Saturday Morning with Jack Tame

Our resident doctor Bryan Betty discusses vaping and its risks.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Severence: Patricia Arquette and Christopher Walken star in this sci-fi drama about a team of office workers whose memories have been surgically divided between their work and personal lives. When a mysterious colleague appears outside of work, it begins a journey to discover the truth about their jobs (AppleTV+). Medici: The Magnificent: A historical political drama about the House of Medici, a powerful banking dynasty that wielded great influence in 15th-century Renaissance, Florence. When an attempt on Piero de Medici’s life forces his son Lorenzo to assume leadership of the family-run bank. Lorenzo finds himself in conflict with the head of Florence’s other powerful banking family, Jacopo Pazzi (Neon). Starstruck: A second series of the delightful HBO rom-com starring and written by Rose Matafeo, who plays Jessie, a hapless millennial who hooks up with a movie star. Their worlds could not be more different, yet fate keeps bringing them together under the most extraordinary circumstances (TVNZ OnDemand).LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Grown Ups, Sushi for Beginners, Rachel’s Holiday...all book titles you’re likely to recognise from Irish author Marian Keyes. More than 30 million copies of her novels have been sold worldwide, she’s one of Ireland’s most successful authors of all time and has a reputation as one of the nicest in the business. Marian has just released her 15th novel and first ever sequel, returning to the beloved character of Rachel Walsh. The wonderful Marian Keyes joins Jack Tame.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This recipe is for anyone who a. has too many tomatoes in the garden or b. loves the taste of summer in winter or c. adores pizza and/or pasta for dinner. So, pretty much everyone then! But even if you don’t grow your own tomatoes this recipe is for you because about now toms get cheap, really cheap in your local grocers and a few kgs made into pasta sauce now, can see you through many a dark winter’s night.Makes about 5 cups2 medium onions, roughly chopped4 cloves garlic, crushed3kg ripe tomatoes, roughly choppedSmall handful fresh herbs – basil, oregano, thymeOptional – chopped courgette, capsicum, celery1-2 tsps sea salt1/2 teaspoon black pepperHeat a splash of olive oil in a large pan, pot or wok. Add all the ingredients and let it simmer for an hour covered. Uncover, add another splash of olive oil and simmer until thickened for say 20-30 more minutes. If you like a smooth sauce, blend with a stick blender or use a food processor. I blend to a chunky sauce.Transfer to containers and freeze.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

C’mon C’mon When his sister asks him to look after her son, a radio journalist embarks on a cross-country trip with his energetic nephew to show him life away from Los Angeles. The Worst Person in the World A 2021 dark romantic comedy-drama film directed by Joachim Trier about a young woman battles indecisiveness as she traverses the troubled waters of her love life and struggles to find her career path. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kevin Milne speaks to Jack Tame about how police are coping with the demonstrations at Parliament amidst claims they've "gone soft". LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I couldn’t believe it!I finished up on my Saturday radio show, last week. Cycled home. Made some lunch. Refreshed the New Zealand Herald, and whaddaya know? It was like Trevor Mallard had been listening to us all morning.The Speaker of the House was blasting protestors with Barry Manilow and the Macarena. Unbelievable. Apparently I didn’t make it clear enough in my editorial last week. I was JOKING when I suggested they hit protestors with silly music. I was joking. I never for a moment thought it would actually happen.For me, that’s been one of the interesting little hypocrisies in this whole episode. On one hand, politicians wanted to take a moralistic high ground by refusing to meet with protestors. How dare anyone dignify them with a response?! Only the moralistic high ground apparently didn’t apply to the Speaker, his sprinklers, and his irritating playlist.Trevor Mallard’s efforts can only have served to antagonise the protestors. And every bit of scorn and hate hurled upon them only reinforces their self-image. The Team of Five Million? Ha. This rabble, confused, misled, and deluded as they may be, felt well and truly left out of the Team of Five Million. They joined together to protest precisely because they felt like outsiders. They felt ostracised. Very little from the last ten days will have changed their minds.Hindsight’s 20/20. I think politicians should have found a way to reach out to the protestors much sooner. It probably wouldn’t have done much to end the protest, but some of these people have been prepared to completely alienate themselves from friends and family and the majority of our society, to lose their jobs and livelihoods over their misguided beliefs. Refusing to meet them was hardly going to make them feel any worse.Yes, there were terrible, hateful, threatening messages. As far as I’m concerned, anyone making death threats should have been arrested immediately. But in this morass of different grievances and complaints are some very reasonable and articulate concerns around extraordinary state mandates. Personally, I don’t know why any right-thinking person who was only protesting the mandates would choose to stay and be associated with someone making death threats. But the mandate issue is worthy of protest. I don’t agree with the protestors, but they do have a right to be heard.I’m very aware that many of those who want to see the protestors rounded up and arrested, whatever it takes, are the same people