Transcript
Speaker: G'day, I'm Trent Maxwell.
Speaker: And I'm Lee Mason.
Speaker: And we want to welcome you to our Live, Learn, Survive podcast.
Speaker: Since 2018, Lee and I travelled the globe and met face-to-face with over 36,500 children in six countries across three continents.
Speaker: We created a series of award-winning children's books, a global online education program, and are founders of the Live, Learn, Survive charity, all focused on teaching children and young adults life skills that not only help themselves, but help others too.
Speaker: We're on a mission to spread awareness about fire, water, and first aid education to inspire the next generation of first responders.
Speaker: So join us for the next half an hour with some fun, inspiration, and kindness, and we'll try and learn something too.
Speaker: How are you this week, Lee?
Speaker: Welcome aboard.
Speaker: This is the time.
Speaker: It is a disaster day, but it's all good.
Speaker: So, Maxie, we can just only hope that everybody listening is having a better day than us.
Speaker: You know, this is just one.
Speaker: This is just a Leah Maxie classic.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: For the YouTube people, I'm sitting in a car.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Sunny was kicking off.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, I was like, you know, I know you're on holiday tomorrow, but are you on the way to the airport?
Speaker: What are we doing?
Speaker: Are we fitting this in before we, you know?
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: So where do we start?
Speaker: So basically, guys, this is not spontaneous spur of the moment, but we're meant to have a chat with Big Wave Dave, who co-wrote the Maxis Lifeguard series.
Speaker: You know, last week we spoke to our illustrator, Paul Doran.
Speaker: This week we're going to do Big Wave Dave.
Speaker: unfortunately um he blames himself but it's not tech technical difficulties with uh with the max it seems the max were playing up so we could we could kind of sort of hear him but we couldn't see him and you know what the big wave dave or should we say author david lawrence and comedy writer but towards his big wave dave he is the funniest man
Speaker: He's such good energy.
Speaker: We just wanted to do the chat with him justice because he is an all-round top bloke and legend.
Speaker: So we weren't going to half do it and ruin it.
Speaker: We are going to save that for in a couple of weeks because he'll be worth every minute of it.
Speaker: And not that we want to shortchange anyone, but you got us.
Speaker: Ha ha!
Speaker: Yeah, you've got us.
Speaker: It should be good chat.
Speaker: But there's a little bit to catch up on too, so bear with us.
Speaker: We haven't got many notes because it's just in the last 10 minutes we've decided to do this.
Speaker: But first of all, hopefully everyone's doing really well.
Speaker: Everyone's been enjoying some of the podcasts.
Speaker: We've had a number of great guests over the last couple of months.
Speaker: And, you know, we're changing a few things from Live, Learn, Survive, the charity,
Speaker: We've got another number on the board.
Speaker: There's some really cool things.
Speaker: So I think we're going to still do the same layout.
Speaker: We're going to still do each category of what we usually do.
Speaker: But off the fly, try and talk about things that are going on within the LLS space and within our personal lives as well.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: So what have we got?
Speaker: Have we got the quote?
Speaker: Do we know what the quote was this week?
Speaker: Hang on one second, one second.
Speaker: You're putting me on the spot now.
Speaker: I have the quote because obviously, as we know, Monday was St.
Speaker: Patrick's Day.
Speaker: So Monday Motivation, we did two posts on Monday.
Speaker: The first one was about St.
Speaker: Patrick's Day and we gave a shout out to all our friends.
Speaker: But the quote was, I am a great believer in luck.
Speaker: And I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.
Speaker: Interesting.
Speaker: There you go.
Speaker: I like it.
Speaker: Good stuff.
Speaker: Happy St.
Speaker: Patrick's Day to everyone as well.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: So we put the post up.
Speaker: We used a little four-leaf clover.
Speaker: And, yeah, it's like, what do they say, the look of the Irish.
Speaker: So we used a look quote.
Speaker: And interestingly, the harder you work, the lookier people think you are.
Speaker: Yes, that's true.
Speaker: And there's another quote.
Speaker: I've been listening back into the audio book chain again.
