Monthly highlights: March

Released at 10:20 am on 25 February 2025

March Highlights

25 February 2025

New content

Voice of the Sea Ice | Podcast 
Thursday 6 March

Science, Conservation

Step out onto a frozen landscape with New Zealand researchers investigating the future of Antarctica. Each winter the sea ice that forms around Antarctica effectively doubles the size of this massive continent. It’s one of the biggest annual global changes and reflects sunlight, drives ocean currents and is home to a host of critters key to the Antarctic food web. But the last few years have seen unusually low sea ice extents in Antarctica, and scientists are sounding the alarm. Is this a blip, or a trend? Claire Concannon travels to the frozen continent to find out and learns that for all the fears that stem from what climate science is telling us, there’s also room for hope and joy. Out weekly on Thursdays from 6 March at rnz.co.nz/podcasts or on podcast apps.

Voice of the Sea Ice will be launched in RNZ’s first dedicated 'super feed'. Called Wild Sounds, this super or umbrella feed will be home to RNZ’s best science and nature series and available on all podcast apps. Voice of the Sea Ice will be joined by the popular Voice of the Iceberg, last year’s stunning Voice of Tangaroa, as well as classic series Voice of the Kākāpō and Voices from Antarctica.

Reporting on this series was supported by Antarctica New Zealand's community engagement programme.

Photo credit: Anthony Powell

30 with Guyon Espiner | Video series, Podcast
Wednesday 19 March

Current affairs, interview

RNZ’s video-led current affairs programme 30 with Guyon Espiner is back for season three. Thirty minutes, no edits -  what we record is what you get. First up, host Guyon Espiner interviews the Reserve Bank Governor on inflation, interest rates, and engineered recessions. Continuing the focus on interesting topics with interesting people, Guyon also talks to General H.R. McMaster about his tour of duty with Trump. Other confirmed guests include New Zealand Rugby’s newly minted chair David Kirk and the boss of one of our biggest supermarkets.

A new episode is released every Wednesday on rnz.co.nz/guyon, RNZ’s YouTube channel and TVNZ+, with highlights posted on social media and the audio released on podcast apps and broadcast on RNZ National. 

Radio Highlights

Listen to RNZ National and RNZ Concert on radio, at rnz.co.nz or on the RNZ app.

Māpuna live from Te Matatini o Te Kāhui Maunga
Saturday 1 March, midday | RNZ National

Culture, Te ao Māori

Māpuna with Julian Wilcox will broadcast live from Te Matatini o Te Kāhui Maunga, covering all the highlights from the final day of the national Kapa Haka festival. The Te Matatini biennial Festival is the largest celebration of traditional Māori performing arts excellence in the world. It encapsulates the power and beauty of Kapa Haka at the most elite level as groups from Aotearoa and Ahitereiria (Australia) compete for the coveted title of National Champion.

Staturday Morning at WOMAD
Saturday 15 March, 7am - midday | RNZ National

Music, Current Affairs

Susie Ferguson will co-host Saturday Morning live from WOMAD in New Plymouth, featuring interviews with special guests from the festival. Mihingarangi Forbes will anchor the show from the Auckland studio.

The RNZ audio team will be on site as usual to record music sets to broadcast on RNZ National and RNZ Concert later in the year.

Auckland Philharmonia: Enigma

Thursday 27 March, 7:30pm | RNZ Concert

Classical

A live broadcast of Auckland Philharmonia: Enigma, featuring Greig's Norwegian Dances, the New Zealand premiere of Sir James MacMillan's Concerto for Orchestra, Ghosts and Elgar's Enigma Variations, led by German clarenettist and conductor Karl-Heinz Steffens. 

RNZ Concert will also record select concerts throughout March for later broadcast. These include concerts at Auckland Arts Festival, Chamber Music NZ's tour of pianist Piers Lane performing Chopin’s beloved nocturnes, the National Concerto Competition when the three finalist pianists Shan Liu, Henry Meng and Otis Prescott-Mason will perform with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Judd.

Recent releases

Kim Hill Wants to Know | Podcast
Current affairs, interview

Kim Hill is back asking more questions in her podcast Kim Hill Wants to Know. Each podcast in this series features a long-form interview with notable guests from New Zealand and across the globe, including writer Caroline Crampton with her biography of hypochondria; British journalist Nick Wallis who’s continuing to investigate one of the UK’s biggest miscarriages of justice; world leading-linguist and etymologist Anatoly Liberman, and internationally recognized brain expert and founder of New Zealand’s Human Brain Bank, neuroscientist Sir Richard Faull.

Other episodes already available include former British PM Boris Johnson, maverick New Yorker reporter Jon Lee Anderson, political philosopher Ingrid Robeyns making the case to limit extreme wealth, bestselling writer Malcolm Gladwell and multi award-winning historian William Dalrymple.

Kim Hill Wants to Know is available on Tuesdays on podcast platforms, rnz.co.nz/podcasts and RNZ National.

Farewell Guangdong | Video series
History 

Based on the book by Lily Lee, Farewell Guangdong uses dramatic re-enactments, interviews with surviving family members and archive footage to bring to life seven first-hand accounts of families who fled the second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).  

Through the retelling of family stories by the daughters, granddaughters and great-granddaughters of the women who arrived, viewers can learn remarkable stories of survival but also see the legacy that these brave women left behind.  Farewell Guangdong is made with the support of NZ On Air and is out now at  rnz.co.nz/farewell and YouTube.

Treaty Talks | Video series
History, Education

Treaty Talks, hosted by Kara Rickard (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Koata, Tainui), is an eight-part visual podcast series that seeks to educate Māori and non-Māori audiences alike about the Treaty of Waitangi and its historical and contemporary significance. 
Treaty Talks was funded by Te Māngai Pāho and is available now at rnz.co.nz/treaty-talks or on YouTube.

ENDS