Podcasts by Saturday Morning
A magazine programme with long-form, in-depth feature interviews on current affairs, science, modern life, history, the arts and more.
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Podcast on the topic Gesellschaft und Kultur
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Raising a glass to Sauvignon Blanc: Bill Spence from 2023-12-09T11:45
The first Sauvignon Blanc vines were planted in New Zealand fifty years ago. Taking the lead from California, in the early seventies when wine was either red or white, and liqueurs and sherries wer...
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Tusiata Avia's Big Fat Brown Bitch: 'I was bloody rarked up' from 2023-12-09T11:05
Earlier this year, Samoan-NZ writer Tusiata Avia became the target of harassment and death threats after her poem 250th anniversary of James Cook's arrival in New Zealand was labelled 'racist' by t...
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Simon Denny: Optimism and the race to space from 2023-12-09T10:35
Berlin-based New Zealand artist Simon Denny likes to explore and play with the intersections of art, power and new technology. He represented New Zealand at the 2015 Venice Biennale with "Secret Po...
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Kera Sherwood-O'Regan: top woman from 2023-12-09T10:06
Not far down the BBC's list of 100 Women for 2023 is 31 year old Christchurch-based indigenous rights and disability advocate Kera Sherwood-O'Regan (Kai Tahu). Kera is the co-founder of Activate, a...
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Unsupported and isolated: living and dying with ME/CFS from 2023-12-09T09:29
An inquest hearing in the UK has heard how 27 year old Maeve Boothby-O'Neill died from complications relating to ME, following years of inadequate care from the National Health Service. At least 25...
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Leo Vardiashvili - Hard by a Great Forest from 2023-12-09T09:05
Leo Vardiashvili arrived in London as a 13 year old refugee from Georgia. His family was forced to flee after their country descended into civil war after breaking away from the Soviet Union. Hard ...
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Ranulph Fiennes: Lawrence of Arabia from 2023-12-09T08:10
Sir Ranulph Fiennes pays tribute to a fellow legend in his new biography Lawrence of Arabia. A former SAS officer, Fiennes says he feels a lot of affinity for archaeologist and adventurer Thomas Ed...
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Sam and Ellie Studd: How to love cheese from 2023-12-02T11:40
Brother and sister duo Sam and Ellie Studd's new book The Best Things In Life Are Cheese, aims to help us understand and appreciate cheese in all its many forms. They're about as close to cheese ro...
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Elinor Karlsson: Darwin’s Dogs and DNA from 2023-12-02T11:08
What can mammals genome reveal about how the human genome works? Professor Elinor Karlsson co-leads the Zoonomia Project, which uses comparative genomics to shed light on how certain species achiev...
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Richard Jackson: Does NZ really need its defence force? from 2023-12-02T10:50
As wars continue in Gaza and Ukraine, and other parts of the world, a new book questions whether New Zealand ought to have a military force at all. Professor Richard Jackson, Griffin Leonard and Jo...
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Greg Sestero: star of "The Room" on why it's so bad it's great from 2023-12-02T10:09
Plot sinkholes, disappearing characters, bizarre dialogue, wooden performances - all features of the 2003 film The Room. Described by one reviewer as "like getting stabbed in the head," the $6 mill...
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Greg Sestero on friendship, creativity and why The Room is so fun to watch from 2023-12-02T10:09
A soulmate is someone who pushes you to discover your own potential, says actor and filmmaker Greg Sestero. For him, that's Tommy Wiseau, the "eccentric" friend who directed him in a 2003 film wide...
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Danyl McLauchlan: an argument for eco-terrorism from 2023-12-02T09:50
Writer Danyl McLauchlan joins Susie to tackle life's big questions, ideas and thinkers. Today's he's looking at Swedish academic and environmental activist Andreas Malm, author of the book How to B...
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Linda Bryder: the best country to give birth? from 2023-12-02T09:08
In The Best Country to Give Birth? medical historian Linda Bryder explores how New Zealand came to develop its unique approach to the role of midwives in childbirth. The 1990 Nurses Amendment Act a...
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Andy Mitchell: an insider's guide to psychedelics from 2023-12-02T08:12
British clinical neuropsychologist Andy Mitchell was curious about the renewed attention psychedelics were getting in his field, so set out to do some first-person research. He took ten different d...
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Gary McCormick: Karaoke, Kim and me from 2023-11-25T10:30
At the tender age of 72 Gary McCormick has no plans for retirement. The breakfast radio host is still touring small town New Zealand, as he did with Kim last century. Gary explored a different Kiwi...
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Tim Minchin: Seriously funny from 2023-11-25T10:05
Australian musical comedian Tim Minchin is a swiss army knife of entertainment. He can be political, silly, and tear-inducing - all within the course of a song. As a composer he's written super-cat...
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Richard Flanagan: chain reactions from 2023-11-25T09:30
Booker Prize-winning Tasmanian writer Richard Flanagan's new novel looks at the choices we make and the chain reaction that follows. By way of a literary love affair through nuclear physics to Flan...
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Adrian Edmondson: 'The more you hurt yourself, the more people laugh' from 2023-11-25T09:05
British comedian, actor and writer Adrian Edmondson found fame in the 1980s, playing anarchic medical student Vyvyan alongside Rik Mayall in The Young Ones. They also starred together in Bottom and...
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The coalition government and the Treaty from 2023-11-25T08:50
The new National-ACT-NZ First coalition government says it will introduce a Treaty Principles Bill, based on ACT policy, and support it to a Select Committee. So what could this mean for Maori? Ann...
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Michael Rosen: Getting over it, and getting through it from 2023-11-25T08:10
"Passionate linguist, gifted humanist, national treasure and ambassador of gibberish" is a judge's description of this year's PEN Pinter prize winner, Michael Rosen. The British poet, author and pe...
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Saturday listener feedback from 2023-11-18T11:59
Kim Hills listener feedback for Saturday morning18th November 2023
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Dr Max Berry: the huge job of looking after tiny babies from 2023-11-18T10:30
Dr Max Berry has dedicated her career to understanding and caring for babies born too soon. As a consultant neonatologist she's on the floor of Wellington's neonatal intensive care unit supporting ...
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Richard O'Rawe: In the Name of the Son from 2023-11-18T10:00
Gerry Conlon spent fourteen years in jail as one of the Guildford Four, following the 1974 IRA Guildford pub bombing. New play In the Name of the Son chronicles the heady aftermath of his wrongful ...
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Amanda Smith Barusch: embracing the rage that comes with age from 2023-11-18T09:35
Gerontologist Dr Amanda Smith Barusch argues it's time for older adults to embrace grumpyness. In Aging Angry: Making Peace with Rage the University of Otago and University of Utah Emeritus Profess...
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Kashmir Hill: facial recognition software and the end of privacy from 2023-11-18T09:05
Facial recognition technology is helping fight crime but it's also making the internet a less safe place to put your face, says New York Times tech journalist Kashmir Hill.
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Gregory De Pascale: Iceland on edge, waiting for eruption from 2023-11-18T08:50
Iceland is bracing itself for a significant volcanic eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula near the capital Reykjavik. Tens of thousands of earthquakes have rattled the country in recent weeks, defor...
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Who killed the Crewes? Opening the book on a cold case from 2023-11-18T08:10
The murder of Harvey and Jeannette Crewe in their Pukekawa farmhouse in 1970 is perhaps New Zealand's most infamous unsolved crime. Arthur Allan Thomas was convicted twice, pardoned and compensated...
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Megan Dunn: is the future of art a Femmebot? from 2022-04-16T11:39
This week Megan Dunn looks at the first 'humanoid' robot artist Ai-Da, who is about to present her exhibition, Leaping into the Metaverse at the Venice Biennale.
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Julia Croft: taking Terrapolis to the stage from 2022-04-16T11:10
Experimental theatre-maker Julia Croft seeks to reimagine a more sustainable way of living in her new solo show Terrapolis.
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Keith Kahn-Harris: the surprising journey spurred by Kinder eggs from 2022-04-16T09:08
London-based sociologist Dr Keith Kahn Harris has written about some weighty issues, including the heavy metal music scene and antisemitism, but his latest book sprang out of a fascination with the...
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Aidan Hart: the allure of religious iconography from 2022-04-16T08:35
In the early 80s Aidan Hart left his job as a teacher and took up sculpting full-time, embarking on a quest to find art that would help him express the inner spirituality of man. This exploration d...
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Prof Mabel Berezin: French elections reveal rightward shift from 2022-04-16T08:12
The second round of the French presidential elections will see the incumbent centrist Emmanuel Macron once again face off against far-right challenger Marine Le Pen, whom Macron easily beat in the ...
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Dr Chris Thorogood: the secret life of parasitic plants from 2022-04-09T17:35
Dr Chris Thorogood fulfilled a childhood dream last month after travelling deep into the Philippines rainforest to lay eyes on the otherworldly Rafflesia banaoana.
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Jenny Pattrick: bringing New Zealand history to life through storytelling from 2022-04-09T17:05
Known for her historical fiction, Jenny Pattrick is one of New Zealand's best-selling novelists. She has had 10 novels published since her acclaimed 2003 debut The Denniston Rose, yet Pattrick came...
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Sam Duckor-Jones: painting a church pink in the Grey District from 2022-04-09T11:35
What began with an internet search for the cheapest house in New Zealand led Sam Duckor-Jones to buy an old Anglican church in Greymouth, which he then doused in pink and renamed Gloria.
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Cate Le Bon: embracing escapism in California’s Joshua Tree from 2022-04-09T11:05
Originally from Wales, avant-pop artist Cate Le Bon has made her new home in Joshua Tree National Park, in southern California. Lured by the surreal cactus-dotted landscape last year, Le Bon reloca...
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Dr Peter Wills: testing the origins of life on Earth from 2022-04-09T10:35
The prevailing theory of how life started on Earth is about to be put to the test by Auckland biophysicist Dr Peter Wills and a team of international collaborators.
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Prof John Logan: Amazon and the US union movement from 2022-04-09T10:05
Workers at an Amazon warehouse on Staten Island made history last week when they voted to form the company's first ever US union since it was founded nearly 30 years ago.
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Dr Chris Smith: is the XE variant cause for concern? from 2022-04-09T08:10
Our regular commentator, Cambridge University consultant clinical virologist Dr Chris Smith joins us with the latest Covid-19 science, and to answer your questions.
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Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert: surviving 804 days in an Iranian prison from 2022-04-02T11:07
The 12th of September 2018 is a day Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert will never forget. The Australian-British academic had travelled to Iran to attend a seminar on Shia Islam and was about to return to Aust...
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Anna Jackson: unpacking how poetry works through the ages from 2022-04-02T09:35
Anna Jackson has six books of her poetry to her name, but her latest Actions & Travels focuses on the work of others. Rather than an academic textbook, Actions & Travels explores how poetry works t...
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Tā Tipene O’Regan: a life spent building a bicultural nation from 2022-04-02T09:08
Renowned Maori leader Tā Tipene O'Regan (Ngāi Tahu) was named 2022 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year at a digital ceremony this week. This year marks the 25th anniversary since Tā Tipene successfu...
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Areez Katki: breathing new life into the art of embroidery from 2022-04-02T08:40
Artist and writer Areez Katki is a rising star in the contemporary arts scene, giving new relevance to embroidery while exploring his Queer and Parsi-Indian identity.
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Prof Jeremy Nicholson: the link between Long Covid and heart disease from 2022-04-02T08:11
Professor Jeremy Nicholson is the Director of the Australian National Phenome Centre at Murdoch University and a leading researcher into Long Covid. His team is working with multiple universities a...
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Robert Leonard: the surprising photographs of a young Jane Campion from 2022-03-26T16:45
With her filmmaking Dame Jane Campion has often surprised - as she also did with comments at the recent Critics Choice Awards, for which she has apologised. And she surprises again with photos from...
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Robert Leonard: the surprising photographs of a Jane Campion from 2022-03-26T16:45
With her filmmaking Dame Jane Campion has often surprised - as she also did with comments at the recent Critics Choice Awards, for which she has apologised. And she surprises again with photos from...
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Listener feedback for 26 March 2022 from 2022-03-26T11:55
Listener feedback for 26 March 2022.
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Prof David Hayman: hunting for the next pandemic virus from 2022-03-26T11:06
As the world wrestles with trying to end the Covid-19, professor David Hayman is on the hunt for our next pandemic foe. An infectious disease ecologist at Massey University, Hayman has travelled th...
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Kevin Rudd: Detainment of refugees ‘an act of monumental cruelty’ from 2022-03-26T09:07
Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is accusing the current Australian government of creating a political vacuum in the Pacific region by neglecting their needs and concerns. Rudd recently ...
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Dr Wijnand Van Tilburg: what makes someone boring? from 2022-03-26T08:40
A recent study conducted at the University of Essex has examined the characteristics that can lead to someone being chalked up as 'boring'. Led by experimental social psychologist Dr Wijnand Van Ti...
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Julian Walker: who is the man dubbed ‘Putin’s brain’? from 2022-03-26T08:13
Most people would not have heard of Aleksandr Dugin, the Russian philosopher and geopolitical strategist who is sometimes referred to as Putin's brain. Julian Walker is the co-host of the podcast ...
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Listener feedback for 19 March 2022 from 2022-03-19T11:55
Listener feedback for 19 March 2022.
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Kath Irvine: apple picking and autumn in the garden from 2022-03-19T11:35
Organic gardener Kath Irvine returns to share some autumn gardening tips and to answer your questions,. This is a time in the garden for both harvesting and preparing for winter. Kath shares some a...
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Noelle McCarthy: being a daughter and dealing with demons from 2022-03-19T11:05
"I'll be grand, girl, I've great faith," Noelle McCarthy's mother Carol told her just before she died. Raised in the Irish city of Cork, Noelle “ran away” to New Zealand as a young woman, but thing...
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Gabriel Gatehouse: why the QAnon conspiracy refuses to die from 2022-03-19T09:05
Gabriel Gatehouse's BBC podcast series The Coming Storm, not only delves into QAnon's origins but how it remains a major force within the Republican party. Previously a BBC foreign correspondent, G...
