Nights for Tuesday 13 May 2025

SAVE THE DATE: Nights with Emile Donovan LIVE at SEA LIFE Kelly Tarlton's Aquarium

On Thursday May 22, Nights is broadcasting live from Kelly Tarlton's in Auckland, and we'd love for our Nights listeners to come join us.

For more information and to register your interest, click here.

8:10 The House

Tonight on our Parliament show - The House -Louis Collins looks at today's urgent debate on the Government's recent announcement about the redress system for abuse in state care.

8:15 Pacific Waves

A daily current affairs programme that delves deeper into the major stories of the week, through a Pacific lens, and shines a light on issues affecting Pacific people wherever they are in the world. Hosted by Susana Suisuiki.

8:30 Nudity in the eyes of the law

The Cannes Film Festival says it will no longer tolerate nudity on its red carpet, for what it calls "decency reasons".

But what about closer to home? Turns out being nude in public is, contrary to what you might assume, NOT illegal in New Zealand. Not by itself, anyway.

Human rights lawyer, Michael Bott, has successfully defended several public nudity cases. He joins Emile Donovan to talk about what constitutes offensive behaviour and how it can be a pretty fluid definition.

8:44 The Reading

In part six of Someone's Wife, Linda and her husband (ex-All Black) Robert Burgess broaden their horizons by travelling to France where he is to play rugby for the LOU rugby club.

Someone's Wife is written and read by Linda Burgess.

9:08 Nights Quiz

Do you know your stuff? Come on the air and be grilled by Emile Donovan as he dons his quizmaster hat.

If you get an answer right, you move on to the next question. If you get it wrong, your time in the chair is up, and the next caller will be put through. The person with the most correct answers at the end of the run goes in the draw for a weekly prize.

9:25 Latest news from the UK 

Our UK correspondent and co-host of The Lawyer Podcast, Christian Smith talks to Emile about changes to immigration rules and what that might mean for Kiwis, the expected appointment of MI6's first female chief and how Pink Floyd are sitting top of the UK charts with an album that was recorded over 50 years ago!  

9:35 Shower Thoughts: How do we get computers to do what we want them to? 

And now the answer to another question you never knew you needed to ask!

Yes, we write programmes to instruct computers but how do we get them to "understand" those instructions in the first place?

Professor Tim Bell from the University of Canterbury, has built a career on teaching kids how to understand binary code - the code that enables us to "talk" to computers. He joins Emile to explain how it works.   

10.18 Helipad - Yes or No?

Anna Mowbray, of toy company Zuru and former All Black Ali Williams are trying to win a resource consent for a helicopter pad for their home in the Auckland seaside suburb of Westmere.

Their case is being put before an independent advisory board this week to decide whether the helipad will go ahead.

Eighty seven percent of submissions from the public were against the idea -- some citing risks to seabirds, others saying it's just too noisy.

Private helipads for private helicopters are popping up a lot more these days. In fact, on Waiheke Island, helipad numbers have tripled in six years, from twenty in 2019 to over sixty now -- and that's just one, ninety-two-square-kilometre island.

The chair of Waiheke's Local Board, Cath Handley talks Emile through the ins and outs of consenting a helipad.

10.30 The future of cancer treatments 

CAR T-cell therapy is giving hope to cancer patients around the world.

But it's not available in New Zealand, either through the public or private system, meaning patients who have exhausted their options through traditional therapies need to head overseas and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for the treatment. 

Dr Robert Weinkove is clinical director at Wellington's Malaghan Institute where they are running a clinical trial. He talks to Emile about the potential of CAR T-cell therapy.   

10.45 One man's space junk

On Sunday, somewhere over the Indian ocean, the failed Soviet Venus Landau Cosmos 482 crashed back down to earth fifty-three years after it was launched into orbit. 

A problem with its rocket stranded the spacecraft in an elliptical orbit around Earth but this isn't the first time pieces have crashed through the atmosphere.

In 1972 segments of the probe crashed into the South Island of New Zealand, mostly around the Ashburton area.

Nine known parts have been found, one of which is now owned by Southland writer, teacher and historian Lloyd Esler. He tells Emile why this find is so important to him.