Author Interview
Noelle McCarthy: 'The idea that I'd be the same as my mother was just this cosmic joke'
"I'll be grand, girl, I've great faith," Noelle McCarthy's mother Carol told her just before she died. Raised in the Irish city of Cork, Noelle “ran away” to New Zealand as a young woman, but things… Audio
Katerina Nitsou's Macedonian white bean stew
Katerina Nitsou shares her recipe for white bean stew or tavche gravche. Audio
How to get rid of the psychopath in your life
Comic and actor Maddy Anholt shares her experience of dating psychopaths and points out the warning signs. Audio
How to battle burnout and build a better life
Jonathan Malesic joins us to talk about why too little attention is given to how men experience burnout and how we all need to find value and meaning in our lives outside of work. Audio
Does working from home work?
Anne Helen Petersen and Charlie Warzel have been looking at the psychology and realities of remote work during the pandemic and put their findings together in a new book titled Out of Office - The big… Audio
How globalisation is causing languages to die out
Language is considered humankind's greatest achievement. But all over the world many indigenous languages are racing towards extinction not because they are simply dying out, but because they are… Audio
'Caught between the endless ocean and an unseeing earth, we chose life' – Tampa refugee Abbas Nazari
In 2001, the Norwegian freighter Tampa - crammed with more than 400 asylum-seekers rescued from a sinking fishing boat - was turned away from Australia. Abbas Nazari, aged seven, was onboard. Audio
Michael Schur: The Good Place creator's quest to be perfect
Michael Schur is an American television writer and producer whose list of impressive credits include creating the award-winning fantasy comedy show The Good Place. Set in the afterlife, the show deals… Video, Audio
Is it time to rewrite the history of human evolution?
We have been told wrong: inequality is not the price of civilisation, says archaeologist David Wengrow. Many long held assumptions about how humans developed as a species are blown apart by Wengrow… Audio
Living in the age of disinformation
From "alternative facts" to the most outlandish fringe conspiracy theories - we're now living in the age of disinformation. We all became familiar with Russian groups using Facebook to spread fake… Audio
Nike executive Larry Miller: From jail to the boardroom
Larry Miller is the head of the Michael Jordan brand for Nike. But during his steady corporate rise, colleagues had no idea that as a teenager he'd shot and killed a man and served time in jail. When… Audio
Jo Morgan: a life of adventure
Jo Morgan is a mountaineer, avid motorcyclist, adventurer, trader, philanthropist, grandmother, and now author. She's written a memoir about her adventure-filled and unconventional life, which begins… Audio, Gallery
Ian Rankin’s latest work of tartan noir completes the unfinished novel of another Scottish crime writer
Ian Rankin, the creator of Inspector Rebus, talks live from Edinburgh with New Zealand crime writer Vanda Symon at Word Christchurch 2021. Audio
Vincent O'Sullivan: Frankenstein’s creature in Fiordland
What if Dr Frankenstein's monster had been cast away in a fjord in Aotearoa's deep south? This is the proposition explored by Vincent O'Sullivan in Mary's Boy, Jean Jacques, and other stories out next… Audio
Are your desires really your own?
We imitate other people's behaviour but we also subconsciously imitate what they desire, says entrepreneur Luke Burgis. In the new book Wanting, he argues that by "desiring differently" we can become… Audio
Davos Man: the billionaires who looted the world's economies
"Davos Man: a member of the global billionaire class that controls the majority of the world's wealth". In his new book, New York Times global economics correspondent Peter S. Goodman contends that… Audio
Anna Qu's story of love and labour in the US
As a teenager, Anna Qu worked in a sweatshop snipping loose threads from garments until her hands blistered and bled. Anna writes about her quest to understand her mother and generations of Chinese… Audio
In Amber's Wake: Christine Leunens' new novel
The last time Christine Leunens joined Nine to Noon it was from LA, just hours ahead of the Oscars, where Taika Waititi would win Best Adapted Screenplay for JoJo Rabbit. It was adapted, of course… Audio
Shelter: Douglas Lloyd Jenkins' love story in, and of, Auckland
Douglas Lloyd Jenkins is a well-known design writer and his landmark book At Home: A Century of New Zealand Design was the Montana Book Awards Non-Fiction Winner in 2004. He was a co-author of The… Audio
Daniel Pink on the power of regret
Sometimes we do need to look back and examine the pain of the past, says best-selling author Daniel Pink. Audio