The Weekend for Sunday 30 December 2018

 

08:12 Augusto Lopez-Claros: Wellbeing is a better measure than GDP

New Zealand's government plans to make indicators of wellbeing - such as poverty and mental health - the centrepiece of its 2019 budget, as part of a move towards focusing on wellbeing-centred policy over traditional economic growth markers. Augusto Lopez-Claros is a World Bank economist currently on a fellowship with  Georgetown University, and a former chief economist of the World Economic Forum. His latest book, Equality for Women = Prosperity for All draws a relationship between women's empowerment and poverty reduction across the globe.

 

08:35 Reuben Steff: Artificial intelligence in the security sphere 

Dr. Reuben Steff lectures at the Institute of Security and Crime Science at Waikato University. He was a speaker and organiser for this year's Waikato Dialogue, a symposium of experts who examined the implications of emerging disruptive technologies for international security and New Zealand. Dr. Steff believes New Zealand’s military is not prepared for the speed of change that is going to be necessary to adopt artificial intelligence in the years to come.

 

09:05 Jes Baker: Rejecting New Year's diets

Jes Baker is an American author, speaker, and activist for the body liberation movement. She has written two books; one titled Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls, and the other a memoir called Landwhale. Jes blogs about self-acceptance and body image at The Militant Baker, and previously worked in the mental health sector.

 

09:30 Insight: Foetal alcohol - damaging babies' brains

It's thought there could be several thousand New Zealand babies born every year with brains damaged in the womb by alcohol after their mothers drank while pregnant. Insight investigates what is being done for those coping with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
 

10:05 Jasper Fforde: Surrealist humour and writer's block

Jasper Fforde is a fantasy, science-fiction, comedy and crime (usually all at once!) novelist who lives in Wales. His latest book, Early Riser, is a dark, and very funny, tale of a world in which humans have always hibernated. Jasper's Thursday Next series and his Dragonslayer and Shades of Grey books have won him ardent fans, many of whom gather for a regular convention in his honour - which he also attends - called the Fforde Ffiesta; held in the English city of Swindon, it celebrates the absurd in Jasper's work. 

 

10:40 Gwyn Easterbrook-Smith: Righting misconceptions about sex work

Dr. Gwyn Easterbrook-Smith completed their PhD thesis on representations of sex workers in the New Zealand news media, aiming to find out which sex workers were presented by journalists as acceptable and what conditions were attached to that acceptability. They have taught at Massey and Victoria Universities.

 

11:05 Musical Obsessions: Chris Tse on Björk

Chris Tse is a Wellington-based poet whose latest book is titled He's So MASC; his debut collection, How to be Dead in a Year of Snakes, won the Best First Book of Poetry prize at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Chris' poetry, short fiction and non-fiction has been published in Best New Zealand Poems, Pantograph Punch, Turbine, The Listener, Fishhead and Landfall. He plays a selection of music from the eclectic Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, actress, record producer, and DJ, Björk.

 

11:35 Kitchen Stories: Ishna Iftikar cooks Sri Lankan food

Ishna Iftikar's family moved from Sri Lanka to Canada when she was young, and she later came to New Zealand to study. She shares Sri Lankan Muslim cuisine, including an eggplant stirfry, Kaliya; a wheat, rice and coconut-based porridge, Kanji; and a dessert called Watalappam.