Speaker: And I saw something the other day and it kind of resonated with me.
Speaker: It's like, you know, people are constantly trying to chase, chase, chase, chase.
Speaker: But really you've got to change your mindset to just attract.
Speaker: You want people to be attracted to your work, what you do, your work ethic, who you are as a person.
Speaker: If you're constantly chasing and trying to, you know, wait for someone to notice you or things to kind of happen,
Speaker: unfortunately sometimes they don't so you need to kind of change the direction and we'll talk about a little story later in this podcast where a certain situation happened recently where you know some just funny how the universe works i should say so yep yeah exactly exactly so um so we um normally what do we got good news so um here we go we've got some music
Speaker: The music is broken, Maxi.
Speaker: The music's there.
Speaker: So the first thing, like on the YouTube, people, look what I've got.
Speaker: And I'm so disappointed because we weren't able to show this big wave Dave.
Speaker: So I'm going to have to send him a photograph in a minute.
Speaker: But here it is, fresh off the printer yesterday.
Speaker: Book two.
Speaker: Have I got that the right way up?
Speaker: The other way.
Speaker: There you go.
Speaker: Book two, The Stormy Protest.
Speaker: The Stormy Protest.
Speaker: How awesome is that cover for all the YouTube people?
Speaker: And then we've got the fact that it won the award back in 2019.
Speaker: Incredible, incredible cartoon by Paul Doran.
Speaker: And if you haven't listened to last week's,
Speaker: podcast yet with paul on it go and listen because he was an absolute legend and they're here and my next job is packaging all the orders up so they're here they're on the way people they're on the website um could not be more excited to have them and i'm gonna get some sent around to everyone um get some sent down to you maxi very very exciting we waited a long time for it haven't we and now it's here
Speaker: It's awesome.
Speaker: It's real.
Speaker: You can touch it.
Speaker: Brilliant.
Speaker: And yeah, there's been some other good things.
Speaker: We've just added a new person to our board, our charity board and Maxwell Cottingham is a really, really good gentleman.
Speaker: I work with him, but he's also very, very knowledgeable and he's going to be a great asset to the board.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: Welcome, Max.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And we look forward to building the relationship.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: Couldn't not be more excited.
Speaker: So we're going to get a share of the photo and some news on Max very, very, very soon.
Speaker: He has been on the podcast.
Speaker: So if you go back, scroll far enough, you will find Max and like you, Maxie, a firefighter and also a paramedic and an ambassador for Are You Okay?
Speaker: So all the things that we care about at Live and Survive.
Speaker: is um completely max's world so very very excited to um have him with us as well so that's awesome um and we've both been having a bit we've been having a bit yeah i was just gonna say yeah i was gonna say it started this week i was lucky enough to be involved with the shape for 2025 which is they showcased the um
Speaker: the works of HSC students of 2024.
Speaker: So there's a short list of 1400 people and then they choose 50 projects to display for the eight week period down at Walsh Bay in Sydney Harbour.
Speaker: So schools and people can go and visit and see all sorts of different stuff regarding technology, fashion, you know, ideas, life-saving devices and so on, you know, some of the talents.
Speaker: And I was very lucky enough to be a special guest there
Speaker: And they did give Live and Survive Charity a good mention.
Speaker: And we look forward to hopefully working with the New South Wales Education Authority into the future.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: Great event.
Speaker: And also, you know, to just encourage new people with innovation is just really, really fantastic.
Speaker: So good stuff going down there.
Speaker: And I've been out and about.
Speaker: I've been at a few lunches and networking.
Speaker: Being out with the business chicks.
Speaker: Got to get a glass of water.
Speaker: I might say I'm going to cough.
Speaker: That's all good.
Speaker: And then I've got an event on Friday.
Speaker: And also, I'm going to be speaking again at an event in May, which is going to be amazing.
Speaker: So a little variation of creating little superheroes is going to be held at an event in Brisbane on, I think it's the 13th of May.
Speaker: So going to be sharing some more details about that in the next episode.
Speaker: few days when the tickets are going on sale.
