Short Story Club

This week's short story is Two Baristas by Geoff Cochrane 

Email us your thoughts on it before 3pm Thursday to be in to win a copy of SPORT 46.

1:10 First song Jess B

It's three weeks until Christmas and only four weeks until New Year's Eve. Auckland has a big party planned for Silo Park called Wondergarden, featuring a range of big name performers including Ladi6, NIghtmares on Wax and our first guest Jess B.

Born and raised in Auckland and of Kenyan descent, Jess released her debut EP Bloom earlier in the year and is one of the breakout stars of 2018. She performs live in our Auckland studio

Jess B on the red carpet at the Vodafone Music Awards.

Jess B on the red carpet at the Vodafone Music Awards. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly

1:15 St Kentigern First XV rugby team boycotted

10 of Auckland's top rugby high schools have signed a letter to St Kentigern college saying they will no longer play the school  in the elite Auckland rugby competition - The Auckland 1A First XV

St Kentigern has been accused of poaching top players from rival schools and, accordign to the 10 signatories on the letter, has declined requests to sign up to a code of conduct to make the playing field fairer.

Poaching has long been an issue in schoolboy rugby, and many schools have expressed concern about the practice

We speak with Tom Cairns, the deputy principal and First XV assistant coach of Gisborne Boys High School - another top level rugby secondary school

Kelston Josefa Kolinisau looks to offload as he's tackled during a match against St Kentigern.
Kelston Boys High School v St Kentigern, Auckland Rugby First XV 1A Competition, 2017.

Kelston Josefa Kolinisau looks to offload as he's tackled during a match against St Kentigern. Kelston Boys High School v St Kentigern, Auckland Rugby First XV 1A Competition, 2017. Photo: Photosport Ltd 2017 www.photosport.nz

1:25 The threat humans pose to Mars's environment

Humans are poised to try to colonise Mars some time in the next few decades - and if there IS life on Mars, we'll have to be careful not to jeopardise it.

David Weintraub is a physicist and astronomer who lectures at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, and joins us to mull over the ethical dilemmas that inter-planetary colonisations throw up.

No caption

Photo: By NASA/JPL-Caltech [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

1:35 Is Amazon cannibalising our bookstores?

According to Nielsen data, books are the fifth most-purchased online product in New Zealand - and some publishing executives estimate that online sales could account for up to a fifth of all book sales in the country.

And that makes sense: online retailers often have massive resources at their disposal and little in the way of overheads. 

But that's led to a decline in the number of bookstores we have - and the knock-on benefits they provide to the community.

Booksellers NZ's Sarah Forster joins us to explain more.

SANTA CLARA,CA/USA - FEBRUARY 1, 2014: Amazon building in Santa Clara, California.  Amazon is an American international electronic commerce company. It is the world's largest online retailer.

Photo: © 2014, Ken Wolter

1:40 Great album

2:20 Bookmarks with John Walsh

John Walsh has established a significant career as a painter and curator over the past five decades. His work is shown in leading dealer galleries and is held at Te Papa -- where he was Curator of Contemporary Maori Art. But one of his paintings looms large, both literally and figuratively.

John painted Portrait of Ūawa Tolaga Bay, an epic 20-metre long mural as a 27 year-old in 1980. The work was intended for Hauiti marae in his hometown of Tolaga Bay, and it's literally a community painting, full of the faces of people he knew, surrounded by spiritual figures. But it never hung at the marae. It was too strange, too adventurous, and its rejection became a national news story. The painting went into storage, and stayed there for 38 years.

That long exile ended recently. 'ortrait of Ūawa Tolaga Bay is the centrepiece of an exhibition of John's portrait paintings at the National Portrait Gallery in Wellington.

He's this week's Bookmarks guest

Portrait of Ūawa Tolaga Bay

Portrait of Ūawa Tolaga Bay Photo: RNZ/ Te Aniwa Hurihanganui

3:10 Are you a bully?

Bullying is not just for the playground. Parliament is reviewing  bullying and harassment of staff at Parliament going back for years.

Chantal Gautier thinks we all need to review our own behavior that can tip over into bullying at home, at school and at work.  She is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Westminster in London. If we want to stop bullies, we need to recognize their behaviour. 

She shares the red flag warnings that suggest you might be a bully.

No caption

Photo: Pixabay

3:35 Science and environment stories

Stories from Our Changing World.

3:45 The Pre-Panel Story of the Day and One Quick Question

4:05 The Panel with Andrew Hoggard and Tess Nichol