Saturday Morning RNZ Radio

Susie Fergusons listener feedback for Saturday Morning 8th June 2024.

Renee Gracie was just 19 when she began racing V8 Supercars at Australia's legendary Bathurst 1000. Despite breaking records on the track, the sexism and sexualisation she faced forced her out of the sport. Fighting fire with fire, she set up an OnlyFans account, becoming Australia's biggest earner on the subscription adult content site. She then used the money to set up her own Supercars team. Her story is captured in a new documentary: Renee Gracie:Fireproof, screening as part of the DocEdge festival in June and July. Renee Gracie and the doco's co-director Frances Elliott join Susie.

When will interest rates go down? What impact will last week's Budget have on inflation? And why are the two connected? New Zealand Herald business editor-at-large Liam Dann joins us to survey the economic horizon and answer your questions. Dann recently released a best selling book: BBQ Economics: How money works and why it matters.

Award-winning investigative writer Tom Burgis' new book exposes a world where the rich can buy "truth". In Cuckooland - Where the Rich Own the Truth Burgis follows a trail from the Kremlin, through Kathmandu to a royal retreat in Scotland. He hunts down oligarchs and traces vast sums of money flowing between multinational corporations, ex-Soviet dictators and the west's ruling elites. He finds a very rich man with the power to impose his reality on the world. Tom Burgis's writing has appeared in the Telegraph, the Independent, the Observer and the New Statesman. His 2021 best-selling book is Kleptopia - How Dirty Money is Conquering the World.

A London-born Italian teenager is on course for a sainthood after two miracles attributed to him have been recognised by Pope Francis. Carlo Acutis was diagnosed with untreatable leukaemia and died aged 15 in 2006. He was eventually buried in Assisi. Acutis could become the Catholic church's first millennial saint. Susie is joined by Dr Liam Temple from Durham University's Department of Theology and Religion, to look at how this has come about and what it means for the Catholic church

A straight spine is so prized in our culture that megastar Taylor Swift is currently performing in a NZ$300 posture-supporting bra. Yet the idea there is a "universal good posture" that will protect us from back pain is not supported by science, says physical therapist-turned-medical historian Beth Linker.