Sunday Morning for Sunday 31 August 2025

8:10 The latest from the UK with Christian Smith 

UK correspondent Christian Smith joins Jim to talk about free speech, lawlessness, a proposal to deport hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants, and other stories making the headlines in Britain.

 

8:30 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 quiz show Only Connect, known for being both hard — and at the same time totally obvious.      

Wake up your brain and have a go!  

 

8:40 365 Days of Rejection 

Herman Jagpal set out to be rejected on every single day of 2025. He’s been travelling the motu asking for favours and for the chance to try new experiences.

Now more than 240 days in, he’s surprised at how often an anticipated 'no' has turned into a 'yes'.  With the consent of people he approaches, Herman adds the video to his Instagram account: @dailyrejections. He’s with Jim to talk about what his experiment has taught him so far. 

 

9:10 Mediawatch 

RNZ National has been losing listeners for years, and now they have a new plan to stop the slide. Mediawatch asks RNZ’s boss Paul Thompson if he knows what listeners want. Also, a couple of very rude words in the mainstream media recently have not been deemed a breach of standards. How come?   

 

9:40 Saved by the Dog: How a guide dog changed a life  

Dan Shepherd waited four years to be matched with his guide dog Ezra and wondered if he would ever find a dog to suit his needs. Dan is the general manager of Community and Inclusion for Blind Low Vision NZ and joins Jim to tell him about the difference Ezra has made in his life. 

 

10:10  What happens to the size of our brains as we age?

Current theories assume our brain gets smaller as we age, but researchers have found some parts of the brain get bigger. This provides clues as to why older adults sometimes have difficulties adapting to new sensory environments. 

Esther Kuehn, professor of neuroscience at the University of Tübingen, joins Jim to discuss the findings.  

 

10:30 Ali Hill: The Nutrition Edition 

Dr Ali Hill from Otago University's Department of Human Nutrition is back with us on Sunday Morning. This week we discuss the benefits of ginger, whether eating meat is as bad for you as many people think, and whether cheese and yogurt are as good for our bones as milk.  

 

11:10 Is Chat GPT influencing the way we express ourselves?  

Are we starting to imitate Chat GPT? Massey University linguistics lecturer, Dr Eleanor Ridge joins Jim to discuss the language of chatbots and whether words added to dictionaries each year are likely to become embedded in our vocabulary. 

 

11:40 Are we working harder than ever?  

Does it feel like you are packing more into your days at work but your list of tasks just keeps growing? Organisational consultant Melissa Swift says you’re probably not imagining it.  

Melissa is a work strategist; she specialises in the human side of digital transformation and is the author of Work Here Now: Think Like a Human and Build a Powerhouse Workplace.  She joins Jim to discuss how technology doesn’t always make our work-life easier. 

 

The Sunday Poem: Home Grown

It's technically still winter but
Tomorrow will be spring
The blossom is about to bloom
The bluebells set to ring

The trumpet frills of daffodils
Are playing in the sun
While in the vege garden
There's much work to be done

There's digging in of compost and
a Pulling out of weeds
Planting new potatoes out
And sowing all the seeds

That will provide the vegetables
For the year ahead
We might not crack the crisis but
At least we'll be well fed

So dig a garden if u can
Grow veggies if you're able
There's no more satisfying way
To put food on the table

Robert Free, The Otago Harbour Bard