Saturday Morning

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This Sunday, after nine years as Green Party co-leader, including a five year stint as Climate Change Minister, James Shaw is stepping down. He's joining Susie to talk about everything other than politics and share some favourite music.

The plumes of ash that can accompany volcanic eruptions are spectacular, but often damaging, in multiple and surprising ways. Most people think what comes out is like fire ash, but volcanic ash is something quite different. GNS principal scientist Graham Leonard join us to talk about exactly what ash is, how it can affect the health of both humans and animals, and all the ways it can disrupt everyday life.

Multi Grammy award winning Beninese musician Angélique Kidjo has been named one of the most influential people in the world by Time Magazine. Her career spans four decades and her music is a fusion of West African with American R&B, funk and jazz, dancehall and European and Latin American influences. Angélique serves as a UNICEF and OXFAM ambassador. She founded Batonga to support the education of young African girls. She also won last years Polar Music Prize, seen on a par with Nobel awards. Angélique Kidjo is playing in Auckland on Saturday night.

Why is the idea of a four-day working week seen as radical? What did the pandemic teach us about the role of science in politics and the reality of human interdependence? English thinkers Geoff Mulgan and James Plunkett are currently in Aotearoa as Australia & New Zealand School of Government visiting fellows. They join Susie Ferguson to discuss some of the big challenges and opportunities for governments in the next decades.

Film director Lee Tamahori and producer Robin Scholes have a long history of collaboration, beginning with 1994's Once Were Warriors, which launched both their careers. Their latest offering, The Convert, starring Guy Pearce, opens in cinemas next week. A loose adaptation of Wulf by New Zealand author Hamish Clayton, The Convert features a largely Maori cast and follows the story of Munro, a war veteran-cum-preacher who comes to Aotearoa in 1830.

Lawyer, linguist and teacher Aliya Danzeisen converted to Islam as an adult four months before 9/11. Today, Aliya is the national co-ordinator and spokesperson for the Islamic Women's Council, and a standard bearer for the contribution Muslim women are making in New Zealand. Danzeisen prepared the Islamic Women's Council's response to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch mosque attacks. A week out from the 5th anniversary of the massacre, she joins Susie to reflect on the gains made for Muslim New Zealanders, and ongoing barriers and prejudice.

For the past 200 years blankets have formed part of Aotearoa's history, part of our early trade, providing warmth and comfort during the New Zealand Wars and for our soldiers fighting overseas during two world wars. For Whakaawa and Josh Te Kani, the history of wool in this country is integral to the stories they weave into their blankets and their work will feature in a new exhibition, Paraikete Threads, which opened yesterday at the Pataka Art Museum in Porirua.

Feedback for Saturday Morning March 2nd 2024

Clothing label Kowtow has built a devoted following since its inception in Wellington back in 2006.

As private corporations invest billions in the space race, tighter regulation of their off-Earth activity is urgently needed, says British philosopher AC Grayling. "If you could put in place a set of really robust and binding and enforceable agreements which would restrain people from acting badly in outer space, our future selves would thank us," he tells Susie Ferguson.

Fiona Amundsen is a photographer and associate professor at AUT's School of Art and Design.

The loss of a child is unbearable. To lose them in a brutal public beheading, unimaginable. But then to come face to face with their killer?

A week ago, Alabama's Supreme Court ruled that embryos were "extrauterine children".

The world-first law that would have created a smokefree generation in Aotearoa New Zealand was repealed under urgency by the coalition government on Wednesday. A tobacco control expert tells Susie Ferguson why we're ''swimming against the tide".

Saturday morning listener feedback.

Kate De Goldi is one of New Zealand's most celebrated authors, an Arts Foundation Laureate, and a voracious reader.

The story of North Carolinian husband and wife, Kathleen and Michael Peterson, took the world by storm after Kathleen's mysterious death in 2001.

The biggest BBQ festival in Australasia, Meatstock, is back at Mystery Creek, Kirikiriroa Hamilton, this weekend after a three year hiatus.

The Belong Care Village in Chester has a fully integrated on-site nursery.