Saturday Morning

You might remember women "getting their colours done" in the 1980s. Thanks to social media, the art of analysing which shades complement a person's natural colouring is again having a moment. Rachel Bilu of Colour Lab Stylist tells Susie Ferguson about the benefits.

A collection of letters written to and from iconic New Zealand painter Colin McCahon sheds light on a special relationship spanning four decades. McCahon met penpal Ron O'Reilly in 1938, when the pair were just 19 and 24 respectively. They wrote to each other regularly, amassing hundreds of letters covering McCahon's art practice, the contemporary art scene, ideas, philosophy, and spiritual life. A selection of the letters chosen by McCahon scholar Peter Simpson has been published in a new book Dear Colin, Dear Ron - with an afterword by McCahon's grandson Finn.

Thirty years ago, nurse Maybelle Ngapere McLeod realised a genetic link to the stomach cancer which killed many of her whanau was much more likely that the effect of a curse. She took her suspicions to Otago university, and the rest is history. Maybelle is part of the team awarded the top Prime Minister's Science Prize for transformative impact. The Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer Team is led by Professor Parry Guilford, Director of the Centre for Translational Cancer Research at the University of Otago, in conjunction with members of the McLeod whanau and their community in Mount Maunganui. The research has resulted in a genetic test which gives the ability to understand their risk of cancer and take life-saving action. Professor Guilford joins Susie, along with Mabelle Ngapere McLeod and fellow team member, and whanau University of Otago Associate Professor Karyn Paringatai.

For those with asparagus patches: what to do to prep for a boomer crop in spring. Or, if you are planning an asparagus patch: how to kick start it.

Grace Blakeley takes aim at capitalism in her latest book Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts and the Death of Freedom. In the book, Blakeley asserts that rather than failing, capitalism is working exactly as intended - allowing corporate and political elites to advance their own interests at the expense of the rest of us. Susie is joined by Grace to discuss how instead of feeling powerless, there is a new path we can take to democratise the economy for a better future for all.

From the A303 in Wiltshire, motorists can catch sight of the megalithic structure of Stonehenge. But as a primary route for both commuters and holiday makers the road is notoriously traffic-clogged, and plans to upgrade the road have been decades in the making. However, the plans face strong opposition. They include building a road tunnel under the World Heritage Site in Wiltshire and costs have surged as high as £2.5 billion ($5.3 billion). John Adams is the chairman of the Stonehenge Alliance, a group dedicated to fighting the project that they consider too vast and intrusive to the prehistoric site.

It's thirty years since the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda, perpetrated by the Hutu-led government. British journalist Michela Wrong's book Do Not Disturb, The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad explores the legacy of the genocide, exposing a murderous in-coming regime that operates on a "grand scale deceit", exercising a destabilising influence on the wider region. Michela has reported from and written about Africa for almost three decades, working for Reuters and the Financial Times. Michela is visiting NZ this week, giving a series of talks at the invitation of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs.

The arrival of photography to New Zealand in 1848 was more about business than art. A cumbersome kit meant photographers needed carriages or horses to lug their gear across unsealed roads to sell their wares. These early images provide a valuable insight to the country's colonial era, with stunning portraits and landscapes now being presented in a new book entitled A Different Light: First Photographs of Aotearoa. Susie is joined by Shaun Higgins who, along with fellow book editor Catherine Hammond, has pulled together the extraordinary and extensive photographic collections of three major research libraries - Auckland Museum, Hocken Collections, and Alexander Turnbull Library. The book is also being celebrated with a travelling exhibition.

Former soldier Christian Lewis had hit rock bottom and was so severely depressed he would shut himself in his flat for weeks. But one day he made an impulsive decision, setting himself the challenge of walking the entire coastline of the UK. Christian joins Susie to talk about his new book, Finding Hildasay, which explores how with just ten pounds in his pocket and a few supplies, he walked himself into a brighter future.

New Zealand's volcanoes are world renowned, and most Kiwis are familiar with our big ones such as Ruapehu, Taranaki and Tarawera. But what about our lesser talked about volcanoes? GNS Science principal scientist Graham Leonard joins Susie to chat about some of the volcanic areas around the country that people are less familiar with - from Northland's periodically active field to volcanoes buried in the Canterbury plains gravels.

You could hardly avoid the gruesome spectacle of the Amber Heard-Johnny Depp trial - it made the nightly news, but it made a much bigger splash on social media. But was there something else at play? Was Amber Heard the victim of an orchestrated campaign of misinformation? Alexi Mostrous of Tortoise Media is a London-based journalist who has previously tackled catfishing and disinformation in his previous very popular podcasts Sweet Bobby and Hoaxed. Alexi joins Susie to talk about how, with the help of a team of data analysts, he dug through hundreds of thousands of tweets to uncover the shocking revelations of his latest series Who Trolled Amber?

New Zealand poet and doctor Glenn Colquhoun has released two new books of poetry in te reo Māori, both accompanied by soundtracks. He tells Susie Ferguson about the legacy of Māori oral poetry and the long process of writing songs he could finally "take to the marae".

