Saturday Morning

Saturday Morning episodes:

• 04.20.2024

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• 04.19.2024

  Kate De Goldi: reading for pleasure

  Kate De Goldi is one of New Zealand's most celebrated authors, an Arts Foundation Laureate, and a voracious reader. She joins Susie to share three books she's loved; Clear by Carys Davies, The Caretaker by Ron Rash, and The Puppets...

  
• 04.19.2024

  Ngahuia te Awekotuku: a story of bravery

  As a curator of ethnology at Waikato Museum in the 1980s, Te Awekotuku was among the first to insist museums rethink how they represent Maori culture, both in New Zealand and overseas. In 1981, she became the first Maori woman...

  
• 04.19.2024

  Liam Dann: are we witnessing the death of paper money?

  Veteran financial journalist Liam Dann returns to the show to shine a light on left-field economic news and the quirks of New Zealand economics. This week he discusses 'digital cash' and the future of money, and he takes a closer...

  
• 04.19.2024

  Grace Millane: New film The Lie explores shocking case

  The 2018 murder of 21-year old British backpacker Grace Millane gripped the country. A powerful new film The Lie explores how the shocking case highlights disturbing attitudes about violence towards women. It painstakingly pieces together Grace's final evening, stepping through...

  
• 04.19.2024

  Carrie Sun: Private Equity memoir explores dark side of wealth

  At the age of 29 New Yorker Carrie Sun bagged a top job at a top Wall Street hedge fund. As private assistant to the firm's billionaire founder, Sun entered a world of power, privilege and extreme wealth. But as...

  
• 04.19.2024

  Elizabeth Kolbert: The A to Z of climate change

  Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Elizabeth Kolbert tells the story of climate change in her new alphabetised essay collection H Is for Hope. As our world warms up, Kolbert hopes the book will help people understand both what's at stake and what is possible. "How are...

  
• 04.19.2024

  The burden of long covid

  Evidence indicates long covid presents a considerable burden to New Zealand. Between 4 and 14 percent of people infected with the virus will develop ongoing symptoms, anything from mild to severe. Scientists who conducted a recent evidence summary of long...

  
• 04.13.2024

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  Susie Fergusons listener feedback for Saturday Morning 13th April 2024

  
• 04.12.2024

  Leah McFall: books my friends borrowed and never returned

  Writer and reviewer Leah McFall reckons one of the best endorsements for a book is when your friend borrows it and it never comes back. Leah shares three great non-fiction titles currently missing from her bookshelves: Amy Liptrot's The Outrun,...

  
• 04.12.2024

  Deborah Frances-White: The Guilty Feminist

  Deborah Frances-White opens each episode of her podcast with a confessional catch phrase "I'm a Feminist but.." It's an acknowledgement that you don't have to be perfect in the pursuit of social change. Recorded live on stage, with guest comedians...

  
• 04.12.2024

  Prof Tim Ryley: the seaplane rises again

  Holidays, work trips, cargo, freight and parcels; we rely on aviation personally and for business. But aviation's carbon footprint is huge, so what are some of the sustainable technology changes taking it into the future? A handful of manufacturers are...

  
• 04.12.2024

  Prof Karen Willcox: The predictive power of digital twins

  New Zealand born Aerospace engineer Karen Willcox is on the frontline of the rapidly developing field of digital twins. Digital twins are two-way data driven virtual representations that predict real world outcomes, with applications spanning aviation, aerospace, medicine and climate...

  
• 04.12.2024

  Alice Taylor's adventures in cakeland

  Alice Taylor may not have won Masterchef in 2022, but she won the hearts of fans, and the judges' attention. Competing in the show inspired the 24 year old to pivot from a planned career in politics to fully embrace...

  
• 04.12.2024

  Bonnie Garmus: how a bad day at the office sparked a glittering new career

  Bonnie Garmus had been a successful advertising creative for decades when she started writing the worldwide bestseller Lessons in Chemistry. That day, Garmus says a surge of anger about sexism overrode the rejection she'd felt when her previous book "didn't go anywhere". "For other writers, you...

  
• 04.12.2024

  Mark Staufer and Neil Harding: The Lost Boys of Dilworth

  Auckland's Dilworth boarding school was set up to to provide education to boys from disadvantaged backgrounds for free. Last year an independent inquiry into sexual and physical abuse at the school uncovered a "catalogue of damage and injustice" spanning more...

  
• 04.06.2024

  Self-confessed taphophile: Deborah Challinor

  Bestselling writer Deborah Challinor explores the world of Victorian funeral customs in the first book in a new series Black Silk and Sympathy. Deborah has written eighteen novels of historical fiction, including young adult novels, and two works of non-fiction...

