Saturday Morning for Saturday 11 December 2021

8.10 Anton Troianovski: is Russia preparing to invade Ukraine?

Tens of thousands of Russian troops have been massing near the Ukrainian border sparking international concern of an impending invasion.

With tensions mounting, US president Joe Biden has lent support to Ukraine and in a two-hour video call earlier this week he reportedly told Russian President Putin that the US and its European allies would “respond with strong economic measures” if Russia invades Ukraine. But will sanctions be enough to deter President Putin?

Anton Troianovski is the Moscow correspondent for The New York Times, and joins the show to discuss.

 

8.35 Heather Tilbury Phillips: working with fashion icon Mary Quant

In the 1960s Mary Quant broke the mould of conventional fashion with her creative and playful designs that personified the energy of Swinging London. Famously credited for creating the mini skirt, Quant also popularised brightly coloured tights and tailored trousers - revolutionising the way women thought about dressing. 

A businesswoman as well as designer, Quant grew her brand so that it burst from her tiny boutique on King’s Road, her clothing finding its way onto shelves of department stores across the UK, US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Heather Tilbury Phillips was a director of Mary Quant Limited in the 1970s, and an advisor for the V&A exhibition Mary Quant: Fashion Revolutionary which is showing at Auckland Art Gallery until March.
 

 

9.05 Will Storr: why are humans obsessed with status?

British author and journalist Will Storr says we’ve been competing for status for millions of years, before we were even human. His new book The Status Game: On Social Position and How We Use It argues that trying to achieve status is a fundamental force in our behaviour, and a key to understanding human social life. The more status we earn, the better our chances of survival and reproduction.

Storr’s theory is that everyone is playing a status game, sometimes multiple games - even if you aren’t aware of it. 

Storr’s previous books include Selfie: How the West Became Self-Obsessed and The Science of Storytelling. His journalism work has appeared in the Guardian, Sunday Times, New Yorker and New York Times.

 

9.40 Chris Thompson: breeding good insects to get bad insects

Local food growers are increasingly employing beneficial insects as biocontrol agents to keep pests and diseases in check, meaning less reliance on pesticides. At Bioforce in Karaka, rural south Auckland, insects are bred and sent out to growers of everything from tomatoes and pot plants to chicken farms. More and more pests are turning up on our shores, making finding other insects - including natives - to combat them urgent work. 

Chris Thompson is general manager of Bioforce, a company his father founded 23 years ago. He is a board member of the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture Education Trust and a technical advisor to A Lighter Touch, a programme funded by the Ministry of Primary Industries to increase collaboration across the horticulture, arable and wine sectors to see more sustainable approaches to crop protection. 

 

10.05 Warren Ellis: how Nina Simone’s gum became a sacred totem

A piece of chewing gum snatched from the side of Nina Simone’s Steinway piano more than 20 years ago has become the subject of a new book by musician Warren Ellis. Best known for his work with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Ellis was compelled to swipe the gum after watching Simone perform her last ever London show at the Meltdown Festival in 1999.

The gum spent the next 16-odd years wrapped in a stage towel and hidden away as if a holy relic, until Ellis was asked if he wanted to contribute anything to Nick Cave’s Stranger Than Kindness exhibition. From there the gum has grown into something bigger than he ever thought - signifying how something seemingly disposable can connect people and stir one’s imagination. 

Ellis’ book Nina Simone’s Gum: A Memoir of Things Lost and Found is out now. You can donate to the Ellis Park Wildlife Sanctuary here.

 

11.05 Jonathan Roberts: providing genetic counselling for expecting parents

Huge advances in genetics mean prenatal testing for conditions such as Down syndrome can now be done faster and with much less risk. A relatively new technology, non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), allows parents to have genetic testing with no danger of miscarriage by testing fetal DNA circulating in the mother’s blood.

However, while the technology is improving, the ethical dilemmas it raises are complex – and parents can be left to make extremely difficult choices. That is where genetic counsellors like Jonathan Roberts come in. His role is to help parents understand the testing and navigate the decision-making process.

Roberts works clinically as an NHS Genetic Counsellor at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in the UK, where NIPT is freely available under the healthcare system. In addition he is a researcher in the Society and Ethics Research Group at the Wellcome Sanger Institute.

 

11.40 What‘s art got to do with it? Megan Dunn on art therapy

Megan Dunn joins the show to discuss the intersection of art and life, looking at the ways art is and isn't good for our wellbeing. 

This week: Megan visited an art therapist, and liked it. She explores the age-old notion that ‘art is therapy’ and finds arguments for and against it, as public programmes in art museums globally connecting art to wellness continue to grow.

Megan Dunn is an art writer and author of books Tinderbox and Things I Learned at Art School.

 

Books mentioned on this show:

The Status Game
By Will Storr
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 9780008354633
 

Nina Simone’s Gum
By Warren Ellis
Publisher: Faber
ISBN: 9780571365623

Music featured on the show:

Pretty Flamingo
Manfred Mann
Played at 8.33am

Joanne
Mike Nesmith
Played at 9.07am

Baltimore
Nina Simone
Played at 10.07am

Mia Fora Thymamai
Arleta
Played at 10.20am

Waiting for You
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Played at 10.35am

We Are Not Alone (from film La Panthére Des Neiges)
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
Played at 10.55am