Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump.

Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump. Photo: AFP

8:10 The week in US politics: April Ryan

April Ryan

April Ryan Photo: twitter / @AprilDRyan

It's less than two weeks until the US election.

April Ryan joins us to discuss the latest from Presidential race, and to digest the reaction to the final debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

Ryan is the White House Correspondent and Washington DC Bureau Chief for American Urban Radio Networks, a political analyst for CNN, and the author of three books.

8:30  Kristie Amadio: improving treatment for eating disorders

Life coach and counsellor Kristie Amadio is using her own experiences to help others recover from eating disorders.

Formerly a top level weightlifter, she developed anorexia as a teenager while in training for the 2004 Olympic Games.

After struggling to find suitable treatment in Australia and New Zealand she traveled to the States for months of residential treatment.  

She's founded a coaching platform called Recovered Living, and plans to set up clinics in New Zealand.

She is a finalist in the Innovation, Science & Health category of the 2020 Women of Influence Awards.

Getting help:

Eating Disorders Association of New Zealand help page

Kristie Amadio

Kristie Amadio Photo: supplied

9:05 Masha Gessen: Surviving Autocracy

No caption

Photo: Supplied

Within 48 hours of Donald Trump's 2016 victory, Masha Gessen's essay Autocracy: Rules for Survival had gone viral.

A staff writer at The New Yorker, Gessen's Soviet childhood and two decades covering the resurgence of totalitarianism in Russia, made them uniquely qualified to assess Trump's potential to become an autocratic leader.

In their new book Surviving Autocracy, Gessen highlights the corrosion of the media, judiciary, and cultural norms that they see as signals that the nation has tipped further towards autocracy.

Gessen has authored twelve books, including the National Book Award-winning The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia.

Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Photo: supplied / Lena Di

9:35 The right to whakapapa: Jade Morgan

Jade Morgan didn't let a 6-year prison sentence and early gang ties define him.

His work reconnecting Dunedin prisoners with their whakapapa using Te Ao Māori - whether that's through martial arts, kapa haka or oratory - has been recognised with a national Te Putanga Toi Arts Access Award.

He's been running his tikanga programme, Te Hōkai Manea Tipuna (the glowing footsteps of our ancestors) at the Otago Corrections Facility since 2017.

Morgan saw his own life changing course when he started connecting to his culture during his time in prison in the 1990s.

He says this cultural access should be a right offered to everyone.

Jade Morgan teaching his tikanga programme "Te Hōkai Manea Tipuna"

Jade Morgan teaching his tikanga programme "Te Hōkai Manea Tipuna" Photo: supplied

10:05 Matthew McConaughey: searching for green lights

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Photo: supplied

"Alright, Alright, Alright" Matthew McConaughey's Dazed And Confused catchphrase sums up how life has turned out for the actor.

Now 50 and the father of three children, the Academy Award-winner has mined his diaries to write a candid and philosophical memoir Greenlights.

He reflects on growing up in rural Texas as the the son of parents who married three times and divorced twice, and his career which has included starring roles in Dallas Buyer's Club, Magic Mike, The Wolf of Wall Street and HBO show True Detective.

McConaughey says of the central philosophy of his book: “If you know how, and when, to deal with life’s challenges - how to get relative with the inevitable - you can enjoy a state of success I call catching greenlights.”

Matthew McConaughey

Matthew McConaughey Photo: supplied

11:05 Ben Harper: "just me and my lap steel guitar"

Three-time Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and guitarist Ben Harper has a soft spot for Aotearoa and the feeling is mutual.

Since his 1994 debut Harper has pushed musical boundaries, mixing folk, blues, hard rock, country, jazz and reggae,  but his lap steel guitar has been ever present.

Now he's put his Monteleone guitar front and centre, with the release of a solo instrumental album Winter Is For Lovers.

Ben Harper

Ben Harper Photo: supplied / Jacob Boll

11:35 Archaeologist Mary O'Keeffe: Digging our past

“Small things tell big stories” is Wellington-based archaeologist Mary O’ Keeffe's mantra.

She spends her time uncovering fragments of our past from building and roading sites, piecing together narratives about how we lived, and who we are today.

She's dived shipwrecks, worked on the Peka Peka to Mackays Crossing expressway north of Wellington, and was involved in the discovery of Plimmer's Ark.

Books mentioned in this show:

Health At Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight
by Linda Bacon
ISBN-13 : 978-1935618256
Published by BenBella Books

Surviving Autocracy
By Masha Gessen
ISBN: 9780593188934
Published by Riverhead Books

Greenlights
By Matthew McConaughey
ISBN 9780593139134
Published by Crown

 

Music played in this show

Song: I Wonder Why
Artist: Marlon Williams
Played at: 0830

Song: Anything
Artist: Adrianne Lenker
Played at:0935
 
Song:  London
Artist: Ben Harper
Played at: 1055

Song:  Inland Empire
Artist: Ben Harper
Played at: 1105

Song: Monteleone
Artist: Mark Knopfler
Played at: 1130