The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin

The Government has recently announced it will remove the controversial entrenchment from Three Waters legislation.  The clause would have meant any future law change would have needed 60 percent of parliament backing or a successful public referendum to come into effect.  Lawyers and legal experts have deemed this provision to be undemocratic and it was subsequently removed after a week of objecti...

BloggerAtLarge's Megan Singleton has been in Thailand for another week, and she recommends that you add it to your travel list. Megan says that Bangkok, Thailand has plenty to offer in terms of spa treatments, bars and shopping- but it's a fantastic family trip destination as well, due to how affordable everything is. Megan's blog will supply more visuals, but the point still stands- it's loaded u...

Desert Star   by Michael Connelly. He’s famous for a series of books with Harry Bosch as the central character; then started a second series with Renee Ballard, and then a spin off series with the two of them working together and this is one of those. She had left the force but been lured back with a brief to try and wrap up some cold cases, one of which was the murder of an entire family several...

On this week's Sunday Panel, Broadcaster Brodie Kane and PR consultant and political commentator Ben Thomas joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the week-  The OCR went up by 75 basis point to a historic high and now there's talk of a recession. This will bring the economy to the forefront next election, what impact does all of this have on how we'll see political parties campai...

The Art of Black Grace is currently on at Auckland's Wynard Quarter until December 10th, and it sells itself as a visually unique dance piece. The show is the first of its kind, an immersive dance experience inside a 360 degree, 15 by 6 metre cylinder. The show is created by accomplished choreographer, founder and artistic director of Black Grace, Neil Ieremia, and he spoke to us about it here tod...

This week, we are talking about something out of the blue. Bananas!   What do you call a hanging bunch of bananas? I would say a hanging bunch! But the exciting thing is, our bunch is hanging from one of our banana trees in the gardens. See image.   Adrianne, our gardener, has been trying to grow bananas for a couple of years now, without joy unfortunately. Mainly due to the high winds we can get...

Naturopath and wellness expert Erin O'Hara observed that the state of mental health in New Zealand is in decline, and has been for quite a while. New Zealand has a reputation for notoriously low mental health statistics, and a new study confirms that one in two Kiwis have been severely impacted by stress or depression in the past year. Erin O'Hara says that mental health in this country has receiv...

Training AI to imitate human language, thinking patterns and communication, especially in interactive environments has proven difficult in the past, but we may be one step closer. Cicero is the first AI agent to beat a human in Diplomacy, a strategy game where seven players compete using cooperation and competition to outdo each other. Dr Joel Rindelaub UOA Resarch Fellow explained what this means...

Irene Cara, Oscar, Golden Globe and two-time Grammy winning singer-actress, best known for starring in and singing the title track from the 1980 hit movie   Fame, passed away at 63. The causes of her death are still unknown, according to her publicist. Steve Newall, flicks.co.nz editor reflected on her career full of hits, as she had a full filmography and discography. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio....

Wil Anderson is one of Australia’s most successful comedians, having worked as a television host, writer and podcaster.  His latest project is a new book, it is called I Am Not Fine, Thanks, it's part memoir and part manifesto and looks back on the last couple of years- because they've been tough on all of us. Wil Anderson was inspired by his bad luck to focus on being a stand up comedian around t...

Santa Parades are getting underway around the country this weekend, and today in Auckland Santa is going to be assisted by one of our national treasures. Dame Lisa Carrington, accomplished flatwater canoeist and New Zealand's most successful Olympian is set to be the Grand Marshal of today's Farmers Santa Parade. Dame Lisa Carrington says that getting to be the Grand Marshal is up there with all h...

This has been a big week for sales- Black Friday deals are still going on and Cyber Monday starts tomorrow. And we're into the Christmas season, so there's more coming. Yet at the same time, the Reserve Bank Governor is telling us all to tighten up and cut the spending. How do we tackle Christmas and the upcoming holidays with a reduced budget? And how do we financially prepare for a recession? Bu...

So at the beginning of the week, the Supreme Court declared the voting age of 18 in New Zealand is inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act. In response the Prime Minister announced that legislation will be drafted for making the voting age 16; but any change would require the backing of three quarters of MPs, or a majority in a referendum. I live with a 16 year old, so naturally my first instinct...

