Saturday Morning for Saturday 21 October 2023

8.10 Gregg Carlstrom: Israel-Gaza latest

Egypt has agreed to open the Rafah crossing to allow trucks carrying aid into Gaza, in a conflict that is escalating two weeks on.

Gregg Carlstrom is a Middle East correspondent for The Economist, based in Dubai. He has covered the region for over ten years. His reporting and analysis on the Middle East has been published in Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic and Politico. His first book was How Long Will Israel Survive: The Threat From Within.

8.25 Climate activist and actor Fehinti Balogun

Accomplished british actor and climate activist Fehinti Balogun isn't angry about climate change. He's furious.

The Dune and I May Destroy You actor has presented at the UN COP26 climate summit, the Scottish Parliament, Cambridge University, and the YouTube Creator Summit.

He's making a digital appearance at the Nelson Arts Festival this weekend with Can I Live?, an hour long spoken word and hiphop show exploring environmental activism.

8.55 Rugby with Rarere

The All Blacks are playing Argentina for a place in the Rugby World Cup final.

After beating Ireland in a nail-biting quarterfinal, NZ is expected to beat Argentina to play either England or the Springboks in next weekend's final.

RNZ Rugby commentator Nathan Rarere joins from his living room in Te Atatu.
 

9.05 Paul Lynch on his Booker shortlisted novel Prophet Song

Irish novelist Paul Lynch's latest book Prophet Song was shortlisted last month for this year's Booker Prize.

The novel is set is a dystopian version of Dublin, after an unspecified crisis has tipped the government towards tyranny, and society towards collapse.

Lynch's other novels are Beyond the Sea, Grace, The Black Snow and Red Sky in Morning. 

 

9.35 Simon Tisdall: Israel-Gaza going global?

Could the Israel-Gaza war ignite a wider conflict, between the US and Iran?

In his latest writing for The Guardian, foreign affairs commentator Simon Tisdall explains why this is a possibility.

 

10.05 Kate Mulgrew: where no woman has gone before

Before her Emmy nominated role as flawed but lovable Galina 'Red' Reznikov in Orange is the New Black actor Kate Mulgrew was perhaps best known for playing Captain Kathryn Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager, the first female captain for the franchise.

As a member of the SAG-AFTRA actors' union, Mulgrew is currently on strike, but is in Auckland this weekend appearing at pop culture convention Armageddon.

10.40 Danyl McLauchlan: the rise of Bronze Age Pervert 

Writer Danyl McLauchlan joins Kim to tackle life's big questions, ideas and thinkers.

This week he looks at Bronze Age Pervert (BAP), an until-recently anonymous internet personality and influential far-right thinker.

BAP's writing and commentary is an intentionally slippery and absurd mix of memes and inside jokes about homophobia, bodybuilding and ancient Greece.

Behind the clownish facade however is a philosophically sophisticated argument for fascism which has alarmed mainstream conservatives.

 

11.05 Lisa Simone: celebrating my mother Nina

Emmy award-winning singer and composer Lisa Simone is touring Australia with a tribute show to her legendary singer-songwriter and pianist mother Nina Simone with her tour 'Keeper Of The Flame' A Daughters Tribute to Dr. Nina Simone.

While carrying a torch to Nina's repertoire, Lisa has endeavoured to come to terms with her notoriously difficult mother.

Lisa released her first solo album All is Well in 2013, and co-produced the 2016 Oscar-nominated Netflix documentary about her mother's life, What Happened, Miss Simone?

 

11.40  Toby Manhire: Election aftermath

A week on from the General Election, editor-at-large at the Spinoff Toby Manhire reflects on lessons learned during the times of previous National and Labour opposition, with cautionary tales for Labour now "the tide has gone out."

Toby Manhire is host of the Gone By Lunchtime podcast. He's a former editor of the Guardian’s comment pages, and edited the books Wikileaks- Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy, The Arab Spring: Rebellion, Revolution and a New World Order and The Spinoff Book.

 

Books featured on the show

Prophet Song
by Paul Lynch
Published by Oneworld
ISBN  9780861546862

Bronze Age Mindset 
by Bronze Age Pervert
ISBN 978 1983090448

Tom Lake
by Ann Patchett
ISBN 9781526664280

 

Music played in this show

Chaos Space Marine
Black Country, New Road
Played at 10.34am

House of the Rising Sun
Nina Simone
Played at 11.24am

Mississippi Goddam
Nina Simone
Played at 11.28am