Saturday Morning for Saturday 31 July 2021

8.10 Bryce Webster-Jacobsen: negotiating with ransomware hackers

Ransomware attacks are not a new phenomenon, but they have increased exponentially since the beginning of the pandemic. Cybersecurity experts attribute the surge, in part, to the shift to people working from home and away from the safe perimeters of corporate networks.

The attacks, often carried out by ransomware gangs, see hackers use malicious software to break into and encrypt a company’s data, then hold it ransom until the victims pay up.
In New Zealand, we’ve seen attacks on major public institutions - like the Waikato DHB - where a ransom wasn’t paid.

In the US, the Biden administration is discouraging companies from paying ransoms, but the reality is not so simple. Bryce Webster-Jacobsen is the Director of Intelligence for Virginia-based cybersecurity firm GroupSense and one of their lead ransomware negotiators.
 

8.30 Jonathan Drori: on listening tomatoes and ragwort-filled gardens

Author, plant lover and former BBC documentary maker Jonathan Drori joins the show for a chat about some of the latest botanical news.

This week, Drori discusses a ragwort-filled garden which controversially won gold at a Royal Horticultural Society show; and the fact researchers have found that tomatoes being eaten by insects send electrical signals to the rest of the plant to warn of an attack - in a manner similar to the human nervous system.  

Drori is the author of Around the World in 80 Trees and Around the World in 80 Plants. 

9.05 Laura Raicovich: changing the museum in an age of protest

Laura Raicovich believes the museum has never been a neutral space. As director of the Queens Museum during the Trump administration she was credited with helping turn the New York institution into a “public commons for art and activism”, organising exhibitions that doubled as political protests and creating an Art Space Sanctuary for citizens.

She resigned in 2018 after objecting to the Israeli government using the museum for a political event featuring Vice President Mike Pence. More recently Raicovich was interim director of Leslie-Lohman, a New York museum dedicated to queer culture. 

Now Raicovich has written Culture Strike: Art and Museums in the Age of Protest considering how museums worldwide have become flashpoints for protest over corporate influences over them and how they might be reinvented for better public ends. 

 

9.30 James Ashcroft: directorial debut leads to Bigfoot flick

James Ashcroft’s debut feature film Coming Home In The Dark hasn’t even hit New Zealand cinemas yet, but the director has already been shoulder-tapped for at least one big budget Hollywood flick.

Based on a short story by Owen Marshall, the chilling film follows a teacher that is forced to confront a secret from his past when his family encounters two malevolent drifters while on a road trip.

Coming Home In The Dark premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and was received to critical acclaim, leading to Ashcroft (Ngāti Kahu and Ngāpuhi) being approached to direct the screen adaptation of Bigfoot horror novel Devolution by American author Max Brooks.

Coming Home In The Dark opens in New Zealand cinemas on August 12.
 

10.05 Joan Armatrading: still striving for the perfect song 50 years on 

After 50 years in the business Joan Armatrading is still making music that pushes the envelope. On her recently released 20th studio album Consequences, the British singer-songwriter delivers a set of songs that have been hailed as being just as versatile, eclectic, and heartfelt as anything in her extensive back catalogue.

The enigmatic Armatrading played every instrument on Consequences and arranged, produced and engineered it herself. But at age 70 she says she’s still trying to write that “definitive song” — the song that will make her put her pen down for good.

Joan Armatrading and band are hosting a livestream concert on Sunday 1st August at 7am (NZT). The concert will be available for viewing 24 hours after airing. Visit her website for more information.

 

11.05 Matt Brown: the barber helping break cycles of violence

Barber Mataio (Matt) Faafetai Malietoa Brown offers men not just a haircut, but a safe space to talk without judgement. His Christchurch barbers My Fathers Barbers is, he says, a place where he hopes to help men break free from a cycle of abuse.

In his book She is Not Your Rehab, co-authored with his wife Sarah, he shares his own story and those of his clients, who have inspired the couple to create an anti-violence movement of the same name. They hope the book and Matt's story about growing up with sexual and domestic violence will give men tools to heal from their trauma. 

Matt is speaking at the Word Christchurch Festival on Friday 27 August. Head to the Word Christchurch website for details and tickets.

 

11.40 Gina Kalloch: Alaska’s indigenous Olympics marks 60 years

While the world has its eyes on the Olympic Games in Tokyo, the Alaskan community of Fairbanks has played host to its own long-standing sporting event, the World Eskimo-Indian Olympic Games.

The WEIO games have been running since 1961, but were forced to take a hiatus last year due to Covid-19. However last week the games made a successful return, with competitors getting stuck into events steeped in native culture such as the nalukataq (blanket toss), knuckle hopping, ear pulling, fish cutting, and the Alaskan high kick.

Gina Kalloch is the chairwoman of the WEIO board, but originally got involved with the games as an impromptu competitor in the Indian Stick Pull event in the early 80s. 

 

Books mentioned in this show:

Around The World in 80 Trees
By Jonathan Drori
Illustrated by Lucille Clerc
ISBN 9781786276063
Published by Laurence King Publishers

Around The World in 80 Plants
By Jonathan Drori
Illustrated by Lucille Clerc
ISBN 9781786272300
Published by Thames & Hudson Australia

Culture Strike: Art and Museums In An Age Of Protest
By Laura Raicovich
ISBN 9781839760501
Published by Penguin Random House

 

Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World
By Anand Giridharadas
ISBN 978-0-451-49324-8
Published by Alfred A. Knopf

The Author's Cut: Short Stories By Owen Marshall
By Owen Marshall
ISBN: 9780143774839
Imprint: RHNZ Vintage

Devolution
By Max Brooks
ISBN 9781529124101
Published by Random House

She Is Not Your Rehab
By Matt Brown
ISBN 9780143775980
Published by Penguin

 

Songs played in this show:

Song: Take My Call
Artist: Lips
Played at 8.40am

Song: Love and Affection 
Artist: Joan Armatrading
Played at 10.05am

Song: Already There
Artist: Joan Armatrading
Played at 10.10am

Song: Better Life
Artist: Joan Armatrading
Played at 10.30am

Song: Consequences
Artist: Joan Armatrading
Played at 10.50am

Song: Beelines to Heaven
Artist: Garageland
Played at 11.35am