RNZ: Best Of The Week

Highlights from Radio New Zealand National's programmes for the week ending Friday 5 December. This week - contradictions in the reasons for selling off state houses; the leaking of official reports to the media; wildlife wars - the clash between humans and wild animals; understanding War World One through an exhibition "More than a War"; the German-born scientist winning the 2014 Rutherford Medal plays favourites; the annual clean-up of Wellington harbour reveals some interesting rubbish; picking locks for fun and dexterity; the delights of travelling in Ethiopia and Dr Ropata releases an album.

Highlights from Radio New Zealand National's programmes for the week ending Friday 28th November. This week - efforts to protect our computer networks from cyber attacks, media coverage of the resignation of the CEO of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority over sexual harassment claims, how sexism in Australia affects women's career choices, the development of advanced robots, Being Mortal - a doctors view on ageing, illness and what matters in the end, the work of one of the pioneers of the computer graphics industry which revolutionised the way we watch films, petunias unravel the secrets of how plants turn colour on and off, we go glamorous camping, and head to the party at the New Zealand Music Awards.

Highlights from Radio New Zealand National's programmes for the week ending Friday 21 November. This week.....the media's delight at munted punters at the races; China's educational testing - how much is too much; will Google Glass information impact decision making in life and death events; studying moa bones and their extinction; the faecal pill to implant good microbes into your gut; using Tesla coils to make music; remembering Malcolm X's Oxford Union debate 50 years ago; exotic sheep breeds in southern Hawke's Bay; what makes a pigeon fast and Lyttelton based band The Eastern sends an audio postcard from Stewart Island.

Highlights from Radio New Zealand National's programmes for the week ending Friday 14 November. This week..... a conversation that 'wound up' climate change campaigners and skeptics, one of the world's bestselling crime authors, promoting Maori culture in an authentic and down to earth way by a Whakatane based tourism venture, the first ever attempt to probe the inner workings of a major faultline before it ruptures, a pioneering Maori novelist and short story writer who has written about his early life for the first time, a poet and biographer who tells the story of living with chronic pain, common household poisons, website design that caters to the needs of consumers with low vision, the man politicians, sports stars and pop icons call when they get into trouble, Jak the rodent dog who has given up the hunt after losing a leg at the age of 90 (in his years) and the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra as they record and produce their first full-length album.

Highlights from Radio New Zealand National's programmes for the week ending Friday 7 November. This week.....from teenage dropkick to walking around New Zealand on foot - Brando Yelavich on facing challenges; cafe culture and our obsession with coffee; debunking grammar gripes with a new guide to better writing; is the art of cartooning dying out; improving stroke recovery with virtual reality; Oscar-winning film sound mixer Mike Hedges on advances in sound; Country Life visits the general store in the King Country's Kakahi; reaheating pasta and other carbs for less calorie intake; the female world number one poker player giving back to social justice casues and throbbing engines meet in Wellington for a Biker's Bit of a Do.

Highlights from Radio New Zealand National's programmes for the week ending Friday 31 October. This week.....how the media have tackled stories on housing affordability; comic genius Eddie Izzard on hard work and confidence; what a menu tells you about the restaurant and how your food is presented; innovative chef and food writer Yotam Ottolenghi; remembering Christchurch's Lancaster Park; unionist Helen Kelly and her activist start in life; the Timaru speedskating training duo; the quake cats of Christchurch and the upside of downsizing to a tiny home.

Highlights from Radio New Zealand National's programmes for the week ending Friday 24 October. This week.....is the media response to the threat of Islamic State as serious as it should be; the future for 3D bio-printing new body parts with your own cells; Kidnapped by the Taliban - Dr Dilip Joseph tells his story of fear, hope and rescue; film director David Cronenberg's new novel Consumed; the Polish children of Pahiatua; aquarium fish calming you down before the dentist chair; what the secret police saw - the inner workings of the KGB during the Cold War; what happened to young conscientious objectors of World War One and a New Zealand history of tramping.

Highlights from Radio New Zealand National's programmes for the week ending Friday 17 October. This week.....migrant workers complain of ill treatment in NZ workplaces; Julia Gillard's memoir of being Australia's first woman prime minister; finding new ways to combat antibiotic resistance; encouraging more Maori into becoming surgeons; fashion designers flourishing in Dunedin; taking advantage of the high-tech marijuana industry in the US; Mike McRoberts on reporting from warzones; chlorine bleach and Bubbles Week; remembering the Rural Education Activities Programme or REAP; in session with Grammy and Oscar winning songwriter Ryan Bingham and Kiwi songwriting legends Dave Dobbyn and Don McGlashan play favourites with Kim Hill.

