Saturday Morning for Saturday 14 December 2019

8:10 UK election results

With the Conservative Party recording a resounding victory in the UK general election, we ask what happens now to Boris Johnson's Brexit deal to remove the UK from the European Union? How did the campaign go so spectacularly wrong for Labour and its leader Jeremy Corbyn? And what about some of the other major issues- the future of the NHS, spending on education and policing, and the lingering question of Scottish independence- how have these been affected by the vote?

To answer these questions and more we speak to Professor Richard G. Whitman and Jonathan Freedland.

Jonathan Freedland is a British journalist, who writes a weekly column for The Guardian. He presents BBC Radio 4's contemporary history series, The Long View, and also writes thrillers, mainly under the pseudonym Sam Bourne.

Professor Richard G Whitman is an associate fellow of the Europe Programme at Chatham House (formerly known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs. He is also the director of the Global Europe Centre and professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent.

8:30 Jessica Hobbs: award-winning NZ director of The Crown

Last week at the UK Women in TV and Film Awards Helena Bonham-Carter declared New Zealander Jessica Hobbs to be her 'favourite director' as Hobbs was awarded the "Director of the Year" award.

Hobbs has been directing Bonham-Carter and Olivia Colman in the fourth series of the wildly popular Netflix show The Crown.

Also under her belt are stints on Broadchurch and the four part TV thriller Apple Tree Yard.

Christchurch-born Hobbs got her first big break directing Australian show Heartbreak High after 8 years as an assistant director.

9:05 Sir Peter Snell has died

Famed New Zealand Olympic middle distance runner Sir Peter Snell has died, age 80. We talk to RNZ sports reporter Barry Guy.

9:10 Barry Magee on Sir Peter Snell

Barry Magee, who trained with Sir Peter Snell under Arthur Lydiard. 

9:15 Brittany Kaiser: ex-Cambridge Analytica employee talks back

Former business development director for Cambridge Analytica, turned whistleblower, Brittany Kaiser is a central figure in the Netflix documentary The Great Hack.

Over time, her role in building up a business founded on serving up targeted ads to voters to influence the outcomes of elections worldwide has come under scrutiny.

Kaiser presents her version of events in a new book: Targeted.

Meanwhile in an ironic twist she's now become a privacy advocate, calling on the big tech companies to do a better job of protecting and preserving the wealth of information they hold about us.

 

10:05 Douglas Murray: railing against 'groupthink' in The Madness of Crowds

The controversial British author and journalist Douglas Murray challenges "wokeness", identity politics and groupthink in his new book The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity.

In the book, described as a 'right wing diatribe' by The Guardian, he examines public discourse around the hot-button issues of gender and race and considers the role that technology and the #MeToo movement has played in the culture wars.

11:05 Faustin Linyekula: Congolese choreographer and dancer

Dancer and choreographer Faustin Linyekula left his home country of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1993.

He escaped during the final years of the rule of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko before a period of political upheaval and civil war and the 2001 assassination of its then leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila.

Over this period millions of people were killed or displaced, and the country cemented its position as one of the world's poorest countries.

Linyekula will visit New Zealand in February 2020 to perform his work In Search of Dinozord at the New Zealand Festival of the Arts.

In Search of Dinozord is the result of an invitation by Peter Sellars to mark the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s death and the composer’s Requiem informs the work, which recounts how the history of Linyekula’s country has affected his friends in Kisangani, the city where he grew up.

11:35  Peter Butler: building a predator-free sanctuary on Cape Farewell

Self-described hippie Peter Butler helped set up HealthPost, a thriving Golden-Bay-based online natural product business.

He's now on a mission to protect local wildlife.The focus of his efforts is a 1200 hectare tract stretching from Wharariki Beach to the tip of Farewell Spit.  A Trust was established in 2017, and so far more than $150,000 has been donated to the project, which has been used for predator trapping, fencing, camera monitoring and planting trees.

Working with DOC and local iwi he's now built a 200 metre long fence to isolate the headland at Cape Farewell, creating a sanctuary to restore populations of birds, skinks and insects after decades of decimation by predators.

 

Books mentioned in this show

Targeted: The Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower's Inside Story of How Big Data, Trump, and Facebook Broke Democracy and How It Can Happen Again
Brittany Kaiser
ISBN: 9780062965790
Published by Harper Collins.

The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity
Douglas Murray
ISBN: 978-1635579987
Published by Bloomsbury

 

 

Music played in this show

Song: Red Bull & Hennessy
Artist:  Jenny Lewis
Played at: 9:54

Song: Anaconda
Artist: Nicki Minaj
Played at 10:05