A new genetic study suggests that Polynesians made an epic voyage to South America 800 years ago.

New take on Polynesian voyages, journey to the Americas

News & Politics

New Zealand's volcanoes are world renowned, and most Kiwis are familiar with our big ones such as Ruapehu, Taranaki and Tarawera. But what about our lesser talked about volcanoes? GNS Science principal scientist Graham Leonard joins Susie to chat about some of the volcanic areas around the country that people are less familiar with - from Northland's periodically active field to volcanoes buried in the Canterbury plains gravels.

Graham Leonard: New Zealand's B-list volcanoes

You could hardly avoid the gruesome spectacle of the Amber Heard-Johnny Depp trial - it made the nightly news, but it made a much bigger splash on social media. But was there something else at play? Was Amber Heard the victim of an orchestrated campaign of misinformation? Alexi Mostrous of Tortoise Media is a London-based journalist who has previously tackled catfishing and disinformation in his previous very popular podcasts Sweet Bobby and Hoaxed. Alexi joins Susie to talk about how, with the help of a team of data analysts, he dug through hundreds of thousands of tweets to uncover the shocking revelations of his latest series Who Trolled Amber?

Alexi Mostrous: Who Trolled Amber?

Doctor and poet Glenn Colquhoun has been writing poetry since the 1990s. A long time in the making, he has simultaneously published two books: Nga Wahine E Toru/Three Women, a collection of Maori poetic forms, and Myths and Legends of the Ancient Pakeha, an exploration of the sung poem in English written as a response to Nga Wahine E Toru. Both are examinations of the oral poem in New Zealand, and both come with soundtracks. Glenn was awarded the Prize in Modern Letters in 2004 (the country's largest literary award at the time) and started up his own imprint OldKing Press a few years ago.

Glenn Colquhoun: Maori poetry, sea shanties and powdered soup

Kiwi scientist and champion épée-fencer Dr Matt Baker is representing NZ at fencing in the final Olympic qualifying tournament in Dubai later today. Sydney-based Baker is Scientia Research Fellow in the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences at the University of New South Wales, where he studies the molecular motor that makes bacteria swim. But today it's all about the sport and Matt is the sole NZ gladiator in men's épée. Age 41, and father of two young children, he's en garde against some up-coming young stars, all hungry for success at the Asia-Oceania Zonal Qualifier for the Paris Olympics. The men's épée starts at 4pm NZ time, streamed live.

Dr Matt Baker: en garde for the Olympics

A first of its kind one-to-one support programme for pre-school children showing signs of autism is about to be trialed in Wellington, with aspirations of going nationwide. Professor Josie Barbaro pioneered the most successful tool in the world for the very early detection of autism. Known as Social Attention and Communication Surveillance or SACS, it identifies autistic children aged 11 to 30 months with an accuracy of 83%, and has identified 96% of autistic children by preschool age. Susie is joined by Prof Barbaro and Educational Psychologist and Clinic Lead of the Victoria University of Wellington Autism Clinic, Dr Hannah Waddington. Hannah is rolling out Raupi te Raupo, a world-first free support programme for under fives who, having undergone Josie's assessment, are showing signs of autism.

New take on Polynesian voyages, journey to the Americas

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