Kiwi scientist and champion épée-fencer Dr Matt Baker is representing NZ at fencing in the final Olympic qualifying tournament in Dubai later today. Sydney-based Baker is Scientia Research Fellow in the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences at the University of New South Wales, where he studies the molecular motor that makes bacteria swim. But today it's all about the sport and Matt is the sole NZ gladiator in men's épée. Age 41, and father of two young children, he's en garde against some up-coming young stars, all hungry for success at the Asia-Oceania Zonal Qualifier for the Paris Olympics. The men's épée starts at 4pm NZ time, streamed live.

A first of its kind one-to-one support programme for pre-school children showing signs of autism is about to be trialed in Wellington, with aspirations of going nationwide. Professor Josie Barbaro pioneered the most successful tool in the world for the very early detection of autism. Known as Social Attention and Communication Surveillance or SACS, it identifies autistic children aged 11 to 30 months with an accuracy of 83%, and has identified 96% of autistic children by preschool age. Susie is joined by Prof Barbaro and Educational Psychologist and Clinic Lead of the Victoria University of Wellington Autism Clinic, Dr Hannah Waddington. Hannah is rolling out Raupi te Raupo, a world-first free support programme for under fives who, having undergone Josie's assessment, are showing signs of autism.

Saturday morning listener feedback

Kate De Goldi is one of New Zealand's most celebrated authors, an Arts Foundation Laureate, and a voracious reader. She joins Susie to share three books she's loved; Clear by Carys Davies, The Caretaker by Ron Rash, and The Puppets of Spelhorst by Kate di Camillo.

As a curator of ethnology at Waikato Museum in the 1980s, Te Awekotuku was among the first to insist museums rethink how they represent Maori culture, both in New Zealand and overseas. In 1981, she became the first Maori woman to earn a doctorate from a New Zealand university, with a PhD on the effects of tourism on the Te Arawa people. In 1996 she became the country's first Maori woman professor. Te Awekotuku is now poised to release her fiery memoir about identity and belonging, Hine Toa: A story of bravery. Heralded as 'heartbreaking and triumphant', the memoir traces what was possible for a restless working-class girl from the pa, who became a founding member of Nga Tamatoa and the Women's and Gay Liberation movements.

Veteran financial journalist Liam Dann returns to the show to shine a light on left-field economic news and the quirks of New Zealand economics. This week he discusses 'digital cash' and the future of money, and he takes a closer look at the job losses hitting the headlines and what it means amid our current recession. Dann has 25 years of reporting under his belt and is The New Zealand Herald business editor at large. He recently released BBQ Economics: How money works and why it matters.

The 2018 murder of 21-year old British backpacker Grace Millane gripped the country. A powerful new film The Lie explores how the shocking case highlights disturbing attitudes about violence towards women. It painstakingly pieces together Grace's final evening, stepping through the evidence the police used to make the case against her killer. The film also examines the controversial "rough sex defence", used by the defence team at the trial of Jesse Kempson, who was convicted of Grace's murder. The Lie is released in cinemas on April 25.

At the age of 29 New Yorker Carrie Sun bagged a top job at a top Wall Street hedge fund. As private assistant to the firm's billionaire founder, Sun entered a world of power, privilege and extreme wealth. But as the demands of the job take a toll on her physical and mental health, Sun starts to question everything she had worked so hard for. Her new memoir is Private Equity, which exposes the brutal reality of high finance.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Elizabeth Kolbert tells the story of climate change in her new alphabetised essay collection H Is for Hope. As our world warms up, Kolbert hopes the book will help people understand both what's at stake and what is possible. "How are we going to get our minds around this both in an honest way and also in a way that inspires the kind of action that we need, which is absolutely massive changes to our energy systems?"

Evidence indicates long covid presents a considerable burden to New Zealand. Between 4 and 14 percent of people infected with the virus will develop ongoing symptoms, anything from mild to severe. Scientists who conducted a recent evidence summary of long covid in Aotearoa are convinced its prevalence is likely to increase and preventative action is needed. Covid can change your DNA and your immune system and there is no cure for long Covid. Susie is joined by Jenene Crossan, founder of Long Covid Support Aotearoa and co-founder of the University of Auckland Long Covid Registry. Also Mona Jeffreys, epidemiologist and Associate Professor at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, who advises on the Long Covid Registry.

Susie Fergusons listener feedback for Saturday Morning 13th April 2024

Writer and reviewer Leah McFall reckons one of the best endorsements for a book is when your friend borrows it and it never comes back. Leah shares three great non-fiction titles currently missing from her bookshelves: Amy Liptrot's The Outrun, Ruth Reichl's Garlic and Sapphires and Craig Brown's One, Two. Three, Four.

