Nights

Surf Lifeguards around the country are bracing themselves for what could be the busiest lifesaving season on record as New Zealanders face a summer without the option of overseas holidays. Covid-19 travel restrictions mean many Kiwis will be planning "staycations" this summer and SLSNZ volunteer Surf Lifeguards are encouraging beachgoers to familiarise themselves with key safety messages.

Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom - co-founder and CEO of SpaceBase joins us once again. Tonight she is looking at the problem of space debris.

Numerous streets, public spaces and landmarks around Aotearoa bear the name Freyberg in honour of one of the great 20th-century New Zealanders, who undoubtedly ranks as the country's greatest military leader. But many of our younger generation are less familiar with Bernard Fryberg, and certainly don't know much about the man beyond his military accomplishments. Historian and prolific author Matthew Wright joins is to tell us more.

From The University of Auckland, Dr Maria Armoudian, Associate Professor Jennifer Frost and Dr Tim Fadgen were joined this week by Professor Nancy Eisenberg from Louisiana State University. Tonight they're looking at how class and identity politics are shaping today's elections.

Eric Crampton, Chief Economist at the New Zealand Initiative has been taking a look at climate policy and how this can be utilised for an effective Covid recovery.

We head back to 2005 and this week's pick of the Going West Festival is an event in which television presenter and talk-back host Marcus Lush delivers a witty account of his life-long love affair with rail, his relationship with the train-spotting fraternity, and his enormously popular television series Off the Rails: a love story, which chronicled his journey along New Zealand's railway lines.

Helene Elliot from the L.A. Times joins us once again with the latest sports from the US.

The historic Drybread Cemetery will be the focus of the latest University of Otago and Southern Cemeteries Archaeology research project - we're joined by project co-leaders Professor Hallie Buckley from the Department of Anatomy at University of Otago and Dr Peter Petchey, the Director of Southern Archaeology Ltd.

Andrew Learmonth from Scotland's National Newspaper joins us once again from Glasgow.

Kate Andrew is a PhD student in Optical Nano-Microrobotics at Massey University and she gives her her scientific take on Octiron - a magical metal from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.