Afternoons for Wednesday 9 April 2025

1:10 Nigel Latta returns with Parentland

One of the most trusted names in psychology in New Zealand is back: Nigel Latta. 

And he's back with a fascinating app designed to offer personalised parenting advice. 

It's called 'Parentland' and is officially launching today, and Nigel's with Jesse in the Auckland studio to talk about it.

1:20 The Wahine disaster remembered

This week marks 57 years since a tragic maritime disaster off Wellington's coast.

53 lives were lost on the 10th of April, 1968, when the Wahine struck Barrett Reef and sunk off Steeple Rock - it was the first major maritime tragedy which played out on radio and nightly news broadcasts in real time.

Wellington Museum has commemorated the anniversary with the installation of a significant relic from the ship.

The ship's brass wheel has been added to the extensive collection of objects salvaged from the Wahine, including the captain's chair and the main ship's bell.

The wheel was donated to the museum by the whānau of a man who was involved in the rescue operation and salvaged it in the weeks following the disaster.

1:30 Mystery of the Moa (and other large birds)

The Mystery of the Giant Birds is a documentary about the flightless birds of Madagascar and New Zealand.

It premieres tonight at the Tūhura Otago Museum's Perpetual Guardian Planetarium.

The premiere is part of Wild Dunedin - NZ Festival of Nature, the city's annual celebration of the natural world and scientific discovery.

1:45 Heading Off: Chatham Islands

Heading Off is our weekly travel segment where we pick a destination and learn what's it's like to visit, what you'll see and what you can do. 

We're staying close to home today and heading to the Chatham Islands. 

While it won't be the focus today, we'd like to acknowledge the rich and complex Indigenous history of the islands, which of course is something you can delve into if you travel there. 

Jesse's guest today is Toni Croon, an operator for Tourism Chatham Islands. 

2.12 Music Critic: Cloth and Charles Bradley

RNZ's music critic extraordinaire, Tony Stamp, plays Polaroid from Scot duo Cloth's forthcoming new album Pink Silence. He also plays Where Do We Go From Here by the late, great Charles Bradley. 

2:20 Easy Eats: Red lentil, spinach and tomato dhal

2:30 Bookmarks with Donna Kerridge

Time for bookmarks. It's the moment in the week when we ask an interesting person to share some of their favourite things. We're talking books, music, films, TV, Podcasts... All that good stuff.

Today Jesse is joined by Donna Kerridge. Donna is a rongoā Māori advocate & teacher. Founder of Ora New Zealand. And Member of the ACC Rongoa Advisory Panel.

3:10 Feature interview: what it looks like if we get AI right

So much of the conversation about artificial intelligence focuses on what could go wrong.   LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and tech writer Greg Beato want us to start asking, what happens if we get it right and use AI to revolutionize education, medicine, and more.

 In their new book they set doomsday thinking aside to consider how we can shape the AI we want. It's called Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right with Our AI Future.      

3:35 Stories from Our Changing World

Human-induced warming is having an impact on Earth’s systems, including ice melt in Antarctica. So what is the world doing about it?  

The current global pact, the Paris Agreement, was signed in 2016 by all but three countries. The US has just pulled out – again – but as yet, no other countries have left the agreement.  

Under the agreement, countries are asked to pledge ambitious emission reduction targets, aimed at keeping the world’s warming below 2 °C (compared to pre-industrial temperatures).