Ed Gamble is a man of many hats.

Champion of the Taskmaster UK, podcast co-host, author, television host, standup comedian – on top of this, he’s an absolute food fanatic.

He’s bringing a feast of comedy to New Zealand with his new show ‘Hot Diggity Dog’, filled with his classic “ranting, raving and spluttering”.

Gamble told Jack Tame he describes the show as a collection of things that have happened to him since he last did a show, including a bit about his disastrous honeymoon and one about buying a cat with his wife.

“It’s a lot more exciting than my description of it makes it sound,” he reassured.

“I promise you’ll be on the edge of your seat, even though it sounds incredibly tedious and middle class.”

He’ll be performing live in Christchurch, Wellington, and Auckland – tickets available on TicketMaster.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Samantha Fish is offering up nine new powerhouse songs on her latest album ‘Paper Doll’.

It’s Fish’s 13th album, and the first she’s recorded with her touring band, leaning into her strengths as a musician in a way she hasn’t before.

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

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Perfect Divorce by Jeneva Rose

Till death do us part. Yours. Not Mine. It's been eleven years since high-powered attorney Sarah Morgan defended her husband, Adam, against the charge of murdering his mistress.

The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue

Europe is racing towards the future. Steam travel is the emblem of progress; industry and invention are creating ever greater wealth and ever greater deprivation; and on an autumn day in 1895 a young woman determined to make her mark on history boards the Granville to Paris Express with a bomb.

With her travel the train crew and her fellow passengers: the men who run the engine, who have built a life together away from their wives; a little boy travelling alone for the first time; a wealthy statesman and his ill daughter; an artist far from home and in search of a muse; and another young woman with a secret of a very different nature hidden beneath the layers of her dress . . .

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kevin Milne has been doing some research into his family history recently – notably the deaths of three of his uncles.

All three were soldiers in the First World War, and Kevin was surprised how much research already exists into the lives of New Zealand’s fallen soldiers.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame Full Show Podcast for Saturday 26 April 2025, the master of combining comedy with his love for food, Ed Gamble joins Jack ahead of his tour to NZ.

Jack marks an unusual anniversary.

Winter warmers on your mind? Margo Flanagan of Two Raw Sisters delivers a delicious Halloumi Saagwala recipe and discusses options for alternative proteins.

Francesca Rudkin offers her verdict on the much-hyped Sinners film.

And tech expert Paul Stenhouse explains new EU rules for devices to have a mandatory label.

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.

"Few cities in the world enjoy the stature of being a music mecca quite like Salzburg. It’s one of my favourite European destinations and I recently ventured back to this Austrian jewel with Trafalgar, as part of their magnificent 10-day Imperial Europe tour. It’s like a tasting plate of some of Central Europe’s most glittering destinations, steeped in history and spilling with scenic finery. And it’s all spectacularly brought to life with specialist local guides who live and breathe these destinations, with unbridled passion and pride."

Read Mike's full article here.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Some would argue our world has got too busy, too frantic, that we never get a chance to switch off. An estimate from a few years ago believes we have as much as 34GB of information coming into us every day. Some of this business is likely due to never being able to switch off from incoming info, as well as a loss of “stopping cues” around us, e.g. ads on linear tv, intermissions at movies.

We can get into a pattern of always being on, always “doing”, never stopping and just “being”. It’s arguably not good for our wellbeing —a constant low level of stress— and can also affect relationships, e.g. having a conversation at the same time as scrolling on your phone.

Here are three things people could try if they want to experiment with an antidote to this business:

1) Mindfulness: one aspect of mindfulness is becoming aware of when your attention has shifted and moving it back to just one thing, e.g. your breathing.

2) Concentrating on doing everyday tasks one at a time, e.g. if brushing your teeth, just brush your teeth. Notice all the aspects of it – notice your mind wandering away and practice bringing it back to the task at hand.

3) Watch some slow tv. My best recommendation for the moment is the Great Moose Migration on Swedish tv (svtplay.sw). It’s 24/7 coverage of moose migrating across a river —over 30 cameras but very slow— long shots of Swedish wilderness without a moose in sight. It’s on right now but only lasts for a few more days – you can almost feel your blood pressure lowering.

Give it a go, see if it makes a difference!

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I’m trying a different tack on Newstalk ZB.

It’s something I use with teachers and kids at school: the meaning of scientific names of living organisms helps to remind us how certain creatures operate or how they can be identified.

Once you get that in your gardening vocabulary it becomes a lot easier to prevent or control the problem that’s causing you regular troubles.

Taphrina is the name of a parasitic fungi (belonging to the family Taphrinaceae) that produce asci in a superficial hymenium having an indeterminate margin and cause leaf curling and malformations like blisters on various vascular plants.

It literally tells us it’s a name of Rotter-Fungus that causes curling, malformation, and blisters.

The second name (deformans) repeats the symptoms: it causes deformations. That tells us it is a real bummer to have on your plants (especially on stonefruit: peaches, nectarines, plums, peachcotts, peacherines, apricots, etc).

Ladies and gentlemen: we’re talking about leaf curl on peaches (and Bladder Plum/Plum Pocket on plums).

Spring and summer are the main months of queries on our Gardening programs: how to deal with Taphrina deformans and, while we're at it, Taphrina pruni.

Short answer: in spring and summer you’re too late. Yes, the disease starts in spring, but you can’t spray copious amounts of copper on the new and tender leaves – young leaves will burn!

Right now, in the middle of Autumn you can avoid the infection.

Around mid to late April, when the leaves are falling off the deciduous stone fruit trees, the new buds for the next season are formed. Taphrina deformans will then be invading those new buds and overwinter on those buds to infect the trees again in spring.

First thing to do is to remove all fallen leaves from under the trees. That reduces infection chances.

Next thing is to spray a double dose of copper spray (copper oxychloride, liquid copper, or copper-sulphur mixtures, available form garden centres) on the remaining leaves and on the branches/twigs of the tree. Use a “sticker” if you can to increase coverage and stickability.

Do this again a few weeks or a month later and ensure good coverage of all parts of the tree.

Some people use Lime sulphur. That’s okay too as a winter clean-up – seeing as the trees are getting to dormancy, Lime Sulphur won’t harm the leaves, but I think that lime may not be a great material for apricots as it has the ability to raise the pH levels.

A last smack of Copper spray before budburst should “mop up” the last surviving spores before the flowering and fruiting season begins again.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.