Saturday Morning for Saturday 22 November 2025

 

7am- 8am – News and Current affairs

8.10 From Baldrick to Alfred the Great - Sir Tony Robinson: having fun with history

Sir Tony Robinson is perhaps best known for playing dogsbody Baldrick in British sitcom Blackadder.

But that's just one highlight of his 50 year acting career, from his first outing on stage in a West End performance of Oliver! to digging on TV for archaeological clues on Time Team.

In his latest venture, Sir Tony is making the past come alive with shows in Auckland and Christchurch in February.

8:35 Dr Jonathan Mathias Lassiter: Mental health in marginalised communities 

Most people would agree that diversity, equity and inclusion are central to an egalitarian society but if one world view dominates at the expense of others, minorities will continue to be marginalised.

That's the lived experience of Dr Jonathan Mathias Lassiter - an American clinical psychologist and the author of How I Know White People Are Crazy - Notes from a Frustrated Black Psychologist.

Dr Lassiter works primarily with marginalised communities at a time when homophobia, racism and the fear of deportation mean the U.S no longer feels like a safe or welcoming place for many. 

An advocate for a more holistic approach to treating mental health, Jonathan talks to Paddy about the importance of cultural humility and coping strategies that everyone can employ. 

9:06 Distinguished Professor Cliff Abraham: How memories are made 

How good is your memory? Are you more 'memory like a sieve'? Photographic or somewhere in the middle? And have you ever wondered why that is?  

Distinguished Professor Cliff Abraham from the University of Otago has been awarded the prestigious Rutherford Medal for his contribution to neuroscience - and more specifically the neural mechanisms of memory.

In helping us to understand how our brains record, store and retrieve information, Professor Abraham has helped to identify the therapeutic properties of a protein that could be used to treat dementia.

He talks to Paddy about how memories are made - and lost.

9.35 The thinking behind the world's greatest thinkers

All of us probably have a favourite saying or words that inspire us. Well, one man who's gone to the next level exploring them is Hugh Mackay, an Australian social phycologist.

Hugh has had a 60-year career in social research and is considered a pioneer in this field after establishing and running the Australian quarterly research series, The Mackay Report, from 1979 to 2003, which provided invaluable insights into Australian social trends for decades. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2016.

His latest book Just Saying, explores twenty-five profound quotes from some of the world's greatest thinkers, from Confucius and Plato to Susan Sontag and Gloria Steinem and breaks them down to uncover what they can teach us.

10.06 Calling all cheese lovers

Patrick McGuigan and Carlos Yescas are two cheese connoisseurs, who together set out in search of the worlds best 100 cheeses, and they've documented them all in their book One Cheese to Rule Them All.

Carlos is a former diplomat, professor, and United Nations expert - turned international cheese judge and scholar. And Patrick is a cheese writer and teacher - they both are judges at the World Cheese Awards. 

Their travels in the search of the world's best cheese have taken them to volcanoes in Japan, the outback of Australia, limestone caves in Cheddar Gorge and the mountains in Mexico.

Patrick and Carlos speak with Paddy Gower about what separates good cheese from great cheese.

10.35 Navigating career change with Dr Galia BarHava 

It's that time of year when things are starting to wrap up. And with the eminent close of one year and start of another, it's also the time when many of us start to take stock of where we are in life, and where we want to go next. For some, that will mean a career change. 

Dr Galia BarHava is an Auckland-based psychologist, and organisational culture expert. 

She has a special focus on the mind-body connection and has loads of tips for navigating stressful times in our lives, and prioritising wellbeing in the workplace. 

She lives with a rare chronic illness, Churg Straus Vasculitis. 

11.05 Protesting fishermen take to Auckland streets

Recreational fishermen from around the country are converging on Auckland this morning in protest of The Hauraki Gulf Marine Protection Act. The One Ocean Project is protesting rule changes which allow limited commercial fishing inside two new High Protection Areas.

Scott Malcon is one of the organisers of the protest, an avid fisherman, and the brand manager for Daiwa, one of the biggest tackle brands in New Zealand.

11.15 NZ photography: earliest to AI - Athol McCredie

Photographer, writer, and for almost 25 years, Te Papa's curator of photography Athol McCredie knows his stuff!

In fact, McCredie's 2015 collection of New Zealand photography was hailed as a landmark piece of work.

A decade later, an expanded edition New Zealand Photography Collected: 175 Years of Photography in Aotearoa spans nearly two centuries in more than 400 pages, exploring our identity as a nation and telling stories about life in this country from the earliest days of European colonisation, at the same time looking at how photography has evolved.

See a gallery of images from New Zealand Photography Collected here.

11.45 Kate de Goldi - Reading for Pleasure

Kate de Goldi is the Te Awhi Rito Reading Ambassador, a novelist, children's writer, and Arts Foundation Laureate. Most importantly, she's a voracious reader and she's back this week to share her latest favourite reads.