Saturday Morning for Saturday 22 August 2020

8:10 Buying a media business for $1: Stuff's Sinead Boucher

In a surprise management buyout, Stuff chief executive Sinead Boucher bought the media business from its Australian owners in May, for $1.

There's a tough road ahead navigating a turbulent media landscape of restructurings, redundancies, and closures.

She's already rejected Facebook's advertising dollars, and has plans to introduce a collective ownership structure, with Stuff's journalists taking a stake in the business.

8:40 Virologist Dr Chris Smith: latest Covid-19 science

Consultant clinical virologist Dr Chris Smith of Cambridge University and The Naked Scientists returns to digest emerging Covid-related science and research.

his week, a new study suggests that children are an important vector for the virus, what sounds like some encouraging news about post-infection immunity, and could herd immunity really work when just 20 percent of a population test positive?

9:05 Astrophysicist Sara Seager: searching for planets beyond our solar system

Sara Seager is a renowned Canadian-born astrophysicist and planetary scientist based at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Her research focuses on the discovery of planets outside our own solar system.

Since first being detected in 1992, more than 4,300 of these exoplanets have been discovered.

Seager's in no doubt there must be other life somewhere in the universe and in her book The Smallest Lights in the Universe, she interweaves her quest to find an earth-like exoplanet with the story of her search for meaning and solace after becoming a young widow and solo mother to two small boys.

9:40 The Unraveling of America: Wade Davis

"In a dark season of pestilence, COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism"

In his recent Rolling Stone essay The Unraveling of America Canadian anthropologist Wade Davis takes aim at the US response to the coronavirus pandemic, saying that it signals the end of the 'American era'. The essay has gone viral, having racked up over 10 million social media views.

Davis is a multi award-winning writer, photographer and Professor of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. His work focuses on indigenous cultures, and the traditional uses and beliefs associated with psychoactive plants.

He was Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society from 2000 to 2013 and has authored 22 books, including The Serpent and the Rainbow (1985), One River (1996), and Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, the Conquest of Everest (2011). His most recent book Magdalena, explores his travels on the Colombian river.

10:05 Playing favourites with XL Recordings' boss Richard Russell

Music industry supremo Richard Russell joined XL Recordings as an A & R scout back in 1991, two years after it was founded.

He now runs the independent record label responsible for releasing an impressive array of artists including The Prodigy, The White Stripes, Dizzee Rascal, Radiohead, Frank Ocean, Adele, Vampire Weekend and MIA.

Russell tells the story of his music career in a new book: Liberation Through Hearing: Rap, Rave and the Rise of XL Recordings.

He'll share some of his favourite tracks with Kim.

11:05 Love on the Spectrum dating coach Jodi Rodgers

Reality TV show Love on the Spectrum has been a surprise hit.

It follows young Australian adults with autism exploring the unpredictable world of dating.

Finding love can be hard for anyone, and for those on the autism spectrum, it's often even trickier

Some of the show's participants are coached by Jodi Rodgers, a sexologist and counsellor who has extensive experience in working with people with disabilities.

For her, intimacy and relationships are a basic human right, and education and support needs to be available to those whose disability makes finding and sustaining relationships hard.

 

11:40 Doug Wilson: Ageism - Does it matter?

Medical academic, former pharmaceutical executive, and author of Ageing For Beginners, Doug Wilson's back, reporting in from the other side of 80.

This week he's unpacking ageism: what it looks like, where it happens, and what we can do to tackle it.

Books mentioned in this show:

The Smallest Lights in the Universe
Sara Seager
ISBN : 9780008328269
Published by HarperCollins

Liberation Through Hearing: Rap, Rave and the Rise of XL Recordings
by Richard Russell
ISBN: 9781474616348
Published by Orion

Music played in this show

Song: Buffalo Gals
Artist: Malcolm McClaren
played at 10:11

Song: Firestarter
Artist: Prodigy
Played at: 10:25

Song: Pull Up The People
Artist: MIA
Played at:10:37

Song: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Artist: Gil Scott Heron
Played at: 10:46

Song: This World
Artist: Everything Is Recorded
Played at: 10: 57

Song: Don't You Know Who I Am
Artist  Reb Fountain
Played at 11:35