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.
Pharmac has announced its decision to fund the drug, Enhertu, used for slowing the advancement of the HER2-positive form of breast cancer, beginning on the 1st of January, 2025. Alongside this funding, two eligibility restrictions will be removed.
HER2-positive breast cancer is an aggressive form of breast cancer, where the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 protein is present, and encourages the growth of cancer cells.
Producer Athena spoke to Chief Executive at the Breast Cancer Foundation New Zealand, Ah-Leen Rayner, about how Enhertu compares to other breast cancer medicines, the removal of eligibility restrictions, and how the Breast Cancer Foundation pushed for this change.
For Dear Science this week, 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.
In our weekly catchup with the National Party, Wire host Castor spoke to MP Tom Rutherford about the government’s police staffing targets and changes to national insulation standards.
They also spoke to Associate Professor Steve Hoadley about the geopolitical consequences of the fall of the Assad regime in Syria.
Producer Athena spoke to Medical Director at the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation New Zealand, and Professor at the University of Otago, Bob Hancox, about Pharmac’s decision to fund respiratory medicines: pali-vizu-mab, and a new triple inhaler.
And they spoke to the Breast Cancer Foundation New Zealand's Chief Executive, Ah-Leen Rayner about Pharmac’s decision to fund a new breast cancer drug, Enhertu
This past week has seen the reign of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad collapse, his rule toppled by a group of United States backed rebels. The vacuum left by his absence is expected to be felt by those within and outside of Syria.
To help explain the geopolitical impacts of the fall of the Assad regime, Wire host Castor spoke to Associate Professor Stephen Hoadley.
As of recently, X formerly known as twitter has seen an exodus of its artistic community ending their time and moving to a new platform called Bluesky.
The change comes as a result that X would be using visual art to train its AI programs leading many artists to end their time with the Elon Musk hosted app.
Producer Yesenia spoke to Associate Professor in Faculty of Arts at the University of Auckland, Neal Curtis, about artists moving to Bluesky for its moderation policies, How Bluesky is holding space for Artists of any medium to share and how the site is benefitting from this rise of new communities.
As of last week the government's methane review report was slammed by Greenpeace for what they say is the coalition government manipulating of numbers of shirk responsibility in the fight against climate crisis.
This comes as a result of livestock being one of the biggest contributors for man-made methane within Aotearoa and especially within the meat & dairy industry.
Producer Yesenia spoke to Greenpeace’s Agricultural Campaign Spokesperson Amanda Larsson about the impacts the review has on an agricultural scale, possible strategies to reduce methane production from the meat and dairy industry and the prospects of reducing methane for the future.
For our weekly catch up with the ACT Party's Simon Court, Producer Evie speaks to Simon about government bootcamp participants reoffending, proposed changes to employment law and David Seymour’s incumbent term as Deputy Prime Minister.
News and Editorial Director, and Monday Wire Host, Joel, speaks to Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland, Dr Lisa Darragh, about New Zealand's recent results in the Trends in International Maths and Science Study.
Producer Yesenia speaks to Greenpeace’s Agricultural Campaign Spokesperson, Amanda Larsson, about the government's Methane Review and the impact it has on an agricultural standpoint.
Evie speaks to Senior Lecturer in Science Ecology at Victoria University of Wellington, Julie Deslippe, about 30 years of research revealing that Aotearoa’s species are some of those at the greatest risk of extinction.
And Yesenia speaks to Associate Professor in Faculty of Arts at the University of Auckland, Neal Curtis, about artists ending their time on X, formally Twitter, and shifting to Bluesky for it's moderation policies.
New Zealand and Australian species are among the most vulnerable to extinction in a warming world, according to a global analysis of 30 years of research.
The research found that Amphibians; species from mountain, island, and freshwater ecosystems; and species inhabiting South America, Australia, and New Zealand face the greatest threats.
If global warming reaches 1.3°C, 1.6% of species are threatened globally, with risks escalating to nearly 30% of global species at 5.4°C.
Producer Evie spoke to Senior Lecturer in Science Ecology at the Victoria University of Wellington, Julie Deslippe about the research and what it could mean for Aotearoa’s ecosystem.
Recently, findings from the study into student achievement in maths and science, TIMMS, otherwise referred to as the Trends in International Maths and Science Study.
New Zealand’s findings show that the achievement gap regarding maths results has relatively stayed the same since 2018, although the overall gap has increased since 2002.
This comes as the government has pushed heavily to increase maths statistics in the country, over concerns New Zealand’s maths statistics are not on par with other countries overseas.
News and Editorial Director, and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland, Dr Lisa Darragh, about New Zealand’s statistics in the TIMMS and whether the government is rightfully concerned about where our maths statistics are.
They also discussed Darragh’s thoughts on ability grouping in primary school maths, and how this practice can impact the achievement gap with high and low-achieving students.
The 2023 Census severe housing deprivation estimates released on Wednesday are the first in the world to have all-of-population data on LGBTQIA+ homelessness.
The numbers collected show at that time, 261 per 10,000 LGBTQIA+ people aged 15 and over were estimated to be living in severe housing deprivation.
For those who don’t identify as LGBTQIA+, the rate was 212 per 10,000.
Senior Research Fellow with He Kāinga Orana at the Department of Public Health at the University of Otago, Wellington, Dr Brodie Fraser’s research was the first in Aotearoa to look specifically at LGBTQIA+ and takatāpui experiences of homelessness.
Producer Sofia spoke to Fraser about these Census statistics and the significance of including takatāpui
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
As part of its submission on a Local Government New Zealand issues paper exploring electoral reform, Auckland Council has expressed its support for a four-year electoral term.
In exploring local government reform, the LGNZ paper also looks at public understanding of local government, public awareness of candidates and policies, and voting methods for local elections, raising questions about who’s responsible for improving these areas and what the future of local government voting might look like.
For the first interview of 2025, producer Sofia spoke to Councillor Julie Fairey about Council’s LGNZ submission as well as Council’s general plans for 2025.
The Eaton and Palisades fires, the two major fires making up the Los Angeles fires, are now the two most destructive wildfires in Southern California history.
The fires have sparked significant debate about insurance in high-risk natural disaster areas as thousands of Californians lost their home insurance not long before the fires.
And president-elect Donald Trump has returned to the centre stage of United States foreign policy in the weeks leading up to his inauguration.
Trump has threatened to annex Greenland and Canada as well as reclaim the Panama Canal for the United States.
For States of the States this week Wire Host Caeden spoke to Andre Fa’aoso from the Yale Daily News about both of these topics.
Submissions on the controversial Treaty Principles Bill were set to close last week, when on the final few days of submissions the portal to submit suffered technical difficulties.
Due to this, many people were unable to send in their submissions on time. Parliament made the decision to extend the submission period to make up for the issue. With thousands also handing their submissions in person.
The bill is estimated to have had more than 300,000 submissions prior to the original deadline, making it the most highly submitted on bill in history.
For the weekly catchup with the Green Party Evie spoke to Ricardo Menendez March about the submission process.
They also talked about the contested Regulatory Standards Bill which has also recently come into the spotlight.
The submission period for the Treaty Principles Bill was due to close last week, however, due to mass amounts of last minute submissions leading to software issues, the deadline was extended to 1 pm on Tuesday, 14th January.
Similarly, the submissions for the consultation period on the regulatory standards bill ended yesterday, another bill primarily pushed by David Seymour and the ACT party that would change how the government processes legislation.
In our weekly catchup with the National Party’s Tom Rutherford, Wire host Castor spoke to him about these bills and how the party plans to operate in 2025.
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 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 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.
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