Afternoons for Wednesday 28 August 2024

1:15 Olympian inspiration

As if our most decorated Olympian Dame Lisa Carrington hadn't done enough to inspire the up-and-coming generation, she's now poised to release her first children's book. Fresh off winning her eighth Olympic gold in Paris, next month 'Lisa Carrington Chases a Champion' will hit shelves. It will also be released as 'Ko Lisa Carrington me te Toa Whakaihuwaka', a version of the story told in te reo. Dame Lisa talks to Jesse.

1:25 The bat-bridge

Hamiltonians are always working hard to protect and nurture their population of long-tailed bats - or pekapeka-tou-roa - a species under critical threat. Often this revolved around things like monitoring programs or habitat restoration initiatives, but now, even the city's infrastructure specialists have stepped in. A new suburb called Peacocke is under development, and the multi-million-dollar bridge connecting it to the city has been designed in a way to accommodate the bats' flight path. 

Hamilton City Council's GM of infrastructure and assets Andrew Parsons talks to Jesse about the new bridge.

1:35 Angel at the microphone

Today marks 100 years since the birth of one of our most beloved authors Janet Frame. To honor her incredible legacy for the next 100 days Arrow FM 92.7 in Wairarapa will broadcast one of her poems every day at noon offering both dedicated fans and casual listeners a chance to immerse themselves in her extraordinary world.

1:45 Heading Off: the Whanganui River

River guide Willie Huch from Owhango Adventures gives Jesse the lowdown on how to enjoy the mighty Whanganui River.

2.12 Podcast Critic: Handsome and All Songs Considered

Elliott Childs reviews Handsome, a podcast with three comedians: Mae Martin, Tig Notaro and Fortune Feimster. Elliott also reveals the joys of returning to old podcasts you once loved, with All Songs Considered. 

2:20 Easy Eats with Sam Parish: Mexican Bean Toasties with a Grated Salsa

Sam has an inspired Mexican touch for Father's Day. Access the recipe here.  

2:30 Bookmarks with Emily Perkins

Emily Perkins is an award-winning novelist, short story writer, playwright and university lecturer. This year, her latest novel, Lioness, won the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Her first collection of short stories, Not Her Real Name and Other Stories, was published in 1996 while she was living in London. Since then, she has written numerous novels and plays, and in 2017 was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature. 

Here's Emily's book list;

Ash by Louise Wallace

Circe by Madeline Miller

The Vital Spark by Lisa Marchiano

The Royal Free by Carl Shuker

Whaea Blue by Talia Marshall

Delirius by Damien Wilkins

3:10 Feature interview: How refrigerators changed the world  

107 times a day, we open the doors to one of the most consequential inventions in the history of food and drink. The refrigerator. The majority of the food we eat passes through the cold chain says author and co-host of the podcast Gastropod Nicola Twilley.  New Zealand's multi billion dollar meat and dairy exports are only possible because a Scottish doctor figured out how to keep things cold in the 1800's. Twilley says the refrigerator is underappreciated feature of our food system, but keeping almost everything we eat cool is making the planet hot.  She explains why we need a refrigeration reckoning in her new book, Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet and Ourselves.

3:35 Stories from Our Changing World

From helping taonga species such as the kākāpō, to early identification of cancer, to tackling food security - New Zealand scientists are using genomics to find solutions to some of our biggest problems. Today on Our Changing World Damian Christie finds out about some of the research happening in this space.  

3:45 The pre-Panel