Saturday Morning with Jack Tame

You might remember the story of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post reporter killed in a grisly manner by operatives of the Saudi royal family. It sounds wild, but last week a US intelligence report was released, showing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman himself had approved Khashoggi's murder. The killing is the basis of a new documentary by Bryan Fogel .. who is the director of Icarus .. The Oscar winning doco about the Russian doping scandal. His new film is called The Dissident. Bryan joins Jack Tame to talk about the film.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Trapped: An Icelandic crime-drama series following a police department as they try to uncover a mystery in a fjord nearby a small Icelandic town (TVNZ OnDemand) Last Chance U: Basketball: the latest season of this sport documentary series takes an honest and gritty look inside the world of community college basketball (Netflix). Finding Joy: a second season of the Irish sitcom about a woman dealing with a messy breakup who must take on a new work assignment that forces her to look for happiness in the most unusual places (Acorn TV).See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A sponge pudding brings such comfort on a cold night and I adore the flavour combo of figs with honey and ginger! Serves 6 8-12 fresh figs, halved 90g honey 50g butter 150g softened butter ½ cup caster sugar 2 eggs 1 tsp lemon zest 150g plain flour 1 ½ tsp baking powder 2 tsps ground ginger Custard, cream or ice cream to serve Preheat oven to 180 °C and grease a deep ceramic pudding dish. Gently melt the honey and butter in a heavy based frying pan. Add the fig halves and toss them to coat in the buttery honey mixture and cook for one minute. Pour off syrup into a ceramic dish. Beat second measure of butter with sugar pale and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating in before each addition. Add the lemon zest then sift in flour, baking powder and ground ginger and mix to combine. Spoon batter over syrup the ovenproof dish. Press figs into the mix, cut side up. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden and sponge is cooked through.. Serve warm spoonfuls with lots of runny custard, or cream, or ice cream, or all three!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nomadland A woman in her sixties who, after losing everything in the Great Recession, embarks on a journey through the American West, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad. Gaza (documentary) A portrait of a people attempting to lead meaningful lives against the rubble of perennial conflict and going beyond the reach of television news reports to reveal a world rich with eloquent and resilient characters. Judas and The Black Messiah Offered a plea deal by the FBI, William O'Neal infiltrates the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party to gather intelligence on Chairman Fred Hampton. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kevin Milne has discovered an old menu he kept from the legendary Wellington cafe, the Green Parrot, which he assumes is from the 1970s. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

House prices in New Zealand increased last month by more than any other month in the last 25 years. More than any other month since March, 1996.Just think about that. We’ve had a residential housing crisis for years. House prices have been rising and rising and rising. We have our borders closed, our single-biggest export industry has been turned off and shutdown overnight. And yet... with inflation pouring into asset prices, median house prices increased more last month than in any other month since Braveheart won best picture at the Oscars.According to the Real Estate Institute, the median house prices in Wellington and Auckland increased by about $100 thousand dollars in February. The median price in Porirua – Porirua! – increased more than $270 thousand. Ten thousand dollars a day.When I hear those kind of numbers, I have a couple of reactions. Selfishly, I feel grateful that I have the security of already owning my own place. Secondly, I feel for people who don’t, and who’ve just seen their deposit requirements increase by tens of thousands of dollars.But most of all I wonder this: how will this end?Three years ago, Labour came to power promising to address the housing crisis. They failed. Kiwibuild was a disaster. House prices increased 27% in their first term before this even-crazier spike. They didn’t introduce any tax changes policies that meanfully changed the equation. No person in a position of political leadership publicly supported any policy that would significantly reduce house prices.And truthfully, that was the time to do it. I’m talking about the difference between policies that would simply slow price inflation and policies that actually go further and reduce property value. I accept that introducing dramatic changes now and wiping 15 or 20 percent off house values could be disastrous for our economy in what is already a temultuous moment. Cliches abound, but the horse has bolted. There is no putting the genie back into the bottle. You can reform the RMA and address supply-side issues. You can call on the Reserve Bank to consider loan-to-debt ratios and limits on interest-only loans. But it’s too late. House prices are already way too expensive.So. Back to my question.How will this end? What’s the end game for a nation with some of least affordable housing in the world, where according to the ASB Housing Confidence Survey, a record 73% of people expect house prices will keep rising over the next year? I will repeat this again. Last month, the median house price in Porirua increased ten thousand dollars a day. Nothing against Porirua, but does that sound right and balanced, to you?At some point there has to be a correction. Our politicians might not be prepared to take on the middle-aged voters who own all the assets, but corrections take many forms.Regardless of whether you own property or not... this will affect you. It will affect all of us.I worry it will be very ugly, indeed.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Estelle Clifford has been listening to the new Kings of Leon album, When You See Yourself. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Book reviewer Catherine Raynes has been reading The Wrong Family by Tarryn Fisher and The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin.LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Relationships expert Steven Dromgool has been explaining the three love lessons to learn by 25. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s been a long time since Crowded House did a full tour, so what’s a few more days? The band was due to reform for a tour starting this week, but the first few dates have been postponed (cheers COVID). Devising a tour during a pandemic isn’t the only thing they’ve been working on, the band is also about to release its first album in over a decade ‘Dreamers are Waiting’. Neil Finn has been talking to Jack Tame. Click here for tour datesLISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our resident traveller Mike Yardley has been on a city break in Palmerston North. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bob Campbell's Best Buy for the weekend is the Torea 2018 Pinot Noir, Martinborough $18.99.LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Composting I have a new compost bin, designed and made in NZ by the Carbon Cycle people. Their idea is to make good-looking bins that are so elegant that you don’t need to “hide” your bin, somewhere in a dark corner of the garden. And that means you use it more and make it your pride and joy. I also reckon that if you have a good system and good set of bins, you can create enough carbon “credits” to allow you to fly the odd sectors on your favourite airline. Hedge stems and branches = Carbon Hedge leaves/foliage = Nitrogen Lawns/grass blades = Nitrogen Firewood and wood chips = Carbon Weed rough stems and hard roots = Carbon/foliage mostly Nitrogen Sawdust from the odd DIY job = Carbon Twigs and branches = Carbon Carbon to Nitrogen ratio is crucial for good composting. Carbon to nitrogen should be about 30:1 in mass.If you have far too much lawn clippings, your compost will get wet, dark green and slimy. Too much Carbon (and no Nitrogen), the woodchips/branches/twigs/stems will not break down I love the bins, simply for the brilliant biodiversity, especially invertebrates. These critters simply do not know the concept of “waste". They all have a job to do in the recycling process. Maggots (N) Wood borers (C) Slaters (C) Millipedes (shredders of N) Molluscs (N raspers)Beetles (do all sorts of things – can even be predators and fungal consumers)Springtails (run the finishing school of compost making – they prepare the friable black stuff) Earthworms (transporters of all the best organic matter down into the soil. But I am not someone who walks around with just invertebrate-eyes. Compost is also made by Bacteria and such small organisms And most of all: fungi! After all some fungi literally soften up all the hard ingredients (bark, timber, hard-wood, nuts etc) so it can be broken down by other organisms (often insects). The number of species of fungi that can be involved is absolutely stunning. Inside a compost bin there are sooo many fungal species and each one does its job at the certain moment of compost developmen. This is why I always keep a good chunk of old compost in my bin when I start a new cycle: keep the spores in the system, together with things like insect eggs and pupae. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Twitter’s rolling out “Super Followers” Imagine getting exclusive Jack Tame content via Twitter for $4.99 a month. A Jack Tame supporter badge could be added to your profile, with exclusive content, super follower only newsletters, special deals and access to the Jack Tame community. It’s a way to give back to creators you enjoy and keep those creators on the Twitter platform. Twitter has also announced “communities” which you can join and follow, like Facebook Groups. Both features are still to launch, but last time Twitter talked about subscription products and pro features their stock price jumped. It seems this is where the analysts want Twitter to go. Zoom meetings get accessible Captions are coming to all accounts - including free accounts. You’ll be able to enable live ai generated closed captions. It’s a feature their pro accounts have had for a while and brings them up to parity with Google’s Hangouts. It’s a great feature for folks who are hard of hearing, but also for those who multi-task. If you miss what someone said, thankfully there’s a slight delay in the caption and you can catch the question on screen - perhaps that tip comes from personal experience! Lyft has reinvented.. calling a taxi Not everyone has a smartphone, but lots of people need rides. So what do you do? You use your phone to call Lyft and sort out a ride. Yes, Lyft has reinvented calling the taxi company. They're trialing the service in Florida where there is a significant older population. They'll quote you an up front price, then when you book you'll get text updates with the status of the ride. What's old is new again! LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National Treasures: Scotty and Stacey Morrison are joined by a panel of experts as they search for objects and taonga significant to New Zealand’s history (TVNZ 1, Sunday 8.30pm) Zero Zero Zero: an Italian crime drama television series that follows the journey of a cocaine shipment, from the moment a powerful cartel of Italian criminals decides to buy it until the cargo is delivered and paid for, passing through its packaging in Mexico and shipment across the Atlantic Ocean (Neon). Back: A British sitcom starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb about a man set to take over the reins of the family business after his father’s death, until his plans are threatened by the arrival of a foster brother he has completely forgotten about (S1 TVNZ OnDemand, S2 Comedy Central, Tuesdays 9.40).LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nici’s Amazing Tomato Sauce Hot chips and homemade tomato sauce. Does it get any better? This rich tomato sauce is absolutely fabulous and I make a batch every year, some for my pantry, some for gifts. Makes about 2 litres 2kg fresh tomatoes, chopped roughly 400g can crushed tomatoes 2 large apples, chopped roughly 2 large onions, chopped roughly 1 cup brown sugar 1 cup white or raw sugar 1 cup malt vinegar 1 cup apple cider vinegar 1 cup red wine vinegar 2 tablespoons salt 1 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon ground all spice ½ teaspoon ground cloves Bring all the ingredients to the boil in a large pot and simmer it vigorously for about 2 hours until it is completely pulpy and it ought to have thickened a bit by then too. In batches, put it through a blender until smooth. Try not to over blend as it will lighten the colour to an orange hue. Sterilise bottles or jars by heating in an oven set at 100 C for 15 minutes. Pour hot sauce into hot bottles and jars and seal with lids. Wipe clean and cool. