The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin

Tommy Emmanuel's a big name in the acoustic guitar world, and he's set to start a new tour. Throughout his career he's performed with bands like Air Supply and Men at Work, headlined tours around the Globe and toured with Eric Clapton and John Denver. Among his many career awards, he's won a Grammy for best instrumental arrangement and is one of only 5 ever Chet Atkins certified guitar players. His Living in the Light Tour starts in Auckland at the Town Hall tonight. "I feel it's my calling to play for people, because when I play, people get happy. So I don't call it the music business, I call it the happiness business. I play, you get happy - everyone's happy." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Award-winning journalist Patrick Radden Keefe has made a name for himself by taking complex true crime stories - mysterious deaths, greedy families or shadowy underworlds -and bringing them to light. Patrick has written six books, all best sellers - with Empire of Pain and Say Nothing being the standouts. His latest book is London Falling, a story of London teenager Zac Brettler who mysteriously fell to his death in 2019, and it's available in stores now. "Part of what I was trying to do with this book was look at the way in which any of us as parents, when we're parenting an adolescent - particularly these days when everybody's on their phones - is that the child we thought we knew can start to become somebody unrecognisable." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Three Reasons for Revenge by Dervla McTiernan - a terrific crime thriller set in Melbourne, about Judith Lee, a detective who is drawn into a nasty case that has the police baffled. Alexis Turner walks into the police station to report an assault which Judith recognises as the mirror of an identical assault which was brought to her attention some years prior. Then three people (one of whom is Judith) each receive a beautifully wrapped box with an individually tailored, insidious gift inside which will tear their lives apart. Somehow, these things are connected and Judith embarks on a race against time to stop the perpetrator and save innocent lives. The Valley by Asher Emanuel - the culmination of over two years of field research and hundreds of hours of interviews, this extraordinary book follows three Hutt Valley men through courtrooms, prison, hospital, rehab, boarding houses and welfare offices, two of whom are recidivist offenders, the other being their legal aid lawyer. Told largely in verbatim dialogue, it's a remarkable up-close and personal account bringing the realities of the New Zealand criminal justice system to life through the voices of those who experience it first-hand. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Holidaymakers have revealed how some hotels and resorts are cracking down on people reserving sun loungers with towels, after a man won a payout over the practice. This follows the man successfully suing his tour operator for allowing the practice to take place while he was on holiday with his family in 2024, claiming he spent 20 minutes a day trying to find a sun lounger early in the morning. Bloggeratlarge writer Megan Singleton explained further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on the Sunday Panel, director at Capital Ben Thomas and Newstalk ZB Wellington mornings host Nick Mills joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more! The Government has unveiled their new system designed to replace NCEA. Do we think parents and students are getting enough clarity around the curriculum and how assessments are going to go? What does this mean for the humanities? Do we think the Government's taking the right approach here? LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin Full Show Podcast for Sunday 17 May 2026, investigative journalist Patrick Radden Keefe has spent his career bringing little known true crime stories into the mainstream. He joins Francesca to talk about his new book 'London Falling' which follows the parents of teenager Zac Brettler as they uncover the truth behind their sons death. Legendary guitarist Tommy Emmanuel performs live in studio and talks through is six decade long career. Education Minister Erica Stanford runs us through the new national secondary school qualification announced to replace NCEA, while Francesca discusses how funding Wegovy could be a gamechanger in New Zealand. And ever struggled to get a sun lounger on holiday? Well one fed up tourist has sued his tour operator over his inability to secure a sun bathing spot. Travel contributor Megan Singleton runs us through the case and why it has hotels and resorts cracking down on lounger hoggers. Get the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin Full Show Podcast every Sunday on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Peptides can benefit health by offering targeted benefits, such as weight loss (semaglutide), injury healing (BPC-157), and immune support - but there's risks involved too. While FDA-approved peptides are generally safe under medical guidance, many others lack safety studies, and improperly sourced peptides may contain contaminants, leading to severe reactions. Naturopath and wellness expert Erin O'Hara explained further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you've ever watched a crab dart across a beach, you've probably noticed something strange - that they almost never walk forward. Instead, they scuttle sideways with surprising