What Did You Do Yesterday? with Max Rushden & David O'Doherty
WDWDY #54: A Yesterday Like Any Other
14 Jan 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main question this podcast seeks to answer?
podcasts there are millions of them some might say too many i have one already i don't have any because there are enough politics business sport you name it there's a podcast about it and they all ask the big questions and cover the hot topics of the day but nobody is covering the most important topic of all why is that are they scared too afraid of being censored by the man
Possibly, but not us. We're here to ask the only question that matters. We try and say it at the same time, Max. What did you do yesterday? What did you do yesterday? What did you do yesterday? That's it. All we're interested in is what the guests got up to yesterday. Nothing more.
Day before yesterday, Max? Nope. The greatest and most interesting day of your life?
Unless it was yesterday, we don't want to know about it. I'm Max Rushton.
And I'm David O'Doherty.
Welcome to What Did You Do Yesterday?
Hello and welcome to What Did You Do Yesterday? Midweek Mayhem. This is huge. With me, David O'Doherty, and joining me today is special guest Max Rushton. I don't know how I feel about this.
Now, I have occasionally done the easy chair alongside Paul Hawksby, who is a master of the craft. And I don't mind it, you know, and I don't want to get possessive, because I think the way you began that episode was very good, but you can just tell my tone. I feel uncomfortable on that side of these things.
It doesn't come natural to me, you know. I definitely sound like... Who's your favorite TV chat show where the guest host would just be? I mean, it's a bad example, but Bill Cosby used to fill in for Jay Leno. Right. Okay. So I'm Jay Leno and you're Bill Cosby. Oh God, no. You should have started it, Max. I'll never do that again.
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Chapter 2: What humorous anecdotes do Max and David share about their past experiences?
If David was watching YouTube videos about how to fix gadgets to remove wrinkles from chinos, that would probably explain why he couldn't sort out the boiler. Keep up the sensational work.
In it for life, Matt. I remember this. I did try to repressurize the boiler, but I didn't step beyond what you're allowed to do as a mere mortal. And we did end up, there's a plumbing supplies shop on my road. We ended up getting one of their mates to come. Amazing how quick. This podcast gets to literally the dullest places on earth, doesn't it? It's like two minutes.
The fellow said that I'd had a good old go, but it was time for me to sit back and let the master take over.
It's like before the paramedics get there. You've done a pretty good job of resuscitating. You know, you've done staying alive. You've done some mouth to mouth. But now it's time for the experts to step in. I once held the drip.
for a man who'd broken his pelvis wow i don't know why i'm telling this story i'll tell it another time it's not relevant it doesn't it's no link to it yeah it's no link to it at all hang on what is the staying alive is that you keep the beat that's when you're meant to go uh beat to the beat yeah because if you do other bg songs it can cause all sorts of damage
How deep is your love?
Because on How Deep Is Your Love, you can't help pushing hard on love.
And that's when the ribs go. I do remember my father once tried to teach me how to play golf. Bracket's not that successful. And he said the key to golf. Yeah. And this is a man of a 19 handicap at his best telling you what the essence of the game is, is the blue Danube, the song. Yeah. Because it goes. So that's what you should have in your mind. You go back on. Yeah.
Yeah.
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Chapter 3: How did David's attempts to fix a boiler lead to comedic moments?
Let me explain. The story starts harmlessly enough with Nora's loss of Green Bunny, but the plot quickly swerves into groupthink territory. A regular writer with regular impulses might have used Green Bunny's loss to teach Nora a tough lesson about accepting loss and the emotional emptiness of inanimate objects, but not DOD in his slavish devotion to consumerism.
DOD constructs a narrative wherein the zoo animals and enslaved population risk life and limb to rescue the lifeless stuffed toy of their oppressor, the zoo-strolling monster Nora.
All the funny voices in the world, even your excellent work, Max, cannot free those animals from behind bars, just as nothing can mitigate the abject violence DOD endorses in his shameless promotion of a capitalist utopia. Nora's lust for possession puts every living creature in harm's way. And when a common seagull dares to see through DoD's web of deceit, it is promptly eliminated by a bus.
Vladimir Putin himself would blush. Anyhow, I love the show. Frida Lima's Patrick from Jersey.
That is brutal takedown of the story. If I can respond very briefly to my haters. Please. I didn't create. I tried to make the zoo to be like a sort of prison. Like in a way, the inspiration there was an Ealing comedy with Peter Sellers called Two Way Stretch, where they break out of the prison to do a crime and then break back in because their release is coming up.
And as regards the bunny and Nora should have learned the lesson that you lose things sometimes. Yes, that is. But that's why I gave the bunny added sentimental value because the bunny belonged to Nora's late mother. I mean, I didn't expect Gramsci to come at me like that with the Marxist interpretation of the story, but I think I've responded to it reasonably well. Thank you.
Brian says, hello generic man, three-eye recycling enthusiast and the production team who does all the work. I had mixed feelings when you revealed that this podcast is a well-rehearsed and tightly scripted production. I love knowing that you two have given yourself a lifetime of work by creating these amazing characters.
