Sunday Morning for Sunday 26 May 2019

7:11 Dominic O'Connell: June 7 will be The End of May 

British prime minister Theresa May's latest attempt to deliver a Brexit deal provoked a fierce backlash from within her own party that ultimately ended in her resignation, with the leader who was once billed as 'The New Iron Lady' set to step down after she hosts US President Donald Trump in England early next month. The BBC’s Business Presenter, New Zealander Dominic O’Connell joins the show to look at the latest colourful chapter in the Brexit/Theresa May story. 

 

7.18 Chris Quin: Kiwi shoppers prefer cashiers to self-service checkouts   

A new consumer satisfaction survey has just come out that shows two-thirds of New Zealanders prefer cashiers over self-service checkouts, despite the continued rise of self-service checkouts in supermarkets throughout the country. The survey also showed that roughly 50% of Kiwis spend between $100-$199 per week on groceries, while 25% of people spend less than $100. Chris Quin is the CEO of Foodstuffs North Island and he joins the show to discuss the findings of the survey and the habits of Kiwi supermarket shoppers. 

7.32 The House

A weekly digest of the events in Parliament with Daniela Maoate-Cox and Phil Smith.

7.45 Calling Home: Alastair Carthew in Thailand

Calling Home this week goes to Phuket where Alastair Carthew lives. He originally landed there as part of a secondment for his work, but has stayed on for seven years. He's had a colourful career in the media as a political reporter, communications adviser, PR adviser and now author. He discusses what keeps him busy these days and why he's stayed on in Phuket for so long. 

 

8:10 Insight: Has the Military shaken off its anti-LGBTQI history?

In the past, being gay, lesbian or transgender in the military has led to job losses and bullying. Now the Defence Force is promoting its rainbow approach. But have the attitudes of the past disappeared? Jonathan Mitchell investigates.

8.38 Dr Roger Tyers: The no-fly journey from England to China 

Dr Roger Tyers is an environmental sociologist at the University of Southampton who's in China to research attitudes to the environment, the climate emergency and personal responsibility. He felt that given the subject matter he would be a bit of a hypocrite to be flying to Beijing so instead undertook the journey overland by train. It's took him months to plan the trip, but he is part of a world-wide growing movement of people shunning air travel to reduce their carbon footprint. Some campaigners say no flying is as important as reducing plastic and eating less meat. Dr Tyers speaks to Jim about his journey and the challenges he's faced.

 

9:06 Mediawatch

This week Colin Peacock looks at the sudden surge of interest in Christian politics and why Pike River families kept the media at arm's length. He also looks at the  headline-making report into bullying at Parliament.

9:45 Dr Oliver Scott Curry: Kindness causing happiness

Dr Oliver Scott Curry  is the research director for Kindlab, at kindness.org online. He's also with the School of Anthropology at  Oxford University where he led a team researching the impact of kindness, not just in terms of helping people but for the person being kind's overall well-being. They were asking whether being kinder could be a way to solve personal problems; how helping someone deal with their problems could in turn work for the person offering help. They analysed 27 experiments to come up with their final conclusions, and it's a fascinating read. Dr Curry speaks to Jim about the kindness and happiness links they uncovered.

10:06 Jimmy Barnes: "The best is yet to come."

Legendary Australian rocker Jimmy Barnes is back with another new album, My Criminal Record, which is due out on May 31. He's also going to be on this side of the Tasman in September performing three dates of his Shutting Down Your Town tour. He joins Jim in the studio to talk about his stellar musical career, overcoming his demons, the physical anomaly that has kept his trademark singing  , and why he believes, after four decades of making music, the best of Jimmy Barnes is yet to come.

 

10.35 Jenny Gao: The gruesomeness of 'Dark Cuisine' 

Jenny Gao is an international name in food, and she's been exploring Chinese food for a long time and introducing it to the West. She founded a modern Chinese fast-casual restaurant in Shanghai, which has won awards, and she's been featured in a lot of publications and been on the BBC and CNN. Her newest project is called Fly By Jing. She joins Jim to a new trend coming out of China which is all about serving food which disgusts people, known as "Dark Cuisine."

11.06 Paul Anthony Jones: 'Around the World in 80 Words'   

Wordsmith Paul Anthony Jones has, using geography, researched where some of our most famous words have come from and their surprisingly ordinary meanings as well often innocuous beginnings. He's looked at the origins of Panama hats, Manila paper, Daiquiri cocktails and how the term doolally actually relates to a town in India. He's now put it all together in a book Around the World in 80 Words, A Journey through the English language. New Zealand features in there as well with the researcher discovering what "karitane yellow" is as well as finding out where the word dollar originated in the world... and it's not where most would suspect. He speaks to Jim about  the intriguing stories of how 80 different places came to be immortalised in our language.

 

11:45 Musical Chair with Julz Tocker

New Zealand Dancing with the Stars judge Julz Tocker talks to Jim about musical influences throughout his life and how tough it was for him to realise his dream to become a dancer. From being bullied at school to having lunch with Hollywood stars, Julz opens up about the amazing life he's had and why being a judge on New Zealand's DWTS is a highlight for him -- all to the backdrop of a couple of songs that mean a great deal to him.