Saturday Morning for Saturday 27 May 2023

8:10 Prof. Simon Chapman: what the history of smoking should warn us about vaping

When smoking first became popular it was heavily marketed as being cool. We were even told it was healthy. The results have not been so good. Simon Chapman, an Emeritus Professor at University of Sydney, believes history is repeating itself again with vaping.

This week a UK report found high levels of lead and nickel in illegal vapes, raising concerns about their prevalence in schools. Meanwhile Australia has announced it will make it harder for children and non-smokers to access vapes, but allow people trying to quit smoking access with a prescription.

In 2013 Simon Chapman was made both an Officer of the Order of Australia and named Australian Sceptic of the Year. In 2022 he published Quit Smoking: Weapons of Mass Distraction.

8:30 Sam Sachdeva: navigating New Zealand's relationship with China

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (who turns 100 the day we air) is talking about the potential for war between the United States and China. Increasingly, such talk about our biggest trading partner - China - is not uncommon in New Zealand.

Newsroom's national affairs editor Sam Sachdeva examines what's in store for New Zealand in his book The China Tightrope: Navigating New Zealand's Relationship with a World Superpower.  

Sachdeva cautions we are moving beyond a relationship of trading firsts that broke new ground and enriched our exporters, into new and potentially treacherous territory.

9:05 Dr Rachel Zoffness: chronic pain and the brain

About 1 in 6 New Zealanders live with chronic pain.

Psychologist Dr Rachel Zoffness believes that medical treatment of chronic pain often fails because it is based on a flawed model of how pain works. 

She argues that pain is never purely biomechanical. While sensory information from the body is critical to pain processing, pain is actually constructed by the brain.

For her it is critical that treatment address the social and psychological factors that amplify or dampen the experience of pain.

Dr Zoffness is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of California San Francisco, lecturer at Stanford University, and author of The Pain Management Workbook.

 

9:35 Alison Ballance: the rediscovery and recovery of the takahē

From being assumed extinct, to a healthy population of over 500 birds, the resurrection of the takahē is an incredible story.

The discovery of a small population of the big purple-blue birds living in a remote valley in Fiordland in 1948 triggered decades of efforts to increase their numbers and led to the creation of the Takahē Recovery Programme. 

Zoologist, documentary maker, and writer Alison Ballance's new book Takahē Bird of Dreams charts the history and success of the Recovery Programme and celebrates the many physical and social quirks of the bird.

Ballance was previously host of RNZ’s Our Changing World and became a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2017. 

10:00 The lives and times of musician Tim Finn 

From co-founding Split Enz, a stint in Crowded House with brother Neil, to success as a solo artist and musical theatre and opera composer, Tim Finn has had a remarkable career.

This September Finn, along with a full band, will embark on a tour of Australia and New Zealand, his first in over a decade.

He was inspired by the success of a one-off open air show for 2000 people in Sydney last year.

The tour will include some of his most beloved work over 40 years.

11:00 Rachel Ward's farm: from climate despair to hope 

During Australia's "Black Summer" of 2019-20 a bush fire nearly destroyed the farm where actress Rachel Ward and her actor husband Bryan Brown had been raising cattle for 33 years.

This head-on confrontation with the climate crisis triggered Ward with a neighbour to pivot away from conventional agriculture practices and embrace regenerative farming. 

She’s now a champion for the movement which aims to lower the ecological impact of farming and increase the health of the soil.

Her documentary Rachel’s Farm screens in cinemas and online in the Doc Edge festival in June.

 

11:40 Unrest under the lake: volcanologist Graham Leonard on Taupō 

About 1800 years ago a powerful super-eruption of the Taupō volcano resulted in a plume of ash that coated lakeside areas in tens of metres of pumice and ash and a lava flow that spread up to 90 kilometres. 

Last year a volcanic alert for Taupō was issued for the first time. The supervolcano has entered a period of unrest with ground deformation and swarms of earthquakes including a M5.7 earthquake in November. A large eruption is not likely, but the small possibility of a minor one remains.

GNS volcanologist Graham Leonard joins us to share the history of eruptions and rumbles under the lake and what the unrest means for people living near Taupō.

 

 

Books featured in this episode

 

The Pain Management Workbook
by Rachel Zoffness
Published by New Harbinger Publications
ISBN: 9781684036448

The China Tightrope: Navigating New Zealand's relationship with a world superpower
By Sam Sachdeva
Published by Allen & Unwin NZ
ISBN: 9781991006172

Takahe: Bird of Dreams 
By Alison Ballance
Published by Potton & Burton 
ISBN: 9781988550473
 

 

 

Music played in this show

 

My Regeneration
Andy White and Tim Finn
Played art 10.05am

Poor Boy
Tim Finn
Played at 10.25am

Ono Marama Takerehaia
Tim Finn
Played at 10.35am

Valley
Kevin Morby
Played at 11.40am