Saturday Morning for Saturday 19 March 2022

8.10 Rodney Jones: how China's lockdowns could rock the global economy

Tens of millions of people are in lockdown in China as Covid cases hit a two-year high due to the spread of the Omicron subvariant BA.2. While daily cases are still relatively low, the highly transmissible nature of the subvariant is a cause of concern for the country which has so far taken a strict zero-Covid approach. Meanwhile, the city-state of Hong Kong has lost control of the elimination strategy and has seen daily cases hovering around 20,000-30,000.

China’s lockdowns are a worry for the global economy, adding pressure to the supply chain and contributing to higher prices around the world. Rodney Jones is an economist and principal of Wigram Capital Advisors, an Asian-based macro advisory firm which conducts Covid modelling.

 

8.35 Ann Goldstein: bringing Elena Ferrante to the English-speaking world

Ann Goldstein has been translating the work of celebrated Italian author Elena Ferrante for close to two decades. However, Goldstein has never met or even spoken to the pseudonymous author, and is only able to communicate through her publisher. Yet, the success of Ferrante’s work in the English-speaking world has made Goldstein one of the best-known translators in America today.

This unusual collaboration comes into view again this month with the release of Ferrante’s new title In The Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing. Billed by The Guardian as one of the most anticipated titles of 2022, the book is comprised of four essays that offer a rare look at the origins of Ferrante’s literary powers, encompassing both her influences and her struggles.

Goldstein recently retired from The New Yorker, where she worked for 45 years, for the most part presiding over the copy editing department.

 

9.05 Gabriel Gatehouse: why the QAnon conspiracy refuses to die

You will remember him from the storming of The Capitol on 6 January 2021: draped in furs, horns on his head, and carrying a spear flying the United States flag. The world later came to know him as Jake Angeli aka the ’Q Shaman’, a devotee to the conspiracy theory QAnon, which believes Hillary Clinton to be part of a cabal of satanic paedophiles that Donald Trump is battling to defeat. 

When BBC journalist Gabriel Gatehouse saw coverage of the attack he realised he’d met Angeli two months earlier while covering the presidential election. So begins Gatehouse’s BBC podcast series The Coming Storm, which not only delves into QAnon's origins but how it remains a major force within the Republican party.

Previously a BBC foreign correspondent, Gabriel Gatehouse is international editor of Newsnight and co-host of daily BBC podcast Ukrainecast.

 

10.05 Playing Favourites with musician Teremoana Rapley

Teremoana Rapley started her music career as a teenager in the late 80s performing with politically conscious hip hop group Upper Hutt Posse. In the years following, she has worked with countless musical acts including Moana and The Moahunters, Dam Native, Mark de Clive Lowe, Che Fu and King Kapisi - who is also Rapley’s husband.

Alongside her music career, Rapley was pulled into television fronting What Now? and Mai Time, as well putting her skills to work behind the screen as a director for Maori Television. And in 2021 Rapley was made a Member of the NZ Order of Merit, for services to music and television.

Thirty-two years in the making, now Rapley is now poised to release her debut album, Daughter of a Housegirl.

 

11.05 Noelle McCarthy: on being a daughter and dealing with your demons 

Noelle McCarthy’s debut memoir Grand centres on the author’s relationship with her late mother Carol. Raised in the Irish city of Cork, the writer and broadcaster “ran away” to New Zealand as a young woman, but things changed when her mother got sick. Full of great heart and wit, Grand deals bravely with a legacy of alcoholism, anger, and hurt — but also ultimately love. 

McCarthy is a writer and broadcaster. Her story ‘Buck Rabbit’ won the Short Memoir section of the Fish Publishing International Writing competition in 2020. Since 2017, she and her husband John Daniell have been making podcasts as Bird of Paradise Productions. Her latest as producer is Tell Me About it: Women.Talk. An extract from Grand was published online by Metro last February and the book is out March 29.

 

11.35 Kath Irvine: apple picking and autumn in the garden

Organic gardener Kath Irvine returns to share some autumn gardening tips and to answer your questions. This is a time in the garden for both harvesting and preparing for winter. Kath shares some advice on apple picking and storing, and planting your winter crops. 

Irvine runs workshops from her permaculture home garden in Ōhau, in the Horowhenua. Her practical guide to growing organic fruit and vegetables, The Edible Backyard was published last year.

Send your gardening questions through to saturday@rnz.co.nz or text 2101.

 

Books mentioned in this show:

In The Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing
By Elena Ferrante
Translated by Ann Goldstein
Published by Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 9781609457389

Grand
By Noelle McCarthy
Published by Penguin
ISBN: 9780143776109

 

Music featured on this show:

Moving On
Teremoana Rapley
Played at 10.06am

The Horified One
Dam Native
Played at 10.20am

Four Women
Nina Simone
Played at 10.35am

Won't Stop, Can't Stop
King Kapisi
Played at 10.57am

My Hands Are Made of Glass
Mousey
Played at 11.40am