Nine To Noon for Wednesday 16 December 2015

09:05 Shortage of GP's in Northland

Northland GP practices are full to the brim and some patients with urgent needs are instead going to hospital emergency departments. Chris Farrelly of Manaia Primary Health Organisation, which serves nearly 100 thousand people in Northland, says the region needs double the current number of new GP's each year to meet growing demand. Northland is again listed as one of the hard to staff communities for doctors and midwives, by the Ministry of Health. Under the Ministry's Voluntary Bonding Scheme, graduates are encouraged to work in areas like Northland, and get help to repay their student loans in return.

09:15 Hacker Whisperer

In 2013 Katie Moussouris convinced Microsoft to do what many considered unthinkable. She got them to pay hackers bounties to find problems in their software. Now she's  the chief policy officer for a company called HackerOne and her job is to act as an intermediary between big tech companies and hackers who might want to report bugs rather than exploit them or sell the information to potential criminals.

09:30 Should you drink Kava and drive ?

Former police officer and soldier Dr Apo Aporosa has received a 2015 Pacific postdoctoral fellowship worth $230,000 from the Health Research Council of New Zealand to examine the effects of drinking kava, on driver ability and road safety. The study - the first of its kind - will use cognitive and driving simulation tests to access driver fitness immediately following high kava use, which is known to have soporific effects. It's estimated that there are more than 20,000 kava users on an average Friday or Saturday night in New Zealand. Most of these are consuming kava at volumes 32 times greater than pharmacologically recommended doses, with many then driving home.

09:45 Australia correspondent, Karen Middleton

10:05 US psychologist Philip Zimbardo

Philip Zimbardo is the American psychologist whose 1971 study on prison mentality exposed the ease at which participants playing the role of guards, began psychologically torturing their prisoners.The Stanford Prison Experiment centred on a group of college students who were deemed prisoners or guards at the flip of a coin and showed that within 24 hours those with power, used it mercilessly  - and the group who were prisoners succumbed to submission just as easily. In recent years he has turned his attention to the disconnect between males and the real world because of online pornography, and a lack of role models and positive interactions. Preofessor Zimbardo is also behind a new initiative Heroic Imagination Project, which stems from his work on what makes people do bad things - and instead focuses on what qualities make people act in heroic ways.

10:35 Book review: Six Days in Leningrad by Paullina Simons

Reviewed by Gina Rogers

10:45 The Reading

Chappy by Patricia Grace told by Jim Moriarty and Simon Leary  (Part 11 of 12)

11:05 Marty Duda features Dan Fogelberg

Artist: Dan Fogelberg
Song: Part Of The Plan (3:18)
Composer: Dan Fogelberg
Album: Souvenirs (1974)
Label: Epic

Artist: Dan Fogelberg & Tim Weisberg
Song: The Power Of Gold (4:32)
Composer: Dan Fogelberg
Album: Twin Sons Of Different Mothers (1978)
Label: Epic/Full Moon

Artist: Dan Fogelberg
Song: Same Old Lang Syne (5:20)
Composer: Dan Fogelberg
Album: The Innocent Age (1981)
Label: Epic/Full Moon

11:20 Demographer Paul Spoonley on our changing population

11:45 Arts commentator Courtney Johnston