Nightclubs doubling as fight clubs, dairies with rice bunkers and aunties scheming away in mahjong dens.The first Aotearoa play to be commissioned from a South Asian woman provides a rather different sci-fi take on our future than we're used to. Yet beneath the stage combat, dance-offs and references to anime, Ankita Singh's 'neo-noir action-crime-comedy' Basmati Bitch aims to be a sharp look at contested borders and migrant exploitation Singh is an Auckland-based writer hailing from Chandigarh and Kirikiriroa. She's the founder of Asian theatre producers Oriental Maidens, and has an animated series in development with Taika Waititi's Piki Films. Basmati Bitch is on at Auckland's Q Theatre from 11 July.

Historians usually write about the past, with the benefit of knowing how things turned out, but Harvard academic and best-selling author Serhii Plokhy was so shaken by the Russian invasion of his homeland last year he felt compelled to write about it immediately. The result is his new book The Russo-Ukrainian War which traces the historical origins and evolution of the invasion and contemplates the wider consequences for the present and futures of both countries. He argues that Ukraine's defiance of Russia, and the West's support, presents a profound challenge to Putin's ambitions. Plokhy's other books include Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy, Nuclear Folly, The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine and The Last Empire.

Scientist and writer Danyl McLauchlan joins Kim to tackle life's big questions, ideas and thinkers. This week, he's examining the role dystopian novels play in politics. The conservative fundamentalist nightmare of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale has become a go-to analogy for liberals when criticising the right. Just recently Labour's Megan Woods accused National (via a tweeted GIF) of wanting to turn New Zealand into Gilead if they excluded contraceptives from their prescription subsidy scheme. It's not the only book to be co-opted as a political weapon. Orwell's 1984 and P D James' Children of Men have been used in similar ways by politicians of varying colours.

Aged just seven, Suzanne Heywood set sail with her family on a three-year voyage around the world. Three years turned into a decade, with little formal schooling and many tensions between Heywood and her parents. It all ended in Aotearoa, with a teenage Heywood looking after her younger brother and her Dad's business. This unusual childhood is the subject of her new memoir Wavewalker: Breaking Free Now a successful businesswoman, Heywood's last book was the bestselling What Does Jeremy Think? an account of the life of her late husband Jeremy Heywood, British cabinet secretary and confidant of four prime ministers.

There's a saying in the Cook Islands that anything decided by the government was hashed out at Trader Jacks. The legendary bar and eatery, opened in 1986 by Jack Cooper, is known to virtually every Kiwi who visits Rarotonga. Jack died a year ago but his life and the bar's many wild and wonderful times are celebrated in 40 Years Behind Bars: A Publican in Paradise. a book completed with the help of Golden Bay based journalist Gerard Hindmarsh.

In a so-called "orca uprising" killer whales have been attacking boats in Iberian waters, off Spain and Portugal,and are possibly teaching others to do the same. But why, and how will it all end? Dr Justin Gregg is a researcher with the Dolphin Communication Project, adjunct professor at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia and author of If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal.

Education journalist Emily Hanford has spent years investigating why so many American kids are struggling to read. In the podcast series Sold a Story, she argues the early-intervention literacy programme Reading Recovery (developed by New Zealand educationalist Dame Marie Clay in the late '70s) is out of step with discoveries in cognitive science.

Featuring a chip-lipped duck, a structurally unsound tip truck, and the iconic train cake on the cover, a book of 108 themed cakes has been sparking sugary fantasies for three generations of kids.

Listener feedback for 24 June 2023.

The gentle, honest books of American writer Judy Blume are well-loved by many people who grew up in the '70s and '80s. Blume, now 85, runs a non-profit bookshop with her husband George Cooper in Key West, Florida.