Afternoons for Tuesday 14 May 2019

1:10 First song: Zoe Jennings (ZÖ) 

We've been featuring up and coming young musicians on the show this week and today we meet Zoe Jennings who is in her last year studying Commercial Music at Massey University and is releasing her first EP.

She performs one of her songs live for us.

1:15 Why is teaching seen as a fall-back option?

50,000 teachers will walk off the job at the end of the month after they rejected the Ministry of Education's latest pay offer. Teacher have said their jobs are harder then ever, as the non-teaching requirements have grown while their pay has remained stagnant.

However, a pair of Australian academics have argued in an article that the historically low social status of teaching has created a culture where it is seen as a fall-back option, which in turn, has lead to poor working conditions.

Jacquie Tinkler from Charles Sturt University in Australia is one of the authors and joins Jesse to explain her argument in detail. 

1:25 Why weight is not a measure of health

Last week we had two interviews that discussed weight. One focused on our obsession with calories, the other looked at celebrating bodies.

We received an email from Kate Berridge, an expert in obesity and owner of the company Beyond Obesity. She says these two interviews intersect with her work around weight. She says our current thinking around health is making the issue worse - that weight is not a measure of health at all. 

She believes we need to move away from stigma and move toward compassion. And she's in studio with me now to discuss how to do that. 

1:35 Student speeches about racism and equality

The National Race Unity speech awards were held over the weekend, where high school students share their thoughts about how we can better race relations.

The winner was a Year 11 Pākehā boy named Robbie White, who spoke about leadership in the face of racism, in both English and Te Reo Māori. 

Another finalist, Zimbabwean New Zealander from Mount Albert Grammar School Takunda Muzondiwa, recited a poem about someone touching her hair without asking. She tells us about the themes and issues she wanted to highlight in her speech. You can watch her speech in full below.

1:40 Great album

2:10 Book critic: surreal fiction

Robert Kelly pops in to take us on a tour through the works of surrealist fiction author Jasper Fforde and investigate how the absurd can provide a way to look at our present. 

2:20 Songs of the Sea

We asked the audience to send in their favourite songs of the sea. We've taken the most popular picks as well as the ones we like the best and will play them all for you

3:10  Frans de Waal on animal emotions

Pigs can hope. Monkeys believe in fairness; animals of all shapes and sizes experience a wide range of emotions says biologist Frans de Waal.  He challenges the idea that humans are the only creatures with the capacity for love and hate, shame and guilt, disgust, and empathy.

Professor de Waal shares incredible stories of emotional displays by animals, showing how connected we are to animals, in his new book Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us About Ourselves

3:30 BBC Witness

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

4:05 The Panel with Shane Te Pou and Verity Johnson