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Ann Goldstein: bringing Elena Ferrante to the English-speaking world from 2022-03-19T08:35
Ann Goldstein has been translating the work of celebrated Italian author Elena Ferrante for close to two decades. However, Goldstein has never met or even spoken to the pseudonymous author, and is ...
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Rodney Jones: how China's lockdowns could rock the economy from 2022-03-19T08:10
China's lockdowns are a worry for the global economy, adding pressure to the supply chain and contributing to higher prices around the world. Rodney Jones is an economist and principal of Wigram Ca...
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Rodney Jones: how China's lockdowns could rock the global economy from 2022-03-19T08:10
China's lockdowns are a worry for the global economy, adding pressure to the supply chain and contributing to higher prices around the world. Rodney Jones is an economist and principal of Wigram Ca...
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Julian Oliver: opening up communications technology for all from 2022-03-12T11:06
Now installed in central Berlin is a fully functional, open source cellphone tower that, in luminous hot pink, asking to be noticed. It's the work of New Zealand artist, activist and 'critical engi...
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Playing Favourites with producer Alan Jansson from 2022-03-12T10:05
Alan Jansson is arguably best known for his role in helping to create OMC's 1995 smash hit 'How Bizarre', but more than a decade earlier the producer and engineer was pioneering New Zealand electro...
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Simon Fenwick: taking table tennis to the next level from 2022-03-12T09:46
Years in the making, the Waitemata Table Tennis Club in Auckland recently opened a purpose-built table tennis stadium to the tune of $2 million. The modern building replaced the previous stadium th...
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David McWilliams: 'The global economy is like a tube of toothpaste' from 2022-03-12T09:07
When Irish economist David McWilliams spoke to RNZ in October 2020 - roughly six months into the pandemic - he said it was time for governments to spend and ignore warnings to the contrary. Eightee...
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Gideon Defoe: the stories behind the world's extinct countries from 2022-03-12T08:23
Not all nations last, and as author Gideon Defoe points out sometimes it's for the best. In his new book An Atlas of Extinct Countries, Defoe explores the fascinating and sometimes outlandish stori...
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Inside the process of creating a new public media entity from 2022-03-12T08:10
Response has been mixed to this week's announcement that RNZ and TVNZ will come under a new media entity. With much detail still to be revealed, many questions are as yet unanswered. Former New Zea...
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Michael Schur: The Good Place creator's quest to be perfect from 2022-03-05T18:08
Michael Schur is an American television writer and producer whose list of impressive credits include creating the award-winning fantasy comedy show The Good Place. Set in the afterlife, the show de...
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Listener Feedback for 5 March 2022 from 2022-03-05T11:59
Kim Hill reads listener feedback for 5 March 2022.
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David Wengrow: rewriting the history of humanity from 2022-03-05T10:10
We have been told wrong: inequality is not the price of civilisation, says archaeologist David Wengrow. Many long held assumptions about how humans developed as a species are blown apart by Wengrow...
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Doris de Pont: the power of what you wear from 2022-03-05T09:48
An upcoming exhibition entitled To Fashion: Dressing Aotearoa documents the style of 12 distinctive individuals including rising poet Tayi Tibble, mental health advocate Sir John Kirwan, K'road chr...
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Nigel Slaughter: are we missing the boat on medicinal cannabis? from 2022-03-05T08:39
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer looks poised to enter the medicinal cannabis arena with a US$6.7 billion agreement to purchase Arena Pharmaceuticals, a biotech company with a pipeline dedicated to cann...
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Emerson T Brooking: Russia steps up its disinformation campaign from 2022-03-05T08:20
Russia's state regulator Roskomnadzor says it has decided to block access to Facebook in Russia. Meanwhile on Friday night (NZ time) the Russian parliament passed legislation imposing a jail term o...
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Vincent O'Sullivan: Frankenstein’s creature in Fiordland from 2022-02-26T11:35
What if Dr Frankenstein's monster had been cast away in a fjord in Aotearoa's deep south? This is the proposition explored by Vincent O'Sullivan in Mary's Boy, Jean Jacques, and other stories out n...
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Hoda Afshar: whistleblowers and possession by the wind from 2022-02-26T11:05
On the islands off the coast of Iran in the Strait of Hormuz there's an ancient belief the winds can possess you, causing illness or disease.Hoda Afshar has been visiting the islands since 2015 and...
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Ezra Hirawani: M?ori energy retailer empowering people from 2022-02-26T10:35
Ezra Hirawani is the co-founder of the country’s first kaupapa M?ori electricity retailer Nau Mai R?.
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Professor David Marples: Putin’s true motives for invading Ukraine from 2022-02-26T10:05
With a full-scale invasion of Ukraine now underway, Putin has claimed the attack is “a special military operation” to defend the populations in the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk from a...
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Prof David Marples: Putin’s true motives for invading Ukraine from 2022-02-26T10:05
With a full-scale invasion of Ukraine now underway, Putin has claimed the attack is “a special military operation” to defend the populations in the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk from a...
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Fiona Jack: the artist going from Nothing to Everything from 2022-02-26T09:39
Twenty-five years since the creation of her work Nothing™, artist Fiona Jack is sharing a massive new LED light work entitled Everything on the Auckland waterfront.
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British divers share gripping details of Thai Cave rescue from 2022-02-26T09:06
In 2018, the whole world was captivated by the story of Wild Boar football team that had gone missing in Thailand. Civilian cave divers Rick Stanton and John Volanthen were the first people to fin...
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Professor Kurt Krause: why don’t we have effective anti-virals? from 2022-02-26T08:35
Professor Kurt Krause from the Department of Biochemistry at University of Otago says we should be looking to manufacture and develop our own anti-viral treatments and vaccines in New Zealand.
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Prof Kurt Krause: why don’t we have effective anti-virals? from 2022-02-26T08:35
Professor Kurt Krause from the Department of Biochemistry at University of Otago says we should be looking to manufacture and develop our own anti-viral treatments and vaccines in New Zealand.
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Professor Stefan Wolff: What the West needs to do now from 2022-02-26T08:15
Stefan Wolff, a professor of International Security at the University of Birmingham, says diplomacy has failed to deter Putin and pull Russia back from the brink - and it is unlikely to be useful i...
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Prof Stefan Wolff: What the West needs to do now from 2022-02-26T08:15
Stefan Wolff, a professor of International Security at the University of Birmingham, says diplomacy has failed to deter Putin and pull Russia back from the brink - and it is unlikely to be useful i...
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Ukraine invasion: update from the capital Kyiv from 2022-02-26T08:10
. Kyiv correspondent Jessica Golloher joins the show with the latest developments.
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Rutger Bregman: are humans actually hardwired for kindness? from 2022-02-19T17:07
Between panic buying and violent protests, the global pandemic has highlighted some of humankind's worst behaviours. But Dutch writer and historian Rutger Bregman insists that despite being painted...
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Rose Matafeo: ‘No one should go out with a comedian’ from 2022-02-19T16:13
Rather than being 'starstruck' New Zealander Rose Matafeo has herself truly struck star status.
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Sam Trubridge: making the city a theatre during Covid from 2022-02-19T11:44
In a summer of Covid cancellations, Performance Arcade is one of the few festivals still standing. Now in its 11th year, a set of shipping containers on the Wellington waterfront is temporary home ...
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Chris Kraus: murder and meth in Minnesota from 2022-02-19T11:08
Chris Kraus' upcoming novel The Four Spent the Day Together tells the story of a violent methamphetamine murder involving four teenagers on the Iron Range of Minnesota. Best-known for the semi-auto...
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Wendy Mitchell: what you need to know about dementia from 2022-02-19T09:35
Wendy Mitchell was diagnosed with young-onset dementia in 2014, when she was just 58 years old. But, rather than this signaling the start of a total decline, for Mitchell the diagnosis offered a ne...
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Chris Smith: Covid-19 science news from 2022-02-19T08:42
Our regular commentator, Cambridge University consultant clinical virologist Dr Chris Smith joins us with the latest Covid-19 science, and to answer your questions.
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Listener feedback for 12 February 2022 from 2022-02-12T11:59
Kim Hill reads listener feedback for 12 February 2022.
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Richard Smart: the labour of love that is the Hundertwasser from 2022-02-12T11:30
When celebrated and rather unconventional Austrian artist, philosopher and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser died in the Bay of Islands in 2000 part of his legacy were designs for an arts centr...
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Kaya Wilson: near death experience a catalyst for change from 2022-02-12T11:05
In 2016 tsunami scientist Kaya Wilson survived an accident that doctors say should have killed him. Up until then, Wilson had been living as a woman and questioning his gender - but the near-death ...
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Prof Robert Stickgold: how advertisers want to hack our dreams from 2022-02-12T10:35
It sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but marketing companies are now exploring the potential of advertising their products to us while we sleep.
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John Tucker: celebrating Aotearoa’s house trucks of the 1970s from 2022-02-12T10:05
Bringing together a treasure trove of photos by the late Paul C. Gilbert, new book Road People of Aotearoa chronicles the early days of the phenomenon of DIY house trucks, which appeared on New Zea...
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Julie Zhu: the tamariki behind the takeaway counter from 2022-02-12T09:40
Four young New Zealanders growing up in their parents' restaurants are the stars of Takeout Kids - a new doco series by filmmaker Julie Zhu.
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Nils Melzer: the political persecution of Julian Assange from 2022-02-12T09:05
Nearly 12 years ago Wikileaks published the Afghan War Diary, one of the biggest leaks in US military history. To avoid extradition to the States to face espionage charges, Wikileaks founder Julian...
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Alex Ross: ‘It’s nice to see Spotify suffering a bit’ from 2022-02-12T08:35
There's been unprecedented fallout for Spotify since musician Neil Young withdrew from the music streaming service in late January. Yet Spotify's business model has long been of concern in the musi...
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Prof David Marples: Russia has reached point of no return from 2022-02-12T08:20
Professor David Marples says the Russian leadership has reached a point of no return in its conflict with Ukraine.
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Andriy Dubchak: reporting from the frontlines of Ukraine from 2022-02-12T08:10
Andriy Dubchak is the founder and CEO of Donbas Frontliner, a independent media outlet based in Ukraine and reporting on the escalating military tensions with Russia. Dubchak is usually based in Ky...
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Listener feedback for 5 February 2022 from 2022-02-05T11:55
Listener feedback for 5 February 2022.
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Dr Matt Baker: microbiomes and hibernating squirrels from 2022-02-05T11:43
Sydney-based New Zealander Dr Matt Baker returns for a chat about some of the latest science news.
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Johann Hari: why we can’t pay attention from 2022-02-05T11:06
Humanity is facing a crisis of mass distraction, says British writer Johann Hari, and we need a collective fight to get our attentional abilities back.
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Playing Favourites with Auckland Pride’s Max Tweedie from 2022-02-05T10:07
Max Tweedie was appointed as the director of Auckland Pride in 2019, when he was just 21 years old. Since then he's become a well-known voice, consistently speaking out about conversion therapy, tr...
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Erica Newman: Maori adoptees finding their turangawaewae from 2022-02-05T09:40
The 1955 Adoption Act allowed adoptive parents to sever ties with a child's birth parents, and left few options for adoptees to access information about them. For Maori who went through the system ...
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Elif Shafak: The Island of Missing Trees from 2022-02-05T09:07
Elif Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish novelist, activist, political scientist and essayist. She has published 19 books, her latest, The Island of Missing Trees, was shortlisted for the 20...
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Volker Kuntzsch: algae as an answer to climate change from 2022-02-05T08:40
Volker Kuntzsch passionately believes New Zealand needs to move towards more ocean-based primary production, with plankton and seaweed leading a burgeoning blue economy.
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Prof Lone Simonsen: Denmark drops all Covid restrictions from 2022-02-05T08:12
This week Denmark became the first country in the European Union to lift all its Covid-19 restrictions - including the wearing of face masks. Despite a rise in case numbers, the Scandinavian countr...
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Bill Hayes: Sweat and our ongoing obsession with exercise from 2022-01-29T17:05
In his new book Sweat, best-selling author Bill Hayes turns his attention to our long-standing obsession with exercise.
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Saturday Morning feedback: 29 January 2022 from 2022-01-29T11:55
Listener feedback from the Saturday Morning program.
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Dr Rebecca Johnson: the legacy of the Greenham Women from 2022-01-29T10:05
Directed by New Zealander Briar March, new documentary Mothers of the Revolution tells the story of one of the longest protests in history. Between 1981 and 2000, thousands of women came together a...
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Trish Johansen: tending to Cambodia's landmine-sniffing rats from 2022-01-29T09:40
New Zealand veterinarian Trish Johansen has been running a clinic in Siem Reap since 2015, and among her clients have been Cambodia's remarkable landmine-clearing rats. The death of one such rat, M...
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Roy Billing: Back treading the boards for Grand Horizons from 2022-01-29T08:35
Ruawai-raised actor Roy Billing has been gracing New Zealand screens since the 1970s. Having returned to our shores after being based in Sydney for many years, Billing will soon be treading the bo...
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Prof Vernon Bogdanor: Boris Johnson and the 'partygate' report from 2022-01-29T08:10
The delay of a highly-anticipated report into parties held in Downing Street during lockdown has prompted calls for UK prime minister Boris Johnson to stop suppressing "crucial details" and tell th...
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Listener feedback for 18 December from 2021-12-18T11:55
Our Listener feedback for 18 December.
Dr Alastair Richards: taking the title of world Scrabble champ from 2021-12-18T10:40
To most people Scrabble might seem a fun game to break out during the summer holidays, but for Alastair Richards it's serious business. Richards is the second New Zealand player to take th...
Arthur C Brooks: how to build a happy life from 2021-12-18T10:06
Arthur Brooks is a Harvard professor, social scientist, bestselling author, and the 'happiness correspondent' for The Atlantic. His weekly column, How To Build A Life helps point people to...
Kath Irvine: succession planting and summer mulching from 2021-12-18T09:43
Organic gardener Kath Irvine returns to share some tips around gardening this summer and to answer your questions.
