Afternoons for Tuesday 25 February 2025

1:15 Te Matatini​ for newbies

The biennial Te Matatini Kapa Haka Festival kicked off today. 

55 groups are vying for the coveted Toa Whakaihuwaka title in the competition this year, making it the biggest iteration of the festival yet. 

It runs for 5 days his year from now through to Saturday. 

Te Matatini Manahautū-CEO Carl Ross in Taranaki joins Jesse to explain what newbies to the competition can expect.

1:25 Who killed Wellington's emu?

Almost 120 years ago, a tragic incident captured headlines across the nation.

The emu at Wellington Zoo was found dead in its enclosure only ten days after it arrived.

Two examinations were carried out ... with two sets of conflicting results ... raising a troubling question:

Did the emu die of natural causes? Or was it killed in an act of cruelty?

Joel MacManus, Wellington editor at The Spinoff has been investigating this historical case and he joins Jesse to discuss this very cold case.

1:35 A series about young kiwis living in isolation

According to our most recent General Social Survey, a quarter of New Zealanders aged between 15 and 25 say they are lonely some or all of the time. 

The majority of that group live in the regions, where socialising with people their own age can be a rare opportunity. 

Re:News looks at this in their new docuseries 'The Regions', which follows their journalists as they travel to some of the most isolated regions in the country to meet young people we don't hear enough about.

You can watch the series now on TVNZ+ and YouTube.

Baz Macdonald is on the Re:News team and directed one of the episodes.

1:45 Tech Tuesday: retro gaming and Deepseek

Vertech managing director Dan Watson gets nostalgic for retro gaming of the 80s and 90s. Turns out you can relive your childhood using programmes called emulators. 

Dan also discusses the news that following Australia, MPs here have had their phones wiped of DeepSeek and WeChat. 

2:10 Book Critic

Today Catherine Robertson reviews two nonfiction books and a novel. They are:

Mrs D is Not on a Diet (Allen and Unwin) by Lotta Dann.

Route 52: A Big Lump of Country Unknown (Ugly Hill Press) by Simon Burt

Book People (Headline) by Jackie Ashenden

2:20 Update on Oz with Brad Foster

Our Aussie correspondent relays all the latest news in the 'lucky country' including a multi-billion-dollar bailout of steelworks in South Australia and new laws passed in NSW aimed at reducing the spate of antisemitic incidents we.

And there's also the story of a couple who had to sit next to a woman who died on a flight to Venice for the last four hours of the flight. 

2:30 Music feature: star producer John Simon 

Celebrated music producer John Simon has produced some of the greatest rock'n'roll ever recorded including The Band's Music from Big Pink, The Band, The Last Waltz; Janis Joplin's Cheap Thrills; Simon and Garfunkel's Bookends, and the first albums by Leonard Cohen and Blood, Sweat and Tears. 

He talks to Jesse from New York about his career and his favourite music. 

3:10 Feature interview: the Alzheimer's scandal

Billions of dollars poured into  Alzheimer's disease research has brought us no closer to understanding why some people lose their memories and fade away in front of their families. Yes, the human brain is complicated says science journalist Charles Piller, but the lack of progress is not just about biology, it's the result of arrogance, manipulated research results and downright fraud.

Piller spent years peeling back the scientific scandal costing millions of research dollars and precious time for families. He details his investigation in his book, Doctored: Fraud, Arrogance, and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer's.

3:30 BBC Witness History

In March 1974, a man stormed into the Polish embassy in East Berlin, threatening to detonate a bomb unless he could escape to the West. 

3:45 The pre-Panel

Wallace Chapman and producer Olivia Wilson preview tonight's instalment of The Panel.