Please enjoy the second episode of our new online series Repressed Memories, wherein James Mustapic revisits weird local shows from his childhood (click here to watch episode one on Sensing Murder). As far as I was concerned, Sticky TV was the best show on TV when I was a kid. Drew Neemia, Erin Simpson, and … Read more
Futurehive member Miriama Aoake guides you through the world of prolific rapper and chart history-maker Future. Nearly eight months has passed since Future’s last release, Project ET: Esco Terrestrial, a project alongside longtime producer, collaborator, and fellow ATLien, DJ Esco. The post-Ciara era of 2014-2016 saw Future at his most prolific and hungry: Monster, Beast … Read more
In the wake of International Women’s Day, Alex Casey remembers an unlikely feminist hero: a squirrel who lives in a plastic dome under the sea. Call the police if you like, but I still think SpongeBob SquarePants is good and funny. I recall long childhood afternoons when I would eat Yum Bars, small bags of … Read more
Australian comedian Matt Okine sat down with Spinoff comedy dunce Calum Henderson to discuss radio, early-90s cricket memories and his unquenchable thirst for cooking and property shows. Every NZ International Comedy Festival is the same: I pick up the programme, scan the list of names for any of the three to five comedians in the world … Read more
Josh Hetherington takes a trip to the dark, battered heart of Appalachia in the pages of the international best-seller – and number one at the Unity Books chart – which offers “a unique and valuable insight into Trump’s America”. Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance is a raw and visceral account of the life of a … Read more
Residents of rural towns are facing astronomical bills to support basic infrastructure. In Glenorchy, a mecca for film and tourism, they’re mad as hell and not going to take it any more, writes Peter Newport. User pays. Sounds fair doesn’t it? You use – you pay. But for many small towns around New Zealand being … Read more
After a clear decade running one of the country’s best-performing investment funds, and two writing one of its best-read business columns, Brian Gaynor is stepping back from day-to-day fund management. Duncan Greive asks him why. I don’t know when I first started reading Brian Gaynor. It would have been a decade ago at least. Probably … Read more
Māori need more than just loud voices and ‘colourful characters’ – we need thought leaders, writes Haimona Gray Imagine you are the child of two famous political dynasties. Now imagine one of these families has been responsible for reducing cigarette smoking in your community at a world leading rate. Imagine someone from this same family … Read more
We recently asked a class of first-year students, most of them young women, to think of a scientist, writes Siouxsie Wiles. And who do you think they chose? Today was the day to wear red. It’s a colour I mostly avoid because it clashes with my pink hair, but it wasn’t the day for worrying … Read more
Because it doesn’t get said enough, Dr Jess Berentson-Shaw has a message of thanks for all the overworked and underappreciated women of the world. Here at The Spinoff Parents our kaupapa is to love, uplift, care for, and support all parents – but especially mothers, would-be mothers, and all the women who support mothers. Our … Read more
New Zealand’s new minister for women has explained why she described herself as a feminist ‘most days’, prompting fresh criticism. But one thing is sure: she is an upgrade on the last effort. Paula Bennett, deputy PM and minister for women, this week spoke out robustly and laudably on pay equality and domestic violence. She … Read more
With the equal pay conversation in full swing, Dr Catherine Trundle examines the undervaluing women’s care work in society, and the steps we need to take to demand change. Displays of overt sexism have a way of making many of us feel smugly superior. Anyone who publically utters opinions egregiously out of step with today’s … Read more
A 19th century figure who drew artistic inspiration from lengthy walks through the city, the flâneur spent his days unencumbered by schedules or responsibilities or, god forbid, young children. But these days, writes Thomasin Sleigh, the city streets are the realm of the pram-pushers. My baby is a pram-happy baby. Especially when he was very … Read more
As part of Equalise My Vocals, a new Spinoff project focusing on equality in the music community, Coco Solid speaks with Marie Celeste Lawrence about her work as a promoter, event manager and musician. In Auckland, Marie Celeste Lawrence is a fixture within the male dominated worlds of event management and music promotion. A music … Read more
