Sunday Morning for Sunday 26 November 2023

8:10 Kim Hill: The Jim Mora interview 

On Saturday, Kim Hill brings the curtain down on a 38-year career at RNZ. After making her name as an unparalleled interviewer, she switches places and let Sunday Morning’s Jim Mora ask her questions. 

8:40 Ali Hill: The Nutrition Edition 

Dr Ali Hill from Otago University's Department of Human Nutrition joins us once again. This time she looks at the link between fructose and obesity and also the dangers of fried rice syndrome. 

9:00 Mediawatch 

This week Mediawatch asks the country’s most powerful media watchdog why it is now calling for new laws to hold the media to account - and looks at why music journalism is vanishing from our media.  Also - how the media covered the long process of forming a new government. 

9:40 Catherine de Lange: The best exercise for the mind 

Most of us feel better once we get the blood pumping a bit, but are there exercises that work better for our mental health than others? 

Catherine de Lange is a science author, specialising in bioscience. She has written the book Brain Power: Everything you need to know for a healthy, happy brain.  

She digs into the science behind exercise and our mental health. 

10:10 Anna Ptaszynski: The strange and interesting world of sport  

If you've ever wondered what David Attenborough has to do with yellow tennis balls, why Victorian doctors feared the outbreak of 'bicycle face'; or what led ancient Egyptian athletes to have their spleens removed, the book 'Everything to Play For’ has your answer. 

It’s the brainchild of Anna Ptaszynski and James Harkin, both senior editors and scriptwriters for BBC quiz show QI (Quite Interesting). 

Anna joins Sunday Morning to tackle sport’s weirdest rules, its most unlikely heroes, and promises to cover everything from pole-vaulting priests to professional pillow-fighting.  

10:40 Daniel Oppenheimer: The Benefits of Handwriting 

Perhaps this year’s letter to Santa will reap more benefit than just what’s under the tree on Christmas morning. 

Daniel M. Oppenheimer is a professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences.  He discusses if the pen is indeed mightier than the laptop. 

11:10 Terry Hayes: bestselling author returns with “The Year of the Locust’   

‘I am Pilgrim’ was a worldwide bestseller in 2013 and THE Christmas present of the year. Nine years later Terry Hayes, now 72, is gifting his readers a follow up: ‘The Year of the Locust’.  

He returns to the world of intelligence with another spy novel, but this time with completely new characters.  

Hayes is a former journalist whose investigative work has led him to knock on the doors of the criminal underworld. His writing was noticed by the Mad Max film director in 1979, which led to a screenwriting career and a momentary, glamorous life in Hollywood. One million words later, Terry speaks to Jim.