However, I worry that Jamie will now be typecast as a harried wife who mainly complains and buys unnecessary Tony's Chocolonelys. And Helen Copter is doomed to a Maris Crane type existence for all eternity. Please advise, everything in Chobh is in it for life.
Yeah, it's difficult. But I guess if this is all not AI, but just scripted archers style all of our lives, and even in the year and a half we've been doing it, they have recast Jamie and the helicopter three times. Like the way, who was the younger sister in Neighbours?
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Chapter 4: What insights do they provide about parenting and managing children?
And then complaining about it on podcasts. Seriously, the ketamine I'm getting these days. I didn't ask for this. Joss in West Yorkshire says, hello, generic man 3DOD and Mars Bar. There's some more criticism for me.
While listening to the most recent What Did You Do Yesterday Midweek Mayhem episode, it was interesting to hear Max's utter fascination at the craft of the key cutter during the tale of David's trip for a replacement set. Why is it that Max describes the key cutter as elite and really fun to watch, yet a locksmith?
A person who is willing to help out in genuine crisis is considered to be somewhat of the rudest profession. Thank you, everythinginshowbiz.com, for the archival quote. Max, would you like to apologize to locksmiths or make a statement in response? Love the pod. In it for life. I stand by it. The key cutter, that is an art form.
Watching that zing, zing, zing, zing, zing, zing, zing, zing, is fascinating. The locksmith is an absolute racket. And you may have made a good point, Joss, but I'm sticking with it.
It is an awful sound. I don't enjoy that high pitched. Normally I'll say I'll come back in 15 minutes if I am getting keys cut because it just something about the way it rings out makes my teeth slightly. Such is the artistry that I sit closer.
I take an ear trumpet and I sit closer to hear every tiny zing of the Yale. Here is a really beautiful message from someone called Iona, who says, Dear Max and David, I write from Sydney, where I've been binge listening to your podcast since I was diagnosed with breast cancer a few weeks ago. It was recommended by my very dear friend Kim, who has impeccable taste in absolutely everything.
Oh, dear. Oh, dear. where I found myself crying with laughter multiple times in between having radioactive injections, wire insertion, and a lumpectomy. I'm pretty sure it's not because of the meds I've been giving. You also had me chuckling hard last week while I was repainting the railings on the deck.
Cancer, fiddly paint jobs, sobriety through Christmas, verdict, if you can lift the spirits of anyone in these situations, you have real pod power." A few of the most meaningful takeaways for me have been one, chanting we're snatching defeat, the Ellis James, loudly at my five-year-old one morning while we were running late for school. Unfortunately, this made my daughter trip and fall over.
So while I really enjoyed the chant, I'll have to do it in my head in the future. Two, realizing that these sometimes dramatic yet clockwork-like toilet habits of male humans are actually quite common and not freakish morning rituals that are exclusive to my husband and son. And three, finding something so seemingly trivial and entertaining as these mundane musings
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Chapter 5: How do the hosts discuss the challenges of extreme weather?
I suppose I should spend less time in snooker halls and then you wouldn't win it again. It's an impossible situation. Should we play They're Just Normal Countries? Yes! Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for They're Just Normal Countries.
I am the one and only What country could I be? I am the one and only Where in the world could our listeners be?
So here we go. Previous guesses. Hang on. Whoa. I feel an issue with this is... It seems a bit late to bring up an issue.
We've been playing this for quite some time. We can't cancel it now. I feel we should be, as it's the new year, we should have a new listener drive going. Oh, good idea. While it's a hugely popular podcast and... Enormous. When you're driving along...
in your car and you look into any other car there is i think it's a 96 chance they're listening to what you do yesterday i still feel we could try and target that four percent and one of the ways we could is by explaining what the heck these segments are i go back to iona if you're gonna listen start at the beginning if you're just joining us and you're coming now frankly that's not how this podcast works
So we've got 75 weeks of two hours a week.
Don't ask me to do maths. This is not my expertise. We're approaching eight days of solid listening is what you would need to do.
If you are just joining us and you've come into this episode. What you need to do is take eight days and listen solidly. No sleep. And then come back to us. Email us. Let us know how that went for you. So you want me to explain they're just normal. No, it's fine. Previous guesses. It's sort of astonishing we haven't got all six yet.
Because some of the successes have been on a whim, I feel there isn't enough tactical thinking by our listeners. Like Gabon came from nowhere because someone saw... It was a number plate, wasn't it? Yeah, a number plate. But maybe that's not the way to think about it. Maybe instead you should try and think what countries there may have been one listen to this podcast in as of March last year.
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Chapter 6: What culinary adventures do they recount during the episode?
Once that was over, I thought I still had time to listen. You could have just carried on listening. It feels like, you know, you could have just got your head down here. and just ignored people just trying to sell you woolen goods. Once that was over, I thought I still had time to listen to the end of the pod and hear the next round of guesses for the Teddington quiz as we approached my stop.
