TVNZ7's blog

9:10pm Saturday, November 7 on TVNZ 7

Famous and not-so-famous New Zealanders talking, not about what it is that makes them famous, but what it is that makes them tick – that’s the trick with Talk Talk, a glamorous-looking interview series presented by Finlay Macdonald.

With one key guest on each half-hour show, Talk Talk will go in deep, interviewing the person in the answer chair for almost 20 minutes before ending the show with a performance from a New Zealand group or musician chosen by Talk Talk’s feature guest.

This week on Talk Talk, presenter Finlay Macdonald talks Professor Dame Anne Salmond, an eminent historian, writer and academic. Then, a performance by Gareth Farr and Catherine Bowie.

If you have missed an episode, check your guide for extra opportunities to view. Full episodes of Talk Talk will also be available free online after the show has aired on TVNZ 7. Go to tvnz.co.nz/talktalk and click on the ‘on demand’ button.

7:10pm Friday, November 6 on TVNZ 7

With £25,000 in his pocket from the sale of his flat, Conor Woodman travels across four continents, trading in all kinds of products with the aim of doubling his money. Follow his inspiring journey in this four-part series that will play every Friday in November on TVNZ 7.

But this was neither a case of city burn-out nor a classic repudiation of the capitalist ethic. Far from it. Woodman’s aim was to take £25,000 of his own money and buy and sell goods as he travelled from country to country.

He wanted to trade in its rawest form, the way millions do every day, and have done for centuries. Instead of being in front of a computer screen, buying and selling commodities on a virtual market, he was out in the field, buying coffee direct from a plantation, wine from a vineyard, or jade straight out of the ground, taking it to a suitable market, and selling it for profit.

Conor begins his trip in Sudan and finishes in Brazil. His travel itinerary was pre-planned, for visa purposes and filming permissions.

“Before I left, I put together a jigsaw puzzle of countries that were emerging economies that had exciting things to buy, but also had a big enough domestic market that you could sell things there as well,” Connor explains.

Around The World In 80 Trades is a fascinating four part-documentary series that shows that the principles of trade are universal, life-enhancing and guaranteed to survive the madness of the credit crunch.

7:10pm Wednesday, November 4 on TVNZ 7

As the housing bubble burst and trillions of dollars’ worth of toxic mortgages began to go bad in 2007, fear spread through the massive firms that form the heart of Wall Street.

By the spring of 2008, burdened by billions of dollars of bad mortgages, the investment bank, Bear Stearns, was the subject of rumours that it would soon fail.

The company’s stock had dropped from $171 to $57 a share, and it was hours from declaring bankruptcy. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke acted.

“It was clear that this had to be contained. There was no doubt in his mind,” says Bernanke’s colleague, economist Mark Gertler.

To stabilise the markets, Bernanke engineered a shotgun marriage between Bear Sterns and the commercial bank JP Morgan, with a promise that the federal government would use $30 billion to cover Bear Stearns’ questionable assets tied to toxic mortgages. It was an unprecedented effort to stop the contagion of fear that seemed to be threatening the rest of Wall Street.

While publicly supportive of the deal, Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, a former Wall Street executive with Goldman Sachs, was uncomfortable with government interference in the markets. That summer, he issued a warning to his former colleagues not to expect future government bailouts, saying he was concerned about a legal concept known as moral hazard.

Inside The Meltdown examines the final hours leading up to the deal between Bear Stearns and JP Morgan, and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s attempts to discourage moral hazard.

9:10pm Tuesday, November 3 on TVNZ 7

TVNZ 7 shines the spotlight on National with a politically focussed debate about the performance of the government’s first year, their policies, and how they have delivered in terms of getting New Zealand through the recession.

Political Correspondent, Guyon Espiner, will lead this one-hour long special which will also focus on where National is steering the country looking forward.

Darryl Walker, who headed TVNZ’s election coverage, is on board as producer for both of the specially commissioned specials in TVNZ 7′s Spotlight On The Economy (the Beyond The Recession Summit will screen on Monday 23 November). His focus in this event is unveiling National’s strategy layout.

“The recession has given momentum and urgency to the debate around New Zealand’s long term economic future, and we want to clarify what National’s vision for the future is, and in particular their budget plans,” says Walker.

National’s First Year is to commence with Espiner interviewing Bill English, where he will probe on how the government has managed New Zealand’s response to the recession.

The second part will see Roger Douglas (ACT) and David Cunliffe (Labour) critique National’s first year in government.

“We want to know what they would do if they were in power,” continues Walker.

The show will wrap with a panel of union representatives and business commentators discussing and debating the issues raised across the show. There is a chance to have input into the show at www.tvnz.co.nz/tvnz7. Leave Bill English a question on our website, and on the night some of the most frequently asked queries will appear.

Everyday on TVNZ 7

Do terms like OCR, CPI or pecuniary leave you puzzled? One of TVNZ 7′s Spotlight On The Economy special commissions, Money Made Simple, aims to change that.

Money Made Simple is a series of one minute interstitials (short-form programming) designed to explain the meaning and relevance of commonly used financial jargon.

Each interstitial comes to life as an animated sequence, illustrating what each term means, how it works in general terms, its everyday relevance, and any other weird or wonderful information.

Voiced by Corin Dann, these interstitials convey practical, relevant information in an upbeat, lively and contemporary way.

