Saturday Morning with Jack Tame

"It’s undoubtedly Britain’s equivalent to our Queenstown Lakes district. Windermere and the Lake District is England’s favourite national park, a sprawling tourist honeypot that stretches across hundreds of square kilometres of rugged Cumbrian countryside, woodland valleys, shimmering tarns and lakes – all backed by strikingly craggy mountains. It was the 18th century Romantic poets who captured the world’s imagination, igniting th...

Polkinghorne by Steve Braunias  

In Polkinghorne, literary journalist Steve Braunias takes readers on an extraordinary and often chilling journey through the most high-profile murder case in modern New Zealand history.  

With unparalleled access to the key players, Braunias offers readers his unique insight into the investigation, the trial and the astonishing revelations that kept the New Zealand public utterly transfixe...

Just spent a week with 30 teachers in various environmental locations of Auckland. The Sir Peter Blake Trust do this every year under the umbrella of BLAKE Inspire.  

Learning outside is part of the curriculum: water quality, Matauranga Māori, rockpools, school gardens (with pigs etc), climate change, StarDome, political policy simulation, corporate sustainability, and good, old nature nerd stuff in forests and reserves.  ...

On the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame Full Show Podcast for 19 July 2025, Oscar-nominated visual effects artist at Wētā FX, Luke Millar joins Jack to discuss just how he turned one of the world's biggest pop stars into a chimpanzee for the Robbie Williams biopic Better Man. Plus, Millar shares his insight on AI's role within filmmaking. 

Jack pays tribute to the legendary Fat Freddy's Drop producer Chris Faiumu. 

Kevin M...

A new weightloss medication is now available in New Zealand – accessible on a private, nonsubsidised script. 

Dr Bryan Betty joined Jack Tame to discuss Wegovy – what it is, how you use it, the side effects, and why people are seeking medical treatment for their weight. 

What is Wegovy?  

• A once-weekly injection for weight loss known as a ‘GP-1 agonist’.  
• It mimics a hormone in the gut that reduces ...

Weddings aren’t cheap – well, most of the time.  

In New Zealand, the average wedding costs between $35,000 - $45,000, but depending on your tastes and needs, it can grow much higher.  

The recent wedding between Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez cost somewhere between $20 million and $50 million USD – roughly 200 times more than what the average Kiwi spends. 

However, one columnist points out that compared to their weal...

ChatGPT is ready to take on more involved tasks  

Agents are the next phase of the AI evolution, in which the AI can go away and can complete multistep tasks on its own. So, you could give it a bunch of information —PDFs, emails, spreadsheets— and ask it to find the narrative or insights and create a PowerPoint. It'll then go away, do it, and let you know when it's done. There's less hand holding and more 'reasoning' from the ...

Untamed  

In the vast expanse of Yosemite National Park, a woman's death draws a federal agent into lawless terrain, where nature obeys no rules but its own (Netflix). 

Sneaky Pete 

Marius, a fraudster, finds himself followed by a dangerous criminal whom he once robbed. Soon, he disguises himself as Pete, his cellmate from the past, for safety (Netflix). 

Game On  

NZ Netball legends return fo...

Grace: A Prayer for Peace  

Artist Robin White (Ngāti Awa) has spent more than five decades creating work which ranges from iconic New Zealand landscapes to collaborative tapa cloth. Grace: A Prayer for Peace, directed by Gaylene Preston, traces White’s evolution as an artist, and her creative response to the world around her.  

Filmed in Aotearoa, Japan and Kiribati, the documentary follows her working with collaborators...

This cake is literally crammed full of the intense and fragrant flavours of oranges, and it stays moist for days. A slice with a cup of tea seems to make the world a better place.    

Makes one loaf tin cake but doubles nicely if you wish to make a larger cake.   

Ingredients 

• 1 cup raw sugar   
• Rind of 2 oranges + 1 lemon – avoid the white pith, I use a potato peeler  
• Flesh...

I played the trombone in high school.   

I know what you’re thinking: squeaky-voiced Jack running through a few scales on his big brass slide? Hello Ladies...   

But honestly the fact that my instrument was seen as a bit quirky was kind of an attraction for me at the time. What the trombone wasn’t —at least back then— was very cool.  

To my mind it was good for jazz band and good for a blast in orchestra, b...

Maren Morris is a country music superstar. 

She’s a Grammy Award Winner and a five time winner at the Country Music Awards, breaking records and writing songs for iconic artists like Kelly Clarkson and Tim McGraw. 

And now she’s entering a new era in her life and career with her latest album ‘Dreamsicle’. 

She’ll be heading to New Zealand next year to ride the country music wave that’s sweeping the country, performin...

The release coming as a surprise to his fans, Swag is the seventh studio album of Justin Bieber – his first release in four years. 

With a range of guest appearances, the album returns to Bieber’s favoured R&B sounds after his backslide into generic pop with 2021’s Justice. 

Estelle Clifford joined Jack Tame to give her thoughts on the new album. 

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informat...

"Steeped in Roman heritage and swooned over as Britain’s premier spa destination, Bath’s architectural flourishes and all-encompassing grandeur underpins my love affair with the city. I recently reacquainted myself with its atmospheric charm in a whistle-stop romp around Blighty with Trafalgar’s Real Britain tour. Adeptly helmed by travel director Selene, this is Trafalgar’s fastest-paced UK tour, delivering a whistle-stop experien...

Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell  

He’s the perfect man. It’s a perfect lie. 
 
Nina Swann is intrigued when she received a condolence card from Nick Radcliffe, an old friend of her late husband, who is looking to connect after her husband’s unexpected death. Nick is a man of substance and good taste. He has a smile that could melt the coldest heart and a knack for putting others at ease. But to Nina’s adult dau...

Globally, around 460 million metric tons of plastic is produced every year, and it’s estimated that 20 million metric tons of plastic litter ends up in the environment.  

To try and mitigate some of the damage, Plastic Free July was launched in 2011. 

It’s a key initiative of the Plastic Free Foundation, which aims to work towards a world free of plastic waste. 

Founder and Executive Director of Plastic Free July, Re...

Technology has improved in leaps and bounds over the years – going from landlines to brick phones to smartphones in relatively quick succession. 

However, as technology has improved, it’s also become increasingly difficult to repair for one reason or another. Gone are the days when you can pop your battery out of your phone and put a new one in. 

Kevin Milne recently tried to buy a new battery for his iPhone, and ran into...

Winter dormancy is the best time to shift a tree or a shrub (or plant a new one), especially when they originate from a “temperate climate” (the kind that shed their leaves and hail from UK, Europe, North America, etc). 

When considering shifting a sub-tropical/semi tropical one, wait a little to just before spring sets in (mid-end September). 

These sub-tropicals do not really like to be dumped into a wet and cold soil f...