Mike Munro: looking at New Zealand 100 years ago from 2021-12-18T09:06
The start of the 1920s was a traumatic time in New Zealand's history. Former chief of staff for the Prime Minister, Mike Munro brings together the story of an eagerly-anticipated rugby tou...
Tim Higham: living sustainably on Aotea Great Barrier Island from 2021-12-18T08:45
Writer and environmental advocate Tim Higham is trying to live, as he puts it from fish to fish in a house in the bush on Aotea Great Barrier Island. That's where we find him in his book I...
Prof Peter McIntyre: refocusing Covid-19 vaccine strategies from 2021-12-18T08:13
As we head into the third year of the pandemic, a group of distinguished international scientists has published an opinion piece arguing that vaccine strategies need to shift focus from tr...
Listener Feedback for 11 December 2021 from 2021-12-11T11:55
Listener Feedback for 11 December 2021.
What's art got to do with it?: Megan Dunn on art therapy from 2021-12-11T11:40
Megan Dunn joins the show to discuss the intersection of art and life, looking at the ways art is and isn't good for our wellbeing. This week: Megan visited an art therapist, and liked it....
Jonathan Roberts: providing genetic counselling for parents from 2021-12-11T11:05
Huge advances in genetics mean prenatal testing for conditions such as Down syndrome can now be done faster and with much less risk. That is where genetic counsellors like Jonathan Roberts...
Chris Thompson: breeding good insects to get bad insects from 2021-12-11T09:40
Local food growers are increasingly employing beneficial insects as biocontrol agents to keep pests and diseases in check, meaning less reliance on pesticides. At Bioforce in Karaka, rural...
Will Storr: why are humans obsessed with status? from 2021-12-11T09:05
British author and journalist Will Storr says we've been competing for status for millions of years, before we were even human. His new book The Status Game: On Social Position and How We ...
Heather Tilbury Phillips: working with fashion icon Mary Quant from 2021-12-11T08:35
In the 1960s Mary Quant broke the mould of conventional fashion with her creative and playful designs that personified the energy of Swinging London. Famously credited for creating the min...
Anton Troianovski: is Russia preparing to invade Ukraine? from 2021-12-11T08:10
Tens of thousands of Russian troops have been massing near the Ukrainian border sparking international concern of an impending invasion. With tensions mounting, US president Joe Biden has ...
Prof Tony Ward: Helping violent offenders lead better lives from 2021-12-04T17:35
Tony Ward began his quest for a better criminal rehabilitation model when he was appointed as the inaugural director of the Kia Marama treatment programme for child sex offenders at Christ...
Michael Lindsay-Hogg: The unlikely star in new Beatles film from 2021-12-04T16:05
Among the fascinating characters hovering around The Beatles in Peter Jackson's documentary Get Back is Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the director charged with making a film out of the band's rehe...
Michael Lindsay-Hogg: The unlikely star in new Beatles film 'Get Back' from 2021-12-04T16:05
Among the fascinating characters hovering around The Beatles in Peter Jackson's documentary Get Back is Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the director charged with making a film out of the band's rehe...
N.K. Jemisin: how sci-fi illuminates humanity's biggest themes from 2021-12-04T10:35
In 2018, N.K. Jemisin became the first author to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel in three consecutive years, each award going to a book in her widely-heralded Broken Earth series. As a c...
Jennifer Higgie: the astonishing re-emergence of Hilma af Klint from 2021-12-04T10:07
When Swedish artist and mystic Hilma af Klint died in 1944, she left behind more than 1300 works, only seen by a handful of people. The discovery of her paintings decades later has turned ...
Dr Jane Rigby: Nasa’s biggest ever telescope to launch from 2021-12-04T09:35
Later this month the James Webb Space Telescope will be shot into space, and when it reaches its destination - approximately 1.5 million kilometres from Earth - the massive telescope will ...
Dr Jane Rigby: Nasa’s biggest ever telescope set to launch from 2021-12-04T09:35
Later this month the James Webb Space Telescope will be shot into space, and when it reaches its destination - approximately 1.5 million kilometres from Earth - the massive telescope will ...
Marcus Du Sautoy: the art of the shortcut in math and life from 2021-12-04T09:05
Oxford mathematician Marcus du Sautoy says humankind's laziness might just be its saving grace. Despite being frowned upon, du Sautoy says our inherent reluctance for hard work can often l...
Prof Mohan Dutta: the worrying rise of right-wing Hindutva thinking from 2021-12-04T08:10
A strain of Hindu nationalism, Hindutva, has grown in global prominence since 2014 under Indian prime minister Narendra Modi's BJP party. Now tensions are rising in the Indian community, b...
Jo Guy: searching for your lighthouse person from 2021-11-27T17:35
When Scott Guy was shot dead at the gate of his family farm in Feilding 11 years ago, and his brother-in-law was charged with his murder (later acquitted), six of Jo Guy's grandchildren we...
Hamish McDouall - Whanganui an international city of design from 2021-11-27T11:30
It's only small, but as a city Whanganui is rich in design. This month the city was announced as New Zealand's only UNESCO City of Design, one of 40 such cities worldwide. Hamish McDouall ...
Christopher Boyle: the rise of green hydrogen from 2021-11-27T10:35
How viable is hydrogen as a major power alternative? Is it the key to a lower carbon economy and this country being more energy self-sufficient? Christopher Boyle believes so. He's the co-...
Ann Patchett: a much loved writer asks what matters most from 2021-11-27T10:05
She's a bestselling, prizewinning author with her own bookshop in native Nashville, Tennessee, but in her new collection of essays This Precious Life Ann Patchett reveals that below the su...
Steven Pinker: why being rational is human and matters now from 2021-11-27T09:05
How do we determine and stand up for what is rational in 2021? Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker tackles this question in his new book Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It ...
Nowroz Ali: escaping the Taliban to make a new home in NZ from 2021-11-27T08:25
When the Taliban took over Kabul, Afghanistan in August, Nowroz Ali feared for his life. A wanted man for many years for his work with the New Zealand Defence Force, he was supposed to be ...
Chris Smith: a new Covid variant has been detected from 2021-11-27T08:10
A new heavily mutated Covid variant is causing global alarm. Our regular commentator, Cambridge University consultant clinical virologist Dr Chris Smith joins us to discuss.
Chris Smith: new Covid variant Omicron has been detected from 2021-11-27T08:10
A new heavily mutated Covid variant is causing global alarm. Our regular commentator, Cambridge University consultant clinical virologist Dr Chris Smith joins us to discuss.
Fergus Barrowman: Giving writers a sporting chance from 2021-11-20T17:35
Preeminent literary magazine Sport was founded by writers Damien Wilkins, Elizabeth Knox, Nigel Cox and their Victoria University Press (VUP) publisher Fergus Barrowman in 1988. Sport fold...
Listener Feedback: Saturday Morning with Kim Hill - 20 November 2021 from 2021-11-20T11:55
Listener feedback from the Saturday Morning programme.
Sophie Roberts: taking destiny into her own hands from 2021-11-20T11:05
Sophie Roberts is working on an ambitious Silo commission called Break Bread which broadcasts the rambunctious hidden lives of all of us. Working under the constraints of the pandemic, the...
James Cridland: what does the future hold for radio? from 2021-11-20T10:35
All this week RNZ has been celebrating 100 years of broadcasting in New Zealand, the first broadcast having been made on the 17th of November 1921 by Professor Robert Jack from Otago Unive...
Prof Franca Ronchese: why skin is ground zero for allergies from 2021-11-20T10:05
Groundbreaking new research at the Malaghan Institute in Wellington has found that immune cells in the skin behave differently than their counterparts found elsewhere in the body, suggesti...
Aroha Novak: sewing shadows of our native plant past from 2021-11-20T09:47
When Christchurch's Hagley Park was created in the late 19th century native plants such as ferns, cabbage trees and flax were replaced by English plants like beech, elm and oak. As part of...
Alina Chan: finding the origins of Covid-19 from 2021-11-20T09:05
The origin of Covid-19 still remains a mystery that may never be solved. Was it the result of a spillover from animals to humans, or the result of a lab leak? The idea that the SARS-CoV-2 ...
Michael Parmenter: bringing a fresh outlook to folk dancing from 2021-11-20T08:47
Over the last few years renowned choreographer Michael Parmenter has shifted his focus from contemporary dance to the realm of participatory social dancing.
Dr Chris Smith: why does the vaccine wane? from 2021-11-20T08:20
Our regular commentator, Cambridge University consultant clinical virologist Dr Chris Smith joins us with the latest Covid-19 science, and to answer your questions.
Simon Marks: Kyle Rittenhouse found not guilty from 2021-11-20T08:10
American teenager Kyle Rittenhouse, who killed two men and wounded another during protests against police brutality and riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August 2020, has been acquitted of al...
Dame Jane Campion: the power of the filmmaker from 2021-11-13T17:05
Twelve years after releasing her last feature film, trailblazing director Dame Jane Campion has emerged with revisionist western, The Power Of The Dog.
David Farrier: examining conspiracy culture in New Zealand from 2021-11-13T16:05
Thousands of protesters marched on Parliament earlier this week with a mixture of motives on display. Journalist and filmmaker David Farrier has spent the last few years diving down conspi...
Listener Feedback for Saturday Morning for 13 November 2021 from 2021-11-13T11:59
Kim Hill reads listener feedback for Saturday Morning for 13 November 2021.
Tu Neill: presenting a window into a Japanese whaling village from 2021-11-13T10:35
Ayukawa is a remote village that sits on the southern tip of the Oshika Peninsula in northeastern Japan. Once a prominent whaling town, the decline in demand for whale meat coupled with th...
Chris Szekely: taking a deep dive into the Turnbull collection from 2021-11-13T09:30
Alexander Turnbull spent the greater part of his life - and his inheritance - growing his library, acquiring books, manuscripts, sketches and other materials relating to life in New Zealan...
Dr Doug Wilson: antiviral pills and the future of mRNA vaccines from 2021-11-13T08:35
Dr Doug Wilson is a medical academic author and our regular correspondent from the other side of 80. This week he returns to discuss Pfizer's new oral antiviral drug for use against Covid-...
Little Amal: the giant puppet that walked from Syria to COP26 from 2021-11-13T08:10
After walking more than 8000 kilometres across Europe, a puppet named Little Amal took the stage at COP26 in Glasgow to raise awareness of the plight of refugee children and the effects of...
Listener Feedback for Saturday Morning for 6 November 2021 from 2021-11-06T11:59
Kim Hill reads listener feedback for Saturday Morning for 6 November 2021.
Dr Matt Baker: DNA robots and tuskless elephants from 2021-11-06T11:40
Sydney-based New Zealander Dr Matt Baker returns for a chat about some of the latest science news. This week we revisit the topic of pachyderms, and some of Baker's own research around so-...
Luit Bieringa: director turns lens on Theo Schoon from 2021-11-06T11:05
Never shy of dealing with controversy, Luit Bieringa has often tackled complex and flawed New Zealand cultural figures in his films. In his new film, Signed, Theo Schoon, Bieringa turns hi...
Renée: 92-year-old playwright on how reading changed her life from 2021-11-06T10:35
Otaki-based playwright Renée has many feathers in her cap, having written numerous plays and nine fiction novels - the latest being her first venture into crime writing, The Wild Card, whi...
Rafia Zakaria: recentering feminism around women of colour from 2021-11-06T10:05
Rafia Zakaria's latest book of essays Against White Feminism bills itself as a counter-manifesto to "white feminism's global, long-standing affinity with colonial, patriarchal, and white s...
Danyl McLauchlan: Is Ardern an Elene Ferrante character? from 2021-11-06T09:40
Writer Danyl McLauchlan returns to tackle life's big questions, ideas and thinkers. This week: in the 2010s readers devoured the four-book series known as the Neapolitan Novels, written un...
Fran Lebowitz: ‘I've always been old at heart’ from 2021-11-06T09:05
Quintessential cantankerous New Yorker Fran Lebowitz is finding fame with a new generation of fans thanks to Scorsese-directed docu-series Pretend It's A City. Lebowitz, who was drawn to t...
Prof Renate Meyer: decoding signals from the universe from 2021-11-06T08:40
A team led by Professor Renate Meyer from the University of Auckland has received $3 million from the Marsden Fund to further their project deciphering gravitational waves - ripples in spa...
Daniel Ellsberg: the patron saint of whistleblowers from 2021-11-06T08:10
Fifty years ago Daniel Ellsberg released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret study of the US involvement in the Vietnam War. Ellsberg is a firm supporter of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange,...
Listener feedback for 30 October 2021 from 2021-10-30T11:55
Listener feedback for 30 October 2021.
Playing Favourites with author Steve Braunias from 2021-10-30T11:06
Award-winning journalist Steve Braunias has spent many years sifting through op shops to amass a collection of New Zealand pressed records that provide a fascinating window into our cultur...
Jan Oliver Lucks: There Is No ‘I’ in Threesome from 2021-10-30T10:35
When filmmaker Jan Oliver Lucks (aka Ollie) and his girlfriend got engaged, they decided to do away with the tradition of monogamy and take the plunge into an open relationship. But things...
Maata Wharehoka: supporting different ways of dying from 2021-10-30T10:06
Maata Wharehoka (Ngati Tahinga, Ngati Koata, Ngati Apakura, Ngati Toa, Ngati Kuia) lives with a painful lung disease - chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD. Her chronic pain is su...
Joanna Lumley: A Queen For All Seasons from 2021-10-30T09:08
British actress, activist and dedicated royalist Joanna Lumley is busier than she's ever been with multiple projects on the go, but somehow she's managed to find time to curate and edit a ...
Mikayla Cahill: the importance of visibility for intersex people from 2021-10-30T08:35
At 15 years old Mikayla Cahill learned she was supposed to have been born a boy. Mikayla was born with an intersex condition called complete androgen insensitivity syndrome, meaning she st...
Prof Idelber Avelar: is the end in sight for Bolsonaro? from 2021-10-30T08:10
A senate panel in Brazil has backed a report calling for criminal charges against president Jair Bolsonaro for his handling of the Covid pandemic, including crimes against humanity. Profes...
