Sunday Morning for Sunday 30 July 2023

8:10 Ali Hill: The Nutrition Edition 

An Oxford University study, widely reported, has concluded that if all the meat eaters in the UK cut down their ingestion of meat it would be the equivalent of taking 8 million cars off the road. A big meat-eater's diet produces an average of 10 kg of planet-warming greenhouse gases each day. Meat industry spokespeople refute these figures.  

Joining us once again is Dr Ali Hill from Otago University's Department of Human Nutrition 

8:30 Katherine Wu: Are you really eating too fast? 

We all know people who wolf their food down, and probably we disapprove. Quite possibly we also find ourselves doing it sometimes, especially with fast food maybe, and we disapprove of ourselves as well. 

Certainly in an age of mindfulness we are told to savour each mouthful, send gratitude to the farmer who grew the broccoli, and thank the beasts of the earth and the fish of the sea for their sacrifices.  

Gulping food down doesn't honour them much, and it is said to promote reflux and impair digestion. Fast eating is just bad.    

But what if it's not? 

Dr Katherine Wu, a Harvard-trained microbiologist, and now a staff writer for the Atlantic Monthly joins us. 

8:45 Lucy Scott: Puppies and sibling recognition 

For most of us, becoming a dog owner or guardian usually involves buying one if we don’t adopt from animal shelters. That, more often than not, involves separating a puppy from its mother and siblings. 

Some experts have claimed that dogs separated at eight to 12 weeks won’t forget about any siblings they parted for up to two years and these same dogs often continue to recognise their mothers beyond the two-year mark. 

Dr. Lucy Scott from Veterinary Behaviour Services NZ is a Veterinarian with a special interest in behaviour and training.  

9:10 Mediawatch 

Mediawatch looks at how the media reacted to the downfall of cabinet minister Kiri Allan in starting circumstances last weekend and how the media zeroed in on the impact on the upcoming election.  Also - how Kiri Allan's resignation sparked another one at RNZ. 

9:30 Calling Home: Jack Boulton in the Orkney Islands, Scotland 

Originally from Pukekohe , Jack Boulton now lives in Orkney, completing a PhD on Transitional Engineering studying ways to move petrochemical companies away from carbon use.  

The University is Heriot-Watt based in Edinburgh, but they have a campus in Stromness, Orkney. 

10:10 Katie Steckles: Amazing maths in a maze. 

At some time or another most of us will enter a maze and try and get out of it again.  

There's an easy way to do that, believe it or not. 

Dr Katie Steckles is a Manchester-based mathematician who lectures at a university in Sheffield, speaks at science festivals, and talks on the BBC about matters mathematical as well. She's also been at Cambridge University's Centre for Mathematical Sciences. 

10:30 Mandy Hagstrom: Gender in the gym 

How much do we have to exercise, really, to be healthy? It’s a simple enough question, usually answered by the figure of 150 minutes per week of brisk activity.  But is that correct any more? And does a lot of the research done in gyms pertain to men, not women? 

We're joined by our go-to exercise expert, New Zealander Dr Mandy Hagstrom, senior lecturer at UNSW, School of Human Nutrition. 

10:45 Sarah McMullan: Should we stop going to movies to support the Hollywood strikers? 

Is it ethical to watch movies during a strike?  Should moviegoers strike too? Will the strike actually kill Hollywood? 

Sarah McMullan is familiar to the RNZ audience. She watches a lot of films and writes about some of them.   

11:10 Walter Marsh: The beginning of the Murdoch Empire 

For the better part of a century, the Rupert Murdoch media empire has shaken markets and democracies across the globe. But how did it all start? 

Drawing on unpublished archival material and new reportage, author and journalist Walter Marsh’s book, Young Rupert pieces together the paper trail giving us a glimpse of the Australian media landscape at an extraordinary tipping point.