Afternoons for Wednesday 12 July 2023

 

1:15 The uncertain future of music schools

Funding for the arts sector has been a hot topic for a  while now, and another sector that's been struggling to maintain funding is tertiary education.

Combining the two, a lot of people are worried our tertiary music schools could be under threat.

In the past decade, music schools at the universities of Auckland, Waikato and Otago have gone through significant restructuring, and there are fears Massey and Victoria University may be next.

Dr Dugal McKinnon is the Deputy Director of the New Zealand School of Music, and he's authored a piece for The Conversation on this very topic.

1:25 New music from Tiki Taane for a new initiative in Stokes Valley

A new collaboration will see of New Zealand's most beloved musicians take a step into the world of visual art.

Tiki Taane has teamed up with artist Kereama Taepa to create 'Mai te Uira'.

It's a multidisciplinary performance that combines original music by Taane with digital imagery projection.

Its first stop is the Kōranui Stokes Valley Community Hub next Tuesday.

Tiki Taane talks to Jesse about the special performance.

1:35 Death rates higher in rural Aotearoa, a new study

Sadly for our many rural communities new research shows that rural residents have a higher death rate than their urban peers.

The results from Otago University flies in the face of existing data saying the opposite and is the strongest evidence yet that rural New Zealanders have poorer health outcomes than city dwellers.

Lead author of the study Professor Garry Nixon talks to Jesse.

1:45 Chip packet project cause with dual positive outcomes!

The Chip Packet Project is likely to be one of the more unique charity initiatives you've heard of, but it's one that is aiming to both help our homeless population and ease the strain on our landfills.

We eat a lot of chips in New Zealand, and the foil material used to make the packets can take 80 years to decompose.

Terrena Griffiths discovered another use for them, and now she's using those discarded packets to improve the lives of 69,000 Kiwis in need.

Terrena speaks to Jesse.

2.12 Podcast Critic: Ximena Smith

Today Ximena talks to Jesse about The Retrievals, a new show from the New York Times about a group of women who were patients at a Yale fertility clinic. She's also been listening to Into the Dirt, a new show from Tortoise.

2:25 Bookmarks with Alison Talmage

For Bookmarks this week we meet Alison Talmage, she's a music therapist, doctoral student and co-founder of a very special choir - the CeleBRation Choir.

The choir is an initiative of Auckland University's Centre for Brain Reserach and brings together people with neurological conditions to sing.

Alison was awarded a Kiwibank Local Hearo medal for her work with the choir. She's with Jesse for today's Bookmarks session.

3:10 The art of Swedish 'death cleaning', an explanation

The Danish have Hygge, the art of coziness. The Swedish have the art of death cleaning. This is not  tidying up to change your life.  Death cleaning is sorting out your stuff so other people don't have to do it when you die.  Three "death cleaners" from Sweden, an organizer, a designer and psychologist  Katarina Blom take on 8 Americans who need help to get their lives in order for a new TV series called "The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning"  It's produced and narrated by actor Amy Poehler. Katarina Blom joins us to explain how death cleaning can normalize fears about death and also be surprisingly life-affirming.   

3:35 Stories from Our Changing World

Coming up on Our Changing World - Justine Murray is at the Waihi estuary with Professor Kura Paul-Burke to measure the health of tuangi or cockles, and to learn about the Restoration Action Plan for the area.

3:45 The Panel with Penny Ashton and Martin Bosley