Inspired by the ethos of food-rescue organisation Kaibosh, chef Kelda Hains looked to the past to champion unloved ingredients and showcase clever waste-minimising techniques at her All Taste, No Waste dinner during Visa Wellington On a Plate. Ever glanced at those supermarket bags of pre-cut broccoli florets and wondered what happens to the stalks? Kelda … Read more
In the third episode of Actually Interesting, The Spinoff’s monthly podcast exploring the effect AI has on our lives, Te Aroha Grace talks to host Russell Brown about the Iwi Algorithm. Subscribe to Actually Interesting via iTunes or listen on the player below. To download this episode right click and save. At this year’s AI … Read more
Judgement prevents understanding, which in itself is a barrier to preventing unsafe behaviour. Are different approaches to harm reduction in the Rainbow community needed? Sex. Drugs. Carly Rae Jepsen. This is the iconography that tends to be massaged into mainstream conceptions of gay culture. Depictions in TV/film see us railing lines of MDMA and sniffing … Read more
He’s the artist who launched a million memes and over a billion streams. Sam Brooks picks out Bazzi’s best moments so far, from his career-making breakthrough to his mature new mixtape Soulsearching. 1. ‘Mine’ “You’re so precious when you smile.” It’s the line – including an extra word that we can’t print here – which … Read more
Wine should be fun, not intimidating – all you need is a little knowledge. Yvonne Lorkin, co-founder and chief tasting officer of WineFriend, provides some simple tips to help you empower your palate. Even I can get scared by wine. I’m usually super-meek and a tad feeble at high-brow, “industry” wine tastings. However, festivals like … Read more
Our writers celebrate the very best episode of their favourite TV shows on NEON. Don’t @ us, our decisions are final. For all the great new television out there, nothing feels quite as comforting as returning to your favourite series and reliving the episodes that made your brain explode. It might be the one episode … Read more
On the latest episode of The Good Citizen podcast, Anahera Rawiri talks to Jeremy Hansen about a uniquely Māori solution to Auckland’s housing crisis. The Good Citizen podcast: Download (right click to save), have a listen below, or subscribe to the series on iTunes. New Zealand’s housing crisis is a systemic failure on so many fronts: … Read more
When the University of Otago was founded 150 years ago the interests of local Māori were disregarded. But now, in the last 50 years, engagement with tangata whenua has become an essential part of the university’s identity. New Zealand’s first university was co-founded by a controversial Scottish politician determined to make something of himself in … Read more
Ana Arriola has made a career at the forefront of product design. Arriola, who is speaking at the Future of the Future presented with Spark Lab on August 15, has helped create everything from the first iPhone to the infamous Edison blood testing machine. Now she has turned her eye to harnessing the potential of … Read more
The skies are opening up, the car is unbundling, autonomous vehicles are in and fossil fuels are out. We are entering the shared mobility era where each trip you take is available at the touch of a button. So how is your commute set to change? Science fiction has long fantasised about the possibility of … Read more
While ageing men are celebrated as sexy silver foxes, their female counterparts tend to slowly disappear from our screens – an example of how prejudices often leave older women sidelined. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Alex Casey talks to two women who are defying the expectations around old age. At 82 years … Read more
Plastic Free July is over, but Josie Adams is still fighting for the environment. After a month of minimising plastics, emissions and even recyclables, she reflects on what she’s learned. You can read the first three diary entries here, here, and here. July has ended and so has my time as New Zealand’s most formidable … Read more
Simon Day has eaten great food in iconic cities all over the world. Nothing beats Wellington’s food scene, even on a bad day. Wellington is my favourite food city in the world. I’ve eaten croissants in Paris, and pizza in Rome, and pickled herring in Copenhagen. I’ve tried modern Japanese in Melbourne, and eaten my … Read more
Bruce Mau believes that far from being a hopeless case, the future of the planet is in safe hands. Mau, who is speaking at the Future of the Future presented with Spark Lab on August 15, told Charles Anderson how his philosophy of looking at the world as a design problem gives him optimism for … Read more
