Nine To Noon for Tuesday 5 April 2022

 

 

09:05 The cost of covid on important neurological research

From brain recovery and sleep research to epilepsy in tamariki Māori - nearly 100 neurological research projects have been disrupted due to Covid. 1 in 5 Kiwis are affected by conditions like dementia, stroke, epilepsy, Parkinson's, brain injury, and over 700 more.  The pandemic has disrupted researchers working on preventions, treatments and cures in 92 different projects, with some losing a year's worth of lab work. The Neurological Foundation has come up with over $1.2m to support researchers during the lockdowns, and to provide funds to get those projects back up and running. Kathryn speaks with Dr Thomas Park, who's researching glioblastoma - an aggressive brain and spinal cord cancer, and Dr Deidre Jansson who's researching the impact of poor sleep on brain repair and recovery.

09:30 The community programme helping youth to lead

The Hyundai Pinnacle Programme is an outdoor experience course which focuses on helping young people to explore and to achieve their potential. It has three stages, a Spirit of Adventure voyage, Outward Bound and also an outdoor experience Kai Waho. Former Silver Fern Bernice Mene has led the programme for eight years.  She says it allows student to learn about themselves, their place in the world through the lens of Te Ao Māori, and the environment. And Aimee Elliott, is a graduate of the Pinnacle Programme. She's now in her twenties and works for Fonterra.  

 

09:45 USA correspondent Ron Elving

President Biden will be adding new sanctions against Russia because of what has happened in the town of Bucha in Ukraine, calling for a war crimes trial against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Rising gas prices and inflation in the US means emergency oil stocks will be tapped to relieve high prices at the pump. Also Ron speaks to Kathryn about a crime wave in cities with the latest deadly mass shootings in normally placid Sacremento. And there's mounting evidence that last year's January 6 insurrection was orchestrated from the White House.

Ron Elving is Senior Editor and Correspondent on the Washington Desk for NPR News.

 

10:05 Agatha Christie's greatest mystery - her own 11 day disappearance

It remains a mystery fit for the Queen of Mystery herself - the question of what happened to Agatha Christie during her 11 day disappearance in 1926. Although a successful author by this time, she was reportedly shaken by her husband Archie's request for a divorce so he could marry his mistress, Nan. Agatha never revealed what happened in those 11 days - not even in her own autobiography. She was eventually found at a spa hotel in Yorkshire, booked under the mistress' surname. American author Nina de Gramont has imagined what might have happened in her new book called 'The Christie Affair', but in a bit of a twist - tells it from the perspective of the mistress, Nan O'Dea

 

10:35 Book review:  Matrix by Lauren Groff

Sonja de Friez reviews Matrix by Lauren Groff, published by Penguin Random House NZ

10:45 The Reading

Carol Smith with part one of Confrontation by Elizabeth Smither

11:05 Business commentator Pattrick Smellie

Pattrick discusses Air New Zealand's capital raise, saying no serious investor wants to touch airline stock, so it is very deeply discounted, but that in turn is causing the small-time Sharesies-type investors - who've piled into Air NZ basically because they've heard of it - to get a sharp lesson in sharemarket realities. Also are people resuming their pre Omicron shopping patterns?. 

Pattrick Smellie is the editor and co-founder of BusinessDesk and has reported on the New Zealand economy and business since 1983.

 

11:30 Three tiny bookshops deep in Fiordland

Ruth Shaw is a bibliophile from way back and she started with one bookshop in Manapouri, but that's now multiplied to three, to cater to readers with different interests. She believes there's a right book for every person. Her memoir, The Bookseller at the End of the World, contains stories of her adventures at sea,  musings about her favourite books and the reader gets to know some of the characters who visit her bookshops. But it is also a memoir with deeply personal and painful happenings in her life.
 

 

11:45 Financial Planner Liz Koh - what to do on a squeezed budget

Liz Koh says with higher interest rates and rising inflation many families will feel a squeeze on their finances. We are likely to see big increases in short term debt as families struggle to cope with financial stress. She says now is the time to take action and stop spending.

Liz Koh is a financial planner and specialising in retirement planning. This discussion is of a general nature, and does not constitute financial advice.