Saturday Morning with Jack Tame

With technology constantly improving and companies putting out brand new updates and products on a regular basis, it begs a question: is this sustainable? Kate Hall joined Francesca Rudkin for a chat about sustainability and technology, and the impact of new tech on the planet and the people who live on it. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How the World Ran Out of Everything by Peter S. Goodman How does the wealthiest country on earth run out of protective gear in the middle of a public health catastrophe? How do its parents find themselves unable to locate crucially needed infant formula? How do its largest companies spend billions of dollars making cars that no one can drive for a lack of chips? The last few years have radically highlighted the intricacy and fragility of the global supply chain. Enormous ships were stuck at sea, warehouses overflowed, and delivery trucks stalled. The result was a scarcity of everything from breakfast cereal to medical devices, from frivolous goods to lifesaving necessities. And while the scale of the pandemic shock was unprecedented, it underscored the troubling reality that the system was fundamentally at risk of descending into chaos all along. And it still is. Sabotaged by financial interests, loss of transparency in markets, and worsening working conditions for the people tasked with keeping the gears turning, our global supply chain has become perpetually on the brink of collapse. In How the World Ran Out of Everything, award-winning journalist Peter S. Goodman reveals the fascinating innerworkings of our supply chain and the factors that have led to its constant, dangerous vulnerability. His reporting takes readers deep into the elaborate system, showcasing the triumphs and struggles of the human players who operate it—from factories in Asia and an almond grower in Northern California, to a group of striking railroad workers in Texas, to a truck driver who Goodman accompanies across hundreds of miles of the Great Plains. Through their stories, Goodman weaves a powerful argument for reforming a supply chain to become truly reliable and resilient, demanding a radical redrawing of the bargain between labor and shareholders, and deeper attention paid to how we get the things we need. From one of the most respected economic journalists working today, How the World Ran Out of Everything is a fiercely smart, deeply informative look at how our supply chain operates, and why its reform is crucial—not only to avoid dysfunction in our day to day lives, but to protect the fate of our global fortunes. 17 Years Later by JP Pomare Who killed the wealthy primrose family? The violent slaughter of the Primrose family while they slept shocked the nation. Their young live-in chef, Bill Kareama, was swiftly charged with murder and brought to justice. But the brutal crime scarred the idyllic town of Cambridge forever. Seventeen years later, true-crime podcaster Sloane Abbott tracks down prison psychologist TK Phillips. Once a fierce campaigner for an appeal, TK now lives a quiet life with Bill's case firmly in his past. As Sloane lures a reluctant TK back into the fight, evidence emerges that casts new light on the Primroses - and who might have wanted them dead. While the list of suspects grows, Bill's innocence is still far from assured. What will it cost Sloane and TK to uncover the truth? LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There may be some good news on the horizon for homeowners. Ed McKnight from Opes Partners joined Francesca Rudkin for a chat about the changing factors that could impact Kiwis. On the agenda: Westpac has cut their interest rates again, is this the beginning of a trend? Has the criteria for getting a mortgage changed? What’s the best time to restructure or get one? When can Kiwis expect a cut in the OCR? LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"It astounds me that Malta isn’t flashing on the tourist radar as a top-tier Mediterranean destination. I recently ventured to the Maltese islands with Insight Vacations, on their 6-day Easy Pace Malta premium guided tour. It offers the winning mix of guided sightseeing and flexi-time, allowing you to serendipitously unwrap the destination’s treats, at your own leisure." "One of the best ways to get your bearings on Malta’s watery lay-out is to jump on board one of the numerous sightseeing ferries in Sliema, zipping you from Marsamxett Harbour to Valletta’s Grand Harbour. It’s the best way to drink in the views of fortified Manoel Island and the butterscotch-hued walled city of Valletta, from all angles." Read Mike's full article here. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kevin Milne, like many people, has been watching the Olympics. And despite only being a week into the games, he’s already exhausted, and he’s not the one competing! LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After a few weeks of really misty, cold, and awful weather, I needed to get out of bed and find some inspiration for the garden. A “pick-me-up” if you like. But where to go? Yep – Hagley Park is always a good place, but so are the garden Centres! The difference is quite obvious: The Botanical Gardens will show you stuff that was planted many decades ago. It’s the picture of the future – a glimpse into your garden the children will enjoy after you’ve moved on. How about the “now” – or maybe the next 10 years or so? Impatient? Perhaps… So I went to Oderings to have a look for some quick colour, tincture, complexion, some colōris, or, as the Spanish Language so elegantly describes: el color. Start with the Letter A: Acer Known here as Maple. Acer senkaki is obviously a Japanese maple. It glows red in Winter (and it’s quite pretty as a summer tree too). You don’t have to wait for it – you can buy it right now to cheer you up. The next Acer is A. griseum (the paper bark maple) a Chinese species that is actually quite rare in nature, but reasonably common in gardens owned by observant gardeners. Don’t be fooled by the species name “griseum” (meaning grey) – it refers to the underside of the leaves. The peeling cinnamon-coloured bark is what gives me hope: hope for a speedy springtime and hope that some young gardeners will see the beauty of back-lit leaves from a low-angled sun. You want some weird Pink to cheer you up? Here’s an Erica, simply because I kind-of grew up with plants like that in the Netherlands. Heather, Heaths (“de Hei”), and such plants belong to the Ericacea with almost 1000 described species. They’re tough and flower colours are often spectacular; great tucker for insects like pollinators. But the coolest thing is that a good number of these Ericaceae have a habit of flowering in the middle of winter, and that can be brilliant! And then there are Daphne and Hellebores and the fabulous scent of Osmanthus. But perhaps it’s a good opportunity to highlight some Native winter jewels, like Libertia peregrinans. Or the range of Corokias (Geenty’s Ghost and Frosted Chocolat). These last two make fab hedges!! We also have weirdly bright Cabbage Trees (Cordyline) and strangely dark Flaxes, small and tall. No doubt all found as unexpected genetic morphs or cross-bred entities; mind you, I must say that the dark “background” flaxes really fit well in many gardens and the nectar feeding birds are still keen to visit the flowers in late spring. One native shrub that always bowls me over (when visiting the Catlins) is the relatively slow growing Pseudowintera colorata, also known as Horopito. This shrub is totally unexpectedly beautiful as just about every specimen has a different colour-ratio, live and in nature. Now that’s a shrub worth investing in, especially as you can eat the leaves, not just in Māori dishes, but also in Indonesian delicacies. It tastes just the way it looks: On fire! LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame Full Show Podcast for Saturday 3 August 2024, Francesca Rudkin fills in and chats to brothers Oli and Louis of Aussie indie rock sensation Lime Cordiale about their brand-new album and bringing their tour to NZ. Francesca questions why the arts make things hard for themselves. Horror is having a moment - Chris Schulz talks about an unexpected success in one of the best horror films of the year, Longlegs. And, staying in the world of film, Mike Yardley takes us on a trip to Malta where the brand-new Gladiator 2 and classics like Murder on the Orient Express and Jurassic World were filmed. Get the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame Full Show Podcast every Saturday on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Olympic