Summer Weekends Podcast Options

10:45 AM.What does it take for some of our top athletes to get on the Road to Rio? The Olympic Games start in August but many of our athletes hoping to qualify for the New Zealand Olympic team have everything… Read more Audio

10:30 AM.23 year old Jessikha Leatham-Vlasic has a 16 month old son, and they and her partner live with her family in West Auckland. Even with all that support, she's found it a struggle at times to complete… Read more Audio

10:07 AM.From the Saudi lamb deaths to beaten bobby calves and puppy mills, animal welfare has been in the news a lot. Dr Mike King from Otago University's Bioethics Centre, and Associate Professor in the… Read more Audio

9:40 AM.Don Wilson was a member of Ebony, The Heartbreakers and wrote The Ballad of Happy Feet about a penguin that turned up on the Kapiti Coast a few years ago. He's due to release a new album in 2016 and… Read more Audio

9:28 AM.Moths tend to fly under the radar when it comes to scientific research despite the fact they're important pollinators for plants and food source for native birds. But a new Citizen Science project in… Read more Audio

9:06 AM.Dell McLeod and Simon Johnston from Dunedin are behind Organic Veg/Edible Gardening Advice - Aotearoa, New Zealand. Dell set it up a year ago and since then it has attracted hundreds of people from… Read more Audio, Gallery

8:45 AM.Editor of daily newspaper the Wairarapa Times-Age Andrew Bonallack talks about the big issues facing newspapers, his district and what makes Wairarapa so special. Read more Audio

8:25 AM.New Zealand has an aging population, and so often that's painted as some kind of doomsday scenario. But with medical advances, education, awareness and personal activity trackers, many can expect to… Read more Audio

8:10 AM.Marnie Prickett is part of group touring around the country to draw attention to diminishing water quality. She is part of the Choose Clean Water tour, traveling down the east coast of both islands… Read more Audio

11:45 AM.MiXit is a community programme that helps young refugees and migrants to Auckland to express themselves creatively and develop skills through performance and workshops.The founder of MiXit Wendy… Read more Audio

11:35 AM.Chris Morrison from the Isle of Harris shares his grandmother's porridge recipe. Read more Audio, Gallery

11:08 AM.Lynn Freeman travels to the Outer Hebrides off the coast of mainland Scotland. Also known as the Western Isles, it's actually an island chain that includes the Isles of Skye, Mull, Benbecula, Barra… Read more Audio, Gallery

10:45 AM.Violin player and busker Elisabeth Auchinvole is a Wellington based performer and event organiser who will be taking part in The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in the New Zealand Festival. Read more Audio

10:30 AM.When she was just 27 Jessica Weller was diagnosed with cancer at the start of her OE. She survived that and is now determined to improve the way the health system tends to young people with cancer… Read more Audio

10:07 AM.How useful is it to label some types of behaviour as diseases? Senior Lecturer at the University of Otago's Bioethics Centre Neil Pickering looks at when a disease is not really a disease. Read more Audio

9:30 AM.Taranaki's Waitara coastline is coming under intense scrutiny over the next few months, as the focus of a new Citizen Science project. It's part of a government initiative called A Nation of Curious… Read more Audio

9:06 AM.When he was just 13 David Lomas started writing for a Wellington newspaper, his last quarter of a century's been spent in television. In between he worked for newspapers, RNZ and The Listener among… Read more Audio

8:45 AM.Find out about the issues facing Southland with television producer and broadcaster Tom Conroy. It's an area that benefits from fertile agricultural land and some tourist meccas like Stewart Island… Read more Audio, Gallery

8:35 AM.2015 has been another tough year for many workers as employers keep looking for ways to save money in tough times. We wanted to find out about the most common employment problems workers are facing… Read more Audio

8:10 AM.Design shapes our world, our environments, and our everyday. Where is design going, what's interesting and exciting about it, what's working, what's not? For The Weekend's design panel Lynn Freeman is… Read more Audio, Gallery

11:50 AM.Busker Mimi Gilbert is a native of Ojai, California - a valley town in Ventura County known for its new age hippyish vibe. In recent years Mimi has spent much of her time in New Zealand; performing… Read more Audio, Gallery

11:38 AM.While most of us run from, scream at or squish spiders Te Papa's bug man Phil Sirvid just loves them. Phil spends his life working with and identifying spiders for the national museum. Read more Audio, Gallery

11:20 AM.Why toss out that sofa or chair when you can give it a whole new lease on life? Dave Buxton has practised upholstery for many years and is willing to share his process. Audio

11:06 AM.Dunedin City Council Heritage Planner Glen Hazelton takes Lynn Freeman to meet developers who are both dedicated and crazy enough to take on severely dilapidated old warehouses - we're talking more… Read more Audio, Gallery