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Movie reviewer Francesca Rudkin has been watching Kiwi film Cousins, and new animated movie Raya and the Last Dragon. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kevin Milne's had a win at the dry cleaner this week. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The estate for Doctor SeussHas made a public call It’ll keep publishing his booksBut it won’t publish them all. Six different titles Will no longer be dispersed. But is it a reasonable reaction? Or cancel culture at its worst?In case you missed it between the raging pandemic and urgent warnings over potential tsunamis, the second highest-earning dead celebrity has caused a few ructions this week. The company that manages the catelogue for Dr Seuss has announced it will no longer continue to publish six of his titles because they contain racist or insensitive imagery. Of the books that will no longer be published, the only ones I recognised were To Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street, and If I ran the Zoo. All the other real Dr Seuss classics – Greens Eggs and Ham etc – will continue to be published.Of course, those on the frontlines of the Twitter culture wars haven’t wasted time seizing upon the decision and working themselves into a state. Some politicians in the U.S say Dr Seuss is being cancelled. Others say Dr Seuss was racist.I think you always have to consider these things in the time and context in which they were created. Times change. People change. Attitudes change. Values change. Standards change. So, for example, if a white person dressed in black face make up at a party twenty years ago, I don’t think they should be judged strictly by the standards of today. People should be allowed to change. I think some modern outrage neglects to recognise the context in which people made decisions.It applies for dress-up parties, and it applies for artists. It applies for Dr Seuss. I don’t think he was deliberately trying to impart lazy racial tropes or images upon the World’s children. If he submitted those books for publishing today, I doubt the publishers would accept them. But like all of us, I think he was a product of his time. I’m sure there are plenty of artists working today whose work we’ll look back on in years to come, and think... whoa... actually, that wasn’t very cool.I also think that as far as problematic racial images go, Dr Seuss’ picutres were hardly the most offensive or damaging slights known to the literary World. Yep, Dr Seuss has been published extensively. Yep, I understand there is a collective weight to stereotypes when they’re repeated in society often enough. But perspective is valuable, and sometimes the term ‘racist’ becomes a binary label for historical figures. They’re either racist or they’re not.Last month, the San Francisco School Board announced dozens of schools should be renamed because they celebrated problematic racist historical figures. Among those to be renamed: schools named after Abraham Lincoln. That’s ludicrous, obviously. And it’s the sort of thing creates false equivalencies, gets disproportionate media attention, and undermines the greater effort to address racial injustice. Of course there are now plenty of people who say that this is an open-shut case of books being banned. It’s not. No censor has stepped in and said children can’t read these Dr Seuss titles. There isn’t a Seussian bonfire being lit outside of Wellington’s poor old public library. They’re just not going to continue to publish a few of his books. Most of them, I’m guessing, you didn’t even know existed. If you really want to read them, you can. If you have these books at home, and you think showing your kids the offending images and using them as a learning opportunity is a better way to handle this kind of thing, that’s totally fine. The problem with the culture wars Is everything becomes a fight And if Dr Seuss were alive today He’d say this issue isn’t black and white. In the author’s mighty legacy This is just a little quirk Regardless of whether those books caused much offense, They weren’t the Doc’s best work.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hayley Williams is the lead singer of American band Paramore, and she’s just released her second solo album, Flowers for Vases.Music reviewer Estelle Clifford has been taking a listen.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Land, Simon WinchesterIn 1889, thousands of hopeful people raced southward from the Kansas state line and westward from the Arkansas boundary to stake claims on the thousands of acres of unclaimed pastures and meadows. Across the twentieth century, water was dammed and drained in Holland so that a new province, Flevoland, rose up, unchartered and requiring new thinking. In 1850, California legislated the theft of land from Native Americans. An apology came in 2019 from the governor, but what of the call for reparations or return? What of government confiscation of land in India, or questions of fairness when it comes to New Zealand's Maori population and the legacy of settlers?The ownership of land has always been complicated, opaque, and more than a little anarchic when viewed from the outside. In this book, Simon Winchester explores the the stewardship of land, the ways it is delineated and changes hands, the great disputes, and the questions of restoration – particularly in the light of