Jim Schuster works with Heritage New Zealand as a marae restorer around New Zealand and the world, and in the latter category there's one particularly close to his heart. Meeting house Hinemihi has sat in the grounds of Clandon Estate in Surrey England since the 1890s.

Felix Marquardt is a French author, former PR consultant and senior advisor to world leaders and CEOs, some he admits shady. His first book The New Nomads boldly proposes the future of humanity and the key to its enlightenment lies in re-embracing nomadism.

Concerns are high for the women of Afghanistan following the Taliban's swift takeover of the Middle Eastern country.  Professor Vrinda Narain says women were subjected to persistent human rights violations under the Taliban's brutal rule between 1996 and 2001 and, despite claims they've changed their stance on women's rights, the Taliban's efforts to commit thousands of women to sexual slavery demonstrate quite the opposite.

Our regular commentator, Cambridge University consultant clinical virologist Dr Chris Smith joins us with the latest Covid-19 science, and to answer your questions. With New Zealand suddenly placed under lockdown this week following the first-ever instance of the highly-contagious Delta variant in the community, Dr Smith answers questions about the virus, and what we can expect over coming weeks as we look to get the emerging cluster under control.

Listener feedback for 14 August 2021.

Passionate about space education, Haritina Mogoșanu is interested in how our experience in biosecurity can inform space exploration and protect life.

The Backlisted literary podcast is the brainchild of John Mitchinson and his co-host Andy Miller. The pair invite guests - usually writers - for a conversation about a book they love and that they think deserves a wider audience, though often the conversation meanders down other paths.

A comic artist himself, Sam Orchard is the newly appointed curator for the New Zealand Cartoon and Comics Archive at the National Library.

For the past nine years Helen Bint has lived off-the-grid in a truly remote, spectacular location - a historic stone cottage at the foot of a 200-metre high rocky outcrop on the Chatham Islands.

When Anapela Polata'ivao was growing up she wanted to be a nurse because she felt the need to help people. Then she found drama at Sunday School. Now an actor, writer and director with numerous awards under her belt, Anapela is bringing the life and death stories from the hospital ward to the stage as director of the Auckland Theatre Company production of Things That Matter.