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A 24-hour recording of RNZ National. The following rundown is sourced from the broadcaster’s website. Note some overseas/copyright restricted items may not appear in the supplied rundown:
20 September 2016
===12:04 AM. | All Night Programme===
=DESCRIPTION=
Including: 12:05 Music after Midnight; 12:30 Tuesday Special (RNZ); 1:05 From the World (RNZ); 2:05 David Bowie - Part 4: Pin Ups (RNZ) 3:05 Classical Music by Joy Cowley read by Peta Rutter (14 of 15, RNZ); 3:30 An Author's View (RNZ); 5:10 Witness (BBC)
===6:00 AM. | Morning Report===
=DESCRIPTION=
RNZ's three-hour breakfast news show with news and interviews, bulletins on the hour and half-hour, including: 6:16 and 6:50 Business News 6:18 Pacific News 6:26 Rural News 6:48 and 7:45 NZ Newspapers
=AUDIO=
06:00
Top Stories for Tuesday 20 September 2016
BODY:
Manhattan bombing suspect arrested after shootout, Indian education fraudster given license as education agent, Nathan Guy responds to calls for fish dumping inquiry, New papers reveal lack of police to head off Tokoroa brawl, and John Key says Kermadec won't derail link with Maori Party.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 30'59"
06:06
Sports News for 20 September 2016
BODY:
An update from the team at RNZ Sport.
Topics: sport
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 1'54"
06:16
Lawyers warn closures fly in face of Maori tikanga
BODY:
Community Law Centres Aotearoa warns the decision to close six of the country's eight legal aid centres will deny Maori justice in the legal system and flies in the face of their tikanga.
Topics: law, te ao Maori
Regions:
Tags: legal aid
Duration: 2'54"
06:20
Early Business News for 20 September 2016
BODY:
A brief update of movements in the financial sector.
Topics: business, economy
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 2'35"
06:22
Morning Rural News for 20 September 2016
BODY:
News from the rural and farming sector.
Topics: rural, farming
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 4'36"
06:46
New Zealand aid worker on UN's response to refugee crisis
BODY:
NZ Red Cross worker Rosemarie North says the refugee summit needs to help those countries at the frontline of refugee arrivals. She speaks to us from aboard arescue vessel in the Mediteranean.
Topics: refugees and migrants
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 1'53"
06:50
Briscoes sees retail sector going through a challenging period
BODY:
The main listed retail stocks report their earnings this week and their results are expected to show a raft of challenges from cautious consumers, tough competition and seasonal factors such as the late starty to winter.
Topics: business, economy
Regions:
Tags: Briscoes
Duration: 1'43"
06:52
Synlait looking to build on bumper profit, lay basis for growth
BODY:
Dairy company Synlait is expecting a more modest year after its full-year profit tripled to record levels on the back of booming sales of infant formula.
Topics: business, economy
Regions:
Tags: Synlait
Duration: 1'51"
06:53
Households are being warned against getting too deep in debt
BODY:
Households are being warned against getting too deep in debt.
Topics: business, economy
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 1'06"
06:58
Morning Markets for 20 September 2016
BODY:
A brief update of movements in the financial sector.
Topics: business, economy
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 54"
07:06
Sports News for 20 September 2016
BODY:
An update from the team at RNZ Sport.
Topics: sport
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 2'04"
07:10
Manhattan bombing suspect arrested after shootout
BODY:
An Afghan immigrant suspected of setting off a bomb in Manhattan at the weekend is arrested after a shootout with police. Our New York correspondent Lorna Shaddick has the latest.
Topics: conflict
Regions:
Tags: Manhattan bomb
Duration: 7'19"
07:20
Indian education fraudster given license as education agent.
BODY:
An Indian education agent who was placed on fraud blacklist was still granted a license by immigration authorities. RNZ's Phil Pennington reports.
Topics: education
Regions:
Tags: fraud
Duration: 3'39"
07:24
Nathan Guy responds to calls for fish dumping inquiry
BODY:
Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy says fish dumping is an "issue" and there'll be a new focus on electronic monitoring of fishing boats. He says policies and regulations will probably need to be amended.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: fish dumping
Duration: 11'13"
07:39
New papers reveal lack of police to head off Tokoroa brawl
BODY:
It's been revealed police didn't have enough staff to send help to prevent a vicious brawl between members of rival gangs at the Tokoroa District Court in May.
Topics: life and society
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 4'36"
07:44
John Key says Kermadec won't derail link with Maori Party
BODY:
The Prime Minister John Key has again said there is zero chance the dispute over the Kermadec ocean santuary will bring instability to the government. But the Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox says that all depends on what John Key brings to the table.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: Kermadec ocean santuary
Duration: 3'33"
07:48
Kermadec sanctuary issue mishandled by Government- Little
BODY:
Labour leader Andrew Little says the Kermadec sanctuary issue has been totally mishandled by government.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: Kermadec Sanctuary
Duration: 6'09"
07:54
Mangere parents demand child sex offender be moved
BODY:
Mangere parents demand that a child sex offender be moved from their community.
Topics: crime
Regions:
Tags: Corrections, sex orfenders
Duration: 3'47"
08:06
Sports News for 20 September 2016
BODY:
An update from the team at RNZ Sport.
Topics: sport
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 2'29"
08:11
Fisher says ministry is soft on commercial operators.
BODY:
Recreational Fishing Council past president Keith Ingram says ministry is far too soft on commercial operators. He says Minister Nathan Guy is out of his depth.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: fish dumping
Duration: 5'11"
08:16
US academic says fish dumping puts NZ's reputation at risk
BODY:
An American academic who studied fishing dumping in New Zealand says it's widespread and could jeopardise the country's reputation.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: fish dumping
Duration: 2'30"
08:19
Teachers demand explanation from NZQA on hard math exam
BODY:
A Wellington school's head of Maths says tough exam could affect future course choices for students.
Topics: education
Regions:
Tags: maths, education
Duration: 5'20"
08:25
Kermadec controversy continues - which law counts most?
BODY:
Legal expert says Parliament has the power to pass a law establishing a Kermadecs marine sanctuary, even though that would mean breaching treaty rights.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: Kermadecs marine sanctuary
Duration: 4'38"
08:29
Markets Update for 20 September 2016
BODY:
A brief update of movements in the financial sector.
Topics: business, economy
Regions:
Tags: markets
Duration: 59"
08:35
A Gulf Trade deal could be done by next year - Key
BODY:
Our political editor Jane Patterson, in New York, where Prime Minister John Key is upbeat about progress on the deal with the Gulf states, and the TPP.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: Gulf Trade deal
Duration: 2'38"
08:37
Writers says US airstrike in Syria may have been deliberate
BODY:
A US journalist and author believes the US led airstrike which killed more than 60 Syrian soldiers during a fragile ceasefire may have been intentional.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: Syria
Duration: 4'18"
08:40
Boy's mother angry only his death in care forced change
BODY:
The mother of a teenager who died at a respite care centre is angry she had to lose her son before changes to unsafe practices were made.
Topics: life and society
Regions:
Tags: care
Duration: 4'05"
08:49
Tourism? Rubbish? IT? New ideas for West Coast's growth
BODY:
An independent study into how the West Coast can grow its economy is being released this morning in Hokitika. Our reporter Maja Burry is on the West Coast and has been talking to locals about what they think the region needs.