In the second episode of Actually Interesting, The Spinoff’s new monthly podcast exploring the effect AI has on our lives, Russell Brown explores how aware machines really are. Subscribe to Actually Interesting via iTunes or listen on the player below. To download this episode right click and save. Here’s a thing to understand: artificial intelligence isn’t magic and machines … Read more
OPINION: Our new series with our partner Flick is all about helping you make better electricity choices. In this instalment, Flick’s Nikki Cockburn explains the difference between fixed rates and spot prices. Unless you’re a power company or a big boss business in New Zealand, traditionally you were only able to pay for power in … Read more
For the month of July, Josie Adams is taking on the challenge of being low-waste. That means minimising plastics, emissions, and even recyclables. Each week we release her diary. This is week three. Read week one here, and week two here. This week began with a tragedy: I lost my ability to Lime after my … Read more
The rise of the machines will radically transform the way we work. Jobs will disappear. New ones will emerge. But what if the perceived threat of technology is really an opportunity to be more human? The machines are coming for our jobs, but we don’t need to freak out about it. Because, let’s face it, … Read more
OPINION: With several high profile government objectives in the spotlight, a single ministry could drive better outcomes across them all. Robyn Holdaway, senior policy advisor at Vector, makes the case for a Ministry for Energy. When the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment was created in 2012 it replaced not one but four full ministry-level … Read more
DiscoveryCamp gives Māori and Pacific high school students the chance to experience science at a tertiary level. Alice Webb-Liddall finds out why it’s important to get these young people interested. Māori and Pacific people have been experts in science for thousands of years. They navigated the earth using astronomy, grown food with biology and created … Read more
From travelling the world pondering her existence to convincing a Swedish furniture giant to back a venture looking at the future of living, Carla Cammilla Hjort has lived several lives. Hjort, who is speaking at the Future of the Future conference next month, told Charles Anderson her story. Carla Cammilla Hjort grew up as a … Read more
At the same time as supermarkets adapt to increasing demand for online shopping, some supermarkets are investing in the development of their people. Alice Webb-Liddall finds out why humans still count. Online supermarket shopping and Click & Collect services aim to make the sometimes lengthy and totally necessary task of grocery shopping easier for everyone. … Read more
The 2019 budget put aside $300m for venture capital for small to medium-sized startups with the hope it will allow businesses to grow locally and stay in New Zealand for longer. In a small rural town on the east coast of the North Island a cannabis-growing business is planning for the future. The first seed, … Read more
What if you could grow a house from seed or 3D print a new subdivision in a week? The housing sector is ripe for disruption – could technology be the magic bullet we need? Jo Aitken sounds like she’s pitching an episode for the next season of Black Mirror. Her ideas about the future of … Read more
Fifteen tracks, 22 guests, one album. The Spinoff Music listens to Ed Sheeran’s No. 6 Collaborations Project and considers why each track really shouldn’t work – and the sometimes surprising reasons why they do. 1. Beautiful People – Khalid Khalid and Ed Sheeran are two of the biggest stars in the world right now – … Read more
For the month of July, Josie Adams is taking on the challenge of being low-waste. That means minimising plastics, emissions, and even recyclables. Each week we release her diary. This is week two. Read week one here. I’ll be honest, week two has been a struggle. I’ve been less enthused about finding low-waste solutions because … Read more
Why Simon Day hopes baking a bacon and egg pie will guide the Black Caps to glory tonight. For a sport dominated by statistics, logic and precision, cricket is strangely superstitious. Every Tweet has a consequence, every movement away from the television affects the game thousands of kilometres away. Certain scores have magical properties. Nelson … Read more
Charles Adler has made a career out of believing in the power and generosity of people to solve big problems. The co-founder of Kickstarter is coming to the Future of the Future conference next month and explains why he doesn’t think we have to worry about what is around the corner. Charles Adler is an … Read more
It’s final time. The Offspin team are joined by actor, Lotto host and passionate cricket fan Sonia Gray – do we dare to believe in a Black Caps World Cup victory? It’s still hard to fathom, but we’re in the final again. And it’s against the English, who overcame the sandpaper canaries. Ahead of that … Read more