Saturday Morning for Saturday 14 November 2020

8:10 Dr Chris Smith: how exciting is Pfizer's vaccine news?

News that a collaboration between Pfizer and BioNTech has produced an effective coronavirus vaccine sent world stockmarkets soaring this week.

Pfizer said early results suggest the vaccine is more than 90 percent effective in preventing the disease among trial volunteers who had not previously been infected.

With no safety concerns as yet, the results have been described as "stunning".

So is this the breakthrough we have all been waiting for? And can people now start thinking about booking that overseas trip in mid-2021?

We'll ask our regular guest, Dr Chris Smith, consultant clinical virologist at Cambridge University, and one of BBC Radio 5 Live's Naked Scientists what he makes of the news.

8:30 Tim Harford: How to Make the World Add Up

COVID-19 has put the power and accuracy of statistics at centre stage. Infection rates, 'R' numbers, new cases, hospital admissions and the data underpinning new vaccines are being used by the media to tell stories about the pandemic, and are scrutinised daily to make vital public health decisions.

It is familiar territory for 'undercover economist', journalist and broadcaster Tim Harford who explores the beauty of statistics, and their uses, abuses and shortcomings in his new book How to Make the World Add Up.

The book is Harford's eighth following his bestseller The Undercover Economist, and the popular book (and BBC podcast) 50 Things that Made the Modern Economy.

9:05 Marlon Williams: new album and solo tour ahead

Alt-country troubadour Marlon Williams is releasing a new album on Dec 11. It's his first new music since 2018's award winning Make Way For Love, which was written in the wake of his breakup with Aldous Harding.

Recorded during the Canadian winter of 2018 "Plastic Bouquet" is a collaboration with Saskatoon-based folk duo Kacy and Clayton.

Marlon will treat us to an acoustic performance of the album's first single" I Wonder Why".

He's also announced his first solo tour in six years, playing 26 shows in venues all around the country, ranging from big cities to small towns, in February, March and April next year. Details here

As well as music he's been taking on acting roles including a cameo appearance in A Star Is Born, and roles in True History of The Kelly Gang, and yet to be released feature Lone Wolf.

9:35 Golriz Ghahraman: finding her place in Aotearoa

Iranian-born Golriz Ghahraman arrived in New Zealand with her parents as a 9-year-old.

In 2017 she made history when she became the first New Zealand MP with a refugee background.

She studied human rights law at Oxford and has practiced as a lawyer in New Zealand and in United Nations tribunals in Africa, The Hague, and Cambodia dealing with war crimes and human rights atrocities.

The Green MP writes about the quest to find her place in Aotearoa New Zealand in her autobiography Know Your Place.

10:05 James McIntyre: singing dogs and intersex pigs

For decades he's been studying one of the rarest and most publicity shy breeds of dog on the planet.

Now American zoologist and retired biology teacher James 'Mac' McIntyre has made his breakthrough discovery.

Through DNA tests conducted on animals trapped on a series of intrepid expeditions through Papua New Guinea and West Papua, he's managed to establish that the New Guinea Singing Dog- also known as the New Guinea Highland Wild Dog- still survives in the wild.

Until this discovery the breed was only thought to survive in a captive (and highly inbred) population scattered around the globe. Mac's the founder of the New Guinea Highland Wild Dog Foundation and has another highly specialised research interests: intersex pigs in Vanuatu.

11:05 Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje: how a Black British kid ended up in a skin-head gang

British actor, model and director Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje's film Farming is based on his childhood experiences growing up in Essex, east of London.

It tells the story of a young Nigerian boy 'farmed out' by his parents to a white British family in the hope of a better future. Instead, he joins a white skinhead gang.

Farming premieres on Rialto Channel, Saturday 14 November at 8.30pm with further screenings in November and December. More info here:

11:40 Kathy Baughman McLeod: naming heat waves like hurricanes

Kathy Baughman McLeod is Director and Senior Vice President of the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center at the international affairs think tank, The Atlantic Council.

Working on the intersection between business and future environmental risk, her old job at Bank of America involved planning the investment of US$125 billion into eco friendly projects by 2025.

She also led a team at the Nature Conservancy using natural infrastructure (and tailored insurance policies) to reduce storm and flood risk in low lying economies through Latin America, Australia, Asia, the US, and the Caribbean.

An author and documentary producer, Baughman McLeod now wants us to start naming heat waves like hurricanes to highlight the impact of the world's changing climate.

Books mentioned in this show:

How to Make the World Add Up: Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers
by Tim Harford
ISBN: 1408712245
Published by The Bridge Street Press

Know Your Place
by Golriz Ghahraman
ISBN: 9781775541424
Published by HarperCollins NZ

Music played in this show

Song: I Wonder Why
Artist: Marlon Williams
Played at 0915

Song: Jolene
Artist: Dolly Parton
Played at 1105