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Nights for Tuesday 22 April 2025

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 Buy fish, avoid pigs: How to buy wine based on the animal on the label

Journalist Fox Meyer has analysed nearly 10,000 wine bottles to see what the label can predict about the wine's quality and price point.

He joins Emile Donovan to share his working.

Check it out: Wine Animals

Threatening wild boar male on a glade in mountains in spring time. Alert wild animal with long teeth and brown fur standing proudly in nature from front view with copy space.

Data suggests you avoid the wild boar when shopping for a good drop. Photo: 123rf

8:45 The Reading

Part one of 'Shingle Beach' by Carl Nixon.

A portrait of a family at their bach, told from five different points of view. The location connects them but the perspectives are very different.

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.

9:25 A whole, deep fried feijoa

Feijoa expert Kate Evans joins Emile Donovan to review Auckland fine-dining restaurant Forest's feijoa dessert, described as "fried whole like a donut and rolled in sherbet made from its skins, with sticky ginger cake and earl grey custard."

A bowl containing a sugary, deep fried feijoa on a bed of custard.

For the feijoa fiends, Forest's deep-fried feijoa. Photo: Forest Restaurant

9:35 Shower Thoughts: Why are we ticklish?

Why are some of us more ticklish than others, in different places? And why do some people hate being tickled?

Internationally renowned professor of cognitive neuroscience Dr Mark Williams joins Emile Donovan to explain.

Dog kissing laughing girl on patio. (Photo by CAIA IMAGE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / NEW / Science Photo Library via AFP)

Photo: CAIA IMAGE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

10:17 What happens after the death of the Pope

Dr Nick Thompson from the school of theological and religious studies at the University of Auckland and joins Emile Donovan to discuss the steps to find the next Pope.

EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / This photo taken on April 21, 2025 and handout on April 22, 2025 by The Vatican Media shows Pope Francis in his open coffin during the rite of the Confirmation of the Death of the Pontiff at the Chapel of Santa Marta in The Vatican. (Photo by Handout / VATICAN MEDIA / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / VATICAN MEDIA" - NO MARKETING - NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

Pope Francis in his open coffin during the rite of the Confirmation of the Death of the Pontiff at the Chapel of Santa Marta in The Vatican. Photo: AFP/Vatican Media

10:30 Books in books: When fictional characters are readers

From canny medical journals in Agatha Christie novels, to Don Quixote getting too engrossed in chivalric romances, the fiction we read is filled with fictional readers. Books can help characters, betray them, or offer a new twist in their journey.

Dr Karen Attar is the curator of rare books at the Senate House Library in the University of London, and author of new book Books, Readers and Libraries in Fiction.

She joins Emile Donovan from the UK.

A book cover showing two illustrated people reading on couches.

Photo: Supplied

10:45 Sports with Richard Irvine

Sports writer Richard Irvine joins Emile Donovan to recap the Blues Women's strong win, a big week for European football, and some notable New Zealand sporting career exits (Annalie Longo) and re-entries (Portia Woodman-Wickliffe).

11:07 Worlds of Music

Trevor Reekie hosts a weekly music programme celebrating an eclectic mix of 'world' music, fusion and folk roots.

Tonight, 

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