Our regular commentator Cambridge University consultant clinical virologist Dr Chris Smith joins us with the latest Covid-19 science, and to answer your questions.

Julian reads listener feedback from the show.

Nobody really knows why we dream. Erik Hoel, a research assistant professor of neuroscience at Tufts University in Massachusetts, was inspired by the techniques used to train artificial neural networks for his own theory of "overfitted brain hypothesis".

Musicians often sing about environmental problems, but what about the environmental issues tied up with the materials from which their guitars are made

Sahra Ahmed works in Christchurch as a refugee health nurse, helping new arrivals find their footing in a strange new land. It's a journey she has also undertaken.

In South Africa there's a saying: 'You're not a real Springbok until you've played the All Blacks'. It's a testament to one of the fiercest rivalries in rugby history - that between South Africa and New Zealand - which sports writer Jamie Wall examines in his new book The Hundred Years' War.

Sarah Helm, the Executive Director of the NZ Drug Foundation, joins the show to discuss how we should be reshaping our drug laws - and in some cases looking at decriminalisation.

When the Berlin Wall came down how did over 100,000 Stasi officers manage to disappear? In his book The Grey Men, former FBI agent Ralph Hope investigates what happened to the former East Berlin spies.

Nineties sitcom Friends has had far-reaching cultural impact over the decades, finding itself at the centre of rolling fashion trends and loads of scholarly analysis. But Elizabeth Stokoe found the popular television series intriguing for the way it subverted everyday conversation for the sake of comedy.

This week the government announced a levy on new utes to help pay for subsidies for electric vehicles. Four of the top ten best-selling new vehicles in New Zealand in 2020 were double cab utes. Yet ten years ago neither utes or SUVs featured among our best-selling vehicles.