It helps that he played in the New Zealand cricket team when they lost the 1992 semi-final and went on to coach India, writes Georgie Wright, daughter of John. My dad has taught me a fair few things over my 25 years. He instilled the importance of pursuing the best possible outcome, and that it’s … 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, with the interview available as both audio and a transcribed excerpt. This week he talks to Clevedon Buffalo Company co-founder Helen Dorresteyn. Forty … Read more
The fourth season of Queer Eye drops today on Netflix. Sam Brooks reflects on his difficult relationship with the show, and where it sits in mainstream culture. For depressingly many people, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was an introduction not just to gay culture, but to real-life gay men. A makeover show featuring five gay men … Read more
A poem by Miramar poet Geoff Cochrane. Channel Hopping Stupa or Stuka? Weet-Bix or Welsh rabbit? Galactic aerodrome or Matchbox truck? * I’m young in my dreams, still young. * Beautiful Keanu’s wearing shades— antique shades with iodine-coloured lenses. * I’m young in my dreams, still young, and I still have some ink … Read more
For the month of July, Josie Adams is taking on the challenge of being low-waste. That means minimising plastics, emissions, and even recyclables. Each week we release her diary. This is week two. Read week one here. I’ll be honest, week two has been a struggle. I’ve been less enthused about finding low-waste solutions because … Read more
Wtf did we just watch? That sound you heard was a million furries screaming in ecstasy as their fantasy and everyone else’s nightmare came to life in the form of the first trailer for the live action version of Cats. Is it live action if it’s CGI fur-covered actors singing Andrew Lloyd Webber songs? It’s … 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 Three Women by Lisa Taddeo (Bloomsbury, $35) Fucking nailed it. 2 Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi (Sandstone, $27) Winner of the … Read more
Heaven is a place on earth, and June is saving the world one ’80s pop hit at a time. Tara Ward recaps season 4, episode 9 of The Handmaid’s Tale. Praise be, for there was a tiny bit of good news in Gilead this week. Aunt Lydia gave Janine a snazzy new eye patch, and … Read more
Finance companies say they shouldn’t have to be ‘fit and proper’ even though in some cases they charge more than the planned clampdown on high cost lending. A group of finance companies that charges well over the government’s proposed cap on loan repayment costs is distancing itself from lenders who “cause the most harm to … Read more
Tara Ward sets out on a valiant quest to find the best apple in Aotearoa. The idea that every apple is a good apple is fake news. We’ve all got stories about shit experiences with apples, when it looked good on the outside but it was a floury disaster zone on the inside, or it … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Skifield snowmaking a sign of the future, vaccination rates fall alarmingly, and construction industry encouraged to lower emissions. Snowmaking has saved the ski industry from disaster this year, after the weather didn’t create the desired winter wonderland. The ODT reports that South Island mountains have seen very little … Read more
Our government and leaders are (still) divided on the question of compulsory te reo Māori. Who’s for it, who’s against it, and who’s flip flopping around in the middle? Under article two of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the government pledges to protect “taonga katoa” (all treasured things), amongst which sits te reo Māori, one of … Read more
When teenagers today are being called upon to solve the problems of tomorrow, why aren’t they given the right to participate in democracy? Fourteen-year-old Oli Morphew makes the case for lowering the voting age. If you’re going to deprive someone of their rights, you’d better be completely assured of the reasons you’re doing so, and … Read more
A children’s television presenter, New Zealand’s first supermodel, and bloody Cocksy! Jordan Hamel pays tribute to the Kiwi icons that helped get him through his life. Adolescence was not a great time for me. Depression, anxiety, sexuality, awkward social interactions, emotional repression, being shit at sports – all the cliched tropes you see in any … 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 wacky, wacky week on The Real Pod this week. But is it wackier than the fact that Gilda Kirkpatrick saw a literal ghost in Jamaica? Wackier than the fact that Hilary Barry visited The Spinoff … Read more
