Afternoons

Host Claire Concannon is in the field this week, so Liz Garton is with us to talk about her visit to the Bioeconomy Science Institute.

Harlem Globetrotters Kaylin "Sunshine" West and Alex "Moose" Weekes join Jesse in the studio.

Dennis Renshaw is driving across some of Australia's most formidable roads to raise money for cancer research.

Scott Radnitz is a professor at the University of Washington who has written on conspiracism, and he joins Jesse Mulligan.

For years we've been told marijuana can treat everything from anxiety to chronic pain, often with more confidence than evidence because cannabis as an illegal drug is so hard to study. Now, the U.S. is reclassifying cannabis in a way that could finally make real scientific research easier. It's moving from a Schedule I drug, alongside heroin, to Schedule III, closer to drugs like Tylenol with codeine. That change could open the door to much more real research. Dr. Margaret Haney is a neurobiology professor at Columbia University and runs its Cannabis Research Lab. For decades, she's argued marijuana has been sold as medicine without the kind of rigorous testing every other prescription drug is required to go through. Even with the limitations, her work has shown the dangers of cannabis use disorder and the impacts weed can have on the teenage brain.

On Tuesdays we play You're the Judge - we put a dilemma to you and ask for your help to solve it - today's one is about not posting photos of your children on social media, and what you can do if you can't convince the grandparents to do the same. We love to get your reckons - 2101 with your thoughts.

Tim Batt chats to Jesse about all things tech. This week, the TVNZ+ app, the big data center being built in Utah and a new EU rule about mobile phone batteries.

Afternoons book critic Bill Hastings shares what he's been reading: Edward Chisholm, Murder in Paris '68, A True Story of Death and Glamour (Monoray, 2026) Zach Klein, Cabin Porn (Penguin 2015) and Zach Klein, Cabin Porn Inside (Penguin 2019). Harry Ricketts, Bonfires on the Ice (VUW, 2025).

It's time for Mayoral minutes, where we speak with a local mayor about the challenges they're facing, how they're working to solve them and what makes their community special. This week we're heading to the South Wairarapa District, from where Mayor Fran Wilde joins Jesse.

Coming up on Thrift, ready or not, retirement comes to all of us but how prepared are we? Katy Gosset takes a look.