The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin

Lorde performed her latest single Solar Power on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Friday. She performed on the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York in front of a few guests, becoming the first musician to perform on the show since Covid-19. Also, Netflix has hired video game executive Mike Verdu, signalling the streaming service's intention to enter the video game market. Plus, the win...

Australian actress Essie Davis earned international attention with her unforgettable performance in the 2014 movie The Babadook. Since then Davis has famously appeared as Phryne Fisher in Miss Fishers Murder Mysteries, Lady Crane in Game of Thrones and Ned Kelly’s mother in the True History of the Kelly Gang. She has a new movie coming to cinemas, The Justice of Bunny King, where Davis plays lead...

Alongside oil, gas and agriculture, the textile industry is one of the biggest carbon-emitters. Annually 220,000 tonnes of used clothing and the like enters landfills. New Zealand company Usedfully is trying to change that. They have sent recommendations to the Government and a hui date is set down for September. Usedfully co-founder Bernadette Casey says nothing really shocked her from their repo...

Our mental health services are stretched beyond capacity, and there simply aren’t enough professional services to meet demand. One teenager who has experienced this first hand is 15-year-old Jade Varney. Varney started a petition pleading for the Government to act. She said she started the petition because no one is taking any action to improve mental health services, having some firsthand experie...

School holidays often means board games. Especially in winter. I love a game of cards, or backgammon, but when someone in my family suggests a classic board game which I know could last hours – sometimes days - I slip off my chair under the table. OK – so that’s what I think about doing in my head. Mostly, I reluctantly play. Monopoly is a favourite in our house, and I felt like a terrible mother...

Leaders representing the 21 Apec economies have pledged to push for widespread and equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines and to "pave the way" for opening borders in a safe manner. But those matters are far from simple, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said, with a November timeline to lower vaccine tariffs, and different vaccine usage being a potential "sticking point" for more quarantine-free trave...

Count the Ways by Joyce Maynard This is an exquisite portrayal of a mother’s life, whose children are the centre of her world. So when their happy family falls apart and she moves out, becoming estranged from her kids is a tough cross to bear. With a whole new world alone to navigate, the author does a wonderful job telling Eleanor’s story with all its joy, sorrow, isolation and clinging on. False...

It’s been a few months since the travel bubble with the Cook Islands opened up – but what is there to do in the island nation? The country is slowly seeing visitor numbers return - in July, they have bookings from 12,700 Kiwis to visit. Which is about 70% of their global visitor numbers from July 2019. Air New Zealand has also announced that it will increase flights to 11 per week from next month...

The National Party's spokesperson for police says the government needs to tackle attacks on police. A police officer was shot Friday night in Hamilton during a routine traffic stop. He received injuries to his arm and shoulder, but is in a stable condition in Waikato Hospital. National's Simeon Brown says we need stiffer punishments for people who assault officers. National put the policy to parli...

When it comes to films, the superstar actors and directors tend to get the spotlight. But so many important people are involved, behind the scenes. One of those crucial people is casting director Liz Mullane. She is Peter Jackson’s primary New Zealand casting director – working on Heavenly Creatures, King Kong and his Middle Earth saga – as well as casting for dozens of locally filmed movies and T...

What is RSV and what's driving New Zealand's winter outbreak?  The common virus has made headlines this week after hospitals saw an influx of young patients with RSV.  Children, babies in particular, are being hit particularly hard by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) this year, with many ending up in Intensive Care Units or needing oxygen to help them breathe. Some parents have described calling...

Fast Fishermans pie (serves 6) 700g smoked kahawai, flaked3 Tbsp butter3 Tbsp flour2 cups milk, warmed1 Tbsp wholegrain mustard4 eggs, hardboiled, peeled and chopped¼ cup parsley, chopped¼ cup fennel or dill, choppedPotato crust1 kg agria potatoes, peeled100gm butter, cut into small cubes1/2 cup creamgood pinch seasalt 1 tbsp butter for the crust For the crust:Chop the potatoes Place the potatoes...

