Afternoons

The internationally recognised Whangamarino Wetland in north Waikato is in decline, with a new report stating that "active intervention is critical" and a turnaround will likely take considerable time The wetland has faced mounting pressure for decades but back -to -back disasters over the past five years have made the situation significantly worse During the summer of 22-23, more than 1500 dead birds were collected alongside death fish following an avian botulism event and a year later, a man-made fire burnt over a thousand hectares of raised bog. Hugh Robertson, the Principal Science Advisor Freshwater at the Department of Conservation chats to Jesse.

As you'll have heard in the news, another New Zealand medical data platform has been hit by hackers ... just two months after patient portal 'Manage My Health' was breached MediMap is used by health providers in some aged care, disability services, and hospice to record and manage patients' medication doses. The breach has led to staff at multiple facilities discovering that some patients were incorrectly marked as deceased. Others had their names changed to "Charlie Kirk", with ages altered and, in some cases, patients reassigned to different facilities. So, are our systems seen as weak and ripe for hacking? And if not for money, why are these platforms being hijjacked? Paul Spain, Futurist and chief executive of Gorilla Technology talks to Jesse.

Optimism can feel like a radical act these days. For Kevin Kelly, a positive outlook is not optional. The co-founder and senior maverick at tech magazine Wired has long argued that our capacity to fix our problems is greater than we imagine. He makes the case for evidence-based optimism, not wishful thinking, but informed possibility, in a new podcast called Best Case Scenario. Kelly teams up with best selling psychology and behavior author Daniel Pink to ask experts to give their best possible good news scenario in the next 25 years on the topics like transportation, energy and human health.

Afternoons podcast critic Ximena Smith joins Jesse to review 'Ransom Man' and 'The Walkers: The Real Salt Path'

Afternoons book critic Anna Rankin joins Jesse to talk about The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch. It came out in 2011, but the film version is about to be released so we're taking this opportunity to discuss the memoir.

It's time for Mayoral minutes, our new segment 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 Waikato District and Mayor Aksel Bech.

"Meno-divorce" is a term that is trending on the internet right now. It's used to describe a divorce that coincides with women experiencing menopause. But how did it come about and is it really fair? Author of multiple books on menopause, Niki Bezzant, chats to Jesse.

There's a movement happening in the hunting community that sees surplus wild venison turned into meals for families who need some help. The West Coast initiative is called Game 2 Give, and it was launched last year by the Hokitika-based food bank Kai Puku. It's fair to say that since then it's really caught on - several local organisations have jumped on board to help out, and now even the Department of Conservation. Kai Puku lead co-ordinator Christine Barton joins Jesse.

Nowadays it seems it's far more common for young people to stay at home long past the age of 18. This could be due to the cost of living, the cost of tuition, or lack of job opportunities. But then the question becomes how long is too long, and is it fair to charge them rent? Sheridan Eketone is a coach at The Parenting Place and she joins Jesse to chat through the do's and don'ts.

New Zealand Parliament announced late last week that it will no longer post updates on the social media platform X - formerly known as Twitter. The move comes amid growing international backlash against the Elon Musk owned platform, after thousands of sexualised deepfake images mainly of women and children, were generated using the social media site's AI chatbot 'Grok' Foreign Minister Winston Peters has since criticised the decision, writing on X that "This is how freedoms are lost - by unilateral decision-making being made by moral virtue signalling - where someone seeks to do one thing but causes damage to other freedoms." So is he right? To discuss the issue, Free Speech Union Chief Executive Jillaine Heather joins Jesse now.