Sunday Morning for Sunday 24 October 2021

8:11 Covid-19 update with Professor Gary McLean 

New Zealander Dr Gary McLean is a Professor in molecular immunology at London Metropolitan University and a researcher with Imperial College. He's an international authority on coronaviruses. 
Professor McLean is back with us to look at comparing vaccines, Covid vaccine makers bracing for a variant worse than Delta, the lesson learned in the UK announcing Freedom Day too soon, and how vital boosters are becoming. 

8:26 Celebrating 50 years of American Pie 

It's been 50 years since Don McLean wrote and recorded his seminal folk-rock anthem, American Pie. 
McLean says he wanted to write a big song that would tie everything together on his second album (also American Pie) and connect with the parts of America that mattered to him, starting with Buddy Holly. But he never anticipated the album's title track would touch and reach people the way it has over the past half century. (The Recording Industry of America lists American Pie as the fifth best song of the 20th century.) 
To mark the 50th anniversary of American Pie, McLean (now 76) will embark on a 35-date European tour, starting in Wales and ending in Austria, in 2022. 
Dr Jules Older used 'American Pie' as the name of the radio show he used to host in Dunedin. It was a format for American music and a bit of liberal politics. He joins the show to discuss the impact of American Pie and the day he interviewed the man himself.  

8:39 The Weekend Panel with Ali Jones and Chris Wikaira

Joining us on the Weekend Panel this morning are Ali Jones, a Senior Consultant at RedPR and BRG Director Chris Wikaira. Among other topics, they'll be discussing the roadmap out of lockdown, what to do with vaccination rates, Auckland schools returning, housing issues, ageism and the British Royal Family getting political.

9:06 Mediawatch

As the covid crisis deepens and lockdowns lengthen, Mediawatch looks at how the media are reporting the mental health effects of it all. Also: how media marked a milestone for MMP last week - and lessons to learn from last weekend’s televised ‘Vaxathon.’

9:37 How carrying a tune can lead to better health 

We've all seen the incredibly positive social impacts of people taking to their balconies, windows, and rooftops to sing to one another during the pandemic.  
But there are health benefits as well. Not only does singing songs that we know trigger the reward system in the brain that releases dopamine, the act of singing -- either by yourself or with others -- can help with everything from relieving pain to helping to improve your posture.
Kay Norton is a professor of musicology at Arizona State University who studies the healing power of music. 

10:06 All Blacks v USA test review 

Colorado-based Kiwi Chris Adams was in attendance at today's All Blacks v USA rugby test at FedEx Field in Washington, DC. 
He's also been travelling recently -- visiting four small, smart European countries with similarities to New Zealand (Finland, Iceland, Denmark and Switzerland) and talking with tourism officials about how they have been able to reopen their borders and largely return to normal life. (Spoiler alert: high vaccination rates are the key.) 
Chris joins us, presumably on the side of the road somewhere in Washington, DC, to look back on the All Blacks' fifth official test against the USA, and highlight what's working Covid-wise in those aforementioned European countries. 

10:16 Meet the woman who scams the scammers 

We've all wanted to scream down the phone at scammers before. Some people even keep whistles next to the phone so they can go one better. But few out there would have tried to scam the scammers themselves. 
Well, there are people who do just that. 
Three to four times a week, for up to two hours at a time, LA-based voice actor Rosie Okumura telephones thieves and messes with their minds. It's known as 'scambaiting.' 
The 35-year-old has been scamming the scammers for the past two years, and has no intention of stopping anytime soon. (You can see her in action on her YouTube page.)  
Rosie joins the show to discuss what got her interested in scambaiting in the first place, and reflect on some of her greatest conquests.

10:36 Calling Home: Rosie Manins in Atlanta, Georgia 

To say Nelsonian Rosie Manins' introduction to life in Atlanta has been something of a baptism of fire would be an understatement. 
A former ODT journalist who is married to a Grammy Award-nominated Georgia native (Jamaica Smith), Rosie now works as a courts reporter, and has seen Confederate monuments taken from public view, experienced the race riots after George Floyd's death, met Martin Luther King Jr.'s sister, and interviewed a black man who was attacked by the KKK as a boy -- not to mention living through the horror of  Covid-19 as the state recorded over one million cases and 20,000 deaths. She's Calling Home this morning. 

11:05 Jonathan Haidt: 'Social media business model is breaking the world' 

Named one of the world's top thinkers by both Prospect and Foreign Policy magazines, American social psychologist Professor Jonathan Haidt will feature as the keynote speaker at next month's APEC CEO Summit in Auckland.    
Haidt, who will be delivering his speech remotely because of Covid-19, will be asking if business can become a force for good in the future in his address at the fully digital summit. 
He joins the show to discuss his appearance at APEC, why social media is to blame for messing up the internal dynamics of most of our social institutions, and how a Donald Trump re-election in 2024 could kill American democracy. 

11:33 The New Zealand-made 'viral' music hit of 1971 

Fifty years ago this week, The Rumour started their four-week run at the top of the NZ charts with their most memorable song, L'amour Est L'enfant de la Liberté (Love is the Child of Freedom).
Composed by Shade (John) Smith, and sung by his twin brother, Gerard, L'amour Est L'enfant de la Liberté sold over 30,000 copies, making it one of the biggest-selling local songs of the era.  
Shade lives in Waihi these days, where he teaches guitar and still writes and produces his own music. 
Shade joins the show to look back on the song that rocketed The Rumour to stardom 50 years ago, and reflect on his life today. 

11:40 Time is right for new Cousteau documentary 

If eco-warrior Jacques-Yves Cousteau was still alive today, he'd be alarmed by the state of the planet's oceans and the wild creatures in them, says Becoming Cousteau co-writer Pax Wasserman. And he'd be even more concerned about the lack of action by world leaders. 
Drawing on a treasure trove of previously undocumented archival material, Becoming Cousteau takes an affectionate look at the 20th century's greatest undersea explorer and environmentalist. It also reminds us that Cousteau was warning world leaders about how dire things would become if they failed to back up their words with action, more than 50 years before the same message was being trotted out ahead of the upcoming UN climate summit in Glasgow.  
Pax Wasserman is co-writer and editor of Becoming Cousteau, which opened this week and is up for five gongs at the Critics' Choice Documentary Awards in Brooklyn.