Sunday Morning for Sunday 27 January 2019

7:11 Ron Mark, Minister of Defence off to Middle East and Africa

Defence Force Minister Ron Mark is on his way to Africa and the Middle East. He's going to be meeting with New Zealand defence force personnel who're part the Multinational Force and Observers mission on the Sinai Peninsula, the United Nations Truce Supervisory Organisation  on the Golan Heights and the UN Mission to South Sudan.

7:40 Three Minutes Max: Verity Johnson

Commentators from all over New Zealand get the chance to have a say on what's been bothering them throughout the week. Media commentator Verity Johnson's got some thoughts about the recent Gillette ad causing upset.

7:45 2019 Auckland Folk Festival: Hayden Donnell

The 2019 Auckland Folk Festival finishes up today. It started on Friday at the Kumeu Showgrounds. To wrap up the event today a Tui will be handed out to the Best Folk Artist. The finalists are two-time winners Great North, Jono Heyes and the Frank Burkitt Band. Hayden Donnell's with the Great North, as well as a folk musician he's also well-known for his writings on The Spinoff and his Lightbox series Get It To Te Papa. He explains where he finds the time to also be part of an award wining folk band and what he thinks his chances are of a third win.

7:50 Calling home: Joanne Black

Each week an ex-pat gives their perspective on events we read about in New Zealand. As well as talking about their lives abroad they will be weekly citizen reporters talking about how international stories are viewed where they live. The first ex-pat is Joanne Black who's still contributes to the NZ Listener but from her new home in Washington D.C

8:05 Insight:

8:40 Three Minutes Max: Lizzie Marvelly

Commentators from all over New Zealand get the chance to have a say on what's been bothering them throughout the week. Singer, activist and columnist Lizzie Marvelly offers her thoughts on summer drug-taking.

8:45 David Tamarkin: Food writer talking 'Nextovers'

Cooking can seem like a chore. David Tamarkin's mission is to turn it into a joy. The New York-based chef is the man behind the Cook90 challenge, which urges participants to cook 90 meals in 30 days. He wants people to start seeing cooking as a fun activity in itself - rather than something to endure in order to get to the rest of their evening. This year 150,000 people signed up to the challenge on Tamarkin's website Epicurious. He's released a book to help guide them on their journey: Cook90: The 30-Day Plan for Faster, Healthier, Happier Meals.

9:05 Mediawatch

9:40 Mike Merrill: Man who sold shares in himself

In 2008, Mike Merrill divided himself into 100,000 shares valued at $1 each and became the world’s first publicly traded man. The theory behind his move was simple: if a stock offering could work for Amazon or Google, why shouldn’t the same principles apply to a human being? Since then, he’s seen his stock price rise and fall, batted away hostile takeovers, and dealt with competing shareholder interests, all while holding down a full-time job. But the most life-altering part of his undertaking has been allowing shareholders to vote on his decisions, ranging in magnitude from whether to invest in a Rwandan chicken farm to whether to get a vasectomy. In 2019, Merrill’s shares are valued at around US$5, and he’s mulling the future of his venture.

 

10:10 Dr Peter Turchin: academic concerns for the future of civilisation

It’s easy to look at the news and feel like civilization is collapsing. Peter Turchin’s job is to subject that feeling to the rigors of science. Turchin, a professor of ecology and mathematics at the University of Connecticut, works in the field of cliodynamics, which uses mathematical models to assess historical data, in an attempt predict the future of society. He believes we’re living at a pivotal time in history, where rising inequality, dropping living standards and political instability are converging to put civilization at risk. If he’s right, we’re heading for an “instability apex” in the 2020s, which he says could cause widespread political violence.

 

10:40 Three Minutes Max: Alan Blackman

Commentators from all over New Zealand get the chance to have a say on what's been bothering them throughout the week. Auckland University of Technology Professor Alan Blackman on the perils and amorality of payday loans.

10:45 Rufus Wainwright: singer, songwriter and composer

Life’s changed a lot for Rufus Wainwright in the two decades since he released his debut self-titled album and its acclaimed follow-up Poses. These days the American-Canadian singer-songwriter is a devoted father who says his worst vice is reading too much news about Donald Trump. Back then he was nursing a burgeoning addiction to crystal meth, and living - by his own confession - extremely debaucherously. While he’s has no plans to return to those wilder times in practice, Wainwright is revisiting the surprisingly understated songs they produced in his Poses world tour, which will see him performing dates at the Auckland Town Hall and the Wellington Opera House in March.

11:05 Ollie, Harry and Mac Ferguson: small boys on big adventures

Ollie and Harry Ferguson are adventurers. The Scottish brothers have sent Lego men into space, forged their own bushcraft knives, mummified a fish, and slept out in the wild. Most famously they’ve sent a toy pirate ship halfway around the world, tracking it from the North Sea to the coast of Barbados and capturing the attention of worldwide media in the process. The boys’ exploits started in 2014, when together with their parents MacNeill and Vicki Ferguson, they made a list of 500 adventures to go on by the time Ollie turned 18. Progress has been quick so far, with  279 of the list’s entries already ticked off. But the going is about to get tough. The boys are planning a coast-to-coast crossing of the Scottish mainland this year. You can follow their progress via their Facebook page called The days are just packed.

 

 

 

11:20 Mel Schwartz: psychotherapist, speaker  and author

Mel Schwartz is a psychotherapist in Manhattan, a marriage counsellor as well, and a well-known public speaker in forums like Ted talks. Mel is regarded as an emerging voice in the field of personal transformation He's also an online hit with his talk on how to get rid of anxiety. In his latest book, The Possibility Principle: How Quantam Physics Can Improve the Way You Think, Live and Love he advocates avoiding "to be words". He explains how these words are impeding happiness and what people should be avoiding.

 

11:50 World Chocolate Cake Day: Laurel Watson

January 27 is both the date of Jim Mora's first Sunday morning show on Radio New Zealand and, even more importantly, National Chocolate Cake Day. Laurel Watson has spent more than a decade as a professional chef and baker, and can chart the evolution of chocolate cake from its earliest known recipe - a butter-soaked guide to an early grave printed in 1847 - to its more health-conscious modern day incarnations. Watson is a professional cupcake baker has tips for how to make the perfect chocolate cake, though she says her personal preference would be to just eat cheese on crackers.