Afternoons

Listener Rick explains how his life has been marked by incredible coincidences.

A couple of months ago there was a campaign for Hamilton to redesign its coat of arms... Spoiler alert - The mayor said it's not going to happen. But that got us thinking.... Why do our cities even have Coats of Arms? And are they actually any good? Or could some cities do with a bit of a rebrand? So to answer that question - and come up with a distinctly un-comprehensive - regional coat of arms ranking... We're joined by David Jack & Dick Frizzell David is an expert in all things Coats Of Arms and Dick is an internationally famous artist.

Yesterday Steve Gurney joined us for Sporting History. You can still listen to that conversation with the nine-time Coast to Cost race champion on the RNZ website Near the end of our conversation he mentioned a charity project he's involved with - the Coast To Coast Rangers. We ran out of time to talk much about it, but our interest was piqued.

Human or Horse? Who would win a 40 km race? It sounds like the kind of question you'd toss around after a few too many beers at the pub... and that is exactly where the idea for 'The Only Fools and Horses Race' came to life. Runners and horses will go head-to-head in a race through rugged terrain in central Otago While horses can average speeds of up to 40km/h, Humans typically run at around 10km/h ... but who have the endurance to go all the way? 'The Only Fools and Horses Race' coordinator Steve Tripp joins Jese to explain why this is happening.

Today on the pre-panel producer Carol Stiles joins Wallace Chapman & Jesse Mulligan to preview tonight's show.

Dr Grant from Victoria University looks at the history of mass protests in New Zealand and how they stack up against Tuesday's hikoi to Wellington.

Publicist Ali Jones says she has the answer to poor health outcomes for mothers and newborns: a health system where midwives are front and center. It's an approach advocated for by the WHO in a new report. But there is one place where a system like this is already implemented: Aotearoa/New Zealand. but is it appropriately funded?

Adventure racer and multisport triathlete Steve Gurney joins us for this week's NZ Sporting History. Steve is most well-known for winning the 243km Coast to Coast race a record 9 times and representing New Zealand at two Mountain bike world championships.

RNZ News reader Evie Ashton reviews an eclectic bunch of podcasts that can help send you off to sleep.

Staff at an Upper Hutt Wildlife reserve are devastated after the alleged theft of its "loving and talkative" Cockatoo 'Pepper' Staglands staff believe the 6-year-old sulphur crested cockatoo was taken from her aviary on Sunday and are now asking the public and police for help getting her back... Stagland's general manager Sarah Purdy talks to Jesse about Pepper and the alleged abduction.

For over a decade, an irreplaceable ring laser has been trapped in a cavern 30m below Christchurch port hills. The Carl Zeiss laser was installed in an old World War Two bunker in 1997 until a rockfall after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake sealed the cavern. But now it's been rescued and is fully operational. Professor Jon-Paul Wells is the principal investigator on the ring laser project.

Beef cattle account for roughly 10% of Aotearoa New Zealand's total greenhouse gas emissions. There's plenty of research looking into methods to reduce emissions - vaccines, seaweed-based feed, and selective breeding programs are all being explored. But according to a new AgResearch study there could be a simpler way.

A new study has found that native plants in Tongariro National Park are being hit hard by the spread of invasive heather, with a 40 to 50 percent decline in native species in some areas. Dr Julie Deslippe, a senior lecturer in biological sciences at Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington joined Jesse.

Today on the pre-panel producer Carol Stiles joins Wallace Chapman & Jesse Mulligan to preview tonight's show.

Our Changing World goes in search of one of Aotearoa’s rarest plants – the stunning kakabeak, or ngutukākā.  Its clusters of bright red blooms, each shaped like a parrot’s beak, make it a popular garden plant. But in the wild, ngutukākā is barely holding on. Considered “nationally critical” by the Department of Conservation, only about 100 individual ngutukākā plants survive, clinging to exposed steep bluffs where goats and rabbits can’t get to them. But now, locals along the East Coast, the kakabeak’s last stronghold, are determined to reverse its march towards extinction by propagating wild plants to turn State Highway 35 into a crimson highway. Veronika Meduna joins them for the inaugural Ngutukākā Festival.