Topics: economy
Regions: West Coast
Tags: tourism, economic development
Duration: 3'30"
08:53
Local body competition gets raucous in Wellington
BODY:
Local body competition gets wet and wild in Wellington. The annual Aro Valley meet the candidates meeting is as lively as ever.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: Local Body Elections
Duration: 3'39"
08:56
Waikato welcomes dogs in to libraries to help readers improve
BODY:
The Waikato District Council has unleashed its new programme "Dogs in Libraries". The idea is that having dogs in libraries allows children to practise reading aloud to a friendly, non-judgmental audience, and proceed at their own pace
Topics: education
Regions: Waikato
Tags: Dogs in Libraries
Duration: 2'44"
=SHOW NOTES=
===9:06 AM. | Nine To Noon===
=DESCRIPTION=
Current affairs and topics of interest, including: 10:45 The Reading: Going Up is Easy by Lydia Bradey, with Laurence Fearnley. A life lived on the edge - quite literally. The riveting account of the controversial first ascent of Everest without supplementary oxygen by NZ mountaineer Lydia Bradey. (Part 7 of 10, RNZ)
=AUDIO=
09:09
NZ hip claimants seek chance to sue Johnson & Johnson
BODY:
New Zealand recipients of faulty hip implants are asking the High Court for permission to sue the manufacturer - the multinational giant Johnson and Johnson's subsidiary DePuy. The metal-on-metal devices were implanted into about 500 New Zealanders before a global recall in 2010. Under ACC's "no fault" system, claimants are prevented from suing the manufacturer, however the group of patients are asking the High Court for the green light to seek exemplary, or punitive damages, for personal injury. Kathryn Ryan speaks to one of the claimants, Auckland lawyer, James Elliot, and Wellington lawyer Liesle Theron partner with Meredith Connell, ahead of the hearing tomorrow.
EXTENDED BODY:
About 40 patients who received faulty hip implants will go to court tomorrow to seek better compensation for pain and suffering.
The High Court hearing in Wellington concerns a device implanted in about 400 New Zealanders between 2004 and 2010.
The ASR device, made by Johnson & Johnson subsidiary DePuy, was the subject of an international recall in 2010.
One of the claimants, New Zealand lawyer James Elliot, told Nine to Noon many patients suffered from pain, permanent disability, the inability to work and potential metal poisoning.
"What is known is that the two primary constituents of the metal which is involved, which is chromium and cobalt, which are released into the body on a microscopic level and sometimes even greater particles than that, have carcinogenic risks, have long-term organ risks."
Mr Elliot said lives had been ruined and global class action has been the result - in the UK, the US, Ireland, Canada and Australia.
As well, he said, the device maker has relied on medical specialists to tell patients about the recall, and he believed there would be patients with the device implanted who still did not know it may be faulty.
"We don't know that every patient who received one of these devices still, to this day, five or six years on, has been made aware of the fact that they received one of these devices and that they've been recalled. It's entirely possible that there are some patients out there who are suffering and who still don't know the reason why."
In this country DePuy has paid for revision surgery and some other costs but has refused to meet major losses by patients, he said.
Under ACC, those who got the implants may seek exemplary or punitive damages but not compensatory damages - and a lawyer acting for the New Zealand patients, Liesel Theron, said that was unfair.
"Just the fact that they happened to be in New Zealand and got it here, to them it seems very unfair that that should make the difference between being fully compensated for the damage that's been caused to them, or not."
She said the hearing tomorrow and Thursday would seek compensatory and exemplary (punitive) damages. It would also seek a declaration that Accident Compensation legislation did not prevent people in this country seeking compensation from overseas companies whose faulty products caused personal injury.
Ms Theron said overseas companies, including Johnson & Johnson, did not contribute to the ACC scheme. If New Zealanders were prevented from holding such companies accountable in negligence or under the Consumer Guarantees Act, the companies were obtaining a windfall at New Zealanders' expense.
Some New Zealand patients have earlier tried to join class action in Britain, but that attempt was unsuccessful.
Australian patients received a $A250m settlement in March after a 17-week trial.
Topics: health, law
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 20'46"
09:32
Can the public have confidence in the fishing industry ?
BODY:
What now for the fisheries sector following the critical independent report by Michael Heron QC. Nine to Noon discusses with Glen Simmons from the Auckland University School of Business whose work instigated it.
Topics: politics, environment
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 17'15"
09:49
US correspondent Steve Almond
BODY:
Steve Almond has more on the gap in the polls closing between the two presidential candidates and the latest on the three attacks in one day across the country.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: USA, United States
Duration: 10'33"
10:11
Neuroscientist Alex Korb on reversing depression
BODY:
Kathryn Ryan speaks to Alex Korb, a neuroscientist at the University of California about his book The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at at Time. The book unpicks the inner workings of the brain and its chemistry. His own experiences of depression and of others led him to focus his studies on finding out more about its progression. A central theme of the book is that there is no difference between the brains of those who suffer depression from anyone else and how the thinking and feeling circuits can be reprogrammed.
EXTENDED BODY:
Often we hear about a “downward spiral into depression”, but a new book examines how to train the brain to do the reverse.
In his new book The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time, Alex Korb unpicks the inner workings of the brain and its chemistry.
There is no difference between the brains of those who suffer depression or from anyone else and how the thinking and feeling circuits can be reprogrammed, he says.
It was his own experience with depression that led Dr Korb to focus his studies on finding out more about its progression.
Depression is “an issue with the thinking and the feeling circuits getting out of whack and miscommunicating,” he says.
“Normal sadness is very different from depression, because depression includes a lot more than simple sadness. People who are depressed don’t always feel sad, they feel a sense of emptiness where a feeling should be.”
Depression stems from a problem with the chemistry in the frontal lobe of the brain, he says. One of its main functions is to regulate the emotional limbic system.
“You can’t necessarily control your automatic reaction to something, but your pre-frontal cortex should be able to rationalise and understand its context and help calm you down or cheer you up, or anything to regulate the random emotional activity in the limbic system.
“Something in depression is disrupted about that communication, such that there's a loss of an ability to regulate those emotions.”
There are dozens of interventions that can have a positive impact on the mental state, Dr Korb says.
“The key is to just start really small, and that is just one aspect of the upward spiral. Because the brain is a complex dynamic system with all of these feedback loops, all of these small changes can have large effects.”
A few of the changes he suggests are exposing yourself to sunlight, looking for more things to be grateful for, doing more exercise, spending more time with friends and noticing negative thoughts.
“If you can just notice it once you're starting that downward spiral you can enact some of these life changes that will set you on a different course.
“Even just recognising your negative emotions can reduce their impact. You can say, I am feeling a little bit down today, or I am feeling anxious. Those thoughts trigger the pre-frontal cortex and can actually help reduce the negative activation in the amygdala and limbic region.”
Topics: science, author interview
Regions:
Tags: depression, brain, plasticity, neuroscience, Alex Korb
Duration: 31'29"
10:42
Book review - American Rhapsody
BODY:
American Rhapsody: Writers, Musicians, Movie stars and one Great Building by Claudia Roth Pierpont. Reviewed by Quentin Johnson, Published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
Topics: books
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 4'36"
11:07
Business commentator Rod Oram
BODY:
Business Commentator, Rod Oram looking ahed to Fonterra's result on Thursday, and a legal challenge to the Electricity Authority on its proposed changes to the way electricity transmission charges are calculated.
Topics: business, economy
Regions:
Tags: Rod Oram
Duration: 13'15"
11:24
Colin McCahon expert Thomas Crow
BODY:
This month's record-breaking sale of the Colin McCahon painting The Canoe Tainui for $1.35 million dollars is a reminder of what an important artist McCahon was. Kathryn Ryan speaks to Thomas Crow from New York's Institute of Fine Arts has long rated McCahon, saying in a 2005 essay in ArtForum, that his work stands amongst those of other post-war modernists like Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and Barnett Newman.
EXTENDED BODY:
This month's record-breaking sale of the Colin McCahon painting The Canoe Tainui for $1.35 million is a reminder of what an important artist McCahon is.
Thomas Crow from New York's Institute of Fine Arts has long rated McCahon, saying in a 2005 essay in ArtForum that his work stands among those of other post-war modernists like Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and Barnett Newman.
Professor Crow is in Wellington as the guest of City Gallery which has supporting works by McCahon in an exhibition of art by an unsung figure of the Pop Art movement, the American nun Sister Corita Kent who - like McCahon- used text and graphics in her art.
Prof Crow says he first discovered the work of Colin McCahon in the late 1990s on a visit to New Zealand for an art history lecture.
