After an unintended hiatus, Jesse and Henry are back with another episode of the Iron Duke Podcast. Given it seems like so much has happened in the last few weeks, we run you through the latest and greatest with Trump, Germany’s 2025 election, the Cook Islands, Chinese warships and (ex)Minister Andrew Bayly. A big episode today to get you all back on track with what is happening in the world of policy and politics.

Happy New Year listeners and welcome back to another season of the Iron Duke Podcast. It’s good to be back.

We kick the year off with a download on Trump’s first week back in power, how DeepSeek has taken the AI world by storm, political chat around a potential privatisation of state assets, how the Government’s push to get digital nomads visiting New Zealand, the reversal of speed limits and the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz.

The trio also pose a question to listeners around whether there would be interest in a monthly 45min deep dive into a single policy and politics topic – let us know!

To wrap up the year, the Iron Duke Studios team unravel all that was the year of 2024.

A Jesse and Henry special this week while Maddy is abroad. We discuss Luxon’s performance and the changing priorities as the Coalition Government passes their first year in power, the benefits and future of the Healthy Homes programme, how maybe things are not quite as great over in Australia as some of our peers make out, and the latest in Auckland with Brown vs Brown.

Your Iron Duke trio are joined today by Jamie Miller, a former Executive Director and expert campaigner for the Republican Party in Florida. Jamie is also an author and continues to write on the Reasonable Arguments Substack. We discuss with our first ever international guest what happened in the US election, including on the ground insights from Florida, where Trump succeeded, where the Democrats lost it and what this all means going forward.

All three podcasters are back in Iron Duke Studios to discuss the latest in policy and politics from New Zealand and around the world. We discuss our highs of this week including the Government’s formal apology to those abused in state care, the not-so-bad change in the unemployment rate and the rallying US share market. Getting us down include Trump’s clean sweep and potential first policies, the introduction of the Treaty Principles Bill to Parliament and the latest in the IRD data breach.

2024 US PRESIDENTIAL SPECIAL – votes are still being counted, but we have a clear winner. President Donald Trump will become the first to win non-consecutive terms since the 19th century. Jesse and Henry discuss what has happened, how it happened, possible implications going forward for the next four years, and the biggest winners and losers of this outcome. Tune in so you can keep up with all the presidential chat down at the pub on Friday night - no doubt we will be back again next week with some extended details too.

Get ready to learn more about space than you ever thought you needed to know! Also on this week's episode, Henry has an alarming Ozempic hype segment, we talk the Labour party, the banking review, silly thoughts on taking GST off sunscreen and builders self certification.