Summer Weekends

9:05 Los Angeles update - Tim O'Brien 

Wellingtonian Tim O'Brien has made Los Angeles his home for more than 20 years and before that he studied at university in LA in the 1990s.

The images coming out of Los Angelese are gut-renching - the devastation to peoples' lives with the loss of their homes and businesses, whole neighbourhoods and communities in parts of Los Angeles destroyed these past days.

Tim joins us now from his home in Pasadena - he's a journalist beginning with RNZ back in the 1980s a film producer, a husband and a father.

9:30 Stefan Ozich - running the length of Aotearoa twice for men's mental health

Kiwi marathon runner Stefan Ozich is running the length of Aotearoa - twice  - and he could be the first to do so, making a world record. He's hoping to raise
 
$1,000,000 for The Last Chance Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the health and well-being of men in NZ communities.

Stefan is somewhere in the North Island heading towards Auckland  - he's taking a pit stop to chat to us about his journey.

His Give a Little page is here.  Track his run on his website. 

Where to get help:

Need to Talk? Free call or text 1737 any time to speak to a trained counsellor, for any reason.

Lifeline: 0800 543 354 or text HELP to 4357

Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 / 0508 TAUTOKO (24/7). This is a service for people who may be thinking about suicide, or those who are concerned about family or friends.

Depression Helpline: 0800 111 757 (24/7) or text 4202

Samaritans: 0800 726 666 (24/7)

Youthline: 0800 376 633 (24/7) or free text 234 or email talk@youthline.co.nz

What's Up: free counselling for 5 to 19 years old, online chat 11am-10.30pm 7days/week or free phone 0800 WHATSUP / 0800 9428 787 11am-11pm Asian Family Services: 0800 862 342 Monday to Friday 9am to 8pm or text 832 Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm. Languages spoken: Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi and English.

Rural Support Trust Helpline: 0800 787 254

Healthline: 0800 611 116

Rainbow Youth: (09) 376 4155

OUTLine: 0800 688 5463 (6pm-9pm)

If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.

Sexual Violence

NZ Police

Victim Support 0800 842 846

Rape Crisis 0800 88 33 00

Rape Prevention Education

Empowerment Trust

HELP Call 24/7 (Auckland): 09 623 1700, (Wellington): 04 801 6655 - push 0 at the menu

Safe to talk: a 24/7 confidential helpline for survivors, support people and those with harmful sexual behaviour: 0800044334

Male Survivors Aotearoa

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) 022 344 0496

 

9:40 Mark McCrindle - Generation Beta

January 2025 marks a number of things for us all - from resolutions that go hand in hand with every changing Gregorian year to gatherings for anniversaries and birthdays taking advantage of our summer.

For social analysts, demographers and futurists 2025 signals the beginning of our latest generation - Generation Beta.  Perhaps you just welcoming a Generation Beta baby just arrived?

Sydney's Mark McCrindle is credited with coining the term Generation Beta and we talk about what the future holds for our newborns. 

10:05 Prime Minister’s Award - Neville Peat 

Neville Peat has published more than 40 works of natural history, environmental writing and biography, including regional natural histories, histories of Antarctica, and studies of native birds. 

Peat's awards include Book of the Year for Natural Heritage at the 1996 Montana New Zealand Book Awards for Wild Dunedin: Enjoying the Natural History of New Zealand's Wildlife Capital (Otago University Press, 1995) with Brian Patrick, and a Storylines Notable Non-Fiction Book listing in 2007 for Winging It: The Adventures of Tim Wallis (Longacre, 2006). 

In 2007 he was awarded the Creative New Zealand Michael King Writers' Fellowship, for his project on the Tasman Sea. He has also written titles for younger readers.

Neville is joining us from Broad Bay on the Otago Peninsula. 

10:35 Shark Man Riley Elliott

Every summer shark sightings are reported - mainly because so many of us are at the beach or out on the water. 

This year however there seem to be fewer sharks around than usual and that's worrying for shark expert Riley Elliott.

Riley, aka Shark Man, has a phD in marine biology, and is a producer and presenter for the Discovery Channel's Shark Week.

He joins Susana from the Coromandel Peninsula to chat about what he has seen out on the water and why healthy shark numbers matter

11:05 Matt Morris  - Arty Bees Books

Each Sunday morning on Summer Weekends we're speaking with bookshop keepers around the motu. Today we go to the quintessential second hand bookstore in central Wellington -  Arty Bees Books.

Matt Morris is the man behind the desk most days and is joining us to discuss summer reads, Arty Bees, and how to find friends lost in a book store. 

11:30 Summer Fiction School - John Cranna

For the past decade, aspiring authors have been gathering in Auckland each January for the Summer Fiction School.

This weekend, the 2025 intake of would-be writers are having an intense introduction to creative writing.

Their tutor, and a winner of the Commonwealth writers' prize, John Cranna joins Susana to talk about why students enrol and the techniques they will learn. 

11:40 Luthier Curtis Carlson

In Acacia Bay, Taupo, is a garage that's never seen a car, but in which hundreds of stringed instruments have been crafted and repaired  

Curtis Carlson is a Luthier - he repairs ukeleles, banjos and guitars and builds them from scratch. 

Curtis came to his craft later in life, he joins us to explain how he ended up making hundreds of ukulele banjos and more.