History

Some historians are concerned New Zealand's public libraries and museums are being priced out of buying national treasures by private investors snapping up items from the country's early history. Video, Audio

Melbourne based writer Simon Barnard's new book James Hardy Vaux's 1819 Dictionary of Criminal Slang - and other impolite terms as used by the convicts of the British Colonies of Australia reproduces… Audio

Our in-house historian Robert Kelly this week delves into our country's rich train history and the time when the main trunk line ran the full length of New Zealand. Audio

Better education about Blackbirding in Solomon Islands could help to heal pain the practice caused that's still felt today, an academic says. Audio

Joanne Drayton is in to chat about how a young woman from Christchurch managed to become one of the original Four Queens of Crime. Audio, Gallery

The ancient remains of a giant parrot have been found in a fossil-rich area of Central Otago. The "truly gigantic parrot" dubbed Squawkzilla by the scientists who found it, was estimated to be up to a… Audio

Evidence of what's called a "truly gigantic parrot" has been found by scientists from Australia and New Zealand among 19-million-year-old fossils. The world's largest parrot - dubbed Squawkzilla -… Video, Audio

Forty years ago this week, a nightmare was unfolding for residents of a south Dunedin suburb, as nearly 70 homes slid off a hillside in a massive landslip. In today's visit to the Sound Archives we… Audio

Palaentologists from New Zealand and Australia have discovered a fossil of what's thought to be the largest parrot the world has ever seen. Audio

Jonna Mendez is the former CIA Chief of Disguise. She once fooled the President of the United States with a mask so realistic, he had no idea who she was. Audio

Christchurch's Blessed Sacrament Cathedral was set to be repaired following the Canterbury earthquakes, but the new Bishop Paul Martin has decided it's too expensive and has decided to rebuild closer… Video, Audio

Release the tapes! This week our resident historian Robert Kelly looks back at the Watergate tapes of President Nixon and how they lead to his resignation in 1974. Audio

180 years ago, on 16 October 1839, a remarkable event took place which involved, in different ways, some of the most important figures in New Zealand's history. The Battle of Kūititanga. Audio

The most famous speech ever given by a New Zealand Prime Minister - David Lange debating the motion at the Oxford Union debate that 'Nuclear Weapons are Morally Indefensible'.  Audio, Gallery

The Christchurch City Mission turns 90 this month and to celebrate it has released a book called Guts and Grace. The book covers the Mission's long history of helping the community. Audio

In November 1948, Invercargill doctor Geoffrey Orbell discovered two pair of South Island takahē living in a high valley in the Murchison Mountains of Fiordland. Video, Audio, Gallery

In 2017, author Elspeth Sandys travelled to China with other family members to mark the 90th anniversary of her cousin Rewi Alley's arrival in Shanghai. The book she wrote about that journey is called… Audio

Nikki Mandow looks at avocado economics and how this humble fruit became an underworld currency. Audio