“When I saw McCahon’s work for the first time it was just unmistakably great, it’s so important to see the work in person to understand how great it is as art. At that point I was completely hooked.”
He says McCahon’s paintings: “possess an immediate power that nothing prepares you for until you see them in person.”
Sister Corita Kent was born about the same time as McCahon. She was an American Catholic nun, artist and educator who lived and worked in Los Angeles and Boston.
She worked almost exclusively with silkscreen, or serigraphy, helping to establish it as a fine art medium.
Her artwork, with its messages of love and peace, was particularly popular during the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s.
In recent years Kent has gained increased recognition for her role in the Pop Art movement.
Professor Thomas Crow He will talking about the work of Sister Corita Kent and Colin McCahon at City Gallery’s Sister Corita's Summer of Love exhibition.
Topics: arts
Regions:
Tags: Colin McCahon, Thomas Crow, Sister Corita Kent
Duration: 16'39"
11:44
Media commentator Gavin Ellis
BODY:
Today Gavin Ellis will look at the new TV One breakfast show which launched yesterday as well as the extraordinary response to a series in Stuff on growing up hating New Zealand. He's also looking to the U.S where trust in the media has reached an all-time low in the United States.
Topics: media
Regions:
Tags: Gavin Ellis
Duration: 15'02"
=SHOW NOTES=
09:05 NZ hip claimants seek chance to sue Johnson & Johnson
[image:82341:full]
New Zealand recipients of faulty hip implants are asking the High Court for permission to sue the manufacturer - the multinational giant Johnson and Johnson's subsidiary DePuy. The metal-on-metal devices were implanted into about 500 New Zealanders before a global recall in 2010. Under ACC's "no fault" system, claimants are prevented from suing the manufacturer, however the group of patients are asking the High Court for the green light to seek exemplary, or punitive damages, for personal injury. Kathryn Ryan speaks to one of the claimants, Auckland lawyer, James Elliot, and Wellington lawyer Liesle Theron partner with Meredith Connell, ahead of the hearing tomorrow.
09:20 Can the public have confidence in the fishing industry ?
[image:68468:half] no metadata
What now for the fisheries sector following the critical independent report by Michael Heron QC. Nine to Noon discusses with Glen Simmons from the Auckland University School of Business whose work instigated it.
09:45 US correspondent Steve Almond
Steve Almond has more on the gap in the polls closing between the two presidential candidates and the latest on the three attacks in one day across the country.
10:05 Neuroscientist Alex Korb on reversing depression
[image:64881:full]
Kathryn Ryan speaks to Alex Korb, a neuroscientist at the University of California about his book The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at at Time. The book unpicks the inner workings of the brain and its chemistry. His own experiences of depression and of others led him to focus his studies on finding out more about its progression. A central theme of the book is that there is no difference between the brains of those who suffer depression from anyone else and how the thinking and feeling circuits can be reprogrammed.
10:35 Book review - American Rhapsody: Writers, Musicians, Movie stars and one Great Building by Claudia Roth Pierpont
Reviewed by Quentin Johnson, Published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
10:45 The Reading
11:05 Business commentator Rod Oram
Business Commentator, Rod Oram looking ahed to Fonterra's result on Thursday, and a legal challenge to the Electricity Authority on its proposed changes to the way electricity transmission charges are calculated
11:20 Colin McCahon expert Thomas Crow
[image:82308:full]
This month's record-breaking sale of the Colin McCahon painting The Canoe Tainui for $1.35 million dollars is a reminder of what an important artist McCahon was. Kathryn Ryan speaks to Thomas Crow from New York's Institute of Fine Arts has long rated McCahon, saying in a 2005 essay in ArtForum, that his work stands amongst those of other post-war modernists like Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and Barnett Newman.
11:45 Media commentator Gavin Ellis
Today Gavin Ellis will look at the new TV One breakfast show which launched yesterday as well as the extraordinary response to a series in Stuff on growing up hating New Zealand. He's also looking to the U.S where trust in the media has reached an all-time low in the United States.
===Noon | Midday Report===
=DESCRIPTION=
RNZ news, followed by updates and reports until 1.00pm, including: 12:16 Business News 12:26 Sport 12:34 Rural News 12:43 Worldwatch
=AUDIO=
12:00
Midday News for 20 September 2016
BODY:
John Key warns the US to ratify the TPP or face the consequences. Patients who received faulty hip implants want compensation.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 15'38"
12:17
Arvida buying three villages for $66 mln
BODY:
Aged-care company Arvida is to buy three established retirement villages as it looks for growth in earnings.
Topics: business
Regions:
Tags: Arvida
Duration: 1'04"
12:18
Strong demand for office space drives rent and construction
BODY:
Strong demand for office space has sparked a boom in construction, while rents are also on the rise.
Topics: business
Regions:
Tags: rents, office space
Duration: 1'21"
12:19
Minister says interchange fee cap might be considered
BODY:
The Commerce Minister says the government may look at putting a cap on fees charged by credit card companies.
Topics: business
Regions:
Tags: credit card fees
Duration: 57"
12:20
Insurance industry in Australia faces a new threat
BODY:
Authorities in Australia are reflecting the advice from consumer groups in New Zealand, when questioning the value of add-on insurance policies.
Topics: business
Regions:
Tags: Australia, insurance
Duration: 1'05"
12:23
Midday Markets for 20 September 2016
BODY:
For the latest from the markets we're joined by Don Lewthwaite at First NZ Capital.
Topics: business, economy
Regions:
Tags: markets
Duration: 2'24"
12:25
Business briefs
BODY:
The workforce software company, GeoOp, will get a capital injection from a major shareholder as part of a plan to increase working capital and reduce debt.
Topics: business
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 52"
12:26
Midday Sports News for 20 September 2016
BODY:
The Hurricanes will open their Super Rugby title defence in Tokyo next year with a round one clash on February 25th against Japan's Sunwolves, who finished bottom of the standings last season.
Topics: sport
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 2'36"
12:35
Midday Rural News for 20 September 2016
BODY:
News from the rural and farming sectors.
Topics: rural, farming
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 8'37"
=SHOW NOTES=
===1:06 PM. | Jesse Mulligan, 1–4pm===
=DESCRIPTION=
An upbeat mix of the curious and the compelling, ranging from the stories of the day to the great questions of our time (RNZ)
=AUDIO=
13:12
First female commander of the NZ Army
BODY:
Colonel Karyn Marie Thompson is today, making history. An official ceremony is underway in Waiouru, at the army Marae, where Col Thompson is becoming the new Commander of the camp.
EXTENDED BODY:
Colonel Karyn Marie Thompson is today, making history. An official ceremony is underway in Waiouru, at the army Marae, where Col Thompson is becoming the new Commander of the camp.
Topics: defence force
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 8'25"
13:22
Spotting bad science
BODY:
Dr. Ben Goldacre is a British science communicator, academic, researcher, rationalism advocate, physician and journalist. His mission is to warn people of the dangers implicit in the modern trend of spreading scientific misinformation, and help people recognise whether what we are being told is true.
EXTENDED BODY:
British scientist Ben Goldacre is on a mission to help people sort quackery from evidence based information.
We are bombarded with health claims. Some foods are good, others bad, the latest super food will protect us from cancer - something else will give us cancer.
So how do we know what to believe?
Goldacre, an academic, researcher, rationalism advocate, physician and journalist, has been beating the bad science drum since his column in The Guardian first gained attention in 2003.
He's about to visit New Zealand to hold a lecture at the Mercury Theatre in Auckland.
So has bad science got better or worse since the internet emerged?
“What’s really interesting about [the internet] is people are able to talk back when the media misrepresents a scientific study.
“Nerds like me, and the vast army of nerds around the world, have been able to debunk bad science.”
And he says there’s plenty of good science available out there; if you’re willing to look.
“I feel really positive about the future in a way I didn’t use to. Although the mainstream media continues to be infested with obvious quacks.”
A lot of his work now concerns how people misrepresent science and why people misrepresent science – what are the cultural drivers of why people want something to be true?
