Nights for Thursday 31 October 2024
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From Taieri to NASA: Our unique cloud formation
10:50 PM.The lenticular cloud formation is named the Taieri Pet because locals took a shining to the special shape. Read more Audio
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New podcast investigates billion dollar Kiwi supplement company
10:30 PM.Newsroom.co.nz's Jonathan Milne started investigating Kiwi start-up AG1 after hearing their ads on countless American podcasts, and finding their products weren't easily available in New Zealand. Read more Audio
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Banning hateful symbols and salutes
10:18 PM.Lawyer Graeme Edgeler discusses how New Zealand treats hate speech symbols like Nazi insignia, after ACT Party leader David Seymour said he wouldn't back a ban. Read more Audio
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The 3,000-year old Celtic festival behind Halloween
9:40 PM.New Zealanders tend to be skeptical of Halloween as an imported, consumerist tradition that has no connection with our society. But its roots are deeper than many realise. Read more Audio
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Philosophy Now: Will technology really save us?
9:15 PM.University of Waikato senior lecturer in philosophy Dan Weijers unpacks the role of technology in making our lives easier, and whether we rely on tech too much. Read more Audio
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.
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.
Featuring:
Walking in Memphis by Cher - requested by Sonia
I Put a Spell on You by Screamin' Jay Hawkins - requested by Anonymous
House of Cards by Radiohead - requested by Jan
8:45 The Reading
Tonight, part two of We'll Always Have Paris, the short story by Witi Ihimaera, read here by James Kupa.
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 Philosophy Now: Will technology really save us?
Every month on Nights, University of Waikato senior lecturer in philosophy Dan Weijers unpacks some of life's big issues, whether it's love, death, happiness, or whether it's morally right to keep a pet goldfish.
Tonight - the role of technology in making our lives easier, and whether we rely on tech too much.
Photo: TIM VERNON / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRA
9:35 The 3,000-year old Celtic festival behind Halloween
New Zealanders tend to be skeptical of Halloween as an imported, consumerist tradition that has no connection with our society.
But Halloween springs from a Celtic tradition thousands of years old, Samhain, and was originally a commemoration of summer passing into winter - a time where the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead was especially porous.
Dr Amy Whitehead is a social anthropologist of religion at Massey University.
Being born in the Northern Hemisphere and making her home in Aotearoa, she's experienced the holiday in autumnal, Halloween-mad America as well as here in our springtime, where she estimates only one in every eight houses in Auckland are welcoming of trick-or-treaters.
She joins Emile Donovan to share the origin of traditions like trick-or-treating, witches' broomsticks, dressing up, and carving pumpkins.
Photo: 123RF
10:17 Banning hateful symbols and salutes
This week there's been discussion around the use of Nazi symbols and gestures in NZ.
ACT Party leader David Seymour says Nazi symbols shouldn't be banned because they reveal who the "idiots" are.
And Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says he is open to a ban of the "sieg heil" salute - a gesture that's been adopted by the Mongrel Mob.
Wellington lawyer Graeme Edgeler joins Emile Donovan to discuss what is and isn't banned in New Zealand.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
10:30 New podcast investigates billion dollar Kiwi supplement company
A new podcast is investigating a billion dollar New Zealand supplement company and its founder's murky past.
Chris Ashenden is the founder of AG1, a green drinking powder, which has been endorsed by bigtime celebrities like Joe Rogan.
The podcast, called Powder Keg, is presented by Newsroom's managing editor, Jonathan Milne, and is the culmination of a year-long investigation.
He joins Emile Donovan.
Jonathan Milne, host of Powder Keg. Photo: Newsroom / Jonathan Milne
10:45 From Taieri to NASA: Our unique cloud formation
A rare, UFO-shaped cloud formation seen above the Taieri Plains has been discussed all over the world after NASA shared a satellite image.
It is a lenticular cloud formation, named the Taieri Pet because locals took a shining to the special shape.
MetService meteorologist Clare O'Connor joins Emile Donovan to discuss the Taieri Pet and New Zealand's other unique clouds.
The Taieri Pet, as captured by satellite imagery. Photo: NASA
11:07 The Mixtape: DJ Tina Turntables
Kristina Simons, aka DJ Tina Turntables, started her career in music television, working at Juice TV, Max TV and Alt TV and continued to work in entertainment media for decades, as a writer, director and editor.
At the same time she was building her reputation as DJ Tina Turntables, firstly on a small underground station Fleet FM, and then for Auckland student radio bFM, predominantly on the Sunday afternoon soul show Back On The Goodfoot.
She has DJ'd every kind of party, from outdoor festivals to dive bars, including after parties for Peaches, Fleetwood Mac, Prince, The Black Keys, and The Rolling Stones.
Since moving to Ōtepoti she calls herself very lucky to be working as the manager of the student radio station, Radio One 91FM.
Tina Turntables Photo: bFM's Paul Taylor