Dame Cindy Kiro: the first female M?ori governor-general from 2021-10-23T16:35
Dame Cindy Kiro became New Zealand's first female Maori governor-general when she was sworn in at a ceremony at parliament this week.
Listener feedback for Saturday Morning 23 October 2021 from 2021-10-23T11:59
Kim Hill reads listener feedback for Saturday Morning 23 October 2021.
Gardening with Kath Irvine: compost and healthy citrus from 2021-10-23T11:35
Organic gardener Kath Irvine returns to share some tips around spring gardening and to answer your questions. This week her topics include building your own compost and ensuring healthy ci...
Fiona Clark: veteran photographer celebrated in ‘Unafraid’ from 2021-10-23T11:05
In the mid-1970s artist Fiona Clark pushed the envelope with her vivid photographs of Auckland's burgeoning queer scene. Four decades later, a new documentary directed by Lula Cucchiara re...
Miriam Margolyes: ‘Sometimes I know I’m being naughty’ from 2021-10-23T10:05
British actress Miriam Margolyes talks to Kim Hill about her charming, funny and often serious new memoir This Much Is True.
What's art got to do with it? Megan Dunn on art in hospitals from 2021-10-23T09:35
Megan Dunn joins the show to discuss the intersection of art and life, looking at the ways art is and isn't good for our wellbeing. This week, what art hangs on the walls of the hospital a...
Nathan Harris: intimate Civil War tale treads new ground from 2021-10-23T08:38
The debut novel from Nathan Harris has received high praise and has been added to Barack Obama's summer reading list, selected for Oprah's Book Club, and longlisted for The 2021 Booker Pri...
Susan Thornton: Taiwan tensions raise heat on US-China relationship from 2021-10-23T08:10
Tensions between China and Taiwan have been described as the worst in 40 years after the Chinese air force intensified its overflights into the Taiwanese air defence zone earlier this mont...
Meg Lowman: Exploring the world’s eighth continent from 2021-10-16T18:07
A global pioneer in the science of canopy ecology, Meg Lowman has been dubbed 'Einstein of the Treetops' by The Wall Street Journal. In other circles she is affectionately known as Canopy ...
Long-covid warnings for unvaxxed: 'Not just a respiratory virus' from 2021-10-16T17:30
With daily Covid case numbers climbing, there is mounting concern from health workers about the strain that could be put on ICU capacity. But it's not just the immediate hospitalisations t...
Listener feedback for 16 October 2021 from 2021-10-16T11:55
Listener feedback for 16 October 2021.
Kate De Goldi & Susan Paris: Skinny Dip poetry collection for kids from 2021-10-16T11:35
Rainy day lunch times, kapa haka practice, first crushes and classroom pets are all captured in Skinny Dip, the new poetry anthology curated by Kate De Goldi and Susan Paris.
New film celebrates unlikely kitchen icon Julia Child from 2021-10-16T11:10
With her unmistakable warble and towering figure, Julia Child was an unexpected icon of the kitchen. A new documentary from Betsy West and Julie Cohen uses unseen footage of Child along wi...
Playing Favourites with artist Lisa Reihana from 2021-10-16T10:06
Multi-disciplinary artist Lisa Reihana (Ngapuhi - Ngati Hine, Ngai Tu-Te Auru) is the Artist In Focus for the upcoming Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts, and will be bringing a ser...
Jeanette Kehoe-Perkinson: surviving menopause at work from 2021-10-16T09:35
Jeanette Kehoe-Perkinson believes far too many experienced, successful women give up their jobs midlife because they find it too difficult managing the effects of menopause, as well as jug...
Dr Charles Berde: developing algae-based pain relief from 2021-10-16T08:45
Researchers have long searched for an alternative to opioids for pain relief, with few results so far. But that might all be about to change. Dr Charles Berde and his colleagues have been ...
Dr Ashley Bloomfield: Super Saturday and New Zealand's Covid response from 2021-10-16T08:13
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield joins the show as the country's first ever 'vaxathon' takes place with the target of getting a further 100,000 eligible people vaccinated w...
Reservation Dogs' Devery Jacobs: 'We weren't super sacred and stoic all the time' from 2021-10-09T18:05
Reservation Dogs is a new dark comedy series co-created by NZ filmmaker Taika Waititi and Native American filmmaker Sterlin Harjo. The show focuses on four Native American teenagers living...
Sir Billy Connolly: a windswept and interesting life from 2021-10-09T17:05
It was while working as a welder in the Glasgow shipyards that Billy Connolly discovered he had a knack for comedy. With his fearless and outspoken approach to life - which includes his wa...
Listener Feedback for 9 October 2021 from 2021-10-09T11:55
Feeback from listeners to the Saturday Morning programme.
Chris Price & Bruce Foster: the life of the mysterious lobster from 2021-10-09T11:35
The lobster is a creature that likes darkness, preferring to live its days being hidden away from sight. But the enigmatic crustacean undergoes a thorough literary, historical, artistic, a...
Miles Benton: diagnosing serious illnesses cheaper and faster from 2021-10-09T09:35
Dr Miles Benton had the idea for portable, bedside sequencing in hospitals when his son was born eight weeks premature. He knew there was technological capability to have a diagnosis withi...
Doireann Ní Ghríofa: the story of how we haunt each other from 2021-10-09T08:30
Doireann Ní Ghríofa's prose debut A Ghost in the Throat eludes easy definition: at once a memoir, a piece of scholarship and autobiographical-fiction. The book combines Ní Ghríofa's own st...
Chris Dunphy: is there a greener future for logistics in New Zealand? from 2021-10-09T08:10
Coastal shipping and green hydrogen-powered trucking are part of the future for freight in New Zealand believes Chris Dunphy, the new director of Move Logistics - formerly known as TIL Log...
Dr Emma Carroll: following the whale that crossed three oceans from 2021-10-02T11:35
A satellite tag which unexpectedly kept working for a year has followed the journey of one tohora southern right whale as he ventured 15,000km from the Auckland Islands across three oceans...
Max Chafkin: what makes tech billionaire Peter Thiel tick? from 2021-10-02T11:05
Elusive venture capitalist and entrepreneur Peter Thiel has been thrust under the microscope in new biography The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power.
Ryan Salter: making difficult decisions about rationing medical care from 2021-10-02T10:35
Ryan Salter knows first-hand what it looks like when a health system is under extreme pressure because of Covid-19. Dr Salter has recently returned from the UK, where he was a consulting a...
Anthony Doerr: Pulitzer winning author on Cloud Cuckoo Land from 2021-10-02T10:05
Cloud Cuckoo Land is the new book from Idaho-based author Anthony Doerr, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2014 novel All the Light We Cannot See. Like his last offering, Doerr's new book...
Frank Stark: Bringing creative life to Gonville from 2021-10-02T09:40
As former director of the Whanganui Regional Museum, Frank Stark is familiar with the eclectic architectural heritage of the river city. And when he and partner Emma Bugden bought the hist...
Joanna Scanlan: electrifying role in short film from 2021-10-02T09:05
English actor Joanna Scanlan stars alongside Peter Mullan (My Name is Joe, Top of the Lake) in new short film Don vs Lightning, in which an elderly Scottish grump finds himself the victim ...
Jonathan Drori: cultivating coffee and saving sequoias from 2021-10-02T08:35
Author, plant lover and former BBC documentary maker Jonathan Drori joins the show for a chat about some of the latest botanical news. This week, Drori will be discussing the discovery of ...
Prof Jason Young: the domino effect of Evergrande's debt crisis from 2021-10-02T08:10
Heavily indebted Chinese property developer Evergrande hit headlines last week as the world waited to see if the company would cause China's 'Lehman moment'. And while that now looks unlik...
Thomas de Mallet Burgess: pushing the boundaries of NZ Opera from 2021-09-25T17:40
When a bunch of unruly British tourists caused havoc around the country back in 2019, the general director of the New Zealand Opera Thomas de Mallet Burgess was struck by a bolt of inspira...
Feedback to the Saturday Morning Programme 25 September 2021 from 2021-09-25T11:55
Feedback from listeners to the Saturday Morning Programme 25 September 2021.
Dr Doug Wilson: the medical miracles are not for everyone from 2021-09-25T11:40
Doug Wilson is a medical academic author and our regular correspondent from the other side of 80. Wilson graduated from Otago University 60 years ago, and since then there have been signif...
Annette Lees: exploring the enchanting nights of Aotearoa from 2021-09-25T11:05
Annette Lees has long had a love affair with the night time. As a child she found it both scary and enchanting, and as an adult she revels in the sense of wonderment found in swimming unde...
Jing Song: from accountant to award-winning wine producer from 2021-09-25T10:40
Jing Song is the youngest-ever New Zealand wine producer to win a gold award at the International Wine and Spirit Competition.
Yanis Varoufakis: former Greek Finance Minister presents an alternative to capitalism from 2021-09-25T10:05
A well-known critic of the neoliberal world order, economist Yanis Varoufakis believes capitalism has become 'techno-feudalism' - with tech companies and Covid making the rich even richer ...
Kath Irvine: practical tips from ?hau’s organic gardener from 2021-09-25T09:40
Horowhenia-based organic gardener Kath Irvine is passionate about the value of homegrown food - and the key, she says, is to keep it really simple. For her new book The Edible Backyard, Ir...
Dianne Modestini: restoring one of the world’s most controversial paintings from 2021-09-25T09:05
The 'Salvator Mundi' is the first Leonardo da Vinci painting to be discovered for over a century, though some question whether it is in fact by the painter. Dianne Modestini is a world-ren...
Prof Mary Ziegler: the ‘deviousness’ of the Texas abortion ban from 2021-09-25T08:20
The recently enacted Texas Heartbeat Act, also known as Senate Bill 8, gives conservative lawmakers everything they wanted - the ability to ban abortion with none of the risk, says Profess...
Oscar Stilley: ‘disbarred and disgraced’ lawyer sues Texas abortion doctor from 2021-09-25T08:10
Earlier this week Arkansas man Oscar Stilley filed a lawsuit against a Texan doctor who performed an abortion and wrote about it publicly in defiance of the state's strict new 'Heartbeat A...
Lawsuits filed against Texas abortion provider could be best test of new law from 2021-09-25T08:09
Earlier this week Arkansas man Oscar Stilley filed a lawsuit against a Texan doctor who performed an abortion and wrote about it publicly in defiance of the state's strict new 'Heartbeat A...
Listener feedback for 18 September 2021 from 2021-09-18T11:55
Listener feedback for 18 September 2021.
Tanea Heke: Cousins star ushering in new wave of storytellers from 2021-09-18T11:35
It's been a big year for actor Tanea Heke with roles in critically acclaimed feature films Cousins and The Justice of Bunny King. On top of that, Heke also appears in He Takatapui Ahau - a...
Michael Blencowe: searching for what remains of the world's extinct species from 2021-09-18T11:07
For his new book, Gone, Sussex-based naturalist Michael Blencowe decided to embark on a journey in search for what remains of the world's extinct creatures.
Playing Favourites with Wellington musician Luke Buda from 2021-09-18T10:07
It's been a long time between drinks, but Te Whanganui-a-Tara artist Luke Buda is gearing up to release his first solo album in 12 years. Luke joins the show to play a few favourites and d...
Dr Jenny Clarke: Croquet and the Large Hadron Collider from 2021-09-18T09:35
Christchurch’s Jenny Clarke has been ranked the number one women’s croquet player in the world for most of the last 15 years. Dr Clarke is a senior lecturer in sports science at the Univer...
Andrew Cockburn: how the American War Machine is all about money from 2021-09-18T09:07
In his book The Spoils of War: Power, Profit and the American War Machine British journalist and Washington editor for Harpers magazine Andrew Cockburn gets behind the motivations behind t...
The rise and fall of Oscar Pistorius examined in new podcast from 2021-09-18T08:30
When South African double-amputee Oscar Pistorius showed up on the sprint scene in the early 2000s he immediately began dominating the sport.In 2012, he made history as the first amputee s...
Chris Smith: are vaccine passports a good idea and should we have a booster? from 2021-09-18T08:10
This week: the UK government has scrapped plans to introduce vaccine passports for access into nightclubs and large events. They have also announced that they will be offering Covid booste...
Dr Sue Stuart-Smith: Sense of purpose grows in those who garden from 2021-09-11T17:35
Dr Sue Stuart-Smith is a psychiatrist, psychologist, gardener and literature lover who, in her much hailed UK bestseller The Well Gardened Mind brings all her passions together to look at ...
Playing Favourites with outgoing DOC boss Lou Sanson from 2021-09-11T16:05
Lou Sanson has had a life-long love affair with nature. Now he's hanging up his hat at DOC, and is joining the show to reflect on some highs and lows during his time, and play some favouri...
Dr Matt Baker: elephant trunks and DNA data storage from 2021-09-11T11:35
Sydney-based New Zealander Dr Matt Baker joins the show for a chat about some of the latest science news. This week he looks at elephant trunks, and the work of the Mars rover Perseverance...
Lucy Blakiston: Shit You Should Care About an Instagram hit from 2021-09-11T11:05
Lucy Blakiston is co-founder of Shit You Should Care About, an Instagram account based in New Zealand that has more than 3.3 million followers.
Ahmed Rashid: what's next for the Taliban? from 2021-09-11T10:35
Ahmed Rashid's bestselling 2000 book Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia was used extensively by American analysts in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The Lahore-b...
Christina Lamb: reflecting on the last 20 years in Afghanistan from 2021-09-11T10:05
On the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, British war correspondent and author Christina Lamb finds herself back in Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul. Christina Lamb is chief foreign ...
Prof Kim Mulholland: are vaccine passports worthwhile? from 2021-09-11T08:10
Vaccine passports that prove a person's Covid-19 immunisation status are expected to be available from December for New Zealanders who want to travel abroad. Professor Kim Mulholland is a...
Dr Jada Watson: celebrating 'the F word' in country music from 2021-09-10T10:07
For years female country artists in North America have been told by radio programmers that they are the "tomatoes" of an all-male salad. In other words, they are the garnish and their musi...