A new study has found that a weekly dance class was enough to slow or even stop the progression of Parkinson’s disease in diagnosed patients. While there are many medications available to treat the symptoms of Parkinson’s - none of them cure or reverse the effects of the disease. However, this research showed how patients with mild-to-moderate Parkinson's disease slowed its progress just by partic...

After a year-long delay, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has returned to cinemas. Black Widow – the first Marvel movie in two years – shines a spotlight on Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff. Taking place after Captain America: Civil War, it finds Romanoff reuniting with her superspy sister to take down the organization that robbed both of their childhoods. For something closer to home, the secon...

Being sued by your own father is not something most people can relate to. But that was the reality facing Melbourne journalist Mimi Kwa, when her larger than life father Francis took her to the Australian Supreme Court over his sister's estate.  It was that moment that started a journey for Kwa to better understand her father and reflect on her sometimes painful family history. The result is an ex...

The global 'right-to-repair' movement is gaining momentum. As part of a sweeping executive order targeting tech companies, US President Joe Biden has also endorsed the principle known as 'right-to-repair', calling for Federal Trade Commission rules that ban technology manufacturers from suing independent repair shops or hindering consumers from trying to repair their own devices. The movement this...

In September last year heading into the Covid election, I asked on this show for the government to show us our road map out of this global pandemic. It didn’t necessarily need all the details, as we even then understood how unpredictable this virus can be, and how situations can change quickly. I was just asking for a clear picture of the steps we needed to go through, the milestones we needed to...

The  Tokyo Olympics are under two weeks away and the New Zealand contingent has started to arrive in Japan. But these are still set to be a games like no other. Game venues will not have spectators due to Tokyo imposing a state of emergency throughout the event due to the Covid-19 pandemic. There are also strict restrictions for athletes and media in place. TVNZ sports reporter Guy Heveldt is in T...

Labour MP Louisa Wall was this week gifted a speaking slot in a debate on suicide by National - after her own party denied her one. National's mental health spokesman Matt Doocey said Wall was "blocked" from speaking, which he said was "absolutely disgusting". Wall was a founding member of the cross-party mental health group who recently published a report on suicide, which was the subject of deba...

This week I helped my daughter prepare for her science test – Astronomy was the topic. As we got our heads around the phases of the moon, tides, and distances in space – all of which fascinated my daughter - it occurred to me that if my daughter wanted to, a trip to space in her lifetime isn’t out of the question. And how soon private commercial space travel becomes a reality depends in part on ho...

US track and field star Sha'Carri Richardson has been suspended for one month from the Olympic team after testing positive for THC, a chemical found in marijuana, the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced on Friday. "The rules are clear, but this is heartbreaking on many levels; hopefully, her acceptance of responsibility and apology will be an important example to us all that we can successfull...

Moth by Melody Razak Set in 1946/1947 at the time India was getting ready for Partition. The book centres around a liberal Brahmin family who have always had a good life. The parents are academics but despite their liberal views they’re getting ready to marry off their 14-year-old daughter as Delhi is not a safe place for girls and women during all the social and political unrest at that time. The...

Travel this long holiday weekend will be busy -- and not only by pandemic standards. Experts expect it will rival the busiest Independence Day weekend of the pre-coronavirus era. Lines at airports and jams on the highways will be back with a vengeance, they say. AAA forecasts a record number of Americans are taking to the increasingly busy roads this weekend, and warns they will encounter the most...

Many of us dream, but why exactly do we? And what are the health benefits of dreams? Wellbeing expert Erin O'Hara joined Francesca Rudkin to discuss the importance of dreams. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Comedians Laura Daniel and Joseph Moore had already established their own careers before they joined forces as pop comedy duo, Two Hearts.  Billy T and Fred Award nominees at the Comedy Festival, the two are now not only collaborators but are engaged. Their relationship was put to the test though in their latest project - Taskmaster NZ season two, which sees Daniel as a contestant while Moore is b...