Afternoons

An opinion piece in the New Zealand Herald by Steve Maharey caught our eye and we wanted to know more. Steve writes that Kiwis have champagne taste but a beer budget ... and it's not working for us. This election is being described as a cost of living battle .. and the word tax is frequent on the campaign trail .. but what seems to be less discussed is vision for the future .. and how we generate...

Wallace Chapman and Jesse Mulligan star in the shortest show on radio, where they show they really can make something out of nothing, join them to be part of their delight, or to simply despair. Wallace will also preview what's on The Panel tonight.

It's one of the defining debates about childhood today, the role smartphones and social media play in the youth mental health crisis. Some researchers point to them as a major source of anxiety, depression and lost childhood. Governments, including our own, have responded with proposed social media bans. But psychologist Dr Peter Gray argues we need to look at the bigger change that happened befor...

We've got a segment on Afternoons we like to call Roadie Songs ..we want to know the songs you love to turn up loud when you're on a road trip. If you have a song and a story you'd like to share, send your suggestion to 2101 along with your phone number. We love hearing your picks and why.

Sarah Tuck from Dish magazine joins Jesse to share a recipe and talk about the new cookbook - Dish Chook Book. The recipe is HERE!

It's time for Heading Off.. where we hear all about your travel adventures, think of it as a 2026 version of a slideshow. If you have an interesting story to tell.. please get in touch on 2101 or email me at jesse@rnz.co.nz Last month marked 50 years since my next guest Maggie set off on an adventure of a lifetime ... travelling overland from London to Cape Town in a former British Army snub-nosed...

Our Changing World's Ayana Piper-Healion joins Jesse to talk about the Bird of the Year, the Karure, Chatham Island Black Robin.

Political commentator Dr Claire Robinson joins Jesse to reflect on last night's Leaders' Debate and discuss what both leaders might do differently next time.

A new space has opened just north of Auckland in Whangaparaoa for neurodivergent people and their whanau. It's called Whare Wairua, and it's the latest project from Xabilities, a neurodivergent-led organisation founded by Tamara Grant. To tell us more about it, Tamara was with Jesse in the Auckland Studio.

Ahead of the hotly anticipated Indian tour of New Zealand .. it seems all is not well behind the scenes at NZ Cricket One of the sport's most famous names, Sir Richard Hadlee, has come out against the organisation - citing concerns around loss of staff, poor morale and a lack of transparency when it comes to a Deloitte report about the future of the sport. And he's not alone .. Former player and N...

Dr Jamie Beaton has turned earning university degrees into something of an endurance sport. He has 12 university qualifications that make the education section on his CV look like a catalogue of some of the world's most prestigious universities including Harvard, Stanford, Yale and Oxford. And he's not done yet. The New York Times recently featured Dr Beaton's many academic achievements. He's also...

Every Tuesday we put a dilemma to you and get your thoughts on how to solve it. This week we're looking at whether a party planner is too tough on late cancellations. Send your thoughts to 2101 or email us afternoons@rnz.co.nz

Tim Batt joins Jesse to discuss the latest news from the world of tech. This week he is looking into Samsung Fridges software update fail, consumer purchasable Exo-skeletons, PS5 games on your PC and a new set of laptops from Google called Googlebooks!

It's time for Mayoral minutes where we speak with a local mayor about the challenges they're facing, how they're working to solve them and what makes their community special. Today we're heading to the Whanganui District, which is located on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island .. from there Mayor Andrew Tripe joins Jesse.

School holidays are the perfect time to get the younger people in your life reading .. here to help with suggestions is the Director of Library at Auckland Grammar School .. Catherine Ross. For Ages 10+ The Wretched Waterpark by Kiersten White For Ages 13+ Hatchet Girls by Diana Wallach It Waits in the Forest by Sarah Dass For All Ages (Non-Fiction) Witches - James I and the English Witch Hunts by...

President Vladimir Putin has been at the centre of power in Russia for more than 25 years. To get a better understanding of who he is, ABC News journalist Riley Stuart pulled together interviews with people who've met, investigated, and studied Putin for an article on the leader. Riley chats to Jesse.

The Pasifika population in the Nelson Tasman region is steadily growing .. so it makes sense the region will play host to an inaugural Pasifika Festival. The festival is happening on Saturday the 17th of October, festival director Nikita Takai is here to tell us all about it.

Tonight we'll see the first leaders debate between National leader Christopher Luxon and Labour leader Chris Hipkins .. it's on TVNZ1 at 7pm and you can also listen to it right here on RNZ .. Jack Tame is the moderator. To get an insider's view on what it's like to be at the podium for these big political events, Paddy Gower is with us. Paddy moderated the Newshub leaders' debates in the 2017, 202...

The latest RNZ Reid Research poll once again shows support for the major political parties dropping, and the minor parties becoming increasingly relevant. That got us wondering about whether this is the end of an era for party politics as we know it ... indeed if this is the last election when there will even be major and minor parties and therefore MMP properly and fully realised. Marcus Ganley i...

Today we're starting off with the story that's captured international atttention .. the United States says it's keeping a close eye on the death of an employee at a Russian laboratory. According to some media reports, the researcher died from pneumonia of an unknown origin .. others have alleged that a test tube containing a pneumonic-plague-causing-patheogen was broken .. and was the cause. We wa...

Wallace Chapman and Jesse Mulligan star in the shortest show on radio, where they show they really can make something out of nothing, join them to be part of their delight, or to simply despair. Wallace will also preview what's on The Panel tonight.

How often have you said to yourself "I know I should do it, but I keep putting it off." And as much as we'd like to blame distraction sending it off course, generally it's more likely procrastination. Dr Itamar Shatz is a procrastination researcher and lecturer at Cambridge University and a procrastinator himself. He says we put things off because that's just the way our brains are wired. We were...

We've got a segment on Afternoons we like to call Roadie Songs ..we want to know the songs you love to turn up loud when you're on a road trip. If you have a song and a story you'd like to share, send your suggestion to 2101 along with your phone number. We love hearing your picks and why.

Afternoons TV critic Caitlin Cherry joins Jesse to share her thoughts on A Remarkable Place to Die (Season 2) TVNZ and The Chase TVNZ.

It's time for our expert feature... where we invite an expert on the show to answer all your questions and today we're looking at soil. Soil is one of the most biodiverse habitats on earth, home to an incredible and often unseen ecosystem Dr Frank Ashwood is a soil biologist at University of Canterbury and the author of 'The World Beneath Our Feet' If you have a question for Frank please text us o...