Nights for Thursday 27 November 2025

8:10 Historian on significance of Erebus memorial announcement

It has been forty-six years since New Zealand experienced its worst-ever peacetime disaster, when an Air New Zealand sightseeing flight crashed into Mt Erebus in Antarctica, killing all 257 people on board.

Nearly half a century later, it has been announced that a national memorial to the disaster will finally be built, following the decision to locate it in Christchurch.

Dr Rowan Light is a historian and curator at the Auckland War Memorial Museum and a lecturer at the University of Auckland. 

His research focuses on national memory, commemorations, and how societies remember major events and collective tragedies.

8:20 Which is the coolest Super Rugby Pacific jersey?

Today was perhaps the most fashionable day in the rugby calendar with the five original New Zealand Super Rugby Pacific teams unveiling their jersey range for next season

So which teams had the standout designs?

 RNZ sports journalist Jamie Wall joins Emile Donovan for his thoughts. 

8:40 The Reread with Hera Lindsay Bird

Once a month, we find a member of New Zealand's literary community and ask them to re-read something they once read many, many years ago, and report back on what's changed.

How has the world changed? How have they changed? Is the book still as good?

Tonight Hera Lindsay Bird joins us for the Reread.

9:05 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 The best fictional bands in film history

The incredible success of the animated film K-Pop Demon Hunters has put fictional bands back into the spotlight.

The film has become the most watched film in Netflix history - and not only that..

The two fictional bands featured in the story - the righteous girl group Huntr/x and their rebellious counterparts Saja Boys have been dominating the global music charts.

Steve Ryan is the Course Director, MA in Songwriting, University of Limerick and has been looking back at some of the best fictional bands in films.

9:45 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.

Follow this podcast

10:17 The Detail

Tonight on The Detail - The West Coast has long been mining country, but a proposed expansion of coal mining operations - and the backlash - leaves the region's economy and ecology uncertain.

Follow this podcast

10:45 The Reading

An eight part adaptation of a memoir/autobiography describing how Tangaroa Walker turned his life around through farming - and how what he learned can help anyone succeed.

Tonight we have the final episode of Farm for Life by Tangaroa Walker told by Jamie McCaskill.

11:07 The Mixtape

Harry Ricketts is a Wellington-based poet and educator who recently published his eleventh volume of poetry.

In this episode of The Mixtape he plays some of his favourite records and talks to Nick Bollinger about just what they mean to him.