speed and agility, a movement so iconic it has practically become the defining feature of crabs themselves. Now, scientists have published in the journal eLife that they believe they know where this unusual walk came from. Researchers studying crab movement discovered that sideways walking likely evolved only once in the history of “true crabs,” a group known scientifically as Brachyura. That's remarkable because in evolution, useful traits often appear independently many times. Wings evolved separately in birds, bats, and insects. Streamlined body shapes evolved in dolphins and sharks despite them not being closely related. But sideways walking? Scientists think crabs only invented it once, and then stuck with it. The researchers studied how 50 different crab species moved, filming them individually in specially designed arenas that mimicked their natural environments. When they mapped those movements onto the crab family tree, a striking pattern appeared - most modern crabs inherited their sideways movement from one ancient ancestor. At first glance, walking sideways seems awkward. But for crabs, it may actually be a survival superpower. Crabs have wide, flattened bodies with legs that naturally extend outward. Moving sideways allows them to move faster and more efficiently without constantly twisting their bodies. A sideways-moving crab can rapidly dart left or right in unpredictable bursts, making it harder for predators to anticipate where it will go next. Today there are nearly 8,000 known species of true crabs living in environments ranging from deep oceans to rivers, forests, and even land. The scientists believe this evolutionary shift happened shortly after one of Earth's major extinction events: the Triassic–Jurassic extinction around 200 million years ago. At that time, the world was changing dramatically and nature was opening up entirely new ecological opportunities. Crabs may have arrived with the perfect new adaptation at exactly the right moment. Scientists often talk about “carcinization” the repeated evolution of crab-like body shapes across different crustacean groups. Oddly enough, becoming crab-shaped has happened multiple times in evolutionary history. But sideways walking appears to have been much rarer. That suggests some behaviours are surprisingly difficult to evolve, even if they turn out to be highly successful once they appear. It's easy to dismiss a crab's sideways scuttle as just a quirky detail of nature. But this study suggests it may have been one of the most important movement innovations in marine evolution. A single change in how an animal moved may have helped crabs spread across the planet, adapt to countless environments, and become one of the most successful groups of crustaceans on Earth. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Curried pumpkin and coconut soup Cook time: 30 minutes Prep time: 15 minutes Serves: 6-8 1 crown pumpkin, peeled and de-seeded 2 medium sized onions 10 cloves garlic 1 tbsp garam masala 1 tbsp ground coriander 1 tbsp ground cummin 1 tsp tumeric 1.5 ltr vegetable stock 400 gm coconut cream 1 cup cream 100 gm butter Salt Sunflower oil Heat a pot, adding in a touch of oil before sweating the onions and garlic, followed by the spices. Cook out for a few minutes. Add in the pumpkin and continue to stir until the pumpkin is fully coated. Cover the pumpkin with the vegetable stock, coconut cream and salt. Bring the soup up to a boil. Turn down and simmer for a further 30 minutes or until the pumpkin is well cooked. Using a blender or using stick blender, blend the soup well and slowly add in all the butter and cream. Check the seasoning. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Over 37,000 people were welcomed to Christchurch's new One New Zealand Stadium for the venue's first concert. The Once in a Lifetime show was headlined by Six60, Kaylee Bell, Cassie Henderson and Synthony, among others. Entertainment correspondent Steve Newall explained further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand's best stone skimmers got the chance to show off their skills at Wānaka's Lake Hāwea this weekend. The inaugural Aotearoa Stone Skimming Championship just wrapped up this weekend, with the money raised by the event going to Melanoma NZ. Organiser Richie Laming says an event like this had been floated at Lake Hāwea in the past - and it's a prime location to skip stones. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ACT's Deputy Leader Brooke van Velden has announced she is pregnant. The Tamaki MP in March revealed she would leave Parliament this year and won't be standing at the election. She explained that this isn't why she's standing down, but she says it seems like it was meant to be - and she is thrilled to be starting the journey into motherhood. Newstalk ZB political reporter Azaria Howell says the baby is due within days of the November election. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Out with the old...and in with the new secondary school qualifications, with more detail on what's replacing NCEA revealed. Year 11 students will now need to get a foundational literacy and numeracy award before they pass Year 12 and 13. Senior students will also face a compulsory exam in each subject, and must pass at least three subjects each year to pass. But Chair of the New Zealand Secondary Principals' Council, Steve McCracken, says while the new system seems easy to understand - NCEA is still a valid qualification. "What I think we've got is actually an advancement in terms of the minister's priorities - it makes it really clear and concise and able to be read really easily." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Education Minister says the new secondary school qualifications are achievable and aspirational. Yesterday, Erica Stanford announced senior students will need to pass three out of five subjects to achieve the new certificates. The new system will be phased in from 2028 and reward students with endorsements for passing all five subjects. Stanford explained that the first tranche of the curriculum has been sent out for consultation. "They're going to be dropping it in three tranches, just to not overwhelm the sector. I've got a group of principals who are keeping an eye on it - the curriculum advisory group." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Thursday, Pharmac announced it has added semaglutide, better known by its brand name Wegovy, to its list of medicines suitable for future funding. It's on the Options For Investment list which is for medications that Pharmac would like to fund if it has the budget to do so. Hopefully this will come about sooner than later. I'm not talking about funding it for every Tom, Dick and Harry who wants to lose a few kgs, but for the seriously obese who are dealing with all the risks and diseases that come with it - such as diabetes, renal failure, cardiovascular disease and impacts on joints. At this stage the criteria for funding the drug states it would be available for people with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of more than 50 and also to those with a BMI of more than 35 and at least two co-morbidities. Last week, an article in the NZ Herald caught my attention and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. The title of the article was: Leading causes of death by age in New Zealand. I know, it's a cheery number. Now, while the when and where of our deaths is largely unknown to many of us, the data explains how we're likely to die depending on how old we are. In our 20s, external injuries are the leading cause of death. These are classified as intentional - suicide, self-harm or assault - or unintentional, including falls, burns, vehicle crashes, dog bites and drownings. As we move into our 30s ‘all cancers' become the leading cause of death, but in our 40s a trend emergences that stays with us until our 80s and beyond. The ‘all cancer' group remains the leading cause of death but heart disease moves into second. As we age, suicide reduces, and the chance of dying from respiratory diseases, diabetes, or strokes also increases. Not hugely surprising, right? But when clearly defined by the data and in graphs, it's a little confronting. It's a simple way to look at how to prioritise health care, and as I found an effective motivator to encourage people to do what they can to beat the odds. So yes, let's fund Wegovy. Think of the impact it could have on our over-burdened health care system, and the country's productivity. This drug could be a game changer for young people and their mental health, for those unable to work due to weight related issues, and those who could potentially end up needed a heart transplant. But it's also worth starting slow. When it comes to criteria for funding the drug, we need to start with those most at risk, and who will benefit the most from it. With one in three New Zealand adults regarded as obese - being labelled obese shouldn't be enough to qualify. Like all drugs, there are side effects and risks and more research is needed to determine long term effects. But hey, when you're got a tool as powerful as this, we should be making the most of it in the most equitable manner possible. In the meantime, I shall be doing what I can to look after myself. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Despite the rising cost of living, growing fuel prices and ongoing concerns about inflation, the demand for travel still hasn't dropped. The Auckland Travel Show is on this weekend, and it's clear demand is alive and well, but there are some new trends emerging. Founder Rob Eliott says people have redirected their plans - with plenty still planning trips for Asia and the Pacific Islands. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is up against it, with growing calls for a leadership challenge. Labour had disastrous local election results, with right-wing party Reform making huge gains. UK Labour MP Catherine West says she will trigger a challenge to Starmer's leadership if Cabinet doesn't. UK correspondent Enda Brady says the results are a vote against Starmer. "People don't know who he is, people don't know what he stands for, nothing has changed. This summer will mark two years of him being in power and he hasn't delivered the change people wanted." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

