Saturday morning listener feedback.

Kate De Goldi is one of New Zealand's most celebrated authors, an Arts Foundation Laureate, and a voracious reader. 

The story of North Carolinian husband and wife, Kathleen and Michael Peterson, took the world by storm after Kathleen's mysterious death in 2001. 

The biggest BBQ festival in Australasia, Meatstock, is back at Mystery Creek, Kirikiriroa Hamilton, this weekend after a three year hiatus. 

The Belong Care Village in Chester has a fully integrated on-site nursery. 

When you think of surfing, Africa might not be the first place that springs to mind. Documentary filmmaker Benoit Lalande makes short films about that very thing. 

Couples who sustain a strong intimate bond over time approach sex with "compassion, confidence, joy and a sense of playfulness," says sexual wellness educator Dr Emily Nagoski.

Over 200,000 New Zealanders are affected by tinnitus, a condition experienced as ringing in the ears. 

This weekend marks two years since Russia invaded Ukraine, a war that has killed tens of thousands of people since. 

Saturday Morning listener feedback

The epic Te Arawa legend of Hatupatu and the bird woman Kurungaituku is centre stage at the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts.

Sleep is fundamental to our survival, hence why we dedicate a third of our lives to it. 

Comedian's comedian Emma Lange is bringing a show to the fringe festival, based on her experience of a malignant, incurable brain tumor. 

Gary J. Bass has spent the past decade researching and writing his latest book, Judgement at Tokyo, about Japan's war criminal trials in the wake of WWII. 

Writer Danyl McLauchlan joins Susie to tackle life's big questions, ideas, and thinkers.

Russia's most significant opposition leader, and vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin - Alexei Navalny - is reported to have died in an Arctic Circle jail, aged 47. 

Everything in NPR science correspondent Michaeleen Doucleff's life had been relatively easy until she had a two-year-old daughter. "She's a wonderful kid. She's super smart and ambitious and motivated, but at two she was just a huge handful." On a work trip to a remote Mexican village, Doucleff wasn't expecting to "fix her parenting problems" but while there she got her mind blown by the calm parents and their "incredibly kind, respectful kids". Sometime later, Doucleff set off, toddler in tow, to live amongst three ancient cultures and experience their parenting practices firsthand. Her book Hunt, Gather, Parent explores what ancient traditions can teach us about helping kids thrive.

In November 2023, a magma dike began to rapidly build below the Sundhnúkur crater chain in southwest Iceland. 

Silicon Valley has long promoted a vision of a future tech utopia - be that on earth, or elsewhere. 

Niuean-born Sir Collin Tukuitonga is highly regarded for his work in Pacific peoples' health, both in NZ and internationally. His big health interests are heart disease, obesity and diabetes, and the impact on health of the climate crisis. He recently resigned from his government advisory roles, citing no confidence, so he can "speak up and speak out" about the treatment of Pacific people. He joins Susie to share some of his favourite 70's and 80's hits, which he fears show his age!

Edible Backyard gardener Kath Irvine is evangelical about the benefits of homemade compost. It's tempting to just buy a bag, but Kath reckons making your own is the secret to a bountiful and healthy garden. She's in to share her knowledge and offer tips for quick and simple compost making. If you've got a compost question you can email it in to: saturday@rnz.co.nz

British food writer Bee Wilson's new book The Secret of Cooking also serves up secrets for stress-free living. Alongside recipes, there's encouragement to improvise, a very useful section on learning to cook by experimenting with a bag of carrots, and repurposing an unloved wedding ring. Bee cooked her way through divorce, rekindling her appetite for life. She's a campaigner for food education through the charity TastEd, and writes the "Table Talk" column for The Wall Street Journal.

It's twenty years this week since Facebook was launched. Last week its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was forced to apologise at a US Senate hearing, to parents whose children died following sexual exploitation via social media or cyberbullying. A matter of hours later his company Meta delivered its quarterly results with the stock price surging by over 20 percent, its value up almost 200 billion dollars. Meta owns Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads as well as Facebook. Arturo Bejar worked for the company between 2009 and 2015 and then again from 2019 to 2021. He came forward as a whistleblower, saying Instagram isn't doing enough to protect children from online harms.

What are the dangers for society when a perfect face and body - especially for women - are not just promoted, but also possible? Whether it's a 10 step skincare regime, cosmetic injections or plastic surgery, endless self improvement has been valourised and recoded as empowerment. South Korea is the undisputed leader in the quest for physical perfection, with a $US10 billion beauty industry. NPR's host-at-large and the presenter of TED Talks Daily, Elise Hu lived and worked in Seoul during the boom days of the K-beauty industry. Her new book is Flawless: Lessons In Looks And Culture From The K-Beauty Capital.

British naturalist, broadcaster and environmental campaigner Chris Packham has been hailed as David Attenborough's successor. He began his broadcasting career on The Really Wild Show in the 1980s, and more recently has presented Springwatch for the BBC. He's found fans and made enemies with his vocal stance on environmental and ecological causes including opposing fox hunting. Recently he launched a legal challenge against the UK government over its plan to water down carbon commitments.

Something of an all-round Renaissance man, Kiran Parbhu joins Susie to share some favourite songs. A fourth generation Kiwi of Indian ancestry, Kiran came to fame when Maori language advocate Matai Rangi Smith praised his fluency of Te Reo. Kiran was captaining Matai's Air New Zealand flight at the time. He posted about the encounter on Facebook, getting over 13,000 likes. Kiran also trains young people to become pilots. In his spare time he's a mural artist, photographer, woodworker and sportsman.

Acclaimed actor, comedian, director and writer and "Snapchat Dude" Tom Sainsbury has another lesser known talent. Along with Lara Fischel-Chisholm he's one half of comedy dance troupe, Dynamotion. Their "camp, and country" Auckland Arts Festival show in March Boot Scootin' Boogie promises old fashioned barn dance fun.

Last Thursday melanoma researcher Professor Georgina Long was announced as Australian of the Year, along with colleague and friend Professor Richard Scolyer. As co-medical directors of the Melanoma Institute Australia, the pair are credited with saving thousands of lives. Their pioneering immunotherapy treatments for advanced forms of the cancer have resulted in 5 year survival rates increasing from less than 5% to more than 50%. In June of last year Professor Scolyer was diagnosed with glioblastoma IDH wild-type, a cancer that is usually fatal within six to nine months. Rather than undergoing traditional treatment, Prof Scolyer decided to experiment on himself, with Professor Long designing world-first treatments based on their melanoma work.

We all know when we haven't explained something clearly but it's equally important to pay attention when you do, says English journalist Ros Atkins. "When you get it right or when someone else gets it right, if you can spot what they've done and remember it and perhaps use it yourself next time, then you work up a whole set of techniques that will allow you to communicate well," he tells Susie Ferguson.

Patricia Grace is one of Aotearoa's most celebrated Maori fiction authors. She won the New Zealand Book Award for Fiction for Potiki in 1987, and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2001 with Dogside Story. She has a new collection of short stories, Bird Child and Other Stories, which spans mythology and contemporary Maori life and reimagines ancient tales. The cover art is courtesy of granddaughter Miriama Grace-Smith.

Fourteen times world woodchopping champion, Adam Lowe manages the South Island Wood Chopping team, bound for New South Wales for a big grudge match. He joins Susie for which blade, what wood, how fast and too strong. This year he's taking the first mixed-team to the block.

Line company Vector's recently created electric vehicle trends tracker shows EV ownership in Auckland is up almost 200% in two years. This growth begs the question: is the city's infrastructure prepared? Moreover, when the cars leave the city, can you charge them? Will small town New Zealand's electricity supply stand the burden? Vector Chief Executive Simon MacKenzie joins Susie.

Chief Scientist at the world's biggest museum, wildlife forensic scientist and conservation geneticist Rebecca Johnson is a leading researcher in koala conservation. The iconic Aussie marsupial is hostage to climate change and chlamydia. Dr Johnson came to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History from Australia, where she was chief investigator of the Koala Genome Consortium. As Director of the Australian Museum Research Institute, Rebecca helped put the Australian Museum on the map as a global leader in wildlife forensic science and applied conservation genomics. Rebecca is passionate about protecting threatened species, reducing the illegal trade of wildlife and the importance of STEM. She's been recognised as one of the 30 inaugural "SuperStars of STEM" by Science and Technology Australia.

Listener feedback for 27th January 2024 saturday morning with Susie Ferguson.

Astrophysicist Katie Mack discusses the possibility of time travel, how time will end, gravitational waves and the power of antimatter. Dr Mack is the Hawking Chair in Cosmology and Science Communication at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Canada - where she carries out research on dark matter and the early universe. Dr Mack wants to make physics more accessible. She is the author of the 2021 book The End of Everything.

Mentalist, illusionist and performance artist Scott Silven's marvelous magical career is inspired by the mists and mysticism of his Scottish homeland. Silven studied hypnosis age 15. At 19 he impressed David Blaine and by 21 he was headlining a show at one of the UK's top theatres. Now 34, he's bringing his show Wonders to the Auckland Arts Festival in March.