who supported the Black Lives Matter protests during the Level 2 lockdowns. They were prepared to break Covid laws to protest Police brutality but are now advocating for a potentially brutal police response to a group breaking Covid laws.They’re the same people who revelled in the ‘Team of Five Million’ and ‘Kindness’ messages, and the adoring international media coverage of New Zealand’s Covid-19 response. Have they actually looked at the crowd? I wonder what the headline in the New York Times wouldbe if a couple of kids were hurt in an almighty scuffle between Police and protestors on the steps of parliament.I’m no tactician, but I wonder if the best way to manage the protest is to slowly pick away at it. Police should cordon all the nearby streets. They should stop all but authorised cars from entering the area. No one can bring in tents or sleeping bags. They should target the protest organisers and arrest them one-by-one. It may take days or weeks.As with most of our Covid response, the rights and wellbeing of the majority should be prioritised. The protest should not have been allowed to grow to this size and should not be allowed to continue. Fundamentally though, when comparing an ongoing protest to the alternative, I am not convinced a potentially violent clash between protestors and Police is better for New Zealand.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Estelle Clifford gives us her rating of Mary J. Blige's new album, 'Good Morning Gorgeous'. It's the R&B star's first album since 2017.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Becoming Forrest – Rob Pope The remarkable true story of an unrivalled journey to recreate the greatest run in film history: 15,621 miles, five-times across the United States. Violeta – Isabel Allende This sweeping novel from the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea tells the epic story of Violeta del Valle, a woman whose life spans one hundred years and bears witness to the greatest upheavals of the twentieth century LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mike Yardley shares all the brews, bites and sights in Ohakune.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Relationship expert Steven Dromgool says friendship is as important as any relationship and needs to be nurtured. It means there will be times you will have to navigate conflict with your mates - how do you do that?LISTENABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I live a sheltered life! Ever since moving to Christchurch a few insect “pests” have disappeared from my life and my garden: the Passionvine hopper and the Green, stinking vegetable bug (Nezara viridula)This last character is always the one that makes gardeners excited… Just look at my diary notes on talkback callers!Green vegie bugs are sap sucking insects that arrived in NZ a long, long time ago. Their tactics are simple: stick the proboscis into plant material with lots of veins and transport tubes that are full of minerals and sugars, and you are basically mainlining your journey to adulthood.Removal of these nutritious plant foods causes deficiency symptoms: yellowing and browning, leafcurl and dieback; Muckin’ around with hypodermic needles and veins allows these bugs to become very competent vectors of all sorts of diseases and viruses and that could be the bugs big effect on plants: disease transmission!These bugs go through an interesting life-cycle, starting as young black buglets and showing different colours after every moult: some yellow bits appear and some red bits too, but generally speaking they get more and more green with every “instar”Great hosts for the green vegetable bugs are beans, corn, tomatoes, sunflower and a pretty ornamental called Cleome.They don’t seem to like “smelly” crops like onions, shallots and garlic, leeks and lavender. Smelly competition is not their gig.The world of insects is a “chemical world”; most of these invertebrates are really good at picking up smells and chemical deposits and exudates from plants and - indeed – mates! They know their environment through their noses, which are often the antennae or feelers.With Green vegetable bugs, we can use that smell detection prowess in a clever way to “control” them on our plants:1) Get out in a cool morning and locate he buggers2) Squash a few between thumb and fore-fingers. The Coriander-like smell will become quite noticeable (wear a Covid face mask??)3) Keep your eyes peeled: some of the nearby bugs are getting nervous: there’s obviously some mean “predator” nearby squashing their friends and whanau!!! Help!!!4) The neighbours drop off the plants onto the soil (in the hope that predator doesn’t see them)5) Squash those cowards too – smell increases remarkably.6) More come jumping down… keep squashing7) Etc etc – It’ll take perhaps ten minutes to literally reduce the bug population by 80 or 90 %Using the flowers of sunflowers and Cleome increases your control efficacy big time: these plants are “trap crops”, attracting the bugs in large numbers;So: start off with the 1 to 7 list on Sunflowers and Cleome and you’ll be on a winning streak.Oh and despite the faint resemblance to the smell of Coriander, I cannot recommend using the half-dead bugs in your stir-fry Indonesian meal!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Finance expert Hannah McQueen feels a financial reckoning is on its way. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Samsung's new mobile lineup is outIt's the Galaxy S22. There's the regular, plus and new ultra. The ultra replaces the Galaxy Note and still comes with the stylus. It has five cameras - more than I've ever seen on a phone - and configured in a P shape. It's got a crazy 108 Megapixel camera, and a 40 megapixel camera on the front. You're able to control every part of the camera and even get the raw files. All shoot video at 8K. There's an updated portrait mode too, including 'pet portrait'! It'll find the faces of your favorite furry friends! . The phones are getting tougher too - they're all waterproof and have gorilla glass on the front and back.Apple's trying to deter people from using Airtags maliciously Almost immediately after launch criminals started using Airtags to track then steal cars, or even track people. It's not the image Apple wants to project so they're starting to make some changes. Now when people are setting up their airtag there'll be a warning message to tell people tracking people is a crime in many parts of the world and reminds them that law enforcement can request information about who owns the airtag.Newer iPhones can also help you detect Airtags that don't belong to you.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Inventing Anna: Inspired by a true story, this American drama follows a journalist investigating the case of Anna Delvey, the Instagram-legendary heiress who stole the hearts and money of New York elites (Netflix) The Girl Before: An HBO/BBC drama that follows the story of a smart and curious PR exec who gets the chance to move into a beautiful, minimalist home designed by a supremely self-confident and enigmatic architect. Jane must adhere to peculiar house rules as stipulated by David, but a shocking discovery about the prior tenant creates an unnerving atmosphere causing Jane to question her fate (Neon). Bel-Air: Will's life is turned upside down when he goes from the streets of West Philadelphia to the gated mansions of Bel-Air in this dramatic reimagining of the iconic 90s sitcom for a whole new era. Produced by Will Smith (TVNZ OnDemand, from 14 Feb) LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Not many people can say they’re on the hit list of one the biggest global leaders in the world but Bill Browder can certainly make that claim. He became one of the biggest foreign investors in Russia after the fall of the Iron Curtain and subsequently became a target for none other than President Vladmir Putin. Bill wrote the book Red Notice which details his story and his fight to expose the Russian Government’s corruption. Jack Tame catches up with him and asks his thoughts on the latest tension between Russia and Ukraine.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Plums. They seem so quintessentially New Zealand to me. Growing up, we had a huge plum tree in our back yard that I would spend many afternoons climbing its lichen-laden branches. Collecting bucket loads of tart and juicy fruit from where they’d fallen was a summer ritual and seeing them turned into cakes, slices, sauces and more was even better. Makes 5-8 medium jars/bottles 3 kg plums, make sure you count how many you put in the pot so you know how many stones to extract! 1 kg brown sugar 1.5 litres vinegar 6 tsps salt 50g chopped ginger 3 tsps whole cloves 2 tsps whole allspice 2 tsps black peppercorns You will really need a preserving pan for this quantity but if you haven’t got one, halve the recipe and use your largest pot instead. Tie the spices in a muslin bag or a clean cut up nylon stocking is ideal. Place all ingredients in the pan and bring to the boil then simmer until the plums are all squashy. About an hour. Now the fun part - to remove all the pips (which you have counted). A lot will have floated to the top but the rest will have to be found before you blend your sauce. With a stick blender puree the sauce and bring back to the boil then simmer for a further 45 minutes or until it thickens. Bottle into sterilised jars and/or bottles. Screw on the lids.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Death on the Nile Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot's Egyptian vacation aboard a glamorous river steamer turns into a terrifying search for a murderer when a picture-perfect couple's idyllic honeymoon is tragically cut short. Torn On Oct. 5, 1999, legendary climber Alex Lowe was tragically lost alongside cameraman and fellow climber David Bridges in an avalanche on the slopes of the Tibetan mountain, Shishapangma. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Trevor Mallard asked for the sprinklers to stay on all night.The protestors are still there on the lawns of parliament. The convoy of angry and presumably damp people, with their tents and their muddled messages.I walked by the fringes of the protest yesterday. One of the men recognised me as a journo and started screaming at me in the street. He looked desperate..“There weren’t many arrests here!” He said.“You know the truth!”I pitied him.It’s true the protest only constitutes a tiny minority of New Zealanders, but only a fool wouldn’t take some of those messages seriously. Politicians and media have been threatened with lynchings. ONE News reporter Kristin Hall was told she would be executed by a woman holding a sign saying ‘Love is the answer.’ All it takes is one crazy person.Should the Police just arrest them all? It’s important to have consistency in Policing. It was a different stage of the pandemic and a different message, but Police didn’t rush in and arrest everyone at the Black Lives Matter protests. They didn’t arrest everyone who came to see Brian Tamaki in the domain. You can’t support the right to peaceful protest but only when the protestors are on your side.That being said, this is different. The moment there are death threats, it isn’t a peaceful protest. We all now how quickly a mob of disillusioned people can whip themselves into something more serious. Speaking to politicians in the Beehive yesterday, the riot at the U.S Capitol is very much front of mind. Above all, Police have to show they have the capacity and strength to defend parliament itself.This is probably the biggest test of New Zealand’s democracy since the beginning of the pandemic. Bigger than legality of public health measures and the border, the challenges over MIQ. Regardless of how it ends, the protestors will consider themselves martyrs. If they’ve lost their jobs through mandates, I suppose it’s not like they have anywhere better to be. This could go for weeks.But for what it’s worth, I don’t think Police should crack skulls to force them out. Contain them, yes. Arrest anyone who openly threatens someone or rushes the parliament buildings? Sure. But for now, we need to stay with the non-violent options.If the sprinklers didn’t work, maybe Trevor Mallard should bring in some speakers, and put the Crazy Frog song on repeat. Then, let’s cross our fingers for a good Southerly.