The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin

Ana Scotney's done a lot with her time in the acting world, having made her debut in 2018's The Breaker Uppers. Since then, Ana has been on a bunch of tv shows and films including playing Angel on Shortland Street, appearing in Netflix series God’s Favourite Idiot alongside Melissa McCarthy and is set to film alongside Jennifer Connolly in upcoming Bad Behaviour. Her new film, Millie Lies Low, is...

 Pharmac’s funding of life saving cancer drugs has recently been called into question. This is in light of an article The Herald recently ran about Paul Cherry, a Bay Of Plenty man who endures a costly battle with prostate cancer. Joining us is Prostate Cancer Foundation New Zealand CEO Peter Dickens. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke at the UN General Assembly in New York earlier this week. The key points of her speech included taking aim at the UN and the Security Council for not vetoing the Russian invasion of Ukraine and condemning Vladimir Putin's earlier nuclear threats. This reflected the statements many other nations made regarding Russia's actions. Our deputy political editor, Jason...

Dr Jen Welter has broken down many barriers in her sporting career.  In 2015 she became the first female to coach in the NFL as line-backers coach with the Arizona Cardinals.   Since then Jen has been passionate about providing access and opportunities in sport.  She is in New Zealand as part of a Sports Envoy Programme and joins me now.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy inform...

Blogger at Large's Megan Singleton joins Francesca Rudkin here today to tell us all about Grapevine Texas! Situated between Dallas and Fort Worth, Grapevine Texas is home to a burgeoning wine region and golf courses. It's also the Christmas capital of Texas. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lawyer Liam Hehir joins NZ Herald senior writer Simon Wilson today to talk about the local body election, voting, and mayoral candidates. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid. She is HUGE on TikTok and a new book will be a big deal. It’s about the greatest tennis player there’s ever been, Carrie Soto, who retires but then is outraged when another player equals her record and decides to go back for one last Grand Slam to make sure she stays on top. It’s obviously set in the tennis world but I don’t think you have to be mad on t...

Hollie Smith has been around on the local music scene for 20 odd years and is one of the most recognisable faces and voices. She’s got several number one albums and numerous awards to her name.  But it was growing up in Auckland that Hollie was first introduced to music through the city's blues and jazz scene.  Ahead of Hollie Smith Sings Jazz which is coming to the Civic this week as part of the...

As we enter the spring season, more people are thinking about weight loss. Cleanses and detox diets are viewed as ways of clearing out toxins that lead to weight gain, or as a means of counteracting winter over-indulgences. Wellness expert and naturopath, Erin O'Hara, is here today to explain that cleanses and detox treatments are mostly marketing, and that our body naturally detoxes regardless of...

Hope we have had a great week, needless to say we have been flat! Exciting as we hosted our very first wedding at the school. We have had so many booked in the past but the Covid has taken care of them!   But this week I want to talk about something a bit different. Rubbish! More so, food packaging rubbish! I am always on the clean-up down the beach, mainly general rubbish like beer bottles etc. B...

When it comes to walking, it's an affordable and reliable form of exercise that is free to most people.  But we've all been fixated on reaching the standard of 10,000 steps per day, which isn't doable for plenty of people in Western nations. In fact, the 10,000 steps figure was derived from a Japanese marketing figure which happened to translate into that number. Dr Michelle Dickinson joins us her...

The Others Way is a music festival set to happen on October 22nd, a month from now. This festival will be happening at Auckland Central's K road, and 30 acts are set to perform. The highest profile performance is confirmed to be the newly reformed The Exponents, as the festival coincides with the 40th anniversary of their chart-topping debut album Prayers Be Answered. Steve Newall, editor of Flick...

Queen Elizabeth II's funeral is set to happen tomorrow, at 10pm NZT. NZ Herald political reporter Adam Pearse is in London today, ahead of the event, to observe the lead up.  "We've also seen the queue extend, the current wait time as it stands is 13 and a half hours for people to see the Queen's coffin lying in Westminster Hall." LISTEN ABOVE   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tomorrow, New Zealand’s first ever Zero Food Waste Challenge kicks off.  Food waste is one of the world’s most pressing social and environmental issues, so for the next week kiwis are being challenged to address the problem.  Founder of the Zero Food Waste Challenge Veronica Shale joins me here to explain how much we waste, who the biggest culprits are, and how it affects us all. LISTEN ABOVE See...

This week online dating app Tinder celebrated its 10-year anniversary.  Tinder has revolutionised the way we date, but swiping right does come with its risks.   A documentary coming to TVNZ 1 this week has explored the dark side of these dating apps.  One of the experts from the documentary, Swipe With Caution, and co-creator of The Light Project, Nikki Denholm is here with me now. LISTEN ABOVE  ...

It was back in 1996 that this song propelled five unknown women to the top of pop stardom.  Scary, Baby, Ginger, Sporty and Posh - The Spice Girls took the world by storm - not only did they become the world's biggest girl group but their own brand of Girl Power influenced a whole generation of woman and in many respects, changed the world.  One of those women was Melanie Chisholm – she became glo...

Following Queen Elizabeth II’s recent passing, more people are flocking to Windsor. Demand to travel there has gone up in the last couple of days, as the former ruler will be laid to rest there. Bloggeratlarge’s Megan Singleton is here today to discuss how mass desire to pay final respects to the Queen has impacted prices and travel times. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy infor...

How aware of our own hunger levels are we? On the surface, we should know how hungry we are, when we want to eat, and what we feel. Naturopath and wellbeing expert Erin O'Hara is here to explain intuitive eating, and what it means to feel genuine hunger. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When it comes to crime thrillers, it doesn’t come much better than Scottish Crime Queen Val McDermid.  Val is one of the leading crime writers having sold over 18 million books. She also has several TV adaptions to her name. Her new book 1989 is in stores now and Val has arrived in New Zealand to continue her Visiting Professorship of Scottish studies and Crime Fiction at the University of Otago. ...

How much is a change of monarch going to impact us Kiwis? For a lot of people day to day – not much impact at all except remembering to call him King Charles.  Katie Bradford and Ben Thomas join Francesca Rudkin on the panel here today LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kawai : For Such a Time as This   by Monty Soutar. New Zealand fiction, first in a planned trilogy. In the 1980’s a young Maori man visits his elderly relative in the remote east North Island, wanting to learn the stories of his ancestors, at which point the book moves to the mid 18 th  century and recounts the story of the young man’s tipuna, the legendary warrior Kaitanga, after whom his marae’s...

Spring has sprung and I'm so happy that we simply just had a couple of days without rain!    Once this week I stopped and felt the warmth of the sun and what a great feeling it was. Also with the sun coming up earlier in the morning, it brings with it a new found energy for breakfast.    Whilst I'm always going to promote breakfast for every time of the year (I am the weetbix ambassador) this time...

If you suffer from pain, you might have noticed that you feel it more at night compared to the day.  It had been thought that this was because you were less distracted and therefore more aware of pain at night, but new research has found that we have peaks and troughs of pain based on our circadian rhythm.  Following the release of a new study from the journal Brain, Dr Michelle Dickinson is here...

New in theatres next week: Moonage Daydream, a documentary about David Bowie. Steve Newall of Flicks.co.nz is here to talk us through it. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My Boy, the third solo record from New Zealand singer/songwriter Marlon Williams, announces an artist emerging anew. Gone is the solemn, country-indebted crooner with the velvet voice – in his place comes a playful, shapeshifting creature. Following the release of his second album, 2018’s Make Way For Love, Williams’ toured the world, playing major festivals and collaborating with Lorde, Yo-Yo Ma...