Saturday Morning for Saturday 9 October 2021

8.10 Chris Dunphy: is there a greener future for logistics in New Zealand?

Coastal shipping and green hydrogen-powered trucking are part of  the future for freight in New Zealand believes Chris Dunphy, the new director of Move Logistics  — formerly known as TIL Logistics — one of the country's largest freight and warehousing businesses. 

Dunphy believes hydrogen will eventually replace diesel, and he's also looking to open up shipping and expand across the Tasman. Dunphy’s interest in greener alternatives has been propelled in part by his previous job: shipping and transportation in the Australian coal mining industry. 

8.35 Doireann Ní Ghríofa: the story of how we haunt each other

Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s prose debut A Ghost in the Throat eludes easy definition: at once a memoir, a piece of scholarship and autobiographical-fiction. The book combines Ní Ghríofa’s own story with her efforts to piece together the life of an 18th Century Irish writer Eibhlín Dugg Ní Chonaill, whose life — like many other women’s lives historically — had been left untold. It is in a way, she says, the story of “how we come to haunt each other”.

A Ghost in the Throat was the recipient of An Post Irish Book of the Year for 2020 as well as the 2021 James Tait Black Prize for biography.

The Cork-based writer will be appearing by link as part of the Verb Readers & Writers Festival in Wellington on Saturday 6 November.

9.05 Sir Billy Connolly: a windswept and interesting life

It was while working as a welder in the Glasgow shipyards that Billy Connolly discovered he had a knack for comedy. With his fearless and outspoken approach to life — which includes his wardrobe — the Scotsman carved out a remarkable 50-year career and garnered a cult following with his outrageous sense of humour.

Following a double diagnosis of cancer and Parkinson's Disease, Sir Billy no longer performs live around the globe, but is settled in Florida with his wife, New Zealander Pamela Stephenson — who he says saved his life.

Sir Billy has just released his first full-length autobiography, Windswept and Interesting.

 

9.35 Miles Benton: diagnosing serious illnesses cheaper and faster

Dr Miles Benton had the idea for portable, bedside sequencing in hospitals when his son was born eight weeks premature. He knew there was technological capability to have a diagnosis within the hour for the meningitis doctors suspected his son had — rather than the 48 hours it took to get a lumbar puncture. 

Benton is a senior bioinformatician at the New Zealand’s Institute of Environmental Research (ESR), leading research into innovating technologies to remotely sequence genomes far from the lab. There's been much talk about genome sequencing for Covid-19, but Benton’s work is concerned with significantly improving treatment times for many serious illnesses.

 

10.05 Playing Favourites with East Coast musician Rob Ruha

After pressing pause on live performances a few years ago, musician Rob Ruha is ready to share new music with the world again. Following the career-high of opening for Phil Collins at his rain-soaked Hastings' show in 2019, Ruha (Te Whanau-a-Apanui, Ngāti Porou) decided he needed to take a break from the stage and restoke his creative energy.

Now Ruha has released his highly-anticipated third album Preservation of Scenery, the title a play on words that originate from the Scenery Preservation Act 1903. 

The album isn’t the only thing keeping Ruha busy, he and wife Cilla have been announced as the musical directors for the 2021 APRA Silver Scroll Awards taking place next month. 

Ruha joins the show from the East Cape to play a few favourite tunes.

 

11.05 Devery Jacobs: subverting expectations with new show Reservation Dogs

Mohawk actress Devery Jacobs is one of the stars of Reservation Dogs, an eight-part series created by Taika Waititi with Native American filmmaker Sterlin Harjo. The dark comedy follows a ragtag group of teens living on a reservation in rural Oklahoma and has been called “a watershed for indigenous representation” for the way it treats the Native American narrative.

With the second season of Reservation Dogs already confirmed, Jacobs has joined the show’s all-Indigenous writing room, which is almost doubling in size, to bring her perspective as someone who grew up with the legacy of the Kanesatake Resistance.

Reservation Dogs is screening on Disney+ in New Zealand.

11.35 Painting with facts: artists examine the life of the mysterious lobster

The lobster is a creature that likes darkness, preferring to live its days being hidden away from sight. But the enigmatic crustacean undergoes a thorough literary, historical, artistic, and scientific examination in The Lobster’s Tale. This beautiful picture book is the result of a collaboration between poet and author Chris Price with distinguished photographer Bruce Foster — Price’s words weave legend with fact, while images by Foster thread subversive perspectives into the conversation.

The Lobster’s Tale is the third in the kōrero series published by Massey University Press and edited by Lloyd Jones (Mister Pip, The Book of Fame, Paint Your Wife). 
 

 

Books mentioned on this show:

A Ghost In The Throat
By Doireann Ni Ghriofa
ISBN: 9781916434264
Publisher: Tramp Press

Windswept and Interesting
By Billy Connolly
ISBN: 9781529318265
Publisher: Hachette

The Lobster’s Tale
Words by Chris Price
Photos by Bruce Foster
ISBN: 9780995137813
Publisher: Massey University Press

 

Music featured on the show:

Western Island
By Archie Fisher
Played at 9.35am

Taera
Rob Ruha
Played at 10.04am

Ko te tohu
Ruia
Played at 10.15am

Hamuera
Te Kapa Haka o Te Whānau a Apanui
Played at 10.30am

35
Ka Hao (featuring Rob Ruha)
Played at 10.36am

I've Found My Smile Again
D'angelo
Played at 10.52am

ReZdReamZ
Sten Joddi
Played at 11.05am

Rock Lobster
The B52s
Played at 11.32am