Nights

Our overseas correspondent Matoko Kakubayashi has the latest from Japan.

Stella McQueen, self-confessed native fish geek, author and field worker (and some night say "chick scientist") takes us through the proposed changes to the whitebait legislation.

Cross-examination strategies in rape trials remain resistant to reforms, which continues to negatively impact on complainants despite initiatives to improve the legal process. Professor Elisabeth McDonald from the University of Canterbury specialises in rape trial evidence and is publishing an Open Access book through Canterbury University Press to make her research freely available to those working in this area of the law.

A single specimen of toromiro - a close relative of our own kowhai and extinct in the wild - has been discovered in Te Papa's botany collection, where it's been kept safe for 150 years. Thanks to new DNA analysis, Genetic Scientist Lara Shepherd and Botanist Carlos Lehnebach think the specimen grew from seeds collected on Captain Cook's visit to Rapa Nui (Easter Island).

Military Historian Damien Fenton joins us once again. Tonight he marks the 75th anniversary of the end of the Battle for Budapest (24 December 1944 - 13 February 1945). Surrounded by the Red Army on 24 December 1945 the Soviet High Command (STAVKA) estimated that it would take no more than four days to force the remaining Axis forces inside the Hungarian capital to surrender. Instead the garrison of approximately 79,000 German and Hungarian troops held out against impossible odds for almost two months turning the Battle for Budapest into an epic siege second only to Stalingrad in terms of its duration, the ferocity of the fighting and the scale of destruction unleashed upon the city.

Christopher Waugh has just won the supreme teaching innovation award at the ASG National Excellence in Teaching Awards. He's been turning the power structure in secondary school on its head so students experience a sense of control over their destiny. Apparently he's getting amazing results.

We continue our series in collaboration with the MacDiarmid Institute where we take an idea from fiction and see how it stands up to scientific scrutiny. Tonight, McDiarmid Institute co-director and Auckland University associate physics professor, Nicola Gaston's flight of fancy is the mineral unobtanium...most recently the plot device behind the movie Avatar, although it's had other outings int science fiction pop culture.

Director and choreographer Malia Johnston makes her Nights debut as out cultural ambassador for dance. Tonight she's taking a look at current influences in contemporary dance in Aotearoa and is joined by choreographer and performer Ooshcon Masseurs.

Following the Success of the Korean film "Parasite" we chat to David Oxenbridge, one of the organisers of the Korean Cinerama Trust to get his guide to the best in Korean cinema.

Nights Economist, Brian Easton joins us in the studio once again. Tonight he's taking a look at Income Inequality.