Afternoons

A musical production inspired by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is coming to Auckland. Cirque Alice blends Lewis Carroll's classic adventure with acrobatics, songs, dance and a dose of magic. And of course, audiences will get to meet Alice, the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit, and the Queen of Hearts Australian performer Layla Schillert stars as Alice in the production and is with me now.

With deer numbers on the rise, ecologists are calling for a national deer management strategy and say we are sleepwalking our way to a native forest catastrophe. University of Canterbury Emeritus Professor David Norton joins Jesse.

With deer numbers on the rise, ecologists are calling for a national deer management strategy and say we are sleepwalking our way to a native forest catastrophe. University of Canterbury Emeritus Professor David Norton joins Jesse.

We understand it is winter, but we've all been talking about the freezing temperatures this week. Yesterday Christchurch was -4.7 and Taupo fell to -5.6 While this morning Hamilton Airport was -3.2 .. their coldest temperature measured this year. Even Aucklanders have been shivering into their lattes with temperatures in the low single digits. Heather Keats is Head of Weather News at MetService, she chats to Jesse.

'She'll be right' - is a classic kiwi idiom, however a new book says that kind of traditional, laid back optimism is no longer adequate to the challenges facing New Zealand. Facing Up to Our Future: Challenges and Choices for New Zealand brings together 21 of the country's leading thinkers. It looks at many of the big challenges facing our country and sets out practical ways of dealing with them. "Facing Up to Our Future" has just been published and is now available at helenclark.foundation. It's been published by the Helen Clark Foundation. The foundation's patron, former Prime Minister the Right Honourable Helen Clark joins Jesse.

We're taught to look for happiness in big moments and major life achievements. But according to cultural critic, game designer and Atlantic writer Dr Ian Bogost, we may be looking in the wrong place. He argues that some of life's richest pleasures are hiding in experiences we barely notice like the feel of a key turning in a lock, the physical satisfaction of operating a machine, or simply paying attention to the world around us. As technology removes more and more of those tactile experiences, we are also losing something about how we experience being alive. Bogost's new book is an argument for slowing down and rediscovering the value of the small, ordinary things we usually overlook. It's called The Small Stuff: How to Lead a More Gratifying Life.

Afternoons critic Caitlin Cherry joins Jesse to share what she's been watching: The Witness (Netflix) and The Burroughs (Netflix)

Dog Behavioural Consultant and Trainer Selina McIntyre answers your questions.

Jesse speaks to Evan More from the NZ Rocketry Association.

Brad Foster, our man on the ground in Australia, joins Jesse to discuss what's hitting the headlines there.