Haritina Mogosanu: growing plants in space from 2021-09-04T11:30
Space science educator and astrobiologist Haritina Mogosanu returns to Saturday Morning to discuss growing plants in space. Her Seeds in Space programme has involved distributing seeds to ...
Todd Antony: sharing images of remarkable subcultures worldwide from 2021-09-04T11:05
Formerly based in London, now in lockdown in Auckland, photographer Todd Antony usually travels the reaches of the globe on ambitious commercial and personal projects, racking up numerous ...
Tim Dean: is it time to ditch our outdated moral beliefs? from 2021-09-04T10:35
In his debut book How We Became Human: And Why We Need To Change, Sydney-based philosopher, writer and teacher Tim Dean looks at how we evolved to be moral creatures, and why some of our e...
Dr Joe Pojman: Texas signs 'heartbeat' abortion ban into law from 2021-09-04T10:05
A controversial law dubbed the 'Heartbeat Bill' has come into effect in the US State of Texas this week after the Supreme Court did not respond to an emergency appeal by abortion providers...
Dr Joe Pojman: pro-life lobbyist on the new Texas ]'heartbeat' abortion ban from 2021-09-04T10:05
A controversial law dubbed the 'Heartbeat Bill' has come into effect in the US State of Texas this week after the Supreme Court did not respond to an emergency appeal by abortion providers...
Prof Ethan Bier: using mutated mosquitoes to control disease from 2021-09-04T09:35
Genetically engineered mosquitoes could be the key to winning the war against malaria, a disease that affects more than 200 million people every year and kills more than 400,000 - many of ...
Prof David Murdoch: is Covid elimination still achievable? from 2021-09-04T09:05
As of Friday afternoon, more than 70 percent of New Zealanders aged 12 or over had received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, or are booked in to receive it. But as witnessed in Isra...
Bryan Brown: Aussie actor turns crime writer with debut book Sweet Jimmy from 2021-08-28T17:06
Australian actor Bryan Brown is a familiar face on our screens. Brown is adding another feather to his cap by trying his hand at crime writing.
Listener Feedback for 28 August 2021 from 2021-08-28T11:55
Listener Feedback for 28 August 2021.
Toby Morris: the cartoonist who is Dad Man Walking from 2021-08-28T11:40
Award-winning Kiwi cartoonist Toby Morris tells Kim Hill working on his latest book Dad Man Walking was "a bit of a reprieve" from his regular gig illustrating Covid-19 explainers for the ...
Lillian Hanly: The tough decision of being tested for Huntington's from 2021-08-28T09:40
In her new short documentary Fifty Percent, Lillian Hanly grapples with an agonising decision: should she get tested for Huntington's disease? Her grandfather, New Zealand artist and print...
Prof Joseph Dahmen: Mycelium, a living building material from 2021-08-28T09:07
Mycelium, the root system of fungi, has increasingly started to be used as an alternative to plastic, but its uses are also extending into architecture and design as a living, construction...
Dr Norman Swan: Covid Trans-Tasman relations from 2021-08-28T08:36
Covid-19 has seen Sydney investigative journalist and broadcaster Dr Norman Swan thrust into a role as arguably Australia's most well-known doctor and a trusted voice in the long pandemic....
Dr Srinjoy Bose: what’s next for Afghanistan? from 2021-08-28T08:12
As many as 170 Afghan people and 13 American troops are being reported as having been killed in a blast outside Kabul's international airport on Thursday night. Dr Srinjoy Bose is a Senior...
Danyl McLauchlan: postjournalism and the media from 2021-08-21T11:35
Protein scientist and writer Danyl McLauchlan joins RNZ's Saturday Morning to tackle life's big questions, ideas and thinkers. This week he's discussing the future of the news and how jour...
Megan Dunn: Things I Learned At Art School from 2021-08-21T11:05
Following on from her critically acclaimed 2018 debut Tinderbox, Wellington-based author Megan Dunn has returned with new book Things I Learned At Art School. Billed as part-memoir and par...
Jim Schuster: saving Aotearoa's marae heritage from 2021-08-21T09:35
Jim Schuster works with Heritage New Zealand as a marae restorer around New Zealand and the world, and in the latter category there's one particularly close to his heart. Meeting house Hin...
Felix Marquardt: will re-embracing nomadism save humanity? from 2021-08-21T09:05
Felix Marquardt is a French author, former PR consultant and senior advisor to world leaders and CEOs, some he admits shady. His first book The New Nomads boldly proposes the future of hum...
Prof Vrinda Narain: uncertain times for Afghan women from 2021-08-21T08:30
Concerns are high for the women of Afghanistan following the Taliban's swift takeover of the Middle Eastern country. Professor Vrinda Narain says women were subjected to persistent human ...
Dr Chris Smith: dealing with Delta in the community from 2021-08-21T08:10
Our regular commentator, Cambridge University consultant clinical virologist Dr Chris Smith joins us with the latest Covid-19 science, and to answer your questions. With New Zealand sudden...
Listener feedback for 14 August 2021 from 2021-08-14T11:55
Listener feedback for 14 August 2021.
Hari Mogosanu: blending biosecurity and space exploration from 2021-08-14T11:40
Passionate about space education, Haritina Mogo?anu is interested in how our experience in biosecurity can inform space exploration and protect life.
John Mitchinson: Backlisted podcast giving new life to old books from 2021-08-14T11:07
The Backlisted literary podcast is the brainchild of John Mitchinson and his co-host Andy Miller. The pair invite guests - usually writers - for a conversation about a book they love and t...
Sam Orchard: archiving New Zealand's cartoons and comics from 2021-08-14T10:36
A comic artist himself, Sam Orchard is the newly appointed curator for the New Zealand Cartoon and Comics Archive at the National Library.
Helen Bint: living off-the-grid on the Chathams from 2021-08-14T10:06
For the past nine years Helen Bint has lived off-the-grid in a truly remote, spectacular location - a historic stone cottage at the foot of a 200-metre high rocky outcrop on the Chatham Is...
Anapela Polata'ivao: bringing Things That Matter to the theatre from 2021-08-14T09:42
When Anapela Polata'ivao was growing up she wanted to be a nurse because she felt the need to help people. Then she found drama at Sunday School. Now an actor, writer and director with num...
Ex-con Arthur Taylor: 'I take full responsibility' from 2021-08-14T09:08
Arthur Taylor is one of the country's most notorious criminals and has a new memoir. In an interview with Kim Hill, he's asked whether he's truly repentant for his past.
Chris Brickell: exploring the diaries of gay literary pioneer James Courage from 2021-08-14T08:36
James Courage is a major mid-century New Zealand literary figure but he has been largely overlooked compared to contemporaries such as Frank Sargeson and Charles Brasch. Chris Brickell wan...
Vanessa Andreotti: battling against Amazon land-grab bill from 2021-08-14T08:12
Vanessa Andreotti is a working alongside a collection of Amazonian tribes as indigenous land rights are looking likely to be removed in an unprecedented move by Brazilian president Jair Bo...
Chris Mosier - the trailblazing transgender athlete from 2021-08-07T17:05
Chris Mosier was the first transgender athlete to represent the United States in international competition, after earning a spot on Team USA's sprint duathlon men's team in the 2016 World ...
Brett Graham - bringing the land wars into the present from 2021-08-07T15:30
On Friday night artist Brett Graham (Ngati Koroki Kahukura, Tainui) received an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award. Graham is one of New Zealand's most celebrated sculptors and...
Listener feedback for 7 August 2021 from 2021-08-07T11:55
Emails and texts from listeners to the Saturday Morning show.
Jock Zonfrillo - from drug addict to top Australian chef from 2021-08-07T11:05
He's a familiar face on our television screens as one of the judges for popular cooking show MasterChef Australia, but the path to success has been a rocky one for Jock Zonfrillo.
Dianne Ludwig - welcoming back slow fashion from 2021-08-07T10:30
For most of her professional life Dianne Ludwig worked in the corporate world, but when she retired she decided to start a small hobby business selling vintage clothing online under the mo...
Prof David Hutchinson: NZ leading next computer revolution from 2021-08-07T10:05
Dunedin-based quantum physicist Professor David Hutchinson believes New Zealand can lead the world in what is considered to be the next computer revolution, photonics.
Ben Rhodes: Obama adviser releases new book After The Fall from 2021-08-07T09:10
Ben Rhodes was a speechwriter, national security adviser, and right-hand man to US President Barack Obama for eight years. Following his time in the White House, Rhodes wrote an insider ac...
Dr Chris Smith: Covid-19 science news from 2021-08-07T08:10
Our regular commentator, Cambridge University consultant clinical virologist Dr Chris Smith joins us with the latest Covid-19 science, and to answer your questions.
Gina Kalloch: Alaska’s indigenous Olympics marks 60 years from 2021-07-31T11:40
While the world has its eyes on the Olympic Games in Tokyo, the Alaskan community of Fairbanks has played host to its own long-standing sporting event, the World Eskimo-Indian Olympic Game...
Matt Brown: the barber helping break cycles of violence from 2021-07-31T11:05
Barber Mataio (Matt) Faafetai Malietoa Brown offers men not just a haircut, but a safe space to talk without judgement. In his book She is Not Your Rehab, co-authored with his wife Sarah, ...
James Ashcroft: directorial debut leads to Bigfoot flick from 2021-07-31T09:30
James Ashcroft's debut feature film Coming Home In The Dark hasn't even hit New Zealand cinemas yet, but the director has already been shoulder-tapped for at least one big budget Hollywood...
Laura Raicovich: changing the museum in an age of protest from 2021-07-31T09:05
Laura Raicovich believes the museum has never been a neutral space. As director of the Queens Museum during the Trump administration she was credited with helping turn the New York institu...
Jonathan Drori: on listening tomatoes and ragwort-filled gardens from 2021-07-31T08:30
Author, plant lover and former BBC documentary maker Jonathan Drori joins the show for a chat about some of the latest botanical news. This week, Drori discusses a ragwort-filled garden an...
Bryce Webster-Jacobsen: negotiating with ransomware hackers from 2021-07-31T08:10
Ransomware attacks are not a new phenomenon, but they have increased exponentially since the beginning of the pandemic. Bryce Webster-Jacobsen is the Director of Intelligence for Virginia-...
David Mitchell: new documentary a window into non-verbal autism from 2021-07-24T17:42
When David Mitchell's son was diagnosed with autism at three years old, the British author and his wife Keiko Yoshida felt lost, unsure of what was happening inside their son's head. In an...
Saturday Morning feedback for 24 July 2021 from 2021-07-24T11:59
Kim Hill reads and responds to listener feedback for 24 July 2021.
John Summers: celebrating the extraordinary in the ordinary from 2021-07-24T11:35
Wellington writer John Summers delves into old-school New Zealandness in his new essay collection The Commercial Hotel.
Prof Joel Pearson: how having ‘mind blindness’ can affect emotions from 2021-07-24T11:05
The inability to visualise mental images - a condition called aphantasia - affects around 2-5 percent of the population, but very little is known about it. Aphantasia comes in different sh...
Karl Fritsch: the Wellington jewellery artist with a punk sensibility from 2021-07-24T09:40
A leading jewellery artist known for his subversive punk approach to valuable materials, Karl Fritsch exhibits as much in Europe and the United States as he does New Zealand - but the pand...
Amy Tan: the joy of creativity captured in Unintended Memoir from 2021-07-24T09:10
The relationship between mothers and daughters has been a central theme of much of the work by Asian-American writer Amy Tan. The best-selling author, whose books include The Joy Luck Club...
Make It 16: advocating for lower voting age in Aotearoa from 2021-07-24T08:35
Next month, a group of young activists will be in the Court of Appeal arguing that the current voting age is discriminatory under the Bill of Rights. Make It 16 members Ella Flavell and Li...
Prof Ian Culpan: controversial Tokyo 2020 Olympics kick off from 2021-07-24T08:10
The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games opening ceremony took place overnight Friday, kicking off a games that has faced countless challenges amid a global pandemic. Professor Ian Culpan, co-directo...
Doug Wilson: New drug for Alzheimer's and new vaccine for malaria from 2021-07-17T11:40
Doug Wilson discussing approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the first new drug for Alzheimer's disease in 18 years and the creation of a new vaccine against malaria th...
Harrison Christian: the infamous mutiny on the Bounty from 2021-07-17T11:08
Many families have a tale of an adventurous ancestor - but some are far more interesting than others. Harrison Christian's ancestor, Fletcher Christian, was a seaman in the late 1700s who ...
What happened to Sydney socialite Juanita Neilsen? from 2021-07-17T10:40
When Juanita Nielsen disappeared from Sydney’s King Cross in July 1975 the story received intense public interest. Nielsen was a journalist, socialite, model and heiress of the Mark Foy fa...
Rick Gekoski: raconteur and rare books hunter from 2021-07-17T10:10
Rare book dealer Rick Gekoski has been hunting for hidden literary gems for over 50 years. His latest book, Guarded by Dragons: Encounters with Rare Books and Rare People likens his trade ...
Waihoroi Shortland: the 'accidental actor' cast in Te P? from 2021-07-17T10:10
Waihoroi Shortland (Ngati Hine) has had a long and varied career. As an actor he's starred in Rain of the Children and Boy, as well as New Zealand's first ever film entirely in te reo - Th...
Cleve Cameron: from adman to cycling advocate from 2021-07-17T09:40
Cameron is a co-founder of Big Street Bikers - Big Street Bikers have been busy creating new electric infrastructure to make cycling easier for commuters. That's where Locky Docks come in....
Dr Tara Shirvani on the environmental cost of crypto: 'We have to find solutions' from 2021-07-17T08:30
Bitcoin mining is a way people can acquire cryptocurrency without buying it. While the process may be lucrative, it is also hugely energy intensive. Dr Tara Shirvani is an infrastructure s...
Mayor Jamie Cleine: State of Emergency on the West Coast from 2021-07-17T08:10
More than 600 homes have been evacuated in Westport as the Buller River threatens to breach its banks. Kim Hill spoke with Buller District Council Mayor Jamie Cleine in Westport, where vol...
