09:05 New revelations about volunteer fire fighters association

Fire engine north of Gisborne.

Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson

The Chair of the Volunteer Firefighters' Association, the UFBA, and its Chief Executive are the sole directors of a limited liability company registered two weeks before the chair commissioned an inquiry into the CEO. UFBA chairman Richie Smith and Chief Executive Bill Butzbach, jointly registered Tangata Matatau Limited with the company's office on August 3 last year. Just over two weeks later,  Mr Smith commissioned a QC to conduct an inquiry into Mr Butzbach relating to claims of bullying and harassment. The inquiry was later abandoned and Mr Butzbach reinstated. Now the union representing professional firefighters is questioning whether the $4 million the UFBA receives every year is being well spent. Kathryn speaks with Wattie Watson, the National Secretary of the Professional Firefighters Union, and the first woman board member of the UFBA, Judith Stanley, who is calling for a Ministerial inquiry.

09.25  Gut bugs making obese teenagers healthier

Beneficial Gut Bacteria

Beneficial Gut Bacteria Photo: Flickr

Researchers at the University of Auckland's Liggins Institute have been looking at what happens when gut bacteria from healthy teenagers is introduced, in capsule form, to severely overweight teens' digestive systems.  They've been trying to establish if it triggers more effective metabolisation of food, resulting in weight loss and associated health benefits. Paediatric Endocronologist Professor Wayne Cutfield reveals the results of a world's first gut bugs trial to Kathryn Ryan.

09:45 Trump lawyers argue Senate trial 'unconstitutional'

The exterior of the U.S. Capitol building is seen through barbed wire fencing at sunrise on February 8, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Photo: Getty/AFP

US correspondent Susan Davis joins Kathryn to talk about the former president's upcoming impeachment trial in the Senate, as Donald Trump's lawyers file a 75-page pre-trial brief arguing it's "unconstitutional" as he's no longer president and he didn't incite the Capitol rioters.

Susan Davis is a congressional correspondent for NPR and a co-host of the NPR Politics Podcast.

10:05 Rez Gardi: From refugee to human rights investigator

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Photo: RNZ

Rez Gardi was just six when she came to New Zealand from a refugee camp where she was born. Her Kurdish family spent nine years living in the camp, after they fled to Pakistan from Iraq and Saddam Hussein's brutal chemical attacks. She was the first person in her family to go to university, and after Auckland, she headed to Harvard Law school - becoming the first Kurdish woman to graduate from there. She's now a Human Rights fellow in Northern Iraq, gathering evidence of war crimes carried out by Isis.

10:35 Book review - Best of 2020

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Photo: Jenna Todd

Jenna Todd of Time Out Bookstore with her top picks from 2020's books:
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata (Granta Books, $33), In the Dream House: A Memoir by Carmen Maria Machado (Serpent's Tail Limited, $25) and Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar (Headline Publishing Group, $35).

10:45 The Reading

 Minding Lear by Owen Marshall, read by Aaron Alexander Pt 6 of 7 

11:05 Political commentators Mills & Sherson 

Jacinda Ardern and Titewhai Harawira hold hands on the verandah of The Whare Runanga.

Photo: RNZ / Sam Rillstone

Stephen Mills and Trish Sherson join Kathryn to look at this year's Waitangi events and National's intentions to stand candidates in Maori seats. There's been some surprisingly good economic news over the past week, but the speed of Covid-vaccination is a bit of a sore point - is there a risk for the government if New Zealand is seen as too slow to roll it out?

Stephen Mills is the executive director of UMR Research , which is the polling firm used by Labour.  He is former political adviser to two Labour governments.

Trish Sherson is from corporate affairs firm Sherson Willis, and a former ACT press secretary. 

11:30 Volcanic Kitchens bubbling in Rotorua 

International tourism hot spots like Rotorua have had to adapt quite quickly to a world where the emphasis is suddenly on the local. That's certainly true of the restaurants and home kitchens of the central North Island town that have been pumping out everything from Smoked Trout to Morello Cherry Cheesecake. Husband and wife team Henrietta and Gerhard Egger have been documenting the food and kitchens of people in and around Rotorua and have collected them in a brand new tome titled Volcanic Kitchens.

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Photo: Hernrietta and Gerhart Egger

11:45 Media commentator Andrew Holden

Some of Australia's largest media companies have admitted breaching a suppression order when reporting on the verdicts of  Cardinal George Pell's 2018 child sex abuse trial but other contempt charges have been dismissed along with all charges against individual reporters and editors.

This file photo taken on February 27, 2019 shows Australian Cardinal George Pell (C) making his way to the court in Melbourne. - Cardinal George Pell will walk free from jail after winning a long-running battle to overturn his child sex abuse convictions in Australia's High Court on April 7, 2020.

Photo: AFP

Andrew Holden is a journalist for more than 30 years including five as Editor of The Press (in Christchurch) and four as Editor-in-Chief of The Age in Melbourne.