Saturday Morning

Kiwi scientist and champion épée-fencer Dr Matt Baker is representing NZ at fencing in the final Olympic qualifying tournament in Dubai later today. Sydney-based Baker is Scientia Research Fellow in the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences at the University of New South Wales, where he studies the molecular motor that makes bacteria swim. But today it's all about the sport and Matt is the sole NZ gladiator in men's épée...

A first of its kind one-to-one support programme for pre-school children showing signs of autism is about to be trialed in Wellington, with aspirations of going nationwide. Professor Josie Barbaro pioneered the most successful tool in the world for the very early detection of autism. Known as Social Attention and Communication Surveillance or SACS, it identifies autistic children aged 11 to 30 months with an accuracy of 83%, and has identified 96% of autistic children by preschool age...

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Kate De Goldi is one of New Zealand's most celebrated authors, an Arts Foundation Laureate, and a voracious reader. She joins Susie to share three books she's loved; Clear by Carys Davies, The Caretaker by Ron Rash, and The Puppets of Spelhorst by Kate di Camillo.

As a curator of ethnology at Waikato Museum in the 1980s, Te Awekotuku was among the first to insist museums rethink how they represent Maori culture, both in New Zealand and overseas. In 1981, she became the first Maori woman to earn a doctorate from a New Zealand university, with a PhD on the effects of tourism on the Te Arawa people. In 1996 she became the country's first Maori woman professor...

Veteran financial journalist Liam Dann returns to the show to shine a light on left-field economic news and the quirks of New Zealand economics. This week he discusses 'digital cash' and the future of money, and he takes a closer look at the job losses hitting the headlines and what it means amid our current recession. Dann has 25 years of reporting under his belt and is The New Zealand Herald business editor at large. He recently released BBQ Economics: How money works and why it matters.

The 2018 murder of 21-year old British backpacker Grace Millane gripped the country. A powerful new film The Lie explores how the shocking case highlights disturbing attitudes about violence towards women. It painstakingly pieces together Grace's final evening, stepping through the evidence the police used to make the case against her killer. The film also examines the controversial "rough sex defence", used by the defence team at the trial of Jesse Kempson, who was convicted of Grace's murder...

At the age of 29 New Yorker Carrie Sun bagged a top job at a top Wall Street hedge fund. As private assistant to the firm's billionaire founder, Sun entered a world of power, privilege and extreme wealth. But as the demands of the job take a toll on her physical and mental health, Sun starts to question everything she had worked so hard for. Her new memoir is Private Equity, which exposes the brutal reality of high finance.

In her new book H Is for Hope, author Elizabeth Kolbert explores the landscape of climate change in a series of 26 animated essays arranged in alphabetical order-from "A", for Svante Arrhenius, who created the world's first climate model in 1894, to "Z", for the Colorado River Basin, ground zero for climate change in the United States...

Evidence indicates long covid presents a considerable burden to New Zealand: on our health system, sectors of the workforce and the economy. Between 4 and 14 percent of people infected with the virus will develop ongoing symptoms, anything from mild to severe. Scientists who conducted a recent evidence summary of long covid in Aotearoa are convinced its prevalence is likely to increase and preventative action is needed...