He’s an award winning young Kiwi chef, but William Mordido’s first pop-up restaurant is opening in Melbourne this month. Rebecca Stevenson finds out why. William Mordido is one of those people who, when reading up their credentials, you start to feel inferior and question what you have been doing with your life. Last year the … Read more
New verse by Punakaikai writer Trevor Hayes. Cabo de Gata, Almeria There are no humans in this poem. They left before it arrived, leaving only pubic hair and beach paraphernalia. This poem has no humans. Instead it has black sand and conglomerate rock (the logical conclusion of volcanism) and … Read more
A year into the job, Mayor Phil Goff is having big problems with his budget. And with water, transport, housing, the America’s Cup, the rest of council and the whole of government. And he’s still trying to beat up on the city’s tourism and economic development agency, ATEED. But somehow, says Simon Wilson, he also … 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. Today Simon talks to Deanna Yang about the ups and downs of … Read more
Henry Oliver rants and raves about the 2017 New Zealand Music Awards finalists then lists them all at the end. They got it (mostly) right The names you see most on the list – SWIDT (six nominations), Lorde (five) and Aldous Harding (four) – made the best albums in New Zealand in the last year, … Read more
Our Forever Hopeful Club columnist Kat McKenzie is back with a new update on the hopes, fears and medical practicalities of trying to be a mother. Over three instalments, Kat will share her IVF journey. A note from The Spinoff Parents editor Emily Writes: For years I used to read anything I could about parenting. … Read more
Carl Chenery appeals to other Pākehā to be courageous in commemorating the Land Wars and for peace in Waitara today. Courage is turning towards hard truth, not turning away. The same goes for our colonial story here in Aotearoa. On 28 October, just a month after our elections, we will see the first national commemoration … Read more
The Social Enterprise World Forum in Christchurch may be over, but the conversation continues on The Spinoff, with a list of the coolest Kiwi social enterprises selected by those in the know. Alex Hannant (Ākina Foundation) – Pomegranate Kitchen My favourite social enterprise…? Tough question – there are so many enterprises that I admire and … Read more
Martyn Pepperell talks to New Zealand-born, Australia-raised vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Jordan Rakei about his shyness and his new album Wallflower, out now on Ninja Tune. “I have a friend who thinks that being an introvert just means you don’t need stimulation from other people,” says New Zealand-born, Australia-raised vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and producer Jordan Rakei … Read more
For the first ever World Investor Week, the Financial Markets Authority wants Kiwis to learn some home truths about investment. Richard Meadows gives consumers some advice on how to take the power back. The thick and seemingly impenetrable fog that swirls around KiwiSaver is one of the great frustrations of being a financial journalist in New Zealand. … Read more
Yesterday Rimutaka Prison celebrated graduates from the Howard League literacy programme, part of the league’s wider work equipping inmates with skills to help them while in prison and on their release. The keynote speaker was Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias; this is her speech. Some of the earliest and happiest memories I have are of … Read more
Margo White reviews Driving to Treblinka, a Holocaust memoir by the widely adored magazine writer Diana Wichtel. Diana Wichtel remembers being told by her Uncle Sy, some 50 years ago, “never forget you are a Wichtel”. Those familiar with Wichtel’s television reviews and features at the Listener will know her for the quality of her … Read more
In our video series Kiwis of Snapchat, comedian Tom Sainsbury sources exclusive Snapchat footage of Kiwi citizens and luminaries making the news. Today: a desperate plea to New World and Countdown supermarkets. Click here for all our Kiwis of Snapchat videos
Eugenia Woo reviews HAMLET: The Video Game, a brave attempt to bring together the disparate worlds of gaming and theatre. HAMLET: The Video Game – A Shakespearean Stage Show is a mouthful. It’s also got all the earnestness of a high school production, with none of the good-natured missteps or overbearing parents being idiots in the … Read more
Don Rowe dives back into the borderline-narcotic world of Total War: Warhammer, reviewing the second of three games in the series. Ah McCain, they’ve done it again! Just when you were getting bored of the stupidly huge and successful Total War: Warhammer, strategy game powerhouse Creative Arts has only gone and dropped the second instalment … Read more
