Afternoons

We're going to talk about brain fog now. It's one of those terms we hear a lot - especially if you have a menopausal woman in your life - and is often blamed when you can't find a word, or forget why you walked into a room, or opened a cupboard. But what is brain fog really? And can you do anything about it? Dr Kiri Brickell is a neurologist at Auckland Medical Specialists and an affiliate of the University of Auckland's Centre for Brain Research. She joins Jesse to chat.

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University of Canterbury engineering student Zac Hemmings has come up with an idea to help declutter your life, home or garage. It's called cluttr (cluttr.co.nz) and it earnt him a spot as a finalist in the Momentum Student Entrepreneur category at this year's KiwiNet Research Commercialisation Awards. He chats to Jesse.

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Have you been summoned for jury duty and done it? We'd love to know on 2101. We're asking because a third of people summoned for jury duty in 2025 either didn't respond to the request, or didn't turn up at court. That's a dramatic increase from pre-Covid numbers. In 2019, just 13 percent of those summoned failed to report for jury duty .. so what's going on? Shanti Mathias is a freelance journalist based in Christchurch ... she has been crunching the numbers for The Spinoff and joins Jesse to discuss.

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Influenza A is hitting the country hard right now .. some hospitals have set up dedicated flu wards and some elective surgery has been cancelled to deal with the influx of flu patients. Of course it is winter, viruses are super contagious and there's a cold snap so illness is to be expected to some degree, but are there steps you can take to ward off winter illnesses? And is taking Vitamin C one of them? University of Otago's Professor Margreet Vissers chats to Jesse.

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Wallace Chapman and Jesse Mulligan star in the shortest show on radio, where they show they really can make something out of nothing, join them to be part of their delight, or to simply despair. Wallace will also preview what's on The Panel tonight.

Cryptocurrency is a story about how lines of code can be like cash. It's a pretty stupid story says actor Ben McKenzie. He's best known for playing teen heartthrob Ryan Atwood in The O.C. and Detective James Gordon in Gotham. For the last few years, he's taken on a very different role, crypto sceptic. First came a book, now there's a documentary, examining an industry sold by celebrities, influencers, tech entrepreneurs and financial insiders as the next big thing. The documentary is called Everyone Is Lying to You for Money. When major streaming services passed on the film, McKenzie decided to take it directly to audiences instead. Ben joins Jesse to discuss.

Every week we put a dilemma to you and give you free range to share your reckons. This week we're looking at what happens when a kind act turns into a nuisance.

Afternoons book critic Anna Rankin joins us to share what she's been reading: You Won't Get Free of it, Stories of Mothers and Daughters by New Yorker journalist Rachel Aviv.

Unforgiving Years, by Victor Serge

Kluge, by Pip Adam

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Each week we chat to a mayor about the challenges the face and what's great about their district. Today Jesse is joined by Phil Nixon, Mayor of South Taranaki.

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Time for the RNZ podcast Thrift .. this week host Katy Gosset gets some tips on batch cooking to save both time and money.

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