New figures from the coroner show close to 45 people have died in the past year due to synthetic cannabis use – up from just two across the previous five years. Katie Doyle reports for RNZ. There’s been a huge spike in the number of people dying from synthetic cannabis. Provisional figures from the coroner … Read more
The Spinoff’s editor reviews the last seven days in New Zealand news, sorting out those riding high from those who wish they could crawl back under the bedcovers. The Spinoff TV, 10.45pm Fridays on THREE
The world’s greatest spread underwent some frightening changes recently. Hayden Donnell delves into the animosity and legal wrangling behind the death and rebirth of Kraft Peanut Butter. The world of marketing is riven with betrayal. Taste the rainbow. The best a man can get. Don’t be evil. All broken promises. There’s only one tagline that’s … Read more
Three easy-as PB recipes for the toast lover in your life. Peanut butter is one of the greatest foods in existence. It’s varied, versatile and deliciously simple. And it’s also one of the easiest things to actually make yourself. Why would you fund someone else’s career crisis at $8.50 a jar when you can supplement … Read more
Dudley Benson premieres his new video ‘Zealandia’ and speaks to Hussein Moses about his high concept political album of the same name that’s been eight years and $90,000 in the making. The day after Dudley Benson sent off his new album Zealandia to be mastered, he was back singing again, only this time it was … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: CRL gets bigger before being built, Greens reluctantly tuck into a big dead rat, and police change goat-tasering policies. The government has signed off on plans to build Auckland’s City Rail Link even bigger, before it opens up. The NZ Herald outlines the changes – basically they involve … Read more
The decision to support Winston Peters’ beloved caucus-cementing bill is bad karma for the Green Party and at least as big a threat to our democracy as anything the National government did, writes Geoff Simmons With the Green Party now lending its support (under the guise of “coalition stability”), the infamous “Waka Jumping Bill” will … Read more
The UN committee on women’s rights listened to our voices, and we cannot ignore their recommendations, writes Jackie Blue is the Equal Employment Opportunities and Women’s Rights Commissioner Every four years New Zealand women get a chance to voice their concerns about women’s rights to a United Nations committee of 23 independent experts, who then provide … Read more
In the south especially, New Zealanders will get the chance to witness a rare celestial event: a selenelion, writes Dr Duncan Steel. What is a selenelion (or selenehelion)? It’s when the eclipsed Moon can be seen on one horizon, while the rising Sun can also be observed near the opposite horizon. One might think this … Read more
National leader Simon Bridges went on Radio Live this afternoon and came out in favour of the two big NZ media print companies’ bid to merge. Does that mean it will become a partisan issue? Doing a long radio spot as a politician is difficult. An issue can come up basically out of nowhere, the … Read more
This week: National party leader Simon Bridges is excited about launching an opposition bill to make medical marijuana legal in New Zealand. Starring Tom Sainsbury. The Spinoff TV, 10.45pm Fridays on THREE Click here for all our Kiwis of Snapchat videos
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 Simon talks to Frances Valintine about educating society about technology and the workplace. … Read more
Have you had to deal with grumbling kids who don’t want to go back to school after the winter holidays? Here’s what to do. While some school reluctance is normal, spare a thought for parents whose back-to-school struggles have reached a whole new dimension. Their child’s reluctance to go to school has escalated into a … Read more
Multiplayer gaming has moved from the lounge to the headset – and it’s not necessarily a good thing. Jesse Dekel writes about where multiplayer gaming is now, and why she’s never really enjoyed it. For me, it really comes down to this simple assessment: developers and publishers have apparently decided they’d rather not integrate multiplayer … Read more
Josie Moon is a rising indie-pop act, whose work is inspired as much by imagery and colours as it is by musical ideas. Recently she’s been working with Nik Brinkman (Physical) on a new EP of tracks, with a first single ‘After Hours’ out now. She talks to Gareth Shute about how her synesthesia helped … Read more
