Sunday Morning for Sunday 11 February 2024

8:10 There are good reasons you’re feeling so tired after the holidays

Most of us who took some time off over the holidays will be getting back into the swing of things by now. But why are we feeling so tired?  

Professor Ian Hickie, Co-Director of Health and Policy at The University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre has been looking into it and his conclusions aren’t as intuitive as we’d think.  

8:30 Jack Whaley-Cohen: The Sunday Quiz  

Quiz master Jack Waley-Cohen joins us once again as our Sunday Morning question master.    

Jack is the mind behind the questions on BBC quiz show Only Connect which is known for being both difficult to crack and totally obvious.   

It’s Sunday morning, so wake up your brain and have a go!  

8:35 Dr Zazie Todd: How pets benefit our brains 

Dr Zazie Todd, Sunday Morning's go-to expert on both cats and dogs joins us once again with more scientific, pragmatic and joyful ways to lead happy lives with our pets. 

She's the award-winning author of Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy and Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy. She's the creator of the popular blog, Companion Animal Psychology, and she's currently putting the finishing touches to a book on fear and anxiety in dogs, due out this year. 

9:10 Mediawatch 

Mediawatch looks at how the media covered this year's Waitangi commemorations and the political tensions over the Treaty in the background. Mediawatch also looks at Sky TV suddenly putting rugby, netball and league on TV for free this season.   

9:35 Eric Bana on dealing with leeches while filming in rural Australia 

Force Of Nature: The Dry 2 is in cinemas now. The follow up to the hugely successful The Dry sees five women taking part in a corporate hiking retreat with only four coming out the other side. Australian actor Eric Bana stars as detective Aaron Falk who heads off into the Victorian mountain ranges to get to investigate the disappearance.  

Filmed on location Eric described filming as “pretty brutal” & “a real physical challenge to cast and crew”, but ultimately worthwhile. “We really loved being where we were, once you took the leeches out.” 

He joins Jim Mora to discuss his formidable career, acting techniques and his latest role. 

10:10 Calling Home: Chris Bruerton in Oxford, England 

In 2010 Chris Bruerton left a teaching job he loved at Burnside High School in Christchurch, to pursue his dream of becoming a professional singer in the UK.  

Chris’s gamble paid off... Just two years after making the move he joined the GRAMMY award winning acapella group The Kings Singers. 

Despite now calling Oxford, England home, a busy tour schedule sees Chris and The Kings Singers spend almost 6 months a year on the road. 

He calls home ahead of the the Kings Singers’ performances in Auckland, Wellington & Christchurch in March. 

10:30 Research shows people with OCD die younger 

Lorena Fernández de la Cruz is a Senior Researcher and Docent Professor at Sweden's Karolinska Institutet, where she leads the Health Consequences and Lifestyle Modification group. 

Her recent study into OCD revealed that people with the condition are 82% more likely to die earlier than the general population. The study, which looked at 60,000 Swedish people with OCD, comparing them to the non-OCD general population found that for those with OCD the mean age of death is 69 years, whilst the non-OCD population lived to a mean age of 78. 

Lorena joins Jim to explain the results of the study. 

10:45 Las Vegas gears up for its first ever Superbowl 

The Superbowl is the biggest event in the US sporting calendar. It’s easy to forget but amongst the adverts and halftime show there is also an American Football game. Monday afternoon (NZ time) see’s The Kansas City Chiefs – Taylor Swift’s boyfriend Travis Kelce’s team – take on the San Francisco 49ers. 

This year's event takes place in Las Vegas. It’s the first time a Superbowl has ever been held in the city and marks another step in Sin city’s attempt to move away from its gambling and partying roots to become an international sporting hub. 

Mike Grimala, Sports reporter at the Las Vegas Sun gives us the rundown on what to expect from the big game. 

11:10 Are humans allergic to the modern world? 

 An estimated 30-40% of the global population suffer from allergies, be they hay, peanut, lactose or something less common. That’s billions of people, and the number just keeps rising. 

According to Medical anthropologist and Associate Professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology Theresa MacPhail " Our very old immune systems can’t keep up with modern lifestyles and diets” 

In her book Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing World Theresa examines the mostly unwanted phenomenon that has us sneezing, coughing, and carrying around epi-pens. She joins Jim Mora to discuss: What are allergies? Why do we have them? And is there anything we can do about it? 

11:45 Do New Zealanders really want a Treaty referendum? 

For over thirty years Rangahau Aotearoa Research New Zealand has helped dozens of government and not-for-profit organisations understand what Aotearoans are thinking across a range of social issues.  

In the lead up to Waitangi Day they conducted a nationally representative survey to uncover people's key issues of concern. 

Research NZ managing partner Emanuel Kalafatelis joins Jim to discuss the surprising results.