Every fish on the iconic New Zealand Commercial Fish Species poster, ranked. There are a few staples of the quintessential fish and chip shop: sticky plastic curtains, soggy paper tickets with a little red number, tin pottles of Wattie’s tomato sauce, even some unlabelled aioli if you’re feeling bougie. And then there’s the New Zealand … Read more
The newsreader turned talkback host Peter Williams (not Peter Williams) is furious about the mainstream refusal to acknowledge the cheesiness of the moon. I’m sorry but my head still hurts. Yesterday I blew to smithereens the so-called “consensus” on the “science” around “climate change”. I put forward my doubts about “climate” “change”, posing the question, … Read more
Party Line is a new audio work by Evangeline Riddiford Graham that reinvestigates the Cartwright Inquiry, medical mispractice and misogyny through the lens of the #metoo era. In a red room six handsets dangle from the ceiling on their spiral cords. I pick up one and hold it to my ear. “I feel so ashamed, … Read more
For Auckland is a new Spinoff podcast of civic conversations with people working to create and sustain a better Auckland for all. In episode three, host Timothy Giles speaks to Grace Stratton about accessibility, in fashion and in Auckland. She’s launched a groundbreaking fashion business, been nominated for Young New Zealander of the Year, profiled … Read more
Instead of buying a cuppa in exchange for a place to work, Coffee Supreme is flipping the script. For the last 25 years, Coffee Supreme has done one thing very well: sourcing, roasting, brewing and selling some seriously decent coffee. Running cafes is pretty much second nature to its business. Running a shared workspace? Not … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Union to take legal action against Novopay, building site sediment damaging waterways, and the govt’s road safety strategy explained. Teachers are taking legal action against Novopay, amidst the news their payrise won’t come in for another two months, reports Newshub. The one-off $1500 bonus promised to teachers … Read more
A recent issue of Air Force News revealed that a senior NZDF officer served a six-month posting at the Qatar base, placing New Zealanders at the heart of the main targeting and bombing centre in that region, writes Darius Shahtahmasebi Last month the coalition government declared the end of New Zealand Defence Force deployments in … Read more
For generations, women have done the heavy lifting in the fight for social change. What will it take to get more men to give a fuck about their children’s future? At every question and answer session I attend, I get a variation of the same question. If it’s not asked by the chair, it’s asked … Read more
Today (NZT) is the 50th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, the first spaceflight to land humans on the Moon. Astronomer Richard Easther looks back. One of my earliest memories is standing with my father on the balcony of my grandmother’s house in Auckland. “Ma’s House” had a spectacular view northwards, across Auckland’s Hauraki … Read more
In a world of racist tweeting presidents, climate crisis and cricketing travesty, what you need in your life is this palliative conversation about Dunedin’s Baldwin Street losing its crown as world’s steepest street to Ffordd Pen Llech in Wales The slope of Baldwin Street, Dunedin, curled into a melancholy frown this week with the announcement … Read more
Last night on The Block NZ, something incredible happened: James Reid from The Feelers showed up. Every now and again, something completely unexpected happens on reality television that shakes you awake from your slack-jawed couch coma. It’s that jolt of electricity you get from a ponytail falling off on Dancing With the Stars NZ, or … Read more
Sam Brooks, lifelong gamer, lost himself on a virtual battlefield in the days after his mother’s death. Here, he reviews a book by a kindred spirit: Lost in A Good Game: Why We Play Video Games and What They Can Do For Us, by psychologist Pete Etchells. The person who got me into video games … Read more
Laura Vincent reviews Golden Boy, a new sitcom from Three skewering small town New Zealand and the colourful characters who populate it. From Twin Peaks to all the shows that copied Twin Peaks, small towns have long been fertile ground for television to explore the dynamics of a quirky, close-knit community. New Zealand has an abundance … Read more
The government’s reluctance to front up about support for mentally traumatised mosque shooting survivors has shone a spotlight on the limitations of ACC, writes RNZ’s Veronica Schmidt. The difficulty with being held up as a symbol of empathy and compassion is trying to live up to the image forever after. In the days after the … Read more