These episodes of Money Made Simple will also be available free online. Go to tvnz.co.nz/tvnz7 for more information on how to access them.

9:35pm Saturday, October 31 on TVNZ 7

In New Artland, TVNZ 7′s crazily ambitious art series, thirteen leading artists have been handpicked to create incredible new works of art with the help of Kiwi communities.

Presenter Chris Knox follows the action and the results are surprising, inspiring and epic. Filmed from West Auckland to Central Otago, this new series of New Artland involves the artworks of farmers, flying squads, orchestras, graffiti artists, schoolkids, tattooists, knitters, BMX riders, snowballs and Westies.

In this episode of New Artland, we meet installation artist Steve Carr. Artificial concepts appeal to him, so when given the chance to put the Rangiora BMX club in a room with two piles of perfect snowballs, he takes it. But who knew snowballs could be so dangerous?

If you have missed an episode check your guide for extra opportunities to view. Full episodes of New Artland will also be available free online after the show has aired on TVNZ 7. Go to tvnz.co.nz/newartland and click on the ‘on demand’ button.

7:10pm Wednesday, October 7 on TVNZ 7

How much can we trust the products in our family homes?

Barbie, H&M jeans, everyday corn – just some of the products recalled due to controls on the use of dangerous chemicals. Now a wave of toxicity cases is calling for accountability in the cheap manufacturing industry of countries without chemical controls. We follow the toxic trail from field worker, to customs official, to high street shopper. How much can we trust the products in our family homes?

Containers arrive at different ports across the world with highly toxic substances:

“If you were to breath in the air from this container you would seriously harm yourself,” says the chief safety inspector at Hamburg port.

Methal Bromide is outlawed in Europe, but it still arrives there regularly. Tracing the container back to Hong Kong, the compulsory fumigation of products before shipping is revealed as a hazard in itself.

In India’s cotton belt, more pesticides are used than in any other country in the world, and highly toxic and often cancerous chemicals can be bought from the local shop. It is here that clothing giants like H&M find their suppliers. Julia was a loyal employee of a H&M store until repeated exposure to shipments left her seriously ill:

“I was in a bad state,” she remembers. “If I’d stayed any longer, I would have lost my kidneys.”

With toxins connected to record levels of young men with sperm counts so low they will never father children, this eye-opening documentary reveals that stricter controls are critical in our increasingly toxic world.

9:35pm Saturday, October 3 on TVNZ 7

In New Artland, TVNZ 7′s crazily ambitious art series, thirteen leading artists have been handpicked to create incredible new works of art with the help of Kiwi communities.

Presenter Chris Knox follows the action and the results are surprising, inspiring and epic. Filmed from West Auckland to Central Otago, this new series of New Artland involves the artworks of farmers, flying squads, orchestras, graffiti artists, schoolkids, tattooists, knitters, BMX riders, snowballs and Westies.

In this episode of New Artland, we follow painter, sculptor and video artist Seung Yul Oh who loves to watch people’s faces as they blow up balloons until they burst. Roping in the Auckland Symphony Orchestra and a traditional Korean performance group, he plans to create a symphony that pops. Only thing is – he’s never conducted an orchestra. Will he be able to pull this off?

If you have missed an episode check your guide for extra opportunities to view. Full episodes of New Artland will also be available free online after the show has aired on TVNZ 7. Go to tvnz.co.nz/newartland and click on the ‘watch episode’ button.

9:10pm Saturday, October 3 on TVNZ 7

TVNZ 7 is proud to be a partner in this year’s NZ Book Month, which aims to celebrate our unique literary voice. Boosting the profile of New Zealand authors is the key to extending the readership of local authors, an aspiration that TVNZ 7 and NZ Book Month hope to achieve through a series of events.

To showcase the brilliant writing talent we have, TVNZ 7 has compiled a special series of excerpts from The Good Word, which will screen every Saturday throughout October. Finlay Macdonald’s mini-documentary series, Under the Covers, goes up close and personal each week with iconic New Zealand books and the stories behind them.

Keep an eye out for more exciting activity across the month. Head to www.tvnz.co.nz/tvnz7 for info on how TVNZ 7 is marking NZ Book Month.

7:10pm Wednesday, September 30 on TVNZ 7

Sick Around America investigates the stories of Americans whose lives have become a quest to find and keep health insurance.

At its best, American health care can be very good. For Microsoft employee Mark Murray and his wife, Melinda, their employee health plan paid for eight years of fertility treatments and covered all the costs of a very complicated pregnancy.

“If it wasn’t for our health insurance,” says Murray, “we wouldn’t have a baby boy right now.” The Murrays’ medical bills totalled between $500,000 and $1 million, and their plan covered every penny.

But beyond large, high-wage employers like Microsoft, access to available, affordable, adequate insurance is becoming hard to find. Small businesses face a very bleak outlook for finding and keeping coverage, and this coverage is becoming more expensive and less comprehensive, with high deductibles, co-pays and coverage limits.

Georgetown University Research Professor, Karen Pollitz, explains that for many people, the current system is, “like having an airbag in your car that’s made out of tissue paper: I’m so glad that it’s there, but if I ever get in a crash, it’s not going to protect me.”

Veteran producer Jon Palfreman dissects the private insurance system, a system that not only fails to cover 46 million Americans but also leaves millions more underinsured and at risk of bankruptcy.