Aubrey Gordon began writing anonymously about the social realities of life as a very fat person under the name "Your Fat Friend". In 2016 her open letter, imploring a fiend to call her "fat" went viral. Since then she's written two bestselling books - What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat and You Just Need to Lose Weight And 19 Other Myths About Fat People. She's the co-host of the popular podcast Maintenance Phase, which joyfully and thoroughly busts health and wellness myths. Aubrey's now the subject of an intimate documentary film portrait by director Jeanie Finlay. Your Fat Friend is screening online at the Doc Edge Virtual Cinema until the end of the month. Susie speaks to them both about the film.

When Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast of the U.S. in 2012 New York city was particularly badly hit, suffering major flooding and 20 billion dollars in damage. Part of the Government's response was to fund resiliency projects to protect the Manhattan coastline against future flooding. On of the proposals funded was The Dryline (BIG U). The 12 km-long infrastructural barrier incorporates public space with the high-water barrier doubling as parks. Susie speaks to New York-based architect Kai-Uwe Bergmann, who has contributed to BIG U. He's a keynote speaker at the "in:situ" architecture conference in Tamaki Makaurau on Feb 21.

Best known for Fugitive Pieces, Canadian novelist and poet Anne Michaels talks to Susie about her new novel Held. With a cast of characters spanning over a century, in Held Michaels explores favourite themes: memory, trauma, grief and the healing power of love. Anne Michaels' books are translated into more than fifty languages, winning international awards, including the Orange Prize and the Guardian Fiction Prize.

A project led by Cook Islands environmentalist Alanna Smith, is taking advantage of an anatomical quirk to track turtles' movements around her home country of Rarotonga. The director of NGO Ipukarea Society is utilising AI facial recognition software to identify turtles by their facial patterns - which are unique, like fingerprints. She joins Susie Ferguson to talk about this citizen science project, which has been running for a year.

An online auction of historic photographs is taking place, with the aim of returning them to New Zealand hands. Australian media company Fairfax sent 1.4 million images from its photographic archive offshore to be digitised eleven years ago. They never came back. Taken by regional Kiwi photographers throughout the 20th Century, they include images of royal tours, music festivals, the Springbok tour and Bastion Point occupation and protests. New owner, LA-based Daniel Miller delivered a collection of over five thousand images of Maori to the National Library in Wellington. A few NZ sports organisations have also bought some, but the rest are for sale online. 166 lots are up for grabs this weekend, including pictures of Auckland's original tramway system, the Chatham Islands, and life in New Zealand's military training camps.

What drives New Zealand's faultlines and earthquakes, and what does it mean for us? 

Chef Josh Emett spent a decade working with notoriously hot-tempered and foul-mouthed Gordan Ramsey. 

Prodigious readers Kate De Goldi and Elizabeth Knox are in to share their favourite books. 

Multitalented wahine Anika Moa joins us for this year's final Playing Favourites. 

Tomatoes are a favourite backyard crop but can be tricky to grow. Organic gardener Kath Irvine shares her tips.

Musician and author Edward Dusinberre is first violinist in the renowned Takács Quartet - one of the world's greatest string quartets. 

Septuagenarian Ruth Shaw's plans for a quiet retirement were derailed last year when her memoir The Bookseller at the End of the World, became an international bestseller. 

Michael Cunningham won a Pulitzer prize for his novel The Hours, which was adapted into an award-winning film, and saw Nicole Kidman scoop an Oscar for her performance as Virginia Woolf.

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 were the popular tipple, brothers Bill and Ross Spence experimented with something new and different at their West Auckland vineyard. They got about 6 litres of Sauvignon Blanc in their first batch and founded Matua wines. Today Sauvingnon Blanc is New Zealand's top wine export.

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 the ACT party. "I'm not hard to find and I live with my 16-year-old daughter and my 90-year-old mother, you know, so yeah it was scary," she tells Susie Ferguson. Avia's new poetry collection Big Fat Brown Bitch was partly written in response to that shocking backlash, which included the "deeply cynical and heartless and cruel” comparison of her work to the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks. "I was bloody rarked up over what had happened and frustrated because I didn't get a right of reply, so all I had was poetry.

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 Power" inspired by the fallout from Edward Snowden's NSA leaks and Five Eyes surveillance technology. His 2018 exhibition "The Founder's Paradox", used the language and logic of board games to highlight competing utopian political visions for New Zealand's future. Denny's latest work "Optimism" is currently on view at Auckland Art Gallery. It consists of two hanging megastructures which are enlarged 3D-printed models of patent diagrams of rocket engine parts by Rocket Lab.

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 social impact agency intent on climate justice and creating social change. Kera's practice is grounded in a Te Ao Maori approach to the mainstream climate conversation. She argues minorities are most affected by climate change but can make a big difference in the fight against it.

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-thousand people live with ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis), also known as chronic fatigue syndrome in New Zealand. The real number is likely higher, due to the nature of it being an 'invisible illness'. Maeve's father Sean O'Neill is a Times correspondent. He is joined by leading researcher in ME/CFS in New Zealand, University of Otago Emeritus Professor Warren Tate.

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 by a Great Forest, his debut novel, draws on this experience, and is winning high praise from reviewers.

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 Edward Lawrence, who made a gruelling 300-mile journey through blistering desert heat during the 1916 Arab Revolt. No shirker himself, Fiennes was first to reach both Poles, first to cross the Antarctic and Arctic Ocean and first to circumnavigate the world along its polar axis. He climbed Everest age 65.

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 royalty as you get, their father is legendary expert Will Studd. As cheese guides they cover basics like how to pick a good one, tips for Christmas platters, plus recipes for cheesy treats.

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 achieve extraordinary feats, and to better understand parts of the human genome. Prof Karlsson is also well known for her Darwin's dogs citizen science genetics project- a collaboration between scientists and dog owners looking at the relationship between genetics and behaviour. She was in New Zealand for the Annual Meeting of Genomics Aotearoa.

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 Joseph Llwellyn of The National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, at the University of Otago, are co-authors of Abolishing the Military - Arguments and Alternatives. So how could New Zealand ensure its security and promote international peace in alternative, non-violent ways?

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 million film earned a grand total of $1,800 at the box office when it first opened. Despite it's disastrous debut the independent film starring and written, produced, and directed by mysterious misfit Tommy Wiseau has gone on to cult status and continues to play to sell-out crowds. Screenings are often raucous with audiences throwing American footballs around and hurling plastic spoons at the screen. Greg Sestero played Mark in the film and co-wrote The Disaster Artist, a memoir about the experience of making the film, which became a 2018 movie starring and directed by James Franco. He's in New Zealand for a screening and Q&A at Wellington's Roxy cinema.

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 Blow Up a Pipeline. Malm argues that climate change activists need to become more radical if they want to get results.

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 allowed midwives to practise autonomously in the community without oversight by, or reference to, other health professionals and to set up training schemes separate from nursing. The College of Midwives celebrated this freedom as a win for women, but others expressed concerns about the unpreparedness of newly trained midwives to deal with emergencies. Linda Bryder is a Professor of History at Auckland University, a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Aparangi, and is currently President of the Australian and New Zealand Society of the History of Medicine.

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 drugs in ten different settings, from ketamine in a London kitchen to wachuma in the Colombian Amazon. The result is his new book Ten Trips - The New Reality of Psychedelics. In it Mitchell argues that a medical, therapeutic view of psychedelics neglects what is so unusual and valuable about them: the psychedelic experience itself.

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 in The Comic Strip Presents, along with Dawn French and Edmondson's wife Jennifer Saunders. Edmondson went on to star in Filthy Rich & Catflap while taking roles in Blackadder, Absolutely Fabulous and even Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi. His new memoir Berserker! traces his journey through life and comedy, from a Methodist, boarding school upbringing to his loving but complicated relationship with Mayall, who died in 2014.

Listener feedback 25 November 2023.

Kim and Hannah.

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 community for each episode of Heartland, his documentary series, and was a regular contributor from the Blue Bird Caferina in Gisborne every Thursday, when Kim hosted Nine to Noon. Gary joins with stories of being stuck in small towns and singing karaoke with Kim until dawn.

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-catchy songs for the mega-hit musical based on Roald Dahl's Matilda, which won a record 7 Olivier Awards, and 5 Tony Awards. In 2020 he released a studio album of more serious songs, "Apart Together". He also acts on stage and the screen - with credits including Upright, Californication, and the upcoming Disney Plus series, The Artful Dodger. He has released a graphic novel and two children's books. His latest show, An Unfunny* Evening with Tim Minchin and His Piano is coming to Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch in March.

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 Flanagan's father's time as a Japanese POW, to Richard's own near-death experience, Question 7 explores the power of language, and of dreaming. Richard Flanagan's novels are published in forty-two countries. He won the Booker Prize for The Narrow Road to the Deep North and the Commonwealth Prize for Gould's Book of Fish. A rapid on the Franklin River is named after him.

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? Annabelle Lee Mather is a producer and reporter on TVNZ's Mata Reports and co-host of The Spinoff's political podcast Gone by Lunchtime.

"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 performer has written more than 200 books, including Sad Book, which chronicles Rosen's grief over the loss of his son Eddie, and children's classic We're Going on a Bear Hunt.

Kim Hills listener feedback for Saturday morning18th November 2023

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 premature babies and their parents through the often rocky first weeks and months. As a researcher her focus is ensuring better long-term outcomes, by understanding how prematurity impacts adult blood pressure regulation, diabetes risk and brain health.

