Afternoons RNZ Radio

Now on Our Changing World, a story from Australia's ABC Science series, Pacific Scientific, about one of the last places without the killer frog fungus. We join reporter James Purtill just outside of Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, on a frog hunt with Yolarnie Amepou, director of the Piku Biodiversity Network, and her friend Heather.

Carli McConkey didn't join a cult, she was recruited into one at a time when she was searching for direction in her life. She spent 13 years working for nothing, even enduring medical sterilization while part of a doomsday cult called Universal Knowledge in Australia. She's now an advocate for people drawn in to these groups, despite attempts to silence her by the former leader of the group. In this age of misinformation and conspiracy theories, Carli McConkey helps us understand how people get taken in by what may seem like outrageous ideas.

This week's midweek meal inspiration from chef, author and busy mum Sam Parish is bound to be a regular go to dinner for many households. She's got a great tasty and budget friendly recipe for eggplant and chicken parmigana.

Today Ximena talks to Jesse about The Gas Man, an investigative series from Tortoise Media. She's also been listening to Intrigue: To Catch a Scorpian.

For Heading Off today we're heading to the east coast of the South Island to Waitaki. It's one of the destinations around that is attracting more tourists each year. We speak to journalist Lisa Scott about why Waitaki!

BabyX is an interactive AI model of an 18 month old. It was originally launched in 2013, by then Auckland University researcher Mark Sagar. Over the last 10 years it's been developed and improved, to the point it's now suitable for academic research into early childhood development It allows researchers to do work that would be impossible or unethical on real human participants. University of Auckland psychologist Florian Bednarski is taking advantage of those possibilities to conduct groundbreaking research.