Sam Brooks reviews the second season of You, the surprise 2018 Netflix hit that made toxic masculinity compulsively watchable. Major spoilers for the first season of You, which is really worth watching. What if you were watching a Lifetime movie, but from the perspective of the villain? That’s the premise of You, which was a … Read more
Summer reissue: Alex Casey goes down a YouTube rabbit hole to try and find the best New Zealand advertising jingle ever created. This post was originally published on 28 May, 2019. It happened without warning. Staring into my simmering bolognese last week, something came over me. I turned slowly, the harsh kitchen lights dimming to … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. Spend your relaxing Boxing Day unboxing the Great Kiwi Bake Off finale with us. It was a Christmas-themed episode stacked with surprises, meringues and exploding tarts. But of course, most important of all is the fact that … Read more
Summer reissue: Uber became one of the biggest companies in the world in a few short years. Duncan Greive reviews Mike Isaac’s extraordinary Super Pumped, which shows the world just what it sacrificed for cheap rides. First published 29 September, 2019. There are so many stories in Super Pumped, a riveting new account of the … 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 Bruce Turner and Thomas Rowe from Urbanaut Brewing Co. There are probably a few people who have kept … Read more
Simon Day and Alex Braae, co-hosts of The Offspin podcast, look back at the 10-year evolution of the Black Caps. The last 10 years have been a bizarre time for Black Caps supporters, because the team has been consistently good. The true joy of being a millennial New Zealand cricket fan is built on the team’s … Read more
Think you know your Lings from your Zings and your Fleischls from your Brettschneiders? Take The Real Pod’s reality TV quiz and prove it, with special thanks to Nando’s. Here at The Real Pod, The Spinoff’s own weekly popular culture and reality TV podcast, we live and breathe reality television and real life in New … Read more
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, unless you’re a journalist, in which case Christmas is just another day. So what’s the vibe like in newsrooms on Christmas Day? And why can’t journalists just take the day off? First published on 25 December 2018 A state highway is blocked after a car crash. There’s … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin’s 2019 Year in News Quiz. How closely did you follow the news this year? To manage this quiz, the answer might have to be extremely closely. 2019 was a dramatic, and often relentlessly terrible year. There were tragedies and triumphs, earth-shatteringly important events, major pieces of law passed … Read more
God may have created all of his children in his image, but the same cannot be said for his hymns. Some church songs are good, some are bad, and some are absolute bangers. Madeleine Chapman ranks the best of them. This was originally published on 31 June, 2019. Some say that in order to experience … Read more
Why do so many dogs in New Zealand end up with the same name? And is there anything that explains the remarkable continued popularity of big bounding labradors? Radio NZ’s Kate Newton investigates. Our dogs are diversifying as rapidly as we are, and greyhounds, schnauzers and shih tzus are all on the rise. But clinging … Read more
As sure as a floor strewn with wrapping paper and a mild hangover, the days following Christmas will bring leftover ham. Simon Day shares some tasty ideas for how to deal with it. My favourite part of Christmas comes after December 25 itself. I embrace the days and weeks, even months, of leftover ham. I … Read more
The Weird Old Guy with a ponytail who no one really knows, and 11 more oddly specific characters you’ll probably encounter this Christmas. There’s no hiding from it. Tomorrow you will attempt to bring many and varied family members together in total peace and harmony to enjoy each other’s company, assisted by nothing more than … Read more
Just when you thought The Great Kiwi Bake Off was over, a bunch of celebrities took over the tent to raise money for charity. Tara Ward ranks their performance, poo biscuits and all. Sound the klaxon, wrap yourself in puff pastry and dive into the jelly lake of your wildest dreams, because the best gift … Read more
In the third instalment of our new pop-up podcast, The Spinoff Book Out Loud, Alex Casey recounts the time she spent an evening with Sensing Murder’s Sue Nicholson during her Answers From the Other Side tour. Listen to episode one, Madeleine Chapman on life after those chip rankings, here, and episode two, Alex Braae on … Read more
