Saturday Morning for Saturday 9 April 2022

8.10 Dr Chris Smith: is the XE variant cause for concern?

Our regular commentator, Cambridge University consultant clinical virologist Dr Chris Smith joins us with the latest Covid-19 science, and to answer your questions.

This week, the World Health Organization is warning of a new Covid-19 variant known as XE, a combination of the original BA.1 Omicron variant and its subvariant BA.2. It is thought this recombinant variant could be 10 percent more transmissible than the Omicron BA.2 variant currently sweeping across New Zealand. And while it's early days yet, there have been more than 600 reported cases of XE in the United Kingdom.

Send your questions for Dr Chris Smith to saturday@rnz.co.nz or text 2101.

 

8.35 Dr Chris Thorogood: the secret life of parasitic plants

Dr Chris Thorogood fulfilled a childhood dream last month after travelling deep into the Philippines rainforest to lay eyes on the otherworldly Rafflesia banaoana. The rare parasitic plant is the most elusive species of the genus named after Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of modern Singapore, and is only found in the deep rainforests of Luzon island.

Thorogood is believed to be the first Westerner to see the pungent plant, his trip aided by local botanists and achieved with permission of the indigenous Banao community. Upon finding the bright, smelly bloom, Thorogood says he was reduced to tears.

Dr Chris Thorogood is a botanist at Oxford University, deputy director of Oxford Botanic Garden and author of multiple books about plants.

 

9.05 Jenny Pattrick: bringing New Zealand history to life through storytelling

Known for her historical fiction, Jenny Pattrick is one of New Zealand’s best-selling novelists. She has had 10 novels published since her acclaimed 2003 debut The Denniston Rose, yet Pattrick came to be published quite late in life. Prior to becoming an author, Pattrick had an active professional life in the arts including 35 years as an acclaimed jeweller known for her work in silver using paua, pounamu, and natural fibres.

Now aged 85 Pattrick’s latest novel Harbouring - which she says may be her last - brings her interest in history close to her Wellington home. Set during the time of the New Zealand Company settlement of Te Whanganui-a-Tara in 1839, it focuses on the stories of three characters all desperate for a better life, two Welsh and one Māori.  

Pattrick was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to the arts back in 1989. She recently started blogging on her website jenny-pattrick.com.

 

10.05 Prof John Logan: Amazon and the US union movement 

Workers at an Amazon warehouse on Staten Island made history last week when they voted to form the company’s first ever US union since it was founded nearly 30 years ago. The success of the grassroots Amazon Labor Union flies in the face of the retail giant’s efforts to squash union drives, which includes spending more than $US4.3 million just on anti-union consultants last year.

The win also follows union victories at six Starbucks coffee shops in Buffalo, which were also won by worker-led organisations. Professor John Logan, who teaches labour studies at San Francisco State University says it is an astounding result, and could signal a comeback for organised labour in the United States.

 

10.35  Dr Peter Wills: testing the origins of life on Earth 

The prevailing theory of how life started on Earth is about to be put to the test by Auckland biophysicist Dr Peter Wills and a team of international collaborators. The RNA World theory states that molecules of RNA self-replicated in the primordial soup, thereby kick-starting life on Earth.

Dr Wills and his US-based colleague Professor Charlie Carter don’t buy the theory, and posit that RNA was unlikely to replicate itself. They say a better bet is that RNA and peptides evolved together to create the first genetic code.

The pair have received a $US2 million grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to test their theory over the next three years, during which time Dr Wills says they should be able to firmly establish the plausibility of their hypothesis.

11.05 Cate Le Bon:  embracing escapism in California’s Joshua Tree

Originally from Wales, avant-pop artist Cate Le Bon has made her new home in Joshua Tree National Park, in southern California. Lured by the surreal cactus-dotted landscape last year, Le Bon relocated to the desert after finishing her sixth solo album Pompeii.

Le Bon wrote the record in the uncertain atmosphere of the unfolding pandemic, finding herself stuck in her hometown of Cardiff, after traveling to Iceland to produce an album for friend and fellow musician John Grant.

As a result Pompeii has been described as “a disorienting record, one wholly appropriate for our time”.

 

11.35 Sam Duckor-Jones: painting the church pink in Greymouth

What began with an internet search for the cheapest house in New Zealand led Sam Duckor-Jones to buy an old Anglican church in Greymouth, which he then doused in pink and renamed Gloria. Duckor-Jones describes Gloria as a sculpture for the community and a beacon for queerness.  

A poet and sculptor, Duckor-Jones is also employed by the Grey District Youth Trust as Youth Art Space Champion, and works with West Coast creative space Art4Me.

His latest book of poetry is Party Legend with Te Herenga Waka University Press.
 

 

Books mentioned in this show:

Harbouring
By Jenny Pattrick
Pubilshed by RHNZ Black Swan
ISBN: 9780143776673

Party Legend
By Sam Duckor-Jones
Published by Te Herenga Waka University Press
ISBN: 9781776564231

 

Music featured on this show:

Harbour
By Cate Le Bon
Played at 11.06am

The Cruise Room
John Grant
Played at 11.30am