Over 300 hours of interviews condensed into five episodes that cover the entirety of New Zealand’s comedy history – how do you even start to approach that? Sam Brooks interviews Paul Horan, the documentarian behind the show. It’s one of those projects that sounds utterly futile – how does one cover the comedy history of … Read more
The Spinoff is covering local elections across the country with a new pop-up section. To kick things off, Hayden Donnell went to a mayoral debate at Grey Power on the North Shore of Auckland. This feature was made possible thanks to The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism click … Read more
Could a new hybrid of all the government’s major media holdings solve multiple media and government problems? The media industry, despite what some of us might like to believe, really doesn’t matter all that much economically. Doesn’t employ all that many people. Relatively low wage. Provides a vital service that keeps your democracy vaguely upright … Read more
Things I Learned at Art School is a new series featuring artists discussing how they do what they do and know what they know. In the second instalment, Megan Dunn talks to Berlin-based New Zealander Simon Denny about Michael Parekowhai, teaching and technology, and an idea involving the online shoe store Zappos that didn’t work … Read more
With the acquisition of global rugby streaming leader RugbyPass, Sky might have just secured its future, writes Trevor McKewen. For several months now, the war between Sky and Spark Sport for the peerless prize of All Blacks and New Zealand rugby rights from 2021 onwards has been escalating. Every week, one of the two corporate … Read more
The Lightbulb asks innovators and entrepreneurs how they turned their ideas into reality. This week we talk to Jamie Cashmore, co-founder of Auckland-based edible packaging company Twiice. First of all, give us your elevator pitch for Twiice. Twiice is a company making edible coffee cups with plans to progress into other areas of edible packaging. … Read more
The recent discovery of a fossil parrot the size of a human toddler is even more reason for Foulden Maar to be protected, writes the chairperson of Save Foulden Maar, Kimberley Collins. Last week, scientists discovered a new species of extinct parrot in the St Bathans Fauna. Weighing in at seven kilograms and standing just … Read more
The three governing parties are turning their attention to next year’s general election. RNZ‘s Jo Moir surveys the field. The night New Zealand First formed a government with Labour and the Greens, its leader Winston Peters quoted the song “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”. Almost two years later all three parties still have … Read more
He’s the artist who launched a million memes and over a billion streams. Sam Brooks picks out Bazzi’s best moments so far, from his career-making breakthrough to his mature new mixtape Soulsearching. 1. ‘Mine’ “You’re so precious when you smile.” It’s the line – including an extra word that we can’t print here – which … Read more
A new poem by Waikato poet Loren Thomas. to convince myself we’re dreaming we were walking through suburbia houses kissing front lawns copied one after another you tasted like mint leaves and chlorophyll that’s been pissed on by cats I held your hand and we walked towards the ocean dodging planks from dead train … Read more
The ancient Australian shock-jock yesterday targeted Jacinda Ardern, urging Australia’s PM to ‘shove a sock down her throat’. It’s all in keeping with a substantial history of being an arse. The plucky nation of Australia excels in a range of endeavours, but nowhere more than the angry, anguished howls of bloated, Jurassic men. It’s a … Read more
Today, TVNZ released its latest findings on who is watching what on TVNZ OnDemand. Sam Brooks analyses the results. Today, TVNZ released the 2019 figures for who is watching TVNZ OnDemand, what they’re watching and in what kind of numbers. The big numbers are hopeful – over 1.4 million people reached so far this year, … Read more
Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein on the band’s ninth studio album, working with St Vincent, and the departure of bandmate and drummer, Janet Weiss. It’s been almost five years since Sleater-Kinney broke their decade-long hiatus with an album that received almost near-universal praise. It was “raw”, “bristling”, “emotive”, “taut” – all adjectives you’d expect to hear when … Read more
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 Normal People by Sally Rooney (Faber & Faber, $23) Sally Rooney Sally Rooney Sally Rooney Sally Rooney 2 An … Read more
