In 1959 artist June Black held what she titled an Intellectual Fashion Show - which included paintings, ceramic wall sculptures, and provocative commentary on the state of fashion in New Zealand. Doris de Pont, the director of the Fashion Museum, joins Wallace to talk about a contemporary take on that exhibition: The Intellectual Fashion Show 2016 now on show at the Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland

Jim Flynn tells Wallace Chapman that Italian Umberto Eco's best work is The Name of the Rose but this comes with a warning as Eco "loves to demonstrate his learning. The plot is interrupted by long essays which interest me because I teach medieval theology ..." Of best-selling Norwegian author Jo Nesbo, Jim assures Wallace that he doesn't hate him - "but he's not as good as Stieg Larsson". Later in his book, The New Torchlight List, Jim places Larsson in a list of three "awful" writers. Also on Jim's "awful" list is a writer called a "titan of modern literature" by The New Yorker, Norwegian Karl Ove Knausgard. Where, he asks, do they find these critics?

The recent campylobacter outbreak in Havelock North has shown just how vulnerable New Zealand is to waterborne diseases. An independent inquiry is now investigating the causes of the outbreak and no doubt it will help identify the immediate cause of the problem but professor of public health Alistair Woodward says it's important society as a whole realises these outbreaks will become more common if efforts aren't made to protect the quality and sustainability of the New Zealand habitat. [region] Hawke's Bay

The Kermadec Islands and the waters around them have been at the centre of a political storm these past few weeks with a proposed marine sanctuary put on hold by the National government after its coalition partner the Maori Party raised objections. They're some of New Zealand's most isolated islands and most of us know virtually nothing about them. Historian Steven Gentry is the exception. He's the author of Raoul and the Kermadecs: New Zealand's Northern Most Islands.

Dame Patsy Reddy is sworn in as the 21st Governor General of New Zealand during a ceremony on the steps of Parliament House in Wellington. The ceremony features a powhiri and guard of honour, as well as official announcements from the Clerk of the Executive and Herald of Arms Extraordinary. An address from Prime Minister John Key is followed by a reply from Dame Patsy Reddy herself. Making the most of an adjournment week, we speak with the Clerk of the House David Wilson about the constitutional role of the Governor General.

Each week we visit a region in New Zealand to find out what the big issues are in the upcoming local body elections. This week we speak to The Northern Advocate's Craig Cooper

RNZ Political Editor Jane Patterson travels to the United Nations in New York, to examine New Zealand's work on the Security Council as its tenure draws to a close.

Part 5 - Ireland For the book, The New Torchlight List - In Search of the Best Modern Authors, Otago University Emeritus Professor of Politics Jim Flynn read and rated 400 books, mostly by modern novelists. In this episode of the RNZ podcast series based on his book, Jim rates John Banville's "wonderful style" and he particularly loves Banville's The Untouchable. He's less enamoured with John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - while there is some wonderful dialogue, Jim says, he was annoyed by "automatic tear-jerking". Of Edna O'Brien's The Country Girls, which was banned in Ireland in 1960, he says "the business of the sex is today incredibly tame stuff". Jim and Wallace discuss the use of sex scenes in literature and agree that they are fine if they serve a purpose - but they can get a bit boring.

The court of public opinion on a controversial sentence; New Zealand on Air plan draws a muted response; expensive signatures raise money - and questions

British transmedia artist Simon Wilkinson talks to wallace about his theatre performance 'Beyond the Bright Black Edge of Nowhere' ahead of the Dunedin Arts Festival. The show is based on the story of eight American school children who mysteriously disappeared in a Nevada desert in the 1950s - the show incorporates a world-first virtual reality cube experience.