Fast Kiwi banter for the drive home.
Matty & PJ - The Podcast is a fast-moving companion show built from The Hits Drive conversations, caller stories, polls, and small domestic disasters. It suits listeners who like radio energy, local New Zealand texture, and funny real-life tangents over polished longform interviews.
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Matty & PJ - The Podcast turns The Hits Drive energy into a compact run of banter, calls, polls, and everyday New Zealand stories. It is quick on its feet. A simple question about taking a day off school opens into Katy Perry concerts, high-school heartbreak, and a dad’s unusual attempt at comfort. A kitchen mishap becomes a search for the missing tip of a finger. A morning spent stacking wood becomes a partner brownie-points saga with a second-act wobble. The show likes small stakes, but it treats them with enough momentum to make them feel shareable. Listener calls matter here, and so do texts, Instagram polls, and community Facebook pages. The result is a show that feels less like a monologue and more like a busy group chat with microphones. Its New Zealand setting is part of the texture, from Aotearoa pronunciation on Google Maps to Tairua Chit Chat and local beach mysteries. The bottle-with-a-message story shows the softer side of the format: curious, neighborly, and ready to follow a weird detail. The comedy usually comes from recognition. Partners steal hoodies, Facebook ads get tempting, hobbies get out of hand, and someone brings a whole block of cheese to work. It can also pivot into pop culture, especially Married at First Sight, where John Aiken’s visit gives the hosts room to mix gossip, relationship observations, and sentiment around Mel Schilling. Producer Sarah adds another recurring studio presence, especially when an office debate or local find needs another angle. The pacing is radio-fast. Segments often reset, tease the next turn, and pull in another caller before the moment goes stale. That makes it easy to sample in short bursts. It is not a dense interview show or a careful analysis podcast. It is a warm, slightly messy daily catch-up built around what people are admitting to, arguing over, or laughing about on the way home.
Made for: For listeners who enjoy casual radio-style comedy, caller stories, relationship mishaps, and everyday New Zealand life. It especially fits people who want quick, social entertainment rather than a heavy interview or scripted narrative.
What sets it apart: The show’s strength is how quickly it turns small prompts into communal comedy, using calls, texts, polls, and producer interruptions to keep changing the angle. It feels local and lived-in, with Aotearoa references woven through ordinary stories.
Drive home with Matty McLean & PJ Harding on The Hits!
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Everyday mishaps become quick, communal comedy through Matty McLean and PJ Harding's teasing, listener calls and appetite for a useful tangent.
Matty McLean and PJ Harding turn ordinary trouble into communal comedy, moving from their own domestic mishaps to calls, texts and polls that invite everyone else to contribute.
A missing fingertip, haunted toilets and tradie coffee become the group chat you wish you'd been invited to.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Caller stories, an office squabble, and one very public private moment.
Maddie and PJ spend the hour on school days off, a small email etiquette row with Producer Sarah, and a workplace slip where something meant to stay private ends up in front of the office.
Kitchen chaos, listener calls, and a Kiwi Maps detour keep the banter lively.
The episode opens with PJ Harding's kitchen disaster and keeps moving through lost property, a wood-pile update, and listener chat about what people are still trying to track down.
Firewood pride, odd obsessions, tattoo stories, and shared-hoodie politics keep the episode cheerfully loose.
A morning of stacking and organising firewood turns into a brisk, loose chat about habits people cannot quite give up, from crystal collecting and dragon books to chocolate fingers, The Sims, and self-tattooing.
Ghost stories, training-bra humiliation, and a carry-on wheel mishap keep the chat lightly chaotic.
The episode makes easy comic mileage from small social disasters, beginning with a bridesmaid problem that sets Robert Pattinson's alarm over the two-week timing against Zendaya's cleaner instinct for a friend breakup.
A rushed morning turns cheese, salmon and tradie coffee into an easy bit of domestic radio comedy.
A regular radio shift becomes a neat little comedy of domestic improvisation, as a cooler bag yields cheese, cucumber, smoked salmon and crackers in the studio.
Firehouse talk with real tactical weight.
Strange accounts with West Virginia static.
Vampire fandom with teeth and receipts.
Matty McLean and PJ Harding host a casual drive-time show with guest Matilda Green.
Matty McLean and PJ Harding host a radio show where they share stories from tradies and homeowners about awkward encounters during home visits.
Matty McLean’s 40th birthday show brings PJ Harding’s surprises, including messages from McLean’s family and a birthday song.
Matty and PJ open ChatGPT confessions after hearing that a passenger told ChatGPT he had landed safely and after Matty reported his 42-kilometre Christchurch Marathon finish in three hours and 45 minutes.
Matty McLean and PJ Harding relaunch their Anonymous Hotline around secrets kept from partners, and one caller describes backing her husband's classic car into a rock after a Christmas parade and staying silent for about 15 years.
The show kicks off with school absences.
PJ starts the morning with a kitchen disaster that leaves part of her body missing.
Hosts Matty McLean and PJ Harding open with dueling brownie-point stories: Matty stacked and organised firewood to impress his husband Ryan, while PJ plans a three-cheese lasagna to outdo neighbour Josh's sourdough for husband BJ.
A local resident in Tairua found a Jack Daniels bottle with a mysterious message from 2002 washed up on the beach, sparking curiosity about its origin and the person who wrote it.
Maddy and PJ discuss a nostalgic high school photo of BJ, reflecting on his youthful appearance and how their relationship might have been different if they had met earlier.
The hosts discuss a listener email from Germany, reminisce about The Sound of Music, and share personal heritage stories including Welsh ancestry and travel experiences.
John Aiken, an expert from Married at First Sight, discusses the show's current season, reflects on colleague Mel Schilling, and analyzes the interpersonal dynamics among participants.
The hosts discuss Maddy's chaotic morning of bringing a large amount of food to work, including salmon and cheese, due to last-minute preparation and weekend travel plans.
The hosts discuss when and how people listen to podcasts, share a personal story about a family member listening to plant-based podcasts while sleeping, and ponder if subliminal messaging works.
Matilda returns to the podcast to catch up with Maddy and PJ, discussing her life updates including renovations, family, and a new bidet.
Matty and PJ open by debating a bridesmaid dilemma involving Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, and a wedding two weeks away, including listener texts about friend breakups and wedding photos.
The hosts discuss a spontaneous and humorous anecdote about a man trying to exchange a can of Coke for Coke Zero at a sushi shop, sparked by listener feedback.
The hosts discuss their eating habits, TV show preferences like Mavs, and partner dynamics around watching reality TV together.
The hosts share a humorous story about ordering Vietnamese food to their office during an after-work yoga class, causing an interruption and awkward moment.