The Wire with Caeden

Spike speaks to author and inequality researcher Max Rashbrooke about the new IRD report on the effective tax rates of the wealthiest families in Aotearoa. 

The SpaceX Starship rocket launch, which led to a subsequent explosion, can hardly be called a failure. Scientists involved learned a lot about rocket design through the partial launch, and even NASA has lauded the mission as a success. 

Elon Musk has been accused of ignoring advice around the launchpad design that might have led to the failure of the rocket to complete its circumnavigation around the earth, but this remains as conjecture in the astrophysics community. 

Arno spoke to University of Auckland astrophysicist Richard Easther to find out more about the launch: to find out what went wrong, and what went right. Arno started by asking if the launch was expected to fail.

On the Wednesday Wire with Andre:

Host Andre Fa'aoso spoke with Doctor Arama Rata about the domestic tensions around New Zealand joining the AUKUS security-pact. 

Jack Cormack-Neto chatted to Principal Science Advisor at the NZ Drug Foundation, Emily Hughes, about what they found at drug checking during 2022. 

On The Green Desk, Jack Marshall interviewed Marine Ecologist Aaron Egerhe about the economic value of kelp forests.

Producer Alex Bonham spoke to Chief Executive Officer of Ecomatters Environment Trust, Carla Gee and senior organic waste advisor at the Auckland Council Elise O’Brien, about the potential for food scraps to improve soils and avoid tonnes emissions each year. 

Producer Arno spoke to Richard Easther, astrophysicist at the University of Auckland, about the SpaceX Starship launch. 

Arno also spoke with Ruth Dimes, Business masters programme director at the University of Auckland, about a study comparing students performance to ChatGPT AI. 

Currently New Zealanders dump 300,000 tonnes of food each year in landfill where it emits methane, contributing to global warming. Aucklanders bin 100,000 tonnes of food and it makes up half of our kerbside waste. To address this, Auckland Council is rolling out a foodscrap collection this year. The scraps will go through an anaerobic digestion process to create fertiliser and biogas that will be used in horticultural systems south of the city. However, environmental campaigners argue that local composting leads to better soils and lower emissions. Alex Bonham spoke to Carla Gee of Ecomatters, that runs the Compost Collective, and Elise O'Brien, Senior Organic Waste Advisor at Auckland Council to talk about the amazing resource that is food waste.