Saturday Morning for Saturday 22 April 2023

8:10 Laura Tingle: is Australia still learning from Aotearoa?

This morning the Australian government has announced a direct pathway to citizenship for New Zealanders. The announcement comes just ahead of ANZAC Day. 

We last spoke to ABC chief political correspondent Laura Tingle on Saturday Morning in 2020 under the headline 'What Australia can learn from New Zealand'. 

At that time international accolades for Aotearoa's response to Covid were at a high, while Australia was being chastised for its hardline immigration policy. 

Fast forward to 2023 and both countries have new prime ministers, with Chris Hipkins and Anthony Albanese meeting for the second time this weekend.

8:20 Anthony McCarten: writing biopics of the fascinating and famous

New Zealand born Anthony McCarten is arguably the world's best known biopic screenwriter and playwright

Past subjects have included Whitney Houston, Edison, Churchill and the band Queen, and this year alone he's had two Broadway productions - the still running Neil Diamond musical A Beautiful Noise and The Collaboration, a play about Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. 

His play Ladies Night, first produced in 1987, continues to be performed around the world. McCarten has written at least 10 novels and his latest, just out, is a thriller Going Zero. 

In the works are a screenplay about the love story of John Lennon and Yoko Ono and a nonfiction book and play about Bill Gates and Warren Buffet's friendship.

 

9:05 Dr Jac den Houting: why everything you know about autism is wrong

Australian research psychologist and activist Dr Jac den Houting is calling for a radical shift in the way we think and talk about autism. 

A autism diagnosis is often seen as a tragedy. But for then 25 year old den Houting it was entirely positive.

It meant that they were not a weird or failed neurotypical person, but a perfectly normal Autistic person.

Their work challenges the traditional medical understanding of autism as a "disorder" and embraces the neurodiversity paradigm, which sees autistic brains as a less common but natural variant, rather than inherently defective.

Their TEDx talk on autism has had 1.3 million views. Autism New Zealand provide a guide to getting an autism diagnosis here.

 

10.05 Rebecca Struthers: the preciousness of time

Rebecca Struthers was just 17 when she set out on her path to become one of Britain's leading watchmakers.  

An active campaigner in the preservation of endangered heritage skills, Struthers family-run workshop combines 30 years of experience in watch restoration, watchmaking, goldsmithing, silversmithing, fine art and gemmology. 

Struthers is the author of the about to be released Hands of Time: A Watchmaker's History, described as "a fusion of art and science, history and social commentary." 

 

10:30 Theatre maker Jason Te Mete on finding community in the Bay of Plenty 

Jason Te Mete (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi) has been recovering from necrotising fasciitis, a rare flesh-eating bacterial infection that left him doubtful he could ever return to the stage.

The actor and singer, recently in Auckland Theatre Company production The Heartbreak Choir, was previously head of performance at the Manukau Institute of Technology. 

Now Te Mete has returned home, with his company Tuatara Collective working with 75 Tauranga young people as part of Baycourt Theatre's 40th anniversary celebrations. 

He Toi Kupu - Uhi Tai is about empowering local whānau, hapū and iwi to tell their own stories. It's being performed April 27 to 29.

 

11:05 Dr. Russell Swerdlow: the metabolic origins of Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease is a devastating degenerative disorder that slowly destroys memory and eventually the ability to carry out the most basic tasks.

Despite huge effort to research Alzheimer's the critical question of what triggers the disease remains unanswered. 

One hypothesis that has gained particular traction over the past decade is that mitochondria, the parts of cells that are responsible for generating energy, may play a significant role.

Dr. Russell Swerdlow is a professor at the University of Kansas School of Medicine and directs their Alzheimer's Disease Research Centre. Swerdlow first suggested that problems with mitochondria might be the cause of brain degeneration back in 2004.

 

11:40 On the road with organic gardener Kath Irvine

Nomad gardener and The Edible Backyard author Kath Irvine is reporting in from a campground in Ōtepoti where she's been attending the Wild Dunedin New Zealand Festival of Nature.

She's got some tips for those of us keen to ditch pesticides and artificial fertilisers but unsure how to manage without them.

Plus, advice on planting cooler crops such as peas, spinach and broad beans.

 

Books mentioned in this show

Hands of Time: A Watchmaker's History
By Rebecca Struthers
ISBN : 9781529339000
Published by Hodder & Stoughton

Going Zero
by Anthony McCarten
ISBN 9781529090215
Published by Macmillan
 

Music featured on this show

Like Humans Do
David Byrne
Played at 9.50am

Running Away
Thee Sacred Souls
Played at 11.05am