Reuben Paterson: crystal waka reaches for the stars from 2021-07-10T11:40
A 10-metre high waka constructed of hundreds of shimmering crystals has been installed outside Auckland Art Gallery, made by artist Reuben Paterson.
Sue Orr: looping together truth and fiction for new novel from 2021-07-10T10:35
Wellington author Sue Orr's new novel Loop Tracks tells the story of Charlie, a young woman who heads to Australia in 1978 to end her pregnancy, at a time when safe legal abortion was unav...
Dan Price: the CEO who slashed his salary by $1 million from 2021-07-10T10:05
Seattle-based entrepreneur Dan Price hit headlines around the world in 2015 when he slashed his own salary by $1 million so he could start paying his all employees a minimum salary of $70,...
Thant Myint-U: what will become of Myanmar? from 2021-07-10T09:30
The trial of Myanmar's deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi is currently underway, while deaths continue under the military junta, and civilians train with armed rebel groups in the mountains. ...
Jason Ferguson: the story behind football's greatest manager from 2021-07-10T09:05
Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson is widely considered one of the greatest football managers of all time, having won more trophies than any other manager in the history of...
Aminatta Forna: observations from the window seat from 2021-07-10T08:30
Writer Aminatta Forna's ongoing love of exploration has been captured in her new book, The Window Seat: Notes From A Life In Motion, a collection of thought-provoking essays that traverse ...
Lawrence Douglas: what’s next for the Trump empire? from 2021-07-10T08:10
Donald Trump’s company the Trump Organization and its longtime chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg have been hit with a slew of criminal charges including conspiracy, grand larceny, ...
Stephen Curran: visiting Venus and giant comets from 2021-07-03T11:35
Kiwi-Scottish starman Dr Stephen Curran returns by popular demand to unpack cosmic goings-on.
Archa Fox: the MRNA scientist who grew up with the Orange People from 2021-07-03T11:05
Dr Archa Fox has an unusual background for a scientist - when she was three her parents packed the family off to India to join the Orange People cult. Now Dr Fox is an associate professor ...
Dr Gary Fettke: fighting the demonisation of red meat from 2021-07-03T10:30
Gary Fettke is the only doctor in Australia to be banned from giving dietary advice to his patients, after recommending those with complications of Type 2 Diabetes reduce their sugar intak...
Rebecca Solnit on her new memoir ‘Recollections of My Non-Existence' from 2021-07-03T10:05
Writer, activist and historian Rebecca Solnit's latest is Recollections of My Non-Existence, a memoir that describes being a 19-year-old in San Francisco - where she started to forge her v...
Jessica Bruder: the real story behind Nomadland from 2021-07-03T09:30
In 2013, journalist Jessica Bruder hit the road to document the growing subculture of Americans who have given up traditional housing to move into 'wheel estate' — many because of economic...
Ian White: being a Big Buddy to a boy who needs one from 2021-07-03T09:05
In his day job Ian White is the general manager of a cyber-security company, dealing with issues of hacking and ransomware, but in his spare time he has another important role: as 'big bud...
Dr Fran Priddy: New Zealand’s unique study on the Pfizer vaccine from 2021-07-03T08:30
New Zealand’s ‘COVID-naive’ population will offer unique data to global research as part of a new clinical study looking at how our bodies respond to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Professor Robert Patman: what happens next in the Tigray conflict? from 2021-07-03T08:10
Over the last eight months, conflict in Tigray, in northern Ethiopia, has killed thousands of people, displaced two million and pushed 350,000 to the brink of famine. Robert Patman is a Pr...
Saturday Morning Feedback from 26 June from 2021-06-26T12:00
Kim reads listener feedback from the show.
Life’s Big Questions: Nicky Hager and NZ’s role in Five Eyes from 2021-06-26T11:40
Protein scientist and writer Danyl McLauchlan joins Kim to tackle life's big questions, ideas and thinkers. This week he's discussing the current relevance of Nicky Hager's 1996 book Secre...
Lorin Clarke: celebrating the comedy genius of John Clarke from 2021-06-26T11:06
The father of modern Kiwi comedy John Clarke is being celebrated in a new online collection launched by NZ On Screen. Clarke's daughter Lorin Clarke, a writer, broadcaster and columnist ba...
Boyd Klap: on being yourself and remembering Anne Frank from 2021-06-26T10:35
At age 94 Boyd Klap continues to have a remarkable life helping make remarkable things happen. In recent years these have revolved around the memory of Anne Frank.
Edmund Richardson: finding the lost city of Alexandria from 2021-06-26T10:05
Founded by Alexander the Great, the city of Alexandria sat at an important junction of the southern foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains. And then it vanished. Alexandria, the new book by...
Francis and Kaiora Tipene: The traditions of tikanga from 2021-06-26T09:35
The beloved stars of The Casketeers, Francis and Kaiora Tipene, show how the traditions of tikanga shape their lives while juggling five sons, three businesses, and a television show in th...
Tim Hume: the rise of the extreme right in Europe from 2021-06-26T09:07
Over the last 10 years there has been a dramatic rise in far-right movements across Europe. London-based New Zealand journalist Tim Hume has been investigating the rise of these far-right ...
Alan Merry: making our medical system safer from 2021-06-26T08:42
Professor Alan Merry is a world leading anaesthetist, and deep thinker about safe surgery on a macro and micro level. Professor Merry says that while New Zealand's health system is pretty ...
Saturday Morning Feedback from 19 June from 2021-06-19T12:00
Julian reads listener feedback from the show.
Erik Hoel: how our weird dreams could be keeping our brains fit from 2021-06-19T11:35
Nobody really knows why we dream. Erik Hoel, a research assistant professor of neuroscience at Tufts University in Massachusetts, was inspired by the techniques used to train artificial ne...
Chris Gibson: the surprising environmental impact of guitars from 2021-06-19T11:05
Musicians often sing about environmental problems, but what about the environmental issues tied up with the materials from which their guitars are made
Sahra Ahmed: from asylum seeker to refugee health hero from 2021-06-19T10:35
Sahra Ahmed works in Christchurch as a refugee health nurse, helping new arrivals find their footing in a strange new land. It's a journey she has also undertaken.
Jamie Wall: inside rugby’s fierce 100 year rivalry from 2021-06-19T10:05
In South Africa there's a saying: 'You're not a real Springbok until you've played the All Blacks'. It's a testament to one of the fiercest rivalries in rugby history - that between South ...
Sarah Helm: 50 years on from Nixon’s War On Drugs from 2021-06-19T09:35
Sarah Helm, the Executive Director of the NZ Drug Foundation, joins the show to discuss how we should be reshaping our drug laws - and in some cases looking at decriminalisation.
Ralph Hope: Whatever happened to the Grey Men? from 2021-06-19T09:05
When the Berlin Wall came down how did over 100,000 Stasi officers manage to disappear? In his book The Grey Men, former FBI agent Ralph Hope investigates what happened to the former East ...
Elizabeth Stokoe: The art of conversation analysis from 2021-06-19T08:35
Nineties sitcom Friends has had far-reaching cultural impact over the decades, finding itself at the centre of rolling fashion trends and loads of scholarly analysis. But Elizabeth Stokoe ...
Alistair Woodward: The rise of the urban light truck from 2021-06-19T08:12
This week the government announced a levy on new utes to help pay for subsidies for electric vehicles. Four of the top ten best-selling new vehicles in New Zealand in 2020 were double cab ...
Listener Feedback for Saturday Morning for 12 June 2021 from 2021-06-12T11:59
Listener Feedback for Saturday Morning for 12 June 2021.
Rob Thorne: transcending with taonga puoro from 2021-06-12T11:40
Taonga puoro practitioner Rob Thorne (Ngati Tumutumu) is known for creating transcendent soundscapes by combining modern looping technology with traditional instruments made from stone, bo...
Anastasia Woolmer: tips from an Australian memory champ from 2021-06-12T11:05
Anastasia Woolmer is a two times Australian Memory Champion. But she wasn't always blessed with a memory like a steel trap.
Rachel Taulelei: Using trade as a tool to combat Covid-19 from 2021-06-12T10:35
Rachel Taulelei is a strong advocate for the unrestricted trade of vaccines and essential medical supplies, as barriers around the import and export of vaccines has been a key issue preven...
Alex Bezzerides: How evolution went wrong for humans from 2021-06-12T10:05
We humans have been evolving for millions of years, so why do we still have dodgy knees, crooked teeth and need glasses? Alex Bezzerides looks to answer those questions with his debut book...
Larry Keating: investigating corruption in the Amazon from 2021-06-12T09:35
Was there a link between the brutal attacks on Sir Peter Blake and Captain Pete Bethune in Brazil? In his new documentary, The Garden of Evil, Larry Keating investigates.
Aaron Lammer: the big cryptocurrency Exit Scam from 2021-06-12T09:10
When Canadian blockchain whiz Gerald Cotten died under mysterious circumstances while on honeymoon in India, the $215 million on his cryptocurrency exchange, Quadriga, also disappeared. F...
Tame Malcolm: using indigenous methods to fight pests from 2021-06-12T08:40
Tame Malcolm has always been captivated by te ngahere - the forest. Now, Malcolm advocates using customary Maori methods to get rid of pests and is the operations manager at Te Tira Whakam...
Michael Imperiale: Rethinking lab safety practices from 2021-06-12T08:25
The Wuhan lab-leak theory is back in the limelight, and US President Biden has ordered an investigation into the origins of Covid-19.
Farah Palmer: a breath of fresh air for Rugby NZ from 2021-06-12T08:10
Former Black Ferns captain Farah Palmer (Ngati Maniapoto, Waikato Tainui) was appointed as the deputy chair of Rugby NZ last month, making history as the first person to ever hold such a r...
Saturday Morning Feedback for 5 June from 2021-06-05T12:00
Julian reads listener feedback from the show.
Canterbury runanga team up to create aerospace company from 2021-06-05T11:30
Two Canterbury runanga are teaming up with the government to build a rocket launch facility on Kaitorete Spit, near Banks Peninsula. The government is contributing $16 million to help Taum...
Jenn Abbott: the unfortunately necessary sequel to The Corporation from 2021-06-05T11:05
Initially, director Jenn Abbott was opposed to the idea of making a sequel to 2003's eye-opening, award-winning film The Corporation. It seemed too mammoth a task, and she already had anot...
Michael Moka: building big business with Indigenous Growth from 2021-06-05T10:35
Michael Moka (Ngapuhi, Te Rarawa, Ngati Hine and Mangaia of Cook Islands) left home at the age of 15 with his girlfriend Toria, the pair living in their car or staying with relatives and w...
Peter Cooper: from Kaitaia boy to Californian billionaire from 2021-06-05T10:05
Peter Cooper is a billionaire and global investor who is perhaps best known for the transformation of Auckland's CBD through the redevelopment of Britomart. He was also pivotal in the crea...
Cameron McLaren: the challenge of capturing stillness from 2021-06-05T09:35
Photographer Cameron McLaren has a knack for capturing humans in intimate or unusual moments. McLaren's immersive style has seen him embedded within the Gloriavale Christian Community on t...
Prof Shanna Swan - How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts from 2021-06-05T09:05
Falling sperm counts and changes to sexual development are barrelling us towards a fertility crisis according to Professor Shanna Swan.
Atamira Dance Company marks 21st anniversary with Te Wheke from 2021-06-05T08:40
When Atamira Dance Company formed in 2000 there was no M?ori TV or radio and so young urban M?ori sought platforms within which to express themselves. For some, dance was that platform. . ...
World first concussion study underway in Dunedin from 2021-06-05T08:25
Around 700 rugby players in Dunedin are getting hi-tech mouthguards as part of a world-first study into concussion, funded by World Rugby with assistance from NZ Rugby.
Shell Dutch Oil told to cut emissions by 40 percent from 2021-06-05T08:12
In a landmark decision, Royal Dutch Shell has been ordered by a court in The Hague to drastically reduce its global carbon emissions. The oil giant was told it has a duty of care, and that...
Rereata Makiha: Recapturing ancient knowledge - 'A language on how to understand the world' from 2021-05-29T17:47
Matua Rereata Makiha (Ngati Whakaheke, Te Aupouri, Te Arawa) is a renowned Maori astrologer and a leading authority on the maramataka - the Maori lunar calendar. Makiha joins the show to d...
'Waiting for life to start': lockdown inspires new poetry collection from 2021-05-29T15:08
Tayi Tibble's first poetry collection Poukahangatus earned her the prize for best first book of Poetry at the 2019 Ockham awards. Now she has returned with Rangikura - in which she continu...
Suzanne Simard: the Wisdom and Intelligence of the Forest from 2021-05-29T11:06
Suzanne started her career in the forestry industry at a young age, just when clear cutting for profit was getting popular in Canada. But her attention was quickly turned to what was going...
Rachel Huckfeldt: DNA editing to help fix blindness from 2021-05-29T10:43
A historic trial is underway in the United States to help restore vision to blind patients by editing their DNA while it is in their bodies. CRISPR gene-editing technology has been revolut...
Emily Karaka: Rahui and the art of resistance from 2021-05-29T09:40
Emily Karaka's colourful post-modern expressionist paintings explore personal, political, and environmental issues, with an emphasis on the importance of matauranga Maori. One of Aotearoa'...
Mayye Zayed: a peek into Egypt's female weight-lifting scene from 2021-05-29T09:07
Egyptian director Mayye Zayed spent four years immersed in the world of Alexandria's competitive female weight-lifting scene for her new documentary, Lift Like A Girl. The film follows Zeb...
Ben Fenton: the importance of fairness in modern times from 2021-05-29T08:35
The concept of fairness is something most of us are taught about as children, but in reality our brains are already hardwired for it. In his new book To Be Fair, former Financial Times jou...
How will the Samoan constitutional crisis end? from 2021-05-29T08:15
Samoa found itself in a constitutional crisis this week when the caretaker HRPP government locked the doors to parliament in an attempt to stop prime minister-elect Fiame Naomi Mata'afa be...
Life's big questions: Climate change optimism vs apocalypse from 2021-05-22T11:36
Protein scientist and writer Danyl McLauchlan joins Kim to tackle life's big questions, ideas and thinkers. This week he's discussing The Sixth Extinction author's Elizabeth Kolbert's new ...
