Saturday Morning

8:12 Wagner Moura: Golden Globe winner and Oscar-tipped Best Actor

8:30 Richard Haass: A tumultuous start to 2026 

It has been a tumultuous start to 2026 from Iran to Greenland and Venezuela. 

A veteran diplomat who has worked for four US presidents, Richard Haass recently commented on X ,"The immediate crisis over Greenland seems to be over. But no one should think we are where we were. Doubts about this president & country are fast multiplying". 

Haass was president of the Council on Foreign Relations for twenty years. He is a former director of policy planning for the United States Department of State and a close advisor to Secretary of State Colin Powell in the George W. Bush administration. Haass also chaired negotiations in Northern Ireland that led to the Stormont Agreement.

He speaks with Mihingarangi Forbes about what recent events mean for geo-political stability and the prevailing world order. 

 

9:07 Nicholas Hytner: The Choral

BAFTA, Olivier and Tony award winner, Nicholas Hytner's new film The Choral is just out in cinemas. 

Starring Ralph Fiennes, The Choral is a wartime story about the power of music during difficult times. 

Written by much celebrated playwright and screenwriter Alan Bennett, The Choral  is his and Nicholas' fourth writer-director collaboration following The Madness of King George, The History Boys, and The Lady in The Van. 

Nicholas explains to Susie how their latest collaboration came about. 

9:35 Carol Ann Maher: Healthy body, healthy mind

With summer and the festive season coinciding in the southern hemisphere, many of us are now dealing with the consequences of holiday weight gain.

Exercise is key of course but new research suggests that it isn't just important for our physical health - it can have consequences for our cognitive abilities too.  

Professor Carol Ann Maher is Director of the Alliance for Research in Exercise, Nutrition and Activity at Adelaide University. 

She talks to Mihingarangi about the science of weight gain and cognitive decline as we age - and what we can do to counter it. 

10:06 Brad Thorn: Champions Do Extra

Rugby royalty, Brad Thorn is one of those rare athletes who conquered the world in green and gold and again in black.   

Thorn’s is a 22-year professional career, forged through hard work and resilience. But Brad’s journey to the top wasn't smooth and he tells it like it is to Mihingarangi - just as he does in his new book, the title of which was inspired by his dad: Champions Do Extra.

10:30 Sophie Ellis-Bextor: Still killing it!

She’s a podcaster, mum of five boys and an internationally successful pop singer whose biggest hit has been a hit twice, a generation apart! 

Sophie Ellis-Bextor's Murder on the Dancefloor, from her debut album Read My Lips, was first released in 2001 only to re-chart in 2024 following its inclusion on the soundtrack of critically-acclaimed film Saltburn. 
 
The British pop songstress talks to Susie about music, motherhood and her upcoming tour to New Zealand. 

11:05 Hitting the keys with renowned pianist Jeremy Denk

Jeremy Denk is one of America's finest pianists and a New York Times bestselling author for his 2022 memoir Every Good Boy Does Fine.

He was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a previous winner of a MacArthur Genius Fellowship and the Avery Fisher Prize. 

He's coming to Whakatū Nelson for the Adam Chamber Music Festival next week and tells Susie what music lovers can expect.

11:25 The Visitors playwright Jane Harrison

Australia Day was observed on January 26th. For some it's a day of pride, and for others it's a reminder of loss, marking the arrival of the First Fleet of 11 convict ships from Great Britain and the beginning of British colonisation in Australia. 

Jane Harrison is an award-winning playwright, author and festival director. 

Her play The Visitors is a reimagining of the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 from a First Nations' perspective, and it's part of this year's Auckland Arts Festival. 

She talks to Mihingarangi about why this was a story she felt compelled to tell.

11:45 Summer reading with Kate de Goldi

Kate de Goldi is the Te Awhi Rito Reading Ambassador, a novelist, children's writer and Arts Foundation Laureate.

Most importantly, she's got a nose for a good book and she's back to share her thoughts with Susie on Island Storm by Brian Floca and Sydney Smith and From Far Around They Saw Us Burn by Alice Jolly.