Saturday Morning for Saturday 28 July 2018

 

 

8:09  Caitlin McGee - A general election in Cambodia

On July 29, Cambodians will vote in a national election that many believe is a foregone conclusion. The expected winner is Hun Sen, the world's longest-ruling prime minister, who has ruthlessly protected his hold on power for 33 years.  His main opposition, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was forcibly dissolved last year and its leader jailed for treason, while the head of another party remains in hospital after a car accident that killed his wife. New Zealand freelance journalist Caitlin McGee joins Noelle from Cambodia, where she is reporting on the poll.   
 

 

8:45  Anna Boyiazis - World Press photographer: Finding Freedom in the Water 

Anna Boyiazis is an American documentary photographer based between Southern California - where she was born and raised by her family of Aegean Islanders - and East Africa. She has received several awards for her work and served a teaching fellowship at the Yale University School of Art, as Head Designer at MOCA, and as Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome. Her original training was in design. Boyiazis' photographic collection, Finding Freedom in the Water, about a group of women from a conservative society in the Zanzibar Archipelago learning to swim, is on display in Auckland as part of  the World Press Photo Exhibition 2018, which ends this weekend.

 

Finding Freedom in the Water

 
9:06 Craig Heatley - Sky TV Founder and rich-lister 

Lower Hutt-born Craig Heatley is one of New Zealand's richest men. He founded Rainbow Corporation in the 1980s which had interests in Woolworths supermarkets, entertainment theme parks including Rainbow's End, and property. He went on to set up Sky Network Television, turning it into one of the country's 10 largest companies. Heatley has since sold his stake in Sky Network Television, and now has diversified interests throughout New Zealand and the world. He is a keen aviator, golfer (having played with former US President Barack Obama on his brief NZ visit) and was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2013 for services to business.  The story of his entrepreneurial life is told in a new book, No Limits.

 

9:35  Kirsty Gunn - Prize-winning author publishes new novel, Caroline's Bikini

NZ writer Kirsty Gunn describes her new novel, Caroline's Bikini, as a comedy about the telling of a love story. Gunn's first novel, Rain, was published in 1994, and was made into a successful feature film in 2001. Her short stories have been published in a range of anthologies, and she has won many awards for her writing. Her novel The Big Music won Book of the Year at the 2013 New Zealand Post Book Awards. Gunn is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Dundee, Scotland.

10:04 Debra Granik - Director of Leave No Trace 

Debra Granik is a director and screenwriter based in New York. Her past works include her 2004 film Down to the Bone, starring Vera Farmiga, and she directed and co-wrote Winter's Bone in 2010, the movie that launched the stratospheric career of actor Jennifer Lawrence. Winter's Bone was nominated for four Academy Awards including best picture and best actress (Jennifer Lawrence), and went on to win a host of other awards. Her most recent work, Leave No Trace, has just debuted at the New Zealand International Film Festival.  It tells the story of a girl and her war veteran father living 'off the grid' and stars Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie, the daughter of New Zealand actor Miranda Harcourt and director Stuart McKenzie.  
 

10:35 Venus Envy - Are we there yet in the legal profession?    

In the third part of  Venus Envy - made in association with Are We There Yet?, the new women's suffrage and equality exhibition at Auckland Museum - lawyers Zoë Lawton and Hayden Wilson weigh in on #metoo and NZ law firms. In the wake of the Russell McVeagh scandal, how much needs to change? 

Full-length versions of the podcast series can be found at www.thespinoff.co.nz

 

 
11:04  Madeleine Chapman - The story of Steven Adams

Madeleine Chapman is a staff writer at The Spinoff. She previously represented Samoa in their national cricket team and was the New Zealand javelin champion in 2013 and 2017. Most recently, Chapman has co-written Steven Adams: My Life, My Fight, the life story (so far) of New Zealand's highest paid athlete in history.

 

11:40  Sid Sahrawat - Top Auckland chef expands his empire with the purchase of The French Café 

It's been a very busy year for top Auckland restaurateurs Sid Sahrawat and his wife Chand, owners of popular  restaurants Sidart and Cassia.  On top of running their two acclaimed eateries, they will also assume ownership of the iconic French Café from current owners Simon Wright and Creghan Molloy-Wright on September 2. The French Café was the Sid and Chand's  first ever formal dining date around 15 years ago; on the date, Sid told his wife "this is how I want to cook" - paving the way for his career as one of New Zealand's best fine dining chefs. 
 

 

 

Books mentioned in this episode:

Caroline's Bikini 
by Kirsty Gunn
Faber & Faber
ISBN: 9780571339327

 

No Limits: How Craig Heatley became a Top New Zealand Entreprenuer
by Joanne Black
Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 9781760633561

 

My Life, My Fight 
by Steven Adams with Madeleine Chapman
Penguin Random House 
ISBN: 9780143771296