Saturday Morning With Jack Tame

Apple makes a surprise acquisition   Apple isn't known for being an M&A machine, but has made a $2 billion deal (according to the FT) to purchase an AI company – surprise, surprise. Q.ai is a four-year-old startup in the speech detection space, which can understand whispered speech and improve speech detection in noisy environments. They also have a patent to read your lips and understand micro-expressions on your face. I'd expect to see this new tech deployed on the Vision Pro and the AirPods. Q.ai has 100 employees – that's $20m of value per employee.     Apple beat Wall Street’s expectations   They announced $143.8 billion in revenue for Q4, which was about 4% higher than expected. CEO Tim Cook said the iPhone 17 was seeing “unprecedented demand”. The stock didn't pop, with fears around memory prices surging, supply chain issues, and Apple's seeming lack of AI strategy.     Amazon let 16,000 people go  A staggering number, and it was done by email. Some woke at 3am to

Wonder Man  Hollywood actor Simon Williams is thrust into the world of superheroes as he gets powers of his own, and becomes the new superhero Wonder Man (Disney+).     Memory of a Killer   Losing one's memory is a devastating hammer blow for anyone, but for Angelo, the stakes couldn't be higher. His hit man job would be perilous enough, but there's an added pressure: Angelo lives two totally separate lives -- fearsome NYC hitman, and sleepy upstate Cooperstown photocopier salesman and father.   Having built and maintained a brick wall between his two worlds, Angelo has seamlessly juggled and compartmentalized for years. But now that's all about to change, because Alzheimer's is a foe he can't outrun, and he knows too well how this ends, as his older brother is already lost to the condition (Neon).    LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Secret Agent   In 1977, Marcelo, a technology teacher, moves from São Paulo to Recife during Carnival to escape his violent past and start over. He finds the city full of chaos, and his neighbours begin to spy on him.    Nouvelle Vague   The story of New Wave icon Jean-Luc Godard making Breathless, told with the same rule-breaking, freewheeling style he used to make it.    LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This dish magically transforms kūmara from side dish to star performer, and I can’t get enough of it.    Serves 2-4      Ingredients   2 orange kūmara, halved, skin on   2 tablespoons olive oil    1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses    1 teaspoon smoked paprika   ½ teaspoon sea salt   4 tablespoons pumpkin seeds   Small handful of mint & coriander   ½ cup fresh pomegranate arils/seeds   Yoghurt Dressing   ½ cup Greek yoghurt    1 tablespoon tahini   1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses   ½ teaspoon sea salt      Method  Heat oven to 180C. Line a tray with baking paper.    Mix oil with pomegranate molasses and paprika and rub/brush all over the kūmara. Lay out on the prepared tray, sprinkle with salt and roast for 45 minutes or until soft and cooked through.   Toss in the pumpkin seeds in the final 5-10 minutes and they will toast and puff up.   To make the yoghur

In our house this week, the juggle gets real.  After a year’s maternity leave, my wife is heading back to work. With a nearly-one-year-old and a nearly-nine-year-old, we’re balancing the two kids with two working parents. Every day is logistical jiu jitsu.   My wife has been making this point for ages, but as we’ve counted down the days to the new normal, I’ve come to appreciate its salience more than ever. Even though young people are the key to our future, economic and otherwise, somehow we’ve created a society that makes things incredible tricky for many young families.  First of all, to have a reasonable middle-class, home-owning life, most households need two working parents. There are exceptions of course, but I reckon most need two working parents. It’s my sense that this didn’t use to be the case. In the post-war years it was quite normal to have households with one working parent. It wasn’t that families were flush with cash! It’s just that relative to incomes, housing and the cost of