“A lot of it is people wanting quick fixes, permission to have transgressed in the past. Because the basics of a healthy lifestyle have not changed for three of four decades: eat lots of fresh fruit and veg, don’t smoke, don’t drink too much, get some exercise and don’t be fat.”
He’s also a passionate campaigner to ensure credible scientific research is in the public domain – something that is not the case now.
“There’s this global problem that we’ve been campaigning on through the AllTrials.net site where people who have conducted and completed clinical trials are still routinely and legally withholding the results of those trials from doctors researchers and patients.”
Goldacre says this is a global scandal that has been going on for thirty years.
“This may seem technical and boring, but it’s a cancer at the core of our efforts to practise evidence based medicine.”
So why does this matter? He says it’s because unflattering results in a randomised controlled trial for a medicine, therapy or surgery are twice as likely not to be published.
“What we see as doctors and academics is a biased half of the research that’s been conducted.
“There is this terrible, terrible problem and it reflects a kind of strange cultural blind spot in the academic community.”
And he sees in some ways the prevalence of quackery as a response to this.
“When I see people promoting quackery, pushing anti-vaccination conspiracy theories, obviously on the details these people are wrong but I see those kinds of panics, if you like, as almost a poetic response.
“People know that there’s something not quite right in the world of evidence based medicine.”
The credibility of medicine will only improve, he says, if science gets its own house in order.
Ben Goldacre appears at the Mercury Theatre, Auckland Saturday 24 September.
Topics: science
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 13'28"
13:36
Dan Slevin on Field of Dreams
BODY:
Every year RNZ's film guy, Dan Slevin, rewatches Field Of Dreams. And every time he finds something new. Field of Dreams is a 1989 American film directed by Phil Alden Robinson, who also wrote the screenplay, adapting W. P. Kinsella's novel.
EXTENDED BODY:
Every year RNZ's film guy, Dan Slevin, rewatches Field Of Dreams. And every time he finds something new.
Field of Dreams is a 1989 American film directed by Phil Alden Robinson, who also wrote the screenplay, adapting W. P. Kinsella's novel.
Topics: movies
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 9'26"
13:45
Favourite album
BODY:
Whole of the Moon - Waterboys, chosen by Tim Watkin.
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 13'55"
14:08
Book Critic - Pip Adam
BODY:
Short Fiction.
Topics: books
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 8'02"
14:16
Would you buy a dead cat handbag?
BODY:
A Christchurch taxidermist has created handbags out of dead cats. We ask her why.
EXTENDED BODY:
A Christchurch taxidermist has created handbags out of dead cats and is selling it on Trade Me.
The sellers are hoping will attract a minimum bidding reserve of fourteen hundred dollars.
It's listed as a 'REAL Glamour puss PURSE'... And indeed, it's a handbag, made from the pelt and head of a real cat.
Christchurch taxidermist, Claire Third, is behind the work.
She is also trying to sell a Unicorn on Trade Me, that she created out of different animals.
Topics: business
Regions:
Tags: taxidermy
Duration: 7'51"
14:24
Reading to dogs in libraries
BODY:
Waikato Libraries have launched a unique new programme to encourage kids to practice their reading skills - by reading out loud to dogs in the library.
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Waikato Libraries have launched a unique new programme to encourage kids to practice their reading skills - by reading out loud to dogs in the library.
It’s called Dogs in Libraries, where people can practise their reading skills by reading aloud to a dog and the council says it will help with people’s reading ability and self-confidence.
Megan May is the Waikato District Council animal control team leader and has developed the programme.
Reading to dogs helps people – young children especially – to build their self-confidence, she says.
“The benefits to them is building their confidence with their reading, building their confidence around dogs, and encouraging the kids to come into the library interacting with the staff.”
The programme has launched in Ngaruawahia with three rescue dogs that have been temperament tested by an animal behaviourist.
It is targeted at children and new immigrants who want to develop their reading skills. Students at lower decile schools are a particular focus for the team.
“Some of the issues that stop them from advancing is they are fearful of other kids laughing at them, or people correcting them because they’re not reading the words well. The pressures can be quite high on them. The fear of being judged or being told that they’re wrong can be enough to stop them from trying to advance.
“So by reading to a dog… the dog is never going to correct them, the dog is never going to laugh at them, so hopefully they can progress further faster.”
Each child who reads to a dog is given a personalised bookmark with a photo of the dog they read to.
Topics: education
Regions: Waikato
Tags: Dogs in Libraries
Duration: 6'49"
14:32
Great New Zealand Album: Tears - The Crocodiles
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At the 1980 New Zealand Music Awards, the Song of The Year, Best New Group and Best Album awards were all taken by one band; The Crocodiles, a Wellington-based super group formed from a number of other high profile acts from around the capital.
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Essentially a progression from groups The Spats and Blerta and all-female band The Wide Mouthed Frogs, The Crocodiles were somewhat of a Wellington super group. Forming in 1979 The Crocs headed directly into the recording studio to make their first album Tears, which was released in April 1980.
Guitarist and vocalist Fane Flaws recalls the experience in conversation with Jesse Mulligan.
At the time the band comprised of six players, Peter Dasent on Keyboards, Tony Backhouse on Guitar, Bruno Lawrence - Drums, Tina Mathews - bass and lead singer Jenny Morris, as well as Flaws.
At the 1980 New Zealand Music Awards the The Crocodiles took out the 'Top Group' and 'Most Promising Group' awards. The album, and its lead single 'Tears' both peaked at #17 on the NZ charts, but time has proven them to be kiwi pop classics.
The Crocodiles recorded a second album, Looking at Ourselves which was released in November 1980, before the band broke up for good.
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: The Crocodiles
Duration: 28'02"
15:08
A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived
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Each of us carries an epic poem in our cells. DNA tells the story of our murky origins, shaped by evolution, to our current obsession with tracing our ancestry.
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Every single person on the planet who has ever lived, or will ever live has something completely unique that can never be naturally repeated - our DNA.
That nucleic acid has the genetic information needed to make all living things. But it's not the whole story, not even close according to former geneticist, now host of the BBC’s Inside Science.
Adam Rutherford says the human genome should not be read as instruction manuals, but as epic poems.
His new book A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived separates the myths about what DNA can and can't tell us about ourselves, where we came from and where the human race is going.
He uses a metaphor to help people get their head around what DNA is – that of sheet music and an orchestra.
“More often than not people have referred to DNA as a blueprint or an instruction manual.
“Sometimes that can be quite misleading because if something’s a blueprint it implies that all the plans are laid out and it has this association with biological determinism – what your genes are is what you will be.”
And he says we now know that’s not true.
“The sheet music for a piece of music is the same whether you buy it in 1906 or 2006 but the interpretation of that is down to the conductor and the orchestra and all of the annotations, the layering and the performance.
“This feels like a better way of describing nature and nurture which results in the symphony which is us.”
As to forking out hard earned money to find out your ancestry, through DNA profiling don’t bother, he says.
“We now know about ancestry that we’re all incredibly inbred, the last common ancestor of all Europeans was only about four or five hundred years ago.
"If you pay them to tell you your ancestors were vikings, it's true, but only because everyone is. The truth is all of us have ancestors who were vikings and Jews and Indians."
Topics: author interview
Regions:
Tags: Adam Rutherford
Duration: 24'45"
15:47
One Quick Question for 20 September 2016
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We find the answers to any queries you can think up.
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Today's questions are about boarded up state houses, and why pensions get stopped if you are out of the country for more than 6 months.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 4'07"
15:51
The Panel pre-show for 20 September 2016
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Your feedback, and a preview of the guests and topics on The Panel.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 9'01"
=SHOW NOTES=
1:10 First song
1:15 First female commander of the NZ Army
Colonel Karyn Marie Thompson is today, making history. An official ceremony is underway in Waiouru, at the army Marae, where Col Thompson is becoming the new Commander of the camp.
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1:25 Spotting bad science
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Dr. Ben Goldacre is a British science communicator, academic, researcher, rationalism advocate, physician and journalist. His mission is to warn people of the dangers implicit in the modern trend of spreading scientific misinformation, and help people recognise whether what we are being told is true.
