Sunday Morning

Professor Elodie Briefer of the University of Copenhagen is an expert on communication with animals, and how their vocal signals contain information about what species they are, which group they're from, even their age and body size and dominance status. How animals and birds sound, she's discovered, also reflects emotions and mood. She runs a Behavioural Ecology group at her university, with the goal of improving animal welfare.

When it comes to modern relationships, our thumbs do the talking. We swipe right into a stranger's life, flirt inside text bubbles, spill our hearts onto the screen, use emojis to convey desire, frustration, rage. Where once we pored over love letters, now we obsess over response times, or wonder why the three-dot ellipsis came . . . and went. Nobody knows this better than Harvard and Stanford-trained psychiatrist, Dr. Mimi Winsberg who's work frequently finds her at the intersection of Big Data and Big Dating. Her new book Speaking in Thumbs is a guide to the minefield of online communication.

Costa Botes has had a long career directing both drama and documentary film. His latest observational documentary When the Cows Come Home, premieres at this years Whanau Marama: New Zealand International Film Festival and charts the unusual life of musician, journalist, artist and cow whisperer, Waikato's Andrew Johnstone. I love being surrounded by cows. There's no discussion, there's no talk. It's just purely emotional. - Andrew Johnstone on being amongst the herd

When British comedian and writer Max Dickins decided to propose to his girlfriend, he realised there was no one he could call on to be his best man. But Max quickly learned that he wasn't the only man struggling with friendships. In his latest book Billy No-Mates, he explores the barriers men face to forging closer relationships.

Charlotte Everett is calling home this morning, from a houseboat, on a canal off the River Thames in London. Charlotte runs a business called Rebel Tours. Charlie, as she's better-known, studied Politics and Drama at Auckland University, she worked in the business development side of the entertainment industry before moving to London in 2007.

Sick and tired of the Covid sickness; property price predictions run hot in the media; the rugby clash that didn't make headlines.

During the Cold War, the US Air Force installed an arsenal of nuclear weapons across the rural West. About 400 Minuteman III missiles remain ready to launch at a few seconds notice in Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, Colorado and Nebraska. They are located on bison preserves and Indian reservations. They sit across from a national forest, behind a rodeo grandstand, down the road from a one-room schoolhouse, and on dozens of private farms like the one belonging to Ed Butchers, who has lived for years with a nuclear missile as his closest neighbour. As tensions mount once more betwen Russia and the US, Ed joins us from Fergus County, Montana

It's common to hear people say they can't think of a worse occupation than being a politician, with the stress and the scrutiny and the workloads. It may come as a surprise then, that,according to a resent study by Oxford University and the Queensland University of Technology, politicians live longer than the rest of us, have done across the long sweep of history, and continue to do so. One of study's authors was Professor Adrian Barnett from Queensland University of Technology.

Sports writer, Mark Reason gives his verdict on the All Blacks performance the the series decider in Wellington on Saturday night, with more tests to come against South Africa, Argentina and Australia in August & September .. and longer term - a World Rugby Cup later next year.

Knees, like all our joints, are integral to our entire human system working efficiently. Renowned orthopaedic surgeon practising in San Francisco, Dr Kevin Stone, reckons if you take care of your joints, they can last a hundred years!