Saturday Morning Podcast Options

11:40 AM.Megan Dunn joins the show to discuss the intersection of art and life, looking at the ways art is and isn't good for our wellbeing. This week: Megan visited an art therapist, and liked it. Read more Audio, Gallery

11:05 AM.Huge advances in genetics mean prenatal testing for conditions such as Down syndrome can now be done faster and with much less risk. That is where genetic counsellors like Jonathan Roberts come in. Read more Audio

10:05 AM.A piece of chewing gum snatched from the side of Nina Simone's Steinway piano more than 20 years ago has become the subject of a new book by musician Warren Ellis. Best known for his work with Nick… Read more Video, Audio

9:40 AM.Local food growers are increasingly employing beneficial insects as biocontrol agents to keep pests and diseases in check, meaning less reliance on pesticides. At Bioforce in Karaka, rural south… Read more Audio, Gallery

9:05 AM.British author and journalist Will Storr says we've been competing for status for millions of years, before we were even human. His new book The Status Game: On Social Position and How We Use It… Read more Audio

8:35 AM.In the 1960s Mary Quant broke the mould of conventional fashion with her creative and playful designs that personified the energy of Swinging London. Famously credited for creating the mini skirt… Read more Audio

8:10 AM.Tens of thousands of Russian troops have been massing near the Ukrainian border sparking international concern of an impending invasion. With tensions mounting, US president Joe Biden has lent support… Read more Audio

5:35 PM.It's very easy to view people who commit criminal offences as "moral strangers", says Professor Tony Ward, but we all have the same innate human needs. Read more Audio

4:05 PM.Among the fascinating characters hovering around The Beatles in Peter Jackson's documentary Get Back is Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the director charged with making a film out of the band's rehearsals for… Read more Audio

11:55 AM.Listener feedback 4 December 2021. Audio

10:35 AM.In 2018, N.K. Jemisin became the first author to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel in three consecutive years, each award going to a book in her widely-heralded Broken Earth series. As a child the New… Read more Audio

10:07 AM.When Swedish artist and mystic Hilma af Klint died in 1944, she left behind more than 1300 works, only seen by a handful of people. The discovery of her paintings decades later has turned art history… Read more Audio, Gallery

9:35 AM.Later this month the James Webb Space Telescope will be shot into space, and when it reaches its destination - approximately 1.5 million kilometres from Earth - the massive telescope will slowly… Read more Audio, Gallery

9:05 AM.Oxford mathematician Marcus du Sautoy says humankind's laziness might just be its saving grace. Despite being frowned upon, du Sautoy says our inherent reluctance for hard work can often lead us to… Read more Audio

8:10 AM.A strain of Hindu nationalism, Hindutva, has grown in global prominence since 2014 under Indian prime minister Narendra Modi's BJP party. Now tensions are rising in the Indian community, both here and… Read more Audio

5:35 PM.When Scott Guy was shot dead at the gate of his family farm in Feilding 11 years ago, and his brother-in-law was charged with his murder (later acquitted), six of Jo Guy's grandchildren were made… Read more Audio

11:30 AM.It's only small, but as a city Whanganui is rich in design. This month the city was announced as New Zealand's only UNESCO City of Design, one of 40 such cities worldwide. Hamish McDouall has been… Read more Audio, Gallery

10:35 AM.How viable is hydrogen as a major power alternative? Is it the key to a lower carbon economy and this country being more energy self-sufficient? Christopher Boyle believes so. He's the co-founder and… Read more Audio

10:05 AM.She's a bestselling, prizewinning author with her own bookshop in native Nashville, Tennessee, but in her new collection of essays This Precious Life Ann Patchett reveals that below the surface of any… Read more Audio

9:05 AM.How do we determine and stand up for what is rational in 2021? Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker tackles this question in his new book Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters. Read more Video, Audio

8:25 AM.When the Taliban took over Kabul, Afghanistan in August, Nowroz Ali feared for his life. A wanted man for many years for his work with the New Zealand Defence Force, he was supposed to be on a… Read more Audio

8:10 AM.A new heavily mutated Covid variant is causing global alarm. Our regular commentator, Cambridge University consultant clinical virologist Dr Chris Smith joins us to discuss. Read more Audio

5:35 PM.Preeminent literary magazine Sport was founded by writers Damien Wilkins, Elizabeth Knox, Nigel Cox and their Victoria University Press (VUP) publisher Fergus Barrowman in 1988. Sport folded in 2020… Read more Audio

11:55 AM.Listener feedback from the Saturday Morning programme. Audio