Maren Morris is a country music superstar.

She’s a Grammy Award Winner and a five time winner at the Country Music Awards, breaking records and writing songs for iconic artists like Kelly Clarkson and Tim McGraw.

And now she’s entering a new era in her life and career with her latest album ‘Dreamsicle’.

She’ll be heading to New Zealand next year to ride the country music wave that’s sweeping the country, performing shows in Auckland and Christchurch.

Morris joined Jack Tame to discuss this next phase in her career, the meaning behind Dreamsicle, and next year’s tour.

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The release coming as a surprise to his fans, Swag is the seventh studio album of Justin Bieber – his first release in four years.

With a range of guest appearances, the album returns to Bieber’s favoured R&B sounds after his backslide into generic pop with 2021’s Justice.

Estelle Clifford joined Jack Tame to give her thoughts on the new album.

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"Steeped in Roman heritage and swooned over as Britain’s premier spa destination, Bath’s architectural flourishes and all-encompassing grandeur underpins my love affair with the city. I recently reacquainted myself with its atmospheric charm in a whistle-stop romp around Blighty with Trafalgar’s Real Britain tour. Adeptly helmed by travel director Selene, this is Trafalgar’s fastest-paced UK tour, delivering a whistle-stop experience with some of Britain’s most desirable destinations. If you’re short on time but want to tick-off a swag of top-billing icons, it’s a cracking option."

Read Mike's full article here.

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Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell

He’s the perfect man. It’s a perfect lie.

Nina Swann is intrigued when she received a condolence card from Nick Radcliffe, an old friend of her late husband, who is looking to connect after her husband’s unexpected death. Nick is a man of substance and good taste. He has a smile that could melt the coldest heart and a knack for putting others at ease. But to Nina’s adult daughter, Ash, Nick seems too slick, too polished, too good to be true. Without telling her mother, Ash begins digging into Nick’s past. What she finds is more than unsettling…

Martha is a florist living in a neighboring town with her infant daughter and her devoted husband, Alistair. But lately, Alistair has been traveling more and more frequently for work, disappearing for days at a time. When Martha questions him about his frequent absences, he always has a legitimate explanation, but Martha can’t share the feeling that something isn’t right.

Nina, Martha, and Ash are on a collision course with a shocking truth that is far darker than anyone could have imagined. And all three are about to wish they had heeded the same warning: Don’t let him in. But the past won’t stay buried forever.

The Phoenix Pencil Company by Alison King

Monica Tsai spends most days on her computer, journaling the details of her ordinary life and coding for a program that seeks to connect strangers online. A self-proclaimed recluse, she's always struggled to make friends and, as a college freshman, finds herself escaping into a digital world, counting the days until she can return home to her beloved grandparents. They are now in their nineties, and Monica worries about them constantly—especially her grandmother, Yun, who survived two wars in China before coming to the States, and whose memory has begun to fade.

Though Yun rarely speaks of her past, Monica is determined to find the long-lost cousin she was separated from years ago. One day, the very program Monica is helping to build connects her to a young woman, whose gift of a single pencil holds a surprising clue. Monica’s discovery of a hidden family history is exquisitely braided with Yun’s own memories as she writes of her years in Shanghai, working at the Phoenix Pencil Company. As WWII rages outside their door, Yun and her cousin, Meng, learn of a special power the women in their family possess: the ability to Reforge a pencil’s words. But when the government uncovers their secret, they are forced into a life of espionage, betraying other people’s stories to survive.

Combining the cross-generational family saga and epistolary form of A Tale for the Time Being with the uplifting, emotional magic of The Midnight Library, Allison King’s stunning debut novel asks: who owns and inherits our stories? The answers and secrets that surface on the page may have the unerasable power to reconnect a family and restore a legacy.

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Globally, around 460 million metric tons of plastic is produced every year, and it’s estimated that 20 million metric tons of plastic litter ends up in the environment.

To try and mitigate some of the damage, Plastic Free July was launched in 2011.

It’s a key initiative of the Plastic Free Foundation, which aims to work towards a world free of plastic waste.

Founder and Executive Director of Plastic Free July, Rebecca Prince-Ruiz joined Jack Tame to discuss the initiative and challenge people to get involved.

Find more details here.

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Technology has improved in leaps and bounds over the years – going from landlines to brick phones to smartphones in relatively quick succession.

However, as technology has improved, it’s also become increasingly difficult to repair for one reason or another. Gone are the days when you can pop your battery out of your phone and put a new one in.

Kevin Milne recently tried to buy a new battery for his iPhone, and ran into an annoying problem when trying to get the real deal.

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Winter dormancy is the best time to shift a tree or a shrub (or plant a new one), especially when they originate from a “temperate climate” (the kind that shed their leaves and hail from UK, Europe, North America, etc).

When considering shifting a sub-tropical/semi tropical one, wait a little to just before spring sets in (mid-end September).

These sub-tropicals do not really like to be dumped into a wet and cold soil for many weeks of deepest winter – it could kill them! Besides, as discussed last week, with these cold and wet soils all kinds of Root Rots (Phytophthora, Armillaria, Pithium, etc) might terminally affect your trees.

Here are some ideas to make it work as well as possible:

1) Consider the size of the tree – smaller ones are much easier to (trans)plant than big ones.

2) Get a “trenching spade”. These long, narrow, sturdy blades are much more efficient at digging into cold, wet clay soils than the ordinary, wider spades.

3) Destination site – select the site where the tree has to go and dig a rather huge hole – you can’t really dig big enough, as no matter what the root ball will be, a lot of extra drainage is always going to be beneficial. Drainage away from the root ball to be planted helps to avoid Root Rots.

Mix in some pumice or compost in the loose soil material, so that it will become friable and nutritious with organic material; the tree will appreciate this new site as it has plenty of drainage and food.

4) Original site: with the trenching spade dig a circular shape around the tree’s root-zone – remember that the wider you go, the heavier the root ball will be, you might need a bit of neighbourly help to lift the bugger out! Approx. 30 to 40 cm radius from the tree’s stem is pretty good

Try to get as many roots across as possible as the tree will re-establish better.

5) Levering with the trenching spade, remove the tree and its root ball out of its original site and transport it on a wheelbarrow to the destination site. If the soil starts to fall off the roots, use a hessian sack to wrap it all up before moving.

6) Plant the tree at destination site as soon as possible to prevent drying out. The level of the tree’s soil should be the same at the new site – don’t plant it deeper than it was before! In the unlikely event of destination site being too dry, fill the planting hole with water before the shift.

7) Stake the new tree to anchor it. Provide it with a bit of wind-shelter (windbreak) for the first year or so, firm the soil around the roots. Top-dress in spring with some slow-release fertilizer.

If you’ve lost a lot of roots in the shift, prune the tops of the tree to restore the root/foliage balance.

8) I prefer to add some 3-4 inches of mulch over the root zone to keep moisture in and keep roots cool in summer. Keep the mulch away from the stem of the tree to avoid collar rots.

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On the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame Full Show Podcast for 12 July 2025, country music superstar Maren Morris joins Jack to discuss bringing her Dreamsicle tour to New Zealand, and just what a dreamsicle is...

The latest Superman has hit big screens, and Francesca Rudkin shares her thoughts on this iteration of the classic.

Nici Wickes shares a recipe for the perfect pie and makes a special announcement.

Plus, Justin Bieber dropped a surprise album overnight: "Swag". Music reviewer Estelle Clifford had her ears on it immediately and shares her thoughts on what Bieber has delivered.

Get the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame Full Show Podcast every Saturday on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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