Megan Singleton, writer for BloggerAtLarge went to Phuket, Thailand for a content creator's conference, and she got to see the best of the region. Phuket was one of the first places to open their borders after Covid-19 restrictions were lifted, so it's been busy and packed with tourists for a while. Some of the highlights from Megan's trip include the swimming at Kamala Beach and her four hour del...

Ashes in the Snow by Oriana Ramunno. It’s essentially a murder mystery set in Auschwitz where a Detective who’s an expert Criminologist  is sent from Berlin to investigate the unexplained death of a senior Nazi at the Camp, but given the nature of the required purity of the Aryan race etc he simply can’t allow it to be known that he’s in the advanced stages of Parkinsons. He’s simply appalled by w...

Today on The Sunday Panel: TVNZ Producer Irene Gardiner and lawyer Liam Hehir discussed the following big issues of the day- and more! What do you make of FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s media conference overnight? No one is happy with the hate speech reforms. Greens and Human Rights Commission say it doesn’t go far enough and National and Act don’t want it. Where do you sit?   The country goes...

For today's Sunday Session, we had something a bit different in the form of some live music in the studio! This band is called Neon Dreams, they are a Canadian pop duo who are getting a fair amount of airplay here in New Zealand and they’ve arrived in the country ahead of a couple of festival dates.   Neon Dreams, consisting of Frank Kadillac and Adrian Morris, talked about the music they make, th...

How much do we know about metabolisms, really? We know that metabolism refers to the process in which food gets converted into energy, but what else is there to it? Erin O'Hara, naturopath and wellness expert, explained that our metabolisms can be influenced by more than just genetics, and that lifestyle has a substantial impact on what makes a metabolism fast or slow. Erin O'Hara also explained t...

A new study has confirmed that bass-infused music makes people want to dance more- anyone who's been to a music festival knows the drill, but this research has confirmed a link. A study run by the journal 'Current Biology' confirmed that participants were more likely to dance when low-frequency bass was added to the test music, despite the test subjects not being aware of it. Dr Joel Rindelaub joi...

Strawberries, strawberries! = Christmas Summer   Hope we are all well,   This week we are talking about a Christmas treasure, strawberries. Whilst I would love to have a white Christmas, snuggling up in some winter blankets and drinking mulled wine...   We couldn't have strawberries! So instead of doing a Christmas pavlova with strawberries (which is delicious) I want to do my take on another summ...

The winners for the 2022 edition of the 48 Hour film competition were announced this weekend, out of 600 hundred entrants. This competition has been around for the last 20 years, where film-making teams put projects together within a 48 hour period. The Grand National Champion for 2022 title went to Big Questions, an animated piece from production company Mitchell's Here. The team also won a Best...

Everyone needs to learn the value of being money-savvy, and kids are no exception! The Barefoot Investor Scott Pape has a new book out and it’s all about teaching children what they need to know and to inspire them to become financially literate at an early age.  The new book is Barefoot Kids: Your Epic Money Adventure and Scott Pape himself joined us to talk us through it! LISTEN ABOVE See omnyst...

The Government is making changes to the Human Rights Act, to cover religious groups.   Changes were proposed last year following the Christchurch mosque attacks, and the Royal Commission which followed.   After consolation on six proposed changes, just one change has been put forward. Justice Minister Kiri Allan explained why this one change to New Zealand's hate speech laws made it through. LISTE...

The APEC economic summit has just wrapped up, and it brought a busy week for Prime Minister Jacinda Arden to a close. Jacinda Ardern said that her time spent at the East Asia Summit (EAS) in Cambodia and the APEC conference has made her more aware of the importance of diplomacy to stop geo-political threats. Thomas Coughlan, NZ Herald deputy political editor, says that Jacinda Ardern's time at APE...

Ahead of the incoming 2022 FIFA World Cup, president Gianni Infantino has recently made some statements accusing the West of 'hypocrisy'. The FIFA World Cup being hosted in Qatar has concerned human rights advocates due to Qatar's treatment of migrant workers and LGBT people. Gianni Infantino spoke in defence of the region by saying European nations should be more concerned about their own histori...