1:35 Dan Slevin on Field of Dreams
Every year RNZ's film guy, Dan Slevin, rewatches Field Of Dreams. And every time he finds something new.
Field of Dreams is a 1989 American film directed by Phil Alden Robinson, who also wrote the screenplay, adapting W. P. Kinsella's novel.
[image:82454:full]
1:40 Favourite album: Whole of the Moon - the Music of the Waterboys and Mike Scott
2:05 Dead cat handbags
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A Christchurch taxidermist has created handbags out of dead cats.
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The sellers are hoping will attract a minimum bidding reserve of fourteen hundred dollars.
It's listed as a 'REAL Glamour puss PURSE'... And indeed, it's a handbag, made from the pelt and head of a real cat.
Christchurch taxidermist, Claire Third, is behind the work. She is also trying to sell a Unicorn on Trade Me, made up of different animals.
2:10 Dogs in Libraries
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Waikato Libraries have launched a unique new programme to encourage kids to practice their reading skills - by reading out loud to dogs in the library.
2:20 Book Critic - Pip Adam
2:30 Great New Zealand Album: Tears - The Crocodiles
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3:10 A Brief History of Everyone who Ever Lived
Each of us carries an epic poem in our cells. DNA tells the story of our murky origins, shaped by evolution, to our current obsession with tracing our ancestry. Dr. Adam Rutherford is a science writer and the presenter of BBC Radio 4's flagship science programme, Inside Science. His new book, A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Stories in Our Genes looks at how the mapping of our genome is changing our view of our identity, our history and our future.
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3:30 Our Changing World: How is the air up there?
3:45 The Panel Pre-Show
=PLAYLIST=
JESSE MULLIGAN AFTERNOONS:
1pm - 4pm
Tuesday 20th September 2016
JESSE'S SONG:
ARTIST: Norah Jones
TITLE: Carry On
COMP: Norah Jones, Peter Remm
ALBUM: Day Breaks
LABEL: Blue Note
FAVOURITE ALBUM:
ARTIST: The Waterboys
TITLE: Fisherman's Blues
COMP: Mike Scott, Stephen Patrick Wickham
ALBUM: Whole of the Moon: The Music of the Waterboys & Mike Scott
LABEL: Mercury
ARTIST: The Waterboys
TITLE: Rare, Precious And Gone
COMP: Mike Scott
ALBUM: Whole of the Moon: The Music of the Waterboys & Mike Scott
LABEL: Mercury
ARTIST: The Waterboys
TITLE: When Ye Go Away
COMP: Mike Scott
ALBUM: Whole of the Moon: The Music of the Waterboys & Mike Scott
LABEL: Mercury
THE GREAT NEW ZEALAND ALBUM:
ARTIST: The Crocodiles
TITLE: Tears
COMP: Arthur Baysting, Fane Flaws
ALBUM: Tears
LABEL: RCA Victor
ARTIST: The Crocodiles
TITLE: New Wave Goodbye
COMP: Arthur Baysting, Fane Flaws
ALBUM: Tears
LABEL: RCA Victor
ARTIST: The Crocodiles
TITLE: Any Day of The Week
COMP: Arthur Baysting, Peter Dasent
ALBUM: Tears
LABEL: RCA Victor
THE PANEL:
ARTIST: Bobbie & Laurie
TITLE: Hitch Hiker
COMP: Roger Miller
ALBUM: Hitch Hiker
LABEL: Parlophone
===4:06 PM. | The Panel===
=DESCRIPTION=
An hour of discussion featuring a range of panellists from right along the opinion spectrum (RNZ)
=AUDIO=
15:47
One Quick Question for 20 September 2016
BODY:
We find the answers to any queries you can think up.
EXTENDED BODY:
Today's questions are about boarded up state houses, and why pensions get stopped if you are out of the country for more than 6 months.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 4'07"
15:51
The Panel pre-show for 20 September 2016
BODY:
Your feedback, and a preview of the guests and topics on The Panel.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 9'01"
16:03
The Panel with Wendyl Nissen and Stephen Franks (Part 1)
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Immigration consultant David Cooper discusses why scientist Silke Larsen failed to get residency. Why was racist language allowed to remain in reality TV show the Real Housewives of Auckland? Police were too busy to prevent the brawl that shook the walls of the Tokoroa courthouse. Stephen Franks gives an insiders guide to the threshold to get into Parliament. A US celebrity author says she's never met a woman who's fulfilled after giving up her career.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 25'36"
16:05
The Panel with Wendyl Nissen and Stephen Franks (Part 2)
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A French tourist experienced road rage of a different kind after not being able to get a lift on the West Coast. What the Panelists Wendyl Nissen and Stephen Franks want to talk about. Lawyer Michael Bott on the leak of details of a private Marlborough Council committee meeting.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 24'28"
16:07
Scientist deported
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Immigration consultant David Cooper discusses why scientist Silke Larsen failed to get residency.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 7'52"
16:15
Racist language could have been edited
BODY:
Why was racist language allowed to remain in reality TV show the Real Housewives of Auckland?
Topics: media
Regions:
Tags: television, Real Housewives
Duration: 3'00"
16:18
Police too busy for court brawl
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Police were too busy to prevent the brawl that shook the walls of the Tokoroa courthouse.
Topics: crime, law
Regions: Waikato
Tags:
Duration: 7'45"
16:26
Theshold to get into Parliament
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Stephen Franks gives an insiders guide to the threshold to get into Parliament.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 2'16"
16:28
Women - don't give up your career
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A US celebrity author says she's never met a woman who's fulfilled after giving up her career.
Topics: politics
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Tags:
Duration: 3'48"
16:32
Is hitch-hiking a thing of the past?
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A French tourist experienced road rage of a different kind after not being able to get a lift on the West Coast. We also speak to a Japanese Hitch-hiker who had all his belongings stolen by the person who have him a lift.
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A French hitchhiker who it seems spent four days trying to get a lift out of Punakaiki without success ended up getting a lift from police, in handcuffs, after allegedly venting his fury on local roads signs e police after the man apparently took his frustration out on road signs, throwing one of them into the Punakaiki River.
Hitch-hiking has declined around the world. "There is no 'safe' place to hitchhike anywhere in the world" anymore, says Tom Mercer of Let's Go Publications, but evidently in Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina and China people still do it.
One Japanese man, Mamo Takaishi was hitch-hiking in Kawakawa, when the person who had picked him up, drove off with all his stuff while he was having a toilet break.
Topics:
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Tags: Hitchhiking
Duration: 8'01"
16:42
Panel Says
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What the Panelists Wendyl Nissen and Stephen Franks want to talk about.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 6'25"
16:49
Leaks from Marlborough Council
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Lawyer Michael Bott on the leak of details of a private Marlborough Council committee meeting.
Topics: politics
Regions: Marlborough
Tags: leaks
Duration: 8'39"
=SHOW NOTES=
===5:00 PM. | Checkpoint===
=DESCRIPTION=
RNZ's weekday drive-time news and current affairs programme
=AUDIO=
17:00
Checkpoint with John Campbell, Tuesday 20th September 2016
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Watch Tuesday's full programme here.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 00"
17:08
Carjacking victim's family relieved about arrest
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The family of 65-year-old Nancy Voon, who was brutally attacked during a car jacking last week, is relieved to hear that a 17 year old has been arrested in relation to the attack.
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A woman who was beaten and had her car stolen in a Panmure parking lot says she's still tired and dizzy but is recovering.
Nancy Voon, 65, had just arrived at the YMCA in Panmure last Wednesday when two young women dragged her from her car, attacked her and then took off in the vehicle.
Ms Voon suffered concussion and a broken nose and spent four days in hospital.
Police today arrested and charged a 17-year-old woman with aggravated robbery, theft and unlawfully taking a motor-vehicle.
Ms Voon told Checkpoint with John Campbell she was grateful for her community, her church, her friends and her family for all the support they have shown over the last week.
