

Afternoons
RNZ
Jesse Mulligan presents an upbeat mix of the curious and the compelling, ranging from the stories of the day to the great questions of our time.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Aug 5, 2025 • 14min
Thrift - Savvy Students and their award-winning garden
It's time for Thrift and today we've got part two of our savvy students series. Katy Gosset visits an award-winning student flat garden that might just be the best in Dunedin.

Aug 5, 2025 • 6min
Update on Oz with Brad Foster
Adding to the trans-Tasman rivalry, two New Zealanders won at Australia's TV Awards, the Logies. Sam Neill and Guy Montgomery were winners on the night.

Aug 5, 2025 • 10min
Book Critic: Julia Alvarez & Josephine Baker
Book critic Bill Hastings gives his latest recommendations; Julia Alvarez, The Cemetery of Untold Stories (Little Brown, 2025) and Josephine Baker, Fearless and Free - A Memoir (Penguin Random House, 2025) trans. Anam Zafar and Sophie Lewis.

Aug 5, 2025 • 10min
Tech Tuesday with Tim Batt: YouTube using AI to check users age
Tech giant Google is taking action to verify how old YouTube users are. It says it will use AI to estimate the age of users and then show them age appropriate content. The move comes after Australia confirmed it would ban children under 16 from using YouTube. Tim shares details with Emile.

Aug 5, 2025 • 8min
Harricado - a new varietal of avocado, grown in Nelson
Imagine being lucky enough to not only buy a property with an established avocado tree but to discover that it was a little bit ... well ... special.

Aug 5, 2025 • 13min
The Wellington surfer making her mark in and out of the water
For surfwear designer Gemma Wagstaff, this New Zealand Fashion Week will be particularly meaningful.

Aug 5, 2025 • 12min
Taking Disney magic to the ice
How do you make Disney magic even more magical? You put it on ice, of course.

Aug 4, 2025 • 27min
Feature interview: "Mankeeping" is it really a thing?
Male friendships are reportedly in a recession, so it seems many men are leaning heavily on their partners for emotional support. Dr Angelica Ferrara coined a term for that, Mankeeping. It explains how women often take on the roll of managing men's social lives, from checking on their friendships to being their sole emotional sounding board. Dr. Ferrara is a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and her research explains why "Mankeeping" impacts not just men themselves, but everyone around them, especially women. She spoke to Emile.

Aug 4, 2025 • 24min
Expert Feature: Algorithms - what are they
Time for our expert feature, the moment in the show where we put your questions to our expert. Specifically - what are they? how do they work? And are there any ways to manipulate them into giving us better deals, or less addictive content? Emile is joined by Automated Programming PhD and Comedian Henry Hickman.

Aug 4, 2025 • 13min
Cold Call: Kauri Museum in Matakohe
Matakohe is a village in the Kaipara district, about 45 kilometres south of Dargaville. It's famous for the Kauri Museum so we decided to give the museum a cold call to find out what visitors can expect to find.