Neal Stephenson is an American writer, known for his fiction works, which have been variously categorized science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, and postcyberpunk. Stephenson explores areas such as mathematics, cryptography, philosophy, currency, and the history of science. He also writes non-fiction articles about science, technology, and culture. In the past he has worked part-time at Blue Origin and Intellectual Ventures Labs; he's currently Magic Leap's Chief Futurist. His new work, The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O (co-written with Nicole Galland) will be published in June. Various screen adaptations of his books are in the works including a film project based on his most well-known novel Seveneves. Neal Stephenson has joined the line-up for this year's Techweek'17, and will be keynote speaker at Future Realities, a mixed reality and IoT (internet of Things) conference, in Wellington on May 10. Stephenson is also visiting New Zealand as part of the New Zealand Film Commission's GPS 2026 Project, which aims to spark discussion about the future of the screen industry.

After is Australian writer Nikki Gemmell's moving account of her complicated relationship with her mother Elayn and the effects of her mother's 'death by choice'.

Campbell McLachlan, QC, is professor of Law at Victoria University, teaching international law and dispute settlement. He is author of Foreign Relations Law - the first modern study of this field in relation to the UK and the Commonwealth, and  was the only living author whose book was cited (with approval) by the majority in the judgment of the UK Supreme Court on Brexit in Miller v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union in January.  Prof. McLachlan talks to Kim about a week that has seen a war of words escalate between the Conservative Government of Theresa May and the European Union over the conditions of their 'divorce'.

Ella Yelich-O'Connor - or known more famously to a worldwide audience as Lorde - shot to fame with her hit single Royals in 2013 and has not stopped topping music charts ever since. Signed to the Universal record label shortly after winning the Belmont Intermediate talent competition in 2009, Lorde moved onto a creative partnership with the former lead singer of Goodnight Nurse, Joel Little, releasing the Love Club EP on SoundCloud in November 2012. Royals was spun off as a single in the summer of 2013 and soon thereafter topped charts in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Italy, and reached the Top 10 in most other Western countries. Her full-length debut, Pure Heroine, followed in September 2013 and it also became an international smash, earning double-platinum certification in the U.S., quintuple platinum certification in New Zealand, and going gold in the U.K. Further singles followed -Tennis Court and Team - the latter of which turned into a Top 10 hit in the U.S. Her next outing was the song Yellow Flicker Beat, from the soundtrack of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay. Now working with US producers Jack Antonoff and Frank Dukes, she's released two singles, Green Light and Liability, from her upcoming album, Melodrama, due out on June 16th.

Kim Hill reads emails and text messages from listeners to the Saturday Morning programme.

Andrew Norman Wilson is a biographer, novelist, journalist and essayist. Initially drawn to the teaching profession and priesthood, Wilson published his first novel, The Sweets of Pimlico, in 1977. Since then, he's published over 50 works of fiction and nonfiction, across subjects ranging from the Bible to Queen Elizabeth II and Iris Murdoch. The television drama Victoria was based on his biography of the monarch, and recent work includes the novel Resolution, and a biography of Charles Darwin. He is a regular voice on BBC radio, and a columnist across many titles, including the Daily Mail, Telegraph, the Times Literary Supplement, and The Spectator. A.N Wilson will be in New Zealand for the Auckland Writers Festival, featuring at events from May 19-21st.

Dr. Lobsang Sangay was born and grew up in a Tibetan settlement near Darjeeling. He was a Fullbright Scholar, obtaining a Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D) from Harvard Law School - the first Tibetan to ever do so. A scholar of conflict resolution, he's organised seven major conferences among Chinese, Tibetan, Indian and Western scholars including two unprecedented meetings between the Dalai Lama and Chinese scholars in 2003 and 2009 at Harvard University. Chief executive of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile since 2011, Dr Sangay became Tibet's highest leader (Sikyong) at the request of the Dalai Lama - and was re-elected as Sikyong for a second term in 2016. Dr Sangay has been in New Zealand to give public talks about the state of relations between China and Tibet to audiences in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin.

The information we get about meat production usually comes from either those staunchly opposed to meat-eating or farmers themselves, says filmmaker David White. His new film MEAT tells the personal stories of 'the people behind the meat'.

Considered one of America's foremost contemporary writers, George Saunders has just published his first novel Lincoln in the Bardo to critical acclaim.

David Dougherty, who was wrongfully convicted of abducting and raping an 11 year old girl in 1993, has died. Donna Chisholm campaigned for Dougherty to be cleared and supporting him through his retrial and fight for compensation.