climate change and colonialist reparation.A global study, this is an exquisite exploration of what the ownership of land might really mean – not in dry-as-dust legal terms, but for the people who live on it.A Town Called Solace, Mary LawsonA Town Called Solace–the brilliant and emotionally radiant new novel from Mary Lawson, her first in nearly a decade–opens on a family in crisis: rebellious teenager Rose been missing for weeks with no word, and Rose’s younger sister, the feisty and fierce Clara, keeps a daily vigil at the living-room window, hoping for her sibling’s return.Enter thirtyish Liam Kane, newly divorced, newly unemployed, newly arrived in this small northern town, where he promptly moves into the house next door–watched suspiciously by astonished and dismayed Clara, whose elderly friend, Mrs. Orchard, owns that home. Around the time of Rose’s disappearance, Mrs. Orchard was sent for a short stay in hospital, and Clara promised to keep an eye on the house and its remaining occupant, Mrs. Orchard’s cat, Moses. As the novel unfolds, so does the mystery of what has transpired between Mrs Orchard and the newly arrived stranger.Told through three distinct, compelling points of view–Clara’s, Mrs. Orchard’s, and Liam Kane’s–the novel cuts back and forth among these unforgettable characters to uncover the layers of grief, remorse, and love that connect families, both the ones we’re born into and the ones we choose. A Town Called Solace is a masterful, suspenseful and deeply humane novel by one of our great storytellers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s a feathered frenzy of preening birds, theatrical mating rituals and rampant adultery. Pinned to the ocean edge of Cape Kidnappers, it’s the largest and most accessible mainland gannet colony in the world. Its very name is steeped in historic drama, stemming back to Captain Cook’s visit in 1769 and the young Tahitian he had on board the Endeavour, employed as his translator. As the young Polynesian interpreter tried to negotiate with local Maori for fresh provisions and water, they wrongly assumed that he’d been imprisoned. Tragically the misunderstanding forced Cook to fire his cannon, killing two Maori warriors, as they tried to kidnap him. The young Tahitian managed to escape, making his way back on the ship, prompting Cook to name it Cape Kidnappers. I explored the cape with Gannet Safaris, the award-winning sightseeing company.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Once you pull the plug and the water disappears you are using your grey water system. This goes into the council system, and often to a treatment plant to take out chemical cleaners and other contaminants. It’s then discharged into the rivers or sea.For example, the chemicals that are put into products just to make them foam more are a pollution that has to be taken out. All of this process costs us as ratepayers, and we’re flushing away water you could use again: laundry, bath, shower and basin water. Don’t worry, we’re not walking about toilet (black water) or even kitchen sink and dishwasher, where there could be contaminants from food, e.g. old chicken germs. Why should we use grey water? Grey water use reduces the need for and reliance on the mains water supply system.Reduces the wastewater peak flows discharging to council’s wastewater system.Allows gardens to be watered during drought periods.How do you use grey water?The main uses are in the garden. Unless you are an extreme eco warrior I don’t recommend the vege garden or herb garden. This is because the chemicals in every day products can be quite toxic and eco-destructive. During my time at ecostore I spent a lot of time weeding these chemicals out because even some plant-based products are harmful, like the foaming agents I mentioned before. You can use this water on your lawn, hedges, ornamental gardens and orchards.Also best practice is to put in a storage tank with a filter that can take out the laundry lint and if you have synthetic clothes it can also capture the micro plastic that literally come out in millions of tiny particles with every laundry wash. But I’m sure you have all switched to cotton, wool, linen and other natural fabrics by now! This storage tank can then have an overflow that goes to the municipal grey water system, if you find yourself not using it all. You should contact your local council here as different local authorities have different rules. The other great use is to use this water to flush your toilet. This uses about 17% of your water use so there is a great saving right there.How much water could I save?So collecting your rain water should see around a 50% reduction on your water useage. Flushing with grey water would see 17% and using grey water on your garden could see 18% reduction. Those are some serious reductions on your water bill! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The COVID vaccine isn’t the only one we need to be thinking about right now! The government made the meningitis vaccine free to 13 to 25 year olds going into shared accommodation such as university hostels, boarding schools end of 2019. There is a low awareness of the availability.Bryan Betty is a GP and medical director for the College of GPs. He joined Jack Tame to explain everything you need to know about the vaccine.