Alex Casey 
Alex Casey chats to a group of 16 year-olds about the pressures of Instagram, weird men in the DMs, and their multiple online identities. “I’m planning on getting it,” says Neha. “Just my breasts. They’re just too small. It doesn’t look really nice in clothes and stuff.” Aaliyah would too, but wouldn’t touch her butt. … Read more
Muzza’s Pies is a beloved Mt Albert institution, responsible for curing a million hangovers. Alex Casey pays tribute to the shop that got her through her teenage years. We were all perched on the bench outside Muzza’s Pies, a motley group of teenage girls nursing our cheap whiskey hangovers with an urgent IV of warm … Read more
Alex Casey breaks down the full line-up for Celebrity Treasure Island 2019, including two weather presenters and a mandatory Lana. Gather round peasants, Celebrity Treasure Island is coming back for the first time since 2007 and you should all be screaming bloody murder. This is the show with the killer coral! The weird txt speak! … Read more
The $800 per ticket, council-funded festival of ‘creative collisions’ has been cancelled and the company behind it has gone bust. Alex Casey reports. The first problem was that nobody knew how to say it. Without any discernible vowels, pronouncing WLG-X, the name of a five day festival of “creative collisions” planned for September of this … Read more
In what is being touted as “paw-some” news by AT, domestic pets will be allowed on trains in Auckland from Sunday 16 June. Here are all your burning questions answered. First of all, what the hell is a so-called domestic pet? Domestic pets are defined as “tame animals that live inside the customer’s home” by … Read more
Alex Casey pays tribute to one of the only good things left in this cold, hard world. There’s been a lot to love about this season of Dancing With the Stars NZ. If you like runaway ponytails, this is the show for you. If you like completely hectic judges being unpredictable and also changing their … Read more
Television doesn’t make your eyes square, but it can make them leak. Alex Casey explains the phenomenon. Hear ye, hear ye, I am the town crier of Sobsonville Point, and I hereby decree that there are too many things on television that maketh me weep. As if the horrors of our melting planet and the … Read more
With three episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale arriving express to Lightbox tonight, Alex Casey prepares you to return to life in Gilead. Starch your bonnets, straighten your Scrabble tiles and plot to overthrow the oppressive patriarchal system because The Handmaid’s Tale returns to Lightbox tonight with three whopper episodes for you to devour like your … Read more
Alex Casey meets Julz Tocker, the Dancing With the Stars NZ judge who refuses to sit down. If you’ve ever seen Dancing With the Stars NZ, you’ll know that judge Julz Tocker doesn’t do anything by halves. If anything, he does things by doubles. He meditates twice a day for 20 minutes. He has two … Read more
Ever wondered what those huddles of blokes with their tiny yachts are up to? Alex Casey hit the Onepoto pond to find out. This story originally ran in Barker’s 1972 magazine. It was a 250,000-year journey to get to one perfect moment in Onepoto Domain on Auckland’s North Shore. All that needed to happen was a volcano erupting, … Read more
Despite the outdated format, the premiere of Wife Swap NZ felt quietly revolutionary thanks to one woman. Alex Casey explains why. Everything about the Wife Swap format is cause for teeth-shattering cringe. Two families trade their wives – who are often also their precious unpaid cook, cleaner and child-minder – for a week in the … Read more
Alex Casey goes down a YouTube rabbit hole to try and find the best New Zealand advertising jingle ever created. It happened without warning. Staring into my simmering bolognese last week, something came over me. I turned slowly, the harsh kitchen lights dimming to a single spotlight. I held the saucy wooden spoon up to … Read more
Alex Casey talks to the woman behind @trademebae, the Instagram account archiving the most bizarre items that Trade Me has to offer. Every detail is somehow funnier than the last. “Sex noveltys” the listing reads. $1 reserve. Condition: Used. Description: As is. Pick-up: Invercargill. Pictured: dildos, vibrators, a butt plug and various other “noveltys”, opaque … Read more
Forget his problematic Instagram and his pet monkey, Justin Bieber made his most evocative piece of art during a whirlwind trip to New Zealand in 2010. Cast your mind back to 2010. Donald Trump was just a guy asking budding entrepreneurs to manage a doggy day care on his reality TV show. The Social Network … Read more
