There's been a sea change in high performance sport that's seeing Olympic-class mums take the podiums in Paris Top sports are beginning to twig that female athletes at their peak are also at peak child-bearing age - and the two aren't mutually exclusive. When Martin Cross was rowing for Great Britain 40 years ago, the thought of a mother competing at the Olympics was unheard of - bringing your spouse to training was frowned upon. "To be honest, if a woman had had a child the chances we...
Aug 06, 2024•24 min•Ep 1125•Transcript available on Metacast A life-saving charity that works with men and their mental health in Tairawhiti has shut, a victim of funding struggles The government has put the gumboot into mental health in Gisborne with its failure to support a successful suicide prevention charity. Hear4U helped men in particular A vital suicide prevention charity which has saved countless lives in Gisborne has had its own desperate calls for help ignored. Hear4U has been forced to close its doors due to a lack of funding, five years after...
Aug 05, 2024•23 min•Ep 1124•Transcript available on Metacast Reality has intruded on our national airline's climate targets, and it's backed down from some lofty aims Air New Zealand's found it's harder than it thought to claim green credentials when your business is burning fossil fuel to transport people around the world Search for Air New Zealand's big bold climate action plan and you get a black screen with the words "this site is under review". Dubbed Flight NZO (zero), the airline called it its "most important journey y...
Aug 04, 2024•25 min•Ep 1123•Transcript available on Metacast It's been called a revolution as big as electricity or the motorcar - artificial intelligence is changing the creation of music. Music created by artificial intelligence is getting better and better, and musicians are worried. Your next favourite artist could be AI. On today's episode of The Detail, AI music expert Ollie Bown, an associate professor at the University of New South Wales School of Art and Design, talks through how AI music platforms work, and the pros and cons of taking music...
Aug 02, 2024•23 min•Ep 1122•Transcript available on Metacast Artificial intelligence is driving the expansion of the gig economy, but with growth comes growing pains. There's a new cohort of workers using platforms powered by artificial intelligence to get work, but regulation over the gig economy is lagging. The gig economy used to be made up of artists, musicians, actors dipping in and out of work, or people picking up those jobs you see advertised on supermarket noticeboards. Now it's expanding, pushed by rapidly developing technology. Not on...
Aug 01, 2024•24 min•Ep 1121•Transcript available on Metacast More transparency around political donations paints a clearer picture of which parties are coming out on top financially. New regulations around naming small political donors means a more transparent system. But is it a big enough change? A Kiwi businessman donated half a million dollars to the National Party because he simply "likes what Christopher Luxon is doing". Warren Lewis - who owns a sheet metal company - has been revealed as a first-time donor for the right, coughing up the l...
Jul 31, 2024•21 min•Ep 1120•Transcript available on Metacast A short history of spying in sport, from deep sea dives to high flying drones It's a new first for the Olympic Games, but not one the Canadian women's football team will be allowed to forget for a while. It's proven a shameless and scandalous own goal, and the Canadians are now paying the highest sporting price for spying on the Football Ferns at the Olympics. The coach has been sent home in disgrace, the team has been docked six vital points and the fine is in excess of $350,000....
Jul 30, 2024•23 min•Ep 1119•Transcript available on Metacast AgResearch's Map and Zap device is a glimpse of a future without herbicides While we're concentrating on a predator-free New Zealand, rampant weeds are choking the life out of our native species - and we can't keep using chemicals on them. The search for a way to deal with New Zealand's $1.7 billion weed problem - without relying on herbicides - has thrown up a solution straight out of the future. If the AgResearch invention can be developed commercially, expect to see drones crui...
Jul 29, 2024•24 min•Ep 1118•Transcript available on Metacast A raft of changes is coming to the education sector. Will they fix the problems, or just crush creativity? An education overhaul will mean more maths, more literacy, and more testing - but at what cost? When the OECD started monitoring education systems in the year 2000, New Zealand was one of the top performers. University of Auckland education professor Peter O'Connor credits our performance with the fact that our wide curriculum balanced rich academic knowledge with arts and other creati...
Jul 28, 2024•24 min•Ep 1117•Transcript available on Metacast The most powerful telescope mankind has sent into orbit is opening up our understanding of how life began Since its launch two years ago, the James Webb Space Telescope has been sending back stunning images that are transforming our understanding of the cosmos This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the f...
