Afternoons for Monday 5 May 2025

1:10 Try a 'pocket home'

As our rapidly growing urban centres put the squeeze on housing, an architect duo have come up with a solution - "Pocket Homes".

Dorrington Atcheson Architects' Tim Dorrington and Emma-Jane Hetherington have built two prototypes in Auckland's Ōtāhuhu where each of them are designed to fit into the same space as the quintessential Kiwi double garage

It's hoped the Pocket Homes design offers a different low-cost option, that feels a little more individual.

1.20 May the 4th be with you

Today is May the fifth. Which means yesterday was May the fourth, Star Wars Day and it still is in many parts of the world.

This annual celebration of a film franchise that has produced prequels, sequels and spin offs is testament to the enduring popularity of a film universe that first graced our screens almost fifty years ago. 

Jesse checks in with Kevin Kirtlan, retired plumber and member of the 501st Legion, a group of Star Wars fans who regularly dress up as Star Wars bad guys for fun and for charity.  
 

1.35 Magic Mushrooms under the microscope.

Research will soon get underway into how best to identify mushroom species as a basis for a potential drug-checking service.

It's been a few years now since New Zealanders have been able to legally test  their drugs, so could this research extend that kind of testing to Magic Mushrooms?

Auckland University doctoral student Sam Lasham is leading the research.

2:10 Television Critic: The Resident and Your Friends and Neighbours

Caitlin Cherry is here with some recommendations for your small screen watching pleasure. She reviews Netflix's The Resident and Jon Hamm starring Your Friends and Neighbours on Apple TV. 

2:20 What's Happening in OZ

Brad Foster is joining us early this week after a hectic weekend in Australia where Labor won what's being called a landslide victory over opposition leader Peter Dutton. Brad has all the reactions and hot takes.

2.30 Expert Feature: Hollywood special effects makeup

Gino Acevedo has worked on some of the most successful films of all time: the Lord of the Rings series, Alien 3, Men in Black, Independence Day, King Kong and Planet of the Apes... 

If you have a question about special effects, make up, onscreen monsters, email them in at jesse@rnz.co.nnz or text on 2101.

3:10 Feature interview:  A Walking Memoir with Craig Mod

Walking is an invitation to slow down and notice change. Because everything changes and becomes new, from objects to relationships says photographer, writer and walker Craig Mod.  

He takes us along for a solo journey across an ancient pilgrimage route in rural Japan where young people are leaving and populations are shrinking.  Through conversations with fishermen, innkeepers, and café owners, he explores memory, identity, and how walking can quietly reshape how we understand who we are.  His book is called Things Become Other Things A Walking Memoir.

3:35 Here Now

The third episode of Accidental Comics with Here Now - Kadambari Raghukumar talks to David Stuart about his quest for love and a laugh that led him from Scotland to Auckland.
 

3:45 The pre-Panel

Wallace Chapman and producer Tom Riste-Smith preview tonight's instalment of The Panel.