For the body hair episode of On the Rag, Alex Casey decided to get waxed for the very first time. This is her story. It was a terrifying ultimatum. Relax, or have my bum cheeks stick together. Would they just cling together for a bit? Or be firmly welded shut for the rest of my … Read more
As Instagram comes under increasing scrutiny for contributing to poor mental health and body image, Alex Casey discovers a growing number of local women who are using the platform to empower and educate. The average Instagram user under the age of 25 spends 32 minutes a day on the app. That’s a cool 11392 minutes … Read more
Many of the great New Zealand songs have one thing in common: a woman’s first name as their title. Alex Casey went on a mission to find the real women who inspired them. She keeps me waiting in the morning by tying ribbons in her hair. She’s just so sweet, so fine, so polite too. … Read more
Alex Casey woke up at 5.59am this morning to watch John Campbell’s Breakfast debut. Here are some of the highlights. Less than two weeks since the announcement that John Campbell was moving to TVNZ’s Breakfast to take Jack Tame’s place, there he was on the telly. It was 6am in the shiny pink studio and … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, Alex Casey revels in the wonders of a borrowed fabric shaver. I’ve sold so many old jumpers on Trademe in my life that I think my alias could be Slight Lee Pilled. “Slight pilling around the cuff,” I used … Read more
Alex Casey takes a look back at the period ads of the late 90s and early 2000s, with the help of advertising guru Jill Brinsdon. These days I can time my targeted ads for menstrual products like clockwork. Period trackers, bleedable underwear and menstrual cups all flood in on Facebook and Instagram several days before … Read more
Alex Casey plays chaotic cooking game Overcooked 2 and learns some very valuable lessons. Three pots of rice are on fire and one pan of sautéed mushrooms is starting to smoke. I’ve thrown dry pasta all over the floor. The dirty plates are piling up. My colleague is swearing at me from across the kitchen. … Read more
Alex Casey talks to Courtney Act, host of Bravo’s The Bi Life, about her brand of political activism in the most unlikely of places – reality television. I don’t know if there is some kind of EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) equivalent for reality television but, if there is, Courtney Act is already making her … Read more
My YouTube Party of Five is a new series in which we invite people to share their five favourite YouTube videos – the ones hold closest in their heart, the ones they’ll play at 2am while drunk at a party. This week: Spinoff senior writer Alex Casey. Animals are good. Humans are bad. Here’s my … Read more
Alex Casey reflects on the most dramatic season of Married at First Sight in history. Looks like we made it. Three months. 41 episodes. Well over 60 hours. Two cheating scandals. One multi-million dollar fraud conviction. One virginity lost. Zero moments of calm. This season of Married at First Sight has truly been like no … Read more
In the same week that a woman was told her bikini was “inappropriate” to wear at an Auckland pool, Alex Casey provides some much-needed reminders for women wearing clothes everywhere. Women, you probably already know this but… you’re wrong. Your clothes are wrong, your togs are wrong, whatever you are wearing on your head is … Read more
Alex Casey chats to Leilani Tominiko, aka Candy Lee, about raising trans awareness from the wrestling ring. If Candy Lee offers you a Gobstopper, don’t take it. It doesn’t mean what you think it means. One of her signature wrestling moves, it involves one heavy black boot, one swift kick to the side of the head, … Read more
Alex Casey talks to Grace Stratton, founder of All is For All, about creating a pioneering online store that makes accessibility a priority. It all began last July with an uninvited tie. Grace Stratton – fashion enthusiast, uni student and wheelchair user – had bought a pair of pants online from a New Zealand designer, and … Read more
In the second part of a series in which The Spinoff gets to know who, what, where and how our food gets to our plate, Alex Casey learns about how olive oil is made. The bright lights and smooth floors of the supermarket are a world away from the soil and sun, the plants, animals and … Read more
If the big sites ignore your complaints, come straight to us, say Netsafe. Alex Casey reports Netsafe have seen a spike in complaints lodged about offensive content following the white supremacist terrorist attack in Christchurch on Friday, with the majority of reports being made about content on social media sites. “We’ve received hundreds of reports … Read more