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A simple experiment with CaterpillarsLast year I made mention of the abundance of Gum Emperor Moth caterpillars in the collective Eucalyptus trees around New Zealand; Well to be a bit more precise: from Canterbury north! These absolutely fascinatingly pretty larvae are huge, colourful and prickly and strong in their legs, and belong to the Silk moth Family. They feed on Gums, Liquidambar and (South American) Schinus molle trees (all are un-related to each other – how weird!).This year we had heaps of eggs again – big eggs in large strings, laid on the leaves. And we noticed that the tiny black caterpillars literally ate most of the leaf-surfaces around the eggs, but left the eggs alone!I suppose it’s a strategy to not kill your brothers and sisters before they hatch from their eggs… but how do these siblings know that? I think the mother moth secretes some oily substance around each eggs that she lays – you can see the shining discolouration around each egg. Even fully-grown caterpillars will chew around the site where eggs were laid, so the deterrent effect must work for weeks.The small “instar” caterpillars are black and extremely hairy and very visible on the blue-green Eucalyptus leaves. I think their hairiness protects them from predatory birds, although shining cuckoos are possibly not deterred by such hirsute prey. We observed them staying on the lower, smaller and younger leaves, often in large clusters of their cohort.Once they moulted their skin a few times, they started to disperse a bit more. They also lost their black fur and begun to look more like the older caterpillars: blue-green colour with spiky, coloured protuberances on each body segment.From this moment onwards we felt that they were being targeted by birds – we found fewer and fewer of them, so we (Julie’s idea!) took three inside the kitchen a reared them on Eucalyptus foliage which we refreshed every three days or so: one small caterpillar and two medium-sized ones.And they eat!!! Eat!!! Suddenly you realise how much educational stuff you get from raising these critters:Swap Eucalyptus leaves for Liquidambar: They wouldn’t touch it! Not even when they got hungry!Theory: once they started their larval life on Gum trees they stuck with that host plant. Next year I start raising them on Liquidambar and see what happens if I reverse the choice to Gum.When the caterpillars change their skin (moulting) what happens to that old skin? You can’t find it anywhere!Many caterpillars eat their old skin and with this huge silk “worm”, it is no different; As soon as they have “walked” out of their skin, they turn around and start to nibble at it. They will not squander the micro-nutrients contained in that old skin – Nature does not know the concept of waste.There’s a video clip of the caterpillar eating its old skinThese caterpillars are constantly evacuating their slow-release fertiliser pellets – I collected them from the early days (1st instar) to the biggest (last instar) and you can now take measurements and average weight for the whole duration of the larval development – graphs, maths, statistics!And then there’s the chrysalis: You’d expect some soft silken cocoon (just like the oriental silk moths make) No… just rough, tough, brown Aussie stuff. I expect it helps them through the hottest times of the day and the coolest winter days, without losing too much moisture as metamorphosis takes places.There is a softer, “weak” spot in that sturdy cocoon: it is the spot where the hatching pupa pushes itself out of that cocoon in spring… to start life as a beautiful and impressive, large moth. I have seen the caterpillars spin their cocoon (see video), but haven’t had the time to sit there watching all night to discover how they make these “weak spots”.Another Day… another Night… another observational experiment!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Twitter’s rolling out “Super Followers”Imagine getting exclusive Jack Tame content via Twitter for $4.99 a month. A Jack Tame supporter badge could be added to your profile, with exclusive content, super follower only newsletters, special deals and access to the Jack Tame community. It’s a way to give back to creators you enjoy and keep those creators on the Twitter platform.Twitter has also announced “communities” which you can join and follow, like Facebook Groups. Both features are still to launch, but last time Twitter talked about subscription products and pro features their stock price jumped. It seems this is where the analysts want Twitter to go.Zoom meetings get accessibleCaptions are coming to all accounts - including free accounts. You’ll be able to enable live ai generated closed captions. It’s a feature their pro accounts have had for a while and brings them up to parity with Google’s Hangouts. It’s a great feature for folks who are hard of hearing, but also for those who multi-task. If you miss what someone said, thankfully there’s a slight delay in the caption and you can catch the question on screen - perhaps that tip comes from personal experience! Facebook & Google & AustraliaIt’s a stupid law, trying to solve something the government shouldn’t be solving. Now Facebook and Google are going to pay for publishers to create “quality content”. Excuse me while I roll my eyes as “journalism” produces a story which is a series of reaction Tweets to royal rumors, or celebrity posted Instagram’s embedded in an article. The media should have solved this problem themselves by investing in their businesses years ago. There are also better ways to fund journalism - this isn’t it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Behind Her Eyes: A dark thriller about a single mother enters a world of twisted mind games when she begins an affair with her psychiatrist boss while secretly befriending his mysterious wife (Netflix).Informer 3838: A spinoff of the popular Underbelly series, this Australian drama tells the story of Nicola Gobbo, a lawyer who turned Informer and played both sides in the Melbourne Gangland War (TVNZ OnDemand).Superman & Lois: Our favourite hero is back, but this latest reboot of the classic story about Clark Kent and Lois Lane now sees them facing one of the toughest challenges ever: parenthood (TVNZ OnDemand).LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Auckland author Ben Sanders is living a double life. He spends half his week working as an engineer, the other half writing crime novels. And while his real life is based on the North Shore, his books are set in the US, which has allowed him a large audience and is attracting the attention of Hollywood. He’s got a new book out called The Devils You Know, and he joins Jack Tame on the show this morning.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

