Saturday Morning RNZ Radio

Over almost sixty years, Dutch-Kiwi photographer Ans Westra took hundreds of thousands of pictures of life in New Zealand. A new illustrated biography Ans Westra - A life in photography interrogates her at times controversial practice. Ans' daughter Lisa van Hulst and author Dr Paul Moon join Susie.

Following a two-year hiatus, comedian Nazeem Hussain is back on the tour circuit with his new stand-up show Totally Normal. Having cut his teeth in the Melbourne scene in the 1990s, Hussain is one of Australia's biggest comedy stars, with his 2022 YouTube special Hussain in the Membrane racking up millions of views. Having performed sold-out shows around the globe - including opening for controversial comedian Dave Chappelle in New York City - Hussein is back for two shows in NZ .

In the race to colonize Mars, millions - if not billions - of dollars have been poured into research by people like Elon Musk to see what would make the planet's environment less hostile for humans. But why not spend the money improving conditions on Earth instead? What is driving this obsession? Writer Danyl McLauchlan joins Susie to tackle life's big questions, ideas and thinkers.

In a crucial year for India, millions of voters are going to the polls in the mammoth six-week election in the most populous country on earth. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is hoping to secure a rare third term as the poll hits the mid point. Internationally acclaimed author of twenty-five books, Dr Shashi Tharoor is a third-term Member of Parliament for the Congress and former Under Secretary-General of the United Nations. Dr Tharoor is appearing in conversation with Linda Clark in 'The Year the World Votes' at the Auckland Writers Festival.

Housing solution advocate Jordan van den Berg received a wave of fury from landlords and real estate agents recently after posting a video suggesting people squat in houses left empty by their owners. The Melbourne-based lawyer, who posts online under the name Purple Pingers, has been dubbed the 'Robin Hood of renters' for his unorthodox solution to the country's housing crisis. Van den Berg also runs the website Shit Rentals, where tenants can rate undesirable properties and rental agents. And he has even taken aim at Aotearoa's terrible rental offerings on his social media page, pointing to a Riccarton rental that was effectively a shed, priced at $260 a week.

Promising a new kind of environmental journalism, Cape Town-based conservation writer Adam Welz's book The End of Eden: Wild Nature in the Age of Climate Breakdown explores climate change from the perspective of wild species and natural ecosystems. Prefering climate breakdown to climate change, Welz argues its most powerful impacts are felt by the natural world, including that of the northern Maine moose, parrots in Puerto Rico, cheetahs in Namibia, and rare fish in Australia - all struggling to survive.