Need an antidote to perfectly lit influencers and lockdown sourdough spam? May we suggest this refreshingly real food ‘grammer. She’s often in her dressing gown, may or may not be in possession of a bra, and isn’t always one to brush her hair. In a sea of beautifully shot sourdough imagery and restaurant brands churning … Read more
The 48-hour film festival is back, self-isolation style. While the judging panel is deciding the winners, The Spinoff is showcasing seven films from the competition. We’re sharing one a day in the lead-up to the one-hour awards special, airing on TVNZ2. Today we’ve got Containment from team Corner Shop. Containment follows a daughter’s relationship with her … Read more
The Wellington-based musician’s new album is the culmination of 10 years of memories, YouTube, and jazz school. It’s been over a decade since ‘My Heart Will Go On – Recorder by Candlelight’ was uploaded to YouTube. It is a work of exceptional craftsmanship. The soft focus, the notes pitching in just the wrong places, and … Read more
Two musicians head for the hills to seek out peace, snowmelt swims and Samuel Butler’s fictional utopia, Erewhon. Imagine a land where the unwell are treated like criminals. Perhaps now we don’t have to. Erewhon is such a place. Law breakers are tended and cared for while the sick are imprisoned. Machinery is outlawed and … Read more
Apple’s newest phone is a great value lockdown tech upgrade, says Henry Burrell. Since its debut in 2007, the iPhone has become one of those purchases that we justify despite its high price. “I need it to do my job!” “I don’t like Android!” “Treat yourself!” A smartphone is an indispensable and necessary utility, particularly … Read more
A country in lockdown adds another level of loneliness to death, writes Amberleigh Jack. But her mother’s final days in a world of chaos were not without moments of joy. “I need to tell you that your mother is very unwell.” I’m alone in my mum’s house – almost two hours from my home and … 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
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
A new poem by Lyttelton poet Rebecca Nash. Flocks The café has run out of muffin crumbs and the sparrows have come to our woodshed. They fossick for slaters and wood hoppers. Concrete lies under logs, seeds lie under concrete incubating in the trapped soil. Roots strain into pipes. There too … Read more
If you’re the type to judge those who queued up for a post-lockdown Big Mac, perhaps it’s time to ask yourself some hard questions about why you really disapprove so much. Since we moved to alert level three, there has been a flurry of attention on fast food – namely that after five weeks of … Read more
Haratua/May is the 12th lunar month in the Māori year; a time to prepare for winter and Matariki. Learn more about the maramataka, the Māori lunar calendar, here. Kia ora tatōu! As we come out of noho tāpui/lockdown, and enter the moon cycle of Haratua, we welcome the 12th lunar month in the Māori year and … Read more
What are you going to be watching in May? The Spinoff rounds up everything that’s coming to streaming services this month, including Netflix, Lightbox, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, Neon and TVNZ OnDemand. Click here to read our listings from April. The biggies Dead to Me (season 2 on Netflix, binge from May 8) When … Read more
The 48-hour film festival is back, self-isolation style. While the judging panel is deciding the winners, The Spinoff is showcasing seven films from the competition. We’re sharing one a day in the lead up to the one-hour awards special, airing on TVNZ2. First up, A Necessary Death from team Bubblemates. A Necessary Death follows a … Read more
The team at Unity Books is busy scaling a marvellous mountain of orders – yesterday they gave us a short take on what you’re all buying, but no one has time to deal with actual data this week. So here we are with a sixth lockdown top 10. Hopefully our last. We hope that whatever … Read more
The government has announced the shape of the cannabis legalisation bill that we’ll vote on in September’s referendum. So if the country decides to vote yes, what will the new rules be? What’s all this then? When New Zealand goes to the polls in September, we won’t just be voting on local MPs and who … 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
After falling victim to the Bauer Media magazine massacre, Shelley Howells realises that it’s not just ex-colleagues she’s missing. I was reading a Q&A about why video chat can be so dang exhausting, when a penny dropped. What with the pandemic, lockdown and being made redundant, I’ve been having loads of feelings, which I usually … 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
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to the editor of Homestyle magazine Alice Lines and chairman of the Magazine Publishers Association (MPA) Nicholas Burrowes. With … Read more
Grief is an unwanted guest at the best of times, none more so than when you can’t actually have guests. Sam Brooks writes about how he’s processing grief in a time of lockdown. Lockdown is perhaps the first time in modern history where a lot of us have too much time on our hands. Some … Read more
Like bookstores across the country, Unity Books opened for online orders on Tuesday morning not quite knowing what to expect. Everyone across both teams is so wildly busy doing God’s work – getting books to where they need to be – that we can’t bring you a bestseller chart based on actual data this week. … Read more
Gentle, moving and a little bit sexy, the BBC and Hulu’s take on Sally Rooney’s book club staple Normal People not only survives adaptation, it thrives, writes Sam Brooks. If the Unity Books charts are anything to go by, everybody in New Zealand owns about two copies of Sally Rooney’s Normal People. The novel by … Read more
You Got This! pits bubble against bubble in family fun challenges with no risk of overlap. Tara Ward gives us a few of the challenges she’s done with her own family during lockdown. Gather all ye wooden spoons and empty boxes and prepare to enjoy You Got This!, a new show that sees Kiwi families … Read more
Tucked away in a remote corner of the South Island, Golden Bay businesses are confident that community support and resourcefulness can see them through these tough times. One of the most striking features of Golden Bay – other than its beautiful beaches, rivers and forests – is its coffee. For a sparsely populated rural region … 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 second part of a new series sharing the stories of families learning from home during lockdown, Charles Anderson tries to impose some order on his household and learns that disorder is OK too. It was somewhere between week two and three of level four lockdown when Ivie Anderson, aged 5, began to have … Read more