Josie Adams 
What happened to the bridge, when will it be fixed, are we ever getting another harbour crossing – and how long will it take to get home tonight? Few of us remember a time before the bridge. Its eight glorious lanes run from St Mary’s Bay across the Waitematā harbour to Northcote. Without it Auckland … Read more
Tech start-up Areto Labs noticed online abuse was stopping women from going into politics – so it did something about it. CEO Lana Cuthbertson and creative technologist Jacqueline Comer talk to The Spinoff about their abuse-fighting bot. “Imagine you have a job interview and every day, for a month, you have to walk down a … Read more
Two electorates, seven candidates (including two recent National leaders) and 100 spaced-out audience members. Josie Adams reports from Tauranga. There were two debates for the price of one last night in Tauranga: the battle for the Tauranga electorate and the battle for Bay of Plenty were fought on the same Baycourt Theatre stage before a … Read more
The price of gold hit record highs last month, and New Zealanders are lusting for it. Josie Adams investigates the age-old attraction of this precious metal – and where we’re getting it from. Gold is real money. You can’t print it from a machine or birth it from a Bitcoin maths equation. You find it … Read more
In season two of The Boys, Antony Starr’s Homelander gets even more twisted. He spoke to The Spinoff about the gratuitous violence and nationalism that runs through the show. Antony Starr is calling from LA, where he’s riding out Covid-19. He’d love to come home to New Zealand one day, but now’s not the time. … Read more
Aucklander and Triple J veteran Ollie Wards has landed a role as Tiktok’s first director of music for Australia and New Zealand. He talked to The Spinoff about what’s in store. TikTok is looking unstoppable. Trump wants to ban it, Microsoft wants to buy it, and the Chinese government is allegedly using it for propaganda. … Read more
The Spinoff’s Youth Wings series culminated last night in a half-hour debate episode. Today we hand out the awards. Over the past week, our Youth Wings series has showcased the keen young folk who dedicate their prime years to phone banking and hoarding hammering. Young Act’s Felix Poole, Young Labour’s Adam Brand, Young National’s Aryana … Read more
A new Instagram account holds our representatives to account on one issue: the manner in which they spread their Marmite on toast. The Spinoff talks to its anonymous founder. Move over oil, there’s a new black gold this election. Party policy is one thing, but your local electorate MP is someone who represents you on … Read more
The fourth episode of Youth Wings discusses sexual harassment. Here, Young Act’s former vice president describes her experience – which includes an account of misogynist and sexual messages – and why she quit the group. It’s only August, but Young Act has had a big year. There was its O-week drug legalisation policy announcement, its … Read more
By day, she’s a GP in a Grey Lynn clinic. By night (and at weekends), Dr Sandhya Ramanathan is a WhatsApp and YouTube superstar. Two months ago, Sandhya Ramanathan began posting videos on how to manage Covid-19 at home. They were made for her family overseas, in countries where managing the virus was difficult: the … Read more
New research suggests that, contrary to received wisdom, people with little sense of control over their lives aren’t any more susceptible than others to conspiracy theories. While conspiracy theories have been around since the Middle Ages and its blood libels, in the past couple of decades they’ve experiencing something of a boom, with the rise … Read more
A review of Rat King Landlord, the new novel by activist and satirist Murdoch Stephens, by Josie Adams, who lives with a rat. This is the first book I have finished in four years. The last book I read was Sisterhood of Dune, because I am no longer capable of entering new literary universes and … Read more
The first Auckland Central debate took place last night, despite the lack of a National candidate. Josie Adams went along to watch Helen White, Chlöe Swarbrick and the rest. The Auckland Central electorate stretches from the depths of Grafton across the Hauraki Gulf to Aotea (Great Barrier). Its residents are Waiheke’s hippies and vintners, the … Read more
Over lockdown, mental health hotlines saw a massive spike in calls and texts from distressed New Zealanders. Their numbers still haven’t returned to normal, and growing research suggests demand won’t be going away anytime soon. In April and May, Lifeline experienced a 25% increase in calls and texts from people in distress. For many, lockdown … Read more
Community initiative or commercial enterprise? How a planter box-slash-chair is trying to revolutionise berms around Auckland. On the corner of Ariki Street and Crummer Road in Grey Lynn is a cafe called Crumb. It’s a good cafe, but that’s by-the-by. It’s the berm next to Crumb that’s controversial; it’s at the centre of a dispute between … Read more
