Afternoons for Tuesday 16 July 2024

 

1:15 Introducing rust fungus to battle Chilean needle grass

After a thirteen-year wait, Marlborough District Council has had approval to introduce a rust fungus to help control a weed that has been harming farmers for decades.

Chilean needle grass has spread to two and a half thousand hectares in the region since it was first spotted in the 1940s.

Council biosecurity manager Liam Falconer speaks to Jesse. 

1:25 Curling competition returns after a seven year hiatus 

Curling returned to the Naseby outdoor rink yesterday for the first Baxter Cup curling competition in seven years.

We speak to chair of Maniototo Adventure Park Charitable Trust, Dave Brady about the day's event and his efforts. 

1:35 Northland construction company running successfully on a four day week 

Ezra Bell Construction in Northland is ahead of the game when it comes to work life balance for it's employees. 

For a while now the building company has been operating a four day working week. 

Company owner Ezra Bell talks to Jesse about making their working week shorter and the impact it's had on both their staff and clients. 

1:45 Tech Tuesday with Tim Batt 

Tech commentator Tim Batt talks about the benefits of smart watches, the generation microsoft laptops and what people are really looking for in a smart phone. 

2:05 Paying tribute to Norm Hewitt 

To mark sad news that Norm Hewitt has died we speak to his close friend and biographer Michael Laws who has permission from Norm's family to speak about his passing. 

2:10 Book Critic: Catherine Robertson 

Today Catherine reviews three books, The Trees by Percival Everett, The Secret Hours by Mick Herron and Fruit of the Dead by Rachel Lyon.

2:20 Update on Oz with Brad Foster

Brad Foster provides an update on Australia's Olympic team heading to Paris next week and how many medals are predicted.

He also talks about King Charles' October visit and the expectation of heightened security following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

And some news on golf, baseball, rugby and the NRL State of Origin decider on Wednesday night.

2:30 Music feature: NZ Country music with Brendan Dugan 

New Zealand has a country music scene that stretches all the way back to the 1930s, with some of the earliest country recordings made outside America pressed in Wellington.

During the late 70s and early 80s we even had a prime-time country music show called That's Country, featuring regular appearances from the Topp Twins amongst others, including kiwi country music legend Brendan Dugan, who was already something of a legend at the time.

Brendan Dugan found fame at the age of just 16 when he appeared on 1960s TV talent show New Faces, winning the final with a rendition of country standard "There Goes My Everything."

Brendan experienced something of a late career revival in 2015 when he joined forces with singer-songwriter Aly Cook and Alan Jansson, producer of OMC hit "How Bizarre." He joins us for this week's music feature. 

3:10 AI in the workplace, what to expect 

There's nothing as constant as change. Artificial Intelligence is already changing industries like healthcare, education and transportation with driverless cars and teacher-less classrooms.

We've seen disruption before, we'll see it again says Kiwi Melissa Clark Reynolds. She's a futurist, tech entrepreneur and former Weta Workshop board member.  

She says we should think of AI as an improvisation partner, helping humans to be better humans.  She warns about the dangers of passing on some of our fallibilities, because Google doesn't judge us for what we search for, but AI might.  

We'll talk about  the impact of artificial intelligence on the workforce as well as the ethical implications of new technologies. 

3:30 Spoken Feature: BBC Witness History 

In 1974 an unknown Japanese artist put pen to paper and created a character that would go on to be worth more than $80 billion.

The illustration was titled ‘Unknown White Cat’ but you will probably know it better as Hello Kitty.

The artist, Yuko Shimizu, designed Hello Kitty while she was working for the firm Sanrio.

Fast forward 50 years and Yuko’s friendly feline has been on a fair few adventures including going to space and becoming Japan’s ambassador for tourism.

Yuko tells Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty the secrets behind Hello Kitty’s ‘cuteness’ and introduces her latest character, the stylish French bulldog Rebecca Bonbon.

3:45 The pre-Panel