Dmitry Selitskiy: the future of brain-computer interfaces from 2021-05-22T11:06
Brain-computer interfaces, such as those being developed by Elon Musk's neurotechnology company Neuralink, promise to enable paraplegic people a better quality of life by being able to mov...
Dr Jen Gunter's menopause manifesto from 2021-05-22T10:06
Author of bestseller The Vagina Bible Dr. Jennifer Gunter is a fierce advocate for women's health. Whether it's telling Gwyneth Paltrow where not to shove her jade eggs, or campaigning aga...
Rebecca Macfie: the life and times of Helen Kelly from 2021-05-22T09:35
Helen Kelly was the first female head of the country's trade union movement, but she was also considered a visionary, a fighter, a strategist, and an orator. Her battles with local celebri...
Prof John Hearnshaw: Dark skies and light trespass from 2021-05-22T09:06
Astrotourism is a fast growing niche tourism industry worldwide, and New Zealand, which has five Dark Sky Sanctuaries, is playing a leading role. Renowned astronomer John Hearnshaw has jus...
Catherine Delahunty: understanding inherited bigotry from 2021-05-22T08:42
For the last 30 years Catherine Delahunty has undertaken the "sometimes uncomfortable mahi" of being a Treaty educator, encouraging New Zealanders to face up to the damaging elements in ou...
The history behind the Gaza-Israeli conflict from 2021-05-22T08:12
Dr Leena Dallasheh is a historian of the Modern Middle East and associate professor at Humboldt State University in California. Her work has a particular focus on Palestinians who became c...
Listener Feedback for Saturday Morning 15 May 2021 from 2021-05-15T11:59
Kim Hill reads listener feedback for Saturday Morning.
Clare Moleta: dystopian debut novel dives into a world divided by class from 2021-05-15T11:35
The new novel by Clare Moleta has been hailed as a remarkable debut, thrusting readers into a dystopian world consisting of a society divided into two classes - the sheltered and the unshe...
Joshua Rivera: Growing up and awaiting the rapture from 2021-05-15T11:10
It is said by many evangelical Christians that true believers will be transported to heaven at the second coming of Christ, known as the rapture. Journalist and writer Joshua Rivera grew u...
Dr Matt Baker: beats, bouts and bacterial biophysics from 2021-05-15T10:05
He has a doctorate from Oxford, where he studied Bacterial Flagellar Motor, a nanoscale rotary electric motor which makes bacteria swim. Currently Scientia Research Fellow in the School of...
Flo Foxworthy: costume design a childhood dream come true from 2021-05-15T09:45
Flo Foxworthy started sewing when she was seven years old, with a dream to make costumes for the movies. By the age of 18 she had launched her own business making bikinis and costumes for ...
Michael Lewis: The Premonition - A Pandemic Story from 2021-05-15T09:05
For his new book, Michael Lewis, author of The Big Short, has turned his attention to the US's initial response to Covid-19.
Shaun Bythell: Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops from 2021-05-15T08:40
Shaun Bythell has run Wigtown's The Bookshop since 2001. It's the largest second hand bookshop in Scotland with shelves spanning nearly two kilometres and containing over 100,000 books. Hi...
Mountaineer Guy Cotter: the impact of Covid-19 on Everest from 2021-05-15T08:10
Covid-19 cases have been spreading through the Everest Base Camp as Nepal deals with a surging outbreak of the virus. Despite this, there has been a record number of climbing permits issue...
Listener Feedback for Saturday Morning 8 May 2021 from 2021-05-08T11:59
Kim Hill Listener Feedback for Saturday Morning.
Tainui Tukiwaho - Racists Anonymous from 2021-05-08T11:35
"Racists Anonymous: the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop being racist." Tainui Tukiwaho is the director of Racists Anonymous, a new show at Auckland's Te Pou Theatre, Ao...
Playing favourites with Pic Picot from 2021-05-08T10:05
Before coming to public attention as a peanut butter baron Pic Picot had already lived a full and picaresque life. By the time he was 21, he had earned enough from making leather goods to ...
Jonathan Drori: The secret and surprising life of plants from 2021-05-08T09:05
For his new book Around the World in 80 Plants, Jonathan Drori traversed the globe, aiming to reveal the science of plants by showing how their worlds are intricately entwined with our own...
Christina Sweeney-Baird: The End of Men from 2021-05-08T08:33
Christina Sweeney-Baird's debut novel The End of Men is centred around a global virus to which women are immune and which kills 90 percent of the world's men. It all seems very timely, but...
Peter Young: Fight for the Wild – Aotearoa vs predators from 2021-05-08T08:10
Documentary filmmaker Peter Young discusses his biggest project to date - the battle to save Aotearoa's native species from an army of predators. Every year, introduced predators devour th...
Listener Feedback for Saturday Morning 1 May 2021 from 2021-05-01T11:59
Kim Hill reads listener feedback for Saturday Morning 1st May 2021.
Stephen Curran: Star ovens and mass extinctions from 2021-05-01T11:32
Kiwi-Scottish starman Dr Stephen Curran returns by popular demand to unpack cosmic goings ons. This week: how all the iron in your blood came from a massive star which lived and died befor...
Lydia Wevers: Shining light on the life of Jane Mander from 2021-05-01T11:06
Jane Mander is best known for her 1920 novel The Story of a New Zealand River, widely thought to be the underlying narrative for Jane Campion's film The Piano. The daughter of an MP, sawmi...
Mark Chapman: Lockdown in Mongolia from 2021-05-01T10:43
Kiwi Mark Chapman is a teacher at the International School of Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia. He is in his ninth lockdown and separated from his wife and children who are in Aotearoa. The weather...
Nicole Perlroth: the cyberweapons arms race from 2021-05-01T10:06
In her new book, This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends, New York Times cybersecurity reporter Nicole Perlroth exposes threat posed by an international market in cyberweapons For decades ...
The Sackler family's opioid 'Empire of Pain' from 2021-05-01T09:08
In the last 20 years, nearly 500,000 Americans have died from an opioid overdose making them the leading cause of accidental death in the country. Patrick Radden Keefe tells the story of h...
Janey Godley: Scotland's feuding nationalists from 2021-05-01T08:40
Scots go to the polls for the Scottish Parliament election on May 6 and the stakes are high as the Scottish National Party aims to control the devolved parliament and make another push for...
Shoba Narayan: India in crisis from 2021-05-01T08:14
All across India, a trail of death and misery is devastating the country and pushing the overburdened healthcare system towards collapse. Oxygen and medicine are in short supply as the nat...
Listener Feedback for Saturday Morning 24 April 2021 from 2021-04-24T11:59
Kim Hill reads listener feedback for Saturday Morning 24 April 2021.
Kate's Klassics: Sydney Bridge Upside Down from 2021-04-24T11:40
Poet and writer Kate Camp returns to discuss another classic work of literature. This week, Sydney Bridge Upside Down. Written by David Ballantyne and published in 1968, it's been describe...
Michael Baker - Western Australian under 3 day Covid lockdown from 2021-04-24T11:30
All travel between New Zealand and Western Australia has been paused after a three-day lockdown was announced in Perth and the Peel region. Kim asked epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker...
Bill Edgar: Coffin confessor from 2021-04-24T11:05
Bill Edgar is the son of one of Australia's most notorious gangsters, a former street kid, prisoner, sexual abuse survivor and inventor. Now the Queensland private investigator has found f...
Jennifer Robinson: fighting for Assange, West Papua and public education from 2021-04-24T10:05
Australian human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson has been described as the go-to barrister for London's rich and famous. Standing by her clients Julian Assange and Amber Heard in the full ...
Toa Fraser: Life with Young Onset Parkinson's disease from 2021-04-24T09:45
New Zealand film director Toa Fraser, 46, recently revealed on Twitter that he has Young Onset Parkinson's Disease. "People used to say I look cool. These days, people ask me why I look so...
Morris Pearl: The Patriotic Millionaires Movement from 2021-04-24T09:05
Morris Pearl is chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, a group of hundreds of high-net-worth people who want millionaires, billionaires, and corporations to pay their fair share of taxes. Pa...
Virologist Dr Chris Smith: Covid science news from 2021-04-24T08:45
Our regular commentator Cambridge University consultant clinical virologist Dr Chris Smith joins us with the latest Covid-19 science, and to answer your questions. This week, the latest on...
Rachel Morris: We are all museum-makers from 2021-04-24T08:10
Rachel Morris makes actual museums but she says that, in a way, we are all museum-makers as we try to make sense of the chaos of the past. Unpacking boxes of old family stuff from under he...
Priestdaddy author Patricia Lockwood releases her debut novel from 2021-04-17T17:12
Patricia Lockwood's 2017 memoir Priestdaddy was named one of the 10 best books of the year by The New York Times Book Review. She's just released her debut novel No One Is Talking About Th...
Cal Flyn: Life in the post-human landscape from 2021-04-17T13:11
Cal Flyn's latest book, Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape tells the story of a dozen abandoned places around the world, from Chernobyl to the volcanic Caribbean, and...
Trish Johansen: Eradicating rabies one village at a time from 2021-04-17T11:38
After many years running a veterinary clinic in Cambodia, Trish Johansen is on a mission to eradicate rabies. More than 100 years after a rabies vaccine was developed, people are still dyi...
Terry Wilson: Antarctica's bedrock rising as ice melts from 2021-04-17T11:09
Terry Wilson is a pioneer in using global positioning systems (GPS) to understand the loss of Antarctic ice. She says Antarctica's bedrock is rising as the ice melts and this will have imp...
Dr Doug Wilson: Navigating Life's Journey in Your Later Years from 2021-04-17T10:37
Ageing well is not just about longevity, according to Doug Wilson. It is the art of living well, making the most of the time we have, and finding ways to enhance our happiness and sense of...
Nahaja Black: Why the Bahamas is a haven for sexual predation from 2021-04-17T10:08
Attitudes to rape and women's rights in the Bahamas make it an ideal hunting ground for an alleged sexual predator, Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard, according to outspoken Bahamian rad...
Prof David Nutt: Psilocybin at least as useful as antidepressant in UK study from 2021-04-17T08:12
The psychedelic drug psilocybin, found in magic mushrooms, is as good at reducing symptoms of depression as conventional treatment, a small, early-stage trial has suggested. The study, run...
John Cockrem: Little penguins with big problems from 2021-04-10T11:40
"He korora, he tohu oranga: the little penguin is the sign of life". This whakatauki, that the success of korora populations indicates the health of the coastal marine environment, underpi...
Poet Johanna Emeney: exploring the felt realm from 2021-04-10T11:06
Poet Johanna Emeney says that Felt, her new collection of poems, explores teaching, animals and how emotions and "the things that have hit me hard over the past decade" are felt in the bod...
Georgia Rippin: the world of online sex work from 2021-04-10T10:43
Georgia Rippin (Tainui, Ngati Mahuta) is a New Zealand writer and television producer based in New York where she works on programmes for Netflix and Showtime. Her early productions, inclu...
John Baker: The search for Stalin's wine cellar from 2021-04-10T10:06
The hunt for a wine collection believed to have been hidden in a remote Georgian winery during the Second World War is at the centre of a new book, Stalin's Wine Cellar. First owned by Nic...
Darren Byler: Big Brother vs China's Uighurs from 2021-04-10T09:40
Constant surveillance, cultural suppression and 're-education' are a day-to-day reality for the approximately 12 million Muslim minority Uighur people who live in the Xinjiang Autonomous R...
Lisa Genova: The science of memory and the art of forgetting from 2021-04-10T09:06
Neuroscientist Lisa Genova explores how memories are made and retrieved in her new book Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting.
Chris Smith: Covid science update from 2021-04-10T08:52
Cambridge University consultant clinical virologist Dr Chris Smith discusses further news on the suspected link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and blood clots; new variants; and Russia's ...
Aye Min Thant: Myanmar in crisis from 2021-04-10T08:24
On the 1st of February Myanmar's military carried out a coup, seizing control of the country, undoing a democratic election in which Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) ...
Buckingham Palace has announced the death of Prince Philip from 2021-04-10T08:10
As you've heard Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinbugh has died at nearly 100 years of age. So if you think he'd been around forever, he pretty much had! Victoria Arbiter who happens to be t...
Danyl McLauchlan: Life's big questions: Jordan Peterson from 2021-04-03T13:40
Scientist and writer Danyl McLauchlan joins Kim to tackle life's big questions, ideas and thinkers. This week he's considering controversial Canadian clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson,...
Kevin Roose: How to be human in the age of automation from 2021-04-03T13:05
New York Times technology columnist and host of the podcast Rabbit Hole, Kevin Roose is the author of Futureproof: 9 Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation, in which he lays out a visio...
Vic Crone: Paul Callaghan's vision 10 years on from 2021-04-03T11:35
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the late Sir Paul Callaghan's legendary 'vision' speech at the McGuinness Institute event where he presented the idea of New Zealand becoming a plac...
Helen O'Hara: Women vs Hollywood from 2021-04-03T11:05
In her book Women vs Hollywood: The Fall and Rise of Women in Film Helen O'Hara explores the role of women - both in front of the camera and behind it - since the birth of Hollywood. The d...
Javier Blas: The World for Sale from 2021-04-03T10:30
Javier Blas is chief energy correspondent at Bloomberg News and coauthor of The World For Sale: Money, Power and the Traders Who Barter the Earth's Resources. The book aims to lift the lid...
David Putrino: Covid's "Long Haulers" from 2021-04-03T10:10
Lingering symptoms such as crippling fatigue, "brain fog", breathlessness, heart palpitations, chest pain and aching muscles or joints are a grim reality for a subset of people infected wi...
Dr Tom Doyle: Church structure to blame for abuse from 2021-03-27T19:10
Dr Tom Doyle, who is a priest, canon lawyer and addictions therapist, this week gave evidence to the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry faith-based redress hearing in Auckland, wher...
Listener Feedback for 27 March 2021 from 2021-03-27T12:55
Kim Hill reads listener feedback for 27 March 2021.
