Sunday Morning for Sunday 6 May 2018

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7.11 Kilauea volcano: lava, earthquakes and toxic gas

The world's most active volcano Kilauea, has lived up to its reputation in the past few days - and a number of strong earthquakes and toxic gas have reinforced the power of mother nature. Janet Snyder is a spokeswoman for the office of Hawaii County Mayor. See images at USGS.

7.20 Rotorua floods update 

A week ago floods swept through Rotorua and many people can't return to their homes. A State of Emergency may be lifted this morning. Mayor Steve Chadwick has an update. 

7.25 Musical memories up for auction

It's New Zealand music month and fans of music memorabilia have a treat in store this afternoon. "The Record Collectors and Music Memorabilia Auction" is on at 2pm in Dunedin, run by Haywards Auction House. The Chills manager and Dunedin music enthusiast and collector Scott Muir talks about what's going under the hammer. People can place absentee bids through this link.

7.30 The House

This week our parliamentary programme The House talks with Chris Finlayson about his attempt to update the law on Contempt of Court.

7:45 ‘The children have no books in their language’

A group of linguists from the University of Auckland is trying to help save a local language under threat in Papua New Guinea. They've been running literature workshops in Bougainville with the aim of producing works in Naasioi, one of the 25 languages there. Any known printed writings in the language were destroyed during the Bougainville conflict, which lasted a decade from 1988 to 1998. Three University of Auckland researchers have been working with locals at the request of the manager of the Haus Stori, the library established in the Bougainville township of Arawa, with the help of New Zealand author Lloyd Jones in 2012. One of the researchers, Masters student Brittni Smith, says the children have no books written in Naasioi and that is one of the goals for helping locals preserve their language.

8:10 Insight: The dawn of a new Commonwealth?

Commonwealth leaders, among them Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, have returned from a London retreat with a new sense of purpose for the 53-nation bloc. With many international norms being challenged, the collection of former colonies is seeking to re-establish itself on the world stage, selling itself as a potential business platform. But while New Zealand is championing the revival, including the prospect of a Commonwealth-wide trade area, others are treating the move with more scepticism. RNZ's political reporter Craig McCulloch explores the possibilities after reporting on Ms Ardern's whirlwind trip to the United Kingdom.

8.37 John Potter: 'There are no super foods' 

Massey University professor John Potter is an award-winning health researcher, chief science advisor to the Ministry of Health and an advisor to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre. He's also Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology at the University of Washington.
He's written a book, Thought for Food, that features the latest research on what causes cancer and other chronic diseases and how our modern diets might be linked to them.

9:06 Mediawatch

Presented and produced by Colin Peacock and Jeremy Rose.  This week: the downsizing of our daily papers; a new online outlet for local journalism in the South Island; and how reports of rumours about the PM's partner divided opinion in the media.

9:35 Bill McKibben: 'America’s most important environmentalist'

Bill McKibben is a writer and environmentalist whose landmark book “The End of Nature” published 25 years ago, was regarded as the first book for a general audience on climate change. Bill McKibben is also a founder of 350.org - a global, grassroots, climate change movement and is described by the Boston Globe as America’s most important environmentalist.  He's in New Zealand on the Fossil-Free Acceleration Tour - trying to galvanise communities to get governments and investors to divest fossil fuels.
He’s speaking in Wellington, on Sunday 6 May, Embassy Cinema at 7pm.  Auckland, Monday 7 May, Town Hall Concert Chamber at 7pm.

10:04 Philip Hulme: ‘NZ is one of the weediest places on earth’

Professor Philip Hulme is one of the foremost experts on invasive plants and is giving a series of talks ‘Ornamental to Detrimental’ around the country on behalf of the Royal Society to raise awareness of the problem. The culprits can even be botanical gardens which failed to stop foreign flora jumping fences and establishing themselves to the detriment of native plantlife. Professor Hulme is based at  New Zealand's Bio-Protection Research Centre at Lincoln University.
9 May Palmerston North Central Library, Events Central 7:30pm
10 May Napier | EIT, Lecture Theatre 6pm
16 May Christchurch | University of Canterbury, C2 Central Lecture Theatres  6:30pm
23 May Wellington | Royal Society Te Apārangi, Aronui Lecture Theatre 6:30pm
5 June Nelson | Nelson Elim Christian Centre 7:30pm

10:26 ‘The reaction in Hollywood when Peter Jackson got LOTR was laughter’

A fascinating book by British film writer Ian Nathan, "Anything You Can Imagine: Peter Jackson & the Making of Middle-Earth", tells the behind-the-scenes challenges to get Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies made It also describes how one 25-minute preview of LOTR outside Cannes’ main theatres blew the elite audience away. The former editor of Empire magazine also reveals how Harvey Weinstein rejected Peter Jackson’s original idea for two films - but now, even though Weinstein didn’t make LOTR - it still makes him more money than any of his films.  

11:04 Susan Lacy on Steven Spielberg

A new film takes an inside look at perhaps the most famous filmmaker living. Steven Spielberg has built an unrivalled catalogue of films over 50 years: Jaws, ET, Raiders of the Lost Ark Jurassic Park, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The eponymous documentary Spielberg includes interviews with the likes of J.J. Abrams, Christian Bale, Drew Barrymore, Cate Blanchett, Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese. It was directed and produced by Susan Lacy  - a documentary biographer of more than 30 years. She previously helmed the PBS' American Masters series for three decades; winning dozens of Emmy and Peabody Awards. Spielberg will play as part of the Doc Edge Festival. It plays in Wellington on 20 May and in Auckland on 3 June.

11:28 Comedian and children’s author Peter Helliar

Pete Helliar is one of Australia's best-known comedians. He's the co-host on Australia's version of The Project, and in 2017 was voted Australia's most popular television personality. He’s still performing stand up comedy but Pete Helliar has found another calling  - it's writing books for children. He's coming to New Zealand to speak at the Auckland Writers Festival about his Frankie Fish books.

11:45 Sonia Sly: the buzz at iD Dunedin Fashion Week

Sonia Sly gives her assessment of  iD Dunedin Fashion Week being held from May 1-6 at the Dunedin Town Hall. The competitors are fashion design students from all over the world - 44 designers, 42 collections, from 19 countries. Sonia has also blogged about the event here.