Our education system is in a code red emergency.

We are failing our students, parents and educators yet we are unwilling to have constructive debate on the root cause. Hot topics like the structured literacy versus balanced literacy debate results in sensationalist biased headlines that deepen the ideological divide.

According to New Zealand's Auditor General, the Ministry of Education does not know why we have worsening disparities in educational outcomes for our richest and poorest neighbourhoods.

When we send our children to state schools to be educated by teachers who trained in taxpayer-funded tertiary institutions, we should expect that the training received by teachers and the education provided in state schools are following the evidence in the science of learning.

But when you speak to parents, educators and students, something is going terribly wrong.

To talk more on where, how and why we have gotten education wrong, I bring on Dr Nina Hood, a secondary school teacher who founded The Education Hub, an organisation that creates learning opportunities for teachers that bridges the gap between scientific research and everyday practice.

Dr Nina is also the academic director of The Teacher's Institute, a new education program for new teachers that puts the science of learning and in-classroom practical experience at the heart of teacher training.

Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those of preceding times. This is a quote from Machiavelli about the importance of understanding our history.

Aotearoa New Zealand, like all nations, must grapple with its past if it intends to avoid repeating its mistakes. With the introduction of Act Party's Treaty Principles Bill, the discussion around Te Tiriti has come to a head. On one side of the argument, the current interpretation of te tiriti has gone too far, on the other, not far enough.

To understand this further, I wanted to learn more about New Zealand's history: how colonisation occurred, the context with which te tiriti and the treaty were signed, and the implication of what happened in the 1800s and how this affects people today.

So on this episode I bring you Professor Paul Moon, Officer of NZ Order of Merit. Paul is a historian and professor at Auckland University of Technology who has devoted his career to researching New Zealand History, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and British Colonisation. He is an avid author and written many books on early NZ history and biographies of both British settlers and Maori rangatira.

I also speak to Paul about the recently developed NZ history curriculum as well as the state of our Universities and academia. Are we creating environments for freedom of thought, exploration and expression? Or has challenging the orthodoxy become a social faux-pas?

If you ask most people, a safe and just community is a key part of social cohesion.

People want safety to go about their business, certainty that there are consequences for bad actions and opportunities for both success and redemption.

But what does that look like?

A large topic of discussion is whether we are tough enough on crime. Are we doing enough to prevent crime and are we doing enough to mete out justice?

Rising social disadvantage, gang-related violent crime and intergenerational incarceration are complex issues that require deeper examination.

When recidivism is so high, can we say that prisons are working to keep us safer? Or are we asking prisons to do too many things?

On this episode I kōrero with Vaughan Winiata. Vaughan is a serial businessman, champion for Māori business and has spent the last several years working towards improving prisoner reintegration and gang member rehabilitation. Vaughan shares with us the reality of prison, the challenges inmates face on returning to society and why we even have prisons in the first place.

Nothing is certain but death and taxes.

Death is coming for all of us, but why are we so afraid of talking about it?

As a doctor, most of my job has been about saving people. Saving people from harm to their body or mind and alleviating suffering.

But what if some of our choices are causing more suffering? What if by sterilising and ignoring the process of death we now just see death as failure?

Medical care has come so far in the last century where far fewer people die in childhood and many are living well into their 90s.

But how we in Modern Western society approach death, dying and living has changed drastically with the growing trend of death denialism and a lack of opportunity for people to just talk about death. On this episode we bring on Treza Gallogly, a death doula. Doulas have been popularised as a support person and advocate for women in pregnancy helping to bring life into the world. Now there is a growing need for that support in dying.

As a death doula Treza walks with her clients who are making their last journey into death, helping them and their families navigate the next chapter.

But helping people through their dying months, weeks, or days is not just about death, it is about living. When we start becoming less uncomfortable with approaching death, this is the moment when we really start to live.

One of the biggest challenges facing us in the 21st century is significant demographic change.

We have an ageing population with people living much longer and with fewer children being born. This is resulting in a growing use of immigration to provide the economic activity to fund core public services like health, education and justice.

Meanwhile growing income inequality is contributing to worse rates of preventable illness as health funding is diverted away from public health interventions that actually keep people healthy.

It's time we take a much longer term view to the social and economic challenges our country will face. Much longer than the 3 year election cycle.

To talk about this further, I bring you the economist Shamubeel Eaqub 

For New Zealand and our people to find success, we need to be realistic, but hopeful to get through tough times. Whether we like it or not, New Zealand will undergo significant change. And with that, we must be truthful and open about the risks associated with this change.

What is at stake here is social cohesion. 

If we continue to become more divided, we risk losing the prosperity, freedom and progress that has been hard fought for by generations that came before us.

But, if we can find a sense of common ground, collective identity and a shared vision and set of values, maybe, just maybe, we will change that trajectory to a better future for all to thrive.

