Nine To Noon for Thursday 26 May 2022

 

 

09:05 Interest rates on the rise - are we headed for recession?

Tough times ahead for mortgage holders as interest rates rise.The central bank hiked the official cash rate by half a percent to 2 percent yesterday,  the highest since 2016. The Reserve Bank wants to tackle inflation, which is at a 30 year high, driven by higher costs for food, housing and fuel. The bank's also signalled the rate will need to climb to about 3.4% by the end of this year, peaking at 3.9% from June next year. So with the soaring cost of living, higher interest repayments, and falling house values, what sort of economic ride are we in for? Kathryn discusses with Head of Research for the BNZ,  Stephen Toplis.

09:30 Research: blood test for Alzheimers

New research brings the possibility of a simple blood test to detect Alzheimers early a step closer.  Currently there's no easy way of catching the disease early.  But the University of Otago's just published study in Alzheimer's & Dementia, showing levels of small molecules found in blood plasma, called microRNA, change dynamically as the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease accelerate.  This means researchers can use blood as a window into the brain, to find biomarkers to help diagnose Alzheimer's disease early, long before symptoms appear.  More than 70,000 New Zealanders are affected by Alzheimer's disease.  This is predicted to more than double by 2050, at a cost of more than $1.7 billion a year. Associate Professor Joanna Williams, from the University of Otago's Department of Anatomy and the Otago Brain Health Research Centre is the study's team leader and speaks with Kathryn Ryan.

09:45 UK: Partygate report released, Boris Johnson rules out resigning

The long-awaited Sue Gray report into the Partygate scandal has been released overnight, detailing a culture of rule breaking at Downing Street at the height of lockdown - but it appears to let Boris Johnson off the hook, and he's ruled out resigning. Meanwhile Chancellor Rishi Sunak is set to unveil how the government will help struggling families through the cost of living crisis...including a windfall tax on oil and gas giants to help pay for a package of measures.
 

10:05 How to cope with disaster - from a world-leading expert 

Professor Lucy Easthope is one of the world's foremost disaster planners. Her first major job in emergency planning was responding to 9/11 and since then, her career has covered almost every major disaster; the Boxing Day tsunami, the London bombings, the Christchurch earthquakes, the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 shot down over Ukraine, the Grenfell Tower fire, Covid-19 and many more. It's her job to help get the bodies identified, repatriate survivors, return personal effects, look after the bereaved, and advise governments for the future. She speaks to Kathryn about her memoir, When the Dust Settles: Stories of Love, Loss and Hope from an Expert in Disaster.

10:35 Book review: Home Theatre by Anthony Lapwood

Airini Beautrais reviews Home Theatre by Anthony Lapwood, published by Te Herenga Waka University Press   

10:45 The Reading

Mansfield, episode four, written by C K Stead and read by Danielle Cormack.

11:05 New technology with Mark Pesce

The likely changes to abortion law in the US are making a lot of people nervous, as well as tech giants...Meta (formerly Facebook) has banned its staff from talking about it at work. The struggle to retain good tech staff is real, and one of the battle lines may be over working from home flexibility...and could you tell if someone's holiday snap is a deepfake?
 

11:25 How to help children become great communicators

What are the best ways for whanau to foster communication skills in a child's first 1000 days? Emma Quigan (Ngai Tahu)  is co-president of the Speech and Language Therapists' Association, teaches at Massey University and was co-founder of Talking Matters - which partners with whānau, communities, practitioners, iwi and government to build and support language-rich environments for children. She says it's all about involving the village to raise the child.

11:45 Film & TV: How to Please a Woman, Pistol, DocEdge selection

Film and TV correspondent James Croot joins Kathryn to talk about How to Please a Woman, which is out in cinemas; Pistol (Disney+), a series based on the memoir of legendary Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones and his picks of the DocEdge offerings this year.

Music played in this show

Track: Lovely Day
Artist: Bill Withers
Time Played: 9:31

Track: I'm Like a Bird
Artist: Nellie Furtardo
Time played: 9:45

Track: Virtual Insanity
Artist Jamiroquai
Time played 10:44

Track: Honey
Artist: Moby
Time played 11:24