Nights for Thursday 2 May 2024

8:10 The House

Phil Smith chats with the leader of a visiting group of Ukrainian MPs.

8:15 Pacific Waves

A daily current affairs programme that delves deeper into the major stories of the week, through a Pacific lens, and shines a light on issues affecting Pacific people wherever they are in the world. Hosted by Susana Suisuiki.

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8:30 Nights Jukebox 

Emile Donovan plays your requests - as long as you've got a compelling reason, or a good story to go with it.

Send in your requests to nights@rnz.co.nz or text 2101.

8:45 The Reading

Tonight, the third episode of 'The Dwarf Who Moved', a legal memoir written and read by Sir Peter Williams KC.

9:07 Nights Quiz

Do you know your stuff? Come on the air and be grilled by Emile Donovan as he dons his quizmaster hat.

If you get an answer right, you move on to the next question. If you get it wrong, your time in the chair is up, and the next caller will be put through. The person with the most correct answers at the end of the run goes in the draw for a weekly prize.

The quiz is themed - find out more about tonight's theme on Nights' Facebook page.

9:15 I Was There When: Wellington students did or did not help the Viet Cong buy a tank

We're back for another segment of I Was There When, speaking to people who were on the scene during a big moment in New Zealand's history.

But tonight's is slightly different, because the moment we wanted to talk about might not actually have happened.

For the past few weeks, the Nights team has been trying to find out if the Victoria University Students Association donated two thousand dollars to the North Vietnamese Guerrilla movement, the Viet Cong, for the purchase of a tank in 1972.

Peter Cullen was president of the student's association at the time.

He joins Emile Donovan to set the record straight.

9:35 Mangahāwea: The final frontier of human settlement

In a small inlet in the Bay of Islands, clues and artefacts from the first known site of human settlement in Aotearoa are being uncovered.

The site known as Mangahāwea was first excavated in 1981.

And the moa bones, obsidian and tools found at the site indicate people first arrived here as early as 1250 AD - the last land mass in the entire world to be settled by humans.

James Robinson is the Northland Regional Archaeologist for Heritage New Zealand. He's been involved with three excavations at Mangahāwea, and speaks to Emile Donovan about what's been found so far.

10:17 Duck hunters ready for season

It's an occasion so big in some parts of the country, club rugby games have to be shifted to another day to accommodate it. 

On Saturday morning, tens of thousands of hunters across the country will be sneaking into their maimais waiting for the sun to rise for the first day of the game bird season.

Fish & Game NZ chief executive Corina Jordan joins Nights to explain the ins and outs of bird hunting in New Zealand.

10:30 World's biggest democracy off to the polls

Massey University Professor Mohan Dutta joins Emile Donovan to examine the India elections.

10:45 New Zealand's emerging artists preserved on glossy paper

Called a 'music mag for the music mad', Newzician Magazine features profiles, interviews and photo spreads on emerging independent musicians across Aotearoa New Zealand.

Run by a small team of three, the magazine publishes annually, in print, recently releasing their third issue.

Co-founder Sam Elliot joins Emile Donovan to share the project.

11:07 The Mixtape

Mike Howie has travelled the world playing the piano, hosted travel tours in South America and now runs Auckland wine bar Freida Margolis. 

The bar has become an important venue for local musicians including Reb Fountain and Marlon Williams. Mike Howie shares some of his favourite music with Charlotte Ryan.