She was getting better, she said.
"I just feel tired, a bit of dizziness, but still OK."
Ms Voon's son, Chee Yen Phua, said his mother was relieved that someone had been arrested over the attack.
The 17-year-old was due to appear in the Auckland District Court this afternoon.
Police said two other suspects, both under the age of 17, had been identified. They were in Child Youth and Family custody on an unrelated matter and police would be speaking with them.
Related
Topics: crime
Regions: Auckland Region
Tags: Nancy Voon, car jacking
Duration: 5'47"
17:16
PM warns US could lose clout in Asia-Pacific if it doesn't ratify TPP
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Prime Minister John Key is warning the United States could lose some of its political power in the Asia Pacific if it does not ratify the Trans Pacific Partnership. Jane Patterson reports.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: TPP, US, John Key
Duration: 2'40"
17:21
Immigration advisor given licence despite track record
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An Indian immigration advisor was granted a license by the New Zealand Immigration Advisers Authority, despite having been named as a document fraudster. The authority's registrar Catherine Albiston joins Checkpoint.
Topics: refugees and migrants, crime
Regions:
Tags: immigration advisor, fraud, Immigration Advisers Authority
Duration: 6'09"
17:27
Colin Craig's wife gives evidence in defamation trial
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Colin Craig's wife has told a court how her husband's former press secretary phoned her and confessed to an emotional relationship with the former Conservative Party leader.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: Colin Craig, Rachel MacGregor
Duration: 4'58"
17:35
Evening Business News for 20 Sept 2016
BODY:
News from the business sector, including a market report.
Topics: business, economy
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 2'37"
17:38
Deputy PM to take over Kermadec negotiations from Nick Smith
BODY:
The Deputy Prime Minister has taken over negotiations with the Maori Party and Te Ohu Kaimoana over the proposed Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary.
Topics: politics, environment
Regions:
Tags: Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary, Maori Party
Duration: 3'13"
17:42
Australian family involved in fatal Huntly crash
BODY:
The man who died alongside his two stepsons in a car crash in Huntly yesterday has been named by Australian media as 54 year old Stephen Philips.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags: Huntly, motor accident
Duration: 1'32"
17:43
Teachers urged to take some responsibility for maths exam
BODY:
Teachers are being urged to take some responsibility for a maths exam that's come under fire for being too hard and damaging students' self esteem.
Topics: education
Regions:
Tags: NCEA, maths exam
Duration: 3'04"
17:46
Mathematics professor answers controversial maths question
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Sylvain Cappell is a Silver Professor of Mathematics at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. Checkpoint asked him to solve a maths question which caught out year 11 students - and teachers.
Topics: education
Regions:
Tags: Sylvain Cappell, maths exam, NCEA
Duration: 2'45"
17:51
Hamilton mayoral candidate mistranslates message into Te Reo
BODY:
A Hamilton mayoral candidate has come under fire for being disrespectful to Maori and the Maori language, after using Google to translate his biograhy into Te Reo. James Casson tells Checkpoint he meant no harm.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: James Casson, te reo Maori
Duration: 4'42"
17:56
US maths professor Sylvain Cappell works on maths question
BODY:
If Ranee gave Hone $20 they would have the same amount. If instead Hone gave Ranee $22, Ranee would then have twice as much as Hone....US maths professor Sylvain Cappell tries to solve a year 11 exam question.
Topics: education
Regions:
Tags: NCEA, maths exam
Duration: 1'33"
18:07
Immigration Minister says agent's licence could be revoked
BODY:
The Immigration Minister says an Indian agent accused of fraud could have his licence revoked if he is found to be acting illegally.
Topics: politics, crime, refugees and migrants, law
Regions:
Tags: fraud
Duration: 3'24"
18:11
Government agrees to make ACC appeals fairer
BODY:
The government has agreed to change the ACC system to make it easier for injured people to file appeals against the organisation. The change follows lobbying by claimaints' group, Acclaim Otago.
Topics: politics, law
Regions:
Tags: ACC, Acclaim Otago
Duration: 4'26"
18:16
West Coast Regional Growth Study released
BODY:
A major new study into the West Coast's economy has just been released, detailing thousands of job losses in two of the region's main industries over the last three years.
Topics: economy
Regions: West Coast
Tags: job losses
Duration: 2'48"
18:18
Mokau slip could be costing Taranaki $250,000 a day
BODY:
A massive slip which cut Taranaki off from the north of the country is estimated to be costing the region at least $250,000 a day, in delayed freight and transport.
Topics: transport, business
Regions: Taranaki
Tags: slip
Duration: 3'39"
18:22
Community incensed about proposed shift of cenotaph
BODY:
Protestors in Foxton are camping out beside the town's cenotaph, because the council wants to move it. The protestors say they were not consulted and will stay as long as it takes to stop the move.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags: Foxton cenotaph
Duration: 2'37"
18:25
Maths experts from NZ and abroad solve maths question
BODY:
What is the answer to the algebra question that left students nationwide, stumped? Checkpoint asked two experts - one in New Zealand, one New York.
Topics: education
Regions:
Tags: maths exam, NCEA
Duration: 4'39"
=SHOW NOTES=
===6:30 PM. | None (National)===
=DESCRIPTION=
Highlighting the RNZ stories you're sharing on-line
===6:55 PM. | In Parliament===
=DESCRIPTION=
===7:06 PM. | Nights===
=DESCRIPTION=
RNZ's weeknight programme of entertainment and information
=AUDIO=
19:12
Burlesque Roadtrip
BODY:
Crystal Mischief from Underground Burlesque traveled to the US to the Burlesque Hall of fame to interview the older legends who are still "working it" on stage.
EXTENDED BODY:
Crystal Mischief from Underground Burlesque traveled to the US to the Burlesque Hall of fame to interview the older legends who are still "working it" on stage.
Read an edited excerpt from the interview below:
Tell me about some of the legends, as you call them.
A legend is someone who performed earlier or around 1975.
Is there any reason for that year or is it an arbitrary cut-off point?
I think it is an arbitrary cut-off point. With anything like this, there are a whole series of politics around it. I have seen 85 year olds on that Burlesque Hall of Fame stage.
Can they still do it?
Totally. They do it better than some of the young girls, it’s amazing.
I would have thought age is the enemy of burlesque. Is it the opposite?
Well, choreography is ageless. So the minute the music starts and a legend gets into the routine, you don’t see the way they have aged and it is quite mesmerising. I was a bit taken back by it the first time I saw legends perform. It was a really emotional and humbling experience. It was beautiful.
Was it a little unusual to see old people – 60, 70, 80 – doing sexy stuff?
Yeah, because it comes back to that whole… in the media and in mainstream TV shows and films kind of thing… you have your last day where you get up to an age where you can’t perform anymore…
Well, there’s a whole thing about people reach a certain age and you’re not supposed to be interested in sex anymore.
Right. Which, again, is clearly not the case. I got to meet and hang out with and have become quite good friends with people like Camille2000. Some of the bad girls of burlesque. Camille actually rode off the stage of the Burlesque Hall of Fame after she MC’d on a motorcycle.
How old is Camille2000? We’ve got a photo of her on the website… she’s got a good head of hair on her.
That’s the thing with these legends, is that their hair is beautiful, their makeup is beautiful, their costumes are beautiful. It doesn’t matter that they’re 60, 70, 85 years old, they still turn out how they would when they were in their 20s.
Who is Bic Carrol?
Bic Carrol is a lovely gentleman who now resides in Las Vegas and he is one of the older gentlemen of the boylesque scene, he started the Men of Burlesque movement. Boylesque is a genre. That is what we call the male dancers.
What does he dress up in?
This year he dressed up in... a farmer outfit. That was his background, farming. He really took his routine this year back to his roots, so the bumbling old farmer. It was a delightful routine.
When the men do it is it still a sexual thing? Or is he more of a parody of himself?
