The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin

The first week of the holidays has been pretty quiet in our household as Covid popped in for a visit. We’d been hoping to get to the school holidays in good health, but as cold, flu and Covid-19 started taking people out left, right and centre we knew it was going to be touch and go.   Covid-19 and other winter viruses are back with a vengeance and creating all the frustration and disruption we’ve...

Love in a Time of War by Adrienne Chinn. First in an expected trilogy about three sisters in the years leading up to WW1, which was a time of great change – many young women left home for the first time, travelled overseas unchaperoned, did work which was usually done by men, and started to look beyond the traditional boundaries of how they were expected to live. One of the sisters – Cecilia – is...

Travel blogger Megan Singleton was at an Ireland Tourism breakfast hearing about their new opening campaign to tie in with the rugby this weekend. Megan also just did the All Blacks Experience at Sky City.  Megan Singleton joined Francesca Rudkin. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Commentator and TV Producer Irene Gardiner and Political Commentator Ben Thomas joined Francesca Rudkin for the Sunday Panel. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week the New Zealand International Film Festival has unveiled its full programme for this years event.  One of the films announced is Fire of Love, a documentary that tells the story of legendary volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft  The film has wowed on the festival circuit, winning an award at Sundance and also sparked a multi-studio bidding war for the rights to the film.  The film's d...

Covid surge, an abundance of colds and flu out there for you to take your pick from, so let’s talk immunity. Can you really boost your immune system?  Wellness expert Erin O'Hara joined Francesca Rudkin to discuss. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the Van de Elzen household we have Sunday night pie night! it can be a bought pie (Ponsonby mince and cheese are the household fav) or we try and make our own.   Bees chicken pie is up there but lately I've been taking the lead in the family pole with this mince pie.  I figured if there was never a better time for a pie then now would be the time. Even better would be getting the kids in the ki...

This week we are talking 'being hangry' because for the first time science has proved that it's a thing!  Hangry - a term to describe people who get angry because they are hungry has finally been shown to exist after a study was published in the journal PLOS ONE. In what is thought to be the first study exploring how hunger affects emotions in real-life situations, psychologists found that the mor...

Editor of flicks.co.nz Steve Newall joined Francesca Rudkin to discuss the latest Marvel movie, Thor: Love and Thunder as well as a few of his choice picks for the upcoming New Zealand International Film Festival. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Deborah Francis-White is a stand up comedian, screen writer, corporate speaker, author and the creator and host of the insanely popular podcast The Guilty Feminist.  Later this month Deborah is bringing her The Guilty Feminist Live Podcast Tour to New Zealand, and she joined Francesca Rudkin in studio.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One afternoon this week, after watching the glorious 80s inspired intergalactic silliness of Thor: Love and Thunder, I found myself driving down the motorway singing my lungs out to Guns and Roses – it’s been a few decades since I’ve felt the inclination to do this! It was just over a month ago many of us rediscovered the rich emotive voice of Kate Bush, and realised how at home Kenny Loggins Dang...

A messy legal fight is brewing after Elon Musk announced he was terminating his deal to buy the social media platform Twitter, citing an irreconcilable disagreement with the company over fake and spam accounts. The world's richest man has previously accused Twitter of "resisting and thwarting" his attempts to access information about fake accounts, saying the deal could not progress until the issu...

It was a historic win for the Irish in Dunedin last night against the All Blacks, their first ever win on New Zealand soil and it takes them to four wins out of their last seven games against the men in black. RTE commentator Michael Corcoran joined Francesca Rudkin. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David Seymour has announced ACTs policy to target gangs, his plan is to use Inland Revenue.  ACT leader David Seymour joined Francesca Rudkin from the ACT Annual Conference.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The School for German Brides by Aimie K. Runyan. It’s another WW2 story – God knows there are thousands of them and showing no signs of abating. This follows two young women – one of whom, Hanna, is set up to be married to a ghastly Nazi lieutenant, and is sent off to a place as per the title – a posh country house where young women are sent to learn how to be faithful and good wives and mothers a...

How much is it going to cost?  Which flights will they be available on?   Is this what most other airlines are doing?   When will these be in place?  Megan Singleton joined Francesca Rudkin.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are starting to see the impact of the last two years on our youth and teens – are you starting to see this also in adults – have we adjusted back to pre-covid times fast enough?   The Prime Minister is inviting the world to pop in and say Hi, and we don’t have enough entry-level staff to maintain our accommodation sector but would you take a discount and clean your own room?   Kelvin Davis says...

Australian broadcaster and journalist Melody Horrill suffered a childhood of emotional and physical trauma. She was a troubled and lost woman who carefully hid her pain from others.  But Melody’s story is not just one of a broken woman, it’s one of hope, peace and healing – all of which came through an injured dolphin named Jock.  She’s shared her story in a new memoir, A Dolphin Called Jock.  Mel...

People most commonly relate loneliness to mental health but what effect does it have on our physical health?  Erin is the co-founder, director, naturopath and yoga teacher at Golden Yogi. She holds a bachelor of science (physiology) and a bachelor of natural medicine.  Erin O’Hara joined Francesca Rudkin.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mike’s website – goodfromscratch.co.nz  With the fast-approaching school holidays nearly upon us, we are doing our "Little Chef" cooking classes at Good from Scratch.  My wife Bee and our Head Gardener Adrianne (both qualified Chefs and Mums!) run these classes and they are a lot of fun.  We always visit a country around the globe and this time it's one of our favourites "India".   This recipe is...

An odd one this week that involves sniffing your friends.  Instant friends are those people that you meet where you have an instant connection – like you have already been friends for years. Previous research has found that, subconsciously, we sniff each other when we meet new people and researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel wondered if that sniffing had a purpose.  The resear...

Greg Hoffman is the creative genius behind some of the world's most iconic marketing campaigns.  During his 30 years at Nike, he worked on campaigns with absolute superstars – the likes of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, the Brazilian football team, Roger Federer and Serena Williams – just to name a few.  Greg has put his time as Nike’s Chief Marketing Officer into a new book, Emotion by Design: Crea...

NZ Herald senior political reporter Thomas Coughlan joined Francesca Rudkin to update us on the latest from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s Europe trip.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Another pandemic of “overwhelming magnitude” is right on New Zealand’s doorstep.   It has been reported in the New Zealand Herald’s Great Minds series that our children's mental health services are at crisis point.   There are very real concerns that we aren’t prepared or equipped to deal with the increasing numbers of young people seeing help.   Yesterday, paediatrician, former Chief Science Advi...

Yesterday two headlines in the NZ Herald caught my attention.    One read: Jacinda Ardern's global tourism push: 'We're very keen to welcome visitors back'   And the other read:'Dire' staff shortage: NZ hotels offer guests discounts to clean their rooms.’    I did have a giggle. Yes, come on down, we’re open for business, love to have you visit. Here are some sheets, towels and cleaning products –...