The Best of the Wire w/ Oto: 18 December, 2024

For the Best of the Wire today, Oto and Sasha reflected on their favourite interviews over the past year as the bFM news team heads into the holiday period.

In April this year, Oto did an on the ground interview with Students for Fair Rent Chairman - Matthew Lee and Green Party Co-Leader - Chloe Swarbrick at a protest held by Students for Fair Rent calling for a rent strike and end to the cost of living crisis at the University of Auckland's halls of residence.

A month later, Oto spoke to organisers and attendees at another protest held by Students for Justice in Palestine - Auckland, around the time that Palestinian solidarity encampments were being held at universities across the globe.

In July, Oto spoke with Professor Emmy Rākete from the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Auckland to discuss the findings of the Abuse in Care Inquiry and how abuse in state and faith-based institutions lead to a prison pipeline that disproportionately affected Māori.

And, in his funniest and most light-hearted Interview, Oto spoke to comedian and professor in the department of chemical sciences at the University of Auckland - Dr Joel Rindelaub, to discuss the impacts of microplastics on the human brain and body.

In October, Sasha had a chat with Doctor Alex Beattie - a lecturer in Media and Communication at Victoria University of Wellington, to discuss why New Zealanders are becoming more distrustful of the media and why the younger generation is becoming more apathetic.

And, in September, Sasha talked to Associate Professor Laszlo Sajtos at the University of Auckland Business School about the trial usage of facial recognition technology by Foodstuffs in their North Island outlets.