Deborah Frances-White opens each episode of her podcast with a confessional catch phrase "I'm a Feminist but.." It's an acknowledgement that you don't have to be perfect in the pursuit of social change. Recorded live on stage, with guest comedians and experts The Guilty Feminist is a joyous mashup of comedy and activism. The podcast has racked up 100-million downloads in eight years, and is coming to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch as part of the NZ International Comedy Festival.

Holidays, work trips, cargo, freight and parcels; we rely on aviation personally and for business. But aviation's carbon footprint is huge, so what are some of the sustainable technology changes taking it into the future? A handful of manufacturers are looking at reviving the production of seaplanes for a new age in aviation, including Amphibian Aerospace Industries in Darwin. Professor of Aviation at Brisbane's Griffith University Tim Ryley weighs in on the future of seaplanes.

New Zealand born Aerospace engineer Karen Willcox is on the frontline of the rapidly developing field of digital twins. Digital twins are two-way data driven virtual representations that predict real world outcomes, with applications spanning aviation, aerospace, medicine and climate change. Willcox is director of the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin. Willcox spent 17 years as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she served as the founding co-director of the MIT Center for Computational Engineering.

Alice Taylor may not have won Masterchef in 2022, but she won the hearts of fans, and the judges' attention. Competing in the show inspired the 24 year old to pivot from a planned career in politics to fully embrace her love of baking. She's now working as a pastry chef at Auckland's Paris Butter and has just released a cookbook - Alice in Cakeland. Packed with tips and tricks, it has easy, affordable and adaptable recipes for cakes, desserts, biscuits, breads, brioche, crepes, donuts and more

Bonnie Garmus had been a successful advertising creative for decades when she started writing the worldwide bestseller Lessons in Chemistry. That day, Garmus says a surge of anger about sexism overrode the rejection she'd felt when her previous book "didn't go anywhere". "For other writers, you should always realise that when you are filled with passion or anger - whatever shape the passion takes - it might be a good time to write it down," she tells Susie Ferguson.

Auckland's Dilworth boarding school was set up to to provide education to boys from disadvantaged backgrounds for free. Last year an independent inquiry into sexual and physical abuse at the school uncovered a "catalogue of damage and injustice" spanning more than half a century. Broadcaster turned screenwriter Mark Staufer was one of the boys physically and sexually abused while under Dilworth's care. He's written and features in The Lost Boys of Dilworth, a docu-drama revealing his experiences along with several other abuse survivors including Neil Harding, who is leading the legal charge to hold Dilworth to account. The Lost Boys of Dilworth premieres on TVNZ 1 at 8.30pm Sunday 14

Bestselling writer Deborah Challinor explores the world of Victorian funeral customs in the first book in a new series Black Silk and Sympathy. Deborah has written eighteen novels of historical fiction, including young adult novels, and two works of non-fiction about the Vietnam War. She speaks with Colin Peacock about her fascination with graves, cemeteries and funerals and how this interest shines in the first of a new series telling the tale of Sydney's first female undertaker.

Political commentator, academic and author Richard Shaw's new book The Unsettled confronts colonial land theft through Pakeha settler stories. A follow up to his 2021 book The Forgotten Coast, a personal story of his family history highlighting what he calls "the shady bits beneath our family tree, specifically, the land which underpinned his family's security and prosperity, taken from tangata whenua.

Oppenheimer has finally opened in Japan, eight months after it was released in the US. Japanese distributors delayed the release, following criticism the movie minimises the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and to distance it from offensive "Barbenheimer" memes. The seven times Oscar winner, which tells of the race to develop the atomic bomb, grossed $US 2.5 million in its first weekend in Japanese cinemas. Tokyo based author of Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World Matt Alt joins Colin Peacock with how the film is being received.

Former New Zealand Army captain, Dr Ellen Joan Ford, was recognised with a Kiwibank Local Hero award last year for her work leading a team that freed over 500 Afghan refugees when the Taliban seized control in 2021. Ellen led this team remotely from her living room, during the Covid pandemic. Ellen, who now teaches leadership in business and high performance teams has a new fight on her hands: making working parents life better, under the banner #workschoolhours, striving to rethink the outdated current work model by providing a path forward that creates a win-win at home and work.

Simon Young is the first non-native mayor of Pitcairn. Originally from Yorkshire in the UK, Simon visited Pitcairn in 1992 and liked it so much he returned permanently in 1999 with his wife Shirley. Simon was elected mayor in 2022, becoming the first non-native to head the island's government. Pitcairn is home to fifty people, distant relatives of the mutinous crewmates of the HMS Bounty.

Jerusalem-based American journalist and author Nathan Thrall's new book is named on ten best books of the year lists, including The New Yorker, The Economist and the Financial Times. A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: A Palestine Story is a portrait of life in Israel and Palestine, giving an understanding of what it's like to live there, based on the real events of one tragic day, where Jewish and Palestinian characters' lives and pasts unexpectedly converge. Thrall has spent a decade at the International Crisis Group, where he was director of the Arab-Israeli Project. His first book, published in 2017 is The Only Language They Understand: Forcing Compromise in Israel and Palestine.