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kevin Milne reflects on sharing a studio with some "crazy" film kids back while filming Fair Go in the late 80s and early 90s. One of those kids turned out to be Sir Peter Jackson, who's just earned a spot on Forbes' biggest earners list. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Estelle Clifford has been listening to Bastille's new album, Give Me the Future. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Travel expert Mike Yardley gives us the lowdown on all the thrills you can find in the south's Selwyn District. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Catherine Raynes has been busy reading Love Marriage by Monica Ali and A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are having a fabulous summer and where I live on the Tutukaka Coast of Northland we get lots of wonderful visitors from all over NZ. And their dogs. Now, we are dog owners and at our eco village we actually have kiwi roaming between the houses at night. Quite noisy actually, always calling for each other. There is a ‘no uncontrolled dog’ policy at the village so it was with quite a lot of trepidation that we finally got a puppy two years ago. We were still four days a week in Auckland and our daughter was a co-carer. So, we put plenty of training into her, she only stays on our section inside the village, she is on a lead walking outside our section and never outside after dark. It seems to be working well. Because I hate to say dog lovers, the main reason Kiwi are still declining in most parts of NZ is attack by dogs. Habitat destruction was a big one. Then Mustelids, ferrets, stoats, weasels and wild cats can kill 80% of kiwi chicks but once they are six months old they can defend themselves, but never against dogs. Kiwi are very smart, have strong legs and claws. They live a long time and can have more than one egg a year. The terrible 80% kill still means that kiwi could prosper if we keep dogs away Dogs can’t resist the smell of kiwi and because kiwis are flightless, they have very weak chest bones and a dog picking them up, will break their chest and they die. And even your little poodle cross can do this damage. The poodle is actually a bird dog. And once they are in a pack, yes just two dogs, look out as their behaviour can change radically It’s in their nature, you think you are taking your dog for a walk, they think they are out on a hunt. Conservation workers, who are often avid dog owners themselves have come up, with some rules for when you leave the city and are at a beach or the bush Know what dogs are doing at all times. A kiwi safe dog will be in your sight at all times and will always come straight away when called, no matter what the distraction. Now this isn’t that common for most dogs I’m afraid but you can always follow these guidelines from the Kiwi Coast organisation. Never let dogs roam uncontrolled. Unless you are in a secure fenced off dog section When out and about, keep dogs on a lead at all times. Kiwi shelter in unusual places, and can be caught and killed in seconds. Use a short non-retractable lead when walking dogs. Kiwi have been killed on roadsides by dogs walked with retractable leads. Please take special care at night. Keep dogs confined and accompany them on a lead if they need to go outside. Consider using a muzzle - they are easy to use and effectiveThe good news is that here on the Eastern Cost of Northland kiwi are off the endangered list, and are in fact expanding so that the current challenge is making special wildlife corridors to join up the different areas You are welcome to visit us, just control your dog. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bob Campbell has been making the most of New Zealand Pinot Gris, which he says has never been better! His best buy pick this week is the Mount Brown 2021 Pinot Gris from North Canterbury, for $16 a bottle. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Always a bit of a bummer when you grow tomatoes: Blight is one of those diseases that can cause a lot of damage and quickly.Two varieties: early blight (Alternaria solani) and late blight (Phytophthora infestans). This last species is a close relative of the famous potato disease that cause massive potato crop losses in Europe, especially Ireland, which led to the horticultural Refugee movement and the run to the New Americas.First of all: “early” and “late” are not sound diagnostic names for the disorders, as both can be “late and “early” respectively.Alternaria can be identified by its leaf-spotting, and associated rots on developing fruit, especially at the distal end (non-stalk end)Phytophthora has characteristic lesions on the base of the plant – often on the lowest parts of the main stem, just above the soil. The stem looks black and often “narrower” in patches.Later that develops into a more obvious symptom whereby the leaves start to droop, go yellow and often shrivel up. By then it might be too late to save the plant.With both blight species it s best to prevent an infection before it gets that far:1) Keep your plants pruned from the bottom leaves upward. Every time you take the laterals off, check if you can prune the bottom leaves off, so they are not in contact with the soil.2) Prune those leaves on a dry day – and clean