Episode's summary
Stuart is University of Canterbury's Executive Dean of Science, and a Professor in the School of Biological Sciences.
Stuart is University of Canterbury's Executive Dean of Science, and a Professor in the School of Biological Sciences.
Episodes
Science with Stuart Parsons
ListenedStuart is University of Canterbury's Executive Dean of Science, and a Professor in the School of Biological Sciences.
Lloyd Jones releases autobiographical memoir
ListenedThe Beaded Curtain was released last week and is part memoir, part reportage.
Around the motu: James Pocock, Editor of the Gisborne Herald
ListenedJames discusses the closure of a local kindergarten, a Ngati Porou lawyer appointed King's Counsel, and the local plumber named apprentice of the year.
Book review: Lynn Freeman's picks
ListenedLynn reviews The Passing of the Forest by Richard Wolfe, Sorry Rock by Thalia Henry and Parrot Heaven by Jessica Howland Kany.
Have dating apps and the manosphere distorted romance?
ListenedPsychology professor Paul Eastwick discusses his latest book, Bonded by Evolution: The New Science of Love and Connection.
Australia: Parliament's tribute to Helen Haines
ListenedAustralia correspondent Bernard Keane joins Kathryn to talk about Parliament resuming and the tributes made to MP Helen Haines who was attacked last week.
The school trades academy building houses for families in need
ListenedThe academy at Hastings Boys High School trains students under the guidance of building tutors, while building homes for Kāinga Ora.
Big discounts possible for overdue student loan borrowers
ListenedLawyer Dave Ananth joins Kathryn to talk about the process of getting deals with the IRD for overdue student loans.
Long Covid sufferers being denied insurance pay outs
ListenedInsurance lawyer Tim Gunn says people are being declined income protection claims when they're unable to work.
Sports correspondent Ben Strang
ListenedBen talks NPC, Silver Ferns, Black Caps and Liam Lawson. Ben Strang is New Zealand and Pacific Islands Correspondent for the AFP.
How humans are adapting to technology rather than vice versa
ListenedAre we as humans increasingly adapting our behaviour to accommodate technology?
Political commentators Andrew Ketels and Phil Goff
ListenedKathryn is joined by Andrew Ketels, former Act Party chief of staff and advisor to the National Party, and Phil Goff, former Cabinet Minister, Leader of the Labour Party and mayor of Auckland.
Around the motu: Torika Tokalau in Tamaki Makaurau
ListenedTorika has the details of animal control workers facing more threats from dog owners, Rugby League supporters warned over late night celebrating around World Cup and the Piha campground given a reprieve against council recomendations.
Gardening: Design expert Xanthe White
ListenedLabour weekend has just passed, so it is traditionally the time to think about getting going with tomatoes.
Brad Pitt's stunt pilot double and local aviation stalwart
ListenedWhen a Blenheim pilot got a call from someone looking for a floatplane, he couldn't have imagined he would have ended up doubling for Hollywood superstar Brad Pitt.
USA correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben
ListenedIt is now one week from the midterms in the US, and Republicans look like they might struggle in districts redrawn under pressure from the President to favour votes for his party.
The student who built an app to help his uncle communicate
ListenedInspired by his uncle who has cerebral palsy, Jack Harker, a Year 11 student at ACG Parnell College has developed a communication tool that may help more people participate in everyday conversations.
Should empty buildings be made available for shared use?
ListenedA visiting academic from Naples says he was able to create a legal 'hack' to open unused buildings for civic use.
Construction maybe on the up, but are the skilled workers?
ListenedThere are new indications of an upturn in the construction industry, but prices are on the rise and there are questions about the availability of skilled staff.
Sports commentator Sam Ackerman
ListenedChristchurch is the centre of the NZ sporting universe this week.
Friday funnies
ListenedJustine Smith and Donna Brookbanks with a lighter take on some recent stories.
Around the motu: Kaitlyn Morrell
ListenedKaitlyn has the latest on what is happening with the Cathedral Cove track, a dispute over the proposed felling of a protected tree, the new freight and logistics hub opened at the Port of Tauranga, meth testing increases after law changes and success for Tauranga's Men's Volleyball.
Book review: Chris Tse reviews poetry collections
ListenedChris Tse reviews two poetry collections: Salt Quilt by Airini Beautrais (Te Herenga Waka University Press), and I Do Know Some Things by Richard Siken (Penguin Random House).
Labour candidate Kerrin Leoni resigns over gang campaigning
ListenedKerrin Leoni, has resigned as a Labour candidate for Tamaki Makaurau. This comes after a video merged showing her campaigning with gang members. RNZ political editor Jo Moir.
Sociologist Maryam Aslany on why the world depends on peasants
ListenedSociologist Maryam Aslany says there are still roughly two billion people out there living as peasants in her new book Peasants: Makers of the Modern World she argues that these small-scale farmers are essential to the global economy.
Asia correspondent Rachel Clayton
ListenedThe US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in India, while Japan carries out a first mission to Mars' moons to collect samples.
Inside the world of international competitive e-gaming
ListenedGaming is set to take centre stage this Labour Weekend with an international e-sports test match between New Zealand and India. E Blacks team leader Jonathan Jansen and player Sam Johnson
Drew James on reviving the wonder of WOMAD's world music
ListenedWOMAD is returning to Taranaki in next March, following a year off this year amid rising costs, Drew James is the newly-appointed executive director.