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 imprisonment. Richard O'Rawe wrote the 2017 book In the Name of the Son: The Gerry Conlon Story, which the play is based on. Himself a former Irish Republican prisoner, O'Rawe was a leading figure in the 1981 Maze prison hunger strike. He and life-long friend Conlon grew up together in Belfast. O'Rawe is the author of several books about the Irish Troubles, including Blanketmen: An Untold Story of the H-Block Hunger Strike. In the Name of the Son is coming to the Auckland Arts Festival in March next year.

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 Professor looks at why we get angrier as we get older, and how it can benefit us. Barusch is a former Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Gerontological Social Work, and is Deputy Editor-in-Chief for the Australasian Journal on Ageing.

What does the rapid rise of facial recognition technology mean for the future of privacy? That's the question being tackled by Kashmir Hill in her new book Your Face Belongs to Us. She's the New York Times reporter who broke the story of secretive startup Clearview AI's existence back in 2020. Clearview harvested billions of photos from the internet to build a searchable database of faces. Since then she's been reporting on the uses and misuses of facial recognition technology.

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, deforming the land and causing sinkholes. These tremors, along with evidence that an underground river of magma about 15km in length is rising towards the earth's surface led nearly 4,000 people to evacuate from the town of Grindavik earlier this week. Experts say it's not a case of if, but when, an eruption occurs. One of those watching and waiting is Dr Gregory De Pascale, an Associate Professor of Geology at the University of Iceland.

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, after police evidence was found to be corrupt. In The Crewe Murders - Inside New Zealand's Most Infamous Cold Case investigative journalist Kirsty Johnston and Associate Professor of Journalism at Massey University James Hollings take a fresh look at the case.

Saturday Morning listener feedback.

The announcement of Bird of the Century has been delayed to Wednesday, following a massive influx of votes, thanks in large part to British-American talk show host John Oliver. Over 300,000 votes have been cast so far, crashing Forest and Bird's voting system at one point. Voting closes tomorrow at 5pm. Helen Jamieson is from conservation group Forest Bridge Trust, backing an under-bird, the Australasian bittern Matuku-hurepo

As a television and radio presenter, prolific and best selling author, classicist Dame Mary Beard has acquired celebrity status. The author of more than 20 books including Pompeii, SPQR and Women & Power recently retired from her post as Professor of Classics at Cambridge University. For her latest book Emperor of Rome, Beard leads us through the lives of thirty emperors over nearly three centuries. From Julius Caesar to Alexander Severus, she probes the emperors' powers and just how debauched Roman palaces really were.

As a television and radio presenter, prolific and best selling author, classicist Dame Mary Beard has acquired celebrity status. The author of more than 20 books including Pompeii, SPQR and Women & Power recently retired from her post as Professor of Classics at Cambridge University. For her latest book Emperor of Rome, Beard leads us through the lives of thirty emperors over nearly three centuries. From Julius Caesar to Alexander Severus, she probes the emperors' powers and just how debauched Roman palaces really were.

GNS principal scientist Graham Leonard looks into why we choose to live where we live, and what the risks are. Graham has recently taken over at GNS as Natural Hazards and Risk Theme Leader. He talks to Kim about resilience and adaptation in areas prone to natural disaster, and how individuals, businesses, infrastructure and decision makers have the power to reduce loss.

Why do so many women still believe a successful life involves being chosen by a man? That's the question being interrogated by high-profile Australian feminist author and podcaster Clementine Ford in her new book I Don't. In it she argues that marital bliss is a tenacious and dangerous myth that needs to be busted, so women can be truly free. Her previous books include Fight Like A Girl, Boys Will Be Boys and How We Love: Notes on a Life.

Isaac Heron was in contact with the foster care system since he was a baby. He was placed in care at six years old before finding a permanent foster home at the age of 8. These experiences fuel his work as an advocate pushing for improvements in New Zealand's foster care system, with National Youth Council for the Voice of the Young and Care Experienced Whakarongo Mai. Isaac is also a talented academic, and has just received a Rhodes Scholarship, which will take him to Oxford University for a Master of Philosophy in Economics.

English actor, comedian, singer and TV presenter Bradley Walsh is back on set at ITV filming new episodes of The Chase - the beloved and wildly popular quiz show he helped devise. Kim catches up with the former professional footballer to talk about family, work, and of course, the beautiful game.

Journalist, author and activist Naomi Klein is co-director of the Centre for Climate Justice at the University of British Columbia. Her best selling books include No Logo and The Shock Doctrine. For most of her career she has been confused with another left-leaning feminist-writer called Naomi, Naomi Wolf, author of The Beauty Myth. Initially amusing, the conflation of the two became alarming to Klein when Wolf veered right and embraced conspiracy thinking. Klein decided to look closer at her doppelganger and to explore doubling in our lives, culture, and politics. The result is her new book Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World.

Summer fruits such as grapes, currants and berries are at the stage where they need care and attention to ensure an abundant harvest. Tackling pests and diseases, thinning fruit trees, and feeding are all on the to-do list for November. Nomad gardener and author of The Edible Backyard Kath Irvine joins Kim from Kakanui.

Hailed as one of NZ's first internationally successful playwrights, Robert Lord divided his life between provincial New Zealand and the hedonism of life as a gay man in New York in the 1970s and 80s. He wrote numerous stage and radio plays, including Well-Hung, Bert and Maisy, and Joyful and Triumphant. In 1973, he co-founded Playmarket, New Zealand's playwrights' agency and publisher. Lord candidly chronicled his life in eight diaries, which have been edited into a new book. One of the editors of Robert Lord Diaries is Nonnita Rees, a long time friend and colleague of Lord's. Rees is also a cultural policy analyst and chair of the Robert Lord Writers Cottage Trust.

New Zealand writer Anna Smaill's first novel The Chimes made the Man Booker Prize long list in 2015. She's just released Bird Life, an exploration of madness and what it's like to experience the world differently. Set in Japan, it follows an unlikely friendship between two women.

Imagine being told that you are an unwitting star of a pornographic film, and then realising there's nothing you can do about it. It happened to British writer Helen Mort, who discovered her photos had been used to make sexually explicit deep fakes. London-based filmmaker Rosie Morris' new documentary My Blonde GF tells Helen's story and advocates for greater online protection. You can watch the film here.

Results have been released for Malaghan Institute's ground-breaking CAR T-cell cancer therapy trial, and they are promising. The therapy reprogrammes a patient's own immune cells to recognise and kill cancer. Discussing the treatment and trial are Professor Carl June from the University of Pennsylvania who pioneered the therapy and Dr Robert Weinkove, who leads Malaghan's CAR T-cell programme. They are joined by writer and poet Michele Leggott, who is twelve months into the trial, for an update on her progress.

The Laura Maersk, launched in September, is the first cargo ship to set sail with a green methanol engine. It's a significant milestone in the industry's efforts to lower its global greenhouse gas emissions, which currently stand at 3 percent of the world's total emissions - roughly as much as the aviation industry. So what is the the potential for green shipping, and what are the limitations? Ana Swanson writes about trade and international economics for the New York Times.

Comparisons between 9/11 and the October 7th Hamas attacks on Israel have repeatedly been drawn. As the Israel-Hamas war enters its fourth week, President Biden has warned Israel not to repeat the US's post-9/11 mistakes. So what were those mistakes, and what, if anything, been learnt from them? Spencer Ackerman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning national security reporter and author of Reign of Terror: How The 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump. He writes a newsletter Forever Wars and for The Nation.

Feedback for 28 October 2023.

Author and art writer Megan Dunn celebrates artworks often hidden in plain sight. From Wellington's bucket fountain, to Llew Summers' majestic maternal nudes, public art comes in all shapes and sizes, which research initiative Public Art Heritage Aotearoa is documenting.

Internationally bestselling Australian author Robyn Davidson's new memoir Unfinished Woman delves into her past to investigate time and memory, asking how can we learn to be 'at home everywhere'? A constant traveller, Davidson's career writing about her journeying and nomadic people has spanned 40 years. Known as the 'Camel Lady', Davidson trekked through the Australian desert aged 27, leading to the bestselling book Tracks, and global fame. If you or someone you know is affected by this story, you can get more information or help from: Mental Health Foundation - www.mentalhealth.org.nz Lifeline: 0800 543 354 - available 24/7 Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO) - available 24/7

Internationally bestselling Australian author Robyn Davidson's new memoir Unfinished Woman delves into her past to investigate time and memory, asking how can we learn to be 'at home everywhere'? A constant traveller, Davidson's career writing about her journeying and nomadic people has spanned 40 years. Known as the 'Camel Lady', Davidson trekked through the Australian desert aged 27, leading to the bestselling book Tracks, and global fame. If you or someone you know is affected by this story, you can get more information or help from: Mental Health Foundation - www.mentalhealth.org.nz Lifeline: 0800 543 354 - available 24/7 Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO) - available 24/7

Veteran Taranaki rugby player Kevin 'Smiley' Barrett has three sons playing in the Rugby World Cup final against the Springboks tomorrow. So how is he, and mum Robyn feeling ahead of Jordie, Beauden and Scott all starting in a game which could restore the All Blacks' status as the best rugby team in the world?

