Saturday Morning RNZ Radio

Kate De Goldi is one of New Zealand's most celebrated authors, an Arts Foundation Laureate, and a voracious reader. She joins Susie to share three books she's loved; Ironopolis by Glen James Brown, James by Percival Everett, and The Trip by Paul Beavis.

Recruiters are reporting an unprecedented jump in job applications in the wake of thousands of layoffs across the public and private sectors. But for those seeking new work, a key question often remains shrouded in mystery, 'What's the salary?' Fortunately there is a tool that can shed some light. Driven by a desire to promote salary transparency, Auckland-based web analytics consultant Tony Lu developed What's The Salary in 2019. Since then, there have been over a million searches, with demand up a reported 25 percent compared to a year ago.

Having grown up in Missouri, Jake Adelstein moved to Japan at age 19 to study Japanese literature. A few years later, he became the first non-Japanese staff writer at Yomiuri Shimbun, one of the country's largest newspapers, where as a rookie reporter he was put on the police beat. Before long he was immersed in the underbelly of Japan, reporting on organised crime and the shady dealings of yakuza bosses. Adelstein's first book, a dramatic memoir entitled Tokyo Vice was published in 2009, and eventually turned into a popular television series by HBO Max. Now he is poised to release the follow-up, Tokyo Noir, which has been billed as equal parts history lesson and true crime exposé.

In 2020, childhood friends Alex Towler and Jackson Harvey won the Australian reality show Lego Masters. Four years on, their elaborate retrofuturistic Lego exhibition RELICS: A New World Rises is coming to Auckland.

Creating food from 'thin air' sounds like a futuristic dream. But it's a future that's already arrived in the form of Solar Foods - Europe's first factory dedicated to making human food from electricity and air. What started with hydrogen oxidising microbes has resulted in Solein - a non-farmed yellowish protein product. After several years of lab experiments, production is underway in Vantaa, near the Finnish capital of Helsinki. The goal? To produce 160 tonnes of food a year. Solar Foods co-founder and chief executive Pasi Vainikka says Solein is a crucial next step in the food revolution.

The 1828 comic opera 'Le comte Ory' has been given a facelift by internationally acclaimed director Simon Phillips ('North by Northwest', 'Priscilla Queen of the Desert', 'The Elixir of Love'). Instead of being set in medieval France, this reworked production takes place in present-day Aotearoa, but sung in French with English subtitles. Written by Italian composer Gioachino Rossini, 'Le comte Ory' tells the story of a young count who is a cunning swindler, dedicated to seducing women. The NZ Opera production features the singing talents of lyric tenor Manase Latu, soprano Emma Pearson, mezzo-soprano Hanna Hipp, and baritone Moses Mackay. 'Le comte Ory' will be playing at Auckland's Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre on 30th of May and 1st of June, followed by performances in Wellington and Christchurch. Tickets and info are here.