Afternoons

Afternoons listener Tom Cawood shares a story that takes him from playing rugby for Scotland, to becoming an expert in nail care and attempting to cure the South Island's Didymo rock snot issues.

SmartCrete CRC is one of the organisations working on solutions. CEO Clare Tubolets speaks to Jesse.

Andrew Allan is a Professor at Auckland University's School of Biological Sciences and principal scientist at Plant and Food Research, and he joins Jesse.

Jesse is joined by The Panel host Wallace Chapman and producer Tessa Guest to preview this evening's show.

It's one of the fastest-growing sports in the world but you may not have ever heard of it. Padel is growing in popularity here in NZ and is quickly becoming not only a sport to get you fit, but to help you meet people. Adam McDonald is the Pacific Padel Albany club and community manager and is with Jesse now.

Ancestry.com is the world's biggest genealogy website, providing users with access to historical records and DNA testing. It is known for having a vast collection of records and family trees and once a year it does a big update calling it DNA day. Our historian Dr Grant Morris is here to explain what that is and whether it matters.

With the local elections done and dusted, mayors will now be turning their attention to how to run their councils and get things done in their patch. Today in solving the world's problems, NZME Senior Writer Simon Wilson joins Jesse with an example of how one council seems to be highly functional through political, but crucially not partisan, politics.

Time for NZ Sporting History, and today we're looking at the history of controversial calls in Kiwi sport. Referees have a thankless job and I suppose no one gets it right 100 percent of the time, but sometimes you can't help but throw your hands up and scream 'Oh come on ref!' So to look back at some of these high-wire moments Jesse is joined by award-winning sports journalist Dylan Cleaver.

Friendships, workmates, love, whatever the status relationships are tricky. Navigating the highs and the lows can be challenging especially when it involves having tricky conversations. That's why we've got a new segment every fortnight that focuses on relationships. To help us navigate these difficult discussions I'm joined by Professor Kirsty Ross from Massey University's School of Psychology. Today we're focusing on chore allocation, office friendships and friend politics.

The 2025 Wilding Pines conference is currently taking place in Twizel The aim of the conference is to share knowledge, boost morale and hopefully attract new funding to the problem Funding which - according to MPI returns $34 of economic value for every dollar spent. Dr Thomas Carlin is part of the Bioeconomy Science Institutes "Viva La Resistance" project.