Nine To Noon

The Government has set out its plan to reconnect New Zealand with the world in the Covid-19 pandemic. It plans to speed up the vaccination roll out and prioritise getting first doses into more people. The Prime Minister has also outlined a phased approach to reopening the border. RNZ Political Editor Jane Patterson.

Tā Mark Solomon spent 18-years at the helm of Ngāi Tahu. He was elected to the role in 1998 just as the iwi was about to sign its $170 million historic Treaty of Waitangi settlement. Today Ngāi Tahu's asset base stands at $1.2 billion with investments in property, fisheries, tourism farming and much more.

Matt Dathan discusses the British embassy worker in Berlin who has been arrested on suspicion of taking a cash bribe to pass sensitive documents to a Russian intelligence agency. Also 15-18 year-olds in England are set to find out their results from non-existent exams, and women can now wear trousers at the Henley Royal Regatta everywhere after it changed its "draconian" dress code.

A senior medical specialist says patients are losing out as insurance companies use heavy-handed tactics to control what they can and can't receive from providers. Dr Dean Corbett is an Auckland based Ophthalmologist working in the public and private systems and also serves as Chairperson of Ophthalmology NZ.

Federated Farmers says New Zealand's farm environment management system has been rocked to the core by the release of a report criticising the widely used farm nutrient modelling system Overseer. Overseer was originally developed as a tool to help farmers to use fertiliser and other inputs more efficiently, but as it also estimates the nutrient loss from farms, over time it came to be used by regional councils to help inform regulations around water quality.

Science commentator Siouxsie Wiles looks at new research that's found transplanting gut bugs from old to young mice can counteract age-related changes in the brain, another survey that's found how IQ scores were affected by Covid infections and who's the most Covid-resistant of them all....people less open to new ideas, the extroverts and the narcissists, that's who. Associate Professor Dr Siouxsie Wiles is the head of Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab at the University of Auckland.

Nearly enough, sort of enough, almost enough...what happens where there is not enough? Sarah Johnson and Deborah Hinde have written and illustrated a children's book that is based around Hana, who is concerned about whether people on her street have enough - and her efforts to help them when she finds that they don't. The pair have collaborated on a number of works - but the production of this one was a little different. It was made possible through a grant from Copyright Licensing New Zealand, and a dollar from the sale of each book will go to a charity called Feed the Kids, which is based in Raglan. They both join Kathryn to talk about why they felt the idea of what is "enough" was an important one for children to understand.

Charlotte joins Kathryn to mark three years since Aretha Franklin's death just as a new movie into her life is released. It's music award season: Waiata MÄori, Pacific, Silver Scroll and Aotearoa Music Awards. She'll preview the finalists in the Waiata MÄori Awards. And Luke Buda from The Phoenix Foundation has a new solo album out, his first in 12 years.

Sally Wenley reviews The Enemy Within by Tim Ayliffe, published by Simon & Schuster.

Shaking hands hasn't been so popular in social distancing Covid times, but it is a widely accepted gesture that has existed for thousands of years. The handshake ritual Is deeply embedded in a range of cultures and it's not just the exclusive domain of humans. Chimpanzees and bonobos also shake hands. The ancient social gesture has so captivated paleoanthropologist and evolutionary biologist, Ella Al-Shamahi, that she's written a book about it - The Handshake - A gripping history.