Rnz: Afternoons With Jesse Mulligan

Adventure racer and multisport triathlete Steve Gurney joins us for this week's NZ Sporting History. Steve is most well-known for winning the 243km Coast to Coast race a record 9 times and representing New Zealand at two Mountain bike world championships.

RNZ News reader Evie Ashton reviews an eclectic bunch of podcasts that can help send you off to sleep.

Staff at an Upper Hutt Wildlife reserve are devastated after the alleged theft of its "loving and talkative" Cockatoo 'Pepper' Staglands staff believe the 6-year-old sulphur crested cockatoo was taken from her aviary on Sunday and are now asking the public and police for help getting her back... Stagland's general manager Sarah Purdy talks to Jesse about Pepper and the alleged abduction.

For over a decade, an irreplaceable ring laser has been trapped in a cavern 30m below Christchurch port hills. The Carl Zeiss laser was installed in an old World War Two bunker in 1997 until a rockfall after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake sealed the cavern. But now it's been rescued and is fully operational. Professor Jon-Paul Wells is the principal investigator on the ring laser project.

Beef cattle account for roughly 10% of Aotearoa New Zealand's total greenhouse gas emissions. There's plenty of research looking into methods to reduce emissions - vaccines, seaweed-based feed, and selective breeding programs are all being explored. But according to a new AgResearch study there could be a simpler way.

A new study has found that native plants in Tongariro National Park are being hit hard by the spread of invasive heather, with a 40 to 50 percent decline in native species in some areas. Dr Julie Deslippe, a senior lecturer in biological sciences at Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington joined Jesse.

Today on the pre-panel producer Carol Stiles joins Wallace Chapman & Jesse Mulligan to preview tonight's show.

Our Changing World goes in search of one of Aotearoa’s rarest plants – the stunning kakabeak, or ngutukākā.  Its clusters of bright red blooms, each shaped like a parrot’s beak, make it a popular garden plant. But in the wild, ngutukākā is barely holding on. Considered “nationally critical” by the Department of Conservation, only about 100 individual ngutukākā plants survive, clinging to exposed steep bluffs where goats and rabbits can’t get to them. But now, locals along the East Coast, the kakabeak’s last stronghold, are determined to reverse its march towards extinction by propagating wild plants to turn State Highway 35 into a crimson highway. Veronika Meduna joins them for the inaugural Ngutukākā Festival.

Data is more than numbers on a chart according to graphic designer Dr Giorgia Lupi. Data is a way to tell stories.

This recipe loosely steals its inspiration for the classic French salad. Get the recipe here.

Jesse talks to the authors of Pilgrimage Aotearoa, a guidebook outlining a New Zealand route for Pilgrims.

While you're enjoying the summer this year, a group of student scientists will spend it checking for E. coli and enterococci.

Wellington's first 6 Green Star building - 8 Willis St - has been lauded both here and overseas.

Why do crowd estimates differ so much? And how do experts accurately measure crowd sizes? 

"We only deserve it if we share it." This was the unwritten rule in the home where food writer and entrepreneur Lola Millholland grew up. Her parents always welcomed exchange students, friends, artists and just about anyone who needed a place to stay. While the communal house may have been chaotic and messy, Millholland says she discovered that friendships and non-romantic relationships can provide stability and security that's undervalued. She's written a book about some of the many meals and gatherings in the home where caring for each other is an essential ingredient. The book is called Group Living and Other Recipes.

Back on the job Brad Foster talks about what's happening in Australia. The big news is broadcaster Alan Jones' arrest due to allegations of indecent assault and a high-profile manslaughter trial around the tasing of a 95-year-old.

Pip Adams makes some personal recommendations around books and writing that she found useful when formulating her thoughts around the debate around the bill.

Our technology expert Dan Watson has just come back from a 5-day tramp in the South Island, and he runs through some of the aps and tools he's used on the journey.

We check in with reporter Layla Bailey-McDowell who is deep in the crowd amassing at Parliament today.

Our grandparents used to do the washing once a week. Now New Zealanders use billions of litres of water every year, just on laundry. Katy Gosset looks at whether we're washing our clothes too often.