Saturday Morning for Saturday 26 August 2023

8.10 City Shaper Roger Madelin

How do you transform an underused inner-city area into an attractive and thriving place to live and work?

Awarded a CBE for Services to Sustainable Development, Roger Madelin is credited with regenerating London's grotty King's Cross into a thriving carbon neutral residential and commercial precinct.

Joint Head of Canada Water at British Land, Madelin's currently leading the development of a 53-acre site on the Thames just minutes from Central London by tube, which will become the UK's newest town.

He has previously led major development projects in Manchester, Birmingham, and the City of London.

9.05 David Scheel: the mysteries of octopuses  

The octopus is a highly intelligent and deeply mysterious creature. It changes colour as quickly as it can move,  and it thinks with its tentacles. 

Marine biologist David Scheel has had a life-long fascination with them. He's discovered new species and has learned to understand how they communicate with signals.

Dr Scheel's new book Many Things Under a Rock: the Mysteries of Octopuses reveals complex emotional beings that can teach us about ourselves.

9.40 Calling in the debt owed by slave-holding nations

A report co-authored by a UN judge has added to growing international calls for reparations to be paid by perpetrators of transatlantic slavery.

The Brattle Group Report calculates 31 former slaveholding states including Britain, the US, France and Spain owe US$107.8 trillion, with the UK alone owing more than £18 trillion for its involvement in slavery in fourteen countries.

Professor Trevor Burnard is Director of the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation at the University of Hull in the UK. He has written of the need for the British royal family to acknowledge its financial and moral responsibility for Britain's role in slavery.

10.05 Graphic designer Paula Scher: painting with words

New York-based Paula Scher is one of the world's most influential graphic designers.  

A partner at Pentagram design studio since 1991, she began her career as an art director in the 1970s and '80s, when she earned a reputation for her eclectic approach to typography. 

For over four decades, she has developed the visual language of iconic brands and institutions such as Citibank, Microsoft, the Museum of Modern Art, Tiffany & Co, Public Theater, the Metropolitan Opera, and the High Line. 

Scher is coming to Auckland next month for the AGI Open, a two-day design festival hosted by the Alliance Graphique Internationale.

10.40 Danyl McLauchlan: a Machiavellian view of politics 

Scientist and writer Danyl McLauchlan joins Kim to tackle life's big questions, ideas and thinkers.

This week, Nicolo Machiavelli, the founder of modern political theory, who argued that politics wasn't about deciding who should rule, but about realising that many of the people who want to rule are ruthless and devious, so the best political systems are adversarial systems that set them against each other and subject them to scrutiny. 

Danyl is the author of two novels and Tranquillity and Ruin, an essay collection.

11.05 Polly Barton: an oral history of pornography

Curious about the lingering taboo around the topic, British writer and translator Polly Barton spent a year talking to people about pornography.

These intimate conversations with a wide range of acquaintances resulted in a book: Porn: An Oral History

Barton's other work includes 50 Sounds, a memoir of her encounters with the Japanese language, and numerous translations of Japanese contemporary women's writing. 

Polly Barton is appearing at Christchurch's WORD festival on 26 and 27 August.

 

11.35 Colin Monteath: Erebus, ice and fire

Mount Erebus is an ultra mountain and the planet's southernmost volcano. Sheathed in ice, with hundreds of ice caves and a lava lake, its name is synonymous with the tragic 1979 air accident.

Polar and mountain photographer Colin Monteath's new book Erebus The Ice Dragon; A portrait of an Antarctic volcano blends history, science, art and adventure set alongside stunning amages.

Colin has worked in Antarctica for 32 seasons, and was involved in the recovery operation after the air crash on Ross Island.

 

Books featured on this show:

Many Things Under a Rock: The Mysteries of Octopuses
By David Scheel
Published by Hachette
ISBN: 9781529392616

Porn: An Oral History
By Polly Barton
Published by Fitzcarraldo Editions
ISBN: 9781804270400

Erebus The Ice Dragon: A portrait of an Antarctic volcano
by Colin Monteath 
Published by Massey University Press
ISBN: 9781991016362

Music played in this show

Track: Sing It Back
Artist: Roisin Murphy
Time Played: 08:56

Track: Let's Talk About Sex
Artist: Salt-n-Pepa
Time Played: 11:05