Saturday Morning

Hinemoa Awatere has been appointed as Tumu Whakarae at Te Taura Ora o Waiariki, the Iwi Maori Partnership Board for the Te Arawa rohe, which advocates for the healthcare of more than 30-thousand Maori in that area.

Award-winning journalist Eugene Bingham tells two stories - Te Pahi's story and his own! Te Pahi is the extraordinary true tale of the first influential Maori leader to cross the Tasman. Te Tai Tokerau rangatira Te Pahi's curiosity about the Pakeha world forged alliances, saved lives and ultimately cost him his own. Eugene is one of Aotearoa's most respected investigative journalists and an internationally acclaimed podcaster. He's an athlete too! Eugene has completed dozens of marathons and ultra-marathons. Nowadays, though, he's more likely to be at the start line of a 5km parkrun. Since 2021, he's been learning te reo Maori, mostly at Te Wananga o Aotearoa, with the goal of re-introducing the language to his whanau. His book is The Chief and the Empire and he talks to Susie about why stories like this are so important today.

What is it about history's wicked women that is so riveting? Why should difficult and different instantly mean dangerous? Irish-Indian poet Nikita Gill is taking back the fairy tales, Greek and Hindu myths, challenging our ingrained fear of the 'difficult' woman as hard and callous, not nurturing or maternal. Instead she's giving them a shift of perspective to bring some of literature's most maligned or underwritten female characters out of the shadows. She talks to Mihingarangi about how powerful women would be if we only protected and helped each other and why "softness" in women is often another way of men telling them to be quiet. Nikita has nearly 850,000 Instagram followers worldwide for her work and has written seven poetry collections and two novels. Her latest book is Hekate which she'll discuss at the Auckland Writer's Festival.

In just a matter of weeks stalking will officially be a crime in New Zealand. Roughly one in five women and one in fifteen men are victims. Mental health activist and co-founder of suicide prevention organisation Voices of Hope, Jazz Thornton shares her personal experience in the new docuseries Stalked. Jazz speaks with Mihingarangi about why she chose to tell her story.

James Hayes is on the cutting edge of medical technology innovation but he doesn't describe himself as a tech expert. Instead he says he's an educator at heart and so he makes some of his company's software 'open source', meaning it is free for anyone in the world to use. The Christchurch based former physics teacher speaks to Mihingarangi Forbes about how he's helped thousands of midwives through virtual reality and how his latest project will give hospitals another option to use instead of CT scans.

Why are broad beans traditionally planted on Anzac Day? And how can you make your own compost full of beneficial microorganisms?

You'll know him as Dr Chris Warner from Shortland Street, but actor Michael Galvin is also an award-winning playwright. His latest, War Hero, is inspired by the 1939 autobiography of Archibald Baxter, a conscientious objector during World War I.

Journalist and author Jimmy Thomson believes there is one group of soldiers who have been overlooked: the combat engineers or ‘sappers’. It was their job to clear the way for others to follow and Thomson says that makes them the first ANZACs.

Our favourite book worm, Kate de Goldi, is back with the latest books she can't put down.

Do you wish you could perform better under pressure? Sports psychologist Ant Williams says mental resilience can be learned and applied to our everyday lives.

Communities today often feel more polarised than united. Philosopher Peter Boghossian is teaching students how to navigate differences of opinion.

Josh Silver gave up his career as an actor to become a mental health nurse. He also spends some of his time writing critically acclaimed Young Adult fiction.