The Wire with Manny

Stuart McCutcheon, Vice Chancellor of The University of Auckland, speaks with Lucy Austin about the direction of the university and the recent controversy surrounding the closure of the Creative Arts libraries:

In light of recent events such as the library closures and funding to arts being repeatedly cut I thought it was important to have a chat with the man in charge himself, Vice Chancellor Stuart McCutcheon. The most significant criticism has been a lack of communication with both students and staff. With bFM being the university radio station it seemed the perfect platform to open up this dialogue and get to know the Vice Chancellor a bit better. This is part of a two part series, the second half focuses on the library closures and construction work. Lucy Austin started the interview by asking Stuart to share a little bit about how he came to his role.

Photo credit: University of Auckland

Auckland Peace Action spokesperson, Valerie Morse, spoke with bFM reporter Oscar Perress and expanded on the past, present and future of the Israel-Palestine conflict, its international implications, and New Zealand's role in it all.

Wire host Conor spoke with Holly Dove, of the kiwi bottle drive, about their open letter to parliament titled ‘dear beehive, it’s time we talked about plastic.’ The kiwi bottle drive are trying to get cash-back bottle deposits set up around the country, and are partnering with notable public institutions and groups such as greenpeace and the Auckland Zoo.

Deep Fake videos, where people’s faces can be edited onto a completely different person’s body in a video, can be harmful. There are several YouTube videos of Barack Obama saying things that Barack Obama has never actually said, and of actors performing sex acts that they have never done in front of a camera. Why were deep fakes invented? Do they offer positive aspects? Mary-Margaret Slack asked Victoria University’s senior media design lecturer, Tom White, if we have sufficient legal framework to deal with deep fakes.