On Saturday Morning: Kim checks in with Brazilian professor Idelber Avelar about the latest ructions that have left beloved ex-president of Brazil, Lula da Silva, in jail; Miranda Manasiadis on how her cultural heritage lends itself very well to a new version of Icarus, bound for Wellington's Lōemis Festival; Scotsman Alan Taylor on one of his nation's most treasured writers, Muriel Spark; Arthur Tompkins on a new history of plundered artworks; Simon Wilson describes his tumultuous experience of prostate cancer, followed by urologist Andrew Williams, who outlines the nuts and bolts of the condition and its treatment; and finally, Zoe George on how it is possible to create national mourning over a scratched cricket ball while other misbehaviours in sport - particularly toward women - are virtually ignored. 

 

8:09 Idelber Avelar - Lula in jail, Brazil in chaos  

Idelber Avelar

Idelber Avelar Photo: Supplied

Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil has this week been ordered to turn himself in to serve 12 years in prison over a graft conviction. It's a turn of events that has enraged the country's left and forced them onto the streets, and blown the upcoming general election wide open, with Lula expected to have announced his candidacy soon. Kim will discuss the latest on Brazil with Professor Idelber Avelar, who teaches Latin American fiction, literary theory, and Cultural Studies at Tulane University in Louisiana.  Professor Avelar has been a guest lecturer in 15 countries and dozens of US institutions of higher learning, including Yale, Brown, and Princeton. 

 


8:35 Miranda Manasiadis - Icarus 

The Fall of Ikarus, by Wilhelm Janson. (1606)

The Fall of Ikarus, by Wilhelm Janson. (1606) Photo: Wikipedia Creative Commons.

Miranda Manasiadis

Miranda Manasiadis Photo: Supplied

Miranda Manasiadis has spent the last decade living and working between Wellington, New York and Athens as a dramaturg, director, and concept designer.  Manasiadis was a founding member of several Wellington theatre companies - Jealous Theatre Company, Open Book Theatre Company, and Afterburner Productions. She has also closely collaborated with some of New Zealand's best theatre artists. She is married to Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords. Manasiadis and collaborator Andrew Laking have created a new production of the story of Icarus for the 2018 Lōemis winter solstice festival in Wellington, details here.  

 


9:04 Alan Taylor - Appointment in Arezzo 

Alan Taylor

Alan Taylor Photo: supplied

Alan Taylor is the founding editor of the Scottish Review of Books, and the author of Appointment in Arezzo, a memoir on Muriel Spark. A former Booker Prize judge, he has written for the TLS, The New Yorker and The Melbourne Age, and edited four anthologies as well as Glasgow: The Autobiography. Taylor will be speaking on the art of the critic and Muriel Spark at the Auckland Writers Festival in May and is the the international judge assisting the panel selecting the winner of the Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize in this year’s Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

 


9:35 Arthur Tompkins - Plundering Beauty 

Arthur Tompkins

Arthur Tompkins Photo: supplied

Arthur Tompkins is a trustee of the NZ Art Crime Research Trust and a District Court Judge in Wellington. Each year for nearly a decade he has abandoned a New Zealand winter to teach Art in War in Umbria, Italy, as part of a graduate certificate programme in Art Crime Studies. In 2016 he edited Art Crime and Its Prevention (Lund Humphries, London), and the same publisher has just released his new illustrated book, Plundering Beauty: A History of Art Crime During War.

 

Plundering Beauty

 


10:04 Simon Wilson - Cancer Diaries 

Simon Wilson

Simon Wilson Photo: supplied

Simon Wilson writes on politics, culture, urban design, the environment, food and other matters, and has held many positions including editor of Metro magazine, Auckland editor at the current affairs and culture website The Spinoff, editor of Cuisine and Consumer magazines, chief subeditor of NZ Listener and a commissioning editor at book publisher AH & AW Reed during a 30-year career. Currently a senior writer with the NZ Herald, Wilson discovered he had prostate cancer just prior to Christmas 2017, and has chronicled his experience with the disease in a column in the newspaper. 

 


11:04 Andrew Williams - The nuts and bolts 

Dr Andrew Williams

Dr Andrew Williams Photo: Supplied

Andrew Williams is a urologist with sub-specialist training in robotics and complex cancer surgery. He has received numerous awards and research grants and published many articles in peer reviewed journals. Williams works as a consultant urologist at Auckland District Health Board and Counties Manukau District Health Board. He is a member of the Ministry of Health prostate cancer workforce and medical advisor for the Prostate Cancer Foundation and Testicular Cancer NZ. He has previously chaired the NZ Board of Urology and recently been appointed as an examiner for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

 


11:35 Zoe George - The fight for fair play

Zoe George

Zoe George Photo: Supplied

The Australian cricket controversy raged on this week as commentators compared the fury and tears over ball tampering with the relatively muted response to the abusive behaviour towards women of some high profile sportsmen. Zoe George is a RNZ journalist, producer and presenter, and she also hosts Fair Play, a monthly podcast produced for RNZ in partnership with global women's sports network WISP Sports. Fair Play covers all aspects of New Zealand women in sport, including the way the sporting world treats women as individuals, athletes and as sports fans.  George is a former international cricket administrator.

 

 

 

Books mentioned in this episode:

 

Appointment in Arezzo

by Alan Taylor

IBSN 1846973759

Polygon 

 

Plundering Beauty: A History of Art Crime during War 

by Arthur Tompkins 

ISBN 184822219X

Lund Humphries 

 

 


 

Music played in this show

Artist: Lauryn Hill
Song: Feeling Good
Composer:  Leslie Bricusse / Anthony Newley
Album: Nina Revisited: A Tribute to Nina Simone
Label: Columbia / RCA
Played at: 10:15

Artist: Reb Fountain & The Bandits
Song: Dance with Death Alive
Composer: Reb Fountain
Album: Hopeful and Hopeless
Label:  Arcade Recordings
Played at: 10:25

Artist: Nick Cave, Julie Christensen & Perla Batalla
Song: Suzanne
Composer: Leonard Cohen
Album: Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man
Label: Universal Classics & Jazz
Played at: 10:35

Artist: Choir of King's College, Cambridge/Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Conducted by Sir David Willcocks
Song: Gloria in Excelsis Deo
Composer: Vivaldi
Played at: 10:45

Artist: Rolling Stones
Song: Let it Loose
Composer:  Mick Jagger / Keith Richards
Album: Exile on Main Street
Label: Virgin
Played at: 10:55