Guest details for Saturday Morning 14 May 2011

8:15 James Hansen

Dr James Hansen is the Director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University's Earth Institute, and one of the best-known climate scientists in the world. He is visiting New Zealand to give a public lecture, Climate Change: a Scientific, Moral and Legal Issue, in Auckland, Palmerston North, Wellington, Dunedin, Gore and Christchurch, from 12 to 21 May. He will also participate in the Symposium on the Future of Coal (17 May, Wellington), and the Festival for the Planet (21 May, Auckland).

9:05 Barbara Strauch

Barbara Strauch is Science Editor of The New York Times in charge of health and medical science. She is the author of the 2004 book The Primal Teen: What the New Discoveries About the Teenage Brain Tell Us About Our Kids, and the 2010 book Secrets of the Grown-Up Brain: the Surprising Talents of the Middle-Aged Mind (Anchor Books, ISBN: 978-0-385-72160-8) and is visiting New Zealand for the Secrets of the Brain session with Kim Hill on 13 May at the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival, at which she will also announce the winner of the 2011 Royal Society of New Zealand Science Book Prize.

9:45 Art with Mary Kisler and Sarah Hillary

Mary Kisler is the Senior Curator, Mackelvie Collection, International Art, at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki. She is the author of Angels & Aristocrats: Early European Art in New Zealand Public Collections (Random House, ISBN: 978-1-86962-135-3) and will talk about the book on 13 May at the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival. Sarah Hillary is Principal Conservator at the Auckland Art Gallery. She and Mary will discuss the recent conservation of paintings from the Gallery's collection, in preparation for its re-opening later this year, and about the Te Papa Conservators' blog. Selected images of conservation are available for view by clicking on the Art on Saturday Morning link on the right hand side of this web page.

10:05 Playing Favourites with Rives

Rives is a performance poet, storyteller, author and paper engineer. He has been a regular participant on the HBO television series DefPoetry Jam, and at the TED conferences, and has published pop-up books for children, including If I Were a Polar Bear, and The Christmas Box. Rives is visiting New Zealand as a guest of the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival, for the New Zealand Listener Gala Night (12 May), Poetry Slam (13 May), and Saturday Night Rives (14 May).

11:05 A. A. Gill

A. A. Gill is the restaurant and television critic for the Sunday Times, and a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, GQ and Australian Gourmet Traveller. Selected columns from the latter publication have been collected for his new book, Here & There (Hardie Grant Books, ISBN: 978-174270162-2), and a collection of his observational journalism, A. A. Gill is Further Away (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, ISBN: 978-0-297-86380-9) has also just been published. A.A. Gill is visiting New Zealand as a guest of the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival, for the New Zealand Listener Gala Night (12 May), An Evening with A.A Gill (13 May), and High Tea: Delicious Words (14 May).

11:40 Margo Lanagan

Margo Lanagan is an Australian writer of short stories and young adult fiction. Her latest short story collection is Yellowcake (Allen & Unwin, ISBN: 9781742374789), and she was one of the contributing writers to last year's short story collection Zombies Vs Unicorns, edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier (Allen and Unwin, ISBN: 978-1-74237-550-2 ), a unique feud that pits horned beasts against the shuffling undead. Margo will join the Wordy Day Out (14 May), and panel discussion Fantasy: Freedom All Round (15 May), at the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival.

Music played during the programme

The Harbour Union: Ghost of This Town
From the 2011 album: Est. Twothousandandeleven Lyttleton
(Social End Product
Played at around 9:40

Playing Favourites with Rives

The Three Pickers (with Alison Krauss): Down in the Valley to Pray
From the 2003 album: The Three Pickers
(Rounder)
Played at around 10:20

Red Hot Chili Peppers: Snow ((Hey Oh))
From the 2006 album: Stadium Arcadium
(Warner)
Played at around 10:30

Shigeru Umebayashi: Yumeji's Theme
From the soundtrack album to the 2000 film: In the Mood for Love
(EMI)
Played at around 10:45

Yann Tiersen: Comptine d'un autre été: L'apres-midi
From the 2001 soundtrack album: Amelie
(Virgin)
Played at around 11:40

Studio operators

Auckland engineer: Jeremy Ansell
Wellington engineer: Andrew Dalziel