News bulletin recorded at 2PMAf RNZ

The Auckland Writers Festival starts on May 14 and its promotional push highlights a roll-call of talent from across the arts; Booker prize winner for 2023, Paul Lynch, plus generations of Maori writers from Patricia Grace to Becky Manawatu.

Tonight on The Panel, Wallace Chapman and panellists Anna Dean and Alan McElroy discuss a new survey showing renter despair in Queenstown and parent volunteers in junior sports. Also, we open up the Friday mailbag and respond to your feedback from the past week.

News bulletin recorded at 1PMAf RNZ

The Auckland Writers Festival starts on May 14. Its promotional push highlights a roll-call of talent from across the arts; Booker prize winner for 2023, Paul Lynch, actor Sam Neill, musician Troy Kingi, Indian politician and author Shashi Tharoor plus generations of gifted Maori writers from Patricia Grace to Becky Manawatu. Julian Wilcox talks to…

The top stories and other headlines at midday

Saturday morning listener feedback.

Colour analysis seems to be having a renaissance. Some will remember it from the 1980s. Or maybe you had your colours done and know that you suit a soft autumn or a bright spring and have taken your swatches shopping. Rachel Bilu of Colour Lab Stylist is Susie's guest.

A collection of letters written to and from iconic New Zealand painter Colin McCahon sheds light on a special relationship spanning four decades. McCahon met penpal Ron O'Reilly in 1938, when the pair were just 19 and 24 respectively. They wrote to each other regularly, amassing hundreds of letters covering McCahon's art practice, the contemporary …

Thirty years ago, nurse Maybelle Ngapere McLeod realised a genetic link to the stomach cancer which killed many of her whanau was much more likely that the effect of a curse. She took her suspicions to Otago university, and the rest is history. Maybelle is part of the team awarded the top Prime Minister's Science Prize for transformative impact. Th…

For those with asparagus patches: what to do to prep for a boomer crop in spring. Or, if you are planning an asparagus patch: how to kick start it.

Grace Blakeley takes aim at capitalism in her latest book Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts and the Death of Freedom. In the book, Blakeley asserts that rather than failing, capitalism is working exactly as intended - allowing corporate and political elites to advance their own interests at the expense of the rest of us. Susie…

From the A303 in Wiltshire, motorists can catch sight of the megalithic structure of Stonehenge. But as a primary route for both commuters and holiday makers the road is notoriously traffic-clogged, and plans to upgrade the road have been decades in the making. However, the plans face strong opposition. They include building a road tunnel under the…

It's thirty years since the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda, perpetrated by the Hutu-led government. British journalist Michela Wrong's book Do Not Disturb, The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad explores the legacy of the genocide, exposing a murderous in-coming regime that operates on a "grand scale deceit", exe…

The latest RNZ Pacific news and sport

The latest RNZ Pacific news and sport

This morning's top stories and other headlines

The latest news in Niuean language (Vagahau Niue) - brought to you by our partner - Pacific Media Network.

The latest RNZ Pacific news and sport

Pacific journalists reflect on the state of the media; Children in nine Pacific Island countries will now be better protected from life threatening diseases because their governments are adopting an immunisation program; Pasifika Sipoti for 4 May.

Pacific journalists reflect on the state of the media.

Children in nine Pacific Island countries will now be better protected from life threatening diseases because their governments are adopting an immunisation program.

Pasifika Sipoti for 4 May.

The latest news in Cook Islands Maori (Te Reo Maori Kuki Airani) - brought to you by our partner - Pacific Media Network.

The band’s Oliver Leupolu and Filiva’a James share the crowd reactions to their first metal gig in Samoa and the influence of church music on their songs.

Delaney Davidson talks honestly about his latest album and how turning 50 has changed his perspective.

Jools and Lynda talk about how cancer treatment has brought greater meaning to their music and reflect on a life of political activism.

Dolly Parton on her first rock album, her love of clothes and the reason she questioned her place in the ’Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Stan Walker shares how parenting has changed his perspective on life, and why his music holds such deep meaning.

Lorde talks about overcoming debilitating stage-fright and shares why she wants to be a mum one day.

Baakonite is a metal used heavily in Klingon weaponry and communications equipment in the world of Star Trek. Associate Professor Duncan McGillivary tells us about its particular properties and what we have in real life that might compare.

Black Panther's suit and Captain America's shield are both made of Vibranium, but realistically could any metal absorb, store and release kinetic energy?

It would at first appear to a solution to all laundry woes, but the White Suit from the 1950's movie The Man in the White Suit is not without its issues. Associate Professor Geoff Willmott discusses this and much more.

Dr Matt Cowan, from the McDiarmid Institute and Engineering department of Canterbury University, talks about Cuendillar - a substance from the Wheel of Time series - which gets tougher, the more you bash it.

Steroid use will be out in the open at the Enhanced Games, and testosterone won't be banned. But is it taking away from the sport?

Tonight, a selection described as 'broadly lo-fi': including drag queen hypnagogic pop project Cindy Lee, death rock- and punk wave-influenced Brux, and a new local track from the Audio Foundation Improvisers Series Vol 3.

Nelson nut butter brand Fix & Fogg was approached by NASA with a request to create a space rocket-approved product - and now it's launched.

A wrap of the day's big stories

Nights' resident screen critic Dan Slevin is reviewing the debut for writer-director Lauren Taylor The Moon is Upside Down, Home, a real estate and design show with a difference, and all three seasons of Star Trek: Picard.

ComicFest is being held at the National Library of New Zealand on Saturday, with a range of events on offer for the comic- and cartoon-mad on its 10th anniversary.

ABC Wantok Program for 3 May 2024.

Hymns from the 12th century to the 20th this week, including Jesu, the very thought of thee (based on a poem by Bernard of Clairvaux) and NZ hymn writer Colin Gibson’s He came singing love.

On the rural outskirts of Taupō a young couple have started a mushroom venture far removed from their previous life in Auckland. Maggie Tweedie took a trip to a small block of land amid the green hills of Wairakei to meet Benson Thomas and Hattie MacLennan.

In 1973 Alan Wilkes was out with his Labrador Zara and comrades at the opening of the duck shooting season. This story from the Spectrum archives was recorded on Kohangatera, a network of lagoons along the Palliser Bay coast.

West Otago farmer, Adrian McIntyre, says the late grain harvest down his way means there are plenty of ducks around for the opening of the duck shooting season. The first weekend is a bit like Christmas, he says

Many drought-declared areas have now had some rain, but farms still have very low pasture covers going into winter. There's been superb weather for the gold kiwifruit harvest in Bay of Plenty which only has a couple of weeks to go and the Hayward variety is underway. Lamb prices remain depressed making some question the future of the sector.…

The latest news from Melanesia.

This week Country Life meets a young couple who left their city life to set up a mushroom farm and heads to the maimai with a hunter at daybreak at the start of the duck shooting season half a century ago.

The latest RNZ Pacific news and sport.

Tonight on The Panel, Wallace Chapman and panellists Anna Dean and Alan McElroy discuss a new survey showing renter despair in Queenstown and parent volunteers in junior sports. Also, we open up the Friday mailbag and respond to your feedback from the past week.