Sick of dating shows? The Dog House is a matchmaking show with none of the drama and all of the feels. I like to schedule my crying jags for Tuesdays at 8.30pm. A bawl isn’t guaranteed: sometimes just a trickle of salty sadness runs down my cheek, other times happy tears flow. Either way, it’s … Read more
Sally Blundell talks to Christchurch poet John Newton about the book he wrote for his friend, Llew Summers: Body and Soul. Hutzpah. If there was one word missing from his book on the life and work of sculptor Llew Summers, says John Newton, it would be “hutzpah”. “Llew and his early sculptures and the way … Read more
Alie Benge signed up to a dating app with a sense of dread. What she found restored her faith in people – and in love itself, she writes, in the first instalment of a new series following her dating journey. I went into the first lockdown a hardcore introvert, one of those annoying people talking … Read more
No doubt cannabis can cause harm, but for some of us, it helps. A regulated market would allow us to use it in a less haphazard and more informed way, writes Jenifer*. Before my foray into psychosis – that is to say, before being depressed and traumatised to the point of breaking out in psychotic … Read more
The two week jail sentence handed out to the woman who breached isolation with her grieving children is an abomination, writes Leonie Hayden. In a week where New Zealanders are celebrating the prison sentence of a monster who murdered 51 people, we all need to think hard about what we’re celebrating. I choose to leave … Read more
As she preps for season two of hit thriller One Lane Bridge, Pip Hall – TV and theatre writer, basketball player, aqua ballerina and Mariah Carey fan – tells Michelle Langstone why, aged 48, she feels like she’s only just hitting her creative stride. Portraits by Edith Amituanai. Spoiler alert: Contains plot points from season … Read more
After decades worrying about the ‘brain drain’, thousands of high-achieving New Zealanders are coming home at once. Duncan Greive looks at what they’re bringing with them – and the potential they have to help our imperilled economy. Originally published in August, this story has now become the five part podcast, Coming Home. In Coming Home, … Read more
For some, the loss of even fleeting touch heightened a sense of distance and dislocation far beyond the effects of the official isolation imposed on us. Jennifer Little looked to nature for a remedy. You couldn’t even pay anyone to touch you. Codified connection with another human through professional massage was banned. With so many … Read more
The follow up to last year’s African Giant sees the breakout Afrobeats star attempt to surpass his own high bar. We run through a few of its highlights. After close to a decade of grinding to achieve a steadily bubbling success, Burna Boy entered the final year of the 2010s as an artist on the … Read more
What’s the best way to get adults reading? Get them reading when they’re children – and there’s no better place to start than the Unity Children’s Bestseller Chart. AUCKLAND 1 Mophead by Selina Tusitala Marsh (Auckland University Press $25, 5+) Your newly-anointed Margaret Mahy Book of the Year; “perfect”, the judges said; freshly reviewed for us … Read more
While musically and visually on point, much-anticipated indie game No Straight Roads is all sensory overload and little substance. I’ll give No Straight Roads one thing: I’ve never played a game where the title screen music was so good that even when I quit the game, frustrated, it lured me back in. No Straight Roads, … Read more
New Zealand’s Covid-19 lockdowns triggered intense panic buying of flour, toilet paper and canned foods. In response, one of our largest grocery companies decided to cut its product range, writes Rebecca Stevenson for BusinessDesk. Foodstuffs’ store owners have narrowed the range of products sold as a result of the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown. Foodstuffs North Island … Read more
Businesses and community organisations in South Auckland are already finding themselves stretched thin – and warn the worst is yet to come. Māngere businesswoman Toni Helleur employs up to nine people providing corporate massage services across Auckland. But since April, she’s only had one month of income, and following this latest resurgence, the future isn’t … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for August 28, bringing you the latest on New Zealand news and the return of Covid-19. Auckland is in alert level three until 11.59pm on Sunday. The rest of NZ remains in level two. More details here. Official information here. Contact me at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 3.45pm: Police remind Aucklanders to stay … Read more
