Teaching love, tolerance, and inclusivity in the face of hate groups like Family First is incredibly important for our children. Scout Barbour-Evans has advice on talking to kids about gender, and how to support them if they’re transgender, takatāpui, and/or gender-diverse. My name is Scout, and I’m a takatāpui-identifying student, hopeful politician and hobby-writer living … Read more
Ten years ago today, The OC finished forever. Elle Hunt is very late to the party, but still partying nonetheless. The best part about watching television that is years old and everyone has already seen is that no one can complain about spoilers. As with the Montreal Convention governing air travel disasters, there’s a two-year limitation … Read more
In this special one-off podcast marking the Auckland Pride Festival and brought to you by AUT, Sam Orchard talks to Emmy Rākete and Dr Pani Farvid about gender noncomformity, trans rights and challenging queer/straight binaries in Aotearoa and beyond. Today’s panelists are Sam Orchard, trans man, comic book artist, designer and activist; Emmy Rākete, Māori … Read more
Somewhere in Auckland there’s an Irish recluse who wrote a novel, kept it in a drawer for 12 years, and only reluctantly showed it to Brett Cross from Auckland publisher Titus Books. Butades by TP Sweeney is about to be given worldwide distribution. I first heard about Butades through my wife, who worked with the wife of the … Read more
With Super Rugby about to kick off for 2017, Scotty Stevenson picks some rising stars in the New Zealand squads who could make their mark on the competition this season. Sio Tomkinson – Highlanders You don’t need to be a madly passionate Highlanders fan (is there any other kind?) to know this team is well … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. It ended exactly as you’d imagine it would: with the Prime Minister and Richie McCaw on stage while ‘Poi E’ boomed out across the room and Toni Street and Scotty Morrison clapping on. The night had been long, though unlike … Read more
Alex Casey interviews world famous drag queen Courtney Act, star of Guy Sebastian-era Australian Idol and runner-up on RuPaul’s Drag Race. I had a Transparent-style mic drop moment when I was informed by a friend that Courtney Act’s name was a pun. Cou-rt-ney Act. Coouurr tttnee Aaactt. CAUGHT IN THE ACT. With my mind in … Read more
Both the Black Caps and White Ferns had impressive wins yesterday on the cricket pitch. But while the Black Caps are all over the news, the White Ferns performed a greater feat and were arguably more entertaining, or so says women’s sports apologist Madeleine Chapman. On Wednesday afternoon, while avid cricket fans were at work with … Read more
An update from Coco Solid on Equalise My Vocals, a new project focusing on gender equality in the music community. Ngā mihi nui! Firstly I’d like to thank everyone, including The Spinoff, for supporting the Equalise My Vocals crowdfunder to get this mini-summit off the ground. Gender equality in New Zealand music is something we … 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. If there’s one thing that there isn’t a shortage of on social … Read more
Driving in Queenstown has become a kind of Russian roulette. Platitudes about ‘education’ won’t cut it: we need a tourist licence requirement, and urgently, argues Peter Newport. The ability of Governments to ignore reality is fairly well established but the deaths and chaos around Queenstown being caused by overseas drivers has to stop. I was … Read more
What is it like when your children leave the nest? Amanda May writes about what she had hoped for and what it feels like now that her home is quiet. In the maelstrom of life, where the to-do-list is ever nagging, I have had moments of yearning for time out, space away from the responsibilities … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Of all the streets I regularly drive on, Patteson Ave is the worst. Not for its condition or quality, but for the danger it puts you in by combining off-street parking, a hill, poor visibility and double yellow lines. I … Read more
Next month, Spark presents Seamless, an all ages show at Auckland’s Tuning Fork. Henry Oliver talked to headliner, and winner of Best Male Solo Artist at last year’s VNZMAs, MAALA. The Spinoff: So you released an album last year, have just finished a run of festivals and have a new single out. What are you up to … Read more
Trans activist and academic Lexie Matheson was a key figure in instigating transgender friendly toilets at Marlborough Girl’s High School, a decision made to accommodate the first trans student on their roll. She talked to Alex Casey about the process, and Family First’s Ask Me First response campaign reported on by the Herald yesterday. Yesterday, homophobic, transphobic, … Read more
