Afternoons for Wednesday 9 March 2022

 

1:20 Call for action around parental leave following International Women's Day 

One day after International Women's Day and there's a call for meaningful action to back up the platitudes spread around on that day. .

Rebekah White is the Editor of New Zealand Geographic, and is passionate about changing our regulations about parental leave and who is eligible and when!  She talks to Jesse about what she's lobbying for. 

1:30 Coping with COVID absences, measuring staff mental wellbeing 

New Zealand businesses, for the first time, are struggling with staffing levels thanks to the widespread Omicron outbreak.

Covid absences and isolation places a whole new stress on the workplace, and the employees who are left to manage while their colleagues are sick.

A new rating system has been developed to measure support for mental wellbeing so workplaces can develop more effective strategies, Matthew Steans explains the systems Stigma Statistics have developed.

1:40 Pre-schoolers craft a mōkihi and sail down the Arrow River 

Arrowtown Preschool children spent a year making a traditional Māori raft, a mōkihi, which they then sailed down the Arrow River - turning heads along the way. 

Over two terms, the children, teachers, whanau and the wider community collaborated in bringing the mōkihi to life.

The teacher who led the project, June Caples, talks to Jesse about their hard work and why it as so important to the youngsters. 

1:55 Afternoons Quiz Robert Kelly

RNZ producer and onetime bookseller Robert Kelly presents his weekly quiz.

2.12 Podcast Critic: Alix Higby 

Today RNZ Afternoons producer, Alix Higby, has been listening to a podcast on the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. 

She sums it up as being about history, culture, #MeToo, the NFL, and who ultimately profits from and controls women's bodies and sexuality. 

2:25 Bookmarks with filmmaker Briar March

Today's Bookmarks guest is talented filmmaker Briar March. She's spent the past 20 years directing some of the most impactful documentaries to come out of Aotearoa and taken home many awards in the process.  

Her latest is called Mothers of the Revolution, which is available to rent or buy now from the iTunes store coming to other Video on Demand services soon. You can also find a link here. 

She talks to Jesse about what she likes to watch, read and listen to when she's relaxing. 

3:10 Russian war on Ukraine stops vital research at Chernobyl 

90 kilometers north of Kyiv, in a place that has already known tragedy on a global scale, Russian tanks are churning up the past that lies in the soil of Chernobyl. 36 years after the world's worst nuclear accident, scientists are carefully   studying radiation levels and  the wildlife and ecosystems that have returned to the contaminated areas. Now there's concern the valuable data they collect will end, and worse, Russia's war will leave this still radioactive site unmonitored. We'll talk to Canadian scientist  Dr Carmel Motherills about her work there the threat to future research. 

3:35 Stories from Our Changing World

Coming up on Our Changing World: Dr. Kim Currie of NIWA has been taking the same ocean carbon measurements every 2 months for the last 23 years. Claire finds out why she does it and what she has found. 

3:45 The Panel with Emma John and Sam Johnson