Saturday Morning for Saturday 2 April 2022

8.10 Prof Jeremy Nicholson: the link between Long Covid and heart disease

Professor Jeremy Nicholson is the Director of the Australian National Phenome Centre at Murdoch University and a leading researcher into Long Covid. His team is working with multiple universities around the world — including Harvard and Cambridge —  to try and understand the long term cardiometabolic and other systemic effects of the disease, as well as the impact of Covid-19 in kids. 

Professor Nicholson says Omicron will likely cause significant levels of Long Covid, due to its high infection rate. He says despite the fact that the lung disease is less severe than other variants, it could have ongoing impact on organs such as the brain, heart, and kidneys. 

His team recently discovered a new set of biomarkers for increased risk of cardiovascular disease in patients with Covid-19 infections. 

 

8.35 Areez Katki: breathing new life into the art of embroidery

Artist and writer Areez Katki is a rising star in the contemporary arts scene, giving new relevance to embroidery while exploring his Queer and Parsi-Indian identity. He often embroiders into materials handed down through his family, such as handkerchiefs and prayer mats. 

Currently based in Mumbai, where he was born, Katki moved to New Zealand in 2002 and grew up within a close-knit Parsi community in East Auckland. Parsis are an ethnoreligious group originally from Persia, who practice one of the world's oldest faiths, Zoroastrianism.

Katki currently has a solo exhibition at McLeavey Gallery in Wellington, a major installation at Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth with Australian-Afghan artist Khadim Ali, and a billboard work outside Te Tuhi gallery, Pakuranga.
 

 

9.05 Tā Tipene O’Regan: a life spent building a bicultural nation

Renowned Māori leader Tā Tipene O’Regan (Ngāi Tahu) was named 2022 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year at a digital ceremony this week. 

This year marks the 25th anniversary since Tā Tipene successfully led the negotiation of one of Aotearoa’s first major iwi settlements, Te Kerēme - the Ngāi Tahu Claim. The moment was a long time in the making, almost 150 years after the first formal statement of grievance was made against the Crown.

Tā Tipene was once described by The Press as being a frighteningly intelligent boardroom brawler who was “totally committed to securing the return of some of his people's land". Now in his 80s, Tā Tipene is one of the country’s most respected and admired kaumātua who has dedicated his life to building a bicultural nation.
 

 

9.35 Anna Jackson: unpacking how poetry works through the ages

Anna Jackson has six books of her poetry to her name, but her latest Actions & Travels focuses on the work of others. 

Rather than an academic textbook, Actions & Travels explores how poetry works through the discussion of 100 poems, ranging from the ancient Roman poet Catullus, through to the Romantics like Samuel Taylor Coleridge and on to many distinct contemporary New Zealand voices — among them Hera Lindsay Bird and Jenny Bornholdt.

Jackson is a writer and academic who teaches English literature as an Associate Professor at Victoria University of Wellington. She is currently in residence at the Sargeson Centre in Auckland, having been awarded a 2022 Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship.  

10.05 Playing Favourites with musician Delaney Davidson

Christchurch alt-country artist Delaney Davidson is no stranger to having multiple projects on the boil, and this year is no exception. Having recently scooped the award for Producer of the Year for his work co-producing Troy Kingi’s stellar 2021 record Black Sea Golden Ladder, Davidson is now embarking on an artistic residency at Massey University.

Before the pandemic struck, Davidson would spend six months of the year touring abroad, but being based on home soil has seen him refocus his craft and look to create work with a variety of local artists including Tame Iti, Karl Steven, Theia, Shayne Carter and old friend and former collaborator Marlon Williams.

Watch the video for ‘Candyman’ from the 2014 album Sad But True: Volume 3 by Davidson and Williams:
 

 

11.05 Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert: surviving 804 days in an Iranian prison 

The 12th of September 2018 is a day Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert will never forget. The Australian-British academic had travelled to Iran to attend a seminar on Shia Islam and was about to return to Australia when she was suddenly detained by the feared Islamic Revolutionary Guards at the airport gate in Tehran.

Moore-Gilbert was accused of being a spy, and subsequently convicted of espionage in a shadowy trial presided over by Iran’s most notorious judge who sentenced her to 10 years in prison.

Her new book The Uncaged Sky tells the story of the 804 days she spent incarcerated in Tehran’s Evin and Qarchak prisons, where she was held in solitary confinement for months — her only lifeline the covert friendships she made with other prisoners.

 

Books mentioned in this show:

The Uncaged Sky
By Kylie Moore-Gilbert
Published by Ultimo
ISBN: 9781761150401

Tāngata Ngāi Tahu / People of Ngāi Tahu Vol.2
By Helen Brown and Michael J Stevens
Foreword by Tā Tipene O’Regan
Published by Bridget Williams Books and Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu

Actions & Travels: How Poetry Works
By Anna Jackson
Published by Auckland University Press
ISBN: 9781869409180

 

Music featured in this show:

Song of Wandering Aengus
By The Waterboys
Played at 9.30am

Sleep
By Troy Kingi
Played at 10.15am

I Know Not Where I Stand
By Shayne Carter
Played at 10.30am

E Hine Ē
By Theia
Played at 10.40am

CandyMan
Delaney Davidson and Marlon Williams
Played at 10.50am

When It's Time To Go
Buddy Fo and His Group
Played at 10.57am