Afternoons for Thursday 8 May 2025

1:10 Take a pew and relax

A network of specially-designed public benches is being created to encourage people to sit, slow down, reflect on life and take in the view.

The ambitious goal is to install one thousand benches or paererewā in notable spots across Aotearoa which will still be around in a thousand years' time.

They're not your average bench seat - they're works of art and some of the first designs have been unveiled at the Aotearoa Art Fair in Auckland.

The project is the collective brainchild of three entrepreneurs including Student Volunteer Army founder Sam Johnson. Visit www.paererewa.org.nz If you'd like to know more.

1:20 Inflammatory Bowel Disease cases set to double

The world's largest ever study into Inflammatory Bowel Disease has just been released, predicting cases here are set to double in the next 20 years.

The landmark study has identified four distinct stages of growth of IBD in more than 80 countries across the globe.

It hopes to provide a framework to allow health systems like ours to better anticipate and manage the growing burden of IBD.

Co-author Professor Richard Gearry is from the University of Otago's Christchurch Department of Medicine.

1:35 Electric chickens are the future?

Jesse talks to a chicken farmer from Tirau, who has made the switch to electrification of his farm.

It comes as the first full inventory of New Zealand fossil fuel machines was released this week as part of The Machine Count project.

It found there are around 10 million of them, and that it is technically possible and cost effective to electrify 84 percent of the machines currently available in New Zealand.

It also found another 10 percent could be electrified if we made more effort to make better options available.

Jeff Collings who was a case study in the research has already made the move to electrification.

1:45 Great album: Available Light by Dave Dobbyn

In honour of tomorrow's special NZ Live session with Dave Dobbyn Jesse will play a few tracks from his 2005 record Available Light.

The record debuted at number 3 on the local charts at the time and since then has become maybe most widely known as the album that gave us Welcome Home, that extraordinary rebutal and denial of racism. 

It was made in colaboration with the likes of Neil Finn, ex-Muttonbird David Long,  Phoenix Foundation producer Lee Prebble, and TrinityRoots frontman Warryn Maxwell.

This year marks it's 20th anniversary and come June 13 it will be released for the first time on vinyl. 
 

2:10 Podcast Critic

Ximena Smith has two podcasts to recommend: Levittown, a new 6-part series from Bloomberg, Kaleidoscope and iHeart Podcasts about victims of deepfake pornography. 

She likes the look of Alternate Realities, a 3-part limited series from NPR's Embedded team, hosted by reporter Zach Mack that follows his journey with his dad who's fallen into conspiracy theories.

2:30 NZ Sporting History: Jody Cameron

This week we're joined by former Tall Fern legend Jody Cameron

Jody competed at the Athens games with the Black Ferns in 2004 and now co-owns the all-female-owned basketball team the Northern Kahu. 

She also leads High Performance Sport New Zealand's initiative to help women pursue a career in high performance coaching.
 

3:15 Your Money with Mary Holm 

A listener asks: will the Government change its KiwiSaver contributions – and if so, how should it do it?

Finance Minister Nicola Willis is not ruling out changes to the Kiwisaver subsidy. Should the Government even do this? And if they do what does it mean for you and I?

3:35 BBC Witness History

The first video to be posted onto YouTube in April 2005, was of a young man standing in front of an elephant enclosure at San Diego Zoo in California.

3:45 The pre-Panel 

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