Short Story Club

Our story for this week is Frank, It's Raining by Anthony McCarten

Email us your thoughts, the best email wins a copy of his non fiction book on Winston Churchill, Darkest Hour. He also wrote the script for the film of the same name.

1:10 First song

1:15 Soil mapping hits 8 million hectares

A milestone today for soil scientists - more than 8 million hectares has been digitally mapped in New Zealand. 

That's 30 per cent of the New Zealand land area. 

Soil is important for the country, our GDP and the health of our ecosystems rely on it. 

The mapping data is being shared with everyone from farmers to councils, and to explain more about hitting this milestone is Landcare Research Soil Scientist Sam Carrick.

Sam Carrick testing water inflitration into soil

Sam Carrick testing water inflitration into soil Photo: Landcare Research

1:25 How the media's created "shark hysteria"

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Photo: Wikimedia Commons

If you've ever seen Jaws, or really any movie that features sharks, you probably think the sea animals are pretty scary.

No doubt they are, but are they as menacing to us as has been portrayed in the media? 

An Australian state inquiry last year heard evidence that media coverage contributed to a high fear of sharks in the public, compared to the actual risk. 

And now a study by researchers at Charles Sturt University has confirmed shark hysteria seems to have been created by the media. Author and associate professor, Peter Simmons, explains. 

1:35 Youth award for teen conservationist 

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Photo: Supplied / Forest and Bird

Forest and Bird presented its top honours this weekend and Wellington teenager George Hobson took out the Te Kaiārahi Rangatahi o te Taiao youth award. 

The 14-year-old has spent the last few years getting involved conservation organisations and encouraged other people his age to love nature. 

He's currently on a walk but and joins us on the phone to tell us about his work, including coordinator for Young Birders NZ

1:40 Great album

2:10 Television Critic Graeme Tuckett

Graeme discusses:

The Detectorists. (Netflix and BBC)
Grenfell. (TV One)
Marcella. (Netflix)

2:20 Nature Agents: Learning about our water

Students in the South Island are learning how to keep their local streams healthy.

The Nature Agents programme will help kids develop skills with hands-on traning, by tracking and collecting data on the waterways in their region. 

It's about to be rolled out in Christhurch and Banks Peninsula.

To tell us more we're joined by Kirsty Brennan, Environmental Scientist at EOS ecology.

2:30 Star Trek expert

The first ever episode of Star Trek went to air in 1966, three years before humans set foot on the moon.

Since then it's grown into a pop culture behemoth, spawning TV incarnations, movies, video games and of course, merchandise - it is now a 10-billion-dollar brand!

It's also inspired generations of impassioned fans - you might know them as Trekkies, and today we welcome Ross Stevenson, Star Trek expert, who has an entire room in his Temuka home devoted to all things Star Trek.

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Photo: Commons

3:10 How to tame the wandering mind

Multi tasking is a myth according to neuroscientist Amishi Jha. She says we need to pay more attention to attention because stress and mind wandering diminish the power of our brains to work at peak performance.

Dr Jha has advice on how to tame our wandering minds and pay attention.

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Photo: https://www.publicdomainpictures.net

3:35 Voices

3:45 The Pre-Panel Story of the Day and One Quick Question

4:05 The Panel with Dean Hall in Dunedin and Emma Espiner in Auckland

 

Music played in this show


1:10pm - FIRST SONG:
Artist: Princess Chelsea
Song: I love my boyfriend
Comp:  Chelsea Nikkel
Album: The Loneliest Girl (upcoming)
Label: Li'l Chief Records

1:45pm - GREAT ALBUM:

Artist: Fleetwood Mac
Song: Seven Wonders
Comp: Stevie Nicks Sandy Stewart
Album: Tango in the Night
Label:  Warner Bros.

Artist: Fleetwood Mac
Song: Little Lies
Comp: C. McVie Eddy Quintela
Album: Tango in the Night
Label:  Warner Bros.
    
Artist: Fleetwood Mac
Song: Everywhere
Comp: Christine McVie
Album: Tango in the Night
Label:  Warner Bros.