your secateurs regularly3) Water the plants by depositing the water on the ground/soil, NOT on the leaves and especially avoid wetting the bottom leaves4) Every now and then spray the leaves with a copper spray solution (Copper Oxychloride or liquid copper) or a regular fungicide (Fungus fighter – myclobutanil etc); the copper acts as a preventative barrier and the fungicides have some systemic action that can fight the infection from inside the plant tissue5) Regularly feed the plants (liquid fertiliser – seafood soup/seaweed tea), which will give them resistance.6) Don’t grow tomatoes in the same spot year after year – change position in your garden; in glass houses or tunnel houses change the soil mix every other year or so, creating a fresh growing soil from time to timeLISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Do you remember the moment history was made for New Zealand in tennis at the Tokyo Olympics last year?Marcus Daniell and Michael Venus won the bronze medal in doubles - the first medal in tennis for our country. Marcus is just as successful off the court as on it. The 32-year-old is has recently been named the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year. Previous winners include the likes of Nelson Mandela and Roger Federer. Jack Tame catches up with him.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Meta / Facebook now holds the record for the largest single-day loss ever by a US company It said goodbye to $230 billion in value. There are three big reasons why... For the first time, Facebook's daily active users went down by 1 million in North America - which is bad news because Facebook's revenue per user is highest in North America. Basically, the kids don't think it's cool anymore and TikTok is taking people away. But also...Apple's changes to allow users to prevent apps from tracking them is expected to cost Facebook $10 billion in revenue. If they don't know where you are, what shops you're visiting and who you're spending time with, then their ads can't be as targeted. It's also pouring money into the metaverse - spending $10 billion on it last year. But the metaverse is still just a VR concept that isn't yet fully baked or ready for mass adoption. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Reacher: A must-watch for fans of the Lee Child best-selling novels. This new crime thriller follows Jack Reacher, a veteran military police investigator, who has recently entered civilian life when he is falsely accused of murder (Amazon Prime Video). Rules of the Game: A British drama set in a small family-run business, where a series of historic misconduct cases are unearthed with dramatic consequences (TVNZ OnDemand) Pam and Tommy: Lily James stars in this drama that follows the story of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee's relationship, going back to their whirlwind romance that started with them marrying after only knowing each other for 96 hours in 1995 (Disney+). LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This salad is full of texture and flavour and it is glorious. The components are cooked separately then thrown together just before serving – YUM. Serves 2-4 2 medium sized eggplants, sliced into 2cm thick rounds 4 tbsps olive oil 2 red capsicums, halved and de-seeded 2 handfuls green beans, chopped and blanched ½ cup roasted peanuts Handful fresh coriander Dressing ½ cup plain, unsweetened yoghurt Lemon juice Juice + zest from half a lemon ¼ cup good quality olive oil Pinch chilli ½ tsp sea salt Decent grind black pepper Brush eggplant slices with oil, sprinkle with salt and grill until browned on one side, turn and cook second side until soft and cooked through. Place in large mixing bowl. Rub capsicum halves with olive oil, place cut side down on tray and grill on high until skin is blistered and blackened in places. Cover with tea towel, set aside for 10 minutes or until cool enough to handle before peeling off skin and discard. Slice flesh into strips and add to eggplant. Simmer green beans in salted water until just cooked, drain and refresh in ice cold water – this keeps the colour. Pat dry and add to eggplant and capsicum. Add peanuts and coriander. Whisk yoghurt, lemon juice & zest, olive oil, chilli, salt and pepper. Taste and season with more juice or seasonings to taste. Using your hands, gently toss cooked vegetables and tumble out onto serving dish or into individual bowls. Drizzle with a few tablespoons of dressing, serving remaining on the side.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Movie reviewer Francesca Rudkin has been watching Belfast and Moonfall, as well as the documentary on MMA and kickboxing fighter Mark Hunt, called The Fight of his Life.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kevin Milne has been dealing with the question of ALL questions this week - how long will I live? He's stumbled upon Statistic New Zealand's calculator that can work out how long you are likely to live. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For those of us who live in New Zealand, MIQ has been pretty bloody good.Not perfect, no. But good enough to keep out the worst of the virus for the best part of two years. Of course, for New Zealanders based overseas who’ve wanted to get home, the experience has been pretty different. As New Zealand citizens, most of our opinions have been informed by our own individual experiences. If you’ve been separated from a loved one, or been denied precious moments with new or dying family members, the cruelty of the MIQ lottery system will stick in your throat. It’ll be a defining memory of the pandemic. But the truth is, MIQ is still running today because it’s popular. A majority of New Zealanders, most of whom are in the country, think the MIQ lottery is necessary for their own protection.If nothing more, the Charlotte Bellis fiasco has probably hastened the end of MIQ for