Listen back to features and interviews from 95bFM's daily news & current affairs show, The Wire. Your hosts Sherry Zhang, Justin Wong Mary-Margaret Slack, Lillian Hanly, and Laura Kvigstad focus on the issues of Tāmaki Makaurau and elsewhere, in independent-thinking bFM style. Weekdays 12-1pm on 95bFM.
The Arts have been deeply affected by the Covid-19 Rāhui and are quickly coming up with ways to evolve and survive in this new virtual climate. Zoë Larsen Cumming talks to LA based musician Emily Edrosa about her experience with live streaming and how the music industry is placed to make the online shift. She also chats to actor, director, and theatre maker Freya Finch about live streaming in the theatre world, and what is lost and gained when theatre becomes virtual.
Prime minister Jacinda Arden recently announced that up to 10,000 New Zealanders will be quarantined after returning from overseas. Multiple police officers have been reported at airports ushering recent travelers to be quarantined at hotels and campervans. As of March 26th, the Ministry reported no campervans have yet to be used.
Jess Dellabarca is an Auckland university student who recently came back from the Netherlands on student exchange. She’s currently being quaranted at a hotel in Auckland, as she is unable to return home to Wellington with all domestic travel banned. Sherry Zhang begins by asking her on how the travel back home was.
We have the regular weekly chat with Green Party co-leader James Shaw
Zoe Larsen Cumming talks to musician Emily Edrosa and actor and director Freya Finch about moving their respective fields in the arts into virtual spaces.
James talks to Peter Fergusson, the CEO of Leukaemia and Blood Cancer NZ about the situation with cancer patients as well as non-for-profit organisations
Southern Cross segment as usual with the latest happenings in the Asia-Pacific region in regards to Covid19
And Sherry has a chat with someone who has returned from overseas and is in quarantine in a hotel
Over the past couple weeks, especially now that we are on level 4, there has been a real emphasis on looking after those who are immunocompromised as well as the elderly. This includes cancer patients, especially those who are currently undertaking treatment. While there are talks of at home treatments being developed, currently patients will still have to go into clinics for treatments. James talked to the CEO of Leukaemia and Blood Cancer New Zealand, Peter Fergusson, about how they are going with reaching patients and what progress is being made to succeed in these new conditions. James also ended up talking to Peter about how non-for-profit organisations are coping, especially ones like LBCNZ where funding has tanked and the pressure to meet demand has increased.
Yesterday, the government made the announcement that social services and community groups will get $27 million to continue providing services as New Zealand begins its lockdown, or rāhui.
Up to $16 million will go to supporting people at risk through uncertain circumstances and respond to increased demand. $6 million will go to disability community participation providers and $4.8 million to community-led solutions to support local resilience.
One such solution is coming out of the University of Otago; hand sanitiser produced in-house and in record time by the School of Pharmacy's senior lecturer and his team of research students.
I spoke with Dr. Shyamal Das, the senior lecturer behind the initiative. He specialises in respiratory drug delivery around lung diseases & infections, & hopes to continue his work & help out in this pandemic...
Lillian steps in for Laura this week as the news team works from home...
First up, Sam Denne has created a bit of an experimental piece talking about the challenges that Covid19 can present for our mental health, particularly in this rāhui period.
Next, Louis Laws speaks to Otago University lecturer Dr. Shyamal Das on a community-led solution and his research in respiratory drug delivery. Dr Das is the person who created, along with his students, 100 litres of hand sanitiser over three days so that the essential services on the university campus would not take away from the public stock of hand sanitiser. Also the leftover of that 100L the university didn’t need went to Dunedin hospital.
Then, Jack Marshall, former Green Desk host, speaks with Gisborne mayor, Rehette Stoltz to give us some insight on what it is like to lead a city under lockdown.
Finally, Laura Kvigstad has her weekly chat with National’s Denise Lee. This week they chat about Denise's volunteer database, where people in her community are delivering goods to those who may not have internet access. Then they chat about the potential for a grand coalition amongst these unprecedented times. Lastly, they discuss the protections put in place for renters and some of the concerns that renters may have amongst these uncertain times.
Today on The Wire, our first officially under the rāhui, Lillian speaks to Stacey Morrisson about a post she put up on twitter with a saying from Ngā Pepeha a ngā tīpuna and we talk through the concept of rāhui.
Mary-Margaret will have her weekly catch up with Radio Adelaide’s Zoe Kounadis, this week they touch on the differing situations in different states across Australia.
We will hear from Labour’s Andrew Little once again and hear what police patrols might look like.
And Rachel reports on the history of pandemics and epidemics in New Zealand.
