The word 'fat' has been weaponised against people living in bigger bodies and it's time we stripped away its negative connotations, says American journalist Virginia Sole-Smith. She helps parents counter the idea that fatness is a moral failing in the New York Times best-selling book Fat Talk: Coming of Age in Diet Culture.

Listener feedback for 19 August 2023.

A travel guide like no other, combining poetry, photos and history, Walking with Rocks - Dreaming with Rivers - My Year in the Waikato is the result of Richard von Sturmer's year as writer in residence at the University of Waikato in 2020.

Airana Ngarewa left school to become a cage fighter. He hated English. Now a teacher, he's being described as a major new literary talent. His first novel is The Bone Tree. Born and raised in Patea, his aunts are Spotswood College principal Nicola Ngarewa, and Te Pati Maori co-leader MP Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. Airana will be appearing at WORD Christchurch on Aug 26 and 27.

Rivers have been given room to flood safely in the Netherlands for two decades, mitigating against flooding during severe weather events. Forest and Bird freshwater advocate Tom Kay is touring the country, giving Making Room for Rivers presentations to communities and local government groups keen to hear how accommodating a river prone to flood (rather than hem it in with engineering) can help manage flood risk for communities, and preserve ecosystems.

The aftermath of the 2003 Iraq invasion is told by former New Zealand SAS soldier Barrie Rice in his book We Were Blackwater - Life, death and madness in the killing fields of Iraq.

Kim Hill's listener feedback for Saturday 12th August 2023

Among his varied interests, leading Victorian literature scholar and prison educator Professor John Plotz revisits forgotten novels, giving them a second life, and explores the redeeming value of books for former prisoners. Professor of Humanities at Brandeis University, Plotz is the editor of the B-Sides series on Public Books. His first book Portable Property examines the objects Victorian Britons took with them when they traveled abroad, to persuade them their national identity was intact. Professor Plotz is giving this year's University of Otago Dalziel lecture on August 25 in Dunedin, related to his current work about science fiction and satire; how it makes you think by making you laugh.

Some of New Zealand's most important roads, buildings, botanic gardens and great walks were constructed by forced labour, in an era where idleness and waste was deemed more criminal then crime. Historian Jared Davidson's new book Blood and Dirt - Prison Labour and the Making of New Zealand reveals the extent to which convicts were used to bolster a labour shortage gap in the latter half of the 19th Century. Davidson's other books include Dead Letters: Censorship and Subversion in New Zealand 1914-1920, Sewing Freedom, and The History of a Riot.

A party in New York's Bronx neighbourhood on August 11th, 1973, DJ'ed by Kool Herc, is considered to be hip-hop's genesis moment. The art form that was born that day has since gone global, becoming a significant popular cultural force. Darryl Leigh Thomson aka DLT was a pioneer in the Aotearoa hip hop scene. As a founding member of Upper Hutt Posse his turntable scratching skills feature on New Zealand's first rap single, 'E Tu', in 1988 He also produced No.1 hit 'Chains', which kickstarted Che Fu's solo career. He joins Kim to share some of his favourite hip hop tracks.