That routine was a parody of himself, but there were those pockets of sexiness in there as well. This is what he would teach the performers who came to see him. It’s just amazing. He’s teaching young male performers how to be sexy, because it’s different when you’re a male. You hold your hands differently, the choreography is slightly different as well, so it is important to have mentors like that in our industry.
Topics: life and society
Regions:
Tags: travel
Duration: 18'16"
20:12
Nights' Pundit - Left Thinking
BODY:
University of Otago political historian Prof Brian Roper on how business lobbying has affected New Zealand's taxation regime.
Topics: politics, economy, life and society, history
Regions:
Tags: left thinking
Duration: 19'50"
=SHOW NOTES=
7:12 Our Own Odysseys - Burlesque Roadtrip
Crystal Mischief from Underground Burlesque traveled to the US to the Burlesque Hall of fame to interview the older legends who are still "working it" on stage. You can hear the short documentary she made here.
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7:30 The Sampler
Nick Bollinger discusses a collaboration between Walkmen frontman Hamilton Leithauser and Vampire Weekend multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmangalij; the latest instalment of the Randy Newman songbook; and the primordial rock'n'roll of Madrid-based garage band The Parrots.
8:12 Nights' Pundit - Left Thinking
University of Otago political historian A.Prof Brian Roper on how business lobbying has affected New Zealand's taxation regime.
8:30 Window on the World
Island of love - Every year, Cyprus carries out thousands of weddings for couples from across the Middle East. The Mediterranean island promotes itself as the birthplace of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, but its popularity as a wedding destination is much more prosaic - it offers civil marriages. With marriage tourism booming, specialist florists, event planners and photographers help to make wedding days extra special. Many Middle Easterners hope for reforms back home that will allow civil weddings. In the meantime, they head to the Island of Love.
9:07 Tuesday Feature
America Revisited #2 - Chloe Hadjimatheou retraces a journey she took before Obama's election. She comes across a gay community under attack, unfettered poverty in trailer parks, the last abortion clinic in Missouri and convicted murderers. Why do liberal and conservative, black and white, religious and secular Americans harbour so much animosity towards one another?
10:17 Late Edition
A roundup of today's RNZ News and feature interviews as well as Date Line Pacific from RNZ International.
11:07 World Music
Worlds of Music - Trevor Reekie hosts a weekly music programme celebrating an eclectic mix of 'world' music, fusion and folk roots.Tonight, tracks from Denmark, Mali, Mongolia, France, India and a whole lot more.
===7:35 PM. | The Sampler===
=DESCRIPTION=
Nick Bollinger reviews some of the latest music releases
=AUDIO=
19:30
Los Niños Sin Miedo by The Parrots
BODY:
Nick Bollinger plunges into the primordial rock’n’roll of Madrid-based garage band The Parrots.
EXTENDED BODY:
Nick Bollinger plunges into the primordial rock’n’roll of Madrid-based garage band The Parrots.
In his book Retromania, the critic Simon Reynolds declared that pop has begun to feed unhealthily on its own past. Among the examples he gave was a practice he calls ‘sonic antiquing’. He might have been thinking of The Parrots, a self-described ‘primordial rock’n’roll band’ from Madrid.
The band is named after a bird famous for imitating the sounds of other creatures. And their music is full of motifs that summon up the past: trebly, nerve-rattling guitar; a reverb that sounds like the drum kit is in the bathroom; a snarling distorted vocal. One of their songs is called ‘Let’s Do It Again’. Do what again? ‘The Locomotion’, I presume – Little Eva’s 1962 hit, which is where the chords comes from.
The Parrots, who were signed by the British label Heavenly after an impressive performance at last year’s SXSW festival in Texas, are an example of what Reynolds identifies as a fetishisation of the past, where bands, rather than respond to the sounds around them today, imagine themselves in an alternative pop universe – in the Parrots’ case, one where it’s always 1966.
Of course there are plenty of possible ripostes to Reynolds’ theory. One is that music such as The Parrots make is a response to the sounds around them today; they hear those sounds and they don’t like them, and what’s wrong with creating a private universe, where you can surround yourself with the music of your choice? Another is that to imagine what might have happened had pop carried on down a particular path at a particular time, is a perfectly a valid way of arriving at something new – which the Parrots come close to achieving when two or more antique styles collide in a single song.
Sure I hear 60s garage but also a touch of T Rex, whose music actually falls well outside the 60s garage genre (though Marc Bolan, it must be said, did his own share of sonic antiquing.) I also hear, curiously, echoes of The Clean, whose hybrid style emerged in another time and place altogether – Dunedin in the 80s.
One downside of retro that Reynolds notes is ‘a certain detachment’ about the music. He calls it ‘pop as objective artefact… rather than subjective expression.’ And yet I hardly hear objective detachment in this music. They hurl themselves into tracks like these about as subjectively as you can.
There’s plenty about the Parrots that’s familiar, that’s undeniable. Yet the more I listen, the less they seem like a recreation of something that’s gone before and more like a checklist of things they like and – by implication – don’t like, which might be as contemporary a statement as you could make. Their songs are uniformly short – a couple of them touch the three minute mark, but those are epics by The Parrots’ standards. They sing in a mixture of English and Spanish, which may be nothing new but makes its own statement. Their album, which is only 26 minutes long, is called Los Ninos Sin Miedo – which translates as The Fearless Kids – and there are times when, retro or not, it’s just what I want to hear.
Songs featured: Let’s Do It Again, Caspar, Too High To Die, Jamie Gumb, E.A. Presley, Los Ninos Sin Miedo.
Los Niños Sin Miedo is available on Heavenly Records.
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: music, music review, The Parrots
Duration: 6'19"
19:30
The Sampler for 20 September
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In The Sampler this week Nick Bollinger discusses a collaboration between Walkmen frontman Hamilton Leithauser and Vampire Weekend multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmangalij; the latest instalment of the Randy Newman songbook; and the primordial rock’n’roll of Madrid-based garage band The Parrots.
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In The Sampler this week Nick Bollinger discusses a collaboration between Walkmen frontman Hamilton Leithauser and Vampire Weekend multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmangalij; the latest instalment of the Randy Newman songbook; and the primordial rock’n’roll of Madrid-based garage band The Parrots.
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: music, music review, The Parrots, Randy Newman, Hamilton Leithauser & Rostam
Duration: 29'58"
19:30
The Randy Newman Songbook Volume 3
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Nick Bollinger discusses the latest instalment of the Randy Newman songbook.
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Nick Bollinger discusses the latest instalment of the Randy Newman songbook.
“There have been great American artists who have worked beyond the public’s ability to understand them easily, but none who have condescended to the public”.
So wrote Greil Marcus, way back in 1975. It’s a measure you might use to weigh up the greatness of any number of artists, but Marcus happened to be talking about Randy Newman, who has a new album out next week; the third volume in his Songbook series, which was launched in 2003, and features recordings of him alone at the piano playing some of his best-known compositions. Coinciding with the arrival of Volume 3 is a four-disc vinyl box set that includes all three Songbooks, plus a lot of extra tracks.
In the years since Marcus wrote the words quoted above, Randy Newman has been both misunderstood and embraced by audiences both marginal and mainstream, without condescending to either one of them. And I wonder if there’s any other artist who can claim two such different audiences.
To the larger of those audiences, Randy Newman is the guy who wrote and sang the songs for the phenomenally successful Toy Story films. And they are good songs. ‘You’ve Got A Friend In Me’ (which appears in the Songbook collection) recycles and revitalises both lyrical clichés – the title for starters - and musical ones – like that New Orleans piano shuffle – and, as ever, without condescension. Not that it is a song I imagine Newman would have written had he not been working on assignment. However the songs he makes for his other audience are something else. And it is only in a very distorted parallel universe that one could ever imagine Disney/Pixar commissioning him to write a song like ‘Davy The Fat Boy’.
Nearly 50 years after it was written, it still has to be one of the most unsettling things you could hear; a study of human cruelty, that keeps you hoping for a disclaimer or gag that will release you from the discomfort of listening; a gag that never really comes. It first appeared, in an almost Kurt Weill type orchestral arrangement on Newman’s 1968 debut album, but Newman revisits it here, alone at the piano, and it’s a discomfiting as ever.