The moment Max announced the correct result and cut to the contact as blah, blah, I had to get off my stop and I couldn't listen to the later discussion until I got to my hotel 30 minutes later. During my walk to the hotel, I couldn't believe how Max didn't get as excited over the correct answer like his ongoing excitement over the infamous Prunella scales guess. It does seem to me a lot.
People are exposing huge hypocrisies in my whole existence on a minute-by-minute basis as this podcast continues. Anyway, my country guess is Peru. Everything is showbiz or show quiz these days.
Hang on, just before we do this... Far be it for me to criticize the incredible listeners to this PCAST, but should Aoife not have been sort of taking it in, the miracle of the Inca civilizations, and then marveling, being on this... And I'm imagining it was a steam train as well with the crew walking through it dressed as alpacas rather than just listening to this blather.
In my experience, by the time you get to Machu Picchu, you're pretty exhausted. Ooh. You're just tired. Have you been? Here's the thing. I did go to Machu Picchu, but I didn't book it in time. So I didn't get to, if you don't book it in time, they say you can't do the Inca Trail, which is all these steps, but you can go on a massive walk for five days just nearby.
So I just basically walked through a bit of Peru for five days and then they end up at Machu Picchu at the same time. But you're still tired. You do the same sort of number of days, but it's the kind of idiots, you didn't do it and you haven't booked it and you're not going to come back here ever again. But I have been to Machu Picchu and I was tired. But I didn't listen to a podcast.
I did look at Machu Picchu.
You've been to all of these exotic places, but I always feel you do slightly the wrong thing in them. Like you've been to Namibia to see the lions and yet you just end up peeing off a ladder of a combi van. Like when James Bond goes to a place, he connects with the essence of it. Whereas you just walk through a forest.
It's definitely true. I don't think I've ever experienced a foreign country like James Bond has. It's rare I'm suddenly in a Ford Sierra that turns into a submarine and then I kill a man and then had sex in a tiny sort of space suit with like a beautiful secret agent. That is true. You make a very accurate point. Thank you. Anyway, so Peru. Is Peru a normal country, Marzman?
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Chapter 7: How do Max and David reflect on their daily routines?
with the Mobilo. That's good. Question. Yes, David.
As the Christmas Hot Wheels Garage.
Oh, the Paw Patrol Garage is doing well, but the favourite is the London Underground. The London Underground from Aunty Susie is the absolute favourite.
Yeah. Mind the gap. Mind the gap.
Yeah, yeah. That's really good. The next station is King's Cross and Pancras. This is a Metropolitan Line service calling all stations to Chesham.
You just crying every time you hear one of these announcements.
Oh, I miss it. Oh, I miss it so much. So breakfast, I suggest to Ian, we make some porridge and he's in, he's in for the porridge. Okay. So he pours the oats into the bowl. He pours the milk. Then I get the hemp and the cheer and all that bollocks. And he's pouring that in because I think you're meant to get them involved in it and then they'll like it. Then we microwave it, stir it.
And then he says, and now all we have to do is take the milk out because he doesn't really like it looking milky.
What's the issue?
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Chapter 8: What final thoughts do they share about the podcast and listener interactions?
Such English stuff, this. It's the absolute Basil Fawlty behavior by my co-host.
Fine. I get a long black. It's delicious. Jamie gets a three quarter flat white. She draws, I think there's a croissant there. We play train snap. Ian has a game of snap with some trains, subway train, finicular railway, blah, blah, blah. I'm not allowed to play. Jamie's allowed to play. I'm not allowed to play.
he's getting really quite good at it but he does not like losing so you try and win one round just to teach him that you can't always win but if you do win a round he will start grieving like everyone he's ever met has died so then you just let him win the whole thing so you're creating a monster but like you know whatever works works
I'm coming to Australia in a few months and I'm going to be this friend of yours where I aggressively slam the hand down.
It will break.
Really happily take up the cards. Just yeah. And then when I win, I say make it rain. And then I throw all the cards over my head and dance as they cascade around me.
So Jamie takes Ian to the pool. I've got to give Willie a nap walk. During that nap walk, I am doing a little radio interview for the ABC every morning to talk about the cricket with a friend of mine called Waleed Ali, who hosted that show, The Project, that I did for a bit before the commission.
you'll have probably been on that show with him so he gets me on about 20 past nine and then at half past nine the cricket listeners stay on that station and we go to the digital station so then i spend a lot of times when it cuts to 9 30 going there's no one here well it's just me and you now everyone's gone and we move on to the day before we'd had a phone call the question was what's the stupidest thing you've ever done i picked a bit from the cricket and said we're
and a man rang up and said he was called like god i steve in swinburne he was like i worked on the sit of crocodile dandy three yes you're like this is absolutely this is a caller you want an australian radio and basically he was the only one from the art department and there was a polystyrene cup on set but there were two lions there too and he had to go and get the polystyrene cup and he's
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