Nine To Noon for Friday 14 October 2022

 

09:05 Land based salmon farm - the way of the future?

A proposal for a land based salmon farm planned for near Twizel was unveiled yesterday, with the government committing $16.7 million to it. Mount Cook Alpine Salmon says the farm will be waste free, returning all the water used in the farm back to source in the same state it was taken. Exported salmon earns the country more than $100 million a year, but the sector faces many challenges - environmental impacts and rising sea temperatures key among them. The country's largest salmon producer, New Zealand King Salmon has had to dump fish, closes farms and let go of staff due to warmer water temperatures brought on by climate change. To discuss the land based salmon farm project Lynn speaks to Mount Cook Alpine Salmon Chief Executive David Cole and Maren Wellenreuther, a marine biologist and seafood scientist at Plant and Food Research in Nelson. 

09:25 Mindfulness programme in schools results in less anxiety, more focus

A home-grown programme teaching mindfulness to tens of thousands of school children around the country is bringing more calm and less anxiety to the classroom, according to an independent evaluation. Pause Breathe Smile is a programme developed by Grant Rix,  in collaboration with the Mental Health Foundation. It is funded by Southern Cross and deployed in over 340 schools and kura , reaching 90,000 children. An evaluation by Christchurch research consultancy Mindquip has found a range of benefits including an improvement in focus, perseverance, helpfulness and self-motivation and a decline in apprehension, anxiety and pessimism.

09:35 How many friends do you have, and how many do you really need?

If you can count on one hand, the number of close friends you have, you've probably got it right. Oxford University anthropologist Professor Robin Dunbar reckons five is the magic number. In addition you might have 15 "good friends", who you see for coffee or a regular catch-up, 50 people you might see casually and you might have up to 150 "meaningful contacts". He's also studied the seven factors that are weighed up when making a potential friend, and put it all in his new book Friends: Understanding the Power of Our Most Important Relationships.

09:45 Asia correspondent Ed White

An historic quinquennial congress of the Chinese Communist party will get underway in Beijing this weekend. Ed talks to Lynn about the congress and why is it so important for the future of China and its leader Xi Jinping, and how China's security forces are preparing for the congress.  And Sri Lanka's energy and economic crisis is making it turn to Vladimir Putin's Russia, of all places, for support. There are also more signals from Japan that a big change is coming that will overturn the country's long-standing pacifist policy. 

Ed White is a correspondent with the Financial Times.

10:05 Understanding and communicating with whales: Tom Mustill 
 

Finding a way that allows humans to communicate with whales has become the obsession of wildlife film-maker Tom Mustill. His first encounter with a whale was very nearly his last. In 2015 he was out whale watching off the coast of California, when a humpback breached his kayak, tipping him and his companion into the water. Since then Tom Mustill has wanted to understand whales, if possible to learn how to communication with them. So he went in search of researchers who could help him in this quest and has written about it in How to Speak Whale: A Voyage into the Future of Animal Communication.

 

10:35 Book review: The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li

Gail Pittaway reviews The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li, published by HarperCollins Publishers 

10:45 The Reading

11:05 New music with Jeremy Taylor

Dance Exponents stellar debut album gets a vinyl reissue ahead of their Auckland performance, plus new releases from Dexy's Midnight Runners and Julia Jacklin, and a timeless classic from Nat King Cole.

11:30 Sports commentator Dana Johannsen - RWC, T20 & more

The Black Ferns will be looking to get down to business against Wales this weekend at the Rugby World Cup following the hoopla of the opening of the tournament. Dana talks to Lynn about how women's sport is marketed and whether the emphasis is right. She also discusses the Silver Ferns success over Australia and ponders whether the Ferns selectors got it wrong for the Commonwealth Games?, The T20 World Cup is about to start in Australia, and Jesse Ryder is back playing international cricket - albeit at the men's indoor cricket World Cup. 

Dana Johannsen is Stuff's National Correspondent specialising in sport. 
 

11:45 The week that was 

Comedians James Elliott and Donna Brookbanks with some of the lighter stories of the week.

Music played in this show

Track: No More Tear Drops 
Artist: Miss Ray
Time played: 10:35am 

Track: Into the Groove
Artist: Madonna 
Time played: 11:45am