Sunday Morning

8.10 The latest from the UK with Christian Smith 

Correspondent Christian Smith talks to Jim about the big stories making news in Europe and the UK. This week, the ongoing scandal surrounding Prince Andrew, the brazen burglary of the Louvre jewels, and the president-elect of the Oxford Union finds himself in hot water for remarks made after Charlie Kirk's shooting. 

 

8:25 Sunday Morning Quiz with Jack Waley-Cohen  

Quiz master Jack Waley-Cohen is back with his Sunday Morning quiz. 

Jack is the mind behind the questions on BBC's quiz show Only Connect, known for being both hard — and at the same time totally obvious. Wake up your brain and have a go!  

 

8:35 Jarrod Haar: the changing pathways to employment 

Traditionally parents have preached  the great benefits of a qualification so their children won't be blown around by harsh economic winds and consigned to menial occupations. But that's changing as well - at least regarding university degrees.

More than half of US job postings no longer require a degree, registered apprenticeships have more than doubled in a decade. Here, university enrolments have swung sharply in recent years with high student debt deterring school leavers, among other factors. 

Dr Jarrod Haar is a Professor of Management and Māori Business at Massey University. He joins Jim to discuss how universities might have to change tack to cater to the changing needs of society. 

 

9:10 Mediawatch 

Mediawatch looks at what was revealed in a defamation case pitting one of the country’s biggest companies against TVNZ. Also - how the government fired up a confrontational PR campaign on this week’s ‘mega-strike’  - and how the media responded. 

 

9:40 Calling Home: Jason Doyle from Dubai 

Jason Doyle, his wife Shayna and two young children moved to Dubai in August last year. One hundred years ago, Dubai’s population was 30,000, now it’s 5-million, of which more than 90 percent are expats.  Jason’s with Jim to talk about the heat, Dubai’s attractions and what it’s like to live in a place that has one of the fastest growing economies in the world. 

 

10:10 Best Song Eva: Dave Dobbyn 

Over 45 years Sir Dave Dobbyn has written more Kiwi classics than most of us can count – but what would be his pick for Best Song Eva?  

Sir Dave is about to set out on a regional tour of Aotearoa with his Selected Songs Tour 2025. He chats with Jim about the songs New Zealanders love, living with Parkinson's disease, and his career highlights.  

 

10:30 How China became the world's manufacturing superpower 

China is packing technical innovations into their cars - from self-driving software to massage units and facial recognition. The quality of China's manufacturing industry has given cause for concern to Western manufacturers, who are realising that they are being left in the dust when it comes to using automation and robotics. 

Matt Oliver, the Industry Editor for The Telegraph, joins Jim to discuss just how China has side-stepped its cheap "Made in China" reputation to become a global manufacturing powerhouse. 

 

11:10 Michelle Ang: The journey from The Tribe to Star Wars  

Actor and director Michelle Ang is back on home turf for this weekend’s Armageddon Expo - a chance for fans to meet voice behind Omega in Star Wars: The Bad Batch. 

Raised in Wellington, Ang first appeared in The Tribe and My Wedding and Other Secrets before building an international career that’s taken her from Neighbours to an Emmy-nominated role in Fear the Walking Dead: Flight 462. 

Now based between New Zealand and the US, she also runs her own production company, A Grain of Rice, supporting emerging filmmakers and diverse storytelling. 

 

10:45 Overpaid, oversexed, over here: Olivia Spooner on 'The American Boys' 

In her latest book, The American Boys, Olivia Spooner has written a wartime love story inspired by the arrival of the US troops in Wellington in 1942. Twenty-thousand American troops were sent to keep New Zealand safe, but their reception was far from warm. Many of the men did endear themselves though to young, New Zealand women.   

Olivia Spooner was until recently the owner of Booklover in Milford, and now writing full-time. She’s the author of two historical fiction novels, The Girl from London and The Songbirds of Florence. 

 

11:30 Useful Science with Angie Skerrett 

Angie Skerrett is here guiding us through the latest weird and useful headlines from the world of science - including a possible benefit of greying hair.