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is a globally acclaimed celebration of military tradition, music, ceremony, and cultural performance.   It has been running for 75 years and in that time has only ever been performed overseas on five occasions.   And for the first time in a decade, the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo will return to New Zealand – performing for the very first time at Auckland’s Eden Park in February with the theme ‘The Heroes Who Made Us’.    Staff Sergeant David Fiu is a standout member of the NZDF Army band and will be taking part in what is set to be a phenomenal event.  He told Jack Tame he’s been fortunate to attend the Tattoo in Edinburgh seven times during his career with the NZ Army.  “I certainly do not take that for granted,” Fiu said.  “I really check myself when I’m there because it’s probably easy, midway through the season, to sort of get a little bit complacent.”   It’s a bucket list moment for many, Fiu explained to Jack Tame, and many

An ode to a Kiwi-created sport.  The Manu World Champs are currently underway, with the Grand Final taking place in mid-March.   It’s such a quintessentially Kiwi sport, and Kevin Milne would love to see it grow even further.   LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

January is nearing its end, but there’s plenty to come throughout the rest of the year.  Chris Schulz joined Jack Tame to preview some of the albums set to release this year, and delve into some of the rumours floating around the music scene.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Winner by David Baldacci  The Dream  She is twenty, beautiful, dirt-poor, and hoping for a better life for her infant daughter when LuAnn Tyler is offered the gift of a lifetime, a $100 million lottery jackpot. All she has to do is change her identity and leave the U.S. forever.  The Killer  It's an offer she dares to refuse...until violence forces her hand and thrusts her into a harrowing game of high-stakes, big-money subterfuge. It's a price she won't fully pay...until she does the unthinkable and breaks the promise that made her rich.  The Winner  For if LuAnn Tyler comes home, she will be pitted against the deadliest contestant of all: the chameleonlike financial mastermind who changed her life. And who can take it away at will...     On the Edge by Kate Horan   Desperate people do desperate things...  Sixteen years ago, teenage Maddie Marshall's body was found on a desolate beach near her hometown, Carrinya. Vibrant

A spree of global travel industry specialists have been reading the tea leaves, seeking to map out what are the trends to look for, in the way we travel, where to travel to, and what we're travelling for. Mike Yardley sifts through the lists of touted travel trends to identify the most commonly pinpointed features. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame Full Show Podcast for Saturday 24 January 2026, standout member of the NZ Army band SSGT David Fiu joins Jack ahead of their performance in the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, set to take place in Auckland next month.  Jack shares the change of perspective becoming a parent has had on his reaction to natural disasters.  Nici Wickes shares comfort food with a summer twist.  Mike Yardley tracks the hottest trends in travel for 2026 and explains why grocery stores are becoming hot spots.  Plus, Oscar nominations are out. Francesca Rudkin gets stuck into one of the high hitters 'Marty Supreme' and shares her thoughts on the Best Picture picks.  Get the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame Full Show Podcast every Saturday on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Turns out that not only is swearing good for pain, but it may also increase performance.  In many situations where physical effort or performance is required, people often hold themselves back, and holding back emotionally can lead to underperforming physically as well.  Dr Dougal Sutherland joined Jack Tame to discuss the growing evidence that “letting it all hang out”, aka shouting, grunting, and even swearing, can benefit your performance.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In my Gum trees I have a good colony of Aussie Silk Moths, aka gum emperor moth caterpillars – they live and feed on gum trees (but also on liquidambar).  Now’s the time to look for them in the “wild” – in the South Island they occur all the way down to Canterbury (Lincoln and Banks Peninsula is as far south as they get). The smallest caterpillars are quite dark in colour – almost blackish and about 8mm long. As they grow (and shed their skins) they change their colours and cause distinct chewing marks on the lower gum leaves.    In a few weeks they’ll grow bigger and bigger until they end up being 12 centimetres long and absolutely gorgeous. If you think that daddy longlegs are fascinating, show the kids these caterpillars!  The growing caterpillars move further and further upwards in the tree, often preferring the freshest leaves. In the meantime, caterpillar colours have become green and blue with stunning legs, feet, tubercles and nodes in orange and red, pretending to be “poisonous”

Concerns over skin cancer with many Kiwis still getting sunburnt.  A new Cancer Society and Otago University survey, has found 64% of respondents were sunburnt at least once last summer, including 26% severely.  Rates were highest among 18 to 24-year-olds, with more than a third reporting at least three sunburns.  Dr Bryan Betty joined Jack Tame to break down the data and discuss some of the best ways to push skin protection to the youth.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

