Features

Every year, Pieter grows more than 300,000 stems of white miniature cymbidiums in his greenhouses near Pukekohe. Three-quarters of the blooms are exported to Japan for weddings and funerals. Audio

Video - The self-described “same-sex symbol, Māori princess and mum-of-three with one in the oven" takes inside the making of her sixth album Anika Moa, which is out this Friday.

The APRA Silver Scroll songwriting awards take place on October 4th at Auckland's Spark Arena. They've been running since 1965 and have recognised everyone from Ray Columbus to Lorde. Nick Bollinger gives us a rundown of what the awards are all about.

Iconic Kiwi singer Jenny Morris will be inducted to the NZ Music Hall of Fame this week. She chats to Nick Bollinger - who she first met back in the 1970s - about Frogs, Crocodiles and a Beatle's advice.

William Dart takes a brief but fun jaunt through a number of tracks with duetting singers before settling on the new album, Anchor, from the partnership of mother and daughter Norma Waterson and Eliza Carthy. Video, Audio

The RNZ Sport team chat to rugby league star Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, reveal the latest on a proposed Pacific-based Super Rugby team and check in with recent happenings in Paralympic sport on Extra Time. Video, Audio

Kiwi cuisine in the 1950s was meat-heavy, but not bland or colourless and gets a bad rap from food historians, writes John Bluck in episode seven.

After 25 years, Midwestern slo-core trio low take a sonically challenging left turn. Nick Bollinger takes a listen. Audio

New Zealand researchers are studying the sweet potato as a helpful food for promoting healthy bacteria in an infant's gut.

Dunedin-based musician and composer Dudley Benson chats to Trevor Reekie about the eight-year enterprise that is his ambitious and uncompromising 2018 album Zealandia. Video, Audio

Graham Berry no longer receives power bills. Instead, each month the born-and-bred Coaster receives a monthly pay-cheque for the electricity he puts into the grid. Audio, Gallery

The partnership between Burt Bacharach and Dionne Warwick was a recipe for some “incredibly sophisticated pop music” Graeme Downes says. Audio

Northland musician and actor Troy Kingi breaks down the bones of his Silver Scroll nominated song Aztechnology, from his high concept, space funk album Shake That Skinny Ass All The Way To Zygertron. Video, Audio

Opinion - Neither the Roosters nor the Storm are easy bandwagons to jump on, but both have Kiwi representation and there's plenty of spice for the casual observer, Jamie Wall writes. 

Find out the connection between Charles Wesley's hymn 'And Can It Be' and the plant species Sagina in Hymns on Sunday this week. Audio

Mexican guitar vituosos Rodrigo Y Gariela perform at WOMAD in Taranaki.

Almost 60 years after the pill arrived in NZ, there is still no male equivalent. Are men willing to step up? And why aren't pharmaceutical companies coming to the party? Bonnie Sumner investigates.

Have a listen to Wes Montgomery’s back catalogue, the Maria Schneider Orchestra and alto player Kenny Garrett, plus music from the Wellington Jazz Orchestra’s album “Journey Home”, and Japanese pianist Hiromi.

Review - Britain alone is worthy of a whole chapter in the 2018 Planet Earth Joke Book - but this film seems blissfully unaware of it all, going through the motions as if repeating the same old tired clichés is enough, Dan Slevin writes.  Video, Audio

Noa was 16 when he found out he was going to be a father, and didn't tell his family until after his daughter was born. He's created a support network for New Zealand's teenage fathers.

Toto's guitarist Steve Lukather has played with Aretha Franklin, George Benson, Joni Mitchell, Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson. He spoke to Wallace Chapman before Toto's NZ tour in January. Video, Audio

We chat to Mercury Prize-winners Wolf Alice ahead of their NZ show; Silver Scroll hopefuls Marlon Williams, Chelsea Jade and Ruban Nielson join us to talk through their finalist songs; we've got some very special Paul Kelly giveaways and Godfrey De Grut joins us for the Mixtape.

Japan has faced earthquakes, deadly flooding, and 24 typhoons in the past few months and each time the same volunteers - many of them retired - have helped out. Audio

In 1893, some NZ parliamentarians laughed at the idea of a nursing mother handing over her baby to address the House. Sonia Sly looks at how far we've come in the second episode of Beyond Kate. Audio