NECTARINE & BLUEBERRY PIE The combination of stonefruit and berries in a sweet pie is my idea of heaven. Before we know it berries and summerfruit will be done for the season so enjoy it while you can. Serves 6-82-3 sheets sweet short pastry1 punnet blueberries4 nectarines, de-stoned and roughly chopped2 tbsp plain flour2 tbsps caster sugar2 tbsp lemon juice50g butter, melted 1 egg, lightly beaten, for glazeCream or yoghurt to serveSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Food ClubTHE FOOD CLUB is the story of three longtime girlfriends from elementary school, very different women, with one thing in common - they are in the fall of their lives.I Care A lotA shady legal guardian lands in hot water when she tries to bilk a woman who has ties to a powerful gangster.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kevin Milne joins Jack Tame to talk about NASA's Perseverance rover landing on Mars.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The public health experts knew it was coming. Senior ministers knew it was coming. Were they as prepared as they might have been? No. But then, who in New Zealand was back at the end of February 2020?And then it came through. A woman fresh back from Iran. Quite possibly not our first case, but our first confirmed case of Covid-19.That was a year ago.In that time, we have objectively enjoyed a much better life than most other people on Earth. Sure, we’ve had lockdowns. We’ve had community outbreaks. We’ve had deaths. People have lost jobs. Businesses have gone under. At an individual level, if you’ve suffered a dramatic change in your life, or lost a loved one to Covid-19, these words won’t be much comfort. But the can be no disputing the fact... the overall standard of living in New Zealand in the year since our first case, has been so much better than pretty much anywhere else. While Europe and America have been hunkered down in months-long lockdowns, and refrigerated trucks have been turned into overflow morgues, we’ve been at Six60 concerts or out for birthday dinners.To what and to whom do we owe that year? It’s obvious isn’t it?We’ve benefited from a few things. Circumstance. Good leadership. Good luck.We’re an island nation three thousand kilometres from anywhere else. We’re not jammed into cities like sardines. We’re also a nation of generally reasonable and sensible people. We have a few muppets, sure, but most of us are prepared to heed public health warnings and wear a mask if we’re told to.From the government perspective, they’ve done a few things especially well. Jacinda Ardern’s communication skills are her single-greatest strength and she has used those skills to maximum effect. The Director General of Health is a similarly talented communicator and together they make an incredibly effective tag team. The strategy around the Alert Level system seems so simple... but it’s a work of genius. It gives us all a common language. The viology of Covid-19 is super complex, but kids understand the Alert Level system. And even though the rules have changed and things have moved around... it doesn’t matter. The Alert Level system gives us a story. Together we can see progress.Grant Robertson was fast to act and our economy today is in a far, far better place than most analysts thought it would be. Unemployment is under 5%. GDP and government revenues are higher than expected. That wage support scheme, which had a very low barrier to entry, has been a godsend. Even TVNZ is in a position to pay $5 million back!Of course, it hasn’t been a faultless effort. The public health response has had snares and hitches. I still find it inexcusable that for months we didn’t have a better system for ensuring frontline staff were being regularly tested. That we didn’t have a greater outbreaks as a result seems pretty remarkable, given how insidious this virus is. As a result of our economic strategy, the housing market is experiencing wild inflation and we’ll be living with the impact for years to come. The people most likely to lose their jobs were the people who were already at the bottom of the heap.So. One year. Vaccine distribution has begun. The bubble with Rarotonga is opening. Progress comes slow, but it’s progress nonetheless.Clearly it’ll take years before we can truly judge the overall Covid-19 response. But you don’t have to look too far to see how bad things could have been. And no matter what happens from now, no matter how long it takes us to reopen borders and get back to life as it once was, no one can take that year away from us.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In some countries, 40 year mortgages are becoming more common. Is it something that might catch on here? Enable Me's Hannah McQueen has been giving her take on increasing mortgage terms.LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

February Jobs in the Garden Raspberries: If you have spring-fruiting raspberries – they need pruning now. All fruit is picked and now’s the time to crawl on hands and knees and prune off all the old “canes”. It’s easy to see which are old, brown canes with yellow old leaves and which ones are the new, fresh ones that will fruit for you next year. Raspberries also have this habit of producing heaps of runners and canes far, far away from the original bed! Either mow them down of translocate these new runners to a new row. They’ll survive that easily if done now, while the soil is warm. Some fertiliser and everybody happy for next spring. But be careful, autumn raspberries still have a crop to go! Mid-summer is also the time to prune your plums when they have been harvested. I tend to do that now, with the summer heat still here. When you do it in late autumn or winter, the cooler, wetter weather can cause quite a few problems with diseases. Stonefruit bears its fruit on young wood, but the European plums (such as prunes, Damson and Greengage) tend to fruit heavily on 3-4 year old branches. In our garden the Damson and Greengage are our jam work horses, so they can be shortened back to the well-established branches. Japanese plums tend to fruit on new wood, which means you can’t be as ruthless.Vegies to plant: Carrots: Plant them in really good, stone-free soil. Well-drained and easy to penetrate for the roots.Swedes and beetroot: In well-drained soils that don’t stay wet too long (roots can rot in stagnant water). Leeks: Always a good winter vegetable. Start while soil is warm to help germination. Brassicas: These can allbe sown or planted now; cauli, broccolini, cabbages etc. Protect them from white butterfly larvae which are still very prolific in the warm weather. Use Yates “success” or fine netting that doesn’t let the mother whites onto the leaf surface.LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Relationship expert Steven Dromgool has some tips for funding fun with your partner. