The Wire with Sara

A Recent study published by researchers from the UK and Australia have found that research funding for eating disorders and support services are quite low, especially amongst youth. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues we see a notable increase in people struggling with mental health problems, experts have raised the point that the rising demand in support services from young people needs to be matched with research in order to track the long-term effect that conditions such as eating disorders have. Joe talks to Associate Professor in Psychological Medicine Jenny Jordan from the University of Otago on the matter.

Host, Jessica Hopkins is finally back in the studio for the Wire today. 

This week she speaks to Robyn Twemlow and Sian Winmill from the Tourettes Association of NZ about why they are calling for the Ministry of Health to consider Tourettes Syndrome as a disability.

She also speaks to researcher Teresa Stanley about Drowning Prevention Auckland's new learning module for adults, to address the gap between perception and reality when it comes to water competency

Producer Joe Wickins speaks to Letitia Harding from the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation about their latest research on youth vaping. 

And Christina Huang continues her regular segment with the Waitematā Local Board. This week she speaks to board member Kerrin Leoni. 

Following a number of drowning fatalities over lockdown, Drowning Prevention Auckland is launching an online learning module for adults. This new module aims to address the gap between perception and reality when it comes to water competency. 

Jessica Hopkins spoke to researcher, Teresa Stanley about how people can stay safe by assessing their competence and preparing themselves for open water activities.

Here is that interview...

Ilena talks to Paris Marx, a Canada-based phD student at the University of Auckland, writer and host of the 'Tech Won’t Save Us' podcast about Facebook's 'metaverse'. 

Today, during Facebook’s annual Connect Conference, Mark Zuckerberg shared his vision for what he calls a ‘metaverse’. The metaverse will be a social, 3D virtual space where users can share immersive experiences with other people, in real-time. It won’t be built, run or owned exclusively by Facebook. Rather, the company will collaborate with policymakers, experts and industry partners. There are already a wealth of New Zealand companies and creators working in this space, including fashion designers, gaming and VR experience creators, academics and marketers involved. To better reflect this new chapter in the company, Facebook is rebranding to ‘Meta’. This will include a new logo and colour. 

Paris discusses their concern that the rebranding could mean a renewed focus on addressing misinformation and echo chambers, or serves to distract from recent scrutiny that Facebook is under after internal documents were leaked by a whistleblower. They also talk about what the implications might be in who is funding this venture, and how the metaverse sits in a post-Covid, increasingly digitalised world.