Afternoons for Tuesday 28 January 2025

1:15 What you need to retire on 

Thinking about how much money you might need to retire can be a scary prospect, particularly if you're already struggling to make ends meet while you're working.    

"FORO" or Fear Of Running Out is top of mind for many and it's true that retirees do need more than just their superannuation to live comfortably.

But new figures by Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa, Massey University’s Financial Education and Research (Fin-Ed) Centre, show that you may not need as much as has been previously reported. 

1:25 An egg-cellent trap

As we work towards becoming predator free by 2050, it's been pointed out that we need some better tools in our toolkit.  

Marcus King is a conservationist and former engineer who turned his hand to pest control in a bid to bring back more native birdsong.   

He's the creator of the LureGuard - a new trap design targeting egg stealing stoats.

1:35 Immersive 'fulldome' show XYZZY nominated for global awards

Created by Simon Ward and Jess Johnson, in collaboration with Tūhura Otago Museum, the full dome show XYZZY has been nominated for the 2025 Best of Earth Awards, one of the highest honors in fulldome filmmaking. 

Jesse talks to Jess and Simon about the nomination, what exactly full dome filmmaking is and how they put the project together.  

1:45 Tech Tuesday: FPV drones, keyboards and Deepseek

VerTech manager Daneil Watson is back for 2025.

He's talking about FPV (first person view) drones and how to get started with the hobby, he's reviewing a new portable keyboard from Logitech -the MX Keys Mini, and he explains the latest AI story: Deepseek. 

2:10 Book Critic: Does great literature translate into great television?

Pip Adam muses on novel adaptations into TV or films. She suggests a number of NZ books that would lend themselves to a multi-episode TV series. Pip's choices include Wednesday's Children by Robin Hyde; The Time of the Giants by Anne Kennedy and The Brain of Katherine Mansfield by. Bill Manhire.

2:20 Update on Oz with Brad Foster

Brad is back and raring to go. There's been plenty of news over the ditch lately. Brad discuses the even contentious Australia Day, the Australian Open Tennis and Australian Rules Football legend Neil Daniher who was made Australian Of The Year for 2025. He also gushes about Keith Urban. 

2:30 Music feature: the scores of Bernard Herrmann

Citizen Kane, Psycho, Vertigo, Taxi Driver - many consider these to be some of the greatest movies ever made, and there's one person linking them all together... Bernard Herrmann.

Herrmann was one of the most in-demand film composers of the 20th century, working with everybody from Orson Welles to Martin Scorsese across an almost 40-year career. 

His most famed collaboration was with Alfred Hitchcock - he wrote and conducted the scores for seven of his films. 

We usually have to wait until Friday to talk to Dom Corry about movies, so it's a rare treat that he's joining Jesse to play us some of his favourite Bernard Herrmann scores. 

3:10 Feature interview: The Economist on what's coming in 2025 

2024 taught us to expect the unbelievable says Tom Standage, deputy editor of The Economist magazine with last year's assassination attempts on Donald Trump, exploding walkie-talkies in the Middle East and chopsticks catching giant rockets.  

Every year, the magazine looks at trends in a special edition called The World Ahead in 2025.  We'll talk to Standage about what he says will be the hallmark of the coming year, uncertainty, as well as the implications of the Trump presidency in America, tariff talks across the globe and a reckoning for artificial intelligence regulation and overtourism.

3:30 BBC Witness History

On 29 November 1995, China orchestrated the choice of the next Panchen Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's second highest spiritual authority. Arjia Rinpoche was at the ceremony.

3:45 The pre-Panel

Wallace Chapman visits Jesse preview what's coming up on The Panel. Producer Sam Hollis joins them to discuss the latest in quirky news.