RNZ: Saturday Morning

Briar Grace-Smith (Nga Puhi, Nga Wai) is a playwright, screenwriter, poet and short story writer. She won the 1995 Bruce Mason Playwriting Award for her first major play, Nga Pou Wahine, and Purapurawhetu won Best New Zealand Play at the 1997 Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards. In 2000 Grace-Smith received the Arts Foundation Laureate Award and in 2009 her first feature film, The Strength of Water, premiered internationally. She worked as an actor and writer with the Maori theatre companies Te Ohu Whakaari and He Ara Hou. Her other writing credits include the screenplay Fresh Meat and the TV series Fish Skin Suit. Her play When Sun and Moon Collide, first staged in 2000, is being produced by the Auckland Theatre Company, June 20 to July 6.

Stephanie Lake is a multi award-winning Australian choreographer, dancer and director of Stephanie Lake Company. Her major works have been presented by Melbourne International Arts Festival, Sydney Opera House, Theatre National de Chaillot (Paris), Theater im Pfalzbau (Germany), and Hong Kong Arts Festival, among others. She collaborates across theatre, film and TV, visual art and music video and has directed several large-scale public works involving over 1000 participants. Two of her most recent projects include work on a Tom Waits/William Burroughs 'cult musical' The Black Rider, as well as working as a 'movement consultant' on the documentary Guilty, about Australian Myuran Sukumaran - one of the Bali Nine who was convicted of drug smuggling and executed in Indonesia. Lake is in Auckland as one of three international choreographers working on the New Zealand Dance Company's new season, 'Kiss the Sky' which opens at the end of June. She will present 'If Never Was Now', described by Australian critics as "eccentric and whimsical with a playful, riotous edge".

Using big data to reveal what a therapist's emotional intelligence doesn't pick up doesn't dehumanise the art of psychotherapy, says psychologist Tony Rousmaniere.

Andrew Digby is the science advisor for the kakapo and takahe recovery programmes with the Department of Conservation. He is responsible for coordinating and leading the diverse scientific research efforts for both species. He is a conservation biologist, having completed a PhD studying kiwi at Victoria University. Digby has a background in astronomy, with a PhD in Astrophysics from Edinburgh University, and he worked as a research astronomer with NASA in New York. He will talk about the latest in kakapo conservation, including a big vitamin D study in full swing (kakapo are all vitamin D deficient) and a plague of a condition known as 'crusty bum'.

Winnie Byanyima is a grass-roots activist, human rights advocate, and senior international public servant. Born in Uganda in 1959, Byanyima earned engineering degrees in the UK and began her career as an engineer for Uganda Airlines. She was appointed to the diplomatic service in 1989, representing Uganda in France and at UNESCO. She returned to Uganda in 1994 and over the next 10 years she served as a MP, created an all-woman parliamentary caucus, and was founding leader of the Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE), set up to champion women's equal participation in decision-making. Byanyima held high-ranking positions in the African Union Commission and the UN, working on gender, development and environmental issues, before being appointed head of Oxfam International in 2013. She has expressed an interest in becoming Uganda's first female president. Byanyima is in the Pacific to talk about climate change and will speak at Q Theatre in Auckland on June 12.

Iain Macwhirter is a broadcaster and political commentator for The Herald and Sunday Herald, and he unpicks the election results in Scotland. Macwhirter is the author of Road to Referendum and, following the Scottish independence referendum he published Disunited Kingdom: How Westminster Won A Referendum But Lost Scotland. His latest book is Tsunami, about the Scottish National Party's victory in the 2015 general election.

The UK general election has ended in a hung parliament and current prime minister Theresa May is expected to go. What does it mean for the thing that started it all off, Brexit?

Todd Niall is Radio New Zealand's Auckland correspondent and has held a number of roles over three decades in radio journalism. He's in Bermuda to cover the 35th America's Cup for RNZ (his fifth time covering the race) and will talk to Kim prior to Emirates Team New Zealand's first race in the Louise Vuitton qualifiers. Until June 13th, qualifiers between Team New Zealand, the UK's Landrover BAR, Sweden's Artemis, Groupama Team France and Softbank Team Japan will decide which syndicate takes on Cup holder Oracle Team USA in the America's Cup Match in a best of 13 series starting on June 18th.

Professor Michael D Jackson is a New-Zealand-born anthropologist and creative writer. He has published 30 books of poetry, fiction, ethnography and memoir, and is internationally known for his vast body of work. Most notably, he has helped define the field of 'existential anthropology' - looking at how groups of humans make meaning of their lives in the face of adversity. In New Zealand, Jackson is best known for his poetry and creative non-fiction (Latitudes of Exile was awarded the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1976, and Wall won the New Zealand Book Award for Poetry in 1981). Since 1969 he has conducted extensive fieldwork among the Kuranko of Sierra Leone, the Warlpiri and Kuku-Yalanji of Australia, and African migrants in Europe. Jackson is currently Distinguished Professor of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is an American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator. He's a best-selling author, Emmy Award winner, recipient of 19 honorary doctorates, and a man who was once named "Sexiest Astrophysicist Alive". Since 1996, he has been the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City. The centre is part of the American Museum of Natural History, where Tyson founded the Department of Astrophysics in 1997 and has been a research associate in the department since 2003. From 1995 to 2005, Tyson wrote monthly essays in the 'Universe' column for Natural History magazine, some of which were published in his book Death by Black Hole (2007). He will be in New Zealand for the first time in early June to present his show, A Cosmic Perspective, at both Christchurch's Horncastle Arena and the Spark Arena in Auckland.

Jaqueline Fahey was one of the first NZ artists to paint from a women's point of view and is the author of two memoirs and two novels.

If Jason Donovan could go back before Neighbours, before his international pop stardom, he wouldn't change a thing. He says regret is a wasted emotion and besides, he’s had a good career, though not without its bumps.

Wayne Smith has just announced he will retire as All Blacks assistant coach, ending a 20-year coaching involvement with the team. Prior to coaching, Smith had a distinguished rugby playing career - from the late 1970s into the mid-80s he was one of the country's most accomplished first five eighths, appearing in 17 tests, and also played in Italy as well as in the sevens in Hong Kong. Smith was the Crusaders' coach from 1997-99, taking the team to victory in the 1998-99 championship, and he mirrored this achievement at the Chiefs 12 years later, with two consecutive wins. He was made Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) in 2012. Smith and his wife Trish have twin sons, one of whom has cerebral palsy, which led Smith to become patron of the New Zealand Foundation for Conductive Education. NZFCE will be the recipient of charity funds raised during the Ride Of The Legends cycle tour that runs in conjunction with the Lions Rugby Tour, which kicks off on June 3.

Kim Hill reads emails and text messages from listeners to the Saturday Morning programme.

Lecturers at the Waikato University School of Music fear proposed staff cuts will see the school's demise, with University management preparing to restructure the faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and proposing to cut the full time staff numbers in the music department from eight to five. David Dolan is a concert pianist, researcher and a professor both at the Yehudi Menuhin School and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in the UK, and he is dedicated to the revival of the art of classical improvisation. He has weighed in to efforts to try and save the facility, describing it as a "rare and precious" world class centre of excellence, with a standard of teaching he has rarely witnessed anywhere in his travels.