Speaker: So anyone in the Brisbane area that wants to come out for a coffee, come along and have a, I think it's a breakfast.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Nine till 11 in the morning.
Speaker: So yeah, we've got lots and lots, lots of meetings, lots of things going off.
Speaker: And it's certainly been a busy old time at Live and Survive Land, hasn't it?
Speaker: It has.
Speaker: It's been very busy.
Speaker: Did I miss anything?
Speaker: I think I missed plenty.
Speaker: Yeah, there's plenty that we've missed, but you know what?
Speaker: We're kind of going off the fly here.
Speaker: That's what we kind of do in this podcast.
Speaker: If everyone has been listening from the start, you know, there's a bit of structure, but, you know, sometimes we just got to wing it.
Speaker: So that's one of those days today.
Speaker: Well, it's an impromptu kind of catch up.
Speaker: So any, while we think about it, Maxie, any unfortunate events?
Speaker: Yeah, I actually have an unfortunate event.
Speaker: So when I was on the way to this event the other day, yeah, I did the event with the New South Wales government.
Speaker: It was awesome.
Speaker: Went to leave at six o'clock when it finished and I got jumped on my scooter and my scooter died again for the fifth time.
Speaker: So I had to leave it in Walsh Bay.
Speaker: Not my scooter.
Speaker: So I had to get an Uber from there back home and then I had to go to work yesterday.
Speaker: So I'm trying to organise a tow before I go away to the Philippines tomorrow.
Speaker: So try and get on top of that.
Speaker: So where's the scooter now?
Speaker: It's parked safely at the Walsh Bay still.
Speaker: So it'll be fine there.
Speaker: It's just logistics of getting it from there to here.
Speaker: I'll get on top of it.
Speaker: But yeah, that's an unfortunate event.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: An unfortunate event is we're meant to have a crash.
Speaker: Yeah, well, I meant to chat with Big Wave Dave just before.
Speaker: So, unfortunately, that didn't get to happen this afternoon.
Speaker: But, you know, the positive here, we're still doing a podcast and still going to be out on Friday.
Speaker: Exactly right.
Speaker: Exactly right.
Speaker: And, yeah, and the only unfortunate event that...
Speaker: I've really had is, we had a cyclone, but we're all kind of getting there.
Speaker: And yeah, lots of people still without power now, two weeks on, but majority of Southeast Queensland back with power.
Speaker: And I have my lovely, lovely big frangipani tree in the front garden, which we salvaged, chopped back, did all the right things to it on the weekend and replanted it.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: um hopefully um it all recovers so um thinking of everybody who went through that in southeast queensland as well and it's not ideal there's a crazy uh crazy storm cyclone um you know like you said thankfully no one lost it a lot sorry a couple of people did lose their lives from getting swept off the off uh driving through floodwaters and we've always spoken about floodwaters exactly so
Speaker: Our thoughts are with them and their families.
Speaker: But again, guys, you know, if there's flooding, severe weather, do not go out and play in these areas because, you know, injuries can happen and death can happen.
Speaker: So, you know, look after yourselves.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: So, right.
Speaker: Okay, what happens next?
Speaker: Normally, Maxie, is it dad joke or job of the week?
Speaker: Yeah, we've got the dad joke.
Speaker: We've got the dad joke, Lee.
Speaker: So what have you got there for me?
Speaker: Well, these dad jokes are being dedicated, Maxie.
Speaker: We heard from our little friend Oliver in Ollie, little Ollie in England.
Speaker: We heard from him this week.
Speaker: We got an update.
Speaker: Seriously, we're going to do a social media post about him soon.
Speaker: Mum's just given me permission to share the photos.
Speaker: Little superstar winning awards.
Speaker: When did we first learn of Ollie?
Speaker: It was before probably about 2021.
Speaker: Yeah, it was about 2022.
Speaker: We were maybe going to try and see him in 2022, and we didn't when we were over in the UK.
Speaker: Out of the blue this week, we got an email and an update.
Speaker: He's kicking goals, and we heard that he likes the podcast, and he likes the dad jokes.
