This Weekend: Word Salad in Timaru
We're heading down to Timaru, where the Timaru Booksellers are putting on their annual Word Salad open mic poetry night at the Aigantighe Art Gallery to mark National Poetry Day.
Aug 22, 2025•9 min
Nights
Tune in to Nights with Emile Donovan every weekday from 8pm to midnight for a delectable buffet of creative ideas, open-minded conversations, music, musings and daily stimulation.
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Episodes
This Weekend: Art as Food down in Invercargill
A group of Southland artists have come together, working across all sorts of mediums, to capture the colour, creativity and nostalgia of the classic Kiwi potluck.
Aug 22, 2025•11 min
Live from England: Day 1 of Women's Rugby World Cup
RNZ's Jamie Tahana is in York covering the excitement.
Aug 22, 2025•8 min
A mathematician's guide to winning a game of Guess Who
David Stewart is a mathematician at the University of Manchester. He's part of the group that devised this new strategy, and he speaks to Mark Leishman.
Aug 21, 2025•12 min
The Reread with Chris Tse
On the eve of a new poet laureate being announced, current-reigning laureate Chris Tse joins Mark Leishman for his reread of Raymond Carver's 1981 collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.
Aug 21, 2025•22 min
Myth Takes: Athens
Classics educator and enthusiast Ben Jackson is back for his monthly chat. Tonight, he's taking us through the rise and fall of Athens as the powerhouse of ancient Greece.
Aug 21, 2025•9 min
Animals used in space research have few protections
Dr Anna Marie Brennan is a senior lecturer in law at the University of Waikato, where she specialises in outer space law and she speaks to Mark Leishman.
Aug 21, 2025•10 min
Is our cervical cancer vaccine rate at risk from Covid scepticism?
Emile Donovan speaks to Professor Bev Lawton ONZM, the founder and director of the National Centre for Women's Health Research Aotearoa, and the 2025 New Zealander of the Year.
Aug 20, 2025•17 min
What should teachers be getting paid?
With teachers striking for better pay and conditions, Albany Senior High School principal Claire Amos joins Emile Donovan to discuss.
Aug 20, 2025•17 min
The history of stargazing
Human beings have looked upwards since our necks allowed. Physics PhD candidate and planetarium presenter Laura Burn takes Emile Donovan on an astronomical journey.
Aug 19, 2025•20 min
Shower Thoughts: How does race-walking work?
Olympian, Commonwealth silver medalist and now president of Race Walking NZ Alana Barber-Blocki chats to Emile Donovan.
Aug 19, 2025•14 min
Europe correspondent Christian Smith
Journalist Christian Smith joins Emile Donovan to discuss an extraordinary Ukraine summit in Washington, anti-government riots in Serbia, and the return of football.
Aug 19, 2025•16 min
You've got to know when to roll 'em...
Will either party be tempted to roll the dice on a new leader before the election? Former MP and United Future Party leader Peter Dunne has seen plenty come and go - he joins Nights.
Aug 19, 2025•10 min
David Tamihere's last chance to prove he's innocent
Stuff journalist Mike White has followed the Swedish tourist case closely and joins Emile Donovan to reflect on the past three decades.
Aug 18, 2025•15 min
BBC World Service Lookahead with Pete Ross
BBC World Service reporter Pete Ross joins the programme to discuss the stories making the headlines internationally, including the meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump in Washington, the wildfires engulfing parts Europe and the growing controversy around China's planned 'mega' embassy in London.
Aug 18, 2025•7 min
Sports with Jamie Wall
RNZ sports whiz Jamie Wall joins Emile Donovan to debrief the week that was in sport. Including the reaction to the All Blacks' win over Argentina, the return of the Premier League and could Christchurch's new Te Kaha stadium legitimately be called our National Stadium?
Aug 18, 2025•10 min
And Just Like That: Goodbye to Sex and the City
Anna Rawhiti-Connell is a senior writer at The Spinoff (and a SatC fan) and she speaks to Emile Donovan to mark the end of an era.