University student groups want the Government to reconsider the scrapping of the fees-free study scheme. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed it'll end at the Budget, with 2026 being the final year students are eligible. Victoria University of Wellington Student Association President Aidan Donaghue says it's being binned as the cost of living bites. "There's huge opportunity costs...we can't work full time while also studying. So energy, heating, groceries, fuel - those are all just compounding on students as they try and better themselves." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin Full Show Podcast for Sunday 10 May 2026, Francesca speaks to comedian and author Pax Assadi about his new book full of excerpts from his life, 'Mortified'. Aidan Donoghue from the Victoria University Wellington Student Association shares his thoughts on the Government's decision to scrap the fees free scheme. He says it's another kick in the guts for struggling students. Francesca gives her thoughts on the ex-CRL bosses' comments on the expensive project: Yes, it's over budget. But weren't you the guy making those decisions? And doctor Michelle Dickinson shares a research paper that asks the question, 'How do you give CPR in space?'. Get the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin Full Show Podcast every Sunday on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett. She wrote a book called The Help fifteen years ago which was a sensation at the time and subsequently made into a movie. This new one is also set in Mississippi, in 1933, during Prohibition and the Great Depression. Birdie's family are impoverished, so she travels to visit her sister who's married to a man of means in another town, hoping to get some financial support - but when she gets there finds that things are not at all as she'd imagined them to be. She meets another young woman down on her luck and the two of them embark on a high risk money making scheme - a brothel called The Calamity Club, from which they reap very considerable benefits but always under threat of discovery by the authorities. There's a second thread to the story about a young girl named Meg who after being abandoned by her mother is being brought up in the local orphanage, and her life intersects with these women in what are eventually life changing ways. The Wife, The Maid and The Mistress by Ariel Lawhon whose most recent new book was The Frozen River. As with her other writing, this is based on real events - in 1930's NYC, a judge stepped into a taxicab and simply disappeared - he was never heard from again, and it haunted New York society for years. This fictional account tells the story of the judge's wife, the maid who cleaned their apartment and the showgirl who had been his lover, and posits a totally compelling and credible answer to the mystery. With access to some archival material from the times she's done a great job of recreating what might have happened. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on the Sunday Panel, Director at 818, Chris Henry and journalist and editor, Jo McCarroll, joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more! The Government has confirmed fees-free uni is over and done ahead of the Budget. What kind of impact will this have? Would it be better to find other ways to support young people? Are we worried it will be another factor that will drive young talent from New Zealand? Do we think interest-free student loans are on their way out? The Government's given councils three months to put forward merger proposals, or it will force them to join up under its own process. Do we think this is enough time? What will this mean for jobs? LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kiwi actress Morgana O'Reilly has made the leap to the world of comedy, with her newest project proving successful at the NZICF. Stories About My Body examines years of growth and change, as Morgana looks back on her stories and memories and diary entries. She says it took a while to craft the project - and it adds more cinematic touches to the one-woman show. "I think the whole thing is essentially a love letter...to all of your 13-year-old selves, all the way up until pushing babies out of one's body." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Seed oils like canola and sunflower oil have attracted controversial claims about harmful effects - but should we be worried? Some argue they fuel chronic inflammation and disease, while others have pointed out that they lower cholesterol and reduce heart disease risk. Naturopath and wellness research Erin O'Hara weighed in - and revealed which oils are better for you. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mother's Day crumpets Cook time: 10 minutes Prep time: 30 minutes Serves: makes 10-15 375 ml warm water 250 ml milk 1 tbsp dried yeast 1 tbsp raw sugar 400 gm plain flour 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda Pinch of salt Sunflower oil for cooking Combine the water, milk, yeast and sugar in a jug and set aside to activate. Place the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Slowly stir in the yeast mixture and continue to mix until smooth. Cover with a clean damp towel and set aside somewhere warm to ferment for a hour. The batter should start to bubble during this time. 10 minutes before you start to cook the crumpets, dissolve the baking soda in a little water. Mix through the batter and set aside. Heat a large cast iron frypan over a medium heat. Add a touch of oil and spread it around. Drop in some 10cm crumpet moulds or steel pastry cutters. Spoon in about 1/4 cup of crumpet batter into each mould. Allow the bubbles to rise to the surface for a couple of minutes before removing the moulds. After 5 minutes, flip and continue to cook on a low heat until golden. Repeat until all the batter is used. Serve hot with marmalade and butter. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Space tourism is now a thing, and it probably won't be too long before that tour consists of an orbit around the moon. We already have a situation where astronauts spend months living in space stations far from Earth. Now, imagine someone suffers a cardiac arrest. On Earth, CPR is a life-saving skill we take for granted. Push hard and fast on the chest to keep blood flowing to the brain and organs until medical help arrives. But in space, things get complicated very quickly. Research published in the journal Microgravity are now exploring a question most of us have never considered: how does blood move through the body during CPR when gravity is reduced? CPR relies heavily on gravity and body positioning here on Earth. When you compress someone's chest, you are helping pump blood through the cardiovascular system toward vital organs like the brain. But in space, astronauts float. Without gravity, rescuers can't brace themselves properly, and the body itself behaves differently. Fluids shift upward toward the head, the heart can shrink slightly over time, and circulation changes in ways scientists are still trying to fully understand. That means traditional CPR techniques may not work as effectively in reduced gravity environments like the moon, Mars, or spacecraft. Researchers have proposed several “space CPR” methods over the years, but there has been a major problem: nobody has really been able to measure what is happening inside the body during those attempts. The Concordia research team developed a remarkably advanced CPR simulator designed specifically for hypogravity environments. At first glance, it looks like a medical training mannequin. But inside, it contains a surprisingly realistic artificial cardiovascular system. Instead of simply measuring how deep chest compressions are, the system measures whether blood is actually moving effectively through the body. To test the system, the researchers took their mannequin aboard a specially modified Falcon 20 aircraft used for space science experiments. The plane flies in steep arcs called parabolic flights. During parts of the flight, passengers experience brief periods of reduced gravity, similar to what astronauts feel in space. During these moments of hypogravity, the mannequin received automated chest compressions while sensors tracked how fluid moved through its artificial arteries. One of the key measurement points was the carotid artery, the major vessel that carries blood to the brain. The team observed measurable differences in blood pressure compared with Earth-based CPR. Systolic pressure, diastolic pressure, pulse pressure, and mean arterial pressure were all higher in reduced gravity conditions. The body appears to respond differently to CPR in low gravity than it does on Earth. That's an important discovery because it suggests Earth-based assumptions about resuscitation may not fully apply in space. As humans spend more time away from Earth, medical emergencies become inevitable and unlike on Earth, there is no ambulance coming. Future astronauts may need to handle life-threatening emergencies entirely on their own, with limited equipment and delayed communication with Earth. Understanding how CPR works in reduced gravity could one day save lives millions of kilometres from the nearest hospital. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pax Assadi has revealed the unlikely source of inspiration for his new memoir. His new book, Mortified, is far from a highlight reel - it focuses on the shame, the cringe and all the stupid things that leave many wanting to die from embarrassment. Assadi says he was in a 'creative zone' developing stand-up when the book concept came to him. "I just thought it was cool, counterculture thing to do against the backdrop of our social media society that is obsessed with making sure we all look pristine - and I'm just kind of sick of it. I'm a little bit sick of us all pretending like we're all perfect." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's concerns about what the Government's latest pre-Budget announcement means for students. Winston Peters told Newstalk ZB on Friday that they'd get rid of the final free year of tertiary education, and Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed it. She says they will have more to say on it in due course. NZ Herald political editor Thomas Coughlan says it's likely the Government isn't thrilled with Peters leaking these details - and it wasn't pre-authorised by Willis or anyone else. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I can't wait to get onto Auckland's CRL. I can't wait to check out the overly grand stations. And I can't wait to experience moving around our city in a way residents of other modern cities around the world have been doing for decades. More so, I can't wait to see if it does what it was intended to do - transform the city's rail network from a "one-way cul-de-sac" into a two-way through-system, designed to double the network's capacity and improve accessibility across the region. It's been a monster of a ride getting this underground railway built, and yes it's costs a bundle, but I was intrigued this week that those most vocal about the decision making and costs are the people responsible for the project. Good on former CRL boss Sean Sweeney for coming out and calling it how he sees it. We need people with experience expressing views on how we do things in this country. Sweeney oversaw the CRL, and its many cost increases and associated challenges for six years, and admits he would do things differently if he had his time again. He feels the main issue with the CRL was that it was over-specified. It's not just the CRL, he also thinks the Christchurch stadium could have been built for less. As much as Cantabrians are enjoying the stadium, I'm sure there are many who feel the same way. Building infrastructure is a bit like buying a house. When you buy you're convinced you're being ripped off and then 7-10 years later you're generally pretty happy with the price and capital gain. I'm sure that over the next 10, 20, 100 years we'll feel pretty pleased with ourselves for future proofing these investments: a platform long enough to cope with extra train carriages in anticipation of Auckland's population growth, and a roof on Christchurch's stadium. Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop took the opportunity to reinforce National's ‘fiscally responsible' stance by ordering a review into the build, while still trying to stay positive about a project which will open on his watch. It was a bit of a headline grab. An effort to look proactive in response to the criticism. But anything that costs $5.5 billion, and was as difficult and disruptive as the CRL has been, should be reviewed and learnt from. Preferably before we launch into a second Auckland Harbour crossing. Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown also piped up, expressing his long held view on the cost of the CRL, saying the project was “set up poorly” and he would take a tougher approach to projects. But weirdly, I don't hear Aucklanders talking about it the same way as those who were or are involved in it. Remember City Rail Link Limited was formed between the National Government and the Phil Goff-led Auckland Council in 2017 to jointly fund and oversee it through to completion. Both local and central Government are responsible for this project. While the CRL has been a torturous affair, especially for those living, working or trying to run a business around its construction, most locals just want it to open, for it to make a fundamental change to how we get around our clogged up city, and can't wait to give it a try. Spending $2 billion more on the CRL is worth a discussion, but maybe we need to keep it in perspective. Superannuation currently costs the country over $24 billion annually and is estimated by Treasury to cost over $45 billion in 10 years. The reluctance of political parties to thoughtfully address this is neglectful. So, enjoy the fancy infrastructure where you can, there's unlikely to be much more on the way. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

No-one knows what the future of AI has in store for us, and one journalist has raised concerns about the impact of the technology. When investigative journalist Karen Hao started looking into Sam Altman's OpenAI, she had hopes for the technology, but extensive research and unparalleled access to those closest to the AI arms race left her with a different view. Her work in this space has made her one of the foremost tech journos covering AI. She's been listed in Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People. She's heading to New Zealand for the Auckland Writers Festival with her book EMPIRE OF AI: Inside the Reckless Race for Total Domination. "My criticism of companies that use this kind of rhetoric is that they are essentially just leveraging the lack of a shared definition as a way to just hype up their technologies." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Olympic paddler Luuka Jones-Yaxley's lined up an unexpected project after her success in Paris. Shortly after retiring from the high-performance canoe Slalom at the Paris Olympics, Luuka received a call and an offer to appear as Charlize Theron's stunt double in the Netflix film Apex. She says the offer felt like an 'April Fools joke' at first, but she was on a plane to the South Island to begin filming before she knew it. "I just received at text from a friend down in the South Island and he called me and said he's been doing a bunch of water safety on some films and that this film had approached him and they needs a kayak double for Charlize Theron - and it kind of went from there." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. Natalie Heller Mills drifts into marriage with a real loser, and in a last desperate attempt to help him make something of himself, gets her father in law to fund them onto a remote ranch in Idaho where she raises a brood of kids, embraces a traditional way of life, and sends it all via Instagram to a rapidly increasing audience. The trouble is, Natalie doesn't entirely subscribe to the situation she finds herself in - and when one day she wakes up in the year 1855, in exactly the environment she's been emulating, the things she's been espousing and pretending to live like suddenly become all too real. This is terrifically well done - full of side-eye and quips to the reader amid a situation from which there is no escape. London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe. He's the author who gave us the wonderful Empire of Pain a few years ago. This is about a young man whose fall from the balcony of a high end apartment block beside the Thames was filmed by MI6 cameras across the river. Zac Brettler always wanted more, and passed himself off as the child of a Russian oligarch which ultimately resulted in him getting in with the wrong crowd. Despite the footage, the Metropolitan Police refused to investigate and when Radden Keefe got involved he found a great deal to answer for. This is fascinating, investigative writing of the highest order. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Travel expert Megan Singleton's been in New York seeing the sights, and making some unexpected discoveries. After she learned the Abyssinian Baptist Church was booked out, she checked out the spring blossoms in Central Park, explored the Met and visited Little Island - which is built on wine glass shaped stilts across 4 acres in the Hudson River. Read more of Megan's travel tips here. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on The Sunday Panel, broadcaster and journalist Wilhelmina O'Keefe and Resident Economist at Opes Partners, Ed McKnight, joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more! ACT has recently revealed their new immigration policy - what do we think? Is this going to attract the right people to New Zealand? A lot of what ACT is talking about here is just about enforcing existing laws - have we been too soft in the past? There's been disagreements in the coalition this week - do we see them lasting until the election? Is Winston Peters trying to get one over Chris Luxon? LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Additives are added to processed food to keep it fresher for longer but these might unexpectedly affect the health of the microbes in our guts. A diverse microbiome is key for our overall wellbeing, as it influences everything from our mood to our metabolism and our brain health, and processed food can have a harmful impact. Naturopath and wellness expert Erin O'Hara explained further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin Full Show Podcast for Sunday 3 May 2026, Francesca speaks to investigative reporter and influential AI expert Karen Howe, who initially supported the development of AI, but now sees a darker side to the newest tech trend. Luuka Jones-Yaxley has gone from being an Olympic Silver Medalist to Hollywood Stunt Performer. Francesca gets the details on her journey, including rubbing elbows with some of Hollywood's biggest stars. Francesca gives her thoughts on a chaotic week in politics, backed up by a visit from ACT Party Leader David Seymour, who has just announced a new immigration policy. And doctor Michelle Dickinson tells us where the safest spot to sit is on an airplane. Get the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin Full Show Podcast every Sunday on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last week I started my editorial with: ‘Well, it was a rather chaotic, eventful week in politics wasn't it', and went on to speak about how I thought it was a mistake that the Prime Minister has decided to decline appearing in a weekly spot on TVNZ's Breakfast. But it appears that ‘chaotic' and ‘eventful' is likely to be how we're going to describe the next 27 weeks until the election, if the coalition can hold itself together through to November. The nonsense and the scheming this week included what could quite possibly have been a leaked story about embattled TVNZ reporter Maiki Sherman, lawyers letters flying between media companies keen to report the juicy details, Winston Peters releasing emails under an OIA request revealing the Prime Minister's potentially damaging views on the US war against Iran, and a feisty retaliation by the National Party on NZ First. All I could think at the end of this week was - surely both the media and politicians can do better. I get it - everyone is coming out firing on all cylinders - that's what you've got to do in election year. National has a new campaign leader and communications adviser, and I am sure many National voters like the new fighting spirit being shown by the Nats. After all, the Foreign Affairs Minister was out of line this week. But with Winston Peters stating, 'No, we won't do a deal with Labour or their Marxist and separatist mates', then you'd think that having ruled out being part of an opposing coalition there would be some shared effort to sell this one to voters. The number of people who this week said to me, 'I don't want to vote for any of them' was a bit of a surprise. Civility is often put aside during an election year, and yet I think it's what most of us are craving right now. We'd like the people we have entrusted to run the country to act like grown-ups and get on with the job without the backstabbing. Budget month is going to be tough, and yet all National and the coalition have to do to sell this budget is deliver it straight-up. We all know the story - whatever economic recovery and confidence we were gaining heading into 2026 has been wiped out by decisions made elsewhere in the world. It's not just our story - it's happening everywhere. This week, the Bank of England warned inflation could hit 6.2 percent in the UK by early 2027, and food prices could rise by 6-7 percent by the end of this year. In Australia inflation rose to 4.6 percent in March, with an expectation it will peak higher with consumer prices now growing at their fastest pace in two and a half years. No. It's not the economic recovery story National was hoping to campaign on, but with little policy or innovation coming from the Labour Party there is an opportunity to double down on their fiscally responsible approach to managing the economy. The revelation of Christopher Luxon's support for the war wrecking our economy - isn't helpful for him. But what would be more damaging is having coalition party leaders calling out each other for poor judgement over the coming months. Luxon has done a good job keeping the coalition together, but if they're going to spend the next 6 months sabotaging each other rather than continuing to work on how they can come together on policy, selling the budget will be the least of National's problems. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When you board a plane, you probably think about whether or not you want a window or aisle seat that is either close to the bathroom, or far away. But new research published in the journal AIP Advances concludes that when it comes to safety, who is sitting around you matters more than where you sit on a plane. There's a global aviation safety standard rule you've probably never heard of: every passenger must be able to evacuate a plane in 90 seconds. But here's the catch: it's based on controlled tests, under perfect conditions, involving calm people and ideal scenarios. I've never been in a plane emergency, but I imagine people panic, aisles clog and not all passengers will move at the same speed. The new research asked a simple question - what actually happens during a realistic evacuation and does the passenger type and seating location affect survival? The researchers built a full digital model of an Airbus A320 cabin and simulated emergency evacuations under one of the worst-case scenarios: a dual-engine fire. This scenario prevents the use of wing exits, forcing everyone to escape only through the front and back doors They ran 27 different scenarios with different passenger mixes and seating arrangements. Surprisingly they found that the fastest evacuation didn't happen with the strongest, fastest passengers but instead when only 20 percent of passengers were elderly and evenly distributed near exits. That scenario took 141 seconds. It still didn't meet the 90 seconds target, but it was the fastest of all of the scenarios and much better than the worst evacuation, which took over 218 seconds. At first glance, the findings seem obvious. Older passengers move more slowly, which slows down evacuation, but the real insight is not just how many slower passengers you have, it's where they are Here's what the study found: Older passengers may move more slowly, take longer to react, need assistance and struggle in stressful, unfamiliar situations. Clustering slower passengers in one area creates bottlenecks Random placement causes unpredictable surges and congestion Even distribution smooths the flow and reduces jams When exits are limited (like in a fire scenario), small delays ripple outward and slow everyone down. This research is important because the world is aging, meaning that in the near future, more flights will include a higher proportion of older passengers. The researchers suggest that airlines should strategically distribute slower-moving passengers evenly to improve safety, so maybe in the future your seating choice might be made by your age, not whether or not you like the window seat. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fired duck livers with port and cream Cook time: 25 minutes Prep time: 30 minutes Serves: 6 250 gm duck livers 1/2 cup red wine 1/4 cup port 3/4 cup cream 6 field mushrooms 1/2 onion, peeled and sliced thin 2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced 2 tbsp sunflower oil Salt and pepper Take a large cast iron or similar pan. Heat to a high heat. Add the oil and quickly add in the onions and garlic. Then add in the livers and continue to cook for a couple of minutes until the livers are well coloured on both sides. Add the red wine and port and quickly reduce. Once it reduces by half, add in the cream, mushrooms, salt and pepper. When the livers are pink inside, remove and continue to reduce the sauce until thick. To serve, toast some sourdough or similar and spoon the livers and sauce over the top. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The 2026 Taite Music Awards took place last week, where Kiwi artists and industry experts celebrated New Zealand's independent music scene. Geneva AM, The Mint Chicks and Marlon Williams were among the big winners on the night. Entertainment correspondent Steve Newall explained further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's growing concerns about the impact of social media on young people, with advocates calling for tighter regulations. Politicians have voiced support for a teen social media ban in line with Australia, but experts say more needs to be done in this area. B416 advisor Jade Varney says education is important, but the technology's gone too far to let young people use it without a proper intervention. "These technology platforms have been engineered to intercept our control functions in our brains, and a young person relying on the knowledge they've been taught in school just may not be enough at this current stage." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's concerns about the stability of the coalition after National and NZ First had it out last week. Winston Peters' office released emails showing Prime Minister Chris Luxon wanted the Government to explicitly support US/Israeli action in Iran, which Peters later rejected. Former Minister and commentator Peter Dunne says Peters is running rings around Luxon ahead of the election - and it's unclear what this could mean for the coalition after the election. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The A-League will have a new champion after Auckland FC ended Melbourne City's season in a thrilling 14-goal penalty shootout. The Kiwi side will play Adelaide United across a two-leg semi-final. CEO Nick Becker says it was 'crazy' watching the team's performance on the night. "Sport is such an incredible thing, I think with football especially, because it's such a low-scoring game - the scarcity of goals and then the drama... it was a real emotional rollercoaster. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.