There is certainly a gulf in subject matter and even, to some degree, musical ambition between ‘Davy’ and ‘You’ve Got A Friend In Me’. And yet I’d be loath to say one was superior to the other. These are both things that Randy Newman does, and part of what makes him the great artist he is.
So do those two audiences – the one that identifies his voice and piano with popular family movies and the much smaller one that appreciates his art-song examinations of the human psyche - ever meet? Well they have at least once.
More blatantly satirical than ‘Davy’ and every bit as catchy as ‘You’ve Got A Friend In Me’, ‘Short People’ remains Newman’s one and only bona fide pop hit; it got to number 2 on the American Top 40 in 1977. And its unique success suggests it didn’t make lifelong Newman fans of those who made it a hit. To most I guess it was a novelty tune. For some, the parody of American prejudice – which is perhaps Newman’s most pervasive theme – may not have even registered. Had they gone to his back catalogue, though, they would have found more complex explorations of the same subject in songs like ‘Rednecks’, originally on his 1974 album Good Old Boys.
There’s an audience that loves Newman for songs like these, and you sense that, in a way, they wouldn’t really want him to be a bigger star than he is. And yet Newman himself did try, for a long time, to make more hits. They just had to be on his terms, so it tended to be through the production rather than the songs themselves that he attempted to meet the needs of the marketplace. And one of the joys of the Songbooks is hearing a tune like this one – a bonus track on the vinyl set - stripped of the over-the-top 80s synclaviers and electronic drums that smothered the original recording.
Listening to Newman on his own also allows one to appreciate what a masterful composer and performer he is. Take away the arrangements on most singer-songwriter records and you’re left with a few strummed chords. With Randy, the orchestration is built into his piano parts. Those harmonies and counter-melodies that might, on the original records, be carried by horns or strings, are instead suggested by his right hand. What one thinks of as arrangement is, in Newman’s case, composition.
There are 56 songs on the four-disc vinyl box of The Randy Newman Songbook, and there’s the potential for further volumes. As a genuinely heartbreaking song like “Losing You’ from his most recent record Harps and Angels shows, he can still be as good as ever – and he’s reportedly got another album of new songs ready to go.
Where does it all come from? His family were originally Jewish immigrants from Russia, part of the same late 19th century wave that brought Irving Berlin, that great American songwriter. And the Newmans included several very well-known Hollywood composers.
Film music is a world he grew up in. Yet he’s also a product of rock’n’roll. For part of his childhood he lived in New Orleans, where the rolling shuffles of Fats Domino made a permanent imprint on both his vocal and piano style. But in the end, as Marcus says, great artists sometimes work beyond the public’s ability to understand them easily; and where Newman’s genius comes from might be one thing that can never be explained. But it can always be heard.
Songs featured: Sail Away, You’ve Got A Frind In Me, Davy The Fat Boy, Short People, Rednecks, Red Bandana, Louisiana 1927, Feels Like Home.
The Randy Newman Songbook is available on Nonesuch Records.
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: music, music review, Randy Newman
Duration: 12'58"
19:30
I Had A Dream by Hamilton Leithauser and Rostam
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Nick Bollinger discusses a collaboration between Walkmen frontman Hamilton Leithauser and Vampire Weekend multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmangalij.
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Nick Bollinger discusses a collaboration between Walkmen frontman Hamilton Leithauser and Vampire Weekend multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmangalij.
Bands these days don’t break up; they just go into hiatus. It was during downtime from their musical day jobs that The Walkmen’s Hamilton Leithauser and Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij got together recently, and this is the result.
I Had A Dream That You Were Mine contains signature elements of both Leithauser and Rostam’s regular bands. You could say Hamilton Leithauser is the signature element of The Walkmen; his voice is an extraordinary instrument, capable of anything from a croon to howl and with a range that sweeps across several octaves. And then there’s the multi-instrumentalist Rostam, whose settings and arrangements were Vampire Weekend’s secret weapon. The pair worked together for a couple of tracks on Black Hours, Leithauser’s solo debut from a couple of years ago. And that obviously went well, because now they have made a whole album.
And if the signatures are recognisable, it’s not quite something either of them would have done with their respective bands. ‘1000 Times’ has a notable similarity to the old Kingston Trio tune ‘500 Miles’ - as though Leithauser and Rostam borrowed the tune, and while they were at it, took the figure 500, and doubled it. It’s an incredibly hooky track, and it’s the song that kicks off the album, while the disc’s title comes straight from its lyric.
Taking neglected genres and weaving them into their own brand of lyrical and melodic pop is something these guys do throughout the record, and another of their areas of interest is doo-wop. ‘Rough Going’ recalls the Paul Simon/Graceland elements that were often a feature of Vampire Weekend, but combines them with something more like The Flamingos or The Chords. And it’s not the only song here where the backing vocals are literally going ‘shoo-doo-be shoo-doo-wah’. And there’s plenty of what doo-wop aficionado Frank Zappa used to call ‘redundant piano triplets’.
The songs might be simple in essence, but like the best doo-wop the richness is in the arrangements, and a track like that one is full of Rostam’s subtle shadings, to which Leithauser adds a lyric that manages to be both melancholy and hopeful. The lyrics on this album are as carefully honed as the music, and it seems the division of duties is not clear-cut. A recent interview with the pair revealed that while Leithauser usually takes the lead in lyric writing, Rostam often acts as editor, pushing his colleague to focus the narrative, letting him know when the lyric has failed to conjure an image, and sending him back to the iPad. And there are certainly strong narrative voices that emerge from these songs. My favourite might be ‘The Bride’s Dad’ – a monologue that teeters on the edge of pathos, yet prevails.
If that song has the attention to detail of the best Paul Simon, for a ‘You Ain’t That Young Kid’ it seems they would be happy just to be the Travelling Willburys. Leithauser can emulate Jeff Lynne’s harmonies, while Rostam has clearly mastered his drum sound. And who wants to be Bob?
If the album were all in this zone perhaps the appeal would be short-lived. But there’s more substance than novelty here, and the hooks are just quick sharp ways of dragging you into music where, like the best pop, there are other things to discover beneath the surface. Hamilton Leithauser and Rostam’s I Had A Dream That You Were Mine is an album I’m enjoying a lot. And I can see this becoming more than just a holiday for the two artists involved.
Songs featured: The Morning Starts, 1000 Times, Peaceful Morning, Rough Going, When The Truth Is, The Bride’s Dad, You Ain’t That Young Kid.
I Had A Dream That You Were Mine is available on Glassnote Records.
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: music, music review, Hamilton Leithauser and Rostam, Vampire Weekend, Walkmen
Duration: 10'45"
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===8:30 PM. | Windows On The World===
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International public radio features and documentaries
===9:06 PM. | None (National)===
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When President Obama stepped into the White House back in 2008, many hoped his mixed heritage would help unite the country, but, 8 years on, America has never appeared more polarized. The BBC drives across the United States to find out why Americans seem more divided than ever. For the second programme of this series Chloe Hadjimatheou retraces a journey she took before Obama’s election. travelling across the southern states, from Dallas to Nashville. She comes across a gay community under attack, unfettered poverty in trailer parks, the last abortion clinic in Missouri and convicted murderers. Why do liberal and conservative, black and white, religious and secular Americans harbour so much animosity towards one another? (2 of 4, BBC)
===10:00 PM. | Late Edition===
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Dead cats might not bounce but they make good handbags why I wasn't reading the news last night and in Dateline Pacific forget the Kermadecs, Pitcairn Island gets a marine reserve
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RNZ news, including Dateline Pacific and the day's best interviews from RNZ National
===11:06 PM. | None (National)===
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The Story of Smithsonian Folkways, the idiosyncratic and comprehensive selection of American roots music and oral history that Moses Asch published on the "Folkways" record label he started in 1948 (1 of 15, RNZ)