swimming pool in Paris is slow... is the tech part of the problem? It certainly isn't helping. Only one world record had been broken as of August 1st, which the unusually shallow pool is being blamed for. It's 2.15 meters deep because when it was starting to be built in 2017, it only had to be over two meters. Now the minimum depth is 2.5 meters, but the recommendation is for 3 meters. Also not helping: the underwater cameras. They contribute to the choppiness of the water, and also don't help the water settle between races as they continue to move and reset. Developers are getting their first look at Apple Intelligence The reviews are... fine? Not all the promised features have been delivered yet. One reviewer says it's a "slightly smarter Siri". There are bits of AI sprinkled throughout the Apple apps. In the Mail app there's a new section of your inbox with AI-suggested important emails, a summarize button at the top of each email, and when you highlight text you can select "writing tools" to have AI do proofreading, make suggestions, and summarize. The search tool in the Photos app now uses AI to understand more complicated requests. You can ask for pictures of a particular person wearing glasses or all the food you ate in Iceland, all in natural language. But these new features might not ship with the new iPhone? It may not make the deadline to be included. Apple does have a way to update the OS while the phone is still in the box (which is a crazy piece of tech!) so that may happen, or folks who buy a new phone will need to upgrade their software later. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Prosper The wealthy founder of an evangelical megachurch announces they're expanding to the US, but the collision between faith and ambition threatens to tear both his family and his church apart (TVNZ+). Women in Blue In 1971, four women defy ultraconservative norms and join Mexico's first female police force-only to discover that it's a publicity stunt to distract the media from a serial killer; they make a pact to bring the killer to justice (Apple TV). The Red King Police sergeant Grace Narayan is sent on a 'punishment posting' to an island with an eerie religion, where the cold case of a missing boy unearths buried secrets (ThreeNow). LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Longlegs FBI Agent Lee Harker is assigned to an unsolved serial killer case that takes an unexpected turn, revealing evidence of the occult. Harker discovers a personal connection to the killer and must stop him before he strikes again. I Saw the TV Glow A classmate introduces teenage Owen to a mysterious late-night TV show -- a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen's view of reality begins to crack. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This pie is an absolute winner - hearty and rich, it’s packed full of meat and gravy, spiked with tangy blue cheese and topped with flaky pastry. It’s golden! Serves 4 Ingredients: 500g beef chunks – I use chuck or blade steak 2 tbsps flour 1 large onion, diced 2 carrots, diced 3 cloves garlic, crushed 330mls beer, ale or lager but not too sweet 2 tbsps tomato puree 1 bay leaf ½ tsp salt & ¼ tsp cracked pepper to season 100g blue cheese 1-2 sheets ready rolled flaky pastry Egg wash Method: 1. Sprinkle flour over beef chunks and toss to coat. 2. In a saucepan heat the oil and brown off the meat. Do this in batches. Set aside. 3. In the same saucepan, sauté onions, carrots and garlic until beginning to soften. Pour over beer and as it bubbles up scrape off any yummy bits from the bottom of the pot. Add meat back in, along with tomato puree, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Lower the heat and simmer for one hour or more, until meat it meltingly tender. Cool. 4. Heat oven to 200 C. Grease a 23cm (or similar) pie dish. To make the pie: Ladle the cold pie filling into your pie dish. Feel free to pile it up as it will settle as it cooks. Sprinkle over blue cheese. Roll out pastry to fit as a lid and egg wash the edges (this helps them to stick and seal your pie.) Drape lid over filling and squeeze and pinch pastry onto the rim of your dish to seal well. Use a sharp knife to make plenty of steam holes in the pastry. Brush with beaten egg. Lower oven temperature to 180 and bake for 40 minutes or until golden brown and bubbling. Serve great spoonfuls of pie with mashed spuds and peas or my favourite, a fresh leafy green salad Nici’s note: - I’m in the habit of making the filling a day ahead as I think it improves the flavour. - Usually I avoid using tomato puree (too strong) but for this recipe it keeps the liquid to a minimum whilst dialling up the flavour. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A headline in the news this week had me rolling my eyes. Sometimes the arts make it hard for themselves. The headline I'm referring to was about the New Zealand Film Commission spending $16,431 on two farewell and two welcome parties for their outgoing and incoming chief executives. Obviously, no one stopped to think how this particular headline might come across. If they had, the NZ Film Commission might have read the room differently. It’s not a good look to have an autonomous Crown Entity, whose job is to distribute public money to the film industry, creating headlines about throwing parties. In the scheme of things, this isn’t much money. And if we weren’t in the middle of a cost of living crisis, and with a government facing long term fiscal deficits, this may never have made headlines. I’m pretty sure I’ve been to similar farewells in the private sector which cost a lot more. I should note, these celebrations took place in 2023 before the October election which delivered a new Government hell bent on making savings across the public sector. But you could argue that we were already in a cost of living crisis before the election: a recession was expected, Labour had started tightening the belt and clamping down on costs, and we knew the policies of the potential new coalition partners. They should have anticipated how this would look. This follows news that NZFC paid a former boss well over half a million dollars in leave and severance payments after just nine months in the role when he left in 2022. None of this helps the NZFC garner support from the public. The New Zealand Screen industry is worth a bomb – it contributes $3.5 billion to the economy each year. It is an incredible industry filled with some of the hardest working, most innovative people I have ever worked with – and it’s world class. But when it comes to arts, and culture, and public perception, you’ll never be able to compete for funding against the need for a better education and health system, more police, and safer roads. These headlines also grate as many organisations have done incredible work over the last 9 months to ensure stability in the struggling industry. SPADA have been lobbying tirelessly to make sure NZ on Air was exempt from having to make the across the board 7.5% cut being asked of Ministry funding. New Zealand’s longest running soap, Shortland Street, will air just three episodes a week in 2025, a compromise to keep the long-running drama alive. The CEO of TVNZ proved she got the memo about creating headlines: after Jodi O’Donnell accepted an invitation from the IOC to attend the Paris Olympics, she thought about it and decided it didn’t pass the sniff test. She is taking leave and personally paying for the trip, even though she will attend some meetings. A sensible decision, especially considering this week TVNZ also announced it needs to find another $30m in revenue or cuts. I am a huge supporter of the arts, but silly headlines make it hard to encourage others to support them too. Art and culture is pivotal to creating vibrant cities and communities, to fostering a sense of belonging, pride, identity, and connection. And can be a good source of revenue. So please stop making it so hard to sell! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Another popular comedian is back on New Zealand’s shores. Irish comic Ed Byrne is known for his intellectual comedy, making appearances on TV shows like QI, and even winning the celebrity version of The Chase. He’s back before Kiwi audiences with his ‘Tragedy Plus Time’ tour, kicking it off with a performance tonight in Hastings, before taking his act through the country over the coming month. Byrne joined Jack Tame for a chat about his act, and touching of course on his reality TV win. For more information and tickets for 'Tragedy Plus Time', click here. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Aussie pop-rock group Lime Cordiale has dropped another album. Their third studio album, the 17-track work features many of the singles they’ve released over the last two years. Estelle Clifford joined Jack Tame to review the brand new release. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A Death in Cornwall by Daniel Silva Art restorer and legendary spy Gabriel Allon has slipped quietly into London to attend a reception at the Courtauld Gallery celebrating the return of a stolen self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh. But when an old friend from the Devon and Cornwall Police seeks his help with a baffling murder investigation, he finds himself pursuing a powerful and dangerous new adversary. The victim is Charlotte Blake, a celebrated professor of art history from Oxford who spends her weekends in the same seaside village where Gabriel once lived under an assumed identity. Her murder appears to be the work of a diabolical serial killer who has been terrorizing the Cornish countryside. But there are a number of telltale inconsistencies, including a missing mobile phone. And then there is the mysterious three-letter cypher she left behind on a notepad in her study. Gabriel soon discovers that Professor Blake was searching for a looted Picasso worth more than a $100 million, and he takes up the chase for the painting as only he can—with six Impressionist canvases forged by his own hand and an unlikely team of operatives that includes a world-famous violinist, a beautiful master thief, and a lethal contract killer turned British spy. The result is a stylish and wildly entertaining mystery that moves at lightning speed from the cliffs of Cornwall to the enchanted island of Corsica and, finally, to a breathtaking climax on the very doorstep of 10 Downing Street. After Annie by Anna Quindlen When Annie Brown dies suddenly, her husband, her four young children and her closest friend are left to struggle without the woman who centered their lives. Bill Brown finds himself overwhelmed, and Annie’s best friend Annemarie is lost to old bad habits without Annie’s support. It is Annie’s daughter, Ali, forced to try to care for her younger brothers and even her father, who manages to maintain some semblance of their former lives for them all, and who confronts the complicated truths of adulthood. Yet over the course of the next year, while Annie looms large in their memories, all three are able to grow, to change, even to become stronger and more sure of themselves. The enduring power Annie gave to those who loved her is the power to love, and to go on without her. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"It is the greenest of Greece’s islands, lush and verdant with emerald mountains and breathlessly blue waters lapping rocky coves and sandy bays. This northeastern outpost of Greece lies across the Ionian Sea from Italy’s heel, while Albania is just 3kms away. Corfu has long enticed conquerors, as much as holidaymakers. British and French influences can be seen in Corfu’s atmospheric Old Town – however, it’s obvious that the Venetians, who stayed around for 400 years, exerted and left behind the greatest legacy. Their calling card is everywhere, with an alluring mix of neoclassical villas, Venetian palazzo and pastel-painted hill towns." Read Mike's full article here. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last time we talked about how your phone could interfere with connecting with people. This time I thought it would be good to talk about how our phones can help us combat loneliness and isolation. We hear a lot about the negative health impacts of loneliness, and yet this series of studies suggests that most of us are reluctant to reach out to old friends – even though that’s one of the fastest ways to boost our social connections. A new Canadian study showed that fewer than one third of people in their study sent a message (txt, email. Phone call) to an old friend even when they wanted to, thought the friend would be receptive, had their contact details, and had time and space to send a message. The study found that people tended to view old friends in the same way they view strangers, which contributed to reluctance to reach out. Things that helped with connecting with old friends included: - A “practice” condition (sending messages to current friends) helped more people to reach out to old friends, suggesting one practical way to warm people up to contacting old friends. - Imagine what it’s like for you to receive a message from an old friend. Most people were very positive about being the one that is contacted rather than doing the contacting. Putting yourself in the other person’s shoes might help reduce reluctance to be the one making the first move - Start with some easy wins – contact people you were close to in the past rather than more casual acquaintances. More likely to be able to rekindle those old fires. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A couple of weeks ago we talked about feeding birds in your garden. In view of a decent week off, Jack was training his birds to do without food – slowly getting them used to going and finding food elsewhere for the next week or so. I realised that this requires some scientific back-up with observations from the distant past and very recent past, to see if the Tauhoa are really going to be affected by a week or so of no fodder. About 18 years ago (I was living in Auckland – before I saw the light) my office was looking out over a trained citrus bush, right outside my window. From time to time flocks of silvereyes would visit in winter to look for scale insects and mealybugs, aphids and other delicacies. I love this biological control and kept an eye on these birds – always been interested in birds, even more so later in life. When the flocks kept on returning regularly, in spring I decided to take a look at what they were after and discovered a decent but unwanted population of scale insects that were causing quite a bit of pressure on my lemon (they also attract ants that feed on “honeydew” excreted by scale insects). Luckily, a good flock of Tauhou descended and started working away at eating scales. Pictures show that this removed more than 50% of the sap-sucking plant pests. Before helpers. 5 minutes after help arrived! Not only were those little birds a great indicator of certain damaging garden pests, they were actually part of the Biological Control Squad. In summer, they kept on coming back to the citrus to decimate the scale population. In our current garden we feed the Tauhou with those meatballs from the Mad Butcher. I also make lard blocks, presented to them in small, metal cages. Up to 40 birds at a time of census!! So… I stopped feeding them for 5 days, just to see what would happen. They were not impressed at all!! Kept on flying into their tree where the food parcels used to hang. Making lots of noise – “bad mood Bear”. Other species were also returning to the food cart (sparrows, Green finches, Starlings and chaffinches). It slowly tapered off to a dozen or fewer than that – but they always flew over the site for a check-up. And in the end a couple would sit in their food tree for a bit of preening. I discovered that Silvereyes have a routine of visiting the local feeding stations in people’s garden. I reckon they have a circular trajectory from our place to Jan’s next door, 50 meters east, then across the road and another one (or two) west, and as far as 200 meters away, before returning to our side of the road via neighbours a few houses down (north-west); I reckon they usually fly clock-wise. When I hung up a fresh ball and timed the return, this morning, after 5 days of no food, it took 3 minutes before 19 Tauhou were gorging themselves – this grew to the usual congestion and fights 5 minutes later. One other little experiment took place this year by banding a good number of silvereyes in our garden in autumn and winter: it was total of 81 individuals (73 newly banded and 8 “recaptures” – older birds). In the past week I attempted to count feeding flocks of around 30 birds – the average number of banded silvereyes was around 2 and a half (2.5) of those 30. I know… It’s pretty hard to count those fast-moving birds! And you never know if you’ve missed a banded individual when you quickly count the chaos before you. If 1/12th of the birds you see are banded, (and you have 81 banded individuals in the population) you can guestimate that there must be 972 birds regularly in your garden flocks – give-or-take. Almost a thousand of these little blighters passing through your garden on a regular basis… every day in winter! And I reckon they’ll know