Summer Times for Friday 8 January 2021

 

09:05 Tackling farmer health, face to face

Dr Tom Mulholland has made it his mission to look after the heart health of farmers for most of the past decade.

He has a 1988 retro V8 ambulance kitted out for doing blood pressure and cholesterol tests, but also, old fashioned house calls to be what you might call the ambulance at the top of the cliff for farmers under time and financial pressure.

Dr Tom has talked to thousands of people on farmer's physical mental and social health, saved and changed more than a few lives.  He's also developed an app called KYND Wellness to help farmers track their own health.

To use the app, enter the code N8PGGFF if you're a farmer, or BKYND4NZ if you're in an urban area. 

09:20 The magic of bird song

Some of you may remember that recording of the tui we played recently...the tui from Huka Falls that appeared to be singing the opening bars to 'No More 'I Love You's' by Annie Lennox...

One of our listeners emailed in from Alexandra afterwards to say he used software to slow down recordings of bird songs - to hear each individual sound - and there is a lot more information contained in there than one might think.

Massey University Professor Dianne Brunton, who heads the Institute of Natural and Computational Sciences, and specialises in the bio-acoustics of native bird song, joins us to tell us more about this fascinating area of research.

09:30 Stalking the hills - the history of deer cullers 

In the 1930s deer that had been introduced into New Zealand were declared a noxious pest. 

Originally brought over by colonists for trophy hunting - the animals were believed to be responsible for soil and land erosion. 

Thus began the era of the deer cullers, who before helicopters were used, roamed the high hills of the country shooting deer. 

Paul Roy used to come across them when he was a tramper and mountaineer. 

He's now telling their story through an oral history project. 

09:40: Left jandals for sale on TradeMe

Now to a rather unusual TradeMe auction that has created a bit of a stir online this week...

The listing advertised "three left footed jandals looking for a match" and the auction closed this morning.

The man responsible for this, Greg Clark, joins Jesse Mulligan to explain. 

09:45 Great NZ Album 2020 

Today Jesse's playing tracks from Ria Hall's 2020 release Manawa Wera. 

10:00 Susan Rogers - from Prince, to the psychology of music 

In a warehouse in Minneapolis back in 1983,  legendary artist Prince asked his newly hired sound technician to set up to record Let's Go Crazy, a song that would become one of his greatest hits.

In that moment Susan Rogers went from sound tech to sound engineer.  

She was the power behind the throne for some of Prince's most successful albums including  Purple Rain, and  Sign o' the Times.   

Then she walked away  from Prince  to pursue a PHD and is now a professor at the prestigious Berklee college of Music where she explores the psychology of music.  

Last year the Prince estate released a remastered version of Sign o' the Times with 63 previously unreleased tracks.

Susan Rogers recorded some of them.

10:30 Podcast Black Sheep 

11:00 Bookmarks: Wallace Chapman

This summer we're talking to some of RNZ's favourite hosts and contributors about their favourite books, songs, podcasts and more.

And today Jesse catches up with the host of RNZ's The Panel, Wallace Chapman, in the Auckland studio. 

11:30 Catherine Ross 

Working in a school library keeps Catherine Ross in a steady supply of books 

It's her job to give recommendations so students at Diocesan School in Auckland to girls between the ages of 11 and 18. 

She joins Jesse to talk books, and give a few recommendations. 

11:45 Regional Round up

Every day Summer Times goes to a different part of the country, and listeners must guess where our guest is.