Saturday Morning Podcast Options

8:10 AM.Damian Barr is an award-winning Scottish writer whose 2013 coming of age memoir Maggie & Me (about growing up gay in Thatcher-era Scotland), was The Sunday Times' Memoir of the Year. Read more Audio

11:43 AM.Peter Sellars is an American theatre director, noted for his unique contemporary stagings of classical and contemporary operas and plays. Sellars is professor at UCLA, where he teaches Art as Social… Read more Audio

11:08 AM.Mother, wife and community volunteer Husna Ahmed was of the 51 people killed in the Christchurch terror attacks in March 2019. Her husband Farid, 44, has written a book about his wife's bravery and… Read more Video, Audio

10:48 AM.Singer and songwriter Ria Hall (Ngai Te Rangi, Ngati Ranginui and Ngati Pukenga) has just released a new album Manawa Wera, inspired by classic 1970s reggae & soul and addressing the current social… Read more Video, Audio

10:07 AM.So far novel coronavirus has infected more than 80,000 people and caused over 2,800 deaths. Dr Chris Smith, consultant virologist at Cambridge University and one of BBC Radio 5 Live's Naked… Read more Audio

9:49 AM.Tesla coils are known for producing impressive arcs of electrical lightening, but thanks to Kiwi software engineer Josh Bailey they can also make music.  Read more Video, Audio

9:07 AM.Irish author Anne Enright won the Booker Prize in 2007 for her novel The Gathering. She returns with her seventh novel, Actress, which explores a daughter's complex relationship with her famous… Read more Audio

8:30 AM.Science writer David Quammen is the author of Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic. We'll ask him what we know about the animal origin of COVID-19 and what his experience studying… Read more Audio

8:10 AM.Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield joined Kim in the studio to discuss the significance of the first confirmed COVID-19 case in New Zealand and how the Ministry of Health is responding. Read more Audio

11:40 AM.Juggling his writing with a career in psychiatry, Stanley Makuwe moved to New Zealand from Zimbabwe in 2002 during the Robert Mugabe regime. In his play Black Lover, which get its premiere in an… Read more Audio

11:05 AM.Guy Garvey's the lead singer of the English band elbow who will play in Auckland in June. elbow was formed in the town of Bury near Manchester in 1997 by college mates Garvey (lead vocals, guitar)… Read more Audio

10:35 AM.Pioneering Nepalese eye surgeon Dr Sanduk Ruit has saved the sight of an estimated 130,000 people around the world using small incision, low cost, cataract surgery. Working alongside New Zealander… Read more Audio

10:05 AM.Praised by the likes of Salman Rushdie and Ali Smith, Namwali Serpell's debut novel The Old Drift reputedly took her nearly 20 years to write. It weaves together "...ideas and experiences of… Read more Audio

9:40 AM.Jennifer Ward-Lealand is an actor, director and te reo Māori advocate. She talks to Kim Hill about the great gift of being given the Māori name 'Te Atamira' (which means 'the stage'). Read more Audio

9:05 AM.The development of generic drugs has been one of the most important developments for public health, making medicines cheaper and more accessible, especially in developing countries. But what are the… Read more Audio

8:30 AM.Australian moral philosopher and professor at Princeton University, Peter Singer's work challenges people to question whether their behaviour is ethical and highlights blind-spots and moral… Read more Audio

8:10 AM.Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg stepped into the spotlight this week appearing on stage for a debate with five other candidates for the Democratic nomination. The billionaire has already spent… Read more Audio

11:05 AM.As "The Front Lawn", Harry Sinclair and Don McGlashan released two albums and made three short films between 1985 and 1990. Many of their songs such as "Andy", "When You Come Back Home" and "How You… Read more Audio

10:30 AM.Veteran actor Nathaniel Lees is part of the stellar Pasifika/Māori cast in a new film described as "The Karate Kid meets South Auckland".​ He talks to Kim Hill about how The Legend of Baron To'a… Read more Audio

10:06 AM.Scottish artist Katie Paterson collaborates with scientists and researchers to explore ideas of time, transience, and our place on Earth. She's broadcast the sound of a melting glacier, mapped dead… Read more Audio, Gallery

9:10 AM.UK heart surgeon Samer Nashef is a world-leading expert on risk and quality in surgical care. He's authored two memoirs about life inside the operating theatre: The Naked Surgeon and most recently The… Read more Audio

8:35 AM.A professor of management at San Francisco State University, Ronald Purser is a leading figure in the backlash against the mindfulness movement. He says that while mindfulness is promoted as an… Read more Audio