TikTok's US deal is final   Half of TikTok US is owned by new investors, 30% by previous investors, and 20% by the Chinese owned Bytedance.   The US algorithm will now be trained on US data, and all content moderation will be handled by the US entity. It will be governed by a new, seven-member majority-American board. Bytedance is expected to receive a licensing fee on all revenue as well as a share of the profit.     Sony's getting out of the TV space   Sony Bravia TVs will soon be made by TCL. It's spinning out its TV and home audio business, selling 51% to the Chinese company. Sony says it will still be involved, contributing its picture processing and audio technology, and the brand will continue with higher-end picture and sound quality than the TCL brand. Sony has largely been getting out of the 'electronics' space, no longer making PCs and tablets.     A Spotify feature only released in New Zealand is coming to the US   The ability to create a playlist just by ty

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms   A century before the events of "Game of Thrones," two unlikely heroes wander Westeros. In an adaption of George R. R. Martin's novella "The Hedge Knight," a young and naive but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg, face a series of dangerous exploits. Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne and images of the last dragon have not yet passed from living memory, great destinies and powerful foes await these improbable and incomparable friends (Neon).      Steal  An ordinary office worker, Zara, finds herself at the heart of a heist; a typical work day at a pension fund investment company is upended when a gang of violent thieves burst in and force Zara and her best mate Luke to execute their demands (Prime Video).    LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is pure comfort food while still being fresh and lively with the addition of fresh, seasonal corn kernels.    Serves 2       Ingredients   200g large-holed pasta or pasta shells    2 tablespoons olive oil    1 onion, finely diced    2–3 rashers bacon, chopped   60g butter   3 tablespoons plain flour    250mls milk   100mls vegetable stock   1 tablespoon mustard powder (or 1 big teaspoon wholegrain mustard)   1 bay leaf    ½ teaspoon sea salt and pepper    100g grated cheese — mix of aged Cheddar, Parmesan, Gruyère, crumbled blue or whatever you please    1 cup spinach leaves, chopped (optional)   1 cup corn kernels, freshly cut from the cob    Breadcrumbs + extra grated Cheddar and Parmesan for the crunchy top       Method   Preheat the oven to 170°C.   Cook the pasta in large pot of well-salted boiling water until al dente. Once

Marty Supreme  Marty Mauser, a wily hustler with a dream no one respects, goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness.     The Rip  Finding a secret stash of millions wages internal conflict for a group of Miami officers, pushing trust, loyalty and self-preservation into sharp and dangerous focus.    LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s less than a month to my son’s first birthday and whenever anyone asks me about my experience of becoming a father, I feel like I have nothing new to offer tens of thousands of years of established observations and discourse.   “I just feel,” I say.   “Like all the cliches are true. The intensity of the love. The joy. The exhaustion. It’s all true!”   But one of the things I’ve come to appreciate more is the difference between theory versus experience. There’s stuff I knew about parenting. I understood the theory. But it has taken experiencing it to properly get it, to appreciate it in my marrow.   Case in point: newborn babies almost never look very good. They’re always a bit squished or alien, a bit like a bald marsupial. And yet, when you’re a new parent, you’re sure that your baby is different. Perfect and symmetrical and gorgeous in every way.   I knew this before we had our son. I had observed the phenomenon in close friends. And yet when our boy arrived, I was convinced. &n

Josh Emett is serving New Zealand up on a plate.   The Kiwi chef’s worked culinary magic in the restaurants of Gordon Ramsey, earning four Michelin Stars before returning home to establish iconic restaurants like Gilt Brasserie and The Oyster Inn.   There’s no doubt the world-renowned chef has played a role in shaping New Zealand’s modern dining scene.   But this year sees him in a very special role as Sail GP’s Culinary Collaborator – responsible for showcasing the country’s cuisine those descending on Auckland for the event.  Emett told Jack Tame he’s still in the scheming phase, but he’s working with a great catering company and they’re going to deliver some excellence.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.