Last week, Pope Leo XIV, or American Cardinal Robert Prevost, was chosen to succeed the late Pope Francis.
Before his ascent to the papacy, Pope Leo XIV had been a vocal critic of American President Donald Trump’s policies on immigration.
In an article for The Conversation, Associate Professor of Political Science at the Paris Cité University, Speranta Dumitru, discussed how the defence of migrants has been a key pillar of the papacy since World War 2, and of the Catholic faith for longer.
Wire Host Caeden spoke to Associate Professor Dumitru about what we know about Pope Leo XIV’s views on migration, and how this fits into a broader context of his calls for peace and the mantle he’s taking up from his predecessors.
The Catholic Church has a new leader — Pope Leo XIV — elected after just two days of conclave in what many are calling a quick and unified decision. He follows Pope Francis, whose time as pope was known for major reforms and a focus on social issues. Now, people are asking: will Leo continue that legacy, or take the Church in a new direction?
Some describe Leo XIV as a moderate, but we are yet to see what issues he will choose to act on.
Producer Evie spoke to Dr Greg Marcar, a theology researcher at the University of Otago, about what we can expect from Pope Leo’s time in charge, and what it means that he’s the first American pope in history.
They also looked at why the conclave happened so quickly this time, and whether a new pope could bring changes not just for Catholics, but for the wider world.
A team of scientists at the University of Auckland have recently received a $1 million grant to investigate the link between babies having low weight at birth, and developing heart problems later in life. The team will be using virtual models of the heart and placenta.
Producer Athena spoke to Associate Professor from the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, at the University of Auckland, Alys Clark, who will co-lead the study alongside fellow academic, Jo James, about how the study will be conducted, and what the team hopes to achieve with its findings.
Amelia is joined by Che aka bb gurl aka Mallshopper for a conclusive list of the best of the best anime of all time PERIOD. But none of that Shonen nonsense - the good stuff.
Multi-hyphenate arts icon Coco Solid spoke with Rachel about Wheke Fortress, a new community and artist run space she is setting up in Onehunga with Big Fat Raro. Whakarongo mai nei to hear about the kaupapa and supoort the Boosted campaign here!
Health Coalition Aotearoa is calling for a permanent fix to New Zealand’s School Lunch Programme.
The current contract is being delivered by provider ‘The School Lunch Collective’, after National axed the prior Ka Ako, Ka Ora programme model. This latest iteration of the school lunches programme has seen smaller meals, lower nutritional quality, and disengagement from community-based providers.
Currently, the funding for the government’s school lunch programme is due to end in late 2026, with no proposed initiatives in its place.
Producer Jasmine Gray spoke to Dr. Kelly Garton about the inefficacies of the current contract, and the urgent need to invest in this support for our rangatahi.
This week on The Green Desk, Bronwyn Wilde spoke to Dr Kēpa Morgan about mauri modelling - a framework for decision-making which measures sustainability trends. Unlike a purely economic view of sustainability, the model recognises four dimensions of wellbeing, environmental, cultural, social and economic. Kēpa first invented the mauri-o-meter in his 2008 thesis about municipal waste water management, but since then it has been applied throughout the country to a number of ecosystems, including the clean-up following the Rena oil spill. Bronwyn and Kēpa spoke about the model, how it compliments and even improves on western science, and why we value certain knowledge over others.
He began by shedding some light on the concept of "mauri".
Oto and Jaycee spoke with Tāmaki Makaurau singer-songwriter, Reia Guess, and played 2 hours of music by singer songwriters and dreampop artists from the Asian diaspora.