Rnz: Afternoons With Jesse Mulligan

The topics dominating your group chats .. today Kate Rodger and Olivia Wilson are here with a veritable buffet of issues from the continuing fallout over American Eagle's Sydney Sweeney ad, some romance for the over 50s, to the latest addition in Kim Khardashian's Skims line.

Internet scams are getting more and more sophisticated, and new research has shown more of us are falling victim to them.

Samantha Baldwin, Science Group Leader at Plant & Food Research, is nominated for the AJ Park Commercialisation Impact Award for a new variety of potatoes. 

New Zealand's unemployment rate has risen to 5.2 percent - the highest level since 2020 - which means it is pretty grim out there for job seekers. We ask the CEO and founder of Integrity recruitment Ingrid Osborne to share her advice.

This week for Our Changing World, we're doing things a little differently and we catch up with Claire Concannon in person! Claire has been out and about in the central North Island learning about a community conservation project.

Puberty starts earlier, social media is everywhere, and the rise in adolescent mental health challenges is real. It's hard to be a teenager in 2025. The way we parent and teach our teens is shaped by the myths we inherit, what we did when we were teenagers and the science of brain development says Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist Matt Richtel. His new book draws on research and personal stories, offering insights into what drives teen behavior and the rising mental health crisis. Spoiler alert: it's not just the phones. The book is called How We Grow Up: Understanding Adolescence. He spoke to Jesse.

Lamb neck chops are an inexpensive and absolutely delicious cut of meat. They are rich and tender when slow cooked. Using the slow cooker means this meal can come together while you're at work. A quick blast in the oven at the end will give you the lovely caramelisation that oven cooking yields. Serve with kumara mash and some sautéed winter greens. Here is the recipe.

Christina Persico is the bulletin editor for our sister station RNZ Pacific which broadcasts into the region. She is also a fan of cruising - Disney cruising in particular. She has no kids but last summer went on a five-night Disney cruise and is doing another one this Christmas.

A few years ago Oscar and Palme d'Or-winning Kiwi filmmaker Dame Jane Campion announced a pop-up film school called 'A Wave in the Ocean'. The project was supported by Netflix and ran as a 12-month intensive mentorship programme for creatives with significant film experience. Well now the course is reaping results - one of the short films that emerged from it has now been selected to compete at the Venice International Film Festival. 'Lion Rock' was co-directed by Prisca Bouchet, she spoke to Jesse.

It's still winter for a couple more weeks and it's still pretty cold but if you're in Hastings you can Turn Up the Heat at your local library. Now in its ninth year, this adult only reading challenge is all about encouraging adults in the local community not only to read but to step outside their comfort zone and - perhaps most importantly of all - to connect. Kristen Clothier is the Learning & Discovery Team Leader for Hastings District Libraries and she joined Jesse.

A major new study published in a British medical journal has found that verbal abuse in childhood can leave mental health scars as deep and long-lasting as those caused by physical abuse Researchers pooled data from seven relevant studies, involving over 20,000 adults from England and Wales While childhood physical abuse has halved in recent decades, reports of verbal abuse are on the rise the study found that roughly 20% of those born after 1969 reported childhood verbal abuse, compared to under 12% of those born before 1950. Professor Kirsty Ross, from the School of Psychology at Massey University chats to Jesse.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

For surfwear designer Gemma Wagstaff, this New Zealand Fashion Week will be particularly meaningful. 

How do you make Disney magic even more magical? You put it on ice, of course.

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.

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.