Sunday Morning for Sunday 25 May 2025

8:10 Starmer faces new threat from Farage and Reform UK

We cross to the UK for the latest political news with journalist and lawyer Christian Smith. 

8:25 The Sunday Morning Quiz 

Quiz master Jack Waley-Cohen is back with his Sunday Morning quiz.   

Jack is the mind behind the questions on BBC's infamous quiz show Only Connect, known for being both hard — and at the same time totally obvious.    

Wake up your brain and have a go! 

8:30 The Vagus Nerve and Mental Health 

Our vagus nerves help us rest, digest and restore, but is there really a way to reset them to feel better? Dr Theresa Larkin is an academic in Graduate Medicine at the University of Wollongong and joins Jim to discuss the role vagus nerves play in our physical and mental health. 

8:50 Liam Lawson's luck lifts in Monaco F1 session

Kiwi driver Liam Lawson has finally got into the Top 10 in the qualifying sessions ahead of the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix. Motorsport expert Bob McMurray joins Jim to discuss the latest.

9:10 Mediawatch 

Mediawatch looks at what was in this year’s Budget for the media - and asks an expert about the battle between the vanguard embracing AI in the media, and the rearguard that’s resisting the technology.  Also - more political push-back on social media, more political bad language - and the perils of cold-calling people on the air. 

9:40 The evolution of a “Planetary Brain” 

Thomas Moynihan is a writer and a visiting researcher at Cambridge University’s Center for the Study of Existential Risk. In a recent NOEMA article, he discussed the possibility that we’re unintentionally building an artificial world brain. 

10:10 Can being a bit rude make your life easier? 

In her international bestselling book 50 Sentences That Make Life Easier German life coach Karin Kuschik explains why sometimes speaking bluntly could make us all happier. 

10:40 Ali Hill: The Nutrition Edition 

Dr Ali Hill from Otago University's Department of Human Nutrition is back with us on Sunday Morning. Do we need to be worried about arsenic in rice? And bananas, how many is too many? 

11:10 Professor Allan Blackman: investigating the “living glow” 

Professor Allan Blackman from the School of Science at AUT joins us to look at the implications of a recent study that found that all living things, including humans, emit a ghostly glow that vanishes as soon as we die.  

11:20 Ray Woolf: Best Song Eva  

Singer, actor and performer Ray Woolf is one of New Zealand's best-known entertainers. From his early days singing with Auckland popsters Ray Woolf and the Avengers to his latest screen venture Stranded Pearl. 

Ray joins us to pick his Best Kiwi Song Eva for NZ Music Month.

11:35 What can Shakespeare teach us about happiness? 

Cora Fox is an associate professor of English and health humanities at Arizona State University and studies emotions in early modern literature. She joins Jim to discuss how Shakespeare’s plays depict happiness, and whether that view is still relevant today.