The Briefing

He became one of the breakout stars of Married At First Sight Australia last year, but life after it wasn't exactly what Dave Hand expected.
The self-described "gentle giant" found himself navigating one of TV’s biggest experiments, alongside sudden fame and online scrutiny all while his dad was undergoing cancer treatment.

And this year he swapped one reality TV juggernaut for another, joining Netflix's Perfect Match alongside stars from Love Is Blind, Love Island, Vanderpump Rules and Too Hot To Handle.
In this episode of The Weekend Briefing, Dave joins Chris Spyrou to unpack the reality behind reality TV, from MAFS dinner parties to producer relationships, tattoo regrets and how he managed to avoid Bali belly while filming in ... Mexico.

The Weekend List
To Watch: Project Hail Mary (recommended by listener Rebecca)
To Watch: Not Suitable For Work on Disney+
To Do: Get around Baby Bunting’s ‘Storktake’ sale
To Listen: Anything from Madonna’s upcoming Confessions II album.
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Friday Headlines:
Pauline Hanson says $2.6m donations legit after PM casts doubt
Donald Trump calls off strikes on Iran
El Niño returns, likely to bring extreme weather to Australia
Government says it won’t repeat the mistakes of the resource boom with AI
FIFA World Cup kicks off in Mexico
Deep Dive: The world could see its first trillionaire soon, as Elon Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, goes public. If the SpaceX public offering goes to plan, then Musk could increase his personal fortune by hundreds of billions of US dollars in just a few days.
How did Musk get so filthy rich? And how should we think about one individual controlling a trillion US dollars, and the unique power that type of wealth confers?
In this episode The Briefing, Chris Spyrou is joined by Tom Maloney - an editor and wealth reporter at Bloomberg in New York to unpack Musk’s path to a trillion and how he conquered capitalism.
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In this episode of The Briefing, we continue Chris Spyrou’s chat with NSW Premier Chris Minns.
After discussing medicinal cannabis driving reforms, abortion laws and the state of political debate in part one, the conversation turns to One Nation.
Minns shares whether he pays attention to the polls, why he's concerned about his own seat, his reactions to the Federal Budget and his response to the political donations case heading to court next week.

Listen to part one here
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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thursday Headlines:
Trump promises to hit Iran ‘hard again today’
Belfast stabbing accused faces court as victim’s family condemns unrest
Pauline Hanson met with protests on Perth campaign trip
TGA launches crackdown on unregulated peptides
Bad Bunny meets the Pope
Deep Dive: There’s a lot going on in Aussie politics at the moment.

One Nation is polling ahead of Labor in surveys for the first time, abortion access is being debated, and one of the country's tougher states on drugs is carving out an exemption for medicinal cannabis users who drive.

NSW Premier Chris Minns is at the centre of a lot of it.

In part one of this two-part chat with Chris Spyrou, the Premier walks us through the state’s cannabis driving reforms, the push to outlaw sex-selective abortions and his reaction to the “ditch the witch” campaign targeting Jacinta Allan.

Listen to part two here.
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YouTube: @TheBriefingPodcast
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Headlines:
High Court: Australian government may have to compensate people who were illegally detained
One Nation’s anti-Labor fundraising drive brings in hundreds of thousands
Neale Daniher farewelled at MCG state funeral
Alleged Bondi shooter charged with 19 more offences
Oyster farmer elected to run for U.S. Senate
New research links iPhone to declining birth rate
Deep Dive:
The Iran war has escalated again, and the ceasefire has never looked more fragile. In the last 24 hours a U.S. helicopter was shot down over the Strait of Hormuz, leading to further rounds of strikes between the nations. Iran and Israel have also been exchanging fire, and Israel is still conducting an offensive against Lebanon.
In this episode of The Briefing, Natarsha Belling is joined by defence and maritime expert Jennifer Parker. Is the Middle East heading back into all-out war?
Follow The Briefing:
TikTok: @thebriefingpod
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YouTube: @TheBriefingPodcast
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.