Nine To Noon for Tuesday 18 October 2011

09:05 Auckland's mayor suggests holding a referendum on introducing tolls and congestion charges on the region's roads

Len Brown, Auckland mayor.

09:25 Stephen Axilrod - a 30-year veteran of the US central bank on how it is handling the aftermath of the credit crisis

Stephen Axilrod worked at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve system in Washington for more than 30 years, rising to Staff Director and Secretary of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's main monetary policy arm. He is the author of Inside the Fed.

Inside the Fed, The MIT Press.

09:45 US correspondent Luiza Savage

The spreading Occupy Wall Street protests.

10:05 Bryan Gaensler - Extreme Cosmos

Astronomer Bryan Gaensler's 1994 honours thesis received a perfect score of 100. His doctoral research won him a NASA Hubble Fellowship at MIT in Boston. In 1999 he was named Young Australian of the Year. In 2002, aged 28, he became a professor at Harvard University. NSW last year named him Physical Scientist of the Year, and this year he received an Australian Laureate Fellowship. He has just published his first book Extreme Cosmos - on the way the universe works.

10:25 Book Review with Louise O'Brien

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
Published by Jonathan Cape

10:45 Reading: Tatiana, by Linda Niccol (part 2)

Tatiana brings a spot of warmth and colour to Ben’s bleak life.

Audio will be available here after broadcast.

11:05 Business commentator Rod Oram

Cerebos Pacific's hostile takeover bid for Comvita, the NZ maker of manuka honey based health supplements.

11:30 Peer pressure as an agent of social change

Pulitzer prize-winning writer Tina Rosenberg is the author of a new book called Join the Club which describes peer pressure as a "social cure".

11:45 Media commentator Gavin Ellis

The Broadcasting Standards Authority decision on John Key's Radio Live show and TVNZ's unashamedly commercial annual report.