Nine To Noon

Film and TV reviewer James Croot is along to talk about the latest James Bond film, Summer of Soul, Spice Girls: How girl power saved the world and The Alpinist.

Neuroplasticity educator and parenting expert, Nathan Wallis talks to Kathryn about Covid lockdowns and getting children back to a normal routine and dealing with the anxiety of going back to school after the holidays.

Technology commentator Bill Bennett joins Kathryn to talk about Facebook's bad week. It was out for six hours on Tuesday, then there was the damaging evidence from former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen that the company has known - and ignored - the harm it causes. Financial media coverage this week suggests Facebook executives know the company is in steady, long-term decline.

Chris Tse reviews AUP New Poets 8 by Lily Holloway, Tru Paraha and Modi Deng, published by Auckland University Press.

Mark van Leewarden tells Kathryn his fascinating and sometimes unsettling true life story about the realities of a secret life in New Zealand's criminal underworld of the late 1970s, and of going on to become New Zealand's most successful international fraud investigator.

UK correspondent Matt Dathan joins Kathryn to look at Boris Johnson's first Conservative party conference speech in two years, which promised to unleash Britain's "unique spirit" to reshape the UK after Covid and Brexit.

The discovery of a compound that kick-starts tissue regeneration could have a big impact on healing horses and humans alike. Christchurch chemical biologist Rudi Marquez hopes the new wound gel he and other international scientists have developed will eventually be used to treat foot ulcers that can accompany diabetes.

New legislation which would require accessibility barriers to be removed could be on the way, if an accessibility advocacy group has its way. Accessibility legislation is increasingly appearing in countries around the world and work is underway to introduce something similar here. Currently disabled people in New Zealand have no effective way to report barriers to their participation fully in society, or get them removed, and there's no one agency to identify and deal with non-compliance.

This week, Associate Professor Siouxsie Wiles tells us about a new study about the safety of the COVID mRNA vaccines and takes listener questions on Covid.

Kathryn talks with Massey University migration expert Paul Spoonley about how international mobility will be managed once New Zealand's borders reopen in the New Year. He says there are some big, as yet unanswered questions, such as what protocols and procedures will be required in airports and on planes? And who pays if you get COVID in another country?