Highlights from Radio New Zealand National's programmes for the week ending Friday 10 October. This week.....is overseas betting hurting the local racing industry; the rise of Islamic State; the media focus on the Labour leadership; the work of The Surgery Ship - "Africa Mercy"; Peter Williams QC and his life and the law; building better safer roads; the laughter ends for comedian Ewen Gilmour; the Salvus Kapok lifejacket designed by Kiwi women Orpheus Beaumont; cultural artefacts of the Kapiti Seed Bank; Dave the London Black Taxi driver catches up with Kim Hill 8 years after their last interview.

Highlights from Radio New Zealand National's programmes for the week ending Friday 3 October. This week..... the work being done to contain the ebola virus; Glen Greenwald on his website The Intercept; not letting Kiwi inventions fade to obscurity; are you a believer in conspiracy theories or find most irrational - we hear about the philosophy behind them; the acient science of geodysey and how it underpins construction of roads; the expensive business of keeping pandas; remembering the Irish Famine in monuments around the world; Samoan opera trio Sol3 Mio on falling in love with opera; and Moana the Tribe in session

Highlights from Radio New Zealand National's programmes for the week ending Friday 26 September. This week... Nine to Noon's political commentators from the left and right talk about the outcome of the 2014 general election, Mediawatch examines Kim Dotcom's moment of truth event. the roll of physical exercise in keeping healthy from Saturday Morning, Lorelei Vashti with Wallace Chapman on Sunday Morning talking about her book Dress Memory and why frocks have helped her overcome many of life's challenges, proteins and cells from Our Changing World, Te Ahi Kaa visits Otaki to watch a rugby match between East Coast Ngati Porou and Horowhenua-Kapiti, from Afternoons Simon Mercep talks with Adam Tanner a Fellow at Harvard University's Institute for Quantitative Social Science who argues spies are not who we should most be worried about, from Sounds Historical the late Sir Paul Holmes as he sounded in 1983 on Vienna's Blue Danube Radio, we hear about a high-tech New Zealand designed wearable robot and we end with Music 101's tribute to the legendary Dunedin musician, the late Peter Gutteridge.

Highlights from Radio New Zealand National's programmes for the week ending Friday 19 September. This week..... Glenn Greenwald reveals information of the mass surveillance of New Zealanders; exploring the preservation needed now of the Pacific's tuna fishery; what we know and don't know about Alzheimer's Disease and dementia; director and writer of Kiwi comedy horror Housebound on making a film on a tight budget; revealing the dirty hacking by the Murdoch media in Britain; recalling the former leader of our symphony orchestra, violinist Vincent Aspey; training in the Lancaster Bombers that would be part of the 1943 Dambusters raid and we meet the Wallaby Lady of Waimate.

The Best Of The Week... this week Country Life are in an area where many of the farmers have had to alter their farming practices to fit into strict environmental rules, from Saturday Morning New Zealand evolutionary biologist Alan Cooper who's starting out on a five-year project using ancient micro biomes and genomes to study human origins, disease and Aboriginal genetics joins Kim Hill, from Mediawatch how Music radio stations seized on stolen nude celebrity shots, Spectrum has the story of the hard work done by Tiritiri Supporters Group, from Sunday Morning - The Young And The Restless Political Candidates Debate with Wallace Chapman, featuring a group of young candidates all well under the age of 30, Te Ahi Kaa visits a school in Uawa Tolega Bay, from Nights 'Our Own Odysseys' where Guy Benfield recently took the time to visit the Auschwitz concentration camp complex in Poland, we hear his impressions, from Nine to Noon one of Britain's leading neurosurgeons Henry Marsh has released a new memoir which draws aside the curtain to the inner workings of the mind of the surgeon himself, from Our Changing World - could a simple eye test determine an earlier diagnosis of Alzheimers disease?, the end of an era in our skies from Afternoons and from this week's music 101 Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings.

Highlights from Radio New Zealand National's programmes for the week ending Friday 5 September. This week..... what are the impacts of Dirty Politics on the media; a Soldier of Change questions the US military's reinstatement of the Don't Ask Don't Tell sexuality policy; our passion for crime fiction; the need to get real about climate change; the dying art of oriental rug and carpet repair; helping cancer patients to look good and feel better; from wine waste to wound dressings; riding reindeer in Mongolia and The Clean in New York.

Highlights from Radio New Zealand National's programmes for the week ending Friday 29th August. This week..... is dirty politics the new normal, the use of human guinea pigs at British nuclear test sites in central Australia in the 1950s and 60s, the newly relaunched monthly Maori magazine Mana, we hear from Mandela's personal assistant - a white Afrikaaner who grew up in a home that supported apartheid, scientific investigations to unravel the mysteries of allergies and develop an 'off' switch for allergic responses, the party drug known as Mexican tripping weed might be used in new anti-addiction treatments, the use of industrial hemp to build houses, and a documentary on the global success of Pauly Fuemana and OMC.