Two-time US National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward's latest novel Let Us Descend tackles the hellish reality of life as a chattel slave. Modelled on Dante's Inferno, and based on extensive historical research, the book details a gruelling journey teenager Annis makes from a North Carolina plantation to the slave markets of New Orleans. It's being hailed as an instant classic; announced this week as Oprah's latest book club pick. Jesmyn Ward is a professor of creative writing at Tulane University. She is the youngest winner of the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, and a MacArthur Fellow. Her other works include novels Sing, Unburied, Sing and Salvage the Bones, and a memoir Men We Reaped.

Does the sound of ticking clocks, noisy eating, or loud breathing cause you physical distress? If so, you may be one of every five people who suffer from misophonia. The condition can trigger fight-or-flight mode, a surge of rage, anxiety, disgust or an urge to escape the sound as soon as possible. Oxford University-based Australian clinical psychologist and misophonia sufferer Dr Jane Gregory has written a practical guide to coping with the condition.

Considered one of New Zealand's most gifted sports people of his generation, Jeff 'Goldie' Wilson lined up with the All Blacks the last time they faced the Springboks in a Rugby World Cup final, in 1995. Wilson scored 44 tries in 60 Tests for the All Blacks. These days you'll see him on Sky TV, commentating the big games. He joins Kim ahead of the final, from Paris. So, was it food poisoning?

Bottled water is now a $300 billion global industry and the most consumed packaged drink. So why are we drinking so much of it, and what's the environmental and social cost? Associate Professor of Sociology at Portland State University, Daniel Jaffee's book Unbottled - The Fight against Plastic Water and for Water Justice dives into the increasing distrust of tap water, and the rapid growth of bottled water in countries where tap water is safe to drink.

A week on from the General Election, editor-at-large at the Spinoff Toby Manhire reflects on lessons learned during the times of previous National and Labour opposition, with cautionary tales for Labour now "the tide has gone out." Toby Manhire is host of the Gone By Lunchtime podcast. He's a former editor of the Guardian's comment pages, and edited the books Wikileaks- Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy, The Arab Spring: Rebellion, Revolution and a New World Order and The Spinoff Book.

Emmy award-winning singer and composer Lisa Simone is touring Australia with a tribute show to her legendary singer-songwriter and pianist mother Nina Simone with her tour 'Keeper Of The Flame' A Daughters Tribute to Dr. Nina Simone. While carrying a torch to Nina's repertoire, Lisa has endeavoured to come to terms with her notoriously difficult mother. Lisa released her first solo album All is Well in 2013, and co-produced the 2016 Oscar-nominated Netflix documentary about her mother's life, What Happened, Miss Simone?

Writer Danyl McLauchlan joins Kim to tackle life's big questions, ideas and thinkers. This week he looks at Bronze Age Pervert (BAP), an until-recently anonymous internet personality and influential far-right thinker. BAP's writing and commentary is an intentionally slippery and absurd mix of memes and inside jokes about homophobia, bodybuilding and ancient Greece. Behind the clownish facade however is a philosophically sophisticated argument for fascism which has alarmed mainstream conservatives.

Before her Emmy nominated role as flawed but lovable Galina 'Red' Reznikov in Orange is the New Black actor Kate Mulgrew was perhaps best known for playing Captain Kathryn Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager, the first female captain for the franchise. As a member of the SAG-AFTRA actors' union, Mulgrew is currently on strike, but is in Auckland this weekend appearing at pop culture convention Armageddon.

Could the Israel-Gaza war ignite a wider conflict, between the US and Iran? In his latest writing for The Guardian, foreign affairs commentator Simon Tisdall explains why this is a possibility.

Irish novelist Paul Lynch's latest book Prophet Song was shortlisted last month for this year's Booker Prize. The novel is set is a dystopian version of Dublin, after an unspecified crisis has tipped the government towards tyranny, and society towards collapse. Lynch's other novels are Beyond the Sea, Grace, The Black Snow and Red Sky in Morning.

The All Blacks are playing Argentina for a place in the Rugby World Cup final. After beating Ireland in a nail-biting quarterfinal, NZ is expected to beat Argentina to play either England or the Springboks in next weekend's final. RNZ Rugby commentator Nathan Rarere joins from his living room in Te Atatu.

British actor Fehinti Balogun isn't just angry about climate inaction – he's furious.

Accomplished Nigerian-born UK actor and climate activist Fehinti Balogun isn't angry about climate change. He's furious. The Dune and I May Destroy You actor has presented at the UN COP26 climate summit, the Scottish Parliament, Cambridge University, and the YouTube Creator Summit. He's making a digital appearance at the Nelson Arts Festival this weekend with Can I Live?, an hour long spoken word and hiphop show exploring environmental activism.

Egypt has agreed to open the Rafah crossing to allow trucks carrying aid into Gaza, in a conflict that is escalating two weeks on. Gregg Carlstrom is a Middle East correspondent for The Economist, based in Dubai. He has covered the region for over ten years. His reporting and analysis on the Middle East has been published in Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic and Politico. His first book was How Long Will Israel Survive: The Threat From Within.

Egypt has agreed to open the Rafah crossing to allow trucks carrying aid into Gaza, in a conflict that is escalating two weeks on. Gregg Carlstrom is a Middle East correspondent for The Economist, based in Dubai. He has covered the region for over ten years. His reporting and analysis on the Middle East has been published in Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic and Politico. His first book was How Long Will Israel Survive: The Threat From Within.

Kim Hills listener feedback for saturday morning 21st October 2023

Rebecca Priestley's new memoir End Times moves between recollections of teen punk nihilism and a flirtation with born again Christianity, to a modern day climate anxiety-fuelled South Island road trip. Her playlist from the trip is here. Priestley is professor of Science in Society at Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington. She is the author or editor of six previous books, including Fifteen Million Years in Antarctica. Rebecca will be appearing at The Nelson Arts Festival on Oct 21.

It took Mexican scholar, novelist, and poet Cristina Rivera Garza 30 years to be able to write about what happened to her younger sister. Liliana Rivera Garza was murdered by her abusive boyfriend in an act of femicide. Rivera Garza's book Liliana's Invincible Summer has became part of a collective call for justice in Mexico, one of the most dangerous countries for women.

BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner on Israel's failure of intelligence, "and imagination", not to anticipate the Hamas attacks.

This month marks 150 years of business for a Wairarapa store that's been in the hands of one family for four generations. Martinborough's Pain and Kershaw traces its origins to the late 19th century with a hawker who travelled the region on horseback. At the turn of the 20th century, Pain was joined by John Kershaw. John's great-grandson Conor Kershaw runs it today.

The BBC's chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet is reporting in Southern Isreal, close to the Gaza-Israeli border in Ashkelon, which is coming under fire from Hamas. Doucet says the Israel Gaza war is "a situation Israel has never confronted before", and that the shock and anger in Israel in reflected in a sense of now doing whatever it takes, including going in on the ground.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ian Urbina's latest investigations into the Chinese distant-water fishing fleet has uncovered human rights and labour abuses. The Chinese foreign fishing fleet is an armada of over 4,600 vessels, including in the Pacific, accounting for 14 percent of worldwide marine catch, by value. For this investigation, Urbina has boarded Chinese vessels and exchanged messages in bottles with crew. Ian Urbina heads The Outlaw Ocean Project, a non-profit journalism organization based in Washington, D.C. focusing on reporting environmental and human rights crimes at sea.

Civilians are fleeing northern Gaza in anticipation of an Israeli ground offensive, following retaliatory air strikes. Palestinian militant group Hamas launched surprise attacks an Israel on Saturday, including on a music festival near the Gaza Strip, where 260 people were killed and over a hundred hostages were taken into Gaza. Robin Wright is a long-time writer for The New Yorker covering political and military dynamics in the Middle East. As a journalist she reported from more than 140 countries. She was a fellow at the Brookings Institution and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and is currently a distinguished fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Wright is the author of several books, including the widely acclaimed Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion across the Islamic World.

US writer Kim Stanley Robinson spends a lot of time imagining the future. The author of more than 20 novels, including his best-selling The Mars Trilogy, he's considered one of the greatest writers of contemporary science fiction of our time. More recently the committed environmentalist has turned his attention back on Earth, putting his mind and imagination to climate change in his acclaimed book The Ministry for the Future. It lays out what's been described as a chilling yet hopeful vision of how the next few decades on Earth might unfold.

Frustrated by the lack of decent roles for middle-aged women, actor Robyn Malcolm and veteran screenwriter Dianne Taylor decided to do something about it. The pair put their heads together to create After the Party a six-part drama series set in Wellington which premieres on TVNZ at the end of the month. Its main character, played by Malcolm, is a woman in her 50s whose world implodes when she accuses her husband of a sex crime and nobody believes her. After the Party will premiere on TVNZ 1 and TVNZ+, October 29 at 8.30pm.

Pistachio nuts have become a popular snack around the world but a new documentary about where they come from and how they're farmed might make pistachio lovers think again before shelling their next nut. Dunedin film-maker Rowan Wernham has teamed up with US journalist Yasha Levine to tell the story of a bitter battle being waged in California where 90 percent of the world's pistachios are produced. Pistachio Wars is an investigative documentary into billionaire pistachio farmers and water barons Stewart and Lynda Resnick, who it's alleged are fragrantly bending the parched state's political system and privatising water to feed their vast farming empire in the desert.