US psychotherapist on how she gets people to leave cults
ListenedUS psychotherapist Rachel Bernstein has spent more than 30 years helping people recover from cults and is visiting New Zealand for the first time to speak at this weekend's DeCult 2026 conference.
Screentime: Tenzing, British and Irish Film Festival
ListenedFilm and TV reviewer James Croot looks at new biographical film Tenzing, which was filmed in New Zealand. He also shares his picks of the British and Irish Film Festival, including: Everybody to Kenmure St, 500 Miles, Hill, The Incomer, Kenny Dalglish, Parky, Virginia Woolf's Night & Day and The Three Urns. James Croot is a TV Guide and The Press film and television reviewer
Parenting: Supporting kids through frustration
ListenedHow we can support kids through frustration, without rushing to rescue them from it?
Tech: Hacking into supermarket fridges? Tony Grasso explains
ListenedCybersecurity expert Tony Grasso looks at the major attack against nearly 700 French supermarkets, where hackers were able to access commercial fridges and freezers and drive up temperatures to 50 degrees for hours. Not only did it cost millions in wasted food, the high temperatures triggered hardware and electrical fires - and sparked warnings about leaving industrial control systems exposed to the public internet. Cybersecurity expert Tony Grasso is Chief Information Security officer at COGENT. He worked at GCHQ in the UK and is a former Intelligence Officer in New Zealand
Inflation eases but cost-of-living warnings remain
ListenedStatistics New Zealand says annual inflation has eased to 3.7 percent in the September quarter. That's down from an annual rate of 4.1 percent in the previous quarter and is slightly lower than market expectations. RNZ economics correspondent Gyles Beckford unpacks the latest data.
Around the motu: Kelly Makiha in Rotorua
ListenedKelly has more on a bottle store worker injured in what police say was the start of a crime spree, the young Rotorua women who has gone from from opera singing to the Black Fern's Sevens squad, the saga of a trapped kitten and attempted car invasions.
Pacific: Out-of-season storms, wildfires in Papua New Guinea
ListenedRNZ's Pacific correspondent Christina Persico looks at the storms that have already hit the Pacific outside of the normal cyclone season, including Cyclone Wati which passed the Cooks without too much damage. Meanwhile fire has hit an island in Papua New Guinea on a scale not seen before. The US is pushing ahead with its plan to lease 31 million acres of seabed around American Samoa and how are Pacific nations faring in the Rugby League World Cup?
Testing a world of AI agents
ListenedFrom a startup staffed by AI agents to sending his digital clone to online therapy, US journalist and author Evan Ratliff loves testing the boundaries of new technologies.
UK: Controversial gasfield approved, debt hits £3tn
ListenedUK correspondent Natasha Clare looks at why it was given the greenlight and the reaction to it. The UK government's debt has hit £3tn for the first time, as John Healey gets ready to present his first budget next week.
Burger Burger's comeback - backed by suppliers
ListenedLess than three months after entering liquidation, gourmet burger chain Burger Burger has started re-opening.
Survey finds few young people are considering career as carers
ListenedAlmost two-thirds of young people thought home care was meaningful work, however few associate it with fair pay or a clear career pathway.
A sunny long weekend for many, but drought threat grows
ListenedDrought Indicator Maps provided by Earth Sciences NZ show a large part of the country is drier than usual, with only Christchurch and its surrounds wetter than normal.
Science: Tiny, shiny Kiwi start ups
ListenedCushla McGoverin is a senior research fellow within the Department of Physics at the University of Auckland, and Principal Investigator in Te Whai Ao - Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies.
How dog registration nearly led to an all-out colonial conflict
ListenedA new play is taking on a little-known chapter of Aotearoa's history: The dog tax that led to an armed standoff between Māori in Hokianga and government forces.
Around the motu: Logan Savory of the South Tribune
ListenedLogan discusses the upcoming anniversary of the windstorm that left 50,000 customers without power while a 95-year-old sets a world record on his birthday.
Book review: VOLUME Books' picks
ListenedStella Chrysostomou from VOLUME Books reviews two books: U.X.O. by Brannavan Gnanalingam (Lawrence & Gibson), and A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam (Granta).
The only person to have completed the entire Trans Canada solo
ListenedAt 50 she set out alone to travel the full 24,000km route by foot, bike, canoe, snowshoe and ski, through mountains, boreal forest, prairie, and Arctic tundra.
Australia: Motive still unclear in attack on MP Helen Haines
ListenedAustralia correspondent Karen Middleton has the latest in the shocking attack on MP Helen Haines in which she was rammed with a car and has had to have her leg amputated. Pauline Hanson's delivered a rare apology for a cartoon that ran as part of her 'Please Explain' series that mocked the vaginal prolapse suffered by Jacqui Lambie due to injuries sustained when she served in the Defence Force. National Australia Bank is sacking 1500 staff right before Christmas and another 1000 in the New Year, and a human resources exec's admission during a Bupa conference that she was prone to shoplifting has led to her resignation. Karen Middleton is a political correspondent based in Canberra
River of the Year finalists named
ListenedThree rivers have been selected as finalists in the inaugural River of the Year award.
Which representative positions are US voters selecting?
ListenedIn the United States, voters will soon be making choices in the mid-terms. But what positions are voters being asked to choose candidates for?
New research details national scale of abuse of older people
ListenedNearly one in six Kiwis over the age of 55 have experienced abuse in the last year, according to new national research.
Sports correspondent Sam Ackerman
ListenedSports correspondent Sam Ackerman has the latest from the world of sport.