09:05 Auckland DHB plans to cut sexual health specialists 

At a time when the rates of HIV and Syphilis infections are rising, why is the  Auckland District Health Board proposing to cut the number of sexual health specialists in the city by a third? Nine to Noon speaks to Dr Rick Franklin, a specialist with 25 experience in sexual health who says the proposal could increase the number of serious and complex cases which go untreated.

09:25 World first solar powered, desalinating tomato farm

A new farm in South Australia is producing two truckloads of truss tomatoes every day from seawater by using the power of the sun. Sundrop farm at Port Augusta is a 20 hectare facility which both de-salinates seawater and heats its glasshouses from solar energy. It opened in October - and at its peak production is expected to be growing 15 - 20 thousand 5kg cases of truss tomatoes every day. Lynn Freeman speaks to Sundrop Farms managing director for Australia, Steve Marafiote.

09:35 Lessons Learned from Fish on Prozac

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Bryan Brooks is an internationally renowned environmental science professor devoted to ensuring clean, sustainable water resources in urban environments around the world. He has published extensively on the growing threat to water quality that harmful algae blooms represent in urban and urbanizing regions.

He was also behind groundbreaking research that found when fish swim in waters tainted with antidepressants,  they become anti-social and even homicidal.

He's in New Zealand as part of the Freshwater Sciences Conference in Invercargill.

09:45 Russia correspondent Andrew Roth

Fake news and the ideas that Russia hacked the election, and Putin's kind words about Trump.

Trish Harris, author of The Walking Stick Tree

10:05 The Walking Stick Tree

Lynn Freeman speaks to Trish Harris who has written a memoir of growing up with rheumatoid arthritis. The Walking Stick Tree chronicles her life after being diagnosed with the disease at six years of age, her determination to be independent, the identity of being disabled and how she has made peace with her illness and pain.

10:35 Book review - "Bridget Jones's Baby: The Diaries" by Helen Fielding

Reviewed by Laura Caygill, published by Penguin Random House (NZ).

10:45 The Reading

The Twelve Point Plan, a short story  by Liz Breslin, read by Emma Kinane.

11:05 Political commentators Mike Williams and Matthew Hooton

Mike and Matthew discuss the Mount Roskill by-election, Nick Legget's switch to National and a challenge for Todd Barclay in Clutha Southland.

11:30 Food - Sourdough

Neville Chun is a part-time baker whose bread ingredients could not be simpler: flour, water, salt and sourdough starter. He's been fascinated with bread since he was a child and following some disaster experiments trying to make it, he perfected his recipes as an adult. He's gone from baking 2 loaves a week to 100 - exclusively for the Commonsense Organics stores in the Wellington region.

11:45 Off the beaten track - Cuba

In the wake of the death of Fidel Castro Kennedy looks back at a visit he took to Cuba in 2009.