Sunday Morning for Sunday 22 May 2022

8:11 Australian election reaction - Stephen Mills 

Australians are waking up to life with a new Prime Minister this morning, with Anthony Albanese and Labor ousting Scott Morrison's incumbent Liberal National coalition in yesterday's federal election. 
Morrison's coalition was seeking a fourth three-year term, having held the narrowest of majorities (76 seats in the 151-member House of Representatives), but the 54-year-old was quick to concede defeat after almost a decade in power.   
Joining us to analyse the result is political commentator Stephen Mills. 
Mills is an executive director at Talbot Mills Research Limited and a former political adviser to two Labour governments.

8:21 Poll: Kiwis in favour of earlier reopening of the borders 

Two weeks ago, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that New Zealand's borders would fully reopen (including to cruise ships and international students) on July 31 - two months earlier than the Government initially planned. 
Almost one third of respondents in a new Research New Zealand poll stated the timing 'is right' (30%), whereas 28% felt that they should have been opened already. 
As to why, the three key reasons were: to help with New Zealand's economic recovery (51%), getting back to normality (43%) and relieving a skills shortage (41%).
Research New Zealand Managing Partner Emanuel Kalafatelis is with us to discuss the results. 

8:26 Covid-19: How come there are so many Omicron variants? 

We've all heard about new Omicron subvariants with such original names as BA.2, BA.4 and BA.5. 
The recent proliferation of Omicron variants begs the question: is Covid-19 mutating faster than ever before? And what does this all mean for the future of the virus? 
Virus evolution expert Dr Sebastian Duchene's research has shown that Sars-CoV-2 is extremely fast when it comes to mutating, performing "mutational sprints" for short periods of time that allow the virus to mutate up to ten times faster than usual. 
Duchene, who is from the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne, joins the show to discuss the Omicron variant outburst and what potentially lies ahead. 

8:43 You're probably cleaning all wrong, according to science  

Thanks to Covid, cleaning has never played a bigger role in our lives than it does today.
Whether it's wiping down workplace surfaces or disinfecting supermarket trolley handles, we're doing it all more. 
Indeed, a 2021 US study showed that over 40% of respondents now identified as germaphobes. 
However, recent research has shown that many common cleaning practices aren't all that effective, while there are others we shouldn't even be doing in the first place - like religously disinfecting the bathroom. 
Microbiologist Dr Siouxsie Wiles is with us for a science-based guide to the art of cleaning.  

9:06 Mediawatch

Mediawatch looks at how social media algorithms still amplify extremism three years after governments and tech companies signed the Christchurch Call -- and how the government put its money where its mouth is for public media - and for Maori media - in the Budget this week.

9:37 Calling Home: Yanai Postelnik in Devon 

Yanai Postelnik could never have imagined the way his life would change when - after a lengthy jaunt through Asia - he arrived at Gaia House in Devon for a silent meditation retreat in 1990. 
The Cantabrian returned to Gaia House to work in 1991, and remains there to this day - working as a lay Buddhist minister and running regular silent meditation retreats in Devon and throughout the world.
Yanai and his wife, Catherine McGee, own a home in Ashburton, an ancient stannary town on the edge of the famous Dartmoor National Park, which has been described as one of the last great wildernesses in the UK.  
He's Calling Home this morning. 

10:04 Australian election reaction - Dr Ross Stitt 

Australians went to the polls yesterday in a federal election that couldn't come fast enough for most people, despite recent polls showing those in the 'Lucky Country' have disturbingly low opinions of the two men vying to be their prime minister after the election, Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese. 
Australia's centre-left opposition party toppled the conservative government after almost a decade in power last night, with new leader Albanese - who says he will promote "optimism, not fear and division" - set to be sworn in as the country's 31 Prime Minister. 
Doctor Ross Stitt is a New Zealand writer and political commentator living in Sydney. He joins the show to analyse the 2022 Australian federal election and what the result means for Australians. 

10:38 How oligarchs are being undone by social media 

Partying in the age of social media has its dangers, whether you're sportsperson, drama club member, or a Russian oligarch and the partying is happening on board your multi-million superyacht. 
Careless selfies and Instagram posts aboard preposterously large luxury yachts - not taken by the oligarchs, but those partying with them - are being used by investigators tracking down the assets of Russia's elite and destroying their all-important anonymity amid the crisis in Ukraine. 
Greg Walters is a senior reporter for VICE who has been writing about how influencers and "beautiful people" posting glamorous selfies aboard Russian oligarchs' yachts are helping to bring down the incredibly rich people around Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

11:05 The oddities of the English language 

It's fairly common for English speakers to look at other languages and think they will be too confusing to learn, but English - the most commonly spoken language in the world with over 1.5 billion speakers and the official language of 67 countries - takes the cake when it comes to a language's quirks. 
For example, sew and new don't rhyme, but kernel and colonel do. The 'ea' vowel is usually pronounced 'ee' (think: weak, please and seal), but can also be 'eh' (bread, head, feather). And then there are words that are spelled differently but sound exactly the same: so, sow, sew... 
Dr Arika Okrent is a linguist and author with a joint PhD in linguistics and cognition and cognitive neuroscience from the University of Chicago. In her latest book, Highly Irregular: Why Tough, Through, and Dough Don't Rhyme - and Other Oddities of the English Language, she examines the weirdness of the English language and why it is so hard to master.  

11:24 Julian Assange's father: 'His jail is worse than hell' 

The new documentary Ithaka documents 76-year-old John Shipton's campaign to free his son, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. 
Ithaka follows those who have been heading the campaign to have Assange released - namely Shipton and Assange's wife/lawyer, Stella Morris, who bore him two children during the time he spent under the protection of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. 
Assange suffered a mini-stroke at Britain's Belmarsh Prison last October, with Morris blaming it on extreme stress caused by the case to have him extradited to the US to face spying charges. 
The Australian journalist is wanted over the publication of thousands of classified documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. 
Shipton, who didn't see Assange from the years of three through to 20, says the conditions at Belmarsh are "worse than hell". 
He joins the show to discuss Ithaka and why he'll never give up on his attempt to free his son. 

Ithaka is screening at Doc Edge Festival 2022: https://docedge.nz/de/film/ithaka/

11:50 Tom Sainsbury: I'm Listening to This

Beloved Kiwi comedian Tom Sainsbury is busy as ever. 
Along with co-hosting Snack Masters NZ with Kim Crossman and featuring in a host of other TV shows on our screens (including Wellington Paranormal), Sainsbury is about to hit the road with his nationwide Snapchat Dude Live! tour.
The 15-stop tour, which kicks off in New Plymouth next Sunday, will travel almost everywhere in New Zealand - except the West Coast and Whangarei... 
Sainsbury, who was nominated for the prestigious Billy T Award for New Zealand comedy in 2019, is with us to discuss the tour - which he likens to a Marvel Man movie - and what drove him to pick The Offspring's 'Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)' as his karaoke song.