Nights for Monday 26 May 2025

8:15 Pacific Waves

A daily current affairs programme that delves deeper into the major stories of the week, through a Pacific lens, and shines a light on issues affecting Pacific people wherever they are in the world. Hosted by Susana Suisuiki.

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8:30 Southern Brutalism

The University of Otago wants to knock down the 50 year old Archway Lecture Theatres, but the council and supporters say the building is a prime example of Brutalist architecture.

Christine McCarthy is a senior lecturer in the School of Architecture at Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington. She's a fan of Brutalism and believes the McCoy-designed buildings are among the best examples of the style in the country.

She joins Emile Donovan.

8:45 The Reading: School Story by Barbara Anderson

Denise O'Connell with the first episode of School Story by Barbara Anderson.

9:05 Nights Quiz

Do you know your stuff? Come on the air and be grilled by Emile Donovan as he dons his quizmaster hat.

If you get an answer right, you move on to the next question. If you get it wrong, your time in the chair is up, and the next caller will be put through. The person with the most correct answers at the end of the run goes in the draw for a weekly prize.

9:25 Whakataukī of the Week with Sir Ian Taylor

Every Monday on Nights, we invite a guest to share a whakataukī - a Māori proverb - that's meaningful to them.

Tonight, broadcaster and businessman Sir Ian Taylor sits down in the Auckland studio with Emile Donovan.

9:35 Dartitis: The inability to throw a dart

Imagine this. You've trained your whole life for one moment. Thousands of hours spent repeating the same movements, refining your conditioning, hand-eye coordination, and mental focus.

Then, come game time, you step up to take your shot, hit the ball, or throw the dart - and suddenly, you can't go through with it. You freeze. You've hit a mental, and what feels like a very physical, barrier.

That's the yips - or in the case of darts, dartitis. A sudden and often inexplicable loss of motor control brought on by psychological pressure.

Dr Arne Nieuwenhuys is a senior lecturer in Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology at the University of Auckland. He specialises in the effects of sleep, anxiety, and fatigue on human motor control and performance, and joins Emile Donovan to explain what's going on in the brain and body of someone with dartitis.

10:17 Where does the recycling go? 

In the Far North, 190 tonnes of plastic waste - an entire year's worth of recycling - may be about to be dumped into the landfill. 

Why? Where was it heading? Is anything truly recyclable?

Waste management specialist Timothy Brake joins Emile Donovan to explain.

10:30 Sports with Jamie Wall

RNZ sports reporter Jamie Wall joins Emile in the studio to talk about the big sports stories from the weekend.

10:45 Claims of 'white genocide' in South Africa

In a meeting with the South African president, US President Trump claimed white South Africans were being killed en masse, and their farmland seized, in an act of genocide. The US recently created a special refugee pathway for white South Africans fleeing these circumstances.

However, global news outlets like Reuters have said claims of white genocide are false.

South African journalist, academic, fact-checker, and author of the 2022 book Farm killings in South Africa Nechama Brodie joins Nights. 

11:07 Nashville Babylon

Every week on Nashville Babylon Mark Rogers presents the very best in country, soul and rock 'n' roll.