Speaker: So, Ollie, these are for you.
Speaker: So, here's my first one.
Speaker: These are for you.
Speaker: So, here's my first one, Maxie.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: What do corn cobs call their fathers?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What do they call their phones?
Speaker: My fingers trying to get to the music.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: We've got another one there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I've got another one for you.
Speaker: Why did the physics teacher not get along with the biology teacher?
Speaker: Why did the physics teacher not get along with the biology teacher?
Speaker: There's just no chemistry.
Speaker: It's been a while since I've set a couple of these.
Speaker: There's been a couple of, so I'm just recycling.
Speaker: I put them straight in the bin.
Speaker: Come on, show me what you got.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So why can't a bicycle stand on its own?
Speaker: Oh, why can't a bicycle stand on its own?
Speaker: Because it's too tired.
Speaker: My favourite one of all, and I've repeated it, you know, a long time ago, but did you hear about the guy who invented the knock-knock joke?
Speaker: He won the Nobel Prize.
Speaker: Did you hear about the guy who invented the knock-knock joke?
Speaker: He won the Nobel Prize.
Speaker: He won the Nobel Prize.
Speaker: Oh, my life.
Speaker: Oh, what is this?
Speaker: This is what the people are here for.
Speaker: So as you know, people will be thrilled to know the dad jokes have got absolutely no better since we were last.
Speaker: So there we go.
Speaker: So right, job of the week.
Speaker: Do we go job of the week now, Alexey?
Speaker: All right, well, we got job of the week.
Speaker: Yeah, it's been super busy at work.
Speaker: Oh, where do I start?
Speaker: Since I've been back from paternity leave, pretty much nearly every shift we've had a fire.
Speaker: This set we had, I think three, not major, but the calls were of substance.
Speaker: We had three house fires, a unit fire, three car accidents, medical access, concern for welfare, all sorts of different crazy things.
Speaker: It's never a dire moment out at sunny Bankstown, but
Speaker: Yeah, it's good to be back from having eight weeks.
Speaker: You ticked every box.
Speaker: Ticked every box.
Speaker: It's been busy.
Speaker: You know, yeah, it's just good to be back.
Speaker: Recently did a promotional exam to get into like the first stages of becoming a leading firefighter.
Speaker: So I got through to the next stage, which is, you know, hopefully the next couple of weeks, a couple of months I'll apply for that.
Speaker: But, yeah, just chipping away.
Speaker: Amazing.
Speaker: Within the fireys.
Speaker: I've done a couple of shifts on the beach, but not too many.
Speaker: It's starting to kind of come into autumn now.
Speaker: It's a bit quieter.
Speaker: But yeah, we've just been focusing on Fires and Live, Learn, Survive and building that.
Speaker: We've got some really cool stuff, some really important meetings in the next couple of weeks or in, I should say, mid to late April.
Speaker: And yeah, we've got Max and myself and you and Nick and Andrew.
Speaker: We're putting the Brains Trust together and I should say Jenny as well.
Speaker: that we are trying to, you know, just evolve the program even more.
Speaker: You know, people have been with us from day one.
Speaker: You know, we're constantly chipping away to try and make this better, more accessible, more appealing to not just everyone, but ideally lower socioeconomic kids that have disadvantaged in certain areas.
Speaker: And we're really, really starting to focus on some of those areas.
Speaker: So watch this space.
Speaker: DGR charity, it's going to help us get to heaps more people.
Speaker: So, yes, stand by.
Speaker: Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker: Lots and lots of statistics, working analysis happening in the background.
Speaker: And, you know, it's incredible.
Speaker: I think we, one of the numbers that came out, like that we came off, there's something like, because now we're a public benevolent institution, which means,
Speaker: no child gets left behind and those child children that need it most get the education.
Speaker: And there's something like 1.4 million, million children that qualify to be funded by the charity.
Speaker: So our job now as well is to go and find those funds.
Speaker: So, um, fundraising strategy is going to be a big thing for our next board meeting.
