Sunday Morning for Sunday 17 July 2022

 

8:13 All Blacks Verdict

Sports writer Mark Reason gives his verdict on the All Blacks performance in the series decider in Wellington on Saturday night, with more tests to come against South Africa, Argentina and Australia in August & September .. and longer term - a World Rugby Cup later next year.

8:26 Politicians live longer than the populations they represent

It's common to hear people say they can't think of a worse occupation than being a politician, with the stress and the scrutiny and the workloads. It may come as a surprise then, that,according to a recent study by Oxford University and the Queensland University of Technology, politicians live longer than the rest of us, have done across the long sweep of history, and continue to do so. 

One of study's authors was Professor Adrian Barnett from Queensland University of Technology.

8:45 The Bomb Next Door

During the Cold War, the US Air Force installed an arsenal of nuclear weapons across the rural West of the US. About 400 Minuteman III missiles remain ready to launch at a few seconds notice in Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, Colorado and Nebraska. They are located on bison reserves and Native American reservations. They sit across from a national forest, behind a rodeo grandstand, down the road from a one-room schoolhouse, and on dozens of private farms like the one belonging to Ed Butchers, who has lived for years with a nuclear missile as his closest neighbour.

As tensions mount once more betwen Russia and the United States, Ed joins us from Fergus County, Montana.

9:06 Mediawatch

Plenty of people are claiming they're 'over Covid' - and some say the pandemic's already over.  But Covid is still spreading fast - so what kind of coverage do we need from our media now? 
Mediawatch looks at that - and also: a rugby clash that hasn't had much coverage lately - who's telling us investing in property is still safe as houses. 

9:39 Calling Home with Charlotte Everett 

Charlotte Everett is calling home this morning from a houseboat on a canal off the River Thames in London. Charlotte runs a business called Rebel Tours. Charlie, as she's better-known, studied Politics and Drama at Auckland University, she then worked in the business development side of the entertainment industry before moving to London in 2007.

10:06 Billy No Mates

British comedian and writer, Max Dickins has wowed crowds at the Edinburgh Festival with his one-man show.  His book Improvise, about the techniques and tricks of comedy improv that can be applied to life outside comedy was a big hit.

But when Max decided to propose to his girlfriend, he realised there was no one he could call on to be his best man. He quickly learned that that he wasn't the only man struggling with friendships. For decades, countless studies from across the world have confirmed that men have fewer close friends than women - and the problem gets worse the older men get. But what goes wrong? And what can men do about it? 

He tells us in his latest book Billy No-Mates: How I Realised Men Have a Friendship Problem.

10:34  When the Cows Come Home

Costa Botes has had a long career directing both drama and documentary film. His latest observational documentary When the Cows Come Home, premieres at this years Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival and charts the unusual life of musician, journalist, artist and cow whisperer, Waikato's Andrew Johnstone. 

I love being surrounded by cows. There's no discussion, there's no talk. It's just purely emotional.
- Andrew Johnstone on being amongst the herd

WhenThe Cows Come Home: Trailer from Costa Botes Lone Pine Films on Vimeo.

 

11:05 Speaking in Thumbs 

When it comes to modern relationships, our thumbs do the talking. We swipe right into a stranger's life, flirt inside text bubbles, spill our hearts onto the screen, use emojis to convey desire, frustration, rage. Where once we pored over love letters, now we obsess over response times, or wonder why the three-dot ellipsis came . . . and went.

Nobody knows this better than Harvard and Stanford-trained psychiatrist, Dr. Mimi Winsberg who's work frequently finds her at the intersection of Big Data and Big Dating. Her new book Speaking in Thumbs is a guide to the minefield of online communication. 

11:34 Talking Nicely to Animals

Professor Elodie Briefer of the University of Copenhagen is an expert on communication with animals, and how their vocal signals contain information about what species they are, which group they're from, even their age, body size and dominance status.

How animals and birds sound, she's discovered, also reflects emotions and mood. She runs a Behavioural Ecology group at her university, with the goal of improving animal welfare.