Radio New Zealand - Afternoons with Jim Mora

The Bounty Islands are tiny in terms of area – just some bits of granite jutting out of the ocean. But they are huge in terms of seabirds. James Frankham joins a team researching the erect-crested penguins who breed in this remote archipelago. Recent counts suggest the penguins of the Bounties are doing fine. But this is not the case on the Antipodes Islands, and the researchers desperately want to know why.

When the final whistle blew on the 2007 Asian Cup, commentators declared "the team without hope has brought joy to its fractured nation. Football succeeds where politics has failed." The Iraqi football team, made up of Sunni, Shia and Kurdish players, had defeated Saudi Arabia. It was a moment of unity in a fractured country following the U.S invasion and removal of Saddam Hussein. Photojournalist Lucian Read was embedded with the US Marines during the war. He had seen Iraq suffer so many losses and felt compelled to tell the story of the win. His new documentary is called Lions of Mesopotamia.

The same private equity firms that have made leveraged buyouts two words employees have come to dread, are pouring billions of dollars into buying up the music catalogs of artists like Bob Dylan, Tina Turner and Bruce Springsteen. The result is a blander music scene says music journalist Marc Hogan. His new article for the New York Times explains these companies are killing creativity by making new music less valuable than old hits. His article is titled Same Old Song: Private Equity Is Destroying Our Music Ecosystem.

This week's critter is the weweia New Zealand dabchick, also known as the New Zealand grebe. If the word 'grebe' gives you flashbacks (positive or otherwise) to last year's Bird of the Century champion, rest assured that this grebe is a little different. Unlike the puteketeke, the weweia is only found in Aotearoa and prefers to keep its neck foliage sleek and simple. They spend their whole life on the water. They build raft-like nests and their chicks spend the first few weeks of their life floating on their parents' backs.

It's all charm and seduction at the start of a relationship with a narcissist. But then comes the manipulation and gaslighting says Dr. Ramani Durvasula, a professor of psychology at California State University who works with survivors of narcissistic abuse and has personal experience with them too. She says narcissists rarely change, so people in relationships with them need to learn about self-protection, setting boundaries and trusting your own instincts. Her new book is called It's Not You: Identifying and Healing from Narcissistic People.

It's common place to see seen men on a football pitch line up for a penalty kick to defend the goal with their hands strategically placed to defend sensitive parts of their bodies. But for many, particularly women, the chest is a very sensitive part of the body in need of extra protection. To help with this back in 1978, nuns from a New Plymouth girls school sought to safeguard their students chests during soccer games. That's how QP Sports was born, creating breast and chest protection for people playing sport - and they're made right here in Aotearoa. Richard Shearer is the business owner and general manager of QP Sport, he speaks to Jesse.