Judy Melinek and TJ Mitchell: Husband and wife crime-writing duo from 2021-03-27T11:30
Judy Melinek is a forensic pathologist at Wellington Hospital. Her training in forensics at the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner is the subject of the memoir Working Stiff: T...
Caolan Robertson: Creating an off-ramp from the alt-right from 2021-03-27T11:05
Caolan Robertson is a writer, filmmaker and former PR person for the alt-right. Between 2017 and 2019 he was a correspondent for Rebel Media, a director and producer for Alex Jones, Lauren...
Dr Stephen Curran: Avi Loeb, aliens and other 'utter crackpottery' from 2021-03-27T10:40
A few weeks ago, Kim spoke to Professor Avi Loeb, the former chair of astrophysics at Harvard University, who believes an object that passed through our solar system had extraterrestrial o...
Booker Prize winner George Saunders shares his love for Russian short stories from 2021-03-27T10:05
George Saunders won the Booker Prize for his 2017 novel Lincoln in the Bardo. For the last 20 years, he has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his students at Syracuse Uni...
Ex Bank of England Governor Mark Carney: building a human-values based economy from 2021-03-27T09:30
Mark Carney is the UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Finance Adviser for COP26. He was Governor of the Bank of England until last year, ...
Accessibility leader Minnie Baragwanath: 'NZ's hang-ups on abilities and disabilities are holding everyone back' from 2021-03-20T19:05
Minnie Baragwanath MNZM is the Chief Possibility Officer and founder of the newly established Global Centre of Possibility at AUT. She is a long-serving advocate for people who have a disa...
Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler: Tourism post-pandemic from 2021-03-20T18:05
In 1973 Tony Wheeler and his wife Maureen founded Lonely Planet Publications and went on to publish hundreds of popular travel guides. Prior to pandemic restrictions Tony was one of the wo...
Kay Baxter: Autumn gardening from 2021-03-20T12:40
Gardening and Permaculture expert Kay Baxter says autumn is one of only two times we have in the year to do things differently in the garden - planning and carrying out the work to improve...
Virologist Dr Chris Smith: Covid science from 2021-03-20T10:35
Our regular commentator Cambridge University consultant clinical virologist Dr Chris Smith joins us with the latest Covid-19 science, and to answer your questions.
Jill Nalder: the woman who inspired AIDS drama It's a Sin from 2021-03-20T10:05
Jill Nalder is a Welsh actress and activist. She is known for her career in theatre as well as her contribution to HIV/AIDS activism. She was the inspiration behind the character Jill Baxt...
Anita Lim: DIY at-home smear tests from 2021-03-20T09:35
Kiwi epidemiologist, Dr Anita Lim is the driving force behind a National Health Service study of do-it-at-home HpV virus swab tests in London. She's targeting areas where up to 50% women a...
Sally Weintrobe: The psychological roots of the climate crisis from 2021-03-20T09:10
Psychotherapist Sally Weintrobe thinks most of us have been living in a bubble of denial about the climate crisis. For many the bubble is now bursting, leaving people finding it hard to ma...
The truth is out there: Top Harvard astronomer believes in extraterrestrial life from 2021-03-13T18:12
In late 2017, scientists at a Hawaiian observatory glimpsed a strange object soaring through our inner solar system. The object dubbed "Oumuamua" was pancake-shaped, and as big as a footba...
Listener Feedback for 13 March 2021 from 2021-03-13T12:55
Listener Feedback for 13 March 2021
Actress & songwriter Chantal Claret from 2021-03-13T12:50
NZ based American actress & songwriter Chantal Claret, known for her role in the Netflix hit series 'Love' and as lead singer in the band Morningwood, The daughter of art collectors, She g...
Refugee and migrant advocate Dr Zhiyan Basharati from 2021-03-13T12:05
Dr Zhiyan Basharati is a finalist for the Young New Zealander of the Year Award. She came to New Zealand age 11 after spending her childhood in a Kurdish refugee camp. Now she has a PhD in...
Amanda Symon: Protecting M?ori rock art from 2021-03-13T11:38
There are over 700 sites of M?ori rock art in Te Wai Pounamu / the South Island – most of it in the limestone-rich areas of North Otago and South Canterbury. Archaeologist Amanda Symon is ...
Joey Hoofdman: discovering he was fathered by a fertility doctor from 2021-03-13T11:06
Joey Hoofdman's biological father was Jan Karbaat – a Dutch fertility doctor who inseminated Joey's mother with his own sperm, without her knowledge. Karbaat, who died in 2017, is believed...
Jackie Clark and Moeroa Marsters: Surviving domestic abuse from 2021-03-13T10:30
Her Say is a collection of stories told by New Zealand women who have lived in - and escaped - abusive relationships. Its publication is a long-held dream of Jackie Clark who, in 2013, lau...
Actor Juliet Stevenson: Pandemic theatre from 2021-03-13T10:07
British actor Juliet Stevenson narrates Blindness, a major international, socially-distanced theatre experience coming to the Auckland Writers Festival. Blindness is adapted from the novel...
Conspirituality: Alt-health meets alt-right, wellness meets QAnon from 2021-03-06T18:10
The yoga and "wellness" world has had several high-profile members fall under the influence of QAnon and Covid denial. This intersection between right-wing conspiracy theories and left-win...
Bidge Smith: Mervyn Thompson vs. Six Angry Women from 2021-03-06T12:40
Women activists were protesting against all forms of oppression in 1984 when Auckland university lecturer and playwright Mervyn Thompson was kidnapped, beaten and chained to a tree by six ...
Claire Robinson: Savage Politics from 2021-03-06T12:05
Author, political commentator and Professor of Communication Design at Massey University, Claire Robinson has now written a play about Aotearoa's first Labour Prime Minister, Michael Josep...
Isabel Allende:The Soul of A Woman from 2021-03-06T11:05
Best-selling author Isabel Allende has a brand new book - The Soul of A Woman - a meditation on power, feminism and what it means to be a woman. As a child, Isabel Allende watched her moth...
Carl Hart - Drug Use for Grown-ups from 2021-03-06T10:05
Could the harm that results from recreational drug use and abuse be mostly caused by their criminalisation and demonisation rather than their physical effects? When used responsibly, can d...
Forests reach temperature tipping point from 2021-03-06T09:40
Dr Katharyn Duffy is an earth systems scientist at Northern Arizona University. Collaborating with a couple of colleagues from New Zealand, she led a study, published in Science Advances, ...
Matthew Remski: conspirituality from 2021-03-06T09:10
The yoga and "wellness" world has had several high-profile members fall under the influence of QAnon and Covid denial. This intersection between right-wing conspiracy theories and left-win...
Listener Feedback for 27 February 2021 from 2021-02-27T12:55
Listener Feedback for 27 February 2021.
From Patea to Helsinki - circus star returns to Aotearoa from 2021-02-27T12:45
Thomas Monckton is an award-winning physical theatre and circus performer originally from Patea, South Taranaki. He trained at Christchurch circus school CircoArts, and the physical theatr...
Janja Lalich: how normal people end up in cults like NXIVM from 2021-02-27T12:05
Dr Janja Lalich is a professor emeritus in sociology who specialises in cults, extremism, and coercive influence and control and has spent decades helping people escape and recover from su...
Autonomous ship traces passage of the Mayflower from 2021-02-27T11:35
The Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS) is a grass-roots initiative lead by the marine research non-profit organisation ProMare and backed by IBM. The MAS spends months at sea collecting data ...
Black Panther artist marks Polynesian Panthers' milestone from 2021-02-27T11:05
Emory Douglas is an American graphic artist and member of the Black Panther Party from 1967 until the Party disbanded in the 1980s. As a 'revolutionary artist' and the Minister of Culture ...
Public policy founded on love for future generations from 2021-02-27T10:35
How would we design, implement and evaluate public policy if it were based on our love for future generations? This is the question at the centre of Dr Girol Karacaoglu's new book Love You...
Judy Belushi: The brilliance of John Belushi from 2021-02-27T10:05
The short but stellar career of the late comedian John Belushi is celebrated in a new documentary featuring previously unseen footage from those nearest and dearest to him. Born and raised...
Chris Smith: Covid science from 2021-02-27T09:40
Our regular commentator Cambridge University consultant clinical virologist Dr Chris Smith joins us with the latest Covid-19 science, and to answer your questions. This week; a worrying ne...
Sister Helen Prejean: Fighting to end the death penalty from 2021-02-27T09:10
81 year old Roman Catholic Sister Helen Prejean is a leading American advocate for the abolition of the death penalty, and a spiritual adviser to men and women on Death Row The New Orleans...
Listener feedback for 20 February 2021 from 2021-02-20T12:55
Listener feedback for 20 February 2021.
Kate's Klassics: The Talented Mr Ripley from 2021-02-20T12:40
Poet and writer Kate Camp returns to discuss a historic work of classic literature. This week, Patricia Highsmith's 1955 psychological thriller The Talented Mr Ripley. The novel introduced...
Julia Gillard: women and leadership from 2021-02-20T12:05
Julia Gillard was the 27th Prime Minister of Australia. She is currently the inaugural Chair of the Global Institute for Women's Leadership at Kings College London, which seeks to address ...
Artist Kate Newby: turning galleries inside out from 2021-02-20T11:40
Walter Prize winning US-based New Zealand artist Kate Newby's work involves the transformation of gallery spaces using architectural 'interventions' that take shape in consultation with th...
Australian prison podcast: Johanna Bell and Rocket Renae from 2021-02-20T11:05
Birds Eye View, a podcast made by some of the 80 female inmates inside the woman's section of the Darwin Correctional Centre in Australia's Northern Territory is proving an audio hit. It r...
Cather Simpson: quantitative immunity testing from 2021-02-20T10:35
Scientist and entrepreneur Professor Cather Simpson founded the University of Auckland's Photon Factory laser lab, and is part of spin-off business Orbis Diagnostics which has developed a ...
Girl A author Abigail Dean from 2021-02-20T10:05
Former bookseller Abigail Dean now works as a lawyer for Google. But last year she took some time off before turning 30 to write her debut novel. Girl A is already being tipped as one of t...
Andrew Whitley: Flour to the People from 2021-02-20T09:30
For over 40 years Scottish man Andrew Whitley has been on a mission to change the way our bread is made. He says the spongy white stuff that dominates supermarket bread aisles was original...
South Africa's Covid response: Fatima Hassan from 2021-02-20T09:10
New Zealand has begun its Covid-19 vaccine programme. But countries such as South Africa have been struggling to access adequate supplies of vaccines after wealthier countries stockpiled m...
Listener feedback for 13 February 2021 from 2021-02-13T12:55
Listener feedback for 13 February 2021.
What people over 65 need to know about Covid vaccines from 2021-02-13T12:35
New Zealand's first batch of the Pfizer BionTech Covid-19 vaccine is set to arrive next week and vaccination of high-risk people will start a few weeks later. Medical academic and former p...
NZ Wars: Stories of Tainui from 2021-02-13T12:05
A new documentary with accompanying podcast casts fresh light on a campaign in the New Zealand Wars. NZ Wars: Stories of Tainui is the third part of a series produced for RNZ by Great Sout...
Danyl McLauchlan: exploring life's big questions from 2021-02-13T11:35
Protein scientist and writer Danyl McLauchlan is following his two 'esoteric cult' novels Unspeakable Secrets of the Aro Valley and Mysterious Mysteries of the Aro Valley with a collection...
Ruth Coker Burks: caring for AIDS patients from 2021-02-13T11:07
As a young single mother in Arkansas with no medical training, Ruth Coker Burks cared for around 1000 men dying from AIDS through their final days. This was in the 1980s and 90s when the d...
Laura Jean McKay: winning Australia's richest literary prize from 2021-02-13T10:40
Palmerston North-based writer Laura Jean McKay recently won $125,000 at the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, taking out the Victorian Prize for Literature and the Fiction award for her...
Ian Urbina: investigative journalism on the high seas from 2021-02-13T10:07
With thousands of mariners stranded in foreign waters by the coronavirus pandemic, and congestion and chaos affecting ports worldwide, there's no shortage of issues for maritime journalist...
Stuart Ritchie: Debunking Covid bad science online from 2021-02-13T09:35
King's College London psychology lecturer Stuart Ritchie is on a mission to take on prominent Covid deniers, "lockdown sceptics", and influencers and celebs who spout anti-scientific guff....
Prof Lawrence Douglas: Donald Trump's second impeachment trial from 2021-02-13T09:12
The second impeachment trial of the former US President Donald Trump is entering a critical phase. Amherst College law professor Lawrence Douglas joins us to discuss partisanship, the proc...
Rebecca Mead: The metal detectors who struck gold, and trouble from 2021-01-30T17:35
In 2015, a metre under English soil, two metal-detector enthusiasts (or detectorists) literally struck gold . They discovered an underground Viking treasure trove: a bangle, pendant and a ...
Stephanie Dowrick: Intimacy and Solitude from 2021-01-30T12:35
Stephanie Dowrick is a psychotherapist and interfaith minister who co-founded publishing house The Women's Press. She has written several personal development books including international...
Sarah Johnston: archival recordings of our WW2 troops in battle from 2021-01-30T12:05
Christchurch based audio historian and researcher Sarah Johnston (Ngati Kahungunu, Ngati Rakaipaaka) recently won a Judith Binney Writing Award to study the National Broadcasting Service's...
Dr Chris Smith: Covid-19 vaccines and variants from 2021-01-30T11:05
This week; the UK reached the grim milestone of 100,000 coronavirus deaths, new, more contagious UK, South Africa and Brazil virus variants are being linked to rising case numbers, and a r...
Simon Winchester: how land ownership shaped the modern world from 2021-01-30T10:05
Prolific writer and journalist Simon Winchester is best known for his historical bestseller The Surgeon of Crowthorne, about an inmate in a prison for the criminally insane who was also a ...
Alexei Navalny vs Vladimir Putin from 2021-01-30T09:10
Alexei Navalny has been outspoken in his criticism of the Russian government for years. The former real estate lawyer became a shareholder activist and anti-corruption campaigner before ru...