Saturday Morning

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.

The British Post Office scandal been described as one of the most widespread miscarriages of justice in the country's history. Between 1999 and 2015, over 900 UK subpostmasters were falsely accused of theft and fraud as the result of faulty accounting software. Some were convicted and jailed, and more lost marriages, families and their mental health. A faulty accounting system doesn't perhaps sound like the makings of gripping drama, but it's been made into a series: Mr Bates vs The Post Office, The first episode airs on Sunday 31 March on TVNZ and on TVNZ on Demand. It was written by Gwyneth Hughes, a journalist turned screenwriter.

Filmmakers Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss's creative partnership spans two decades, winning them Emmy awards and several prizes at Sundance. Their latest documentary Girls State follows teenage girls from Missouri navigating a week-long immersive democratic experiment, learning how to build a government from the ground up. Girls State airs on Apple TV from April 5. It serves as a companion to their 2020 film Boys State which followed a similar experiment. They also directed The Mission, about American Christian missionary John Chau who was murdered when he tried to contact and convert one of the most remote tribes in the world on North Sentinel Island.

Irish novelist and short story writer Claire Keegan was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2022 for her book Small Things Like These. It's the story of a coal merchant whose eyes are opened to the horror of the laundry run by nuns one Christmas. The Booker Prize judges described it as "both a celebration of compassion and a stern rebuke of the sins committed in the name of religion". Keegan is appearing at Wanaka's Festival of Colour next Sunday, along with Audrey McGee, talking about why Irish writers are making a big impact.

For many, Easter means chocolate. And for chocolate makers Easter is one of the busiest times of year. Susie pops in to Baron Hasselhoff's chocolate boutique in Wellington to catch up with "chief chocolate disciple" Clayton McErlane.

As a child watching the film Apocalypse Now, writer Viet Thanh Nguyen felt split in two - was he one of the Americans doing the killing or one of the Vietnamese being killed? "That moment really brought home to me this idea that stories don't only have the power to save us but that stories have the power to destroy us, as well," he tells Susie Ferguson.

World renowned brain health expert, clinical neuroscientist and pioneer in dementia research Professor Vladimir Hachinski is the recipient of the 2024 Ryman Prize, a $250,000 grant for the world's best discovery, development, advance or achievement that enhances quality of life for older people. It's celebrating the major contribution Professor Hachinski has made to the diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and the links between 'the terrible three' - stroke, dementia and coronary heart disease. Professor Hachinski advocates for prevention by promoting the idea of "holistic brain health", linking cerebral health with our ability to interact and form meaningful relationships with others. Professor Hachinski joins Susie alongside New Zealand-based dementia educator Caroline Bartle.

Aboriginal artist Richard Bell's documentary You Can Go Now is screening at the Maoriland Film Festival, underway in Otaki . In it, he poses provocative and humourous challenges to the status quo and to our preconceived ideas of Aboriginal art.

Clinical psychologist Dr Olive Webb is nominated in the Local Hero category of the Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year awards. A strong defender of some of the most marginalised members of our community, she tirelessly advocated and revolutionised care for people with learning disabilities. Most recently she also gave evidence to the Royal Commission into the Abuse in State Care and supported others to tell their stories. Dr Webb released From Behind Closed Doors last year, a poignant reflection on her 50-year journey alongside individuals with intellectual disabilities.

Glacial geologist Jamey Stutz dates Antarctic rocks 'dropped like breadcrumbs from melting glaciers' to help determine the scale of glacial retreat. Jamey has recently joined the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center in Ohio as a research scientist in the Polar Rock Repository, having completed his Ph.D at the Antarctic Research Center at Victoria University in Wellington. Jamey says he's excited to be part of the more than 60 year exchange of Antarctic knowledge between New Zealand and America.

Dubbed "deliciously rude and darkly funny", "chick lit" author Kathy Lette has a new book out which wreaks revenge. The Revenge Club features four best friends approaching their sixties, feeling invisible and bent on vengeance. It continues the Australian-British writer's observations of the best and worst parts of being a woman, with female friendships one of the perks. Kathy Lette has written fifteen bestselling novels, and has been recognised for her advocacy of equality, human rights, physical and mental health.

