Saturday Morning with Jack Tame

David Gray has released his first studio album since 2021. 

‘Dear Life’ is his thirteenth album, filled with intricate layers of instrumentation, vocals, and harmonies. 

In Gray’s words, it’s an album of emotional crisis and resolution, morality and faith, reality and illusion, love and heartbreak, magic, science, loss and acceptance. 

Estelle Clifford joined Francesca Rudkin to give her thoughts on the release. ...

One Dark Night by Hannah Richell  

He murdered her at the folly on their wedding day, left her body for the crows. They say she haunts the woods now, a girl in a white dress. 

Everyone in the small town of Thorncombe knows the tales of the haunted woods where the birds don’t sing and a girl in a white dress roams, luring people to their deaths. But when a girl is found dead the morning after Halloween, her body carefully ...

"Bracketed by the biscuit-brown Wither Hills and the lofty prongs of the Richmond Ranges, Blenheim’s vast blanket of the Wairau Plain bursts with possibilities. When it comes to winery finery, few venues can hold a candle to the elemental elegance of Wither Hills Cellar Door & Restaurant. Exuding a mix of contemporary design and relaxed sophistication, coupled with soul-rinsing views from their four-storey tower; the Wither Hil...

2024 was a bit of a rough year, with job losses, hard economic times, and low business confidence. The new year offers a chance to reset. 

Dr Dougal Sutherland offers his top tips for starting 2025 off with some oomph: 

• If you have a job, count your blessings! Lots of people lost theirs last year and so it’s important to remember that even though it may not be the best job in the world, at least you’re in paid employ...

On the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame Full Show Podcast for Saturday 18th of January 2025, New Zealand country music star Tami Neilson and Dr Jada Watson talk about their new show ‘The F Word’ – combining Jada's research with Tami's music. 

Francesca Rudkin reflects on some bad crowd behaviour at the tennis. 

Chef Nici Wickes gives some ideas on how to use up the glut of courgettes in the garden – including using them in...

Tech ebbs and flows when it comes to advancements – sometimes we’re flooded with them – other times there is very little new stuff hitting the market. As we head into 2025, has tech development and innovation stagnated?  

Tech commentator Oskar Howell joined Francesca Rudkin for a chat about the state of the landscape compared to previous decades and the wide array of products produced. 

He says it feels like a lot of the...

Lots of moaning early January 2025: coolness and wetness in many different places. Wellington and Christchurch were the biggest moaners in New Zealand – the West Coast was just lovely.  

Canterbury (after a few good weeks in spring) started getting wetter and colder as Summer commenced.  

In the garden there was no amazing speed of growth, but that rainwater reminded me of a transplantation trick to get tomatoes, lettuce,...

The Pitt 

A realistic examination of the challenges facing healthcare workers in America as seen through the lens of the frontline heroes working in a modern-day hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Neon). 

American Primeval 

A mother and son fleeing from their past form a found family while confronting a harsh landscape of freedom and cruelty in the American West (Netflix). 

The Hardacres &...

Flow 

Winner of Best Animated Feature at the 2025 Golden Globes, this dialogue-free animal adventure centres on a cat who must work together with other species stuck on a boat after a flood devastates their home.  

The world seems to be coming to an end, teeming with the vestiges of a human presence. Cat is a solitary animal, but as its home is devastated by a great flood, he finds refuge on a boat populated by various sp...

The first courgettes from the garden are cause for a celebration. Not so the marrows that sneak up on you later in the season when you are heartily sick of grilled courgette and the neighbours are getting tired of you offering them as gifts!   

Here’s some surprising and delicious ways you can use them.  

Creamy salad or steak sauce 

Makes about ¾ cup   

Ingredients 

1 cup ch...

Summer means different things to us all, but if you love a game of tennis then summer sure delivers. And sometimes it gives us more than just a hard-fought match – it can also serve up a conversation starter as to how we should behave, as both players and the crowd.   

The wind and rain made things challenging for the ASB Classic organisers in Auckland. Regardless, it was a great tournament with sold out crowds and some e...

"Best of both worlds": Dame Sophie Pascoe forgoes competing, presents Paralympics coverage 

The Paralympics got underway this week in Paris, and for the first time in 16 years, Team New Zealand is missing a familiar face. 

Dame Sophie Pascoe, New Zealand’s most decorated Paralympian, has decided to forgo this year’s Games in favour of staying home with her young baby.  

"They've been waiting far too long": Alan Bates digs into the fight against the Post Office

In 1999 the British Post Office introduced a faulty piece of accounting software, the consequences of which would see over 900 subpostmasters wrongly prosecuted for theft, fraud, and false accounting. 

Some lost their businesses, jobs, and homes, and many were left financially ruined. Others were...

"I'm aiming for a few more": Dame Kiri Te Kanawa ahead of her 80th birthday

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa has had an eventful life. 

One of New Zealand’s most prolific performers, the opera singer has performed in countries all over the world in several different languages, receiving a slew of honours over the years. 

She retired in September 2017, her last performance taking pl...

Tom Sainsbury talks comedy, dramatic aspirations, obsession with the "New Zealand character"

Tom Sainsbury wears many hats - actor, writer, comedian, director, host, influencer - across film, tv, stage, and social media here in New Zealand and on international projects. 

Kiwis might know him for his political impersonations or shows like Wellington Paranormal. 

...

This sticky cake is studded with tangy feijoas and has a chewy caramelised coconut topping added halfway through cooking and it’s just gorgeous. 

Makes a 23cm cake. 

Ingredients 

1 cup pitted dates 

1 cup boiling water 

1 teaspoon baking soda 

130g butter 

½ cup white sugar&n...

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