While you listen to this episode I want you to really ask yourself, what does it mean to be a New Zealander? Send us an email, DM or a voice note on our social media to let me know what you think.

This is part two of a two part series with Dr. Mike Murphy. On episode one, we took a deep dive into the relationship between the healthcare system and the pharmaceutical industry.

We examined the incentives for a for-profit system that does not necessarily value overall patient health outcomes in the wider social context. Check out episode one if you haven't already. 

In the second half of our conversation, we talk about psychedelics. There's a lot of chatter, excitement, and what you may call hype with the emerging studies on psychedelic therapies.

On this episode, we continue to take a sceptical eye on this new field of medicine, cognisant of the risks of falling into the same trap as conventional pharmaceutical silver bullets. We discuss states of consciousness, potential benefits and harms of new therapies, and the need for safeguards during times of significant change.

As doctors, we rely on the pharmaceutical industry to produce medications, from everyday paracetamol to advanced targeted cancer therapies. The industry faces constant pressure to innovate and create profit for shareholders, while governments face pressure to approve and fund these medicines from patients and clinicians.

What we are seeing is a rise in medicines spending. People are living longer, with more disease and requiring more medications. The newer medicines are costing exponentially more while sometimes providing only small incremental benefit when compared to older and cheaper medicines.

When we only have a limited pot of resources to fund our healthcare system, we need to start asking the question of how effective is this spend and who seeks to benefit? And if we continue promoting a sickness system that is heavily reliant on pharmaceutical silver bullets, will we create a happier, healthier nation?

Joining me on this episode is Dr Mike Murphy, an emergency doctor, and clinical director of medicinal cannabis clinic, Cannaplus. Having been involved in clinical trials, Mike understands the costs, process and drivers of developing new drugs. Together we unpack the complicated relationship doctors have with big Pharma as well as holding a hopeful but sceptical eye on emerging psychedelic therapies.

Modern day living values universal individual freedom and rights. This has helped open the doors to many great things like individual reproductive choices, same sex marriage and a focus on tackling discrimination against immutable characteristics.

But what are the trade-offs?

I have this growing feeling that we no longer have communities, at least not ones that are robust, intergenerational and will last the test of time. By valuing the successes of individuals, by judging the success of countries based on GDP, the value of families, connected communities and strong relationships are lost in the calculation.

We are living in strange times where much of the conversation is on what divides us, not on what unites us. We are stronger and more productive as a united community if we have shared goals, values and visions.

To talk more about economics, productivity and the social contract, on this episode we have ex-Productivity Commissioner and long time economist Ganesh Nana.

When we talk about health, education, housing, and environment, it is time we take a long-term, intergenerational approach. In times of widespread nihilism about the future, now, more than ever we need hope. We need hope that things will improve and we need action to make it happen.

As doctors, we carry an enormous amount of risk; sometimes, we quite literally hold people's lives in our hands.

Under these extraordinary circumstances, with increasing expectations and limited health resources, it's no wonder the pressures on our health workforce are sky-high, making hospitals an even less welcoming place for both patients and healthcare workers. It makes you question whether empathy training is truly effective when the system itself isn't designed to enable empathy.

If we want a sustainable healthcare service, perhaps it's time we have some uncomfortable conversations about how we're going to get there. Just because we can do something, does it mean we should? Is it time to collectively re-prioritise our attention and focus given the limited resources we have?

In this episode, I bring you Dr Heidi Baker. When I first started in paediatrics, I wanted to be just like Heidi when I grew up. In this conversation, we discuss the changing landscape of healthcare provision, training, and the responsibility we have to future generations. Heidi has been a role model and mentor for me over the years, and I'm so grateful to now call her my friend.

This is Revolving Door Syndrome, and I am Dr Nina Su.

Everywhere you look, the statistics tell a story of Maori doing worse. Of Maori struggling, of Maori poverty.

While these statistics are true, it fails to tell the whole story. On this episode of Revolving Door Syndrome, I sat down with Boris Sokratov AKA the Bulgarian Maori to talk about how we can shift the narrative.

Much of the conversation perpetuates low expectations and reinforces dependency when in reality there is plenty for Maori to be proud of. Not only do we need to build a society where every child can succeed regardless of class, colour or creed, we need to have expectations that every child will succeed.

Recently, Boris was diagnosed with a rare neuroendocrine cancer and is currently undergoing treatment. He shares with me his thoughts on life's purpose and the value of service to others.

Boris came from humble beginnings but has become a serial businessman as well as being a driving force for social good with setting up I Am Hope, Brown Buttabean Motivation and The Nutter's Club Radio show. He assures me that he won't let cancer get in the way of achieving his goals, it's just sped up his timeline a little.