Professor Jochen Mannhart is a physicist whose scientific work could prove to be a conservation game changer. Every year tens of thousands of African elephants continue to be hunted down and killed by poachers for their ivory tusks. Working to find ivory alternatives, Professor Mannhart and his team at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Germany have reproduced the chemistry of a real ivory tusk, opening a potential new market in synthetic ivory and help save an endangered species ... or at least that was the hope.

Dutch art detective Arthur Brand is known as 'the Indiana Jones of the art world', having spent decades tracking down stolen masterpieces, including Picassos, Van Goghs and missing artifacts such as Oscar Wilde's ring and the "Hitler's Horses" bronze statues. Earlier this month, Brand recovered The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring, an early Van Gogh stolen from a Dutch museum three years ago. The painting was delivered to his doorstep in an IKEA bag. Brand has written two books about his recoveries, including Hitler's Horses.

Saturday morning listener feedback

One of the world's most respected contemporary choreographers, award-winning British dancer of Bangladeshi-descent Akram Khan is bringing a retelling of Rudyard Kipling's much-loved classic to New Zealand in February in the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts. State-of-the-art animation, narration and music bring the jungle and city to life in Jungle Book reimagined; about connecting with and respecting our natural world, and of humans' need to belong. The Akram Khan Company is recognised as one of the world's foremost innovative dance companies - its roots are in Indian kathak form and contemporary dance. A highlight of Khan's career was the creation of an acclaimed section of the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony.

Traditional Irish band Gráda are reforming and returning to tour New Zealand in October. Two members of the band, Gerry Paul and Andrew Laking are Kiwis. Gráda is known for its energy on stage. According to Gráda's Galway-based lead singer Nicola Joyce it's this energy that creates moments of empathy in the crowd. After Gráda disbanded in 2011, a song Joyce wrote for her new band The Whileaways, Toss the Bobbin, inspired an invitation from the University of Galway to contribute a chapter to Ionbhá: The Empathy Book for Ireland. Nicola Joyce has been described by The Wall Street Journal as 'a magnificent vocalist who sings with sheer beauty and poignancy'.

In her non-fiction writing, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Visit From the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan has explored solutions for homelessness in America. Her year-long reporting on street homelessness and supportive housing in Brooklyn recently appeared in The New Yorker. As a journalist, Jennifer also writes frequently in the New York Times Magazine. Her 2002 cover story on homeless children received the Carroll Kowal Journalism Award.

Emeritus Professor of Behavioural Genetics at the University of Sydney, Benjamin Oldroyd is an experimental scientist who has published more than three hundred scientific papers, mostly on honey bees and their evolution. Oldroyd's new book Beyond DNA: How Epigenetics is Transforming our Understanding of Evolution advances new ways of thinking about evolution and adaptation. Here Prof Oldroyd examines the idea that spores, sperm, pollen and ova are packed with personalised extra-genetic information that play an important role in offspring development with lifelong effects.

The All Blacks play Italy in a game they can't afford to lose in Lyon. RNZ sports aficionado Nathan Rarere checks in at half time with how the All Blacks are performing with a full strength team in a crunch game.

International best-selling Australian author Trent Dalton's new novel revisits working class Brisbane, this time in the midst of a housing crisis. In Lola in the Mirror a girl and her mother find themselves living in a van with four flat tyres, parked in a scrapyard by the Brisbane River. Dalton's Boy Swallows Universe was Australia's fastest selling debut novel in 2018. Along with All Our Shimmering Skies and Love Stories, Dalton's books have sold well over a million copies in Australia alone.

In 1979, inspired by the countercultural movement sweeping the country, teenager Olive Jones embraced rural communal living. By the age of twenty-one she was one of the founders of the Graham Downs farming community in the Motueka Valley. Built on anarchy and idealism, with the aim of self-sufficiency, it was a bold experiment. Olive's book Commune: Chasing a Utopian Dream charts the course of the commune and the highs and lows of living without rules.

Pathologist Prof Richard Scolyer's melanoma research is credited with saving tens of thousands of lives, but now he's in a race to save his own. He's the co-medical director of the Melanoma Institute Australia, which pioneered pre-surgery immunotherapy treatments that have boosted advanced melanoma survival rates from less than five per cent to more than 50 per cent. In June Prof Scolyer was diagnosed with glioblastoma IDH wild-type, a cancer that is usually fatal within six to nine months. Rather than follow the usual treatment path he's become a human guinea pig, applying the lessons learnt from melanoma research to his brain cancer.

Nelson designer Gill Saunders is the Supreme Winner at the 2023 World of WearableArt™ show for her garment Earthling. It's Saunders' second Supreme WOW award, and her seventh award win in the show. Earthling is the third and final piece in Saunders wearable art trilogy. It takes its inspiration from the popularity of adult colouring books.

Internationally-acclaimed former principal dancer and artistic director of The Australian Ballet, David McAllister recently completed his tenure as acting artistic director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet. Throughout his career David has made numerous guest appearances worldwide, dancing with the Bolshoi Ballet. McAllister's book Ballet Confidential: A personal behind the-scenes guide lifts the curtain on a world of tutus, tulle and lycra, the pursuit of perfection, injuries and what it was like dancing for the Princess of Wales.

Cultural omen of darkness, reservoir of deadly viruses - bats don't have the best reputation. But they do have some impressive and potentially helpful biological quirks, including the ability to resist the ageing process. Of the nineteen species of mammals that live longer than humans when adjusted for body size, eighteen are bats. So what is it about bats that allows them to fend off ageing? Geneticist Prof Emma Teeling is on the hunt for answers to this question. She founded the University College of Dublin's BatLab and is co-founder of the Bat1K project which aims to map the genomes of all 1,400 species of bat.

Director of Swansea University's Sleep Laboratory, Professor of Psychology Mark Blagrove is at the forefront of research into lucid dreams and the possible functions of sleep and dreaming. Professor Blagrove's research is conducted in the lab, in dream salons and through dream reports collected by participants at home. Blagrove has a YouTube channel with films of dream salons held at the Freud Museum in London, and his book The Science and Art of Dreaming, co-authored with artist Julia Lockheart, explores a link between recounting dreams and empathy.

It won't be too long before electronic vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is helping to treat inflammatory illness, says bioelectronic medicine specialist Kevin Tracey.

Saturday Morning Feedback

Nelson-based author and entrepreneur Peter Butler's fourth book is Night Tribe, a young adult novel set in the Kahurangi National Park. Peter's first job in Golden Bay was working on the Heaphy Track for the Forest Service. Today he's Chair of the Farewell Wharariki Health Post Nature Trust, helping to restore 12,000 hectares at the North West tip of the South Island. Peter lived for many years on a bush block near the Heaphy Track, where he still grows horopito. He is the author of two non-fiction titles: Opium & Gold and Life & Times of Te Rauparaha. His first novel was Gravel Roads.

Long-time bush man, lawyer and historian Ron Crosby's new book Te Kooti's Last Foray re-tells a forgotten period of Te Urewera history. With the help of recently discovered diaries and by tramping the forests with ex-special forces soldiers, Crosby sets the historical record straight about the mass abduction in 1870 of 218 Whakatohea people by prophet-to-be Te Kooti during the New Zealand Wars. Ron Crosby is author of The Musket Wars - A History of Inter-Iwi Conflict 1806-1845; NZSAS: The First Fifty Years, and Andris Apse - Odyssey and Images.

Long or Strong - Get Gone! - most of us know this advice on when to evacuate due to tsunami risk following an earthquake, but if it happened would we actually act? Surveys suggest around a third of New Zealanders would either not evacuate, or not evacuate fast enough in the event of a tsunami. GNS Principal scientist Graham Leonard is in to talk about tsunami risk in New Zealand and what's being done to plan and prepare for one. Research shows that regular drills are key to preparedness, and an opportunity is coming up next month with the Tsunami Hikoi

UK counter-extremism expert Julia Ebner thinks we are at the beginning of a digital dark age. QAnon proponents run for U.S. Congress, neo-fascists win elections in Europe, and celebrity influencers like (Kan)Ye West spread dangerous myths to millions. All these are signs to Ebner that Enlightenment values are being eroded, and the myths and magical thinking of conspiracy theorists and other extremists are becoming part of mainstream culture. Ebner, who is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue in London, has been studying the growth of extremist ideas in our societies for the last decade. Her new book Going Mainstream is a follow on from her 2020 bestseller Going Dark, which was about radicalisation processes in the extreme fringes of society.

A week after their 27-13 defeat in the opening Rugby World Cup game against France, the All Blacks played Namibia. RNZ Sports commentator Nathan Rarere checks in after the final whistle at the Stadium de Toulouse.

Most remembered for her failure to secure a Brexit deal, Theresa May was British Prime Minister between 2016 and 2019 and the longest-serving Home Secretary in over a century. A Remainer herself, her job as PM was to work out how the UK should honour the country's 2016 Brexit referendum. May's book The Abuse of Power: Confronting Injustice in Public Life argues for a radical rethink of politics and public life. From the Hillsborough to Grenfell Tower tragedies, The Abuse of Power exposes powerful people serving themselves or protecting their organisation, rather than serving the interests of the powerless.

