Listen back to features and interviews from 95bFM's daily news and current affairs show. Joel Armstrong, Castor Chacko, Oto Sequeira, and Caeden Tipler focus on the issues of Tāmaki Makaurau and elsewhere in independent-thinking bFM style. Monday-Thursday 12-1pm on 95bFM.
In the lead up to the 2023 General Election, The Wire will be speaking to ACT Party MP Karen Chhour about the political hot potatoes of today and tomorrow.
For their first interview, News and Editorial Director Jessica Hopkins asked Chhour about why she got into politics and ACT’s thoughts on the inquiry into the Auckland floods.
This week on the Tuesday Wire, Milly speaks to Elizabeth Kerekere from the Green Party about perpetual land leases, an outdated law that has some big consequences for Maori land owners.
With the election coming up this year we’re starting to see the formation of concrete policy platforms with one major topic this election being the cost of living.
Prime Minister Hipkins calls their approach a focus on ‘bread and butter issues’ whereas National has come out with a 5-point plan to ‘get inflation under control’.
Casper discussed this plan with National's Shane Reti, beginning by asking him to explain the first point, a proposal to end the reserve bank’s dual mandate.
With Germany and the US agreeing to send main battle tanks to Ukraine, attention is being brought to the major foreign policy approaches that ideologicaly inform such decisions.
To get a sense of two dominant international relations theories in play in these decisions I spoke to Robert Patman, professor of international relations at the University of Otago.
This week on the Tuesday Wire, Milly speaks to Dr Jan Eldridge from the University of Auckland about a unique binary star system created by a weak supernova. She talks with Jan about what this binary star system means and what makes it so special.
This week on the Tuesday Wire, Joel Rindelaub joins Casper and Milly in the studio for Dear Science, Casper has his weekly catch up with Shane Reti on National's five-point plan to tackle the cost of living crisis. Elizabeth Kerekere from the Green party talks to Milly about perpetual land leases, with the greens taking action to halt the outdated law at some point this year. Casper gains insight on the Liberal and Realist approaches to the war in Ukraine, speaking with Robert Patman from the University of Otago. Jan Eldridge and Milly speak about a rare binary star system, the topic of a recently published paper.
Launched by OpenAI in November 2022, ChatGPT can do a lot of things. It can write coherent paragraphs of arguments and stories. It can write movie scripts, poems, make lectures for teachers, write essays and lyrics for songs. Recent research shows it Can even write scholarly articles that would be accepted by journals. Then there is also Dall-E an AI system that generates images and artwork
How should we value these technologies? What will be the effects of such technologies on our creative process?
Daniel talked with Nir Eisikovits, professor in Philosophy from the University of Massachusetts to reflect on these questions.
Acute mental health care units remain in the shadows, neither fully integrated into general hospitals nor part of the community, researchers from the University of Otago, Wellington, say. Joe spoke to the lead researcher of this study, Associate Professor Ruth Cunningham on this matter.
The shorter working week is a powerful and practical solution to problematic trends. For example Burnouts, automation, gender inequality and climate change. The shorter working week is a simpel ideal to give us an utopian perspective for a better world. Working 4 days with the same pay, so people can enjoy their free time and still be more productive.
Daniel spoke with Kyle Lewis. Writer of the book Overtime, why we need a shorter working week and founder of think tank Autonomy.
The Healthcare exec Brian Thompson was shot dead by a masked assailant last week.
The crime has gained significant controversy and attention online, with many using it to restart the debate on the inequities of the United States healthcare system.
And this week Yale University was the latest college to commit to divesting from weapons manufacturing after a student vote.
For State of the States this week Wire Host Caeden speak to Andre Fa’aoso from the Yale Daily News about both of these topics.
The government as announced their plan for the Cook Strait ferry a year after they scrapped Labour’s plan, including cancelling the ferries the Labour government had ordered.
And a new report from the Ministry of Social Development has revealed nearly a quarter of beneficiaries are not receiving their correct entitlements.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden speaks to Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni about both of these topics.
For City Counselling this week, producer Sofia caught up with Councillor Shane Henderson about proposed time-of-use charging to solve congestion problems in Tāmaki and Council selling their remaining Auckland Airport shares last week.
The Green party recently released He Ara Anamata - the Green party’s emissions reduction plan.
The document covers more than 10 areas of the economy and energy Sector that a Greens-led government would be looking to adapt to minimise carbon emissions and protect the natural landscapes of Aotearoa.
It also comes 5 months after the government released their own draft emissions plan. Numerous experts pointed out that the government is behind on their own plan’s targets to meet the crucial emissions budget for 2031-2035.
For their weekly catchup, Oto spoke to the Green Party’s Ricardo Menendez-March to discuss the party’s new emissions reduction plan and how they would address climate and the economy in a greens-led government.
Last election, one of the National Party’s main campaign promises was to be ‘tough on crime’, promising to increase police coverage and penalties for crimes. A target was set to increase the number of police officers by 500 by November 2025, however some police leaders today say this goal is unrealistic.
The government also announced this week some shakeups to insulation standards, which they say should make houses more affordable.
In our weekly catchup with the National Party’s Tom Rutherford, Wire host Castor spoke to him about police staffing targets and new insulation standards.
This week on Dear Science, our expert Doctor Cushla McGoverin chatted with us about what latrines teach us about people, climate variation affecting Chinese dynasties, and invasive species becoming threatened.
Thanks to MOTAT, the museum inspiring the innovators of tomorrow!
Last week it was revealed that two of the ten participants in the government's pilot bootcamp programme were on the run.
The youth were two months into the community rehabilitation phase of the programme, following the three month youth justice residence phase. Both teens were found in the weekend, but had allegedly reoffended, and are now set to come before the court.
For our weekly catch up with the ACT Party, who have been heavily advocating for this programme, Producer Evie spoke to Simon Court about this incident.
She also talks to him about proposed changes to employment law which would give employers the power to dismiss workers earning over $180,000 without the employee refuting the decision.
And finally, she talks to him about David Seymour’s incumbent run as Deputy Prime Minister, which is set to begin in May of next year.
For City Counselling this week, Producer Sofia spoke to Councillor Julie Fairey about changes to Auckland Transport’s responsibilities, nationwide bus and train fare hikes, and concerns over the opening of the City Rail Link.
For State of the States this week, Wire Host Caeden speaks to Andre Fa'aoso from the Yale Daily News about President Biden's decision to pardon his son Hunter Biden, who was due to be sentenced next week for three felony charges.
They also discuss Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for FBI director, who is the latest in a long list of unorthodox picks for government positions from Trump
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