Jul 26, 2024•24 min•Ep 1116•Transcript available on Metacast The anguish, frustration, and feeling of unfinished business when highly-driven athletes come fourth at an Olympic Games There are often just centimetres or seconds between a medal and fourth place, but some fourths are different to others If sprinter Zoe Hobbs lines up in the 100 metre final in Paris this year, her Olympic campaign will have been a success. Even if she doesn't climb the podium, her presence will be as good as gold. But if Dame Lisa Carrington comes fourth, the country will...
Jul 25, 2024•24 min•Ep 1115•Transcript available on Metacast The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care has finally been released. What will its real impact be? A long-awaited report looks at the dark stories of Aotearoa's state and faith-based institutions. Freelance journalist Aaron Smale has spent years covering the dark stories of abuse in New Zealand state care institutions and has broken some key stories that led to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. On today's episode of The Detail, he talks about what's in t...
Jul 24, 2024•25 min•Ep 1114•Transcript available on Metacast We're being urged to re-think our attitudes towards ageing, as our population gets more and more top heavy. The UN has declared this the decade of healthy ageing, but a new advocacy group says that involves solving some big problems that New Zealand hasn't even looked at yet. In five years' time, one in five New Zealanders will be over retirement age. But there are concerns that older people still seem to be invisible citizens. We are currently in the middle of what's been designa...
Jul 23, 2024•24 min•Ep 1113•Transcript available on Metacast Housing affordability has plagued New Zealand for decades. What needs to change? Homeownership in New Zealand is on track to fall below 50 percent in the next 25 years, but there's one scheme that could help some households get a foot in the door. The number of New Zealanders who own their home is predicted to fall below 50 percent in the next 25 years. That's according to new figures in a report released by Westpac today. It strongly recommends boosting shared ownership possibilities,...
Jul 22, 2024•21 min•Ep 1112•Transcript available on Metacast The very public woes of a Lower Hutt GP clinic represent a wider malaise in primary care A rash of winter ills is coinciding with a drastic shortage of doctors in New Zealand - but there's far more wrong with general practice than that A mass exodus of staff, the ones who are left vastly overworked, disappearing doctors, swathes of scathing reviews. Lower Hutt's High Street Health Hub may be an extreme case, sparking claims its corporate owner cares more about money than people, but it...
Jul 21, 2024•24 min•Ep 1111•Transcript available on Metacast A Samoan-only dictionary has been years in the making. Now, it's here. Starting from scratch to create a dictionary for a language, and a culture Finally, Samoa has a dictionary created by its people, for its people - in their language. The new monolingual dictionary has been 20 years in the making, and brings some consistency to the written language, where there's always been confusion. "Traditionally, we're an oral culture, where a lot of our customs and practices, our stories, ...
Jul 19, 2024•24 min•Ep 1110•Transcript available on Metacast Two years into their mayoral terms, the civic leaders of Wellington and Auckland have pushed through controversy, opposition and calls for their resignation One is still not a hugger, the other has had to put wild parties behind her. A look at how the mayors of Auckland and Wellington have fared over the last two years When Wayne Brown started his term as Auckland mayor, he was lambasted for his poor communication, lack of engagement with the media and inability to get consensus around the counc...
Jul 18, 2024•25 min•Ep 1109•Transcript available on Metacast It you're actively avoiding your tax obligations, expect the spotlight of an auditor to shine brightly on your books RNZ's money correspondent Susan Edmunds says IRD gets nearly seven thousand anonymous tip-offs a year about cash jobs, and the construction industry is the most often reported. The tax department is warning businesses to get their houses in order - it's cracking down with the power of the millions it got in the budget. The tax department got $29 million in the budget thi...
Jul 17, 2024•23 min•Ep 1108•Transcript available on Metacast As diners tighten their economic belts, the restaurants that used to feed them are fending off collapse. Things are so dire in the restaurant trade that some business owners are hoping they can feast on the customers of closed eateries long enough to survive the downturn. The hospitality industry says it's having to get cut-throat as restaurant owners weather the latest economic storm. With less money in their pockets, people are hesitant to dine out. Westpac data tracking credit card and d...
Jul 16, 2024•23 min•Ep 1107•Transcript available on Metacast Questionable conduct, personal tragedy, and a changing of the guard: the internal of the Green Party. It's been a troubling run for the Green Party. Can they overcome the drama and get back to governing? Former Green Party MP Darleen Tana. MP Darleen Tana's recent resignation from the Greens is only the latest in a string of dramas affecting the party. Newsroom political editor Laura Walters says the problems can be summed up as three different, but related, struggles: conduct issues, ...
