Saturday Morning for Saturday 2 March 2024

8:10 Dr Judith Mackay: Tobacco industry critic on NZ's fight for control

The world-first law that would have created a smokefree generation in Aotearoa New Zealand was repealed under urgency by the coalition government on the 28th of February. 

Dr Judith Mackay is the Director of the Asian Consultancy on Tobacco Control and a senior advisor to the World Health Organisation. With 40 years experience fighting the tobacco industry and raising awareness of the dangers of smoking, she's been labelled one of the most dangerous people in the world by 'Big Tobacco'.

Dr Mackay joins Susie Ferguson to discuss what the legislation repeal means for New Zealand.

8:45 John Sharp: Why IVF is at risk in post-Roe America

A week ago, Alabama's Supreme Court ruled that embryos were "extrauterine children".

In the wake of the judgement, IVF clinics across the state closed their doors, and law-makers scrambled to pass legislation to protect fertility treatment. 

John Sharp covers politics in Alabama for news site al.com. He joins Susie to explain how the court case came about and why the ruling has revealed division within the Republican party.

9:05 Colum McCann and Diane Foley: 'American Mother' 

The loss of a child is unbearable. To lose them in a brutal public beheading, unimaginable. 

But then to come face to face with their killer?

This encounter between mother and murderer forms the opening chapter of Colum McCann's latest book: American Mother

In it, the legendary Irish author tells Diane Foley's story, detailing the months and years after her son's capture by Islamic State, and her desperate campaign to bring him home.

9:35 Photographer Fiona Amundsen: Nuclear (in)visibility

Fiona Amundsen is a photographer and associate professor at AUT's School of Art and Design.

Her latest exhibition 'Blowing in the wind', continues her interest in military history, exploring the aftermath of nuclear testing in the Pacific.

The images, developed using seawater from Guam, make the usually invisible, visible, showing us the historic radiation that lives on in the environment, and the people, today. 

10:05 A.C. Grayling: 'Who Owns The Moon?'

Against a backdrop of a new, increasingly privatised, space race, philosopher and author A.C. Grayling, asks an ever-more urgent question: Who Owns the Moon? 

It's also the title of his latest work, in which he explores the new lust for this last 'terra nullius', and argues that competition inevitably leads to conflict.

10:40 Kowtow founder Gosia Piatek

Clothing label Kowtow has built a devoted following since its inception in Wellington back in 2006.

Founded by Gosia Piatek, Kowtow's garments not only look good, but are made with 100 percent certified Fairtrade cotton - traced from seed-to-garment.

Its ethos to reduce waste sees the company after 17 years, reach another sustainability milestone - zero percent plastic in its new clothing  - and it wants others to follow suit. 

11:05 Playing Favourites with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa 

One of New Zealand's finest musical exports, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, has a voice that has taken her all over the world.

After earning New Zealand's first-ever gold record, she went on to perform at Prince Charles' and Princess Diana's royal wedding. More recently, fans enjoyed a cameo appearance on the television show 'Downtown Abbey'.

Since retiring in 2017, Dame Kiri has dedicated herself to supporting up-and-coming opera singers through the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation.

She joins us from her home in the Bay of Islands ahead of a milestone birthday, to play her favourite tracks, offering a rare insight into the woman behind the voice.

 

Books featured on the show:

American Mother
By Colum McCann and Diane Foley 
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 9781526663474

Who Owns the Moon? In Defence of Humanity's Common Interests in Space
By A.C. Grayling
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 9780861548637

 

 

Music played in this show

Track: Love & Flowers 
Artist: Les Imprimes
Time played: 8:57am

Track: Blue Moon
Artist: Beck
Time played: 10:40am

Track: Massed pipe and drums Band of Brothers
Time played: 11:17am

Track: Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Frederica Von Stade singing, Soave sia il vento, cosi trio
Time played: 11:24am

Track: Elgar, Chanson de nuit
Time played: 11:31am

Track: Otello,  Ava Maria, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Solti conducting
Time played: 11:39am

Track: Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Songs of the Auuvergne, Bailero
Time played: 11:47am

Track: Vangelis, Conquest of Paradise
Time played: 11:51am

Track: Dance with my Father
Artist: Luther Vandross
Time played: 11:58am