Afternoons for Wednesday 29 May 2024

 

1:15 What rural NZ is looking for in tomorrow's budget

The budget will of course be delivered from Wellington, but this year our rural community will be keeping a close eye on it as well.

Farmers Weeky journalist and former share milker Richard Rennie joins us to run us through what he's looking out for.

1:20 Closure of Smith and Caughey’s

Viv Beck CEO of Auckland’s Heart of the City talks to Jesse about the closure of the city’s oldest department store.

1:25 NZ's Rose of Tralee 2024 crowned

The New Zealand Rose of Trelee competition took place in Invercargill this weekend

The annual contest has been running here since 1966 and sees women of Irish heritage compete for a slot in the International Rose Of Trelee contest which takes place in Ireland later this year.

The winner of that becomes a global ambassador for the country - it's a big prize which comes with a 25,000 euro travel budget

This years New Zealand winner - 21 year old Keely O'Grady. She speaks to Jesse.

1:35 BabyX at the centre of groundbreaking research

BabyX is an interactive AI model of an 18 month old.

It was originally launched in 2013, by then Auckland University researcher Mark Sagar.

Over the last 10 years it's been developed and improved, to the point it's now suitable for academic research into early childhood development

It allows researchers to do work that would be impossible or unethical on real human participants.

University of Auckland psychologist Florian Bednarski is taking advantage of those possibilities to conduct groundbreaking research.

1:45 Heading Off: Waitaki,  a hot tourism destination!

For Heading Off today we're heading to the east coast of the South Island to Waitaki.

It's one of the destinations around that is attracting more tourists each year.

We speak to journalist Lisa Scott about why Waitaki!

2.12 Podcast Critic: Ximena Smith

Today Ximena talks to Jesse about The Gas Man, an investigative series from Tortoise Media. She's also been listening to Intrigue: To Catch a Scorpian.

2:20 Easy Eats with Sam Parish: Eggplant and chicken parmigiana.

This week's midweek meal inspiration from chef, author and busy mum Sam Parish is bound to be a regular go to dinner for many households.

She's got a great healthy, tasty and budget friendly recipe for eggplant and chicken parmigana which also uses a minimum of dishes.

You can find out how make this recipe here.

2:30 Bookmarks with Dr Jade De La Paz

Dr Jade De La Paz, is a Professional Forensic Anthropologist at the University of Otago and she's also one of only four people from Aotearoa to be a Fellow in the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

She also teaches and mentors the next generation of forensic scientists at Otago - the country's only undergraduate forensic science programme.  

She's our guest for Bookmarks this week.

3:10 Surviving a cult and how to avoid being recruited into one

Carli McConkey didn't join a cult, she was recruited into one at a time when she was searching for direction in her life.

She spent 13 years working for nothing, even enduring medical sterilization while part of a doomsday cult called Universal Knowledge in Australia.

She's now an advocate for people drawn in to these groups, despite attempts to silence her by the former leader of the group.   

In this age of misinformation and conspiracy theories,  Carli McConkey helps us understand how people get taken in by what may seem like outrageous ideas.  

3:35 Stories from Our Changing World

Coming up on Our Changing World, a story from ABC podcast Pacific Scientific takes us to the jungles of Papua New Guinea, one of the last places in the world where frogs are unaffected by a deadly fungal infection.

 

3:45 The pre-Panel