Afternoons

A tiny (extinct) bush wren and a cautionary tale as the Bird of the Year kicks off today. The Stead's bush wren is a symbol of how vulnerable our small ground dwelling birds are, and how crucial island biosecurity and predator control continue to be in NZ. The story of this wee wren helped shape our modern conservation practice and is a poignant reminder of what's at stake for our wildlife.

As most people will know, adopting a greyhound has been making a lot of news of late. Rachael Quin is once again a pet owner - Stevie our greyhound has been with her for 3 weeks Pets bring into the house quite a bit of dust and dander. And fleas and worms and mud and maybe critters too. Not to mention the hair!! The Housekeeper's Rachael Quin talks to Jesse about how to keep your home hygienic and...

Anisha Satya from Country Life joins Jesse to let us know about their show this weekend. Country Life is the RNZ show that puts the spotlight on rural New Zealand and shares the stories from rural New Zealanders. It's on air tonight at 7pm and again tomorrow morning at 7am and of course always on rnz.co.nz.

Olivia Galletly, also known as The Hungry Cook, joins Jesse to share a yummy sounding slice. With an abundance of lemons growing in gardens at this time of year, and this slice is a delicious way to use a few up. The almonds add a lovely rich, nutty flavour to the shortbread, which pairs fantastically with the zingy lemon top. It's great for school lunchboxes or alongside a cup of tea but add a do...

Afternoons critic Kate Rodger is with Jesse to share what she's been watching - Lomu (in cinemas) and Untold: Raygun Breaking Badly (Netflix)

This is your chance to share those stories that can't quite be explained. We're talking ghosts .. premonitions, the spooky .. the weird.

For some women, motherhood can be very different to what they expected. Many say that there is an expectation life will be fulfilled with the arrival of a new baby, but for a lot of mothers, the reality is very different. Ella Reed, sociologist at Monash University researches maternal regret. She says social media hasn't helped - and lots of content promotes woman as goddess types who can give and...

The imminent El Niño weather system could be the strongest in decades, the UN has warned today.   It's likely to mean drier, hotter and windier spring conditions for much of New Zealand. Conditions which our next guest says could result in a ripe time for tropical fruit growers. Aaron Millar owns Tallyman Bananas - a Banana and pineapple wholesaler - based in Northland. 

We're starting the show talking about cheating and technology, that's after a University of Auckland student has been caught wearing smart glasses in a test. The glasses feature a camera, and the ability to connect with the internet. For teachers and professors, this presents a whole new battleground in the war on cheating. Friend of the show and Associate Professor of Law at Victoria University D...

Wallace Chapman and Jesse Mulligan star in the shortest show on radio, where they show they really can make something out of nothing, join them to be part of their delight, or to simply despair. Wallace will also preview what's on The Panel tonight.

Afternoons' chance to discuss the political issues of the week. Comedian and commentator Tim Batt, Free Speech advocate and screenwriter Dane Giraud and political scientist Natalia Albert chat to Jesse.

Personal finance whizz Mary Holm talks to Jesse about how to pick great shares.

We have another episode of Crimes NZ... a segment where I chat with people connected with New Zealand's most talked about crimes. Now a head's up before you listen, this conversation deals with some serious and distressing issues. So please take care about who might be listening with you. And if anything in this episode brings something up for you, there is free, confidential support available fro...

We're not the first to look around us and think the world is a mess. Just look at what Odysseus had to contend with in The Odyssey ..based in the distant past sure, but many of his problems are actually a lot like ours today, which goes to show monsters and distractions have always been a problem. Author Ryan Holiday says stoicism could be the answer, that the ancient stoics believed we can't alwa...

What if faster and more regular earthquakes warnings also meant more false alarms? Lives would likely be saved, but just how many is too many warnings? Is natural hazard warning alert fatigue a real thing? These are some of the seismic questions Ben Kennedy, a Professor at the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Canterbury, and his team have been considering. He joins Jesse to dis...

At the end of September over 200 guinea pigs and their owners will descend on Taupo for the 2026 NZ National Guinea Pig Show. They'll be graded by an international judging panel flying in from England and the Czech Republic. Andy Lawrie, President of the New Zealand Cavy Council, who is also entering 21 of his own guinea pigs, joins Jesse to tell us more about the event.

While the showdown between the All Blacks and the Springboks has led to lots of great sporting moments .. it's also created a whole lot of chat about fly overs. Last weekend two jets flew over Cape Town's Stadium ahead of the match, and many thought they were way too low. Now South Africa's aviation regulator is analyzing black box data from the planes .. and the planned flyover for this weekend's...

We're starting today's show looking at a new apartment development in the Auckland suburb of Morningside. Nothing new about apartments in Auckland you might think .. but this will have 332 apartments and 78 carparks available for residents. So is this a step towards a car free city with strong, reliable public transport .. or a show of hubris by developers Simplicity Living? To find out, Simplicit...

Afternoons Group Chat is our chance to talk about the topics that might not be in the news but could be all over your chats and feeds. Joining Jesse in Auckland studio are Culture 101's Perlina Lau, Kate Rodger and Afternoons' senior producer Olivia Wilson.

Afternoons critic Bill Hastings joins Jesse to discuss what he's been reading - Radical Duke: How One Aristocrat-and the American Revolution-Transformed Britain by Danielle Allen, The Language-Lover's Lexipedia by Joshua Blackburn.

Wednesday means a chance to talk food here on Afternoons .. we call it Easy Eats .. and each week Kelly Gibney joins me to share a recipe. This week it's Mexican-inspired beef and black bean burgers. Click HERE for the recipe.

Time for our weekly travel feature, Heading Off, where we hear all about your travel tales. If you have a story that's worth telling, we'd love to hear from you - 2101 on text or Jesse@rnz.co.nz via email. Today we're joined by Peter Coldicott who sailed a small yacht across the notorious Drake Passage, which is nearly 1000 kilometre of open sea reknown for its rough conditions, to make it to Anta...

The biggest kakapo breeding season on record has come to an end which means it's time to find out how many chicks made it to the milestone of 150 days old - and whether the kakapo population has managed to increase to more than 300. Alison Ballance host of the podcast the Kakapo Files shares the latest.

Penrhyn - a remote atoll in the Cook Islands - is set to get a brand new deep sea port, thanks to a collaboration between us and the USA. The US State Department will put 84 million NZ Dollars into the development, another 17.5 million NZ dollars will come from New Zealand. The commitment was announced yesterday by Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown, Winston Peters and US Deputy Secretary of S...

A lot of the advice about sleep focuses on our "body clock", and making sure you get up at the same time every morning. But if you don't have kids' sport to get to, there is nothing better than a cheeky weekend lie in. And in good news, at a recent conference for the European Society of Cardiology, new research was presented that suggests a solid sleep-in could actually be beneficial. To offer her...