The Wire with Caeden

Daniel spoke with Neal Curtis, professor in media and screen studies at the University of Auckland about trolls, online hate, misogyny, the rise of extreme right ideologies and its impact on the Prime Minister. 

On the first Thursday Wire of 2023:

Liam spoke to Lisa Williams from Pharmac about the liquid ibuprofen shortage.

They also had a chat with Sarah Helm from the NZ Drug Foundation about a dangerous altered form of acid that’s currently circulating in Aotearoa. 

Professor Jan Eldridge was chatting about her research into binary neutron star mergers.

Christine Cooper from Curtin University will be chatting about how echidnas do belly flops to keep warm.

And lastly Liam talked to Cameron Adams for our first Eurovision of 2023!

The New Zealand Drug Foundation has reported on a new strain of LSD that is circulating around the country, particularly within music festivals.

The drug, named 25B-NBOH, can form side effects not usually present in normal LSD, despite looking identical. 

Drug checking services at new years festival Rhythm and Vines found examples in the drug amongst roughly 750 other drugs checked. 

To learn more about the drug, what the signs of it are, and how users could avoid them, Liam had a chat with the New Zealand Drug Foundations executive director Sarah Helm. 

The UK government has voted in favour of blocking a Scottish gender recognition bill that would make it easier for people to change their legally recognised gender, from going to royal assent.

The passing of this bill made Scotland the first nation in the UK to back a self-identification process for legally changing gender. But the UK government used a Section 35 order, a provision which can block Scottish laws, for the first time ever, to thwart Scotland's efforts to expand transgender rights. 

News and Editorial Director, Jessica Hopkins, interviewed the Scottish Green's equalities and human rights issues spokesperson, Maggie Chapman, who is the Vice Convener of the Equalities, Humans Rights, and Civil Justice Committee, that took the gender recognition reform legisation through Scottish parliament last year. 

She also spoke to Research Associate at the University of Auckland Public Policy Institute, Dr Sarah Bickerton about harmful rhetoric surrounding transgender and other minority rights in the UK and the potential implications of blocking this legislation on Scottish democracy.