Sunday Morning for Sunday 6 October 2019

7:09 News and current affairs
 

7.11 Keith Quinn: Watching the Rugby World Cup unfurl

The All Blacks opening pool clash with South Africa drew a cloud of criticism on social media, which repeated when Steve Hansen named the team to play Canada in Beppu on Monday and struck again over forces at play guiding referees in this tournament. But the All Blacks coach was having none of it and drew a firm line in the sand over the fuss. Wallabies coach Michael Cheika, meanwhile, erupted in the wake of his side's 29-25 defeat to Wales in a Pool D classic at Tokyo Stadium on Sunday night.  Keith Quinn looks back at what's been an entertaining week for all sorts of reasons.

 

7.20 Tracing ocean plastic to its source

Most of the plastic washing up on the shores of Inaccessible Island, a UK protectorate in the Tristan da Cunha group, in the middle of the South Atlantic ocean, comes from a place we haven't fully considered. We assume that a lot of the flotsam in the Pacific ocean gyres comes from big rivers in Asia mostly, and from us, too.  But it's hoped not just governments but the International Maritime Organisation will sit up and take notice of a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It's been conducted by a team from the University of Capetown, led by ecologist Professor Peter Ryan.

 

7.25 Hong Kong: The Troubles with Christine Loh Kung-Wai

What will it take to quell unrest in the former British colony? This past week saw what was perhaps inevitable, the shooting of a teenage student by police. The street violence in the days since has been the worst since the protests began. Christine Loh Kung-Wai joins us again. Christine's a scholar at Hong Kong's University of Science and Technology. She's a former Legislative Councillor, and founder of the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor. She's also a former Hong Kong "Woman of the Year", and author of the book 'Underground Front: The Chinese Communist Party in Hong Kong'.

 

7.32 The House

A weekly digest of the events in Parliament with Daniela Maoate-Cox and Phil Smith.

This week The House explores the abortion law reform process so far and how MPs make decisions.

 

7.45 Calling Home: Hola from Barcelona

Calling Home, where New Zealanders talking about their lives overseas.  Wellingtonians Olivia Mitchell and Tony Burns sold up everything, including horses and a large rural property in Whiteman's Valley near Wellington, set up their public speaking training business so it still provides an income, learned Spanish and fulfilled a long-held dream to move to Barcelona.

 

8.10 Insight The Reserve Bank governor taking on the Aussie banks

The big Australian-owned banks are making record profits here, and Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr wants to rein them in. But will he damage the economy? Guyon Espiner investigates.

Produced by Philippa Tolley.

 

8.37 How we read in the digital age

How does reading online affect your ability to take in what you're reading and could it have an impact on how much you read printed material?

A new survey by Read NZ reveals we are losing the ability to absorb longer material, especially online. Some people find reading long and challenging content is harder than they did in the past, and concentrating is more difficult. The chief executive of Read NZ Te Pou Muramura, formerly NZ Book Council, Jo Cribb, joins Jim Mora to look at how our online habits are changing our reading habits.

 

9.06 Mediawatch

Covering Climate Now saw all of New Zealand's major media companies upping their environmental coverage but it was still eclipsed by the rugby World Cup; and New Zealand Herald journalist Keith Ng on covering the protests in Hong Kong as a Cantonese speaker. 

Produced and presented by Jeremy Rose.

 

8.30 Three Minute Max

Wellingtonian Siobhan Leachman says she misses the Wellington central library after it was closed down because of earthquake risk earlier this year

 

9.37 Gin Wigmore - bringing Romeo & Juliet to the stage

In 1996 Australian filmmaker Baz Lurmann made a big splash by putting Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet on the big-screen in a contemporary setting. Helping to colour the movie's moods and reflect the mid-90s pop-culture was its soundtrack featuring big name acts Radiohead and Garbage and soon to be huge hits from The Cardigans and Des'ree. The soundtrack will be celebrated over two nights, December 7 and 8, at the Civic in Auckland with an all-star cast of local singing talent, supported by a 30-piece orchestra, choir and full rock band. Gin Wigmore is one of the stars of this show.

 

10.06 What multiligual nuns can tell us about dementia

A longitudinal study of the School Sisters of Notre Dame in the US, has discovered surprising insights into the impact speaking many languages has on a person's likelihood of developing  dementia. The ground-breaking Nun Study has been studied since the 1980's and is now a complete, data rich cohort of more than 600 nuns. Public health professor at Waterloo University in Canada, Professor Suzanne Tyas, has studied the nun's brains and drawn fascinating conclusions from those who spoke multiple languages.

 

10.35 Anne Unkenstein - How do you remember?

Anne Unkenstein, is a Melbourne-based clinical neuropsychologist who helps people cope with memory illnesses, including those with dementia and their families. Dr Unkenstein's new book, Memory-wise explains how memory works and the changes that can occur as we age, especially during menopause and how to minimise the effects.

 

11.05 Frank Dikotter - ruling with the cult of personality

The cults and propaganda surrounding the dictatorships of Hitler and Stalin to Mao Zedong and Kim Il Sung are revealed in a new book by the Dutch historian, Frank Dikotter.  How to Be a Dictator describes how these men built their regimes and maintained their public images and how those dictatorships influenced Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Now these leaders are using new technologies to target citizens directly, exploiting the cult of personality to achieve the illusion of popular approval without ever having to resort to elections.

 

11.35 In the long run, funny women satisfy men more

Research shows that in early courtship, it's generally the man who performs the role of the joker and women are the receptive ones, but over time the roles are reversed and it is the men who crave the humour from their wives and partners. Indeed, when women produce more humour, they have happier husbands. Professor Jeffrey Hall has conducted studies into the role humour plays in relationships and joins the show to discuss.