Afternoons

It's time to chat about money matters ... personal finance whizz Mary Holm is with Jesse to share her thoughts on the 2026 KiwiSaver Annual Report and what it reveals.

We're back into our A to Z of Aotearoa .. this is our series where we pick something quintessentially Kiwi for each letter of the alphabet and dive into its history with the people who know it best. We've had P for Pies, S for Silver Fern, K for Kauri, and today it's Y is for Yachting. Yacht designer Brett Bakewell-White and coach and successful sailor Bruce Kendall join Jesse.

Quit is a four-letter word, and not just because of the spelling. In a culture that prizes grit, perseverance and pushing through, giving up can sound like failure. We're taught to finish what we start even when we've started wondering why we're still doing it. Lindsay Crouse argues that sometimes the smarter move is to walk away. Leave the job. End the relationship. Abandon the goal. Stop pouring...

New Plymouth's Puke Ariki museum wants your help. For the first time thousands of historic images are going to be shown publicly, and the museum needs help identifying the people, places and stories within them. The project is called Rekindled: Opunake Life through the Feaver Collection. Puke Ariki's pictorial curator Natasha McKinney joins Jesse.

In quite an extraordinary public announcement, the US military has confirmed that it has deployed weapons in space. According to the US secretary of the air force, Washington had active "on orbit" weapons, which means they have been deployed and are circling the globe. We wanted to get a better understanding of what this means, and how worried we should be. Maria Pozza is an international space la...

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. [picture id="4JO9WD2_Jesse_and_Wallace_Smiling_jfif" crop="16x10" layout="full"]

Afternoons' chance to chat about the topics that might be filling up your group chats .. joining Jesse in the Auckland Studio is Culture 101's Perlina Lau, Afternoons Senior Producer Olivia Wilson and Lucy Walker Senior Producer on Morning Report. This week we're discussing the Ed Sheeran tour, Sydney Sweeney's controversial ad and that Hyrox situation. [picture id="4KFNGZU_AFP__20230606__14963933...

It's Wednesday which can mean you're on struggle street for meal inspiration ... but don't worry .. help is at hand in the form of the very talented Kelly Gibney and our Easy Eats segment. [picture id="4JIFRIP_RNZ_Curry_chicken_katsu_1_jpg" crop="16x10" layout="full"]

Time for our weekly travel segment Heading Off. Remember if you have a travel story of your own we'd love to share it with your fellow listeners, just text us on 2101 or email afternoons@rnz.co.nz Today we're heading off to Honfleur, a little seaside port in France, with Afternoons listener Tommy Wilson. [picture id="4JI7MKR_Honfleur_Church_jpg" crop="16x10" layout="full"]

Our Changing World's Claire Concannon is with Jesse to talk about the H5/N1 bird flu strain and what plans are in place for Pukekura or Tairoa Head on the end of Otago Peninsula, which is the site of the only mainland colony of Northern Royal albatross. [picture id="4JL1BOR_Cat_spotted_on_Royal_Cam_png_16x10_png" crop="16x10" layout="full"]

Nutritionist Lily Henderson joins Jesse to chat about Weet-Bix. Just how healthy is the breakfast food and how many should you eat in one serving? [picture id="4PD4Q2L_copyright_image_42015" crop="16x10" layout="full"]

A new podcast is taking a closer look at what happens to Maori when they are released from prison. Over six episoides the podcast, called TIAKI - which means 'to care' - reveals that more research needs to be done on the mental impacts of prison when it comes to re-entry into the community. Maori health expert Gabrielle Baker discusses the issue with Jesse.  [picture id="4JI7OL7_Tiaki_gif" crop="1...

Three hour school bus rides... missed firefighter call outs .. loads of Queenstown locals say traffic jams are having a real impact on their day to day life. Residents say it's not just a peak-hour problem - congestion can strike at almost any time of the day. Now the council has set up an anti-traffic congestion taskforce to tackle the issue. But, what can actually be done? To look at some of the...

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.

Each Tuesday here on Afternoons we play You're the Judge where you, our audience, get to chime into someone else's dilemma. This week Billy wants our advice on what to do if he and his new girlfriend are politically opposed - he votes NZ First and she is Greens voter! Send us your thoughts on 2101 or email jesse@afternoons.co.nz [picture id="4K06BN3_getty_images_f84knUj__Q_unsplash_jpg" crop="16x1...

If you had one last meal, what would you choose? This is a question that begins every episode of a podcast called Last Meal with Tom Nash. But food is just the entree into much bigger conversations. Tom Nash has a life story that feeds the idea that the hardest moments in our lives can sometimes become our greatest source of strength. As a teenager in Sydney, he contracted meningococcal septicemia...

A good podcast is like good radio, you can't stop listening, but with so many podcasts on offer it's hard to know what to commit to - fortunately our podcast critic Ximena Smith is here to help. She shares her thoughts on The Poisoned Wife and Black Box: The Chatbots. [picture id="4JI9L0Q_the_poisoned_wife_podcast_jfif" crop="16x10" layout="full"]

This week Afternoon's book critic Lisa Glass looks into the theme of invisible women via these books: Sophie, Standing There - Meg Mason Boring Asian Female - Canwen Xu People Hacker - Confessions of a Burglar for Hire - Jenny Radcliffe [picture id="4JJUL2T_mm_webp" crop="16x10" layout="full"]

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 Masterton ... that's in the Wairarapa District in the southeast of the North Island and that's where Mayor Bex Johnson is when she chats to Jesse. [picture id="4JPGAC8_Milky_Way_over_Lake_W...

Multiple sclerosis, also known as MS, is a life long neurological condition that affects five thousand New Zealanders. Symptoms often start for people between the ages of 20 to 50, but being such a complex condition, how it presents is also complicated .. with no two people experiencing MS in the same way. Which also means it can take time to be diagnosed with MS .. some people waiting up to ten y...

To help build a picture of what regenerative farming practices might look like here in New Zealand, Te Whare Wanaka o Aoraki Lincoln University PhD student Kaitlin Watson compared a regenerative pasture-based system with a conventional one. She chats to Jesse about what she discovered. [picture id="4JI9H27_Kaitlin_Watson_jfif" crop="16x10" layout="full"]

We're going to start today's show by talking about political polls and whether they're reliable. This election is looking really close - and polls are consistently showing both National and Labour below the 30 percent mark. That means polls could take on an added importance .. helping shape narratives .. but how do we know we can trust them? Our next guest has concerns about who gets polled, how t...

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.

Ugly is having a moment. Cars are getting bigger, buildings louder and fashion more deliberately outrageous, some might even say deliberately ugly. It's a way to get noticed says designer Debbie Millman. She's an author, educator and host of a podcast that's been going strong for 20 years called Design Matters. She argues that in a world where being noticed has become a form of currency, taking up...

Let's find out what's good to watch on the television, our critic Dominic Corry is with Jesse in the Auckland studio to share his picks: Lanterns (HBO Max) and The Westies (Neon).