8:15 Luke Harding: Russia
8:40 Peter Lineham: rugby religion
9:05 Duncan Watts: common sense and society
9:45 Paul Brewer: Anatoly Kuchumov
10:05 Playing Favourites with Whirimako Black
11:05 James Lee Burke: evil and redemption
11:45 Gardening with Kath Irvine
Producer: Mark Cubey
Wellington engineer: Damon Taylor
Auckland engineer: Ian Gordon
8:15 Luke Harding
Luke Harding is a journalist at The Guardian, and was the newspaper’s Moscow correspondent from 2007 until earlier this year. He recounts his Russian experiences in the new book, Mafia State: How One Reporter Became an Enemy of the Brutal New Russia (Guardian Books, ISBN: 978-0-85265-247-3).
8:40 Peter Lineham
Peter Lineham is Regional Director for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Associate Professor of History, at Massey University’s Albany campus. He will talk about rugby as New Zealand’s surrogate religion.
9:05 Duncan Watts
Duncan J Watts is a principal research scientist at Yahoo! Research and a former professor of sociology at Columbia University. His research on social networks and collective dynamics has appeared in a wide range of journals. His new book is Everything is Obvious *Once You Know the Answer: How Common Sense Fails (Atlantic Books, ISBN: 978-1-84887-215-8).
9:45 Paul Brewer
Paul Brewer was recently appointed Director External Relationships for Regional Facilities Auckland, a new organisation responsible for the Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland Zoo, the Aotea Performing Arts Centre and the Civic Theatre, the Viaduct Events Centre and several sports stadiums. Paul is a board member of the Auckland Museum, and a trustee of the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation. He is an active supporter of the project to restore the historic Alexander Palace near St Petersburg in Russia, and will speak about that and the work of Anatoly Kuchumov.
10:05 Playing Favourites with Whirimako Black
Whirimako Black is best known for her albums sung in Te Reo Maori, but her new recording, The Late Night Plays (Ode Records), contains full English renditions of some of her favourite songs from the twentieth century.
11:05 James Lee Burke
James Lee Burke has worked as an oil landman, pipeliner, land surveyor, newspaper reporter, college English professor, skid row social worker, clerk for the Louisiana Employment Service, and instructor in the U.S. Job Corps. His novel The Lost Get-Back Boogie was rejected 111 times over a period of nine years, and upon publication by Louisiana State University Press was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. His thirtieth novel is Feast Day of Fools (Orion).
11:45 Gardening with Kath Irvine
Kath Irvine has spent years teaching permaculture and gardening to schools and community groups. Her Edible Backyard workshops, run from her garden in Ohau, teach how to grow food and create edible backyards. She will talk about hot boxes, and growing asparagus.
Saturday Morning repeats:
On Saturday 1 October August 2011 during Great Encounters between 6:06pm and 7:00pm on Radio New Zealand National, you can hear a repeat broadcast of Kim Hill’s interview from 24 September with Dr Nancy Andreassen on the links between creativity and mental illness.
Preview: Saturday 8 October
Kim Hill’s guests will include designer Tony Parker and author Tom Keneally (right - Courier Mail photo).
2:30 Chapter & Verse: 