Stuck for something good to watch this Christmas? We’ve picked the television highlights (and lowlights, depending on your love of talking dogs) for everyone this festive period. Nothing says ‘summer’ and ‘Christmas’ like barricading yourself in a dark room and watching a bunch of strangers do made-up things on a screen. But what are the … Read more
Fruit are ovaries, and when Wā Collective founder and executive menstruator Olie Body asked Michelle O to feel her cherries the former first lady dived right in. Who would have thought I’d meet Michelle Obama in my old yoga pants, the ones I’ve sewn up at the crotch multiple times, the ones with some pink … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to the last Bulletin of 2019. Here’s a collection of some of the people and issues who will shape the news in 2020. It’s the end of another year. I’ve got a few thoughts further down the page on that, but to start with, today’s Bulletin will be about looking ahead. Like … Read more
The 2010s will go down in media history as the Take Decade. Hayden Donnell combed through every single take made in New Zealand in the last 10 years to compose this list of the worst ones. If there’s one overarching media trend from the 2010s, it’s our inexorable move toward a take economy. Look at … Read more
ANZ was our most problematic bank, mines were the greatest threat to our environment, and our unions stepped up their mascots. Josie Adams remembers all the major protests of the decade. In 2010 I turned 18 and became a voting member of the public. I was very excited about this; about the same time I … Read more
Petrified of pav failure? This Christmas, why not make meringues instead. Sure, pavlova’s traditional for Christmas, but it’s hard to get right – especially if you’re somewhere humid (looking at you, Auckland). Why not try meringues instead? The moisture content is lower than that of pav, so you need not fear that depressing leaky pav … Read more
Jo and Brendan Lindsay made millions out of plastic lunch boxes and now they are figuring out how to give back to the New Zealand that fostered their good fortune. If there is a downside to selling your company for $660 million it is that people think you’ve suddenly been transformed into an altruistic ATM. … Read more
Eight years after publication, Walter Isaacson’s “iBio” Steve Jobs remains massively influential. Danyl Mclauchlan examines how the deeply flawed genius the book revealed continues to manifest. It’s the end of the decade, and my social media aggregators are filled with lists of the best, most influential books of the last 10 years. For most writers … Read more
If we started seeing it as a process of becoming more and more ourselves, would we find more value in ageing? For the first 15 years of my life, I desperately wanted to be older. Then came a period of about the same length during which I enjoyed being young. In my fourth decade, I’ve … Read more
Sam Brooks reviews Netflix’s The Witcher, a wildly fun adaptation of the Polish fantasy novels of the same name. Mild spoilers follow. It’s become a stock phrase in the age of streaming that you have to wait until it gets good. Think of the beloved BoJack Horseman which takes a full half-season to not just … Read more
With fast fashion impacting both feminism and the climate crisis, Alex Casey goes on the hunt for a solution in our climate emergency episode of On the Rag. Watch episode one of On the Rag: ‘Periods’ here Watch episode two of On the Rag: ‘Body hair’ here Watch episode three of On the Rag: ‘Being online’ here Watch … Read more
The Silver Ferns went from top of the world to rock bottom and back again in the 2010s. Four different coaches brought four very different approaches to the game over 10 years, and the team ended up writing the biggest comeback story of the decade. Here’s how. At the start of this decade, the Silver … Read more
Morgan Godfery tries to make sense of the last decade for Māori in te ao hurihuri, the changing world. Here he looks at the highs, the lows and the TBCs… Taika’s interesting world There are three roads out of Opotiki, the rural town where the Eastern Bay of Plenty becomes the East Coast. You can … Read more
A conversation between editors about what made an impression in New Zealand visual arts in 2019. We unpack the highs and lows, and the exhibitions both naughty and nice. Warning: includes light interference from Elf on a Shelf. After six months of The Spinoff Art, co-editors Megan Dunn and Mark Amery pause for pavlova and … Read more