exactly who’s got the food cart in the garden… LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One topic that is very common and can be quite distressing for patients is ‘cold sores’ sometimes referred to as ‘fever blisters’. A very common presentation to the doctor! What are cold sores? - Small fluid filled blisters appear on the skin, often in patches. - Usually on the lips, chin or cheeks, or nostrils. - Sometimes can occur in the roof of the mouth or gums. - Often start with tingling or itching. Over 48 hours blisters develop, then burst and ‘crust over’, and dry out. - Can take 2-3 weeks to heal completely. - Occasionally you also get a temperature, sore throat, and headache. What causes them? - They are caused by a virus – herpes simplex virus 1. - They can be spread through close contact – kissing, shared utensils, towels. - More likely to spread when the blisters burst. - The virus can hide in nerve cells and be triggered by: - Stress, fatigue, fever, trauma, sun, or wind. How do you treat them? - They get better over 2-3 weeks. - Use sunblock lip balm outside. - Paracetamol can help the pain. - Avoid salty food. Also, ice or warm flannels. - You can be prescribed or buy antiviral cream from a chemist to speed up the healing. Is there anything else I should think about? - It’s important to avoid close contact such as kissing, touching, or sharing towels when you have cold sores. - They can recur and be triggered, so avoid trigger factors if possible – sun, stress. - There is a natural remedy: kanuka honey-based cream shown to be effective. - See your GP if it’s not healed within 14 days, occurs near the eye, very large, or you have other issues such having chemotherapy. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Time Bandits The Taika Waititi-Jemaine Clement reboot of the 1981 fantasy film is an unpredictable journey through time and space with a ragtag group of thieves and their newest recruit: an 11-year-old history buff named Kevin (Apple TV+). The Decameron A dark comedy about a group of 14th century aristocrats and their servants, who retreat to a villa in the Italian countryside in the hope of avoiding the plague (Netflix). Simone Biles Rising A documentary series about gymnastics superstar Simone Biles, who withdrew from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics due to mental health concerns and then embarked on a journey to prepare for her triumphant return (Netflix). LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame Full Show Podcast for Saturday 27 July 2024, NZ's favourite Irish comedian, Ed Byrne joins Jack to chat winning The Chase and landing back on Kiwi shores for his Tragedy Plus Time tour. Jack hopes for a redemption story for one of the Olympics' greatest athletes as an extravagant ceremony officially opens the games. The perfect leftovers-for-lunch meal comes in the form of a Savoury Leek & Mushroom pancake recipe from Rosa Flanagan of Two Raw Sisters. And, as WhatsApp hits 100 million monthly users in the US, Jack and techxpert Paul Stenhouse joke about the stress of the family group chat - though clinical psychologist Dougal Sutherland reflects on how group chats can be an approachable way to combat loneliness. Get the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame Full Show Podcast every Saturday on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A week on from CrowdStrike's outage and not all systems are back online CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said in a post yesterday that "over 97%" of systems running its software were back online as of 25 July. Microsoft estimates that 8.5 million PCs had been disabled, so that suggests approximately 250,000 devices remain offline. In the US, Delta Airlines is the most high profile victim with lingering issues well into this week continuing to cause flight disruptions, seemingly related to issues with the systems for crewing planes with pilots and flight attendants. The stock price managed to make a little bit of a recovery on Tuesday, but is continuing to slide, and it’s down around 10% since the outage. It's taken them back to December 2023 levels, effectively wiping out their 2024 gains. There are reports today of a new blue screen of death issue - but this time it's not related to CrowdStrike. Microsoft’s latest blue screen can’t be blamed on CrowdStrike, which is popping up on Windows 11 machines that use BitLocker. BitLocker is Microsoft's hard-drive encryption tool that protects data from unauthorized access or theft. The issue isn’t widespread, but those impacted will have to enter a recovery key to get a PC to boot properly. WhatsApp now has 100 million monthly users in the US It's the big metropolitan cities showing the biggest growth - Los Angeles, New York, Miami, and Seattle. They're also the cities that have the most immigrants. WhatsApp now has more than 2 billion users in over 180 countries, but the dominance of Apple’s iMessage in the US has proven to be a hurdle since the 2014 acquisition for $16 billion. As Google and Apple both adopt RCS messaging, Meta will continue to face an uphill battle. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mr Blake at Your Service A widowed British businessman takes a job as butler of a manor house in France to remember his late French wife. His life takes a turn as he navigates the eccentric behaviour of the lady of the manor and the household staff. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and a group of military officials hatch a daring plan to neutralize Hitler's fleet of German U-boats during World War II. Made up of a motley crew of rogues and mavericks, the top-secret combat unit uses unconventional techniques to battle the Nazis and change the course of the war. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One half of Two Raw Sisters, Rosa Flanagan joined Jack Tame to serve up a recipe for Leek and Mushroom Savoury Pancakes. Serves: 2 Time: 20 minutes Ingredients: 3/4 cup chickpea flour 3/4 cup water 1/4 cup plant based or dairy yoghurt 1/2 tsp sea salt 3 tbsp nutritional yeast or freshly grated parmesan 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 cup coriander, chopped 1 tbsp cooking oil 1 brown onion, diced 1/4 leek, thinly sliced into rounds 2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped 1/2 tsp sea salt 1 tsp ground cumin 1 tsp ground turmeric 3 white button mushrooms, cut into small pieces Method: In a bowl, add the chickpea flour, water, yoghurt and sea salt. Whisk everything together with a fork, until all of the clumps in the mixture are removed. Then add the nutritional yeast or parmesan, baking powder and coriander. Mix to combine and set aside. Heat the oil up in a non-stick fry pan and add the onion, leek, garlic, sea salt, cumin and turmeric. Sauté until the onions start to become translucent and then add in the mushrooms. Continue to cook for another 5 minutes. Add the onion mix to the chickpea flour mix, then mix to combine. Using the same pan, add 1 tbsp of cooking oil. Once hot, add 1/2 of the mixture and swirl around so that one big pancake is formed. Cook the pancake for 3-4 minutes on each side, or until bubbles begin to form on the surface. Flip and cook for another 3-4 minutes. Once cooked, remove from the pan and continue the same cooking process for the remaining half of the mixture. Transfer the pancakes onto two individual plates and top with your favourite toppings. We are loving a combination of any of the following….. pesto, hummus, aioli, leftover roast vegetables, boiled eggs, avocado, smoked salmon, fresh greens, stir fried greens, herbs, pickles, tahini. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand has some iconic advertisements. Jingles and scenes everyone knows, things you can start quoting and someone else in the room will chime in to finish off. Kevin Milne has been thinking about his favourite ads, and joined Jack Tame to run through a few. