Taking the time to celebrate women in the business community is a very special thing, and what better time to do this than on International Women’s Day? Rebecca Stevenson and Jihee Junn present ten women in business who deserve your attention. The positive impact women make in New Zealand’s business community can sometimes fall under … Read more
A renewed focus on women’s and gender issues around the world has provided a backdrop for New Zealand’s first women’s charitable fund, writes Auckland Foundation CEO Dellwyn Stuart, who launched the fund last November. New Zealand has long been one of the first nations to see the light when it comes to gender equality issues. … Read more
Cops, doctors, variety shows writers, reality show producers, women are running the show – and running the shows. To celebrate International Women’s Day, Tara Ward is saluting ten of Lightbox’s best shows made by women. It’s a well-known fact that women are awesome. They also make awesome television, whether its comedy, drama or a bicycle-riding … Read more
Erena Shingade talks to Womb, a Wellington indie-folk sibling trio whose new album was released this month. When I first heard Wellington’s Womb back in 2016, I listened to the self-titled album ritualistically for months. Charlotte Forrester’s ethereal voice became my private, secret music of nights and dawns, colouring the interface between sleep and waking. … Read more
Michele A’Court grapples with an uncomfortable truth about the Rose McGowan memoir – it’s a diatribe that tells us how to think. It is a tricky thing to review a memoir, particularly one as dark as this. What you want to do is talk about the book – the writing, the storytelling, the structure and … Read more
Essayist Nadine Anne Hura goes looking for one ancestor’s story, and asks what really lies underneath our monuments to war. Small towns have big stories. I go around reading the plaques on top of rocks and plinths, memorials to the chosen, trying to decipher the story beneath the story. As I read, I almost feel … Read more
Teaching boys about sexual health, consent, and developing a culture of respect is vital to keeping all children safe. Frank Wilson McColl looks at the ways she’s trying to teach her sons about consent and respect. I used to be a young hip activist once upon a time (well, maybe I was never hip). But … Read more
As New Zealand prepares to mark 125 years of women’s suffrage there is plenty to celebrate – but as the #metoo movement shows, there is still much to be done, says Governor General Dame Patsy Reddy On the 19th of September, 1893, my predecessor Lord Glasgow, officially signed the bill giving women the right to … Read more
New Zealand’s burgeoning tech industry may be dodging some of the systemic issues plaguing traditional corporate culture, but Victoria Crockford discovers it’s also developing within the same structures that resulted in the #MeToo movement. As a kid, I often imagined what would happen if the world was turned upside down and shaken. Animals from the … Read more
Tof Eklund goes deep on the historical context and significance of Dandara, a newly released Metroidvania-style game about the famous-in-Brazil folk hero. I was certain, from the first screenshot I saw of Dandara, that there were layers to the world and narrative of Brazilian studio Long Hat House’s jump-warping Metroidvania. Reviewers seemed not to care, noting that … Read more
James Blunt may be a world-class entertainer but his crowd at Spark Arena last night were anything but. Madeleine Chapman reviews one of her favourite artists. The worst part of the James Blunt concert was the crowd. The best part was everything else. James Blunt, the man everyone loves to hate because of a song … Read more
Welcome to the Cheat Sheet, a clickable, shareable, bite-sized FAQ on the news of the moment. Today, Don Rowe asks a space scientist if we’re all dead courtesy of a Chinese space station set to hit Earth this month. What’s all this then? An out of control Chinese space station is expected to smash into … Read more
Charlotte Graham-McLay talks to acclaimed Australian author Charlotte Wood – who is appearing at the New Zealand Festival this weekend – about sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and ‘angry women’. A journalist launches a national enquiry into sexual harassment and is accused of doing it “for clicks”. The Australian media decides to name the woman who … Read more
Around the world parents pace hall ways and squeeze into bunk beds and sing songs and read books in an attempt to get their kids to go to sleep. At The Spinoff Parents we wanted to share all the ways we encourage children to fall asleep – methods that sometimes even work. Here’s a collection … Read more
An old cigarette factory in Masterton, a remnant from the Think Big era, has been re-purposed to tackle our affordable housing crisis. Rebecca Stevenson caught up with builder Mike Fox to find out how a plant in the Wairarapa is producing modular, kitset homes on the cheap. Houses in New Zealand are not expensive only … Read more
