Guest details for Saturday Morning 29 August 2009

8:15 Tim O'Brien

Former Radio New Zealand journalist Tim O'Brien is now based in California, where he has had personal experience of the US health system and attended one of the Town Hall meetings discussing the public health care proposals.

8:30 Rolf de Heer

Australian film director, writer and producer Rolf de Heer first came to wide public attention with his 1994 film Bad Boy Bubby, which won Best Director and Best Original Screenplay at the Australian Film Institute Awards. His other films include The Quiet Room (1996), Dance Me to My Song (1998), The Tracker (2002), and Ten Canoes (2006), which won many Australian film awards and the Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize at Cannes. A follow-up interactive internet project, Twelve Canoes, was designed by Rolf's partner Molly Reynolds and made in collaboration with the Yolgnu people of Ramingining. Rolf and Molly are visiting New Zealand for seminars and sessions with local filmmakers, organised by Script to Screen.

9:05 Marilynne Robinson

Marilynne Robinson is the author of three novels: Housekeeping (1980, Faber and Faber, ISBN: 978-0-57123-008-2); Gilead (2004, Virago, ISBN: 978-1-84408-148-6), which received the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; and Home (Virago, ISBN: 978-1-84408-550-7), which won the 2009 Orange Prize for Fiction. She has written two works of non-fiction: The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought (1998, Houghton Mifflin, ISBN: 0395926920), and Mother Country: Britain, the Welfare State, and Nuclear Pollution (1989, Faber and Faber, ISBN: 978-0571154531). Marilynne teaches at the Iowa Writer's' Workshop, and held a Dwight H. Terry Lectureship at Yale University this year, giving a series of talks entitled Absence of Mind: The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self.

9:45 Kate's Klassic: An Angel at My Table

Kate Camp will discuss Janet Frame's three volumes of autobiography, To the Is-Land (1982), An Angel at My Table (1984) and The Envoy From Mirror City (1984), posthumously reprinted in 2008 as An Angel at My Table (Virago, ISBN: 9781844084579). Kate is in Oamaru, where on 28 August (Janet Frame's birthday), the North Otago Museum unveiled its new display, looking at the relationship New Zealand's most renowned author had with Oamaru. On 29 August at 8pm, Kate will hold a writing workshop and evening of repartee, hosted by the Janet Frame Eden Street Trust at the Oamaru Opera House.

10:05 Playing Favourites with Allistar Cox

Allistar Cox is the founder of ALLISTARCOX Architecture. The company's projects include some of Wellington's most awarded hospitality venues (The Matterhorn, The San Francisco Bathhouse, Good Luck, and Mighty Mighty), the development of the Mojo Coffee Cartel brand, and numerous hospitality fit-outs and residential projects across New Zealand.

11:05 Gardening with Meredith Kirton

Meredith Kirton has been committed to gardening and horticulture for over 20 years. She has contributed to Australian lifestyle magazines, been gardening editor in the Sun-Herald and Australia's House and Garden, worked on television and radio shows, and has two books published this year: Dig: Seasonal Gardening (Murdoch Books, ISBN: 978-1741965605) and Harvest: a Complete Guide to the Edible Garden (Murdoch Books, ISBN 978-1741964509).

11:30 Amy Whitehead

Canterbury scientist Amy Whitehead was this year's overall runner-up at the MacDiarmid Young Scientists of the Year Awards. She is researching conservation of the whio, or blue duck.

11:45 Jo Randerson

Playwright, author and performer Jo Randerson will speak about death. The new theatre work from her Barbarian Productions company, Good Night - The End, has its world premiere season at Downstage Theatre in Wellington, from 11 September to 3 October.

Music played on the programme

The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra: Blue Smoke
From the forthcoming (28 September) self-released EP: Dreaming
(www.ukulele.co.nz)
Played at around 9:05

Mary Weiss with the Reigning Sounds: Heaven Only Knows
From her 2007 album: Dangerous Game
(Norton)
Played at around 9:45

Playing Favourites with Allistar Cox

David Bowie: Life on Mars?
From the 1971 album: Hunky Dory
(RCA)
Played at around 10:10

Fly My Pretties: Fly My Pretties
From the 2004 album: Live at BATS
(Loop)
Played at around 10:30

Beady Belle: Goldilocks
From the 2005 album: Closer
(Universal)
Played at around 10:45

The Kooks: Seaside
From the 2006 album: Inside In Inside Out
(Virgin)
Played at around 10:50

Mozart: Flute Concerto in D Major K314: Allegro aperto
William Bennett (flute) with the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by George Malcolm
From the 1989 album: Mozart Flute Concertos
(Decca)
Played at around 10:55

Studio operators

Wellington engineer: Carol Jones
Auckland engineer: Jeremy Ansell
Christchurch engineer: Hamish Doake