Alex Casey talks to Jackie Clark, donations co-ordinator for several women’s refuges in Auckland, about New Zealand’s gender violence problem and what people can do to help. Trigger warning: partner violence and emotional and psychological abuse. The first time I met Aunty Jackie she was flashing her breasts at an MRA activist on Queen Street … Read more
Auckland writer Elspeth Sandys has published a new novel, and one of the themes is obsessive love. Please, we asked her, tell us the real-life story behind that… Being asked to write about one of your own novels is rather like being asked to take your clothes off in public. Because you know what you’re … Read more
Is the mainstream video game industry kidding itself and, by extension, us? Eugenia Woo unpacks the excuses often presented as reasons to avoid diversity. This essay was originally posted online on August 25, 2016. The issue of diversity in video games is polarising. BioWare’s Manveer Heir said it best – “there is a vocal crowd in … Read more
It’s a proven fact that women are paid significantly less than men for the same or equivalent work, but too many people just don’t want to face the truth. Tao Lin rebuts some of the most common ways the gender pay imbalance is dismissed. Here’s a cool party trick: bring up the fact that in … Read more
We asked comedians and Boners of the Heart co-hosts Rose Matafeo and Alice Snedden to have a conversation about women and comedy to mark International Women’s Day. The following (lightly edited and hyperlinked) Facebook conversation is what we received. Alice: Na, it’s still the same Someone brought them back from America i just realised this is just like … Read more
How important is a diagnosis? Jessie Moss is a mother who knows all to well how much a diagnosis can change a life – in fact, it saved her daughter’s. The day had arrived and we were eager to get on with it. As four adults sat awkwardly around a child size table for sick … Read more
How come there’s still no publicly available business case for the government’s next big transport priority in Auckland – the East-West expressway that will cut Onehunga off from the foreshore? Simon Wilson reports from Council. Mayor Phil Goff took the stairs to the meeting room on the top floor of the town hall two at … Read more
Tomorrow sees the opening of the Auckland Arts Festival, 18 days of theatre, visual art, burlesque, sound installations, acrobatics, music and more at venues across Auckland. On his first day as editor of The Spinoff’s new Auckland section, Simon Wilson talks to the people behind the festival and shares his 10 can’t-miss shows. Dolina Wehipeihana … Read more
Alex Casey talks to Maha Albadrawi and Lucy Zee about bringing New Zealand women’s stories to life in So This Happened. Every woman has at least one of those stories. Like gremlins, they often creep out at night in small circles over wine and cheese, more rarely over hushed coffees by daylight. Sometimes they are … Read more
Alaister Moghan dives deep into the recesses of New Zealand cricket history to uncover the ballads and bangers to which our men in teal once entered the oval. In 1999 sports science was still in its infancy. In my chosen sport of childhood focus, cricket, this was a time of naivety where ice bathing had yet … Read more
Gone By Lunchtime meets The Breakfast Club as leading NZ politics podcasters Annabelle Lee, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire splinter desperately into millennial solidarity. In the historic first ever Spinoff Gone By Lunchtime podcast since the arrival of LifeDirect as sponsor of the politics section, we discuss a range of important topical issues, before eventually … Read more
The War for Auckland was the most exciting thing we’ve ever done, and we hated shutting it down. Now, with the support of Heart of the City, we’re launching a new full-time section dedicated to Auckland. Former Metro editor Simon Wilson, who has joined us as editor of The Spinoff Auckland, nails up his colours. … Read more
Sam Brooks flicks through the programme for this year’s Comedy Fest, powered by Flick Electric Co, and rounds up this year’s incredibly relevant and important festival statistics. Amount of shows on in Auckland: 117 Amount of shows on in Wellington: 68 Amount of shows involving women: 24 (20%) Amount of shows with photos of men … Read more
Three years in the making, the New Zealand-made documentary Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web will premiere at the South By Southwest film festival in Texas on March 13. Watch the first trailer here.
All evidence points to one hard fact: it is incredibly improbable that you will remain alive. Hayden Donnell recommends either signing up for life insurance or fleeing to an apocalypse bunker this very minute. Are you reading this? Congratulations. Somehow you’re not dead. Good luck keeping it that way. Right now 11 major organ systems … Read more