Stacey Morrisson is a broadcaster and author, she also noted that people call her a Te Reo Māori advocate, but she says 'aren’t we all'. Yesterday, Lillian came across a whakatauki that seemed very pertinent at this particular time. It reads, ‘Ka ora pea au i a koe, ka ora koe ia a au.’ The English of this is, 'perhaps I will survive because of you, and you survive because of me’. Lillian thought this was a really good place to start our first Wire in the rāhui period. Lillian started by asking how Stacey's whānau is this morning.
Looking back to history, Rachel reports on diseases of New Zealand's past and how they were dealt with by both authorities and everyday people.
We begin with the introduction of smallpox and its disastrous effect on the Māori population, and how travel restrictions and ad-hoc militias were used to control Māori communities.
Then we cover the 1918 influenza outbreak, and how New Zealand dealt with a pandemic when left with skeletal resources after WWII. The influenza outbreak left us with the 1920 Public Health Act, which influenced how New Zealand was to deal with pandemics in the future.
Inspired by a phone conversation with her grandfather, Rachel then covers the polio epidemic - a high-stakes disease that left many people permanently harmed. She examines what life was like during that time, and ends by highlighting the societal optimism surrounding the advent of Jonas Salk discovering the polio vaccine.
Broadcasting from home today, 95bFM wishes you a safe time during the rāhui (lockdown).
On Dear Science with Allan Blackman we talk about exponential increase, king penguins vanishing and the edge of the milkyway.
Felix gives us a rundown of what the Alert Level 4 means for us when it comes into effect tonight and I will add in a few other notes to get your head around.
Lillian speaks with Retail NZ about what will happen to non-essential retail services
And Izzy has spoken to Holly Carrington, the policy advisor for domestic abuse charity SHINE, and Susan Barker, the spokesperson from Women’s Refuge, about those in lock down who are facing domestic violence situations and how the community can help.
James Shaw catches up with Sherry as usual speaking from his own rāhui space where he has a home office set up. Today they talk about updates on COVID-19 following NZ’s first death, the preparedness of our health system heading into flu season and support for our aged communities.
What is public diplomacy and how effective can it be? While it has a long history, the study of public diplomacy is only becoming more salient in an age of globalisation and increasing digital communication posing both new challenges and opportunities for governments. Doug Becker speaks with Daniel Aguirre Azócar and Nicholas Cull about public diplomacy, its foundations, and effectiveness.
National’s Denise Lee joins Laura Kvigstad for their weekly chat. This week they discuss Denise's volunteer database, where people in her community are delivering goods to those who may not have internet access and the ability to get online deliveries. Then they chat about the potential for a grand coalition amongst these unprecedented times and many questions about what the world of politics may look like over this year. Lastly, they discuss the protections put in place for renters and some of the concerns that renters may have amongst these uncertain times.
In light of our COVID-19 rāhui, Mary-Margaret asked the Minister if he was worried about the extent to which noncompliance might jeopardise our efforts. They discussed what the dispersal of patrol might look like during this crisis compared to day to day New Zealand, in which police presence is noticeably unequal across regions and suburbs.
In a first for Neighbourhood Watch with Zoe Kounadis, her and Mary-Margaret finally SAW each other! A small perk of conducting The Wire over Skype as the News Team operates from home. Zoe shares the different way in which Australia's government is handling COVID-19.
Today on Dear Science, done a little differently with Allan speaking to as (distantly) from his home in West Auckland, we speak about exponential increase and what this looks like, penguins vanishing due to climate change, and the edge of the Milky Way - how big IS it??
This week Bronwyn spoke to tutor and PhD student at University of Canterbury, Ngārie Scartozzi about her "eClean bioreactor" technology which cleans contaminants from water bodies. She has just received a grant of $150,000 from Astrolab and has 12 weeks to build a prototype of the bioreactor which has been the focus of her research for the past 15 years. A key focus of Scartozzi's work is integrating mātauranga Maori with scientific research.
She began by telling us what started her off on this journey.
Justin talks to Green Party co-leader James Shaw about the Abortion Legislation Act, which third reading was passed last week and recieved royal assent on the 23rd, and the government's response to Covid-19, including a package supporting businesses and increasing the country's COVID-19 warning level to no.4. A nation-wide lockdown will be implemented at 11:59pm on Wednesday 25th March.
This week on Southern Cross, we speak to Pacific Media Watch contributing editor Sri Krishnamurthi on the impacts of COVID-19 in the papcific. We discuss the first death in the Pacific in Guam, community transmission risks, and issues with transparency and information in Papua New Guinea surrounding the virus.
Denise Lee joins Laura Kvigstad to discuss the recent criticism Simon Bridges has received for his handling of issues related to covid 19. After that, they chat about why National is calling for better transparency on the criteria for school closures. Finally, they chat about National's calls for biotech in the attempts to make Aotearoa predator-free.
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