  
• 04.06.2024

  Richard Shaw: The Unsettled

  Political commentator, academic and author Richard Shaw's new book The Unsettled confronts colonial land theft through Pakeha settler stories. A follow up to his 2021 book The Forgotten Coast, a personal story of his family history highlighting what he calls...

  
• 04.06.2024

  'Tepid response' to Oppenheimer in Japan

  Oppenheimer has finally opened in Japan, eight months after it was released in the US. Japanese distributors delayed the release, following criticism the movie minimises the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and to distance it from offensive "Barbenheimer" memes....

  
• 04.06.2024

  On a mission to change the 'archaic' 9 to 5 for parents

  Former New Zealand Army captain, Dr Ellen Joan Ford, was recognised with a Kiwibank Local Hero award last year for her work leading a team that freed over 500 Afghan refugees when the Taliban seized control in 2021. Ellen led...

  
• 04.06.2024

  Simon Young - from Pickering to Pitcairn mayor

  Simon Young is the first non-native mayor of Pitcairn. Originally from Yorkshire in the UK, Simon visited Pitcairn in 1992 and liked it so much he returned permanently in 1999 with his wife Shirley. Simon was elected mayor in 2022,...

  
• 04.06.2024

  Nathan Thrall - A Day in the Life of Abed Salama

  Jerusalem-based American journalist and author Nathan Thrall's new book is named on ten best books of the year lists, including The New Yorker, The Economist and the Financial Times. A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: A Palestine Story...

  
• 03.30.2024

  Kate De Goldi: reading for pleasure

  Kate De Goldi is one of New Zealand's most celebrated authors, an Arts Foundation Laureate, and a voracious reader. She joins Susie to share three books she's loved; Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford, Hatch and Match by Ruth Paul, and...

  
• 03.30.2024

  Gwyneth Hughes: Mr Bates vs The Post Office

  The British Post Office scandal been described as one of the most widespread miscarriages of justice in the country's history. Between 1999 and 2015, over 900 UK subpostmasters were falsely accused of theft and fraud as the result of faulty...

  
• 03.30.2024

  Girls State: Imagining a world run by young women

  Filmmakers Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss's creative partnership spans two decades, winning them Emmy awards and several prizes at Sundance. Their latest documentary Girls State follows teenage girls from Missouri navigating a week-long immersive democratic experiment, learning how to build...

  
• 03.30.2024

  Claire Keegan: Small Things Like These

  Irish novelist and short story writer Claire Keegan was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2022 for her book Small Things Like These. It's the story of a coal merchant whose eyes are opened to the horror of the laundry...

  
• 03.30.2024

  Baron Hasselhoff's: the art and craft of great chocolate

  For many, Easter means chocolate. And for chocolate makers Easter is one of the busiest times of year. Susie pops in to Baron Hasselhoff's chocolate boutique in Wellington to catch up with "chief chocolate disciple" Clayton McErlane.

  
• 03.30.2024

  Viet Thanh Nguyen on being Vietnamese and American

  As a child watching the film Apocalypse Now, writer Viet Thanh Nguyen felt split in two - was he one of the Americans doing the killing or one of the Vietnamese being killed? "That moment really brought home to me this...

  
• 03.30.2024

  The need for a holistic approach to dementia

  World renowned brain health expert, clinical neuroscientist and pioneer in dementia research Professor Vladimir Hachinski is the recipient of the 2024 Ryman Prize, a $250,000 grant for the world's best discovery, development, advance or achievement that enhances quality of life...

  
• 03.23.2024

  Aboriginal artist and activist Richard Bell

  Aboriginal artist Richard Bell's documentary You Can Go Now is screening at the Maoriland Film Festival, underway in Otaki . In it, he poses provocative and humourous challenges to the status quo and to our preconceived ideas of Aboriginal art.

  
• 03.23.2024

  Fearless fighter for marginalised New Zealanders

  Clinical psychologist Dr Olive Webb is nominated in the Local Hero category of the Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year awards. A strong defender of some of the most marginalised members of our community, she tirelessly advocated and revolutionised care...

  
• 03.23.2024

  Jamey Stutz: Dating rocks in Antarctica

  Glacial geologist Jamey Stutz dates Antarctic rocks 'dropped like breadcrumbs from melting glaciers' to help determine the scale of glacial retreat. Jamey has recently joined the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center in Ohio as a research scientist in the...

