Afternoons for Thursday 4 December 2025

1:15 What is the Emissions Trading Scheme Auction?

Yesterday the final emissions trading scheme auction of the year failed to clear.

That means there were no bidders for any of the carbon credits up for sale

That makes 2025 just the 2nd year in the schemes 17 year history in which all four auctions have failed to clear

This comes against a backdrop of business uncertainty and weakening environmental regulations.

To find out exactly what this all means Jesse is joined by ETS expert Nigel Brunel from Marex commodity brokers

1:25 Rating the very best of NZ TV and Film from the 2010s.

The Spinoff’s Alex Casey and Tara Ward have been commissioned to curate a list of the very best New Zealand film and television from the 2010s

The pair took a nostalgic look back at our local screen content in that eventful decade marked by the arrival of streaming, the dominance of reality TV, a boom in home-grown comedy and Taika Waititi’s rapid rise in Hollywood. Alex Casey chats to Jesse. 

You can find the full article at thespinoff.co.nz

1:35 Sri Lanka is dealing with a disaster - how can we help?

Over the last few days tropical cyclones have combined with heavy monsoon rains across South Asia with devastating results. 

There has been severe flooding - and mudslides - across Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand. 

The death toll has risen to over 1,100 across the region, with many more displaced.

Aotearoa based non-profit TearFund is active in Sri Lanka and Chief Executive Ian McInnes joins Jesse to discuss the situation. 

1:45 Great album: Pixie Williams Double LP

This week's link three winner will be the lucky recipient of a Pixie Williams album. Yes, seventy seven years after it was first recorded Holiday Records is bringing her voice back to vinyl. 
Pixie Willams is arguably New Zealand's first pop star, Blue Smoke was released in June 1949 and was our first locally written recorded and commercially released pop song. 

It topped the chart for six weeks, but more than that, Blue Smoke marked the start of our recording industry. 

The album is a double LP - one vinyl is For the Record: The Pixie Williams Collection – remastered originals, painstakingly restored from fragile 78rpm discs and the other is The New Blue: Pixie Williams Reimagined which has contemporary reinterpretations of Williams’ songs by the likes of Anna Coddington and Louis Baker.

2:10 Group Chat: Chat GPT fails and weighing into Wicked

Kate Rodger and Afternoons Senior Producer Olivia Wilson are in studio with Jesse to talk about all the content clogging up their group chats.

2:30 A-Z of Aotearoa: M for Māori Battalion

It's time to jump back into the A-Z of Aotearoa. 

We're making our way through the alphabet diving deep into all things Kiwiana - the iconic people, places and moments that make up New Zealand. 

We've arrived at the letter 'M' today, and we're opening up the history books to look at the Māori Battalion.

3:15 Your Money with Mary Holm 

It's time to talk money matters with Mary Holm now and she brings us good news on mortgages! This week's topics:

1.     Official cash rate dropped again.

2.     Fewer people behind on mortgage payments

3.     Many people are not reducing their payments but using extra to pay down principal.
 

3:35 Bringing Pixie Williams' voice back to vinyl

Blue Smoke was first released in 1949, when it arguably made Pixie Williams New Zealand's first pop star. 
Now seventy seven years later, Holiday Records is bringing Pixie back to vinyl. 
Here to tell us more about the new album is Holiday Records Ben Wallace.

3:40 Spoken Feature BBC Witness

Following the Beatles' final concert tour, George Harrison travelled to India in 1967 to learn sitar under the renowned musician Ravi Shankar.

The moment influenced George’s spirituality and his burgeoning solo musical career, as well as the Beatles'. 

It also propelled Ravi Shankar further into the limelight.

The musicians remained lifelong friends. Ravi says they last saw each other on 28 November 2001, the day before George died.

3:45 The pre-Panel 

Wallace Chapman previews tonight's instalment of The Panel.