Saturday Morning for Saturday 7 March 2026

08:11 Professor Robert Sapolsky: Life Without Free Will

There’s no such thing as free will and our actions are pre-determined by our genes and the environment - so says eminent neuro and behavioural scientist Robert Sapolsky, who explores this and more in his book Determined: The Science of Life Without Free Will. 

A professor of biology, neurology and neurosurgery at Stanford University School of Medicine, Robert Sapolsky explains to Susie Ferguson how we can all lead better lives even if we don't have as many choices as we think we do.   

08:43 Middle East analysis

As the US and Israel ramped up their combined assault overnight, American President Donald Trump has said he will accept nothing less than Iran's 'unconditional surrender'.

It's almost a week since the two allies launched air strikes on Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali  Khamenei. Since then strikes have expanded to include Lebanon while Iran has fought back, hitting sites in several countries including Cyprus, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Qatar.  On Thursday President Trump said he wanted to be involved in choosing Iran's next leader.

The BBC's Middle East Editor Sebastian Usher joins Mihingarangi Forbes live from London with the latest.

9:05 Kevin Toolis: You Never Forget Your First Corpse, Do You? 

Bafta award-winning filmmaker Kevin Toolis grew up on a remote Irish island where death and dying were an everyday part of life. His mother took him to see his first corpse aged seven.

After years war reporting and filmmaking, getting a broad perspective of death in different cultures, Kevin thinks Māori and the Irish have a good approach to it. He’s not morbid, he once took a first date to an Irish wake after a rave. 

Kevin has written two acclaimed books on the subject and his TED Talk has been viewed more than a quarter of a million times. He’s coming to New Zealand to give a series of talks about the way we discuss death and palliative care, hoping to normalise conversations about it. 

Kevin tells Mihingarangi that accepting our mortality is what makes us truly human.

9:38 Climate agony: Martha Jeffries

It's been a week of anxiety inducing climate bombshells, including the release of new research showing incorrect modelling has significantly underestimated rising sea levels.

Martha Jeffries is a television producer and director of the Emmy award-winning climate series, Years of Living Dangerously. She talks to Susie about trying to interest Hollywood in climate narratives and why she's gearing up to be a climate agony aunt!

10:05 Charlotte Grimshaw: The Black Monk

The latest novel from best-selling author Charlotte Grimshaw is part psychological thriller and part family saga, examining themes of shame, addiction, truth and the stories we tell to survive. 

The Black Monk is Charlotte's twelfth book - the previous eleven all critically acclaimed. She is a winner of the BNZ Katherine Mansfield Award and her 2021 memoir The Mirror Book, confronting life growing up in one of New Zealand's best-known literary families, was shortlisted for the Ockhams. 

Charlotte speaks to Susie about the inspiration behind her work.

10:40 Graham Leonard: New earthquake fault lines

Currently there are four studies looking at how we learn about the sources of earthquakes across the motu. 

Dozens of previously unknown faultlines have been discovered under Auckland, trenches are being dug at the Papawai Fault, hidden quake activity has been discovered in Hamilton and other new research has uncovered seven previously unknown earthquake faults in Wairarapa. 

Graham Leonard is Principal Scientist at Earth Sciences NZ and he joins Mihingarangi to discuss the latest discoveries. 

11:05 Leah McFall: Obsession and control

Writer for The Listener On-line, Leah McFall has a piece out today about the one must-have status symbol in your house. She singles out the salt pig. 

What are the things you obsess about - the things that are just right or just plain wrong? 

11:20 She Who Tastes, Knows: Afghan food with Durkhanai Ayubi

When she was just two years old, at the height of the cold war, Durkhanai Ayubi's family fled Afghanistan to Australia. Now a restaurateur and prize-winning cookbook author, Durkhanai alongside her family, runs the beloved Parwana Afghan Kitchen in Adelaide.

Her new book She Who Tastes, Knows is a memoir of life as a first-generation migrant, told through the food and ingredients that have shaped her.

Durkhanai speaks with Mihingarangi about how she hopes it will provide a new perspective on her often-misunderstood homeland.  

11:40 Lachlan Harper: 10,000 hours and still messing up

The NZ Festival of the Arts is in full swing and includes a show embracing Malcolm Gladwell's idea that it takes ten thousand hours to master any skill. 
 
So how do you apply that to a live circus performance when things often don't work out? 

Lachlan Harper is an ensemble acrobat and production manager of internationally acclaimed Australian contemporary circus company Gravity & Other Myths whose show Ten Thousand Hours, which sold out at last year's Edinburgh Festival, has huge potential for things to go wrong! 

Lachlan tells Susie they can take risks because failure is part of success.