A year ago this week, the strongest cyclone in recorded history to make landfall in the South Pacific Basin hit Fiji. Unicef NZ’s Lachlan Forsyth travelled to the tiny village of Rakiraki to see how a devastated community is slowly rebuilding. It’s a modest collection of buildings. A couple of classrooms, some homes for the … Read more
Pokémon Go slayed 2016 and with a new update it might very well nail 2017 as well. Joseph Harper has ripped into Gen 2 and oh boy, he likes it. When Pokémon Go launched last year, it was downloaded by approximately fifty million people who leapt at the opportunity to feed berries to, throw balls … Read more
It’s a not a wedding of two complete strangers unless there’s a party of weirdos at the reception. Tara Ward reviews the most memorable guests (so far) on Married At First Sight. There’s nothing better than spending Valentine’s Day watching a Married At First Sight marathon. Forget all that love and flowers bullshit, give me six … Read more
You wouldn’t trust an economist to give you a smear test. So is it reasonable to expect those working in health to grasp economics? But still we listen to sugar tax proponents who don’t understand how consumer taxes work, says the NZ Initiative’s Jenesa Jeram. This is the second in a two-part series presenting both … Read more
Uber seems like a terrible company. But beyond binning an app, the challenge for the tech industry is to delete an entrenched, monolithic culture that sees women and minorities leaving in droves, writes Sacha Judd This week, Susan Fowler published a blog post about her time working as an engineer for Uber, and why she … Read more
Win free things! In this case, books! No cost! Minimal effort! Huge rewards for your intellectual and emotional well-being! The Spinoff Review of Books in association with our favourite arts and culture quango, the New Zealand Book Council and their Aotearoa Summer Reads campaign, wishes to give away two prize packs of 10 extremely good … Read more
Our Animals Expert and dad Thom Adams looks at the wonders of pregnancy in the wild and comes away with a powerful message for pregnant women everywhere: next time you’re feeling like shit because your heartburn is killing you, just be thankful you’re not carrying a third of your own bodyweight in eggs. I’ll say … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. I remember doing Art History in high school and stumbling my way through all the endless old blokes from ages ago, trying and failing to connect with some rude nude dude holding a stone. That was until we were presented … Read more
Rachel Smalley’s recent column on the supposed horrors of plastic surgery was a diabolical piece of bodyshaming. For those who’ve recently had surgery, it cut particularly deep. But as Casey McPike explains, a friend of hers found a way to make lemonade out of the bitter column. Rachel Smalley is intelligent, she’s successful, she supports charities. … Read more
Henry Oliver talks to Savage about getting his songs on big Hollywood movies, outlasting so many of his New Zealand hip hop contemporaries and why he’s not interested in recording any more albums. Two weeks ago, during the Super Bowl, over 110 million people heard a minute of ‘Push’, a year-and-a-half-old song that Savage, perhaps … Read more
Labour leader Andrew Little this morning chastised the Māori Party for its deal with Hone Harawira’s Mana Party, and dismissed the Māori Party as ‘not kaupapa Māori’. We invited co-leader Marama Fox to respond and defend the Mana-Māori deal. Here is a transcript of her handwritten response (see below). In my heart I believe that … Read more
In the fifth instalment of our Money Talks series, freelancers Tess Nichol and Alice Webb-Liddall talk about retirement, and having enough money squirrelled away to enjoy it comfortably. For two young writers only a few years into their careers, the thought of being on the other end of their working life seems almost unimaginably far … Read more
As visitor arrivals reach unprecedented levels and our environment and infrastructure buckle beneath the pressure, Don Rowe argues that it’s time tourists paid their fair share. New Zealand has the highest rate of threatened species in the world. Birds, dolphins, bats – you name a family, we’ve got a species on the precipice of extinction. Our rivers … Read more
With Stan Lee’s Lucky Man returning to Lightbox at the end of the week, we round up the luckiest charms of the big and small screen. If you haven’t seen it already, Stan Lee’s Lucky Man takes a step away from the explosive Marvel cinematic universe to gloomy Londontown, where James Nesbitt (the bloke from … Read more