A new poem by Kate Camp. How to Be Happy Though Human From the Circle there was a man we couldn’t see just his fingers held out for emphasis like the hands of a preacher or a primary school teacher. Before that we had been at the film where three people taxidermied a baby zebra … Read more
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 The Girl in the Mirror by Rose Carlyle (Allen & Unwin, $33) “We are left, breathless, at the last, game-changing sentence.” … Read more
Politics is a contest of ideas, and ahead of the 2020 election, we want to hear yours. Question Time at parliament sometimes resembles an unruly classroom – and on a bad day, the comparison is unfair to classrooms. While creating the Policy tool, we wondered: could classrooms set an example for Question Time? Policy makes … Read more
More than a year after justice minister Andrew Little described New Zealand’s hate speech laws as ‘woefully inadequate’, nothing has come of the legislative reform that was promised. Warning: contains descriptions of racism, racist violence and racist images. Yesterday, the white supremacist terrorist who carried out the Christchurch mosque attacks was sentenced to life imprisonment … Read more
Dr Michelle Wise, an obstetrics and gynaecology specialist, answers some of the most frequently asked questions from pregnant women right now. Are pregnant women more vulnerable than non-pregnant women in getting Covid-19? The short answer is no. The research from around the world shows that pregnant women are not more likely than non-pregnant adults to … Read more
We’re all going to die – but should we get a say in how? For Alice Snedden, like many of us, this year’s euthanasia referendum is the first time she’s had to consider the possibilities. Watch Alice Snedden’s Bad News – Euthanasia and other episodes in the series here. I’m afraid of dying. It just … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Christchurch mosque shooter sentenced to life without parole, hundreds of millions set aside for Covid-19 vaccine, and the diverging inequalities of the economic recovery. The Christchurch mosque shooter will never leave prison for the rest of his natural life. Yesterday afternoon, a sentence of life without … Read more
An audit of Team NZ and America’s Cup Events – companies both run by Grant Dalton – has found no evidence of financial wrongdoing. Still, Dalton emerges from the matter far from spotless, writes Pattrick Smellie of BusinessDesk. Grant Dalton has a strange take on the meaning of “vindication”. That’s what he says the summary … Read more
New Zealand’s response to the pandemic has won global plaudits – but there is still much room for improvement, write a trio of University of Otago public health experts. This week marks six months since New Zealand’s first Covid-19 case was identified on February 26. So far New Zealand has been largely in reactive mode, … Read more
Our series Youth Wings goes behind the O Week stalls to get to know some of the youngest and most passionate members of New Zealand’s main political parties. Episode One – Jay McLaren-Harris, Young NZ First Jay McLaren-Harris had always wanted to meet Winston Peters. Then one day on the main street of Dargaville, he did. … Read more
Will I get fined? Can I use a scarf? And what about on the school bus? All your questions about face masks on public transport, answered here. When and where do I have to wear a mask exactly? From Monday, all New Zealanders will be required to wear a face mask on public transport for … Read more
Justice Mander has in the Christchurch High Court delivered a sentence without precedent in New Zealand, life without parole, to the Christchurch mosque terrorist who killed 51 people at worship in March 2019. He paid tribute at length to the victims, the survivors, their families and the community more widely. Below, his remarks on reaching … 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. This week he talks to the founders of new fashion website Ensemble. When Bauer Media announced the closure of its operations in April, … Read more
The man responsible for the murder of 51 people in a Christchurch mosque has been sentenced to life with no possibility of parole – the first sentence of its kind in New Zealand. Tim Brown reports for RNZ. Warning: This story includes descriptions of the March 15 Christchurch mosque shootings. The man who carried out … Read more
Let us hope the sentence of life without parole handed down today allows the victims and their families to breathe a little easier. Their courage should inspire us to rise to the challenge that faces us now, writes Abbas Nazari. March 15, 2019 is a day I’ll remember forever. I remember reading about how our … Read more