Saturday Morning

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.