Speaker: Um, because the more money we have, then the more kids we can help.
Speaker: So, um, yeah, lots of, um, things happening.
Speaker: So, um,
Speaker: Good stuff, Maxie.
Speaker: And then what have we got next?
Speaker: Where do we go from here?
Speaker: I'm like, where's the legs?
Speaker: Tip of the wake.
Speaker: We've got tip of the wake.
Speaker: Yeah tip of the week this week is creeks and waterholes.
Speaker: So a couple of months ago or about a month and a bit ago we did a video around a creek here in Sydney.
Speaker: We spoke about the hidden dangers, what you might come across in different waterholes.
Speaker: Unfortunately a lot of people do drown in rivers, lakes, dams, creeks and more people drown inland than they do on the coast here in Australia.
Speaker: So
Speaker: It's a very important video.
Speaker: Um, you know, we hope you enjoy it.
Speaker: Uh, it's available, um, on, uh, we've done a few stories and a few reels on our socials, but we're in the process of evolving our online program.
Speaker: So those videos that we did record recently will be, um, available to people that are enjoying up to the program.
Speaker: Yep, exactly.
Speaker: And, um, the thing around the statistic around that, Maxie, they're just, um, the Royal Lifesaver have just issued their, um,
Speaker: summer drowning report this week.
Speaker: This summer, 35% of drownings were in rivers or creeks.
Speaker: That was the statistic that we shared on Monday.
Speaker: And that came directly from the latest report from Royal Life's Heaven Society.
Speaker: And I actually noticed they were on the news last night saying
Speaker: their chief executive was being interviewed and I actually took a photograph of the screen because they were literally talking about the swimming ability of children and how it's really, really suffering.
Speaker: And it's a decline that started from COVID, but it's really, really suffering.
Speaker: 31% of schools have no learn to swim program.
Speaker: And whereas you probably would remember from your kids' days, the swim carnivals,
Speaker: So many schools now are not even running swim carnivals.
Speaker: And I remember because it's stuck in my mind of the schools that are over 50% of the children don't take part.
Speaker: So sorry, Max, you were going to speak then.
Speaker: I was just going to say that the swimming carnivals is what I heard today, that they're counting that, which is tragic.
Speaker: And, you know, they're wondering why the people are still drowning and the numbers are going up and up and up.
Speaker: You know, it starts at the grassroot level.
Speaker: So, you know, hopefully... So we had...
Speaker: Hopefully we can come up with a way where we can work alongside the charity and the government and get more people involved and to learn these skills because it will save lives.
Speaker: And it's so unfortunate to see it go down, not just here in Australia, but I guess around the world as well.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And Nick's been in the office with me this morning and we've both seen the news and Nick's has actually just shared with us on our website
Speaker: team email some statistics she found so I'll have a read of those later not good when kids aren't learning to swim so not good it's not and I think it's only going to get worse if they're going to stop at grassroots level of not doing swimming carnivals and swimming lessons it's tragic to hear but you know what we're going to be in the forefront of if we can get our foot in the door to be able to educate more people we're going to try and take that opportunity
Speaker: We'll be doing our bit for sure.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: Okay, then, boss, what have we got next?
Speaker: Well, I haven't got any facts, but we can go to reflection.
Speaker: Well, we just gave the facts to me about the drowning.
Speaker: So let's go to reflection.
Speaker: Yeah, reflection, I think, you know, we're meant to talk to Big Wave Dave today, and this is a bit of a spontaneous podcast, but, you know, reflecting on the relationship built.
Speaker: with Dave all those years ago, helping us create the Max to the lifeguard series.
Speaker: You know, the fact that we've managed to get the first and second, sorry, the second edition of book one and book two out, potentially three on the way this year, you know, it's, it's a great relationship and I'll reflect on how far the books have actually come and it's exciting to see this new generation of books coming through.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: And like this little book in second edition has been on our radar for so, so long.
Speaker: You know, it's not an easy process getting it like all pulled together and into print.
Speaker: And to actually see it is really exciting.
Speaker: And it will be, you know, I'll make sure there's one waiting for you in the post box when you get home from your holiday.