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s upon us. We are exactly eight minutes away from the conclusion of the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. Yes, the Opening Ceremony is a total cheese-fest. Yes, about a third of the athletes will have caught a cold from standing out in the rain for so long. But I for one, am fizzing. I love the Olympics. Absolutely love them. Always have, and even though of course I can see clearly enough that they are an obscenely commercialised orgy of hyper-capitalism, consumption, and junk food sponsorship deals, I’ve never wavered in suspending my cynicism for a few weeks every four years, and I doubt I ever will. Usually, the only things that get the whole World’s attention are bad things: wars, terrorism, and natural disasters. The Olympics are about as close as humanity comes to a shared experience of, and shared interest in something good. It’s about our only truly shared collective celebration. I remember once filming alongside a super-conservative Mennonite community in rural Pennsylvania. The Mennonites eschew most modern technology and deliberately cloister themselves from much of the rest of the World. Twelve years ago, I asked a woman from the community if she’d heard of the Olympics. She’d never watched them, she said. But she’d heard of them. Was it something where people from different countries came together? Yeah, I said. It is. My favourite Olympic events are the primal ones. Ones where you don’t need crazy specialised equipment. Ones where the barriers to entry are relatively low. Who can swim the fastest? Sprint the quickest? Jump the highest? Do the most impressive flips? Outside of New Zealand’s medal prospects, these are the three sports I’m most excited about at the games: The 1500m. An absolute classic. Maybe it’s the legacy of Snell and Lovelock etc, but the thing I love about the 1500m is it’s the shortest running race to be properly tactical. I was in the front row of the stands at the Olympics in Rio, and remember my shock at seeing just how fast the 1500m runners were moving. TV gets you close, but you still lose something in perspective. In the men’s contest this year, the favourite is Norway’s defending Olympic champion. If Jakob Ingebrigtsen wins again, I think most middle-distance running fans will consider him the greatest 1500m runner ever. My second event is another running race and another all-time great. Eilud Kipchoge is the boss of Olympic marathoning. He was Olympic champion in 2016 and Olympic champion in 2020, and he’s pursuing a third consecutive title. Again, TV is good, but you can’t appreciate how fast they’re running until you see it! The athlete I’m most excited about at these games is Simone Biles. There aren’t really sufficient descriptors for what she’s capable of doing, but seeing her at her best, spinning and flipping and throwing herself into unbelievably complex and dangerous contortions really pushes my engrained understanding of what the human body is capable of. I was team Simone when she pulled out at the last games. How could you throw yourself into the stuff she does without absolute, supreme confidence? I’ve watched all the redemption documentaries. I know she’s getting on a bit in gymnast years, but she’s clearly an all-time great and I’m desperate for her to pull off a gold… or five. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Try this cake for the school lunch boxes this week – it’s quick to make and bake, soft and moist, incredibly delicious and square pieces are much more ergonomic in the lunch box. Makes 20x25 rectangle cake INGREDIENTS 150g butter 2/3 cup water ½ cup sugar ½ cup brown sugar 1 ½ cups plain flour 1 teaspoon baking soda Pinch salt 1 tsp cinnamon (optional) 1/3 cup yoghurt, sour cream or creme fraiche 2 medium eggs, lightly whisked 200g (about 2 medium) chopped apples, I used unpeeled granny smiths ½ cup frozen blackberries, thawed ICING 1 ½ cups icing sugar 1 tbsp melted butter 2 tsp vanilla extract METHOD Preheat oven to 200 C. Grease and line a shallow swiss roll tin or other rectangle tin measuring about 20cmx30cm. Twist the corners of the baking paper to get the sides to stand up a bit higher than the tin. In a medium pot bring the butter and water to a boil. Stir in the sugars followed by the dry ingredients – flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and mix until combined. Add in yoghurt and eggs and stir to combine then fold in the chopped apples and berries. Pour batter into the prepared tin spreading it into the corners. Bake for 17-20 minutes, or until it springs back to the touch. Cool for 10 minutes then ice while warm. For the icing: Heap icing sugar into a large bowl and add melted butter and vanilla. Whisk, beat or stir until you have a smooth, pourable icing – loosen with boiling water as needed. Spread icing over just warm cake and leave to set. Slice and eat! Make it your way: You could grate the apple but I like the chunks. Leave out the cinnamon and replace with vanilla or ginger if you fancy it. Leave off the icing and eat warm as a pudding with custard and cream. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"As you wander around the Peloponnese Peninsula, it's like myth and history just constantly overlap. For history buffs, there's just so much to blow the mind in Southern Greece. Western Peloponnese is home to the Valley of the Gods. I went to Epidaurus in the Peloponnese, and you get a real flavour ancient sporting conquests. The place is home to Asclepius, the God of medicine, and is where they staged many sporting contests. You can still see the ancient stadium and theatre, which seats about 14000 people, and a coin drop there could be crisply heard from the highest seats - you cannot beat old school acoustics! Read the full article here LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Apart from my beautiful wife, of course, the last person I thought of before I dozed off last night, was Dave. Dave had texted me a few hours earlier when I was filling in for Heather on Newstalk ZB Drive, to say he was driving home from Levin to Palmerston North when he’d stopped to fill up the car and had encountered a bit of a problem. He’d filled up the tank, but as he walked over to the foyer and tried to transfer money between his banks accounts in order to pay for his petrol, his internet banking wouldn’t work. There he was, stranded, waiting for an enormous global technology outage to be sorted so that he could transfer the cash, pay for his gas, and finally get back home. Although some of the tech outages had been fixed, they’re still affecting thousands upon thousands of significant operations around the World: Airports, airlines, hospitals, emergency call centres, TV and radio stations, and banks. Who’s to say Dave isn’t still out there, madly swiping at his phone and refreshing a blank page on his internet banking? The outage was caused by Crowdstrike, a cyber security company which is ironically charged with protecting its clients. And there’s no reporting at this stage to suggest it was caused by a malicious act or a cyber attack. It’s just a plain old error. Already some experts are describing it as the largest IT outage in history. “This is what Y2K wishes it was,” someone said on Reddit. It’s a salient reminder just how fragile and interconnected many of our modern digital systems really are. I’d describe myself as being mid-tier when it comes to the uptake of technology. I have a Chat GPT account. I back up my data on the cloud. I use Apple Pay on my phone. And I absoluetely abhor cash. I hate it. Notes? Coins? Seriously?! All that clutter?! I want to go about my business with the fewest things possible. I don’t think I’ve had a wallet that was capable of carrying hard currency in at least fifteen years. But if the last thing I thought of before I hit the hay last night was poor old Dave, miserable in the dim light of a Levin petrol station forecourt, the first thing I thought of this morning was how to avoid his predicament. On the way to the studio I stopped by an ATM and withdrew a bit of cash. Not a crazy amount, mind. Just enough for a tank of gas.