A cold day, a roaring fire, a steaming mug between your hands – Josie Adams reviews Hot Marmite Drink, in cupboards now. Marmite New Zealand’s Instagram page has gone off the deep end. It’s posting instructions on how to create obscenities: how to create Marmite salad dressing, Marmite zoodles, Marmite quesadillas. Its latest invention is … Read more
The Equal Pay Amendment Bill is set to make it easier for women to take collective action over pay equity disputes. But how exactly does it work? What’s all this then? On Thursday night, the Equal Pay Amendment Bill was finally passed unanimously by parliament. Minister for women Julie Anne Genter described it as “one … Read more
Oliver Tree is a semi-pro scooter athlete, a brilliant character actor, and a musician with a breadth of experience rare for any millennial. And he’s finally released an album. That skater-emo voice, those dirty pop beats, the tearing lyrics and absurdist videos – and then, out of nowhere, ska. Oliver Tree’s inspiration must come from … Read more
Wikipedia’s coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic has outdone most media companies in both content output and page views. Josie Adams spoke to Wikipedian Mike Dickison about what makes the organisation so good at covering these events. There are more than 5,200 articles about Covid-19 on Wikipedia. One defines the disease, and another the virus that … Read more
The Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand said it repeatedly warned the government an attack like that on March 15 last year was possible. Today, it released the evidence. Within days of the March 15 mosque attacks, while the names of the dead were still being recorded, Anjum Rahman of the Islamic Women’s Council of … Read more
With the world in lockdown, and a new album set for release, The Beths decided to keep playing live – from their living rooms. As the band prepare for their first show in front of a crowd in months, they tell Josie Adams the stories behind Live From ‘House’. When The Beths decided they wanted … Read more
The Spinoff’s most-viewed article, by far, is an explainer about a drug that probably doesn’t exist. Josie Adams explains why a low-stakes story she wrote in a morning took flight. In early April I wrote this story about adrenochrome, a chemical compound that doesn’t exist in any meaningful way, and how it became the centre … Read more
The “sovereign citizens” movement has reached New Zealand, and their focus is Auckland’s Viaduct Harbour. Here’s what’s going on down there. A small group has been keeping watch over several yachts in the Auckland Viaduct, led by former union organiser Sharna Butcher. They make various allegations, the most serious of which is that yachts currently … Read more
Over lockdown, people who worked live gigs had their careers shut down. Thanks to technology, the connection between music makers and audiences grew and now, they’re more in sync than ever. In the final days of level two, Auckland venue The Tuning Fork tested the waters of post-Covid connection. Soul singer Hollie Smith was performing … Read more
A decade after ‘Young Blood’ was released, The Naked and Famous are still making hits. Thom Powers and Alisa Xayalith talk about their early years in Auckland, their present in locked-down LA, and how their new album was forged in between it all. A decade ago, there was a script musicians in New Zealand could … Read more
Over six years, Ben Sarten filmed Adam Rohe (who was assigned female at birth) on his journey into manhood, forming a friendship that to them has become as important as the documentary itself. Most documentary-makers put in hours, days, or years before a subject trusts them enough to do a film like Man Lessons. But … Read more
This morning, Heather Simpson’s long-awaited review of the health and disability system was released. It’s not the revolution many were hoping for, but it’s still regarded as a step in the right direction. The health and disability system review released this morning has detailed research, but only a few key recommendations: the creation of a … Read more
The Bay of Plenty is synonymous with kiwifruit. With a large contingent of new workers moving in this season from Covid-displaced industries, Josie Adams asked what life is like for those who’ve been there for years. Under a very heavy tree in Tom French’s orchard waits a very heavy hedgehog. About a metre above the … Read more
Like other viruses, Covid-19 could have health impacts long after a case is declared “recovered”. What those impacts are is only now coming to light. Cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand have mostly been mild. A cough, some aches, a sore throat; symptoms that cleared up within two weeks, enough for many of our 1,154 … Read more