Great Ideas

In the final episode of this series, three experts discuss the future of food - whether we will all be eating crickets, what is a balanced meal anyway, and will turmeric save us all?Could science ever create the perfect food? Nutritionally sound, tasty, and filling?"We have eggs, don't we?" says AUT senior lecturer Dr Caryn Zinn.An emphatic no is professor of food science Owen Young's answer."Would we even want that? No", says associate professor of culinary arts, Dr Tracy Berno. "I think diversity - and I hate to use a bit of a cliché, is the spice of life - and I think that's actually a very good thing."Even were science to create the perfect food, people are unlikely to throw away a culture of eating together, and of enjoying food, the experts agree."We've got taste buds and flavour sensors in our nose that are absolutely fundamental to satisfaction," says Owen Young.Dr Berno references something called 'commensality' - the act of eating together, where food becomes the anchor of a social group. "You get more pleasure out of eating the food by sharing it with others. It's just absolutely integral to our experience of eating."It's really one of the things that makes us different than animals. Animals feed, we eat."What is the ideal diet? Well, opinions wildly vary, but Dr Zinn says the key is whole food. She says if people eat whole, unprocessed food, they probably eat fewer carbohydrates (and especially the bad ones), and more 'healthy' fat."I'm one of a group that thinks we've got it all wrong . You might just look at our health statistics and agree, or you might say 'no it's just because people aren't sticking to those guidelines and they're eating fast food.'"Part of the problem is 'food literacy', says Dr Berno - people don't know how to cook any more. "I think talking about cost is sort of an easy opting-out in terms of nutrition. We've lost these fundamental skills and abilities."We're into the second or third generation where people don't simply know how to cook. And I am talking about very fundamental cooking like boiling pasta."As well as cooking skills, there's also being able to navigate the world of diet and nutritional advice.Is breakfast the most important meal of the day?The French don't think so, points out Prof. Young…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Great Ideas looks at the future of Tamaki Makaurau - its housing, its transport, its population and its health.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Great Ideas looks at the future of families - with more single people, more multi-generational families, and a more multi-cultural New Zealand, what happens to our family law?Great Ideas looks at the future of families - with more single people, more multi-generational families, and a more multi-cultural New Zealand, what happens to our family law?By 2038, it's predicted that there will be more than 5.5 million people living in New Zealand.But the average size of households will decrease to 2.5 people, and people living alone will make up a quarter of households.                    This country has always had diverse ideas of what makes up a family - so how will that look in fifty years?Rhoda Scherman, senior lecturer in the Department of Psychology at AUT, El-Shadn Tautolo senior research fellow at AUT and Alison Cleland a senior lecturer with an interest family law and children's rights at AUT join Megan Whelan to discuss the future of the family."I think the role of families for the most part hasn't changed much; it's about growing the subsequent generations. What that looks like, how many are in the family, who that is, that's the part that differs historically and culturally." - Rhoda Scherman"Being from a collective culture having multiple groups within a family for generations contributing to raise kids is something really common." - El-Shadn TautoloThe law is always ten years behind the plot. If you're only interested in individual rights, like the parent and the child and you recognise only them, you knock out all these other people. It's no surprise that the public are very sceptical of the family courts and they don't think the family courts have done a great job - Alison Cleland"If you only look at the people who are economically supporting that child, there could be five or six people within the family doing various other things equally as important or maybe more important" - El-Shadn Tautolo"I think the fundamental shift that's going to happen with families in the future is an increase in the separation of genetic, gestational and social parenting. That is then going to create families that look very different." - Rhoda Scherman"We have a concept of adoption that's literally about babies being given to childless couples fuelled by all the negativity around single females and we just leave it at that ... it's now 12 years since the Law Commission said the Adoption Law needs to be massively changed." - Alison Cleland…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

This week, Great Ideas looks at the future of communication - how we'll be chatting, and what language we'll be doing it in. And could your fridge teach you te reo?In the past 20 years, the way people communicate has undergone the biggest revolution since the printing press.But how might we be talking in fifty years, and what language will be speaking?And how will we know if we're getting the information and entertainment we need?In this episode, Megan Whelan discusses the future of work with three knowledgeable people from AUT, Dr Kate Jones, Greg Treadwell, and Dr Dean Mahuta."The really big leap is away from visual communication at all, from messaging," says Greg Treadwell."I could see an implant to help us communicate," says Kate Jones. She points out that no one bats an eyelid these days over cochlear implants, or hip replacements. "I'm not so sure yet, if that could be a one on one communication, but I could see an implanting, potentially, helping us communicate, for example, with the shopping mall."For Dean Mahuta, he doesn't mind what the technology is, as long as it's in te reo. "I guess that's the new taniwha that we're fighting in terms of Māori language revitalisation, is how do we now create a household that has the Māori language in there?""Maybe we have a house where the surface of the house can speak to us - in whatever language we choose," says Kate Jones. "We can speak to the house, the house speaks to use. We know we have the technology to do that...why not have a personal intelligent wall?" Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

This week, Great Ideas looks at how technology might impact the work that we do, where we do it, and how we survive when we can't work."If X = poop, do not clean," might be the future of house cleaning. How else to stop your robot vacuum cleaner spreading the new puppy's leavings all over the house?In 2017 the media is full of stories about robots taking over our jobs, but how likely is that really? How will we make money in the future, and what might our jobs and workplaces look like?And how will people whose jobs are replaced survive?In this episode, Megan Whelan discusses the future of work with three knowledgeable people from AUT, Associate Professor Stephen Neville, Professor Jarrod Haar, Associate Professor Dave Parry.Jarrod Haar says there's less anxiety about robots taking people's jobs than we might otherwise think, with only about 10-15 percent of New Zealanders believing their job might be replaced.He says jobs in the service sector will be among the first to go. "I'll walk near McDonalds and it'll  say 'actually, we're in the 11:30-1:30 range that Jarrod eats', and then will say 'Jarrod are you ready to put your order in?'"The store manager might be the only person actually working in a fast food restaurant, he says - and there will be an IT person who fixes the robots."We actually do need workers, and it's about re-skilling, re-training, providing people with other opportunities for employment," says Stephen Neville."If you look in terms of health, robots are already being used in residential aged care facilities - really successfully - but you still need that person-to-person contact."Where you go to work might change, though. Your office - by day - could become a bar by night. Or you could share a space."The idea of needing to go to the office in order to find out what other people are thinking and be able to collaborate, is really going to go," says Dave Parry."I don't think we will see offices as they are in the next 50 years, simply because they'll be too expensive, and people will say 'why do I have to come here when I can do the job equally well from my beach house?'"There is no doubt we're going to need people to work longer, says Stephen Neville - and that means accommodating a lot of different working styles. And having employers looking out for their employees. "Get passionate about things, and work at things you like to do and you know you're good at," says Dave Parry."Governments and society are going to hit this big issue with just simply the number people who are going to really be required."…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details