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame Full Show Podcast for Saturday 20 July 2024, all-time great of NZ athletics Dame Valerie Adams joins Jack in studio ahead of her trip to Paris - to attend the Olympics as a spectator for the first time since the year 2000. Jack reconsiders his aversion to cash usage following the global Crowdstrike outage. Catherine Raynes dishes on the juicy revelations in House of Beckham, a new book from renowned investigative journalist Tom Bower. And, in Screentime, Tara Ward shares a new BBC thriller series perfect for fans of Broadchurch. Get the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame Full Show Podcast every Saturday on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You’ve heard me talk about the winter months for Yeeaaars! The big message is one of slowing things down and protecting your soil from heavy frosts. Keeping everything protected end give the earth a rest.Seeing most plants are now absolutely dormant they have shut down the growth; That means: no more taking up fertilisers (N-P-K) into the root systems – and no more transporting these goodies into the leaves to help with photosynthesis.Besides: the sun is basically low over the horizon which reduces the amount of energy that comes down on earth and onto the plants. But there are some plants that are forming flower buds right now: Cymbidium orchids have taken in a heap of nutrients during summer and early autumn – especially Nitrogen. It resulted in new bulbs and new stalks, from which the flower spikes will grow. Now’s the time to turn everything into flower buds and a little bit of K (Potash) will keep the buds in good shape, ready to blossom in late winter.An Orchid Flowering fertiliser (high in potash) will ensure a decent display in a month or so. A few of the most common questions I get on talk-back radio are about this “potash”. Question 1. “why is my fruit tree not producing any fruit?”The answer is found in the make-up of fertiliser regime: The Potash (K) is used by the plant for reproduction; it lets the plant grow Flowers and subsequently Fruit. That means that many of our flowering and fruiting plants would really appreciate a dollop of Potash in spring and early summer. I often suggest a fertiliser with a higher percentage of “K”; stuff such as Tomato fertiliser or Flowering fertiliser.The Wet & Forget “Seaweed Tea” is a liquid fertiliser that brings the potash in an easy to absorb formulation. Question 2) “Can I use the ash from my fireplace to deliver Potash?”Yes indeed you can! The origin of the word ”Pot-ash” indicates that the ashes from your fireplace and Ultra-Low Emissions Burner is quite high in Kalium (the word for “Potassium Carbonate” used in Germanic Languages in the 17hundreds).It’s a long and chemical story, but we ended up naming Kalium “potash”. The way to spread the potash over the soil underneath flower-bearing or fruit-bearing plants, shrubs or trees is literally by spreading it on a windy day when the tiny particles are dispersed. Make sure you don’t put a too heavy load on the soil, as the white powder could “set” like a very thin, brittle concrete layer. So: little bits at-a-time; and before a good rain shower would be perfect timing! The droplets will wet the potash and push it lower into the topsoil. A good dose of water from your hose will also spread it around.Potash doesn’t stay in the soil profile for very long periods of time, I understand, but 3 months is all you need for the roots to wake up in spring to start feasting on the Kalium See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One week out from the 2024 Paris Olympics, the excitement and pressure is beginning to build. There’s one person who knows those pressures well, having represented New Zealand in five Olympic Games. Dame Valerie Adams is one of the country’s most well-known athletes, a two-time Olympic gold medallist, four-time World Champion, four-time World Indoor Champion, and three-time Commonwealth Games Champion, who was virtually undefeated in shot-put. Although she’s no longer competing, Adams is going along to this year’s games as a member of the World Athletics Council, and she told Newstalk ZB’s Jack Tame that her preparations have been a little bit different. “I think the stress levels are a bit different,” Adams said. The types of stress are also different, Adams revealed, as competing has you training “pretty much at the cliff edge”, whereas in her current role, her stresses are caused by more mundane things like travel and preparing council meetings. There’s plenty of sports on offer this year, and Adams is looking forward to the intensity of basketball and the novelty of gymnastics. “And obviously, following the New Zealand crew,” Adams told Tame. New Zealand is sending 195 athletes to compete in the Games across a total of 23 sports. The Athletics team is 15-strong with “heaps of potential”, as Adams puts it, but they’re also facing quite a lot of pressure. “We’ve had a good history of bringing back medals at every Olympic Games since I competed, apart from Athens. So there is a lot of pressure on there, but so much potential.” “I hope spectators and viewers, especially us Kiwis back here supporting, remember and know and realise that everybody out there competing for our country is doing their ultimate best,” she told Tame. “Whatever the results will be, will be, and just be a bit kinder with any comments or remarks that you might want to make.” Having competed in so many high-profile events, Adams knows what it’s like to be cast into the spotlight and faced with New Zealand’s infamous ‘tall poppy syndrome’. “I know what it’s like to perform well and succeed, and I also know what it’s like to underperform and actually get ridiculed and abused for it, and then win the gold medal seven days later, and then I was a national hero.” “It’s not a good place to be.” Although being at the Games is set to stir up some nostalgia, Adams is quite sure that five was enough, and being able to make a change in her capacity as a World Athletics Council member is special as well. “You know, if you want to make change, you’ve got to be at the table, not serving coffee to people at the table.” LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Eminem’s newly released album ‘The Death of Slim Shady’ has had a mixed reception. Many critics are calling it a mixed bag, saying it feels like yet another late-period Eminem album as opposed to anything new. The Guardian’s Alexis Petridis says the album “has successes and misfires in equal measure. It’s not bad enough to count as terrible, not good enough to count as great.” Estelle Clifford joined Jack Tame to give her thoughts on the new release. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lula Deans Little Library of Banned Books by Kirstein Millar Beverly Underwood and her arch enemy, Lula Dean, live in the tiny town of Troy, Georgia, where they were born and raised. Now Beverly is on the school board, and Lula has become a local celebrity by embarking on mission to rid the public libraries of all inappropriate books—none of which she’s actually read. To replace the “pornographic” books she’s challenged at the local public library, Lula starts her own lending library in front of her home: a cute wooden hutch with glass doors and neat rows of the worthy literature that she’s sure the town’s readers need. What Lula doesn’t know is that a local troublemaker has stolen her wholesome books, removed their dust jackets, and restocked Lula’s library with banned books: literary classics, gay romances, Black history, witchy spell books, Judy Blume novels, and more. One by one, neighbors who borrow books from Lula Dean’s library find their lives changed in unexpected ways. Finally, one of Lula Dean’s enemies discovers the library and decides to turn the tables on her, just as Lula and Beverly are running against each other to replace the town’s disgraced mayor. That’s when all the townspeople who’ve been borrowing from Lula’s library begin to reveal themselves. That's when the showdown that’s been brewing between Beverly and Lula will roil the whole town...and change it forever. Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed by Maureen Callahan For decades, the Kennedy name has been synonymous with wealth, power, and—above all else—integrity. But this carefully constructed veneer hides a dark truth: the Kennedy men's legacy of physical and psychological abuse of women, part of a tradition of toxic masculinity that spans generations and has ruined untold lives. Through scandal after scandal, the family and their defenders have managed to keep this shameful story out of the spotlight. Now, in Ask Not, bestselling journalist Maureen Callahan reveals the Kennedys' hidden history of abuse and exploitation, laying bare their rampant misogyny and restoring women to the center of the dynasty's story: from Jacqueline Onassis and Marilyn Monroe to Carolyn Bessette, Mary Richardson, Rosemary Kennedy, and many others whose names aren't nearly as well known – but rightfully should be. Drawing on years of fierce reportage and written in electric prose, Ask Not is a long-overdue reckoning with this fabled American family, showing how the Kennedy myth and their raw political power has enabled the clan's many predators while also silencing generations of traumatized women and girls. At long last, Callahan also redirects the spotlight to the women in the Kennedys' orbit, paying homage to those who freed themselves—and giving voice to the countless others who could not do the same. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The more you connect, the less you connect! Over recent years explosion of technology has helped us increase our connection with others, both in local communities and around the world. Many positives come from increased social connection, but one downside is when connecting with people outside the home leads you to “phub” significant people in the home, particularly your partner. Phubbing = phone + snub. It’s where your focus on connecting via your phone causes you to snub people in your immediate surrounds. Often occurs with a partner. Partners can play a crucial role in our wellbeing including helping with better work-life balance and wellbeing. 75% of people choose to share their emotional struggles with their partner as the first port of call. Partners are usually the most available people in our home life too. Good partner support is also associated with our own career success. On the other hand, phubbing has been linked to poorer quality of relations with partner, and lowered sense of self-esteem in the partner. What can people do about it? It’s not about throwing the baby out with the bathwater – it’s still important to connect with work colleagues and share work-related stressors with them. Wherever you are – be there! If you’re at work, connect with people at work. If you’re at home, connect with people at home. Set some limits around use of phones in your relationship e.g. no phones during dinner, not using phones after a certain time at night, not using them in bed. Workplaces also have a role to play in this by setting appropriate expectations around replying to emails, messages, etc., out-of-hours. Hard to be present with your partner if your boss is messaging you demanding an immediate response! LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sunny A dark thriller about an American woman living in Japan, who after her family disappears in a mysterious plane crash, is given a robot by the technology company her husband worked for (Apple TV+). Colin from Accounts This delightful Australian comedy series about two strangers bought together after they have to care for a stray dog is back for season two (TVNZ+, July 17). Marcel the Shell with Shoes On A quirky and heartwarming stop-motion film about a tiny shell called Marcel who lives with his grandmother, and is searching for his shell family (Netflix). LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How many millionaires are there in New Zealand? Did you know that 24% of Kiwi households are millionaires? Ed McKnight didn’t! Is this stat really true? How did they get their money? LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"Athens’ rich arsenal of antiquities needs little introduction. From the emblematic glories of the Acropolis to the ancient residential neighbourhood of Plaka, history hangs heavy in the Athenian air. As the ancient cradle of Western arts, culture and democracy, there is much to digest. But it’s the Greek capital’s culinary treasures that captured my attention on my latest swing through Athens. Epic finds await the curious foodie and an in-the-know walking tour through central Athens unlocks a treasury of tastes to savour." Read Mike's full article here. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kiwi band Shapeshifter is showing no signs of stopping. They’re pioneers of one of New Zealand’s most popular music genres, carving out a niche within the DnB scene. With seven albums and four EPs, the band is celebrating 25 years of success with a tour later this year. Nick Robinson plays the bass, synth, and the MPC for Shapeshifter, and told Jack Tame that reaching 25 years is probably the proudest thing they’ve all felt. “We all respect each other so much as musicians and as friends, we’re all willing to flex, there’s no ego there,” he said. “So, I think we can sort of bounce of each other and get the best results, and you know, really sort of... it’s just been so enjoyable.” Robinson said that there’s been ups and downs throughout the 25 years they’ve been performing, but the passion and fire is still there. “We just sort of love what we do and we, we sort of love the way we’ve done it on our, on our own terms.” LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame Full Show Podcast for Saturday 13 July 2024, the pioneers of one of New Zealand's most popular music genres have been celebrating 25 years together - Nick Robinson of Shapeshifter discusses the quarter century. Jack considers the countdown on Biden's withdrawal. Blockbuster Twisters is in cinemas, and Jack recounts to Francesca Rudkin his experience chasing tornados. While Nici Wickes brings a sweet winter treat, and Jack agrees there is just something special about warm citrus in winter. Get the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame Full Show Podcast every Saturday on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Flowering and fruiting seems like a long way from now, but honestly, it’s time to get out and prune the trees that will give us our apples. There are a heap of varieties. They all taste different and ripen at different times, but when it comes to flowering and fruiting they can roughly be put into two groups: Spur-Bearing varieties and tip-bearing varieties. Why is that important? Well… if you prune the “spurs” off in winter you’ll end up with fewer flowers (hence fruit) in summer. Example: Granny Smith is a tip-bearing variety. Its flowers and fruits set at the end of the branch. When flowering you often see a configuration of flower buds that can produce as many as 5 or 6 flowers as a “cluster”. When these flowers are pollinated, each can grow into an apple. Tip-bearing variety. Photo / Supplied. The next year, when the branch extends further out it has another terminal cluster of flowers at its tip. The previous year’s swollen fruiting spur can still be found further down the branch, and it will still produce apples. Photo / Supplied. The so-called Spur-Bearing varieties have their spurs somewhere on the branch and these spurs will keep on producing fruit for a number of years. Look how easy they are to identify as the spurs: rather fat buds that really stand out on the branches. If you want to trim the branches try to cut them a centimetre or two down from those spurs, so they can keep on producing. This picture shows the early ripening variety “Initial”. It’s one of my first apples in summer. Photo / Supplied. A slightly later Apple variety (Mid-Season harvest) is Peasgood Nonsuch. It, too, is a Spur-Bearing variety and the picture (flowering profusely) shows clearly where the apples are produced on the branches. It also indicates how to create a structure of horizontal branched at regular intervals, to keep the tree growing and give the (extremely Huge) apples some space. Photo / Supplied. When it comes to shaping an apple tree after planting it in winter, you have a few great choices: “Cordons”, “Fans”, “Espalier” etc. Seeing now is the time to plant these trees, it might be a good idea to make some decisions about what your trees are going to look like. See if you can grab a copy of last June’s New Zealand Gardener where Bill Brett explains the very best ways to achieve your Apple “Look”. Just be aware that espaliered trees work best with Spur-Bearing Varieties (not the tip-bearing ones). Waimea Nursery has a good list of Spur-bearing varieties and also indicates which ones fruit early or later. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Samsung had their big mobile product launch event The sixth generation of the Fold has a much less noticeable crease in the middle of the screen. Samsung is using a new display coating. Galaxy Buds 3 - looks like the Apple EarPods got a Tesla Cybertruck styled makeover. There are some quite prominent angles! But it's the Galaxy Ring which got the headlines, the first major brand to launch what is effectively a health tracker on your finger. It comes with an accelerometer, heart rate sensor, and skin temperature sensor to allow you to track sleep, heart rate data, and activity. It comes in gold, silver, and black on a titanium frame. It is a ring though so it can't be adjusted, which is why they have a sizing kit. It'll be an Android-only product, but when connected to your phone will allow you to do a double pinch gesture to control your phone’s camera or dismiss an alarm hands-free. Texans got help tracking the power outages from an unlikely hero The "Whataburger" burger chain app turned into a lifeline for people in Houston to know where in the city had power. The app has a map feature to show all the store locations which conveniently has a feature to show which stores are open and closed. And because there are so many locations in Houston, seeing the clusters of stores closed gave a very clear visual of the power situation in the city. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Twisters Haunted by a devastating encounter with a tornado, Kate Cooper gets lured back to the open plains by her friend, Javi, to test a groundbreaking new tracking system. She soon crosses paths with Tyler Owens, a charming but reckless social-media superstar who thrives on posting his storm-chasing adventures. As storm season intensifies, Kate, Tyler and their competing teams find themselves in a fight for their lives as multiple systems converge over central Oklahoma. Ka Whawhai Tonu Set in New Zealand in 1864, follows the story of a crucial conflict of the nation's first land warfare, fought between Maori and colonial soldiers against insurmountable odds. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last month saw Northlanders cut off from the power grid due to a fallen pylon. Kevin Milne has been keeping an eye on the coverage this week, and finds Transpower’s statement about why the pylon fell rather humorous. He thinks their "It's unprecedented that so many nuts were removed at once" will be remembered like the Kiwi classic, "You have to blow on the pie." LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This pudding is just the ticket in winter! I truly love the way it is both comforting and refreshing. Serves 4 Ingredients 70g butter, melted 1 small-medium egg 1/3 cup regular white sugar 1 orange ½ cup plain flour 1 tsp baking powder 2 heaped tbsps ground almonds 1-2 tbsps milk, if needed Sauce 1 ½ cups boiling water 1/3 cup brown sugar, loosely packed 1 tablespoon butter Juice from remaining ½ orange 1 tsp cornflour Method Preheat oven to180 C. Grease a small ovenproof dish. In a bowl, whisk egg with sugar. Add in the melted butter & whisk. Blitz half the orange —skin and all— until it’s pulped then stir this in. Add in flour, baking powder and almonds. Stir until combined. Add in 1-2 tbsp milk if it’s too stiff. Scrape batter into the greased dish. In the batter bowl (scraped clean) mix the boiling water, brown sugar, butter, cornflour and juice from the remaining half orange. Gently pour this over the batter. Bake for 40 mins, or until cake bit is cooked through. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream. Make it your own Use any citrus – mandarin, lemon, tangerine For very pithy fruit, use the skin and flesh of the orange but not all the pith – too bitter LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s two weeks since Joe Biden and that disastrous debate, and still the drum steadily beats. I’m obsessed with this story. Obsessed! I think this is an absolutely monumental moment in global politics. Every morning I wake up, grab my phone, and immediately check my news apps. Is he still in the race? In a way, I suppose, you have to hand it to him and his team. Not once has Biden publicly expressed anything other than absolute total commitment to remaining the Democrats’ nominee. He knows that the moment he publicly expresses a scintilla of doubt, it’s all over. But the more I’ve reflected on that debate, the more I find the response of the White House and Biden’s supporters, kind of insulting. They’re gaslighting by trying to convince hundreds of millions of people to un-see what they saw. Don’t forget, Joe Biden asked for the debate. It was held entirely on his terms. He publicly promoted it as a moment in which he would prove to everyone he still had his edge. And in that moment, he was incoherent. So far, few of Biden’s colleagues have come out and explicitly called on him to stand down. Again, it’s gaslighting. They saw what we saw. And you just know that all of the conversations being held behind closed doors are exactly the same as this one. They just don’t want to risk their own skins. George Clooney’s op-ed was particularly devastating, this week. Not because Clooney is a Hollywood movie star, but because as someone co-ordinating fundraising campaigns worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, he thinks Biden needs to stand down. Like everything in U.S. politics, it pays to follow the money. Would you stake your fortune on Biden right now? The post-NATO press conference yesterday was the first one of its kind that Biden has held in eight months. Forget his performance. Forget his competence and comfort with foreign policy and the fact he made several gaffes with names and introductions. Eight months! The fact alone tells you more about Biden’s state and capacity than anything else you need to know. NATO is done. The Democrats convention is next month. If they’re gonna force him out, they’ve got a few weeks to act. Two weeks deep though, it’s clear this story and this issue are not going away. With every bad poll, every donor with cold feet, the pressure is sustained. And fundamentally, the news will not move on because the problem hasn’t gone away. And here’s the thing: It won’t go away. To campaign for President you have to be out in public, day after day after day. It requires vast energy. There will be more gaffes. There will be more blunders. There will be more moments of incoherence. And with every instance, voters will be left wondering… if this is Biden now… how’s he gonna be in another four years? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Best known for his career-launching band Atlas, Sean Cunningham has released a new and very personal album. The ten track album is an exploration for Sean, blending a variety of genres and sounds as he tries to figure out what his style is. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our Holiday by Louise Candlish Charlotte and Perry have owned their clifftop holiday home in Pine Ridge for years. They’ve worked hard for it – why shouldn’t they enjoy it? Even if the locals can’t afford to live in the village these days… Now city friends Amy and Matt have bought a second home nearby and when the two families descend, they plan lazy days at the beach and evenings sipping rosé and watching the sun set from Charlotte’s summerhouse veranda. But this summer is different. A group of locals – headed by the charismatic Robbie – will stop at nothing to make the second home owners pay for their holiday. By the end of their break, marriages will be torn apart, friendships shattered and crimes exposed. And one of them will have lost their life. The Haters by Robyn Harding Camryn Lane is living her dream. After years of struggle and rejection, her first novel has finally been published. Her editor is happy; her teenage daughter is proud; and her boyfriend and friends are all excited for her. She’s on top of the world—until she receives a disturbing message from an unknown sender. Rattled by the accusations she finds there, Camryn swallows the sick feeling in her stomach and resolves to put the missive out of her mind. But when she checks her ratings on a popular book site, she finds a scathing one-star review. The reviewer is so articulate and convincing that soon, Camryn’s book is flooded with bad reviews. Could the reviewer be the same person who sent the ugly email? And why do they want to ruin her? As the online harassment creeps into Camryn’s personal life, she vows to find out who’s behind it. Is it really a disgruntled reader? Or could it be someone she knows? The troll’s actions are escalating, and when the abuse turns deadly, it will take everything Camryn has to unmask the enemy so intent on destroying her—and finally learn why she's being targeted. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Madam Mack Leigh, faced with a philandering husband and a mountain of debt starts up an ethical brothel in small town New Zealand to provide for her family and put a new spin on sex and work (Three and ThreeNow). Brats Actor and director Andrew McCarthy reunites with Demi Moore, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, and Ally Sheedy in this documentary to explore what it was really like to be one of the so-called "Brat Pack” during the 1980s (Disney+). Sprint With the Olympics only a few weeks away, Netflix’s new behind the scenes documentary series takes us into the world of international athletics and follows sprinters from around the world as they compete to be the best (Netflix). LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Bikeriders Over the course of a decade, a Midwestern motorcycle club evolves from a gathering place for local outsiders to a sinister gang, threatening the original group's way of life. The Taste of Things Cook Eugenie and her boss Dodin have grown fond of one another over 20 years, and their romance gives rise to dishes that impress the world's most illustrious chefs. When Dodin is faced with Eugenie's reluctance to commit, he begins to cook for her. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.