Nine To Noon for Thursday 4 May 2023

 

 

09:05 NZ should follow Australia on vaping laws to combat youth “epidemic”

Educators and public health experts want New Zealand to follow Australia's lead and ban recreational vaping to address what they describe as a growing epidemic in young people. Some school principals here are reporting children as young as eight being caught with e-cigarettes at school, while other children struggle with addiction. Ministry of Health statistics show the number of young New Zealanders aged 15 to 17 who vape every day has quadrupled in three years, from two percent in 2018-19 to eight percent in 2021-22. For rangatahi Māori, particularly girls, vaping rates are even higher. Australia's crackdown includes a ban on recreational use of e-cigarettes, limiting vape flavours, bringing in "pharmaceutical-style" packaging, reducing nicotine content, banning disposable vapes, and halving imports of non-prescription e-cigarettes. Our government has ruled out following suit - at least in this term. Kathryn speaks with Dr Anita Jagroop-Dearing, associate professor at Eastern Institute of Technology in Hawke's Bay, researching why students vape, and how to bring rates down. Also, Shane Ngatai is the principal of Rhode Street School in Dinsdale, Hamilton. 

09:30 Notorious 'death flight' plane to return to Argentina

A grim piece of Argentina's history is set to be returned to the country - a Skyvan plane once used in so-called "death flights" by the military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983. Victims of the regime were thrown alive from the planes into the Atlantic Ocean. In 2010 one of the planes - Skyvan PA-51 - was tracked to Fort Lauderdale in the United States, and its logs dated all the way back to the time of the death flights - including one notorious flight in December 1977. Joining Kathryn to detail the incredible story behind how the plane was found, and how those flying it were brought to justice is Argentine journalist and author Uki Goñi. He was working for the Buenos Airies Herald at the time, knew most of those on the plane and narrowly escaped being rounded up with two of the victims.

09:45 UK: Local elections and voter ID laws, plus the King's coronation

UK correspondent Dan Bloom joins Kathryn to detail the 8000 seats being contested across 230 councils in England and Northern Ireland - as well as what good results would look like for Labour and the Conservatives. The elections will be the first at which photo ID will need to be produced - how will that go down with voters turning up to the polls? And he'll talk about the countdown to King Charles' coronation.

10:05 Technology historian Dr Jonnie Penn on where humans could be left in the AI race

Every day seems to bring a new headline about artificial intelligence. Some are good, but many raise concerns about the impact of developments in the technology. This week the so-called "godfather of AI", Dr Geoffrey Hinton, quit Google as he outed his concerns about the "existential risk" posed by digital intelligence. Since ChatGPT's public release late last year there's been an explosion of its use, and a massive amount of investment by Big Tech in similar large language models. But it's also prompted calls for a half-year pause on further AI training amid worries about where humanity could be left as systems advance. So is the speed of AI developments concerning? And where are humans left in the AI race? Kathryn speaks with Dr Jonnie Penn, Assistant Teaching Professor of AI Ethics and Society at the University of Cambridge, Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University, and Associate Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence. He's also the author of the number 1 New York Times bestselling book 'What do you want to do before you die?'. And he's in New Zealand for the Future State event, being run by Spark Lab and Semi Permanent, which looks at the driving forces behind the next era of tech innovation.

10:35 Book review: Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

Melanie O'Loughlin reviews Big Swiss by Jen Beagin, published by Faber & Faber

10:45 Around the motu : Peter Newport in Queenstown Lakes & Central Otago

There's a three stage bypass road currently being built in Queenstown, but Peter says it is far from clear what the destination of the bypass is. And as the local accommodation crisis goes from bad to worse the latest groups to be hit are pet-owners and the elderly. Also a massive population explosion in the region is putting pressure on waste services.

Peter Newport is the Managing Editor of Crux, based in Arrowtown.

11:05 Technology: Google DeepMind merger, LLM food, Qualcomm chip claims

Tech correspondent Mark Pesce joins Kathryn to look at the merger of two of Alphabet's big AI teams: Google Brain and DeepMind. Can both put past differences aside to work well together? It comes as AI chatbots explode in popularity - but what are they being trained on? The Washington Post looked into it - and found disturbing results. And what truth is there to claims cellphones with Qualcomm chips are secretly snooping on you? Mark Pesce is a futurist, writer, educator and broadcaster. 

11:25 Can you love your children too much?

Kathryn speaks with clinical psychologist and mother of two Jacqui Maguire, who's tackling the question "Can you love your children too much?" When does loving your child crossover into over indulgence? And what is the impact of this?

11:45 Screentime: Pathfinders, The Diplomat, A Small Light

Film and TV reviewer Tamar Munch joins Kathryn to talk about Pathfinders (TVNZ), a local series that looks at Māori leaders who were raised through the challenging years where te reo Māori was shunned. She'll also talk about Netflix's The Diplomat starring Keri Russell as the newly-appointed US Ambassador to the UK and the turbulent relationship to a political star. And A Small Light (Disney) looks at the story of Miep Gies, the Dutch woman who risked her life to shelter Anne Frank's family during World War II.