Around 600 people (including around 350 children) currently live at Gloriavale – a strict Christian community on the West Coast. In TVNZ's upcoming three-part doco Escaping Utopia, former church member Rosie Overcomer talks about her experiences there, including years of childhood sexual abuse. Rosie joins Susie Ferguson with Liz Gregory, one of the people who helped her family make a new life and founder of the Gloriavale Leavers' Support Trust.

Social media content makers celebrating their role as "traditional wives" are enjoying a startling rise in popularity. Influencers such as Nara Smith, Emily Mariko and Ballerina Farm are baking, procreating and home-making their way to millions of followers. So why is their #Tradwife vision of submissive domesticity so appealing in 2024? We ask Caro Claire Burke, a cultural critic and journalist at Katie Couric Media.

Catherine, Princess of Wales has announced she has cancer. Kate Middleton is in the early stages of treatment after cancer was found in tests, and is undergoing chemotherapy. Details of the cancer have not been made public, but Kensington Palace says it is confident the princess will make a full recovery.

Women still take most of the responsibility for contraception, but a long anticipated "male pill" could soon become a reality. Several non-hormonal male contraceptive pills that work by slowing sperm are under development, with one entering human trials. Head of the Reproductive Medicine Group at the University of Dundee Professor Chris Barratt has dedicated his career to understanding male infertility, human spermatozoa and sperm-egg interaction. He joins us to explain how these new pills work and why it's taken so long to get to this point.

Saturday morning listener feedback

One of the many musicians hitting the stage at Tauranga's National Jazz Festival later this month is Australian jazz legend James Morrison. He's a multi-instrumentalist, playing the trombone, piano, saxophone and double bass, but is perhaps best known for the trumpet. He started playing instruments aged six and formed his own band by the time he was nine.

Ann Patchett is one of the world's most acclaimed, prize-winning novelists and non-fiction writers. She was named one of Time magazine's '100 Most Influential People in the World' and is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and Harper's Magazine. She also famously co-owns indie bookstore Parnassus Books in Nashville with her husband. Her collection of essays These Precious Days was chosen by Barack Obama as one of his books of the year in 2021. Ann is appearing at the Auckland Writer's Festival in May, where she'll be talking about her latest novel, Tom Lake.

If you want your garden to feed you through winter, now's the time to get prepping. Brassicas like Broccoli need three months to grow, so need to be planted, and it's a perfect time to make compost with all your late summer garden waste Organic gardener Kath Irvine from Edible Backyard joins Susie with tips and tricks for both small and large gardens. Plus she'll answer your questions.

Should you fix or float a mortgage? Is now a good time to buy - or sell? Why does cheese cost so much? And what even is money? These questions and many more are tackled by New Zealand Herald business editor at large Liam Dann in his new book, BBQ Economics He draws on his 25 years of reporting, sharing anecdotes to make economic concepts more accessible.

Filmmaker Lulu Wang explores the complex power dynamics between Hong Kong's rich expats and their domestic 'helpers' in a new Amazon Prime series.

Traditional systems of wealth measurement don't include nature's contributions. Faculty Director of Stanford University's Natural Capital Project Professor Gretchen Daily thinks putting a dollar value on a mangrove, or a creek, or a honeybee is a vital paradigm shift. Gretchen and her team help governments, international banks, and NGOs determine their gross ecosystem product, or GEP - a parallel concept to GDP.

With proposed job cuts at TV3's News Hub and TVNZ's Midday and Late News, and the loss of Sunday and Fair Go, is it possible for employers to 'do' redundancy well? The news of the proposed redundancies was delivered in very different ways to each newsroom, each coming as a huge shock to employees. Top employment lawyer Susan Hornsby-Geluk joins Susie with her take on how they each played out.

Concerns about the rising practice of "freebirth" escalated last month, following the death of premature twins in Byron Bay. Freebirthing, also known as unassisted birthing, is when women choose to give birth without medical assistance, rejecting both hospital care and midwife supported homebirth. It's increasingly a movement that NZ midwives are running into too. So what is motivating women to choose this path? And how risky is it? Joining Susie, Australian Professor of Midwifery Hannah Dahlen and NZ College of Midwives CE Alison Eddy.