Saturday Morning

Together Dain and Susana Guttenbeil are turning tragedy into hope and comfort for families in mourning.

Linguist and speech researcher Dr Brooke Ross from the University of Auckland has been studying the overlooked sections of the New Zealand accent’s history, including the rise of perhaps its newest entry – the Auckland accent.

University of Canterbury psychologist and researcher Julia Rucklidge has been looking at nutritional interventions for mental illnesses, and has found a crucial link between gut health and symptoms of ADHD.

The mighty Black Ferns are gearing up to play a crucial game this weekend against the English Red Roses in the WXV Global Series. Kate spoke with someone who knows all about that boiling cauldron of pre-game pressure, Dame Farah Palmer.

Shannon-Leigh Litt set herself a goal of breaking a Guiness World Record, and has now run an ultramarathon every single day for nearly three years, that's 51 kilometres every single day.

Leah Stewart was attacked by a shark at Sydney's Coogee Beach in June. Now, the Kiwi-Australian woman is here to talk about how she managed to fend the shark off.

Mariner Fagaiava is a journalist, broadcaster and youth advocate who has been proudly telling the story of South Auckland's Pasifika and rainbow communities.

Lawyer Holly Egerton demystifies the world of wills and succession law.

Lead players Madison Nonoa and Anthony Robin Schneider from the latest rendition of Georges Bizet's The Pearl Fishers are here to talk about what it takes to perform at this level.

Cult survivor Liz Cameron tells her story of being recruited into a cult from a chance encounter in a Canberra bookshop.

Professor Marco Herold and his team at the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute talk about using CRISPR to address resistance to lymphoma drugs.

Word of Wearable Art winner Kayla Christensen talks about her winning entry, Sacred Nightfall.

Co-founder of crime-tackling digital start-up Azonic Caden Scott explains how his company aims to address social harms lurking on popular platforms like Minecraft and Roblox.

Deep in the heart of Auckland's North Shore, the seemingly uninterrupted suburbia is punctuated by an oasis of native bush. It's no accident - a group of local volunteers has been working hard at it for 50 years.

Musician and long-time Warriors superfan Peter Urlich joins us to talk the Wahs ahead of Sunday's big game.

Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori starts on Monday and so if you've always wanted to try, there's no better time! For some that desire to learn a bit of te reo, and find out more about te Ao Maori comes through sport... it's front and centre for some, from the All Blacks haka, and now the Warriors haka. In other sports it may be a little less visible but no less important. Representing New Zealand Cricket we welcomed Pou Tikanga David Bhana and White Fern Eden Carson who won the ICC Women's T20 and a bronze medal at the Birmingham Common wealth Games. First Emile asked about Eden's exposure to te reo as a child.

Eagle vs Shark, What We Do in the Shadows, 800 Words, Funny Girls - Jackie van Beek has been an ubiquitous face in the Australasian comedy scene for nigh on two decades. Now she's appearing in a sci-fi splatter satire Mum, I'm Alien Pregnant, which came out this week and is described by critics as 'one of the strangest films they've seen in a decade' Now, this chat with Emile contains several references to the full gamut of the human anatomy. Not because Jackie relishes the P word, but because it's necessary to describe the plotline of the film. Nonetheless, if you do have little ones listening and you don't want to expose them to that - keep your ear pods in.

One of the world's best-known crime writers, Richard Osman has attracted millions of fans with his distinctive mix of mystery, humour and memorable characters. Building on the success of his Thursday Murder Club series he's now launched a new series featuring an unlikely team of amateur sleuths - with his latest novel We Chase Shadows that comes out next week. But Osman also talked to Emile about being a master-multitasker, one of the minds behind hit podcast The Rest is Entertainment, game show creator and panelist and presenter on shows like Pointless, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Would I Lie to You, and Taskmaster.

Our regular space expert former NASA astronomer and science communicator Michelle Thaller joins us to discuss everything beyond the Earth's atmosphere. She's the recipient of Nasa's highest honour, the Exceptional Achievement Medal. From her home in Wisconsin she explained to Emile the possibility of AI data centers in orbit and Nasa's latest telescope as well as answering some questions from listeners.

The All Blacks series against South Africa's Springboks conjures memories of the deep history between two great sporting nations. Despite more than 30 years since the first free and fair elections in South Africa which swept Nelson Mandela to power, access to sport is still deeply affected by the decades spent under apartheid and colonial powers before that. Emile talked to Associate Professor of Sport History at Stellenbosh University Francois Johannes Cleophas, starting with what, if any, power the name 'The All Blacks' carried as he was growing up in South Africa

It turns out not all heroes wear capes, some wear lab coats! In an age where facts seem debatable and the truth can be so easily manipulated, one woman is on a mission to root out mistakes, fraud, and cheats in the scientific world. Dutch microbiologist and scientific integrity consultant Dr Elisabeth Bik is famous for scanning biomedical literature to detect image duplication and research fraud. She spoke to Emile from her home in Amsterdam.

After years of suspense, Auckland's City Rail Link is finally opening on Sunday morning. Former Auckland Mayor Len Brown was one of the infrastructure project's progenitors, with his lobbying for central government support one of the dominoes that had to fall before Auckland could cut the ribbon on its shiniest new toy. Brown joined Emile on the show to discuss his legacy, as written in train lines.

It's 100 years since a Russian ballerina visited our shores and left her name here forever. Everyone knows the pavlova was named after Anna Pavlova, but what's still debated is exactly where and when the dessert got the name, with people on both sides of the Tasman laying claim. Writer and cultural historian Andrew Paul Wood may be the closest to knowing the answer - he's done extensive writing and research on the topic. Whatever its point of origin, the meringue-based dessert has become an icon of our national character and an undebatable part of Kiwiana.

