Sunday Morning

Debate statemates add to election frustration; the current and future state of Stuff; some good - but overdue - news for Dunedin.

Most of us learned to do laundry from our parents, and at some point we were told the story of the red sock making the laundry pink. But according to some, we don't need to separate laundry anymore. Jack Chen, Senior Lecturer in Chemistry at Auckland University of Technology joins us.

Put down the soap and step away from the shower gel. Having a low-soap shower several days a week is probably enough, according to a US dermatologist who says obsessive cleanliness is harming our skin.

The quote attributed to American Baseball plater Satchel Paige, goes "How old would you be if you didn't know what age you were?" Most of us feel an age that bears no relation to our physical age. Anna Kornadt is a professor in psychology at the University of Luxembourg with a focus on aging and lifespan development and head of their Institute of Lifespan Development, Family and Culture.

Neuroscience researcher, writer and author David Robson joins us once again. This time he's been looking at advice and where we get it. Interestingly, it's not always the most successful people that are best-placed to give advice.

Nuclear weapons have unfortunately been brought to the fore once more with Russia's invasion of Ukraine despite most experts agreeing deployment is unlikely. No nation has detonated a nuclear weapon in conflict since 1945 and many of those weapons are getting pretty old. Alex Wellerstein is a nuclear weapons historian at the Stevens Institute of Technology. He talks to Jim about the state of nuclear weapons and how reliable they are.

It's been reported that 1 in 5 Covid sufferers in NZ have long-COVID symptoms. Otago University estimate that up to 150,000 New Zealanders may be battling, or have been battling long-COVID, another estimate was up to 300,000 earlier this year. The only publicly funded long-COVID clinic in the country will shut up shop at the end of this month. Dr. Lisa Sanders is a physician, a professor of internal medicine and a longtime New York Times medical columnist and at Yale University's long-COVID clinic, she is doing what she can to understand the mysteries of the disorder.

Duncan Paterson is calling home from Paris, currently the centre of the Rugby World Cup. Duncan's bar is called The Black Sheep Society, a slice of kiwi heaven on the streets of Paris.

Un-spun numbers don't derail duelling versions of the economy; Stuff keeps AI at arm's length; medical school row - and a made-up university.

Most of us had never heard of cookiecutter sharks until a week or so ago, when they managed to sink a catamaran off the coast of Australia. New Zealand marine scientist and Auckland University's shark man Dr Riley Elliott gets his teeth into the details.