Saturday Morning Podcast Options

10:40 AM.Dr. Andrea Clavijo McCormick of Massey University in Palmerston North recently secured $300,000 in funding from the Royal Society Te Aparangi annual Marsden Fund to study how plants communicate. And… Read more Audio

9:40 AM.After the year that 2020 has been, how can you improve your family reunions this Christmas? The author of The Art of Gathering, and host of popular podcast Together Apart, conflict mediator Priya… Read more Audio

9:05 AM.Cambridge University consultant clinical virologist Dr Chris Smith's regular conversations about the science of the coronavirus pandemic have been a feature of the show this year. So what has… Read more Audio

8:10 AM.Shepherd James Rebanks tends a flock of Herdwick sheep on a family-owned farm in the Lake District in northern England. He learned traditional farming ways from his grandfather; a man with a profound… Read more Audio

5:06 PM.During the 1940s and 50s the US detonated 67 nuclear bombs on, in and above the Marshall Islands as part of its Cold War nuclear testing programme. The Marshall Islands are two chains of 29 coral… Read more Audio, Gallery

11:59 AM.Listener feedback for Saturday Morning for 12 December 2020. Audio

11:45 AM.Poet and writer Kate Camp returns to discuss a historic work of classic literature - this week it's Orlando King by Isabel Colgate. Written in 1968, the novel follows a charismatic young man trying to… Read more Audio

11:06 AM.Northland-based soul singer TEEKS aka Te Karehana Gardiner-Toi (Ngapuhi, Ngai Te Rangi, Ngati Ranginui) seems on the expressway to success. His 2017 debut EP The Grapefruit Skies was met with critical… Read more Video, Audio

10:06 AM.100 year old Benjamin Ferencz is a lawyer, writer, thinker and pacifist who investigated Nazi war crimes after the Second World War, and is the last surviving prosecutor from the Nuremberg War Crimes… Read more Video, Audio

9:35 AM."Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle" - many New Zealanders know Denis Glover as the author of the iconic poem "The Magpies". The late poet, printer and publisher also left behind a tarnished personal… Read more Audio

8:40 AM.Molecular virologist Arvind Varsani and evolutionary virologist Simona Kraberger are expat New Zealanders working at Arizona State University. During the coronavirus pandemic they've been using… Read more Audio

8:12 AM.For the past 7 years radiation specialist Lucas Hixson has been working at the abandoned Chernobyl nuclear reactors in Ukraine. In 1986 an accident at the former Soviet nuclear plant killed 31 people… Read more Audio

4:55 PM.Scottish writer Douglas Stuart recently won the 2020 Booker Prize for his debut novel Shuggie Bain. Before its success, the book was rejected more than 30 times by various publishers. Set in 1980s… Read more Audio

11:59 AM.Kim Hill reads listener feedback for Saturday Morning for 5 December 2020. Audio

11:40 AM.Art historian and curator Mary Kisler returns to discuss three so-called 'poster girls' of the 18th century: the opera singer Elizabeth Linley Sheridan, the actress Sarah Siddons, and the model, muse… Read more Audio

11:05 AM.Penguin expert and Antarctic explorer Lloyd Spencer Davis blends natural history, evolutionary biology and stories of adventure in his new book A Polar Affair: Antarctica's Forgotten Hero and the… Read more Audio, Gallery

10:40 AM.Dr Alyce Swinbourne is a wombat specialist based at the School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences at the University of Adelaide. She says the animals use their amazing armoured backsides (made up of… Read more Audio

10:05 AM.Judith Jones is an expert audio describer, providing verbal descriptions of museum exhibitions and stage performances to people who are blind or with low vision. She works as a host at The Museum of… Read more Audio, Gallery

9:40 AM.Cognitive neuroscientist Dr David Moreau has been recognised by the Royal Society Te Aparangi Te Kōpūnui with the Early Career Research Excellence Award for Social Sciences. Moreau is a lecturer in… Read more Audio

8:35 AM.Australia is not well known for casting envious glances across the Tasman. But what can 'the lucky country' learn from us? Laura Tingle is a senior political journalist with the Australian… Read more Audio

8:11 AM.Saliva-based Covid-19 tests could have many advantages over current nasal swabs; being potentially cheaper, quicker, easier, and safer for health workers. Recently returned expat New Zealander Dr Anne… Read more Audio

12:55 PM.26 year old Francesca Goodman-Smith is on a mission to tackle New Zealand's food waste problem. Working for Foodstuffs, one of the country's biggest supermarket chains, she's designed an award-winning… Read more Audio

11:40 AM.Gisborne punk band "Sit Down In Front" formed in January 2017 and its members are all still in high school. Fronting the four piece is 17-year-old Cory Newman who uses a wheelchair. His energetic live… Read more Video, Audio

11:05 AM.Whether you love them, hate them, or just don't know when to use them; the semicolon can be a divisive and contentious punctuation mark. That's what historian, Cecelia Watson discovered when she spent… Read more Audio