Saturday Morning for Saturday 18 April 2009

Guest details for Saturday 18 April 2009

Producer: Robyn Walker (Mark Cubey is on leave)

8:15 Amber Marks

Freelance journalist Amber Marks was formerly a criminal barrister. She has written for the Guardian and is a regular contributor to The Register. Her first book is Headspace: On the Trail of Sniffer Dogs, Wasp Wardens and Other Dumb Friends in the Surveillance Industry (Virgin, ISBN: 978-0-7535-1364-4).

8:35 Urmas Paet

Urmas Paet is the Foreign Minister of the Eastern European country of Estonia, which regained independence in 1991 after being annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940. Small and heavily forested, with a free-market economy and flat personal income tax rate of 21%, it has had a strong technological uptake, holding the world's first parliamentary "e-vote" in 2007.

9:05 Jonathan Lyons

Author and journalist Jonathan Lyons spent more than 20 years as an editor and foreign correspondent for Reuters, much of it in the Islamic world. He is now affiliated with the Global Terrorism Research Centre and is completing his doctorate in sociology of religion, both at Monash University in Melbourne. He lives in Washington, DC, and teaches part-time at George Mason University. His second book is The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization.

9:40 Colin Bull

Dr Colin Bull is a geophysicist, glaciologist and cook. In the summer of 1958-59, he led a team of four scientists from Victoria University of Wellington on a low-budget, anti-bureaucratic expedition to Victoria Land, Antarctica. He tells the story of that trip in his new book, Innocents in the Dry Valleys (VUP/University of Alaska Press, ISBN: 978-1-60223-071-2).

10:05 Playing Favourites with Kristen Darragh

Auckland-born mezzo-soprano Kristen Darragh is a finalist in the Lexus Song Quest 2009, an initiative of the New Zealand International Arts Festival, which will take place on 23 April at the Auckland Town Hall. In 2008, Kristen became the fourth person to win a Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation grant, and she has also been chosen to be NZ Opera's PricewaterhouseCoopers Dame Malvina Major Young Artist for 2009. She recently graduated from the Royal Academy of Music Opera Course, and returns to The NBR New Zealand Opera to sing Zulma and cover Isabella in The Italian Girl in Algiers, in Wellington (9 to 16 May) and Auckland (28 May to 6 June).

11:10 John L Simpson

John L Simpson is the producer of Men's Group, an independent Australian film about six very different men, originally strangers to each other, who meet once a week at the home of a group member to talk. The film opens in New Zealand on 23 April.

11:45 Children's Books with Kate De Goldi

Kate De Goldi will discuss new books by MT Anderson and Mal Peet, both of whom are visiting New Zealand for the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival. Book details:
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation; Vol I: The Pox Party by MT Anderson (Walker Books, ISBN: 978-1-84428-211-1)
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation; Vol II: The Kingdom on the Waves by MT Anderson (Walker Books, ISBN: 978-0-7636-2950-2)
Keeper by Mal Peet; A Paul Faustino Novel (Walker Books, ISBN: 1-4063-0393-3)
The Penalty by Mal Peet; A Paul Faustino Novel (Walker Books, ISBN: 978-1-4063-0936-2)
Exposure by Mal Peet; A Paul Faustino Novel (Walker Books, ISBN: 978-1-4063-0649-1)

Music played on the programme

Camera Obscura: French Navy
From the 2009 album: My Maudlin Career
(4AD)
Played at around 9:40

Buddy & Julie Miller (with Robert Plant): What You Gonna Do Leroy
From the 2009 album: Written in Chalk
(New West)
Played at around 11:05

Playing Favourites with Kristen Darragh

Ruthie Henshall (as Fantine): I Dreamed a Dream (live performance)
From the 1996 album: Les Miserables (10th anniversary concert)
(First Night)
Played at around 10:15

Cecilia Bartoli: Lascia La Spina
From the 1998 album: Live in Italy
(Decca)
Played at around 10:25

John Denver: Heart to Heart
From the 1982 album: Seasons of the Heart
(RCA)
Played at around 10:35

Christa Ludwig (as Octavia) & Teresa Stich-Randall (as Sophie): Mir ist die Ehre Widerfahren
From the 1957 album: Der Rosenkavalier
(EMI)
Played at around 10:45

The King's Singers: And So It Goes
From the 1992 album: Good Vibrations
(RCA)
Played at around 10:55

Studio operators

Wellington engineer; Lianne Smith
Auckland engineer: Jeremy Ansell