Nights for Wednesday 18 December 2024

8.10 The House

Tonight on our Parliament show - the House - Louis Collins looks at Parliament's last day of the year, where there was the rare occurrence of a personal, or conscience vote on selling booze over the Easter weekend. 

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

Maggie Tweedie 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

Alex Grieg reads the second part of Budget Christmas by Susan Pointon.

Dad has the kids coming to stay for Christmas but only has $67 till benefit day

9:07 Nights Quiz

Do you know your stuff? Come on the air and be grilled by Maggie Tweedie dons her 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 Vanuatu earthquake

Maggie Tweedie gets the latest on the recovery in Vanuatu following yesterday's devastating 7.3 magnitude earthquake with RNZ Pacific journalist Lydia Lewis.

9:20 Midweek Mediawatch: The Mediawatch 2024 Awards

Maggie Tweedie is joined live by Hayden Donnell and Colin Peacock for the final edition of Midweek Mediawatch this year. Tonight they're taking a look back and giving out awards for the best media moments in 2024.

10:17 Why are people suddenly seeing drones everywhere?

Across the United States, particularly on the East Coast, dozens of unidentified drone sightings have been reported.

As well as security concerns, the sightings have been connected to conspiracy theories about foreign agents and secret government plots.

Robert Bartholomew, an honorary senior lecturer in the School of Psychological Medicine at Auckland University says the brain is wired to connect dots when there are none and that this drone scare fits within historic mass sightings of UFOs and other supernatural phenomena. 

He speaks to Maggie Tweedie about what's really going on.

10:30 The animated story of a cat that has captured the world's hearts

Flow (2024) is an animated fantasy adventure film that has been widely described as an eco-fable, and it's taken the film festival world by storm.

The story, which has no dialogue, follows a cat who, after a violent flood, teams up with an unlikely group of animals, a bird, a dog, a lemur, and a capybara to pilot a boat in search of survival and dry land.

It's coming to cinemas across the motu in January.

Maggie Tweedie catches up with Latvian filmmaker, animator, and director of Flow, Gints Zilbalodis, to discuss the film's unique success.

10:45 Stats NZ: What is GDP?

Every month, Nights links up with the good people at Stats NZ to share some facts and figures about life in New Zealand.

Tonight, for the final segment of the year we are getting a lay-persons guide to Gross Domestic Product more commonly known as GDP

To guide us through Jason Attewell the general manager of economic and environmental insights at Stats NZ speaks to Maggie Tweedie.

11:07 Pocket Edition

On this week's episode of Pocket Edition Maggie Tweedie shares a sprinkle of Christmas tunes. We learn more about Valles' Papa New Guinean whakapapa and a new compilation album being recorded in Christchurch.