Afternoons for Thursday 14 March 2019

1:10 First song: Halestorm

Our first Song today hails from Pennsylvania. Rock quartet Halestorm are touring in New Zealand at the moment and have popped in to give us a taste of what's happening at their gigs. 

1:15 New Zealand's future leaders

There has been a lot of discussion recently about whether young people should be involved in politics, and whether they care. 

Tomorrow, teenagers around the country will protest against climate change. So today we decided to talk to a couple of students who are deeply interested in the issues facing them and the country. 

Watene Campbell is a Youth MP based in Wellington. Joanna Li is the Youth Press Gallery journalist covering him. They tell us what they do and why they're passionate. 

1:25 Journey to Polyfest

The 44th ASB Polyfest is underway at the Manukau Super Bowl. More than 12,000 secondary schools students are taking to the stage at the world's biggest Pacific Island dance festival. It runs until Saturday. 

The students have been practising non-stop. And last year, an RNZ team followed one school as they prepared for the event and made a documentary SEVEN WEEKS: Journey to Polyfest.

To tell us more about it is our own Leilani Momoisea. You can check out the full documentary here. 

1:35 TEEKS and the APO

Soul singer TEEKS will headline his first ever New Zealand show later this month when he joins the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra at the Auckland Town Hall. He joins Jesse in studio to talk about what it's like having his songs backed by a full orchestra. 

1:40 Great album

2:10 Music Critic

Simon Sweetman features some headliners from the Jazz festival - Alicia Olatuja's No Ordinary Love and Ghost-Note's Swagism. 

2:25 NZ Biography: James K Baxter

James K Baxter was one of our best known poets. Baxter wrote over 3000 poems of which at least 1200 have been published. There has been some controversy recently around the poet after the release of some of his letters in which he confessed to raping his wife. Paul Millar of the University of Canterbury discusses James K Baxter's life and work. If you want to check out the short film adaptation of one of Jame K Baxter's poems, you can watch it here. 

3:10 Link 3

3:15 Solving the world's problems

In our fortnightly attempt to solve some of the world's problems, Simon Wilson a senior writer at the New Zealand Herald, looks at the race for Auckland's mayoralty. Simon argues the race between John Tamihere and Phil Goff is akin to Donald Trump vs Hillary Clinton. He discusses what this means for voters. 

3:25 The history of post-political careers for NZ Prime Ministers

Former Prime Minister Jenny Shipley has recently been in the news due to her involvement in the failure of Mainzeal. Shipley is one of many recent PMs who still have busy post-political careers. Others include Geoffrey Palmer, Jim Bolger, Helen Clark and John Key.  But this has not always been the case as this talk will explore. Grant Morris' talk will focus on PMs from responsible government in 1856 through to the resignation of David Lange in 1989.  

3:35 Spoken Feature

3:45 The Pre-Panel Story of the Day and One Quick Question

4:05 The Panel with Alexia Russell and Rajorshi Chakraborti