Saturday Morning with Jack Tame

They’re an absolute nuisance in summer, especially around the barbeque later in the day!  If you’ve been in Australia during the holidays, you may have been near the coast with ponds and rivers, inlets and wetlands. There you’ll find salt-marsh mosquito – nasty biters (that species was eradicated from NZ some decades ago – just as well, it transmits Ross River Virus).  In New Zealand we...

Paddy Borthwick Pinot Gris 2025, Wairarapa   RRP $26.99   Pinot Gris’s perfect drinking window is from the day of release and usually around two years. With some wines it may be more.   This wine ticks all the boxes of freshness and vibrancy starting with a varietal and very fruity bouquet with a concentration of pear and apple flesh scents, then some white spice and white florals,...

Apple's smarter Siri will now be powered by Google   Apple has signed a multi-year deal worth billions for Google Gemini technology to bring the enhanced Siri to life.    It will be a custom model made for Apple and will run locally on Apple devices when it can, and when it needs the power of the cloud will run in Apple's private data centres.   Google and Apple have had a long...

Ricky Gervais: Mortality   Ricky Gervais tackles life, death and the state of the world in a brutally honest special that spares no topic, even his own mortality (Netflix).     His & Hers   Two estranged spouses, one a detective and the other a news reporter, vie to solve a murder in which each believes the other is a prime suspect (Netflix).    LISTEN ABOVE&...

A huge weight has been lifted off Kevin Milne’s shoulders.  For the last couple of years, he’s been running dangerously close to having his driver's licence suspended as a result of speeding.   While things are fine now, he did find that demerit points are far more effective in curbing dangerous driving and speeding than a simple fine.   LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listene...

Hamnet  William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes, celebrate the birth of their son, Hamnet. However, when tragedy strikes and Hamnet dies at a young age, it inspires Shakespeare to write his timeless masterpiece "Hamlet."    Anchor Me: The Don McGlashan Story  A documentary tribute to one of the nation's best loved songwriters, charting Don McGlashan's storied career from arty p...

Blackberries are like summer’s jewels and are even more precious if you’re having to buy them! Make this little mini galette (small quantities of homemade pastry are quick to make and so gratifying) and you won’t be sorry.   Makes one 12–15cm tart     Ingredients  Pastry    2 tablespoons chilled butter   2 heaped tablespoons plain flour    ½ tablespoon...

I’ve done my best to avoid the headlines over the last few weeks, but Scott Robertson being booted from the All Blacks snapped me back.   I feel for him. Just as I did for Ian Foster, last time around. These guys are in high profile jobs, coaching high performance athletes. All top coaches know it’s a perilous business. But to be cut after just two years in the job, and after a period of inco...

Nearly a million people in New Zealand are currently receiving Superannuation, getting payments of between nearly $600 and just over $1000 every fortnight.   But in this cost of living crisis, how easy is it to survive on the pension?  Ed McKnight tried living on it for a week and came to a couple of conclusions around what it would be like to retire.  LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystu...

"A snapshot in time": Guy Sebastian discusses his creative process, latest album  Guy Sebastian is an Australasian icon with a career that’s nothing short of extraordinary.  From winning the first season of Australian Idol back in 2003, to carving out a place on the charts, to mentoring new talent as a coach on The Voice Australia – he's been in the spotlight for over two decades. ...

"Fit for a King": Nici Wickes' Lamington Cake  If you ever need to produce a celebration cake, this is it!     Serves 8-10     Ingredients:   Sponge cake    130g unsalted butter, softened   1 cup caster sugar   2 teaspoons vanilla extract    3 large eggs    2⅓ cups self-raising flour   1 pinch salt   1 cup milk  ...

Ed McKnight has been working in personal finance for a fair few years and although he typically tries to be encouraging when giving advice, he does have some more brutal truths to tell.  He joined Jack Tame to offer up the three brutally honest pieces of money advice that most Kiwis will need to hear.  LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the end, it was just over an hour. Just over an hour between being asleep on the floor of Auckland hospital, to standing, bewildered under the delivery suite lights, helping to dress my newborn son. Mava had been induced on Sunday – the scans had suggested that all was ok but that our baby was small for his age. We spent an oddly serene day waiting for the induction medication to kick in. They...