Saturday Morning listener feedback

Spring has well and truely sprung, and it's time to get busy in the garden. Growing your own seedlings is satisfying and a great way to save some money. Nomad gardener and The Edible Backyard author Kath Irvine joins us from Kakanui with tips and tricks to help avoid common mistakes, plus a recipe for homemade seed raising mix.

Earlier this week Ruby Franke, who shared parenting advice and the day to day lives of her six kids via a popular YouTube channel was charged with child abuse. It's an extreme example of the harm caused by parents using their kids for social media content. But it raises the question - is it ever ok to share your children's lives publicly? As the first wave of social media kids come of age they're forming a growing movement to protect others from having the intimate and often embarrassing moments of their young lives immortalised on the internet. Internet and social media commentator Kate Lindsay has written about the issue in an article for The Atlantic.

Kiwi protein biochemist and tissue engineer Dr Laura Domigan is an international leader in the emerging industry of cultivated meat. Her work tackles some of the planet's major social and environmental challenges, such as greenhouse gas emissions, ethical food choices, animal welfare and food security. She's the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Opo Bio, New Zealand's first company to grown cells for the cultivated meat industry worldwide. Dr Domigan is a finalist in the Entrepreneur category of this year's KiwiNet Research Commercialisation Awards.

New Zealanders are losing millions of dollars each year to scammers impersonating banks, tech support, and government departments. The exact cost is not known, as embarrassed victims often don't report their losses. Like most people, Northern Irish IT worker Jim Browning hates scammers, but unlike the rest of us he welcomes their approach. He's a scam baiter, an internet vigilante who turns the tables by playing a naive victim while simultaneously hacking into their computers. His youtube channel exposes scams, explains how they work, and has even led to some scammers being arrested.

29-13 The Telegraph's award-winning Chief Rugby Union Correspondent Gavin Mairs, from the Stade de France, on how the game played out. Mairs has nine world cups under his belt, covering every Rugby World Cup since 1999.

Novelist and short story writer Richard Ford won a Pulitzer Prize for his novel Independence Day. As well as other novels and short stories, he has now, with the latest, Be Mine, written five Bascombe books. His latest is the final outing for Frank Bascombe. In Be Mine Frank is now caregiver to his son Paul who has been diagnosed with fatal motor neuron disease ALS.

Elton John's musical other half, the famously private man behind many millions of record sales and countless hits, lyricist Bernie Taupin opens up about his life in a new memoir. In Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton, and Me Taupin charts his childhood in provincial Lincolnshire, his fascination with country music and cowboy culture, the heady star-studded LA of the 1970s and '80s to encounters with John Lennon, Bob Marley, Frank Sinatra and Graham Greene.

Arguably an unmatched Rugby World Cup opener, the All Blacks are taking on arch-rivals and hosts France, at the Stade de France in Paris. RNZ sports correspondent Nathan Rarere checks in at half time.

The science-fiction fantasy of machine consciousness seems to be moving towards reality. But what would it mean for humans if artificial intelligence technology became conscious? And how would we know? Computer scientist Brian Christian ponders these complex questions.

In five years Kiwi indie-rock darlings The Beths have sky-rocketed from playing K-Road's Whammy bar, to international success. Recent achievements include a NPR Tiny Desk concert, a stint touring with The National, and the acquisition of a new fan, former US President Barack Obama. The band is also among this year's finalists in the APRA Silver Scroll Awards, for their 2022 album Expert In A Dying Field. Lead guitarist and founding member Jon Pearce is appearing at this weekend's Going Global Summit discussing exporting Kiwi music to the world.

Paekakariki-based award-winning animator, illustrator and graphic artist Ned Wenlock's first graphic novel Tsunami is a cautionary tale about Peter, a self-righteous12-year-old boy, and his fraught last six weeks at primary school. It's a coming-of-age story, and an examination of teenage alienation and the unpredictable consequences of our actions. Everything feels overwhelming to Peter - like a tsunami is coming and he isn't sure he can stop it. Wenlock won 2016 New Zealand International Film Festival, Show Me Shorts Best Film Award & DEGNZ Best Director Award.

Listener Feedback for 2 September 2023.

Phrases such as 'triggered' and 'toxic' are actually taking us away from understanding our own psychology and that of other people, says psychoanalyst Dr Jonathan Shedler. "This is a language of social media and pop psychology and self-help, this isn't actually the language of psychotherapy," he tells Kim Hill.

Pets are part of the family.  It's devastating when they are stolen or go missing. Anne-Marie Curry founded and runs Sydney-based pet detective service Arthur & Co in 2017. It's the only one of its kind in Australia. Business is booming, and she boasts an 80% success rate.

A shocking survey revealing the extent of sexual harassment at her old high school inspired filmmaker Liv McClymont to look closer at why consent education is still not compulsory in NZ schools. Her short documentary I Stand for Consent focuses on the story of a group of students at Avonside Girls High School, including year 13 student Aurora Garner-Randolph, who convinced their school to commission the survey. I Stand for Consent will be available to watch online from September 4 as part of series seven of Someday Stories.

Canadian author and screenwriter Patrick deWitt has a penchant for weirdos and non-heroes. His books include Man Booker shortlisted The Sisters Brothers, a Western featuring sibling assassins, Ablutions, narrated by an alcoholic bartender, deviant fairytale Undermajordomo Minor, and French Exit, in which a mother and son flee to Paris with their cat whose body her late husband's soul has transmogrified. His latest is The Librarianist which follows introverted bookworm Bob Comet as he makes a late-life bid to connect.

A now infamous kiss has arguably over-shadowed Spain's magnificent victory in the 2023 Women's World Cup. President of the Royal Spanish Football Federation and vice president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Luis Rubiales has been suspended by FIFA, but is refusing to quit as president of the Spanish football federation, after kissing Spanish midfielder Jennifer Hermoso on the mouth during post-match celebrations. Events and marketing professional and author Sally Freedman has written about working in the football industry in her recently-published book, Get Your Tits Out For The Lads. She details her time working for UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation, and for Melbourne City. Sally has also worked with The Phoenix.

Today Anna talks to Jesse about Jared Davidson's book, Blood and Dirt: Prison Labour and the Making of New Zealand.

Listener feedback for 26 August 2023.

Mount Erebus is an ultra mountain and the planet's southernmost volcano. Sheathed in ice, with hundreds of ice caves and a lava lake, its name is synonymous with the tragic 1979 air accident. Polar and mountain photographer Colin Monteath's new book Erebus The Ice Dragon; A portrait of an Antarctic volcano blends history, science, art and adventure set alongside stunning amages. Colin has worked in Antarctica for 32 seasons, and was involved in the recovery operation after the air crash on Ross Island.

Curious about the complex and seemingly taboo subject of porn, British writer Polly Barton spent a year asking her acquaintances for their honest feelings about it. "Porn is a topic that brings together so many difficult feelings and quite complicated and thorny ethical dilemmas that the response can really be to turn away from it," she tells Kim Hill.

Scientist and writer Danyl McLauchlan joins Kim to tackle life's big questions, ideas and thinkers. This week, Nicolo Machiavelli, the founder of modern political theory, who argued that politics wasn't about deciding who should rule, but about realising that many of the people who want to rule are ruthless and devious, so the best political systems are adversarial systems that set them against each other and subject them to scrutiny. Danyl is the author of two novels and Tranquillity and Ruin, an essay collection.

New York-based Paula Scher is one of the world's most influential graphic designers. A partner at Pentagram design studio since 1991, she began her career as an art director in the 1970s and 80s, when she earned a reputation for her eclectic approach to typography. For over four decades, she has developed the visual language of iconic brands and institutions such as Citibank, Microsoft, the Museum of Modern Art, Tiffany & Co, Public Theater, the Metropolitan Opera, and the High Line. Scher is coming to Auckland next month for the AGI Open, a two-day design festival hosted by the Alliance Graphique Internationale.

A report co-authored by a UN judge has added to growing international calls for reparations to be paid by perpetrators of transatlantic slavery. The Brattle Group Report calculates 31 former slaveholding states including Britain, the US, France and Spain owe US$107.8 trillion, with the UK alone owing more than £18 trillion for its involvement in slavery in fourteen countries. Professor Trevor Burnard is Director of the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation at the University of Hull in the UK. He has written of the need for the British royal family to acknowledge its financial and moral responsibility for Britain's role in slavery.

The octopus is a highly intelligent and deeply mysterious creature. It changes colour as quickly as it can move, and it thinks with its tentacles. Marine biologist David Scheel has had a life-long fascination with them. He's discovered new species and has learned to understand how they communicate with signals. Dr Scheel's new book Many Things Under a Rock: the Mysteries of Octopuses reveals complex emotional beings that can teach us about ourselves.

How do you transform an underused inner-city area into an attractive and thriving place to live and work? Awarded a CBE for Services to Sustainable Development, Roger Madelin is credited with regenerating London's grotty King's Cross into a thriving carbon neutral residential and commercial precinct. Joint Head of Canada Water at British Land, Madelin's currently leading the development of a 53-acre site on the Thames just minutes from Central London by tube, which will become the UK's newest town. He has previously led major development projects in Manchester, Birmingham, and the City of London.

