Sunday Morning for Sunday 21 June 2020

 

8:10 The House

Like the rest of the country, Parliament has been steadily emerging back into the offline world and into a normal schedule. This week it did two things that haven't happened for quite some time. Our Parliamentary programme The House has the details.

8:30 The Panel with Linda Clark & Richard Harman

New Zealand's new Covid-19 cases and the troubles at our borders, the police shooting in West Auckland, health reforms and taxes are on the agenda for our Sunday Morning panellists Linda Clark and Richard Harman. Linda is a former broadcaster and is a partner with Dentons Kensington Swan law firm, and Richard runs the Politik website, and was formerly in charge of TV shows Agenda and The Nation as well as being chair of the parliamentary press gallery.

8:50 China correspondent on India border clash and new Covid-19 wave

China has reportedly freed 10 Indian soldiers seized in a high-altitude border clash in the Himalayas that has been described as the most serious fighting in the disputed border area in more than 50 years. Meanwhile, local authorities are now are looking closely at seafood stalls in a market at the centre of a new coronavirus cluster in Beijing. Our correspondent Nathan van der Klippe joins the show with all the latest from the Chinese capital.

9:06 Mediawatch

This week Mediawatch looks at how the media lifted the lid on startling failures in Covid-19 quarantine.Also: new developments in a major review of Maori media - and claims its critics have misunderstood it.  

9:37 Professor Michael Baker: New Zealand Covid-19 update

Professor Michael Baker has been a constant and reassuring presence on Sunday Morning in recent months. He returns to discuss how the landscape has changed in the light of the recent positive Covid-19 cases that broke a 24-day stretch without a new case of the virus in this country, and a few other Covid-19-related questions, including if speaking Japanese lowers the risk of spreading coronavirus. 

9:50 'Par Four' on NZ mini golf odyssey for Kiwi mental health

Friends John Middleton, Zac Roberts and Kyle Sutcliffe had been playing a bit of mini golf together before lockdown kicked in. The trio, who have all suffered from mental health issues in the past, decided they would go one step further post-lockdown and play every open mini golf course in the entire country. 'Par four' kicked off their nationwide tour in Auckland yesterday, with the money they are able to raise over the coming weeks going to the Mental Health Foundation. They're with us in studio to discuss their mini golf odyssey.

10:10 How beautiful young women are used to boost the status of men

Dr. Ashley Mears is a former fashion model turned academic sociologist. The Associate Professor of Sociology at Boston University spent 18 months in the world of "models and bottles" to write her new book, Very Important People, Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit, which looks at how clubs and restaurants pay promoters to recruit beautiful young women to their venues in order to get men to spend huge amounts of money on bottle service.

10:30 How Covid-19 is empowering organised crime

There was a mad rush for drug users to secure their stashes before Covid-19 lockdown restrictions were brought in, with online and offline dealers profiting from huge orders and rising prices due to scarcity. Underworld investigator Misha Glenny says it's going to change the nature of the drug-dealing business, working against the big organised crime cartels who traditionally control the drugs trade.  

11:08 The story behind the biggest TV game show scandal of all time

Anyone who watches Who Wants to be a Millionaire? will remember the case of 'coughing Major' Charles Ingram in 2001, when he, wife Diana Ingram and an accomplice, Tecwen Whittock, were accused of cheating their way to a million pounds. James Graham is the writer of a new miniseries about the saga, Quiz, which is about to premiere on New Zealand television.

11:28 Study finds ketogenic diet alters gut microbes in humans

A new study out of UC San Francisco has found that low-carb, high-fat ketogenic diets have a dramatic impact on the microbes residing in the human guts and also the tissue that lines our gut. The study's corresponding author Peter Turnbaugh, a UCSF associate professor of microbiology and immunology, is with us to explain the research. 

11:35 Kiwi runner to resume US marathon after near-death hit-and-run 

When New Zealander Nick Ashill was intentionally mowed down by a ute while attempting to run 5000km across America, doctors wondered if he would ever walk again -- let alone run. But after a long rehabilitation and a number of surgeries, the former Wellington man will return to the scene of the incident in 2021 to complete the final 1000km of his epic journey.