Afternoons for Monday 4 August 2025

1:15 NCEA Changes: A student's perspective

This morning the Government proposed big changes to secondary school qualifications, namely, scrapping NCEA. They said the new system would still retain standards-based assessments and be underpinned by a new national curriculum. 

We wanted to ask a student how they're feeling about this, Kāpiti College Head of Kura, Aroa Al Masri spoke to Emile.

1.25 Find out what's behind our obsession with black clothing.

Last Friday on the show, Jesse was discussing New Zealand fashion trends with Fashion Quarterly's Editor in Chief and unsurprisingly our national love affair with the colour black came up.

One of our listeners got in touch, Doris de Pont curated the 'Black in Fashion' exhibition at the New Zealand Fashion Museum back in 2011

The exhibition explored why we loved this dark and colourless hue ... and more than a decade later...it seems not much has changed

Doris De Pont joins Emile.

1.35 How do you make sure you give your child the best start in life?

This week is World Breastfeeding Week - the goal is to the highlight the importance of breastfeeding and to encourage families, health professionals and communities to all work together to promote it

Plunket's Chief Nurse Zoe Tipa & Plunket line's Clinical Lead and lactation consultant Hannah Cook spoke to Emile.

1:45 One Long Song: Spanish Sahara by Foals

Today's offering is from a British rock band, formed in Oxford in 2005, a really exciting time for British guitar music with bands like Arctic Monkeys, Libertines, Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand knocking around.

Many of them have sort of faded into obscurity since but these guys have gone from strength to strength.

This long song is from the 2010 Mercury Prize-nominated album Total Life Forever, which the band described as "sounding like the dream of an eagle dying", whatever that means - this is Spanish Sahara by Foals.

2:10 What's on the box? The Survivors and Andor

The Survivors is a six-part adaptation of Jane Harper's bestselling Australian crime novel of the same name.

The drama stars our very own Robyn Malcolm. 

Our TV critic Caitlin Cherry reviews The Survivors (Netflix) and finds out what all the fuss is about with Andor (Disney Plus), the show that is part of the Star Wars franchise.

2:20 Cold Call: Kauri Museum in Matakohe

Matakohe is a village in the Kaipara district, about 45 kilometres south of Dargaville.
It's famous for the Kauri Museum so we decided to give the museum a cold call to find out what visitors can expect to find.

2.30 Expert Feature: Algorithms - what are they and how to they work?

Time for our expert feature, the moment in the show where we put your questions to our expert.

Specifically - what are they? how do they work?  And are there any ways to manipulate them into giving us better deals, or less addictive content?

Emile is joined by Automated Programming PhD and Comedian Henry Hickman.

3:10 Feature interview: "Mankeeping" is it really a thing?

Male friendships are reportedly in a recession, so it seems many men are leaning heavily on their partners for emotional support. 
Dr Angelica Ferrara coined a term for that, Mankeeping. 
It explains how women often take on the roll of managing men's social lives, from checking on their friendships to being their sole emotional sounding board. 
Dr. Ferrara is a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and her research explains why "Mankeeping" impacts not just men themselves, but everyone around them, especially women.

She spoke to Emile. 

3:35 Here Now: A square at a time - moving pieces from Argentina to the South Island

Rami Riachi's love for chess is creating a generation of players in Nelson through his workshops and classes throughout the region. But how did the Argentinian win the hearts and minds of chess fanatics here in New Zealand?

Here Now's Kadambari Raghukumar finds out.

3:45 The pre-Panel

Wallace Chapman previews tonight's instalment of The Panel.