most people arriving in New Zealand.But the end of the MIQ lottery is only one piece of the puzzle that needs to be sorted for New Zealand’s reconnection with the World. And for all the clarity around different dates for different travellers, the new Tourism New Zealand campaign that’s been launched overseas, and the end of MIQ, there is still one massive hurdle at the border.New Zealand won’t be in a position to properly reconnect with the world until we no longer have a requirement for extended at-home isolation.If you were a fully-vaccinated international arrival landing in Sydney this afternoon, you’d be expected to go home, self-isolate, and take a rapid antigen test. Once you’d received a negative result, you wouldn’t have to isolate any longer. You’d be good to go! For a week, you’d just have to avoid high risk places (rest homes, prisons, hospitals etc), before taking another rapid antigen test on day six.I’m not saying we should be New South Wales... yet. Australia’s at least a couple of months ahead of us with Omicron. We’re still waiting for the big surge.But the self-isolation requirements announced by the Government this week, where all new arrivals are treated as close contacts, will be a significant disincentive to people who want to travel to New Zealand.So what?! You might argue. It keeps us safe! Perhaps.But when we look back at 2022, something tells me Omicron isn’t the thing that will have caused the most pain. Especially if most of us have received our booster shots.No, INFLATION will be the word of 2022.And removing as many barriers at the border as possible for workers and tourists alike, is one of the few things we can do to try and slow it down.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mike Yardley has a tip or two about Westport. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Good SonWhat do you do when the person you love best becomes unrecognisable to you? For Thea, the answer is simple and agonising: you keep loving him somehow. Stefan was just seventeen when he went to prison for the murder of his girlfriend, Belinda, a crime he has no memory of committing. Three years later, he’s released to a world that refuses to let him move on. RenegadesRENEGADES: Born in the USA chronicles the conversation Obama and Springsteen began in their popular Spotify podcast of the same name, adding exclusive stories and ruminations about life, music, and their enduring love of America.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our relationship expert Steven Dromgool shares his tips on how to have a happy Valentine's Day.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’re used to specific sounds in the garden; Don’t know what it’s like at your place, but we’ve heard ONE cicada so far in our garden on the Port Hills; Reasons: 3-, 5- or 7-year lifecycles determine the numbers of cicadas out – it you keep a diary you’ll find out that “good years” return 5 years later, when it comes to chorus cicada or “clapping cicada Three years ago, it was bedlam here and on Banks Peninsula, so expect another good year in 2024. Dry soils make it difficult for cicadas to emerge from the soil; after a good shower of rain those waiting might still make it. Each district has its own peaks and troughs in population numbers What you will hear all over the Northern part of NZ (roughly from CHC north) is the Katydid Caedicia simplex. This is a species we share with Australia Males make noise (not by rubbing their legs!!) by scraping one wing cover over the other – a bit like a file (or comb) rubbed by a sharp object. “Dzzzitsss” is the sound in the afternoon and evening Two slits on the front legs can “listen” to these sounds – they pick up exactly where their mate is. Stereo listening! Ironically, we can’t really do that as well, as the sound of a katydid appears to come from a different place every time: they are ventriloquists (so predators can’t easily find them) LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Apple's Christmas quarter was quite the gift$124 billion in revenue - that's up 11% on the past year; $35 billion in profit.They've been hit by chip shortages, and have been forced to prioritize giving chips to iPhones over iPads.They also revealed there are 1.8 billion active Apple devices in the world. For comparison, Google says there are over 3 billion Android devices in its Google Play Store ecosystem. Twitter shuts down a Wordle spoilerWordle - the puzzle game where users are given six tries to guess a five letter word - has taken the world by storm. it was made by Josh Wardle for his friends and family but it's taken off since it was made public in October. People are taking to social media to post how they're getting on with their puzzle which has annoyed some - so much so that one person has taken it upon themselves to build a bot to find those who are sharing their progress and ruin tomorrow's word for them."People don't care about your mediocre linguistic escapades." Twitter has decided it's in breach of their 'unsolicited mentions' rule, and so have blocked it. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Trigger Point: Jed Mercuio's new crime thriller that might just fill the Line of Duty hole in your lives. It follows Lana Washington, an experienced bomb disposal officer working for the Metropolitan Police, as she deals with a series of terrorist attacks across London. (TVNZ OnDemand) The Gilded Age: Calling all Downton Abbey fans! Julian Fellows’s new historic drama is set in 1882 America and follows a young woman who moves to New York City to live with her aunts. Exposed to an exciting new world on the brink of the modern age, will Marian follow the established rules of society or forge her own path? (Neon). The Sinner: Detective Harry Ambrose investigates various atrocious murder cases and tries to analyse the reasons behind ordinary people committing heinous crimes. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Niva and Yotam Kay run Pakaraka Permaculture in Thames on the Coromandel Peninsula. Their mission... Accelerating the transition to a regenerative, organic and just food system. But what exactly is permaculture and how do this pair grow over 10-thousand kgs of food a season on just one-third of an acre of land? Niva and Yotam chat to Jack Tame about getting their hands dirty for future generations.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you’re a gardener you’ll know that once courgettes start fruiting, they don’t know when to stop and lovely little courgettes can turn into clumsy marrows over lunchtime! So, to use up surplus I urge you to bake this cake – it’s divine.Makes 20cm cake2 tablespoon fine ground polenta (can use ground almonds)130g butter, softened100g sugar2 eggs130g flour1 tsp baking powder½ tsp baking soda1 cup grated courgette (about 2-3 courgettes, squeeze some of juice out½ cup raisins½ cup ripe peach or nectarine slices to serve1. Heat oven to 180C fan. Grease and line 20cm round cake and dust with polenta.2. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time beating thoroughly in between. Fold in flour, baking powder, baking soda, courgette and raisins and mix to combine. Scrape into tin and bake for 30-40 mins or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Cool.3. Ice (or not) and serve with sliced fresh peaches or nectarines.Drizzly cream cheese icing1 cup cream cheese1 cup icing sugar1 tsp vanillaBeat together until combined.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Movie reviewer Chris Schulz give his hot takes on Spencer, starring Kristen Stewart and American biographical film, Through the Eyes of Tammy Faye. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was a summer holiday on borrowed time.You’ve gotta admit, it’s pretty remarkable we made it this far without Omicron sweeping through. New Zealand enjoyed Christmas without widespread community transmission. Despite DJ Dimension, we made it through the New Year and most of January. But I think we can all see the end is nigh. It’s quite feasible that by this time next week, our Omicron daily case numbers will be in the thousands.Timing is everything in the Covid-19 response. In December, opposition MPs wanted the borders opened to people travelling from so-called low-risk countries, including Australia, so long as they’d had two vaccinations, tested negative before travelling, and were prepared to isolate at home. You can only imagine how much faster the new variant would have been circling here.All up, the hesitance to relax border restrictions probably bought us six weeks. Time for summer holidays, sure, but time also for a lot of Kiwis to receive their booster jabs.Unfortunately, I’m not one of them. Because I was in Group 4, even though I got my first and second vaccines as soon as I possibly could, I don’t qualify for a booster until after Waitangi Day. That means I won’t benefit from the full effect of the booster shot until the last week of February. Again, timing is everything! If the original vaccine rollout had come just a little bit sooner, me, and hundreds of thousands of other New Zealanders would have the chance to be much more protected against this variant before we hit thousands of daily cases.I think the government deserves a serve for the Rapid Antigen Test debacle. I understand the theory behind wanting to control the limited stocks. They want to make sure everyone has access regardless of where they are in the country. Theoretically they can control the supply to different regions depending on where the outbreak is flaring up. All that stuff makes sense.But a more prudent approach would have meant we could do both. We’d have enough public tests available for everyone who needed one, and businesses that wanted to be extra cautious could use their own private supplies for maintenance testing their staff. The government is effectively pushing in the queue and bullying out private orders. What’d I say? Timing. It wouldn’t have been necessary if the Ministry of Health had acquired more tests, earlier.In the long run though these are probably not the things that will stick in our minds, or the things by which we will judge the Omicron response. In all likelihood, tens or hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders are about to contract the virus. It’ll be our biggest infection since start of the pandemic. Maybe our biggest ever. The most important measure will be how New Zealand manages the surge of cases. Can we keep the pot on a gentle simmer, protecting our healthcare services? Or will it boil and bubble and overflow?There’s reason to be optimistic. We’re a highly-vaccinated society. The New York Times reported this week that people who’ve been double-vaccinated and boosted face a greaterrisk by getting in a car than they do from Omicron. That doesn’t mean everyone is protected. But if we’re able to manage Omicron, provided there are no new strains... there can be few sensible arguments from stopping New Zealanders abroad from finally coming home. Dare we cross our fingers and hope this might be the beginning of the end?LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kevin Milne tells Jack Tame that he's found his new favourite collective noun.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our music reviewer Estelle Clifford has been having fun listening to Aussie band Lime Cordiale and British actor Idris Elba's collaborative mini-album, Cordi Elba. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mike Yardley has got your road trip stops sorted for Selwyn's Great Alpine Highway - the route between Canterbury and the West Coast.