Saturday Morning

New Zealand's most popular outdoor art event kicks off today at Auckland's Botanic Gardens, and one of Sculpture in the Garden's curators, Olivia Haddon, is with us to tell what punters can expect this summer.

Dr Lori Leigh has been researching the fascinating history of how queer communities have made unique living spaces in New Zealand.

Carnegie Medal-nominated author Rachael King recommends the best local children's books to replace those unwanted David Walliams stories.

Dentist Dr Aftab Moosa is in the studio to answer your questions on how to best take care of your teeth as you get longer in the tooth.

Just four percent of the music New Zealanders stream is homegrown - and New Zealand on Air's music head Teresa Patterson wants to change that.

Legal scholar Dr Claire Charters has been digging into the foundations of our legal system, and asking what we could learn from constitutional reform overseas.

Ahead of tomorrow's Rugby League World Cup final, former Warrior (and Australian) Blake Ayshford joins us to give his unique perspective on the rivalry.

Our volcanologist, Graham Leonard from Earth Sciences New Zealand, is back to talk about the Kaikoura quake, and the lessons we've learned in the decade since.

Kahurangi Rangimarie Naida Glavish first shot to national prominence in 1984 while working at the Post Office telephone exchange in Helensville. In Dame Naida's case she greeted you with a friendly 'kia ora.' Her supervisor instructed her to stop using te reo Maori. She refused, was demoted and the story was picked up by the media. It stirred comment from the then Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoo...

The Summer Olympics of 1904 were held in St Louis, Missouri and they were the first ever held outside of Europe. But this particular event has gone down in history for hosting a farcical marathon which involved rat poison, hitch-hiking, stolen fruit and dog attacks. The strange tale has been brought to the stage by Nic Sampson who popped in to share a little of it.

Two poet-artists who've shared a long friendship defined by the waves and the currents of the South Pacific are John Puhiatau Pule and Gregory O'Brien. They've collaborated on a new publication called This Must Be the Island - Liga Hanai e Motu. It features poetry, art and design from both influenced by all corners of the South Pacific, its people and places. Punctuated by sketches, prints and poe...

On the last day to vote we check in with RNZ hosts Jesse Mulligan and Wallace Chapman ahead of the networks special coverage which starts at 7 o'clock once polls close. There's a big night ahead with in depth analysis of the results as they role in from around the motu. Jesse and Wallace will be hopping from one location to another across a range of spots in Auckland.

Over the ditch, Aussies have become a little more comfortable through the years facing the wreckage of their colonial history and the violence and trauma borne from it. But there's still one dark chapter of their history that many know nothing about: it's the practice of Blackbirding - which our next guest, author Ryan Butta explained is Australia's forgotten slave trade.

Dozens of pilot whales were found stranded on a Wairarapa beach this week and despite the best efforts of conservation groups and concerned locals all the whales perished. Daren Grover from whale rescue group Project Jonah joined us for an update and to talk about a new AI-assisted bit of tech that might give us the ability to predict and prepare for these events in future.

Cyber criminals have once again hacked into supermarket fridges and freezers across France in a bizarre attack for which no one has claimed responsibility - nor have any demands been made. With ever growing cyber-security threats and questions around the vulnerability of infrastructure we invited National Cyber Security Centre head Catriona Robinson to find out the risk factors in Aotearoa and wha...

Ahead of this week's release of Black Sheeps, actor Nathan Meister is here to talk about reprising his role from Black Sheep twenty years ago and Weta Workshop's Stephen Crowe tells us about creating the titular ovine monstrosities.

Academic and pop culture history expert Lorna Piatta-Farnell is here to talk about Halloween and its origins, particularly whether it's an example of an Americanising influence on our culture or a link back to our Celtic social history.

If you're spectating or running in the marathon in Auckland tomorrow, you might wonder why there's a woman dressed as a giant poo in the race. That's Anna Ross, who along with her team is running to raise awareness and money for gut cancer.

Saturday Morning's medical expert Dr Buzz Burrell is back to answer listener questions and track what ailments are widespread as we head into summer.

Country Calendar producer and host Dan Henry joins us to talk about helming the longest-running television programme in New Zealand history and how they manage to find a new patch of rural life every week.

Searching for Afunakwa is a documentary and music project that traces the little-known origins of one of the most recognizable pieces of "world music" of the 1990s. Sweet Lullaby, by Deep Forest became a global hit, selling millions of copies and appearing in films, advertisements, and viral videos. But the woman behind the vocals was never acknowledged. DJ Matt Singmin went looking for Afunakwa,...

For more than four decades, Distinguished Professor Graham Hingangaroa Smith has dedicated himself to validating and advocating for Maori education systems that better serve indigenous peoples. His work identifying and analysing Kaupapa Maori Theory has been transformative in kura, and the world of academia both here and overseas which is why he's been recognised this week with the Te Puawaitanga...

BBC security Correspondent Frank Gardner joins to give us the latest on the monumental elections that define last week and next week - namely, the elections in Israel and the upcoming midterm decisions to be made by voters in the United States of America.

A deeply compelling innovation has cancer specialists buzzing. An experimental mRNA cancer vaccine which has allowed people with high-risk melanoma to live longer, cancer-free, according to drug companies Moderna and Merck. Medical Oncologist and Melanoma NZ Spokesperson Gareth Rivalland has been leading this from the New Zealand end and will explain what it means.

Labour weekend is traditionally the long weekend we rip into the garden. There are sales on, the sun (hopefully - whereever you are in the motu) is shining! It's a time for clearing out the weeds and new plantings... a time of new beginnings. The queen of green thumbs, Hannah Zwartz is here to help us make the right choices.