was so conflicted and chaotic and traumatized. And so, so my one regret is that I

00:42:51.840 didn't do it 20 years ago, but it's also brought me here. It's also brought me to this place now

00:42:58.420 where what I used to think was happiness is not even close. So my ability to appreciate this new

00:43:05.360 found peace, even in the midst of lots of chaos, I learned how to be okay with peace. And beforehand

00:43:11.480 I wasn't. And I saw this thing, people go to therapy to learn how to deal with hard times. No,

00:43:16.500 no, my, my life has been full of hard times. I am the greatest dealer of hard times in the history

00:43:22.280 of the world. You, you name it. I, people would say badge of honor, you cope, you get back up,

00:43:26.400 you do it. What I couldn't do was live with peace. And when I would find peace, I would create chaos

00:43:31.720 because I didn't know how to live with peace. Now I worked really hard and it was brutal and she was

00:43:36.940 bloody brutal, called me out. She was awful, but she taught me how to live with peace. So my one regret

00:43:42.860 would be that I didn't do it earlier, but I think in some ways it's also given me the greatest

00:43:47.760 appreciation and gratitude for the fact that I've done it now. So as a final message, anyone,

00:43:53.240 even if you don't feel like you have problems, seeing someone could be the greatest gift you

00:43:58.880 ever give, not just yourself, but your children and the people you love. And yeah, that's what I

00:44:03.060 would leave you with. Wow. What, I mean, I wish we had more time because there's so much follow-up I

00:44:07.580 could, I could hit you with what an incredibly honest and refreshing answer. Thank you so much.

00:44:11.860 Stay on the line so we could say goodbye offline. Please come back anytime you want. And hopefully

00:44:17.240 we'll see each other in Australia really soon. Thank you so much, Erin.

00:44:20.900 I can't wait. Thank you so much. It's such an honor to join you and thank you for the incredible

00:44:24.480 work that you do. And if I could just finish by saying, people often stop me and say, particularly

00:44:29.740 men and say, I would love my daughter or my child to feel the way about me that you feel about your dad.

00:44:35.560 That is my hope. I'm so inspired by that. I look at you, speak about him and it just,

00:44:40.620 that's what I want. And I know having seen so much of your work that your daughter and your

00:44:45.520 children would think exactly the same way. And you should be immensely proud because as they get

00:44:51.060 off, they understand how hard it is and how much it matters. And you should just feel incredibly proud

00:44:56.800 because I know they would. Wow. I'm speechless. Thank you so much, Erin. Talk to you soon. Stay on the line.

00:45:02.200 Yes.

The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad - November 27, 2024

My Chat with Erin Molan, Australia's Superstar Honey Badger (The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad_761)

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