Speaker: But just for the people that are on YouTube, look at those illustrations.
Speaker: Just incredible.
Speaker: Absolutely incredible.
Speaker: So very, very proud of how far this book's come in and that it's got a new lease on life.
Speaker: So the Stormy Protest, back out.
Speaker: Delayed by a couple of days because of a cyclone.
Speaker: Kind of appropriate.
Speaker: Stormy protest?
Speaker: I think so.
Speaker: Interesting.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So excellent.
Speaker: Good stuff then, Maxie.
Speaker: So song for the playlist.
Speaker: I've got a song here.
Speaker: It's called Lying in the Sun by Kook Joey.
Speaker: It's a bit of a catchy song.
Speaker: It's added to the playlist.
Speaker: It's been on repeat a few times, even had a bit of a play in the fire truck.
Speaker: But, yeah, it's a good, fun song.
Speaker: Again, guys, you know, Live, Learn, Survive, Spotify playlist, songs are added every week or every time we have a guest or every time we do a podcast.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So get those happy, feel good tunes on and, you know, rock the day away.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: exactly and um i think that all left to be said sorry that this is a little bit um unexpected people but you know what we always try and deliver something and um you know all that left to be said is maxi have a wonderful holiday and thank you all the best for ryan and rain on their wedding yes ryan and rain uh my cousins getting married and people that
Speaker: listen or watch the podcast.
Speaker: Brian used to welcome me as a lifeguard down at Bondi.
Speaker: So obviously we're very close.
Speaker: Yeah, very excited.
Speaker: It's been on the cards for about three or four years to go to the Philippines for this wedding.
Speaker: So we're so happy it's happening.
Speaker: Can't wait to get over there.
Speaker: It's me, Tali and Sunny's first family holiday.
Speaker: So
Speaker: making sure everything's packed and ready to go, which I think it is.
Speaker: But, yeah, we're excited and no doubt we'll be in touch and tell you all about it at the end.
Speaker: But I think the next time we speak will be after we do the next adventure race as well.
Speaker: So I've got an adventure race, Jungle Edge.
Speaker: Yes, exactly.
Speaker: Jungle Edge going for the three-peat.
Speaker: So we'll be wishing you luck on that.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: Yeah, all going off.
Speaker: So Mr and Mrs Yerbury, are you going to go peekaboo?
Speaker: Are you going to do that?
Speaker: Peekaboo, yeah, I might do that.
Speaker: But I know that you've got a couple of events.
Speaker: You've got a couple of events coming up, so have fun with that as well and get the message out there.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So, yes, I'm going out with the Australian Women in Construction.
Speaker: I'm going to meet some of those ladies.
Speaker: I was out last weekend with a psychology firm that invited me along from meeting at the Redlands.
Speaker: doing incredible work with children.
Speaker: So yeah, we're getting out and meeting as many people as we can to spread the word.
Speaker: So we'll be back here doing that while you go and have a little R&R.
Speaker: And we will see everybody.
Speaker: And it's probably fair to say there may be a weak gap because you hinted at
Speaker: at the beginning, Maxi, we are moving the platform that the podcast is hosted on.
Speaker: So there's going to be a little bit of setting up and things in the background.
Speaker: But if we miss a week, we'll put a little post up on Insta so people can know all about it.
Speaker: No drama.
Speaker: Good stuff.
Speaker: All righty.
Speaker: We're still nearly at half an hour.
Speaker: Still nearly at half an hour.
Speaker: Yeah, we did all right.
Speaker: So go pack your bag.
Speaker: You have a...
Speaker: plane to catch and strangely tomorrow I have a full day in the office so that's rather a bit exciting after the chaos lately so I will look forward to that too so get a good few podcasts for the flight and enjoy having little Sunny on the plane and I hope she travels well and she'll probably have a lovely little sleep those baby bassinets
Speaker: those baby yes so for you for you and mom i hope you get this yes a lovely little sleep so good stuff all right everyone take care have a great week and we will see you all soon see everyone bye bye