The word 'fat' has been weaponised against people living in bigger bodies and it's time we stripped away its negative connotations, says American journalist Virginia Sole-Smith. She helps parents counter the idea that fatness is a moral failing in the New York Times best-selling book Fat Talk: Coming of Age in Diet Culture.

Listener feedback for 19 August 2023.

A travel guide like no other, combining poetry, photos and history, Walking with Rocks - Dreaming with Rivers - My Year in the Waikato is the result of Richard von Sturmer's year as writer in residence at the University of Waikato in 2020.

Airana Ngarewa left school to become a cage fighter. He hated English. Now a teacher, he's being described as a major new literary talent. His first novel is The Bone Tree. Born and raised in Patea, his aunts are Spotswood College principal Nicola Ngarewa, and Te Pati Maori co-leader MP Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. Airana will be appearing at WORD Christchurch on Aug 26 and 27.

Rivers have been given room to flood safely in the Netherlands for two decades, mitigating against flooding during severe weather events. Forest and Bird freshwater advocate Tom Kay is touring the country, giving Making Room for Rivers presentations to communities and local government groups keen to hear how accommodating a river prone to flood (rather than hem it in with engineering) can help manage flood risk for communities, and preserve ecosystems.

The aftermath of the 2003 Iraq invasion is told by former New Zealand SAS soldier Barrie Rice in his book We Were Blackwater - Life, death and madness in the killing fields of Iraq.

Kim Hill's listener feedback for Saturday 12th August 2023

Among his varied interests, leading Victorian literature scholar and prison educator Professor John Plotz revisits forgotten novels, giving them a second life, and explores the redeeming value of books for former prisoners. Professor of Humanities at Brandeis University, Plotz is the editor of the B-Sides series on Public Books. His first book Portable Property examines the objects Victorian Britons took with them when they traveled abroad, to persuade them their national identity was intact. Professor Plotz is giving this year's University of Otago Dalziel lecture on August 25 in Dunedin, related to his current work about science fiction and satire; how it makes you think by making you laugh.

Some of New Zealand's most important roads, buildings, botanic gardens and great walks were constructed by forced labour, in an era where idleness and waste was deemed more criminal then crime. Historian Jared Davidson's new book Blood and Dirt - Prison Labour and the Making of New Zealand reveals the extent to which convicts were used to bolster a labour shortage gap in the latter half of the 19th Century. Davidson's other books include Dead Letters: Censorship and Subversion in New Zealand 1914-1920, Sewing Freedom, and The History of a Riot.

Art writer and author Megan Dunn is taking us to church. A surprising amount of art can be found on the walls and windows of Aotearoa's places of worship. Milan Mrkusich, Doreen Blumhardt, Nigel Brown and Shane Cotton are just some of the creatives whose work adorns churches. Megan's art pilgrimage takes us from Saint Joseph's in Grey Lynn, to Parnell's Trinity Cathedral, St Faiths Anglican Church in Rotorua, and an exhibition about Wellington's recently demolished First Church of Christ Scientist.

Gabriel Krauze's extra curricular activities were a little different from the average English literature student. While completing his degree at London's Queen Mary College, he was involved in gangs, drugs, stabbing and robbery. This double life is captured in his gritty debut autobiographical novel Who They Was, which was long listed for the 2020 Booker Prize. Gabriel Krauze is appearing at WORD Christchurch in late August.

Physicist Dr Ratu Mataira is on a mission to harness the power of the sun. The 31 year old leads OpenStar Technologies, a Wellington based start-up building a 'levitated dipole' fusion reactor prototype. Fusion is the process that happens inside the sun and other stars, when hydrogen atoms "fuse" to make helium, releasing tremendous amounts of energy. Recreating the process here on earth is viewed as the "holy grail" of energy, with the potential to create vast amounts of emissions-free electricity.

Face with Tears of Joy, Skull, Melting Face, Eyes. Emoji have been called the first language born of the digital world, with over 3,000 "picture characters" available to add emotional nuance to written communication. They first appeared on Japanese mobile phones at the turn of the millennium and are now an everyday part of the way we communicate. Jeremy Burge has been called the "Samuel Johnson of emoji". Ten years ago he founded Emojipedia, an online reference site of emoji characters and their meaning. He was also a member of the Unicode Emoji Subcommittee, which is responsible for reviewing requests for new emoji. He currently writes a Mobile Tech Journal and has a popular TikTok channel about living on a narrow boat.

Listener feedback for 5 August 2023.

All That I Am and Stasiland author Anna Funder's new book Wifedom rewrites the life of her literary hero George Orwell to put a main character back in the story. Blending forensic research, fiction, life writing and criticism, Funder reveals the importance of his wife Eileen O'Shaughnessy. Eileen's financial and practical support allowed him to write, and her own literary talent shaped his work, including Animal Farm. Written over six years, the idea for Wifedom came after the discovery of six letters in 2015 from O'Shaughnessy to a friend, their contents contrary to all the biographies written on Orwell.

Beyond our romanticized vision of space exploration is a day-to-day life of physical and social isolation and confinement in an unnatural environment of microgravity and artificial light. New documentary Space: The Longest Goodbye follows NASA psychologist Dr. Al Holland, tasked with studying and mitigating the threat loneliness poses to missons. It's a particularly urgent task as NASA intends to send astronauts to Mars in the next decade - a voyage that will entail a three-year separation, with no real-time communication with Earth. One of the subjects of the film is Dr. Cady Coleman, a former NASA astronaut who has spent more than 180 days on the International Space Station, separated from her husband and two sons. Space: The Longest Goodbye screens in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin as part of Whanau Marama: New Zealand International Film Festival.

Aged-care doctor Dr Roderick Mulgan has a long-held interest in preventative medicine, with a research focus on inflammation, longevity, immunity and the role of functional foods. His new book, Build Your Immunity For Life, examines the role of lifestyle and diet in boosting immunity and protecting against infection. He is also the author of The Internal Flame: New Insights into Silent Inflammation, and Eat Yourself Healthy.

Former U.S. federal judge Nancy Gertner was appointed to the bench of the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts by President Bill Clinton in 1994, retiring in 2011 to teach at Harvard Law School, and is working on a book featuring interviews with people she imprisoned. Gertner is in New Zealand for the Criminal Bar Association conference, discussing, among other things, Donald Trump's chances of being re-elected, should he be convicted.

One in ten people who test positive for Covid-19 develop Long Covid, immunologist Danny Altmann told RNZ a couple of weeks ago. His recent book The Long Covid Handbook was co-written with a Long Covid patient - the filmmaker and former marathon runner Gez Medinger. He tells Kim Hill about his experience.

Almost every Friday and Saturday night Nanny Pura Whale puts on her Maori Warden uniform and heads out into the night to watch over the shops and youth of Taihape. It's something the 79 year old has done for nearly 35 years. And she has no intention of stopping anytime soon. She also stars in a new documentary about the wardens on Whakaata Maori (formerly known as Maori TV). The film focuses on the wardens as they face the most significant change to the organisation since its inception and seek autonomy from the government to become self-sustainable regions.

Listener feedback from Saturday Morning 8th April

Scientist and writer Danyl McLauchlan joins Kim to tackle life's big questions, ideas and thinkers. This week he delves into the drivers of voting behaviour. Political scientists suggest there are three different types of vote: some of us vote based on identity; some of us vote retrospectively - we look at the last three years and ask if things have gone well. And some of us vote transactionally, i.e. anticipating that we might get a tax cut. Danyl is the author of two novels and Tranquillity and Ruin, an essay collection.

Taiwan's pivotal location off the China coast and between Northeast and Southeast Asia has served a variety of strategic purposes for regional powers both now and historically. It's proved to be as important for New Zealand writer and publisher John Ross. John has spent more than 30 years living in and reporting on Asia. His solo travels have taken him to destinations including Papua New Guinea, Mongolia, and Myanmar, where he wrote dispatches on the Karen insurgency, embedded with the people. Since moving to Taiwan in 1994, he has authored books and co-founded Camphor Press, the island's leading publisher of English-language books on Taiwanese and East Asian politics and history. He also co-hosts the popular podcast Formosa Files which tells stories from the history of Formosa (Taiwan) from c.1600 to 2000 C.E.

American writer Daniel Lavery says the idea that he'd enjoy living as a male was the biggest motivation for a gender transition in his early 30s.

Harvard Medical School Associate Professor Dr Fatima Cody Stanford has spent much of her career pushing for changes in the way the medical establishment thinks about and treats obesity. Dr Stanford believes that continuing prejudice against people with obesity and a lack of recognition of it as a chronic health condition is an ongoing barrier to improved health outcomes. She has long been an advocate for the use of medication to treat obesity, and is now at the forefront of discussion around the use of Ozempic and other similar medications as a treatment option. Originally developed to treat type-2 diabetes the drug has become fashionable in Hollywood which in turn has led to a some shortages of the medication, as people turn to it for weight loss.