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Travel writer Mike Yardley has been travelling the Haast Pass Highway.LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Book reviewer Catherine Raynes has been reading Shiver by Allie Reynolds and The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah.LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Music reviewer Estelle Clifford has been listening to the new album by Aussie alt-rock group The Rubens.LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Usually, the Director of the FBI isn’t a household name, especially in New Zealand. That is, until James Comey came along, and was inserted into the middle of Donald Trump’s political pantomime. In his role as the head of the FBI, Comey oversaw investigations into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, and into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. He was then sacked. James Comey’s written a new book "Saving Justice" and has been talking to Jack Tame.LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Trial in the Outback: in this documentary mini-series narrated by Sam Neill, Linda Chamberlain tells her own story about the death of her daughter and the trials and imprisonment that followed (starts TVNZ 1, Sunday, 8.30pm) CB Strike: a new season of the British drama about war veteran turned private detective Cormoran Strike, who solves brutal murders with the help of his trusted assistant Robin Ellacott (Neon). Framing Britney Spears: the documentary everyone’s talking about. This New York Times doco looks at the career of American entertainer Britney Spears, her celebrity and popularity within American culture, and the conservatorship that she has been living under since 2008 which sparked the fan-driven #FreeBritney movement (ThreeNow). LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kevin Milne's been on his first ever international tourist-free trip in the South Island, and thinks all Kiwis should be following suit. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sushi sandwiches These little sushi sandwiches are easier to make than regular sushi and they’re popular with adults and kids alike. Makes 8-10 1 cup sushi (short grain) rice or use short grain brown rice 1 tsp salt 105g tin salmon 2 tablespoons mayonnaise Salt & pepper ½ avocado ½ red capsicum 1 packet seaweed snacks (small sheets of seaweed) 2 tablespoons sesame seeds 4 tablespoons tamari sauce 1 teaspoon sesame oil Squeeze of lime or lemon juice To cook rice: rinse rice a few times then allow to soak for 15 minutes before draining and transferring to a saucepan and covering in twice as much water as rice (ie. 2 cups) and adding salt. Cover and bring to boil then simmer for 12 minutes, turn heat off and leave to steam for 10 minutes while you prepare fillings. Cool. Fillings: Mix salmon with mayonnaise. Slice avocado and capsicum into thin slices. Assemble: Wet hands and take 1-2 tablespoons of rice, shape into a sausage shape, cover with seaweed and wrap, leaving one side unwrapped. Make a groove in the top of the exposed rice and add your choice of filling; salmon/mayo, capsicum or avocado. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Trust me, you’ll get better with each one and keeping your hands wet really helps. Mix tamari, sesame oil and citrus juice together in a small container to pop in with the sushi sandwiches. Note: Cook the rice the night before for a quick assemble in the morning.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Movie reviewer Francesca Rudkin has been watching The Little Things, Boss Level, and News of the World.LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Every Saturday morning I start the show with a little editorial. I give you an opinion on something. I ask for your feedback. And after I finish the piece, the written version lives on the Newstalk ZB website. You know the one! And from there, our digital teams will share a link on social media. But if you just happen to be tuning in from Australia this morning - as I know many listeners do - and you log in to Facebook afterwards, you won’t see a link to this piece. The stoush between Zuckerberg and the Australian government shows no sign of being resolved any time soon. Part of me is torn. I look at this issue from a few different sides. Part of me thinks, actually, we know that people get so much information from Facebook that if they aren’t able to access reliable news sources on Facebook, the information they will be accessing instead is going to be the dregs of the dregs. Part of me thinks I’d feel a bit better about the Australian government’s position and their proposals to make big tech pay for news, if it wasn’t Rupert Murdoch set to profit. And part of me thinks actually this could be good for the sort of stuff that gets published by newsrooms. Perhaps they’ll be a little less incentivised to publish click bait trash in the hope of spreading it across Facebook. Perhaps. Most of all though, I think good-on the Aussies. We know just how damaging some aspects of big tech and the social media platforms have been when it comes to misinformation. We know they’re pulling of triple backflip pirouette nip tucks with a difficult of 100 in order to pay as little tax as possible. Is it not a relief to see a government stand up to them, for a change? One thing you can be sure of in this life is there is no such thing as a free lunch. Reliable news isn’t free. It takes work and resources. And as newsrooms around the World have been hollowed out and undermined, Facebook has grown stronger off their diminished outputs. If you value reliable information and you want an honest picture of the World, Facebook isn’t the place you should be going in the first place. Facebook has hooped people into opinion ghettoes, stoked their fears, contributed to the rise of conspiracy theories, and it’s manipulated the weakest parts of our collective psychologies. It’s made us feel like it’s serving us, when really it’s selling us. I hope the Aussies hold strong. And I hope other countries follow their lead.