Liam Maguren talks to the Mukpuddy team about the return of The Barefoot Bandits, Māori MacGyver in space and getting adults excited about cartoons again. Ryan Cooper, Tim Evans and Alex Leighton are a triforce that take the form of New Zealand animation studio Mukpuddy. I burned my shoes for them when I celebrated their … Read more
As the parties commence talks to form a coalition government, former NZ First MP Deborah Morris-Travers looks back at the 1996 coalition talks and the lessons today’s players can learn from NZ’s first MMP coalition agreement. The long 1996 coalition talks are remembered today mainly for the political theatre created by NZ First leader … Read more
A lazy knockoff or a legal maelstrom in waiting? Jihee Junn delves into the details of Love Island vs. Heartbreak Island. Amy Winehouse once crooned that love was just a losing game. But for reality TV producers all around the world, love – in its broadest sense – has been a winning one. Over the past year, … Read more
The speculation about a Greens-National coalition is futile given the tribalism of New Zealand politics, writes former National cabinet minister Wayne Mapp. Instead, he wonders if a revitalised TOP can become a second, centrist Green party. All the discussion about a possible National/Green coalition reminded me just how much political parties are tribes. They are … Read more
In any country, Stuff’s news story assessing ‘edible sunscreen’ would be questionable. In New Zealand, the melanoma capital of the world, it’s downright irresponsible, writes Mark Hanna. I have a mental checklist of bits of my body I must not forget to put sunscreen on. The back of my neck, the tops of my ears, … Read more
A petition signed by more than 16,000 Kiwis prodded parliament to look into single use plastic bags last year. Now our two major supermarket retailers are going toe-to-toe to clamp down on them – and that’s good news for all of us, writes Rebecca Stevenson. Spare a thought for New World. It was only a … Read more
A lot of us are feeling disillusioned with parliamentary politics at the moment – and in another three years, we’ll go through this whole drawn out, messy, process again. So what do we do in the meantime? Brodie Fraser has some suggestions. The 2017 election campaign was a pretty nasty one – it felt like … Read more
What would you do if your baby couldn’t eat? Jenn Gilbert shares her family’s story of naso-gastric tube feeding baby Ada. When I was pregnant with my first child, I had the usual first-timer anxieties. Would I ever sleep again? Would my baby cry a lot? Would my body ever be the same? But there … Read more
If Bill Shakespeare was around today, the old huckster would probably have a crack at making a video game. A stage show currently playing in Auckland aims to construct what that might look like, complete with Angry Birds and live Tetris. Eugenia Woo talked to director Greg Copper. Auckland’s theatre scene is no slouch. With … Read more
One Direction fan Sacha Judd on fandom, group chats, and how difficult it is to get Harry Styles tickets in New York City. Tickets to Harry Styles’ first solo tour go on sale on a Friday in May. He’s playing small venues – iconic theatres like the Greek in Los Angeles and the Ryman in … Read more
According to a new report, the design sector contributed over $10 billion to the New Zealand economy in 2016. Henry Oliver asks Thomas Mical, the head of AUT’s School of Art and Design, what that means for New Zealand design. Designers know that their work creates value, but a recent report from DesignCo – commissioned … Read more
Jane Westaway reviews CK Stead’s ‘thoroughly 21st century novel’ about intellectuals in Paris. Much action in the general run of literary fiction seems to be prompted by characters who make an awful mess of things. Consequently, about a third of the way in and if the writing is less than excellent, I find myself wanting … Read more
The violent suppression of the referendum in Catalonia holds lessons for iwi wishing to establish their independence in Aotearoa, writes Graham Cameron. In the main, the reporting on the Catalan referendum has been surface level: the Spanish state does not want the region of Catalonia to consider independence. However, for those of us committed to … Read more
As a nation awaits NZ First leader Winston Peters’ decision on which major party to support in government, we asked a gang of political experts and insiders for their predictions. Steve Braunias Which way do you think Winston will leap on October 12 or thereabouts? National. Why? Partly because he merely has contempt for ACT … Read more