Vincent O’Sullivan admires Caroline’s Bikini by Kirsty Gunn, who continues to write and shape novels like no other New Zealand author. A few years ago Witi Ihimaera gave the New Zealand Book Council Lecture, which he called “Where is New Zealand Literature Heading?” He ticked us off, in his engagingly vague way, for writing fiction … Read more
Louisa, Kiran and Jenna are back with all the latest book news, reviews and gossip. This month – authors are being ferried all over New Zealand to speak to you, the reader; the PANZ Book Design Awards are upon us; and the Man Booker Prize Longlist has just been announced. We also give you some … Read more
The Single Object is a series exploring our material culture, examining the meaning and influence of the objects that surround us in everyday life. In the first of the series, Madeleine Chapman inspects a pen, and learns about the power of privilege. In 1978, young brown men were being arrested. With unemployment rising and the … Read more
Shaymaa Arif from Hamilton has spent part of this year volunteering as an Arabic interpreter at a medical clinic in Moria Camp, one of the camps in the Greek Islands where refugees are struggling to survive. She says New Zealand must not turn its back on the crisis. It is so easy for us in New … Read more
The results of more than 400 drug tests from across the festival season are in. Who is eating what? Our essential explainer. What’s all this then? Volunteer drug testing agency KnowYourStuff’s annual results are in, cataloguing 445 substances tested with FTIR spectroscopy and reagents across seven festivals this summer. What’s the skinny? There’s more MDMA … Read more
The Spinoff Board of Review visited Texas Chicken on west Auckland’s Lincoln Rd to see if its Fiery Crunch Chicken was, as claimed, the “spiciest fried chicken in New Zealand”. This was a test, right? What is stronger – the love of fried food or the fear of looking stupid in front of your workmates? Chicken or … Read more
What’s the best way for under-privileged kids to get the nutritious school lunches they need? This post was originally published on 26 July 2018 Yesterday, Eat My Lunch, the social enterprise which provides a lunch for a hungry school kid for every lunch it sells to the public, came under fire for claiming that 290,000 … Read more
With Winston Peters condemning the Smokefree 2025 initiative and calling to lower the excise tax on tobacco, ASH health promoter Boyd Broughton questions whether lower prices would reduce tobacco-related crime and looks at the initiatives that have worked for our most vulnerable, Māori women, in the past. Wāhine Māori are, and always have been, acknowledged as vital … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: A new medical cannabis bill has hit the member’s ballot, abortion on the agenda on Parliament’s forecourt, and justice minister Andrew Little’s message to Australia. There will be competing bills on medical marijuana, after National MP Dr Shane Reti released his own in opposition to the … Read more
Australia’s polarising immigration minister, Peter Dutton, last week responded to Andrew Little’s criticisms of its deportation policy by asking him to “reflect a little more on the relationship between Australia and New Zealand”. Here the NZ justice minister, having reflected, writes that every country has the sovereign right to make their own laws. But when those … Read more
Let’s take our seat at the trestle table of broken dreams, as we devour this week’s serving of The Block NZ power rankings. Blow me down with a power heater, because this week’s Dinner Wars was the most compelling television we’ve seen since a man wearing a silver wig tried to work out what famous cricketer-turned-television presenter … Read more
You’ve seen the YouTube ads, you’ve seen the ads on your phone. But what the hell is World of Tanks? Adam Goodall went on an adventure to find out. For the last twelve months, my friend Tim has been bugging me to join him on an adventure. To travel with him around the world, from the … Read more
In the latest episode of their Spinoff TV segment looking at stuff white people inexplicably like, comedy group Frickin Dangerous Bro – Jame Roque, Jamaine Ross and Pax Assadi – investigate women’s mysterious love for brightly coloured yoga pants. Previously: Frickin Dangerous Bro review kombucha and bath bombs Watch The Spinoff TV, Fridays at 10.45pm … Read more
The medicinal cannabis bill filed today in the name of National’s Whangarei MP Shane Reti is vastly better-conceived than the government bill it seeks to supplant. But it’s not perfect, writes Russell Brown. It’s no secret that members of the Health select committee were moved by many of the oral submissions they heard while considering … Read more