Michele Leggott's latest book of poetry, Face to the Sky, explores her encounter with 19th-century New Zealand botanical artist Emily Cumming Harris. But there's more to this story - Michele was battling non-Hodgkin's lymphoma while working on the book. In early 2020, Michele received her diagnosis, just as the Covid-19 lockdowns began. Chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and a stem cell transplant in 2021 failed to cure her cancer. Finally, in early 2022, Michele was able to participate in a CAR T-cell therapy trial at the Malaghan Institute in Wellington. This is Michele's eleventh collection of poetry. She's a former New Zealand Poet Laureate, co-founder of the New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre, and recipient of the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry. In 2017, she was even elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Meg Smaker's 2022 documentary film about a de-radicalisation centre triggered such a backlash around the time of its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival that it was effectively blacklisted. But Jihad Rehab, later renamed The UnRedacted, has gone on to sell out screenings in America, receive support from presenters, audiences and prominent American Muslims. It played in New Zealand at the Doc Edge Film Festival last year and Smaker will attend a special one-off screening in Auckland in late April to launch this year's festival. The film follows four former Guantánamo Bay detainees who had been transferred and now detained by the Saudi Government in a 'rehab center,' to 'de-radicalize' them. Smaker says the participants gave consent to be filmed and were able to speak freely. But other film-makers, led mostly by Muslim women, argue it is an unethical project that does a disservice to its main characters.

It's a quarter of a century since the Good Friday Agreement was signed, ending decades of violence in Northern Ireland. But there are new concerns the document's promise of peace could be threatened, as Brexit negotiations shine a light on Northern Ireland's constitutional place within the United Kingdom. Last month a deal, known as the Windsor Framework, was reached between the UK and EU leaders over the Irish border issue, but not everyone is happy with the outcome, including the Unionist leadership who have boycotted the Northern Ireland Assembly. David Mitchell is Assistant Professor in Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation at Trinity College Dublin in Belfast whose work includes coediting The Politics of Conflict and Transformation: The Island of Ireland in Comparative Perspective. So what lessons have been learned since the grim days of the Troubles, and how big a risk are these negotiations to peace in Northern Ireland?

Kim Hill reads listener feedback for 1 April 2023.

Far North mayor Moko Tepania  (Ngāti Kahu ki Whangaroa, Te Rarawa) tells Kim Hill why he's "naively optimistic" about the future of his region. 

Understanding how shifts in the natural world have shaped history might help us navigate the anxious new era of climate change, according to Oxford University historian Peter Frankopan. His new book The Earth Transformed: An Untold History takes an epic survey, from the beginning of recorded history to the present day, examining how changing climate has driven the rise and fall of civilisations.

Tamaki Makaurau actor Yvette Parsons is currently preparing for stage roles as both a snail and a performance art-making goth. A talented and popular performer, musician and playwright, Parsons more commonly plays unusual but inspiring women, challenging stereotypes.

Vietnamese author Dr Nguy n Phan Qu Mai's Dust Child tackles the difficult subject of Amerasian children, left behind when the American military fled after the Vietnam War.

Simon Hall (Nga¯ti Kahungunu) has spent two decades channelling the success of family business Tasti Foods into conservation. Hall has put nearly $12 million of profit into what has become New Zealand's largest private conservation project. The Forest Lifeforce Restoration Trust is re-establishing native New Zealand plants and animals at risk of extinction.

Computer scientist and author Brian Christian writes about one of the fundamental problems of AI development in his book The Alignment Problem: how do we ensure machine learning systems represent the best human values rather than magnify the worst?

New Zealand Rugby hopes to triple the number of women referees in the game announcing a new scholarship for women referees this week. One of the best in the game, referee Natarsha Ganley joins us to tell us what it takes.

Listener feedback for 25 March 2023.

Life-long creative Judy Darragh is known for her bright and brilliant use of colour and found materials as a sculptor, painter and jeweller. Not afraid to use plastic, Darragh wants us to reflect on how we treat the plane

Ruapehu, the largest active volcano in Aotearoa, and its neighbour Tongariro, are iconic mountains in the central North Island. They don't look like most other New Zealand volcanoes though - their rough, undulating cones more closely resemble those found in Iceland.

Pickleball – a form of paddle tennis played on a downsized court – is the fastest-growing sport in the US. Already well-established with older Americans, the game is now attracting people of all ages around the world, including former tennis stars.

Bonnie Garmus's debut novel Lessons in Chemistry has become a multi-million selling bestseller largely through word of mouth.The story concerns a American scientist who, sacked for being pregnant in 1955, takes revenge when she's hired to front a teatime cookery show. Stephen King has called it "the Catch 22 of early feminism."

NZ Army leader Dr Ellen Nelson worked night and day for almost a year to help evacuate 563 Afghan Defence Force allies and their families after the country fell to the Taliban in 2021. Ellen Nelson is a finalist for Local Hero of the Year at the 2023 New Zealander of the Year Awards.

New Zealand runner and two-time Olympian Zane Robertson has been banned from all sport for eight years. Fellow runner, author and journalist Adharanand Finn raced with Robertson in Kenya in 2011 and interviewed him last year for his podcast The Way of the Runner.

Listener feedback for 18 March 2023.

Author and art writer Megan Dunn joins Kim to talk crocodiles. From sculptor Mike Hewson's wooden crocs, to historic paintings and children's books, she examines why we like to look at crocodiles, and what our fascination says about our evolving relationship to nature.

Gardener Gordon Collier's first major project was on his family's farm, west of Taihape, Over 30 years he transformed a sunny clay hillside into an internationally celebrated garden, Titoki Point. He's since dedicated his life to gardening, becoming one of our most respected advisors. Since retiring Collier's advisory work has included the restoration of the Wellington Government House garden. A new book Gordon Collier's Three Gardens shows Titoki Point as well as two of his other home gardens; Anacapri in Taupo and The White House, his current home in Taihape.

Evana Belich has plenty of experience dealing with other's employment woes. She has worked as a trade union official, a mediator, an employment relations adviser, and has degrees in law and dispute resolution. All good source material for her debut comic story collection How to Get Fired. The recent IMML Creative Writing graduate, Belich is now working on her debut novel as a Grimshaw Sargeson Fellow.

Peripatus (aka velvet worms or ngaokeoke) are an ancient and fascinating native nocturnal crawling creature. This week in an Otago University fridge a group of peripatus had babies. Celebrating the birth was Professor Peter Dearden, director of Genomics Aotearoa. He's particularly interested in sequencing their genome as they are akin to living fossils, having survived over 500 million years virtually unchanged.

Auckland-based fashion designer Kat Tua (Ngati Kahu, Ngati Raukawa) is the powerhouse behind menswear label Manaaki, which is already proving popular with high-end fashion buyers. In its first year Manaaki was chosen for a mentorship with Mr Porter, one of the biggest luxury websites in the world. But Tua's story has been one of determination rather than overnight success. Before launching Manaaki in 2020 she spent more than a decade working long hours for some of Australia's biggest fashion brands while juggling life with a young son.

Mass protests have rocked Israel in recent weeks, in response to planned changes to the judicial system by the country's far-right coalition, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. If the proposal passes, it would give the Government greater sway in selecting judges while limiting the power of the Supreme Court. Opponents say it's a threat to democracy, and hundreds of thousands of people joined demonstrations this week in the largest street protests in the country's history. Kim talks with the BBC's Middle East Correspondent Tom Bateman, who is based in Jerusalem.

Sir Sam Neill is known as an open book, sharing yarns from his Central Otago vineyard home with his social media following, but in his soon to be released memoir Did I Ever Tell You This? Sir Sam reveals even more of the highs and lows of his life.

In January 2019 the media were captivated with the rude antics of a holidaying British family, littering, stealing and being generally obnoxious. Opera New Zealand artistic director Thomas De Mallet Burgess was one of the public agog and hatched the idea to turn the story into an opera: The Unruly Tourists. Seeing award-winning music-comedy duo The Fan Brigade perform, De Mallet Burgess approached them to be the librettists. 

Victoria Finlay's latest book Fabric looks at our relationship with textiles: from woven barkcloth in Papua New Guinea to the famous tweed of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Finlay considers how 'woven' fabric is into our histories, vocabularies and everyday lives - from our very livelihoods to its use for sheer opulence, with plenty of exploitation and environmental waste along the way. Part of the story is Finlay's own journey through grief for her recently deceased parents. Finlay is also the author of Colour: travels through the paintbox and the former arts editor of the South China Morning Post. I asked her about why she wanted to write about fabric.

Like many of us, designer, engineer and inventor Peter Lynn flew kites as a child, but by the time Lynn was 27, he'd started building one of the most important kite making businesses in the world. 

UK Poet Laureate Simon Armitage is the author of a dozen poetry collections, and in his recently published series of Oxford lectures A Vertical Art: On Poetry, 

Merging her work as an artist, mother and full spectrum doula, Holli McEntegart's project Inhabit brings together mothers and their infants to examine how community, cultural and whanau postpartum care has changed in Aotearoa. 

The misconception that Māori have more privilege than Pākehā is kept alive today for the same reasons it evolved back in the 19th century – to maintain a cultural power imbalance, says historian Dr Peter Meihana. He explores how this centuries-old myth has been used to constrain Māori people in his short book Privilege in Perpetuity.

Cyclone Gabrielle resulted in major shifts in our waterways, causing significant damage - but it's in their nature for rivers to move. 

As a beautiful young TV star in the 1990s, Gulchehra Hoja was important to the Chinese state: the acceptable face of China's Uyghur Muslim minority. Then in 2001, Hoja did an about-turn, fleeing to the United States and working with Radio Free Asia, reporting on human rights abuses. B