The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin

This week on the Sunday Panel, editor Jo McCarroll and NZ Herald senior writer Simon Wilson joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more!

As retail crime amps up, security guards want more workplace protections and legal power to detain criminals. Will these measures help cut down on crime?

NZ First leader Winston Peters has pledged to introduce a members bill requiring separate unisex and single-sex...

This Mother's Day, there's more concern about mothers taking on a significant workload - and all the negative health implications that come with that.

Mothers in this day and age have voiced concern with the workload, as they balance full-time work with child-rearing and household management.

Naturopath and wellness expert Erin O'Hara says it's important to prioritise sleep, balanced meals and allocating some 'me time' each week.

Little apple pies with malted crumble and yogurt:

COOK TIME: 27 MINUTES

PREP TIME: 20 MINUTES

SERVES: 6-8

6 Braeburn apples

1 tsp vanilla paste

3 tbsp honey

8 x 10cm puff pastry discs

1 tbsp malted barley syrup

100 gm unsalted butter

100 gm wholemeal flour

50 gm brown sugar

100 ml greek yogurt

Pre-heat a oven to 180*c

Mix together the apple, honey and vanilla. Toss until well coated.

Peel the apples, cut into 1/4 and...

Amazing science news this week comes from the UK, where a 1 year old baby who was born deaf due to a genetic condition called auditory neuropathy was treated with gene therapy.   

Six months later, the researchers involved in this ground-breaking study, which was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy in Baltimore this week, reported that the toddler can now hear unaided...

Sci-fi blockbuster Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes was released to theatres last week - a long-awaited sequel to the earlier trilogy series. 

Set a few generations after 2017's War for the Planet of the Apes, this film explores two rival groups of apes battling it out in an overgrown world.

Flicks.co.nz editor Steve Newall says the film is also filled with visual call-backs to the original Planet of the Apes.

LISTEN ABOVE

See o...

Comedy and opera are set to come together in Moses Mackay's newest project. 

The Sol3 Mio member is set to take part in a Kiwi retelling of Le comte Ory, which is set to kick off later this month.

This will be Mackay's first performance with NZ Opera since 2012, where he performed as an Emerging Artist.

He says he's proud to be taking on a key role in this piece.

"It's a beautiful time. There are other singers in this productio...

Wellington has been revealed as the production hub for the two newly announced Lord of the Rings films.

The first one, The Hunt for Gollum, is in the early stages of development for a 2026 release, with Andy Serkis returning in both a starring and directing role.

Screen Wellington's Head of Attraction Mark Westerby says this will offer lots of employment opportunities.

"It's what we do best - making swords and armour and using o...

After making waves in the beauty industry, Ethique founder Brianne West has set her sights on beverages.

Her newest venture, Incrediballs, offers consumers flavoured tablets that turns water into flavoured drinks - cutting down on plastic pollution.

She says the number of single-use bottles wasted every year is a 'disgrace', and wanted to develop a solution.

"In New Zealand we throw away just over two billion plastic containers ...

Diane Kruger is returning to the screen in the new Kiwi-directed biopic Joika.

The Troy and Inglourious Basterds star plays Joy Womack - one of the few Americans to be accepted into Russia's infamous Bolshoi Ballet.

Kruger says she's always been fascinated with the discipline and grace that comes with ballet, despite giving up performing.

"I love the atmosphere of a ballet studio, of seeing the gi...

The Greens are feeling the impact of last week's outburst in the House by MP Julie Anne Genter.

The newest Taxpayers' Union-Curia poll shows the Party has dropped 4.4 percentage points, to 10.2.

National is holding steady at 37.3 percent - and with the support of ACT on 9.4 and NZ First on 5.5, the Coalition Government would remain in power. 

ZB political editor Jason Walls says this coming week is a recess week for Parliament, ...

There's growing calls for security guards to receive more protections and power - including the legal ability to detain offenders.

This comes as security guards face increased hostility, including verbal threats and even physical aggression.

Security Association CEO Gary Morrison says security staff would like the power to detain offenders in order to crack down on shoplifting.

"We can do a citizen's arrest, but that's in very l...

This week I received a letter in the post. It was from my 17-year-old son who lives at home with us and is in his final year of school.  

The address was in the top right hand side of the envelope where the stamp goes, and my name was underneath the address. The writing was tiny and illegible – and my eye sight isn’t that bad.  

It is a miracle this letter, a half-hearted attempt at writing a Mothe...

Real Americans by Rachel Khong. A big multi-generational story told in 3 parts. In the beginning, Lily is living a penurious life in NYC when she meets a mega wealthy man at a party who whisks her off to Paris and they eventually marry. When their parents meet, the dynamics are very weird and uncomfortable. Lily eventually finds herself living on the other side of the country with her son Nick who has never met h...

This week on the Sunday Panel, broadcaster and journalist Wilhelmina Shrimpton and partner at Freebairn and Hehir Lawyers, Liam Hehir, joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the week - and more! 

In light of Winston Peters' 'defamatory' comments, it seems like the coalition Government is having more and more internal clashes. A political podcast asked a group of National, NZ First and ACT MPs if the coalition will...

We all have our moments where stress and anxiety are too much to bear - so how can we stop ourselves from feeling overwhelmed?

Anxiety has been found to weaken your stress coping abilities, and 'task paralysis' can add to anxieties.

Naturopath and wellness expert Erin O'Hara explains how to get around the extra stresses of day-to-day life.

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Parsnips in a soup with curry oil 

Cook time: 35 minutes 

Prep time: 20 minutes 

Serves: 6-12 

1 kg parsnips, peeled and chopped  

3 white onions, peeled and chopped  

10 cloves garlic  

3 tbsp sunflower oil  

1 cup white wine  

1.5 ltr vegetable stock  

2 cups cream  

salt ...

Why do we like our beer cold but our sake warm?

This was the question posed by two scientists who were out drinking together. Their results have just been published in the journal Matter.

The researchers measured the contact angle of different solutions that had varying concentrations of water and ethanol - which is the most common form of drinking alcohol.

This gave them insights into how molecules within the solution were inte...