What makes Zoom so exhausting? And where to for art? For Auckland artist Cushla Donaldson it’s about work that embraces the social and physical in new ways. Increasingly in Zoom meetings, rather than staring stoically at me from the other side of the screen, my opposite zoomer is asking if it’s OK if they do … Read more
With so many gigs and jobs cancelled over the past month, Covid-19 has devastated the New Zealand music ecosystem. But as Recorded Music NZ CEO Damian Vaughan writes, the right support can see the industry emerge even stronger. By the numbers, this should be a time of celebration for Aotearoa’s music industry. We just finalised … Read more
Economists warn that house prices are about to see a sharp correction. The NZIER public good team explains why this is happening, and how we can handle it. For the first time in recent history, New Zealand has been preoccupied by something that isn’t the housing market. With the entire country locked down for four … Read more
The latest in our series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall. David Garcia worked with Chris to create today’s charts. This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff Members, with support from the Science Media Centre. These posts collate the most recent statistics and present them as charts and maps. … Read more
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level three – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The Spinoff Members … Read more
Delivery services for supermarkets across the country are filling up weeks in advance, leaving immunocompromised people without options. Students up and down the country have been stepping up, through the Student Volunteer Army, to help those in need. If anyone had said at this point last year that a smile from a stranger passing on … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Economic collapse of Queenstown looms, trade minister warns of over-reliance on China, and a must-read new edition of The Side-Eye. For a lead today, we’re going to focus on a part of the country that could end up wearing the Covid-19 downturn hardest. Before this, Queenstown … Read more
Two years ago, Toby Morris met Tasia for the Side Eye comic ‘Empty Shelves’. As New Zealand emerges from the strict Covid-19 lockdown of alert level four he catches up with her again, and finds that while some things have changed, others have not. The Side Eye is a monthly non-fiction comic by Toby Morris, … Read more
Politicians can’t make us feel less lonely, but they can adopt policies that create conditions for meaningful social interaction to flourish. This article tackles loneliness at the policy level, which is important, but won’t be much immediate help to individuals feeling lonely and isolated right now. If you’re in that situation, Loneliness NZ has some … Read more
The latest in our series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall. David Garcia worked with Chris to create today’s charts. This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff Members, with support from the Science Media Centre. These posts collate the most recent statistics and present them as charts and maps. … Read more
Eerie scenes from level four lockdown in the nation’s capital. With people instructed to stay at home, Wellington streets, schools and parks are near empty. We captured this strangely beautiful footage during the first weeks of lockdown, visiting familiar Wellington locations including the Wellington Urban Motorway, the waterfront, Kent Terrace and Oriental Bay. This video … Read more
While the pandemic will have a deadly effect on the local industry, New Zealand fashion was already in a fragile state before the coronavirus hit, writes former FQ editor Zoe Walker Ahwa. Most days at 1pm, like everyone else trying to find some semblance of structure in their life right now, I watch the government … Read more
Emergency departments nationwide are reporting a decrease in patients, but an increase in injuries from aspiring handyfolk. “Please,” said Southern DHB on April 2nd, “can we remind everyone to take care when undertaking DIY tasks and using power tools.” Less than a week into lockdown, its hospitals had seen an increase in orthopaedic presentations related … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Peters captures political initiative with pair of speeches, future shape of unemployment in the spotlight, and second set of anti-semitic tagging at Auckland maunga. Over each of the last two years, PM Jacinda Ardern has been at the centre of coverage of an epoch-defining news … Read more
The weight of Covid-19 will be very unequally distributed. Duncan Greive writes about where it will land, and how those it hits might come out from under it. This is the second of a two part series – read the first here There’s a graph I keep thinking about which shows the potential strangeness of … Read more
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level three – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The Spinoff Members … Read more
Even after weeks of lockdown, people are still testing positive. Here’s why that is – and why getting tested swiftly if you have symptoms is really important. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 crisis is only possible because of the support of members. If you can, please consider joining Spinoff Members here (and score a Toby … Read more
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level three – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The Spinoff Members … Read more
The latest in our series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall. David Garcia worked with Chris to create today’s charts. This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff Members, with support from the Science Media Centre. These posts collate the most recent statistics and present them as charts and maps. … Read more
In the third in our new video series 60 Seconds with Siouxsie, Dr Wiles explains why we’ve heard so little about Covids 1-18. A short and sweet video made possible by the support of Spinoff members, about the origins of the name “Covid-19”. Contrary to what you might have heard from Trump megaphone Kellyanne Conway, … Read more
Under alert level three, school doors are open to students up to Year 10 who need to attend. Initial signs are that only a trickle are heading through the gates. Five weeks after they closed their doors as New Zealand went into the strict lockdown of alert level four, schools across the country are reopening … Read more
As the past few weeks have starkly revealed, we can’t always conflate the occupants of a single residence into one neat group. Anthropologists Susanna Trnka and Sharyn Graham Davies explain. On March 23, New Zealanders were presented with a stark and unprecedented demand to get into our “bubbles” within 48 hours and stay there for … Read more
A study in Santa Clara, California, suggested 50 times as many as the confirmed number of cases. Reports from New York headlined 2.7 million people in the state having had coronavirus. Siouxsie Wiles on what we need to know to trust the numbers. A few days ago it was reported that “2.7 million New Yorkers have … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Spotlight on the Pacific and Covid-19, health minister in yet another spot of bother, and schools reopening to very limited numbers. For a lead today, I thought it would be useful to check in on our nation’s neighbours in the Pacific, and how they are … Read more
Over the past month, we became deeply aware that we were all only as safe as our most marginalised and at-risk. Nobody was immune. We need to channel that knowledge to the core of how we do politics, writes Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick. Yesterday, Aotearoa New Zealand cautiously toned down the world-leading, robust safeguards designed … Read more
In the first of a series of now-virtual events, Danyl is joined by a journalist and a former political staffer to discuss politics and the media. Two months ago today, Spinoff Members and Verb Wellington cheerfully unveiled a new collaboration: a series of live events at the tremendous Meow bar. And, well, everyone knows what … Read more
Final year law student Elliott Harris has been researching the new pastoral care code of practice, and in a piece he worked on with NZUSA’s Isabella Lenihan-Ikin, says universities are already attempting to push the boundaries of acceptable behaviour. The decision of several New Zealand universities to charge accommodation fees even though Covid-19 restrictions prevent … Read more
Everyone has had different coping strategies during lockdown, and for many around the country, this has meant taking to the kitchen. Here’s what your iso cooking says about you. Nobody knew what alert level four was going to do to us. We didn’t know which hobbies we would take up, which crafts we would learn … Read more
The latest in our series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall. David Garcia worked with Chris to create today’s charts. This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff Members, with support from the Science Media Centre. These posts collate the most recent statistics and present them as charts and maps. … Read more