Pickleball – a form of paddle tennis played on a downsized court – is the fastest-growing sport in the US. Already well-established with older Americans, the game is now attracting people of all ages around the world, including former tennis stars.

Bonnie Garmus's debut novel Lessons in Chemistry has become a multi-million selling bestseller largely through word of mouth.The story concerns a American scientist who, sacked for being pregnant in 1955, takes revenge when she's hired to front a teatime cookery show. Stephen King has called it "the Catch 22 of early feminism."

NZ Army leader Dr Ellen Nelson worked night and day for almost a year to help evacuate 563 Afghan Defence Force allies and their families after the country fell to the Taliban in 2021. Ellen Nelson is a finalist for Local Hero of the Year at the 2023 New Zealander of the Year Awards.

New Zealand runner and two-time Olympian Zane Robertson has been banned from all sport for eight years. Fellow runner, author and journalist Adharanand Finn raced with Robertson in Kenya in 2011 and interviewed him last year for his podcast The Way of the Runner.

Listener feedback for 18 March 2023.

Author and art writer Megan Dunn joins Kim to talk crocodiles. From sculptor Mike Hewson's wooden crocs, to historic paintings and children's books, she examines why we like to look at crocodiles, and what our fascination says about our evolving relationship to nature.

Gardener Gordon Collier's first major project was on his family's farm, west of Taihape, Over 30 years he transformed a sunny clay hillside into an internationally celebrated garden, Titoki Point. He's since dedicated his life to gardening, becoming one of our most respected advisors. Since retiring Collier's advisory work has included the restoration of the Wellington Government House garden. A new book Gordon Collier's Three Gardens shows Titoki Point as well as two of his other home gardens; Anacapri in Taupo and The White House, his current home in Taihape.

Evana Belich has plenty of experience dealing with other's employment woes. She has worked as a trade union official, a mediator, an employment relations adviser, and has degrees in law and dispute resolution. All good source material for her debut comic story collection How to Get Fired. The recent IMML Creative Writing graduate, Belich is now working on her debut novel as a Grimshaw Sargeson Fellow.

Peripatus (aka velvet worms or ngaokeoke) are an ancient and fascinating native nocturnal crawling creature. This week in an Otago University fridge a group of peripatus had babies. Celebrating the birth was Professor Peter Dearden, director of Genomics Aotearoa. He's particularly interested in sequencing their genome as they are akin to living fossils, having survived over 500 million years virtually unchanged.

Auckland-based fashion designer Kat Tua (Ngati Kahu, Ngati Raukawa) is the powerhouse behind menswear label Manaaki, which is already proving popular with high-end fashion buyers. In its first year Manaaki was chosen for a mentorship with Mr Porter, one of the biggest luxury websites in the world. But Tua's story has been one of determination rather than overnight success. Before launching Manaaki in 2020 she spent more than a decade working long hours for some of Australia's biggest fashion brands while juggling life with a young son.