Nights for Thursday 30 May 2024

8:10 The House

Today on our Parliament programme - The House - Phil Smith avoids the numbers and talks instead about what happens next - specifically a few days of urgent debate over legislation.

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

Todd Zaner 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: Lisa's Story

Lisa's Story adapted as it is from Vincent O'Sullivan's novel All This By Chance focuses on Lisa and Fergus whose stories are inextricably intertwined though they only spent a few years together in the 1960's.

The story takes us with Lisa as she journeys through life and from NZ to London, Greece, Africa and Italy.

Tonight, part nine.

9:07 Nights Quiz

Do you know your stuff? Come on the air and be grilled by Todd Zaner 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: King Charles appeared on Bro'Town

On Nights, we like to bring you a story of a moment in Aotearoa's history from someone who was there when it happened.

Tonight we're going back to this moment in New Zealand television history.

In 2005 Bro'Town was a locally-made hit animated series and they secured a cameo from one of the most well known men in the world who is now  King Charles III.

To take us through how the future King ended up starring in an animated Kiwi show about five Auckland school kids, Todd Zaner is joined by one of the show's creators and producers Elizabeth Mitchell.

9:35 Top of the football world: The history of the beautiful game in France

In France, football is a way of life - and it just so happens they're very, very good at it.

This includes two FIFA World Cup winning teams and legends like Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry and Kylian Mbappe.

Domestically, Paris St Germain dominate a much-maligned league yet there's more to French football than the Middle Eastern money the modern game has been flooded with.   

Tom Williams is the author of a new book Va-Va Voom: The Modern History of French Football.

He speaks to Nights about what makes French football so successful.

10:17 New Zealand rugby's civil war

Today was described as D-day for how our national sport is governed.

The country's provincial rugby unions voted to reject New Zealand Rugby's proposal for a governance change and instead voted to another proposal put forward by the provincial unions themselves.

This has put them on a collision course with the Players' Association which represents the professional players and supports a new structure.

So why has a debate over how the game is governed become front page news?

To help explain it all we're joined by Nights' sports correspondent Bryan Waddle.

10:30 The double-edged sword of deep-sea mining in the Pacific

Pacific Island nations are being caught up in the global push for renewable forms of energy.

The minerals companies need to make batteries for the likes of electric cars and renewable power grids are in rich supply under islands like Fiji and New Caledonia.

And while these nations stand to gain financially from enabling extraction, the environmental consequences can be severe.

Nick Bainton is an Associate Professor in the school of Regulation and Global Governance at the Australian National University in Brisbane.

He joins Todd Zaner.

10:45 All the winners from the biggest night of the year for NZ music

The Aotearoa Music Awards have just wrapped up at the Viaduct Events Centre in Auckland.

It's the biggest night in New Zealand music - celebrating the album of the year and the song of the year among many other categories.

RNZ Music's Tony Stamp was there and talks to Nights about how it all went down.

11:07 The Mixtape

Musician Paul Kean from The Bats is picking the tunes on the Mixtape this week.

Paul has been a member of several bands, The Basket Cases, Toy Love, The Bats, Minisnap, and more recently a musical project called The Sundae Painters.