Afternoon Drive with John Maytham

Guest: Karyn Maughan

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Guest: Eric van der Vyver

In what is likely a world first, South Africa has awarded a patent for an interlocking food and beverage container invented by an Artificial Intelligence programme.

We speak to Erik van der Vyver, a patent attorney with Von Seidels an intellectual property law firm, who dealt with the application.

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Guest: Maya Fisher-French

It's being reported that Treasury is considering allowing people hard hit by the pandemic, to withdraw some of their pension savings before retirement. Last week, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said Treasury was in talks with National Economic Development and Labour Council about possibly allowing limited withdrawals from retirement funds under very specific conditions.

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Guest: Greg Arde | Journalist at Mercury

Freelance journalist, Greg Arde, and author of "War Party" a book about political violence in KZN, together with a colleague, covered the recent unrest in the province.

During this period, people in the town of Phoenix took action to protect their communities, spurring what some have described as a "race war" between its residents and those living in neighbouring areas.

Writing in the Daily Maverick, he says that last week they visited the area where they met Blessing Nyoni and Sajeev Singh, who are trying to heal the divide between their communities.

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Guest: Mariechen Du Toit

A person in Calvinia in the Northern Cape reached out to the show to tell us about the plight of animals in the town, where many people have lost their jobs over the past 18 months.

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Guest: Christopher Swart

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Guest: Shona Joyce Herron

Shona Joyce Herron, a Trainee Clinical Psychologist and researcher at University College London, has done research into what can be described as a person having a 'feeling of emptiness'.

She says that it is usually only considered as a symptom of borderline personality disorder, but that it is actually more common than one might think.

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Guest: Dr Ross Tucker | Sports Scientist at Sports Science Institute Of South Africa 

Norway's Karsten Warholm yesterday beat his own world record in the Olympic 400-metre hurdles, shaving off 0.76 of a second to finish at 45.94 seconds.

In an unexpected turn of events, second-placed Rai Benjamin of the United States also broke the 46.7 record set by Warholm just last month, coming in at 46.17.

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Guest: Book: A Slow Burning Fire

We speak to Zimbabwe-born British author, Paula Hawkins, about her latest novel, "A Slow Burning Fire".

It tells the story of the gruesome murder of a young man in London houseboat, and three women who knew him, a one-night stand, his aunt, and a nosy neighbour.

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Guest: Dr Saadiq Kariem

On Friday, there were fears that month-end pay checks, combined with the recent reopening of alcohol sales could result in a spike in trauma cases in the Western Cape over the weekend.

This would place an extra burden on the already overstretched hospitals in the province.

To find out what happened, we speak to Dr Saadiq Kariem, chief operations office at the Western Cape Department of Health.

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