Aug 18, 2025•10 min
Is your KiwiSaver invested in weapons companies?
Mindful Money chief executive Barry Coates said many New Zealanders might be unpleasantly surprised that their money was being invested in companies producing weapons that could be used in conflicts such as those in Gaza or Ukraine.
Aug 18, 2025•17 min
Short-Cuts with Dan Slevin
Nights' resident screen critic joins Todd Zaner to review Jane Austen Wrecked My Life (in cinemas now), Final Score (2018) streaming on Prime Video and WKRP in Cincinnati (streaming on the Internet Archive).
Aug 15, 2025•17 min
NZ's furious filmmaking competition kicks off
Over 500 teams across the country will sweat, stress and eschew sleep this weekend in pursuit of making a short film in just 48 hours. The Vista Foundation 48Hours film festival is New Zealand's largest guerrilla filmmaking competition, running annually for 22 years. Teams of aspiring filmmakers, including school groups, families as well as professionals, are given a genre and a set of elements they must include in their final product. The rest is up to them. Todd Zaner dials up competitor Danie...
Aug 15, 2025•7 min
RNZAF marks 80 years
Today marks eighty years since VJ Day - Victory over Japan Day - when Japan surrendered and World War Two ended. As well as the end of World War Two the, the date also marks the formation of the Royal New Zealand Air Force Association which supported more than 40,000 veterans as they adjusted back to civilian life. Ian Mower is a retired Air Commodore and the president of the RNZAF. He joins Todd Zaner to reflect.
Aug 15, 2025•11 min
Auckland hosts global darts superstars
Todd Zaner crosses to RNZ sports reporter Jamie Wall on the ground at the New Zealand Darts Masters in Auckland.
Aug 15, 2025•12 min
How to Spot a Dickhead: A Field Guide
Screenwriters Kathryn Burnett and Nick Ward, who have worked on shows like Wellington Paranormal and Outrageous Fortune, have encountered a fair few dickheads in their time, and have now become unofficial authorities on the topic with their book How to Spot a Dickhead: A Field Guide.
Aug 14, 2025•18 min
How do banks calculate their mortgage rates?
Do the banks know something we don’t? Or are they just taking a punt, hoping to sign up a few more borrowers before their competitors do? Frances Cook joins Nights to explain.
Aug 14, 2025•9 min
Idioms: The whole nine yards
From elephants in the room to blue moons, Nights' resident sociolinguist, Dr Julia de Bres from Massey University, is going the extra mile and talking about idioms.
Aug 14, 2025•14 min
Should Jacinda Ardern have fronted up to the Covid-19 inquiry?
Emile Donovan speaks to constitutional lawyer Graeme Edgeler about why former ministers weren't compelled to attend the Royal Commission of Inquiry.
Aug 14, 2025•15 min
What does being a New Zealander mean to you?
Arohanui: My Aotearoa New Zealand compiles the perspectives of one hundred New Zealanders, including names like Beauden Barrett, Miriama Kamo, and Winston Peters.
Aug 13, 2025•16 min
Why do we love free stuff?
University of Canterbury Professor of Marketing Ekant Veer joins Mark Leishman to explain why free things tickle our brain.
Aug 13, 2025•14 min
Minnie Dean, 130 years later
130 years ago today, Minnie Dean became the first (and only) woman to be executed for murder in New Zealand. Found guilty by the Supreme Court in Invercargill in 1895 for the murder of one-year-old Dorothy Carter, Dean was hanged just two months later. But what does New Zealand think now? Was Minnie Dean really guilty? Did she deserve the fate she got? Emile Donovan consults the experts: he is joined by Grant Morris, a legal historian at Victoria University of Wellington, to explore these questi...
Aug 12, 2025•8 min
The art of real estate photography
Property photographer joins Emile Donovan to discuss the art of real estate photography.
Aug 12, 2025•22 min
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