Features

AgResearch's Animal Welfare Team are trying to better understand the emotional lives of goats. Audio

Weightlifting Fiji says the decision by lifters from Levuka to boycott the Oceania Championships has taken them by complete surprise.

"One thing is for real, masks or no masks. There’s a new soul man at work on this new album, a soul man with barbs to prick any excess mellowfication. Sleepwalker is a cycle of love songs from a rather sinister troubadour." William Dart reviews the new album from Lil Chief's Jonathan Bree. Video, Audio

The first few famous notes of Beethoven's Fifth are embedded in our collective consciousness. Rachel Hyde introduces the symphony that actually didn't get off to a great start in 1808. Audio

Hip-hop artist Kas Futialo (aka Tha Feelstyle) takes a trip back to his homeland of Samoa in the new mini-doco The Crossroads: Le Māgafā. Video, Audio

LISTEN: In his extensive travels for the Samoa Voyaging Society, Schannel van Dijken has seen how pervasive the plastic problem in the Pacific Ocean is.

Three debutants have been named to start for Tonga in Saturday's Pacific Nations Cup rugby test against Georgia.

The independent candidate for one of the seats on Atiu in the Cook Islands, Norman George, says his sole policy is to make Atiu great again.

Sometimes you have to feel the fear and do it anyway, says David Walshaw, who left a 25-year finance career to become an olive grower. He and his wife Helen turned 20 acres of bare paddocks into a world-class olive oil business. Audio

An upcoming mini-doco aims to tell the story of Kas Futialo, aka Tha Feelstyle, and the way he weaves together traditional Samoan music and Western hip-hop. Video, Audio

Pinky Fang is charming and funny, with killer style and a really beautiful dog. But when it comes to meeting someone new she faces some unique challenges. Audio

Following their 2017 collaboration Clear Stones, Berlin-based kiwi producer Fis & taonga pūoro player Rob Thorne are about to play their first shows in Aotearoa. Audio

Sarah Watkins is moving on from NZTrio after 15 years. She talks with Upbeat about some of her favourite music and musical moments. Video, Audio

Pasifika and Maori entrepreneurs in New Zealand are calling for more initiatives to get their people into business Audio

The World Bank wants to see more women involved in the Australian seasonal worker programme. Audio

An Auckland mother-and-daughter team are celebrating the 125th anniversary of women's suffrage with an online illustration project called Our Wāhine. Audio, Gallery

Alison Ballance chairs a panel discussion about current threats to the Pacific Ocean and possible solutions.

A perfect apricot is red-blushed, a little perfumed, juicy and high in natural sugars with enough acid to make it interesting, says Arlene Nixon. She's a food plant breeder developing new apricot cultivars for Kiwi growers and consumers. Audio

Gustav Mahler attempts to create a whole world in one symphony with grand concepts reflecting nature and humanity. David Morriss checks out the plans and the final realisation of Mahler's Third Symphony. Audio

When English rugby sevens coach Ben Ryan took a job with the Fijian team in 2013 he wondered at first whether he'd made the worst mistake of his life. Audio

Although talk of New Zealand's "King" of the blues Midge Marsden retiring after 50 years in the business is a little premature, he says he is on the home stretch of touring. Video, Audio

Carol Wales describes herself as a 'companion to the dying'. She's part of the death positive movement that is shaking up the way we die.

A daughter of the great American blues and roots musician Taj Mahal, Deva lived for a long time in New Zealand where she sang with Wellington groups Recloose and Fat Freddy’s Drop. Now New York based, this is the first album she has made solely under her own name. Audio

Dame Products is a female-run, crowdfunded sex toy company that makes highly engineered and appealing sex toys for women. Audio