Jul 15, 2024•24 min•Ep 1106•Transcript available on Metacast New Zealand has a new tennis star. It's no surprise she's from Te Anau. Rising tennis star Lulu Sun left Te Anau at just five years old, but her hometown remains crazy for the sport. New Zealand has a new tennis star, but residents of her hometown, Te Anau, have been obsessed with the sport for long before she was on the scene. Sun left when she was just five years old, but local Murray Willians says she still frequently visits family, and plays at their club from time to time. Even after her ru...
Jul 14, 2024•22 min•Ep 1105•Transcript available on Metacast Players of this complex and very social game have been fighting monsters and weaving fantastical stories for half a century. Shaun Garea playing the roleplaying game Wanderhome by Jay Dragon. It's 1974 and the kings of the nerd world are hunched over tables and desks drawing maps and brainstorming ideas. Fantasy monsters that will become staples of pop culture for decades to come, and rules for a game that will be played by millions, are drafted and written. Maps are drawn, open ended stori...
Jul 12, 2024•24 min•Ep 1104•Transcript available on Metacast The US is rallying its allies to bring it up in a battle straight out of science fiction - a war in space A war in space would change life on earth as we know it, and it's not as far-fetched as you might think America is gearing up for a space war and wants New Zealand to join an international operation aimed at deterring a satellite attack from Chinese or Russian forces. The US established its Space Force in 2019, and has a strong anti-China rhetoric focused on bringing allies together int...
Jul 11, 2024•23 min•Ep 1103•Transcript available on Metacast A new body that has a broad remit to make sure sport is fair and safe has been a long time coming, but it's here now The Sport Integrity Commission is our newest independent crown entity, designed to rule over everything that brings fairness and safety to games. New Zealand sport and recreation has a new body to oversee the sector. It comes after a seemingly never-ending parade of sporting officials announcing inquiries, promising reviews, getting rid of problematic people and apologising to ath...
Jul 10, 2024•24 min•Ep 1102•Transcript available on Metacast A ceasefire deal over Gaza has been on the table since June. So why are Israel and Hamas still at war? International calls for a ceasefire in Gaza started in October last year. Why is it so hard to get a peace deal? In the past week, Israel sent the head of its spy agency to Qatar for negotiations, and Hamas agreed to begin talks about releasing Israeli hostages. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also said that a ceasefire deal must allow his country to keep fighting, and Hamas a...
Jul 09, 2024•24 min•Ep 1101•Transcript available on Metacast As gambling gets more sophisticated, researchers are planning a counter-attack using smart technology. An international conference in Auckland this week brings together gambling researchers developing methods to get people to kick the habit. Although fewer people might be gambling these days, that doesn't mean less money is being lost. "Over recent years, the rate of participation - or how many people are playing the pokies - tends to be decreasing," Associate Professor of Psychol...
Jul 08, 2024•24 min•Ep 1100•Transcript available on Metacast After four years of commissioners, Tauranga is set to elect a mayor and councillors. Can they avoid a repeat of the previous mess? Tauranga City will shed its commissioners and elect a new council in just under two weeks, but not everyone is welcoming this return to democracy Tauranga City will shed its commissioners and elect a new council in just under two weeks, but not everyone is welcoming this return to democracy There's some fear in the air in Tauranga as the country's fifth-lar...
Jul 07, 2024•25 min•Ep 1099•Transcript available on Metacast Christian - or worship - music is probably bigger than you think, and its appeal to the young and isolated is undeniable The recent full-house Brooke Fraser concert at Spark Arena in Auckland was for more than just nostalgic fans Brooke Fraser's homecoming show was a hit - the 'Something in the Water' star performed with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra late last month. Her show reportedly drew the biggest ever crowd for a New Zealand solo artist at Spark Arena. But the audienc...
Jul 05, 2024•25 min•Ep 1098•Transcript available on Metacast The Julian Assange saga has been going on for so long that most of us have probably forgotten how it started Secret files, sexual assault allegations, holed up in a foreign embassy in London, and then locked up in a high security British jail - Julian Assange's life has been tumultuous and strange The saga of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has come to an end - for now, at least. Last week, the WikiLeaks founder appeared in a US court in the Mariana Islands, pleaded guilty to one charge un...
Jul 04, 2024•20 min•Ep 1097•Transcript available on Metacast What we know, what we don't, and what the evidence says, about whether boot camps work. A stack of evidence says boot camps aren't successful. So why is the government bringing them back? Warning: this story mentions suicide This month, the government will deliver on a campaign promise by launching a pilot 'young offender military academy' - a boot camp - despite a raft of evidence that "scare them straight" programmes are unsuccessful. Minister for Children Karen Chhour...
Jul 03, 2024•23 min•Ep 1096•Transcript available on Metacast 
