Anjum Rahman arrived in New Zealand in 1972 at the age of five from Canada, though she was born in the Ganges Plains in India. She is a political and human rights activist who is now a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit. Mrs Rahman is a founding member of Shama, the Hamilton Ethnic Women Centre, she helped found the Islamic Women's Council of New Zealand, in 1990. She is a Human Rights Commission facilitator and a board member or trustee of many organisations all with human rights at the centre. She's become a prominent commentator on issues of racism and religious diversity.. but it's been a tough road to feeling accepted as a New Zealander.

Bob McKerrow is a man of action. He's been a mountaineer, polar adventurer, humanitarian, and is now a lecturer, writer and poet. For 36 years he worked in conflict situations and in times of major natural disasters with the Red Cross. Afghanistan - Mountains of Our Minds is a book of poetry and photography Bob compiled in the late 90's and published in 2003 and finally 16 years later, he's decided to launch it. I actually met him the first time back in 1996 when I was briefly working in Afghanistan while he was running the red Cross operation there. In fact he gave me my first beer there - in a place annd time that was hard to come by. He will be will be launching his book Afghanistan - Mountains of Our Minds at the Mountain Film and Book Festival in Wanaka tomorrow. You can find links to the Festival and to his blog on our QBM page on the RNZ website. https://www.mountainfilm.nz/schedule/#all-speakers http://bobmckerrow.blogspot.com/

The third of June marked the anniversary of the first women to train for the police force. In 1941 ten trainees were chosen. They had to be between 25 and 40 years old, pass a medical test, have shorthand and typing skills, and unmarried or widowed. Megan Whelan speaks to Valerie Redshaw, author of Tact and Tenacity: New Zealand Women in Policing, and a former officer for NZ Police and the London Met.

A mother-daughter project Our Wāhine is celebrating 125 years of women's suffrage with 125 illustrations of women, including radio broadcaster Aunt Daisy, astronomer Beatrice Tinsley, and master weaver Dame Rangimārie Hetet.

Dame Products is a crowdfunded sex toy company that aims to make highly engineered and appealing sex toys for women. Dame Products co-founder and CEO Alexandra Fine has a Masters in Clinical Psychology, and combined her knowledge with her co-founder Janet Lieberman's background in mechanical engineering to improve on an industry that they saw as having a poor history of research and development.

Poūkahangatus is the debut collection by Victoria University International Institute of Modern Letters graduate and Adam Foundation Prize winner Tayi Tibble.

Glaswegian musical trio Chvrches may have relocated to New York but their recently released third album Love Is Dead has all the hallmarks of their previous records - with some extra pop sheen.

Lead vocalist Lauren Mayberry caught Megan Whelan up on the process of making the new album and how she feels now that there is more attention on the misogyny that she's been calling out for years.

Dame Stephanie Shirley (who goes by Steve) is an IT pioneer, a philanthropist involved in autism charities, and a refugee. She was born Vera Buchthal and she and her sister were sent to England from Germany in 1939. Her commitment to her studies and talent for maths was so clear that she was placed in an all-boys school. Dame Steve went on to found Freelance Programmers, a company that initially only employed women and was unique in providing software solutions in the early hardware driven field of computing. She was awarded an OBE in 1980, and since 2000 has been a Dame Commander.

Lisa Blair’s solo voyage round the Antarctic turned into a life-threatening nightmare as she battled a broken mast amid giant waves – but she still made history.

Dame Lynley Dodd is special to many. She is the writer and illustrator of dozens of books including the eternally popular Hairy Maclary series. Her words and images are imprinted onto the brains on multiple generations of children and parents. Megan Whelan speaks to Lynley about choosing to become a Dame when titles were restored, the creative process, managing her intellectual property, the Hairy Maclary app, and what her day to day life is like.