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This time of year, we think about lack of water and extra water bills. Would having your own rainwater tank be wise or affordable? Doing the numbers An average kiwi homes use 150,000 litres a year. There is usually a fixed charge for being in the system then a usage charge for the number of litres you use. In Auckland that’s $190 fixed and about $500 usage. If you got a 5000L tank, this would be refilled every time it rains. Estimate this saving at least half your water use or around $250 per annum. A 5000L tank can be as cheap as $950. Or top of the line fancy slim tank that fits anywhere or maybe an in ground tank, $3500 So in 4-10 years (water prices are only going up) you have paid for it and you are saving that amount of money every year. How to collect rainwater? My favourite way is to a system that collects water for a while, catching pollution and bird dropping sfrom the roof. You then ditch this, and the cleaner water is sent to your tank If you don’t trust the rain water then it can be directed to toilets, washing machines and garden, or just put a water filter in the system. Check your council bylaws about your rights here. I know Auckland city has just made it a lot less bureaucratic to install one. They need the help! Often all they ask for is a backflow prevention device to keep your water out of the common supply. If you are just considering some extra water for your garden then you can go much smaller and simpler and cheaper of course. It'll save your council money too If everyone did this it would considerably lower the city infra structure costs: piped water in and out of your property. That means lower rates for all? You also reduce the stormwater runoff which in storm periods can mean the grey water invades the sewage system and this ends up in our public waterways and beaches.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Environmental Education in 2021 So what is this “environmental education” all about? Most people think of Enviroschools and waste minimization plus vegetable gardening at school. Quite a number of schools have compost bins, worm farms and chickens running around. For more than a dozen years, Project Crimson and Mazda Foundation have planted outdoor classrooms in school grounds – forest type vegetation. Hawkes Bay's Cape to City linked all this to a large landscape project around Cape Kidnappers and 20,000 hectares of surrounding land. It encourages school kids and teachers to do the learning outside, using the environment as a context for education. Putting it into practice I got a request from a Christchurch teacher to help the school create a butterfly garden. Of course they had monarchs in mind. But I had other ideas! There’s this gorgeous deep purple Lycaenid butterfly which is native to Canterbury. We’ve just discovered (via Hamish and Brian Patrick) that it is different from all the other “boulder copper” butterflies and therefore it has no published scientific name, nor has it an appropriate common or Maori name. The species lives on very poor terrain: the gravel and stony outwash of the large braided rives. It has been ousted from Christchurch city simply through the expansion of this man-made habitat, called suburbia. Could we bring the boulder copper butterfly back into the city? The kids and teachers of Burnside Primary had to do a heck of a lot of research. Food plants, sources of nectar, longevity, what do males and females look like... It covered all parts of the curriculum.PE: They decided to plant a garden full of host plants and nectar supportMaori studies: They contacted local iwi for their view on translocating this taonga back into the city and what would be an appropriate Maori name. Literacy: They sourced all the plants and wrote the script for the invites to local media. Maths: They worked out the number of males versus females. Arts: The butterflies are beautiful – both males and females Last Thursday we did the first translocation from McLeans Island to Burnside Primary School. The kids caught the butterflies by hand and by net, and carefully transported them in flax-woven baskets, line with soft fabric, so that the butterflies could hang on during the bus ride to the new location. We had a Mihi Whakatau in the school hall; a blessing for the taonga in their new place. The butterfly will officially be described by a small group of secondary school students from Burnside High School, together with two entomological taxonomists. That’s a cool job, with genetics, morphology and ecological Science. They’ll publish the new description and name in an international peer-reviewed journal. If we are serious about our Planet and humanity’s future, we need NATURE-LITERATE Kids. We are re-writing the execution of the curriculum.LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Movie reviewer Francesca Rudkin has been watching period romance Ammonite and Korean-American movie Minari.LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Book reviewer Catherine Raynes has been reading The Chanel Sisters by Judithe Little and The Frenchman by Jack Beaumont.LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When a City Rises —The People’s Story: as the 10 year anniversary of the second Christchurch earthquake approaches, this documentary follows Christchurch’s recovery in the days, months and years following the devastating earthquake (TVNZ 1, Sunday 8.30pm and OnDemand) Coyote: After 32 years of service, Border Patrol agent Ben Clemens finds himself helping people he has always tried to keep out of the United States (TVNZ OnDemand). Men in Kilts: two stars from the time-travelling drama Outlander - Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish - team up in this lively road trip across Scotland, showcasing the very best of the country’s culture, history and traditions (Neon, 16 February). LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bob Campbell's Best Buy for this week is the 2020 Clearview Coastal Chardonnay, which will set you back around $22.LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.