There’s no more iconic a reality franchise than The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills – which is back for its 15th season. And there is perhaps no Housewife in history that has a heftier and more prestigious CV than that of Bozoma Saint John.  Boz joined the series last year off the back of a 20-year run as a marketing executive working with brands like Apple, Netflix, Uber and Pepsi and has b...

As a little kid, I always slept terribly on Christmas eve.  I’d try and go to bed early. I’d tell myself that the sooner I went to sleep, the sooner I’d wake on Christmas morning. But sure as anything I’d be up all night, listening for any sound of activity on the roof. Together with my three little brothers and sisters, we’d be desperate for mum and dad to throw open our bedroom doors at fir...

Who doesn’t love a great roadie? Self-drive adventures rank highly in my pantheon of golden travel experiences and Northern Ireland’s Causeway Coast touring route is a show-stopper. Bookended by Derry~Londonderry and Belfast Lough, this sublime 185km drive threads together a stirring mosaic of fishing villages, secluded beaches, wondrous rock formations, rugged coastlines, crumbling castles, stori...

Whilst many of us are decking the halls and merrily celebrating, spare a thought for those who suffer from Christougenniatikophobia. Literally translated from Greek means Christ-related-birth-fear i.e., a phobia of Christmas.  Is it a real phobia? Not really.  Dougal Sutherland of Umbrella Wellbeing talked to Jack Tame about the discomfort and anxiety that surrounds Christmas for some pe...

Listen to the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame Full Show Podcast for Saturday 20 December. Get the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame Full Show Podcast every Saturday on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The 'age-old' advice of property investment is to buy the best house on the worst street. The idea of the advice is that property values have a higher ceiling in nicer areas, so renovating the worst home could bring in some good money Ed McKnight of Opes Partners discusses with Jack Tame whether the advice stands in today's economic climate.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for priva...

It has been the year of AI.. and it seems we're just getting started  OpenAI is on track to hit $13B of 2025 revenue, up from $4B in 2024, according to The Information. It's looking at annualized revenue now of up to $19B.  But, Merriam Webster has named 'slop' as the word of the year - the dangerous byproduct of AI use.  Slop is "digital content of low quality that is produced usua...

Song Sung Blue   Starring Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman. Two down-on-their-luck performers form a Neil Diamond tribute band, proving it's never too late to find love and follow your dreams.  In cinemas January 1st.   My Brother’s Band    French film. Conductor Thibaut discovers he has leukaemia and needs a bone marrow donor. Learning of his adoption, he finds an older broth...

When you think of the most meaningful song of all time, what comes to mind? For Kevin Milne it's Silent Night. Jack Tame and Milne reflect on the significance of Christmas music.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Alan Davies is known for his natural, relatable storytelling skills across the page, the stage, and the screen.  The comedian is a staple of British television, with roles on the long-running ‘Jonathan Creek’ and popular comedy panel show ‘QI’.   It’s been more than a decade since Davies last did a stand-up tour, but he’s happy to report it’s going well.  “It had been so long that i...

It’s been a bit of an odd year in the music space.  With the rise of AI music, musicians pulling their work off Spotify in protest of the company and CEO, rising ticket prices, and tours cutting off before they hit New Zealand, it’s been rough for some fans.   Chris Schulz joined Jack Tame to delve into some of the worst things about being a music fan in 2025.  LISTEN ABOVE   S...

Quantum of Menace by Vaseem Kahn   Q is out of MI6 . . .  . . . and in over his head  After Major Boothroyd (aka Q) is unexpectedly ousted from his role with British Intelligence developing technologies for MI6's 00 agents, he finds himself back in his sleepy hometown of Wickstone-on-Water. His childhood friend, renowned quantum computer scientist Peter Napier, has died in mysteriou...