Koroneihana celebrations are in the final days at Turangawaewae Marae in Ngaruawahia. The event is a week-long annual celebration of the anniversary of the Maori monarch's accession and coronation. This week Te Arikinui Kuini Nga wai hono i te po welcomed groups from all over the country including a delegation of politicians and iwi leaders who arrived on Friday. RNZ's Maori News Editor Taiha Molyneux brought Paddy up to date.

No matter where you go in the world, you'll find toilets. But Lonely Planet editor Jessica Lockhart has discovered that not all toilets are made equal. In the new edition of Lonely Planet's Toilets of the World, she catalogues the weirdest and wildest loos a traveler may find in their sojourns. That includes Kiwi loos with magnificent views, latrines where toes may lap in the blue Mediterranean, and commodes older than the countries they are in. Lockhart joins Saturday Morning to answer the question - what do our loos say about us?

Jordan Tane is an artist and designer whose experience of growing up takiwatanga - with autism - means she sees the world a little differently. And it's exactly that unique perspective that's seen her land on the YWCA Y25 list of female and gender-diverse changemakers for 2026. Non-verbal until she was five years old, the award-winning designer and PhD student is now creating communication tools for violence prevention within families. It's been a process that she says has helped her reconnect with her own identity as Maori.

This is Home is a new series on whakaata Maori that's about the struggles of a family to hold onto their homestead. It's based in Auckland and sees two sisters Kara and Nina being forced to live together again - but coming up against issues many of us will be familiar with, especially in today's world where many are struggling with the cost of living... they're dealing with financial pressures, personal clashes, family drama... and with a few skeletons in the closet. Two of the show's stars, Keporah Torrance and Ariel Hansen, join Paddy.

Winter flu season has been hitting the country hard, and with it comes all the questions we start to wonder about every year - does being out in the cold make you more likely to get a cold, when can I go back to work after I've been sick, should I get the flu shot? Dr Buzz Burrell is at our bedside to answer all of the questions we might have this sickly season and how to avoid meningococcal disease.

Very few jobs in this country involve launching a rescue mission wearing a wetsuit - to save an animal as big as a bus. But DOC Marine Reserves Ranger Zac Penman is only ever one phone call away from such adventure. He runs the large whale disentanglement team and he's here to tell us how it all works.

Five years after its sold-out debut, Pork and Poll Taxes returns, revisiting the little-known story of New Zealand's Chinese Poll Tax through an epic family tragedy. Writer and performer Talia Pua joins director Chye-Ling Huang to discuss history, migration, belonging, and why this story feels more urgent now than ever. Pork and Poll Taxes is running from 16 - 19 September at Auckland's Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre.

Going to the dentist doesn't exactly evoke joy for most. But are the days of drilling, filing and pulling teeth soon to be behind us? Hannele Ruohola-Baker spends her days working on what sounds like science fiction - helping people regrow their own teeth. She's a biochemist and stem cell researcher from The University of Washington and part of a team exploring how stem cells can be guided to form tooth structures and even regenerate enamel, opening up the possibility that future dental treatment could involve growing back damaged teeth.

Dr Gary Wynn is one of two psychiatrists who have just been approved to administer and prescribe MDMA in New Zealand - the first time it's been allowed in our history. We've got him on the line to chat about what comes next.

This week devastating flash flooding hit the Nepal-China border, resulting in hundreds missing and many feared dead. This year alone we've already recorded a number of tragic disasters across the planet - heat waves and cyclones, floods and droughts. Some of them could tie to increasingly turbulent weather patterns as the climate changes. But how do we make sense of the link between seismic activity, ocean currents and rising temperatures. Earth Sciences New Zealand principal scientist Graham Leonard joins us to explain what happened in Nepal and shed a bit of light on broader global connectivity.

As co-founder of the CeleBRation Choir at the University of Auckland's Centre for Brain Research back in 2009, music therapist Alison Talmage knows the benefits of a good sing-a-long. She's written a handbook to help other people launch similar initiatives in their communities, so people dealing with serious brain conditions like dementia, strokes and Parkinson's Disease can get together in choirs. It's an initiative that's seen big benefits overseas, as the physical and social effects of singing in groups can help ease the symptoms of neurological conditions. But unlike similar choirs in other countries, Talmage leads a group of singers across a broad swathe of ages and different circumstances.

Many of us yearn to have more balance in our lives, to tune in and be guided by our energy levels. For Dr Jessica Gerbic it's been her career's work as a clinical psychologist she's helped hundreds of people tune in to their mauri - how it ebbs and flows and she's identified 12 stages of mauri she uses to guide her patients through to better, more balanced, brighter lives.

Max Wolf Friedlich is being celebrated for writing the play Job, a testy two-hander which knits together the world of therapy and big tech to create a tense stand-off between actors Peter Friedman and Sydney Lemmon. But while the play, which recently opened on Broadway, is seeing Wolf Friedlich's name in lights - actor Robert Pattinson has signed on to produce his next stage project - he's attained the spotlight before. The difference is that last time his name wasn't at the forefront. Wolf Friedlich was 'story lead' for Lil Miquela, a constructed online celebrity who took the world by storm back in the late 2010s. Job will be on at Auckland's Q Theatre in September, and you can get your tickets here.

Evolutionary anthropologist David R Samson has travelled far and wide in his search of sleep secrets, napping in chimpanzee nests and summering with the hunter-gathering Hadza people of Tanzania. In his latest book, The Sleepless Ape, he outlines the curious story of human sleep and how it got us where we are - from the strange fact that we sleep less than other primates despite heavy cognitive loads, to the evolutionary boon of controlling our sleep environments. And if we are just waking up to how deeply sleep impacts us, the question becomes, should we be returning to the sleep habits of our ancestors?