Rnz: Afternoons With Jesse Mulligan

We're starting the show talking about petrol because right now Finance Minister Nicola Willis is holding a press conference to discuss the latest petrol stocks and what the Government will do should this pain at the pump continue. Petrol price monitoring app Gaspy says the average price of 91 petrol is now above $3 and has risen 20 percent since the start of the month. We get reaction to Nicola Willis words from Bernard Hickey, author of the Substack column 'The Kaka'.

The only bear in New Zealand lives at Wellington Zoo. Her name is Sasa and she's not a panda, brown, or polar bear, but the smallest of the eight bear species: a Sun Bear.

Let's talk about gardening now, our green thumbed guru Lynda Hallinan is with me to share some seasonal tips and tricks.

Let's talk food now because Connie Clarkson, the manager of Auckland Council's The Kitchen Project is with me, with a great sounding duck breast recipe.

Afternoons film critic Kate Rodger joins Jesse to review Ryan Gosling's latest offering Project Hail Mary and to preview the Oscars.

One of our favourite comedians Chris Parker has just announced his latest tour, "Take a Good Hard Look at Me" Jesse gets the inside word about what to expect.

It's time for Freaky Friday, your home for spooky stories and eerie coincidences, if you have an experience to share or maybe you have a scary campfire story that you tell so well it belongs on the radio get in touch on 2101 or email me at jesse@rnz.co.nz and one of the Afternoons team might give you a call. Today we're speaking to Jack about a couple of his ghostly encounters.

Tomorrow is a big day for the capital, with the grand opening of the new Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui Central Library. The central library was one of Wellington's most beloved public spaces until structural concerns forced its closure in 2019.

Earlier this week we saw a headline that piqued our interest, it said New Zealand is losing faith in the internet. The Newsroom article is based on a survey by InternetNZ which showed that one in five of us don't see the internet as a "net positive" for society. Here to talk us through what's driving those statistics and what else the survey revealed, Newsroom reporter Fox Myer joins me.

Animaia Payne has won major squash titles including the Oceania Junior Championships, the New Zealand Juniors, and a gold medal at the Aims Games.

Last night SYOS Aerospace won Business of The Year at the Tauranga Business awards, recognised for its "rapid growth and global relevance".

The world can be a scary place for kids, especially when it comes to recent global events. Sometimes it feels like watching the news should almost come with a warning. So as parents and caregivers, should we be trying to shield our kids from following these events or is it important they do know what's going on? For advice on this, Jesse is joined by neuroscience educator Nathan Wallis.

As British Prime Minister Harold Wilson once said, a week is a long time in politics, and that's a sentiment that will no doubt be resonating with Prime Minster Christopher Luxon right now. Whether he will, or won't, stay on until the election in November might be up for debate, but the history of changing leaders in midterm is not, Dr Grant Morris joins Jesse with his insights.

This is our regular segment where we like to solve some problems, this week Dave Armstrong joins Jesse to discuss some Wellington woes.

Time for A-Z of Aotearoa, and we've finally made it to the tricky end of the alphabet! Today we're taking on Q for Queenstown. Queenstown - known for its dramatic alpine scenery - sits nestles on the shores of Lake Wakatipu. It hosts a population of around 50,000 permanent residents, supplemented with - literally - millions of tourists It's one of New Zealand's luxury destinations, but it hasn't always been that way. We chat to locals and historians.

It's time for group chat with Kate Rodger, Culture 101's Perlina Lau and Afternoons' Senior Producer Olivia Wilson. This is our regular segment where we discuss the stories that won't lead news bulletins but will fill up your social media feed.

When a natural disaster strikes and the relevant council deems a building unsafe, those buildings often sit dormant for a long time, and in many cases, later get completely demolished. But is that the best use of these structures? Auckland University's Architecture department decided to investigate and has been looking into turning houses wrecked by cyclones into a sustainable resource. Associate Professor of Architecture Mike Davis chats to Jesse.

It's a landmark day at Auckland University, and "landmark" is a fitting word as they're celebrating the centenary of their iconic ClockTower. The tower is now registered as a Category 1 historic place. It's been the backdrop for all the balls, graduations, cap-tossings, and now its history is featured in an exhibition. It's called 'Standing tall: a century of the ClockTower', and it's running now at the university library until late June. William Hamill is Team Leader of He Mara Mahara Cultural Collections at the University of Auckland.

Women in Film and Television New Zealand - also known as WIFT- is a not-for-profit organisation that now has over 1300 members. Its purpose is to celebrate and support women working in film and television in New Zealand. Tonight the WIFT NZ Awards are taking place, here to talk us through the finalists is the chair of the judging panel Jill McNab.

With no end in sight for the Middle East conflict, more and more conversations are turning to oil supplies. While our leaders have been quick to reassure New Zealanders that there is no need to worry about supplies running out, surely it would be prudent to consider what steps can be taken should we need to? As many of you will remember carless days were in a thing in the late 1970s but what else can we do to make sure we keep the country running? Dr Matt Boyd is an independent researcher in global catastrophic risk and one of the brains behind the Aotearoa New Zealand Catastrophe Resilience Project.