Suzy Cato is one of New Zealand's most beloved television personalities, the face of You and Me, the preschool show that ran for over 2,000 episodes and became a cultural institution for an entire generation.
In this conversation with Bjorn and Sela on Life FM, Suzy talks about the emotional return of You and Me for a brand new season. What it felt like walking back onto that set after all these years. How the show was built with child psychologists from the start, and why deliberately slow, gentle television might be exactly what overstimulated kids need right now.
She also opens up about the things she didn't expect. Letters from children experiencing abuse. A young woman in Dunedin whose only reason to get up in the morning was hearing "Hello, my friend." And what it means to realise you hold space in someone's life you never asked for.
🎉 New episodes of You and Me drop every Saturday morning at 10am on the You and Me NZ YouTube channel, with 25 episodes running through to October. Find Suzy on all major platforms.
To watch them, click here: https://www.youtube.com/@UC7v_UTcObO6kLiM-UO-dxfA
Chapters
00:00 Welcome and Suzy sings the theme song
00:18 Over 2,000 episodes: how big was You and Me really?
01:43 Making it Kiwi: the multicultural vision behind the show
02:18 Paid to have fun: falling in love with the job
02:33 When she realised the reach went far beyond preschoolers
04:54 The new season: what's changed and what hasn't
06:40 Slow TV as a response to screen addiction
07:46 Was there temptation to speed the show up?
08:30 Why kids with ADHD sit through the full 30 minutes
08:22 Suzy as a mum and the moment her kids pushed her back out the door
09:47 Where did the passion for working with kids come from?
10:22 The 3pm show, the agony column, and the letters about child abuse
11:36 Trying to resign at 21 and why she stayed
12:05 The wrong number that still changed a life
12:37 Just a friend of so many
12:45 The most emotional moment of the comeback
14:34 25 episodes, music videos, and how to watch
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