  
• 03.23.2024

  Kathy Lette: The Revenge Club

  Dubbed "deliciously rude and darkly funny", "chick lit" author Kathy Lette has a new book out which wreaks revenge. The Revenge Club features four best friends approaching their sixties, feeling invisible and bent on vengeance. It continues the Australian-British writer's...

  
• 03.23.2024

  Escaping Utopia: What it takes to break free from Gloriavale

  Around 600 people (including around 350 children) currently live at Gloriavale – a strict Christian community on the West Coast. In TVNZ's upcoming three-part doco Escaping Utopia, former church member Rosie Overcomer talks about her experiences there, including years of childhood sexual abuse....

  
• 03.23.2024

  Caro Claire Burke: The rise of #Tradwife social influencers

  Social media content makers celebrating their role as "traditional wives" are enjoying a startling rise in popularity. Influencers such as Nara Smith, Emily Mariko and Ballerina Farm are baking, procreating and home-making their way to millions of followers. So why...

  
• 03.23.2024

  Prof Chris Barratt: male contraceptive pill enters human trials

  Women still take most of the responsibility for contraception, but a long anticipated "male pill" could soon become a reality. Several non-hormonal male contraceptive pills that work by slowing sperm are under development, with one entering human trials. Head of...

  
• 03.23.2024

  Catherine, Princess of Wales announces she has cancer

  Catherine, Princess of Wales has announced she has cancer. Kate Middleton is in the early stages of treatment after cancer was found in tests, and is undergoing chemotherapy. Details of the cancer have not been made public, but Kensington Palace...

  
• 03.16.2024

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• 03.16.2024

  Australian jazz legend James Morrison

  One of the many musicians hitting the stage at Tauranga's National Jazz Festival later this month is Australian jazz legend James Morrison. He's a multi-instrumentalist, playing the trombone, piano, saxophone and double bass, but is perhaps best known for the...

  
• 03.16.2024

  Ann Patchett: Tom Lake

  Ann Patchett is one of the world's most acclaimed, prize-winning novelists and non-fiction writers. She was named one of Time magazine's '100 Most Influential People in the World' and is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and Harper's Magazine....

  
• 03.16.2024

  Kath Irvine: how to prep your garden to feed you through winter

  If you want your garden to feed you through winter, now's the time to get prepping. Brassicas like Broccoli need three months to grow, so need to be planted, and it's a perfect time to make compost with all your...

  
• 03.16.2024

  Liam Dann: How money works and why it matters

  Should you fix or float a mortgage? Is now a good time to buy - or sell? Why does cheese cost so much? And what even is money? These questions and many more are tackled by New Zealand Herald business...

  
• 03.16.2024

  Lulu Wang examines the cultural class divide in her TV series Expats

  Filmmaker Lulu Wang explores the complex power dynamics between Hong Kong's rich expats and their domestic 'helpers' in a new Amazon Prime series.

  
• 03.16.2024

  Gretchen Daily: the cost of not valuing nature

  Traditional systems of wealth measurement don't include nature's contributions. Faculty Director of Stanford University's Natural Capital Project Professor Gretchen Daily thinks putting a dollar value on a mangrove, or a creek, or a honeybee is a vital paradigm shift. Gretchen...

  
• 03.16.2024

  Is there a good way to tell someone they're losing their job?

  With proposed job cuts at TV3's News Hub and TVNZ's Midday and Late News, and the loss of Sunday and Fair Go, is it possible for employers to 'do' redundancy well? The news of the proposed redundancies was delivered in...

  
• 03.16.2024

  Freebirth: Why women are choosing to birth alone

  Concerns about the rising practice of "freebirth" escalated last month, following the death of premature twins in Byron Bay. Freebirthing, also known as unassisted birthing, is when women choose to give birth without medical assistance, rejecting both hospital care and...

  
• 03.09.2024

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• 03.09.2024

  Playing favourites with James Shaw

  This Sunday, after nine years as Green Party co-leader, including a five year stint as Climate Change Minister, James Shaw is stepping down. He's joining Susie to talk about everything other than politics and share some favourite music.

  
• 03.09.2024

  Volcanologist Graham Leonard: all about ash

  The plumes of ash that can accompany volcanic eruptions are spectacular, but often damaging, in multiple and surprising ways. Most people think what comes out is like fire ash, but volcanic ash is something quite different. GNS principal scientist Graham...

  
• 03.09.2024

  Angélique Kidjo: genre-defying music superstar

  Multi Grammy award winning Beninese musician Angélique Kidjo has been named one of the most influential people in the world by Time Magazine. Her career spans four decades and her music is a fusion of West African with American R&B,...