RNZ: Ideas

New Zealand has thrown its hat in the ring for a place on the 2015-16 United Nations Security Council. The bid has seen Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully traveling the world trying to rustle up votes. So what's in it for New Zealand? And how would a New Zealand term on the council differ from that of its competitors for the seat, Spain and Turkey? Ideas speaks to RMIT lecturer in international relations Binoy and former New Zealand ambassador to the United Nations Terence O'Brien. Produced by Jeremy Rose.

The Quakers not only played a leading role in the anti-slavery movement - they founded many of Britain's best known companies. The Seventh Day Adventist church founded, and still owns, New Zealand's most successful cereal manufacturer - Sanitarium, and many of New Zealand's early business elite were devoutly religious. Jeremy Rose talks to Sanitarium general manager Pierre van Heerden and James Walvin, author of 'The Quakers: Money and Morals'; then Chris Laidlaw talks to historian and author Ian Hunter about the influence of religion on the history of business and the economy in New Zealand.

Today Ideas looks at the case for a state-funded school lunch and breakfast programme.

2012 was the 100th anniversary of the passing of the Public Service Act - an Act that defined the public service for the best part of a century. This year it's the turn of the Public Service Association to celebrate its centenary. Jeremy Rose talks to historian Mark Derby about his most recent book on one of the union's most effective leaders - White Collar Radical: Dan Long and the Rise of the White Collar Unions; and Chris Laidlaw speaks to former government statistician Len Cook and Bill Ryan, an associate professor at Victoria University's School of Government and the co-author of Future State: Directions for Public Management in New Zealand, about the state of the public service and how it might evolve in the future.

Prior to becoming New Zealand's 35th Prime Minister, James Brendan Bolger was first elected to Parliament as the MP for King Country in 1972. The Honourable Jim Bolger speaks about his time as PM, as Ambassador to the US, and as Chair to both NZ Post and Kiwibank.

The Kurds are the world's largest ethnic group without a state, with an estimated population of 30 million spread across Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran. And in all four countries the Kurds have spent the best part of a century struggling for greater autonomy and even the right to speak their own language. Ideas explores the Kurdish question with: William Harris, a professor of politics at Otago University and the author of three books on the Middle East; Welat Zeydanlioglu, author of the forthcoming The Kurdish Question in Turkey: New Perspectives on Violence, Representation and Reconciliation; and Sarkawt Abdullazada the president of the New Zealand Kurdish Association.

The honeybee is under threat around the world. Beekeepers in the United States are losing close to a third of their hives to Colony Collapse Disorder and things aren't looking much better in Europe. CCD hasn't arrived in New Zealand yet but the varroa mite has shown just how vulnerable our main pollinator is to deadly foreign threats. Ideas talks to: Beekeeper Frank Lindsay; National Bee Association CEO Daniel Paul, scientists Dr Mark Goodwin and Dr Alastair Robertson, and North Canterbury farmer Ross Little â€" one of those behind Federated Farmers' Trees for Bees campaign. Produced by Jeremy Rose.

New Zealand has one of the highest imprisonment rates in the developed world and more than half of those released from our prisons find themselves back behind bars within five years. Ideas takes a look at imprisonment and rehabilitation, and asks what works and what doesn't. Chris Laidlaw talks to Anne Opie the author of 'From Outlaw to Citizen: Making the transition from Prison in New Zealand'; and Eugene Ryder, a community advocate and Black Power member, reflects on what convinced him to change his lifestyle to ensure he never sees the inside of a prison again. Produced by Jeremy Rose.

Esperanto is undoubtedly the best known and most successful invented language but it's far from the only one. Richard Langston talks to Arika Okrent who lists 500 of them in her book 'In the Land of Invented Langauges'; and Jeremy Rose speaks to John Quijada the American inventor of Ithkuil, a language that has developed a devoted following in Russia, and David Ryan, a member of the New Zealand Esperanto Association.

Richard Louv, the originator of the term "nature deficit disorder", talks about his latest book The Nature Principle; Austrian physicist Ille Gebeshuber tells us about bio-mimicry and the inspiration she takes from rainforests; and we hear about Te Kura Toito o Te Whaiti Nui a Toi, a small rural primary school, that is using the Whirinaki forest as an extension of its classrooms.

The idea that the environment has an impact on our physical health is indisputable - but what impact is environmental degradation having on our mental health? Can psychology offer insights into how to improve our environment? Ideas talks to Thomas Doherty, editor of the Ecopsychology journal; University of Auckland associate professor of psychology Niki Harre; and Victoria University senior lecturer in psychology Taciano Milfont.

In the second part of our look at the case for higher density housing, Ideas talks to Jane Quigley one of the people behind the Viva Housing project that has just been shortlisted in Christchurch's Breathe - Urban Village Competition; Jukka Noponen a Finnish planner behind an energy-efficient housing project; Brady Nixon who is developing Auckland’s Vinegar Lane project; and the Auckland Council’s urban design specialist Ludo Campbell-Reid.

Arguments for intensifying the density of housing tend to fall into two categories: affordability and putting a halt to urban sprawl. Ideas talks to two architects who advocate higher density housing not just for those reasons but because they believe, if done right, it will result in more livable houses and communities. Discussions with Robert Dalziel, the co-author of A House in the City: Home Truths in Urban Architecture, and Ian Athfield, one of New Zealand's most celebrated architects.

Fifty years after New Zealand had its last case of wild polio the world is on the cusp of eradicating the disease for good. D'Arcy Lunn of the Global Poverty Project talks about The End of Polio Campaign; Otago University associate professor of public health Michael Baker discusses what other contagious diseases could be eradicated by vaccines; and Robert Beaglehole on the ambitious 25 by 25 campaign that aims to cut the number of deaths by non- communicable diseases by 25 percent internationally. Produced by Jeremy Rose.

In the latest in our occasional series of interviews with influential New Zealanders talking about their lives and influences we hear from serial entrepreneur Melissa Clark-Reynolds.