Summer Times for Wednesday 13 January 2021

 

09:05 United States reaches political boiling point 

This morning the American House of Representatives is debating whether or not to impeach the President of the United States Donald Trump. 

The vote on impeachment will take place on Wednesday in America, tomorrow morning our time. There is just one charge of impeachment - "incitement of insurrection" over the invasion of the US Capitol last week. 

Five people have died as a result of the incident and dozens of people are being detained across the United States in connection with the violence and looting that took place. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has been removed from most of the major digital platforms he used, most annoyingly to him; Twitter. 

As well as a literal storming of the barricades last week the culture war in the US appears to be at absolute boiling point. To look at how we got here Emile is joined by Senior Lecturer in Politics at Auckland University Dr Maria Armoudian. 

09:20 Covid isolation on Easter Island 

Easter Island - Rapa Nui ... it sits 2000 kilometres west of Chile, and at the south east corner of Polynesia. 

Known for the towering stone heads or moai that sit on the island, tourists usually flock there. 

Of course there are no tourists flocking anywhere much at the moment, making things tough for people working in the industry. 

Marc Shields is a New Zealander who has been living and working on Rapa Nui with his family the past 12 years. 

Usually a tourism operator, Marc is using his spare time to make videos about life on the island. 

09:30 New Year's Resolutions: The Ultimate Letdown?

It's that time of the year when many of us feel motivated to make some ambitious resolutions.

But why do these resolutions - made with the best of intentions - so often fail? 

Sara Dolan, an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor University in Texas, joins us to explain.

09:40 Digital Wings working to reduce the digital divide 

If there's one thing that became abundantly clear during lockdown, it's that there's a massive digital divide in New Zealand. 

Digital Wings is a charitable trust that gets businesses to donate their old IT gear, which is then fixed up and donated to charities and community organisations working with getting youth back into work. Programme Director Dianne Daniels joins Emile to explain how it all works. 

10:00 The rogue police who sent freed slaves back to the south

The Black Lives Matter movement in America is an old fight with a new name.    

Police violence against African Americans has a very long history and ordinary people have long been the ones to stand up and demand change.  

Before the Civil War, escaped slaves came north for freedom in places like New York City where slavery was illegal.

But a reverse underground railroad operated by rogue police sent slaves, free black men and women and even children to the South.

Jonathan Daniel Wells is a professor of history at the University of Michigan who uses the past as a way to give context to the present. It’s called The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery, and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War.

10:30 Podcast: Are we there yet? 

11:00 Bookmarks: Alison Ballance

Today we're speaking to nature writer and science broadcaster Alison Ballance.

Alison is an RNZ taonga - she has long produced RNZ's Our Changing World and is the creator of other podcasts such as Kākāpō Files, and Voice of the Iceberg. 

Alison is also a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to natural history, filmmaking and broadcasting.

11:30 Blue Whales travelling NZ waters

A new study tracking the movement of the world's largest mammal has found a special New Zealand connection.

By using hydrophones, underwater microphones to you and me, researchers from Auckland University and NIWA pooled international resources to understand how Antarctic Blue Whales move around the Pacific Ocean.

One of the researchers tracking these giants was Associate Professor Rochelle Constantine and she joins Emille to speak about her research.   

11:45 Regional round up: Tony Ward

Our regional check ins continue, can you guess where Tony is calling in from?