Home30 June 2026
Episode 06: Your feedback, your questions and what’s coming next
Our first season sparked some big conversations, and you had a lot to say about them. In this special episode your three co-hosts Amanda, Peter, and Nick sit down to revisit the feedback, the comments, and the questions that came in after season one. From the GM debate that divided the room to the question of food sovereignty that nobody saw coming, and a tease of what is heading your way in season two.
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Episode Highlights
- Listener feedback from season one, what landed, what surprised, and what sparked the most debate
- The GM episode that kicked a hornets nest, why the genetic modification debate keeps dividing opinion and what we are actually arguing about
- Food security and food sovereignty, the conversation nobody saw coming, and why it matters more than the pro GM vs anti GM debate
- Ragwort, mad rag, and the question of whether our pests could become an industry
- Agapanthus, seed sovereignty, and why keeping the next pest out is harder than dealing with the ones already here
- We tease what is coming in season two – putting biosecurity under the lens
Episode Description
Season one of Under the Lens sparked more conversation than we expected. Listeners came back with comments, questions, and reflections on our weeds, kauri dieback, and genetic modification episodes, and some of what you said stopped us in our tracks.
In this episode your three co-hosts Amanda, Peter, and Nick work through the feedback. The GM episode generated the most debate, with listeners pushing back on pro and anti labels and asking harder questions about ownership, oversight, and who controls the technology.
Listener feedback also opened up an unexpected conversation about food security and food sovereignty, brought into sharp focus by COVID and a recent fuel crisis that revealed just how vulnerable New Zealand is as an island nation.
Closer to home, a listener has established a seed bank of 14,000 kauri trees at Taieri Beach in Otago as a refugia while science works toward a solution for kauri dieback. It is one of several examples of community leadership in biosecurity that remind us the work is already happening on the ground.
The episode closes with a preview of season two, which turns the lens on the biosecurity system itself, the people working within it, the tools available, and the harder questions about how we keep the next threat out.
Meet the Hosts
Professor Amanda Black — Director, Bioprotection Aotearoa; soil scientist at Lincoln University.
Professor Peter Dearden — Co-Director, Genomics Aotearoa; geneticist at the University of Otago.
Dr Nick Waipara — Forest pathologist with Plant & Food Research Group of the Bioeconomy Science Institute, and a long-time collaborator with Te Tira Whakamātaki.
About the Podcast
Under the Lens is a conversation series exploring how ecosystems resist, recover, and thrive across Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific.
Our Voice
Warm. Curious. Grounded.
We welcome tough questions, speak in plain language, and focus on real people and real impacts. Our conversations bridge perspectives and explore how knowledge, experience, and action come together to support resilience across Aotearoa.
Where This Episode Fits
This episode sits at the opening of season two as both a bridge and a tease. It closes the loop on season one by responding to listener feedback, honouring the audience that followed the series and showing that the conversation is genuinely two way.
At the same time it plants the seeds for everything that follows in season two, biosecurity as a system, the people who work within it, the tools available, and the harder questions about who decides and who is accountable. If season one asked what the problems are, season two asks what we do about them.
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