Guitar-wielding prophets protest; war benefits only the dealers, poverty is the over-populated flip-side of greed, discrimination stuns the defenceless into silence, Mother Earth gasps.
Each week Echoes of Dissent traverses the centuries and musical genres to dive into one song that cries out ‘This is wrong!’
We ask, what is it saying? Who wrote it? Why? What does it say for us today? At times we will be challenged, disturbed, unsettled. Please join us.
New Zealand is about to spend up to $9 BILLION on two warships that can't patrol our own coastline, can't stop illegal fishing in our own waters, and — by the government's own experts' logic — couldn't actually defend us anyway. So why are we buying them?
This week, Echoes of Dissent asks the question Wellington doesn't want to answer: Why Grey Hulls? Why not MRIs instead?
Dame Lynda Topp opens with the funniest takedown of the defence budget you'll hear all year. Then Herbs, Shona Laing, Bob Dylan and Edwin Starr join the soundtrack.
We take a hard look at choices between frigates and hospitals, and where every party stands before November 7. Listen before you vote.
Traversing the centuries and musical genres to dive into one song that cries out ‘This is wrong!’
24 Sept 2026
Echoes of Dissent - We Remember the Silence
When Macklemore said "Free Palestine" from a stadium stage, he lost eight shows on Ed Sheeran's tour.
We trace why and see the backlash that amplified Macklemore’s message. We play ‘Hind's Hall 2’ and remember Hind Rajab, the six-year-old it's named for.
Then we turn away from the shouting: we see Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian organisations working together, right now, working for a negotiated two-state peace. And, with Simon and Garfunkel's The Sound of Silence, a line from Martin Luther King Jr, Bob Marley's Get Up, Stand Up, we take a look at where NZ's political parties stand six weeks from the election.
17 Sept 2026
Echoes of Dissent Ep 23 - Chumbawumba - Tubthumping
A protest song escapes the people who wrote it. The political right nicks it cos they never have any good songs. ‘Tubthumping’, Chumbawamba’s unforgettable anthem of resilience, becomes a hypocritical stage for migrant bashing.
We explore its late 1980s origins at the Fforde Grene pub in the suburb of Harehills, Leeds. We demonstrate how it has been used for cheap political shots. And in Harehills, we discover another story — people from different backgrounds coming together when their neighbourhood was under pressure.
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