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Exit 45 – Ben Sanders Marshall Grade returns in an action-packed thrill ride through the New York underworld. When a former NYPD colleague is shot dead in front of him, private investigator Marshall Grade discovers there's far more to the killing than meets the eye. Vanderbilt’s - Anderson Cooper & Katherine Howe New York Times bestselling author and journalist Anderson Cooper teams with New York Times bestselling historian and novelist Katherine Howe to chronicle the rise and fall of a legendary American dynasty—his mother’s family, the Vanderbilts. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our eco-man Malcolm Rands has been thinking about New Year resolutions you can actually keep that will help our planet:Each New Year many of us make grand resolutions for the coming year. What if these resolutions were actually climate friendly actions that were easy to keep?It’s not all about sacrificeSometimes we look at the activists that are doing extreme and energy draining activities and although these people need to be applauded, we don’t have to go there. Focus on the impact of your actions rather than the efforts. Some are actually very easy. change your power company or KiwiSaver , boycott an climate destroying brand and let them know why, email your MP. it’s all about the impact of these actions rather than the effortHave funThe climate emergency can keep you up at night with worrying. But we have to find friendship, love, pleasure, and laughter not just alongside our efforts on climate, but ideally as an integral part of them. The good news is that whether it’s riding a bike or attending a protest, there are so many sources of joy to be had that it’s hard to know where to start.You are not aloneWe are lucky in NZ to have quite a communal culture. Don’t think of your actions as an individual taking on the big powers but rather a boycott by you and your friends and family. If you want more partners there are many organisations you can join and be part of a team. Maybe one day you and your best friend may end up, handcuffed to the gates of a agrochemical plant togetherBe kind to yourself and even the so-called othersGuilt is a terrible emotion and can drive many peoples actions. The other side of this is shame, and shaming others. This can cause you to loose your power and just alienate people. Be careful to identify who is really responsible for the climate emergency, for example just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions, so let’s not point the finger at each other. We can however boycott those companies and get them to change.Systems thinkingIt’s not all about your individual actions, or what government and industry are doing. It’s a combination of all. But you can look at the systems in your life to make things easier to do the right thing. Yes still pressure for that bike lane and also look at the barriers that are stopping you. Have you got all weather clothes, is the bike easy to access at your home or is it even the best bike for the task.The same is true of almost any climate-friendly behaviour we might want to adopt. Stop berating yourself for not doing it. Instead, examine what holds you back, and then change it.With all New Years resolutions, it is often the small and numerous ones that happen whilst the big challenging change of life stuff, often doesn’t even last to the end of JanuaryLISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Since we started summer (solstice on the longest day of 21st of December, last year) we’ve basically “turned the corner”. The “longest day” was not really the longest day here in Christchurch (but a few days later), but the point is that from now on our days are getting shorter – very slowly. Once we get to mid-to-late February the shortening will speed up and reach its fastest downhill trend of the year… This website shows that in nice little, interactive graphs – I love that stuff! Why bring this topic up on this radio segment? Well…nature responds quite rapidly and accurately to these changes in daylight length and especially gardeners see the effects every year. Plants are pretty good at “working” with their day-length conditions: In spring, when days get longer and soil warms up (the sun gets higher in the sky too, warming up the soil more efficiently due to the higher angle of solar radiation) most plants “wake up” from winter. Roughly: plants start to notice that around late August, early September Growth commences and new leaves are formed…followed by flower buds. Later in Sept and in October a lot of flowers appear (synchronised with the arrival of pollinators, bumblebees, native bees, flies, beetles, moths etc). It’s the time for pollination and spectacular flowers everywhere This continues till solstice. Then it’s the time for consolidating the fertilised flower’s journey into seed-setting. Generally speaking, late summer and autumn are the periods of the year when plant stop forming flower buds and concentrate on producing seed and fruit and nuts and helicopter-winged botanical toys. The thistles on the paddocks outside out house produce huge numbers of fluffy flying seeds; the barley grass produces the barley-like “ears” that stick into your socks … and skin This answers a lot of questions about plants not growing well or not making flowers or setting seeds and fruits; there is a time for these productive cycles and once you’re past that there is little you can do to make the plant grow flowers… generally speaking. Ha! What about artificially lengthening the day-light to trick plants to believe it’s spring? That’s exactly what flower growers do in glass houses and tunnel houses. Controlled climate and controlled lighting systemsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Finance expert Hannah McQueen says to strap in as inflation is going to be a big issue this year. It’s currently sitting at almost five percent and the signs are indicating it’s going to go higher still when the next lot of figures are released next week.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.