The PM famously called climate change her generation’s ‘nuclear free moment’. Branko Marcetic asks environmental critics of the original agreement whether the deal updated as CPTPP allays their concerns Climate change is here. It’s only March, and we’ve already experienced a record-breaking heatwave, a “revved up” tropical cyclone, and now scientists are freaking out over … Read more
Sam Rutledge is a die hard McLeod’s Daughters fan. Here she posits her (entirely canon and correct) theory that all the characters in the show are, in fact, gay. If you somehow managed to miss every single episode of McLeod’s Daughters when it aired, because you didn’t have a television or you had better taste than me, … Read more
Good morning and welcome to the first ever edition of The Bulletin, a round up the best and most important NZ news of the day. Sign up here to get The Bulletin direct to your inbox every single morning. Another National heavyweight is bowing out, a report into referrals of kids to protection services is … Read more
EVs are taking over the world, in the same way that cars left the horse and cart floundering in their petrol guzzling wake. Vector’s Steve Heinen discusses why that might be a brilliant, planet-saving, massive headache. Electric vehicles (EV) are great. They’re quieter, need less maintenance, provide more acceleration, and in New Zealand, where our … Read more
What do deprivation, bar location and time of day all have in common? They all affect the rate of assault in New Zealand. It’s safe to say that when it comes to assaults, alcohol matters. In 2009, the New Zealand police estimated that approximately 31% of all recorded crime (including assault) was perpetrated by an … Read more
Following his failed bid for the National Party leadership, Steven Joyce has announced his retirement from politics after almost nine years as an MP. He served as finance minister under Bill English but probably his most critical role was as the party’s chief strategist and longstanding campaign manager. In this revealing contribution to the Victoria … Read more
New Zealand fantasy writer Steffi Green interviews Charlie Jane Anders, author of the smash-hit novel All The Birds in the Sky, ahead of her appearances this weekend at the New Zealand Festival in Wellington. Like all literary genres, fantasy and science fiction are replete with common tropes. We love stories of sword-fights and space trekking … Read more
It’s almost a rite of passage when you’re parenting small ones – what caused the violent rash spreading over your child’s hands and face? Donnelle Belanger-Taylor was surprised to find the source of her child’s week-long rash might be in your backyard. Send your kids outside, they said. It’ll be good for them, they said. Get … Read more
It takes a certain kind of obsessive mindset to want to play six degrees of separation – even more so to try and link fictional nobility to soon-to-be-actual royalty. Sam Brooks did it, and did it with Lightbox shows. You know that game six degrees of separation? No? Well, you probably mostly know it as … Read more
Tomorrow, with the support of Vector, The Spinoff smashes a bottle across the bow of a new email newsletter rounding up the best and most important NZ news of the day. We think it will become an important part of your morning. For all the complaints about the state of journalism, the one you won’t … Read more
Yesterday’s Al Nisbet cartoon attacking the #metoo movement unwittingly drew Toby Morris’ attention to a different problem: the very specific demographic drawing cartoons in our daily newspapers. Cartoonists don’t retire, they die. Eventually. And in a way it makes sense. There are a limited number of positions, and it’s a highly specialised skill that’s not … Read more
Grace Jones performed at Auckland City Limits to an enthusiastic crowd. Then Dan Carter appeared and ruined everything. Madeleine Chapman reports. When the end of days arrives and humans are on a slip’n’slide to oblivion, the skies will open, light will beam down from the heavens, and Dan Carter will appear on a big screen … Read more
It happens every five years (unless there is a major disaster), it helps to guide what we spend billions of dollars on – but did you know it was happening today? Rebecca Stevenson finds the census is causing concern. There is an envelope on my mantelpiece which has “census” on the front of it so … Read more
An artificial intelligence bot called Zach is creating a stir in the medical community. A doctor in Christchurch is teaching it to write patient notes. An Otago professor has it interpreting ECG results. But AI experts are not convinced. David Farrier goes in search of Zach. Last week I heard murmurings that a New Zealand … Read more