When Emily Writes reviewed a life-changing sex toy, the response from orgasm-starved women was huge. So why are so many having so few orgasms, and what can be done? For the last two years I’ve been running a pretty small – about 600-odd member – group for mostly New Zealand women to talk about sex … Read more
When Josie Adams broke her laptop last week, she knew she’d never find love like that again. Can the Asus Chromebook Flip C213SA offer a new kind of technological relationship? She reviews how it stands up to everyday use and the cosmic forces that seek to destroy her. Last Thursday I accidentally gave my old … Read more
Wine should be fun, not intimidating – all you need is a little knowledge. Yvonne Lorkin, co-founder and chief tasting officer of WineFriend, provides some simple tips to help you empower your palate. Even I can get scared by wine. I’m usually super-meek and a tad feeble at high-brow, “industry” wine tastings. However, festivals like … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Winter grazing in the spotlight, teens smoking much less weed than they used to, and stats show big acceleration in Auckland house building. To lead us off today, a look at a relatively long running farming issue which has burst into the spotlight in recent … Read more
A new study has found that nearly 50% of New Zealand girls are getting their periods before high school. Experts say it is time for our education system to step up. Nearly 50% of New Zealand girls will have their first period before they begin secondary school, and 6.3% while they are still at primary … Read more
The widespread use of the imperial flag suggests that New Zealanders’ knowledge of the second world war is incomplete, writes Rebekah Jaung. For many people from Asian countries it is a symbol of hate akin to a swastika, yet every couple of months I see a local person or company brandishing it. It’s been used … Read more
It’s the season finale of The Handmaid’s Tale, and we’re desperate for a happy ending. Will we get one, or will we be left weeping into our revolution muffins? Tara Ward recaps. I didn’t think anything could be tenser than the time Maria made the Von Trapp kids hide from the Nazis in the Sound of … Read more
Tara Ward reviews Deep Water, a new British drama that’s been compared to Big Little Lies that lands on TVNZ OnDemand today. There’s three shows called Deep Water currently available on TVNZ OnDemand, but only one is a new British drama about the lives of three very different women living in the Lake District. This Deep Water is … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. It’s a galaxy brain episode of The Real Pod this week and we’re not just talking about the new Australian Bachelor who is trying to find another Earth. Sam Wallace has been talking about udders, Alex bought … Read more
In literature, disability is everywhere. But more than a century after Dickens gave us Tiny Tim, writers often fail to make disability anything other than a narrative crutch. Robyn Hunt, writer, disability consultant and co-founder of the Crip the Lit project, explains. The use of disability as metaphor and plot device has been described as … Read more
Participating in some of New Zealand’s local government elections can be a challenge, thanks to their unusual voting methodologies and heavy use of ‘the postal system’. Thankfully your friends at The Spinoff are here to hold your hand every step of the way, from enrollment (do it now!) through to voting in an STV system. … Read more
Our writers celebrate the very best episode of their favourite TV shows on NEON. Don’t @ us, our decisions are final. For all the great new television out there, nothing feels quite as comforting as returning to your favourite series and reliving the episodes that made your brain explode. It might be the one episode … Read more
The land protection movement at Ihumātao may have wrongly been pitted as rangatahi versus rangatira, but there’s no denying it has given rise to a new generation of leaders and values. Have Treaty settlements and tribally controlled assets changed how iwi leaders see land, and is it time for recalibration? The tension that gave rise … Read more
A couple of months ago Hayden Donnell wrote a scathing, sardonic opinion piece about the newly launched lobby group OpenTheBooks. It was a ghastly and unfair misrepresentation of a noble campaign for an inquiry into Auckland Transport, ripostes Clive Matthew-Wilson. I’ve been an active supporter of environmental causes for 45 years, from organising Greenpeace concerts … Read more
The review of the 2018 census backs up his experience that Statistics New Zealand is a monster with a small but distant brain, argues Tony Burton, a former senior official at Treasury After the 2011 Canterbury earthquake Statistics New Zealand’s Christchurch office was red stickered, declared too dangerous to enter. This may not sound important … Read more