Sunday Morning for Sunday 3 March 2024

8:10 Are we still safe in the skies? 

Boeing 737 Maxes with loose bolts; on one plane a door plug blew out, leaving a hole in the side of the aircraft. Airbuses too with problems, one only remedied because a passenger noticed four missing screws on the plane’s wing.  

Statistically we’re told that being in a plane is 19 times safer than being in a car. Is that still true? 

Shawn Pruchnicki is a former airline pilot who's now a professor of aviation safety at Ohio State University . 

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!   

8:40 The most effective exercise to lower blood pressure   

A study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine suggests isometric exercises like wall sitting (or wall squats) help reduce blood pressure more effectively than other forms of exercise – including weight training, high-intensity intervals (HIIT), and simple aerobic movements.   

Dr Jim Wiles is principal lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University in the UK. He joins Jim on Sunday Morning to discuss the study and whether we should all be incorporating the wall sit into our routines.  

9:00 Mediawatch 

Mediawatch looks critically at the New Zealand media - television, radio, newspapers and magazines as well as the 'new' electronic media. 

9:40 Peter Burling and Blair Tuke pick their best sailing song 

On the weekend of March 23rd of SailGP returns to Whakaraupō, Lyttleton Harbour. With the New Zealand team currently in second place just behind Australia, a home win could see them sail to the top of the leaderboard.  

Legendary sailing duo, best mates Peter Burling (Co-CEO and Driver) and Blair Tuke (Co-CEO and Wing Trimmer) join Jim to talk about life on the waves, and to pick their best sailing song of all time. 

10:10 Royal correspondent Ingrid Seward’s new book explores King Charles’ relationship with his mother 

Royal biographer Ingrid Seward joins us to unpick the relationship between King Charles III and his mother the late Queen Elizabeth II.  

With her unparalleled access and deep understanding of the monarchy, Seward delves into the intricate dynamics of this pivotal relationship within the royal family offering unprecedented insights into the bond between mother and child.  

Her latest book “My Mother & I” is out now via Simon & Schuster. 

10:40 Catch up on the US presidential race ahead of “Super Tuesday”  

Statehouse News Bureau chief Karen Kasler joins us ahead of Super Tuesday, the day when the largest number of US States hold their Presidential Primary elections.  

Former president Donald Trump is once again the leading republican candidate. His only challenger, former Govenor of South Carolina Nikki Haley currently trails him by almost 100 delegates. This is even though according to Ms Haley’s spokeswomen "There are 70% of Americans who don't want another Biden-Trump rematch and 60% of Americans who think Biden and Trump are both too old". 

11:10 Jenny Lynch: Former NZ Woman’s Weekly editor pens debut novel at 85 

The Secrets They Kept is the debut novel by 85-year-old former editor of the NZ Woman’s Weekly, Jenny Lynch. The story of a young woman’s quest to discover the truth about her mother’s unexplained death – and her own identity. 

11:30 Timothy Heath: Are we entering a “neomedieval era”? 

Timothy Heath is a senior international defense researcher at the RAND Corporation.  In a recent paper, argued that to understand the risks involved in superpower competition between the US and China, we must understand that we now live in what the authors describe as a “neomedieval era.”